| Pakistan's army halted an offensive against a force of suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban supporters to allow tribal leaders to negotiate a surrender, the military said. Tribal leaders will go to the area of fortresses in South Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan today to meet tribesmen fighting alongside as many as 500 terrorists, Mahmood Shah, secretary of Pakistan's tribal areas, said yesterday in an interview with GEO television. Pakistan wants the tribesmen to stop fighting, hand over the non-Pakistani gunmen and tell the military where other bands of al-Qaeda and Taliban are hiding in the remote border region in the northwest of the country, Shah said. The Pakistani army will maintain its siege while the tribal leaders negotiate, Shah said. |