In the initial stage, security forces will be withdrawn from Buner and Shangla districts in October.
An official communiqué issued from the CM House stated that KP Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak announced the withdrawal of army from Malakand division in Nowshera.
Khattak said that withdrawal of army from these two districts would be followed by a phase-wise withdrawal from Upper Dir, Lower Dir and 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...
where 'the writ of the government has been consolidated'.
Khattak said that the army was deployed in the Malakand division due to increasing activities of the Taliban in 2007.
The security forces had offered innumerable sacrifices to clear the area and restore peace and now 'hundreds of displaced people are back'.
The chief minister said that the KP government wanted to resolve all issues through talks and it has been successful in maintaining the writ of the government.
The announcement of troops' withdrawal has been viewed by many as a critical decision at a time when there is a likely truce between the outlawed Pak Taliban groups and the government.
The residents of Malakand have expressed their reservations time and again about the bad boys' threat from across the border where the Fazlullah-led Taliban have safe heavens in Nuristan and Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
s and launch attacks in Upper Dir, Lower Dir and in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...as well.