Pak tribesmen under pressure to handover al-Qaeda harbourers

The number of tribesmen rounded up in a three-day sweep has now reached 52, said administrator in the South Waziristan tribal agency headquarters Wana, Anwar Ali Shah.

"We will carry on with the operation in South Waziristan area until the men we are looking for are handed over to us," Shah told AFP.

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The three men are accused of sheltering a band of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in their sprawling mud-walled homes near Angoor Ada in South Waziristan, five km from the Afghan border.

The wanted men are hiding among fellow tribes.

Pakistan's military besieged the tribesmen's homes in a massive air and ground operation last week, killing eight Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects and arresting 18. Two Pakistani troops were killed.

Paramilitary forces have barricaded the villages of the Pashtun tribesmen of the Karikhel, Zalikhel and Yirgakhel sub-tribes, and warned that anyone seen in the market or moving around will be detained, Shah said.

Shops and petrol stations have also been shuttered, Shah said.

"Our objective is very clear. We want to put them under maximum pressure so that they handover the wanted men," Shah said.

Sympathy for the Taliban runs high among the Pasthun tribes, which share the Taliban's ethnicity, their religious fervour and anti-US hostility.

Shah on Thursday warned that the homes of tribesmen who did not cooperate in the hunt for the three men would be demolished.

Angoor Ada faces Afghanistan's Shkin district and is just 15 km from the Taliban-controlled Afghan town of Barmal.

US troops hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants in Afghanistan have frequently been thwarted by the fugitives escaping over the border into Pakistan's tribal areas, often through Angoor Ada.

An intelligence official in northwest frontier city Peshawar said the 18 arrested in last week's raid were Uzbeks, Afghans and Pakistani nationals.

They are being interrogated by military intelligence officials at a secret location.