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http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/july-2004/15/main/top15.asp
Army builds goodwill against Al-Qaeda in tribal areas
KHALANAI (AFP) With its freshly-built roads, schools, clinics and wells, the tribal district of Mohmand along the Afghan border is a showpiece for the Pakistan armed forces. Just 200 kilometres further south in Waziristan, the military is engaged in a bloody conflict with local tribesmen sheltering Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who have fled over the border from Afghanistan. But in Mohmand, some 50 kilometres northwest of Peshawar, the soldiers see themselves more as aid workers than fighters.
"We have asked the Army to help us out of our misery," said local chief Mohammed Ali Halimazai in the village of Khalanai, which for the past year has been the local headquarters of the military.
"Our children need development, we no longer want to be considered backward," said the tribal chief, accompanied by around 20 other local chiefs who were invited by the Army to meet foreign journalists on a rare Press trip to the area.In the middle of this region of jagged peaks and arid plateau, some 400,000 people from six different tribes live in extreme poverty and isolation.
"For decades we have been left alone, but now all that is gone," explained Malik Ashraf, a wizened old man with a white beard and a revolver strapped to his waist. He is the chief of a village bearing his name, Ashrafabad, where he has given the military some land to build a school. The buildings has no furniture or teachers yet, but nonetheless around a dozen kids were lined up for the Press and military to recite the alphabet.
A few metres away, two wells are being dug. "Before, the villagers had to walk 20 kilometres to fetch water," said General Mohammed Iqbal, the commander of the brigade in charge of development aid for Mohmand.
So far around 100 kilometres of roads have been built, along with dozens of schools and clinics, and around 200 wells. Most of the projects have been built and financed by the military. While the Army refuses to divulge figures, the local civilian administration estimates it has spent around 784 million rupees ($15.3 million) on development projects this year.
Mohmand was the last of the seven tribal agencies that the military entered in June 2003. Since the founding of Pakistan in 1947, the tribal areas had existed largely outside the control of the government in Islamabad. But the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, coupled with Pakistan's strong support for the US-led war on terror, have eroded much of the tribal areas' autonomy.
In an attempt to prevent Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the military occupied the eight major passes connecting the two countries.
"There is no longer a no-go area," said General Iqbal, referring to the territory held by the Baezai and Khewazai tribes along the frontier.
For over a year the Pakistani border posts have come under sporadic artillery fire from Afghan militias or what the military calls "miscreants", but Iqbal said there had been not a single attack during the past week. Standing side-by-side with soldiers, the local chiefs in Mohmand insist there are no Al-Qaeda or Taliban militants sheltering in their areas, even though the Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar on the other side of the border remain extremely unstable.
Just a year ago there was no real border between the two countries here, but now around 200 people a day are formally vetted as they pass through.
"There is no infiltration and no sanctuary for terrorists," said Iqbal, adding that he hoped Mohmand could become a model for the whole tribal zone.