Taliban using fear to control Afghan frontier area

AFGHANISTAN: Pakistani Taliban are in control of parts of the country's tribal zones bordering Afghanistan, where they have established a reign of terror in the name of Islam, miitary and security sources said.

In Waziristan, a mountainous region on the northwestern frontier, they have used force, threats and persuasion to create a rigid social order based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, the sources said.

In several villages, witnesses say video cassettes had been burned on pyres, internet cafes had been destroyed, FM radio stations broadcast the orders of the Taliban and bodies had been found with notes saying: "American spy".

"These local Taliban are a few local people, coming out of madrassas (religious schools) where they are misled by certain miscreant mullahs," said Sikander Qayyum, the Peshawar-based security chief for the tribal zones.

"They create an environment of fear, pretend they are in charge. We can't let those Taliban impose what they want. That's why in some places we used force."

Pakistani troops recently attacked a Taliban militia group that occupied parts of Miranshah, the main town in restive North Waziristan tribal agency, killing 170 militants, military officials say. The rebels fled to the mountains.

Qayyum said some 120 pro-government tribal chiefs had been assassinated by Islamic extremists in recent months.

The tribal regions, where Pakistani laws are ignored and foreigners are banned, have recently been sealed even to local journalists and humanitarian organisations.

In Peshawar, witnesses said the situation in the tribal areas was like that in southern Afghanistan during the 1996-2001 rule of the fundamentalist Taliban regime.

Pro-Taliban tribesmen and students from hardline madrassas, both backed by foreign militants, were not trying to enforce a new ultraconservative regime, officials say.

"I've been in Tank (a town outside South Waziristan tribal agency) recently. Barbers are not allowed to shave beards. You can't play music, even at weddings. No more traditional fairs," said a retired Pakistani army colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Azmat Hayat Khan, a professor at Peshawar University, said a council of tribal elders recently met in a village just outside the city. "The program was destruction of TV sets."

He added: "The local Taliban start by threatening tribal chiefs. To gain in popularity, they pretend to fight crime. Execute so-called bandits, show the bodies." Waziristan, Friday, AFP