The Mehsud tribes grand jirga on Monday demanded the government stop targeting the houses of innocent tribesmen during its ongoing war against local Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud. Several local elders, including Senator Maulana Saleh Shah, former member of the National Assembly Maulana Mirajuddin, Malik Masood Ahmad, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Sardar Hizbullah Gandapur and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami leader Sheikh Mohammad Shafi attended the jirga, which was held in Tank.
The jirga said the government should stop damaging the property of peaceful tribesmen. The PML-N leader sympathised with the Mehsud tribesmen, and said his party supported the Meshuds during the prevailing crisis. He said President Pervez Musharraf had imposed a war on loyal tribesmen to appease the United States in the war on terror. He also offered his houses in Karak and Dera Ismail Khan to the people who had been displaced by the South Waziristan operation.
The Mehsud tribe in the troubled South Waziristan Agency announced on Monday the collapse of their pact with the government, saying they would not support the government or be responsible for militant activities in the agency till the government released seven local Taliban.