Many Al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas in Waziristan are fleeing their village hideouts and heading up into the mountains along the Afghan border, according to tribal sources in the area. Shunning their conspicuous Land Cruisers, the militants are camouflaging their movements by journeying with local woodcutters and shepherds, who head into the mountains to earn their livelihood.
"Yeah. I'm just a simple, but well-armed, woodcutter."
"And I'm just a simple, but well-armed shepherd. None o' them sheep is family." |
Officials here say the fighters are being squeezed by the government’s recent crackdown in the tribal region. Pakistan has deployed 12,000 military and paramilitary soldiers, and demanded help from tribal leaders, to round up Al Qaeda and Taliban elements. "Our strategy against foreign terrorists is working very well," says Rehmatullah Wazir, a senior government official in South Waziristan. "They feel unsafe here. They are feeling the pressure, and we are coming down hard on their local supporters as well."
| Yasss... Fleeing before the invicible Pak army... |
Tribal sources estimate that around 600 Al Qaeda guerrillas - mostly Arabs, Chechens, and Uzbeks - remain in and around South Waziristan. While not all of these wanted militants have left the villages, tribal sources believe that many have converged in the forest-covered, snow-swept mountain regions of Shikai, Bush, and Khamran. "Al Qaeda are now avoiding traveling in Land Cruisers because they think they will either be spotted by American satellite or killed by chasing Pakistani forces," says local tribesman Farid Khan. He says Al Qaeda fighters are paying local woodcutters and shepherds, who are "known as the best guides," $85 to $170 each for the trip into the mountains. "These poor people sympathized with them, and believe saving mujahideen from Americans is a service to Islam," says Mr. Khan.
| The mujahideen repay the favor by slapping their wives around for them... |
Some of the foreign fighters are familiar to the local residents. The region was used as a "launching pad" into Afghanistan for thousands of anti-Soviet mujahideen, trained and funded by Pakistani and American intelligence agencies. After the Soviet defeat, many Islamic militants, particularly Uzbeks and Chechens, preferred to settle down in Pakistan’s tribal belt. "They look like Waziristanis now. They wear traditional dress, speak fluent Pashto, and follow our traditions," says tribesman Nasir Khan. "When Afghanistan was bombed, mujahideen of Al Qaeda married their daughters to the sons of tribesmen. Dozens of the weddings were arranged in emergency as Al Qaeda men were wary of their uncertain future," he says.
"Dad! You want me to marry him?"
"You never know when you might need a simple, but well-armed, shepherd in the family, honey!"
"He smells of sheep shit and he only has four teeth!" |
Pakistani authorities are trying to cut off Al Qaeda’s local support and supply line by involving tribal elders. Under pressure to deliver, tribal chiefs have formed a force of 600 armed tribesmen to catch militants and hand over the five most wanted local tribesmen, known as "Men of Al Qaeda." The clans of the Zakikhel tribe, which formed the tribal posse, will be forced to pay a fine of $870 each day and face house demolitions if they fail to apprehend "foreign terrorists." This penalty, which began Monday, will be in place for the next five days. As of Monday, the tribal force has caught no one; officials monitoring their performance say that if they fail, Pakistani forces will launch their own operation at "anytime."
| "Duhhh... Gee, Mahmoud! Do y'think they'll catch 'em?" |
"If we support Al Qaeda then our houses are demolished and if we side with the government then we are killed by Al Qaeda and their men," says Malik Behram Khan, an enraged tribal elder.
| Tough, parking yourself in the middle, ain't it? |
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf threw his weight behind the initiative Monday, meeting with over 500 tribal elders in the Pakistani frontier city of Peshawar, seeking their cooperation in the continuing hunt for Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives. Many tribesmen say they feel "a big and decisive" operation is in the offing and believe that Al Qaeda guerrillas would prefer to die rather than surrender to the US and Pakistan forces. "They have pledged to blow themselves up rather than surrender. I met a local [Al Qaeda] wanted man in recent days to persuade him to surrender but he said, ’We wish to go to Paradise and not to Guantánamo,’ " says a tribal elder. "If the days belong to them then the nights are for us to strike," the tribal elder quoted the wanted man as saying. |