PESHAWAR, Sept 14: MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday demanded a public apology from the government to tribesmen of the South Waziristan region for killing what he called innocent people in the ongoing military operation.
Speaking at the coronation ceremony of students at Darul Uloom-i-Sarhad, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly accused the government of exacerbating the situation in the semi-autonomous tribal area by killing innocent people.
The JUI(F) leader challenged the government to produce body of a single foreigner killed during recent air strikes on an alleged militant training camp. "But the government does not have the courage to admit its mistake and seek apology for killing civilians," he said.
He said the JUI(F) MNA from South Waziristan, Maulana Mairajuddin, would resign from his assembly seat if the government proved its claim of having killed foreign militants in the last week's operation.
He claimed that there were no foreigners in tribal belt and those who were killed by law-enforcement agencies were all innocent Mahsud tribesmen. Maulana Fazl said that the MMA had decided not to intervene in the present situation in South Waziristan, unless the government invited it to bail it out of the present crisis.
"The MMA is the only political force which can resolve the situation amicably," the Maulana claimed and asked the government to seek its help instead resolving the issue through military means.
"The Wana issue has no military solution," the Maulana said, adding that the MMA had so far shown restraint. "Had we not shown patience and restraint, Waziristan would have been another Iraq. But the government should not test our patience and not push us towards emotional reaction," he warned.
The MMA leader alleged that the rulers were fighting for the American interests. "They are fighting to safeguards the American interests. The war in Wana is not in our national interests," he asserted. He warned that the situation would aggravate further if the government did not stop the military operation in tribal areas.
