Taliban announced one-month conditional cease fire in Pakistan's
restive North Waziristan area on Sunday, local private Geo TV
reported.
Taliban's spokesperson Abdullah Farhaad said that the cease-fire
was announced on condition of safe movement of the members of loyal
Jirga, the report said.
Other conditions included the removal of new check posts from
the area, replacement security forces' officials by Khasadar force
from other check posts and release of detained tribesmen in one
month period, he added.
Governor of North West Frontier Province Ali Mohd. Jan said that
positive steps should be responded positively and the proposed
conditions would be put forward before the loyal Jirga.
In another development, two coalition soldiers were killed
during combat in southern Afghanistan that also left about 45
militants dead, military officials said Sunday, as President Hamid
Karzai called for more coordination between coalition and tribal
leaders during counterterrorism operations.
The coalition estimates about 250 insurgents have been killed
since Operation Mountain Thrust _ the biggest military operation
since the push to topple the Taliban _ got underway earlier this
month to stop a wave of suicide attacks and ambushes in southern
Afghanistan.
In Kabul, Karzai emphasized to key Western officials the need
for international troops to work more closely with tribal leaders
and community elders during military operations, his office said
Sunday.
Karzai again warned that maximum caution needs to be taken to
avoid civilian casualties during military operations.
Also on Sunday, five Afghan aid workers, including three
employed by a Swedish aid agency, were abducted in eastern
Afghanistan, said a police official.
The five - two doctors and an employee of the aid agency Swedish
Committee for Afghanistan and two local government workers - were
kidnapped on Thursday while driving in the province of Nuristan,
said Ghalamullah Nuristani, the provincial deputy police chief.
Abdallah Fahim, a spokesman for the Public Health Ministry in
Kabul, said that the five were still alive, according to village
elders in contact with the kidnappers, and that police and Afghan
troops were looking for them.
"The elders and people of the area are cooperating," Nuristani
said. "They will help us win their freedom very soon."
He did not give any details about who was suspected to have
kidnapped the aid workers.
Shah Mahmoud, the acting director of the Swedish Committee for
Afghanistan, said he had no comment on the kidnappings.
The five had traveled to inaugurate a health clinic in a remote
village and on the return trip were kidnapped in an area between
two mountains, Nuristani said.
The driver, who was freed by the kidnappers, contacted police,
Nuristani said. The driver is in custody for questioning but is not
a suspect, he said.
"We request from the kidnappers to release them," Fahim said.
"They are not political or military people."
(Xinhua News Agency, Chinadaily.com via agencies June 26,
2006)
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