Hafiz Wazir, Reuters  --  Arab News

AZAM WARSAK, 21 April 2004 — Pakistani tribesmen searching for Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants and their local allies called off the hunt yesterday after some of the men they had targeted asked for time to surrender or flee.

The government meanwhile said it would not insist yesterday’s deadline to tribal elders to hand over the militants and the local men who are harboring them.

A militia of around 2,000 of the fiercely independent tribesmen is searching for the militants and their local hosts. Five local men who were being sought asked a tribal council to give them time to give themselves up or leave the area.

“We will halt our activities for three days but will not vacate the area,” tribal elder Malik Noor Ali told the “jirga” in the remote village of Azam Warsak attended by hundreds of tribesmen, most of them wearing big yellow turbans and carrying weapons.

The tribal fighters, armed with assault rifles and other light weapons, have spread across the semiautonomous tribal belt near the Afghan border, setting up makeshift camps and pickets.

They want to apprehend tribesmen who are harboring the militants to avoid allowing the army into the area to do the job.

The government, keen to avoid a repeat of bloody clashes with militants last month in which more than 120 people were killed, said it was ready to give the tribesmen more time, although a deadline to hand over the militants expired yesterday.

“We have not set any new deadline,” said Rehmatullah Wazir, a senior government official in Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal area 380 km (238 miles) southwest of Islamabad. Azam Warsak is 20 km (13 miles) west of Wana.

“The lashkar (tribal militia) is working in a very positive manner, and because of that there is no need (for a military operation),” he told Reuters. “If it proceeds well and they hand over the men and can control their area, then there is no need for any action.”

Residents in Azam Warsak said five local tribesmen harboring foreign militants had asked elders for time to decide whether to surrender or vacate the area.