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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (42953)	6/30/2002 9:44:43 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Powerful local tribal chiefs met local military commanders on Friday and promised not to give refuge to the Al Qaeda men. "They agreed that any tribesman found guilty of providing shelter to the wanted men would be fined 200,000 rupees and his house would be demolished." Reports in Dawn The Pakistani military authorities dispatched a contingent of 250 troops supported by air defence to launch fresh attack on the suspected hideouts of Al Qaeda members in the Darmilan area, 75kms from Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency on Friday afternoon. The military reinforcement came when talks between a high-level team of military officials and tribal elders from the Ahmadzai tribe failed to make any headway over the handing over of the absconding men and women involved in the killing of ten army and militiamen broke down, a highly-placed source informed Dawn on telephone from Wana. The operation, which was delayed for four days in the wake of tribesmen's attack on the army on Wednesday night, was planned a fortnight ago on the information of an FBI team about the presence of Al Qaeda suspects in the area. The assistant political agent and tehsildar of the tribal agency were also accompanying the raiding team for the first time since the operation was launched in the area a month back. This had been done to avoid further clashes between the army and the tribesmen and carry out search operations in a peaceful manner. The GOC, Kohat, Major General Saeed Ahmed Khan, while presiding over a high-level meeting attended by the tribal elders and the political authorities in Wana on Thursday, had asked them to immediately hand over the wanted men and women involved in the Wednesday's attack on military personnel. But even after the expiry of a 12-hour deadline the tribesmen could not produce the suspects. The local authorities have declared Abdul Khaliq and Zaman and the women present at the time of the operation in their houses as absconders after charging them with the murder of eight people. The tribal maliks told the GOC that over 50 per cent of the local population comprised Afghan refugees from different parts of that country who, in fact, were harbouring Al Qaeda members. They asked the government to get the refugee camps vacated first and then launch an operation in the area. They explained that it was difficult to differentiate between friends and foes as there were Uzbeks, Turkmen, Tajiks and Pukhtoons residing in these camps who had strong resemblance with the Chechens and other foreign nationals. The maliks, who had been asked by the administration to hand over the "fugitives", had expressed their inability to be of any help in the prevailing situation, the source revealed. AFP adds: Soldiers were pressing tribal elders to lead them to the Al Qaeda fugitives, and threatening to destroy their homes if they were found to be sheltering the militants. Troops sealed off the bazaar in Azam Warsak, the village where the raid took place, and were taking "more punitive measures against" the local Sarke Khel tribe who are believed to have hidden the militants, sources said. Some 15 tribesmen were rounded up Thursday for questioning about the location of the militants as paramilitaries demolished tribal homes in Khawaza Panga near Azam Warsak, tribal leader Purdil Wazir told AFP. Paramilitaries were conducting house-to-house searches in a 100-square kilometre stretch of mountainous terrain, an interior ministry official said.