MANSEHRA, Aug 17: Whether the ongoing operation clean-up is aimed at flushing out the Al-Qaeda men or abolishing the tribal status of the tribal belt of Kala Dhaka, the Frontier Constabulary has set up its posts in Joodbah, the main town of Kala Dhaka.
FC Commandant Israr Shinwari visited Mansehra on Saturday and left for Kala Dhaka after consultations with the heads of the law-enforcement agencies.
Fresh contingents of the FC have been sent to Kala Dhaka to assist the 4,000 FC troops already stationed in the troubled area. The district Nazim of Mansehra, Mohammad Azam Khan Swati, will also arrive in Kala Dhaka on Sunday.
According to the police sources, a list of some 50 proclaimed offenders and outlaws wanted by the Mansehra police, who have taken shelter in Kala Dhaka, has been handed over to the FC authorities.
Lists of other criminals and proclaimed offenders wanted by the Haripur, Batgram, Buner, Swat and Mardan police have been also handed over to the law-enforcement agencies carrying out the operation in Kala Dhaka, the sources added.
They said the law-enforcement agencies had planned the operation in an area of 100 kilometres (approx) from the Chamb village of Kala Dhaka to Thakot in the Batgram district but have combed only a 10-km area up to Joodbah.
Sources, however, said that in the prevailing situation any action aimed at undoing the tribal status of Kala Dhaka was impossible.
Besides, the Nazim of union council Darband, Shareen Gul Khan, told a press conference on the premises of the district council Mansehra that the district government of Mansehra had nothing to do with the affairs of Kala Dhaka which was governed under the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas.
He said the district Nazim of Mansehra was unduly interfering in the affairs of Kala Dhaka, which, he warned, could have negative consequences.
Shareen Gul said the district Nazim was defeated in the 1997 elections on NA-15, Mansehra-II, which includes Kala Dhaka. This was the reason that the district Nazim wanted to settle score with the tribes of Kala Dhaka by merging it with the settled areas of the district, he added.
Giving background of the ongoing operation in Kala Dhaka, Shareen Gul said that after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the US and subsequent military action in Afghanistan, the NWFP home secretary had called the elders of Kala Dhaka for a meeting in Peshawar.
The home secretary, he said, had disclosed that the leader of “Al-Saiqa” Ahmad Shah alias Shah Jee with some 12 of his supporters had taken refuge in the Doga Hassanzai village in Kala Dhaka.
The secretary had asked the elders to hand over Shah Jee and his men to the law-enforcement agencies. Under pressure from all the five major tribes of Kala Dhaka, people of Hassanzai tribe ousted the Al Saiqa men from Kala Dhaka.
At a separate meeting with the NWFP governor, Shareen Gul said, the tribal elders had demanded that the status of Kala Dhaka should not be changed, its headquarters should not be shifted from Oghi to Joodbah, and that instead of political tehsildar an assistant political agent should be appointed to look after the affairs of Kala Dhaka.
He said the governor had accepted the demands but upon interference by the district Nazim of Mansehra, the governor changed his decision of posting an assistant political agent in Kala Dhaka. When the governor was reminded of his promise he said that under the devolution plan, the posts of APA were being abolished, Shareen Gul claimed.