Pakistani authorities have signed a deal with Islamist militants after they agreed to stop threatening the northwestern city of Peshawar and dismantle training camps, officials said on Thursday. Militants have been expanding their influence across northwestern Pakistan and violence surged after the army stormed a militant mosque in Islamabad a year ago, raising worries about prospects for the nuclear-armed US ally. Western allies and Afghanistan have expressed concerns about Pakistan's peace pacts with militants in its ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border. But the latest pact is with a small faction in the Khyber region. The group, while espousing Taleban ways, is not known for sending members into Afghanistan to battle Western forces. “The agreement has been signed,” a senior government official in Peshawar said. Under the agreement, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, the militants loyal to commander Mangal Bagh agreed to stop forays into Peshawar and to accept the writ of the government. “There will be no parallel administration and they will not run any training camps,” according to the agreement. The militants will also not be allowed to carry weapons openly. In return, security forces would withdraw from the region and everyone detained during a recent sweep would be released. Security forces launched a sweep in Khyber on June 28, the first major military action under a government that came to power after February polls promising to negotiate to end violence. Supplies for US forces in Afghanistan are trucked through the Khyber Pass and concern has been growing about security along the route. Peshawar residents had begun to fear that their city could fall into the clutches of the Taleban after militants began appearing in some neighborhoods, threatening music and video shops and ordering barbers to stop shaving beards in line with hardline Taleban edicts. In a separate incident, militants took 11 paramilitary soldiers and government workers hostage after security forces arrested seven insurgents near the town of Doaba, southwest of Peshawar. Elsewhere, six people were killed in landmine blasts in the Kurram region, and in North Waziristan, residents found the bullet-riddled body of a doctor. Police station siege ends Pro-Taleban militants ended their siege of a police station in northwest Pakistan when troops arrived early Thursday, police said. Police said they requested reinforcements after around 200 militants surrounded a police station in the Hangu district of Northwest Frontier Province late Wednesday to demand the release of seven suspected extremists. An intelligence official said the detainees were among the close circle of tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who has been accused of plotting the assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto. Mehsud denies the charge.
