Pakistan Military: We've Sanitized Border

Written for CBSNews.com by Farhan Bokhari, reporting from Pakistan.

Speaking to the first group of journalists to visit the area since the peace agreement, Major General Tariq Khan, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) for the region, said a tough push against Mehsud which began in January had sanitized the area of "miscreants" - a term used frequently by military officers to describe hardline Islamic militants.

"We have the entire 'Mehsud' territory encircled. Nothing moves in this area except my troops," said General Khan.

The military claims to have destroyed a number of militant hideouts including two locations used to teach manufacturing techniques of suicide belts and explosives to boys from ages of between nine and 14. The military said it has sent more than 50 young boys who did not have parents and were inducted in militant training camps, to camps set up by the Save the Children charity.

Questions over the peace agreement are set to emerge once again when Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, NATO's secretary general, travels to Pakistan by the end of this month. Last week, NATO officials dealing with Afghanistan claimed that the number of attacks on NATO troops in East Afghanistan went up by about 50 per cent in April compared to a year ago.

The Eastern Afghanistan region borders Pakistan. Claims such as the latest ones from NATO officials in the past have prompted speculation about Pakistan's continued tolerance of the growth of the Islamic Taliban movement on its soil, including many of those who routinely traverse across the Pak-Afghan border, and often fight alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have said in the past that Afghanistan's failure to curb the fast growth of heroin production from its soil has consolidated the presence of criminal warlords in that country, including those who patronize groups of militants who are involved in anti-government warfare.

On Sunday, Major General Athar Abbas, Director General of the Pakistani armed forces' information wing (known as the Inter-Services Public Relations, or ISPR), who also accompanied journalists to Waziristan said, "The army will still have a dominating presence" even after it is relocated to other parts of the Waziristan region.

"Until we are fully sure that the tribal elders and 'jirga' (tribal council) are fully in place, we will stay here," he said.

Pakistan's peace agreements with Islamic militants in the past have been criticized outside the country for their failure to rein in the militants. But Major General Abbas said, the strength of the new peace agreement comes from the fact that it involves a large number of stakeholders and not just the militants, in sharp contrast to past agreements that were mainly concluded between the government and leaders of militant groups.

As the debate continues in Pakistan over ways of tackling militancy (which in the past year has seen a significant increase in the number of suicide attacks), Pakistanis were reminded on Sunday of the security threats facing the country.

There were reports that at least seven people were killed and 16 injured in a suicide attack today at a bakery in the city of Mardan, located in the northwest frontier province (NWFP), where the tribal area including Waziristan are located. However, some local television stations are saying the number of killed is as high as 16 people.
By Farhan Bokhari