MIRAMSHAH, Jan 2: A militant group has ‘prohibited’ co-education, acquiring of national identity cards by women and implementation of the Benazir Income Support Programme in North Waziristan.

The group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who had signed a peace agreement with the government last year, made the announcement from mosques and through pamphlets distributed in Miramshah and Mirali on Friday.

Some ulema supported the militants’ ‘order’ in Friday sermons and urged tribesmen to follow them. The group threatened to enforce the ban from next week.

A few private and semi-government schools in Miramshah and Mirali towns are co-educational and the group asked tribesmen not to send their children to such schools. It said that women must not get computerised national identity cards and widows should not apply for help from the Benazir Income Support Programme.

It said women should not visit the offices of the National Database and Registration Authority to get national identity cards or income support cards because they should not be photographed.