To stay in Washington's good books, Pakistan steps up the fight against terrorism three years after the 11 September attacks, writes Iffat Idris from Islamabad On the third anniversary of the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, attention is inevitably being focussed on the perpetrators -- Osama Bin Laden and the Al- Qaeda network. While some Al-Qaeda leaders have been caught, Bin Laden remains at large. When people think of where he might be their thoughts, also inevitably, turn to Pakistan -- more specifically, to the tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan. The government of President Pervez Musharraf has come under strong international pressure to catch Al-Qaeda fighters sheltering themselves in the country's northern areas. For many months now, it has been doing just that with repeated military offensives in the Waziristan area. South Waziristan has been the most troubled of the provinces in the autonomous tribal area. In the latest battle between the Pakistani government and Al-Qaeda, the Pakistani air force bombed what it described as a training camp in Bad Awaz Garang in the Kaikhel area, about 70km to the northwest of Wana, the regional headquarters of South Waziristan. F-7 jets bombed the camp, killing about 50 people according to official sources -- about 70 according to private TV news channels and locals. The army claims most of those killed were foreign militants -- Uzbeks, Afghans and Arabs -- and that the remainder were local militants. It strongly rejected local claims that women and children were among the dead. Pakistani government spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told journalists: ''This is an explicit statement. There were no civilian casualties. No women or children have been killed in the operation. There has been no collateral damage." Stressing that most of those killed were foreign militants, Sultan added: "If there were any locals, they were those who have been equally involved in terrorist activities. There is no question of them being innocent." However, news reports of children's bodies being recovered from the destroyed site would appear to refute the major-general's claims. The army proclaimed the bombing as a big success in its campaign to free the northern tribal belt of the presence of foreign and local militants. "Nobody could dare enter the area. There was a general scare and intelligence gathering was extremely difficult. But the presence of foreign militants there was quite significant and there were reports that Tahir Yaldashev also frequented the camp," a government official said, referring to the Islamic movement of the Uzbekistan leader, who escaped a military operation in the tribal region in March. Clashes between militants and security personnel continued after Thursday's bombing. Government spokesmen reported that by Sunday the official death count over three days had risen to 72, eight of them army personnel. Locals put the figure much higher. Given that the region has been sealed off by the army, that health care provision in Wana is very poor, and that many people are reluctant to take their injured to hospitals for fear of arrest, there is every reason to believe the death toll is higher than official spokesmen claim. The army has been waging military offensives in the region since March. A deal brokered in May between the army and local militants, by which local fighters would be granted amnesty provided they agreed to live peacefully and provided all foreigners in the region registered with the authorities, has all but collapsed. The key local militant involved in that deal, Nek Mohamed, was later killed in a targeted bombing by the army. Authorities say the offer of amnesty, provided foreigners register or surrender to the army, is still in place. But with tensions running so high, it is not likely to be taken up. The situation is not helped by "punitive" measures against the local population by the political administration. Under the peculiar laws governing the tribal areas, the administration can carry out "collective punishment". This provision has been used against locals suspected of sheltering or supporting the militants. In the latest such collective punishment, security forces destroyed shops belonging to a suspected militant-supporter. The army, local people and militants (foreign and local) increasingly appear to be caught up in an escalating cycle of violence. Army operations, which kill and injure civilians and greatly disrupt their daily lives, together with the collective punishments, are fueling resentment against the authorities. Locals are also angry at the mere fact that the army is operating in "their territory"; long used to enjoying tribal autonomy, the entry of Pakistani soldiers into the region has been a novel and -- for locals -- unwelcome incursion. It should also be stressed that, even before the army went in, there was strong local support and sympathy for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Many analysts in Pakistan are concerned about the long-term consequences of military action in the tribal belt -- not just for the region, but for the country as a whole. They point to the fact that, even among the mainstream Pakistani population, there is very little support for the military offensives in Waziristan. The general perception is that Pakistani soldiers are being sent to fight fellow nationals and fellow Muslims simply to please Washington. Opposition politicians wasted little time in making their feelings known. The opening session of the National Assembly, following the swearing in of the new Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his government, was dominated by the Wana offensive. The Islamist Muttahida Majlis- e-Amal (MMA) alliance was involved in the original deal between locals in the tribal area and the army. It blames the army for the collapse of that deal. Speaking later at a public rally, MMA Secretary-General Fazl-ur-Rehman accused President Musharraf of pandering to America, and of bombing its own civilians in the tribal belt. He claimed that elected MMA representatives could resolve the dispute in days, if they were given authority to negotiate with the tribesmen. He further claimed that it was only MMA pressure that was holding the tribesmen back from waging an all-out guerrilla war against Pakistan. He warned that the moment the MMA gave the call for jihad to the tribesmen, the country "would turn into another Iraq". Fazal-ur-Rehman might have been exaggerating, but that does not detract from the serious underlying concerns about the long-term consequences of army action in Waziristan. The problem for President Musharraf and the government of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is that, with US presidential elections around the corner, international pressure to purge the tribal belt of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters is only going to increase
