PESHAWAR: About 20 more people were killed, mostly foreigners, as fighting between foreign militants and tribesmen continued in restive South Waziristan tribal agency on Friday.
The tribal Lashkar on the third day of its raising seized a strategic hilltop from aliens at Shin Warsak.
The Uzbek militants killed a brother and two other relatives of the Lashkar leader, Malik Sherin Jan, and injured his nephew besides setting on fire his two houses, said a report, adding in retaliation the tribesmen killed a number of foreign militants. However, this could not be confirmed independently.
Meanwhile, Army troops have taken positions on strategic points at Shin Warsak, tribal sources told The News. This was also confirmed by DG ISPR Maj Gen Arshad Waheed.
Though the ISPR DG said the Army was not taking part in the fight, but taken positions to strengthen the security position in the area.
He said tribesmen themselves had launched the operation to flush out Uzbeks and their local supporters from the area and troops were not part of the fighting.
On Thursday the tribal lashkar commander Sherin Jan had sought government support against aliens and had claimed encircling of Uzbeks by his Lashkar volunteers in Kaloosha, Shin Warsak and Zaghundai areas of the agency, which needed final push.
According to Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and ISPR spokesman so far 200 plus foreigners and above 50 local tribesmen have been killed in the armed clash started on 19 of March.
On Monday last the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe raised a Lashkar that launched its assault against aliens and their local supporters on Tuesday. Hundreds of tribesmen have joined the Lashkar and pledged to continue fighting till the elimination of the last foreigner from the area.
AFP adds: Pakistan Friday moved its Army into a tribal area cleared of foreign al-Qaeda militants by tribal fighters, an official said, the first troop movement in the district since a peace agreement was signed with local tribesmen in 2005.
Troops entered the mountainous Shin Warsak area near Wana.
“Army troops are now in Shin Warsak to secure the area,” the security official told AFP.
The government has denied its troops were involved in fighting.
The tribesmen overran several bunkers held by Central Asian rebels, which were originally built by the Pakistani army but vacated in 2005.
The tribesmen at a meeting on Thursday demanded help from military helicopters and heavy weapons from the government to capture the mountainous bunkers.
