KOHAT, Nov 21: In an unprecedented development, elders of a number of tribes of the Orakzai Agency, who had earlier raised a Lashkar against the Taliban, have started accepting them as an entity and are trying to patch up with them, ignoring action by the government.

Similar reports have also come from the semi-autonomous tribal area of Darra Adamkhel, Frontier Region of Kohat, where five of six tribes have accepted the Taliban as a reality.

Credible sources told Dawn on Friday that elders of the Feroze Khel tribe had called on former Tehrik-i-Taliban chief Akhunzda Aslam Farooqui and requested him to stop the Darra Taliban from targeting them. In return, they offered that the Taliban could continue their activities and stay in their area but had to stop killing and abducting their men. The talks remained successful and many other tribes were now in line for a patch up with the Taliban, which was a disappointment for the administration that wanted the Taliban to surrender or leave the area, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, the Taliban on Friday claimed responsibility for shooting a tribesman and slaughtering another one belonging to the Mishti tribe. The bodies had been thrown in the Shahu area of the Hangu district on Thursday.

The Taliban had left a written message with the bodies warning the people that all those spying for the government would meet the same fate.

The victims were identified as Sabeelur Rehman of the Orakzai Agency, who worked as a watchman in Kohat’s main bazaar, and Zubair Ahmed, also of the Orakzai Agency, who currently lived in Ambar Banda in Kohat.

A man, Abdullah Mauvia, introducing himself as a spokesman for the Raza-i-Elahi outfit linked to the Orakzai Taliban, claimed responsibility for the killings.

He told local journalists by phone that the victims were members of the Harkatul Mujahideen and planted by the ISI in the area to monitor their activities. He claimed that the deceased had disclosed during interrogation that they had been paid Rs800,000 by the ISI for the job.

The bodies were shifted to the KDA Hospital in Kohat and then handed over to their relatives for burial late Thursday night.

The sources, while confirming the Feroze Khel tribe’s peace deal with the Taliban, said it was the result of a month-long campaign of the Darra Taliban against the tribe. During the last two weeks their nine people were killed while travelling towards Kohat and eight, including a Levy person, abducted. The Taliban had blocked their road links with other areas and even banned their movement to settled areas to purchase food.

The administration, on the other hand, has kept a mum over the new developments.

The tribes are opting for a peace agreement despite the closure of their businesses and seizure of vehicles by the administration as a punishment under the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

Reports said the Taliban had regained control of the entire Orakzai Agency, expanding from the Khyber Agency and Darra Adamkhel to the Kurram Agency and Afghanistan, openly challenging the writ of the government.

It may be recalled that the Taliban were forced to retreat from Hangu and their stronghold of the Orakzai Agency in August after the military operation there. They shifted to the border of the Khyber Agency following air strikes on their hideouts after a suicide attack on a jirga in Khadizai last month.

They were patrolling the whole area while staying in their headquarters and training camps where a new breed of suicide bombers was being prepared, intelligence sources said.

Many tribal elders, who spoke to Dawn on the issue, said the Taliban had been able to cause a divide among tribesmen who now could not gather at one place for fear of suicide attacks.