Thousands flee after Pakistan militants scrap peace deal

Pakistani residents gather around a vehicle damaged in a suicide attack in Swat district.


Thousands flee after Pakistan militants scrap peace deal

by Frank ZellerMon Jul 16, 5:35 AM ET

Thousands of Pakistanis fled a tribal area after pro-Taliban militants scrapped a peace deal with the government there, following three weekend suicide bombings that left more than 70 dead.
The exodus came as officials held crisis talks with clerics and tribal elders in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier province, site of some of the attacks, which were apparently in revenge for last week's Red Mosque raid.
Security forces were on high alert in the wake of the bombings, which targeted two troop convoys and a police centre in the troubled regions, which are on the border with Afghanistan.
Last week, Al-Qaeda and local hardliners called for holy war against the government of President Pervez Musharraf in retaliation for the assault on the pro-Taliban mosque, in which at least 11 troops and 75 people were killed.
In the tribal area of North Waziristan, thousands of people fled the main city of Miranshah after local militants tore up a peace agreement they had struck last year with Musharraf's government.
Bazaars were deserted as hundreds of families fled the town for safer areas, and state-run Radio Pakistan went off the air when broadcasters joined other government officials in leaving the tense area, local residents said.
Under the September deal -- heavily criticised by Washington and Kabul -- the militants had vowed to stop cross-border attacks in war-torn Afghanistan and hunt down foreign insurgents hiding in the lawless mountain areas.
But the Taliban Shura (Taliban Council) scrapped the deal Sunday, protesting a troop build-up and new military checkpoints and calling on local tribal militias to stop all cooperation with the central government in Islamabad.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao countered that the militants had not upheld their end of the pact and said the government would now "be justified if it takes some action" in the region, a suspected Al-Qaeda hideout.
Washington swiftly threw its "full support" behind Musharraf, saying the peace deal had not worked in dealing with militants.
"He's doing more," said US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. "We are urging him to do more, and we're providing our full support to what he's contemplating."
But in Miranshah, where troops stepped up security at the fort, local sources said that government officials were seeking talks with militants in a bid to revive a 15-member peace committee which resigned in protest last month.
"We are trying to engage them in a bid to keep the accord intact," the governor of North West Frontier Province, Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, was quoted as telling The News daily.
The province's chief minister, Akram Durrani, on Monday summoned a meeting of key clerics, tribal elders and lawmakers to discuss the security situation, his spokesman told AFP.
The meeting followed a suicide attack in the province Sunday on a military convoy in the town of Matta that left 18 people dead.
Later the same day a suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in another northwestern town, Dera Ismail Khan, killed 26.
On Saturday, a suicide attack on a troop convoy in North Waziristan killed 26 people, as local militant commander Abdullah Farhad threatened a "guerrilla war."
Musharraf has deployed thousands of additional troops to remote areas after vowing to root out extremists "from every corner of the country."
Tensions have escalated since Musharraf last week ordered a commando raid on the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad, ending a months-long standoff with armed militants who had demanded the imposition of Islamic law.
Al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri called for a holy war after the raid.
Political analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai, an expert in Afghan and tribal affairs, said the mosque deaths stirred anger -- especially in North West Frontier Province, home to many of those killed in the mosque raid.
"Wherever the bodies arrived, there was anger and resentment," he said.
Militants were also provoked by the new troop deployments, said Yusufzai.
"Every action has a reaction, and there is a possibility of an intensification of violence after the killings in Red Mosque," he told AFP.
"The suicide attackers are going to hit soft targets now."

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