Strangehttp://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2004_pg7_34
Pakistan is stepping up a five month-long campaign to hunt Al Qaeda-linked fighters in the quasi-independent tribal areas. The government is closing refugee camps believed to be shelters for hardened mujahideen from Chechnya and Uzbekistan. Pakistani forces have already bulldozed two refugee camps, Zarinoor One and Zarinoor Two, in South Waziristan tribal district, and plan to expand military operations to North Waziristan which will leave more refugees caught in the crossfire.
"In South Waziristan, we were taken by surprise, but now we have an idea that there will be more military operations so we are trying to inform the refugees and look for alternatives," said Imran Zeb, Pakistani chief commissioner for Afghan refugees.
Zeb was part of a Pakistani delegation in Kabul earlier this week to talk with the Afghan government and the UN about how to deal with innocent Afghans caught up in the escalating drive to quash insurgency along the Pak-Afghan border.
snip
Meanwhile, Pakistani officials are working to brief tribal elders in the camps about upcoming operations and are urging the Afghan government to move local aid workers, who are less at risk of attack from Taliban insurgents, into southern Afghanistan.
Informing Afghan tribal elders about upcoming military operations in the camps removes the element of surprise, which the Pakistan military need for their anti-terror operations, but may avert further humanitarian problems, government and aid officials said.
Comment: Why? Perhaps to check for leaks from the tribal elders, otherwise I would not inform them.