Posted on 03/07/2004 5:06:58 PM PST by blam
Tribes join Pakistan's campaign to root out bin Laden
By Peter Foster, South Asia Correspondent
(Filed: 08/03/2004)
The tribes of Pakistan's lawless border areas agreed yesterday to assist a hunt for Taliban and al-Qa'eda militants being conducted along the rugged Afghan-Pakistani border.
The decision to co-operate with US-backed Pakistani government troops in the region will give further impetus to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which has intensified since January. At a jirga, or tribal council, attended by 10,000 tribesmen in Wana, about 190 miles south-west of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, elders agreed yesterday to to set up militia bands totalling 2,000 fighters to root out "foreign" elements in the region and hand them over to government forces.
Suspects are guarded by a Pakistani paramilitary soldier following an operation against al-Qa'eda
"Save your region from destruction for a handful of people," one tribal leader, Muhammad Tahir, also a member of Pakistan's Senate, the upper house, told the tribesmen.
"Hand over the people the government wants to get out of this quagmire."
Harsh penalties were also decreed for any tribesman caught providing shelter to foreigners, including the demolition of his house and a fine of a million rupees (about £10,000).
Last week American military sources confirmed that increased numbers of special forces had been committed to the region along with hi-tech surveillance equipment to try to close the net around the al-Qa'eda leader.
Pakistani troops and US forces in Afghanistan are engaged in fresh operations in the belt of mountains that stretch along the 1,550-mile frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The tribal areas are of crucial importance in the battle to close down al-Qa'eda.
The overt sympathy of many tribesmen for their co-religionists will raise doubts about their commitment to the hunt.
Observers of Afghan tribal politics note that the spirit of apparent co-operation among the tribal leaders has come only after several months of arm-twisting from the Pakistani government.
Many ultra-conservative tribal leaders of south Waziristan have been accused of sheltering al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters and of allowing attacks on Pakistani government troops to be staged from their lands.
Last month the Ahmadzai tribe in south Waziristan was fined 5.4 million rupees for carrying out at least three rocket attacks on Pakistani troops and military bases.
The tribal leaders have, in the past, made similar promises only to take little or no subsequent concrete actions to back them up.
Yesterday, however, the leaders addressing the council made it clear that the tribes now had little choice but to put their natural sympathies for Taliban elements aside and assist the government troops.
Malik Noor Ali Khan, an elder from the dominant Ahmedzai Wazir tribe, promised to have organised 600 armed men for raids by today, although he did not say when they would start operating.
"These groups will act against foreigners on their own information or whenever the government points out their presence," he said
Waziristan is among the places bin Laden is believed to have been hiding recently after unique vegetation of the region was spotted in one of his videotaped messages.
In the most recent military operation, two weeks ago, Pakistani troops arrested about 25 people near Wana, but none of those held was reported to be among the al-Qa'eda or Taliban leadership.
Resentment at the military operations was fuelled when troops shot dead 13 people when a minibus failed to stop at a checkpoint near Wana last month.
Although Pakistani and US officials are officially counselling caution there is a mounting expectation in the region that bin Laden's capture is near at hand.
With the US presidential elections taking place in November and a serious security situation in Iraq, bin Laden's capture would provide a welcome sign of progress in the war against terrorism.
An Afghan official in Kabul said at the weekend that bin Laden had only narrowly escaped a Pakistani dragnet operation, and had sent a fax via satellite phone to an ousted member of the Taliban requesting use of a safe house.
In January Lt Col Brian Hilferty, the US military spokesman in Afghanistan, said he was "sure" that bin Laden would be captured by the end of the year.
• Police in Pakistan said yesterday they had arrested 17 suspects in their inquiry into an armed attack on a Shi'ite religious procession in the south-western city of Quetta last week.
The attack killed 47 people, including six policemen, when gunmen fired and threw grenades at the procession to mark the Shi'ite holy day of Ashura.
Zafarullah Jamali, Pakistan's prime minister, said the investigation was moving forward and his government would deal harshly with terrorists.
Investigators have named the outlawed extremist group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi as a prime suspect in the attack.
Yup. The guy qouted below 'gets it....and BTW, here's a little bit of Uncles money too.
"Save your region from destruction for a handful of people," one tribal leader, Muhammad Tahir, also a member of Pakistan's Senate, the upper house, told the tribesmen."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.