Tribal militia battles Taliban as jirga meets in Peshawar

Saturday's meeting, or jirga, will involve at least 3,000 elders representing the 20 largest tribes in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas -- two provinces on or near the border with Afghanistan that have become home to the Taliban, Bloomberg's Anwar Shakir reports.

Kurram, an agency in the Tribal Areas, shares a border with Afghanistan and is sometimes called the Parrot's Beak, for the way it protrudes into Afghan territory. The lashkar in Kurram killed 21 Taliban on Friday, 10 on Wednesday and dumped six Taliban bodies on March 13.

Kurram is homes to a large Shia population that has been tormented by the Sunni Taliban, according to Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal. The Taliban has waged a brutal campaign against tribal leaders who have opposed them in the past several years. After the Pakistani army launched an offensive in South Waziristan last fall, Taliban fighters fled north to Kurram and other nearby agencies.

Alam Khan Mehsud, the leader of the Amn Tehrik, or Peace Movement, told Bloomberg that the Peshawar jirga wants to assemble 40 tribal leaders to mobilize their people against the Taliban. Prominent among the jirga attendees is the South Waziri Mehsud tribe, to which belonged Taliban leaders Baitullah and Hakimullah Mehsud.