A Pakistani militant leader suspected of ties with al-Qaida's No. 2 leader has promised to renounce violence and cooperate with the government, a regional official said.
Maulvi Faqir Mohammed made the pledge to tribal elders who met with him Thursday on behalf of Pakistan's government in Bajur, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, said Bajur's top administrator, Shakil Qadir Khan.
The meeting was held in Damadola, the scene of a January 2006 U.S. missile strike that targeted, but missed, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri and killed at least 13 villagers.
In the aftermath of the attack, the government said it was hunting for Mohammed, believing he had survived the assault and could provide clues about a dinner attended by senior al-Qaida operatives before the missile strike.
Al-Zawahri was reportedly invited, but had not attended. Al-Zawahri, like al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, remains at large, still suspected to be hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
In an attempt to stop attacks on its security forces, Pakistan, a key U.S. anti-terror ally, increasingly relies on tribesmen in the frontier region _ rather than the army _ to police the territory.
However, the tactic has faced criticism from the West that it could give militants a freer hand to use Pakistan's soil for attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
On Thursday, Mohammed promised he will fully cooperate for "the Pakistan government's stability and the country's defense," and will not carry out terrorism inside the country, Khan said.
"He is now a peaceful citizen of the area. He has no restriction on him," Khan told reporters in Khar, the main town in Bajur. "We have no plans to arrest him."
Abdul Aziz, who headed the 25-member delegation of tribal elders who met with Mohammed and eight fellow militants, confirmed Khan's account of the meeting.
It wasn't immediately clear if Mohammed had offered any assurance he would not fight jihad, or holy war, in Afghanistan.
Mohammed was also thought to have narrowly escaped a Pakistani aerial assault on a religious school near Damadola last October. About 80 people were killed in the strike. The government said the school was being used as a militant training facility, a claim denied by local people.
In March, the government announced that in return for development aid, tribesmen in Bajur had promised not to harbor militants. Similar deals have been reached with pro-Taliban militants in the volatile frontier regions of South and North Waziristan.
Tribesmen in South Waziristan subsequently launched a campaign to eject hundreds of Uzbek militants with al-Qaida links from their territory.
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