PESHAWAR, Nov 7: Authorities in the South Waziristan Agency on Friday lifted economic sanctions lasting over a month on Wazir tribesmen, providing them relief in Ramazan but warned them of tougher action if they did not surrender two persons suspected of sheltering Al Qaeda elements after Eid, a senior administration official said.

“We have allowed the erring tribe to re-open their shops in Wana and elsewhere and release prisoners as a goodwill gesture in ... Ramazan but we will resort to tougher action if they do not come clean on their pledges,” administrator of the South Waziristan Agency Mohammad Azam said from the agency’s regional headquarters in Wana.

He said that he ordered the re-opening of 250 shops, shut down on his orders about a month ago, return of the impounded vehicles and the release of 36 tribesmen held under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation, which dated back to the colonial era. “It is now business as usual in Wana,” Mr Azam remarked.

The men and property belong to the Yargulkhel Wazir tribe, two of whom were wanted for allegedly sheltering suspected Al Qaeda elements in Shkai, some 30 kilometres North of Wana. The tribe says the men wanted by authorities have gone into hiding to escape arrest.

Mr Azam said the tribe had furnished a monetary guarantee amounting to Rs1.5 million, pledging to either surrender the wanted men or demolish their houses themselves soon after Eid. “I have told them you have time until the 10th day after the Eid to either surrender the men or demolish their houses”, he said.

The federal government, which governs the tribal region straddling the country’s borders with Afghanistan, however, appears to have decided to adopt a softer approach in the wake of the MMA’s threats to launch a protest movement against the crackdown in the tribal areas launched after an army operation in Baghar village last month to round up Al Qaeda suspects.