UPPER DIR, Aug 13 Militants of some far-flung areas of the district have agreed to surrender to the administration on Aug 15, after successful negotiations with a local jirga.

It is learnt that after talks with the militants on Thursday, the jirga members called on District Coordination Officer Jawed Marwat and District Police Officer Ijaz Ahmad and informed them about the development.

They said they had held negotiations with militants staying in Shat Kas, Panaghar, Badrakai and Dog Dara areas. Elders of those areas, they added, also attended the meeting.

They said the militants had agreed to surrender on the condition that the local lashkar would not harm their families or damage their properties. However, the lashkar would be free to take action against the militants not surrendering.

The jirga members included Malik Behram Khan, Inamullah Khan, Malik Jehanzeb, Maulana Asadullah and Mian Sultan Yousaf.

Our Timergara Correspon-dent adds Military authorities on Thursday claimed to have killed 570 militants in the Maidan tehsil of Lower Dir during the ongoing operation.

Talking to journalists at his office at the Dir Scouts Qilla here on Thursday, operation commander Colonel Nadeem Mirza claimed that security forces had cleared Maidan of militants and taken full control of the area.

He said 27 security personnel had been killed and 56 injured during the operation.

“The militants are on the run and we are chasing them. They (Taliban) can no more offer resistance to the army,” said Colonel Mirza.

He said the security forces had set up checkposts in the areas once considered to be militants' strongholds.

Government schools earlier occupied by the security forces had now been vacated, he said, adding over 5,000 affected people had returned to their homes in the area. “Now we distribute ration and medicines among the returning people in the Maidan area,” he said.

Answering a question, he said the damaged bridges and other government buildings would be rebuilt during the rehabilitation phase.

He asked the people displaced from Maidan to return to their homes because the area had been cleared of militants. District Police Officer Mumtaz Zarin, in-charge of Dir media centre Major Ilyas and other army officers were also present.