According to a report, Pakistani Taliban fighters announced a ceasefire on Wednesday after months of clashes with security forces and suicide attacks in the country. Military spokesmen were not immediately available for comment but security officials in South Waziristan said there had been contacts with militants in tribal strongholds of the Pakistani Taliban. "The government has shown leniency over the past four or five days," Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan told Reuters by telephone. "That's why we are declaring a ceasefire." Omar said the decision to call a ceasefire was taken at a shura chaired by Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban.
A day earlier the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Tuesday that the military operation in South Waziristan would continue until all militant hideouts were eliminated, a private TV channel reported. According to Geo News, ISPR Director General Major Gen Athar Abbas said that snowfall and rains were hampering the security forces' advance. However, he said the operation would continue. He said security forces had taken control of the entire area of Mehsud tribes as the terrorists had retreated.
According to report carried by Daily Times, security officials said they had destroyed two hideouts of militants in Darra Adam Khel, while some unknown miscreants distributed pamphlets warning government officials to quit their jobs.
Warning: A resident of the Darra town said walls had been pasted with pamphlets at some places warning government employees to quit their jobs. Some of the pamphlets had been pasted on the walls, while others were found strewn at some points, said the resident.
According to another unofficial source, movement of low-level Taliban militants has been observed in the Tora Cheena area, located on the Teerah side of Darra Adam Khel.
An elder, who did not want to be named, told Daily Times over the telephone that low-level Taliban activists, mostly belonging to the proscribed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, had returned to the main Darra town.
They are back here with changed countenance by trimming their hair, beards and moustaches, said the elder, adding those people (Taliban) were using walkie-talkies for contacting their colleagues and use the word "Mukhabira" for the sets. The word "Mukhabira" is being used for walkie-talkie or wireless sets in Afghanistan. Those sets, mostly used by the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, were in use of commanders during the civil strife following the withdrawal of the then Soviet Union.
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