PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Scouts from four different tribal groups have reported to their chiefs that Osama bin Laden and his Arab foreign legion have moved from the Tora Bora mountain range to the north slope of the Spin Ghar range, whose ridge marks the demarcation line between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The four tribes are Orakzan, Kurram, Kohat and Afridi, all immediately to the west of the Khyber pass. These Federally Administered Tribal Areas are all but administered by federal authorities. Tribal chiefs hold sway and do not brook interference by Pakistani government officials.
One chief whose word is law for over half a million people told United Press International, "We all receive reports about Osama's movements. A few days ago we knew within one square kilometer his location in Tora Bora. My scouts now tell me he left a rear guard contingent to fight a delaying action while he moved his Arab fighters to a forest area very near the Pakistani border between Oghaz Pass and Sulaiman Pass."
The tribal leader, a longtime contact of this reporter, drew a sketch of the border area where foreigners are not allowed. He requested his name not be used and that our rendezvous be concealed from non-tribal eyes.
From Parachinar, a small border town in the Kurram Tribal Agency, one can see snowy peaks in the distance along the Spin Ghar range, interspersed below snow level with brick red and ochre-colored mountains, dotted with a few emerald green islands of vegetation, wooded valleys, plateaus, desert plains, deep gorges and rivers.
One lone Pakistani gunship flew between the 15,000-foot, snow-covered Sikaram mountain and Parachinar.
The government announced over the weekend that army reinforcements had been dispatched to the mountain pass areas on the border, along with helicopter gunships to patrol the most likely escape routes to Pakistan. No army personnel were spotted.
Last September, Pakistani helicopter patrols detected human and animal tracks in more than 200 mountain passes descending from Afghanistan to Pakistan that are not marked on the map. Hundreds of Taliban fighters have already made it across the unmarked border, known as the Durrand Line. Pakistani reinforcements were delayed, according to army sources, because of differences with U.S. military authorities over the kind of equipment the Pakistanis required to patrol the frontier areas more effectively.
These sources said the United States allocated $73 million for an airborne surveillance system that was to include a spy plane, an earth station and an assigned satellite. The Pakistanis countered they were in urgent need of an up-to-date communications system for the border areas, sophisticated weapons with powerful nightscopes and more helicopters.
Presidential military spokesman Gen. Rashid Quershi said Sunday that the border had been secured and infiltration routes blocked. "Whoever attempts to enter Pakistan," he said, "will be arrested and dealt with according to our laws."
The tribal leader reminded UPI that the 2,000-mile Mexican border with the United States was relatively flat and easy to patrol and that millions of illegals still cross it every year. "You can imagine how our 2,200 kilometers (1,400 miles) of border are like a sieve," he said.
Pakistani army sources also concede that if bin Laden intends to smuggle himself to another country, he could probably hide in one of thousands of trucks and travel with impunity 1,000 miles south to the Indian Ocean port of Karachi. Trucks are only stopped at toll and weighing stations.
In Karachi or from any beach in Sindh province, bin Laden could then board one of the hundreds of dhows that ply the waters of the Arabian Sea. When approached by a naval boarding party, these smugglers' boats wait until the last minute before gunning their diesel engines and speeding away at 30 knots. The boarding party then has to return to their ship. By then the dhow has a 10-minute lead and falls in with dozens of other identical craft where they slow down and are unrecognizable.
FATA officials also admit -- not for quotation -- that several hundred Taliban fighters also have made their way through tribal belts into Pakistan undetected. Tens of thousands of Taliban sympathizers live in the major cities of Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad.
Some 3 million Afghans are under canvas in Pakistani refugee camps. Another 2 million are dispersed in the Northwest Frontier, Baluch and Punjab cities, towns and villages. There are 400,000 in Islamabad alone.
In mid-November, Pakistani intelligence intercepted a secret message from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to a key Taliban operative in Islamabad who was under surveillance. He was ordered to mobilize supporters to seize and hold government buildings. The objective, according to Pakistani security sources, was to disrupt the emerging alliance between the United States and Pakistan. Omar's man was followed while government installations were reinforced with regular troops. He was eventually arrested and the network dismantled.
In Peshawar and Quetta, it is not possible, even for local security officers, to distinguish between a Taliban fighter who has doffed his black turban and donned traditional piecrust-shaped headgear, and a local native. They mingle freely with Pakistani Pahstuns. Their religion, culture, mannerisms, the beard and the veil, and the way they say their prayers are identical (which is not always the case in the Muslim world).
Diplomatic eyebrows were raised in Islamabad Monday after seven senior Taliban officials, including former ministers, were allowed to hold a news conference, not to denounce Omar, but to announce the formation of a new Afghan political party. Asked if they were defectors and ready to disown Omar and bin Laden, the spokesman for the group, religious leader Amin Mujadadi, declined to answer. He then said, "We tried to moderate Mullah Omar's views on a few issues." But he emphatically denounced the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.
Writing in the Urdu-language newspaper Jang, Sohail Shaheen said, "Taliban is still very much alive. 70,000 Taliban are still the most powerful group in Afghanistan. No one can kill their movement. They are now planning their next moves -- guerrilla war at home and hijackings abroad."
Even Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider was on the defensive when he tried to explain Pakistan's new alliance with the United States to religious groups. "Muslims are not supposed to help Christians if they are against Islam," he said, "but there are occasions in life when they have to eat something that is prohibited."
Pakistan has taken advantage of the government hiatus in Kabul to move its border 2 kilometers closer to Afghanistan by the simple expedient of abolishing no man's land and moving the immigration and customs sheds forward.
At the same time, President Pervez Musharraf ordered the highest security alert for Islamabad and its twin city of Rawalpindi, the country's principal military garrison town. Special no-fly zones were established for the president's House, the Chief Executive Secretariat, and the Supreme Court buildings in Islamabad, and Army House (Musharraf's official residence), along with GHQ in Rawalpindi.
The 111Brigade, Pakistan's quick-reaction force in the capital, has been setting up anti-aircraft guns on the government's main buildings. Musharraf leaves Pakistan for China Dec. 24 for about one week.
