ISLAMABAD, 22 February 2004 — Pakistani officials have denied the presence of any US troops in South Waziristan where the Pakistani troops have recently launched an operation to flush out terrorists from tribal areas close to the Afghan border.
The operation on the Pakistani side coincides with the operation launched by US troops in the Khost area of Afghanistan to eliminate Al-Qaeda and Taleban elements. Senior military officials said that Pakistani Army had taken positions in trenches and cliffs in Wana, the headquarters of Waziristan Agency, adding that the 800-kilometer long Chaman border with Afghanistan was also completely sealed
However, the Pakistani military spokesman Maj. General Shaukat Sultan has clarified that the operation in South Waziristan was not aimed at arresting any man. It was meant for complete elimination of terrorism.
He said the government had earlier warned tribal leaders to surrender people illegally staying in the area to the government but still some of them were staying there. “We will not allow the use of our land for terrorism”, he further said.
A large number of Pakistani troops are manning the Pak-Afghan border to prevent terrorists crossing into Pakistani territory. Some four months back Pakistani troops had also launched an operation in South Waziristan to flush out terrorists from the area.
The officials termed the present operations in South Waziristan as small-scale. However it was coinciding with the operation launched by US forces inside southeastern Afghanistan.
Quoting area administrator Mohammad Azam Khan, the daily Dawn reported that about a dozen checkpoints were being set up in targeted areas to monitor the movements of suspected militants.
The mountainous South Waziristan region runs along the Afghan border, facing Paktia province in the west across the border.
“We are beefing up security as we enter into the second phase of our plan to flush out militants once and for all,” Khan said.
The troops had conducted a search in the same area in December last year and arrested a number of suspected militants but it was terminated after local tribesmen volunteered to find and surrender militants.
Media reports, quoting officials, said of the list of 82 suspects, only 48 had so far been handed over, all of them local tribesmen suspected of harbouring and facilitating Al-Qaeda and Taleban activists.
Reports of fresh mobilization comes two days after US and Afghan troops launched a new “swoop” operation in southern and eastern parts of the country close to the Pakistani region of North Waziristan.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri talking to a select group of journalists Friday evening suggested search operations in the tribal region were ongoing efforts against terrorist elements.
“It is closely coordinated effort...we are supposed to search our border and the US and Afghan troops were performing the same job on their side,” he said.
The US Department of Defense had also indicated a major mobilization of US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan in the near future. Media reports on Thursday quoted Gen. David Barnes, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, as saying that his troops would adopt a “hammer and anvil” approach to flush out militants, believed to be moving in the porous mountainous region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sultan had said Pakistan would not allow foreign troops to operate from its soil and the country’s own forces would carry out any necessary operation.
A senior US military official is also visiting Pakistan and has met senior Pakistani military officials.
However it is not clear if the visit is related to ongoing operations against terrorist elements in the border areas.
In a related development, Pakistani paramilitary authorities have seized a cache of arms and ammunition from a southwestern town on the border with Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.
The haul included 17 light machine guns, an anti-aircraft gun and a canon as well as a large quantity of ammunition, paramilitary spokesman Col. Rana Abdul Basit said.
— Additional input from agencies
