Pakistan Agrees Peace Pact With Pro-taliban Tribal Fighters

The Pakistani army and pro-Taliban tribal militants signed a peace pact yesterday aimed at ending months of ambushes, assassinations and pitched battles along the volatile Afghan border.

The unusual agreement saw the government effectively recognising a force of tribal fighters whose leaders have links to the Taliban or al-Qaida.

Under the deal, the Pakistani army will end its military campaign against the self-declared "Pakistani Taliban" - a loose alliance of tribal militias with strong links to the Afghan Islamist guerrillas - in the North Waziristan tribal agency. In return, the rebels undertake to halt all attacks on the Pakistani army, which have resulted in 350 deaths over the past three years, and prevent cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

President Pervez Musharraf hopes the deal will restore order to the most turbulent corner of the tribal belt, where his forces effectively lost control last spring.

The militants also imposed strict social edicts reminiscent of the Afghan Taliban such as preventing men from shaving their beards, forbidding shops from selling movies and publicly executing accused criminals. But after failing to defeat the rebels by force, the military agreed to a ceasefire last May and turned to peace talks. By yesterday Pakistani army troops had started to return to base and 132 detainees were released from jail.

The deal was struck in advance of today's visit by Gen Musharraf to Afghanistan, with whom relations reached a new low this year amid mutual recrimination. Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of allowing the Taliban to organise, arm and mount cross-border attacks from bases in areas such as North Waziristan.