Pakistani tribal vigilantes set up in N Waziristan

ISLAMABAD, Sep 27: Tribal vigilantes have set up an office in the main town in North Waziristan, the Pakistani region where the government signed a pact earlier this month with elders from the tribes to curb Taliban and al Qaeda activity.

Two days ago, according to residents, vigilantes, who refer to themselves as mujahideen, or Muslim holy warriors, in leaflets posted around Miranshah, opened an office guarded by armed men in the town's central market.

The leaflet said clerics would be collecting funds to pay for a force aimed at protecting people from criminals.

Reuters rang the telephone number on the leaflet, and was told by Maulvi Nizamuddin Borakhel: ''We opened the office to take action against masked men who are criminals.'' Developments in North Waziristan are being closely monitored by the United States, Afghanistan and NATO members, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, whose troops have run into fierce Taliban resistance in southern Afghanistan.

President George W Bush was due to have dinner with both Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai later today to discuss how to quell the insurgency.

The deal cut between the government and tribal elders in the semi-autonomous area has already come under close scrutiny. Though it aims at stopping militant attacks on the armed forces in North Waziristan, or across the border in Afghanistan, critics fear the treaty, which involved the army taking a much lower profile, risked creating a safe haven for militants.

Under the accord, some foreign militants, who were unable to return to their homelands, would be allowed to stay in the region provided they abided by the law.

RIGHT TO SHOOT

Bush, Karzai and the British government have said they do not want to pre-judge the North Waziristan pact, struck after many months of fighting between militants and the Pakistan army.

Pakistan has about 30,000 troops in North and South Waziristan, and has lost 375 soldiers and militiamen in fighting in the two tribal agencies since early 2004.

Residents were unsure of the exact identity of the vigilantes, though Pakistani tribals who fight with the Afghan Taliban also call themselves mujahideen.

But the group appeared to be setting up a parallel authority, something that would be in breach of the terms of the treaty signed on September. 5.

Pro-Taliban tribesmen have already set up a parallel administration in neighbouring South Waziristan.

Borakhel insisted that his group was not anti-government.

''We want the pact with the government to be enforced completely, but these people are creating mischief against the country,'' he said.

The leaflet called on residents to inform the group's office of any trouble, but said people could always shoot dead any masked men who attacked them.

A government official said the vigilantes had also tried to advertise their presence on one of the many FM radio stations that have sprung up in the tribal areas.

''There are some crazy people, especially youngsters, who want to show-off their power and are doing such things,'' said Shah Zaman Khan, spokesman for a department dealing with tribal affairs in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

REUTERS