Pakistani pacts with rebels led to more attacks-report

ISLAMABAD, Dec 11 (Reuters) Pakistani pacts with pro-Taliban militants on the Afghan border have facilitated attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan and allowed the militants to expand influence in Pakistan, a think-tank said.

Instead of appeasing militants, Pakistan must impose the rule of law in its semi-autonomous tribal lands on the border, where Taliban and al Qaeda sympathisers have sheltered since 2001, disarm the militants and shut their training camps, the International Crisis Group said.

''Despite Pakistani denials, the tribal belt, particularly agencies such as the Waziristans, remains a Taliban sanctuary and a hub for attacks on the US-led coalition and NATO ...forces and the Afghan government,'' the Brussels-based group said in a report to be released today.

Pakistan's seven tribal agencies, including North and South Waziristan, have never been brought under the writ of any government, including British colonialists who saw the mountainous region as a buffer on the northwestern border of their Indian empire.

A rear-base for US- and Pakistani-backed Afghan mujahideen holy warriors battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the region became a refuge for Taliban and al Qaeda after US-led forces ousted Afghanistan's Taliban rulers in 2001.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the rugged ethnic Pashtun tribal belt.

Pakistan, a major US ally in the war on terror, launched ''badly planned and poorly conducted'' military operations in 2004 to deny al Qaeda militants sanctuary and stem attacks into Afghanistan, the International Crisis Group said.

After clashes in which hundreds of Pakistani troops were killed, Pakistani authorities struck pacts -- in South Waziristan in 2004 and last September in North Waziristan -- aimed at ending attacks on Pakistani forces and raids into Afghanistan.

But the pacts had only emboldened the militants, the group said.

''This accommodation facilitates the growth of militancy and attacks in Afghanistan by giving pro-Taliban elements a free hand to recruit, train and arm,'' it said, according to a draft of the report to be released in Brussels later today.

''The militants now hold sway in South and North Waziristan Agencies and have begun to expand their influence not just in other tribal agencies such as Khyber and Bajaur but also in NWFP's settled districts,'' it said, referring to North West Frontier Province.

''FAILURE TO CONTROL'' The seven tribal districts, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), are ruled by repressive colonial-era administrative and judicial systems inherited from Britain, that generated resentment, the group said.

''The state's failure to extend its control over and provide good governance to its citizens in FATA is equally responsible for empowering the radicals,'' it said.

The area had to be integrated into Pakistan's system of provincial governments and its inhabitants given political rights.

Broad-based development also had to be generated, it said.

The government has defended the pacts saying they were struck with tribal elders and are aimed at reinvigorating tribal power structures and isolating the militants.

President Pervez Musharraf has spoken of the need for reform in the tribal areas and the need to promote development.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam declined to comment on the report, saying she had yet to finish reading it, but referred reporters to a recent UN report which she said had more credibility.

The UN report said Afghanistan's insurgency was linked to its booming drug trade. That, coupled with corruption and the failure of governance, posed a grave threat to Afghan nation-building, it said.

REUTERS BDP BD1816