PESHAWAR, Jan 17: Awami National Party (ANP) president Asfandyar Wali Khan has asked the ‘establishment’ to revamp its Afghan policy to end the root cause of violence in the tribal belt. Otherwise, he warned, its ‘flawed policy’ would ruin the country.

Speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday, the ANP chief said that his party adhered to the non-violence philosophy of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and condemned the killing of innocent people in the US air-strike on Damadola village in Bajaur Agency.

According to media, he pointed out, the US had taken Pakistan into confidence before targeting the three houses in the village which had been visited by a ‘guest’ of the establishment before the attack.

He said the ANP would organize a conference of political parties on Feb 11 to chalk out a strategy on the issue of the Fata operation.

He said tribesmen had neither invited nor provided shelter to any Taliban or Al Qaeda militants. Instead, he added, militants had been staying in the area as guests of the establishment. He wondered that each time innocent people were killed, but guests of the establishment escaped unscathed.

“After 9/11 the government should have sealed borders of Waziristan and Bajaur with Afghanistan, but it didn’t close them,” he added.

Mr Khan said that security agencies had arrested dozens of third- and fourth-ranking leaders of militant organizations at Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, but they had not launched any operation in those cities.

He said that gunslingers of militant leaders, residing in tribal areas, had always been guests of the secret agencies.

He said the ANP had condemned the bomb blasts by the so-called resistance groups inside Afghanistan and tribal parts of Pakistan.

He asked why Pakistanis had been made cannon fodder to an alien’s war. He predicted that violence and unrest would continue unabated unless its ‘root-cause’ was removed.

He alleged that Gen Pervez Musharraf had failed to remove the root cause of terrorism and added that the general was responsible for this trouble.

He regretted that political authorities had declined permission to an ANP delegation which was proceeding to Bajaur in the morning.

He asked why the government had sealed Fata for political leaders who wanted to condole with the families of airstrike victims.

Mr Khan alleged that the establishment had handed over Waziristan to militants who had so far killed over 70 notables of various tribes.

“Waziristan lies on the one end of Fata an Bajaur on the other and both are caught in flames, threatening the entire region,” he said. “Why has the government failed to quell militancy if Gen Musharraf is opposed to it?” he asked.