October 8, 2003	Wednesday	Sha’aban 11, 1424

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PESHAWAR, Oct 7: Authorities in South Waziristan Agency are preparing for action on Wednesday after a deadline to the tribe guilty of sheltering Al Qaeda suspects ended on Tuesday.

Officials in South Waziristan Agency said the action was being taken after the end of the three-day deadline to Alimzai tribal elders to surrender the three fellow tribesmen for questioning over charges of giving protection to Al Qaeda suspects.

Eight Al Qaeda suspects were killed and 18 other rounded up in Baghar village in the tribal area in a military operation last week. Two Pakistani soldiers also died in Operation Al Mizan.

“We gave the tribesmen three days to handover the culprits. The deadline has passed. Now we are contemplating action,” Syed Anwar Shah, Assistant Political Agent, Wana, told Dawn on telephone.

The political administration had issued notices to Zalikhel- Qarikhel tribe on Sunday to surrender their three fellow tribesmen to face questioning for giving shelter to Al Qaeda suspects.

“The tribe has failed to surrender the culprits. They say the accused have gone into hiding,” the official said.

The administration say the tribe by giving shelter to Al Qaeda suspects had violated an agreement with the government in May last pledging to deny sanctuary to aliens and hand them over if found.

The authorities have now mobilized South Waziristan Scouts and Khasadars to initiate action against the erring tribe, he said.

The action to be taken under the British-time Collective Responsibility clause of Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) entails arrests of members of the erring tribe, seizure of their commercial property and transport both in the tribal area as well as the settled districts of the North-West Frontier Province.

The military has already demolished houses of the three accused tribesmen in Baghar village — a small hamlet of a few dozen houses some kilometres from the border area with Afghanistan.