Pakistan imposed a curfew on the battle-scarred tribal town of Miran Shah on Monday in an attempt to end three days of fighting between pro-Taliban militants and government troops. Thousands of civilians continued to flee the tribal area as helicopter gunships attacked suspected rebel hideouts and militants attacked army checkposts in neighbouring towns.
Meanwhile tension in the border areas was heightened after Pakistan’s President, Pervez Musharraf, accused the Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, of being ”totally oblivious” to events in his own country.
General Musharraf’s outburst came on CNN on Sunday night in response to claims that Pakistan was harbouring the one-eyed Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar.
”The location that they are talking of Mullah Omar is nonsense. There’s nobody there,” Musharraf said. ”President Karzai is totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country.”
Musharraf is struggling to impose his authority on the tribal areas, where conservative tribesmen have allied with fugitive al-Qaeda militants and Taliban fighters. A militant video from the area, seen on Monday by the Guardian, gives stark evidence of their growing influence.
The professionally edited DVD shows three men, one of them decapitated, hanging from an electricity pylon in central Miran Shah last December. A commentary describes them as ”bandits” guilty of theft, drinking alcohol and ”dishonouring women”.
Another image shows militants triumphantly holding the decapitated head aloft. The mutilated remains of another dead man are seen slumped on the ground, a whisky bottle in his lap and a toy dog balanced on his head. An unmasked turbaned militant grins at the camera.
At the end of the 30-minute programme the militants drag the corpses behind a truck while shouting ”Allahu Akbar!”. A message flashes up on screen exhorting others to join their movement. ”Come wage jihad or else you will miss the caravan,” it says.
The DVD was bought at a market in the tribal areas and is dated December 20. A Pakistani army spokesperson, Major General Shaukat Sultan, described the killings featured in the video as a matter between rival criminal groups. But for others it was a reminder of similar killings at the start of Taliban rule in the mid-1990s.
The same militants were probably involved in the battle for Miran Shah, the worst violence for years in north Waziristan tribal agency. The army said it had regained control of the town telephone exchange and was restoring order. An all-day curfew was lifted for three hours to allow residents to seek fresh food.
Musharraf on Monday defended the army’s operations in the area, saying that hundreds of foreign militants were hiding in north and south Waziristan. ”They include Uzbeks, Chechens, Middle Easterners and even some Chinese,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â