Tribe gather dead after Taliban take town in northwest

Peshawar: Taliban militants yesterday told tribal adversaries in a northwestern town their fighters seized the previous day to collect their dead, a tribal elder said.

Militants loyal to Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud seized the town of Jandola, on the main road into the South Waziristan ethnic Pashtun tribal region on the Afghan border, on Monday.

At least nine people were killed in the fighting on Monday, most of them members of the pro-government Bitani tribe.

"We've been asked by the Taliban to pick up bodies which are lying there," said tribal elder Haji Alamgir.

Khazan Gul, a member of a so-called peace committee the government has set up, later said nine bodies had been recovered.

Mehsud, a member of South Waziristan's Mehsud tribe, has emerged as Pakistan's most notorious militant over the past year.

He has been accused of launching a string of suicide attacks across the country including a December 27 gun and bomb attack in which former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed.

The top political official in the Jandola region, Barkat Ullah, said the area had been completely overrun by the Taliban.

Action being considered

Tribal elders were discussing the fate of up to eight members of the pro-government peace committee whom the Taliban had kidnapped, but Ullah declined to say what action the police were considering.

A military spokesman referred queries to the interior ministry, saying it was responsible for security in the region despite the presence of an army base with about 4,000 men just outside the town.

A security official said he expected government action to restore control of the town. "This is basically between the two tribes. This is a Bitani area and the Mehsuds have attacked them because the Bitanis were part of the peace initiative."