Mick Hartley

Has the tide turned in Pakistan?

The Taleban say they are withdrawing from a Pakistani district where their consolidation of power this week has caused deep concern in the US.

A Taleban spokesman said commander Maulana Fazlullah had issued the order for fighters to pull back from Buner, just 100km (62 miles) from Islamabad.

The US has accused officials in Pakistan of abdicating to the Taleban….

Taleban spokesman Muslim Khan said: "Our leader has ordered that Taleban should immediately be called back from Buner."

The move came after Maulana Fazlullah had met the commissioner of Malakand.

Administration officials in NWFP have confirmed that Taleban fighters have started to leave.

A delegation from the Taleban and the cleric who negotiated the peace deal, Sufi Muhammad, is on its way to Buner to oversee the withdrawal.

Muslim Khan said the militants had just crossed from Swat into Buner as "a gesture of solidarity" with local comrades.

He said the Taleban would be gone by Saturday but denied that the militants were leaving due to pressure from the government or under any deal.

But the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says circumstances suggest the militants are now under pressure and that a national consensus is building among the public and political parties that they must be challenged with force.

Pakistan's government has clearly stated that unless the Taleban lay down their arms, other options will be considered.

Pakistan's chief of army staff Gen Ashfaq Kayani rejected criticism of army inaction in Malakand.

"The operational pause, meant to give the reconciliatory forces a chance, must not be taken for a concession to the militants," he said.

Sympathy for the militant movement has been on the decline, our correspondent says, since the airing of footage showing a young girl being flogged as a punishment in Swat.

Although the Taleban denied ordering the punishment, their public standing has plummeted.