EFL
Pakistani officials said the military raids in the South Waziristan tribal area, which involved several thousand troops and helicopter attacks on village compounds, dismantled a nest of foreign Islamic terrorists and their local supporters. Officials said 163 people were arrested, at least 70 of them foreigners. But the army withdrew from the area last week, after eight captured soldiers and two local officials were found executed. A council of regional tribesmen negotiated the release of 12 hostages in exchange for the military pullout. "The militants suffered casualties, but in the end they dictated the conditions and won the day," said Afrasiab Khattak, a human rights activist in Peshawar. "The situation is very dangerous now, because if they can stop the army in one place, they can launch attacks somewhere else."
In the wake of retreating troops, tribal militants have reportedly returned to several villages demolished by the armed forces near the town of Wana, distributing tents to the homeless and leaflets warning people not to collaborate with the government, according to residents reached by telephone and other sources. The visitors were said to include Naik Mohammed, a Waziri tribesman who was one of two men leading the fierce resistance to Pakistani troops in March. Now officially a fugitive, Mohammed is described as a brash young fighter who once commanded guerrillas supporting Taliban forces in Afghanistan. "Naik is a confident and daring young man. Many people have seen him in [the Wana area] in the past several days. He seems willing to do anything, perhaps because he imagines a violent end," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a journalist in Peshawar who said he had spoken to Mohammed several times by phone in the past week.
The government has not yet identified any of the killed or captured militants, making it impossible to confirm such descriptions. But whoever they turn out to be, the clashes of recent weeks and the continuing tensions have opened up a broader debate over whether Pakistan’s tribal agencies need to be radically modernized or even abolished.
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The tribal region, largely outside state control and off limits to all foreigners, is described by critics as little more than a haven for outlaws, a wilderness where smuggling, feuds and primitive vengeance flourish. Visitors are kidnapped for ransom, and contraband, from Afghan opium to Korean televisions, pours across the border. Profits go to tribal bosses and corrupt bureaucrats, while many of the region’s 6 million inhabitants languish in a state of illiteracy and neglect.
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The government’s system for combating tribal crime is antiquated as the area itself: a colonial system of administration in which local officials, called political agents, dictate draconian punishments against entire tribes for crimes committed by their members. They can demolish houses, seal shops, levy fines and jail suspected troublemakers without charge. "The political agents act like God," Khattak said. "The real resistance to change comes not from the tribals but from the bureaucracy, because fabulous amounts of money are made. The tribal areas need to have courts and civic institutions if they are to become a part of modern society. You cannot bring in the coercive part of the state without bringing in the empowering part as well."
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Critics have also urged that local elections be held in the tribal agencies, which only have the right to elect representatives to the national Parliament. In South Waziristan, conservative Islamic parties have dominated power in the absence of secular political activity, providing a wide base of support for the armed Islamic groups. "If local elections were announced in South Waziristan today, there would be no Islamic parties, no al Qaeda and no disturbances," said Ghani Gul Mehsud, a businessman from the Khyber Agency and an activist in the Pakistan People’s Party. "The people are illiterate and the mullahs use the rallying cry of holy war, when what the tribal areas need are industry, roads and education." Most tribal leaders adamantly defended the traditional system, arguing that any state interference would destroy tribal culture.
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