PESHAWAR, 9 October 2003 — Security forces launched a crackdown yesterday on two tribes accused of sheltering Taleban and Al-Qaeda sympathizers, officials said.
Security agencies arrested 32 members of the tribes, a government official said.
The arrests came in the country’s northern tribal region near neighboring Afghanistan, said Anwar Ali Shah, deputy administration chief at Wana, the headquarters of the fiercely autonomous Waziristan region.
Authorities also destroyed homes and impounded vehicles belonging to the Karikhel and Desikhel tribes, Shah said.
“We will take such action against them throughout the country if needed,” he added.
Authorities are looking for three men they suspect of helping the Al-Qaeda cell, and had given leaders of the tribes until Tuesday night to hand them over.
When the deadline passed, paramilitary forces began arresting members of the tribe, sealing their shops and seizing their commercial transport.
“We gave the tribesmen three days to hand over the culprits. The deadline has passed,” Shah told Reuters, hours before the crackdown started in several areas of the tribal rim bordering Afghanistan.
“The tribe has failed to surrender the culprits. They say the accused have gone into hiding”, Shah added.
Provincial authorities say the tribal leaders have violated an agreement reached with the government in May that they would deny sanctuary to “aliens.”
The laws which govern Pakistan’s tribal areas allow for tribes to be punished collectively if they fail to maintain law and order. The military has already demolished the houses of the three wanted men in a village a few kilometers from the border.
The crackdown came less than a week after soldiers raided three homes in South Waziristan, sparking a shootout that killed eight suspected Al-Qaeda members.
Two soldiers were killed and 18 Al-Qaeda suspects were captured during the Oct. 2 raid near Angor Adda, 180 miles southwest of Peshawar. Authorities have not disclosed the identities or the loyalties of the 18 captured men, who are still being questioned.
It was the largest-ever offensive by the Pakistan Army against Osama Bin Laden’s terror network.
Shah refused to say how many people were taken into custody or when they will be charged. Pakistan has been a key ally of the US in its war on terror.
The country’s police and intelligence agencies have so far arrested more than 450 Al-Qaeda suspects since the US-led coalition launched operations in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America.
Local residents said last week’s operation near Angor Adda had created resentment among the fiercely independent, conservative and heavily armed tribesmen of the area.
“People here are not happy over the operation, the killing of Arab Mujahedeen and the arrest of local people,” a local journalist said. Shah dismissed the resentment as “quite natural,” but said he did not expect any resistance to the crackdown.
“They are on the defensive. We are going to make large-scale arrests of the tribesmen. This is an arm-twisting tactic in order to force the tribes to produce the culprits.”
