Pakistan signs pact with pro-Taleban militants
By Haji Mujtaba
September 6, 2006
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan – Pro-Taleban militants and the Pakistani government reached a peace deal overnight under which the militants agreed to stop attacks in both Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan, negotiators said.
Hundreds of Pakistani troops and militants have been killed in the Waziristan region as the government has attempted to push its authority into semi-autonomous tribal lands on the Afghan border as part of efforts in the US-led war on terrorism.
“The agreement will pave the way for permanent peace in the region,” said Malik Shahzada, a member of a tribal council that has been overseeing the negotiations with the rebels.
The agreement was signed on a dusty football ground at a college in Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan region.
Scores of members of the tribal council, most in turbans and with long beards, watched as a Pakistani army commander, Major General Azhar Ali Shah, embraced representatives of the militants after the pact was signed.
Many members of the al Qaeda network and the Taleban fled to Waziristan after US-led forces overthrew the Taleban in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who is due to visit Afghanistan on Wednesday for security talks with President Hamid Karzai, has said no group could use Pakistan as a springboard for attacks on other countries.
But Afghanistan and its allies have long complained the Taleban are able to benefit from havens on the Pakistani side of the long, rugged border.
Musharraf has also vowed to clear foreign militants from the Pakistani side of the border but Tuesday’s agreement said foreigners could stay in Waziristan, as long as they kept the peace.
According to a copy of the agreement obtained by Reuters, the militants agreed that all foreigners would have to leave but those unable to do so would have to respect the peace deal.
Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding out somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistani border but security analysts doubt he is in Waziristan, given the security forces’ focus on the area.
Several of bin Laden’s Arab lieutenants have been killed in North Waziristan and US drone aircraft have carried out missile strikes on al Qaeda targets from across the border in Afghanistan.
Security officials say some central Asian militants are also in the area.
The fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribes that inhabit both sides of the porous border have never been brought under the control of any government, including British colonial rulers.
The Waziristan-based militants had been demanding free movement into Afghanistan, which the tribes have always enjoyed, to support the Taleban in their jihad, or holy war, there.
But that had been ruled out under the deal, an official said.
“Except for trade, people will not be allowed to go to Afghanistan to launch attacks,” said Nek Zaman, a member of the tribal council who is also a member of the Pakistani parliament.
Under the agreement, the government will stop air and ground operations in Waziristan and dismantle newly built checkposts.
People arrested during military operations would be released and confiscated property, including weapons, would be returned, according to the agreement.
Pakistan Gives Bin Laden Free Pass
By Brian Ross
September 06, 2006
Osama bin Laden, America’s most wanted man, will not face capture in Pakistan if he agrees to lead a “peaceful life,” Pakistani officials tell ABC News.
The surprising announcement comes as Pakistani army officials announced they were pulling their troops out of the North Waziristan region as part of a “peace deal” with the Taliban.
If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden “would not be taken into custody,” Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, “as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen.”
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, but U.S. officials say his precise location is unknown.
In addition to the pullout of Pakistani troops, the “peace agreement” between Pakistan and the Taliban also provides for the Pakistani army to return captured Taliban weapons and prisoners.
“What this means is that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan,” said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism director.
The agreement was signed on the same day President Bush said the United States was working with its allies “to deny terrorists the enclaves they seek to establish in ungoverned areas across the world.”
The Pakistani Army had gone into Waziristan, under heavy pressure from the United States, but faced a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.
“They’re throwing the towel,” said Alexis Debat, who is a Senior Fellow at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant. “They’re giving al Qaeda and the Taliban a blank check and saying essentially make yourselves at home in the tribal areas,” Debat said.
Pakistan Denies Bin Laden Gets a Pass
By Brian Ross
September 06, 2006
The government of Pakistan today denied it would allow Osama bin Laden to avoid capture under terms of a peace agreement it signed with Taliban leaders in the country’s North Waziristan area.
“If he is in Pakistan, today or any time later, he will be taken into custody and brought to justice,” the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, said in a statement.
The ambassador said a Pakistani military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, had been “grossly misquoted” when he told ABC News Tuesday that bin Laden would not be taken into custody “as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen.” The comments were recorded in a telephone interview with ABC News.
Q. ABC News: If bin Laden or Zawahiri were there, they could stay?
A. Gen. Sultan: No one of that kind can stay. If someone is there he will have to surrender, he will have to live like a good citizen, his whereabouts, exit travel would be known to the authorities.
Q. ABC News: So, he wouldn’t be taken into custody? He would stay there?
A. Gen. Sultan: No, as long as one is staying like a peaceful citizen, one would not be taken into custody. One has to stay like a peaceful citizen and not allowed to participate in any kind of terrorist activity.
General Sultan said today it was “hair splitting” to speculate whether troops would be sent in if bin Laden was found in North Waziristan.
“If someone is found there, we will see what is to be done,” General Sultan said today. “Pakistan is committed to the war on terror, and of course we will go after any terrorist found to be operating here,” he said.
Under the terms of the peace agreement, the Pakistani Army promised to cease action in the area and to return captured Taliban weapons and soldiers.
Former White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant, said “What this means is that the Taliban and al Queida leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan.”
General Sultan said today he “rejected” the idea that Pakistan had created a safe haven for terrorists.
