PESHAWAR, Nov 16: Wanted militant Abdullah Mehsud and one of Pakistan's top military commanders met last week in an effort to bring peace to the troubled South Waziristan tribal region.

Talking to Dawn from an undisclosed location, Abdullah confirmed earlier reports of his meeting with the Corps Commander, Peshawar, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain, at Jandola Fort in South Waziristan on Nov 8. But in the same breath, the 29-year-old elusive tribal militant accused the army of going back on their words and attacking his native village in a bid to catch him.

Rejecting the government's demand for his surrender, the one-legged militant commander vowed to fight till the last man last bullet.

The meeting between the military commander and one of Pakistan's most wanted militant was arranged by his brother-in-law, Col (retired) Mohammad Yaqub Mehsud. On his part, Col Yaqub declined to either confirm or deny having arranged the crucial first-ever meeting between the two adversaries. "I am not in a position to say anything. I can neither confirm nor deny the meeting. I am working to bring about peace and any statement at this juncture would compromise the whole effort," the retired colonel said on telephone from Islamabad.

Giving details of his encounter with Gen Safdar, the former Guantanamo detainee said he had gone to meet with the military commander along with his comrades in arms to give peace a chance. "I took the risk for the sake of bringing peace and because I am not afraid of death."

According to his account of the meeting, Abdullah said the nearly four hours long meeting with the Corps Commander that began soon after Iftar and lasted close to midnight, all the military commander wanted was ceasefire ahead of any further talks.

Col Yaqub and Abdullah's brother, Maj Asghar, were present in the meeting, the militant said.

"Pakistanis are dying on both sides. Patriotism demands that there should be a peaceful solution," Abdullah quoted the military commander as saying. "And I said that I am not against Pakistan or the Pakistan Army. We are patriotic people but the army on US prodding has committed excesses against our people. This has got to stop."

He said that the two sides then agreed to a ceasefire to continue the talks in a peaceful atmosphere. "We agreed not to attack each other and I told my mujahideen to stop attacking the troops," the militant commander said.

Abdullah, however, accused the army of going back on its words and borrowing time to deploy troops to carry out operations against his people. "Two days later, the army launched an operation in my native Nano village. I was also trapped in the siege around Nano but I was able to break the siege and escaped along with my mujahideen," he said.

"The army has betrayed me and my people. How can I trust these people? Now they are demanding that I surrender. Over my dead body. I will rather die than give myself up. We have not committed any crime," said the militant commander who rose to prominence after masterminding the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in early October.

One of the Chinese engineers was killed while another was rescued unharmed in a commando action one week after their abduction by militants. All five captors of the Chinese engineers were killed in the blitzkrieg that lasted less than a minute.

The tribal militant vowed that he and his men would prefer death to surrender. "We will fight till the last bullet," he warned. "We will turn South Waziristan into another Iraq for those who are fighting the Americans' war in our region.

"The army may capture the whole of South Waziristan but they will never be able to rest in peace," he warned. Abdullah said that he would not go into any further talks with the government after having been betrayed once. "There will be no talks and no deals," he said.

"Now, we will have to show them something and teach them a lesson," he continued, claiming that he had the support of 'thousands' of his mujahideen. "And we have the support of our people. They give us shelter and protection. How else do you think a one-legged person like me was able to escape the military dragnet," he remarked.

Denying that there were any foreign militants in the troubled region, Abdullah Mehsud said the government had so far failed to come up with any convincing evidence to prove its claim. He, however, lamented that if the government could talk to 'separatists' in Balochistan, why couldn't it show the same amount of sincerity in negotiations with militants in the tribal region.

"We are not separatists. If there are talks with sincerity of purpose, we are willing to sit down and discuss peace," he maintained.

A senior military official said the army wanted to restore peace in South Waziristan. "The Corps Commander is a man of peace and is willing to go to any extent to achieve that objective," he said.