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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| North Waziristan a greater challenge than South Waziristan |
| 2005-05-17 |
| North Waziristan is a more serious challenge to the military in flushing out remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban than neighbouring South Waziristan, officials and tribal elders told Daily Times on Monday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, officials said that North Waziristan was a stronger base for militants due to the presence of a large number of seminaries and because around 70 percent of the local population supported jihadi elements. "It [North Waziristan] is a totally different case as far as the war on terror in the tribal belt is concerned," they said. Since early 2005, the military has carried out a number of search operations, and killed and arrested a number of foreign militants and their local facilitators in North Waziristan after bringing the situation in South Waziristan comparatively under control. "The next six months in South Waziristan are critical for the government. If we cannot build on successes that the army achieved in the last quarter of 2004 then all the efforts will go waste," the officials said. The situation in South Waziristan appeared stable but the agency had frequent law and order problems, they said. The officials also feared that if the government did not investigate the "missing millions" distributed among former colleagues of killed militant Nek Muhammad immediately, the militants would resume their activities. The government paid Rs 50 million to five key militants of Nek Muhammad's group — Haji Muhammad Sharif, Maulvi Abbas, Javed Karmazkhel, Haji Muhammad Omar and Maulvi Abdul Aziz — to pay back loans they had taken from Al Qaeda during their association. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |