The Pakistan Army is backing tribal militias that are rising to battle pro-Taliban groups in the hope that this will turn the tide in the restive northwest of the country, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.According to the report, Taliban groups in areas like Bajaur along the Pak-Afghan border -- Pakistanis allied with Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan -- were trying to carve out enclaves along the border. To fight them, the government has deployed more than 8,000 troops in the Bajaur region. "But a steady supply of Islamist guerillas is pouring in from Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the fighting shows little sign of abating," the paper said.
However, the report went on to add, the tribal militias could provide a counterweight. "The tribesmen have risen against the militants. It could be a turning point in our fight against militancy," the paper quoted NWFP Governor Owais Ghani as saying. The province is "providing them financial as well as moral support," Ghani said.
According to the journal, military commanders believe that "the struggle for control of the tribal region is crucial to containing the spread" of Taliban and Al Qaeda to other parts of NWFP.
"The threat of Bajaur radiates in all directions and affects the entire region," Frontier Corps Inspector General Maj Gen Tariq Khan was quoted as saying.
Civil war: The paper said some analysts worry that "the emergence of the militias could escalate fighting in the border region into a mini-civil war" between the pro-Taliban people and those who oppose them.
Indigenous resistance: The report said that militias had been formed in Kurram and Khyber agencies as well as Dir. "Initially, the lashkars, as the militias are known, were organised as indigenous resistance groups without help from local government administrations, but now both the military and the provincial government support them," it said.
It also quoted the leader of the Salarzai tribal lashkar, Malik Munasib Khan, as exhorting villagers to fight the estimated 4,000 Taliban who had moved into Bajaur over the past year.
"They are killing our people and destroying our land," Khan was quoted as telling villagers at Raghagan last Friday.
According to the report, the army concurred with the Salarzai militia's claim of controlling 4,000 armed fighters. Militia leaders were quoted as saying that they had driven Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists out of their region, torching their homes and installations.
It said some in the Salarzai tribe had initially been sympathetic to Taliban. "But many rebelled after the Taliban tried to impose a harsh system of Islamic rule on the local population," it said.