Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: “Taliban members” will be banned in Wana, the violence-hit center of South Waziristan, while the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) will continue its activities in the area, a tribal elder said on Tuesday after tribal elders brokered a peace deal.

Taj Wazir, a tribal elder of Ahmadzai Wazir, confirmed to the media that talks between the local authorities in Wana and the family of Ali Wazir concluded on Tuesday with an agreement that the peace committee’s “Taliban” will be banned temporarily in Wana bazaar while PTM will be allowed to organize their activities. Tribal elders brokered the deal and more talks will be held after ‘Eidul Fitr.’

Wana remained under curfew for third day on Tuesday, following clashes between the heavily armed “Taliban” and the stone-pelting supporters of the PTM.

Officials had confirmed at least one PTM activist was killed and over a dozen injured in the June 3 violence.

A senior PTM leader Mohsin Dawar claimed 4 people were killed and more than 40 were injured.

The clashes started after the “Taliban” attacked PTM sympathisers, who had gathered to welcome the movement leader Ali Wazir, who escaped unhurt in the attack. Angry activists of the PTM had reportedly torched the office of the “Taliban”.

Ali Wazir’s brother Muzamil Wazir confirmed the peace deal to VOA Deewa radio and said the “Taliban militants”, blamed for the Sunday’s violence, will not enter the main marketplace until the jirga to be held nearly a week after Eid.

He said the jirga members met the “Taliban’s members” of the peace committee and Ali Wazir and it was also agreed that a 50,000 rupees penalty will be imposed on any side in case of violation of the agreement.

A tribal journalist Adnan Bitani, who was the first to report the peace agreement, says that PTM wants a complete ban must be slapped on the “Taliban” in Wana, which had been relatively under their control or influence until the emergence of PTM.

Meanwhile, another senior PTM leader Mohsin Dawar has said his movement cannot hold more talks with a Peshawar-based jirga at a time when the movement’s supporters are being “attacked and arrested.” Former lawmaker from Khyber agency Shah Jee Gul Afridi was heading the jirga and both sides had held several rounds of talks to address to PTM’s demands.

Published in Daily Times, June 6^th 2018.