ISLAMABAD, 5 March 2005 — The Pakistan government wants to buy heavy weapons from tribesmen in an area near the Afghan border where security forces are hunting Al-Qaeda militants, an official said yesterday.
The offer to purchase missiles, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns is aimed at defusing tension in South Waziristan, an area where hundreds of militants hid after the US-led war in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The government had offered market prices for heavy arms, including machine guns and mortars, officials said.
“The drive is at an initial stage but we are sure it will succeed,” said Khan Bukhsh, a senior official in Wana, the administrative headquarters of the semi-autonomous South Waziristan tribal region, about 400 km southwest of Islamabad.
He met on Thursday with a delegation of the Mehsud tribe from South Waziristan to persuade tribesmen to sell their weapons.
Officials say the tribesmen promised to discuss the offer at a traditional assembly or jirga on March 10.
Pakistan’s military says the majority of the militants have either been killed, captured or fled South Waziristan after army raids in the region last year but some remain hidden in rugged hills near the Afghan border.
Mehmood Shah, security chief of the tribal belt, said similar purchases would be made in other tribal regions.
Weapons flooded into the region in the 1980s when the United States and Pakistan armed Pashtun tribes and foreign fighters seeking to end the Soviet occupation of neighboring Afghanistan.
Owning guns has long been a part of Pashtun tribal culture. Some families specialize as gunsmiths and can skilfully copy weapon designs.
Shah said the government would allow tribesmen to keep traditional light weapons. “But we would like to regulate these weapons also at a later stage.”
Innocent Man Freed After 9 Years in Prison
A man who spent nine years in jail without committing any crime was freed after a high court in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province intervened, local media reported yesterday. Azizullah, 31, was released on Thursday following the orders of the Balochistan High Court on an inquiry initiated by a local lawyer.
A resident of the port city of Karachi, Azizullah was arrested on Jan. 25, 1996 in Quetta where he had gone to meet a friend. Police accused him of being a Myanmar national and of illegally staying in Pakistan.
