KHAR: Pro-Taliban militants in Bajaur Agency announced on Tuesday that they would remain impartial during the upcoming elections. “We will neither participate in elections nor will force someone to take part in the process,” Maulana Faqir Mohammad, a Taliban commander and spokesman for Mulana Mohammad Umar, told journalists after a grand jirga here. He said the local Taliban had launched a movement and had militant leader Baitullah Mehsud had been appointed its supreme commander. He denied the reports that Osama was in Bajaur Agency and termed the statement an attempt to launch a military operation in the agency. He also said they had decided to release the kidnapped levies soldiers within a few days as a goodwill gesture. Meanwhile, a grand jirga of tribal elders, consisting of Senator Maulana Abdur Rashid, held talks with local Taliban in Bajaur Agency. The jirga participants rejected President Pervez Musharraf’s claim about Osama’s presence in the agency.