Pakistan drafts peace deal with militants

PESHAWAR - Pakistan's new government has drafted a peace agreement with Taliban militants in its troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials and a rebel spokesman said Wednesday.
The government launched talks with the Islamist rebels soon after winning elections in February, amid concerns that the military-orientated tactics of President Pervez Musharraf were spawning more violence.
The aim is to transform a month-long lull in a wave of suicide bombings into a permanent peace with the rebels, who have fought the government since Islamabad joined the US-led "war on terror" in 2001.
"Work is in progress swiftly on a new peace agreement with the Taliban Movement of Pakistan," a senior security official told AFP, adding that "indirect negotiations" through tribal elders were ongoing.
"The draft agreement contains clauses under which both sides will not take armed action against each other. Military will be withdrawn from certain areas, attacks on security forces will be stopped by militants," the official said.
The chief spokesman for the country's umbrella militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban (Taliban Movement) Pakistan, Maulvi Omar, confirmed to AFP by telephone that "our negotiations with government are going on."
"There is significant positive development, we have accepted most of each others' demands. In next few days we hope that a positive outcome is achieved," Omar said.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in suicide bombings since the start of last year, including former premier Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated at an election rally in December.
The government blamed her killing on Al-Qaeda-linked tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud.
Dawn, a respected English-language daily, said the draft 15-point peace agreement also involves the exchange of prisoners and said it had the backing of senior political and military figures.
Authorities freed a senior pro-Taliban Pakistani militant, Sufi Mohammad, earlier this week after his banned hardline group, Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi, pledged to renounce violence.
Taliban spokesman Omar said the agreement would apply to the semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and other troubled nearby regions including the former tourist area of Swat, he said.
"If our demands are accepted, then we will end our armed struggle and stop attacks against security forces, Taliban will remain peaceful," said Omar.