WANA, May 3: Search operation for the Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters has been shifted to Fata — a semi-autonomous region of Pakistan —, and the political administration of South Waziristan Agency started interrogating the tribals about their possible involvement in providing refuge to the fleeing fighters.

Official sources said the government wanted to take action against those people who might have provided refuge to the Taliban and Al Qaeda men or helped them in fleeing to other safe areas.

In this regard, Ladha Subdivision Assistant Political Agent Nek Daraz Khan Dawar summoned some tribesmen to his office in Makeen, and told them that the administration had received information about the visits of the fighters to some influential people of the Shabikhel clan — a sub-clan of the Mahsud tribe.

But the tribesmen expressed ignorance about any such activity, saying if their fellow tribesmen were found in contact with the suspect terrorists, they would have no objection to any crackdown launched by the government in their agency to nab the culprits, the sources said.

The political official left Makeen for Razmak — a hill station in the North Waziristan Agency — after holding a meeting with the tribal Maliks.

Information about the pouring-in of the American and Pakistani commandos in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) has already spread in both of the agencies.

The Shabikhel tribesmen reside in the inaccessible and rugged terrain along the Pakistan-Afghan border in the South Waziristan Agency, where the followers of Independence War hero Mullah Pawinda are still living.

Mr Pawinda is held in high esteem by the Mahsud and other tribal people in these areas.