 Islamabad - Pakistani authorities on Tuesday warned tribal leaders in the North Waziristan region that new military operations may be carried out in the area if they do not help to apprehend Al Qaeda-linked militants and their local supporters. The North Waziristan region faces Afghanistan's Paktia province to the west. It also shares a border with the South Waziristan tribal region, where military operations last year killed around 174 mainly foreign militants with hundreds of others arrested. Military and government officials during a visit to the region on Tuesday warned the tribesmen that foreign militants were trying to stir similar unrest to that in South Waziristan in 2004. Tribal leaders, while assuring their support, urged the authorities to cooperate with them before launching any operation against the suspected terrorists. "Let us know when you're coming so we can warn our guests clean house." |
The latest warning by the government came just a day after the commander of the coalition forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno, revealed that the Pakistani military was mulling a new military operation in the region to coincide with a spring offensive planned by the Afghan-based US forces on their side of the border. Barno, who was in Islamabad to attend the Tripartite Commission meeting of the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistani authorities, told reporters there was a need to undertake an operation in the North Waziristan region and Pakistani forces were seemingly preparing for one. A spokesman for the Pakistani military on Tuesday did not deny Barno's statement, but said it was up to the Pakistani authorities to take any such decision. |