ISLAMABAD, 10 March 2006 — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has promised tribal areas along the Afghan border special help with development but said foreign militants had to be expelled, state-run media reported.
The tribal lands are Pakistan’s front line in its war on terrorism and fighting between security forces and militants there has killed more than 120 people since Saturday.
Musharraf met a delegation of tribal elders Wednesday and held out the prospect of development of their long-neglected areas, but said action against militants would go on, sources said.
“The government would make available additional funds to set the tribal areas on the track of fast-paced development and bring them on a par with rest of the country,” Musharraf said.
“The president said that there is an elaborate reconstruction and development plan for the tribal region that envisages boosting agriculture, irrigation, livestock and industry.”
Musharraf also proposed so-called reconstruction opportunity zones where companies would be exempt from export duty, it said.
The proposals came after US President George W. Bush visited Pakistan last week and spoke of such zones in remote areas where manufactured goods would get duty-free US access. Bush said these would help defeat terrorism.
Musharraf stressed that foreign militants would have to be flushed out and local people helping them dealt with sternly, governor of North West Frontier Province, Khalilur Rehman, who attended the talks, said.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao yesterday said Afghanistan should tighten its own security instead of blaming Pakistan for the militant attacks. Sherpao listed the measures Pakistan has taken so far to curb terrorism and to flush out terrorists from the area bordering Afghanistan.
The interior minister said if Kabul does not desist from leveling false accusations against Pakistan, the government will be forced to plant land mines and fence the porus border.
He was talking to the tribal leaders of different semi-autonomous tribal agencies where military operations are going on.
Many Al-Qaeda militants fled to the rugged tribal areas after US and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taleban in Afghanistan 2001. They were given refuge by sympathizers among ethnic Pashtun clans and since 2004 hundreds of people have died in attempts by Pakistani security forces to dislodge them.
Yesterday, security forces and militants traded sporadic fire around Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, for a sixth day, a political official said. Two paramilitary troops were killed in an attack on their check post but there was no information about militant casualties, said an intelligence officer.
— Additional input from agencies.
