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Pashtun Elders In Pakistan Request NATO, U.S. Troops
munaeem | 02 March, 2007 19:22
Via www.rferl.org : Pashtun Elders In Pakistan Request NATO, U.S. Troops
Pashtun tribal elders from Pakistan's tribal regions met with Afghan authorities in the Afghan city of Jalalabad on March 1 to discuss how to bring security to the border regions.
Led by Malak Abdul Sabor Afridi, the delegates have suggested that Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan have put too much trust in Pakistan's government.
Afridi said Karzai and NATO officials should be talking directly with the Pashtun tribal leaders in Pakistan instead of relying on officials from Islamabad.
"We are saying that the policy of the foreigners -- even the international alliance [of ISAF and NATO] -- is not right. This conflict cannot be resolved through military operations or by militants."
Afridi said he is angered by reports suggesting that Pashtun tribes in Pakistan's border areas have been sheltering Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
"We have evidence of this. It is clear. And we have evidence that these terrorists and militants [from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda] are getting help from Pakistan's military and intelligence services to create training centers. They protect them and give them safe haven.
They are protecting them. It is true that terrorists are active along the border and in the tribal regions. But they do not have links with local tribal men. They are either with the militant armed groups or with [Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI)]."
"We want the international community to come to us and protect us -- send us soldiers: NATO soldiers," Afridi said. "We are under tough pressure from Pakistani forces. In the end, we will ask the international community to send NATO soldiers.
The Pakistani soldiers are causing problems for us. They've destroyed our tribal systems. They've created armed groups among us. Now we have blood in the Kyber Agency -- an area that once was very safe. Muslims are being killed and hundreds of houses have been destroyed."
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