Tribals own up to attacks on soldiers

Tribals own up to attacks on soldiers
Published: Monday, 23 July, 2007, 02:10 AM Doha Time

PESHAWAR: For the first time, militants in North Waziristan tribal agency have claimed responsibility for suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani security forces in the troubled area, where about 50 soldiers have died in two weeks.
In a statement, Commander Maulvi Abdul Khaliq Haqqani alleged that Gen Pervez Musharraf was a tyrant and the security forces personnel had brutally killed unarmed boys and girls.
Paying rich tributes cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his comrades, who were killed in an army raid in an Islamabad mosque, Haqqani said that sacrifices of “these martyrs” would bear fruit.
“Mujahideen of the North and South Waziristan agencies will avenge the martyred brothers, sisters and sons. Praise be to Allah, mujahideen have launched activities and have been conducting guerrilla and suicide attacks against the army and paramilitary forces. They will take revenge of the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa operation,” the statement said.
In a related development, militants issued a fatwa asking the print media not to use word “martyr” for soldiers killed in suicide attacks in the troubled region.
As a first step towards implementing the decree, militants placed a ban on the distribution of a national Urdu daily in the area for one week for calling dead soldiers martyrs, said a pamphlet.
Meanwhile, the Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) Grand Alliance has urged the Pakistan government to accommodate new proposals of militants if it wants to keep the truce intact.
“Scrapping the peace accord in North Waziristan is the result of immense pressure exerted on Pakistan to disturb peace in Waziristan and tribal agencies, and to pave the way for the foreign aggression,” Fata Grand Alliance convener Abdul Karim Mehsood said.
He said the tribesmen would not bow before any foreign power and would fight till the last moment to protect their soil.
“Everything was going well but the federal government violated the truce after the US lawmakers showed their concern over peace in tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan,” said Mehsood, who is also president of the Fata Lawyers Forum.
He said the North Waziristan peace accord was in favour of Pakistan and therefore the US had opposed the pact from day one and exerted immense pressure on the Pakistan government to scrap it.
“Pakistan must avoid further deployment of troops in Waziristan and accommodate new proposals from the opposite side to reach an accord and avoid further destruction,” Mehsood said.
“Violating the basic clauses of the agreement, the government extended the army in North Waziristan, which infuriated the tribesmen and they scraped the accord. The involvement of some hidden hands to violate the accord cannot be ruled out on the part of the tribesmen,” he said.
“The shaken trust of the tribesmen about their future is resulting in a large scale exodus from North Waziristan. The government must restore the trust of tribesmen,” the Fata Grand Alliance convener said.
“Sending an official-sponsored jirga to negotiate with the tribesmen seems to be a gimmick because it did not include the real tribal representatives,” he said, adding that the government-sponsored jirga was meant to get tribesmen’s support for another “bloody battle” in the agency.
“Nato and Afghanistan have pressurised President Pervez Musharraf to violate the basic conditions of the agreement and build up the army to meet the US interests,” Mehsood said.
“Pakistan must robustly retaliate to any aggression against Fata otherwise tribesmen will not hesitate to shed blood for the protection of every inch of their soil,” he added.
The Fata Grand Alliance was established two months ago, comprising various organisations from all seven Fata agencies, including Frontier regions, to get the tribesmen their due rights. – Internews
Gulf Times Newspaper, 2007