Re: 5000 Pakistani tribesmen enlist to fight militants
Patriotic Pakistani Pashtun Tribals are finally obliterating Al Qaida militants in Waziristan.
Pakistan tribal assault leaves 250 dead in a month
Pakistani tribesmen beating war drums Wednesday launched their biggest assault yet against foreign Al-Qaeda militants in a border region after weeks of fighting that have left 250 people dead. Islamabad says the offensive by about 1,000 conservative local tribesmen will cut cross-border attacks in Afghanistan, and shows the success of a peace deal in the lawless South Waziristan region that was criticised by the West. Forty-four Uzbek, Chechen and Arab Islamic rebels were killed on Wednesday along with five tribesmen in heavy rocket and mortar clashes, the mountainous region’s top administrator Hussainzada Khan told AFP. “Intense fighting is still going on,” he said. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad that the clashes are “the result of the agreements the government made with tribal people in which they pledged to expel foreigners and now they are doing it.” “Around 200 foreign militants have been killed since the start of the fighting and the overall figure including local tribesmen is around 250,” Sherpao said, updating an earlier toll of about 200 dead overall.
The clashes broke out on March 19 when an ex-Pakistani-Taliban commander, Mullah Nazir, ordered foreign militants led by Uzbek extremist Tahir Yuldashev, a one-time confidant of Osama bin Laden, to disarm or leave the area. Thousands of Arab and Central Asian militants were given shelter by Pakistani tribesmen after fleeing Afghanistan when US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001, but the two sides have now fallen out violently. Officials say the foreign insurgents are linked to Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and that they are responsible for coordinating attacks across the porous border on NATO and US forces in Afghanistan. Residents and officials said around 1,000 tribesmen answered a call from their leaders and set off from Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, early Wednesday to mount a final push against bunkers occupied by the foreign rebels. “Soon after morning prayers there was a heavy sound of war drums and tribesmen were seen leaving in different directions amid shouts of ‘Allahu Akhbar’ (God is Greatest) and ‘Victory, victory, victory,’” Malik Sangeen Khan, a resident of Wana, told AFP. “Since this morning there have been massive sounds of rockets and gunfire. It is louder even than the Pakistani military operations here in 2004.”
Residents and officials said it was the first time for three years that the ethnic Pashtun tribes have played the war song on the drums made from animal hide stretched over wooden frames. Able-bodied males who refuse to answer the call are fined heavily and their houses are burned down or demolished. “Both sides have been using heavy weapons since this morning and tribal fighters captured important Uzbek bunkers. In one bunker alone 19 foreigners were killed,” one security official said on condition of anonymity. Tribesmen also stationed children at local checkpoints to ensure that people wearing all-covering burqas were women and not foreign militants in disguise trying to flee the area, residents said. Men are not allowed to look under burqas in the conservative region. Pakistan signed peace pacts with pro-Taliban tribesmen in South Waziristan in 2005 and North Waziristan in 2006, leading to military pull-outs. It signed a similar deal in the northwestern Bajaur tribal region last month. NATO members and the United States say attacks on foreign forces in neighbouring Afghanistan have risen as a result of the pacts.