DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: Islamic militants attacked rival tribesmen near the Afghan border in Pakistan’s volatile northwest in a battle that killed 16 people, Pakistani officials said Tuesday.
The latest unrest near the South Waziristan tribal region will likely add to the woes of Pakistan’s new government, which has sought to strike peace deals with militants operating in the northwest.
Afghan and U.S. officials have repeatedly accused militants of orchestrating attacks inside Afghanistan from Pakistan’s often-lawless tribal areas.
Pakistan’s top militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is based in the rugged region.
The violence began Monday night when fighters attacked villages outside the town of Jandola, near South Waziristan, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said, providing no further details.
After that attack, fighting broke out between thousands of Mehsud’s fighters and members of a rival faction in the area, resident Mohammed Khalil said.
Khalil said he saw six dead bodies in a field near the home of Turkistan Bitani, leader of a pro-government faction that is opposed to Mehsud.
Militants took up positions Tuesday on the hills near Jandola, seized control of the town’s bazaar and made announcements from loudspeakers on pickup trucks urging residents to remain peaceful, according to an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his job.
The fighting killed 16 people, he said.
Khalid Mahsud, a Mehsud loyalist, said his side took 36 captives from Bitani’s faction. He said that 12 people were killed in the fighting, four of them from his side.
A senior military official said later Tuesday that fighting in the area had ended after the two sides disengaged and a planned military operation was canceled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the military was not involved in the conflict.
Shah Zaman, a local businessman, also reported calm. “There is no gunfire at the moment,” he said.
The intelligence official said tribal elders were negotiating a cease-fire and trying to ensure that the situation did not erupt into fighting again.
Security forces have fought intense battles with al-Qaida- and Taliban-linked militants in the area in recent years. The area also has seen clashes between rival militant factions.
Pakistan’s new coalition government has been trying to reach peace deals with militants in the northwest, including South Waziristan.
The new approach is a rebuke to the strong-arm tactics of President Pervez Musharraf, who had relied heavily on the army to target militants. U.S. officials have expressed concerns that any peace accords will allow militants to regroup and gain strength.
In violence elsewhere in the northwest Tuesday, militants attacked a military convoy in the Swat Valley, drawing retaliatory fire from troops that killed one attacker, a local army spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing military policy.
The attack in Swat, a former tourist destination, came despite a peace accord between the government and pro-Taliban militants in the mountain region.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/24/asia/AS-GEN-Pakistan-Militant-Attack.php
Pakistani authorities are again managing the situation wrong, siding/making deals with one rival group and rebuffing the other. It’s like playing fuel with the fire. This ends up in fighting between the 2 rival groups, where Pakistan has made deals with one of the them. Both of them are core militants and were involved in the destructive activities. These policies are just like playing with the emotions of the fellow countrymen and throwing dust into eyes of the naive.