Government-TNSM talks end on positive note

The talks between the provincial authorities and Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) Chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad held on Friday at Timergara in Dir Lower ended on positive note as both sides expressed unanimity of views on various issues including setting up of Darul Qaza, NAR 2009 and agreed to forward the peace process in the days to come.
Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain in his capacity as Spokesman of the NWFP government and Senator Zahir Khan of ANP represented the government in the talks while the TNSM was represented by its head Maulana Sufi Muhammad and assisted by Naib Ameer TNSM Maulana Muhammad Alam and its Spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan. Government officials and Sufi Muhammad met for the first time on Friday after talks were suspended on Monday last after operations in Buner and Dir Lower districts.
The information minister and the TNSM spokesman described the 30-minute meeting as "positive" but no date for a second meeting was announced. The information minister when asked about the next round of talks said, "God willing, the second round of talks will be held tomorrow or day after tomorrow but at an undisclosed location."
He said the talks were held in an extremely cordial atmosphere wherein issues relating to setting up of Darul Qaza, appointments of Qazis for the Islamic courts, rehabilitation of IDPs and prevailing situation in the districts of Buner and Dir Lower came under discussion.
"Yes progress has been made in the talks on scores of issues", TNSM Spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan said, adding, Maulana Sufi Muhammad has summoned meeting of the TNSM Shura on Saturday (May 02) at its headquarters Amandarra in Malakand Agency to take Shura members into confidence over the talks with the government team. The people would soon hear good news about peace, he added.
AFP adds: Provincial authorities said that they rejected Friday a Sufi's request to halt an offensive against fighters as peace talks between the two camps resumed. "Sufi Mohammad asked us to halt the operation," information minister of North West Frontier Province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, told AFP.
"The operation will be halted when the armed people lay down their weapons because the government has to establish its writ at any cost," he added. But Sufi Mohammad's spokesman told AFP the government had given assurances that the operation would be stopped in the districts of Buner and Lower Dir. "The government has given us assurances that the operation in Buner and Dir will be finished," Ameer Izzat Khan told AFP from Timergara, the main town in Lower Dir where the talks took place.