Islamic militants scrap another peace deal with Pakistan

Aug 18, 2007, 12:19 GMT

Islamabad - Pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal district of South Waziristan on Saturday announced scrapping a peace deal with the government, a month after the similar agreement was cancelled in the neighbouring North Waziristan.

'The army is continuously making advances in the area and that is a clear violation of the peace accord,' a spokesman of the militants Zulfiqar Mehsud told BBC Urdu Service. 'We are now forced to end the deal.'

Authorities had signed the agreement in February 2005 to end a military operation in the area.

The announcement came two days after a fierce fighting with the security forces left their 15 comrades and seven soldiers dead.

Tensions were running high in the region since mid July when the Pakistani commandos stormed a radical mosque and an Islamic seminary in Islamabad and killed more than 70 students.

On July 24, a top militant commander in South Waziristan, Abdullah Mehsud, blew himself up during a police raid in Zhob district of south-west Blaochistan province.

His colleagues last week kidnapped 16 paramilitaries in the area and demanded the release of ten of their own men. The decapitated body of one hostage was found on Tuesday.

'We raised the issue with the government through a parliament member but no action was taken to stop the military movement,' the spokesman said.

Earlier, Islamic extremists in North Waziristan announced on July 15 that they were withdrawing from a ten-months-old accord with the government.

Since then several dozen troops have died in a string of attacks of which the latest occurred when militants wounded a soldier in a clash with security forces near Christian cemetery in Miranshah, the main city in tribal region.

Authorities in Kabul and Washington had repeatedly criticised the deals in Waziristan tribal belt claiming that these provided only safe-havens to Taliban militants who launch cross-border attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

'There is pooling of Taliban there. There is training,' US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told Fox News last month.

Following US pressure to eliminate militant hideouts, the Pakistani government has launched limited security operations in North and South Waziristan and neighbouring districts.