September 4, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Saani25,1423

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BANNU, Sept 3: Reinforcements were rushed to the Janikhel village on Tuesday ahead of an impending operation after a local tribe giving protection to four suspected Al Qaeda militants and refused to hand them over to the authorities, a senior government official said.

“We are moving our forces and arms. We are bracing for action. We are not taking this lightly”, Secretary Home & Tribal Affairs, NWFP, Javed Iqbal told Dawn in Peshawar after returning from the scene of the siege in the semi-autonomous tribal region.

Eyewitnesses said that a brigade of the army stationed in Miramshah, headquarters of the North Waziristan, as part of the search and hunt operation in the tribal region has been moved to the village along with troops from the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Frontier Constabulary and police.

The troops were further reinforced on Tuesday and columns of armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and trucks were seen driving to the village and helicopters continued their sorties over the area.

According to official accounts, an FC checkpoint at Rocha had intercepted a pickup carrier on Sunday afternoon with 10 passengers on board for checking and identification. However, two of the passengers managed to jump out and escape to the nearby Janikhel village.

Soon afterwards, an armed group of 35 to 40 Janikhel Wazir tribesmen came to the checkpoint and demanded that the detainees be handed over to them. The authorities suspect that four of the passengers were of Central Asian origin, possibly linked to Al Qaeda.

“There is every likelihood that they are Central Asians, possibly Uzbeks”, the home secretary said. He however, declined to say whether they had any link with the terrorist organization. “This is too premature”, he said.

Officials say that the government has demanded that those involved in instigating the siege to the checkpoint and the passengers taken away and given shelter be handed over.