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Wazir tribes want foreign militants out

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: A key leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl from South Waziristan said on Saturday that the majority of Ahmedzai Wazir tribes were now against the presence of foreign militants in their areas.

Returning from Wana after brokering a temporary ceasefire between Maulvi Nazir-led militants and Uzbek militants, MNA Maulana Mirajuddin said the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes had “withdrawn the hospitality” enjoyed by foreigners since they crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2001.

“What I gathered there is that Maulvi Nazir enjoys the full support of Wazir tribes, who are no more willing to shelter the foreigners and are demanding the foreigners leave their areas,” the MMA parliamentarian told Daily Times over the telephone from Tank city.

Around 130 Uzbek militants were killed in four-day clashes with the followers of Maulvi Nazir, who had ordered foreign militants to surrender after an Arab fighter was found dead, and the Uzbeks were prime suspects.

During the clashes, 30 supporters of Nazir were also reported killed.

Meanwhile, a jirga returned from Wana, but no final decision was made on the foreigners’ exit from the Wazir areas.

“We were successful in the sense that both sides agreed to find a solution to the problem through a jirga,” said Mirajuddin.

A security official said the situation in Azam Warsak, Kaloosha, Sheen Warsak and other areas around Wana was calm, and no clashes had been reported.

“So far so good,” he said via phone from Wana.

However, both sides were holding their positions on hilltops and roadsides, checking all traffic. Maulvi Nazir’s men reportedly captured three Uzbeks and a local, but there was no independent confirmation.

Also, some rockets and mortars were fired from the Afghan side, injuring a man and damaging two houses in North Waziristan, a local administration official told Daily Times.

“Five rockets and as many mortars were fired from across the border between 9am and 1pm in Utmankhel village, Mir Ali subdivision, from the direction of Afghanistan’s Khost province,” said the official.

Misal Khan was injured when one of the rockets hit his home, while the other rockets and mortars landed in an open field, he added. He did not say whether security forces had retaliated.

Meanwhile, two remote-controlled bomb attacks on two separate convoys of the Frontier Corps in Bannu injured one soldier.

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