DAG KILLI, 30 August 2003 — The tribesmen of Mohmand, a hitherto inaccessible strip of Pakistan’s porous frontier with Afghanistan, insist Al-Qaeda has never been tolerated here.
But their attitude toward ex-Taleban is more ambiguous, and it underscores the difficulties in trying to rein in apparently resurgent Taleban.
“Not all Taleban are terrorists or Osama Bin Laden supporters,” said Hidayatullah, a white-bearded elder of the Halimzai tribe who lives 20 km (12 miles) from the border. “There is no Al-Qaeda agent in Mohmand. We don’t like terrorism or extremism, and we will not give asylum to people who are terrorists or extremists.”
On the other side of leatherback mountains skirting the moonscape of Dag Killi in upper Mohmand lies Afghanistan. Until June, there was no other border marking in Mohmand, one of seven tribal districts on the northwest frontier, and its 68 km (42 mile) frontier had never been patrolled.
It was effectively a massive open door in a key front line in the war-on-terror hunt for Al-Qaeda and Taleban fugitives.
Infiltration across the porous 2,400 km border is two-way, according to officials across Afghanistan: Al-Qaeda and Taleban fleeing US-led forces into Pakistan, and resurgent Taleban back into Afghanistan to wage deadly attacks that killed around 100 people this month.
