AGL 38.50 Increased By ▲ 0.93 (2.48%)
AIRLINK 131.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.70 (-0.53%)
BOP 5.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.71%)
CNERGY 3.84 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.86%)
DCL 8.67 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-2.25%)
DFML 40.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-0.49%)
DGKC 88.79 Decreased By ▼ -1.37 (-1.52%)
FCCL 35.17 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (0.26%)
FFBL 66.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.08%)
FFL 10.50 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (3.45%)
HUBC 109.50 Increased By ▲ 3.10 (2.91%)
HUMNL 14.66 Increased By ▲ 1.26 (9.4%)
KEL 4.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-1.23%)
KOSM 7.06 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (3.07%)
MLCF 42.50 Increased By ▲ 0.70 (1.67%)
NBP 59.47 Increased By ▲ 0.89 (1.52%)
OGDC 183.85 Increased By ▲ 2.60 (1.43%)
PAEL 25.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.39%)
PIBTL 5.90 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.2%)
PPL 147.59 Decreased By ▼ -0.81 (-0.55%)
PRL 23.51 Increased By ▲ 0.29 (1.25%)
PTC 16.45 Increased By ▲ 1.21 (7.94%)
SEARL 69.34 Increased By ▲ 0.55 (0.8%)
TELE 7.25 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.14%)
TOMCL 35.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-0.56%)
TPLP 7.55 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (2.03%)
TREET 14.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.56%)
TRG 50.85 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
UNITY 26.87 Increased By ▲ 0.47 (1.78%)
WTL 1.22 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.83%)
BR100 9,817 Increased By 49 (0.5%)
BR30 29,782 Increased By 382.5 (1.3%)
KSE100 92,383 Increased By 445.1 (0.48%)
KSE30 28,832 Increased By 87.8 (0.31%)

Authorities reached an agreement on Saturday with tribal elders near the Afghan border aimed at rooting out foreign militants and ending insurgent raids into Afghanistan, a political official said.
The agreement with a tribe in the Bajaur region is the latest that authorities have struck in the hope of ending violence in its tribal belt along the Afghan border. Critics said two earlier agreements in the Waziristan region, to the south of Bajaur, amounted to giving the militants free rein, and US officials say the pacts have not stopped cross-border raids on foreign and Afghan government troops.
The deal was struck in the same district where a US air strike killed 18 people in January last year. US officials later said the strike targeted al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri but he escaped.
A senior political official in the region, Jameel Khan, said negotiations with the tribesmen in Bajaur's Mamound border district had been going on for several months. "Tribesmen led by elder Malik Abdul Aziz assured they would not shelter any foreign militants and would also not allow them to illegally cross the border," Khan told Reuters.
Khan said the agreement with about 350 members of the Tarkani tribe was a verbal one reached with the political authorities. Bajaur is a remote, mountainous region, opposite the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, where US troops have been battling insurgents and hunting their leaders.
Many al Qaeda and Taliban members fled to the Pakistan's semi-autonomous border lands and were given shelter by the conservative Pashtun tribes after US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. Pakistan has been trying to clear out the foreign militants and subdue their Pakistani allies and hundreds of people have been killed in clashes over recent years.

Copyright Reuters, 2007

Comments

Comments are closed.