Backgrounder on violence that has stirred doubts about stability

(19 Jul 2007) FILE: Wana - March 2004 1. Now deceased tribal leader Naik Mohammad speaking at microphone 2. Various of crowd of people gathered as 2004 peace deal is struck 3. Naik Mohammad embracing man 4. Various of Pakistan army troops driving down street as the pull back from their strategic positions FILE: Wana - 2006 5. Various of tribal jirga (assembly of elders which takes decisions by consensus) 6. Street scene 7. Two paramilitary soldiers relaxing 8. Set-up of Malik Qadir Khan, tribal elder in Bajur region 9. SOUNDBITE: (Pushto) Malik Qadir Khan, Tribal Elder in Bajur Region: "The impact of this fighting will be very bad. There will be house to house civil war. Allah (God) said in his Holy Quran that the better (way) is in peace not fighting so both sides should think with sense instead of being irrational." Bajur - 18 July 2007 10. Two security officers in city as part of increased security deployment 11. Street scene 12. Security officer passing FILE: Wana - 2004 13. Various of tribal jirga ((assembly of elders which takes decisions by consensus) Islamabad - 18 July 2007 14. Various set-ups of analyst, Zahid Hussain 15. SOUNDBITE: (English) Zahid Hussain, Analyst: "So basically from the very beginning the peace deal has been very, very tenuous and I think probably America would be quite happy with the termination of this because they always felt that it had worked in favour of the militants but we will see much more fierce fighting now on both sides of the border." 16. Cutaway of Hussain 17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Zahid Hussain, Analyst: "It is as much as a failure of American policy as Musharraf's inability to contain the mujahideen activities or the Taliban-al-Qaida activities on the Pakistani side of the border. So basically there is some flaw in the strategy on both sides." Islamabad - 16 July 2007 18. Wide of exterior of Foreign Office 19. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tasneem Aslam, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson: "The deal with tribal elders in Waziristan, North Waziristan, the government has, as far as the government of Pakistan is concerned it has not, the deal has not been scuttled by the government. The government remains in dialogue with tribal elders." 20. Wide of news conference STORYLINE: Pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan have denounced a 2006 peace accord struck with Pakistan's military-led government in the Afghan frontier region of North Waziristan. Taliban men distributed pamphlets in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan's tribal agency, announcing the end of the September 2006 peace agreement with the government, following a bloody conflict between security forces and militants at Islamabad's radical Red Mosque. Tribal militants in North Waziristan have stepped up attacks since the agreement was terminated the last weekend, stirring doubts about Pakistan's stability. Assailants detonated a remote-control bomb and opened fire on a convoy carrying Chinese workers just north of the port city of Karachi on Thursday, killing at least 12 Pakistanis, police said. Hours later a suicide car bomber killed up to six people at a police academy in town of Hangu, 70 kilometres (45 miles) southwest of the provincial capital Peshawar, northwest Pakistan. Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf said he would not declare a state of emergency in face of the mounting bloodshed and claimed that al-Qaida in Pakistan was on the run, his spokesman told The Associated Press. The Pakistan Army agreed that it would withdraw troops from town checkpoints. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...