October 21, 2007	Sunday	Shawwal 8, 1428

LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Oct 20: The Lashkar-i-Islam has conditionally lifted restrictions imposed on members of the Agency Council from meeting officials of the political administration.

The Lashkar had a few months ago restricted all elders and agency councillors from meeting the political authorities.

A tribal elder, Malik Zahir Shah, who is also chief coordinator of the ruling PML for Fata, had been forced to arrange lunch for thousands of Lashkar supporters when he defied the ban. Another local elder and former state minister Malik Waris Khan had to pay Rs500,000 as fine for contacting the political authorities.

In a meeting held in Spin Qabar on Friday, Mangal Bagh, the self-proclaimed amir of the Lashkar-i-Islam, told the councillors that the ban was lifted on the condition that they would abide by the 25-point agenda of the Lashkar and would not oppose their activities in Bara tehsil.

Sources privy to the meeting said that members of the council told the Lashkar chief that they would inform him of their response after their meeting on November 4.

ARMS RECOVERED: A large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered from a house in the Ashkhel area on Friday.

Acting on a tip-off, the Landi Kotal political tehsildar along with a khasadar team raided the house of Abdullah Shah and recovered eight anti-tank landmines, 40kg of explosive material, a mortar shell, 40 mortar shell fuses and parts of four anti-aircraft guns.

The authorities also took into custody an arms smuggler, Zahid Khan, investigation.