Pakistan update

On Saturday, pro-Taleban militants attacked Pakistani soldiers in North Waziristan.

(See this map of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area.)

From the Khaleej Times:

In a pre-dawn attack on Saturday, militants bombarded a check post in the Dosali area, some 40 km (25 miles) south of Miranshah, North Waziristan’s main town.

Troops repulsed the guerrillas when they launched a direct assault on the post.

“Militants fired about 50 rockets on a check post complex at around 0300 hours (2200 GMT Friday) and then they carried out a physical attack on the check post,” military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said.

“Four security forces were killed and four wounded, while 10 militants were also killed in the attack.”

Arshad said the militants fled after about two hours carrying four to five bodies with them.

In the neighboring Kurram agency, a suicide car bomber killed nine. From the Daily Times:

Nine people were killed and 43 injured when a suicide car bomber triggered an explosion at a busy bus station in Kurram Agency here on Saturday.

Eyewitnesses said that a car driven by a “bearded man” crashed into another car from behind near the entry point of Parachinar city at 10:30am and as people gathered there was a “big explosion”.

Kurram Agency Political Agent Sahibzada Anees confirmed that it was a suicide attack and said that security was “already high” in the city and it was not clear whether the bomber had a different target or he was simply interested in killing people.

Residents said that security was tightened as soldiers patrolled the streets and there was an unannounced curfew-like situation in the city. A 10-year-old girl was among those killed in the attack while two bodies have yet to be identified.

Also,

Separately, militants fired eight rockets at a checkpost near Miranshah, but there were no casualties.

A Pakistan-Afghanistan jirga (a kind of tribal assembly where decisions are reached by consensus) is scheduled to begin August 9 in Kabul.

The News says:

This may be the first time in the history that a Jirga would be discussing the problems between the two countries instead of official delegations and joint commissions and that too without the involvement of the real parties to the conflict.

However, already there is trouble in getting involved parties together.

Fifty members of the Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga from North and South Waziristan agencies on Saturday boycotted the meeting of the Jirga held at the Governor House in protest against the lawlessness in their areas.

"We will not attend the Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga as we have no tradition to resolve the problems of others when our houses are on fire," Malik Alamzeb Dawar and Malik Qadar Khan, members of the Jirga from Waziristan, told journalists. "By boycotting the briefing session, we have lodged our protest over the situation in our region," they added.

The tribal elders, who are also agency councillors, said they had asked the NWFP governor to abolish the check posts and end the ongoing military operations against their people. "We also asked the governor to pay compensation to all the people affected during the military operations," they said, adding that since North and South Waziristan were their areas, why forces were deployed there. The tribal elders said that nobody from the Governor House tried to stop them when they left the meeting.

In addition,

Ahmedzai Wazir tribes on Wednesday announced that they would not participate in the joint Pak-Afghan jirga in Kabul next week to protest against what they called “the US occupation” of that country. Around 700 delegates – 350 each from Pakistan and Afghanistan – will attend the August 9-11 jirga to devise strategies against insurgency in Afghanistan. “The Ahmedzai Wazir tribes announce a boycott of the jirga, and in the presence of the US occupation we cannot negotiate with (Hamid) Karzai,” the major tribe’s jirga decided unanimously in Wana, a tribal elder who attended the meeting told Daily Times by phone.

The Frontier Post had this:

Pakhtun Qaumi Jirga’ has urged Pakistan to reveiw its Afghan policy and demanded ensuring the presence of Taliban in the upcoming Pak-Afghan Grand Jirga here at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday. The speakers in the seminar organised by Pakistan NGOs Forum (PNF) also voiced concerned over the composition of Jirga from Pakistani side saying majority of the Jirga members were serving and retired bureaucrats, pro-government tribal elders and politicians. The seimar was attended representatives of various civic societies, politicians, writers and intellectuals, lawyers and journalists.
...
The Jirga passed a resolution unanimously which called upon Pakistan to stop ‘meddling and infiltration in Afghanistan’ and take serious measures for making the upcoming Jirga successful. One of the resolutions stressed the need for inclusion of Taliban and Mujahideen groups in the Jirga as it said they were the main stakeholders in the process besides asked the foreign elements in the tribal belt to quit the area. Another resolution stressed the need for making efforts for putting an end to the ongoing terrorism and bloodshed in tribal areas and settled areas of the Frontier province besides underlined the need for giving tribesmen political, constitutional and legal rights. A resolution also demanded of the Pakistani government to ensure the participation of women and representatives of civil societies and writers in the Pak-Afghan jirga.

A VoA report says:

Pakistani and Afghan leaders will meet August 9-12 to discuss cross-border security issues in a landmark assembly or grand jirga. The four-day talks come as extremists continue to inflict heavy casualties in both countries. From Islamabad VOA, correspondent Benjamin Sand reports.

The talks were organized last year during a rare meeting between the Afghan and Pakistani presidents in Washington.

In the coming months, a similar jirga is to be held in Pakistan.