Good move, do as locals say…
Lashkar asks foreigners to leave
6,000-men Mahsud armed force begins hunt for attackers of Army convoy; NWFP governor offers amnesty to foreign fighters
By Sailab Mahsud
WANA: The 6,000-member strong Mahsud tribal Lashkar on Thursday warned tribesmen hosting non-Pakistanis in parts of South Waziristan to expel them or face the consequences.
The Lashkar left Spinkai Raghzai for Kotki and Makeen in the morning and reached Deelay for an overnight stay. About 3,000 Mahsud tribesmen had assembled at Spinkai Raghzai on Wednesday. Eyewitnesses said the armed men were driven in scores of vehicles to different stops in the Mahsud territory. Fellow tribesmen served them food and tea on the way.
At Makeen, a number of Ulema and tribal elders addressed the Lashkar. They included Maulana Ainullah, Maulana Hissamuddin, Maulana Gul Hasan, Malik Inayatullah, Malik Zarma Khan, Malik Masood Ahmad and Makeen Amn Committee Chairman Ahmad Shah Mahsud. The speakers pledged not to allow South Waziristan to become a sanctuary for terrorists.
They asked the foreigners in the area to leave or face expulsion. Local tribesmen giving refuge to non-Pakistanis were threatened with serious consequences if they failed to expel or deliver them to the authorities.
Maulana Ainullah accused the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan of sending its agents to South Waziristan to create confusion and misgivings and fan trouble. He and the other speakers were also critical of the murder of Tehsildars Matiullah Burki and Ahmad Nawaz Marwat after being taken prisoner by the militants and demanded arrest and punishment to the attackers. They felt the murder of the two Tehsildars was against religious principles and the Pakhtun code of honour.
Meanwhile, the political administration has convened a Jirga of the 187 elders of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe in Wana on Friday (today) to take stock of the situation in the wake of the military operation. The political authorities are expected to remind the tribal elders of their responsibility regarding any crime taking place in their areas. The Zalikhel sub-tribe of the Ahmadzai Wazirs would also be told to fulfil its responsibility and surrender the killers of Tehsildars Burki and Marwat. The Zalikhels have already been given 10 days to deliver the suspects.
Naeem Anwar Saddozai, Assistant Political Agent for Ladha sub-division, told The News that the Mahsud Lashkar had been given targets in all the Mahsud territory. He said the Lashkar would first issue a general warning to all the al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects to leave the area. He added those who would fail to comply with the warning would have to face the music. It is learnt that the authorities have identified a number of places in Ladha and Sarwakai sub-divisions, where they feel al-Qaeda and the Taliban suspects or some of the attackers, who ambushed the military convoy on March 22 are hiding. In Ladha area, the places where the Mahsud Lashkar would keep watch, include Spinkai Raghzai, Makeen, Kaniguram, Karama, Deelay, Zeray Wazirgay, Darkai and Kahikhel Ilaqa. In the Sarwakai sub-division, the Lashkar in particular would look for suspects in Barwand, Landai Raghzai, Naway Raghzai, Quresh Tangi, Gharezai and Manzai.
Agencies adds from Peshawar: Army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said the tribesmen’s hunt for suspected attackers in the Sarwakai ambush is ongoing. “Mahsud tribesmen have been doing their work for the past several days,” Sultan told The Associated Press in Islamabad. He did not have details about the search on Thursday.
Meanwhile, NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain on Thursday said foreign fighters hiding in the tribal areas would be allowed to stay if they lay down arms and give up “negative activities”.
In a statement issued after the governor met a Jirga of 50 tribal elders, he said: “If foreigners hiding in the area surrender and local tribesmen take the responsibility that they (foreigners) will not take part in negative activities, the government will allow them to stay. But if they want to fight, they should go to their own countries and fight there.”
Iftikhar reiterated government’s resolve to flush out terrorists hiding in the tribal areas. “We do not want bloodshed in the tribal areas because our main objective is to cleanse these areas of terrorists,” the statement quoted him as saying.
