WANA, May 21: A tribal lashkar ended its hunt on Friday saying it found no evidence of any foreign militant in the South Waziristan tribal region and has formed a 30-member committee to continue search in the remaining villages.

The commander of the 1,200 armed tribal volunteers, Allagai Wazir, made the announcement at a jirga at Wana bazaar, telling his fellow tribesmen of their three days of search for foreign militants in Azam Warsak, Shakai, Raghzai and Zha Ghundai yielded nothing.

He said that the lashkar visited the areas and warned all against sheltering foreign militants. He said that tribesmen had been warned that those found sheltering foreign militants would face demolition of their houses, heavy fine and banishment from the area.

Mr Wazir announced formation of a 30-member committee which, he said, would continue the search in the remaining few villages and inform him of the presence of any foreign militant to prompt an action from the tribal lashkar.

Following the announcement of the committee, the lashkar was then allowed to disperse. But before doing so, the lashkar fined a fellow tribesman in Samarbagh for violating a decision of a ban on inter-tribal feuds and firing during its search for foreign militant.

Malik Baa Khan, an influential tribesman, had no answer when a reporter asked him that the lashkar had been too focused on imposing fines on tribesmen for violating the ban on firing. But the authorities in South Waziristan tribal region said they were not satisfied with the performance of the lashkar. "The lashkar just went through its routine motion and did not do anything practical," said one official seeking anonymity.

Fata secretary (security) Brig Mehmood Shah endorsed the views of administration officials in Wana. Talking to Dawn in Peshawar, Mehmood Shah said the government was not satisfied, but said that it would like to give more time to the political process and go the whole hog to resolve the matter through peaceful means.

He said that the government would continue to watch the developments in Wana and the performance of the committee before firming up its line of action. He refused to speculate on possible military action in the near future.

"The situation will be clear next week. We are keeping our cards close to our chest and will lay them on the table when the time comes," he remarked. But government officials now privately acknowledge that the collapse of April 24 Shakai Agreement that led the government to pardon five tribal militants in return for a pledge that they would remain peaceful, and the poor performance of the tribal lashkar is leading the situation again towards another military operation in the region.

The last operation near Wana in March had left several people dead including military and paramilitary soldiers and tribal militants.