May 18, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

PESHAWAR, May 17: NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti on Saturday condemned the recent missile attack in Bajaur Agency and termed it a direct attack on the sovereignty of our country.

According to a statement, he said Pakhtuns were peaceful people who believed in resolving disputes through the traditional jirga system. “Use of force had just invited destruction in which thousands of people were either killed or displaced. We are deliberately engaged in the bloody war and we neither like wars nor can afford it,” he added.

The chief minister said they were independent in the decision-making process and were resolving issues through talks and negotiations. He said such attacks, in which many innocent people were killed, were highly condemnable and a conspiracy to derail the peace process being initiated by the provincial government.

“Such tactics could not budge the provincial government from its stance to negotiate peace in the troubled regions of the province and its adjacent tribal belt,” he said. Mr Hoti said some elements, who wanted to sabotage the peace process, would not be allowed to succeed in their heinous designs, saying every dispute would be resolved through joint efforts of the allied parties.—Bureau Report