The government finally launched a massive crackdown on the Mehsud tribesmen in the South Waziristan Agency (SWA) on Saturday
and arrested dozens of people as well as seizing their vehicles, while a police constable was killed when the militants attacked the Police Lines in Tank.
The security forces started firing artillery shells from Manzai Fort at the suspected locations of Baitullah Mehsud-led militants. The shelling was going on till the filing of this report, but there was no word on the losses to the militants.
The 80-member tribal Jirga refused to negotiate between the government and the militants after the security forces started the use of force for resolving the conflict.
Tribal as well as official sources told The News by telephone from the troubled region that security forces had erected barricades on the Wana-Jandola road near Manzai where they stopped vehicles to search for the Mehsud tribesmen.
The local residents said dozens of Mehsud tribesmen were disembarked from vehicles and taken into custody. The sources said dozens of vehicles owned by the Mehsud tribesmen were seized by the forces.
The action taken against the Mehsud tribal people was said to be a punitive measure under the Collective Responsibility Section of the draconian law, Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), enforced by the British in 1901.
Officials of the political administration said the Mehsud tribesmen had been warned to stop the militants from using their territory against the government. But, officials complained they failed to do the needful.
Meanwhile, an 80-member Mehsud tribal Jirga, constituted to negotiate between the government and Baitullah Mehsud-led militants, refused to travel to Ladha subdivision and meet militant commanders to seek the release of four FC soldiers as the Jirga members complained that on the one hand the government said that it wanted to resolve the issue through negotiations, but on the other it had started the use of force.
The Jirga, which was supposed to leave for Ladha on Saturday morning for crucial talks with militant commanders, held a meeting with the newly- appointed political agent of South Waziristan, Fazle Rabbi, in Tank and informed him that since a crackdown had been launched against the Mehsud tribe, therefore, it was now difficult for them to travel to Ladha and hold talks.
Similarly, suspected militants attacked the Police Lines in Tank with rockets and other heavy weapons in the early hours of Saturday. A police constable, Abdul Aziz Kundi, who was injured in the attack, later succumbed to injuries.
Police and FC soldiers reportedly returned the fire, but there were no details about the casualties suffered by the assailants.
ISPR Director General Maj Gen Waheed Arshad, meanwhile, told The News that an estimated 50 militants had been killed in the area populated by the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan during the Army action over the last two days.
He said the military targeted the militants’ hideouts in Ladha and other places in the area with artillery guns and other weapons and the operation was continuing. He said the troops began the operation on January 9 and it would continue in the coming days.
The military spokesman argued that the action had to be taken to punish the militants who were attacking the security forces in the area. He didn’t give any timeframe for the ongoing military operation.