ISLAMABAD, 19 May 2004 — Pakistani authorities are hunting the widow of an Uzbek militant after an intelligence report suggested she was training women suicide bombers, a senior provincial official said yesterday.
The intelligence report indicated that Aziza, wife of Obaidullah, a member of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, would launch attacks in Pakistan in May, the government official in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan told Reuters.
“It says she is training Pakistani women to become suicide bombers,” said the official, who did not want to be identified.
“The search is on for her, but until now there is no information yet on exact locations or timings of her possible attacks.”
He said Aziza set up a militant training camp in the mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan to avenge the killing of her husband in a Pakistani military operation in January.
However, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Rauf Chaudhry denied authorities were hunting Aziza. “There is nothing of this sort,” he said.
Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal region has served as sanctuary for militants from Arab and Central Asian countries since Pakistan joined the US-backed “war on terror” in late 2001.
Suicide bombings are a relatively recent militant tactic in Pakistan, which has been racked by militancy for decades. Officials say suicide blasts are linked to the influence of Al-Qaeda, particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Fifteen Shiites were killed earlier this month when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded mosque in Karachi.
Meanwhile, the chief of a 4,000-strong tribal force near the Afghanistan border yesterday warned “stern action” against any tribesmen sheltering foreign militants.
The warning came amid signs that Pakistan’s army is preparing for a possible military operation in South Waziristan unless suspected Al-Qaeda men in the region take up a government offer of amnesty. The lashkar or tribal force is charged with getting any foreigners there to register with authorities.
Allah Khan, the chief of the lashkar, told inhabitants at Azam Warsak village where his 4,000-strong force assembled yesterday that they faced “stern action under tribal laws” if they host any foreigners.
“We will demolish homes of those people who shelter them,” he said. “Any such violator will also be fined one million rupees ($17,250).”
However, people in Azam Warsak, which lies 16 kilometers west of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, told Khan that “foreigners” had left the area.
Originally, Pakistan set April 30 as the deadline for the amnesty purpose, but no foreigners came forward. The latest in a series of new deadlines for the amnesty passed on Saturday.
The lashkar is due to go to another village today to try and trace fugitives, an exercise which officials say is being closely monitored.
