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
The death toll rises to 19 in
a reported clash between the Wazir Zalikhel sub-tribe and foreign
militants near Azam Warsak in South Waziristan on February 6.
"The death toll has risen to 19, from 15 yesterday. The dead include
12 Uzbek militants and three local supporters, three members of
local peace committee and one Afghan shopkeeper," a security official
said, adding, "The militants regrouped Tuesday night and torched
two residential compounds belonging to Malik Saadullah(a pro-government
tribal chief). Militants also abducted six of Saadullah's men
but released three of them after a few hours."
A bomb attached to a motorcycle
went off near a vehicle carrying pro-government tribal elders
in Sui, killing one of the elders and wounding 12 others, an official
said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates
said that the Taliban and al Qaeda are using Pakistan's tribal
areas, particularly North Waziristan, to regroup. "I would say
the Taliban and Al Qaeda have been able to use the areas around,
particularly North Waziristan, to regroup and it is a problem.
We are working together with Pakistan to address that problem,"
Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.
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
A suspected member of banned SSP
outfit, identified as Sarwar Alam alias Alami, was shot dead by
gunmen at Dera Ismail Khan.
The outgoing US Ambassador Ryan
C. Crocker has said that the peace deal between the Pakistan Government
and tribal elders in Waziristan, though "well written", has not
been implemented.
President Pervez Musharraf has
said that the country is facing 'serious threats' of suicide bombing
and extremism, which need to be checked before it is too late.
"The menace of terrorism, particularly suicide bombing and extremism,
is eating up the fabric of society like a termite and we all have
to play our role in combating it," he said.
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
Suspected pro-Taliban rebels in
Pakistan’s tribal belt shot dead an Afghan refugee accused of
spying for United States forces operating in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Abdul Rahim was shot dead in Mohammad Khel village south of Miranshah,
the main town of North Waziristan tribal district on March 8,
a security official said.
Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed
a Shia businessman, Anwar Ali Shah at Dera Ismail Khan.
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
Security forces killed three militants
who were trying to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan in Dwatoi of
North Waziristan. A junior commissioned officer was also killed
during the encounter, the first direct confrontation with militants
following the September 5, 2006 peace accord between the government
and pro-Taliban elders. The army provided no details about the
identity of the slain militants.
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 shot dead two persons,
a Shia and a Sunni, in the Dera Ismail Khan Town of NWFP, raising
the toll from sectarian violence in the town in the last week
to seven, Police said. Police said that Niaz Ahmed, a teacher
from the minority Shia community, was shot dead by unknown assailants
on a motorcycle when he was going to school in Dera Ismail Khan.
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
SFs arrested Wahid Bakhsh Qambar,
Tump area leader of the banned BLA, along with 13 of his men after
a brief clash in the Tump area, security officials said arms,
were recovered from the incident site.
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
Unidentified men gunned down a
watchman and blew up four video CD shops in Bukshali Bazaar in
Mardan in the NWFP.
Five workers of the Muslim Students
Federation (MSF), the student wing of the ruling Muslim Conference,
sustained bullet wounds in a clash with activists of pro-independence
National Students Federation (NSF) near Muzaffarabad in the PoK.
The clash erupted after MSF activists pasted a poster of their
organisation’s "Kashmir banega Pakistan" rally outside
a shop which reportedly belonged to the family of an NSF leader
in Zaminabad village, along the Muzaffarabad-Kohala road.
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
President General Pervez Musharraf
warned militants that they should lay down their arms, otherwise
"they will be eliminated and allowed to exist no more." Where
does decency stand on the way to blowing up gas pipelines and
railway tracks? These elements are opposed to development and
want their hegemony to prevail. I warn them to surrender, otherwise
they will be eliminated and they will not be allowed to exist
any more ... these miscreants are minimal in number, and we will
deal with them. If they want to fight, I know (how) to fight more
than them," said Musharraf while inaugurating the Gwadar deep-sea
port.
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
Nearly 160 people, including 130
foreign militants, were killed in four days of fighting between
the al Qaeda-linked militants and Pakistani tribesmen. Fresh fighting
broke out on March 19 in Shin Warsak village, seven kilometers
west of Wana. Earlier, a battle between foreign militants, most
of them Uzbeks, and ethnic Pashtun tribesmen erupted in the remote
area near the Afghan border on March 6, when militants tried to
kill a pro-Government tribal leader, in which seventeen people,
most of them Uzbeks, were killed. This followed Government efforts
to convince the tribesmen to help keep order and stop militant
raids into Afghanistan. "It's a success of the Government tribesmen
strategy ... the tribesmen are fed up with them because they and
their activities adversely affect their lives and business," said
Military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad.
A Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) –
Fazlur Rehman dominated tribal jirga on March 22 brokered a temporary
cease-fire between foreign militants and Wazir tribes in South
Waziristan. "Both sides have agreed to the jirga demand for a
ceasefire," said Niaz Muhammad Qureshi, JUI-F information secretary
for South Waziristan. "We are glad that the two sides conceded
to the tribal elders and clerics’ plea for silencing their guns
in order to solve their issues through peaceful means," he added.
Senior militant leaders like Baitullah Mehsud, Sirajuddin Haqqani,
son of senior Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, and an unnamed
Taliban commander from across the Afghan border reached undisclosed
locations in South Waziristan to take part in the cease-fire negotiations.
"They are all monitoring the situation and discussing with key
local militant commanders how things can be cooled down," said
tribal sources. Tribal sources said that Maulvi Nazir, commander
of pro-Taliban tribal militants in Wazir areas, at one point was
unwilling to negotiate a cease-fire with foreign militants and
their local harbourers. "The jirga members convinced him after
hours-long parleys," said sources in Dera Ismail Khan city, 200
miles south of Peshawar.
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
Five FC personnel were killed
and four injured when unidentified gunmen ambushed their vehicle
in the Bramcha area of Chagai district, an FC official said.
Tribesmen, led by Maulavi Nazir,
are reported to have recovered 18,00 hand-grenades, 175 rocket-propelled
grenades, 188 Kalashnikovs and thousands of rounds of ammunition
from a private jail run by Uzbeks in the Kaloosha area.
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
The NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai
said that foreign militants battling tribesmen in South Waziristan
could still avail an amnesty offer if they surrendered to the
authorities. Orakzai said there could be around 500 foreign militants
still hiding in the area.
Unidentified insurgents blew up
an electricity tower in Mohmand Agency in the NWFP. Unidentified
miscreants had sabotaged some towers in November 2006. The MRM
has been blamed for previous sabotages of electricity towers and
Government officials have accused the organisation for this recent
subversive activity. However, the MRM has denied involvement in
this incident, saying that the administration was making false
allegations against the organisation to foil its March 26 strike.
The MRM demanded that 25 villages, which were part of the agency
and later included in the settles areas, be re-included in the
agency.
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
Pakistan army patrols of the border
with Afghanistan and refugee camps are helping to block Taliban
reinforcements moving into the south, a NATO commander said. A
NATO and Afghan operation launched in the southern province of
Helmand nearly three weeks ago had not been met with any "major
mobilisation" of forces, Major General Ton van Loon told
reporters. In that area, "We are seeing that there are limited
amounts of foreign fighters coming into the country and I think
the Pakistanis are really making a big difference," the Dutch
General told reporters. There had been an "increase in patrolling
at the border and around refugee camps by the Pakistani army,"
he said.
The NWFP can only be renamed through
a referendum, Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination
Salim Saifullah Khan said in a statement.
March 26
A police officer and two attackers
were killed, while 13 others, including three paramilitary soldiers
and a constable, were wounded when suspected militants attacked
a police station, an armoured personnel carrier and FC fort with
hand grenades in Tank city of NWFP, Police and residents said.
Tribal militants praised by the
Government for a bloody assault on foreign fighters in Pakistan
said that they would continue to go to Afghanistan to fight foreign
forces. The tribal militia told reporters that they had not turned
against the foreigners for the Government’s sake. "We will continue
our jihad (in Afghanistan) if that is against America, the Russians,
British or India as long as we have souls in our bodies," Haji
Sharif, an aide to Maulvi Nazir, told reporters in Wana. Nazir’s
representatives escorted reporters to the area, where sympathies
for the Taliban run high and which is generally off-limits to
outside journalists. Sharif said "Our activities across the border
have been affected by our crisis with the Uzbeks. We have enemies
in our home," he said.
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
Unidentified gunmen attacked an
ISI vehicle in the Rashakai area – 10-kilometres from Khar Bazaar
of Bajaur Agency, killing four officials, including Deputy Director
Mohammad Sadique alias Major Hamza, said officials. The other
three officials were identified as Saeedur Rehman, Hussain Ahmad
and Umer Khan.
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
At least four persons were killed
and as many wounded in clashes between two militant groups in
South Waziristan.
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
Pakistani tribesmen traded heavy
rocket and mortar fire with foreign al Qaeda militants in South
Waziristan for a second day, leaving 56 people dead. Interior
Minister Aftab Sherpao said, "Fifty-four people were killed today
(and) two yesterday. They include 45 foreigners."
Maulana Abdul Aziz, the prayer
leader at Lal Masjid and principal of Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad,
gave the Government a week’s deadline to "enforce Sharia" in the
country, otherwise "clerics will Islamise society themselves".
"If the government does not impose Sharia within a week, we will
do it," Aziz told a gathering after Friday prayers.
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
Ten people were killed and an
unspecified number of them wounded in renewed fighting between
the pro-government tribesmen and foreign militants, even as the
Ahmadzai Wazir tribe gave a call to all the tribesmen to go after
the foreign militants and their local supporters to purge the
area from outsiders.
Two people were killed and nine
others injured in a clash between two religious groups at Khyber
Agency in the FATA.
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
An estimated 50 people were killed
in fresh clashes between pro-government tribesmen and foreign
militants in South Waziristan. A tribal army led by Maulana Nazir,
a pro-government militant commander waging a fight against Uzbek
militants, captured the strategic area of Sheen Warsak west of
Wana after a fierce battle in which 19 Uzbeks and five tribesmen
were killed. Three paramilitary soldiers were also killed during
the fighting. In a gun-battle in Zaghunday, north of Sheen Warsak,
the tribal army killed 25 Uzbeks.
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
Hard-line religious leaders established
a Qazi court (a parallel judicial system) in the Lal Masjid (Red
Mosque) in capital Islamabad, challenging the writ of the government
for the fourth time over the past 45 days. According to an announcement
from Lal Masjid, the court comprising 10 Muftis will decide disputes
and give their verdict in accordance with ‘Islamic injunctions’.
Three Pakistanis are facing life
imprisonment after they were charged in connection with the suicide
attacks on London’s transport system on July 7, 2005, in which
52 persons were killed. Mohammed Shakil, 30, of Beeston, a suburb
of Leeds; Sadeer Saleem, 26, also of Beeston; and Waheed Ali,
23, who recently lived in London but was originally from Beeston,
were arrested on March 22, 2007
The elders of the Ahmedzai Wazir
tribe have formally requested the government for air support and
supply of weapons against foreign militants, said a deputy spokesman
for the Maulana Nazir-led militants.
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
Pro-government tribesmen stormed
key bunkers occupied by foreign Al Qaeda militants, killing around
20 people, said security officials.
Authorities imposed a curfew in
Kurram Agency following sectarian violence in which three people
were killed and the Army was called out to control the situation.
Hospital sources said that three people were killed and 13 injured
when Shias were attacked in an Imambargah in the morning. Trouble
erupted when Shias staged a demonstration outside their mosque
against local Sunnis who allegedly chanted anti-Shia slogans during
a religious rally last week.
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
Pro-government tribesmen have reportedly cleared
the Azam Warsak area in South Waziristan of Uzbek militants linked
to the al Qaeda and hoisted their flags after establishing their
control. An official said that around 2,000 tribal volunteers
and militants allied to ‘commander’ Maulana Nazir entered Azam
Warsak on April 9-morning and hoisted white flags. "With God’s
help, we have forced Qari Tahir Khan and his supporters to flee,"
Mullah Owais Hanafi, a spokesman for the tribal army led by Maulana
Nazir, said in a statement. Qari Tahir Khan is a local name for
Tahir Yuldashev, leader of the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
At least four SF personnel were killed and two
others wounded in an ambush by insurgents near the Tartani area
of Kohlu district in Balochistan. SFs retaliated and claimed to
have arrested at least 12 armed insurgents, four of whom had been
injured in an encounter.
Despite a cease-fire between the rival Sunni
and Shia groups, sectarian riots continued in different parts
of the Kurram Agency in FATA. Political Agent Sahibzada Mohammad
Anees informed that the truce brokered in many areas of the region
with the help of tribal elders had failed to quell clashes in
far-off areas.
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
Pakistani security forces operating
in South Waziristan have made a three-tier security deployment
to stop cross-border infiltration by militants into Afghanistan,
said Major Gen Gul Muhammad, a senior military commander in Wana,
headquarters of South Waziristan. He also said that Pakistan would
shortly commence fencing of its borders along a 12-km stretch
with Afghanistan to ‘choke off’ cross-border infiltration. He
disclosed that Pakistani forces had set up 33 check-posts along
South Waziristan’s borders with Afghanistan, conducting regular
patrolling, mostly through the night and sharing information with
western forces across the border. According to him, troops operating
in the border region had also imposed a night curfew in a stretch
of three kilometers to check cross-border movement.
April 13
Three SF personnel were killed
when a landmine exploded in the Tartani Manjara area of Kohlu
district in Balochistan.
April 16
Three children were killed and
four other people, including two women, were wounded when a hand
grenade exploded inside a house in the Badhbare village in the
outskirts of Peshawar, capital of NWFP.
April 17
Activists of the SSP are conspiring
for the release of their imprisoned colleagues from various jails
through violent means, according to intelligence reports submitted
to the Interior Ministry. Intelligence reports said that SSP presidents
of southern Punjab districts, Lahore, Gujranwala, Karachi, Sukkur
and Dera Ismail Khan have been directed to help their jailed comrades
escape from police custody on their way from jails to courts.
48 SSP activists have been imprisoned at Adyala Jail and eight
of them are on death row. Most of the SSP activists have been
detained in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, the Bahawalpur Central
Jail and jails in Karachi.
A clerics’ convention on the protection
of seminaries declared that suicide bombings were un-Islamic and
must not be encouraged. A declaration made at the convention organised
by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman faction) in Peshawar,
capital of the NWFP, accused "secret forces" of plotting suicide
attacks against Muslims. Nearly 2,000 clerics from across Pakistan
reportedly participated in the convention. NWFP Chief Minister
Akram Durrani said no seminary in the province and the tribal
areas was involved in terrorism, adding that some "secret forces"
were creating law and order problems to bring a bad name to the
provincial government.
April 19
Afghan troops tore down a new
anti-Taliban fence erected by Pakistani soldiers on the border
between the two countries, leading to a gun-battle which caused
no casualties. The clash was the first since President Pervez
Musharraf announced plans earlier in 2007 to fence 35 kilometers
of Pakistan's northwestern frontier to stop the movement of militants
along the Afghan border.
The US military does not have
permission to conduct operations inside the FATA of Pakistan even
if it has information that Osama bin Laden is hiding in that area,
said the commander of the US Central Command. Admiral William
Fallon told a Congressional hearing that the arrangement they
had with Islamabad did not allow them to take direct military
actions against targets inside Pakistan.
April 21
The outlawed JeM is reportedly
re-organising itself under its new commander Mufti Abdul Rauf,
younger brother of the outfit’s chief Maulana Masood Azhar. The
JeM had established a transit camp in the capital Islamabad for
its activists coming from southern Punjab and traveling to Kohat
where another camp had been established. "Mufti Abdul Rauf
is spearheading the re-organisation of JeM," the sources
said. Rauf appeared on the scene after Maulana Azhar went underground
following two suicide attacks on President General Pervez Musharraf.
The camp in Islamabad is supposed to serve as the base for the
outfit for its propaganda campaign and distribution of pamphlets
in the tribal areas.
April 22
Three children died in an explosion
in the Khad Kocha area of Mastung district in Balochistan. Police
said two motorcyclists hurled an explosive device into the house
of one Habibullah Lehri. It exploded killing his 12-year-old daughter
Shakara and two sons, five-year old Imdadullah and two-year old
Nasibullah.
April 23
Six people were killed and 12
others sustained injuries when Lashkar-i-Islam activists and SFs
exchanged fire at Bara in the Khyber Agency of FATA.
Pakistan has adopted a four-pronged
strategy based on military, political, administrative and developmental
measures to tackle terrorism and extremism, President Pervez Musharraf
said.
April 25
Unidentified militants shot dead
three people in a targeted sectarian attack in the Dera Ismail
Khan district of the NWFP. The assailants fired from a Kalashnikov
rifle on a vehicle in which two brothers from a prominent Shia
family, Najaf Ali Shah and Syed Ali Shah, and their Sunni employee
were traveling. An unnamed official of the NWFP government is
reported to have blamed the attack on the banned Sunni group SSP
and urged Shias to remain peaceful.
Former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto admitted that supporting the Taliban was a big mistake
on the part of her government. Addressing students at the London
School of Economics, she said her government thought that Taliban
could restore peace in Afghanistan but it did not happen. "We
made mistakes and so did others. We thought Taliban would restore
peace," she said.
April 26
Following two more killings in
sectarian violence, the administration imposed a curfew in the
Dera Ismail Khan district of the NWFP. Police said two motorcycle
borne unidentified gunmen opened fire on two people sitting outside
a shop, killing them on the spot in the cantonment area.
President Pervez Musharraf has
accused the Afghan government of "doing nothing to fight terrorism"
and said that it is ‘losing the war’ against Taliban. He denied
accusations of President Karzai that the al Qaeda chief Osama
bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were in Pakistan,
saying the two men were ‘probably’ holed up in Afghanistan. President
Musharraf also said any attack by the US on Iran would fuel sectarian
tension in Pakistan, adding, "Most Pakistanis are anti-American,
and that feeling would grow."
April 27
Four people were killed and three
others sustained injuries when five missiles fired from Afghanistan
struck the Darul Uloom Hassania seminary in the Saidgi area of
North Waziristan. The seminary belongs to tribal militant commander
Maulana Noor Mohammad, who had signed a peace deal with the government
in September 2006.
A top al Qaeda ‘commander’, who
led operations in Afghanistan and also plotted the assassination
of President Pervez Musharraf, has been taken into US custody.
Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi, who was taken to Guantanamo Bay within the
past week, was reportedly intercepted as he was trying to reach
Iraq to manage the al Qaeda operations and possibly plot attacks
against western targets outside Iraq, Pentagon spokesperson Bryan
Whitman said. Recently, he associated with leaders of extremist
groups allied with the al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including
the Taliban, the Pentagon added.
Pakistan said that a total of
about 1,400 people have been killed in over 100 military operations
in South and North Waziristan and asked the international community
to extend over a billion dollars for development schemes to win
the hearts and minds of the people. The NWFP Governor informed
that Pakistani forces had killed over 600 militants, including
foreigners, and handed over to the United States an equal number
of persons involved in acts of terrorism. He said approximately
700 security force personnel had died besides more than 100 pro-government
tribal elders.
The Lashkar-e-Toiba ([LeT]; also
known as Jama’at-ud-Da’awa) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed endorsed
various steps taken by the Islamabad-based Lal Masjid (Red Mosque)
administration for the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law)
in Pakistan. "The Lal Masjid administration talks about Sharia,
therefore we support it," he said in his Friday sermon at Liaquat
Bagh in Rawalpindi.
The Supreme Court has decided
to prepare policy guidelines to control the operational role of
intelligence agencies until the government enforces a law or the
parliament legislates on the matter. Defence Secretary Kamran
Rasool disclosed that 56 out of 148 people identified by the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan had been traced.
April 28
April 28: 31 people, including
five police personnel, were killed and Federal Interior Minister
Sherpao and his young son Sikandar Sherpao Khan were among several
people wounded in a suicide attack, moments after the minister
finished a speech at a public rally in his hometown Charsadda
in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The head of the suicide
bomber, who had a brown beard and was aged between 30 and 35 years,
was found at the site of the blast near Station Koroona in Charsadda,
and "he looks like an Afghan," NWFP Inspector General of Police
Sharif Virk told reporters.
April 29
Suspected militants attacked the
army check post at Naridog in North Waziristan, killing one soldier.
Three militants were killed when the troops deployed the check
post returned fire.
Suspected militants shot dead
two men in South Waziristan for "spying for the United States."
The bodies were found near Khirgi check-post in the Jandola town,
the gateway to South Waziristan. An unnamed official said that
a note found besides the two bodies accused them of spying for
the US and of making fake currency.
The Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad
Khan Sherpao, who survived a suicide attack at Charsadda in the
NWFP on April 28, disclosed that preliminary investigation has
revealed that Waziristan-based tribal militant Abdullah Mehsud
was behind the attack. According to the minister, "preliminary
investigations have revealed that the attack was committed by
a suicide bomber of Abdullah Mehsud."
April 30
Pakistan has asked Britain to
hand over eight suspected members of the BLA in a trade-off for
extraditing to Britain Rashid Rauf, the suspected ring leader
of the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. Among
the Baloch suspects are three brothers, Zamran, Khairbiyar and
Balach Marri, who are being sought in relation to the murder of
a senior judge.
May 2
The Foreign Office spokesperson
Tasnim Aslam rejected the US State Department’s Country Reports
on Terrorism 2006 that the leadership of al Qaeda was in Pakistan.
Talking to a TV channel, she said Pakistan was the only country
that had arrested top leaders of the al Qaeda from the FATA. "If
the US State Department has such news, it should share it with
the Pakistan government," she added.
May 5
Two unidentified gunmen killed
a Shia man, identified as Imdad Hussain, at Dera Ismail Khan in
the NWFP, days after a weeklong curfew was lifted.
May 6
Unidentified gunmen shot dead
two Shia clerics in a suspected sectarian attack at Chaubara town
near Multan in the Punjab province. The attackers, reportedly
Sunni militants, attacked the clerics who were sleeping in the
guesthouse of a Shia leader. The clerics died on the spot while
another guest, a Shia lawyer, was wounded.
May 7
Intelligence agencies have warned
the Interior Ministry’s Crisis Management Cell (CMC) that a Waziristan-based
Jihadi group has planned suicide attacks at police offices to
avenge the killing of its members by security forces. The CMC
has urged the provincial home secretaries, the provincial police
chiefs and the inspectors general of police of the Northern Areas
and Azad Kashmir, and the Islamabad chief commissioner to take
necessary measures to prevent any untoward incident. The letter
warned that militants may carry out suicide attacks on police
training centers and police lines in the coming months. The CMC
letter informed that some terrorists had already entered Punjab
from Waziristan to launch suicide attacks.
May 8
Pakistan has increased the number
of its troops deployed along the Afghan border to 90,000 to make
it more difficult for the Taliban and al Qaeda militants to cross,
Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said. However, he provided no
details of when the troop increase occurred or where exactly the
troops were deployed. He also disclosed that Pakistan had increased
the number of military posts along the frontier from 100 to 110.
May 9
The US Secretary of Defence, Robert
Gates, told a congressional panel that the United States has military
missions in the FATA of Pakistan to pursue al Qaeda leaders hiding
there. He said that al Qaeda had established training facilities
in FATA and the extremist leaders based there also had links to
terror cells in other parts of the world.
May 10
Pakistan has erected the first
section of a fence on the Afghan border completing 20 kilometers
of fencing in North Waziristan’s Lwara Mundi area. Another 15-kilometre
stretch would soon be fenced in the neighbouring South Waziristan.
President Pervez Musharraf said
that security forces (SFs) are on the verge of wiping out militant
camps in Balochistan, while reiterating an amnesty offer for the
insurgents. He informed that the SFs had destroyed 65 ‘farari
[‘absconders’ or insurgent] camps’ in Balochistan and the remaining
three or four camps would be eliminated soon." President Musharraf
stated that the government had established its writ in Balochistan
and 25 districts which had been previously considered "B areas"
had now been converted into "A areas".
May 12
At least 34 people were killed
and more than 130 injured during street violence between supporters
of President Pervez Musharraf and suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar
Mohammed Chaudhry in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi.
May 13
The government is reported to
have ordered the paramilitary Rangers to shoot rioters on sight
and imposed Section 144 as eight people were killed and nine persons,
including three police personnel, injured on the second day of
violence in Karachi, capital of Sindh province.
At least seven Afghan soldiers
were killed after they opened fire on Pakistani positions in a
border region, Pakistan Army spokesperson Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad
said.
May 14
A strike called by opposition
parties and lawyers’ bodies in protest against the violence in
Karachi shut down shops and markets in all major cities including
Karachi, where seven people died in further violence. The strike
was also reportedly observed in Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and
Quetta, while lawyers boycotted courts across the country.
A US military personnel and a
Pakistani soldier were killed and a few others sustained injuries
when their convoy was attacked following a flag meeting near the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
A 24-hour curfew was clamped in
the Tank town of NWFP after a paramilitary soldier and a civilian
were killed and 10 people sustained injuries in a series of grenade
and rocket attacks on SF personnel and exchange of fire between
militants and SFs.
May 15
25 people were killed and at least
35 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up on the
ground floor of the Marhaba Hotel in Peshawar, capital of the
NWFP. Most of those killed were Afghans, including the restaurant’s
owner Sadruddin and his two sons, two women and a five year-old
child.
May 16
Six people were killed and 15
others, including four police personnel, were injured in clashes
between SF personnel and Islamic militants in the Tank city of
the NWFP. According to witnesses, a rocket fired by the militants
landed in the Rizwan Grain market of the city on Tank-Dera road,
killing five civilians, including two brothers. Clashes in different
parts of the city occurred for more than two hours and both sides
used rockets and light cannons, causing collateral damage to bazaars
and residential areas, residents said.
The Chinese government has requested
Pakistan to hand over more than 20 Chinese insurgents hiding in
the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Sources said the Chinese
authorities had claimed that more than 20 activists of the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement, an Islamist militant outfit fighting
for an independent East Turkestan in China’s Xinjiang province,
were hiding in the tribal areas.
May 18
The pro-Taliban Lal Masjid (Red
mosque) in Islamabad took four police personnel hostage, accusing
them of spying for the government.
The in-charge of Lal Masjid, Maulana
Abdul Aziz, again threatened the government of suicide attacks
all over the county if any operation was conducted against the
mosque. "I invite the government to conduct the operation and
see what will happen in the country," he threatened.
May 19
The Lal Masjid administration
in Islamabad freed two of the four police personnel who were abducted
on May 18 in return for four men it said had been detained by
the police on false charges. The government agreed to release
the four men on May 21. Lal Masjid’s Ghazi Abdul Rashid told the
officials that the other two policemen would remain in captivity
until the release of the seven other men also on the clerics’
list. Meanwhile, a district administration team led by City Magistrate
Farasit Ali Khan told the clerics that only four people were in
police custody and not 11 as claimed by the clerics.
Al Qaeda’s command base in Pakistan’s
tribal areas is being increasingly funded by money coming from
the group’s affiliate in Iraq, Los Angeles Times reported
on its Website. Citing unidentified senior US intelligence officials,
the newspaper said there had been a significant increase in the
movement of al Qaeda operatives and money from Iraq to Pakistan.
The report also said a major hunt for al Qaeda chief Osama bin
Laden launched by the CIA in 2006 has produced no significant
leads on his whereabouts.
May 21
Pakistan refuted a claim that
there was al Qaeda’s base command in the tribal areas and declared
that the government was determined to take action against ‘remnants’
of the group who may be hiding in the country.
May 22
SF personnel clashed with Islamist
militants at Zakerkhel village in North Waziristan in the FATA,
killing three foreigners and one tribesman. The gun-battle reportedly
occurred when talks between tribal elders and militants hiding
in a house in the village failed. According to the deal signed
between the government and militants in September 2006, the army
has to take the peace committee into confidence before taking
action in the area. This was the first coordinated operation in
the area since the deal was brokered.
Two activists of the Lashkar-i-Islam
were killed and three others wounded when supporters of the rival
Ansaar-ul-Islam attacked a mosque with mortar shells in the Shah
Kot area of Bara (a sub-division of Khyber Agency) in FATA.
Two people, identified as Ghulam
Nabi Magsi and Mohammad Ibrahim Mengal, were killed and three
others sustained injuries in a bomb explosion in the industrial
area of Hub in Balochistan. According to police, the bomb was
planted at a bus stop close to a bridge on the RCD highway in
the industrial town.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal led
NWFP government struck a nine-point peace agreement with an Islamist
cleric who has led a campaign through an unlicensed radio station
against polio vaccinations and education for girls in the Swat
district. In exchange for allowing the FM radio station to continue
broadcasts, Maulana Fazlullah of the outlawed TNSM agreed to now
support the polio vaccination campaign and education for girls,
as well as government efforts to establish law and order. He also
agreed to wrap up all training facilities for militants and making
of weapons, and support the district administration in any operation
against anti-state elements.
May 23
President Pervez Musharraf said
in an interview that talks with the Taliban and other opposition
may be necessary to bring stability to Afghanistan. He claimed
that Pakistani intelligence agencies played no role in the creation
of the Taliban, although he acknowledged that Pakistan gave the
extremists legitimacy by being among the only countries to establish
diplomatic relations when Taliban took over the government of
Afghanistan. Gen. Musharraf added that Pakistan was the only country
that had a military, political, developmental and administrative
strategy to defeat extremism.
May 24
The pro-Taliban Lal Masjid (Red
mosque) students freed the two police personnel abducted on May
18, following the release of several of their colleagues as a
result of ‘back channel’ negotiations between clerics of the mosque
and the local administration, reports said. Spokesperson of the
interior ministry, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, however, claimed
that the two personnel of Islamabad Police — Assistant Sub-Inspector
Aurangzeb and constable Jehangir — were released ‘unconditionally’.
May 25
A Pakistan-born US national, Syed
Hashmi, accused of supplying military equipment to al Qaeda was
extradited to the US. He now faces a trial in the US over allegations
that he was a "quartermaster" and supplied al Qaeda
operatives in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The pro-Taliban Lal Masjid (Red
mosque) administration announced that its students would attack
audio and video shops, massage centers and brothels in Islamabad
if their owners did not wind up their businesses immediately.
The deadline reportedly ended in April and the owners fear attacks
from the mosque brigade anytime.
In a telephonic address on the
occasion of the inauguration of the basement of a mosque at Kohat
in the NWFP, the Islamabad-based Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Aziz
asked the Taliban to continue their jihad against obscenity,
prostitution, video shops and other social vices and expand it
to the entire NWFP. According to him, "it is now the responsibility
of all believers to support the activities of the Taliban in the
province against CD shops and obscenity."
May 28
Four local Taliban militants were
killed in a clash with police in the Bannu district of NWFP. Two
police personnel and civilian were injured in the encounter, officials
said.
A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden
Land Cruiser into a FC vehicle in the same area, killing two FC
personnel, identified as Fareed Hussain and Nametullah and injuring
another identified as Masood Afsar.
Militants shot dead Mir Zarwali
Khan, assistant district officer of the FC in the Boltonabad area
on the Tank-Jandola road in the Tank city. The driver of the vehicle
in which he was traveling also suffered injuries. Later, the militants
set the vehicle on fire.
May 29
Four persons, including a wanted
insurgent, were killed and seven others sustained injuries in
a shootout between SF personnel and armed men in the Dera Allahyar
area of Jaffarabad district in Balochistan.
Spain’s High Court convicted three
Pakistanis for sending money to al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan,
but cleared them and eight others of preparing terrorist attacks
in Barcelona. The suspects had faced up to 32 years in jail for
alleged involvement with al Qaeda, drug trafficking and planning
attacks on a shopping centre and other targets in the city, where
they lived and were arrested in 2004.
May 30
Militants attacked the house of
a senior government official in the Jatai Qala area of Tank district
in the NWFP after midnight and shot dead 13 people, including
two women. Two children were injured, police said. Chief of the
Gomal police station, Sanaullah Marwat, informed that militants
attacked the house of Amiruddin Khan, Khyber tribal region’s political
agent, with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and assault
rifles. He said that the militants had come from the adjoining
South Waziristan.
The Interior Ministry’s National
Crisis Management Cell has reportedly warned three federal ministers
that they are on the hit list of Baitullah Mehsud, the South Waziristan-based
Taliban leader, and should take extra security measures. Baitullah
Mehsud, according to reports, was running the biggest suicide
training camp in the country and planned to assassinate Interior
Minister Aftab Sherpao, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad
and Minister for Political Affairs Amir Muqam. Mehsud is believed
to have been behind the suicide attack on Sherpao on April 28,
the sources said.
The Islamabad-based Lal Masjid
(Red mosque) cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, warned the government
of suicide attacks if it launched an operation against the mosque.
Addressing reporters during a consultative meeting at Lal Masjid,
Aziz said thousands of students were ready to carry out suicide
attacks, adding that the mosque administration was preventing
them from doing so.
June 1
Top army commanders endorsed the
"pivotal role" of General Pervez Musharraf as the President of
Pakistan and Chief of the Army Staff in the ongoing reforms process
in the country. Expressing their support to the president, the
top army brass reaffirmed that "Pakistan Army is committed to
lending full support towards realisation of the vision set by
the president for a dynamic, progressive and moderate Islamic
state."
June 2
Five persons, including a senior
tribal journalist, were killed in an explosion in Malasyed, 20
kilometers from Khar in Bajaur Agency of the FATA.
June 3
Hafiz Muhammad Hamid, brother
of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the LeT chief, was deported along with
his family from the United States. Hafiz Hamid was imam (priest)
at the Islamic Centre of Greater Worcester, Massachusetts, and
had been fighting immigration regulation infringements for the
last several months. His other brother, Hafiz Muhammad Masood,
is also fighting deportation and is now waiting for the next hearing
of a US federal immigration court on October 11, 2007.
June 5
Police said that they had arrested
two suspected militants wanted in the 2002 abduction-cum-murder
of US journalist Daniel Pearl. Attaur Rehman and Faisal Bhatti,
both members of the outlawed Sunni group LeJ, were arrested along
with weapons and explosives while they were in a car traveling
towards Balochistan on June 4 in Kashmor, a town northeast of
Karachi (capital of Sindh province). However, a lawyer for the
duo’s families said they were arrested by security agencies in
2003 and have been secretly held in custody since then.
June 8
Three persons were killed and
seven others sustained injuries when a bomb exploded on a bus
in the Hub town of Balochistan. Police said the explosive device
was planted in front of a hotel on RCD road at Ghulam Qadir Chowk
and exploded when the bus was passing through.
June 10
The government has proposed to
empower the State Bank of Pakistan to get information relating
to any business transaction from banking companies and financial
institutions in order to identify offences of money laundering
or funding of terrorism.
June 11
The Karachi Police has arrested
three terrorists and identified the suicide bomber who was allegedly
responsible for the Nishtar Park incident in Karachi on April
11, 2006. Two LeJ cadres were arrested during raids in two different
areas of Karachi. Based on their information, the police conducted
an operation in Peshawar, in NWFP where it arrested the third
alleged terrorist. All three of them, police claimed, had confessed
to their involvement in the suicide attack. The suicide bomber
has been identified as Siddiq and is said to have hailed from
Mansehra in the NWFP. Police said that the attack was planned
at Wana in South Waziristan under supervision of LeJ and the local
al Qaeda. Karachi Police sources said that the Abdullah Mehsud
group was involved in the attack and his cousin Abid Mehsud, resident
of Orangi Town in Karachi, planned the attack.
June 11
Angry crowds in PoK set ablaze a hospital of
the Jama’at-ud-Da’awa, set up by the LeT chief Hafeez Mohammed
Sayeed, after the outfit’s cadre allegedly killed a boy and injured
two others in a land dispute. The incidents occurred at Pajgran
village near Muzaffarabad, capital of PoK. The Jama’at-ud-Da’awa
in a press release from its headquarters in Lahore, however, said
local "land mafia" set fire to its surgical hospital set up to
treat the 2005 earthquake victims. Police, meanwhile, they had
arrested over a dozen activists of the Jama’at-ud-Da’awa, including
the one who had allegedly shot dead 17-year old Adnan Shah.
June 12
Rockets fired from Pakistan at a US and Afghan
military base in south-eastern Afghanistan landed on civilian
houses and injured a family of five, an Afghan governor claimed.
Several rockets were fired late on June 11 at a base in Paktika
province, just kilometers away from the Pakistani border. Around
50 rockets have been fired into the district called Barmal in
the past few days from across the border, he claimed.
June 14
Seven army soldiers, a police constable and a
passer-by were killed when some unidentified armed men attacked
a van on the Zarghoon road in Quetta. Police said the victims
were going to the Quetta Staff College from the railway station
in a hired vehicle after arriving in the city by Chiltan Express.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for South
and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, praised Islamabad’s
role in the "war on terror" and agreed to the Pakistani
assertion that there was no solid evidence of Mullah Omar’s presence
in Balochistan
June 15
The United States Assistant Secretary of State,
Richard Boucher, said in Islamabad that holding of free and transparent
elections in Pakistan was a bigger problem than the issue of President
Musharraf’s uniform. Boucher denied that he had come to Pakistan
to broker a deal between President Musharraf and the Pakistan
People’s Party. He also said that President Musharraf had assured
the US that the issue of his two offices would be settled in accordance
with the Constitution and the US believed him.
June 16
Cleric of the Taliban-linked Lal Masjid (Red
mosque) in Islamabad, Maulana Abdul Aziz, issued a death fatwa
against staff at a magazine for publishing a fashion-shoot
advertisement entitled Adam and Eve. The fatwa has been
issued against the chief editor, publisher and other staff of
an English language magazine called Octane.
The US State Department described President Pervez
Musharraf as an agent for "positive change" in Pakistan
but if there are issues with Islamabad, the US will not hesitate
to "speak out" about them "in a respectful manner."
June 19
At least 22 people were killed
and 10 others sustained injuries when a missile hit a cluster
of compounds in the Datakhel area of North Waziristan. A Madrassa
(seminary) used by the Taliban as a hideout was attacked by
a US-controlled drone, killing over 20 militants and wounding
15 others, a report said. The ISPR Director-General, Major General
Arshad Waheed, however, denied reports that Pakistan army or coalition
forces had carried out the attack. "It was an accidental blast
in the area and, according to the tribal administration, 20 people
were killed," he claimed. Tribal sources quoted local militants
as saying that the attack had been carried out from Afghanistan.
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said it was not involved.
June 20
The caretaker of a seminary near
a site in North Waziristan which was the target of a suspected
missile strike on June 19 has said that a total of 34 people were
killed, and all of them were locals. Maulana Muhammad Amir, caretaker
of the Ziul Aloom seminary in the Dattakhel area, said all those
killed were local tribesmen, and the target was not a Madrassa,
as reported in the press, but "a tent on a hilltop".
China has asked Pakistan to locate
and hand over 22 Chinese rebels who are believed to be hiding
somewhere in the tribal areas in Pakistan, a source in the interior
ministry said. China had reportedly provided a list of 22 wanted
militants belonging to the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a
secessionist group based in the Sinkiang province bordering Pakistan.
June 21
Three people, including two brothers,
were killed when their tractor hit a roadside bomb at Khapianga
village in the Lower Kurram Agency area of the FATA.
The Pakistan Ulema Council awarded
its highest honour to the al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, saying
it was in reaction to Britain’s knighthood for writer Salman Rushdie.
"We are pleased to award the title of Saifullah to Osama bin Laden
after the British government’s decision to bestow the title of
‘Sir’ on blasphemer Rushdie… This is the highest title for a Muslim
warrior," the council’s chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi said.
June 22
Students of the pro-Taliban Lal
Masjid (Red mosque) and Jamia Hafsa seminary raided a Chinese
massage centre in the Sector F-8/3 area of Islamabad and took
hostage five Chinese nationals, including three women and two
men. Jamia Hafsa administration alleged that a brothel was being
run under the garb of the massage centre.
A local militant commander denied
the existence of training camps in North Waziristan and warned
that his supporters would lose patience if the government carried
out a military operation in the region. "There will be a tit-for-tat
response if the government violates the peace deal by launching
combat operations," warned militant commander Maulana Abdul Khaliq
Haqani, who had signed a peace agreement with the government in
September 2006.
June 23
10 civilians were killed and 13
others injured in North Waziristan in a mortar attack from Afghanistan.
"Ten innocent people were reported killed when some mortars
hit civilians in Mangroti village in the Shawal region,"
military spokesman Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad said.
A roadside bomb blast killed three
paramilitary soldiers and wounded two others in Mir Ali town,
20-kilometres east of Miranshah.
June 26
Unidentified assailants killed
two people in the Satellite Town area of Quetta, capital of Balochistan.
Amir Hussain Mughal and Rizwan had come to Quetta from Mandi Bahauddin
on June 25-night. The police are reported to have described the
incident a terrorist act.
June 27
Three militants were killed when
a bomb they were planting on a road used by the Pakistan army
detonated prematurely at Datta Khel in North Waziristan. The blast
reportedly occurred on a route used by troops to travel between
Lwara Mundi and Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan.
June 28
Additional security has been provided
to three federal ministers on the basis of intelligence reports
that militants in South Waziristan have decided to assassinate
them. Minister for Interior Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Minister
for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and Minister for Political Affairs
Amir Muqam have also been provided bullet-proof automobiles. Sherpao,
who survived an assassination attempt on April 28, 2007, at Charsadda
in the NWFP, is being described as a prime target. On the orders
of militant commander Baitullah Mehsud, more than three suicide
bombers have reportedly been sent to attack the ministers. Sources
said that Mehsud decided to target the ministers after four militants
carrying RDX were arrested in Islamabad a week ago.
June 29
The beheaded body of an Afghan
national was found in a dry water course at Momadgut in the Mohmand
Agency of the FATA. Witnesses said a note was found near the body
stating: "Whoever spies for the United States will face the same
consequences." It is reportedly the first incident of its kind
in the Mohmand Agency.
President Pervez Musharraf said
that an operation could be launched against the Lal Masjid and
Jamia Hafsa brigade, but a raid would lead to heavy casualties
on both sides because a large number of suicide bombers were inside
the mosque and seminaries.
June 30
Two suspected terrorists were
killed while attempting to plant a bomb in a Hazarkhani warehouse,
in the jurisdiction of Yakatoot police station in Peshawar. Three
time bombs, hand grenades and two kilograms of explosives were
recovered from the incident site.
July 1
A special report, which the New
York Times claims to have been shown, warned President Pervez
Musharraf that Islamic militants and Taliban fighters were rapidly
spreading beyond the tribal areas and that without "swift
and decisive action," the growing militancy could engulf
the rest of the country. The report prepared by the Interior Ministry
said that security forces in the NWFP were outgunned and outnumbered
and had forfeited authority to the Taliban and their allies. According
to the report, even areas like Peshawar, Nowshera and Kohat are
threatened by Talibanisation.
July 2
A soldier from Mir Ali in North
Waziristan was murdered and his associate abducted by armed assailants.
Militants in the Bajaur Agency
of the FATA warned clerics that if they do not take back the fatwa
(edict) against suicide bombing, they should prepare to face the
consequences. The warning was delivered in a pamphlet in Pushto
pasted outside shops in Khar, regional headquarters of Bajaur
Agency. The militants also disputed the clerics’ decree that Islam
"does not allow intimidation," saying this opinion should
also be withdrawn. "Those who are working against the interests
of Mujahideen or defaming us should stop doing so," the pamphlet
warned.
July 3
At least 12 people were killed
and around 150 injured in a daylong shootout between seminary
students and security force personnel near the pro-Taliban Lal
Masjid (red mosque). The administration confirmed that a journalist,
one soldier of the para-military Rangers, a businessman, seminary
students and bystanders were among the dead.
July 4
11 people, including six SF personnel,
are reported to have died in a suicide attack on a caravan of
SFs in North Waziristan. The caravan of SFs was going to Bannu
in the NWFP from Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan.
A suicide attacker rammed his explosive-laden car with the caravan
near Mir Ali. Four SF personnel and a passer-by child died on
the spot while two soldiers and three passers-by succumbed to
injuries at a hospital. The suicide attacker also was killed.
Four civilians were killed and
two police personnel were wounded in a bomb blast that targeted
a police vehicle in the Swat district of NWFP.
A police personnel, Zahir Shah,
was killed and four others sustained injuries during a rocket
attack on a police station in the Mata area of Swat district.
The blast followed calls on a private Islamist FM radio station
in the area for launching a jihad against the government
in retaliation for the mosque confrontation in Islamabad. NWFP
police chief Sharif Virk blamed Maulana Fazlullah, who leads a
proscribed militant organisation, for both these attacks. Fazlullah,
who had recently signed an agreement with the NWFP government,
in broadcasts on his FM channel on July 3 and 4, asked his supporters
to take up arms against the government to avenge the action taken
against Lal Masjid and carry out suicide attacks.
Four police personnel were killed
and two others sustained injuries when suspected Taliban militants
attacked their vehicle in the Mattani police precincts of Peshawar,
capital of the NWFP.
Talks between a three-member Ulema
(religious scholars) delegation and Lal Masjid cleric Maulana
Abdul Rashid Ghazi failed after he refused to surrender unconditionally.
The head of the delegation, Maulana Zahoor Alvi, said Ghazi was
not ready to surrender till the troops surrounding the mosque
were withdrawn.
Maulana Abdul Aziz, brother of
Ghazi, was arrested while trying to flee in a burqa (veil).
Aziz was caught after a group of 50 burqa-clad women from
the mosque started screaming as they were taken to a nearby school
for security checks after surrendering, saying the procedure was
un-Islamic.
At least 1200 students are reported
to have surrendered to the government as SFs surrounded the mosque
complex and announced amnesty for those who laid down their arms.
Interior Ministry spokesperson, Brigadier (r) Javed Iqbal Cheema,
said 1,100-1,200 students had surrendered by 10:30 pm, but several
were still inside the mosque along with cleric Ghazi. The government
confirmed the deaths of 16 people and injuries to 98 from the
clashes, but unofficial reports put the death toll at 20 and 200
injured.
July 6
Four Pakistan Army personnel,
including a Major and a Lieutenant, were killed in an IED attack
on a military convoy in the Dir district of NWFP. According to
the locals, the outlawed TNSM could be "behind the blast." Dir
is a stronghold of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the outlawed TNSM.
A Waziristan tribe killed four
suspected Taliban militants while rescuing a Pakistan Army captain
who was abducted at gunpoint. Lashkar, an armed group of the Dirdoni
tribe, chased the militants after they abducted Captain Faisal
Islam, a trainer at Razmak Cadet College in North Waziristan.
Four militants were killed in the ensuing encounter while Captain
Islam and two Lashkar men sustained injuries.
President Pervez Musharraf escaped
another assassination attempt when around 36 rounds fired at his
aircraft from a submachine gun in Rawalpindi missed their target.
However, the ISPR denied that the president’s plane had been attacked.
The holed up chief cleric of Lal
Masjid, Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, told a TV channel that he
and his associates were ready to die and would never surrender.
"We have decided that we may be martyred, but we will not surrender…
We are sacrificing our lives for the supremacy of our religion
and for the enforcement of Islamic laws. We have no regrets and
we will embrace martyrdom," he said.
The government once again rejected
a conditional surrender offer made by Ghazi. Information Minister
Mohammad Ali Durrani informed a press conference that Ghazi would
not be humiliated if he surrendered. Interior Secretary Kamal
Shah disclosed that so far 1,221 people, including 795 men and
426 women, had surrendered and 19 had died.
July 7
President Pervez Musharraf warned
the militants holed up in Lal Masjid to surrender or be prepared
to get killed. He said the people barricaded in the mosque had
defamed Islam and Pakistan, but the government had exercised restraint
despite having capability of ousting and killing them.
July 8
Unidentified gunmen shot dead
three Chinese workers and injured another in Peshawar, capital
of the NWFP. The Chinese reportedly were engaged in the business
of turtles and exported hides to China and other countries.
A senior Pakistani army commando,
Colonel Haroon Islam, was shot dead by Islamic militants besieged
in the Lal Masjid in Islamabad, said Major General Waheed Arshad,
head of the ISPR.
The army and paramilitary forces
were again deployed at all important checkpoints in North Waziristan.
The checkpoints had been vacated following a peace agreement between
the government and militants in 2006. Sources said troops had
taken positions at major checkpoints in Miranshah, Mirali and
Razmak areas and started digging trenches and checking vehicles
on main roads in the region.
Eight "high value terrorists"
wanted by Pakistan and other countries are holed up inside the
Lal Masjid in Islamabad, while another was killed by security
forces in the ongoing operation, disclosed Religious Affairs Minister
Ejazul Haq. However, the minister refused to reveal the identities
of these militants. He informed that SFs killed one of these suspected
terrorists inside Lal Masjid on the second day of the ongoing
operation. He was the mastermind of the failed suicide attack
on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at Attock in 2005, he added. Haq
also said that the militants and not Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Lal Masjid’s
deputy chief cleric, were controlling the mosque.
July 9
Pakistan Muslim League President
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain continued making efforts to defuse the
Lal Masjid standoff till late July 9-night despite failing to
achieve any major breakthrough in resolving the crisis. President
Pervez Musharraf had sent a delegation of politicians and clerics
led by Shujaat to negotiate with Lal Masjid deputy prayer leader
Abdul Rashid Ghazi the release of several hundred students stranded
in the mosque. The delegation was reportedly told to persuade
Ghazi to surrender along with the militants holed up in the mosque.
However, this initiative suffered a set back when the delegation
refused to enter the mosque and Ghazi turned down their offer
to come out for talks due to security reasons. Reports indicated
that Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, chief of the HuM, was part
of the clerics’ delegation.
July 10
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy chief
cleric of the Lal Masjid, was among dozens killed as Pakistan
Army commandos stormed the 75-room mosque compound after a weeklong
standoff with militant students. More than 50 militants and nine
soldiers were killed in the 15-hour operation, which commenced
shortly before dawn, said Major General Arshad Waheed, Director
General of the ISPR. He informed that 29 soldiers and many others
were injured. Independent sources, however, said the total death
toll was likely to be much higher. Social worker Abdus Sattar
Edhi told reporters that his charity had supplied 500 shrouds
to the security forces. Some other sources said that more than
80 militants were killed. The operation was approved after talks
between a delegation of ministers and clerics led by Pakistan
Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain failed to negotiate
a surrender with Ghazi.
The government took Maulana Fazlur
Rehman Khalil, chief of the banned HuM, into protective custody
after the death of Abdur Rashid Ghazi. "Fazlur Rehman Khalil has
been taken into protective custody at his residence-cum-Madrassa
in Islamabad in view of the security situation," said the sources.
Khalil was a close aide of Ghazi and had reportedly played a crucial
role in talks between the government and the Lal Masjid administration.
Farooq Kashmiri, another militant commander, who was called in
from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Pakistan occupied Kashmir) two days
ago, was reportedly already in government custody.
July 11
Security forces collected 73 bodies
of militants as they cleared the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa of
mines and booby traps after flushing out or killing all the militants
holed up inside. Major General Arshad Waheed, Director General
of the Inter-Services Public Relations, informed reporters that
the cleanup operation was almost complete and that 73 bodies had
been collected, and none of them were of women. He also said that
another soldier was injured in overnight fighting, taking the
casualty figures for the armed forces to 10 deaths and 33 wounded.
Three more militants were also killed in the fighting overnight,
the military spokesperson informed. However, he did not disclose
the number of civilian casualties.
Britain is investigating how the
ringleader of a failed 2005 London bombing plot, identified as
a possible terrorist, went to Pakistan for terror training, Prime
Minister Gordon Brown said. Brown confirmed reports of the investigation
after it emerged that Muktar Said Ibrahim, who was convicted along
with three other defendants, had made the trip barely six months
before the attacks, although he was on bail. The Woolwich Crown
Court in London heard during the trial that Ibrahim travelled
to a militant training camp in Pakistan in December 2004. He was
there at the same time as Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer,
two of the four British nationals who later blew themselves up
on the London transit system on July 7, 2005, killing themselves
and 52 commuters.
Al Qaeda has become entrenched
in a remote corner of Pakistan and the United States fears a military
strike could spawn new militant activity in the country, US officials
said.
Al Qaeda’s second-in command Ayman
al Zawahri, in an internet video posted, called for revenge over
a government assault that killed more than 70 militants inside
the Islamabad-based Lal Masjid. "This crime can only be washed
by repentance or blood," Zawahri said in the video posted on web
sites used by Islamists. "If you do not retaliate ... (President
General Pervez) Musharraf will not spare any of you," he said,
addressing Pakistani Muslims and their clerical leaders.
July 12
A suicide bomber blew himself
up in front of the Political Agent’s office in the Miranshah area
of North Waziristan, killing four people and injuring three others.
Political agent Pirzada Khan, who was in the office at the time,
is reported to have escaped unhurt. Three of the dead were identified
as Attaullah, Fareedullah and Saddique Amin, also a government
employee. The Taliban have, however, denied involvement in the
suicide attack.
A suicide bomber killed three
police personnel, Sub-Inspector Taj Maluk and constables Riaz
and Islam Gul, by detonating the explosives wrapped around his
waist in the Swat district of NWFP. The suicide attack came moments
after a military convoy passed through the area, informed police
officer Abdur Rashid Khan. Unconfirmed reports said that there
were two suicide bombers.
President Pervez Musharraf defended
the Lal Masjid operation and declared that no mosque or seminary
would be allowed to be misused like the Jamia Hafsa. "We will
not let any mosque and madrassa [seminary] follow Lal Masjid and
Jamia Hafsa," Gen Musharraf said in a televised address to the
nation. According to him, "I am an ardent supporter of madrassas
but these kinds of madrassas will not be allowed to function in
the country." He stated that militancy, extremism and terrorism
in the country would be crushed. "We have yet to achieve our goals
to get rid of these menaces," he warned. President Musharraf said
that the abduction of Chinese citizens, a shameful act in itself,
was aimed against a country which had always supported Pakistan,
providing the country with necessary political, economic and military
assistance. "It was an embarrassing moment when the Chinese president
telephoned me to seek protection for Chinese citizens working
in Pakistan", the president said.
July 13
Suspected militants killed three
pro-government tribal leaders at Miranshah in North Waziristan.
Federal Interior Minister Aftab
Sherpao disclosed that 102 persons lost their lives in the operation
at Lal Masjid, including 91 civilians, 10 army and one Ranger’s
official. He also said that four to five corpses have been identified
as that of suspected foreign militants. He also said 248 people
sustained injuries in the operation. The minister informed that
242 students are still in jails and students below 18 years have
been sent home, adding that Maulana Abdul Aziz’s wife and two
daughters will remain in custody, as there are cases filed against
them. He revealed that the government had the tape of Abdur Rashid
Ghazi when he was pleading for the safe passage for the foreigners.
However, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah told reporters after
the minister’s press conference that "In the final assault some
75 people were killed in the complex and I think 50 to 60 were
militants and the rest were women and children."
The local Taliban in the Bajaur
Agency of FATA ‘held’ six people on the charge of taking drugs
and paraded them naked in a bazaar in Inayat Killey.
President Pervez Musharraf directed
all federal and provincial governments to crackdown on religious
extremism and militancy in the country, reiterating the government’s
determination to free the country from terrorism. Referring to
growing extremism in the NWFP, he directed the provincial security
agencies to combat militancy by carrying out coordinated efforts
in the tribal and settled areas of NWFP. Gen. Musharraf also approved
a plan for the immediate deployment of paramilitary forces in
the Swat valley of NWFP to crush the growing militancy in the
area. He also directed armed forces personnel not to wear their
uniforms in public in the NWFP for fear of backlash from the Lal
Masjid operation. He said the federal security agencies would
execute and monitor all military operations in the NWFP and FATA
and the NWFP government would only assist them.
July 14
At least 23 Frontier Corps (FC)
personnel were killed and 27 others injured when a suicide bomber
rammed an explosives-packed car into their convoy. An unnamed
senior administration official said the attack occurred 20-kilometres
southeast of Miranshah when a FC convoy was heading towards Miranshah
from the Razmak area.
Abdullah Farhad, a spokesman for
the Taliban in North Waziristan, said the militants would consider
the 2006 peace deal with the government over if the security forces
were not withdrawn from the area by July 15.
President Pervez Musharraf has
failed to contain al Qaeda and must regain control over areas
bordering Afghanistan, said Stephen Hadley, President George Bush’s
national security adviser. Answering questions in an interview
with Bloomberg Television’s ‘Political Capital with Al Hunt’,
he said Musharraf’s strategy of giving tribal leaders more autonomy
"has not worked the way it should have". The US is working
with the Pakistani government to thwart the latest threats, Hadley
said, adding that the Musharraf government is "beginning
to take some moves that will reassert control in those areas".
July 15
At least 47 people were killed
and over a hundred injured in suicide bombings targeting security
forces in the Swat and Dera Ismail Khan districts of the NWFP
in apparent revenge attacks by militants for the Lal Masjid operation.
In the first attack, at least 13 SF personnel and six civilians,
including three children, were killed and more than 50 people
sustained injuries at Matta in the Swat district when two suicide
bombers rammed two cars packed with explosives into an army convoy
early in the morning. At approximately 4:15 pm (PST), a suicide
bomber blew himself up at the Dera Ismail Khan Police Lines as
candidates took police entrance exams. Police official Safiullah
said that 26 people were killed, including 12 police personnel
and the suicide bomber, and 61 others were wounded.
Tribal militants in North Waziristan
unilaterally scrapped their 10-month-old peace accord with the
government on the expiry of a four-day deadline and threatened
to launch attacks against the security forces in the area. Soon
after the expiry of the militants’ deadline on July 15, leaflets
announcing the scrapping of the peace accord were distributed
in Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan.
July 16
A joint investigation team of
the Punjab Police, the Federal Investigation Agency and several
intelligence agencies have detained 39 people and transferred
them to an undisclosed location in connection with the failed
assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf on July 6
in Rawalpindi. Sources said that the suspected attackers’ telephone
calls had been traced to these people, adding most of them belonged
to the NWFP.
July 17
A suicide bomber struck outside the venue of
a lawyers rally in Islamabad, killing 16 people and injuring at
least 63, including 10 police officials. The powerful blast occurred
at about 8:27 pm outside the main entrance of the corridor leading
to the venue of the event in F-8 Markaz, shortly before Chief
Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was to pass through the site
to give a speech to lawyers of the Islamabad District Bar Association.
The site was 40 meters away from the main stage where hundreds
of supporters of the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had
set up camps to welcome the chief justice. The blast occurred
within the PPP camp and many of the dead, including three women,
were activists of the party.
Four persons, including three soldiers, were
killed in a suicide attack at the Kajhri security check-post in
North Waziristan. Three soldiers, a civilian and the bomber died
in the attack, and two people were injured, said military regime
spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad.
The National Intelligence Estimate, a consensus
view of all 16 US spy agencies, released warned that al Qaeda
"has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland
attack capability, including a safe haven in the Pakistani FATA."
July 18
A military convoy coming from Lwara Mandi was
attacked in the Ghazlami area, 40 kilometers west of Miranshah
in North Waziristan. "Seventeen soldiers were martyred and 12
others injured in the clash," military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed
Arshad said. Denying that the militants had ambushed the convoy
he said that 12 to 15 militants were killed in retaliatory fire.
Gen Arshad also said that five militants were killed when Frontier
Corps personnel challenged them near Mir Ali.
July 18
President Musharraf said that al Qaeda was on
the run in the tribal areas and the flow of Taliban from Pakistani
territory to Afghanistan had been reduced. He pointed out that
the Pakistan Army was dispatching two full divisions of troops
to the troubled areas in the NWFP and also raising new paramilitary
forces to aid civil power.
July 19
22 civilians and seven police officers were killed
and around 50 people injured in a suicide car bomb attack at the
Gadani Bus Stop in the industrial town of Hub in Balochistan.
Inspector General of Police Tariq Masood Khosa said, "It was a
suicide attack that was targeted at Chinese engineers working
in Balochistan… It is premature to say who masterminded the blast.
One can’t say if it was to avenge the military operation in Jamia
Hafsa or was carried out by Baloch insurgents or Taliban elements."
15 persons, including a prayer leader and two
children, were killed and several people injured when a suicide
bomber blew himself up during night prayers at a mosque at Pathan
Lines Centre in the Kohat Cantonment area of NWFP. Most of the
victims were reportedly army officials. Interior Minister Aftab
Sherpao said, "Indirectly these attacks are a backlash reaction
against the Red Mosque."
Five civilians and two police personnel were
killed and 35 others injured when a suicide bomber set off his
explosives-packed car at the Hangu Police Training College (PTC)
in NWFP. Police official Rehman Gul Khan said the suicide bomber
wanted to take his car inside the PTC on the main Hangu-Kohat
Road where 500-600 police cadets were doing their routine morning
parade. The suicide bomber blew up the vehicle when police personnel
deployed at the PTC gate tried to stop him.
July 20
Four persons, including a paramilitary soldier
and two civilians, were killed and five others injured when a
suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into the Boya security
check post near Miranshah in North Waziristan.
Two militant commanders from the Marri tribe,
Daula Khan Marri and Kamal Khan Marri, and their 100 armed supporters,
who had been fighting the security forces in Balochistan, surrendered
their weapons before the Commander of the Southern Command, Lt-Gen
Khalid Shamim Wyne. The commanders reportedly announced their
full support for development schemes launched by the government
in the Marri area.
A meeting presided over by President Pervez Musharraf
approved ‘an all-encompassing strategy’ to combat terrorism, extremism
and growing militancy in the country, particularly in the NWFP
and tribal areas.
A 13-member full court of the Supreme Court (SC)
reinstated Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,
ruling that his suspension by President Pervez Musharraf was "illegal."
July 21
SFs killed 13 militants in Ghulam Khan, 15 kilometers
north of Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan. The incident
occurred when unidentified militants attacked a Frontier Corps
check-post. The troops also reportedly arrested seven militants
and seized a vehicle.
July 22
Gunship helicopters killed seven militants who
were shooting at an army convoy from hilltops in Qutab Khel, five
kilometers east of Miranshah. Six SF personnel were wounded in
the clash.
Taliban militants in North Waziristan demanded
that the government abolish security check-posts before further
talks for the revival of the September 2006-peace deal with the
government.
Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is alive and sheltering
in the lawless parts of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan,
US National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said. In response,
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao told AFP "Our
stance is that Osama bin Laden is not present in Pakistan… If
anyone has the information he should give it to us, so that we
can apprehend him."
Frances Townsend, Homeland Security Adviser to
President George W. Bush, said that the US would consider using
military force to neutralise alleged al Qaeda hideouts in Pakistan.
July 22-23
Heavy fighting killed at least 35 militants and
two soldiers in North Waziristan, the military said. Major General
Waheed Arshad, chief of the Inter-Services Public Relations, informed
that at least 30 militants died in a series of clashes since late
July 22, and five more were killed in a battle that continued
on July 23-evening. Two soldiers were killed and 12 others injured
in the violence over the past 24 hours, he added.
July 23
The pro-Taliban groups warned Pakistani soldiers
to quit fighting or face the "gift of death" through
new suicide attacks. In pamphlets, distributed in Miranshah town,
entitled "Till Islam Lives in Islamabad" a group calling
itself the Mujahideen-i-Islam threatened that suicide bombs would
again bring soldiers the "gift of death". They warned
that suicide attackers "love death more than you love your
5,000-rupee salary, nude pictures of Indian actresses and liquor."
It added "We know that you have become America’s slave and
are serving infidel Musharraf and have become a traitor to your
religion for food, clothes and shelter."
The Federal Government rejected the local Taliban
demand for the removal of security check posts across North Waziristan.
Pakistan said it would not allow any attack by
the United States on the FATA in a hunt for al Qaeda, saying the
counter-terrorism measures would be taken by its own security
forces.
July 24
At least nine persons, including a woman, were
reportedly killed and 40 others wounded when unidentified militants
fired a series of rockets on civilian population in the Bannu
city of NWFP. Police official Khawaja Muhammad said that a rocket
hit a house at Tafsil Street in the Bannu main bazaar at around
1:35am. He said that when people gathered at the site another
rocket landed in the area, killing nine people. He said that another
rocket hit a house in the Gopa Khel area, one hit a bookstore
in Chowk Bazaar, while a fifth rocket struck a mosque.
Taliban leader Abdullah Mehsud blew himself up
to avoid arrest after he was surrounded by security forces in
a house at Zhob in Balochistan. Police arrested three of Mehsud’s
accomplices, including his brother Abdul Rehman Mehsud. Anti-terrorist
Force (ATF) commandoes raided the house of Sheikh Ayub Mandokhel,
a district leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Maulana Fazlur Rehman
faction), before morning prayers after learning that Mehsud was
inside. "The ATF asked Abdullah Mehsud to surrender and take off
his shirt when they had almost overpowered him. However, he refused
to surrender and blew himself up with explosives," said an unnamed
source in the provincial capital Quetta. The ATF also arrested
Ayub’s younger brother, Sheikh Azam, and his son, Sheikh Sheryar.
Four SF personnel were killed in an attack by
militants on the Kambar check post at Dattakhel in North Waziristan.
July 25
A former Taliban commander, Mullah Naimatullah
Nurzai, was shot dead by two motorcycle borne assailants near
Boghara village near the border town of Chaman in Balochistan.
Naimatullah was special assistant to the Governor of Khost during
the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and he also fought against the
Northern Alliance as a Taliban commander.
Three members of a team of a private company
were shot dead and two wounded by unidentified armed men hiding
in the mountains of Zehri area of Balochistan. The members of
the team were conducting a survey on the link road between Zehri
and the main highway.
The dead bodies of two SF personnel were found
at Inayat Bazaar in the Bajaur Agency of the FATA, with a letter
saying those spying for the US and its allies would meet the same
fate. Unidentified militants had abducted the two Frontier Corps
soldiers, Siad Gul Khattak and Muhammad Riaz, from the Kagai area
on July 23-night.
The US authorities have reportedly pointed out
the locations of nine alleged terrorist training camps in North
Waziristan to Pakistani authorities and an anti-terrorism campaign
has been started in the area.
July 26
Taliban leaders told local residents to "shoot
on sight anyone looting public property disguised as Taliban,"
as the presence of government security forces in Miranshah, the
main town of North Waziristan, is reported to have diminished,
locals said.
July 27
At least 15 people, including eight police personnel,
were killed and 53 others wounded, when a suicide bomber struck
a group of police personnel in a restaurant following a clash
between the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) activists and the police after
Friday prayers in Islamabad. The bomber reportedly blew himself
up at the Muzaffargarh Nihari House and the Pakwan Centre, some
500 yards away from the Lal Masjid in a busy business centre in
a thickly populated area of the capital, at about 5.20 pm.
Abdul Raziq Bugti, spokesperson for the Balochistan
government and a prominent politician, was assassinated in a high-security
zone of the provincial capital Quetta by unidentified gunmen.
The BLA claimed responsibility for the incident which occurred
on the Zarghoon road, half a kilometre away from the Governor
House and Balochistan Secretariat.
The US Congress have passed a law that would
tie US aid to Pakistan to significant progress by Islamabad in
cracking down on al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militants. The
legislation, which is tied to the 9/11 Commission Recommendations
Act of 2007, prohibits specified military assistance under the
Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
to Pakistan until 15 days after the US president certifies that
the Pakistani government is making all possible efforts to prevent
the Taliban, al Qaeda and other extremist groups from operating
in areas under its sovereign control.
President Pervez Musharraf rejected US threats
to strike at militants holed up in Pakistan territory near the
Afghan border, saying that American forces would not be allowed
to operate in the area as Pakistani forces were quite capable
of doing this. He also rejected the US allegations that al Qaeda
was regrouping in Pakistan's tribal area. "A small number
of al Qaeda elements present in the area are on the run and we
are pursuing them," the president stated.
July 28
Three police personnel were killed when militants
opened fire on them in the Lal Qila Midan area of the Lower Dir
district in the NWFP.
Gunmen have forcefully occupied a mosque and
an adjacent shrine in the Lakaro area of Mohmand Agency in the
FATA and announced that they will continue the ‘mission’ of slain
Lal Masjid (Red mosque) deputy chief cleric Maulana Ghazi Abdur
Rashid and establish a seminary at the place. The gunmen announced
that they were renaming the mosque as ‘Lal Masjid’ and the seminary
would be called ‘Jamia Hafsa Umme Hassan’.
July 29
The Government has sounded a red alert in the
wake of reports about the presence of 600 suicide bombers within
the limits of the national capital Islamabad and asked security
force personnel to avoid gathering in groups and not to wear uniform
in public.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said that
Islamist extremist leaders were plotting to overthrow President
Pervez Musharraf’s Government and had converted madrassas (seminaries)
in Pakistani cities into military headquarters with well-stocked
arsenals.
July 30
Three paramilitary soldiers were killed when
an improvised explosive device exploded close to the Mashes camp
near Miranshah in North Waziristan
Three paramilitary soldiers were killed and another
sustained injuries when a convoy hit a roadside bomb near Thall
picket. The convoy was going from Dosali to Bannu in the North
West Frontier Province.
A helicopter gunship fired on a suspicious car
that was following an army convoy near the Afghan border, killing
four suspected militants. "The army spotted the car and ordered
them to stop and they ignored the warning. They were fired on
by a helicopter escorting the convoy… Four people inside the car
were killed, they are suspected militants," said an unnamed
security official.
July 31
Security forces, assisted by helicopter gun-ships,
killed 15 militants in an encounter near the Banda checkpoint
in North Waziristan. Major General Waheed Arshad, Director-General
of the Inter-Services Public Relations, said 18 "miscreants" were
killed when about 40 of them tried to attack a military checkpoint
near Miranshah. Though the military spokesperson denied any casualties
among the troops, villagers said some soldiers were killed or
injured in the fighting.
Authorities in Nepal have arrested a Pakistani
national who was carrying more than $250,000 in fake Indian currency,
officials said.
The United States has asked Pakistan to hand
over India's most wanted fugitive and international terrorist
Dawood Ibrahim for his alleged links to al Qaeda-related terrorists
groups and involvement in the global heroin trade. The US Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Agency have sought
assistance from Pakistan's Interior Ministry, the Anti-Narcotic
Force and Inter-Services Intelligence to trace Dawood in Pakistan.
Dawood has been described by the American agencies as "an al Qaeda
facilitator now living in Pakistan who has already been placed
in the same category as top al Qaeda operatives with Interpol
issuing a special notice against him."
August 2
Police shot dead a suspected suicide bomber as
he tried to attack a police training centre at Sargodha in the
Punjab province. A police personnel was also killed in the exchange
of fire with the attacker. The policeman reportedly tried to stop
the man as he ran towards the ground, where around 900 young recruits
were taking morning exercises.
The government has so far deported 554 foreign
students from seminaries across Pakistan, while cases of another
717 such students are under consideration for deportation, the
Interior Ministry told the National Assembly in a written reply
to a question. The ministry disclosed that 12,395 of the total
13,500 madrassas across Pakistan had been registered during the
government’s drive to regulate seminaries and no religious school
could be opened without the government’s no objection certificate
under the new rules.
The United States wants Pakistan to defeat al
Qaeda in the battlefield and will not hesitate to use its own
forces to achieve this objective, said Under-Secretary of State
for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns. Burns observed that al Qaeda
had built a safe haven in Pakistan, while the Taliban leadership
operated from bases in and around Quetta, capital of Balochistan.
He also said Pakistani banks were involved in laundering money
for al Qaeda and other terrorist outfits.
August 3
At least four people were killed during a shootout
between tribesmen and SF personnel in the Asadkhel area of North
Waziristan. The exchange of fire followed a bomb explosion moments
before the arrival in Asadkhel of a convoy of army and FC which
was on way from Bannu in the NWFP to Razmak. The remote controlled
bomb explosion, however, caused no casualty. Three missiles were
also fired at an FC checkpoint and the Miranshah Fort.
A suicide blast targeting the family of a government
official killed two persons and injured six members of the family
in the Gora village of Swat district in the NWFP.
August 4
Four SF personnel, two each from the army and
Frontier Corps, were killed and six others injured when militants
attacked the Salanghi check post in Dosali area, 35-kilometres
south of Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan. In the retaliatory
fire SFs killed 10 militants.
Nine persons were killed and 43 others injured
when a suicide car bomber triggered an explosion at a busy bus
stop near the entry point of Parachinar city in the Kurram Agency
of FATA. A 10-year-old girl was among those killed in the attack.
August 6
The ISI, Pakistan’s external intelligence agency,
have reportedly ‘detained’ Dawood Ibrahim, along with his lieutenant
Chhota Shakeel and the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts
Tiger Memon. Intelligence sources said the trio was rounded up
on August 2 from their hideout near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border
and taken to a ‘safe-house’ on the outskirts of Quetta, capital
of the Balochistan Province.
Following an upsurge in suicide bomb blasts in
the country, the government issued directives for re-arresting
all terrorists, who were released from various jails.
Talks between the Taliban and a tribal jirga
(council) about the law and order situation in the Bajaur
Agency of the FATA failed, as the government refused to release
arrested militants.
August 7
President Pervez Musharraf said
that recent suggestions from the United States that it might launch
unilateral strikes against al Qaeda in Pakistan were "counterproductive"
to the fight against terrorism.
Calls for jihad against
India and the United States of America were made in Pakistan's
National Assembly by the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence,
Syed Tanveer Hussain, who argued that the dispute over Kashmir
would be settled in "one month" if jihadis were allowed
free entry into areas under Indian control. Hussain, who found
support from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, said that Quranic concepts
should be allowed to guide foreign policy since in the case of
Kashmir, there was clearly an US-India conspiracy to make the
region autonomous. He said talks were never going to settle the
issue. Hussain said that "our love affair with US should come
to an end and we should have better relations with Iran, Russia
and China. We should wage jihad against US and resolve
the Kashmir issue through jihad, not talks."
August 7-8
At least 12 militants were reportedly
killed and several others injured during helicopter raids by the
security forces at Degan village in North Waziristan. Military
spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad said that the operation
commenced at 5:00am when artillery and Cobra helicopters targeted
two compounds of the militants. "The militants used to regroup
and prepare attacks on security forces and take refuge at these
compounds," he disclosed.
August 8
Taliban militants captured Chargano
village at Darra Adamkhel in the NWFP when rival tribesmen surrendered
to them after clashes which left five people dead and at least
10 others injured. Witnesses said that some 20 families of the
Qasimkhel tribe surrendered themselves to the militants after
35-hour-long gun fight between the two sides.
Four militants were killed and
the commandant of Makran Scouts (a wing of the Frontier Corps)
and another security force personnel injured in an encounter in
the Mand area of Turbat district in Balochistan, close to the
border with Iran.
The ulema (religious scholars)
of Wafaq-ul-Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan (WMAP), the main confederacy
of seminaries, have decided to join hands with the leaders of
the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and collect funds to launch a countrywide
movement against the Lal Masjid operation. This decision was taken
at the WMAP’s supreme council meeting held on August 6-7 at Multan
in the Punjab province, which was presided over by WMAP president
Maulana Saleemullah Khan.
August 9
At least 15 people were reported
to have died after army’s helicopter gun-ships attacked the Degan
village in North Waziristan following a roadside bomb blast which
left four soldiers injured.
Unidentified assailants shot dead
two pro-government tribesmen at Mir Ali in North Waziristan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai
and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told a four-day joint Pakistan-Afghan
peace Jirga (assembly) in Kabul that both nations could
defeat a resurgent al Qaeda and Taliban if they worked together.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ruled
out the imposition of emergency in the country for the time being.
August 10
At the ongoing peace Jirga
in Kabul, Pakistan proposed formation of a joint tribal council
to open negotiations with Afghan resistance groups and work for
a truce to create necessary conditions for peaceful resolution
of the conflict.
August 11
Three police personnel were killed
by militants in an ambush in the Hangu district of the NWFP.
Troops killed three suspected
militants in an encounter in the Mir Ali town of North Waziristan.
One SF personnel was injured in the incident.
Two civilians were killed and
five others, including an army soldier, injured when militants
attacked an army convoy with a remote-controlled bomb at Patassy
Ada in North Waziristan.
August 12
The provincial secretary-general
of the banned SSP, Aslam Farooqui, was shot dead in Peshawar.
Afghanistan and Pakistan pledged
to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in their respective tribal
regions and fight the opium trade financing militants. They also
agreed to establish a council, comprising 25 delegates from each
country, to promote reconciliation with the ‘opposition’ and cooperation
between the neighbours.
In an address to the concluding
session of the Joint Peace Jirga in Kabul, President Pervez
Musharraf said both Afghanistan and Pakistan had to get away from
what he called the backwardness and violence of Islamic extremism.
The president conceded that there was support from Pakistani tribal
areas for the insurgency in Afghanistan, extremism and ‘Talibanisation’.
August 13
Four civilians were killed and
eight others sustained injuries when a vehicle of the National
Rural Support Programme struck a roadside explosive device in
the Ushu Valley, near the tourist resort of Kalam in the Swat
district of NWFP.
At least three militants were
killed during an encounter with the SF personnel which ensued
after the militants attacked Dargai check post in South Waziristan.
The Interior Ministry has directed
police to tighten security around English medium schools in the
country after intelligence reports showed extremists planning
hostage taking at private English medium schools.
August 15
Two persons were killed in a bomb
blast at Turlandi in the Swabi district of the NWFP. The bomb
exploded at around 9:00am at Saleem Tuition Centre, about 30 kilometers
from the district headquarters, killing two teachers, Salimullah
and Umer Nasir. Police said one of the dead had links with some
jihadi groups.
The BLA claimed that it had killed
two security force personnel in the Dera Bugti district. The two
soldiers, Mumtaz Ahmed and Mukhtar Ahmed, died when insurgents
fired four rockets targeting a patrolling team in the Sui police
area. "We accept responsibility for the attack on the occupying
forces on Baloch land. More attacks will follow this," said Basham
Baloch, a BLA spokesman.
Pakistani tribal elders have been
threatened with reprisals for attending the August 9-12 Joint
Peace Jirga at Kabul aimed at ending support for al Qaeda and
Taliban militants, officials said. An anonymous letter sent to
the elders at Bajaur in the FATA threatened unspecified "action"
against them for attending the Jirga. "Your participation at the
Jirga was not a good decision… Action will be taken against you,"
officials quoted the letter as saying. Security official Adalat
Khan said at least four tribal elders in a remote town in the
region had received the warnings.
August 16
Ten militants and two soldiers
were killed in an attack on a military convoy in South Waziristan.
"Militants ambushed a military convoy near Chaghmalay, and
air support was sought against them. Ten militants were killed
and 12 injured while the security forces suffered two casualties,"
said military spokesperson Major General Waheed.
A roadside bomb explosion killed
tribal elder Nawabzada Shamsul Wahab Khan and his driver and injured
two of his bodyguards in the Bajaur Agency of FATA.
Two soldiers were killed and four
others injured in a roadside explosion near Kaka Ziarat in North
Waziristan, and the security forces arrested six persons for carrying
out the attack.
August 17
Officials and residents said the
death toll in the clashes in South Waziristan reached to 32, including
19 militants and 12 soldiers. At least 12 security force personnel
were injured.
At least eight people died during
clashes between activists of the rival Lashkar-i-Islam and Ansaar-ul-Islam
groups at Sandapaal in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency in the
FATA.
In North Waziristan, two Uzbek
nationals and two men of the Janikhel tribe were killed when security
forces fired at a car which did not stop for checking at the Jaler
checkpoint. One person was arrested.
August 18
Two soldiers were killed and an
equal number of them injured in a suicide attack at the Dharkhubi
checkpost near the Mir Ali town in North Waziristan. The suicide
attack came hours after troops attacked three suspected militant
hideouts in South Waziristan, triggering a shootout that left
at least 10 soldiers injured.
Two more soldiers were killed
when militants attacked Isha and Qamar checkposts in North Waziristan.
August 19
At least 15 militants were killed
during military operations that targeted militant hideouts near
the Mir Ali town in North Waziristan. Military spokesperson Major
General Waheed Arshad said the military attacked hideouts of the
militants after security checkpoints near Mir Ali came under attack.
"We have credible information that the two compounds have
been destroyed and 15 miscreants, including 10 Uzbeks, have been
killed in the strike," Arshad said. There were unconfirmed
reports that an Iraqi national Abu Akasha, a suspected al Qaeda
operative, may have been the target of the military operation.
Two women, two children and a
man were killed in a village near Mir Ali town in military operations
involving Cobra gunship helicopters. Tribal sources in Mir Ali
said the five civilians were killed in Hormuz and Issori when
the gunship helicopters bombed and strafed the two villages. The
Mosaki, Hasokhel and Khushali villages were also attacked by the
five helicopters and several houses were damaged.
August 20
Six SF personnel were killed and
18 persons, including a civilian, were wounded when a suicide
bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a checkpoint on Kurram
Road in the Hangu district of NWFP. Hangu District Police Officer
Ghulam Mohammad Khan disclosed that the suicide bomber came in
a blue jeep from Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan,
and struck the Militia Mandoori check-post. A woman is reported
to have died when SFs opened indiscriminate fire after the incident.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. Their
purported spokesman, Abdul Hai Ghazi, said from Waziristan, "We
carried out the suicide attack in Thall and killed 20 soldiers."
A man accused of using his computer
skills to help al Qaeda has been released after three years in
custody, a government official and the man’s lawyer said. Mohammed
Naeem Noor Khan, an engineering graduate, was suspected of having
sent coded e-mails to al Qaeda operatives possibly planning attacks
in the United States, Britain and South Africa. Khan, who was
arrested from Lahore in July 2004, has also been linked with terrorist
plots in the US and Britain, and to the arrests of suspects in
Britain.
August 21
Security agencies are reported
to have traced a network of terrorists operating across Pakistan
and arrested two members allegedly linked to last month’s suicide
bombings in Islamabad, Interior Ministry spokesperson Brigadier
(r) Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters in Islamabad. He said these
terrorists were linked with Lal Masjid and Waziristan. Official
sources identified the two as Imdad Hussain of Dera Ismail Khan
in NWFP and Nasir Mehmood of Murree. Hussain was arrested from
Rawalpindi and Mehmood in Murree last week.
Mufti Munir Shakir, head of the
Lashkar-e-Islam group in the Khyber Agency of Federally Administered
Tribal Areas, was released on August 21 after 13-months of "protective
custody". The cleric, in his 40s, heads the Lashkar-i-Islam which
confronts the rival Barelvi school of thought group Ansaar-ul-Islam.
August 22
Three Frontier Corps (FC) personnel
and three militants were killed when militants attacked a check-post
jointly manned by police and FC personnel in the Miran police
precincts of Bannu in NWFP.
August 23
President Pervez Musharraf rules
out an imposition of emergency in the country, saying that political
instability must be avoided and "we will maintain the supremacy
of law and constitution".
August 24
A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden
vehicle into the military convoy at Qamar Picket near the Mir
Ali town in North Waziristan, killing five soldiers and injuring
10 others. The same convoy, which had come from Bannu in the North
West Frontier Province and was on its way to Razmak, was attacked
once more when it proceeded further. Another suicide bomber riding
a vehicle struck the convoy near Asadkhel village on the road
to Razmak, killing two soldiers and injuring two others. Military
officials stated that two militants were killed by the troops
in retaliatory firing.
President Pervez Musharraf told
a group of parliamentarians from the FATA that the army would
be withdrawn from tribal areas after January 2008. "Paramilitary
forces including Frontier Constabulary, Levies and Khasadars will
take over the charge of tribal areas from military, which would
be withdrawn after January 2008," said the president.
Some soldiers of the Frontier
Corps are reportedly deserting the force due to regular and violent
attacks by the militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan,
sources said. Military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad,
however, called the desertion of a "few jawans insignificant incidents."
August 25
SFs killed five militants and
arrested another in the Datakhel area of North Waziristan in a
clash which followed an attack on the Ismailkhel security post
leaving one soldier dead and two others wounded. Officials said
the SFs retaliated after the Ismailkhel post had been attacked
with rockets and missiles.
An army helicopter opened fire
on a vehicle on a road near Miranshah in North Waziristan killing
three suspected militants. The official said the vehicle was targeted
because it failed to stop at a checkpoint at Mir Ali, about 20-kilometers
from Miranshah.
August 26
US-led security forces and Afghan
troops attacked Taliban positions inside Pakistan in fresh clashes
that left at least 19 militants dead, security forces said. The
US-led coalition said it received permission from Pakistan to
attack across the border on August 25, but this was denied by
the chief military spokesperson in Islamabad.
Four police personnel were killed
and two others sustained injuries in a suicide attack on a police
van in the mountainous Shangla district of NWFP. It was reportedly
the first-ever terrorist incident in the Shangla district.
August 28
Militants freed 18 Frontier Corps
(FC) personnel, including a senior officer, and a political agent
in the Sam area of South Waziristan after an assurance from the
government that it would abide by the February 2005 peace agreement.
Chief negotiator Maulana Mirajuddin, a Member of the National
Assembly, informed that all hostages had been released unconditionally.
He, however, said the militants wanted the government to respect
the February 2005 peace accord.
Former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto has alleged that elements of the ISI "continue the
alliance with both the Taliban and al Qaeda to this very day"
on the premise that Pakistan’s security requires "strategic
depth" in the shape of a friendly or pliant Afghanistan.
August 30
Seven security force personnel died and an unspecified
number of people were wounded when suspected militants attacked
the Frontier Corps check post at Swat in the NWFP.
Militants in South Waziristan abducted around
150 Pakistan Army personnel and shifted them to their hideouts
in the mountains.
August 31
Two soldiers of the Frontier Corps (FC) and a
civilian were killed and eight people sustained injuries in two
attacks at Mingora in the NWFP. FC personnel and police stationed
at the Pakistan-Australia Institute for Hotel Management came
under attack in the Guli Bagh area leading to the death of two
paramilitary soldiers, Noor Bahadur and Waheed Nawaz, and injuries
to six soldiers. Official sources said that a police patrol rushed
to the area and struck an improvised explosive device on the Langar
Road. A civilian, Hazrat Ali, who had been arrested for timber
smuggling and was in the police van, was killed in the blast while
two police personnel were wounded.
September 1
Four paramilitary troops were killed and six
others injured in a suicide attack at a check-post in the Mamoond
area of Bajaur Agency in FATA. Local residents said that a civilian
was killed when the security forces opened fire after the attack.
September 2
Two persons were killed and 11 others, including
a tribal elder, were injured when a remote-controlled bomb exploded
at a shop in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan.
Authorities at Kandahar in Afghanistan detained
four Pakistanis on suspicion of helping insurgents build bombs.
"On a tip-off we captured four Pakistanis who are experts
in making suicide-bombing vests and remote-controlled bombs,"
police officer Abdul Qayoum Katawazi said.
September 4
At least 30 people were killed and 70 others
wounded in two suicide attacks at Qasim Market and RA Bazaar in
the garrison city of Rawalpindi. The first suicide bomber targeted
a bus that was carrying about 35 employees of a defence agency
to their office near the Qasim Market, killing at least 20 people.
Soon after, another blast occurred near the RA Bazaar police station,
killing 10 more people.
September 5
Two personnel of the Frontier Corps and a passer-by
were shot dead in an attack by armed assailants on the Brewery
Road in Quetta, capital of Balochistan.
September 6
Six persons, including four suspected foreigners,
were killed when a Cobra gunship attacked a car in the Mir Ali
area of North Waziristan. A statement by the Inter-Services Public
Relations said the car was occupied by suspected foreigners and
it was tracked down and attacked with a missile fired by a helicopter.
Two tribesmen present in the area at the time of the attack were
also killed.
Suspected militants abducted and later beheaded
two women, identified as Maino and Malaki, for alleged prostitution
in the Cantonment Police precincts of Bannu in the NWFP.
September 7
Intelligence agencies have reportedly warned
the Interior Ministry that three suicide bombers have entered
Islamabad to target the capital’s two busiest commercial centres,
Jinnah Super and Super Market, in the next few days. The suicide
bombers were linked to the Waziristan-based tribal militant Baitullah
Mehsud. Acting Inspector General of Islamabad Police Shahid Nadeem
Baloch confirmed that the police had received a warning about
the suicide bombers from the Interior Ministry.
September 8
Ten militants were killed and seven SF personnel
injured after militants attacked a military convoy in the Pusht
Ziarat area, about 95 kilometers southwest of Miranshah in North
Waziristan. An unnamed SF official said the military convoy was
coming to the Mana army camp from Shawal when the militants attacked
it in Pusht Ziarat – an area between North and South Waziristan.
Four soldiers were killed and two others injured
when suspected militants opened fire on a small military convoy
in the Kohistan district of NWFP. It was the first attack on the
army in the Kohistan district.
September 9
The increasing number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan
is often carried out by young Afghan men who pass through religious
schools in Pakistan, a United Nations report said. The "majority
of those who came from Pakistan are Afghan, but not all, either
refugees or coming in and out of Afghanistan," UNAMA head Tom
Koenigs told reporters ahead of the document's release. There
are more than two million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The report,
however, cited a "senior" Taliban commander as saying that 80
percent of suicide attackers passed through recruitment centres,
training facilities or safe houses in Pakistan's Waziristan area.
"The tribal areas of Pakistan remain an important source of human
and material assistance for the insurgency generally but suicide
attacks in particular," the report said.
A jirga (council) of Safi tribes signed
a peace agreement with the local Taliban at Bawtha in Mohmand
Agency. Malik Zahir Shah Safi, a jirga member, said the
Taliban representatives assured the jirga that militants
would not harm government officials or damage public property.
The jirga decided if the Taliban did not honour the peace
accord, Safi tribes would side with the government and if the
government did not respect the agreement, they would not cooperate
with it (the government).
September 10
Seven people, including five militants - three
of them senior commanders, were killed while three others sustained
injuries in an encounter between militants and the SFs in the
Makeen area of South Waziristan.
Two local tribesmen, including a woman, were
killed in Makeen when a stray rocket hit their house. There were
unconfirmed reports that both were close relatives of militant
commander Baitullah Mehsud.
A court in San Francisco sentenced a Pakistani-American
man to 24 years imprisonment following his conviction last year
for taking part in training at an al Qaeda terrorist camp. 25-year
old Hamid Hayat was jailed after being found guilty in April 2005
of providing "material support" to al Qaeda training in Pakistan
and lying about it to FBI agents.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was arrested
and deported to Saudi Arabia four-and-a-half hours after he arrived
in Islamabad from London to challenge the rule of President Pervez
Musharraf.
Two civilians were killed in crossfire between suspected militants
and SFs at Ishengai village in the Makeen area of South Waziristan.
September 11
19 people were killed and 15 others wounded when
a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up near a thickly-populated
area of Bannu Choongi in the Dera Ismail Khan district of NWFP.
The incident occurred at around 3:10 pm (PST) when police directed
a suspected passenger of a pickup on the way to Kech village to
come out and offer a body search. As the passenger came out of
the vehicle, he blew himself up, killing 18 people on the spot,
including two police personnel, who wanted to search the bomber.
Another person succumbed to his injuries later, raising the death
toll to 19. Deputy Inspector General Police, Habibur Rahman, stated
that the bomber was 14 to 15 years of age.
September 12
40 militants were killed in an attack by Army
gunship helicopters in the Shawal area of North Waziristan. Military
spokesperson, Major General Waheed Arshad, stated that Pakistan
Army gunship helicopters and artillery were used in the operation
against the militants, who had established their hideouts in the
Shawal area and involved in attacks on military convoys.
September 13
Taliban militants attacked a military base near
the Afghan border, leading to an encounter with the security forces
in which at least 50 militants and two soldiers were killed. Eight
soldiers were wounded in the clashes. Military spokesperson Major
General Waheed Arshad said security forces repelled repeated militant
attacks, adding that army helicopters and ground fire destroyed
four militant positions.
At least 20 people were killed in a bomb blast
in a high-security military area in Tarbela Ghazi area of Haripur
District. The bomb exploded in the mess of Karar Company of the
Special Services Group. The communication and wireless system
of security agencies was also reportedly affected by the explosion.
Two unnamed intelligence officials said that it was a suicide
attack, and that the bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle
into the canteen where dozens of commandos were having dinner.
The Tarbela facility is the headquarters of the SOTF, a unit of
the Pakistan Army's elite Special Services Group, which had been
set up with American aid to neutralise al Qaeda.
Seven people were killed on when armed assailants
lobbed a hand-grenade and opened fire on a minibus near the Karachi
University. The Islami Jamiat Talaba (student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami)
alleged that activists of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation
(APMSO) had attacked its workers who were in the bus. The APMSO,
however, denied the allegations.
September 14
Two children were killed and five others injured
when two landmines exploded in Shinkot Gang of the Bajaur Agency
of FATA. The landmines were planted at the main gate of a residential
compound of a tribesman, Noor Jamal, which exploded in quick succession
killing his two sons.
September 16
At least 18 soldiers were killed when tribal
militants attacked a security check-post at Pashte Ziarat in the
Shawal area of North Waziristan. Troops in retaliation killed
18 militants.
Four unidentified tribal militants were killed
in clashes with the troops in North Waziristan.
Pakistan’s Election Commission has amended rules
that bar Government servants from contesting Presidential polls,
a move that has paved the way for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s
re-election to the top post. Secretary to the Election Commission,
Kunwar Irshad, said that the poll panel has amended Presidential
election rules, so that Article 63 of the Constitution that has
a clause to bar Government servants from participating in elections
unless they have been retired for at least two years, no longer
applies to the President. Irshad said the rule of Article 63 (K)
stating that "if he (the candidate) has been in the service of
Pakistan or of any statutory body or any body which is owned or
controlled by the Government or in which the Government has a
controlling share or interest, unless a period of two years has
elapsed since he ceased to be in such service" has been amended
to exempt Musharraf who continued as Chief of Army.
September 17
Two security force personnel were killed and
four others injured in a rocket attack by militants on a security
forces convoy at Talli village near Sibbi town in Balochistan.
September 17
As many as 129 personnel of Pakistan Army, FC
and 56 police were killed in 22 suicide attacks in nine months
since January 2007. According to an Interior Ministry report on
suicide attacks, 51 suicide attacks took place since January 2007
to date in which 14 attacks targeted military personnel, four
targeted FC, four targeted police, while the remaining 29 targeted
the civilian population. The report said that Lal Masjid military
operation had caused an increase in suicide attacks on army and
paramilitary forces. The report also reveals that military was
mostly targeted in the North West Frontier Province and FATA.
Mir Ali, Miran Shah and Tank remained the most favorite targets
of suicide bombers. During the period in question, three suicide
attacks took place in the Punjab province targeting the army.
September 18
President General Pervez Musharraf will step
down as army chief provided he is re-elected as president, government
lawyers told the Supreme Court. Sharifuddin Pirzada, the State
counsel, and Malik Muhammad Qayyum, the Attorney General, submitted
a statement in the court stating, "If elected for the second term
as president, General Pervez Musharraf shall relinquish the charge
of the office of the chief of army staff soon after election but
before taking oath of the office of the president of Pakistan
for the next term. The nomination papers of General Pervez Musharraf
should be scrutinised by the chief election commissioner/returning
officer independently and in accordance with the law." A nine-member
bench headed by Justice Rana Bhagwandas was hearing petitions
challenging the President’s two offices.
September 18
President General Pervez Musharraf will step
down as army chief provided he is re-elected as president, government
lawyers told the Supreme Court. Sharifuddin Pirzada, the State
counsel, and Malik Muhammad Qayyum, the Attorney General, submitted
a statement in the court stating, "If elected for the second term
as president, General Pervez Musharraf shall relinquish the charge
of the office of the chief of army staff soon after election but
before taking oath of the office of the president of Pakistan
for the next term. The nomination papers of General Pervez Musharraf
should be scrutinised by the chief election commissioner/returning
officer independently and in accordance with the law." A nine-member
bench headed by Justice Rana Bhagwandas was hearing petitions
challenging the President’s two offices.
September 19
The government ruled out the option of setting
up permanent military bases in the tribal areas.
September 20
Two Pakistani nationals accused of channeling
1 million euros ($1.40 million) to Muslim militants were arrested
in Spain. A. Muhammad Shan and P. Mehmood Sandhu reportedly used
money from drug trafficking to fund radical groups in Spain and
abroad. They were detained in Madrid and Barcelona after a three-year
operation by Spanish National Police and the US Federal Bureau
of Intelligence.
Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has vowed to retaliate
against ‘infidel’ President Pervez Musharraf for the killing of
Lal Masjid (red mosque) cleric Ghazi Abdul Rashid, US Websites
said. "We in al Qaeda call on God to witness that we will retaliate
for the blood of Ghazi and those with him against Musharraf and
those who help him," a Website quoted Laden as saying. In another
video, al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri warned that
General Musharraf would be ‘punished’ for the killing of Ghazi.
"Let the Pakistan Army know that the killing of Ghazi and the
demolition of his mosque have soaked the history of the Pakistani
army in shame ... which can only be washed away by retaliation
against the killers of Ghazi," he said.
The ECP announced that the presidential election
would be held on October 6. General Pervez Musharraf, whose five-year
term as President expires on November 15, will be the government
candidate for another term in office as head of State.
September 21
Two women and a paramilitary soldier were killed
and eight others injured in clashes between security forces and
militants at Khar, the headquarters of Bajaur Agency in the FATA.
Three militants were killed and two others, including
a woman, injured when two groups of Taliban clashed in South Waziristan.
Unidentified militants opened indiscriminate
fire on former federal minister and Awami National Party (ANP)
leader Muhammad Afzal Khan Lala at Bedara in the NWFP, killing
his driver and gunman and wounding the ANP leader, his nephew
and two servants.
September 22
At least two people, including an Afghan refugee,
were killed in the remote Sorandara Musakhel area of Mohmand Agency
in FATA.
Two militants were killed as SFs retaliated when
militants fired six rockets at Zara Mila post near Mirali town
of North Waziristan.
September 23
At least 10 persons were killed and 14 others
injured in a clash between activists of two rival tribal groups
in the Barqambar Khel area of Bara tehsil (administrative
division) in the Khyber Agency.
Security agencies have reportedly forwarded intelligence
reports to senior government officials regarding suicide attacks
expected to be carried out by women bombers across the country,
Interior Ministry sources said. "There are chances that that
male and female former students of Jamia Hafsa, Jamia Fareedia
and Lal Masjid that managed to escape from ‘Operation Silence’
could carry out suicide attacks across the country," the
intelligence agencies’ reports said.
September 25
A government counsel informed
the Supreme Court that General Pervez Musharraf would continue
to stay as army chief if he was not re-elected president for a
second term. "If he loses, President Musharraf will continue to
remain in uniform till the time another army chief is appointed
by the new president," Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum
submitted to a nine-member bench hearing petitions against President
Musharraf holding two offices.
September 26
The Superintendent of Police (Investigation
Cell), Syed Sharyab, and his two guards died when their vehicle
was ambushed in the Samungli area of Quetta, capital of Balochistan,
His driver and security in charge of the Pakistan Television Centre
(Quetta) were wounded in the incident. The proscribed Baloch Liberation
Army claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two militants of the Taliban were
killed and eight others sustained injuries during a clash with
a gang of alleged criminals in the Naryab area of Hangu district
in the NWFP. The encounter reportedly continued for several hours
and the Taliban took seven men of the gang hostage. They also
took away a vehicle and set another on fire. The Taliban also
abducted three men of the group from the Doaba area.
Militants belonging to some unnamed
banned outfits have reportedly started a new campaign of issuing
life threats through letters to Christians, especially in the
NWFP and Punjab for the last three months.
USA’s intelligence agency National
Intelligence stated that al Qaeda continues to recruit Europeans
for explosives training in Pakistan because Europeans can more
easily enter the United States without a visa. Director of National
Intelligence, Mike McConnell, said that European al Qaeda recruits
in the border region of Pakistan are being trained to use commercially
available substances to make explosives, and they may be able
to carry out an attack on U.S. territory.
Leading civil society organisations
threatened to halt their operations throughout the country if
the government failed to stem the increasing number of attacks
on non-governmental organisations by extremists in the NWFP. UN
agencies, which reportedly bore the brunt of extremist attacks
earlier this year in Bagh, were also represented at the meeting.
September 27
Two tribesmen were killed and
five others wounded in a gun-battle in the Mirali area of North
Waziristan.
September 28
The Supreme Court cleared the
way for President Pervez Musharraf to contest the October 6 presidential
election while remaining Army chief, by dismissing as "non-maintainable"
all petitions challenging his eligibility.
September 29
In the Datakhel area of North
Waziristan, two soldiers were killed and three others wounded
when a checkpoint was attacked.
September 30
Senior representatives of the
US and Pakistan signed a $750-million, five-year agreement for
American assistance in the development of the FATA, with $105
million to be provided in 2007, a US Embassy press release said.
Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime
Minister, said that al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden didn’t want
her to return to Pakistan, as he was against women’s rule. She
said Osama didn’t believe in democracy. Bhutto also stated that
the government would provide her security upon her arrival in
Pakistan.
October 1
A suicide bomber disguised in
a woman’s burqa (veil) blew himself up at a busy police
check-post in Bannu in the NWFP killing at least 16 people, including
four police personnel, and injuring 29 persons. Police officer
Asar Islam told, "A man disguised in a burqa got out of an
auto-rickshaw when police stopped the vehicle for a search at
a checkpoint. He then blew himself up."
Two tribesmen were killed and
10 others wounded when a vehicle hit a landmine in the Kurram
Agency of the FATA. Officials stated that the vehicle carrying
11 passengers and a driver was heading from Sadda to Tander when
it hit the landmine on a dirt track in the Mir Karim Kandaw area
at about 4.30pm (PST).
Two Frontier Constabulary personnel
were killed in a militant attack on the Rocha check-post in Bannu,
NWFP.
October 2
Two police personnel, Tajjamul
Hussain and Taj Hussain, and a Levies Force soldier, Arbab Khan,
were killed and two others wounded when militants attacked a check-post
on the main Thall Road in the Hangu town of the NWFP.
A terrorist network allegedly
involved in recent suicide attacks in different parts of the country,
including Islamabad and Rawalpindi, has been neutralized. In a
weekly press briefing, Interior Ministry spokesperson Brigadier
(retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema said eight terrorists were arrested
on October 1 in the Chauntra area of Rawalpindi in a predawn raid
by the Punjab Police.
The US military said that it expected
al Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence in sanctuaries in Pakistan’s
tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan."
Sanctuary was provided to al Qaeda and Taliban militants after
Islamabad signed a peace deal with them in a desperate attempt
to quell the unrest in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
in September 2006, a US military official claimed.
The US is pressing President General
Pervez Musharraf "very hard" to allow for free and fair elections,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. She singled out parliamentary
elections due early 2008 as a "critical test" of the Musharraf
administration’s commitment to democratic principles.
President General Pervez Musharraf
promoted Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani to the rank of four-star
general and nominated him as his successor as chief of army staff.
Kiyani will replace the outgoing Vice Chief of Army Staff General
Ahsan Salim Hayat and assume office on October 8 – two days after
the presidential election.
October 3
14 civilians were killed and five
others sustained injuries when their bus hit a landmine in the
Bulandkhel area of North Waziristan. The bus, going from Thall
to Shewa, struck the landmine near the Tauda Cheena Bridge at
about 5.30 pm (PST). The blast targeting the bus occurred hours
after pro-Taliban militants raided a security check-post near
Mirali in a pre-dawn attack, killing two soldiers and injuring
four more. "Ten miscreants were killed in the resulting clash,"
military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad said.
Two militants belonging to the
Bugti tribe, identified as Khuda Bakhsh Chakrani Bugti and Nabi
Bakhsh Chakrani Bugti, were killed and three persons, including
a Frontier Corps soldier, were injured after security forces clashed
with militants at Khalani village in the Jaffarabad district of
Balochistan. Seven tribesmen were arrested and an unspecified
quantity of arms, including rocket launchers, rockets, hand-grenades,
automatic rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition, was recovered
after the clash.
Afghan security forces allegedly
arrested four Pakistanis suspected of being suicide bombers from
Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. They were reportedly arrested
after a raid on a house in the outskirts of the city along with
some suicide jackets. All the four hailed from the Punjab province
of Pakistan and identified them as Mohammad Hussain, Abdul Rauf,
M. Shoaib and Hassan. He said that they were being interrogated
and they had disclosed that they belonged to the proscribed LeJ.
October 4
Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud
executed three soldiers from a group of more than 250 taken hostage
last month in South Waziristan and vowed to carry out more executions
if the government continued the "Mehsud tribes’ humiliation".
The bodies of the three soldiers were found on the Wana-Jandola
road in Jandola near the border with South Waziristan.
President Pervez Musharraf reached
an understanding with the former Prime Minister and PPP leader
Benazir Bhutto that will secure the party’s tacit support to him
in the October 6 presidential election in return for a law giving
her indemnity against corruption charges. The agreement, in the
form of a "national reconciliation ordinance," is likely
to grant indemnity to all those who held public office or were
in government service between 1985 and November 17, 1999 against
whom cases were registered but who have not yet been convicted.
October 6
Polling was held for the 14th
presidential election at Parliament House and all four provincial
assemblies. President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan People’s Party’s
candidate Makhdoom Amin Fahim, lawyer’s candidate Justice (retd)
Wajihuddin Ahmed and Faryal Talpur were the candidates. However
under the Supreme Court ruling, the results would not be announced
after the completion of polling. The Supreme Court on October
5 allowed the present assemblies to conduct the presidential election,
but directed the Election Commission to keep the results classified
until a final decision is reached on the petitions challenging
the candidacy of President General Pervez Musharraf.
One soldier was killed and 18
others injured when an army convoy was ambushed in North Waziristan.
October 7
President General Pervez Musharraf
returned victorious as the President of Pakistan for another five-year
term in a smooth presidential election held on October 6. However,
a formal notification of his success was not issued as validation
of his candidature is yet to be decided by the Supreme Court.
Musharraf bagged 98 per cent (671) of the total votes polled (684),
and overall he got 57 per cent out of total 1,170 votes of parliament
and four provincial assemblies.
SFs assisted by heavy artillery
and helicopter gun-ships killed 65 militants but lost 20 soldiers
in two encounters in North Waziristan. Fierce clashes occurred
between the SFs and militants at Mirali and Miranshah, headquarters
of North Waziristan. The fighting began on October 6-night when
militants ambushed an army convoy in Mir Ali, 24 kilometers east
of Miranshah, on the Miranshah-Bannu road.
Three civilians were also killed
when an artillery shell fired by the SFs hit their house in the
Sokhail village of North Waziristan.
October 8
Pakistani helicopter gun-ships
and troops have killed 130 militants during clashes near the Afghan
border, while 45 soldiers have also died, the army sources said.
The clashes broke out after militants set off IEDs (improvised
explosive devices) and conducted ambushes on the security forces
on October 7, military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad
said. He added, "The forces retaliated and killed 130 militants
in air strikes and ground attacks. Forty-five security personnel
were also martyred."
The United Jihad Council (UJC)
chief Syed Salahuddin has announced a unilateral cease-fire in
the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir for three days from October
12 to 14 on the occasion of Ramadan. A news agency quoting spokesman
of the Pakistan-based UJC, Syed Sadaqat Hussain, said the decision
was taken at a meeting presided over by Syed Salahuddin, who also
heads the HM. The meeting decided there would be complete cease-fire
for three days on the part of all militant groups operating in
Jammu and Kashmir, the spokesman said.
October 9
At least 50 people were killed and 200 others
injured after fighter jets bombed a village market near Mirali
town in North Waziristan. Military spokesperson Major General
Waheed Arshad said the bombing had targeted militant hideouts
in the Ipi, Khedherkhel and Khushali Torikhel villages of Mirali
sub-division, adding that he had no confirmation of the number
of fatalities. He, however, put the number of militants killed
in three days of fighting at 150 and the army’s casualties at
45.
Two soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Mamoon
Panga in North Waziristan.
Two soldiers are reported to have died and four
wounded in an attack on Gharlamai check-post west of Miranshah.
The White House released a national strategy
for combating terrorism, terming Pakistan as an al Qaeda safe
haven, which can be used for launching another 9/11 like attack
inside the United States. This is the first time that the country
has been named as an al Qaeda safe haven in a White House policy
document. Al Qaeda has "protected its top leadership, replenished
operational lieutenants, and regenerated a safe haven in Pakistan’s
Federally Administered Tribal Areas — core capabilities that would
help facilitate another attack on the Homeland," the document
said.
October 10
The PAF warplanes continued attacking localities
of Mir Ali subdivision in North Waziristan, killing 15 more persons.
Officials of the political administration and tribal sources said
that the PAF planes targeted Haiderkhel, Ipi, Hasukhel, Musaki,
Mullagan, Hurmaz, Zeeraki, Khushali and other villages of the
area, mostly peopled by non-combatants. They said eight persons
were killed in Haiderkhel, four in Hurmaz and three in Hasukhel
villages. However, military spokesperson Major-General Waheed
Arshad claimed that no air strike was launched against the militants
since October 9-afternoon.
The NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai dissolved
the provincial assembly and appointed the former Water and Power
Development Authority chairman Shamsul Mulk as the caretaker chief
minister.
The Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that elections
for the national and provincial assemblies would be held in the
first week of January 2008 under a caretaker setup. "I think the
elections for national and provincial assemblies will be held
in the first week of January," Aziz said, adding, "The national
parliament and provincial assemblies will complete their terms
on November 15 and elections will be held 60 days after that."
President Pervez Musharraf has asked former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto to delay her return to Pakistan from a
self-imposed exile till the Supreme Court decides on petitions
challenging his re-election. "Benazir should not come back to
Pakistan on October 18 and she should delay her return till the
Supreme Court decision regarding the presidential election," Musharraf
said.
October 11
The former Primer Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan
People’s Party rejected President Pervez Musharraf’s suggestion
that she should postpone her planned October 18 return to Pakistan
as "uncalled for" and asserted she would return as scheduled.
October 11-12
Local Taliban militants shot dead six alleged
criminals to avenge the death of their four associates in the
Pandialai tehsil (administrative division) of Mohmand Agency
in the FATA. They also abducted six other ‘criminals’.
October 13
Four persons were killed and another sustained
injuries when militants ambushed their vehicle in the Arkot area
of Swat district of NWFP.
Pro-Taliban militants reportedly released 30
of the over 200 SF personnel they had abducted over a month ago
in South Waziristan.
October 14
Security force personnel killed two pro-Taliban
militants, including an Uzbek, after they fired on a paramilitary
checkpoint near the Mir Ali town in North Waziristan. "One Uzbek
and one local militant were killed in retaliation while two wounded
militants escaped," army spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad
disclosed.
October 17
From 2001 to 2007, the United States extended
$10.09 billion in assistance to Pakistan, the highest single year
figure being $1.77 billion, which was remitted in 2007. The projected
figure for 2008 is $840 million only. According to figures tabulated
by the Congressional Research Service, the breakdown is as under:
Total economic support funds ($1.89 billion), other development
aid ($453 million), foreign military financing ($1.27 billion),
other security-related aid ($377 million), coalition support funds
($5.93 billion), total non-food aid plus coalition support funds
($9.9 billion) and food aid ($177 million).
The deployment of armed forces in the FATA was
challenged before the Supreme Court. Deputy chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami
in Bajaur Agency and former Member of National Assembly Sahibzada
Haroonur Rashid filed the civil miscellaneous application through
his counsel Barrister Farooq Hassan praying it to restrain General
Pervez Musharraf from deployment of the armed forces in the FATA.
October 18
A suicide bombing in a crowd welcoming former
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto killed 143 persons and injured approximately
550 others in Karachi. Two explosions struck near a truck carrying
Benazir, but she was not injured and was hurried to her house.
The two explosions occurred a minute apart shortly after midnight
near Karsaz bridge close to the vehicle Benazir Bhutto was traveling
in, at the head of a procession of hundreds of thousands of PPP
supporters who had flooded the streets of Karachi to welcome their
leader on her return from eight years in self-imposed exile.
Rioting and gunfire broke out in Dalmia, Malir,
Gulistan-e-Jauhar and the National Highway after the two bomb
blasts, and the protesters set fire to a petrol pump on the Super
Highway. Some 20,000 security force personnel had been deployed
in Karachi to provide protection for Ms Bhutto.
Benazir Bhutto landed at the Karachi airport
around 1.45 in the afternoon. Talking to the media on her arrival,
she said the massive turn out of the people from across the country
on the streets of Karachi was a clear message that people of Pakistan
wanted undiluted democracy in which they had the empowerment.
October 19
The suicide attacks on former premier Benazir
Bhutto that killed 143 people may have been the work of al Qaeda
and the Taliban, said an unnamed official of the Sindh government
He cited intelligence reports that three suicide bombers linked
to the Waziristan-based Taliban ‘commander’ Baitullah Mehsud were
in Karachi. However, an alleged associate of Mehsud, Isa Khan,
denied involvement.
Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister and chairperson
of the PPP, said that the suicide blasts during her homecoming
parade in Karachi a day earlier were "an attack on democracy,
and an attack on the very unity and integrity of Pakistan." The
former premier said that a "brotherly country" had informed her
in advance about the attacks, but she didn’t identify the country
by name. Benazir Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari blamed a Pakistani
intelligence agency for the suicide attacks.
October 20
At least eight persons, including two women and
a child, were killed and 28 others injured when a powerful bomb
planted in a pickup vehicle exploded at a bus stand in the main
market of Dera Bugti in Balochistan. Mir Liaquat Bugti, son of
Mir Ahemdan Bugti, a government ally and chieftain of the Raijha
Bugti tribe, who was the main target of the bomb blast survived
the incident as his car crossed the target spot only a few seconds
before the explosion, local officials said. The banned Baloch
Republican Army claimed responsibility for the incident.
Suspected Taliban militants shot dead two pro-government
tribal elders as they traveled through the northwestern tribal
region of Bajaur. The victims were part of a council of tribal
elders that met last week with aides of militant leader Baitullah
Mahsud, trying to forge a cease-fire between government forces
and militants, said Fazal Rabi, a local government official.
President Pervez Musharraf approved a draft empowerment
package for the Northern Areas, giving enhanced political, administrative
and financial powers to a region currently administered by the
federal government. The package envisages law-making powers for
the Northern Areas Legislative Council. Under the Legal Framework
Order, the federal government would devolve its powers to district
governments to be set up through elections in the six districts
of the Northern Areas - Gilgit, Ghanche, Gizer, Skardu, Astore
and Diamer.
October 21
The October 18-suicide bombing at a rally in
Karachi to welcome former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in which
at least 143 people were killed was reportedly the deadliest ever
in terms of casualties bringing the total number of suicide attacks
in the country to 56. According to the Interior Ministry figures,
before the October 18 incident, 55 suicide bombings occurred in
the country since January 2002 killing almost 574 people. In Karachi,
six suicide attacks have been carried out since May 8, 2002.
October 22
A pro-Taliban militant was killed and two others
wounded in a failed attempt to blow up the office of a women’s
rights group in the Karak district of NWFP The militants had been
attempting to plant a bomb at the Khawando Kor (sisters’ home),
local police officer Hajit Khan said. The bomb exploded prematurely
and one militant was killed, Khan said, adding that two injured
accomplices had been arrested.
Five militant groups have set up an organisation
called Tehrik-i-Taliban in the Mohmand Agency of the FATA to eliminate
elements operating as Taliban. The organisation’s spokesman Abu
Nauman Askari said the militant groups had joined forces and would
work in coordination to flush out gangs carrying out criminal
activities in the name of Taliban. A 16-member Shura was
formed to coordinate activities of the groups.
The Taliban in Afghanistan have denied involvement
in the October 18 assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto.
The Prime Minister and Interior Minister rejected
the PPP’s demand for foreign experts to assist in the inquiry
into the October 18 suicide bombings in Karachi.
October 23
Three suspected militants were
killed and another was injured in an encounter with the SFs in
the Kurdan area near Dera Bugti in Balochistan. SF personnel also
arrested two militants and seized a cache of arms and ammunition,
including AK-47 rifles, rocket launcher, rockets, grenade and
hundreds of rounds.
Former Prime Minister and Pakistan
People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has reportedly received
more assassination threats. According to her lawyer Farooq H.
Naek, a two-page letter in Urdu contained derogatory remarks about
her, besides the threat to assassinate her. Written by "the head
of suicide bombers and a friend of Al Qaeda and Osama", it also
contained a threat that women commandos and suicide bombers could
also be used to assassinate Benazir.
President General Pervez Musharraf
unveiled a political, administrative and development reforms package
for the Northern Areas. The President also announced that the
Northern Areas council had been given the status of a legislative
assembly with powers to debate and pass its budget. He said a
seventh district consisting of Hunza and Nagir subdivisions would
be carved out of the Gilgit district and two subdivisions of Dagone
and Raundo will be set up in the Baltistan region. The President
announced the setting up of a commission under the deputy chairman
of Planning Commission to resolve boundary disputes between the
Northern Areas and the North-West Frontier Province. The region
has so far been governed by the government of Pakistan through
the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas under the Northern
Areas Legal Framework Order, 1994.
The US State Department said that
Pakistan has not been successful in closing down "terrorist networks"
and their supporters. Spokesperson Sean McCormack stated that
the US views Pakistan’s performance in the war against terrorism
as less than satisfactory. He also said that President Musharraf
had decided to support the US on his own and the US had been supportive
of his effort.
October 24
Two soldiers were killed and an
equal number of them were wounded in a roadside bomb blast near
their convoy as it was travelling to Miranshah, headquarters of
North Waziristan.
The NWFP government deployed thousands
of paramilitary and police personnel in the troubled district
of Swat as part of a phased plan to reassert its writ in 59 villages
of the district and curb the growing militancy.
The U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said that the United States is encouraging Pakistani President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf to work more closely with moderates, including
former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Rice, speaking at a U.S.
congressional hearing, said the United States hopes "that there
will be an effort of all moderates to be prepared for fully democratic
elections to take place in the parliament in December, so that
Pakistan can take that next step toward a more stable democratic
environment."
October 25
18 soldiers and two civilians
died and 35 others, including nine civilians, were injured in
a bomb blast aimed at a vehicle carrying FC personnel in the Swat
district of the NWFP. The blast occurred at Nawan Killi, about
a kilometer from Swat city, at around 2:45 pm (PST). It set off
an explosion of ammunition carried inside the military truck,
triggering bullet fire. The blast also damaged 25 shops, a service
station, a CNG station and a petrol pump. Deputy Inspector-General
of Police Akhtar Ali Shah said the evidence suggested a suicide
bombing. A close aide of Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric who heads
the pro-Taliban group TNSM said that the cleric’s supporters were
not behind the blast. "
October 26
Militants publicly executed four
security force personnel in a village, 16-km west of Mingora,
the headquarters of Swat district in the NWFP, and exchanged heavy
gunfire with security forces in a nearby sub-district.
NWFP Home Secretary said two civilians
were killed and another wounded in an encounter between militants
and security forces in Imam Dheri, the village of Maulana Fazlullah,
leader of the TNSM.
October 27
Militants publicly executed two
more security force personnel and seven civilians in the Swat
district of NWFP, taking the total such killings since October
26 to 13. Maulana Sirajuddin, spokesman for the pro-Taliban cleric
Maulana Fazlullah, confirmed that they had beheaded the security
force personnel.
October 28
At least 29 people were killed
and 55 others wounded on the third consecutive day of clashes
between Taliban militants and the SFs in the Swat district of
the NWFP. The dead included 15 militants, 11 SF personnel and
three civilians.
October 29
Pro-Taliban militants and security
forces agreed to a temporary cease-fire in the Swat district of
the NWFP after four days of clashes in which at least 60 militants
were killed. "There is a temporary (truce) arrangement," said
NWFP Inspector General Police Sharif. The NWFP Home Secretary
Badshah Gul Wazir said that there were "reports around 60 miscreants
were killed in three days of fighting. The toll could be higher."
He said that a total of 20 security force personnel and civilians
were killed since October 26.
October 30
A suicide bomber killed eight people, including
three police personnel, and injured at least 18 others, including
14 police personnel, when he blew himself up at a police picket
near district courts in the cantonment area of Rawalpindi. President
Pervez Musharraf had been meeting governors and chief ministers
at Camp Office less than a kilometer away from the incident site.
The fortified army posts at the checkpoint and the nearby gate
to the residence of Joint Chief of Army Staff Chairman General
Tariq Majid were scarred with shrapnel and spattered with blood.
The suicide bomber was aged between 10 and 20, Javed Iqbal Cheema,
spokesperson for the interior ministry, said. The suicide bomber’s
target was General Tariq Majid, who took office three weeks ago
and who was inside the Military House at the time of the explosion.
According to sources, he has been on the hit list of the militants
ever since he supervised the Operation Silence in June-July 2007
to flush out militants from the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad.
October 31
Four civilians were killed when militants and
security forces exchanged gunfire in the Miranshah city of North
Waziristan. Two shells hit a local hotel, killing Faqir Zaman,
Masood Rehman, Hareef Shah and Walayat Khan and damaging the hotel.
At least four others were injured.
A supporter of Fazlullah known as Mullah Nidar
warned in a speech over the radio that the militants may use suicide
attackers if the government launched any major operation in Swat
(NWFP).
Police said that Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network
and the Taliban were likely linked to the October 30-suicide attack
in Rawalpindi that killed seven people. The blast may also be
a reaction to an ongoing government crackdown on militants in
northwest of the country and a raid on Lal Masjid in Islamabad
in July 2007, the Islamabad police chief said.
October 31-November 1
Fierce clashes ensued on October 31-night between
the militants and the security forces SFs at Khwazakhela town
in the Swat district of NWFP with conflicting reports about casualties.
The NWFP Home Secretary, Badshah Gul Wazir, put the number of
casualties at 60-70, all militants, while the Taliban spokesman
claimed that only one of their colleagues and seven civilians,
including two women, were killed. There were, however, some independent
reports of the killing of 56 people, including 41 militants and
11 SF personnel, and injuries to some 26 persons. According to
some reports, a FC camp also came under the Taliban siege, which
the Home Secretary rejected. Sirajuddin, who is the spokesman
and military commander of Maulana Fazlullah, claimed that they
had taken at least 70 paramilitary soldiers and two foreigners
hostage.
November 1
A suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a
Pakistan Air Force (PAF) bus, killing seven officers of the PAF
and three civilians on the Faisalabad Road in Sargodha in Punjab
province. At least 28 people were wounded in the attack. The bus
was reportedly carrying PAF staff from the Mushaf Mir Airbase
to Kirana Ammunition Depot when the bomber targeted the bus at
approximately 6.45a.m.
A missile fired from the Afghanistan side of
the Pakistan-Afghanistan border hit a house in the Charmang area
of Bajaur Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas killing
two people.
November 2
A militant hideout, once owned by the late Taliban
commander, Mullah Dadullah, was destroyed in North Waziristan,
killing nine unidentified people, including two foreign militants.
Militants loyal to pro-Taliban cleric Maulana
Fazlullah paraded 48 soldiers before media personnel in the Swat
town of NWFP. The SF personnel had surrendered during a week of
fierce clashes.
November 3
President Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of
emergency in the country and promulgated a Provisional Constitutional
Order (PCO) holding the Constitution in abeyance. An official
statement without using the word 'President' for Musharraf said,
"Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf has imposed a state
of emergency in the country and issued a Provisional Constitutional
Order." Under the PCO, the Constitution would remain in abeyance.
However, the Senate, National Assembly and the Assemblies of Punjab,
Sindh and Balochistan were not suspended. The local governments
would also continue to work. The proclamation of emergency order
cited "increasing interference by some members of judiciary" and
increasing terrorist attacks as justifications. The emergency
was imposed when the Supreme Court was hearing a petition challenging
Musharraf's eligibility to contest presidential elections.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry stated that seven
Supreme Court (SC) judges issued an interim order declaring the
state of emergency illegal after President Musharraf issued a
provisional constitutional order proclaiming it. Later Chaudhry
was expelled as the Chief Justice and the SC denied, in a statement,
that any order had been passed stating the PCO was incorrect.
November 4
Pro-Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud released
over 200 soldiers who had been taken hostage in South Waziristan
on August 30. Military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said,
"The 211 soldiers the militants have released reached Wana."
He also confirmed that the government had released 25 militants
including a relative of slain Taliban commander Abdullah Mehsud,
Sohail Zeb, in exchange for the soldiers’ release. Officials said
the soldiers and militants had been exchanged through jirga (tribal
council) members at Tiarza tehsil (revenue division), 25 kilometres
northeast of Wana.
Following the imposition of a state of emergency
in Pakistan, a nationwide crackdown on lawyers, politicians and
civil society activists was launched. Among the arrested were
former Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A Malik,
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz acting President Javed Hashmi, former
Inter-Services Intelligence chief Hameed Gul, Sindh High Court
Bar Association President Abrar Hassan and lawyer Ali Ahmad Kurd.
14 Supreme Court judges, who refused to take oath under the Provisional
Constitutional Order promulgated by President General Pervez Musharraf
were detained at their residences.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that the government
is committed to holding general elections. He told reporters,
"We are committed to making sure that elections are held
and that the democratic process flourishes in Pakistan. There
could be some timing difference on the election schedule but we
have not decided yet." The prime minister said no decision
had yet been made on whether parliament will extend its tenure,
due to end on November 15.
November 5
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that the general
elections will be held "on schedule" in January 2008. Talking
to the media at the Prime Minister’s secretariat, Aziz informed
the National Assembly session has been convened for November 7
while the federal cabinet will meet on November 6.
The country-wide crackdown on anti-emergency
protesters continued and hundreds of protesters were arrested
by the security forces. Police used baton-charges to control demonstrations
by lawyers at courts in Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar
and Multan. Several opposition activists, lawyers, civil society
members and some journalists were arrested. Between 1,500 and
1,800 people were reportedly detained nationwide. These included
700 arrests in Punjab and 500 in Sindh.
Police raided the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) headquarters
at Mansoora and put the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President
Qazi Hussain Ahmed under house arrest for 30 days. JI leader Liaqat
Baloch disclosed that 600-700 party activists were arrested in
Punjab and Sindh overnight.
November 6
Militants capture Madyan town in the NWFP and
hoisted their flags over buildings after security forces surrender.
"They seized Madyan town today, they have already overrun Matta
and Khawazakhela towns," said an unnamed police official. He admitted
that the police gave up their weapons, vehicles and control of
local police stations.
Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto
warns President General Pervez Musharraf to lift the state of
emergency in the country and announce free and fair elections.
November 7
Pro-Taliban militants capture one police station,
paramilitary force camp and other government buildings at Kalam,
extending their hold over the Swat valley. Militants loyal to
the rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah are reportedly in control of
six tehsils (revenue division), including Kabal, Matta,
Khawazakhela, Charbagh, Maydan and Kalam, out of the eight tehsils
in the Swat district.
The National Assembly passes a resolution endorsing
the proclamation of emergency in the country and the Provisional
Constitution Order. Members of the Pakistan People’s Party boycotted
the assembly session. As the other opposition members have already
resigned, only the Pakistan Muslim League and its allies attended
the session.
November 8
At least 60 Frontier Constabulary personnel surrender
and hand over their weapons to Taliban militants who besieged
the Drushkhela camp at Matta tehsil (revenue unit) of Swat
district in NWFP.
Shakilur Rehman, owner and chief executive of
the Jang group of newspapers, receives an email by a Taliban outfit
threatening to blow up the printing press and the staff of the
Jang publications unless they stop printing photographs of young
women. Rehman said he had been subjected to great pressure and
threats since the beginning of 2007, including an attempt on his
life, for which he had filed a criminal complaint in a city police
station in Karachi.
Government amends the Army Act of 1952 and President
General Pervez Musharraf will issue an ordinance allowing military
courts to prosecute terrorists and any civilians suspected of
terrorist or subversive activity. The amendment will allow intelligence
agencies to apprehend any person suspected of terrorism.
President Pervez Musharraf said that national
elections will take place before February 15. "It was my commitment
and I am fulfilling it," Musharraf told the official media after
chairing a meeting of the National Security Council. Musharraf’s
announcement comes just hours after United States’ President George
W. Bush called him personally for the first time since he imposed
emergency rule, urging him to hold elections and quit as Army
Chief.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan
People’s Party will hold a public meeting on November 9 in Rawalpindi
to protest the emergency rule. Bhutto threatened to launch a mass
motorcade from Lahore to the capital Islamabad on November 13
unless Musharraf quits as Army chief.
November 9
Three persons are killed and two others, including
a former provincial minister, are injured when a suicide bomber
blows himself up in the house of Federal Minister for Political
Affairs Amir Muqam in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. The blast
occurs at around 3.45pm (PST) when the minister was having a meeting
with some of his associates at his home in Hayatabad. Muqam, who
is also provincial president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League,
escaped unhurt.
At least two soldiers are killed and 14 others
wounded when a military convoy hits a roadside bomb near Kabal
in the Swat district of NWFP.
Militants set free all the 51 Frontier Constabulary
personnel, who surrendered themselves before Maulana Fazlullah-led
militants at Darushkhela town in the Matta subdivision of Swat
district.
The government places former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto under a brief house arrest early, and detains several of
her supporters to block a mass protest against the imposition
of emergency rule by President Pervez Musharraf. The house arrest
orders are later withdrawn.
November 10
Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum said the
state of emergency "is likely to be lifted in a month" if the
law and order situation improves. "In any case, it won't go beyond
two months because we don't want to make it a permanent feature.
If the law and order situation improves or if there are no untoward
incidents, it will be much sooner than that," he said.
November 11
Police temporality detained around 600 Pakistan
People’s Party (PPP) activists while heading for the Lahore airport
to welcome PPP chief Benazir Bhutto who was arriving from Islamabad.
Police also arrested around 350 PPP workers who were observing
a "black day" in Karachi to protest the proclamation
of emergency.
President Musharraf said that general elections
will be held by January 9 but under the state of emergency he
imposed on November 3. He also stated that the National Assembly
and provincial assemblies will be dissolved in the coming days,
upon completion of their terms. The president added that he will
quit the military and be sworn in as a civilian president as soon
as the Supreme Court strikes down challenges to his October 6
re-election. He, however, declines to say when the constitution
will be restored or emergency lifted.
November 12
Seven militants were killed and four others injured
in artillery shelling by the security forces on their hideouts
in the Ghulam Khan area of North Waziristan following an attack
on a convoy of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in which one soldier
was killed and 10 others injured. Military spokesperson Major
General Waheed Arshad said three of the dead militants were foreigners
seemingly Uzbeks while the remaining were local.
Four militants were killed and over 50 others
injured as army helicopters continued pounding their positions
in various areas of the Swat district in NWFP.
November 13
The former Prime Minister and Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) chairperson Benazir Bhutto was put under house arrest
in the early hours of November 13 to prevent her from leading
a long march on Islamabad. Police said an order under section
3 of the Maintenance of Public Order had been issued by the Punjab
government to detain Benazir Bhutto for a week in the house of
PPP Senator Latif Khosa where she has been staying since her arrival
in Lahore on November 11.
Around 500 local Taliban militants in NWFP took
over control of Shangla district headquarter Alpuri, occupying
the District Police Office, District Coordination Office and police
lines offices without facing any resistance from the government.
Alpuri union council Nazim Sabir said that the armed militants,
led by Maulana Muhammad Alam, a close associate of TNSM leader
Maulana Fazlullah, captured the district.
November 14
Thirty-three militants, two soldiers and five
civilians were killed as army helicopters continued targeting
Taliban positions in various areas of Swat in the NWFP for the
third consecutive day.
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairman Imran Khan
was arrested from outside the Punjab University’s new campus in
Lahore after he had been manhandled and detained in the campus
allegedly by activists of the Islami Jamiat Talaba. Imran Khan
had gone to the university at the invitation of a joint action
committee of students. The visit had been approved by Qazi Hussain
Ahmed, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, to which the IJT is affiliated.
November 15
Thirty more people, including 20 militants and
four civilians, were killed and more than 70 others, including
50 civilians, injured as security forces continued bombing suspected
militants’ hideouts in the Shangla and Swat districts of the NWFP
on the third consecutive day. Military spokesperson Major General
Waheed Arshad confirmed that 20 militants were killed - 12 of
them in Shangla and eight in Swat.
The News quoting Army sources based in the Swat
district reports that 20 more militants were killed when troops
backed by helicopter gun ships and artillery attacked pro-Taliban
militants in Kuza Banda, Basham and Shangla.
Two soldiers were killed and three others wounded
in explosions in North Waziristan while reports of a massive movement
of troops were received from some areas. All main roads were closed
to traffic because of movement of security forces from Datakhel
to Bannu.
President Pervez Musharraf named Mohammedmian
Soomro, the chairman of the Pakistan Senate, as the Prime Minister
of a caretaker government tasked with conducting parliamentary
elections in January 2008.
Police said that they have lifted the house arrest
of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. "The government has withdrawn
the detention order," Zahid Abbas, a senior police official, told
Associated Press. "The house is no longer a sub-jail but security
will remain for her own protection. She's free to move and anyone
will be able to go to the house," Abbas said. Bhutto, a two-time
former prime minister, was detained on November 13 to prevent
her from leading a protest against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's
declaration of a state of emergency.
The former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
chief, Gen (retired) Hameed Gul, his son and two other detained
people were released after the government withdrew detention orders
in Islamabad.
There are 500 to 700 militants operating in small
groups in different troubled areas of the North West Frontier
Province. Military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad stated
this to a private television channel on November 15, while commenting
on the present situation in the Swat district.
President General Pervez Musharraf who as Chief
of Army Staff promulgated the state of emergency and Provisional
Constitution Order (PCO) on November 3 has transferred the power
of lifting the emergency to the office of president. He amended
the PCO with the Provisional Constitution (Amendment) Order 2007,
issued on November 14-night. The order comes into force at once
and will be deemed to have taken effect on November 3, 2007. The
importance of the amendment is that the power to lift the emergency
now vested in the office of the president, said Attorney General
Malik Qayyum.
The government has begun extradition proceedings
for Rashid Rauf, a suspect in a terrorist plot to blow up US-bound
passenger planes in Britain, Federal Investigation Agency Director
General Tariq Pervez told AFP.
November 16
At least 20 persons, including two doctors, were
killed and over 50 others were injured during a sectarian clash
at Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram Agency, in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas.
Militants captured Puran subdivision in the Shangla
district of NWFP. Militant spokesman Sirajuddin told The News
that they had captured the subdivision and later handed it over
to a commission of local pro-Taliban Ulema (cleric) and elders
on the condition they would not allow the security forces and
police in the town. "They signed an agreement with us and promised
physical and financial assistance," he claimed.
November 17
Pakistan Army accelerated its
operation in the Swat and Shangla districts of NWFP killing 20
militants. Officials and local residents told that artillery and
mortar shelling forced the militants to retreat from Alpuri subdivision,
which serves as district headquarters of Shangla. Military spokesman
Major-General Waheed Arshad told that security forces targeted
militant hideouts and positions in different areas of Shangla
district, killing 20 militants and injuring several others. He
further said that Alpuri was cleared of militants and the troops
could enter there anytime on November 18.
The widow of tribal journalist
Hayatullah Khan was killed in a bomb blast at her home in the
Hurmuz village of North Waziristan, while her children were unhurt.
"A bomb went off close to a boundary wall of her room killing
her instantly," said Ehsanullah Khan, brother of late Hayatullah
Khan. Ehsanullah told BBC that the people who had killed Hayatullah
were "responsible for the Saturday incident."
November 18
Security forces used Cobra helicopters
in an attempt to end the sectarian violence in which at least
86 persons were killed and an unspecified number of them injured
in Parachinar in three days. The military said that 11 soldiers
had been killed and 32 others injured since November 16. Officials
said that reports of riots had also been received from Sadda,
Balishkhel, Tangai and Jilamai areas of Lower Kurram where rival
groups were using heavy weapons.
More than 40 people, including
10 civilians, were killed in the Swat and Shangla districts of
the NWFP when gunship helicopters and security forces continued
targeting militants’ hideouts and faced retaliation. Approximately
30 civilians were injured in the prolonged shelling by military
choppers and artillery in the two districts. Military spokesperson
Major General Waheed Arshad said that the security forces continued
pounding militants’ strongholds in both the regions but said he
did not have the actual death toll suffered by the militants on
November 18. Gen Waheed also termed a claim made by militants’
spokesman Sirajuddin to have killed 45 Pakistani soldiers in the
Belay Baba area of Shangla district as baseless.
The visiting US Deputy Secretary
of State, John Negroponte, urged President General Pervez Musharraf
to end the state of emergency before holding elections. "Emergency
rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections,
which require the active participation of political parties, civil
society and the media," he said.
November 19
The Supreme Court dismissed all
petitions which had been filed before the proclamation of the
state of emergency to challenge General Pervez Musharraf’s eligibility
to contest the election for presidential term. These petitions
were being heard earlier by an 11-judge bench, but most of its
members stood deposed on November 3 after they refused to take
the oath under the Provisional Constitution Order. The decision
taken by a 10-member bench leaves way for allowing the Election
Commission to notify Gen. Musharraf’s re-election after the only
pending petition is decided on November 22. Headed by Chief Justice
Abdul Hameed Dogar, the bench dismissed some of the main petitions
for non-prosecution and the others for having been withdrawn,
but it served notice on relatively unknown petitioner, Dr Zahoor
Mehdi, to appear before it on November 22.
Even as 35 more persons, including
16 Taliban militants and seven soldiers, were killed in fresh
clashes between the security forces and militants, thousands of
people fled the troubled areas in Swat district.
28 people were killed and 27 others
injured on the fourth day of sectarian clashes in the Kurram Agency
of FATA.
In what appears to be a revenge
action for sectarian killings at Parachinar in the FATA, the Taliban
beheaded three truck drivers near Darra Adamkhel in the NWFP.
November 20
At least 30 more militants loyal
to the pro-Taliban group TNSM were killed in clashes with security
forces (SFs) in the Swat valley of NWFP, the army said. The latest
deaths take the toll reported by the army from a week of fighting
to around 150. "Our offensive against militants has been continuing
since last night and there are reports that 20 to 30 more militants
have been killed," military spokesperson Major General Waheed
Arshad told AFP. Maulana Fazlullah’s spokesman, meanwhile,
claimed that 15 soldiers had been killed and their weapons seized
in the Shangla district, but the calm could not be confirmed from
independent sources, Dawn reported.
Six persons died as sectarian
clashes continued in the Kurram Agency of the FATA. The warring
factions attacked each other’s positions with heavy weapons in
the Sadda, Balishkhel, Tangai, Arawali, Terimingal and Piwar areas.
A 16-member peace jirga (council) headed by Pir Haider Ali Shah
had brokered a cease-fire on November 19 but it has not taken
effect in some parts of the agency.
The Election Commission (EC) announced
that polling for the national and provincial assemblies would
be held on January 8, 2008. Chief Election Commissioner, Justice
(retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq, announced the schedule which in effect
means the beginning of the seven-week election process with nomination
papers to be filed from November 21 to 26. The scrutiny of the
papers will take place from November 27 to December 3, appeals
against acceptance or otherwise of the nomination papers may be
filed by December 7 and decisions on such appeals will be taken
by December 14. The nomination papers can be withdrawn by December
15 and the final list of candidates will be published on December
16. After the publication of the list, candidates will have 22
days of electioneering in accordance with a ‘code of conduct’
prepared by the EC.
Azhar Ali Farooqui, the Chief
of Karachi Police, confirmed that the twin explosions of October
18 were suicide bombings and two bombers had attacked the convoy
of former Prime Minister and Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson
Benazir Bhutto.
November 21
Some 52 persons, including 30
militants and 10 civilians, were killed in fresh violence in the
Swat and Shangla districts as the troops and Taliban militants
continued to clash and more villages were emptied of their fleeing
population. On the casualties suffered by the security forces,
military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad said three soldiers
were killed and five or six sustained injuries in attacks by militants
in the Kabal area of Swat. While he expressed ignorance about
military casualties in the adjoining Shangla district, unconfirmed
reports said seven soldiers were killed in fighting there.
Balochistan Liberation Army chief
Nawabzada Balach Marri was killed along with his bodyguards in
a clash somewhere inside Afghanistan, triggering widespread violence
in capital Quetta and some other parts of the Balochistan province.
November 22
Another 25-30 militants and 13
civilians were killed and several soldiers injured in fighting
in the Swat and Shangla districts of NWFP even as the exodus of
villagers continued.
Two more persons were killed in
sectarian clashes in the Kurram Agency of the FATA, as the jirga
(council) from Orakzai and Hangu succeeded in brokering a
cease-fire in Sadda and Balishkhel.
The Supreme Court (SC) rejected
the last petition challenging President General Pervez Musharraf’s
re-election paving the way for him to step down as army chief
and take oath as civilian president. A SC full bench headed by
Chief Justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar gave the verdict
after a brief hearing of the petition filed by Zahoor Mehdi. After
hearing the petition, the Chief Justice said, "The petition is
dismissed". Earlier on November 19, the court had dismissed five
other petitions challenging Musharraf’s re-election.
A Pakistani man, who pleaded guilty
to distributing terrorist propaganda and helping a terrorism suspect
breach a control order, was jailed for six years in Britain. 25-year
old Abdul Rahman was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to six
years for dissemination of a terrorist publication and three years
for aiding contravention of a control order, making him the first
person to be convicted in Britain of such offences.
President Pervez Musharraf sought
to justify his emergency rule, saying that foreign militants based
in Pakistan were planning terrorist attacks around the world.
He said that Pakistan had to "get our own house in order" and
then show its efforts to the West. "Foreigners are sitting here
and are planning terrorism all over the world," General Musharraf
said in a weekly televised broadcast on the PTV. "We have
caught people who had maps of European countries and targets there.
They (the West) are asking us to eliminate these people… We are
also concerned because these people are also carrying out suicide
bombings inside Pakistan," he stated.
The 53-nation Commonwealth suspended
Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf failed to meet a deadline
to lift emergency rule and resign as Chief of the Army Staff.
The Commonwealth had given General Musharraf time until November
22 to lift the state of emergency he imposed on November 3.
November 23
Fifteen more people were killed
in continuing clashes between the security forces and militants
in the Swat and Shangla districts of the NWFP.
Three police personnel and a minor
girl were killed in three separate incidents claimed by the outlawed
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), while several vehicles and
official buildings were attacked as protests against the killing
of Balach Marri, leader of the BLA, continued for the third day.
Three more people were killed
as sectarian violence continued in the Pewar, Teri Mangal, Qunj
Alizai and Maqbal areas of Upper and Mengak and Tangi of Lower
Kurram. The situation in Parachinar and Sadda town, however, remained
peaceful as the army, Frontier Corps and Kurram Militia personnel
had taken control of the town. The cease-fire also remained intact
in Balishkhel and Ibrahimzai where no untoward incident took place
while severe fighting continued in the Tangi and Mengak areas
on November 23-night. The death toll in the fighting so far reached
129 while more than 300 people have been injured in the clashes.
Endorsing President Pervez Musharraf’s
reasons such as rise in terrorism and judicial activism for imposing
the state of emergency and suspending fundamental rights, the
Supreme Court validated all actions taken by him in his capacity
as Chief of Army Staff.
November 24
Two suicide bombers simultaneously
targeted military personnel and installations at two different
places in Rawalpindi, claiming over 32 lives and wounding 55 others.
In the first attack that occurred at 7.55 am (PST), the suicide
bomber while trying to enter the Hamza Camp, the main office of
the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), from the out-gate hit the
staff bus of the agency. The blast, which occurred 200 metres
from Faizabad at the Murree Road, killed over 30 personnel on
the bus and among the guards standing at the main gate. The attack
took place at almost the same time near the GHQ when another suicide
bomber blew up his car after hitting an Army check-post when he
was intercepted while trying to infiltrate into the high security
zone. Two Army personnel were killed while one was injured.
At least 50 people were killed
in renewed sectarian violence in Parachinar in the FATA. "We have
reports that more than 50 people died in the clashes," an unnamed
official said. Last week, rival groups fought fierce gun-battles
which left around 112 people dead, forcing the government to deploy
troops to restore order.
The Election Commission of Pakistan
formally confirmed President General Pervez Musharraf's October
6 election for another five-year term by sending the return of
election to the Cabinet Division. "The Chief Election Commissioner
Justice (Retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq has sent the return of presidential
election to the Cabinet Division on Saturday," said the Commission's
Secretary Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad.
November 25
Security forces claimed that they
had killed 30 militants and captured two strategic mountain positions
of militants and key routes to Imam Dehri in the Swat valley of
NWFP. Troops, backed by artillery and helicopter gun-ships, captured
the key positions of Najia Top and Usmani Sar after shelling the
Imam Dehri, Koza Banda and Bara Banda areas. According to a military
press release, 30 militants had been killed in the operation since
November 24-night. It further said that two soldiers had been
killed and two others injured in the operation.
Four persons were killed and six
others wounded when security forces bombed a village after coming
under rocket attack from Taliban militants in the Mirali sub-division
of North Waziristan. The militants had fired at least 26 rockets
on the Khajuri checkpoint and a paramilitary camp in Mirali, causing
injuries to a soldier.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif returned
to Pakistan after eight years of exile and vowed to contest the
general elections. Talking to the media after arriving in Lahore
from Medina at 6.25pm (PST), he said all decisions regarding participation
in elections would be made on the All Parties Democratic Movement
(APDM)’s platform. He said the APDM would participate in the elections
if General Pervez Musharraf withdrew the emergency declaration
he issued on November 3 and released opposition members who had
been jailed. "Everything that was done must be reversed and drawn
back completely… You must have a level playing field for fair
elections," he said.
November 26
Security forces used artillery
and gunship helicopters on pro-Taliban militants in the Swat valley
of NWFP, killing 40 militants, including two commanders, and losing
four soldiers, said military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad.
Unidentified people killed two
government officials in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, as violence
that erupted in the city after the death of Baloch nationalist
leader Balach Marri continued.
November 27
After suffering huge losses, the
militants in Swat vacated all the seized police stations and other
government buildings and decided to go underground while the government
closed down all the FM radio channels in the district, including
the one run by TNSM leader Maulana Fazlullah. In the adjoining
Shangla district, the security forces retook the main town Alpuri
from the militants and forced them to retreat to the nearby mountains.
Military officials in Mingora said four militants were killed
in clashes with the security forces.
Armed men shot dead three Marri
tribesmen in the Tali area of Sibi district during an operation
conducted by the security forces looking for illegal arms and
ammunition.
November 28
President Pervez Musharraf handed
over the command of the army to the new Chief of Army Staff, General
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. He passed the baton of command to Gen Kayani
at a ceremony held in the Army Hockey Stadium, close to the General
Headquarters in Rawalpindi. "Although I would not be in uniform
tomorrow, my heart will continue to beat it as it has been my
family since I joined it at the age of 18. It is a sad moment
for me to bid farewell to the army after serving it for 46 years.
This is life and every good thing has to come to an end," Musharraf
told the army top brass and government leaders.
Military authorities said they
had evicted militants from most of the troubled areas in the Swat
valley while all the displaced government officials returned to
their jobs in Shangla district after the retreat of Maulana Fazlullah-led
militants from their positions in the district headquarters of
Alpuri.
Gunmen ambushed a paramilitary
convoy in the Panjgur district of Balochistan, killing three soldiers
and injuring five others.
November 29
President Pervez Musharraf promised
to lift the state of emergency and withdraw the Provisional Constitution
Order (PCO) on December 16. In a brief address to the nation on
the state television and radio, he urged opposition parties for
the second time in the day to refrain from boycotting the elections.
"I am determined to lift emergency on December 16 and withdraw
the PCO and hold fair and free elections on Jan 8," the president
said hours after he was sworn in for another five-year term.
At least 12 civilians were killed
and 11 others wounded when helicopter gun-ships pounded the Allahabad
village of Swat district in NWFP.
A roadside bomb that targeted
a military convoy killed five soldiers in North Waziristan.
November 30
Security forces killed a militant
and arrested another after returning fire from militants on their
check post in North Waziristan. Security officials said the militants
attacked Banda post, four kilometres south of Miranshah, injuring
a paramilitary soldier. "Security forces returned fire, killing
a militant and arrested another, while also destroying their two
vehicles," said officials.
Security forces arrested 11 loyalists
of the pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah in the Swat district
of NWFP.
December 1
At least six people, including
four women and a child, were killed and more than 15 people were
injured when stray shells landed on their homes in Miranshah,
headquarters of North Waziristan. The shells hit the homes during
an exchange of fire between militants and security forces after
the militants attacked the Banda check-post.
A Frontier Corps soldier, identified
as Allah Ditta, was killed in an attack by militants on a check-post
in the Dera Bugti district.
December 2
The local Taliban
killed three people and injured five others in an attack on a cockfight
fare at the Shene Ghundae village in the Shabqadar dub-division
of Charsadda district of NWFP.
December 3
Six students of a seminary near Qila Saifullah
were killed and four others injured in a bomb blast. The management
of the Jamia Imdadul Alum Mullah Bakhtair Adda suspects that an
Afghan national who had stayed in the seminary overnight might
have a hand in the explosion.
December 4
In the first such attack of its kind, a female
suicide bomber blew herself up in a high security zone in Peshawar,
capital of the North West Frontier Province. Except for the suicide
bomber, who was said to be in her mid-30s, no other casualty was
reported in the blast.
An Afghan national was killed and two soldiers
and two civilians were wounded in separate attacks on houses and
a security camp in the Mirali sub-division of North Waziristan.
December 6
Security forces captured Imam Dheri, headquarters
of the pro-Taliban militant leader Maulana Fazlullah of the TNSM,
and the Khwazkhela area in Swat district. The army also blew up
the houses of Fazlullah and his spokesman Maulana Sirajuddin,
besides seizing several weapons, computers and some bottles of
liquor from the site.
December 7
The military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad
confirmed that eight militants were killed and four arrested after
a clash in Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan.
A policeman and a militant were killed and three
policemen were injured when a check-post came under attack in
the Charsadda district of the NWFP. Police sources said that about
15 militants had attacked the post, some 18 kilometres north of
Charsadda city, at about 1am. Police subsequently returned fire,
killing a militant.
December 8
The Pakistan Army claimed that it has cleared
almost all militants from Swat after killing 290 rebels and arresting
another 143 in recent weeks. Major General Nasser Janjua said
20,000 troops backed by helicopter gun ships and artillery had
driven the militants out of their strongholds in an ongoing military
operation. "Fazlullah is still on the run with hardcore militants
estimated to be between 200 to 400, including some foreigners,"
Janjua told reporters in Mingora.
President Pervez Musharraf dismissed assertions
that al Qaeda leaders are present in Pakistan. In an interview
aired by CNN, the president said, "It is just their guess.
So I don’t want to make such wild guesses." According to AP,
he challenged anyone to provide him with firm intelligence, adding,
"They (al Qaeda) can be anywhere."
December 9
Three police personnel and seven civilians, including
two children, were killed and a child was wounded in a car bombing
in the Swat district. The suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden
jeep when he was stopped at the Ningolai check-post in Kabal sub-division
at around 11.15am. According to a bomb disposal official, about
10kg to 15kg of explosives were used in the blast.
December 10
Five persons, including four of a family and a
child, were killed and another child was injured when Army neutralised
suspected militant hideouts with artillery in the Chaparyal and
Venai areas of Swat district of the NWFP.
Eight persons, including five schoolchildren,
were injured when a suicide bomber exploded his car targeting
a Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) bus carrying air force employees’
children at a military base at Kamra about 50 kilometres northwest
of Islamabad. "A suicide bomber exploded his white car on the
outskirts of the PAC factories on the Qutba-Attock Road on Monday
at 7.30am near a PAC school bus carrying children to schools in
Attock City," said the Pakistan Air Force, adding that the bomber
was alone in the car and he died immediately after the explosion.
December 11
Troops launched artillery attack on suspected
militant hideouts near the Piochar and Loe Namal towns in the
Swat district on December 10-night, killing 20 militants and injuring
at least 15 others. "According to our information, 20 militants
were killed while 10-15 were injured on Monday night," military
spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.
December 12
Fifteen soldiers were killed and 38 others injured
in an attack and in roadside explosions in different areas of
North Waziristan. However, the military said in a statement that
six soldiers had been killed and 25 injured in the ambush. It
informed that militants had suffered 15 casualties in a counter-attack.
Major General Arshad Waheed said security forces backed by gunship
helicopters spotted the fleeing militants and opened fire, killing
15 of them in "immediate retaliation", AP reported. Local
people said they had seen the bodies of 15 soldiers and disputed
the military’s claim that 15 militants had been killed.
Troops killed 20 militants in an ongoing operation
against supporters of Maulana Fazlullah of the TNSM in the Swat
district. Troops targeted suspected hideouts of the militants
in the valley’s Puchaar and Loee Namal towns. The operation, which
commenced on December 11-night, continued the next day, in which
20 militants were killed, AFP reported. Provincial government
spokesman Amjad Iqbal said that the troops "extensively engaged
militant locations, which resulted in a number of militant casualties."
Intelligence agencies have reportedly foiled a
plot to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf by arresting some
al Qaeda terrorists from Karachi’s Malir area, and seizing a large
amount of ammunition from their possession. Al Qaeda operatives
told interrogators that they were plotting to kill Pervez Musharraf
during his next trip to Karachi. The terrorists had planned to
blow up the entire bridge on Drig Road at the precise moment when
Musharraf’s convoy was to reach there while coming from the airport
to Shahrah-e-Faisal, sources said, adding that two more attacks
were planned in case Musharraf survived the first one. The terrorists
also told interrogators that their plans would be carried out
despite their arrest as the group had been divided into smaller
groups to execute their tasks.
December 13
Two suicide bombings near an army
check-post in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, killed seven people,
including three personnel of the Pakistan Army, military spokesman
Major General Waheed Arshad said. An official at the Inter-Services
Public Relations said three of the dead were soldiers, while the
remaining four were civilians.
Intelligence agencies have warned
against a spate of suicide attacks by terrorists based in the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Swat, targeting
VVIPs, including President Pervez Musharraf, former Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto, the US and Indian embassies and sensitive national
and military installations, sources told Daily Times. "The
high value targets include the top government hierarchy, top politicians
including former religious affairs minister Ejazul Haq, and the
Attock Oil Refinery in Rawalpindi. Besides the US and Indian embassies,
their consulates and several other religious and political personalities
are also on the hit list," said a confidential National Crisis
Management Cell report. The report titled, "Threat to VVIPs,
Politicians, Foreign Missions and Military Installations,"
was forwarded on December 12 to all home secretaries and police
chiefs of the four provinces, the federal capital, Azad Jammu
and Kashmir and the Northern Areas.
December 14
President Pervez Musharraf introduced
six more amendments in the Constitution through executive orders
a day before the lifting of the emergency, revocation of the Provisional
Constitution Order (PCO) and restoration of the Constitution.
Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum stated that Article 41(3)
had been amended to remove a confusing clause in the Constitution
that was inserted by the government of Gen Zia-ul-Haq. He said
an amendment in Article 44 (2) allowed the incumbent president
to seek re-election for a fresh term of five years, notwithstanding
any bar in the Constitution. The Attorney General said the judges
who had taken oath under the PCO would take a fresh oath under
the Constitution after its restoration on December 15 (today)
at 1.30pm. The president made amendments in six articles of the
Constitution in exercise of his powers under the Provisional Constitution
Order No 1 of 2007 through promulgation of the Constitution (Second
Amendment) Order, 2007.
Taliban militants from tribal
areas and some districts of the NWFP decided to set up a centralised
organisation for a joint war against the US and NATO forces in
Afghanistan and appointed Baitullah Mehsud as their Central Amir
(chief), said a spokesman for the militant commander. The
militants have named their movement as Tehrik Taliban-i-Pakistan
and said the aim of the movement was to enforce Sharia (Islamic
law) in their respective areas. The decision was taken at a meeting
of 40 Taliban leaders, held in an undisclosed place in South Waziristan.
"The sole objective of the Shura meeting was to unite the Taliban
against NATO forces in Afghanistan and to wage a ‘defensive jihad’
against Pakistani forces here," Baitullah’s spokesman Maulana
Omar said.
December 15
President Pervez Musharraf lifted
emergency rule in Pakistan, exactly six weeks after imposing it.
Stressing that this was the first time in the country’s history
that emergency was being lifted in a mere 42 days, he said the
situation had improved so much that restoring the Constitution
was not a difficult decision. Simultaneously, he revoked the November
3 provisional constitutional order (PCO) and restored the Constitution,
but with all the amendments he made during this period.
A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden
bicycle into a military check-post, killing five persons and injuring
11 others in Nowshera in the NWFP. The District Police Officer
Mubarak Zeb disclosed that six people, including the suicide bomber,
were killed as he detonated himself at the entrance of the Army
Supply Corps centre.
Rashid Rauf, allegedly involved
in a London terror plot to blow up transatlantic flights in August
2006, disappeared from outside a local court in Islamabad, where
he was brought from the Adiala Jail for a hearing. Official sources
confirmed he was brought to the court of Zafar Awan in Islamabad
for hearing of a case and when he was being guarded by two policemen,
he managed to escape. Rauf had remained in detention even after
all charges against him had been dropped amidst reports that Islamabad
was seriously considering a request from London to extradite him
to the UK.
December 16
Three paramilitary troops were
injured when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Miranshah, headquarters
of North Waziristan.
At least 12 army recruits were
killed and two wounded in a suicide attack near the Army Public
College in the heart of the Kohat cantonment area in NWFP. The
recruits were returning to their barracks after the morning exercise
when a boy aged 15 to 17 years rushed towards them and blew himself
up. Ten recruits were killed on the spot and two others died later
in hospital.
Two children were killed and six
members of a family sustained injuries in an exchange of fire
between security forces and militants near Miranshah, headquarters
of North Waziristan.
Militants in North Waziristan
announced a unilateral cease-fire on the eve of Haj and
Eidul Azha (Festival of Sacrifice), saying they would not
attack troops till January 1, 2008.
Three paramilitary troops were
injured when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Miranshah, headquarters
of North Waziristan.
December 17
At least 12 army recruits were killed and two
wounded in a suicide attack near the Army Public College in the
heart of the Kohat cantonment area in NWFP. The recruits were
returning to their barracks after the morning exercise when a
boy aged 15 to 17 years rushed towards them and blew himself up.
Ten recruits were killed on the spot and two others died later
in hospital.
Two children were killed and six
members of a family sustained injuries in an exchange of fire
between security forces and militants near Miranshah, headquarters
of North Waziristan.
Militants in North Waziristan
announced a unilateral cease-fire on the eve of Haj and
Eidul Azha (Festival of Sacrifice), saying they would not
attack troops till January 1, 2008.
December 19
Two pro-government Bugti tribesmen were killed
and five injured when a vehicle was blown up with a remote-control
bomb in Bekar area, some 122km from Dera Bugti town in Balochistan.
District Police Officer Najam Tareen confirmed that the assailants’
main target was Wadera Ali Mohammad Masoori Bugti, the father
of Mir Tariq Hussain Masoori Bugti, a candidate for the BP-24
Dera Bugti seat. However, Mir Tariq’s father survived the attack
and two cousins were killed.
December 20
A Pakistan-born architect convicted of plotting
a "jihad" bombing campaign in Australia had his appeal dismissed.
Faheem Khalid Lodhi was sentenced to 20 years jail in August 2006
after a jury found him guilty of planning to blow up the electrical
grid in Sydney. Lodhi was convicted of preparing for a terrorist
act by seeking information about chemicals capable of making explosives.
He was also found guilty of possessing a "terrorism manual" and
of buying two maps of the Sydney electricity grid in preparation
for a terrorist act.
The government has reportedly decided to ban
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant outfit that was formed
on December 14 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The government has banned 18 militant outfits and put two on the
watch list since 2001.
December 21
At least 50 persons were killed and 80 others
injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of
worshippers offering Id-ul-Adha prayers at the Markazi Jamia Masjid
Sherpao in Charsadda, 20-km from Peshawar in the NWFP. The apparent
target was Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the Interior Minister in
the just-dissolved government, who was among the worshippers.
The former Minister, however, escaped unhurt in the attack, but
his son Mustafa was among the wounded. The mosque is located next
to the former Minister’s home and was packed with more than 1,000
worshippers at the time of the attack.
December 22
Local people in the Kahan area of Kohlu district
in Balochistan said that the security forces (SFs) in a retaliatory
move attacked a village situated at the border of Kahan and Bekar
area of Dera Bugti. They said that seven people, including a child
and two women, were killed in the attack. The SFs retaliatory
move was initiated after unidentified people attacked a vehicle
of the Pakistan Muslim league (Q) candidate at PB 24 Dera Bugti
Tariq Masuri in the Bekar area.
December 23
Nine civilians and four SF personnel were killed
and more than 25 persons wounded in a suicide attack on a military
convoy in Mingora in the Swat district of NWFP. The convoy was
returning after carrying out counter-insurgency operations in
the various areas of Khwazakhela and Charbagh in Swat district
when it was attacked. Claiming responsibility for the suicide
attack on the convoy, Taliban spokesman Sirajuddin said that the
Taliban had started their suicide attacks on security forces from
December 23.
Nine people were killed and several others wounded
in fresh clashes between SFs and tribesmen in the Kurram Agency
of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) after a group
of armed men set ablaze houses and shops in the Parachinar city
on December 22-night. The area has reportedly remained cut of
from the rest of Pakistan since rival factions blocked the main
road about a month ago.
December 24
Four pro-government Bugti tribesmen were killed
and three others injured in an ambush near Dera Bugti, some 500-km
from Quetta.
Three persons were killed and 20 others injured
in sectarian clashes at Parachinar in the Kurram Agency of the
FATA.
Two persons were shot dead by the security forces
for violating the curfew in the Swat area of NWFP.
December 25
At least 31 persons have died and more than 50
wounded so far in the continuing sectarian violence in the Kurram
Agency. The clashes have intensified after receiving support from
the local Taliban from other tribal areas, news channels and the
eyewitnesses said.
December 26
32 persons, including five children, a woman
and two Frontier Constabulary personnel, were killed and scores
of others injured in continued sectarian violence in Kurram Agency
on the fourth consecutive day. Official sources said the rival
groups attacked each other’s positions in Balishkhel, Sadda, Sangina,
Khar Kali, Ali Zaik, Bagan and Upper Kurram. Curfew has been clamped
in Parachinar for the last five days without any break thus causing
severe shortage of edibles and medicines. Heavy weapons, including
mortar and rocket shells, are allegedly being used by both the
warring groups.
December 27
Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister and
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson, was assassinated in
a gun and suicide attack as she drove away from a campaign rally
just minutes after addressing thousands of supporters at Liaquat
Bagh in Rawalpindi. 30 more people were killed and over 100 others
wounded when a suicide attacker riding on a motorbike blew himself
up after firing at Benazir who was waving to her supporters from
her vehicle’s sun roof. PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar stated
that Benazir fell inside the vehicle after receiving bullets in
her head and neck. Witnesses said three gun shots were heard before
the suicide blast near her Black Lexus bullet-proof vehicle. She
later died at the Rawalpindi General Hospital.
Following the assassination, PPP activists reacted
violently in different cities in Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan.
Angry protestors took to the streets, pelted stones, burned government
and private property and various vehicles besides chanting slogans
against the government. At least 10 people were killed in different
parts of the country, including two in Lahore, during the exchange
of fire.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin citing an alleged
claim of responsibility by al Qaeda for Benazir Bhutto's assassination,
CNN reported. Italian news agency Adnkronos International
said that al Qaeda Afghanistan commander and spokesman Mustafa
Abu Al-Yazid had telephoned the agency to make the claim. "We
terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat
[the] mujahadeen," the agency quoted Al-Yazid as saying.
27 people were killed and 42 others sustained
injuries in fresh sectarian clashes between rival groups in the
Kurram Agency of FATA. According to local tribesmen, violence
intensified after the arrival of a large number of militants from
the adjoining areas of North Waziristan and Hangu.
Four boys were killed when a grenade they found
by a canal near the central city of Dera Ghazi Khan in the Punjab
province exploded.
December 28
The former Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam
(PML-Q) minister, Asfandyar Amirzaib and eight persons were killed
and several others injured in a roadside bomb blast near the Manglore
village of Swat in the NWFP.
At least 27 people were killed and many wounded
in violence during a nationwide outpouring of grief and protest
strikes over Benazir Bhutto’s assassination while army was deployed
in 16 districts of Sindh and paramilitary forces elsewhere in
the country. A complete general strike and funeral prayer congregations
in all the country’s four provinces, Pakistan occupied Kashmir
(PoK) Kashmir and Northern Areas marked the day as the former
Prime Minister, killed in an unidentified assassin’s gun-and-bomb
attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, was buried at her ancestral
Garhi Khuda Bux village in the Sindh province.
The Interior Ministry claimed that the death
of Benazir Bhutto was neither a result of a bullet wound nor a
bomb splinter, but of a fracture to her skull when her head struck
the lever of her vehicle’s sunroof as she ducked the gunfire and
bomb blast. Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told
journalists that there was "irrefutable evidence" that the attack
was masterminded by South Waziristan-based al Qaeda leader Baitullah
Mehsud.
December 29
20 people, including 16 militants, were killed
and nine others sustained injuries in a gun-battle near Lower
Kurram’s Mingak area.
The government said that 38 people have died
in the violence across the country since December 27 after the
assassination of former Primer Minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi.
Property worth billions of rupees was destroyed in two days of
arson and looting. The Interior Ministry said that 765 shops,
18 railway stations and 174 banks had been burnt across the country.
December 30
Two suspected suicide bombers were killed in
Haroonabad in the Bahawalnagar district of Punjab province early
when the devices they were carrying exploded prematurely in an
apparent botched attack on former religious affairs minister Ejazul
Haq.