After more than a year of battling Al Qaeda guerrillas and their tribal supporters along the Afghan border, Pakistan is trying a new tactic: buying loyalty. The government has paid more than $800,000 total to four tribal commanders as part of a November peace deal, a senior army official revealed last week. The four men led a bloody fight against Pakistani forces hunting foreign Al Qaeda fighters in South Waziristan, a mountainous tribal region believed to be a possible hideout for Osama bin Laden.The sizable sums were given so that tribesmen could pay back loans from Al Qaeda. Hundreds of foreign fighters have been relying on local militants for shelter, supplies, and protection - and have paid them handsomely for it. During negotiations with the government, the commanders explained they needed help repaying financial debts to the terror group. In Pashtun culture, failure to repay loans represents a dangerous loss of face within the tribe.
The deal's success so far suggests that the loyalty to Al Qaeda among Pashtun tribesmen is based as much on rupees as on radicalism. If so, efforts at bringing development to tribal areas as well as crackdowns on the sources of Al Qaeda's funding could prove to be two potent weapons in the war on terror, analysts say. "The battle was tagged by mullahs and militants as a jihad to gain [local] support and sympathies, but actually it revolved around economics and financial gains from foreign terrorists," says Asmatullah Gandapur, a top official in South Waziristan.