KHAR (Bajaur Agency), Oct 22: Pakistani authorities have released nine tribesmen after holding them for more than a year on suspicion of links with the Taliban and Al Qaida, a tribal elder and residents said on Sunday.

The men, who included relatives of fugitive militant leader Faqir Muhammad, were captured by Pakistani security agencies in May 2005 in the Bajur tribal region and were accused by the government of sheltering foreign militants.

The men were freed on Saturday “as a gesture of good will” following a meeting between government officials and elders from Bajur, said Malik Abul Aziz, the head of a council of tribal elders.

Mr Aziz said they were “grateful” to the government for releasing the men.

“We will also extend full support to the government in the war on terror,” he told a gathering of tribesmen after receiving the freed men. Khar is the main town in Bajur.

Muhammad Idress, a local resident, said the freed men included Gul Mohammed, a relative of Faqir Muhammad, a pro-Taliban militant leader who is being sought by security agencies for allegedly aiding remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaida.

The release follows a Sept. 5 peace accord between the government and elders in another tribal region of North Waziristan that ended years of clashes between security forces and militants.

On Saturday, a security official said a peace deal between Bajur’s elders and government might be signed soon.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, gave no further details.

Al Qaida and Taliban-linked Islamic militants are believed to have been hiding in Bajur, where they have been blamed for attacks in the past on security forces and pro-government tribal elders.

Pakistani security agencies have been looking for Faqir Mohammed since May 2005 when they captured an Uzbek militant in his home.

In January, US forces operating in neighboring Afghanistan fired rockets at a home in the Bajur region’s village of Damadola after receiving intelligence that Al Qaida’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, was hiding there, according to Pakistani officials.

However, authorities later found that al-Zawahri was not present, although he had sent some of his deputies, whom Pakistani intelligence said were killed in the attack along with several local villagers, although their bodies were never found.

—AP