KOHAT, Nov 17: The chief of the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i- Mohammadi (TNSM), Maulana Sufi Mohammad, who, with his 30 companions, has been awaiting clearance from the interior ministry to enter Pakistan through the Kurram Agency for the last two days, has admitted that 700 men only from his batch have been either arrested or killed inside Afghanistan by Northern Alliance forces.

He has told a government negotiating team, led by assistant political agent Wakil Khan, that he just wants to prepare himself to enter Afghanistan again to search the whereabouts of his 700 missing men in various parts of the war-torn country.

The fate of thousands of others, who crossed over into Afghanistan independently on the call of the TNSM, is still not known.

The TNSM chief has made another request to the authorities for an early passage because many of his companions, injured in Afghanistan, are said to be in need of immediate medical help.

An official told Dawn on Saturday that two members of the group of 30 were in a very serious condition.

The official said the TNSM chief had insisted even on the third day at the border to carry rocket launchers and other heavy weapons with him to the Malakand Agency from where he would enter Afghanistan again to launch a search operation for the missing people.

He said the authorities in Islamabad had demanded that Sufi Mohammad first surrender the heavy weapons being carried by his followers. The authorities, he added, would later take up his matter for discussion.

However, the official made it clear that the government orders regarding the ban on the entry of anyone from across the border were very strict and anybody trying to make it forcibly would be dealt with sternly.

He said Sufi Mohammad might be arrested for the kidnappings and the murders of his several hundred missing followers, who were taken to Afghanistan by him for fighting.