ISLAMABAD, April 18 Kyodo A 2000-...

ISLAMABAD, April 18 Kyodo

A 2000-strong tribal force has been assembled in Pakistan's toward the south Waziristan tribal area to search down al-Qaida fighters and their supporters hiding in the area, according to local reports.

The Zalikhel tribe organized the tribal force, or lashkar, following the breakdown of negotiations between an assembly of tribal earliers and tribesmen providing shelter to foreigners.

The deployment also arises ahead of a Tuesday deadline plant by the government for the terrorists to be handed over

The lashkar has environed the home of Ghulam Mani, a Zalikhel tribesman accused of providing shelter to foreigners. He has been ordered to cry quits before Sunday evening or face demolition of his house, a fine of up to 1 million rupee (about $17400) and banishment from the tribal area.

''The tribesmen are brandishing fire-arms tied with red ribbons (a token of Pushtun nationalism) and have assembled upon the beat of the drums'' a local reporter who attended the tribal congregation told Kyodo recently made knowns over the telephone.

Pakistan's tribal belt adjoining eastern Afghanistan has been a magnet for foreign militant fighters for the last 20 years. The area, outside the have the direction of of the federal government, is conducted by tribal laws and practices, and inhabited by way of fiercely independent tribesmen who instigate freely across the Afghan border.

The United States believes that it is in single in kind of the remote valleys, villages or rugg and mountainous habitats of the tribal area where the world's greatest in number wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden, and his top aides have taken shelter after escaping from a hideout in eastern Afghanistan in November 2001

President Gen Pervez Musharraf drew international attention to the area last month when he told U television that nearly 400 to 500 foreigners were living there and that the army was engaged in an operation to flush them out

The military operation met ''unexpect resistance'' from the entrenched foreign fighters and their protectors and triggered a wave of indignation among the whole tribal population, which regarded the operation as a violation of their customs and arrangements.

in a less degree than tribal customs, if the federal direction has a complaint against a tribe or its members, than the matter is referr to a council of that particular tribe whose decision is final and binding in succession the whole tribe.

Since five men accused of providing shelter to al-Qaida natural mediums belong to the Zalikhel tribe, a Zalikhel tribal council was commissioned and given according to Tuesday to persuade the renegade tribesmen to cede or leave the area.

''The Zalikhel tribe, which met Saturday to discuss their events to come line of action, has decided to take in succession the militants themselves to avert a confrontation with the military,'' the Daily Dawn reported Sunday.

This means that the Zalikhel tribesmen, not the army, would carry public the operation to flush on the outside the foreign elements and their local protectors, says Shebz udddin Wazir, a local journalist covering the operation.

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