PESHAWAR, Oct 14: A seven-member group of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal parliamentarians left for South Waziristan Agency on Tuesday to ascertain facts about the ongoing operation against Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives and their tribal sympathisers in the tribal region.
Government officials in Peshawar said the parliamentarians would not be allowed to enter the tribal area.
A spokesman for the MMA said that the fact-finding team led by MNA Liaquat Baloch would meet the secretary-general of the alliance Maulana Fazlur Rehman at Dera Ismail Khan on Wednesday before heading to the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Other members of the team are: MNAs Abul Khail, Maulana Shujaul Mulk, Qazi Hameedullah, Shabir Ahmad Khan, Maulana Ataur Rehman and Maulana Nek Zaman.
The troops and civil armed forces, backed by gunship helicopters launched Operation Al-Mizan to flush out Al Qaeda suspects in mountainous region early this month.
Two soldiers of the army and eight suspected Al Qaeda suspects were killed in the gunbattle which took place in Baghar village, some 45 kilometres northwest of Wana, the agency’s headquarters.
In the wake of the crackdown, the agency administration started operation against Zalikhel-Qarikhel tribe on charges of providing shelter to suspects.
The authorities sealed hundreds of shops of the respective tribes and detained more than 60 locals under the Collective Responsibility clause of the 1940 Frontier Crimes Regulation.
The operation has angered local tribesmen who have accused the administration of highhandedness and rounding up innocent people.
According to the schedule, seven parliamentarians would hear views of the people of Baghar village, Angor Ada, Wana and other areas. The parliamentarians would also meet the local administration, according to a MMA spokesman.
The six-party religious alliance has opposed the government action against the tribes and demanded of the government to stop it.
Officials in Peshawar said the parliamentarians belonging to a political group were not allowed due to the ban on political activities in the tribal areas, owing to law and order situation. “This is not a political issue. It is a sensitive issue which involves matters of national security. Nobody could be allowed to make political mileage out of an issue that has ramification on national security,” the official said.
“South Waziristan has its own parliamentarians and their colleagues in the MMA and National Assembly should trust them instead of undertaking their own fact-finding mission,” the officials said.