Militants link soldiers' release to pullout
By Mushtaq Yusufzai & Sailab Mahsud
PESHAWAR/TANK:
Tribal militants holding around 300 security personnel hostage in South Waziristan on Sunday made their release conditional to withdrawal of troops from the tribal areas besides release of their 15 comrades. They also claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 10 FC soldiers from Mohmand Agency on Saturday evening.
Also, a bomb blast in Wana claimed the lives of four persons and injured 13 others Sunday. As the row between the Army and the tribal militants deepens, the authorities have put the Army on alert for launching a major operation against the tribal militants if they fail to release the abducted soldiers without any condition.
Tribal sources told The News from Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, that a 100-member Jirga comprising prominent tribal elders from all the three subsections of Mahsud tribe and 21-member peace committee headed by JUI-F MNA Maulana Merajuddin returned to the town after holding unsuccessful talks with tribal militants in Ladha over the release of held soldiers.
The Jirga met with militant commanders including Baitullah Mahsud, Qari Hussain and Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani at an undisclosed location in Ladha subdivision on Saturday evening and exchanged views with them on contentious issues, including the release of the held soldiers. On their arrival in Wana on Sunday, the Jirga members were received by senior officials of the political administration, Army and FC at the Civil Colony.
Briefing government officials about the outcome of their negotiations, Maulana Merajuddin said militants who earlier demanded the release of their 10 colleagues had now increased their number to 15. He said the militants claimed that these men were in the custody of the government on various charges. The government would have to release all of them if it wanted the safe return of the held soldiers and restoration of peace in the region.
The militants also demanded implementation of the Sara Rogha peace agreement signed between the government and Mahsud tribal militants on February 9, 2005, under which militants claimed they were promised that security forces would not be deployed in the Mahsud inhabited areas besides removal of the forces checkpoints. The agreement, they stressed, also called for the withdrawal of Army from the agency. By stressing the need for implementation of the Sara Rogha peace accord, the militants in fact wanted complete command and control over the area.
Similarly, they demanded that military officials would inform militants through the political administration about the troops movement in their areas so that they could take possible arrangements for their safe passage.
The militants further told the Jirga that the government would have to release all the Mahsud tribesmen taken into custody during the past few days in the wake of soldiers’ abduction under territorial responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulations.
The officials, after listening to the demands of militants, asked the Jirga members to go back to their homes and sought some time to discuss these demands with senior officials.Despite several attempts by The News on Sunday, DG ISPR Maj Gen Waheed Arshad could not be approached for comments.
Government officials, however, said they wanted continuation of the negotiations with militants through the Jirga. They said the Jirga would be called back within a few days to hold further talks with the militants over the safe and early release of the troops.
Foreign agencies quoting a spokesman of the militants and officials said the militants linked the held soldiers release to the withdrawal of army from the area.“Their deliberation is going on. Now let’s wait and see what result it gets,’” Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told The Associated Press.
“The government should pull out Army troops from the area and should not set up new security posts,” the militant spokesman told the agency.General Arshad said he was not aware of any militant demands. He blamed militants for violating the deal by launching attacks on security forces and denied the agreement provided for a military pull back.
At a time when the Jirga members were holding talks with senior military officials and authorities of the political administration at Scouts Camp in Wana, a bomb blast rocked Rustam bazaar in the town, killing four persons and injuring a number of others.
Eyewitnesses said four people were killed on the spot and 13 others, including a senior commander of the Wazir tribal militants Meetha Khan, were injured seriously.One of the dead included a teenager, Wali Mohammad, son of Saleh, of the Mastikhel Wazir tribe.
Sources close to Commander Meetha Khan said the pro-government commander was the prime target of the attack as he used to sit in that shop where an aged bearded man brought a packet of apples and handed it over to the shopkeeper to deliver it to the commander.Some of the injured were shifted to Scouts Hospital while others were taken to private health centres in Wana.
According to sources, Meetha Khan received multiple injuries on his face, legs and hands and was rushed to FC hospital in serious condition.Meetha Khan, a close aide of Commander Maulvi Nazeer, had played a crucial role in the eviction of Uzbeks from Wana and its adjoining areas following bloody clashes between the Uzbek militants and local Wazir tribesmen.
On the other hand, well-placed sources told The News that army troops based in three cantonments — Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan — have been given alert orders for launching a major military operation against the militants if they do not agree to safe and unconditional release of the held security personnel.
Meanwhile, Zulfiqar Mahsud, who introduced himself as a spokesman for Baitullah Mahsud, called The News office from an undisclosed location and claimed that their men in Mohmand Agency had kidnapped 10 security personnel, including an officer, to force the government to stop the “killing of innocent people”.
He said they were holding 300 Pakistan Army and FC personnel, seized between Tiarza, Saam and Momin Kari in South Waziristan, at their private jails in groups.
He also claimed that their colleague carried out a suicide attack on troops in Jandola Saturday and threatened to continue such attacks in future as well if General Musharraf did not change his policies towards the people of tribal areas.
The purported spokesman further warned of suicide attacks on those supporting General Musharraf’s policies.Sources close to militants said the militants were now openly travelling in military vehicles in Ladha and Makeen while brandishing weapons they seized from the security forces.
On the other hand, the residents of Makeen and Ladha remained cut off from rest of the world as the two telephone exchanges there have been out of order for the last two days.Our Ghalanai correspondent adds: A tribal Jirga of Mohmand Agency on Sunday failed to convince the militants to release the 10 paramilitary personnel, including an officer, they kidnapped Saturday evening from Kandharo area of Lakaro subdivision.
A 100-member Jirga comprising prominent tribal elders and Ulema, including former MNA Malik Fazal Manan Kodakhel, Malik Hidyatullah Haleemzai, former commissioner Malik Nazeer Khan Sultankhel, Major Mutabar Khan, Maulana Abdul Haq Sangar, Maulana Samiullah, Maulana Abdul Jabbar, Maulana Sahib-e-Haq and others, travelled to Kandharo town and held talks with leaders of tribal militants. The Jirga requested the militants to immediately release the kidnapped soldiers as the security personnel were guests in the town and it was against customs and traditions of Pakhtuns to kidnap guests.
It is to be mentioned here that the militants kidnapped 10 personnel of Mohmand Rifles of the Frontier Corps including an officer, Major Asif Afridi, when they were passing through the area at 8 pm. The soldiers were also carrying Rs 260,000 cash, the salaries of soldiers based in Mohammad Gat area of the agency.
The soldiers were then shifted to unknown places by the militants during the night.While the Jirga members were engaged in talks with militant leader, Commander Sangeen Khan Kandhari, at the hujra of Malik Askar in Kandharo, dozens of armed militants suddenly appeared from their hideouts and overpowered Levies personnel to get hold of their checkpoints on Peshawar-Bajaur road.
On the request of the Jirga, the militants later left control of the checkpoints and returned to their hideouts.Commander Sangeen told the Jirga that unhappy with the military operations in which innocent people were killed and their houses demolished across the tribal belt they kidnapped the soldiers.
He said they have learnt that thousands of security forces were coming to Bajaur in 250 vehicles for launching a military operation against the militants.The Mohmand militants only demand to the Jirga was to oppose the likely military operation in Bajaur Agency. They assured the Jirga of their full cooperation and promised of handing over the soldiers to them soon.
AP adds: In neighbouring North Waziristan, militants meanwhile warned soldiers to leave the region in pamphlets distributed in Mir Ali town. The pamphlets, copies of which were seen by The AP, warned of suicide bombings against security forces.“Now we will slaughter anyone we catch and we will rest only when we turn this place into Fallujah,” the pamphlets referring to the insurgency-hit Iraqi city.
Militants link soldiers’ release to pullout