WANA, 2: Two of the 10 most wanted tribal militants gave themselves up to political authorities in the South Waziristan region on Friday. Officials and elders of the area told Dawn that Dawar Khan and Eda Khan surrendered to Regional Administrator Asmatullah Khan Gandapur at a tribal jirga, held in Wana.
The militants belonged to the Shakai area where security forces recently fought pitched gunbattles with foreign militants and their local supporters.
Informed sources told Dawn that elders of four sub-tribes of Ahmadzai Wazir tribe - Spirkai, Khoniakhel, Shodyakai and Khojakhel - had brought the wanted militants to the office of the administrator in Wana.
Eida Khan's father, Eida Gul, was killed when his house was attacked by gunships in a previous operation in the area. The four tribes have allowed the security forces to set up checkpoints in the Shakai area.
The sources said that two more tribes - Utmankhel and Kakakhel - had raised a force of 300 volunteers to start a search for the arrest of two more wanted militants Mohammad Javaid and Maulvi Abbas.
A jirga of Utmankhel Wazir and Kakakhel Wazir held at Shah Alam on Friday, some 15 kilometres west of Wana near the Afghan border, set up the force. The volunteers will start search operation from Saturday.
WEAPONS SURRENDERED: In a related development, tribesmen of the Mohmand Agency on Friday surrendered heavy weapons voluntarily to law-enforcement agencies and political authorities, Sadia Qasim Shah adds from Peshawar.
According to a press release issued here on Friday by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the weapons surrendered were: 82mm mortars with ammunition, anti-tank Anerga type grenades, 40mm rocket launchers, anti-tank mines, rocket propelled grenades (RPG-7), 12.7mm anti-aircraft guns and hand-grenades.
Malik Amal Khan of village Koda Khel, Haji Kachkol and Haji Sher of Atta Jawar, Haji Ashraf and Muhammad Hussain of Ashrafabad voluntarily surrendered the weapons on the persuasion of political authorities of the Mohmand Agency, the press release said.
The authorities have launched a campaign in the agency to recover illegal weapons through peaceful means.