North Waziristan resents outside interference

North Waziristan resents outside interference

Peshawar, July 31 : North Waziristan, the centre of a campaign to 'Talibanise' Pakistan, resents any outside interference in the area.
According to a report, there are about 8,000 gunmen - a mix of foreign Al-Qaeda volunteers, Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Islamists and local Waziris, whose families have for centuries, have fought off any attempt to impose outside rule in the area.
In modern times, even mapmakers have been shot to hide the region's mysteries from the outside world, The Times reported.
Last week, all roads to Miranshah were sealed, and soldiers occupied the hills around it after militants blew up government buildings overnight.
A majority of the people residing in Peshawar are feared trapped, but hundreds of families have fled their mud homes in villages nearby.
Almost all checkpoints on the stretch of narrow road are empty.
Three are full of rubble after being blown by militants.
Occasionally a civilian vehicle appears, Filled with men, women and children and all they could bring with them as they fled - a few cots, a goat or two, and some cooking utensils.
Raza Khan (45) a farmer said, 'Anyone who has a little cash is leaving. People can't sleep in the night. The fighters work during the night. They are always on the move. When they attack the army from any area, the army shells that area. And it kills and injures innocent people.'
The area was once formerly policed - at least nominally - by a tribal militia, but they fled in the wake of Taliban death threats.
The militia's highway checkpoint in Mirali is now monitored by dozens of soldiers from bunkers they have dug on either side of the road to guard against suicide bombers.
A senior religious leader said that Musharraf should be afraid of Allah's wrath.
'People at the top have no idea about the common man's suffering, because they have never experienced it. Force is not the solution. The fighting in Waziristan will kick off a civil war in the entire country,' he said.
'Waziristan could have become Baghdad much earlier. We, the clerics, stopped it. It will now become Baghdad, if the army carries out operations against its own people.'
Sources in the Pakistan Army said: 'There has to be a fight.
There is no other option. It's bad, but we have to fight.'
Taliban forces in South Waziristan have occupied hilltops and set up checkpoints to cut off army supplies and to prevent troops taking control, the paper reported.
As the clashes around Miran Shah grew more frequent last Friday, there were Taliban rocket attacks on new army checkpoints on the main exit routes from the town and looters seized 30 computers from offices and a girls' school.
Despite the crisis, Waziristan's most lucrative activity - smuggling - continues to thrive.

--- ANI