Surrender: Pakistani style

The Parties agree to sign a peace agreement that the government will not put in writing.

The government finally started withdrawal of Army troops from the Mahsud-inhabited areas of South Waziristan Agency (SWA) and agreed to swap prisoners on Tuesday. Also, both the sides within few days would sign yet another peace agreement, which the government suggested should not be in written form.

Army starts clearing out of S. Waziristan. There will be a phased "prisoner release" and the Army withdrawal from Mehsud dominated areas is to be completed by May 19. (full details beneath the fold.)

Here's my idea. Once the Pakistani Army is well out of the way, the US forces can move in and conduct more ops like the one that happened in northwestern Pakistan today. Dozen militants killed in suspected US strike in Pakistan: security official.

At least a dozen militants including foreign fighters were killed Wednesday in a suspected US missile strike on two houses in northwestern Pakistan, a senior security official said.

Two missiles apparently fired by a US drone aircraft demolished a house and a compound used by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Bajaur tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, the official, who declined to be identified, told AFP.

"We have reports that the missile strike killed at least 12 militants including some foreigners," the official said. The houses targetted belonged to Maulvi Taj Mohammad and Maulvi Hassan, the official said, though it was unclear if they had been killed in the strikes.

It looks like we got a couple of "foreign fighters in the process. Excellent. Good thing too, because NATO is seeing a sharp increase in attacks in eastern Afghanistan and are blaming "ineffective peace pacts made by the Pakistani govt." (I sure hope someone brings this to the Dems attention before they turn tail and run from Iraq.)

The government finally started withdrawal of Army troops from the Mahsud-inhabited areas of South Waziristan Agency (SWA) and agreed to swap prisoners on Tuesday. Also, both the sides within few days would sign yet another peace agreement, which the government suggested should not be in written form. The weeks-long talks between the two sides finally paved the way for the peace agreement after Baitullah Mahsud-led Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), umbrella organisation of all militant groups operating in the seven tribal regions and 24 settled districts of the NWFP, quit their erstwhile demand of the release of Mulla Obaidullah Akhund, a former Afghan Taliban defence minister, reportedly captured by the Pakistani law enforcement agencies in March 2007from Quetta in Balochistan.

However, top military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas, who is also the DG ISPR, when reached by telephone said the troops would be readjusted in the region. Abbas said pulling out of the troops from the SWA would be decided by the government, depending upon the outcome of its negotiations with Mahsud tribal elders.

He said that in a bid to facilitate the return of thousands of Mahsud tribespeople, displaced by the military operations launched in January, the army had decided to readjust their present positions and open different roads linking various villages and towns in the area. The sources told this correspondent that both sides had formally agreed to swap prisoners. According to the draft of the peace agreement prepared by the jirga members after consulting the government and militants, the government started troop withdrawal from hilltops in the Mahsuds-inhabited areas on Tuesday and these would assemble in Spinkai Raghzai area near Jandola. The sources said the troops would begin leaving Spinkai Raghzai town on May 16. The process of a complete withdrawal from the Mahsud-dominated areas would be complete by May 19. And once the troops are withdrawn from these areas, the jirga member said the government would pull out troops from the gun-manufacturing Darra Adamkhel town and then picturesque Swat valley.

Besides this, the sources said the government decided to release 55 suspected militants in the first phase, detained from Swat, Bajaur, Mohmand, Darra Adamkhel and South Waziristan during the past few months, while the militants would set free only 10 government officials, including security personnel.

In the second phase, the government would release 20 suspected militants while Baitullah would hand over 100 government people. The government has already taken 55 suspected militants in military choppers to tribal South Waziristan Agency, expected to be exchanged today (Wednesday). TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar said they had already sent a list of 245 detainees to the government, taken into custody from South Waziristan, Darra Adamkhel, Mohmand, Bajaur and Swat. He said the government sent them a list of 85 names but there were 100 government people in their custody as some other were later captured from Mohmand Agency.

On request of the jirga, Baitullah and his commanders had ordered their fellow fighters not to target security forces and government installations during the process of withdrawal of the troops from the troubled regions.