A tribal army of 900 volunteers was raised on Tuesday to support Maulvi Nazir, a pro-government militant commander waging a fight against Uzbek militants and their local supporters in South Waziristan. A jirga of Ahmedzai Wazirs met again in Wana’s Rustam Bazaar to consider the request for a lashkar from Nazir, the ameer of the Taliban in South Waziristan, against Uzbeks resisting attempts to be expelled from the area, according to reports reaching here. “Tribal elders of Ahmedzai Wazirs gathered in the bazaar and approved raising a lashkar of 900 volunteers,” said the reports. Around 200 people, mostly Uzbeks, have been killed in ongoing clashes between Nazir’s supporters and the Uzbek militants and their local sympathisers in the Azam Warsak, Kaloosha and Karikot areas since last month. “Around 200 volunteers have left for Azam Warsak and Karikot areas to back Nazir’s men against the Uzbeks, who have put up a strong resistance so far,” a tribal elder told Daily Times in Tank after returning from Wana.
Asked why the fight against the Uzbeks was taking so long, the elder said, “The Uzbeks are resisting because some of the Ahmedzai Wazir sub-tribes are supporting them. And secondly, the Uzbeks are getting help from Mazar-e-Sharif (a northern town in Afghanistan bordering Uzbekistan),” but stopped short of giving details of the help from the northern Afghan city.
The Uzbek militants are in full control of western parts of Wana, such as Azam Warsak and Kaloosha, giving themselves a safe passage to the Afghan border, while Maulvi Nazir is strong in the eastern and southern parts of Wana and cannot cut off Uzbek supply lines from the Afghan border. “If the Uzbeks are getting any supply of weapons or anything else from across the border, that Maulvi Nazir might not know,” said a former security official in Tank city. He said Maulvi Nazir would have to cut off the Uzbeks’ supply lines, if any, from across the border.
A pamphlet, distributed in Wana Bazaar by Nazir’s supporters, claimed that Uzbek commander Tahir Yuldashev of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan “is an agent of America and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and liable to be killed”. The elder said the Uzbeks were “spreading terror” across Wazir areas to “neutralise Nazir’s majority”.
The former security official said the battle would decide the future of Waziristan, and defeat for Maulvi Nazir would be as “devastating for Pakistan as it would be for the Taliban ameer”. Since March 19, when the clashes began, the Uzbek militants and their sympathisers have held firm against Maulvi Nazir. However, Nazir’s supporters appear to be “in high spirits” following the approval of the 900-man army.