Taliban return control of NWFP town

By IANS

Islamabad : The Taliban have handed over control of Darra Adam Khel in northwest Pakistan to authorities after a week but have threatened to take the town back if “un Islamic activities” take place.


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They did so after a tribal council intervened. A joint Pakistan-Afghanistan grand jirga, a meeting of tribal elders, was held in Kabul Aug 8-12.

“The Taliban have given up control of Darra Adam Khel after the jirga assured them that it would take action against anti-social elements and un-Islamic activities in the area,” Senator Abdur Raziq from Darra Adam Khel told the Daily Times.

According to the agreement, the Taliban would retake control of Darra Adam Khel if the jirga or the local administration failed to fulfil their promise.

The senator denied that the Taliban had banned girls’ education in the area. “The Taliban have only banned music, video centres and other un-Islamic activities.”

Nine criminals who had been ‘arrested’ by masked Taliban during their weeklong ‘anti-criminal’ campaign in Darra Adam Khel were released on the intervention of the jirga.

Darra Adam Khel in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) is located between Peshawar and Kohat, very close to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

With a pro-Taliban government in power in NWFP, the Musharraf regime is having a tough time tackling the tribals who are openly sympathetic to the Taliban from Afghanistan.

Inhabited and controlled by Pashtuns of the Afridi clan, the town derives its importance from being devoted entirely to the production of ordnance. A wide variety of firearms are produced in the town, from anti-aircraft guns to pen-guns.

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