Sunday, Jun 30, 2002
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
On the one hand, the authorities have initiated a dialogue with the tribal chiefs to ensure the surrender of the infiltrators and, on the other, they have dispatched more troops to the area to take care of any eventuality. The incident involving the death of 10 Pakistani soldiers while combing the Waziristan tribal agency for Al-Qaeda activists, has jolted the military Government and raised serious questions about the war on terrorism spreading to Pakistan. Local media reports said the military authorities had dispatched an additional contingent supported by air defence, to launch fresh attacks on the suspected hideouts of the Al-Qaeda. The Musharraf Government had little option but to reinforce the contingents in the sensitive area as talks between a high-level team of military officials and the tribal elders of the Ahmadzai tribe, for the handing over of those involved in the killing of the Pakistani security personnel, have not made much headway. Pakistan, conscious of the sensitivities of the tribals to the presence of the forces in the region, has initiated a dialogue with the chiefs to secure their consent for the search operations. Reports said that the assistant political agent and `tehsildar' of the tribal agency were accompanying the raiding team for the first time since the operation was launched in the area a month ago. This had been done to avoid further clashes between the Army and the tribesmen. The military officer in-charge of the operations had given a 12-hour deadline to the tribal chiefs on Thursday to facilitate the handing over of the persons suspected to be involved in the attack on the security forces. However, even after the expiry of the deadline, the tribesmen could not produce the suspects. The local authorities had identified some persons in the area as those sheltering the Al-Qaeda infiltrators and declared them absconders. The tribal chiefs reportedly told the General Officer Commanding that the Afghan refugees comprised over 50 per cent of the local population and blamed them for harbouring the Al-Qaeda members. They asked the Government to clear the refugee camps first. They contended that it was difficult to differentiate between friends and foes in the region, as there were Uzbeks, Turkmen, Tajiks and Pukhtoons in the camps who bore a strong resemblance to Chechens, who killed the 10 Pakistani security men, and other foreign nationals. Local media, quoting intelligence reports, has put the number of Al-Qaeda fugitives at 500 and suggested further operations in and around Waziristan to apprehend them. ``Our best estimates are that in the entire area there are now not more than 500 Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters,'' the English daily, Dawn, quoted a military source as saying. Pakistan had deployed "quite a few'' unmanned UAV predators operatives in the belt to gather information on the hideouts of the suspects. "The UAVs essentially give real time, accurate information and have aided in search operations.''
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