Taliban mediators pull out of Pak peace talks

As Pakistani troops intensified their operations against the Taliban in the NWFP, killing 50 extremists, the hardline religious group negotiating with the government on Monday pulled out of a “worthless” peace deal in Swat to protest against the offensive that came after intense US pressure.

Helicopter gunships pounded Taliban hideouts as security forces continued their operations for the second day in the NWFP’s lower Dir district, which adjoins Swat and is covered by the peace deal between radicals and the government.

Izzat Khan, spokesman of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi, which is negotiating with authorities on behalf of the Taliban, told reporters that his group would no longer be part of the peace deal in the restive Swat valley.

As US pressure built up on Islamabad to take steps to safeguard its nuclear arsenal, president Asif Ali Zardari ruled out the possibility of his country’s atomic weapons falling to the Taliban. “Pakistan’s nuclear installations are in safe hands and under extra security,” Zardari said in an interview to foreign media.