The deadly bout of violence erupted
earlier this month between supporters of commander Khan Said Sajna and followers of the late Hakimullah Mehsud in the restive tribal areas of North Wazoo.Both factions are part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) umbrella group, which has been waging a bloody seven-year insurgency against the state.
Pamphlets distributed on Friday in Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a
ministatein centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
, the main town of North Waziristan, noted that the ceasefire would hold until August 12.
Written in the native Pushto language, it said the ceasefire was brokered by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the formal name of the Afghan Taliban's 1996-2001 government in Kabul.
A senior commander of one of the Pak factions confirmed the deal.
"We will strictly follow the ceasefire," the commander of the Khan Sajna group told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The infighting began after Sajna, a senior commander, was rejected for the TTP leadership following the killing of then-leader Mehsud last November, faceless myrmidons say.
The TTP has long been riven by infighting.
Sajna had been seen as a strong candidate to become TTP chief following Mehsud's death.
But the movement's ruling council at the last minute elected Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
, who hails from Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.