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| India-Pakistan |
| S.Wazoo tribes ready to come home after Taliban offensive |
| 2010-04-02 |
| [Dawn] Some 100 tribal elders from Pakistan's South Waziristan district said Thursday they were ready to go home after a military offensive against the Taliban. Elders from Mehsud tribes gathered in Tank and told administrators that they intended to resettle in the spring, local government officials and a tribesman told AFP. The elders, during the meeting witnessed by journalists, said they would cooperate with the government and take responsibility for peace and order under the territorial responsibility law. Chief of South Waziristan administration Shah Wali Shah read out a message from army chief General Ashfaq Kayani saying the government had cleared the area of "miscreants and terrorists." "Today is the day to fulfil the promise. The back of cruel, selfish terrorists has been broken on the land of South Waziristan. Their hideouts have been destroyed and remaining terrorists have been compelled to flee." "Inshallah (God willing) the coming spring will welcome South Waziristan's real heirs in their area," Kayani said. The message said the government had allocated a "huge sum" for development projects and that work would soon start on improving and building new roads, agriculture, dams, power supply and education facilities. A tribesman confirmed that the elders were ready to go home. But the elder told AFP on condition of anonymity that a six-man delegation of tribal elders, to which he belonged, held negotiations with the Taliban and that the militants are not ready to trust the government. He said that the delegation recently met Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Waliur Rehman and spokesman Azam Tariq at an undisclosed location. "The Taliban said that if the government carried out an operation against them, they will retaliate and it would impact the common people," said the elder who also attended the meeting in Tank. |
| Posted by:Fred |