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Pro-Taliban tribes unite to challenge Pakistan Army in North Waziristan

* Up to 5,000 people believed to be actively supporting local Taliban

ISLAMABAD: Pro-Taliban tribes in North Waziristan have buried ancient feuds and joined forces to fight the army, posing a new threat to President General Pervez Musharraf’s anti-militant drive, analysts and officials have said.

Up to 5,000 tribesmen are launching near-daily rocket and bomb attacks on military bases and convoys in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, while the headless bodies of alleged US spies are dumped on the streets, they said.

Brought together by religion and their hatred of Musharraf’s ties to Washington, the tribes are stepping up their defiance of military efforts to control the region and flush out foreign Al Qaeda suspects, they added.

Local sources said that the prolonged military campaign has resulted in Wazir tribesmen linking hands with their long-term rivals, the Dawar tribe, to protect their joint independence.

The two firebrand clerics – Abdul Khaleq and Sadiq Noor - identified by the military as being behind the current resistance are both from the Dawar clan and are commanding members of their rival Wazir clan, the sources said.

A former security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that between 3,000 and 5,000 people had joined the local Taliban.

Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan, while stressing that the army was only employing force as a last resort, acknowledged that the use of force “does result in the army taking more casualties but our effort is to prevent collateral damage and we avoid using big force”.

He admitted that the situation was “not that good” but stressed that the problem lay with militants from Afghanistan, along with some locals, who wanted to use the region to launch attacks on coalition troops across the border.

Analysts say that Pakistan’s military offensives in North Waziristan have led to a situation where the only functioning structures are the army and the militants.

According to defence analyst Hasan Askari, however, “with the passage of time, the tribal chiefs have weakened and three years of military operations have further weakened this institution (Pakistan Army)”.

This has led to a situation, Askari asserts, whereby “the mullah is now the point of political attraction in the tribal areas”. And it is the mullah who “is now defiant of the tribal chief, the Pakistan military and the United States”. AFP

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