WANA, Nov 22: The Mehsud tribe has asked the government to return weapons and ammunition to tribesmen, which had been seized during the ongoing search operation in South Waziristan.

About 700 elders and maliks of the Mehsud tribe, who gathered in Tank on Monday, condemned seizure of arms and weapons in the garb of search operation against foreign and local militants.

The angry elders asked the military authorities to halt the operation immediately and return explosives seized from tribesmen's houses. They urged the people not to permit entry of security forces into their houses to search for arms.

"The government should immediately stop the operation, otherwise the Mehsud tribe would stop cooperating with the military authorities in curbing militancy in the area," the jirga members warned.

Malik Jalat Khan, Mohammad Alam, Malik Kamal Jan and Malik Janan Mehsud spoke on the occasion and accused the government of deceiving tribesmen. "The tribesmen will not allow any power to disarm them in the name of Al Qaeda," Malik Jalat Khan said, asking the government to take local people into confidence on the matter.

"The speakers pointed out that an understanding had been reached between the military authorities and tribesmen before the launch of search operation in the Mehsud-dominated area according to which troops were to carry out house-to-house search for catching foreign and local militants.

They said the tribesmen kept arms and ammunition in their houses for personal security and it should not be linked with militancy in the region. The elders said the allied forces were also conducting a manhunt on the other side of the border adjacent to the Pakistani tribal territory, but they did not disarm the local population.

They said the operation launched against militants had now been turned into a "recovery of arms operation" against ordinary tribesmen.

PRISONERS: The political authorities here on Monday released 12 more prisoners from Wana jail. These prisoners belonged to the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe. The authorities had released 168 tribal prisoners after signing an agreement with five militants.