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BANNU, Sept 5: Tribesmen in Janikhel village on Thursday agreed to let the authorities demolish the houses of those involved in snatching four suspected Al Qaeda militants along with four others, a local of the besieged village told Dawn on phone.
Although there was no official confirmation of the agreement, Khalil, a native of Janikhel village in the semi-autonomous Frontier Region, Bannu, said the tribal elders agreed to allow authorities demolish eight houses of those responsible for snatching eight passengers of a coach from a militia checkpoint on Sunday.
The houses are being demolished under a special British-time law governing the tribal areas called the Frontier Crimes Regulation. Officials in Peshawar offered no comments. There is also no word on what would happen to the eight suspects who are still at large.
The elders, he said, met the authorities at Janikhel Mandai to discuss the situation arising out of a standoff over the issue concerning the surrender of eight suspects. Among them, the officials say, are four foreigners, possibly Uzbeks.
He said that the elders agreed to hand over eight people in exchange for the eight suspects to gain time to look for those wanted by the authorities. He thought the foreigners might already have slipped out of the area and gone to the adjoining federally administered tribal area.
But a gathering in Bannu earlier in the day vowed they would not surrender the wanted people.
“There is no change in the troops deployment. They continue to patrol,” Khalil said. He said that no firing took place from the government side since Wednesday night. “It’s all quiet.”
The law enforcing agencies had earlier on Wednesday fired a few shells that the locals said were more of a warning kind than anything, and had not caused any human or material loss. The authorities, however, did demolish houses of the two local clerics involved in the forcible release of the eight suspects. The administration had already made a few arrests and sealed shops and other property of the Janikhel tribe.
PROTEST MEETING: The local chapter of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal — a conglomerate of several religious and political parties — organised a protest rally to denounce the operation in Janikhel.
The speakers accused the government of Gen Pervez Musharraf of dancing to the American tunes and vowed to foil any conspiracy aimed at harming the Muslims.
They warned the government to lift the siege, withdraw its forces and release those held until Sunday. Later, the participants marched on the roads, raised slogans against the government and burnt the effigy of President Gen Musharraf.
