MOHMAND, Pakistan, 24 June 2003 — Tribesmen opened fire on Pakistani troops sealing the border with Afghanistan as US and Afghan troops set up parallel blocks on the other side to trap Al-Qaeda fighters, Pakistani officials said yesterday.
Intelligence agencies and the chief administrator of the tribal-dominated Pakistani border district of Mohmand, Sahib Zada Anis, blamed Afghan tribesmen for the attacks.
“Those who are resisting are Afghan tribesmen. They come from Afghanistan, fire at us and then run away,” Anis told reporters.
Some 2,000 Pakistani troops, border scouts and tribal militias have been mobilized to the Mohmand border while around 500 US and Afghan troops are on the Afghan side to block cross-border routes used by extremists to launch attacks.
Anis identified the attackers as the Khoda Khel tribe, who he said came from the Afghan side of the poorly marked 60-km (37-mile) stretch of border where the parallel operations are focused.
“They are backed by some trained group of miscreants,” Anis said.
“The Afghan government is not involved in this resistance and we are trying to stop the resistance by a traditional jirga. We are negotiating with the Afghan government about the firing from the Afghan side,” he said.
US Special Forces troops and Afghan allies launched an air and ground offensive dubbed “Operation Unified Resolve” late last week to flush out and trap Al-Qaeda fighters hiding in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces adjoining Mohmand.
Pakistan insisted there was no joint operation between its troops and the US and Afghan troops.
“There is no joint operation by US and Pakistani troops along the border,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a press briefing in Islamabad.
“We know there are operations on the other side of the border, we are aware of them being conducted by US and Afghan forces. There are no American troops on our side. This (activity) on our side of the border is a purely Pakistani operation.
“The objective of this operation is to open up Mohmand agency and bring it into the mainstream.”
Khan said tribal residents welcomed the troops with garlands in most areas, and that resistance was only encountered in “one pocket.” “But negotiations are under way to persuade dissenting elements to come into the mainstream,” he said.
