Pakistan Timeline - 2007

January 3

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz states that Pakistan will continue to respect the "easement rights" clause of the Durand Line agreement of 1893 which allows cross-border social and commercial interaction for the tribes in the border area, but it will fence and mine the border despite Afghanistan’s opposition.

January 4

In a suspected sectarian incident, unidentified gunmen shot dead a Shia leader, Syed Ali Imam Jaffari, in the Kotwali police precincts of Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). He was the President of the local unit of the Shia outfit Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafria (TNFJ) and caretaker of Imam Bargah Ali Imam in Kotwali.

The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) chief, Syed Salahuddin, has denied any link between the al Qaeda and his outfit and said it is not in the "interest of the Hizb" as it is "fighting" all Kashmiris and not Muslims alone. "As far as we Kashmiris are concerned, we are only confined to Kashmir.... We have no introduction or links with the Al-Qaeda. I think it is not in our interest to side with Al-Qaeda because we are not fighting only for the Muslim Kashmiris but for all the Kashmiris including non-Muslims," Salahuddin said in an interview to a Pakistan-based private news channel.

January 5

A gas pipeline is blown up in the Dera Bugti district of Balochistan province, disrupting supply to a nearby gas plant.

January 6

There is a "human pipeline" that arranges for alienated British Muslim youths – many of them born in the UK of Pakistani heritage – to travel to Pakistan for indoctrination and training at temporary terrorist "camps", believed to be operated by the al Qaeda leaders, according to a report in the current issue of Newsweek. The report quoted US authorities as saying that the UK-Pakistan pipeline had played a role in several planned terrorist plots.

January 6

Security forces (SFs) kill four insurgents, including ‘commander’ Dur Mohammed, and arrest seven others during a raid on a farrari (fugitive) camp in the Dera Bugti district of Balochistan.

Unidentified miscreants blew up a portion of the railway track at Nasirabad in Balochistan.

SFs continue their crackdown on insurgents and their alleged camps in various areas of the Dera Bugti and Kohlu districts.

January 7

Security agencies arrest 16 suspected Taliban operatives from Pishin in Balochistan. They are arrested during a raid in the Pishin Bazaar.

January 9

Two SF personnel, Sakhi Jan and Zainullah, are killed during an encounter with the insurgents in the Chakar Marri village in the Bolan district of Balochistan. Nine insurgents and two SF personnel are injured in the clash.

Unidentified assailants behead an Afghan journalist, Anwar Saleh in the Hangu town.

A Pakistani immigrant, Shahawar Matin Siraj, is sentenced to 30 years in prison for hatching an unsuccessful plot to blow up a busy Manhattan subway station as revenge for wartime abuses.

January 11

Pakistan army attacked supply trucks used by suspected militants for cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. It was the army's first reported attack in North Waziristan since a September 2006 peace agreement between the Government and pro-Taliban militants. The army, reportedly acting on intelligence provided by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, used mortars and artillery in the attack on January 10-night at Gurvek, near the border, spokesperson Major General Shaukat Sultan told AP. However, he said it was not clear if any militants were killed in the incident, adding the target of the attack were several supply trucks used by militants.

January 12

US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said in Islamabad on January 12 that Pakistan and the United States had been unsuccessful in eliminating terrorists and both needed to do more, according to Dawn. "Pakistan has not succeeded despite signing an agreement with tribal people in North Waziristan as terrorists are still going into Afghanistan. Likewise, the United States did not succeed in Afghanistan to curb violence and extremists, and they both need to harness more efforts to make the region peaceful and safe," he told a press conference after high-level talks in the capital.

January 13

The US National Intelligence Director, John Negroponte, said that al-Qaeda leaders have found a secure hideout in Pakistan from where they are rebuilding their strength. Negroponte told a Senate committee that al-Qaeda was still the militant organisation that "poses the greatest threat to US interests… They are cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders' secure hideout in Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe," he said. However, he did not specify where in Pakistan the group's leadership was hiding.

January 14

Two girls and a woman belonging to the same family died when they stepped on an explosive device in the Matta area of Swat district in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Eye-witnesses said that the victims - Nimro, 16, her sister Jan Bibi, 5, and Fahmeeda, wife of Gul Hameed - were cutting grass in the fields when the explosive device went off, killing them on the spot.

Pro-Taliban militants shot dead a suspected Uzbek militant and captured another in the Butkhela village of North Waziristan.

A bomb attached to an Afghanistan-bound petrol tanker supplying fuel to American forces in that country exploded in the Chaman town of Balochistan but caused no casualties.

January 15

A bomb exploded at an Afghan refugee camp in the Nowshera district of NWFP, killing four people and injuring five others. Eyewitnesses and officials said that the explosion at around 11 p.m. blew up the house of a prayer leader, Maulvi Masoodullah, killing his brother Ismail and three guests. However, officials put the death toll at two. Masoodullah was reportedly arrested later.

President Pervez Musharraf rejected US Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley’s claim that Jalaluddin Haqqani was operating from inside Pakistan to foment violence in Afghanistan, and said that the "baseless allegations" could harm Pakistan-US cooperation in the war on terror.

About 2,000 ethnic Pashtun tribesmen rallied at Chaman in the Balochistan province to condemn the Pakistan government’s new border control measures. Chanting anti-Pakistan slogans, the protesters asked the government to abandon its plan to plant mines and build a fence along parts of its frontier with Afghanistan.

January 16

Pakistan Army helicopter gun-ships attacked a suspected militant hideout in South Waziristan early on January 16-morning, killing at least 20 militants. Helicopter gun-ships targeted a cluster of compounds at Salamt village in the Zamzola area, 30km to the east of Razmak in South Waziristan. Officials said that the compounds situated in a desolate area were completely destroyed, killing most of the people inside. "This used to be an Arab-dominated hideout… But as of now, we don't know whether any of them has been killed," one official said. Another official, citing intelligence reports, said some 25 militants had been killed and bodies of eight of them had been retrieved from underneath the rubble. Of the eight, five were stated to be Afghans and three locals from the Kikari Mehsud tribe inhabiting the Ludda sub-district of South Waziristan.

Police arrested nine suspected Taliban militants in Kuchlak, some 25 kilometers from Quetta, capital of Balochistan. A senior police official said the militants – believed to be from Ghazni province of Afghanistan – were staying at a small hotel.

January 17

Top militant commander Baitullah Mehsud vowed to avenge the air strikes at Zamzola on January 16 in the next two weeks in his native South Waziristan which, in his words, would cause pain to Pakistan.

A detained Taliban spokesperson has said the movement’s fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is hiding out in Pakistan with the protection of that country’s intelligence agency, said Afghan intelligence officials. Abul Haq Haqiq, who was known to the media as Mohammad Hanif, was arrested in the eastern province of Nangarhar late on January 15. During interrogation he reportedly said Omar was in the western Pakistan city of Quetta (capital of Balochistan province), the Afghan intelligence agency said in a statement. "He is under the protection of the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] in Quetta," it quoted Hanif as saying.

January 18

Railway traffic between Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, and the rest of Pakistan was suspended as the main tracks were blown up by insurgents near Dera Murad Jamali. An explosive device blew up a portion of the tracks linking Quetta with Sindh, Punjab and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in the Kajla Mor area. Nasirabad District Police Officer, Qazi Hussain, disclosed that the Jaffar Express and Balochistan Express were due to cross the area when the tracks were blown up.

January 19

Security forces destroyed at least four camps of the insurgents and arrested 30 people during an operation launched in the Kohlu and Sibi districts of Balochistan.

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, called for giving up armed struggle to pave the way for fruitful negotiations for a lasting settlement of the Kashmir issue. The Mirwaiz (a hereditary title of one of Kashmir's important religious seats, and also head priest of the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar), who along with other senior leaders of the APHC, is on a visit to Pakistan, stated this after a series of meetings in Islamabad, including talks with President Pervez Musharraf.

January 21

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that "certain Pakistani circles" were protecting insurgents fighting in Afghanistan and added that drugs and corruption in his Government were contributing to the violence. Karzai, speaking at the opening of a new session of the Afghan parliament, said the danger from the insurgency and drugs would intensify in the coming year. "The enemies of Afghanistan’s freedom and independence very disgracefully continued their intervention and meddling in our internal affairs," said Karzai. According to him, "They formed terrorist groups consisting of international terrorist networks under the protection of certain Pakistani circles for martyring mercilessly our children, teachers and clerics."

January 22

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a military convoy near Mirali in North Waziristan, killing four security force personnel and a woman, and injuring 23 persons, including 20 soldiers. The incident occurred at the Khajori checkpoint, about two kilometers east of Mirali town, when a joint convoy of the army and paramilitary force was heading from the Bannu Garrison to Miranshah, administrative headquarters of North Waziristan.

The Foreign Office rejected reports that Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar is in Pakistan and said he is probably leading the Taliban resurgence from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam rejected the claim and said Omar was most probably in Kandahar. "We have very regular meetings, intelligence sharing with the US, to some extent with Afghans. Nobody has any information about the whereabouts of Mullah Omar," she told a weekly press conference in Islamabad. "But, generally, the likely scenario is that he is in Kandahar where he’s marshalling his fighters," she added.

January 23

The Karachi unit Amir (chief) of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), identified as Mohammad Ali alias Mama, was arrested by the police during a raid in the Korangi area of Karachi. Superintendent of Police Fayyaz Khan said that Ali was a suspect in the murders of Lyari’s Qari Habibur Rehman and Maulana Abdul Kareem Naqshbandi. He is reported to have become the LeJ Karachi unit chief about a year ago.

January 24: Five men including, two British Pakistanis, were arrested during raids in Britain on January 23 under anti-terrorism laws. Two men, aged 25 and 29, were detained in Halifax, West Yorkshire, "on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," said London’s Metropolitan Police. The BBC reported that they were thought to be British Pakistanis, being held on suspicion of involvement in facilitating terrorist activities overseas, although the police declined to comment. The other three suspects, two aged 24 and one 32, were arrested by anti-terrorism officers who raided four addresses in Manchester.

January 25

One person was killed and six others sustained injuries in a car bomb attack at Hangu in the NWFP. "At the moment, it appears to be a suicide attack," Station House Officer of Hangu Police Saeed Khan told reporters. Saeed said the dead man was identified as Hayat, an Afghan refugee who was living in the Katakarni camp in Hangu. Deputy Inspector General of Kohat Police Salahuddin told reporters that police had arrested three men in connection with the attack– one in Kohat and the others in Peshawar.

Suspected militants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one police personnel and injured another in the Tank town of NWFP, adjoining South Waziristan.

January 26

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside Hotel Marriott in the capital Islamabad, killing a guard, Tariq Mehmmod, and wounding five persons. The unidentified man detonated explosives strapped to his body after the security guard tried to stop him from entering the hotel through a side entrance. "It was a suicide attack. The suicide attacker and a guard were killed," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said. The suicide bombing occurred hours before a Republic Day function at the hotel hosted by India’s High Commission. The function, however, went ahead after the explosion.

January 27

Fifteen people, including six police officials, were killed and 60 others injured in a suicide attack targeting a Muharram procession near Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in the Dilgaran area of Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar, capital of NWFP. Peshawar police commissioner Mallik Muhammad Saad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, three other police personnel and a Nazim (local official) were among those killed in the blast. Superintendent of Peshawar Police Zaibullah said that an unidentified bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body when police stopped him from entering the procession, which was to be taken out from Qasim Ali Khan Mosque.

January 29

A suicide bomber killed two people, including a policeman, at Dera Ismail Khan in NWFP. Assistant Superintendent of Police, Captain Hamad, said that the suicide bomber, wearing a black shawl, blew himself up as policeman Abdul Halim was searching him. He said that Naseer, a civilian working at a nearby petrol pump, was also killed, and seven other people, including two policemen, were injured. "The suicide bomber was a young boy. He initially refused to be searched, and when police began searching him, he blew himself up, killing a policeman, a civilian and himself," said another police officer Aslam Khattak.

January 30

Two people died in a town in NWFP where a pre-dawn rocket attack on a Shiite Muslim procession sparked a burst of sectarian violence. Army personnel were sent into Hangu, 100 kilometres south of Peshawar, capital of NWFP, to restore order after the rocket landed near police protecting the procession to mark the holy festival of Muharram. The two fatalities were from the Sunni community, said Mayor Ghani ur-Rahman. However, it was not immediately clear if the men were killed by the rocket or during the brief clashes between Sunnis and Shiites that followed. Nineteen people were reported injured.

January 31

Two people were killed in a shooting incident at an unauthorised procession of Muharram in the under-curfew town of Hangu in NWFP, adding to two deaths in a mortar attack on a Shia procession the day before.

February 1

Suspected militants ambushed a van and killed two government officials and a police personnel in North Waziristan. Two Communication and Works Department officials and police personnel Nekmatullah were on their way to Mir Ali when four gunmen in a vehicle fired at their van, killing all three on the spot and wounding three others.

Two civilians were killed in a bomb blast at Bara in NWFP. Official sources said a civilian, identified as Dakhan, was inspecting a bomb at home – after his neighbour Bilal found it in the nearby fields – when the blast occurred, killing Dakhan and his daughter-in-law and injuring six persons, including five children.

February 3

A suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden jeep into a military convoy, killing two soldiers and injuring seven others in the Barakhel area of Tank district in NWFP. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities suspected pro-Taliban tribal militants from South Waziristan were behind it.

February 5

A pro-government tribal leader was among two people killed in a landmine explosion in Nawagai tehsil (administrative division) near the border with Afghanistan.

February 6

Suspected militants killed two Afghan nationals they accused of being spies of the United States in North Waziristan. An administration official told that the two bodies, recovered near Mubarak Shahi village were kept in the Town Hall in Miranshah for identification, but were later buried at Sheikh Adam cemetery when nobody came to claim them.

A suicide attacker blew himself up in the car park of Islamabad airport, killing himself and injuring 10 people, mostly security force personnel. Police officials said that the attacker arrived at the airport close to 8:50 pm in a taxi with two other people and was stopped for checking by Airport Security Force officials who asked for his identification. The man opened fire at the guards and then ran towards the VIP lounge of the airport forcing the security officials to return fire, which led to an explosion.

February 7

Two armed motorcyclists killed an Intelligence Bureau official at Zarghun Khel post near Darra Adam Khel in the North West Frontier Province while he was on his way to Peshawar after attending a Jirga (tribal grand council).

February 10

A civilian, identified as Abdul Ghani Jan, was killed and two persons wounded during a landmine blast in the Sibi district of Balochistan.

A blast at the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) at around 4:30am damaged four vehicles and some property, but nobody was injured as the office was closed, said an ICRC spokesman and police.

February 12

At least 700 Taliban activists have crossed from Pakistan into Afghanistan to reinforce militants attacking a key dam, a major source of electricity and irrigation, a provincial governor in Afghanistan said. "We have got confirmed reports that they are Pakistani, Uzbek and Chechen nationals and have sneaked in," Helmand Governor Asadullah Wafa told Reuters. The Kajaki dam has seen major fighting in recent weeks between the Taliban and NATO forces, mainly British and Dutch.

February 14

In a suspected sectarian incident, two unidentified gunmen killed Shia leader Jawad Hussain in the Dera Ismail Khan city of North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Hussain was a local leader of the Shia group Tehrik Nifaz Fiqa-i-Jafria (TNFJ).

President General Pervez Musharraf has said that the Government will not allow the Talibanisation of Pakistani society, nor allow the Taliban to impede development and prosperity. "The Taliban system will not be allowed to come to the country and the Taliban will not be allowed to hamper the path to development and prosperity. We will continue to move forward to transform Pakistan into a moderate, enlightened, Muslim welfare state," Gen. Musharraf said in his address at a seminar titled ‘Voices of Asia for the process of peace, cooperation and security’, held in Islamabad at the Institute of Strategic Studies.

President Musharraf has said that the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) will be amalgamated into the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) after the Taliban and al Qaeda elements are eliminated from the region. In an interview with ARY Television aired on February 14, Gen. Musharraf said the Government had started work towards this end in 2000 with the consent of tribal elders, who welcomed this step. "We should have amalgamated FATA into the NWFP province much earlier. We had the same idea when our forces entered the area," he said.

A top US military commander called for "steady and direct" attacks on Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan. Lt-Gen Karl W. Eikenberry, the outgoing commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, warned that the Karzai Government would suffer an irreversible loss of legitimacy among Afghanis if the internal situation did not improve. He claimed that senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders have set up training camps and recruiting grounds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which they use for carrying out attacks in Afghanistan. Since September 2006, when Pakistan signed a peace deal with tribesmen in North Waziristan, "the cross-border attacks have tripled," he said. "Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership presence inside Pakistan remains a very significant problem," Gen Eikenberry told the House Armed Services Committee in Washington, warning of the "growing threat of Talibanization" inside Pakistan.

February 15

The Government has decided to repatriate all Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan by 2009. This was announced at a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Cabinet Committee held in Islamabad. The committee – headed by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao –devised a strategy to send all Afghan refugees back to their homeland in three years, from 2007 to 2009. Under the strategy, four camps of Afghan refugees located in Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) will be removed in the ongoing year. In the first phase, two of them -- one in each province -- will be dismantled in March.

February 17

Seventeen people, including a senior civil judge, were killed and 30 others injured in a powerful suicide bombing in the Quetta District Courts compound. The blast occurred inside the courtroom of Senior Civil Judge Abdul Wahid Durrani at 11:05am (PST). Tariq Masood Khosa, Balochistan’s Inspector General of Police said, "It was a suicide bombing which is evident from the recovery of the heads of two persons. One of them entered the courtroom and blew himself up."

February 18

Two children were killed and three SF personnel wounded in two separate landmine explosions in Balochistan.

The Government has ordered immediate closure of all offices of the Al-Rashid Trust (ART) and Al-Akhtar Trust (AAT) throughout Pakistan after the United Nations Security Council declared them to have links to militant groups. Interior Ministry reportedly directed the four provinces, the chief secretaries of the Northern Areas and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Pakistan occupied Kashmir) and the Islamabad Capital Territory district administration to close the offices, schools, hospitals and other ongoing projects of ART and AAT in their respective areas. They have also been asked to detain the staff of the two trusts, impound their vehicles and confiscate equipment from their offices.

February 19

President Pervez Musharraf said that the attack on the Samjhauta Express would not be allowed to sabotage the ongoing peace process with India. "Such wanton acts of terrorism will only serve to further strengthen the resolve to attain the mutually desired objective of sustainable peace between Pakistan and India," Gen. Musharraf said in a statement.

February 20

An Islamist "fanatic" shot dead the Social Welfare Minister of Punjab province, Zile Huma Usman, in an open court in her hometown of Gujranwala. Police said Muhammad Sarwar shot dead the minister during a brief power cut during the open court at Pakistan Muslim League House. Police arrested Sarwar immediately after the shooting and later said he was a religious fanatic opposed to women being independent, and had been implicated in four murders and two attempted murders in Gujranwala. "He considers it contrary to the teachings of Allah for a woman to become a minister or a ruler. That’s why he committed this action," the police said in a statement.

An Afghan refugee was beheaded for allegedly being a US spy in North Waziristan. The decapitated body of Nek Amal, a 35-year old man from Zozak village in the Afghan province of Khost, was found in Saidgey village, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in North Waziristan.

Federal Minister for Frontier Regions, Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, survived an attempt on his life in the Sani area of Bolan district in Balochistan province. The minister was reportedly going to Sibi from his native town of Shoran to attend a meeting.

An eight-member bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the office of the Mohtasib (ombudsman), as envisaged in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Assembly’s Hasba Bill, could not be delegated judicial powers and a seminary-qualified person could not be graded an ‘aalim’ for appointment as a provincial Mohtasib. The court said the NWFP Assembly should review the Hasba Bill to exclude controversial sections, otherwise the rest of the bill was okay. The bench was giving its ruling on a reference filed by President Pervez Musharraf, who had sought the court’s opinion on Hasba Bill’s validity.

February 21

A tribal elder was shot dead in the Tank district of NWFP. Police said armed men intruded into the house of Malik Karim Khan in the Totkai locality of Tank on February 20-night and shot him dead. Malik Karim belonged to South Waziristan and had shifted to Tank due to the security situation in Waziristan.

Intelligence agencies indicated that Taliban commanders plan to carry out 12 suicide attacks in various parts of Pakistan. According to intelligence reports submitted to the Interior Ministry, the attacks have been planned by Taliban commanders such as Baitullah Mehsud, Abdullah Mehsud, Sheikh Khalid Mahmood and Nazir Wazir. The reports also name five of the 12 expected suicide bombers and their targets. They say that Nurani, a resident of Ghazni district in Afghanistan, has been given the task to carry out a suicide attack in Islamabad or Sargodha. Gul Jan, who belongs to the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan, has reportedly been tasked with an attack in Lahore. Miatol, who belongs to a Punjabi tribe, is stated to be planning an attack in Dera Ismail Khan. Ziaul Haq, a resident of Shand Estate, is reported to be preparing a suicide blast in the Bahawalpur region. Mohammad Zaman, a resident of Waziristan, is said to be planning attacks in Lahore and Rawalpindi.

Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network continue to operate from the area that straddles the Durand Line, said the US State Department without specifying whether the alleged Al Qaeda camps are on the Afghan or Pakistan side of the border. "We continue to be concerned about the existence of Al Qaeda’s leadership that’s out there, Osama bin Laden among others," the department’s deputy spokesperson Tom Casey told a briefing in Washington. "And we continue to be concerned as you know, about cross-border activities from Pakistan to Afghanistan," he added. Casey was commenting on a New York Times report earlier this week that the al Qaeda leadership has successfully revived the terrorist network, working from bases in North Waziristan.

February 22

Police in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, seized eight kilograms of explosive material, a detonator and a remote-controlled bomb from the Hazar Gangi area, but no arrests are made.

Security agencies claimed to have averted at least four major terrorist attacks in different parts of the country and said that 19 suspects, who are being controlled by some people in tribal areas near the Afghan border, had been arrested. An interior ministry official told that seven people had been arrested from Dera Ismail Khan on January 29. They are local Taliban and belonged to the Mehsud tribe from South Waziristan. Further, 12 Afghan nationals are arrested for suspected links with militants in Faisalabad on January 29, he added. The interior ministry official informed that a countrywide terror alert, especially in capital Islamabad, had been issued after investigations revealed presence of some suicide bombers in various parts of the country. The terror threat level had not been loared from ‘red alert’, he added.

February 23

A bomb exploded in the Mastung town of Balochistan province without causing any loss of life or injuries. According to police sources, a home-made bomb planted along the wall of the office of the Public Safety Commission with timer exploded at around 10.30pm (PST). The wall of the Public Safety Commission office collapsed while windowpanes of many nearby houses are destroyed in the explosion.

Five private English medium schools providing co-education remained closed in Peshawar, capital of NWFP, after security agencies advised their management to make security arrangements for themselves. The institutions are reportedly in the grip of rumours that suicide bombers may target private schools that provide co-education. The five educational institutions – the City School, Peshawar Grammar School, Frontier Education Foundation, four branches of the Beacon House School in various parts of the city and a branch of Bloomfield School in the University Town – are closed by their respective administrations after receiving instructions from security agencies that terrorists may target them.

Security agencies warned that a female suicide bomber in fashionable clothes and sunglasses might target Pakistan Air Force (PAF) installations in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, to avenge an air strike on a Madrassa (seminary) in Bajaur on October 31, 2006. "This suicide bomber will be different from others. This one will not have a beard... it will be a good-looking girl with the aim to avenge the air strike," official sources told. Sources said that the would-be suicide bomber would target PAF-run schools and colleges to kill as many male and female students as possible. However, PAF spokesperson Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmed Khan said "We got no special threat."

Maulana Ameer Hamza of the Jama’at-ud-Da’awa said that a suicide attack is, beyond doubt, an act of terrorism. He said that someone who kills himself to kill others also "recounts for the sins of those who (he has) killed." The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that since Islam did not permit the killing of innocent people, it is necessary to figure out why suicide bombers went to such extremes. He said that since there is no way of effectively stopping a suicide bomber, the only solution is to eliminate the causes which gave rise to such resentment that people resorted to suicidal tactics. He added that no final Fatwa could be given on the issue, since a suicidal defence strategy is employed by the Pakistani Army at Chawinda to repel an Indian attack during the 1965 war, a strategy that is approved by the religious scholars of the time. However, he said that an Islamic war by an Islamic state could not be compared to the recent wave of suicide attacks that targeted innocent civilians.

Former minister and Sunni cleric Dr Mehmood Ahmad Ghazi reportedly said, "A suicide attack is clearly murder and its legality is further called into question by the fact that they occurred in a Muslim state which is not occupied by infidels." Other clerics quoted in the report included Sunni scholars Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman and Allama Jamil Ahmed Naeemi and Shia clerics Allama Abass Hussain, Allama Sheryar Aabidi, Allama Shehnshah Naqvi and Allama Ather Mashhadi.

February 24

The power supply to several parts of Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, is disrupted after some unidentified people fired a rocket at the Sheik Mandha grid station near Askari Park.

Three suspected militants are killed at Cheechawatni near Multan in the Punjab province when the explosives they are carrying on a bicycle detonated. Police said that two of the men are from a Madrassa (seminary) that had links with the banned Sunni group, SSP.  

February 25

A woman and her two children are killed when insurgents fired a rocket at their house in the Kahan area of Kohlu district in Balochistan province. Government officials, however, did not confirm the report.  

Insurgents also blew up a two-foot section of the railway track near the provincial capital Quetta with a powerful bomb. Police defused three other bombs found near the blast’s site.  

A bomb blast is reported outside a security force’s check post. No loss of life or injuries is reported.  

Another rocket is fired at the Balochistan Constabulary’s check post in the Khuzdar district. The rocket missed the intended target and landed a few meters away from the check post. No damage is reported.

"Police have arrested 40 students and six teachers of Aziz-ul-Aloom, a seminary in Cheechawatni," a police official said. "Maulana Alam Tariq, the late Maulana Azam Tariq’s brother, is among the arrested," he informed. "The suspects are members of the Sunni extremist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi [LeJ]," police sources said.

The main railway track near Dera Murad Jamali is blown up late, severing rail link between Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, and rest of the country for a second time in 24 hours. "At least three feet of the rail track near village Sona Khan Bugti is blown up when an explosive device went off," said Nasirabad District Police Officer Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

February 26

A militant is killed and his accomplice wounded during a clash with police at Tank in the NWFP after a gang had taken away the city’s fire engine from Wazirabad locality. Witnesses said three police personnel are injured when the militants hurled a hand grenade on them.

In NWFP, a police station is partially damaged in a rocket attack at Bannu. No casualties are reported. "The Mandan police station is attacked the night between Sunday and Monday," said police officials.

In Balochistan, a bomb explosion is reported from the Mastung town. No loss of life or injuries is reported.

February 27

Al Qaeda is re-establishing training camps in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zwahiri are probably there too, the new US intelligence chief said. "To the best of our knowledge the senior leadership [of Al Qaeda], number one and number two, are there," retired admiral Michael McConnell, the new Director of National Intelligence, told a Congressional hearing.

Director of United States National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Al Qaeda and the Taliban maintain "critical sanctuaries" in Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. He said that while 75 percent of Al-Qaida's leadership has been killed or captured, a new generation of terrorists is training in Iraq, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and East Africa. Criticising Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for making agreements with local tribal leaders who since have allowed the Taliban and Al Qaeda to regroup, McConnell said, "The president of Pakistan believed that he could be more effective by signing this peace agreement. And in our point of view, capabilities of Al Qaeda for training and so on increased." He added, "We believe (Pakistan) could do more."

Security forces captured a high-ranking Taliban leader, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. An unidentified security official said that Akhund, the third most senior member of the Taliban’s 10-member leadership council, is arrested after a visit to Pakistan by United States Vice-President Dick Cheney. The head of the Interior Ministry’s Crisis Management Unit, retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, however, denied that Akhund had been detained. 

February 28

Two American states have clamped restrictions on a Pakistani bank on terror finance-related suspicions. "Two US states have restricted this bank from dealing in transactions in foreign exchange, transfers of credits to foreign banks and importing and exporting currency or securities," sources claimed, without naming the bank or the two US states that have subjected the bank to this action. Asked what had prompted the US states to take this action, the sources said that it is a news report carried by a section of the Pakistani press accusing this bank and others of involvement in terrorist money transfers from the UK. UK-based charities had allegedly transferred funds through this bank’s branch in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, and this money landed in the hands of alleged terrorists who helped finance the UK-bombing plot in 2006.

President Pervez Musharraf warned foreign terrorists hiding in Pakistan’s mountainous tribal areas to leave the country or face the consequences. Speaking at a large public gathering at Larkana he said, "People come to Pakistan from outside – they are living in our mountains and spreading terror not just in Pakistan, but the world over." He added, "These people are endangering Pakistan’s image and its security and should leave, or they will be dealt with."

Five Afghans with suspected links to the Taliban have been arrested during a raid in a hotel in Quetta. Police official Qazi Abdul Wahid said, "They appeared to be affiliates of the Taliban and we are interrogating the suspects about their links."

March 1

A madrassa (seminary) teacher, identified as Akhtar Usmani, is killed by suspected Taliban militants for allegedly spying for the United States and his beheaded body is found in Jandola – a town in Tank, near the border of South Waziristan. Tribal officials aid that the slain teacher had also made recordings of anti-Taliban speeches. Urdu word ‘munafiq’ (hypocrite) is scrawled across his forehead.

President General Pervez Musharraf said that the government is willing to hold talks with insurgents in Balochistan to end the violence in the province. Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the Sibbi festival in Sibbi, he said, "They should tell us what their demands are. We are ready to give them everything." He, however, added that "no power can separate Balochistan from Pakistan". Musharraf further said, "We have the capability to counter terrorist acts in Balochistan. Those indulging in terrorist acts are also from among us. I appeal to them to give up these activities and join the development process."

March 2

Three policemen are killed and nine others, including an anti-terrorist Judge Bashir Ahmed Bhatti, are wounded when a remote-controlled bomb attached to a bicycle exploded in Multan. Bhatti is travelling to his court when the bomb went off damaging his vehicle. "A bomb of high intensity is planted on a bicycle in front of a basketball stadium near the court, and it exploded as the car of the special anti-terrorism court judge passed. It is a targeted attack… Two police gunmen died on the spot, and another nine people are injured: the judge, six policemen and two bystanders," said district police chief Munir Ahmed Chishti.

March 5

In North Waziristan, suspected militants shot dead two tribesman accused of spying for United States (US) forces operating in Afghanistan. Body of 30-year-old Qayyum Shahmiri was found early south of Miranshah. Another body was found later from a drain in Manzar Khel town, south of Miranshah. Notes left with the bodies described the killed as ‘American spies’.

March 6

Around 15 people were killed and several others injured in a reported clash between the Wazir Zalikhel sub-tribe and foreign militants near Azam Warsak in South Waziristan. Eyewitnesses told, "Among the dead are 13 militants, most of them Uzbeks and Tajiks, while two brothers of Zalikhel chieftain Malik Saeedullah were also killed." Eyewitnesses further said, "Foreign militants and their local supporters attacked the brothers of the chieftain on Tuesday, killing both of them, and this led to a gunbattle." A confirmation of the report from authorities in Wana, however, could not be received.

First meet of the anti-terrorism mechanism (ATM) between India and Pakistan takes place in Islamabad in accordance with the September 2006 decision of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf. A five-member delegation led by K.C. Singh, Additional Secretary in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), left for Islamabad on March 5. According to the officials, the meeting will have a broad agenda, where specifics will be discussed. They confirmed that the February 19 explosions in the Samjhauta Express would figure in the talks.

March 7

A Pakistani official has denied that there is a link between the Government and the Taliban. Shafqat Jalil, the press counsellor at Pakistan's permanent mission to the United Nations (UN), wrote in a letter that the attempt to link the Taliban to Pakistan's domestic political situation was based on "incorrect information".

March 8

Pakistan Navy's submarine force Commodore Farrukh Mahfouz said that Pakistan would not allow its maritime area to become a 'floating base' for international terrorism.

March 9

Pakistan Government agreed to launch no more land or air attacks in North Waziristan and also agreed to the withdrawal of the army from check posts into camps. The deal was signed between the North Waziristan political agent representing the NWFP Governor and "Tribal leaders of North Waziristan, local mujahideen and elders of the Utmanzai tribes". The party of the second part agreed to ensure that no attacks were carried against law-enforcement agencies or on government assets and there would be no "target killings". The tribal elders and others also agreed not to set up a parallel administration, and accept the writ of the Pakistan Government.

March 10

Unidentified assailants shot dead a retired Shia soldier in Dera Ismail Khan of NWFP and a government employee from the community in the same region on March 10. Local police officer Aslam Khattak said, "The murders appear to be sectarian terrorism".

March 12

Suspected Sunni militants shot dead a Shia man, identified as Syed Arshad Abbas, in Dera Ismail Khan city of the NWFP.

March 12

The headless body of a person was found in a sack on a roadside in Jandola town, bordering South Waziristan. Pakistani militants beheaded the accused of spying for United States forces in Afghanistan. The severed head had been placed near the sack and a note near his body read "US spy" and "Rawalpindi", in an apparent reference to the garrison city housing the army headquarters.

March 13

Gunmen on a motorcycle killed Maulana Farooq Ahmed, a Sunni cleric, in the same city, said local police officials. Ahmed was a member of the outlawed SSP.

March 14

Two senior US officials –- the secretary of defence and the military chief -– have once again accused Pakistan of allowing the Taliban and al Qaeda to continue their activities in FATA.

March 16

The NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai said that continued hostilities between two religious groups in Bara had threatened peace and were hampering development projects in the Khyber Agency. According to an official statement, Orakzai was talking to a jirga of Afridi tribe elders, who called on him at the Governor’s House to apprise him of progress made, so far, in resolving the dispute between the two religious factions in the Bara subdivision. He said numerous innocent people had lost their lives in the ongoing conflict, warning that the political administration could not allow such a tense situation to persist any longer, as it was bringing a bad name to the Afridi tribe and the political administration.

March 17

A jirga (council) of Mamoond tribal elders and senior administration officials warned tribesmen against sheltering foreign terrorists in Bajaur Agency that overlooks Afghanistan’s Kunar province. Tribal elder Malik Shah Jehan told the jirga "Anyone sheltering foreigners will be punished heavily." Quoting tribal elders the report said that the jirga is a step towards a North Waziristan-like peace accord. The report further said that the government was trying to reach a North Waziristan-like peace accord with Bajaur militant leader Maulana Faqir Muhammad.

March 18

A Pakistani official denied that Pakistan was playing a "direct role in arming and financing" the Taliban.

March 19

Militants shot dead a traffic policeman at a bazaar in Tank. The shooting appeared to be linked to a string of attacks on Policemen by suspected pro-Taliban militants in the region since January.

March 20

Pakistan Ambassador to United States Munir Akram told the UN Security Council that there was no proven direct co-relation of an increase in incidents inside Afghanistan with the conclusion of the North Waziristan agreement signed by the Pakistani Government with tribal leaders. He said that suicide attacks, facilitators and Taliban commanders were crossing over from Pakistan, crossing of the border was in both directions, and the Taliban must be controlled on both sides of the border. He refuted allegations of "safe havens and sanctuaries" for Taliban in Pakistan as "unsubstantiated".

March 19-22

Government is considering launching an offensive to flush out foreign militants in the Waziristan tribal region, particularly in Wana. A senior ministry official said the Government had prepared a plan in consultation with the army.

March 21

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed worry that Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan was serving as a possible safe haven for terrorists and said extremists in the area have to be dealt with.

March 23

Suspected militants have now started sending threatening letters to owners of internet cafés and video centres and principals of Government and private schools in Charsadda, following similar incidents in other areas. The letters warn, "Do away with un-Islamic practices, otherwise you will have to face dire consequences." It was written in the notes that all video centres and Internet cafes must be closed between March 23 and April 23. According to the letters, female students should start wearing veils or "face dire consequences".

March 24

After a one-day lull, clashes erupted once again between local tribal militias and foreign, mostly Uzbek militants, in North Waziristan.

March 25

The NWFP can only be renamed through a referendum, Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Salim Saifullah Khan said in a statement.

March 26

Tribesmen in the Bajaur agency gave an undertaking to the Government to deny shelter to "locals as well as foreigners, including Afghans" involved in terrorist or anti-state activities. The five-point undertaking was signed by 800 tribal elders at a jirga held at the regional headquarters of the agency in Khaar. It was signed by tribal region’s administrator Shakeel Qadir Khan as a witness. The meeting was attended by elders from two major tribes, Utmankhel and Tarkhani, ulema, parliamentarians and officials of the political administration. "This is an undertaking and not an agreement. This is an undertaking by the tribesmen and the government is not a party to it. We have not pledged anything in return," the administrator said.

March 27

President Pervez Musharraf denied that his Government was behind the disappearances of hundreds of citizens and said that they were in the custody of jihadi groups. The President said that they had probably been "brainwashed" into joining militant groups.

March 28

At least 25 Taliban militants and a paramilitary soldier were killed in a gun battle that continued for six-hours in the Tank town of NWFP. Tank District Police Officer Mumtaz Zarin said that security forces killed at least 25 militants when more than 200 Taliban cadres attacked the city from all sides. A police source said that two police stations, a paramilitary fort and bank branches were damaged in the Taliban attack.

March 29

A suicide bomber blew himself up in an army training area in Guliana near Kharian Cantonment, killing two soldiers and injuring seven others.

March 30

The Council of Islamic Ideology said that the Government should take stern action against religious organisations challenging the writ of the Government and disrupting law and order in the country.

March 31

Local tribesmen attacked foreign al Qaeda militants hiding in bunkers in the ongoing clashes that killed five people in South Waziristan, bringing the total death toll since fighting began on March 19 to 177.

April 1

An amended EU report on Kashmir asked Pakistan to disarm the militants, shut down terrorist training camps and end the flow of weapons and money to the Taliban and other militants based in Pakistani territory. The report, cleared by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said Pakistan-based militant groups like the LeT and HuM were continuing operations. It noted that while there has been a steady decline in the number of victims of terror attacks over the past five years, the activities of constantly mutating terrorist groups like the LeT and HuM have caused "hundreds of deaths in Jammu and Kashmir and beyond."

April 2

The Jirga (tribal council) in Wana resolved that all the foreigners and their local supporters were liable to death and all those tribesmen able to pick guns should join the tribal force to eliminate these elements or evict them from the agency.

April 4

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad that around 200 Uzbek militants and 50 tribesmen have been killed since March 19. "This is the result of the agreements the government made with tribal people in which they pledged to expel foreigners and now they are doing it," he said.

April 5

Pakistan rejected a United States media report that it was secretly aiding a militant group for attacks across the border in Iran as "tendentious". It described as an "absurd and sinister insinuation" that Pakistan was part of a "secret campaign" against Iran.

April 6

Formally announcing the establishment of a parallel judicial system, the pro-Taliban Lal Masjid administration vowed to enforce Islamic laws in Islamabad and threatened to unleash a wave of suicide bombers if the government took any action to counter it.

April 7

At least 40 persons were killed and an unspecified number of them wounded at Parachinar and other parts of the Kurram tribal agency in the FATA on the second day of sectarian clashes. Arbab Muhammad Arif, Secretary (Security) for the FATA denied the suggestion that Pakistan Army’s helicopter gun-ships had caused most of the fatalities by firing at combatants from the air.

April 8

16 more persons were killed in the Kurram Agency of FATA as sectarian clashes spread to most parts of the tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Nine Shias and seven Sunnis were reportedly killed in different villages of the Kurram Agency.

April 9

Ministers and officials of the intelligence agencies reportedly voiced opposition to a crackdown on students of the pro-Taliban Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia and the Lal Masjid administration for political and security reasons. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told the meeting, chaired by President Pervez Musharraf, that the government could not afford the use of force against seminary students since general elections were near.

April 10

Eight more persons were killed on the fifth day of the sectarian clashes in the Kurram Agency of the FATA.

April 10-11

At least 45 more people were killed during sectarian clashes in the Kurram Agency of FATA as Shia and Sunni combatants continued to attack each other’s villages with heavy weapons despite warnings of military action by the government against those refusing to stop fighting. For the sixth day, fighting occurred in most parts of the Kurram Agency bordering Afghanistan.

April 11