Pakistani forces say determined to seal Afghan border

LWARA FORT, Pakistan, Feb 18 (Reuters) Pakistani troops in Lwara Fort on the Afghan border are on guard, but not for invaders from Afghanistan. They're trying to stop militants crossing in to Afghanistan to battle US-led NATO troops.

The red, brick fort sits on a small, barren plain surrounded by snow-streaked mountains, several hundred metres from the Afghan border.

Brigadier Rizwan Aktar, commander of the fort, points from its high walls to a fracture in a nearby line of hills -- the Chandi Gap, a notorious militant crossing point, he says.

But he told reporters on a weekend tour of border defences in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region he and his men were determined to stop infiltration into Afghanistan: ''The people who want to create any nonsense, we are going to control them.'' Pakistan is a major US ally in the war on terrorism but US officials appear increasingly frustrated about the help a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan is getting from the Pakistani side of the border.

Taliban leaders are operating from Pakistan where training, financing and recruiting are also taking place, they say.

Pakistan says it can't completely seal the 2,500 km border but it is doing all it can to stop infiltration.

But Pakistan says infiltration is a minor factor behind the Taliban surge. Rather, it's a cocktail of Afghan factors including anger over civilian deaths in military attacks, corruption and the booming drug trade that's fueling the Taliban war, it says.

Pakistan, which backed the Taliban until the September. 11, 2001, attacks, is also determined to show a pact it struck in North Waziristan in September, aimed at ending Pakistani Taliban attacks on Pakistani forces and raids into Afghanistan, is working.

Pakistan says the deal is aimed at empowering tribal leaders and marginalising militants but critics say it effectively ceded control of North Waziristan to pro-Taliban militants and the region has become a militant training ground.

Tribal elders, invited by the military to meet the media in the main base in the town of Miranshah, rejected that.

''No one's getting any training here,'' said Gul Abad Khan, a tall, thin elder wearing a large black turban. ''There's no connection between us and the terrorists fighting in Afghanistan.'' TROOPS REDEPLOYED TO BORDER US military officials in Afghanistan say attacks in Afghan areas opposite North Waziristan were several times higher late last year than the previous year.

But Pakistan points to NATO figures showing a a sharp fall in Afghan violence since September as proof the deal has worked.

General Azhar Ali Shah, the commander of Pakistani forces in North Waziristan, says the peace the deal has brought to North Waziristan has allowed him to deploy 70 per cent of his 28,000 troops to the border to tackle infiltrators.

''Wherever there's a piece of intelligence or a technical report, these people are struck,'' Shah told reporters as he escorted them on a helicopter tour of his border.

Pakistan has 97 border posts in North Waziristan, perched on brown, barren ridges, or high on mountains blanketed in snow and speckled with stunted trees.

From the air, the border looks impossible to police. Mile after mile of ridges, separated by dried up creek beds that could swallow an army of infiltrators.

Vast areas look deserted, but occasionally footprints through the snow lead to a mud-walled hut or village compound.

At the high-altitude Mangrotai border post, snow lies deep.

Soldiers are bundled up against the chill and stamp their feet to keep warm. Others peer from mud-walled bunkers.

It was in this area that a large group of infiltrators crossed into Afghanistan last month where they were attacked by NATO forces.

About 130 of the militants were killed, a US commander said. Several were killed when Pakistani forces attacked the remnants as they fled back to Pakistan.

''If we were to allow the Taliban we would not be sitting in these posts in this weather,'' Shah said as a light snow began to fall.

But the Pakistani military says the border is not only Pakistan's responsibility. Afghan and NATO forces, with only a tiny number of posts, must build more.

At Lwara, Aktar said Afghan and NATO forces had only six posts compared with his 36. Pakistan will soon put up 14 km of fencing across the plain and into the hills to stop militants sneaking past at night, he said.

''Fencing is going to help.'' REUTERS PB PM1319