PESHAWAR, March 28: The Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) has accused “foreign elements” of terrorising tribesmen and carrying out acts of sabotage and violence on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the PMAP said that “foreign elements” were responsible for the strife and violence in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata). “These foreigners are remnants of the decade-long Afghan war,” the party said.

It said that foreign militants had been terrorising the local population in the Fata region and had held the entire area hostage.

“Their presence in the Fata region is a permanent source of trouble in North and South Waziristan. Once Afghanistan began flushing out Al Qaeda and Taliban elements, their remnants took shelter in the tribal areas. They have made the lives of tribesmen a living hell.”

The PMAP alleged that foreigners had installed a parallel government in the Fata region. “In the presence of political administration,” said the PMAP, “the militants have shot and killed local tribesmen, dragged them and hanged their bodies from electric poles in Waziristan”.

“The militants wanted to silence local tribesmen by humiliating the bodies of their victims,” it said.

The PMAP noted that the strife has “spread to the Khyber Agency where innocent people have become prey to a sectarian war being fought by the followers of the two clerics”.

“This is neither acceptable to the governments of Pakistan nor Afghanistan.”