PESHAWAR, Dec 29: Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour said that merger of the tribal areas with the settled areas of the province was the need of the hour to wipe out the tribal belt of criminal elements and foreign agents.

He said that the present status of the tribal region was causing difficulties not only for the people of Fata and the province, but the entire country, said a handout issued here on Monday.

Bashir Bilour was talking to a delegation of local traders’ that apprised the minister of certain problems, demands and proposals regarding issues like kidnapping for ransom, issuance of Kalashnikov rifle permits to the traders and streamlining the police-citizen liaison committees for ensuring law and order in the provincial metropolis.

Bashir Bilour, while giving assurance for proper solution of the grievances of the delegation, regretted that almost all the incidents of abduction, car lifting and even terrorist acts in Peshawar and other parts of the province and even in the country were linked to tribal areas.

He said that the federal government must realise the fact that a handful of criminal elements and outlaws had converted the tribal areas into a centre of crimes and made the lives of over three million loyal tribesmen and that of the entire nation miserable.

Bashir Bilour said that the only option and solution of this issue was making all the tribal areas including Fata and FRs as essential part of the province adding that all the tribal people were directly or indirectly linked to the province for all their interests.