PESHAWAR, March 11: Hundreds of armed tribal volunteers began on Thursday their search for Al Qaeda fugitives in South Waziristan Agency, but authorities warned they had only days to deliver on their promise.

A lashkar (tribal force) of 600 armed Zalikhel tribesmen at Azam Warsak finally received a nod from their elders to launch the search. Officials in Wana informed Dawn by phone that the Zalikhel tribesmen had been told that they had only days to prove their commitment to flush out foreign militants and hand over their protectors.

Zalikhel is the largest sub-tribe amongst the Ahmadzai Wazirs inhibiting South Waziristan. Tribal elders said the remaining sub-tribes had also pledged to join in by contributing a matching number of tribal volunteers raising the overall strength of the lashkar to 1,200.

As the lashkar set about their task to look for foreign militants in the area, Zalikhel tribesmen summoned five clansmen to surrender by Saturday. A tribal elder said that Haji Sharif, his brother Noor Islam, Maulavi Abbas, Nek Mohammad and Maulavi Aziz had been asked to give themselves up to the tribe, which would then hand them over to the authorities for questioning.

Attempts in the past to either capture or persuade the five suspects to surrender had yielded no results due to their influence and support amongst the tribesmen.

The United States had asked Pakistan to seize the individuals who, it believed were responsible for the attacks on coalition troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities alleged that the five suspects - all former Jihadis - were sheltering and facilitating foreign militants. However, the government offered not to hand them over to the United States if they chose to surrender peacefully.

A tribal elder, however, said he saw little chances the five suspects would give themselves up to the authorities. "These people have a huge following. They are all well armed and trained. I don't think they are going to give up so easily," said the elder from Zalikhel tribe, seeking anonymity. "It is another thing whether they would want to take on their own tribal lashkar," he said.

Some officials claimed thattwo suspects had approached offered to surrender, but had sought guarantees that they would not be handed over to the US. "There are different options before us. We are monitoring and will see whether the suspects appear before their own people and only then we will decide our next course of action," said an administration official.