In mean time (update):

Militants link soldiers’ release to pullout
Monday, September 03, 2007
By Mushtaq Yusufzai & Sailab Mahsud

Tribal militants holding around 300 security personnel hostage in South Waziristan on Sunday made their release conditional to withdrawal of troops from the tribal areas besides release of their 15 comrades. They also claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 10 FC soldiers from Mohmand Agency on Saturday evening.

Also, a bomb blast in Wana claimed the lives of four persons and injured 13 others Sunday. As the row between the Army and the tribal militants deepens, the authorities have put the Army on alert for launching a major operation against the tribal militants if they fail to release the abducted soldiers without any condition.

Tribal sources told The News from Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, that a 100-member Jirga comprising prominent tribal elders from all the three subsections of Mahsud tribe and 21-member peace committee headed by JUI-F MNA Maulana Merajuddin returned to the town after holding unsuccessful talks with tribal militants in Ladha over the release of held soldiers.

The Jirga met with militant commanders including Baitullah Mahsud, Qari Hussain and Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani at an undisclosed location in Ladha subdivision on Saturday evening and exchanged views with them on contentious issues, including the release of the held soldiers. On their arrival in Wana on Sunday, the Jirga members were received by senior officials of the political administration, Army and FC at the Civil Colony.

Briefing government officials about the outcome of their negotiations, Maulana Merajuddin said militants who earlier demanded the release of their 10 colleagues had now increased their number to 15. He said the militants claimed that these men were in the custody of the government on various charges. The government would have to release all of them if it wanted the safe return of the held soldiers and restoration of peace in the region.

The militants also demanded implementation of the Sara Rogha peace agreement signed between the government and Mahsud tribal militants on February 9, 2005, under which militants claimed they were promised that security forces would not be deployed in the Mahsud inhabited areas besides removal of the forces checkpoints. The agreement, they stressed, also called for the withdrawal of Army from the agency. By stressing the need for implementation of the Sara Rogha peace accord, the militants in fact wanted complete command and control over the area.

Similarly, they demanded that military officials would inform militants through the political administration about the troops movement in their areas so that they could take possible arrangements for their safe passage.

The militants further told the Jirga that the government would have to release all the Mahsud tribesmen taken into custody during the past few days in the wake of soldiers’ abduction under territorial responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulations.
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more here:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=9898

Jirga fails to secure release of soldiers
September 03, 2007 Monday
By Alamgir Bhittani and Shams Momand

Local Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has linked the release of over 150 soldiers taken hostage on Aug 30 to the implementation of the Sararogha agreement signed in Feb 2005, Zulfiqar Mehsud, a spokesman for the commander, said on Sunday.

The agreement requires the government to grant amnesty to the militant commander and restrains Baitullah Mehsud from protecting and assisting foreign militants, attacking government officials and installations or blocking development projects in the area.

But militants claim that a clause, which is not included in the written agreement, requires security forces to stop their movements in the Mehsud-dominated area of South Waziristan.

Militants dispute the figure of 150 hostages given by the government and claim to have seized 300 soldiers.

The spokesman also claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 10 personnel of the Frontier Corps in the Mohmand Agency, and warned of suicide attacks if the government started military operations in tribal areas.

“Our foremost demand is the implementation of the Sararogha agreement, which binds the government to contain the movement of troops in South Waziristan,” he said.

Sources said that talks between members of a tribal jirga and militants for the release of over 150 security personnel had failed. The 50-member jirga headed by Senator Salih Shah went to Wana from Laddah and briefed Political Agent Hussainzada Khan on Sunday on talks held with militants.

The sources said that militants had told the elders of the Mehsud tribe that further talks were meaningless till the previous agreement was honoured.
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more here:
http://www.dawn.com/2007/09/03/top1.htm