ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Pakistan must protect civilians in its tribal areas from attacks by the Taliban, which have soared since Islamabad signed peace deals with militants, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday.

Insurgents have set up a vigilante-style moral policing system featuring public beheadings as the semi-autonomous region bordering Afghanistan becomes increasingly “Talibanised,” the New York-based group said.

“Taliban attacks on civilians in the tribal areas have soared since the Pakistani forces pulled out, and the government can't just turn a blind eye to the violence,” HRW South Asia researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said in a report.

Western officials have expressed concerns that Al Qaeda and the Taliban have created a new haven following peace pacts signed in the North Waziristan tribal agency in September 2006 and in South Waziristan the previous year.

HRW said there was now also a “deteriorating human rights” situation for civilians throughout the semi-autonomous tribal belt as a result of the agreements.

It pointed to incidents this year, including the beheading of two alleged spies for US forces in Afghanistan and a bomb blast which killed a doctor in charge of a campaign to inoculate children against polio.

“Pakistan cannot look the other way as the population of the tribal areas becomes hostage to increasing violence and human rights abuses,” Hasan said.

The group also called on the Taliban, tribal leaders and their supporters to respect human rights and criticised the militants for their attacks and efforts to curb the rights of women.

It said the government should prosecute Taliban leaders responsible for the violence “but it can't because it has effectively allowed the Taliban and its allies to control the area and has given them free rein to commit abuses.” Pakistan says it has 80,000 troops and 1,000 guard posts along the border to stop militants infiltrating Afghanistan, far more than Nato and US-led coalition forces.

It has also defended the peace deal, with the governor of the North West Frontier Province saying last week that a political settlement is the only way forward in what in Afghanistan is increasingly a “liberation war.” Kabul strongly rejected the comments.

Pakistan on Tuesday dismissed “absurd” claims by a US official that Al Qaeda has set up new training camps in North Waziristan, saying that if Washington has any evidence it should share it with Islamabad.—AFP