Pashtun tribal leaders feel they are being thrust into an Iraq-style war between violent Islamists and the Pakistan army, according to an interview published here on Tuesday.According to a Peshawar-datelined report in the Washington Times, tribal leader Haroon-ur-Rasheed told the newspaper’s correspondent, “It’s there. Bombs going off every day.” He was among a group that had travelled to the capital city of the province for several hours for the interview. The leaders described a violent tribal area in which Islamic militants routinely behead women suspected of adultery and use bombs to destroy girls schools – so far only on Sundays, when no students are present. Pakistani army forces who venture into the area are also being targeted with rockets, mortars and roadside bombs like those being used to attack American troops in Iraq. The first instance of a female suicide bomber in Pakistan took place in Bannu on Monday.
Haroon-ur-Rasheed told the newspaper, “The tribes are loyal to Pakistan. The tribal areas were used to supply the mujahideen against the Russians. We faced everything right in front of us, the Russian army. When the fighting ended, we expected prosperity, but the Americans left and we had thousands of refugees.” He said he and his companions proposed the meeting in Peshawar on the grounds that their home territory has become so dangerous that they are unable to protect Western visitors. Asked who represents the biggest threat to Islam, Osama bin Laden or the United States, one of the tribal leaders, Zarhur Afridi, said there was “no comparison.”
He said, “The US doesn’t need Osama. In Iraq, there was Saddam and he was no Osama but they attacked anyway. It’s a wish of the US to attack Muslims. Now when we see Bush poking his head into our affairs, we don’t like it.”