KOHAT, June 1: The 13-member committee of tribal elders has been authorised to convey the five-point agenda formulated at a meeting with the administration to negotiate a permanent peace agreement with the militant commanders of Darra Adamkhel on behalf of the government, Dawn has learnt reliably.

The committee members were expected to meet the commanders in this regard next week and ask the militants if they desired to discuss the agenda in its present form or wanted any changes in it.

The administration of the Frontier Region of Kohat and the 13-member committee, which persuaded the militant commanders last week to announce a ceasefire in Darra Adamkhel discussed the modalities of the peace talks and agreed on a five point agenda at a meeting held at the official residence of the Political Agent, Sajid Ahmed.

The militants had been refusing to talk to the former political agent and District Coordination Officer Kohat, Kamran Zeb for a month for his hostile attitude towards them. Now, he had been posted as political agent of Orakzai Agency. It is interesting to note here that the talks between the 13-member committee and the commanders would be held at an undisclosed place in Orakzai Agency.

However, Dawn learnt that the Taliban had expressed their reservations about the members of the 13-member committee, which they said did not contain the people nominated by them a few days ago. Their spokesperson said that they would take the agenda to the chief commander, only if it was accepted by his representatives other than the members of the committee for further talks.

The chief commander Tariq had already clarified that they agreed for a ceasefire keeping in view the difficulties faced by the people on the Indus Highway during the skirmishes with the security forces and were not under any compulsion to start peace talks.

The sources said that the five-point agenda contains guarantees from the militants that they would not attack government installations, security personnel, cause any harm to the passengers travelling on the Indus Highway, return all hijacked vehicles. The agenda assures that the government would compensate the losses of the militants whose houses were destroyed during the military operation.

However, more serious issues like the handing over of the militants involved in the killing of 13 security personnel, who were guarding the Kohat tunnel and were not taking part in the operation and hijacking of ammunition trucks had not been made part of the agenda.