PAKISTAN: Senior aide to Pakistan's President says Taliban attacks into Afghanistan have been "virtually halted"

Taliban attacks into Afghanistan from Pakistan have virtually stopped since Pakistan imposed stringent controls on its border, a senior aide to President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday (April 05). Cross-border militant incursions have long been a bone of contention between Islamabad and Kabul, and U.S. and Afghan officials said attacks increased several fold after Pakistan struck a pact with militants in the North Waziristan region last September. But Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, governor of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan, said Pakistan has sent in more troops, set up more check-posts, started some selective fencing and imposed night curfews to stem infiltration. "Now there are no reports of any cross-border movement from across. Our (American) friends have admitted, they've acknowledged, that our efforts on the border, and as a result of this agreement, the tribesmen have been persuaded not to indulge in such practices," Orakzai told Reuters in an interview in his British colonial-era offices in Peshawar, capital of NWFP. "The cross border movement has come to almost a standstill." Orakzai is a former lieutenant-general who commanded Pakistani forces in NWFP and its semi-autonomous tribal belt from just after September 11, 2001, when militants flooded into the area from Afghanistan, until March 2004. A member of the Pashtun ethnic group, who inhabit both sides of the rugged border, Orakzai is seen as the architect of the Waziristan deal which critics say has created a sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in a region where central government has little control. But Orakzai said the pact had helped reduce militant attacks into Afghanistan and also brought down violence in the region where hundreds of people were killed in battles between security forces and militants. The government signed a similar deal with militants in neighboring South Waziristan in 2005. The Pashtun tribes in the Bajaur region to the north vowed their cooperation last month. The deals are aimed at invigorating tribal power structures and marginalising the militants. Under the pacts, the tribes are given responsibility for making foreign militants either leave or live peacefully. Referring to a month of bloody clashes in South Waziristan between tribal forces and al-Qaeda-linked foreign, mostly Uzbek militants, Orakzai said the foreigners had violated the pact, forcing the tribesmen to act. "Interestingly, the people themselves have risen against the presence of foreigners in their area. I think over a period of time they've realized that there are more problems than there are benefits of keeping these foreigners on their soil," he said. He said more than 200 foreign fighters and up to 40 tribesmen had been killed since early last month when militants tried to kill a pro-government tribal elder. Pakistani tribesmen beat their drums of war for the first time in three years on Tuesday (April 03) to raise a force to rid their lands on the Afghan border of foreign al Qaeda-linked militants. Ethnic Pashtun tribesmen in Waziristan have not beaten their traditional "dhol" (drums) since 2004 because the Islamist militants who have been living in their midst disapproved of music, residents said. But the tribes of Waziristan have united to form a "lashkar", or army, to fight and expel the foreign militants they had until recently sheltered. "These drums which were beaten were the "war drums" as they call it. I think this was an extreme action where, when the drum is beaten, its a call to every able-bodied tribesman to report at that spot. And there the elders are there and, you know, they confer, they, you know, explain the problem, they do the planning there, then the distribution of resources and all that. And major decision are taken there," Orakzai said. "So its a very major step, I'd say, that these drums were beaten," he smiled. The double-sided "dhol" (drums), made of wood and animal hides, are traditionally beaten with two sticks to raise a "lashkar" in times of emergency. Mullah Nazir, a tribal commander leading the campaign, said about 1,500 tribesmen had enlisted in the 'lashkar' in response to his call for jihad or Muslim holy war against the foreigners, who still have some supporters among the tribes. Orakzai said Tahir Yuldashev, head of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was reported to be in South Waziristan. But he said there was no clue to the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. "Frankly speaking, after 9/11 nobody knows where Osama bin Laden is. There are speculations and everybody is making his own guess. Somebody says he is in Afghanistan. Somebody says he is in Pakistan, so the exact location is not known. It is not even known whether he is still alive or dead," he said. Residents of South Waziristan say many villagers have been moving out of areas where the fighting has been heaviest, fearing more clashes.

ITN Source | April 6, 2007

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