07 March 2005	Monday	25 Muharram 1426

PESHAWAR, March 6: The armed forces which moved into the South Waziristan Agency nearly two years back to wipe out militants and restore the writ of the government, are establishing a cantonment in the administrative headquarters of the troubled region, sources said.

"The military will have a permanent cantonment in the agency in the near future, but it may take two to three years," said a senior official.

Maliks and elders of the Mehsud and Ahmadzai Wazir tribes are reportedly in favour of setting up a cantonment in the remote part of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The sources said that the airport in Wana was being expanded and construction of residential quarters has been started at Zari Noor camp, where the army has set up its Brigade headquarters.

They said that the army authorities had started construction work at the airport on the outskirts of Wana and its runway was being expanded up to 1700 meters. About 1400 meters area of the runway has been carpeted.

The sources said that hangar for helicopters has been built and after completion of expansion work light aircraft would be able to land and take off from the airport. The whole compound would be enclosed in a 13-kilometre-long circular boundary wall.

Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan declined to comment about the establishment of cantonment in the South Waziristan Agency.

"I can't comment at the moment," Gen Sultan told this reporter on phone, but reiterated that army troops would remain in the area unless miscreants were eliminated.

"The border is porous and we can't ignore the regrouping of militants in the region. Therefore, we need troops in the area who will also take part in the development activities," he said.

The ISPR chief confirmed the expansion of the airport in Wana, saying that landing facilities were being improved at the airstrip which was built during pre-partition period. "There is no harm in the expansion of the airport in the area," he said.

The army had set up its first cantonment in Parachinar, Kurram Agency, in early 1980s when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The government has already established an airport in Parachinar which had been abandoned for the last many years.

The sources said that the existing Wana Scouts camp inhabited by the South Waziristan Scouts and its adjacent Zari Noor colony, which currently houses the Brigade headquarters would be part of the proposed cantonment scheme.

According to the plan, the paramilitary troops would relinquish the camp and move to Angor Adda and Zarmelana close to the border. New forts would be constructed in the two border towns to house the paramilitary troops.

The NWFP Governor's Secretariat, Fata, was busy working on a plan to shift the agency headquarters from Wana to Shakai valley, a conversion point of the Wazir and Mehsud tribes, where an intense operation had been carried out against hardened foreign militants last year.

The secretariat has recently floated tenders for the construction of offices in the Shakai valley and the project would cost Rs50 million.

The sources said that Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah had recommended shifting of administrative headquarters from Wana to Shakai after seeking consensus from the elders of the Mehsud and Ahmadzai Wazir tribes.

A senior official of the governor's secretariat said that the political agent of the South Waziristan had been tasked to finalize modalities regarding the shifting.