May 27, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 26: Pakistan is determined to stop militants crossing its border to fight western troops in Afghanistan and is activating tribal leaders to squeeze out the militants, a government official said on Monday.

“Pakistan is fully committed to interdicting cross-border movement of terrorists,” NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani told Reuters. “In no way can we allow militant forces to use Pakistani territory as a base to operate in Afghanistan or anywhere.”

A re-think is needed in the war against the Taliban, Ghani said.

“This war against these extremists ... has now entered the seventh year and I feel that we need to actively review our strategies,” he said.

“What we need to do is to reduce the space available to these negative forces.”

Winning over the tribes was crucial, he said. The Pakistani government was not talking to the militants but to the Pashtun elders in the border areas in an effort to get them to exert their authority and isolate the militants, he stressed.

“We are talking to the majority tribes, their leaders, because it is their area and they are citizens of Pakistan and we are activating them so that they take control of their area and they reduce the space available to these militants,” he said.

The governor said tribal leaders would be obliged to ensure that militants didn’t launch attacks in Afghanistan and the government would have the right to take action in case of any violation.—Reuters