PESHAWAR: Taliban’s Swat chieftain Maulana Fazlullah has asked his men to stop battling government troops in Mingora, a stronghold of the militants.

‘Maulana Fazlullah has directed all his mujahideen to stop resistance in Mingora and its surroundings to avoid hardships to the people and losses to the civilian population,’ Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP on Monday.

‘Most of our mujahideen have already left Mingora,’ he said by telephone from an unspecified place, only saying he was speaking from a mountain top.

He accused the military of killing civilians during its fierce onslaught in the districts of Lower Dir, Buner and Swat. ‘We will fight for the enforcement of sharia law till the last drop of our blood,’ he added.

‘The field is now open for the government,’ Muslim Khan said, adding that if it was sincerely concerned about ‘the welfare of the people’ it should bring them back from the camps.

‘We will not create any hurdle. I would like to appeal to the people of Mingora to get back to their homes and start their routine life as we will not fire even a single shot,’ he said.

Asked if that meant a ceasefire, he added: ‘No, this is not like that. Our aides will remain there in Mingora, but we will not attack, we will not fire shots.’

Army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas said the militants ‘have started using ploys to escape. They are now remembering the civilians whom they used to behead and decapitate.’ He said the operation in the city would go on as planned.—Agencies