July 20, 2007	Friday	Rajab 04, 1428

PESHAWAR, July 19: Members of a grand inter-tribal jirga left for Miramshah on Thursday to help resuscitate a peace agreement with militants in North Waziristan. The jirga members, who were instrumental in brokering the deal between the government and the militants, were flown to Miramshah by helicopters after a meeting with NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai.

An official statement said the jirga members would visit Miramshah “to review the situation arising out of the unilateral declaration on the part of tribesman to scrap the peace deal which was inked on Sept 5, 2006.”

According to sources, Governor Aurakzai, who was the architect of the agreement, told the jirga members that it were the militants who had violated the deal by failing to evict foreign militants, continuing to cross the border, albeit through Kurram Agency, and carrying out attacks on security forces.

He mentioned the suicide bombing in Gurbaz on July 4 in which 10 people, six of them soldiers, were killed.

The governor was quoted as saying: “They (militants) stopped crossing the border in North Waziristan but then crossed over through the Kurram region.”

He told the jirga members that troops had been deployed at checkpoints after the militants failed to help restore order and cases of kidnapping and car snatching increased.

“It’s better to talk to them than not to talk at all” is how an official characterised the government’s efforts to revive the agreement.

The official said the jirga had not been given any specific mandate. He said it had been sent to do “some sounding and talking”. But he acknowledged that there was little that the government could offer at the time.

The governor said the agreement had helped restore normal life to the troubled region.

“There might have been certain violations of the terms of the agreement from both sides. However, a monitoring committee was in place to take corrective measures all along,” the statement quoted Mr Aurakzai as having said.

Mr Aurakzai criticised the monitoring committee and the local political authorities for their lethargic attitude which resulted in a spate of attacks on law-enforcement agencies by militants.

He urged the jirga members to address the situation in a prudent manner, tighten the loose ends and do some fine-tuning so that the peace accord remained intact, “as it was in the interest of the country in general and the people of Waziristan in particular,” the statement said.

Members of the jirga will return to Peshawar for final talks with the governor after negotiating with the Utmanzai Qaum.