Lives of millions of tribesmen living on the Pak-Afghan border are again in danger as the double standard of the rulers has deteriorated the situation, and now a full-scale war has erupted in several parts of the country including tribal areas.
Tribal leaders have been asking the questions as why Taliban and terrorists are imposed on them. It is ironic that Preident Bush and his ally President Musharraf have stated several times that no deal will be made with Taliban in the tribal areas, but the NWFP governor, the controlling authority of the tribal areas, has been trying to strike another deal with Taliban. Due to this double standard millions of tribesmen have been killed or maimed.
Those who have been sent to Taliban for striking deal with them are actually terrorists. They have been harbouring Taliban. According to the law of the land, these all so-called elders should be in jail instead of giving them the status of rulers. In the past they have struck the deals with Taliban in Waziristan, but what is the result of these deals.
According to reports, members of a grand inter-tribal jirga left for Miramshah to help resuscitate a peace agreement with militants in North Waziristan. The jirga members, who were instrumental in brokering the deal between the government and the militants, were flown to Miramshah by helicopters after a meeting with NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai.
An official statement said the jirga members would visit Miramshah “to review the situation arising out of the unilateral declaration on the part of tribesman to scrap the peace deal which was inked on Sept 5, 2006.”
According to sources, Governor Aurakzai, who was the architect of the agreement, told the jirga members that it were the militants who had violated the deal by failing to evict foreign militants, continuing to cross the border, albeit through Kurram Agency, and carrying out attacks on security forces.
He mentioned the suicide bombing in Gurbaz on July 4 in which 10 people, six of them soldiers, were killed.
The governor was quoted as saying: “They (militants) stopped crossing the border in North Waziristan but then crossed over through the Kurram region.”
He told the jirga members that troops had been deployed at checkpoints after the militants failed to help restore order and cases of kidnapping and car snatching increased.
“It’s better to talk to them than not to talk at all” is how an official characterised the government’s efforts to revive the agreement.
The official said the jirga had not been given any specific mandate. He said it had been sent to do “some sounding and talking”. But he acknowledged that there was little that the government could offer at the time.
The governor said the agreement had helped restore normal life to the troubled region.
“There might have been certain violations of the terms of the agreement from both sides. However, a monitoring committee was in place to take corrective measures all along,” the statement quoted Mr Aurakzai as having said.
Mr Aurakzai criticised the monitoring committee and the local political authorities for their lethargic attitude which resulted in a spate of attacks on law-enforcement agencies by militants.
He urged the jirga members to address the situation in a prudent manner, tighten the loose ends and do some fine-tuning so that the peace accord remained intact, “as it was in the interest of the country in general and the people of Waziristan in particular,” the statement said.
Members of the jirga will return to Peshawar for final talks with the governor after negotiating with the Utmanzai Qaum.
