Military

Pak tribes hand over 12 military captives

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, March 28, IRNA -- Militants in Wana, South Waziristan 
tribal agency, handed over 12 of the 14 officials they had captured 
to representatives of the local jirga comprising tribal elders and 
religious leaders. 
The militants, headed by Nek Mohammad, a tribal leader of Yargul 
Kheil, handed over the 12 officials to the representatives of the 
jirga in Wana, one of the jirga members said. 
Some 14 officials, including 12 paramilitary troops and two 
officers of the political administration in Wana, were kidnapped by 
militants who were later cordoned by a joint operational team of 
Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps on March 18. 
The militants, however, told the tribal elders that they had 
only 12 officials with them and not 14. It was not clear whether the 
other two missing officials were members of the paramilitary or 
belonged to the political administration. 
On Saturday, the militants agreed to hand over the 12 captives 
without any condition, "but an agreement was inked at the conclusion 
of the meeting between the militants and the representatives of the 
tribal jirga," one member of the jirga said but refused to disclose 
the details of the agreement. 
Representatives of the jirga include the elders of all the six 
tribal agencies, religious scholars of the area and two 
parliamentarians. 
According to the elders in Wana, the Mehsood tribe is to hold 
a grand meeting of its jirga on Sunday (today) in Wana. The aim is to 
constitute a tribal lashkar of the Mehsood tribe to flush out all 
foreign militants from the tribal agency. 
"Especially the Jirga would move swiftly to eliminate all 
militants belonging to Al-Qaeda," a Mehsood tribal elder told this 
news agency. 
AHM/TSH/LS/210 
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