LAHORE: The Taliban agreed to leave Buner district unconditionally after successful talks with a peace jirga in Mingora on Thursday. Malakand Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed told a private TV channel the Taliban had agreed to leave Buner and would completely vacate the area by Friday (today). He said the Taliban had made no demands for vacating the area.
Earlier, the local jirga held talks with the Taliban under the supervision of the commissioner. Javed said Maulana Waliullah mediated between the jirga members and Taliban. He said people of the area were satisfied with the result of the dialogue and were happy the Taliban were leaving Buner.
During the jirga, its members had offered the top Taliban leadership in Swat a peace deal and apology to end the standoff resulting from villagers executing 20 Taliban last week, elders told Daily Times. Waliullah confirmed the jirga members’ unconditional apology to the Taliban. “We want peaceful settlement of the Taliban presence in Buner,” he said.
A group of Swat Taliban moved into Buner last week. However, local villagers resisted them, engaging the heavily armed Taliban and killing 20 of them.
“Whatever has happened was a mistake on the part of some people and all us jirga members regret the incident,” the statement, quoting the Buner jirga members, stated.
| I dunno, whacking 20 Talibunnies should give you confidence ... |
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