ISLAMABAD, 22 July 2004 — Tribal leaders in South Waziristan region yesterday handed over relatives of two local militants suspected of supporting Al-Qaeda to authorities, a local source told DPA. The suspected militants, named as Maulvi Abbas Kakakkhel and Javed Kirmaskhel, have refused to surrender.
The decision to turn their family members over to security forces came after a two-hour tribal meeting and was followed by a promise from local officials to relax economic sanctions imposed on the tribesmen to force them to produce the wanted militants. Some 25 tribal militants, from a list of 44 accused of sheltering foreign Al-Qaeda terrorists, were turned over to authorities in the region on July 19. Political authorities in the region had given the list to elders following a recent spate of rocket attacks on government positions in Wana, the administrative headquarters of South Waziristan.
Meanwhile, troops using artillery and helicopters attacked hide-outs of suspected foreign militants in a remote tribal region near Afghanistan, killing 10 of them, a senior security official said.
