Registration of foreign militants in tribal region appears to have been delayed. Amnesty proceedings for suspected foreign militants hiding in a tribal region near the Afghan border have been postponed to give the foreigners more time to register, a tribal leader said on Friday.
The foreign fighters were due to start registering with local authorities on Friday and take a vow to renounce terrorism as part of the amnesty offer, which would give them permission to live in the South Waziristan tribal agency.
But a tribal elder, Malik Mohammed Iqbal, who was involved in the talks with the government over the amnesty programme said that registration might not begin until Sunday.
"Many people have to come from far off places.
They will take time to reach here," he said. There was no immediate official confirmation of the delay. Registration of suspected foreign fighters was to begin in Duza Ghundai, a village about six kilometre's west of the town of Wana, near to which a March 16-28 military operation against al Qaeda fugitives killed more than 120 people, including 48 soldiers.
More than 160 suspected militants were captured in the operation but none appeared to have been senior al Qaeda figures and most have since been released for lack of evidence.
Iqbal said the only foreigners in the area were Afghan refugees, but the government insists that 400 to 500 militants, believed to be Arabs, Afghans and Central Asians are hiding in the region.
After the March operation, the government set April 30 as deadline for the foreigners to put down arms, abide by Pakistani laws and register, but that has been delayed to give time to tribal elders to convince the foreigners to surrender.
Government officials and tribal elders had hoped that the foreigners would come forward to register on Friday.
Brigadier Mahmood Shah, the chief of security for the tribal areas, has said it would take two to three days for the government to register the foreigners.
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