By Paul Tighe and Khaleeq Ahmed
June 27 (Bloomberg) — President Pervez Musharraf told Pakistan’s tribal leaders to expel al-Qaeda terrorists sheltering in the region bordering Afghanistan, saying their presence destroys peace and security.
“Foreign terrorists are the biggest threat to our country and therefore they have to be flushed out,” the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited Musharraf as telling a meeting of tribal leaders, known as a jirga, in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, yesterday.
Tribal leaders must implement agreements reached in North and South Waziristan provinces since 2004 to expel non-Pakistani terrorists, Musharraf said. “You do not go back on your words,” he told the jirga.
Musharraf, who has deployed 80,000 soldiers in the northwestern tribal region for anti-terrorism operations, said in April that 300 gunmen were killed by tribesmen over a period of weeks. Pakistan last year rejected a report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group that said the accords with tribal leaders curbed army operations and boosted the activities of al- Qaeda and the Taliban.
The president has faced opposition from Pakistan’s Islamist groups over his support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism that began in 2001. His government has been criticized by neighboring Afghanistan for failing to stop al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters using camps in the tribal district to carry out cross-border attacks on Afghan territory.
Grand Jirga
A grand jirga of tribal leaders from Pakistan and Afghanistan will be held soon to develop a strategy for settling disputes and maintaining public order on the 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) border the countries share.
“We are the custodians of the frontiers of the country and soldiers without pay,” APP cited Malik Waris Khan Afridi, a tribal elder, as saying in an address to the jirga.
The infiltration of gunmen across the Afghan border will have undesirable consequences in the region, Musharraf said, according to APP. A withdrawal of all international fighters from the region will be brought about only by achieving peace in Afghanistan, he added.
Pakistan’s government is providing funds for the development of the region, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the president said. He appealed to the jirga to focus on development, saying tribal leaders have the option of “progress and prosperity or backwardness.”
Anti-Terrorism
Pakistan’s anti-terrorism operations have resulted in the arrest of about 700 suspects since 2001, including alleged al- Qaeda commanders Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Mohamed Abdullah Binalshibh, both accused of helping plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.
The government increased security in the capital, Islamabad, yesterday after intelligence agencies said there was information that suicide bombers entered the city to carry out attacks, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said at a briefing.
Security around the diplomatic enclave, which houses more than 40 embassies, has been heightened, Cheema said.
Musharraf has pledged to boost economic growth in the world’s second largest Muslim nation of 165 million people in an effort to reduce the threat of terrorism.
Pakistan is the only country implementing an anti-terrorism strategy that uses military, political and economic development to try to eradicate extremism, Musharraf said last month in an interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper.
“It has been realized that the wave of terrorism cannot be suppressed by force and we have to change the mindset of the militants to tackle the problem,” Cheema said yesterday.
To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net ; Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad at KAhmed@bloomberg.net
This story was reportet on Peace and Freedom by Muhammad in the Tribal Areas 24 hours prior to the first international media reports hit the internet……
Musharraf at Tribal Jirga in Pakistan
We have the utmost respect and admiration for our colleague Muhammad…….
