PESHAWAR, Oct 3: Authorities in the semi-autonomous South Waziristan tribal region are being given a three-day deadline to tribes, calling on them to surrender Al Qaeda suspects and take punitive action against anyone harbouring terrorists.

“We are going to give (these) tribes three days to produce Al Qaeda militants and take punitive action against those who harbour or shelter terrorists”, Azam Khan, Political Agent of the tribal region bordering Afghanistan told Dawn.

These tribes, he said, had signed an affidavit in May, denying the presence of Al Qaeda suspects in their respective territories, adding that they (tribes) had agreed not to give shelter to any Al-Qaeda operative, facilitate authorities to search houses in case of any information, demolish houses of those sheltering Al-Qaeda suspects, banish them from their tribe besides imposing on them a fine of Rs500,000.

“We are now asking them to honour their agreement”, he said on telephone from Wana.

These written notices are also being served on the Qarikhel- Zalikhel tribe three of whose tribesmen were found to have given shelter to the Al Qaeda suspects, who were captured and killed during Operation Al Mizan in the Baghar village on Thursday. “We are asking them to surrender the three tribesmen.”

Similar notices are also being served on Tojikhel, Gangikhel and Khojalkhel Ahmadzai Wazir tribes inhabiting the Angor Adda and the adjoining Barmal area.

Angor Adda lies on the Pak-Afghan border that has come under US bombing in recent days. The US has a small base just across the border at Shkin which has also come under attack from suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.

“We are going to make it plain to them that the government means business. We are going to crackdown on tribes not coming clean on the agreement,” the political agent said. He said that the government had information that some tribesmen were sheltering Al Qaeda militants. “We have identified them and we are going to ask them to hand them over.”

The political agent said tribesmen rounded up on charges of sheltering or harbouring foreign militants would be handed over to the Joint Interrogation Team for clearance.

The latest action came as the authorities began preliminary interrogation of the 18 Al Qaeda suspects captured in a day-long battle with Pakistani forces on Thursday.

“We are going to determine who they are and where are they from,” a security official told Dawn here on Friday.

Suspects have been moved out of the tribal area to an undisclosed location, the official said.

He said that preliminary interrogation revealed that the suspects were from different countries. “There are different nationalities”, the official said. There were Chechens, Uzbeks, an Algerian and some Arab-speaking nationals, he said.

Among the captured were some Afghans as well, he said. “There is still some confusion.”

He said that the matter was being handled by the Pakistan Army and it was not yet clear whether they would be turned over to the Joint Interrogation Team.

He said that investigators were also trying to determine the nationalities of eight Al-Qaeda suspects killed during the operation. “Pictures of those killed in action will be shown to the captives to determine their identities and nationalities”, the official said.

Eight Al Qaeda suspects were killed along with two Pakistani soldiers and 18 others were captured alive in an operation in the South Waziristan tribal region.

An ISPR spokesman said the Inter-Services Intelligence had detected the group crossing back and forth the Pak-Afghan border about five kilometres from Baghar, a small village of 50 to 60 houses.