The Taliban are withdrawing their forces from Pakistan's Buner district after international condemnation of their advance into the North West Frontier Province.

Several weeks ago Pakistani government agreed to hand control over to insurgents in the Swat Valley, with Sharia law imposed as a result.

And 400 to 500 heavily-armed Taliban fighters then seized control in neighbouring Buner, which lies just 120km from Islamabad.

But Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told the Reuters news agency that troops have been told to leave the area. He said: "Our leader has ordered that Taliban should immediately be called back from Buner."

Earlier today Amnesty International had warned more than 650,000 people in the Buner district were "at the mercy" of the Taliban advance.

"The Pakistani government is fiddling as the North West Frontier Province burns," said Sam Zarifi, the Asia-Pacific director of Amnesty International.

"The government has not given any sense of how it intends to protect the rights of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis who are now subject to the repressive rule of the Taliban, just in the shadow of the capital."

Mr Zarifi added that police in Buner were not challenging Taliban fighters, effectively handing control over to insurgents.

"The Taliban in Buner are establishing themselves as the ruling authority instead of the Pakistani government, just as we've seen in several other areas they have taken over," he continued.

"The people of Buner are now at their mercy, particularly women and girls, whose rights the Taleban systematically deny."

Yesterday, following talks with the Cabinet, Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that if peace was not restored in the North West Frontier the government would consider "other options".

A day earlier, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton accused the government of president Asif Ali Zardari of "abdicating to the Taliban".
© Adfero Ltd