KHAR, Dec 17: In an effort to uphold rule of law, a grand jirga comprising all the tribes of Bajaur Agency started making contacts with the stakeholders on Monday. The 130-member jirga, headed by tribal elders Senator Maulana Abdur Rashid and Maulana Gul Dad Khan, also initiated a dialogue with local Taliban leaders to restore peace and harmony in the violence-hit agency.

According to the political administration of the agency, the jirga — which was established after thorough consultations with Ulema, political leaders, and tribal elders — opened negotiations with the local Taliban leadership to remove misunderstandings and to bring them into mainstream politics.

The jirga would submit a progress report to officials of the political administration soon.

The assistant political agent of Bajaur, Muhammad Jamil, said the local administration was striving to resolve the law and order issues through dialogue under tribal traditions. He said the move had been welcomed by people of every walk of life in the tribal agency.

He said all the problems of the local people would be resolved on a priority basis and elders of the area would be taken into confidence in this regard.

Our Peshawar Bureau adds: The government is now planning to attack Bajaur Agency on the pretext that the area is a possible hideout of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, according to the provincial chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Sirajul Haq.

In a statement, he said that after the military operation in Swat, the government was now ‘flexing its muscles to target the Bajaur Agency’.

Accusing President Musharraf of following the American agenda, Mr Haq criticised Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto and said the PPP was taking part in the polls despite its public statements about rigging in the elections.

He said the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) and the lawyers’ community would foil what he termed the “fraud elections”. He urged people to boycott the polls.