NWA militant leader threatens Govt.

MIRANSHAH: The most powerful militant leader in Pakistan's North Waziristan Agency border region has threatened to tear up a peace accord and turn his fighters against the Islamabad government.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur has an unofficial non-aggression pact with the military. Bahadur is known to have links with notorious militant groups in tribal North Waziristan, including the Haqqani network, which has emerged as the most high-profile threat to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Bahadur criticised Pakistani leaders for allowing the United States to conduct drone missile strikes in North Waziristan and said the council of militant groups he heads would no longer hold talks with the government.

He accused the government of firing mortar bombs and cannons on civilians and demolishing a hospital and other buildings in North Waziristan.

Army officials were not immediately available for comment. Local military officials said "terrorists" had used public buildings to launch rocket attacks at military checkpoints.

Bahadur, believed to have thousands of fighters, reached a peace agreement with the Pakistani government in 2007. But it has been strained lately. Two clerics who are leaders of the committee that overseas the pact, Maulana Gul Ramazan and Hafiz Noorullah Shah, suggested the army had violated the deal.