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| April 06, 2007 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 17, 1428 |
Cross-border movement stopped: Aurakzai
PESHAWAR, April 5: Taliban attacks into Afghanistan from Pakistan have virtually stopped since Pakistan imposed stringent controls on its border, a senior aide to President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday.
Cross-border militant incursions have long been a bone of contention between Islamabad and Kabul, and US and Afghan officials said attacks increased several fold after Pakistan struck a pact with militants in the North Waziristan region last September.But NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai said Pakistan had sent in more troops, set up more checkpoints, started some selective fencing and imposed night curfews to stem infiltration.
“These measures have virtually stopped cross-border movements,” Mr Aurakzai told Reuters in an interview in his British colonial-era offices set in a sprawling garden in Peshawar.
“Now there are no reports of any cross-border movement ... our friends have admitted and acknowledged our efforts,” he said, referring to the United States.
Mr Aurakzai is a former lieutenant-general who commanded Pakistani forces in the NWFP and its semi-autonomous tribal belt from just after Sept 11, 2001, when militants flooded into the area from Afghanistan, until March 2004.
A member of the Pakhtun ethnic group, who inhabit both sides of the rugged border, Mr Aurakzai is seen as the architect of the Waziristan deal which critics say has created a sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in a region where the central government’s writ barely reaches.
But Aurakzai said the pact had helped reduce militant attacks into Afghanistan and also brought down violence in the region where hundreds of people were killed in battles between security forces and militants.
“I am very satisfied with the accord ... there has been tremendous improvement in law and order. The writ of the government is quite effective now.”
The government signed a similar deal with militants in neighbouring South Waziristan in 2005. The tribes in the Bajaur region to the north vowed their cooperation last month.
All three deals are aimed at invigorating tribal power structures and marginalising the militants.
Under the pacts, the tribes are given responsibility for making foreign militants either leave or live peacefully.
Referring to a month of bloody clashes in South Waziristan between tribal forces and Al Qaeda-linked foreign, mostly Uzbek militants, Mr Aurakzai said the foreigners had violated the pact, forcing the tribesmen to act.
He said more than 200 foreign fighters and up to 40 tribesmen had been killed since early last month when militants tried to kill a pro-government tribal elder.
The two sides traded intermittent fire on Thursday, a day after about 50 people, most of them Uzbeks, were killed.
Mr Aurakzai said Tahir Yuldashev, head of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was reported to be in South Waziristan. But he said there was no clue to the whereabouts of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
“Frankly speaking, after 9/11 nobody knows where Osama bin Laden is. There are speculations, everybody is making his own guess,” he said.
“Somebody says he is in Afghanistan. Somebody says he is in Pakistan, so the exact location is not known. It is not even known if he is still alive or dead.”—Reuters
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