July 18, 2008	Friday	Rajab 14, 1429

PESHAWAR, July 17: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) has said it has devised a plan to persuade rival factions for establishing peace in the Khyber Agency.

“A 650-member jirga comprising members from each district of the NWFP and all Fata agencies will soon be formed, which will hold talks with all the groups, including the one led by Baitullah Mahsud in South Waziristan,” said Shujaul Mulk, a former JUI-F MNA and head of a grand jirga set up by the party to make efforts for ending violence in the NWFP and Fata.

Speaking at a news conference at Jamia Hadia on Thursday, he said the strategy prepared by the jirga would be made public once the rival factions, Ansarul Islam and Lashkar Islam, in the Khyber Agency accepted it. A committee comprising five nominees of the JUI and three each of the Ansarul Islam and the Lashkar-i-Islam would hold deliberations over the suggestions drawn out by the jirga for paving the way for a patch-up between the warring groups, he added.

Flanked by former MNA Nek Zaman, Maulana Rafiullah Qasmi, Maulana Attaul Haq Darwaish and others, Mr Mulk said a delegation was also being sent to the Mohmand Agency to hold talks with the groups there.

Mr Mulk claimed that neither the provincial nor the federal government appeared serious in eliminating lawlessness and asked the government to back the party’s efforts to establish much-needed peace in the province and the tribal areas. He said use of force was not solution to the crisis and efforts to use iron hand against people had often backfired.

“Our efforts will bear fruit only if the army is called back from Fata and violence-hit settled areas of the province. Secret agencies, he alleged, spread rumours that the situation was very bad and the country’s solidarity was at stake. The JUI, he said, would unveil the faces behind the present state of affairs and would launch a movement against them.—Bureau Report