PESHAWAR, Jan 18: Twenty-one suspects wanted to the South Waziristan Agency's administration for harbouring Al Qaeda suspects have defied the deadline to surrender themselves to a tribal lashkar on Sunday.

Armed lashkar of Ahmadzai Wazir and Zalikhel tribes that has been raised to net the suspects and hand them over to the administration is likely to launch campaign on the expiry of the deadline.

The tribesmen raised the lashkar after a rocket attack on the army camp near Wana, the agency's headquarters, on Jan 11, which killed four soldiers on the spot and wounded seven others.

Like other parts of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the government had also stationed one brigade of the army in the troubled agency to assist the civil armed forces and the local Khasadar force to check cross-border movement of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The tribal lashkar has so far rounded up 20 suspects and handed them over to the administration, while 21 criminals, including four most wanted persons have ignored the ultimatum.

The administration provided a list of 41 suspects to the respective tribes to hand them over to the government. A jirga of Zalikhel tribe on Sunday could not make any headway to persuade two of the most wanted persons, Sharif Khan and Naik Mohammad, to surrender themselves to the authorities.

An official told Dawn by phone from Wana that two separate armed lashkars of the Ahmadzai and Zalikhel tribes were set to start operation against the wanted persons in Shakai area.

"The most critical phase of the operation is approaching and the administration is fully prepared to meet any eventuality," the official said.

Under the plan, the official said, the lashkar would demolish houses of the suspects and if they did not surrender, the tribesmen would force their dependents to leave the area.

The official said under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, a legacy of the British government, the wanted persons would lose all rights and incentives.