NWA Taliban commander asks locals to distance from military engineers

NWA Taliban commander asks locals to distance from military engineers

By Saleem Mehsud

MIRANSHAH, Nov 22: Taliban Commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur based in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) on Tuesday warned the locals to distance themselves and not to work with the armed forces engineers who were working on the construction of Bannu-Mirali Road.

“Taliban fighters will not intervene and disrupt work of the army engineers working on the project,” the pamphlet distributed among the locals in NWA’s Mirali and Miranshah said.

The commander warned that locals will be blamed as spies and will be killed under the same charges if they continue to work alongside the military engineers on the construction of road or found involved in providing heavy machinery.

Endorsing NWA Taliban deal with the Pakistan government, Gul Bahadur said that they will not create any hurdle in the work of armed forces while constructing the road.

In the pamphlet armed forces were accused of recruiting locals for spying, saying that locals will be responsible for any loss if they did not comply.

Sources in NWA told INP that the message of the local Taliban commander was a matter of real concern for those working alongside the armed forces and have invested in the project.

In 2005 the Pakistani military began operations within North Waziristan Agency (NWA), tribal region considered by the US as hub of the al-Qaeda affiliated militants fighting the Nato forces in Afghanistan, to pursue foreign, mainly al-Qaeda, militants fleeing from South Waziristan. They met resistance from militant groups led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, among others.

In September 2006, Gul Bahadur negotiated a peace deal with the Pakistani military in which he agreed to expel all foreign militants, such as al-Qaeda and Uzbek militants, from Pakistani soil.

It is pertinent to be mentioned here that Bannu-Mirali Road is used for travelling by large number of vehicles and government has initiated its re-construction to broaden the road in to lessen travelling hurdles.