Daily Times

Peshawar: A major breakthrough in negotiations between the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) supporters and the so-called aman committee on Thursday led to the lifting of the curfew in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency.

A senior security official based in Wana who isn’t authorised to speak to media told Daily Times on Thursday that a “breakthrough has been achieved in talks, which would help defuse tension.”

As part of the agreement struck between the two parties, to be overseen by tribal elders and the political administration, the aman committee, which comprises former militants, according to the locals, will remain away from the Wana bazaar area till June 25.

“The curfew has been lifted today (Thursday),” a senior intelligence official confirmed, without elaborating on the specifics of the peace talks between the two warring parties.

Earlier, over a hundred tribesmen of the Wazir tribe, held a series of meetings with a PTM delegation headed by Ali Wazir and members of the aman committee, to defuse tensions in the wake of a recent bloody clash in which three PTM supporters were killed and over 25 wounded.

A second round of talks would be held on June 26. The tribal elders who took part in the negotiations included Malik Saeedullah Wazir Ghulamkhel, Malik Jamil Khan Wazir Tojakhel, Malik Shehryar Tojakhel, Malik Saeedullah Darakhel, Malik Bismillah Khan Wazir, Malik Ajmal Khan Kakakhel Wazir, Riaz Mohammad, Malik Sangeen, Malik Maulana Taj Mohammad Wazir, Maulana Sultan Wazir, and Maulana Mohammad Alam Kakakhel.

Last week, following the killing of PTM supporters, enraged tribesmen in Speen area of Wana had ransacked the office of ‘the Taliban-led aman committee’, setting on fire militants’ vehicles and furniture to vent their anger. Communication lines have not been fully restored in Wana and parts of South Waziristan tribal region since then.

Following the lifting of curfew in Wana on Thursday, residents were able to freely move around in the bazaar to buy daily use commodities after three days of restricted movement.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the administration of the adjacent North Waziristan Agency (NWA) imposed a 90-day ban on PTM leader Mohsin Dawar’s entry into North Waziristan, where tribal people have held two sit-ins against recent incidents of targetted killings of over a dozen people.

“My entry into North Waziristan has been banned for three months,” Ismail Mehsud, a friend of Dawar, quoted him as saying. During the recent sit-in in Mir Ali, a town in North Waziristan, Dawar had delivered speeches, asking the security officials to ensure protection of local people.

The ban on Dawar’s entry was widely condemned on social media.

Published in Daily Times, June 8^th 2018.