Jamaat warns of suicide attacks by tribesmen
By Our Correspondent

PESHAWAR, Oct 18: The NWFP Jamaat-i-Islami has said that tribesmen will carry out suicide attacks if the operation against Al Qaeda fugitives in Wana, South Waziristan Agency, is not stopped immediately.

Speaking at a news conference here on Saturday, provincial deputy secretary-general of Jamaat-i-Islam Zar Noor Afridi strongly criticized the government for not allowing a MMA fact-finding team to enter Wana, and threatened of suicide attacks by tribesmen if the operation was not stopped.

He claimed that under an agreement, the federal government was required to take local Maliks (tribal leaders) into confidence before launching any operation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

But the Pakistan army started operation under the leadership of the FBI from Islamabad and arrested and killed local people and Afghan refugees in the name of Al Qaeda elements without bothering to inform the local elders as per the agreement, he claimed.

He alleged that the Musharraf government was blindly following the orders of the United States in its bid to extend its tenure.

"On the one hand the FBI entered the tribal region without seeking any permission of the government, while on the other a parliamentary delegation under Liaquat Baloch was stopped from entering Wana," he said, adding that this had created resentment among the tribal people against the government.

He said the stopping of the parliamentary delegation to visit Wana to ascertain facts regarding the operation amounted to disgrace of the 140 million people of the country, which the tribesmen would not tolerate.

Mr Afridi challenged Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad's statement regarding killing of three top Al Qaeda operatives in Wana during the operation, saying only local innocent people had been killed and no Al Qaeda activist was present there.