25-member body NWFP chief minister says he rejected deployment of troops: grand jirga forms

NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani on Monday ruled out any military operation in any part of the province, including the districts of defunct Malakand Division and constituted a 25-member committee to resolve the matter of militancy through negotiations.
Briefing newsmen after a grand jirga here at Frontier House, Durrani said that during the last meeting of the National Security Council (NSC), he had rejected deployment of military in trouble parts of the province.
He said that he agreed with the filling of deficiency of military personnel in Bannu, DI Khan and Mardan cantonments. The military personnel of these forts would be used in time of requirement.
The grand jirga comprising district nazims, MNAs, MPAs, senators and senior political activists would work for the peaceful resolution of the militancy. He said the jirgas of Dir, Malakand and Swat had assured that they would make utmost efforts for restoration of normalcy in their areas.
He said that Maulana Asadullah MNA had promised the return of normalcy into Dir upper within two weeks. Regarding the deployment of military, the chief minister said they had neither requisite nor it would be used without the permission of the provincial government. The military, he said would be deployed on the requisition of district police officer (DPO).The chief minister said they would never allow stationing of military troops in educational institutions.
He said the provincial government would make all out efforts to resolve the matter through peaceful means of negotiations. He said when he could go to Lal Masjid for peaceful resolution of the stand-off then why he would not go to the troubled areas of his province.
He said the incidents of blowing up of video centers, sending threatening letters to barbers and harassment of girls getting education were shameful acts and had been condemned by all participants of the grand jirga. The jirga, he said would prevent the reoccurrence of such shameful incidents and interference in education. The chief minister said that military would be stationed in a respectful place to minimise their interaction with general public and reoccurrence of the incidents happened in Matta, Swat in which three children of the same family lost their lives.
He announced an amount of Rs 0.1 million for heirs of those who had lost their lives and Rs 50,000 for critical and Rs 25,000 for minor injured persons in the bombing incidents of DI Khan and Swat. Regarding bomb attacks on police, he said that matter had been handed over to jirga and after completion of investigation the provincial government would ultimately bring culprits involved in the crime into justice. In case of failure of the peace process, he said the jirga members would stand by the provincial government.
Regarding the role of banned, Tehrik-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi (TNSM), he said the organisation had dissociated itself from Maulana Fazllullah. Expressing deep sorrow and concern over the killing of Chinese nationals, he said People's Republic of China had always stood by the people of Pakistan in all difficult times.
However, he could not rule out the involvement of foreign hand in the gruesome incident. In reply to the outcome of annulment of North Waziristan Peace Agreement, the chief minister forecast dangerous repercussion, saying that the enemies of peace were not happy at the agreement.