December 05, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 6, 1429

PESHAWAR, Dec 4: The NWFP government on Thursday asked elders of the Mohmand Agency and the Michini area to hand over wanted militants to security forces by Dec 20, otherwise operation in the areas would continue.

Presiding over a jirga of elders of the Mohammad Agency, Shabqdar and Michini areas here, Peshawar Commissioner Arbab Shahrukh sought the participants’ cooperation in curbing militancy and maintaining law and order in the restive areas.

He asked the people to decide themselves whether they wanted the security forces to continue the operation against outlaws or preferred a peaceful solution to the problems, saying peace could only be restored if the Taliban laid down arms and surrendered to the government.

The elders, who belonged to various tribes and sub-tribes like Qasimkhel, Brankhel, Dadukhel, Halemzai, Hafizkhel and Tarakzai, after holding lengthy separate meetings said they could not identify militants and asked the administration to provide them lists of the wanted people.

They agreed that they would either kill the militants or expel them from their areas, otherwise they would have the only option to vacate their own houses and the security forces would launch a full-scale operation to cleanse the area of the Taliban.

As the meeting commenced, the commissioner told the participants that the government had always relied on local elders in case of different issues, adding the operation was also not the government’s priority but when the elders failed to play their role, the operation was launched as a second option.

Maintaining law and order, he said, was the government’s duty and no one would be allowed to disrupt peace. He said the government wanted to initiate development schemes, provide job opportunities to people and improve their life standard, but such efforts could materialise only if there was peace in the areas.

The commissioner claimed that militancy had spread in the area due to negligence of elders and now they were bound to support the government against militants, otherwise it would be presumed that the elders were hand in glove with the militants. He suggested that influential people of every locality should form peace committees with the intention to flush out miscreants, maintain peace and work for development and prosperity of their areas.

He made it clear that security forces would stay in the areas of Shno Ghundai, Michini, Shabqadar and the Mohmand Agency till the elders guaranteed that no one would disrupt peace, saying the government would honour proposals of the elders.

The commissioner told reporters that there was no information about the presence of foreigners in Mohmand and Minchini areas, however movement of non-local militants had been noticed.

Police, he said, would continue patrolling in the areas of Qila Shah Baig, Shno Ghundai and other villages of Michini and take action against militants in consultation and with cooperation of the local elders.

Charsadda District Police Officer Waqif Khan said 12 outlaws had been killed and six arrested while over 600 who were wanted to police in different cases were still at large in Shabqadar and Michini areas. He said no one could be allowed to create state within state, adding police had the record of all the wanted persons.

Khyber Agency political agent Amjad Ali said houses of the Taliban and their relatives would be razed if elders did not force them to surrender. He said in case the local elders failed to cleanse the areas of the Taliban the government would declare the disputed 25 villages as settled area and the role of elders would then come to an end.

A number of tribesmen, including Malik Hazrat Khan, Malik Mohammad Zareef, Elum Malik, Malik Khaista Gul and Dilaram Khan, also spoke on the occasion.

Responding to a demand regarding arms permits in Peshawar, Rural Circle SP Nasirul Mulk Bangash assured the people that police would issue permits and also weapons to the people in the ongoing process to maintain peace.

Malik Zareef, Afzal Khan, Lasim Khan, Mohammad Jan and Toor Sam Khan told reporters that they had lost their confidence in the administration, accusing the officials of leaking the information of elders’ meetings with the government to the Taliban. How they could now negotiate with the officials matters relating to the Taliban, they asked.

Around 200 elders attended the meeting.