TANK, Pakistan – Pakistan’s military operations on the front line of the American-led war on terror have led to a further “Talibanisation” of the border tribal regions that is now spreading to areas traditionally under government control.

In 2003 an 80,000-strong Pakistan force was deployed to flush out forces loyal to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

But three years after Pakistani soldiers first entered the tribal area of South Waziristan, many politicians from the tribal area, media commentators, and retired officers are united in the view that the operation has produced few positive results.

Instead, there is a steadily encroaching Taliban-style influence. Shopkeepers have been told not to sell music or films, barbers are instructed not to shave beards, and women have been told not to go to the market. More than 100 pro-government elders and politicians have been killed in the past nine months.

“They create an environment of fear, pretend they are in charge. We can’t let those Taliban impose what they want,” the Peshawar-based security chief for the tribal zones, Sikander Qayyum, said.

Since last year, when a shaky agreement was signed between the army and militants in South Waziristan, an uneasy peace has prevailed.

The local administration has to negotiate the daily running of the area with an alliance of mainly anti-government tribal elders and pro-Taliban clerics. The effect is a clear rise in Taliban influence.

On Sunday a local militant, Asmatullah Shaheen, announced via loudspeaker in the Jandol area of South Waziristan that people were not to shave. In Barmal village, Mufti Fazalur-Rehamn Fazli circulated a pamphlet stating that Jews and Christians were encouraging Muslims to take anti-polio drops in a conspiracy to make Muslim populations infertile.

Reports have spread around Pakistan that an Islamic court has been established in Wana, South Waziristan’s capital, replacing the traditional council of elders.

Last week Pakistani press reports said that a man had been sentenced to death according to sharia law, although local officials insist it is traditional tribal law.

The problem facing the Pakistan government is underlined by Mohammed Salah Qureshi, a cleric from South Waziristan. “The clerics here have thousands of followers and they are following jihad against the U.S. and the world,” he said.

Negotiations with tribesmen over handing over foreign Al Qaeda fugitives have not borne much fruit, other than stoking anti-government and anti-American sentiment.

The fall-out of the campaign is now being felt further afield. Similar Taliban-style edicts to those issued in Waziristan are now beginning to be heard in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.