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| India-Pakistan |
| Hundreds of foreigners still living in Waziristan led by Yuldashev |
| 2006-04-30 |
| Although Pakistani security agencies have arrested thousands of foreigners from tribal areas, especially South and North Waziristan, hundreds are still living there in the guise of locals and are behind the unrest there, a tribal leader from Miranshah by the name of Haji Khalil told Daily Times. The foreigners had settled in tribal areas when the NWFP province was declared the base camp for yesterday’s mujahideen and today’s terrorists in the wake of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. The first group of the Arab holy warriors came to Pakistan for jihad against Russia in 1980. Later, the warriors from Arab, African and Central Asian states continued to come to Peshawar to cross into Afghanistan to fight Russia. After the Afghan jihad was over, thousands of jihadis settled in Waziristan, Bannu, Miranshah, Para Chanar, Bajaur and Dera Ismail Khan and most of them married tribal girls or gave their daughters to tribesmen. They were in trouble after the US attacked Afghanistan and again when thousands of Al Qaeda operatives escaped from Tora Bora and Qandooz and crossed into Pakistan. “Al Qaeda operatives again used the same modus operandi to get shelter from local tribes and established family relationships with leading tribes of the area,” Khalil said. He said that those who could not marry tribal girls paid $100 to $300 a week to local tribes for shelter. When Pakistani security forces started an operation against foreigners living in Waziristan, hundreds were arrested, dozens were killed and hundreds fled to various cities of Punjab and Sindh provinces. “Hundreds of foreigners are still living in tribal areas and nobody can differentiate between them and the locals because they wear local dresses and speak Pushto fluently,” the tribal leader said. These foreigners are reorganising Al Qaeda and Taliban militants and planning attacks on Pakistani forces, he added. An Uzbek warrior Tahir Yaldeshiv, Al Qaeda big gun Abu Marwan Soori, who is believed to have died in a US air strike on Bajaur, and widow of a Tajik warrior ran camps to train militants in tribal areas, Khalil said, adding that a widow, who ran a camp to train women militants, had disappeared from the area. Javed Ibrahim Paracha, former National Assembly member from Kohat and also a tribal chief, said that he helped release around 3,000 Arab and African warriors from various Pakistani jails, and sent them back to their native countries. All of them had been arrested from tribal areas. “There are still over 2,000 foreign warriors in various NWFP jails and I am fighting their cases. Their families are also living in Pakistan and waiting for their release,” Paracha said. About the number of foreigners in tribal areas, he said that some of them could be living in Waziristan, but he did not know about them. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |