Tribal militants praised by the government for a bloody assault on foreign fighters in Pakistan said on Monday they would continue to go to Afghanistan to fight foreign forces. The government hailed the last week’s bloodletting in South Waziristan as a sign that local tribes would evict foreign militants without the involvement of Pakistani forces. A spokesman for the Pakistani military described them as “patriots”. However, the tribal militia told reporters that they had not turned against the foreigners for the government’s sake. “We will continue our jihad (in Afghanistan) if that is against America, the Russians, British or India as long as we have souls in our bodies,” Haji Sharif, an aide to to Maulvi Nazir, told reporters in Wana.
Nazir’s representatives escorted reporters to the area, where sympathies for the Taliban run high and which is generally off-limits to outside journalists. Sharif said “Our activities across the border have been affected by our crisis with the Uzbeks. We have enemies in our home,” he said.
