Pro-Taliban militants now roam Pak

Miranshah (Pakistan): Pakistani militants Mohib and Amir used to cross the porous border from the Waziristan region of northwest Pakistan to neighbouring Afghanistan whenever they had the urge to fight US-led forces.

But their trips have stopped since Waziristan tribal leaders struck a deal with Pakistani authorities last month barring militants from entering Afghanistan from the semi-autonomous tribal state.

Sitting cross-legged in a bazaar near the Afghan border, the two bearded militants say the arrangement is an inconvenience rather than a barrier to their goals to wage jehad or holy war, against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

”The border is not just in Waziristan,” 25-year-old Mohib, who declined to give his full name, said with a smile as he sat in a market stall in Miranshah, the main town of Pakistan's North Waziristan border region.

”If you can't go into Afghanistan from Waziristan, you can go from other areas. There are many, many other ways to go,” he said, stroking his beard with one hand, while holding an AK-47 assault rifle with the other.

The September 5 pact signed between tribal leaders and pro-Taliban forces and the government has ended clashes between militants and Pakistani security forces in which hundreds of people have been killed this year.

The Pakistani government believes the arrangement will enable it to stem a growing tide of “Talibanisation” among members of the conservative and fiercely independent Pashtun tribes who live in six semi-autonomous tribal states along the Afghan border. In return for curbing Taliban and al-Qaeda activity, Pakistan has pledged to take a much lower profile in Waziristan.

But since the deal was clinched, attacks against US-led NATO troops and Afghan government forces have tripled in eastern Afghanistan, especially in areas bordering North Waziristan.

Nevertheless, the United States and Afghanistan have adopted a wait-and-see approach with the accord under which militants in Waziristan promised to halt attacks inside Pakistan as well as across the border in Afghanistan.

Critics fear the Waziristan pact risks creating havens for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. But Pakistani officials say the deal will empower tribal elders to control militants in their region.