Four trucks carrying fruit torched, two kidnapped in SWA

WANA: Gunmen, believed to be militants, set on fire four trucks loaded with precious fruit and kidnapped two tribesmen on Friday, official sources said.The sources said that armed men stopped a convoy of trucks transporting apples to Punjab from Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan, on the nearby Gomal Zam Road in Karknra area.

“The gunmen stopped the trucks on the main road and set ablaze four of the vehicles, destroying the precious fruit and trucks,” an official of the local administration told The News.Pleading anonymity, he said the armed men later kidnapped a person believed to be a fruit merchant and a tribesman.

Good quality apples are produced in Wana and other parts of South Waziristan and are much in demand in other parts of the country. 

Tribal sources said it was the sixth incident of its kind in the same area. They said members of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe inhabiting Wana, Shakai, Azam Warsak and Angoor Adda areas of South Waziristan have mostly been targetted.

Though no militant group has claimed responsibility for the incident, members of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe suspected that militants from the Mahsud tribe could be behind the attack on truckers.

“This is not the first incident in which members of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe have been targetted. Before this, the militants attacked trucks carrying goods to Wana and from Wana to the downtowns. Not a single person has been been arrested or punished so far,” a tribal elder said.

He added the Mahsud militants were not happy with the Ahmadzai Wazir tribespeople for supporting the government and maintaining peace in South Waziristan.The attack on truckers angered the Ahmadzai Wazir tribesmen in Wana and its adjoining areas. They expressed their deep shock and concern over the attacks and demanded the government and armed forces to provide them protection. They asked the governor to take note of the growing terrorist incidents in South Waziristan despite the fact that they had suffered heavy human and financial losses due to repeated military operations conducted in their area.

Political Agent South Waziristan Zafarul Islam said a tribal jirga has been convened on Saturday to discuss the issue.He said the administration would take action as per Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

The security forces had carried out a military operation “Rah-e-Nijat” in 2009 in South Waziristan and declared most parts of the tribal region cleared of the militants.The return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to the cleared areas started a few days ago. The tribesmen, however, have been expressing concern over the security situation as the militants had kidnapped engineers and other employees of Gomal Zam Dam project in 2012. One of those kidnapped was killed and others were released later.Also, the militants kidnapped employees of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Development Authority (FDA) in March this year. They were released after two months.