MIRAMSHAH, Sept 14: A government official was kidnapped in North Waziristan, officials said on Thursday, the first such incident in the troubled region after a peace deal was signed with pro-Taliban militants this month.

Aurangzeb Gandapur, a rural development department official in the region, was kidnapped on Wednesday afternoon on the outskirts of Mirali town.

“He was kidnapped when he was returning after inspecting a school in a village,” a local government official Mohammad Iqbal said.

No one claimed responsibility for the kidnapping but government officials in the past had blamed pro-Taliban militants for such attacks.

Pro-government tribesmen and militants last week signed an agreement to end fighting in North Waziristan.

Under the terms of the deal, the government promised to end military operations in North Waziristan in return for a halt in attacks by the militants on government officials and forces as well as across the border in Afghanistan.

Many members of the Al Qaeda network and their Taliban allies took refuge with conservative Pashtun tribes in tribal region after fleeing US-led strikes in Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

— Reuters