21 April 2005	Thursday	11 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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SWABI, April 20: Awami National Party president Senator Asfandyar Wali Khan on Wednesday said that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were not a production of the Pukhtun society, but it was the establishment that had collected people from some Muslim countries who had later formed these groups.

Wrapping up his three-day visit to the Swabi district, he said these people had indulged in terrorist activities and become extremists after the establishment had abandoned them following a change in the government’s Afghan policy.

The ANP chief regretted that innocent people were killed in South Waziristan during the military operation against foreign militants.

He said the economy of the area had suffered a lot, but the government had taken no care of the poor.

He recalled that the late Bacha Khan had stressed the need for a jirga to resolve the Afghan issue in the beginning of the war and maintained that finally a jirga had restored peace and tranquillity in that country.

Referring to the rights of the Pukhtun people, Mr Khan said that the Pukhtun community had been pushed to the wall by rulers. He alleged that Punjab had been usurping the rights and resources of the Pukhtun.