PESHAWAR, May 13: Army troops would step in for the first time in the inaccessible areas of the North and South Waziristan agencies in a couple of days with dual objective of carrying out development work and patrolling the area to check infiltration of undesirable elements from Afghanistan.

Taking to Dawn here on Monday, Corps Commander Lt Gen Mohammed Ali Jan Orakzai said: “In line with an understanding reached with the tribal elders from the South and North Waziristan agencies recently, troops would enter these two agencies on Wednesday to take on their job.”

Apart from carrying out development works in these agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) bordering Afghanistan, the troops would also keep vigilance on the cross-border movement from Afghanistan, he added.

In this regard a representative Jirga (council of tribal elders) from the South Waziristan agency held a meeting with the Corps Commander here on Sunday.

The tribal elders assured the Corps Commander to extend their cooperation to the government providing access to army to their areas in lieu of development schemes in the education, health and public health engineering sectors, apart from the supply of electricity to their areas.

After getting similar commitments from the military authorities a couple of days back, the tribal elders from the North Waziristan agency agreed to accept army’s presence in their area, considered to be housing Al Qaeda and Taliban activists.

Following the assurances by the tribal elders Lt Gen Mohammed Ali Jan Orakzai will shortly visit the South and North Waziristan agencies to lead the army troops including members of the engineering corps with some 20 bulldozers and other machinery to launch development works in these areas.

Army’s deployment in these two agencies will come as a boost for Islamabad to take necessary action amid rising international pressure for carrying out operations in North and South Waziristan agencies reported to be housing the fleeing Al Qaeda and Taliban warriors.

“Yes there were reports about their (Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters) presence in some pockets of the two agencies, but they proved wrong,” replied the commander of the Peshawar-based 11 Corps when asked about the reported presence of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Fata.

He also did not see any threat to the government’s reforms programme for Fata amid increasing unrest among tribesmen due to the presence of American communication experts in some parts of Fata.

In an attempt to persuade tribesmen to cooperate  with government in its bid to open up the inaccessible areas of Fata, Gen Mohammed Ali Jan Orakzai, hailing from the Orakzai agency of Fata, visited four areas of the Upper Kurram agency and Frontier Regions of Kurram on Monday.

The places he visited include Kundao (FR Kurram), Darra Dar (bordering with Tora Bora), Said Karam and Camel Bazaar in the Upper Kurram agency. At all these places, tribal elders of Para Chamkani tribe assured their cooperation to the government in carrying out development works and government’s bids to abide by its international commitments.

They also put forth their demands for carrying out development schemes in social sectors.

On this occasion, the Corps Commander approved a number of development works in the health, education and public health engineering sectors and thanked them for extending cooperation to the army.

He told the tribesmen’s gatherings that President Gen Pervez Musharraf attached special significance to the development of Fata bringing them at par with the settled parts of the country.

He said the government had allocated an amount of Rs 10 billion for the development of Fata. The amount, he added, would be utilized during the next three or four years and the projects undertaken would bring revolution in the lives of the people of Fata.

On this occasion, the Corps Commander issued instructions to the army engineering and political authorities of the Kurram agency about development works.

He also inaugurated construction work of three roads schemes, one primary school for boys in addition to announcing upgradation of a couple of middle schools to the level of high schools and primary schools to the level of middle schools.