Pakistani officials say police in the North West Frontier Province have
arrested senior Taliban commander Rafiullah and six of his associates.
Officials say Rafiullah was captured Wednesday during a search operation in the Hangu district.
Hours
after the arrest, nearly 200 of the militants' supporters gathered at a
police station in Doaba and tried to free the detainees, but Pakistani
troops dispersed them.
Also Wednesday, in the Khyber tribal
region where a militant group was threatening the provincial capital,
Peshawar, government officials and tribal elders signed a peace deal.
Tribal
leaders pledged to guarantee that militant leader Mangal Bagh and his
group, Lashkar-e-Islam would stop hostilities against the government.
The
head of the Interior Ministry, Rehman Malik said some paramilitary
forces will remain in Khyber to ensure the militants do not return.
In
an unrelated development, Pakistani lawyers held a protest rally in
Islamabad and other cities Thursday, demanding the restoration of
judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf.
A spokesman for
deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told VOA Deewa Radio the
lawyers will continue their peaceful protests until all deposed judges
are reinstated.
The protesters chanted slogans against President Musharraf and the head of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Asif Ali Zardari.
Zardari
wants to link reinstatement to constitutional amendments, while the
leader of the Muslim League-N, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
wants an unconditional reinstatement.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
