At least 13 people – 10 militants
and three Security Force (SF) personnel – were killed in a clash
between the SFs and militants in Balochistan.
The gun-battle started when the militants – reportedly members
of the Bugti tribe – attacked a patrol party in Dera Bugti District.
The clash continued for the entire day in the Uch, Gandoi and
Zan kho areas. At least five SF personnel were also injured in
the gun-battle.
A suspected United States missile
strike killed at least five Taliban militants in South Waziristan
Agency of the FATA. A local
security official said that a US drone fired three missiles in
the Karikot area of Wana in the agency - the same spot where eight
suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike 10 days ago.
One of the missiles struck a vehicle, killing all five passengers,
another security official said, adding those killed were known
Taliban militants. The other two missiles hit a hilltop house
that was a known Taliban hideout, but was empty at the time of
the strike, the officials said. One militant was injured in the
strike, they added.
Four civilians were killed in
the Bajaur Agency of FATA when Taliban militants fired rockets
at local Government offices. At least four rockets landed near
a court and the Government complex in Khar, the main town in Bajaur,
local administration chief Israr Khan said. "The attack left
four civilians dead and 16 injured," Khan added.
Three Policemen were killed and
six injured in two bomb blasts in Peshawar and Bannu districts
of NWFP.
Adviser to the Prime Minister
on Interior Rehman Malik said that the writ of the Government
had already been established in four sub-divisions of Bajaur Agency,
and Charmang and Mamoond sub-divisions would be under the complete
control of the Government by the end of this month.
The Government has decided to
set up a high-level body – the proposed National Commission for
Counter-Terrorism – to coordinate efforts in countering the threat
posed by the Taliban. A private TV channel reported that the commission
– to be a constitutional body – would be headed by a ‘top-level
professional’ to prepare and execute strategies, and the recently
retired Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) chief Tariq Pervaiz
is likely to be the first choice for the post.
Pakistan dismissed criticism that
some elements in the ISI were involved in acts of terrorism and
were not in control of the Government. "Pakistan’s Government
and state institutions are committed to the war against terror.
Therefore, vilifying Pakistan or for that matter any of its state
institutions on this score is unwarranted and unacceptable. In
Pakistan’s view, in the given situation, what is needed is more
accurate alignment in the perception and interests of Afghanistan,
Pakistan, US/NATO and countries in the region that have stakes
in the struggle against terrorism," said the spokesman at
the Foreign Office at an online media briefing.
According to India’s Foreign Secretary
Shiv Shankar Menon, less than two weeks after it was banned by
the United Nations, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)
front Jama’at-ud-Da’awa (JuD) is active, CNN-IBN reported.
Menon said the JuD is now operating under a new name. He also
said the JuD has a new website, which is being used to collect
money to fund terrorist activities. Speaking to the All India
Radio, Menon rejected Pakistan’s offer of joint investigation
into the Mumbai terror attacks on November 26. He said India has
shared evidence with Pakistan several times, but without any results.
Menon added that even the Joint-Anti Terror mechanism set up by
India and Pakistan has yielded no results so far. According to
PTI, India sources, JuD may be planning to rename itself
as ''Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool'' (Movement for defending the honour
of the Prophet) to avoid restrictions which Pakistan could be
forced to impose on it because of UNSC sanctions. The indication
that JuD may be thinking of changing its name reportedly came
as some senior cadres of the outfit recently organised a rally
in Pakistan under the banner of Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool, sources
told PTI.
January 02
Seven persons, including an Awami
National Party leader and two Frontier Constabulary personnel,
were killed in different parts of the Swat District.
Four militants were killed and
three others injured when a CIA-operated spy plane fired two Hellfire
missiles at a Government-run girls’ school in the Ladha sub-division
of South Waziristan Agency, the second attack in as many days.
Tribal sources told that two pilotless spy planes were seen hovering
over the Mehsud-inhabited areas before the air strikes on the
school and a nearby-parked car. The drone reportedly fired two
Hellfire missiles, one of them hitting the building of the Government
Girls’ Primary School, Maidan Naray, and the other destroying
the car owned by the militants.
Taliban announced the enforcement
of Sharia (Islamic law) in the Shakai, Sheikhan and Mulakhel
areas of Hangu District in the NWFP. The decision was made in
a jirga (assembly of tribal elders) and announced in mosques
during the Friday sermons, and comes days after a similar decree
in the bordering Orakzai Agency.
Traffic on the Pakistan-Afghanistan
Highway resumed after the political authorities relaxed the curfew
on the fourth day of the military operation against the militants
and criminals in Khyber Agency.
Leaders of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
(TNSM) have reportedly indicated that militants operating in Swat
and Bajaur would quit militancy if the Government announced the
enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in the Malakand region
and Bajaur Agency.
The LeT rejected a report that
one of its leaders had acknowledged the group’s involvement in
the multiple terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, reported
on December 31 that Pakistani authorities had obtained a confession
from a senior LeT member. The suspect, identified as Zarar Shah,
allegedly told investigators he had played a key role in the planning
of the November attacks. "Lashkar-e-Toiba rejects the Wall
Street Journal report," its spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi
said in an email statement. "India has failed to furnish
any evidence of Lashkar-e-Toiba’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks
and America is now trying to help it out," he claimed. No
evidence could be found "on the scene of the crime, and now
there is an effort to manufacture evidence thousands of miles
away," he added.
January 04
Five persons, including two SF
personnel, were killed in separate incidents of violence in the
Swat District.
Ten persons, including four Policemen,
were killed and 27 others injured in two bomb blasts near the
Polytechnic College in Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP. Sources said
an explosive device, planted by militants near the main gate of
the Polytechnic College, went off at 7:07 pm, injuring four persons.
Eyewitnesses said soon after the blast, Police personnel and people
rushed to the spot. As a large number of Policemen and people
gathered at the site, a 16-year-old suicide bomber forced his
entry into the crowd and blew himself up, killing 10 persons,
including four Policemen, and injuring 21 others.
A suicide bomber was killed while
two people sustained injuries near a check-post in Officers’ Colony
in Bannu in the NWFP. The suicide bomber blew himself up in an
attempt to target a check-post but could not succeed as the bomb
exploded before he could reach his target.
Three armed groups in Balochistan
announced the formal end of a four-month-old unilateral cease-fire
in response to the Security Forces’ continued military operation
in the province. Declaring the end of the truce, the BLA spokesman
Bibarg Baloch said the BLA, the Balochistan Republican Army and
the Balochistan Liberation Front were disappointed by the Government’s
‘lacklustre’ response to the cease-fire. The three ‘pro-independent
Balochistan’ groups announced the cease-fire in September 2008.
The Orakzai chapter of the proscribed
TTP has established Sharia (Islamic law) courts and complaint
centres in most parts of the agency, directing people to resolve
their disputes in accordance with the Islamic laws.
A senior Taliban leader was arrested
from Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. A senior Policeman confirmed
Ustad Yasir was arrested, but declined to give details. Formerly
a leader of Abdurrab Rasool Sayyaf’s Ittehad-e-Islami group in
Afghanistan, Yasir joined the Taliban in 2001 after Sayyaf announced
support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He was arrested from
the NWFP in 2005 and released from Kabul’s Pul-e-Charkhi prison
in exchange for kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.
January 5
Four persons, including two militants,
were killed in separate incidents of violence in the Mingora city
of Swat District in NWFP. Two persons, identified as Javed and
Nisar, were killed in the Mingora city and their bodies thrown
at the Green and Suhrab squares. The duo was identified as local
militants. Meanwhile, unidentified assailants shot dead a former
councillor, Muhammad Sahib, in the Aligram area of Charbagh. In
another incident, some unidentified gunmen barged into a house
at Watkay in Mingora and shot dead a woman.
Suspected Taliban militants in
North Waziristan shot dead two Afghan nationals and a resident
of the Bannu District of NWFP and hanged bodies of the Afghans
from a tree on the Bannu-Miramshah Road at Naurak village. A hand-written
Pashto language letter left with the bodies accused them of spying
on ‘Mujahideen’ in North Waziristan for the US forces stationed
in Afghanistan. The letter also termed the killing of the two
Afghans and the Pakistani a "gift" to US Assistant Secretary
of State for South Asia Richard Boucher.
Jihad will be mandatory
for the Pakistani nation in case India attacks the country, said
a joint communiqué issued in an All Parties’ Conference.
The conference, held at Jamia Naeemia in Lahore, was attended
by a number of noted religious scholars and heads of various religious
and political parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz,
the Tehreek-e-Insaaf, the Sunni Tehrik, the Mustafai Tehrik, the
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, the Minhajul Quran, the Nizam-e-Mustafa
Party and the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat. The participants demanded the
Government immediately convene an emergency session of the Organisation
of Islamic Conference (OIC). The participants also demanded the
OIC issue a declaration condemning India and expressing solidarity
with the people of Palestine.
Pakistan said it was reviewing
a dossier India handed over regarding the terrorist attacks in
Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
said the Government remained committed to punishing Pakistani
nationals accused of taking part in the Mumbai attacks if ‘credible’
evidence is given against them. Gilani made the comments during
talks with Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of State
for South and Central Asia, who arrived in Islamabad early on
January 5.
January 6
Six bullet-ridden bodies of Security
Force (SF) personnel, who had been abducted by Taliban militants
a few days ago, were found in the Mingora city of Swat District.
The militants brought the six persons to the College Square in
Mingora in the night of January 5 and shot them dead.
Suspected militants killed four
more alleged US spies in North Waziristan on the night between
January 5 and January 6 and threw their bodies on main roads in
various parts of the tribal region. Two of the alleged US spies
were said to be Afghan nationals and the other two were identified
as local tribesmen. Tribal sources said bullet-riddled bodies
of the two Afghans were found on the road in Sarobi village near
Spalga. Body of one tribesman was recovered from Miranshah Bazaar
and the other body was found from the Razmak Road.
The Government ‘emphatically rejected’
an allegation by Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh that
Pakistan was involved in sponsoring terrorism in India. It said
India had embarked on a ‘propaganda offensive’ and such allegations
would jeopardise chances of co-operation against terrorism. According
to sources, the Indian allegations were rejected during a meeting
between President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani held soon after Dr Singh’s statement on January 6. Zardari
urged the Indian leadership to refrain from hurling allegations
about involvement of official agencies in the Mumbai attacks,
because this could only escalate tension. He said Pakistan would
itself take action against ‘non-state actors’ involved in the
Mumbai attacks and there was no question of their extradition
to India.
January 7
The Government confirmed that
Mohammad Ajmal Amir alias Ajmal Kasab – the lone Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT) militant arrested during the Mumbai terrorist attacks on
November 26, 2008 – is a Pakistani. "The initial investigations
have confirmed that Ajmal Kasab, involved in the Mumbai terrorist
attacks, is a Pakistani national. Further investigations are under
way," Foreign Office Spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said. Sources
in the foreign ministry said security agencies analysed the information
India had gathered and shared with Pakistan, and concluded in
a preliminary probe that Kasab is a Pakistani. Pakistan had earlier
said its National Database and Registration Authority had no record
of the man. Sadiq confirmed that the Interior Ministry had given
the information to the Foreign Office. But he denied Pakistan
would provide official support to Ajmal Kasab. "Kasab has
committed a heinous crime. He will not be provided any official
support or consular access," the spokesman said.
Information Minister Sherry Rehman
told Daily Times that "Ajmal Kasab is a Pakistani.
Further investigations are under way." Earlier, a high-ranking
Government official told Dawn that the preliminary investigation
had provided enough information to conclude that the man at present
in India’s custody was from a Punjab village, and perhaps belonged
to a militant group that was bent upon destabilising the region
by undermining the peace process.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
sacked his National Security Adviser Major General (retd) Mehmud
Ali Durrani for giving a statement on Mohammad Ajmal Amir alias
Ajmal Kasab, the lone Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant arrested
during the Mumbai terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008, without
taking him into confidence. Before the formal announcement, Prime
Minister Gilani told Geo News on telephone that Durrani
had given a statement to an Indian news channel regarding Ajmal
Kasab without taking him into confidence. Gilani said that Durrani’s
statement had tarnished the country’s image. "So I decided
to sack him," he told Geo News.
The Taliban in Hangu District
of NWFP killed three Policemen and abducted three others when
they stormed a Police check-post. Officials said the Taliban attacked
the Police post in Dalan area of Tal tehsil (revenue division)
using heavy weapons. Three Police personnel - Taimoor, Fazal Rahim
and Daulat Shah - were killed, while Mohibullah, Tariq and Akhlaq
were abducted by the militants, who also set ablaze the check-post.
Three Taliban militants were killed
and six others sustained injuries as jet fighters targeted their
hideouts in various areas of Bajaur Agency. Six trenches and some
underground bunkers built by the Taliban had also been destroyed
in the operation. Fighter jets targeted Taliban hideouts in Dama
Dola and Khaza Pahar areas in Mamoond, Salarzai and Chargo Kandaw
sub-divisions of Bajaur.
January 8
The head of al Qaeda in Pakistan
and his lieutenant were killed in the past few days, a US counter-terrorism
official told AFP. They were reportedly struck by a missile
fired from an unmanned drone. The men are believed to be Kenyan
national Usama al-Kini, described as al Qaeda's chief of operations
in Pakistan and his lieutenant Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan. "There
is every reason to believe that these two top terrorist figures
are dead," said an unnamed source, adding that the duo was killed
"within the last week." The counterintelligence source did not
say how the men died, but according to Washington Post,
which first reported the story, the duo was killed in a January
1 missile attack near Karikot in South Waziristan. The militants
died after being struck with 45 kilo Hellfire missile fired from
a pilot-less Predator drone operated by the Central Intelligence
Agency, Washington Post reported.
January 9
A Bugti tribal chief and his three
bodyguards were killed in a landmine explosion in the Bekar area
of Dera Bugti District in Balochistan. Wadera Nawaz Masoori Bugti
was on his way to a village when his vehicle hit an anti-tank
landmine planted by unidentified miscreants. Consequently, Wadera
Nawaz, along with three of his bodyguards, was killed on the spot,
while two other people sustained injuries.
Four people are reported to have
died and dozens of others injured after clashes erupted in the
Hangu town and its surrounding areas of NWFP. A mourning procession
from Ustarzai, Ibarhimzai, Sherkot and Chakarkot villages was
heading for the Hangu city despite a curfew. Sources said militants
allegedly attacked the procession with rockets from the hilltops
when it reached near Bahadur Banda, prompting an exchange of fire
with the mourners. Consequently, four people were killed in the
clashes.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
said that premier intelligence agencies of the United States and
Pakistan had been working closely to investigate the multiple
terrorist in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, and recently the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) had provided a detailed response to questions
and issues raised by US investigators on behalf of their Indian
counterparts. "Our ISI has given its feedback, which has
been forwarded to India," he told reporters after addressing
a seminar in Islamabad. He gave no details of the contents of
the dossier or the response formulated by a committee, but said
Pakistan would co-operate if more information was required. He
said India had provided a 52-page dossier to the CIA which was
passed on to Pakistan. The dossier was also handed over directly
by India to Pakistan. Gilani also said Pakistan was ready to share
information sharing with the CIA.
January 10
At least 17 people were killed
and 30 others injured in the ongoing sectarian clashes in Hangu
in the NWFP. Officials said that fighting between the rival Shia
and Sunni groups had been continuing since late January 9 while
army helicopter gun ships were targeting the warring parties’
positions to control the situation. The clashes erupted when people
from Kohat, who were protesting against the imposition of curfew
in Hangu on the eve of Ashura, were attacked by the rival
sect. The two groups started targeting each other with heavy and
light weapons. According to officials, clashes occurred in the
Khanbari, Singhar, Paskalay, Gungano Kalay, Malik Abad and Ibrahim
Zay areas of Hangu city.
The house arrest of Jama’at-ud-Da’awa
(a front for the Lashkar-e-Toiba [LeT]) founder Hafiz Mohammed
Saeed has been extended for another 60 days, Punjab Additional
Home Secretary Usman Anwar said. "His house has already been
declared a sub-jail where he will spend the rest of the detention
period," Anwar said, adding that the Punjab Government extended
the detention on orders from the federal Government.
January 11
At least 49 Taliban militants
were killed and an unspecified number of them wounded in Mohmand
Agency as paramilitary troops repulsed a pre-dawn attack by about
600 militants coming from the Afghan border. The attackers – mostly
foreigners, and supported by local Taliban – attacked Frontier
Corps (FC) positions in Mamad Gatt at about 2am (PST). "Frontier
Corps troops repulsed a massive attack by militants on one of
its locations in the area," the military said in a statement,
adding that "severe fighting continued through the night".
Six soldiers were also killed and seven sustained injuries in
the fighting.
A cease-fire between rival factions
was reached in Hangu in the NWFP, after 30 persons were killed
and 50 injured in sectarian clashes that broke out on January
9, according to Daily Times. However, The News put
the death toll in the three days of sectarian clashes at 40. 20
houses – including that of the District Zakat committee chairman
– were set ablaze in fresh clashes despite an earlier truce in
the afternoon of January 11, as helicopter gunships targeted ‘miscreant’
hideouts. Sources said three local commanders, Maulvi Nadeem,
Momin and Ihsanullah, were among the six militants killed in sectarian
clashes in Saidan Banda and Pass Kellay.
January 12
The US State Department imposed
sanctions against 13 people and three firms implicated in the
nuclear proliferation network set up by Pakistani scientist Abdul
Qadeer Khan. "The Department of State announced that sanctions
will be imposed on 13 individuals and three private companies
for their involvement in the AQ Khan nuclear proliferation network…
We believe these sanctions will help prevent future proliferation-related
activities," it said in a statement.
January 13
A mortar shell - allegedly fired
by the SFs - hit a house in the Gulagai area of Matta sub-division
in Swat District of NWFP, killing three children and injuring
a woman.
January 14
Four persons, including three
soldiers, were killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in the
Dera Bugti District. The Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility
for the incident. The bomb, planted in the Sui Colony main bazaar,
targeted a van carrying paramilitary personnel. Three soldiers
and a shopkeeper died instantly.
Unidentified assailants killed
four Policemen, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, in
a shootout in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. Motorcyclists ambushed
a Police team on Sariab Road at around 11am, killing four Policemen.
Three of the murdered Policemen belonged to Hazara community and
were Shia. The outlawed Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed
responsibility for the killings, which reportedly appear to be
part of a recent series of target killing of Shias in the provincial
capital that has claimed six lives in a month. "We claim the responsibility
for today’s attack," Ali Haider, identifying himself as a spokesman
for the group, said in telephone calls to local media, AFP
reported. "It was a target killing and police officers belonging
to the Hazara tribe were targeted," a senior police officer said.
January 15
The Government said that it had
shut down five training camps of the outlawed Jama’at-ud-Da’awa
(JuD) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), banned their seven publications
and blocked all their websites. The authorities have reportedly
detained 124 people, several leaders and officials of the organisations
among them. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the Prime
Minister’s Adviser on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik, assured
India that Pakistan would do its utmost to bring the people involved
in the Mumbai attacks to justice. Giving details of a crackdown,
Malik said that training camps had been closed down in Punjab
and Pakistan occupied Kashmir. He said members of the banned groups
who had been detained included their founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed,
LeT ‘operations commander’ Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Mufti Abdur Rehman,
Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed and Ameer Hamza. "We have arrested
a total of 124 mid-level and top leaders of JuD in response to
a UN resolution — 69 from Punjab, 21 from Sindh, eight from Balochistan
and 25 from the NWFP — blocked six websites associated with the
organisation and closed down its five relief camps," the
adviser said. He said 20 offices, 87 schools, two libraries, seven
seminaries and a handful of other organisations and websites linked
to the JuD had also been shut. He also said authorities had closed
several relief camps of the organisation after the UN Security
Council had passed the resolution. The publications banned are
Mujalatud Dawa, Zarb-i-Taiba, Voice of Islam,
Nanhay Mujahid, Ghazwa and Al Rabta.
January 16
A press release of the Military-run
Swat Media Cell in Swat District claimed that 12 militants were
killed and many others injured in a clash in the Chamtalai area
of Khwazakhela sub-division. The TTP Swat chapter leader Shah
Dauran also claimed killing several SF personnel in the clash.
"Several troops were killed and five vehicles were destroyed
in the attack," he claimed on his illegal FM radio. The SFs
subsequently clamped a curfew in Khwazakhela and started shelling
suspected hideouts of the militants.
Two militants and a soldier were
killed and another sustained injuries in a clash in the Sandokhel
area of Mohmand Agency in the FATA. Sources said SFs, backed by
artillery and tanks, continued demolishing houses of militants
in the Habibzai area of Safi sub-division for the second consecutive
day. However, the militants opened fire on the troops in Sandokhel,
which triggered a clash, leaving two militants and a soldier dead.
Owais Ahmad Ghani, the Governor
of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is reported to have informed
a delegation of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Peshawar
that there are approximately 15,000 militants in the tribal belt,
who have no dearth of ration, ammunition and equipment. The Governor
said that a militant was normally given PKR 6,000 to PKR 8,000
per month while their leaders got PKR 20,000 to 30,000 per month.
January 17
A son of Osama bin Laden who spent
years under Iranian house arrest has left Iran and is now probably
operating inside Pakistan, said a senior American intelligence
official, The News reported. Saad bin Laden is one of a
number of senior al Qaeda operatives detained inside Iran in recent
years. Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence,
told reporters that Saad bin Laden was probably in Pakistan. He
gave no details about whether bin Laden had escaped from custody,
whether his departure reflected a deal between Iran and al Qaeda
or whether he was simply allowed to go by Iranian officials. McConnell’s
announcement came as the Treasury Department imposed financial
sanctions on January 16 on Saad bin Laden and three other people
believed to be al Qaeda operatives and thought to be in Iran.
January 18
At least 15 Taliban militants
and a soldier were killed when clashes broke out between the Taliban
and SFs in Mohmand Agency. The clashes, which broke out late on
January 17, occurred as the SFs cleared a road linking Bajaur
Agency with Peshawar, an unnamed official said. "Fifteen
militants were killed in a successful raid by security forces
on their stronghold in Darwazgai area of Mohmand Agency… One security
force personnel embraced martyrdom in the encounter," he
stated.
January 20
Troops backed by warplanes and
helicopter gunships killed at least 38 Taliban militants in an
ongoing military operation in the Mohmand Agency - raising the
Taliban death toll to 60 over 24 hours. A statement said the FC
had advanced and secured Darwazgai-Lakaro-Mamad Ghat Road in the
operation and "militant strongholds of Habibzai and Mulakhel
were destroyed." It also said that ‘leading commanders’,
Umar Khitab, Qari Mumtaz, Haroon Rashid, Bilal, Yaqub, Yar Syed,
Yousuf and Hamza, were among the dead. Troops have also "engaged
Taliban strongholds of Krair and Chingai", it added. The
Security Forces reportedly launched the crackdown in Mohmand Agency
as early as the weekend, but a paramilitary official told that
‘hardcore militants’ were killed in the last 24 hours. A paramilitary
official told that the FC and Mohmand Rifles, backed by warplanes,
helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery, targeted suspected hideouts
of militants in five villages of Lakaro and Pandyali sub-divisions,
said to be stronghold of the Taliban’s Mohmand chapter. Three
civilians, including the owner of a restaurant and his two sons,
were killed in Danish Kol, residents said. 12 civilians were reportedly
injured in the air strike and mortar attacks. According to a press
release issued by the Frontier Corps headquarters in Peshawar
late on January 20-night, 60 militants, including several key
local commanders, were killed in the operation since the previous
night. It said 22 militants had been killed on January 19 and
38 on January 20.
Taliban militants in the North
Waziristan Agency shot dead six more people on charges of spying
for the US forces stationed in Afghanistan. Tribal sources in
agency headquarters Miranshah said that two of the six slain spies
were Afghan nationals. One of them, whose bullet-riddled body
was dumped near the Miranshah Bazaar, was identified as Guldar
Ali, hailing from Afghanistan’s Khost province. Similarly, four
more bodies were recovered from the Tehsil Road near Mirali. They
were identified as Shah Madeen Khattak, a barber hailing from
Karak district, 65-year-old electrician Shahi Haider Khan, teenager
Nisar Ali and an Afghan citizen, whose name could not be ascertained.
A handwritten letter placed near the bodies blamed all the four
persons for spying for the US forces on the Mujahideen.
Four Policemen and four civilians
were injured when a Police patrol van was hit by a roadside bomb
on Ring Road in the Hazarkhwani area of Peshawar, capital of the
NWFP.
The NWFP Chief Minister Ameer
Haider Khan Hoti offered dialogue to the Taliban to restore peace
in the troubled areas. He said the dialogue offer was still intact,
asking the Taliban to come to negotiate without weapons as problems
could not be solved by force.
After proscribing female education
in the Swat District, the militants reportedly issued another
decree, asking the local people to wear caps and stop shaving
beards after January 25. The militants set January 25 as deadline
for keeping beards in the Matta sub-division and also asked people
to wear caps in order to implement Sharia (Islamic law)
in the area. They had already stopped barbers from shaving and
trimming beards in the valley while following their fresh decree
all barbers reportedly displayed "shave is banned" posters
at their shops.
Six Pakistanis have been arrested
on suspicion of a tax fraud and are being investigated for diverting
funds to terrorist groups, said the Spanish Police. Police said
the six men were arrested in Barcelona on orders from Judge Baltasar
Garzon, who often investigates terrorism. The Civil Guard said
in a statement that the alleged fraud was carried out through
telecommunications companies and officials were investigating
whether any money went to ‘armed groups’. The six along with five
others arrested by the Spanish Police, were suspected of financing
terrorist activities by carrying out thefts and sending the money
they raised from their criminal activities to Pakistan.
January 21
Several militants, including top
commanders of the banned TTP, Mohmand chapter, were killed, as
the military intensified its operation against the militants in
Mohmand Agency. Sources said SFs targeted the hideouts of the
militants in the Lakaro and Pindyali sub-divisions and elsewhere
in the tribal agency with gunship helicopters, killing several
militants and destroying their hideouts. Sources said the house
of Omar Khalid, the TTP Mohmand Agency chief, was also destroyed
in the aerial raids. More than 15 militants, including some important
commanders, are reported to have died in the attack, while approximately
40 shops in the Qayyumabad and Askarabad bazaars on the Peshawar-Bajaur
Road and 33 houses were also destroyed. Sources added that the
SFs occupied the militant hideout after killing six militants
in Ghaziabad area. Severe fighting and shelling was also reported
from the Kamardin, Amarai Kor, Karair, Chingai, Palosai and Habibzai
areas.
Seven suspected militants were
arrested in a pre-dawn operation in the Bara Qadeem area of Khyber
Agency in the FATA. A senior al Qaeda operative alleged to be
involved in the 2005 bombings of London transport system was among
the seven arrested men. Officials said the arrested men were al
Qaeda militants believed to have planned attacks on trucks taking
supplies to US-led forces in Afghanistan. An unnamed security
official said the arrested militants included a senior al Qaeda
operative allegedly wanted in connection with the July 7, 2005,
suicide bombings in London. He identified the man as Zabi ul Taifi,
an Arab.
The new US administration will
increase non-military aid to Pakistan, but hold Islamabad accountable
for security along the border region with Afghanistan, according
to a US foreign policy document released soon after President
Barack Obama assumed office. The document– available on the White
House website – says, "Obama and [Vice President Joe] Biden
will increase non-military aid to Pakistan and hold them accountable
for security in the border region with Afghanistan."
January 22
21 persons, including 11 militants,
were killed and an unspecified number of them injured in the ongoing
military operation and fresh incidents of violence in the Swat
District of NWFP. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations
(ISPR)-run Swat Media Centre (SMC), 11 militants were killed and
nine injured in Qamber and Koza Drushkhela. The SMC spokesman
claimed that a militants’ hideout was destroyed in shelling at
Qamber and four militants, identified as Abu Hamza, Ismail, Abdul
Rauf and Qari Ghaffar, were killed. Sources added that SFs also
carried out a ground assault in the Koza Drushkhela area of Matta
sub-division, the stronghold of Maulana Fazlullah-led militants,
and killed seven militants besides injuring three others.
The gunship helicopters attacked
several suspected Taliban positions, killing seven persons, including
four women and two children, in the Mohmand Agency. According
to local people, a bomb hit the house of tribesman Zain Khan in
Shekhan area, killing two women. Two more houses were hit in Ghunget
Choher village of Lakaro sub-division, killing two women, two
children and a man.
January 23
20 people, majority of them local
tribesmen, were killed and several others were wounded in two
different missile strikes by US drones in North and South Waziristan
agencies. In the first incident, 10 persons were killed and several
others injured when a US drone fired three Hellfire missiles on
a Hujra (male guest house) of Khalil Dawar in Zyaraki village
of North Waziristan. Sources close to the militants told The
News the drone fired missiles after some guests, probably
foreign militants, entered the Hujra of Khalil Dawar. They
said besides Khalil, his two sons, brother Mansoor, a nephew and
six other people were killed in the attack. However, a senior
Government official in Miranshah said six among the dead were
hardcore militants, including four Arabs and a Punjabi Taliban
militant. It was the first missile attack by US spy planes in
North Waziristan in 2009.
In the second incident, 10 more
persons were killed in the adjoining South Waziristan Agency when
a US drone fired two Hellfire missiles on the house of a local
tribesman, Dil Faraz Gangikhel Wazir, in Gangikhel village, near
Wana. Official and tribal sources said all those killed were local
tribesmen. A Wana-based official of the political administration
said the drone had probably missed the target and killed only
innocent people. He said four children also lost their lives in
the attack. It was the third attack by the US drones in South
Waziristan in January 2009 and the first after Barack Obama became
the US President.
Five members of a family, including
three children, were killed when a mortar shell hit a house in
the Manpetai village of Khwazakhela sub-division. A couple and
their three children died and their house was destroyed in the
incident.
In an IED attack in the Takhtaband
area of Mingora town in Swat District, three civilians, including
a woman, were killed and a soldier sustained injuries. The militants
reportedly intended to target a convoy of the Security Forces
but failed in their bid. The Taliban claimed responsibility and
warned of more attacks.
Two SF personnel were killed in
a suicide attack near Mingora town. According to a press release
issued by the Swat Media Centre, a car laden with explosives blew
up near the Fizagat check-post, killing two SF personnel and injuring
22 others. Troops had signaled the suspicious vehicle to stop
and also fired on it, but it accelerated and hit the post.
January 24
Eight Taliban militants, including
commander Noor Bakhtiar, were killed by the SFs during clashes
in the Nangolai area of Kabal tehsil (revenue division)
in Swat in the NWFP. The SFs also recovered a large cache of arms
from the Taliban’s hideout after the operation. Troops also took
control of schools in Swat following Taliban militant’s threats
against their reopening. The decision was made to protect educational
institutions in the district, where, according to official figures,
174 schools have been destroyed by Taliban militants during the
past one and a half year.
January 25
The Taliban in Swat released a
list of 43 people – including former and incumbent ministers –
who they have declared ‘wanted’ and liable to punishment under
the Sharia (Islamic law). The ‘wanted’ men also include
former and current members of the national and provincial assemblies,
District and local nazims (chief elected official of local
government), officials of political parties, local elders and
other influential residents of the valley. The announcement that
the leaders were liable to punishment and must appear in Taliban
courts was made by rebel cleric Mullah Fazlullah on his FM radio
channel, locals said.
January 26
Nine people, including two children
and two women, were killed and 17 others sustained injuries in
different incidents of violence in various parts of the Swat District.
Six people were killed and 22
others sustained injuries when a bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded
in a populated area in Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP. Three of
the victims were in a car while the other three were walking past
the bicycle parked in front of the main gate of the town hall.
More than 200 protesters demonstrated
against Pakistan’s appointment of an administrator to oversee
the headquarters of JuD, (LeT front),. "Death to America",
"Death to Israel and Jews", shouted the protesters,
carrying banners and placards that read: "Cancel administrator’s
appointment," "Remove the ban on the JuD" and "We
condemn the UN resolution." Abu Ehsan, a former JuD administrator,
while criticizing the January 25-takeover said, "This is
a wrong step. First the government, under American and Indian
pressure, placed a ban through the UN and now the Punjab government
has... We strongly condemn this action and ask the government
to review its decision." The provincial Government of Punjab
has taken over the Muridke headquarters of the JuD, appointing
an administrator to run the schools and medical facilities on
the premises, and renaming it Punjab Welfare Institute.
The banned TTP has asked its members
to stop attacks on Government installations, kidnapping for ransom,
bank dacoities and car snatching across the country. A statement
purportedly issued by the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud said, "All
organizers and workers are directed that Mujahideen will not damage
government property, commit highway robbery, bank dacoity, kidnap
people for ransom or snatch vehicles from today… All such activities
would be prohibited. No excuse that an activist had permission
from the Ameer (Chief) to carry out such acts would be accepted...
From now on, all previous permits meant for attacks on government
installations and other activities would stand cancelled."
January 27
SFs killed more than 16 militants
in Darra Adamkhel in the NWFP. The SFs claimed that they had besieged
a large number of militants after a fierce battle which claimed
the life of an army officer and injured five soldiers in Tor Chappar.
The troops had reportedly been attacking the militants’ hideout
in the area with artillery fire and shelling for the last four
days. The Inter-Services Public Relations said in a press release
from provincial capital Peshawar on January 26 that 16 militants
were killed in a gun battle in Tor Chapper on January 25. However,
a Taliban spokesman denied the report of the death of 16 people
and said that all of them were safe and alive.
Hundreds of students protested
as a Government official took over administrative control of the
JuD headquarters in Muridke. The protest, organised for the second
day, came as a senior official from the Punjab Government, Khaqan
Babar, started his job running the schools and hospital at the
JuD headquarters. About 500 students from a school in the sprawling
JuD compound in Muridke gathered outside the main office and chanted
slogans against the Government.
The United States will continue
to carry out missile strikes against al Qaeda in Pakistan, Defence
Secretary Robert Gates said. He was responding to questions on
the issue and Pakistan’s complaints at a hearing of the Senate
Armed Services Committee. "Both president Bush and President
Obama have made clear that we will go after al Qaeda wherever
it is and we will continue to pursue that," Gates said.
Five American CIA-operated spy
planes intruded into the North Waziristan Agency and flew over
various villages of the border area. Official and tribal sources
said five drones, three white and two of black colour, intruded
into the tribal region from across the border in Afghanistan.
In the evening, the spy planes were seen hovering over various
villages at a low altitude.
January 28
16 more people, including seven
militants, were killed and 23 others injured in the Swat District,
even as Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani vowed to establish
the writ of the Government.
Around 25 projects operated by
USAID in the FATA and settled areas of the NWFP have been temporarily
closed over security concerns. The staff members working on several
projects in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, and North and South Waziristan
agencies have been called back due to worsening security in those
areas. USAID was working on a comprehensive programme to support
short, medium and long-term objectives of the government of Pakistan’s
FATA Sustainable Development Plan (FSDP) 2006-2015.
January 29
Four militants were killed and
several others, including a Policeman, sustained injuries when
suspected militants attacked a police post near Baran Bridge in
Bannu in the NWFP with rockets and heavy arms.
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior
Affairs Rehman Malik told the Senate that a new strategy had been
worked out to combat militancy in Swat. He said the groups behind
the insurgency in Swat included al Qaeda, TTP led by Maulana Fazlullah,
Tanzeem-i-Islami, Tora Bora group and Qari Mushtaq group. He said
that a Taliban ‘commander’, Qari Hussain Ahmed, ran a training
camp for suicide bombers in Waziristan and Maulana Naamdaar had
a role in bringing suicide bombers from Waziristan to Swat. He
told the Senate that around 1,200 civilians had been killed and
2,000 injured in violence, while 189 military personnel had lost
their lives. He said 123 Government schools and 10 private schools
had been destroyed and many CD shops and barbers’ salons set ablaze.
The Darra Adamkhel unit of the
TTP issued a one-week deadline to the NWFP Government to accept
their demands and in case of non-compliance they would kill the
kidnapped Polish geologist. A Taliban spokesman told that : "We
cannot wait more as the government has taken acceptance of our
demands (in return) for the release of Polish geologist Peter
(Stanczak) very light. So, our Shura has decided to wait till
Feb 4 evening for a positive reply from the government and in
case of refusal we will kill him." The spokesman, who identified
himself as Mohammad, said they had demanded from the Government
complete withdrawal of SFs from tribal areas and release of their
captured associates. The Polish geologist working for the Oil
and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) was kidnapped from
an OGDCL facility near the Jand town of Attock district in Punjab
province four months ago.
January 30
Six persons were killed as the
military operation in Swat continued on the sixth day. The SFs
continued targeting Taliban hideouts in several areas of the Chaharbagh
sub-division, including Coat and Darul Uloom. Troops reportedly
advanced into the valley and consolidated their positions in Matta
and Manglawar areas of the District.
Four soldiers were killed and
eight injured when an Army convoy was attacked with a remote-controlled
bomb in Malakand in the NWFP. Official sources told that a military
convoy of the Sindh Regiment was on its way to provincial capital
Peshawar from the militancy-hit Swat valley when a remote-controlled
explosive device, planted by militants near a school building
on Ghat Koto Road, went off, killing four soldiers and injuring
eight others.
The Taliban distributed leaflets
in Miranshah and Mir Ali in the North Waziristan Agency warning
the Pakistan Army not to set up medical camps, open schools or
hospitals in the area. The Taliban warned the army and the NGOs
to stop their activities in the agency as ‘through these activities
they were misleading the tribal people’. "We warn the army and
NGOs to refrain from mischief and carrying out such work otherwise
they will be responsible for any losses," said the leaflet in
Urdu, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
A Pakistani investigation into
the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008 has shown they were
not planned in Pakistan, the Pakistani High Commissioner to Britain
told an Indian television news channel. "Pakistani territory was
not used so far as the investigators have made their conclusions,"
Wajid Shamsul Hassan told NDTV in an interview.
January 31
10 persons were killed in fresh
incidents of violence in the Swat District of NWFP. Locals said
three people were killed in a clash between SF personnel and the
Taliban militants in the Dherai area of Kabal revenue division.
Three people were killed as helicopter gun ships targeted Taliban
positions in Kabal. In the Aligrama area of Kabal, the Taliban
militants attacked a SF’s convoy killing three SF personnel while
another was injured in the attack.
February 1
32 persons, including three soldiers,
were killed and 22 others sustained injures as the SFs intensified
the operation in the Charbagh, Matta and Sangota areas of the
Swat District. Locals said most of the people killed in Charbagh
and Sangota during shelling were civilians, who were finding it
difficult to move to safer places due to the perpetual curfew
and escalating clashes.
The ISPR-run Swat Media Centre
in Mingora claimed that the SFs have killed 16 militants during
the last 24 hours.
February 2
The military claimed it had killed
70 Taliban militants and injured several others during its assault
on a village in the Chaharbagh sub-division of Swat District.
Officials said residents had already vacated the village on February
1 before troops launched the operation. They said the SFs targeted
Taliban hideouts in the Alamganj and Waliabad areas of Chaharbagh,
killing approximately 70 militants.
The Swat Police recovered eight
bullet-ridden bodies from the region. "The bullet-ridden
bodies of eight local residents were found in various areas of
Swat," said an unnamed Police official. He blamed the killings
on the Taliban militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah.
Trapped amidst clashes between
the Taliban and SFs, residents in Swat have begun a mass exodus
from the area. Thousands of civilians were fleeing the fighting
in the valley. The people leaving Swat are joining thousands of
villagers who have fled fighting in other restive areas, particularly
Bajaur Agency. Government officials have blamed the militants
for using villagers as human shields. "Thousands of people
are migrating from the areas of fighting because of the military
operations and the militants’ use of civilians as human shields,"
the Swat valley’s top administrator, Shaukat Khan Yousafzai told.
At least five militants were killed
in a gun-battle with SFs in the Dasht-e-Goran area of Dera Bugti
District in Balochistan. According to the local Police, a group
of armed assailants opened indiscriminate fire at a vehicle of
the SFs and in retaliation, at least five militants were killed
by the troops.
A top United Nations (UN) official
was kidnapped and his driver was killed after his vehicle was
ambushed in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. John Solecki, head
of the UN High Commission for Refugees office in Quetta, was going
to office from his nearby residence in the Chaman Housing Society
when the gunmen in a car opened fire on his vehicle. Even as the
driver was seriously wounded as their vehicle crashed into a wall,
the gunmen abducted Solecki, who is an American national, at gunpoint.
The driver, Syed Hashim Hazara, later succumbed to his injuries
in the hospital.
In Bara, headquarters of Khyber
Agency, leader of the outlawed LI, Mangal Bagh, has banned shaving
of beards and asked women to wear proper veils. Addressing on
his private FM radio station, Mangal Bagh said: "From now
on, the men are warned to grow breads according to Islam’s teachings
and women should be properly veiled while leaving homes".
Last week, the LI enforced Sharia (Islamic law) in the
Bara tehsil (revenue division) of Khyber Agency.
February 3
Over 70 militants were killed by SFs during clashes
in the Swat District in the night of February 2 and February 3.
A group of Taliban militants were attacked and dispersed by troops
in the Alam Ganj Waliabad area of Charbagh on February 2-night.
In the evening of February 3, the militants gathered again and
were reported to be planning an attack when the SFs cornered them.
At least 64 militants were killed and several others were injured.
The militants surrounded the Shamozai Police post
manned by about 30 personnel. Six militants and three SF personnel
were killed and 10 persons, including five militants, were injured
in an exchange of fire.
Suspected militants attacked a military convoy
on the Mingora bypass in Swat. Troops subsequently cordoned off
the area and launched an operation, killing four militants.
The BRA admitted to having killed five Punjabis
in the Noshki and Mastung Districts of Balochistan, saying it
was retaliation for the alleged firing by SFs on a wedding ceremony
in Dera Bugti. Unidentified people riding on a motorcycle opened
indiscriminate fire on a welding shop owned by a Punjabi, Muhammad
Asif, on Aminuddin Road in Noshki District at around 7pm. Consequently,
four people, including the brother of the shop owner, Muhammad
Farooq, were killed on the spot. Several people were injured in
the attack. According to sources, the shop had been attacked many
times in the past because of its Punjabi link. Another man of
Punjabi origin, identified as Haji Muhammad Jamil, was killed
at the Quetta Bus Stop in Mastung District.
Supplies to the NATO troops in Afghanistan were
halted temporarily when militants blew up a 110-year-old bridge
on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Highway in the Katakashta area of
Khyber Agency. Sources said explosives were planted beneath the
bridge that went off early in the day, damaging the bridge partially.
However, the structure collapsed later in the day when the driver
of a cement-laden truck tried to cross it, the sources added.
The Spanish Police arrested 13 people on suspicion
of links to organised crime and terrorism groups. A Police statement
said the detainees - 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian -
were suspected of belonging to an international crime gang involved
in passport forgery, drug trafficking and people-smuggling. Police
said they were investigating whether the group might also have
supplied forged documents to international terror groups.
Over 70 militants were killed by SFs during clashes
in the Swat District in the night of February 2 and February 3.
A group of Taliban militants were attacked and dispersed by troops
in the Alam Ganj Waliabad area of Charbagh on February 2-night.
In the evening of February 3, the militants gathered again and
were reported to be planning an attack when the SFs cornered them.
At least 64 militants were killed and several others were injured.
The militants surrounded the Shamozai Police post manned by about
30 personnel. Six militants and three SF personnel were killed
and 10 persons, including five militants, were injured in an exchange
of fire. Suspected militants attacked a military convoy on the
Mingora bypass in Swat. Troops subsequently cordoned off the area
and launched an operation, killing four militants. The BRA admitted
to having killed five Punjabis in the Noshki and Mastung Districts
of Balochistan, saying it was retaliation for the alleged firing
by SFs on a wedding ceremony in Dera Bugti. Unidentified people
riding on a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire on a welding
shop owned by a Punjabi, Muhammad Asif, on Aminuddin Road in Noshki
District at around 7pm. Consequently, four people, including the
brother of the shop owner, Muhammad Farooq, were killed on the
spot. Several people were injured in the attack. According to
sources, the shop had been attacked many times in the past because
of its Punjabi link. Another man of Punjabi origin, identified
as Haji Muhammad Jamil, was killed at the Quetta Bus Stop in Mastung
District. Supplies to the NATO troops in Afghanistan were halted
temporarily when militants blew up a 110-year-old bridge on the
Pakistan-Afghanistan Highway in the Katakashta area of Khyber
Agency. Sources said explosives were planted beneath the bridge
that went off early in the day, damaging the bridge partially.
However, the structure collapsed later in the day when the driver
of a cement-laden truck tried to cross it, the sources added.
The Spanish Police arrested 13 people on suspicion of links to
organised crime and terrorism groups. A Police statement said
the detainees - 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian - were
suspected of belonging to an international crime gang involved
in passport forgery, drug trafficking and people-smuggling. Police
said they were investigating whether the group might also have
supplied forged documents to international terror groups. The
Jama'at-ud-Da'awa (JuD, the LeT front) released the appeal it
had made to the United Nations pleading its innocence and claiming
that it has no link with al Qaeda, Taliban or the Mumbai terrorist
attacks. The appeal signed by JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed,
was released on the eve of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's
visit to Pakistan. The UN imposed a ban on the JuD on the request
of India for its involvement in Mumbai attacks in November 2008
that claimed about 170 lives. The appeal said the UN had taken
a hasty decision in proscribing the JuD, its chief Hafiz Muhammad
Saeed and others members and termed the UN decision detrimental
to the interests of Pakistan. It said that millions across the
country were directly or indirectly benefiting from JuD's services
particularly in the areas of health, education, water, sanitation,
rehabilitation and particularly the provision of food and shelter
to the homeless. Saeed requested the UN Secretary General to mobilize
his good offices for the lifting of sanctions and delisting of
all JuD entities. "We categorically make it clear and declare
that Jamaat ud Dawa is neither an associate of Al Qaeda, Osama
bin Laden nor the Taliban, hence the embargo imposed is materially
in contradiction to that set out in their rules and highly unjustified
under the international law of human dignity and freedom," Saeed
said.
February 4
Nine members of the Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam
group were killed in an encounter with the Police and the Qaumi
Lashkar (militia) comprising armed villagers when they
allegedly attempted to kidnap the chief official of Bazidkhel
union council near Peshawar, the NWFP capital. Three Policemen
sustained injuries in the first incident of its kind in which
the Police and villagers jointly countered the militants operating
in Peshawar.
The Taliban in Swat set free 30 SF personnel in
the presence of journalists in the Kotli Dadhara area of Kabal
sub-division in Swat District, after securing written promise
from them that they would quit their Government jobs. "The hostages
have been released on humanitarian grounds, but with a condition
that they will quit their jobs and never fight against the Taliban,"
local Taliban leaders told journalists after a meeting of the
Taliban Shura (executive council). The SF personnel were
abducted on February 3 when the militants overran a Police checkpoint
in Shamozai area adjacent to the Lower Dir district.
A private TV channel reported that a French aid
agency has suspended its operations in Swat after two of its Pakistani
workers were killed.
Eight local Taliban militants were killed in a
clash between two rival factions in the Orakzai Agency of FATA.
Sources in the political administration said the militants were
killed in fighting between Taliban commanders Gul Bahadar and
Tariq's factions in Shan Khel area. They said that all of the
casualties were from Bahadar's faction. The sources also claimed
that a power struggle between Taliban factions was underway in
Orakzai.
In Landikotal, suspected Taliban militants doused
with petrol 10 containers they thought were carrying NATO supplies,
and set them ablaze. With most of the containers reportedly empty
and only two loaded - four were completely destroyed and the remaining
was partially damaged.
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
announced the establishment of an independent commission to probe
the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. "I
intend to establish an independent commission of inquiry to be
headed by a distinguished person who will be appointed very shortly,"
he said while speaking at a dinner reception hosted by President
Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad. Chile's UN Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz
would head the three-member commission. It said Indonesia's Marzuki
Dar Usman will be a member of the commission, but no decision
has been made on its third member, likely to belong to Sweden
or Norway.
Supporting India's assessment that the Pakistan-based
LeT is a security risk for the international community, the US
Central Intelligence Agency believes that the terrorist group
is among the top security threats for the US, Economic Times
reported. The outgoing CIA chief Michael Hayden concluded that
the LeT was among the top security challenges for the US. Hayden
said in a television interview that al Qaeda has been increasing
its links with terror organisations around the world and this
was pushing the LeT to expand its scope of operation from India
to Israel and America. "There was a migration in LeT thinking
over the past 6, 12, 18 months, in which it began to identify
the United States and Israel as much as being the main enemy as
it has historically identified India… That is a troubling development.
And this migration of LeT to a merge point (with al Qaeda) is
probably taking place," he said.
February 5
32 persons were killed and 48 others wounded when
a suspected suicide bomber blew himself amidst a crowd of Shia
worshippers outside a mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan in the Punjab
province. Police said the blast targeted dozens of people converging
on the Al Hussainia Mosque after dark, shortly before a religious
gathering. Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility,
Police blamed sectarian extremists for the incident. "Ninety-nine
percent it looks like a suicide attack… The explosion occurred
just 50 feet short of the mosque. It is a terrorist attack aimed
at Shias to create unrest," said Shaukat Javed, the Inspector
General of Punjab Police.
Three women were killed in Swat District as Taliban
continued their attack on people they consider to be pro-government.
The women, Zarmina, Zarbibi and Farzana, were killed and three
men were kidnapped when militants stormed their house in Dagai
village and accused them of supporting security personnel manning
the nearby Wenai bridge post.
A suicide attacker detonated an explosive-laden
car near a Police station in the Mingora town in Swat District,
injuring a dozen officers and destroying part of the building,
said Dilawar Khan Bangash, the Police chief. Bangash said militants
also fired three rockets before the attack and one damaged a nearby
hotel.
Several banned militant groups met in Muzaffarabad,
the Pakistan occupied Kashmir capital, and pledged to continue
the jihad to "liberate" Kashmir from India. The meeting
was organised by a previously unknown group, Tehreek-e-Azadi Jammu
and Kashmir, on the eve of "Kashmir Solidarity Day". Groups affiliated
to the United Jihad Council (UJC), the umbrella organisation of
more than a dozen militant outfits, were in attendance including
the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). The meeting took place at Chattar,
a neighbourhood that reportedly houses Government offices, top
Government functionaries and political VIPs.
February 6
Army helicopter gunships killed 52 Taliban militants
when they targeted hideouts in the Chapri and Feroz Khel areas
along the border of Orakzai and Khyber Agencies. "Fifty-two militants
were killed and a huge ammunition depot and eight vehicles were
destroyed in an attack by army helicopters," Khyber Agency Political
Agent Tariq Hayat told Reuters.
A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car
into a trailer carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan
and injured seven persons in the Tedi Bazaar area of Jamrud sub-division.
Eyewitnesses said the bomber was heading for Landikotal when the
troops signaled him to stop. They said that he rammed his car
into the trailer instead of stopping. Taliban spokesman Maulvi
Omar claimed responsibility for the attack. "It was our man who
martyred himself in Jamrud… We warned the government to stop military
operations in Khyber, Swat and other tribal areas, otherwise we
will completely shut down the NATO supply line… We have shown
that we can do that," said Omar.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared the detained
nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan 'a free citizen', and disposed
of his writ petition following a 'mutual agreement' between him
and the federal Government which - according to the court - cannot
be made public in line with a request by the petitioner and the
respondent. During an in-chamber hearing, Syed Ali Zafar - representing
AQ Khan - argued before the IHC Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad
Aslam that his client's detention was unjustified, as "he was
not involved in nuclear proliferation." He asked the court to
declare his client a free citizen 'with due state protection'
in line with the terms of the mutual agreement between AQ Khan
and the Government. According to the court's one-page verdict,
Dr Khan's counsel voluntarily accepted the terms and conditions
offered by the Government in exchange for ending the detention
of the scientist.
February 7
Eight Taliban militants were killed as shelling
by helicopter gun ships continued in the Bajaur Agency. The troops
were targeting Taliban hideouts in the Dama Dola, Mataro Sha,
Umrai and Shinkot areas of Mamoond revenue division. Residents
said the troops advanced from the agency headquarters in Khar
and gained control of Siddiqabad, Rehmanabad and Anayat Qalay.
They said the Taliban posed no resistance during the army deployment.
Suspected terrorists shot dead two Policemen and
blew up a check post, killing five more, in an attack in the Mianwali
District of Punjab. The attackers first killed the two Police
guards and then blew up the check post with explosives in the
town bordering the restive NWFP. "Seven of our men have died in
the attack that appears to be part of terrorist activity being
carried out by militants across the country," Malik Tasaddaq Hayat,
a senior Police official in Minawali District said.
A previously unknown separatist group claimed
responsibility for abducting an American working for the UN refugee
agency in Balochistan. John Solecki, head of the UNHCR office
in provincial capital Quetta, was abducted on February 2, after
gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver. A spokesman
for a group called Balochistan Liberation United Front told a
local news agency they had kidnapped the man to make the United
Nations pay attention to the 'plight' of the Baluchi people. "We
have three demands, and if our demands are not met, then John
Solecki will lose his life," a spokesman, identifying himself
as Shahak Baloch, told. "We want the United Nations to secure
the release of 141 women in Pakistani torture cells, provide information
about more than 6,000 missing persons, and resolve the issue of
Baluch independence under the Geneva Convention."
February 8
SFs killed 22 Taliban militants during a military
operation in the Inayat Qilay area of Khar sub-division in Bajaur
Agency.
11 civilians and three SF personnel were killed
in fierce clashes between the SFs and militants in different areas
of the Swat District. A group of militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah
ambushed a vehicle of the SFs in the Aligrama area of Kabal sub-division
and killed three soldiers on the spot. Troops subsequently targeted
suspected militant hideouts with artillery fire. Four persons
were killed in heavy shelling and fire between the SFs and militants
in Takhtaband area in the outskirts of Mingora city. Helicopter
gunships were reportedly used to target militant positions. Three
people were been killed and ten injured as mortar shells hit houses
in the Shewar area of Matta sub-division. Further, a father and
his son were killed and a woman was injured as mortar shell hit
their house in the Sekhbanr area of Matta sub-division. In addition,
the decapitated body of Habibullah was recovered in the Alam Ganj
area of Khwazakhela sub-division. A motorcyclist was killed in
firing in the Dherai area of Kabal.
Intelligence agencies have detained three men
in Karachi over their alleged involvement with Mohammed Ajmal
Amir Iman alias Ajmal Kasab, the lone LeT militant arrested during
the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. A source disclosed
that intelligence agencies had taken the men into custody from
different areas of Karachi in connection with their alleged affiliation
with Kasab.
The CIA has reportedly told President Barack Obama
that British-born Pakistani terrorists, who have extensive contacts
with the LeT, are the biggest threat to the US. American intelligence
chiefs have told the president that the CIA has launched a vast
spying operation in Britain to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks
being launched from Britain, the paper said. It said intelligence
chiefs believe that a British-born Pakistani extremist entering
the US under a current visa waiver program for all Britons is
the most likely source of another terrorist attack on the American
soil. A former CIA officer who had advised Obama told that the
CIA had stepped up its British operations after the November 2008
attacks in Mumbai by the LeT, which has an extensive web of supporters
in Britain, and is now as big a threat to the US and Britain as
al Qaeda.
Taliban militants released a videotape showing
the beheading of Polish geologist Poitr Stancza and warned other
kidnapped foreigners would meet the same fate if their demands
were not met. Before he was killed, the seven-minute video shows
the blindfolded geologist making an appeal to the Polish Government
not send troops to Afghanistan. He asked the Polish Government
to sever diplomatic relations with Pakistan if it did not try
to seek his release. The video includes a statement by the Taliban,
claiming they had other foreign nationals in their custody, including
a Chinese, who would be beheaded if the Government of Pakistan
did not accept their demands. Stancza was kidnapped in September
2008 when he was on a visit to his company's site in Attock in
the Punjab province.
February 9
26 persons, including 11 children and a soldier,
were killed while 38 others sustained injuries when mortar shells
hit some houses during ongoing clashes between SFs and militants
in the Qasimkhel area of Darra Adamkhel in NWFP. Sources said
militants fired three rockets at the Babozai check-post, killing
a soldier, Mirdad, and injuring two others. SFs also retaliated
and an exchange of fire continued for sometime, during which heavy
weapons were reportedly used. Reports said several shells fell
at the main gate of the Government Girls Primary School Qasimkhel
and nearby houses on the outskirts of Darra Adamkhel.
Nine persons, including five militants, were killed
and 11 others sustained injuries in artillery shelling and incidents
of violence in the Swat District. Sources told that five militants
and two civilians were killed and five others sustained injuries
when gunship helicopters shelled the Engaro Dherai, Takhta Band
and Ogaday areas near Mingora city. An artillery shell fired by
the SFs hit the house of one Fazlullah in Chuprial area, killing
his two children and injuring his wife and a child.
18 FC personnel were injured in a suicide attack
on the Baran Pul check-post of the Frontier Reserve Police (FRP)
in the jurisdiction of Bakkakhel police station in Bannu District.
Sources said a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden mini
truck hit the building of the FRP check-post at Baran Pul, injuring
18 FC soldiers.
10 people were killed while an unspecified number
of them were wounded during clashes between two rival religious
groups in the Terra valley of Khyber Agency. The groups, Ansar-ul-Islam
and Lashkar-e-Islam, were reportedly using mortar guns, small
missiles, rockets and other arms in the clashes.
SFs targeted suspected hideouts of the Taliban,
killing six suspected militants and injuring several others, including
women, in different parts of the Bajaur Agency. Military gunship
helicopters targeted suspected hideouts in the Inayat Killay,
Bade Samo, Bhai Cheena and Omari villages of the Khar sub-division.
An official said six militants were killed in the shelling and
several others sustained injuries.
The Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) has
said that a dossier of information given by India to Islamabad
is 'insufficient' to make headway in a conclusive investigation
into the Mumbai attacks, and called on India to provide substantial
evidence. The committee met in Islamabad under Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani to deliberate on the findings of an inquiry
- conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) - into the
Mumbai attacks. After a briefing on the progress of the inquiry
based on the information provided by India, the DCC decided that
a case should be registered and further investigations carried
out. Sources told that the committee was of the unanimous view
that the information provided by India was insufficient for the
prosecution of the perpetrators.
December 10
SFs backed by helicopter gunships, killed 11 Taliban
militants and destroyed many of their hideouts in the Bajaur Agency
of FATA. The operation was launched on February 9 in the Inayat
Qillay town, a suspected stronghold of the Taliban and al Qaeda-linked
terrorists, after a rocket attack by the militants, military official
Mustaqim Shah told. The rocket attack destroyed a shop but caused
no casualties, he said. "Troops backed by helicopters retaliated
with artillery and mortar fire, and destroyed several suspected
locations. At least seven militants were killed," the official
said. In addition, four militants were killed in an encounter
with the SFs in Inayat Qilay town.
Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar said they had killed
five security officials in a multi-pronged attack on Inayat Qillay.
One tank was also destroyed in the attack, he claimed. Security
officials, however, denied the claims.
Two US spy planes violated the Pakistani airspace
and entered the limits of Landikotal sub-division of Khyber Agency.
Eyewitnesses said two drones were seen hovering over Landikotal
at about 7 pm, which continued flying for about half an hour.
The Swat-based Taliban leader Maulana Muhammad
Alam alias Khalil has asked the people of Malakand division
not to pay electricity bills. Announcing this on FM radio, Khalil
said his militants would teach a lesson to those who tried to
disconnect the power supply in the area. "We are demanding our
rights but these are being denied. Therefore, the people of Malakand
must not pay utility bills to the Government… We would either
implement the Sharia [Islamic law] in Swat or embrace martyrdom,"
he said. He vowed to continue efforts for the Sharia enforcement
and claimed that the uprising from Swat would spill over to the
whole country.
US President Barack Obama asserted that his administration
would not allow 'safe havens' for al Qaeda and the Taliban operating
with 'impunity' in the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan. "My
bottom line is that we cannot allow al Qaeda to operate. We cannot
have those safe havens in that region," said Obama at his first
press conference after assuming office. "You've got the Taliban
and Al Qaeda operating in the FATA and these border regions between
Afghanistan and Pakistan… What we haven't seen is the kind of
concerted effort to root out those safe havens that would ultimately
make our mission successful," he added. The President also noted
that "It's not acceptable for Pakistan or for us to have folks
who, with impunity, will kill innocent men, women and children.
And you know, I believe that the new government of Pakistan ...
cares deeply about getting control of this situation, and we want
to be effective partners with them on that issue."
The fighting in the Tribal Areas can drive more
than 600,000 people from their homes, the UNHCR said. Spokesman
Ron Redmond said the UNHCR would ramp up its relief work in the
county's northwest, where security has deteriorated sharply since
2008. "Latest estimates put the number of displaced people in
the region at around 450,000, but the UN believes more than 600,000
could be displaced within weeks," he told a press briefing in
Geneva. "UNHCR is encouraged by the safe arrival and return of
the first UN convoy of supplies to this dangerous region of Pakistan
where curfews and general insecurity hamper relief efforts," Redmond
said.
February 11
Five suspected militants and a soldier were killed
and several persons sustained injuries in clashes and bombing
by the Pakistan Air Force fighter planes in Bajaur Agency. Military
sources said warplanes targeted positions of militants in Inayat
Killay, Bhai Cheena and Mamond subdivision, a stronghold of the
militants led by TTP deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Muhammad. Sources
said the troops had also cleared major parts of Inayat Killay
and Bhai Cheena towns of militants. Independent sources reported
fierce fighting between the militants and SFs around Inayat Killay
in which officials said five militants and a soldier were killed.
The chief of the banned outfit Ansar-ul-Islam
(AI), Qazi Mehboobul Haq, claimed to have taken complete control
of Bar Qambar Khel after burning several houses of the opponents
at the remote Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency. Addressing on his
private FM radio, he said the flag of AI was hoisted on Tortoot
in the Bara sub-division, as the area of Qambarkhel came under
the control of his group.
Alamzeb Khan, a Member of Provincial Assembly
from the ruling Awami National Party (ANP), was killed in a remote-controlled
bomb blast in Momin Town in Peshawar, the NWFP capital. The blast,
which also injured seven others, including the driver, the gunman
and personal assistant of the legislator, occurred on the day
the newly-appointed special US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan,
Richard Holbrooke, was paying a visit to the city and the adjacent
Khyber Agency.
Three soldiers were killed and several others
were injured during clashes between SFs and militants in the Charbagh
area of Swat District.
Five attackers who targeted the Afghan Justice
Ministry building amid a wave of coordinated suicide attacks had
contacted Pakistan shortly before being shot dead, the Afghan
intelligence chief said. Mobile phones found at the scene showed
the attackers had "sent three messages to Pakistan calling for
the blessings of their mastermind" as they entered the building,
Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said. All five attackers
were shot dead, the Defence Ministry said. The five attackers
were aged between 20 and 25, Saleh added. Taliban militants wearing
suicide vests stormed the Justice Ministry and another Government
building in Afghanistan's capital, killing 26 persons. Eight attackers
also died in the assaults, including an attacker outside a third
Government building, Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad
Zahir Azimi said.
The TTP threatened to destroy all educational
institutions in Bajaur Agency if the Government did not withdraw
SFs stationed in Government schools in the region within three
days.
Austria's interior ministry said it had no evidence
that the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008 might have
been planned in Austria, as reported in the media. "We have nothing
that would justify our launching an investigation," ministry spokesman
Rudolf Gollia said. "We have not been informed (of these claims)
by either Pakistan or India and moreover, we have not received
any requests for an investigation," he added. An Austrian newspaper
quoted Indian media reports according to which Pakistan's investigation
into the attacks had found that they were planned in Austria and
Dubai. An Austrian link to the attacks was also mentioned in December
2008 following reports that the militants had used an Austrian
telephone number.
February 12
Pakistan acknowledged for the first time that
the Mumbai terrorist attacks were partly planned in Pakistan and
that it has arrested six suspects, including the "main operator".
In its first detailed response to the dossier provided by India,
Pakistan said criminal cases had been registered against nine
suspects on charges of "abetting, conspiracy and facilitation"
of a terrorist act. However, it said more evidence is required
from India, including DNA samples of Ajmal Kasab, the lone LeT
militant arrested during the attack, to establish his identity.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Interior Adviser Rehman
Malik told the media that FIR No: 01/009 had been lodged with
the Special Investigation Group in the Federal Investigation Agency
against nine suspects. The Pakistani investigators have identified
Hammad Amin Sadiq as the alleged 'mastermind' of the whole conspiracy.
Malik said the cases against nine persons had been registered
under the Anti-Terror Act and the Cyber Crime Act and they would
be tried under these two sets of laws. He said six of the nine
accused named in the FIR have already been arrested and being
interrogated, two have been identified but not arrested so far
while investigations are still under way into the possible involvement
of the ninth accused. He identified those arrested as Zakiur Rehman
Lakhvi, a LeT 'commander' who was arrested from Muzaffarabad soon
after the Indian Government alleged that the LeT was responsible
for the Mumbai attacks, Javed Iqbal, who was arrested from Barcelona
in Spain, Hammad Amin Sadiq, believed to be the main operator
belonging to southern Punjab, Zarar Shah, Mohammad Ashfaq and
Abu Hamza. The name of Ajmal Kasab is reportedly not included
in the FIR. He also said some of those arrested by the security
agencies of Pakistan for possible involvement in the Mumbai attacks
belong to the LeT.
Five persons were killed and 12 others sustained
injuries during the ongoing military operation in Swat District.
The SFs claimed to have killed four militants
during a clash following an attack on a check-post in the Shandai
Mor area of Bajaur Agency. Military sources said the militants
attacked the check-post with rocket launchers and other heavy
weapons. The SFs deployed at the check-post repulsed the attack
and the ensuing clashes between Taliban militants and troops left
four militants dead.
Interior Adviser Rehman Malik has said that a
money exchange company in Islamabad was involved in transferring
money to a suspect of the Mumbai attacks in Spain. The money was
transferred through Paracha International Exchange's Euro 2005
branch in Islamabad to Javed Iqbal in Barcelona. The branch was
later found sealed.
A UN official expressed satisfaction with the
steps taken by Pakistan in compliance with the UN's sanctions
on JuD. Security Council Coordinator Richard Barrett said he had
discussed the implementation of the Security Council's decision
to sanction the JuD with Pakistani officials. He said he would
visit Islamabad soon to make an assessment of Pakistan's actions.
Earlier, he told reporters at a press conference that it was difficult
to implement the sanctions completely, adding that the group was
involved in charitable activities and running schools and clinics.
The banned LeT is reported to have condemned the
Government for filing a case against some of the group's top operatives.
"We strongly condemn the lodging of the FIR [First Information
Report] against LeT," Lashkar spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi told
over the telephone. The case was brought to 'win appreciation'
from India and the US and to "implement India's agenda of suppressing
the people's struggle for freedom in Kashmir", said Ghaznavi.
The Government has lodged a FIR against eight suspects, including
the presumed mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
A close aide of Baitullah Mehsud and senior commander
of the banned TTP claimed responsibility for the February 11 suicide
attack on the Awami National Party (ANP) Member of Provincial
Assembly, Alam Zeb Khan, in Peshawar. "We carried out this attack
and will continue such attacks on ANP leaders in future," Hakeemullah
Mehsud, who heads the TTP in Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber tribal
regions, said in telephone calls to media offices in Peshawar.
February 13
Five persons, including a security official, were
killed and several others sustained injuries in the Swat District.
The Taliban, who killed Polish national Piotr
Stanczak last week, are now demanding US$200,000 for return of
the body. According to sources in the Interior Ministry, the Taliban
have not directly contacted the Government but conveyed to Poland
through a private negotiator that they will not hand over the
body until they are paid the amount. The official confirmation
of the Polish engineer's killing came late on February 13-night
from the Foreign Ministry after the authorities were able to verify
through a number of independent sources that he was beheaded by
his captors last week.
Kidnappers of an American working for the UNHCR
in Pakistan released a video in which he pleaded for the UN to
help secure his release. John Solecki, head of the office of the
UNHCR in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, was abducted on February
2, after gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver. Solecki
appeared blindfolded and said his message was to the UN. "I am
not feeling well. I am sick. I am in trouble. Please help to resolve
the problem soon so I can gain my release," he said. The video
was delivered by mail to the office of a local news agency and
seen by a Reuter's reporter.
The Government has no alternative except to use
force against the Taliban to end militancy in the country, President
Asif Ali Zardari said while vowing to eliminate the insurgents.
He was addressing a meeting jointly presided over by the president
and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to review the situation
in FATA and Swat. Zardari said the Taliban wanted to impose their
political agenda on the people of Pakistan through use of force,
adding that the Government and the people would never allow a
handful of insurgents to do so.
The CIA's unmanned Predator aircraft striking
terrorist targets in the FATA are flown from an airbase inside
Pakistan, a senior US lawmaker said. The disclosure by Senator
Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
marked the first time a US official had publicly commented on
where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.
At a hearing during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee
by US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, she said,
"As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base."
The CIA, however, declined to comment. A spokesman for Feinstein
said her comment was based solely on previous news reports that
Predators were operated from bases near Islamabad.
February 14
Two missiles fired by the suspected US drones
killed 28 Taliban militants, including foreign nationals, at South
Waziristan. "We lost 28 mujahideen in the missile attack… The
drone fired two missiles and several 'guests' are among the dead,"
Taliban sources in Ladah said. Two Arab nationals, some local
Taliban militants and a number of Uzbek nationals were reportedly
killed in the strike.
Militants have set free a Chinese engineer they
had kidnapped six months ago from Lower Dir District. Long Xiaowei,
who worked for a Chinese mobile phone company, was handed over
to officials in the Shamozai area of Bari Kot subdivision of Swat
District in the evening of February 14 and he was immediately
taken to Islamabad where the Chinese Embassy confirmed his release.
Sources told in Peshawar that Xiaowei had been released on payment
of a huge amount of money as ransom, but the militants' spokesman
Muslim Khan said in Swat that the engineer had been freed as a
goodwill gesture.
February 15
Eight persons, including six Taliban militants,
were killed and four injured during an operation launched by the
SFs in the Mamond sub-division of Bajaur Agency. The SFs bombed
the Taliban hideouts with jet fighters and destroyed several hideouts
during the operation.
The Bajaur chapter of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
(TNSM) demanded immediate implementation of the Sharia (Islamic
law) in the Agency and in return assured the Government of its
co-operation to establish a complete writ of the state, demanding
the Army to stay in the region till reconstruction work was completed.
Four members of a family, including a minor, were
killed in the Swat District. Sources said a shell fired by the
SFs hit a house in the Hazara area of Kabal sub-division, killing
four members and wounding 10 others of a family.
The Taliban of Swat announced a 10-day cease-fire
after the Government and the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
(TNSM) reached an understanding about promulgating Sharia
(Islamic law), termed 'Nizam-i-Adl Regulation', in Malakand region.
"Taliban have declared a unilateral cease-fire for 10 days as
a goodwill gesture. Our fighters will not attack security personnel
and Government installations," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said.
However, he said, the militants would hold their positions and
defend themselves if attacked. He welcomed the move to enforce
Sharia regulations in Malakand, but added: "We will see
how sincere the Government is in their enforcement."
February 16
The NWFP Government formally announced the implementation
of Sharia (Islamic law) known as the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009
in Malakand Division and Kohistan District. "The provincial Government
in consultation with all political parties, Sufi Muhammad and
Ulema with the approval of Federal Government introduced changes
in the 1999 Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. Today I announce promulgation
of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (Amended) 2009… The regulations will
be implemented in Malakand following the return of peace and restoration
of writ of the Government," NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan
Hoti told a press conference after chairing a jirga (council
of elders) in Peshawar. The jirga was attended by a 29-member
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) delegation from Dir,
leaders and representatives of political and religious parties,
members of the NWFP cabinet and senior bureaucrats. He said the
Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 had been approved by President Asif
Zardari following consultation with TNSM representatives.
"We will reciprocate the militants' 10-day armistice
with a cease-fire for good," the Chief Minister said. Hoti also
said troops would remain in "reactive mode" instead of "proactive
mode" and would not target anyone unless threatened. He said the
army should be removed only after peace has been restored. Troops
would play their role in reconstruction and rehabilitation, he
added. He said the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009 were in line with
the Constitution of Pakistan as it was the amended form of the
regulations proposed for Malakand in 1994 and 1999. He said the
new system had been devised to provide easy and speedy justice
for the people. He said both the Qazi and the police department
would be held accountable for any delay. He announced that all
civil cases would be resolved within six months and all criminal
cases would be decided within a maximum of four months. For its
implementation, Hoti said, a task force comprising the federal
secretary interior, the NWFP chief secretary, the provincial presidents
of the ANP and the PPP, the law and home secretaries, would be
established. Sources told that the TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad would
head a jirga to Swat in the next two days to discuss the restoration
of peace with the residents and Taliban.
30 suspected militants were killed and three others
sustained injuries in a missile strike on a refugee camp in the
Kurram Agency. The three missiles believed to have been fired
from a US unmanned aircraft destroyed a house used by a local
Taliban commander. It was the first known drone strike in Kurram.
However, political authorities have only confirmed 18 deaths from
four missiles fired by two unmanned aircraft, while the local
Taliban have claimed a death toll of 12. "Afghan Taliban were
holding an important meeting there when the missiles were fired,"
an intelligence official in the area told Reuters.
SFs are reported to have killed five militants
and injured several others during shelling by jetfighters in various
parts of the Bajaur Agency. Five suspected militants were killed
and several others injured when jetfighters of the Pakistan Air
Force targeted hideouts in the Khar and Mamond sub-divisions.
Several underground bunkers of the militants were also destroyed
in the attack.
The BLUF, which claims to have kidnapped American
UN official John Solecki, said, it had extended a 72-hour deadline
for the Government to meet demands for his release. "We have decided
to extend the deadline on the appeal of our honourable Baloch
leaders," a BLUF spokesman told via telephone at the Quetta Press
Club. "A new deadline will be announced later."
President Asif Ali Zardari will not sign documents
of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 until peace is restored in
Swat, Malakand, and other troubled areas, Federal Information
Minister Sherry Rehman said. "The Government will monitor the
situation, as security and well-being of Swat is top priority,"
Sherry said in a statement following an agreement between the
NWFP Government and the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
(TNSM).
The centre has released PKR 623 million to the
NWFP and FATA administration to provide compensation to the victims
of militancy, an official announcement said. President Asif Zardari
is reported to have termed the victims of militancy as national
heroes and advised the NWFP Government to immediately undertake
payment of compensation to their families. PKR 283 million have
been released for the FATA and another PKR 340 million for the
NWFP Government to compensate the families of the victims of suicide
bombings and acts of terror. Under the compensation programme,
PKR 300,000 will be paid for every fatality and PKR 100,000 for
the injured.
February 17
SFs killed six Taliban militants
during their ongoing operation to target suspected hideouts in
Bajaur Agency. "Six militants were killed and scores injured
during shelling by gunship helicopters in Inayat Qilay, Bhaicheena
and Umerey areas in Mamoond tehsil," an unnamed official
said.
Five people were killed and 17
injured in a car bomb blast outside the Hujra (male guest
house) of the union council chief in Bazidkhel village of Peshawar.
Faheemur Rahman, the union council chief of Bazidkhel, eight kilometres
south of Peshawar on Kohat Road, alleged that the Mangal Bagh-led
LI was involved in this "cheap act" of terrorism. Eyewitnesses
said the blast occurred in a car parked on a street near the Hujra
of Rahman. The blast also destroyed two cars and damaged six
buildings.
The implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl
Regulations 2009 in Malakand Division will not affect the Government’s
policy on the war against terror, President Asif Ali Zardari said.
During a meeting with the visiting Australian Foreign Minister
Stephen Smith, he said the agreement between the Taliban and the
NWFP Government was one part of an overall strategy for peace,
a private TV channel reported.
February 18
SFs claimed killing nine Taliban
militants by bombing their suspected hideouts in the Mamoond sub-division
of Bajaur Agency.
A North Waziristan Agency Taliban
‘commander’ ordered the Taliban to halt sabotage activities in
the settled districts of the NWFP to facilitate a religious congregation
in the Bannu District of the province. Taliban commander Gul Bahadar’s
spokesman, Ahmedullah Ahmadi, announced the directive in Miranshah,
the headquarters of North Waziristan. "All Taliban have been
directed to stop attacks on Government installations to facilitate
the congregation in Bannu District," Ahmadi said in a press
statement. According to the Taliban spokesman, a unilateral cease-fire
would be in place until March 5.
A TV and print media journalist
was found dead hours after he was abducted in Swat. Musa Khankhel,
correspondent for The News and a private TV channel, Geo News,
was covering a ‘peace march’ led by Maulana Sufi Mohammed, chief
of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) in Matta when
he was kidnapped and later found dead, said Mingora-based journalists.
The TNSM chief Sufi Mohammed led
hundreds of supporters and activists in a march to plead peace
with the leadership of the Swat-based Taliban. Before leaving
for the Matta sub-division of Swat District, Sufi and his activists
staged a peace rally in Mingora town. Police and witnesses estimated
that 15,000 people marched in the crowd, waving black and white
flags as they paraded through the town. The TNSM spokesman said
Sufi Mohammad would stay in Swat District till the complete restoration
of peace in the valley and surrender by the Taliban.
More than 300,000 people in the
northwest region of the country have been displaced over the last
six months because of fighting between Taliban and SF, officials
said. A total of 55,729 displaced families, or 337,772 individuals,
have been registered by the authorities, Shaukat Tahir, a senior
official from the National Disaster Management Authority, told
a press conference in Islamabad. Around 70 per cent of the internally
displaced persons (IDPs) were from the FATA on the border with
Afghanistan, Tahir said, stressing that people were now beginning
to return. He said people had left their homes because of an "ongoing
operation in tribal areas". They were now returning "because
roads have mostly been reopened and the military authorities have
cleared the mines," he said.
The JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar
and gangster Dawood Ibrahim are not in Pakistan, the Interior
Ministry chief Rehman Malik said. Pakistan will not provide protection
and refuge to any criminal, including Ibrahim, Malik told reporters
on the sidelines of an official function in Lahore.
The CIA is using the Shamsi airbase
in Balochistan to launch the Predator drones that attack al Qaeda
and Taliban targets in Pakistan, the London-based The Times
has claimed. The CIA has been using the airfield - originally
built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions - for at least
a year. In its investigation, the newspaper is reported to have
focused on the unexplained delivery of 730,000 gallons of F34
aviation fuel to Shamsi in 2008. The Defence Energy Support Centre
Website reportedly shows that a civilian company was contracted
to deliver the fuel, worth $3.2 million, from Pakistan Refineries
near Karachi. However, the CIA and Pentagon declined to comment
on the issue. Major General Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman
of Pakistan, confirmed that US forces were using Shamsi. "The
airfield is being used only for logistics," he said.
February 19
14 militants were killed and several
others injured when SFs shelled suspected hideouts of militants
in different areas of the Bajaur Agency. Official sources said
that SFs targeted hideouts of militants in the Inayat Killay,
Bhai Cheena and Shinkot areas of Khar sub-division with gunship
helicopters and artillery.
The Swat Taliban chief Mullah
Fazlullah discussed with the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad
the Swat peace deal in a meeting at an undisclosed location in
the Matta sub-division of the Swat District. TNSM spokesman Izzat
Khan Sufi and his delegation tried to convince Fazlullah and other
Taliban leaders to disarm. He also said the TNSM chief told the
Taliban that he too had given up his protest after the announcement
that Sharia (Islamic law) would be implemented in the Malakand
Division.
The militants involved in 9/11,
the Mumbai attacks and unrest in Swat have common roots, US special
envoy Richard Holbrooke told a meeting in Washington. In the meeting
to review the Afghanistan-Pakistan situation, he said the US was
troubled and confused about the development in the Swat valley.
According to a TV channel, Holbrook said in an interview that
progress in the Swat valley was not an encouraging trend and that
the US would not like militants to get hold of any territory in
Pakistan. According to another news channel, Holbrooke also said
victory in Afghanistan was not achievable in purely military terms.
Reducing tensions between India and Pakistan was imperative to
get Pakistan more focused on the terrorism war along the border
with Afghanistan, Holbrooke reportedly told a US TV channel.
The US State Department said the
US was interested in seeing results of anti-terrorism efforts
in Pakistan and will continue to stay in touch with Pakistani
officials over the Swat peace arrangement. Deputy spokesman Gordon
Duguid said: "These types of deals have happened before and (in
that context) the direction of events in Swat valley are not in
going in a positive way. What we do want to see is results."
February 20
32 persons were killed and 145
others injured when a suicide bomber exploded himself in the funeral
procession of a slain employee of the Tehsil Municipal Administration
near the busy Shubra Square in Dera Ismail Khan. Sources said
the funeral procession of local Shia community leader Sher Zaman
alias Shera, who was killed in firing by unidentified persons
on February 19, was heading towards Kotly Imam Hussain for his
Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayer) and burial when a suicide
bomber ran into the mourners and blew himself up. "We cannot
immediately say who could be behind the bombing but it appeared
to be linked with the ongoing sectarian attacks," said Saadullah
Khan, the local police station chief. Riots broke out in the city
following the blast, and Police confirmed that two people were
killed in the firing that followed the suicide bombing.
SFs fired mortar shells at suspected
hideouts of the Taliban in various areas of the Mamoond and Khar
sub-divisions of Bajaur Agency, killing four Taliban militants,
including a commander, and injuring several others.
The US special envoy to Afghanistan
and Pakistan said he called President Asif Ali Zardari expressed
US concern over the Swat peace deal, which he said was ‘hard to
understand’. Richard Holbrooke said in an interview with CNN
that Zardari assured him the pact was an "interim arrangement"
to stabilise the restive region. "He (Zardari) does not disagree
that the people who are running Swat now are murderous thugs and
militants and they pose a danger not only to Pakistan but to the
United States," said Holbrooke. "I am concerned, and
I know that Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton is and the president
is, that this deal which is portrayed in the press as a truce
does not turn into a surrender… President Zardari has assured
us this is not the case," said Holbrooke.
The US Defence Secretary Robert
Gates said that Washington could accept a political agreement
between the Afghan Government and the Taliban militants along
the lines of a truce in neighbouring Pakistan. When asked if Pakistan
succeeds in pacifying the militant activity in Swat, the United
States would allow Afghans to make a similar type of agreement,
Gates replied: "If there is a reconciliation, if insurgents
are willing to put down their arms, if the reconciliation is essentially
on the terms being offered by the government, then I think we
would be very open to that. We have said all along that ultimately
some sort of political reconciliation has to be part of the long-term
solution in Afghanistan."
Top Taliban leaders from North
and South Waziristan met to forge an alliance. Sources said that
the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud and Taliban leaders Maulvi Nazir
and Hafiz Gul Bahadar met at an undisclosed location in Waziristan
and agreed to form an alliance. The three Taliban leaders have
reportedly formed a 13-member committee and authorised it to make
‘all decisions’. They also agreed that they would jointly defend
attacks against them, and make plans in consultation with the
committee.
A breakthrough is reported to
have occurred during talks between the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi
Mohammed and Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah, Dawn
quoted a TNSM spokesman as saying. Separately, the Taliban said
they would probably extend the cease-fire in Swat. Taliban spokesman
Muslim Khan said "Hopefully, you’ll hear good news in one
or two days."
February 21
Eight suspected Taliban militants
were killed in firing by helicopter gunships and artillery shelling
by the SFs in the Bajaur Agency of FATA.
Two suicide bombers were killed
when their explosives-laden car blew up before hitting its intended
target in the Lakki town of Bannu District in the NWFP.
February 22
Four militants were killed and
three others sustained injuries in the ongoing military operation
in different areas of Khar and Mamond sub-divisions of the Bajaur
Agency. Sources said SFs shelled suspected hideouts of militants
in the Inayat Kellay, Bad-e-Samor, Bhai Cheena and Shinkot areas
of Khar sub-division and some areas of Mamond subdivision with
gunship helicopters, artillery and mortar guns. At least four
militants were killed and three others injured in the latest military
action, the sources said.
The Swat Private School Management
Association Chairman Ahmed Shah said all the private educational
institutions would be opened on February 23, but girls would go
to schools in veil.
Taliban have formed a new alliance,
Shura Ittihad-ul-Mujahideen, in the North and South Waziristan
as formal announcement to this effect came. Sources told that
the new alliance would comprise the groups led by central chief
of banned TTP, Baitullah Mahsud, and the two reportedly pro-government
commanders Maulvi Nazir of South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur
of North Waziristan. The three, according to sources, met at an
undisclosed location and decided to resolve their differences
to foil the external forces’ designs for dividing the multiple
Taliban groups based in Pakistan. They formed a 13-member Shura
(executive council) to run the affairs of the new alliance.
The Taliban said they would decide
within days whether to call a permanent cease-fire in Swat after
the Government agreed to allow Sharia (Islamic law) in
the valley. Muslim Khan, spokesman for Taliban leader Maulana
Fazlullah, said they would review their current 10-day truce in
the Swat valley when it expires. "We declared a 10-day cease-fire
just after the agreement was signed and you will see an exemplary
peace prevail in the valley once Sharia is enforced… In the next
five or six days, our Shura [executive council] is meeting
and it will decide about a permanent ceasefire," said Khan.
Fazlullah said the cease-fire would be made permanent provided
the militants were confident about the Government’s intentions.
He was speaking after talks with the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Mohammed,
who signed the deal with the Government. Sufi held a meeting with
close aides in Mingora to review the situation, his spokesman
Ameer Izzat said. Fazlullah indicated that he would give up fighting
in Swat but would not surrender. Fazlullah also stated that he
would continue his struggle at the international level and the
fight against the US till Washington was defeated. Commissioner
of the Malakand Division, Syed Muhammad Javed, told the media
that the cease-fire would now be permanent. "Yes, both sides
will observe a permanent cease-fire," Javed said. Fazlullah
also reportedly made the same announcement on the truce in his
address.
February 23
The Taliban in Bajaur Agency announced
a unilateral cease-fire and secretly signed a peace accord with
the Government, pledging to remain peaceful. Following the signing
of the accord, in which the Government reportedly announced amnesty
for the Taliban, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, Taliban commander in Bajaur
and deputy leader of the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP, announced a
unilateral cease-fire through his FM radio. He directed his cadres
to stop fighting the Security Forces and help restore peace in
Bajaur as an understanding had been reached with the Government.
However, the military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said
they had heard about the militants’ announcement of a truce but
the Government had not yet reciprocated.
Maulana Sufi Muhammad, chief of
the banned TNSM, announced a 10-point peace plan for Swat in a
press conference in Mingora. Sufi asked the Taliban to remove
all their check-posts and not to display arms in the Swat valley.
He asked the Government to withdraw troops from schools and other
buildings and stop all military operations immediately. He also
called on the Taliban and Government to release each others prisoners.
The TNSM chief asked employees of the District administration
to resume their duties, and the Government to reinstate such Frontier
Corps, Police and Government officials who had been dismissed
during the past few years. He also demanded immediate compensation
for the people of Swat, inviting the NWFP Chief Minister to visit
the valley to make an announcement in this regard.
Schools reopened in Mingora and
other areas of Swat, but girls’ attendance at both the Government
and private schools remained thin. The Swat District Coordination
Officer Khushhal Khan said arrangements would soon be made to
rebuild the schools that had been destroyed.
The military operation in Swat
has been stopped and the Pakistan Army fully supports the peace
deal as an instrument to find a non-military solution to the problem,
the Inter-Services Public Relations Director-General Major General
Athar Abbas said while addressing a seminar. "Pakistan Army
... has backed the Swat peace deal to strengthen the hands of
the political government," he said, adding that the security
of the state was the military’s top priority.
February 24
A Shia trader and three of his
sons were shot dead in an apparent sectarian attack in Quetta,
capital of Balochistan. Ghulab Shah, a hardware trader of Afghan
origin, was returning home with his six sons at about 8pm when
four gunmen ambushed his car on the high-security Sariab Road.
Shah and three of his sons died instantly, while two of them were
injured.
The Taliban in Swat declared an
indefinite cease-fire in the valley. The decision was made in
a meeting of the Taliban shura (executive council), Taliban
spokesman Muslim Khan said. Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah announced
the decision in a speech that was reportedly cut short when the
SFs blocked the transmission of his FM radio channel. Fazlullah
asked his men to stop displaying weapons, end their armed patrols
and not to attack security convoys or abduct Government officials,
according to copies of the speech sent to the media. He urged
the Government to restore all officials removed during the unrest
in Swat. Fazlullah ordered his commanders to disband their checkpoints,
which he said created "unnecessary problems" for residents. The
Taliban chief also stopped all non-government organisations (NGOs)
from operating in the valley until the implementation of Sharia
(Islamic law). "All NGOs should leave Swat because they are creating
problems for peace," Fazlullah said in the speech. But he added
that emergency medical crews were exempt from the order. Fazlullah
called on soldiers deployed in Swat to remain at their bases,
vowing to retaliate against any troop increases.
The SFs suspended their operations
in Bajaur Agency and agreed to hold fire for four days. "Security
forces have decided to observe a four-day ceasefire across Bajaur,"
Political Agent Safirullah Khan told reporters. He described the
decision as a "goodwill gesture" made at the request of tribal
elders. A source said tribal leaders wanted to hold talks with
Taliban in order to negotiate a permanent peace in the area. "The
security forces reserve the right to retaliate if they come under
attack," Khan said. The TTP leader Maulvi Faqir Muhammad had declared
a unilateral truce in Bajaur late on February 23. He said in a
radio broadcast that his men had vacated Inayat Killay, a Taliban
stronghold outside Bajaur’s main town of Khar.
The chief of the US FBI has said
that the ‘main threat of global terrorism’ is coming from the
tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to a Voice
of America programme, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on February
23 that another threat could come from militants recruited on
US soil. He said the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 had
raised concern about whether a similar attack could be carried
out elsewhere. "This type of an attack reminds us that terrorists
with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons
to maximise their impact," said Mueller at the Council on Foreign
Relations. He said the tribal areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan
posed the ‘greatest threat’ of terror attacks.
February 25
Taliban disbanded checkpoints and stopped carrying weapons in
public a day after announcing an indefinite cease-fire in the
Swat valley. Taliban commander Mullah Fazlullah ordered his followers
to disband checkpoints in a speech on his illegal FM radio station
late on February 24 and asked them not to carry weapons in public.
"The Taliban have removed their checkpoints in and around Mingora,"
Irfan Ahmad, a resident of Swat, said. Another Swat resident,
Mushtaq Khan, said checkpoints have been removed from Matta, Charbagh
and Kabal, all Taliban strongholds. "We adhere to the announcement
made by Mullah Fazlullah on Tuesday night… We will completely
remove all checkpoints after army troops withdraw from the area,"
said Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan. Fazlullah announced that the
Taliban would not attack army vehicles carrying rations or moving
between bases. Khan also said girls could go to schools if they
are properly veiled.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan announced full support to the Lashkar-e-Islam
(LI) if the SFs started an operation against the LI in Khyber
Agency. The Bara-based TTP leader Hamza Afridi told reporters
by telephone from an undisclosed location that they would support
the LI in the agency if the SFs launched an operation against
it. He also said the Taliban would not abandon LI chief Mangal
Bagh.
The Taliban in Swat valley received PKR 480 million ($6 million)
in compensation from the Government after agreeing to a cease-fire
with the Security Forces. The amount was paid from a special fund
of President Asif Ali Zardari, a senior security official said.
"It is compensation for those who were killed during military
operations and compensation for the properties destroyed by the
security forces", he added. "The amount has been paid through
a backchannel," he added.
February 26
SFs have vacated all checkpoints in the Swat valley
as part of the ongoing efforts to restore peace and stopped checking
vehicles forthwith. TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad had asked the troops
to demolish all the checkpoints to ensure free movement of the
people. He had also asked the Taliban to direct their fighters
to stop their activities and display of weapons at public places.
However, the sources said militants were still blocking the movement
of SFs in Qamber and Takhtaband.
February 27
Naval Chief of Staff Admiral Nauman Bashir said
he had no proof that Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman alias Kasab
- the lone LeT militant arrested after the Mumbai terrorist attacks
of November 2008 - used Pakistani waters to reach India. "I do
not have any proof, so I cannot confirm that claim," said Nauman
while addressing a press conference in Karachi. "The Indian navy
is much larger than ours, and if Ajmal Kasab had gone from here,
then what were their coastguards doing and why they did not stop
the terrorists?" the naval commander was quoted. Nauman declined
further comment on the Mumbai attacks.
The Government of India, however, rejected the
Pakistan Navy chief's claim. "The dossier handed over to Pakistan
was irrefutable and solid on facts," Home Minister P. Chidambaram
was quoted as saying at a press conference. The Union Minister
of External Affairs, Anand Sharma, also rejected the naval chief's
claim, and said Pakistan was engaging in 'multiple speak, duplicity
and denial' and had 'created this confusion'.
March 1
Two missiles, fired by a US spy plane, killed
12 people and injured three others in the South Waziristan Agency.
Sources said two missiles were fired by a drone at around 4:00
pm (PST) that hit a house in Ganra Haibatkhel village of Sararogha
sub-division, a stronghold of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
The house was destroyed in the attack, leaving 12 people dead
and three injured. The compound had underground bunkers and was
in the area controlled by Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud's
tribe, an unnamed official said. "It was a Taliban sanctuary,"
he said. Citing field informants, other intelligence officials
told the Associated Press the compound was a training facility.
At least four of the dead were foreigners, they said. This was
the fourth missile strike by unmanned US aircraft since President
Barack Obama came to power.
The SFs claimed to have forced militants out of
Bajaur Agency and advanced towards strongholds of the Taliban
in the region. "We think that we have secured this agency," said
Major General Tariq Khan, the commander of forces fighting in
Bajaur. "They have lost. They have lost their cohesion out here,"
Khan told reporters flown by helicopters from Islamabad.
SFs killed seven militants in an encounter in
the Ghurzandi area of Lachi sub-division in Kohat District of
NWFP. Sources said SFs cordoned off the Ghurzandi, Hoti Banda
and Chashmi Miangan areas in an attempt to arrest the militants,
who were allegedly involved in incidents of kidnapping for ransom
and murder. The militants allegedly opened fire on the troops,
injuring a soldier identified as Irfan Sajjad. In retaliatory
action by the SFs, seven militants were killed and five others
wounded.
The Taliban network can strike the financial and
shipping hub of Karachi, according to a report prepared by the
city''s CID Special Branch. The Taliban "could take the city hostage
at any point", according to Police in the report submitted to
the Sindh Government and provincial police chief. The Taliban,
which has already attacked Islamabad and Rawalpindi, has established
hideouts in Karachi, the report said. It said Taliban militants
have "huge caches" of weapons and ammunition and could strike,
possibly in a manner similar to the Mumbai attacks of November
26, 2008. Police said that the Taliban had systematically infiltrated
Karachi. The Police report provides details about secret Taliban
hideouts and their presence in areas like Sohrab Goth and Quaidabad.
Besides living in small motels in these areas, the militants are
hiding in the hills of Manghopir and Orangi town and in other
low-income areas and slums, the Daily Times quoted the
Police report as saying. It also quoted sources as saying that
the deputy chief of the banned TTP, Hasan Mahmood, was hiding
in Karachi.
The TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Mohammed warned he
wanted Islamic courts set up in two weeks. He said he was not
happy over the fact that there had been no tangible progress since
February 16 when the NWFP Government agreed to implement the Nizam-e-Adl
Regulations 2009. "The Government announced enforcement of Sharia
[Islamic law] but so far no practical step has been taken and
we are not satisfied… I'm not seeing any practical steps for the
implementation of the peace agreement, except for ministers visiting
Swat and uttering words," Sufi told reporters in Swat's main town
Mingora. The cleric said he was also unhappy over a delay in an
exchange of prisoners and urged both the Taliban and the Government
to release people they were holding by March 10. "If the Government
does not appoint Qazis [Islamic judges] by March 15, and the two
sides do not release prisoners in their custody, we will set up
protest camps," he said. He also said armed patrol by either side
would not be allowed after March 1, and anybody who violated the
truce would be charged and punished in line with the Sharia.
March 2
Six people were killed and several
others, mostly students, sustained injuries in a suicide attack
on a madrassa (seminary) in Kili Karbala in the Pishin
District. The Jamaat-Ulema-i-Islam (Fazlur Rehman faction JUI-F)
provincial chief Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani, the Balochistan
Assembly Deputy Speaker Syed Matiullah Agha and provincial ministers
belonging to the party were attending a ceremony at the seminary
when a 15-year-old boy blew himself up in front of the stage.
However, all the JUI-F leadership escaped unhurt. District Police
Officer Akbar Raisani confirmed the incident saying that the blast
had occurred at a girls’ madrassa in Kili Karbala, where Shirani
was scheduled to address the school’s convocation. According to
eyewitnesses, two men had come to the seminary for the bombing
but one of them escaped immediately after the first explosion.
Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility
for the Marriott blast that took place in Islamabad on September
20, 2008, and threatened to attack the Saudi Airlines’ offices,
and important installations in Pakistan. An Interior Ministry
source said that the Saudi embassy had received a message through
an email in which al Qaeda had threatened to target Saudi Airlines’
offices and other important installations. According to the channel,
immediately after al Qaeda’s threat, the federal Government directed
the Punjab Government to beef up security.
All major terrorist networks have
a safe haven in Pakistan to operate creating a big "problem" to
the US war against terror, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has
said. "I think it''s the safe haven on the Pakistani side of the
border, not just for Al-Qaeda but for the Taliban for the Hakani
network, for Gulbaddin Hekmatyar and other affiliated groups that
are all working together they''re separate groups, but they''re
all working together, and I think as long as they have a safe
haven to operate there, it’s going to be a problem for us," Gates
told the MSNBC news channel in an interview. Gates, who
met with Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani last week in
Washington, said the Pakistan leadership now knows that what is
going on in their tribal region is very dangerous for their country.
March 3
Sri Lankan cricketers narrowly
escaped a terrorist attack when terrorists ambushed the bus carrying
them to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third day’s play of the second
Test. At least seven persons - six policemen escorting the Sri
Lankans and the driver of another van in the convoy - were killed
and 20 others wounded in the attack near the Liberty roundabout,
500 metres from the stadium. Seven Sri Lankan players were among
the wounded. Two of them - Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavithana
- were hospitalised for a few hours with bullet injuries. Doctors
later reported they were out of danger. The other injured players
were skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis,
Thilina Thushara and Suranga Lokumal. All of them escaped with
minor injuries. A British coach, Paul Farbrace, and a Pakistani
umpire, Ahsan Raza, were also injured in the attack. Police claimed
at least 12 terrorists, who appeared to be highly trained and
used rocket launchers, hand-grenades and sophisticated automatic
guns in the operation lasting about 30 minutes, were involved
in the attack. The attackers subsequently escaped from the incident
site after commandeering a car and rickshaw. Police found a large
quantity of hand-grenades, rocket launchers, suicide jackets,
plastic explosives, time devices, Kalashnikov rifles, pistols
and walkie-talkies left at different places in a radius of a few
furlongs by the attackers. Police also seized three hand-grenades,
a time device and a Kalashnikov from the backyard of the house
of a retired army officer and several other weapons from near
the Alfatah Departmental Store in Makka Colony and other adjacent
places. They also seized a car parked near the Liberty Park with
a huge-quantity of grenades and Kalashnikovs.
Five Shias were killed in Quetta,
capital of Balochistan, when unidentified assailants attacked
members of a family in the city - taking the death toll from sectarian
attacks in a single week to 12. According to Police, the assailants
ambushed a van carrying the Shia family on the eastern bypass
of Quetta – killing five people on the spot. The slain civilians
were returning to Quetta from the Mach area when they were targeted.
"It is a target killing," Deputy Inspector General of
Police (Operations) Wazir Khan Nasar said. Although no group claimed
responsibility for the incident, the killings are reported to
be part of a series of sectarian attacks that started in Quetta
a couple of months ago. The banned Sunni terrorist group, LeJ,
has accepted responsibility for most of the recent attacks.
Four unidentified bodies presumed
to be of foreign militants were recovered in the Babu Khwar Muslimabad
area of Nowshera. The Cantonment Police inspector Shakeel Khan
told the media that all of them had been shot dead and the bullet
shells were recovered from the spot. However, there was no sign
of blood near the place where the bodies were abandoned, he added.
Police in the initial investigation maintained that the deceased
were killed at least 72 hours before their bodies were retrieved.
About the identity of the deceased, the Police said two of them
seemed to be Uzbeks or Tajiks while the remaining two were said
to be Afghan nationals having long locks and beards. They were
said to be 25 to 30-year-old. However, the reason behind their
killing was yet to be ascertained.
March 4
The NWFP Government struck a 17-point
deal with the banned TNSM in the Swat valley. "A 17-point
understanding was reached with a TNSM delegation … music has been
banned in Swat and it has been agreed to expel prostitutes and
pimps from the district," said a senior official. The Awami
National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-led
the provincial Government at the talks, while Maulana Safiullah
and spokesman Amir Izzat Khan represented the TNSM – with Malakand
Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed also in attendance. The meeting
came a day after suspected Taliban militants killed two army troops
and continued taking Government officials hostage, despite having
agreed to a cease-fire in the wake of the provincial Government’s
February 16 accord on the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law)
in Swat.
"Music and vulgar CDs will
be banned shops will remain closed during prayer times and the
complete implementation of sharia laws in the region will come
into effect from the 16th of this month… Vulgarity would be rooted
out and profiteers dealt with under the law. An anti-crime campaign
will be launched and Quran classes will be started for jail inmates
in the region," according to the key points of the understanding.
The Malakand Commissioner’s office released to the media the 17-point
understanding – which does not say if the Taliban would stop abducting
Government officials and attacking Government forces. The Commissioner
told the TNSM delegation that he would forward the 17 points to
the Chief Secretary in Peshawar for the Government’s approval,
said the officials.
The army began vacating former
headquarters of Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah in Imamdheri,
military sources told. In addition, witnesses said the Taliban
had abandoned the Qambar check-post near Mingora on the main highway
linking the district with Peshawar.
March 5
Suspected Taliban militants blew
an ancient shrine of a 17th century Sufi poet - Rehman Baba -
in the Akhund Baba graveyard of Peshawar, capital of the NWFP.
A letter delivered three days before the attack to the management
of the mausoleum had warned against its promotion of ‘shrine culture’.
The white-marble shrine was badly damaged when explosives planted
along its pillars went off at around 5:10am. There were, however,
no casualties.
The Government has accepted the
demands of the BLUF in exchange for the recovery of John Solecki,
head of the United Nations refugee agency in Quetta. However,
no confirmation was made at the official level about the acceptance
of the demands, a private TV channel quoted its sources as saying.
According to the channel, seven of the 141 missing women had been
identified and a high-powered committee would submit a report
in a few days. Separately, according to another news channel,
the Balochistan Government said in a statement that the list of
1,109 alleged missing persons provided by the BLUF was being ‘intensively’
scrutinised. According to the statement, 45 persons had already
been traced, a few of whom were at their houses while a few were
in judicial custody for their alleged involvement in criminal
cases. The Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani has reportedly
announced a top-level committee to investigate the captors’ demands.
"We have set up a high-level committee, including high-ranking
officials and politicians, to locate the whereabouts of the alleged
missing persons listed by the BLUF," the provincial Government
said in a statement.
Calling the attack on the Sri
Lankan cricket team in Lahore an ‘eerie replica’ of the Mumbai
attacks, the United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
has said Pakistan is facing a serious internal security threat,
a private TV channel reported. Speaking at a meeting of NATO foreign
ministers in Brussels, Clinton said a broad agreement had been
reached on the basic elements of a strategic review on the way
forward for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Clinton said the US wanted
strong relations with the people and the Government of Pakistan
and stressed the need for regional approach that included Pakistan
and Afghanistan for the resolution of the issue of terrorism on
the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The top US diplomat in Kabul warned
that Pakistan posed a bigger security challenge to America and
the world than Afghanistan. "From where I sit [Pakistan] sure
looks like it’s going to be a bigger problem," said Christopher
Dell, currently running the US embassy in Kabul. "Pakistan is
a bigger place, has a larger population, its nuclear-armed… It
has certainly made radical Islam a part of its political life,
and it now seems to be a deeply ingrained element of its political
culture. It makes things there very hard," he said in an interview.
Dell also said there were signs the rate of infiltration of insurgents
across the frontier from Pakistan’s Tribal Areas had increased,
possibly as a result of cease-fire deals agreed by Taliban and
the Pakistani Government.
March 6
The NWFP Chief Minister Ameer
Haider Hoti said in Peshawar that only those Taliban prisoners
that fall in the ‘white category’ will be released as part of
the peace deal in Swat. Prisoners in the black and grey categories
– who are a serious threat to national security according to police
investigation manual – will not be freed, he told. "I have
directed the home secretary to look into the cases of those prisoners
who are in the white category. We will not free prisoners in black
and grey categories," the chief minister said. Maulana Sufi
Muhammad, chief of the banned TNSM, had demanded the release of
all Taliban prisoners arrested during military operations in Swat.
The abductors of UNHCR official
John Solecki, the BLUF, indefinitely extended the deadline set
for the Government for the acceptance of their demands. A private
TV channel quoted a BLUF spokesman as saying that the deadline
for Solecki’s release had been extended for an indefinite period.
He said Solecki was in good health and demanded the release of
the missing Baloch people ‘without any further delay’.
The LeT rejected media reports
that it was involved in an attack on a visiting Sri Lanka cricket
squad in Lahore. "These media reports are false ... and baseless,"
said LeT spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi. "The attack on Sri
Lanka’s team was an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty and Kashmiris
could never even think of that," said Ghaznavi. "The
attack is the handiwork of Indian agencies to defame Pakistan
and bring instability to the country," claimed Ghaznavi.
March 7
Eight persons, including five
Policemen, two Frontier Corps personnel, and a civilian, were
killed in a remote-controlled car bombing at Mashugagr village
in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Some villagers also sustained
minor injuries. Muhammad Wali, a villager, said the car was unlocked
and the villagers had found the body of an old man in it. "The
blast occurred when police officials walked towards the vehicle,"
he said. Security officials said about 40 kilogrammes of explosives
were packed in the vehicle.
Five persons were killed and eight
others injured when a shop in the remote Tirah area of Khyber
Agency in the FATA was bombed. The sources said that five cadres
of the banned Ansarul Islam (AI) outfit were killed. An AI spokesman
blamed rival militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Islam, for the bomb blast.
March 8
15 Taliban militants and 14 soldiers
were killed during clashes between Taliban and SFs at Aisha Corona
and Banglo areas of the Mohmand Agency. Bodies of seven SF personnel
were recovered from Aisha Corona. The Taliban had reportedly killed
several soldiers after ambushing their convoy in the Banglo area
and abducted others. Bodies of some of the abducted troops were
recovered from Aisha Corona. The sources said other soldiers were
still in Taliban’s custody. Military sources said that around
15 militants were killed and three were arrested during clashes
that erupted when Taliban surrounded the house of pro-government
tribal elder Malik Noorzada in a bid to kidnap him. Locals said
the attack was an apparent reaction to a visit by the Mohmand
Agency’s Political Agent and the Mohmand Rifles Commandant to
Noorzada’s house on March 2. The TTP Mohmand Agency chief Umer
Khalid confirmed the attack on SFs and said that several soldiers
were still in the custody of Taliban and put forward three conditions
for talks with the troops - exchange of prisoners, end of military
check-posts in the agency and compensation for the demolished
houses of the Taliban leaders and the tribesmen who supported
them.
Taliban militants claimed to have
shot down a US drone in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan.
Militants loyal to Taliban commander Maulvi Mohammad Nazir said
the unmanned aircraft had crashed in a jungle after the attack
and soldiers took away the wreckage. But the security officials
and political authorities disputed the Taliban’s claim, saying
that teams dispatched to the area after the claim found no wreckage.
Unconfirmed reports also said the drone had gone missing in an
area near the Afghan border.
The Taliban agreed to remove all
check-posts across the Swat District following the successful
completion of talks between the NWFP Government, the banned TNSM
and TTP. The first phase of the talks concluded successfully in
provincial capital Peshawar with the three parties agreeing to
continue talks, a private TV channel reported. Sources said that
following the release of 12 imprisoned Taliban militants, the
parties concerned had achieved consensus on all matters. On the
same day, SFs removed all check-posts from Takhtaband Road in
Mingora and opened it to traffic. TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat said
both the SFs and the Taliban had removed their check-posts following
the successful dialogue.
March 9
Taliban militants shot dead three
men, including two brothers, in South Waziristan after filming
them confessing to spying for the United States, officials said.
"This is the first time in South Waziristan that Taliban
have made confession videos. Earlier, they just used to put notes
on the bodies of alleged spies," Allahbagh Khan, a local
administration official told. The bullet-ridden body of local
tribesman Tahir Khan was found dumped in a bazaar in Wana, the
main town in South Waziristan. "Khan, who was kidnapped 10
days ago, had multiple bullet wounds on his body," a security
official told. A DVD found with the body showed Khan confessing
to spying and passing on information that led to a series of US
missile attacks in the region. A note found on the body said:
"All those spying for the US will suffer the same fate,"
according to the official. Two more bodies of alleged US spies
were found an hour later with similar notes and DVDs. One was
a brother of Khan and the third man was identified as Shabbir
Khan, residents and officials said.
Unidentified men on a motorbike
killed two Shias in an apparent sectarian attack in Quetta. The
victims were shot in their car on Kirani road, on the outskirts
of the Balochistan capital. "Two men from the Shia community
were shot dead by unknown gunmen riding a motorbike," a Police
official said. No one claimed responsibility for the killings.
The attack came a week after five Shias were killed in another
drive-by shooting in Quetta.
A review board of the Lahore High
Court (LHC) extended the detention of the chief of the JuD (the
LeT front), Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, and three other of its top leaders
for 60 days while releasing two leaders. The board, comprising
Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman, Justice Fazal-e-Miran Chauhan and
Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, issued this order after the Home
Department produced sufficient evidence against Hafiz Saeed and
his associates and sought extension in their detention. The detention
of Ameer Hamza, Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed, and Mufti Abdur Rehman
Rehmani, has also been extended for 60 days. The board observed
that the data produced before the board was sufficient for extending
the period of their detention. The board further ordered the Punjab
Government to provide subsistence allowance of PKR 25,000 to the
families of the detenus while they would be kept at various places
already declared sub-jails. In the cases of Qazi Kashif Niaz and
Qari Yasin Baloch, the board opined there was no cogent evidence/material
produced by the Home Department to justify extension in their
detention.
The NWFP Chief Minister Ameer
Haider Hoti signed the draft of the proposed Nizam-e-Adl (Sharia)
Regulation 2009, and sent it to Governor Owais Ghani to be forwarded
to the President for approval, sources in Chief Minister’s Secretariat
told. The TNSM has set March 15 as the deadline for the Government
to implement Sharia (Islamic law) in Malakand. NWFP Law Minister
Arshad Abdullah told a press conference that the provincial Government
had given final shape to the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 and President
Asif Ali Zardari would sign the document in three days.
The Mamoond tribe and the authorities
have signed a 28-point agreement to bring the law and order situation
under control in Bajaur Agency. The agreement was signed at a
jirga (council of elders) – aimed at re-establishing the writ
of the Government in the agency – in agency headquarters Khar,
with around 900 tribesmen, elders and clerics in attendance. Addressing
the jirga, the head of the Mamoond Peace Commission, Malik Abdul
Aziz, said his tribe would continue to co-operate with the Government
to restore peace in the area. He said tribesmen had decided to
take stern action against anti-social elements and uphold the
supremacy of law. Mamond, the largest and most strategically placed
tribe in Bajaur, has promised to surrender key figures of the
TTP in Bajaur, lay down arms, disband militant groups and stop
militant training camps. The entire TTP leadership in Bajaur comes
from Mamond tribe and its leader Faqir Mohammed, who was deputy
to Baitullah Mehsud, survived drone attacks in the past.
Investigators have not found any
concrete evidence so far of involvement of LeT in the terrorist
attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3 and
see the evidence of a ‘foreign hand’ behind the incident, Interior
Adviser Rehman Malik told the National Assembly Standing Committee
on Interior.
Sri Lanka rejected reports that
India might have been involved in the terrorist attack against
its national cricket team in Pakistan. Foreign Minister Rohitha
Bogollagama said "From our point of view, there is no Indian involvement…
India has helped us in our counter-terrorist efforts. I do not
see a need for India to target the Sri Lankan cricket team."
March 10
SFs backed by helicopter gunships
killed at least 35 Taliban militants during a two-day operation
in Darra Adamkhel in the NWFP, Inter-Services Public Relations
sources said. The SFs targeted the militants in Buland, Mirali
and Torchena areas. Three SF personnel were reportedly wounded
in the operation, the sources said, adding that several Taliban
hideouts had been destroyed.
The central nervous system for
the next major terrorist attack on the US soil lies in Pakistan,
said senior US officials and lawmakers. Two key US officials -
Director of the National Intelligence and Director of the Military
Intelligence - told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan
had allowed Taliban to operate freely from Quetta while the tribal
areas had become a "central nervous system" for al Qaeda.
US lawmakers and officials also said that the LeT has the ideological
commitment to replace al Qaeda as the next major terrorist group
in the world. They said the Pakistani establishment and intelligence
agencies had taken some measures against the LeT recently but
were not co-operating fully with the United States in dealing
with this threat. The committee was also told that LeT had supporters
among the Pakistanis living in the United States who could abet
its efforts to carry out a terrorist attack in North America.
"The central nervous system for the planning (of an attack
on the US soil) would emanate from Fata," said Senator Evan
Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, during a hearing on current and future
worldwide threats to the national security of the United States.
Earlier, chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, Senator
Carl Levin, said that the Afghan Taliban forces under Mullah Omar
operated with impunity from Balochistan, crossing unhampered into
southern Afghanistan while al Qaeda was based in FATA from which
attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan itself are launched.
Lt-Gen Michael Maples, Director
of US Defence Intelligence Agency, noted that while "strategic
rivalry" with India drove Pakistan’s defence strategy, al
Qaeda was using FATA to recruit and train operatives, plan and
prepare regional and transnational attacks, disseminate propaganda
and obtain equipment and supplies. General Maples warned that
while Pakistan has taken important steps to safeguard its nuclear
weapons, "vulnerabilities still exist".
March 11
The NWFP Senior Minister and Awami
National Party leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour survived an assassination
attempt that left six persons, including two suspected suicide
attackers, dead in Namak Mandi in the provincial capital Peshawar.
The NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed
Ghani signed the draft of Nizam-e-Adl (Sharia) Regulation 2009,
for forwarding it to the president for a final approval, said
official sources. The sources, however, did not confirm if the
draft had been sent to the president. NWFP Law Minister Arshad
Abdullah said the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 was expected to
be implemented in Malakand Division and Kohistan District by March
15, and would have a retrospective effect from February 16, 2009.
An explosion targeted a booster
of the Pakistan Television (PTV) in Chilas, headquarters of the
Diamer District in Northern Areas. There was no major damage to
the installation in the explosion, said Station House Officer
Amirullah. He said eight suspects had been taken into custody
and investigations were underway.
Political authorities and elders
of three tribes of Bajaur Agency signed a 28-point agreement to
bring peace in the area. About 1,400 tribal elders of Khar, Salarzai
and Atmanzai tribes signed the agreement in a grand jirga (council
of elders) in Khar. The tribes also demanded the Government carry
out development work in the area after restoration of peace. According
to the agreement, all Taliban organisations would stand abolished
and all their members would surrender to the tribes and the Government.
Militants laying down their weapons would be registered in their
respective tribes and the elders would furnish a surety bond for
their good behaviour to the Government. It said neither parallel
courts would be set up, nor the Government’s writ would be challenged;
foreign elements, including Afghan nationals, would not be provided
shelter, shops or houses would not be rented out to them; Government
officials or SF personnel would not be targeted or abducted; Government
installations, including buildings of schools, colleges and hospitals
and check-posts would not be attacked. The SFs would have the
freedom to move freely in the agency and if attacked, they would
retaliate; people would not allow any terrorist to use their soil
for sabotage activities; tribesmen would be bound to restrict
cross-border movement; infiltration in or interference with the
affairs of other countries. Under the agreement, interference
in Government affairs would not be allowed; complete security
would be provided to all foreign contractors working in the agency;
Government or SFs would not tolerate any propaganda against them;
no Taliban training camp would be set up and they will not be
given any training.
March 12
SFs backed by helicopter gunships
killed 18 Taliban militants and injured three others in the Gurgurai,
Supri and Mulla Ghani Baba areas of Yakka Ghund sub-division in
the Mohmand Agency.
A suspected US missile strike
destroyed a Taliban training camp in Kurram Agency, killing at
least 15 Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists, as well as injuring
another 50, security officials said. No high-value targets were
believed to have died, an unnamed official said. Another security
official said most of the dead were Afghan Taliban militants.
"The training centre was run by local Taliban commander Fazal
Saeed and training was underway at the time of the strike," the
official added.
Two civilians and a security official
were injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden
vehicle into a fort in Landi Kotal in the Khyber Agency. Khyber
Rifles Commandant Colonel Furqanullah Khan Tarin told that the
explosion had damaged the western boundary wall of the Charbagh
Fort.
The Swat-based TTP demanded that
the Police and paramilitary forces should resume their duties
wearing plain clothes and not their uniforms. Sources in the TNSM
told that the Taliban’s demand came after the appointment of Qazis
to hear cases in accordance with Sharia (Islamic law) in Swat
District. The sources said the Taliban had asked TNSM chief Sufi
Muhammad to forward their demand to the Government.
29-year old Mohammed Momin Khawaja,
the first Canadian tried and found guilty under Canada’s anti-terrorism
law, was sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for his role in a foiled
plot against British targets. The Ottawa software developer of
Pakistani descent had been found to have "knowingly participated"
and "knowingly facilitated" a terrorist group’s plan to attack
a popular London nightclub, a shopping mall and a gas network.
However, he may not have known the specific details of the plot
itself, Justice Douglas Rutherford said in his 52-page decision
in October 2008. At sentencing, the judge noted Khawaja showed
no remorse throughout the trial and had chosen not to speak at
his pre-sentencing hearing, while his family seemed oblivious
to his actions, said public broadcaster CBC.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
directed the Interior Ministry and Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer
to provide foolproof security to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) chief and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and ensure
his safety. The direction came after a meeting between PML-N Chairman
Raja Zafarul Haq and Prime Minister Gilani to discuss threats
to Nawaz Sharif’s life. Raja also reportedly handed over an anonymous
threatening letter to Gilani.
Intelligence agencies reportedly
arrested three people from Kamalia in the Toba Tek Singh District
for their alleged involvement in the attack on Sri Lankan cricket
team at the Liberty Chowk in Lahore on March 3. A source said
agencies’ officials arrested three brothers, Munir Shafi, Naeem
Shafi and Shafiq Shafi, from a cloth shop and Munir Sardar and
Arif Kathia from two houses. Later, the officials set free Naeem
Shafi and Shafiq Shafi near Rajana.
March 13
The number of those killed in
a suspected US missile strike in Kurram Agency a day earlier increased
to 24. "We have handed over 24 bodies after cleaning and wrapping
them in cloth," said Saidur Rehman, an official of the local charity
Al-Khidmat Foundation.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead
three pro-government tribesmen in the Bajaur Agency. The slain
tribesmen had been kidnapped from the Hilalkhel village of Chaharmang
sub-division three days earlier. Residents said that the three
headless bodies had been dumped in a deserted place. The victims
were pro-government tribesmen, who were involved in organising
a militia against militants in the area.
March 15
Intelligence officials said that
two missiles fired by suspected United States drone planes killed
five people at Chota Janikhel village in the Bannu District of
NWFP. The officials said the dead included two Arabs and three
other people. The missiles struck a house at around 10:30pm.
Dozens of suspected Taliban militants
attacked a terminal storing NATO supplies on the Ring Road in
Peshawar, the NWFP capital, destroying at least 12 trucks and
20 containers. This is the first major attack on a NATO depot
since February 2009. Police sources said several militants started
firing at trucks and torching trailers vehicles parked at the
terminal. Following an exchange of fire, the militants escaped.
There were no casualties.
Police have arrested the alleged
owner of a mobile SIM that was used in the March 3 terrorist attack
on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. Police arrested the
suspect, identified as Arshad Mehmoud, from Sadiqabad.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
announced the reinstatement of all sacked judges, including Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry, after the retirement of Chief Justice Abdul
Hameed Dogar on March 21. In a brief address to the nation at
5:50am, the Prime Minister said he, in consultation with President
Asif Ali Zardari, had decided the time had come to fulfill "the
promises". "I announce that all judges including Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry will be reinstated on March 21," he said,
adding that a notification to this effect would be issued later
in the day. Gilani also said it was not possible to reinstate
Chaudhry while Dogar was still in office as the Chief Justice.
The Prime Minister also announced that the Government would file
a review petition in Supreme Court against the decision of a three-member
bench to disqualify former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his
brother Shahbaz Sharif. Gilani ordered the provincial Governments
to immediately lift Section 144 and to release all political workers
arrested in connection with the ‘long march’. In response, Nawaz
Sharif has called off the ‘long march’ to Islamabad.
March 16
15 people were killed and 25 injured
when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a busy bus stand at
Pirwadhai in Rawalpindi. Sources quoting investigators said the
original target of the bomber could have been the participants
of the ‘long march’, of the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
which was scheduled to pass through the area. Regional Police
Officer Nasir Durrani, however, told the media that it would be
premature to decide whether the bomber’s original target was the
‘long march’. "The suicide bomber blew himself up on a motorbike
outside a restaurant, which was set up close to the cab stand,"
said Durrani.
Suspected Taliban militants torched
30 vehicles in an attack in Peshawar on a terminal for trucks
carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan. Truck drivers
at the Al-Faisal Terminal said over 50 armed men entered the compound
after breaking the boundary wall firing rockets and Kalashnikovs.
The militants remained in the terminal for about an hour, sprinkled
trucks with oil and later set them ablaze. There were reports
the attackers escaped towards Bara. This was the second such attack
in two days. 20 vehicles had been burnt in an attack on a terminal
in the Hazarkhwani area on March 15.
The abductors of UNHCR official
John Solecki threatened to kill him in 48 hours if the Government
did not free more than 1,100 Baloch prisoners allegedly in custody.
Solecki, head of the UNHCR in Balochistan, was abducted at gunpoint
from provincial capital Quetta on February 2. His driver was killed
during the abduction. A spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation
United Front called Online news agency in Quetta, saying the UN
had to play its role in fulfilling the group’s demands within
48 hours.
March 17
Four militants were killed when
SFs targeted the suspected hideouts of militants with gunship
helicopters in different areas of the Mohmand Agency in FATA.
Reports from the agency said that four militants were killed as
gunship helicopters targeted positions of militants in the Had
Kor area of Ambar sub-division and Dwezai area of Pandyalai sub-division.
Three vehicles were also destroyed in the attack, said an official
source. However, the Mohmand-based Taliban spokesman Ikramullah
rejected the troops’ claim and said gunship helicopters shelled
their positions in different areas but that caused no loss of
life or damage to property.
March 18
Four Policemen and a Malakand
University security guard were killed and three others were injured
in a gunfight with militants on the premises of the campus. The
Taliban later ‘arrested’ 14 militants involved in the incident
in a search operation.
The NWFP Government directed judges
of subordinate judiciary of the Peshawar High Court in Swat not
to attend courts and restrict themselves to their houses. The
order came after a warning from the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad
to the judges of Swat not to attend their courts.
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency
said that the February 2009 attacks on Government buildings in
Kabul were planned and directed from Pakistan, saying seven Afghans
had been arrested. The attackers were in telephone contact with
a Pakistan-based ringleader during the simultaneous attacks on
the justice ministry, prisons directorate and education ministry,
agency spokesman Saeed Ansary told. The February 11 attacks, claimed
by Taliban, killed 26 Afghans. Eight of the attackers were killed,
three by their suicide bombs. "Seven terrorists were arrested
and one was killed during the arrest operation," Ansary said,
without giving any further details about the raid. The alleged
ringleader, whom Ansary identified only as Harris, was based in
the Waziristan tribal area on the Afghan border and was still
at large there, the official said. Some of the suspects told authorities
they had received military training in Waziristan, he said. "I
met Harris in Waziristan and received training in using weapons,"
one alleged suspect said in a video recording handed to the media.
President Barack Obama and his
top aides are reportedly considering expanding covert operations
against the Taliban leaders in Pakistan to the Balochistan province.
Two reports sent to the White House call for broadening the target
area to include the region in and around Quetta, citing unnamed
senior administration officials.
The Taliban threatened to kill
a Canadian journalist in their custody if their demands were not
met by March 30. The journalist, Khadeja Abdul Qahaar, went missing
in the Jani Khel area of Bannu Frontier Region in November 2008.
In a video sent to the Miranshah Press Club, Khadeja said she
was seriously ill and appealed to the Canadian and Pakistani governments,
and human rights and journalists’ organisations to help in her
release.
March 19
The SFs in Landikotal sub-division
of Khyber Agency clashed with the Taliban militants after they
attacked an army camp using short-range missiles and mortars.
15 people were reportedly killed in the missile attack. The assailants
targeted the military facility near the Landikotal bazaar from
their hideouts in the mountains. One of the rockets missed the
target and hit a warehouse close to the bazaar, killing 15 men
who used to work at the warehouse and had also been using it as
a makeshift residence. Following the attack, the SFs retaliated
hitting the militants’ positions in the nearby mountains. A source
said a madrassa (seminary) adjacent to the army camp was
also hit in the missile attack.
The Darra Adamkhel-based Taliban
militants, affiliated with the Baitullah Mehsud-led banned TTP,
agreed to a cease-fire in Darra Adamkhel and Frontier Region Kohat
till March 30. Sources said the elders of five major tribes of
Darra Adamkhel, led by Noor Zaman Afridi, held a meeting with
the militants’ chief, Tariq Afridi, in the Orakzai Agency in FATA
and asked him to help restore peace in the region. Talking to
a private FM radio channel in Darra Adamkhel, TTP Darra Adamkhel
chief Tariq Afridi pledged to co-operate with the Government in
maintaining peace in the area. "We assure the government
and the people that even a single shot will not be fired in Darra,
Kohat and Peshawar," he said.
March 20
For the first time since 9/11,
Pakistan has been officially mentioned along side Afghanistan
as the launch site of the attack on the twin towers. "The reason
that we're in Afghanistan is precisely because 9/11 was launched
from the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan," said Foreign
Secretary David Miliband while answering a question from BBC
Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys for the ‘Today’ programme
on March 20. Talking on-line from Brussels, Miliband said that
what was significant about American review on Afghanistan was
that it looked for the first time at the balance between Afghanistan
and Pakistan "and is determined to realign America's relationship
with Pakistan".
March 22
The TTP ordered all NGOs to immediately
leave Swat. In an interview with IRIN, the TTP spokesman
Muslim Khan said, "They come and tell us how to make lavatories
in mosques and houses. I’m sure we can do it ourselves. There
is no need for foreigners to tell us this... NGO is another name
for ‘vulgarity and obscenity’." He also said NGOs hired women
who worked with men, in the field and in offices. "That is
totally unIslamic and unacceptable," he declared. When asked
why the TTP was against the polio vaccination, Khan said, "The
TTP is against polio vaccination because it causes infertility."
"I’m 45 and have never had one drop of the vaccine and I
am still alive," he said, adding that another reason the
TTP was against polio vaccination was that the campaign was run
by NGOs and the vaccine was imported.
Stating that the core of al Qaeda
has shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan, the British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown said that Britain was about to take the war against
terror "to a new level". Writing in The Observer,
Brown said: "We know that there is an al Qaida core in northern
Pakistan trying to organise attacks in Britain. We know also that
there are a number of networks here… Al-Qaida terrorists remain
intent on inflicting mass casualties without warning, including
suicide bombings. They are motivated by a violent extremist ideology
based on a false reading of religion and exploit modern travel
and communications to spread through loose and dangerous global
networks." Al Qaeda is still active in Afghanistan, but the
threat has crossed the border, he said, adding: "Over two
thirds of the plots threatening the UK are linked to Pakistan."
March 23
A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance
of the headquarters of the Special Branch (SB), an intelligence
agency of the Federal Capital Police, in Sitara Market in Islamabad,
killing himself and a Policeman. Two Police officials were wounded
in the attack. Police Constable Faisal Khan, deployed at the main
gate of the headquarters, reportedly got hold of the suicide bomber
when he was advancing towards the barracks. The bomber detonated
the bomb, killing both of them. "The bomber wanted to hit the
residential rooms of the SB personnel," an unnamed officer said.
Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said the attack was carried out
by one of the suicide bombers who entered the national capital
just before the 'long march' earlier this month. "We had very
authentic information that 15 to 20 Uzbek suicide bombers were
sent [to Islamabad] by Baitullah Mehsud following a meeting of
TTP," he told the media.
The Pakistani state could collapse within six
months if immediate steps are not taken to remedy the situation,
warned a top adviser to the US Central Command. David Kilcullen,
who advises CENTCOM commander General David H. Petraeus on the
war on terror, urged US policymakers to focus their attention
on Pakistan as a failure there could have devastating consequences
for the entire international community. In an interview with The
Washington Post (Sunday Edition), Kilcullen warned that if Pakistan
went out of control, it would 'dwarf' all the crises in the world
today. "Pakistan hands down. No doubt," he said when asked to
name the central front in the war against terror. Asked to explain
why he thought Pakistan was so important, Kilcullen said: "Pakistan
has 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than
the US Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in
the two-thirds of the country that the government doesn't control."
He claimed that the Pakistani military and Police and intelligence
service did not follow the civilian Government; they were essentially
a rogue state within a state. "Were now reaching the point where
within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani
state, also because of the global financial crisis, which just
exacerbates all these problems," he said. "The collapse of Pakistan,
al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons, an extremist takeover - that
would dwarf everything we've seen in the war on terror today."
March 24
Pakistan has informed the British Government about
more than 20 Britons believed to have spent time with radical
militant groups and then returned to the UK. A Sky TV report said
the tracked men may have trained with extremist outfits. A dossier
is likely to be handed over to British anti-terrorist teams 'soon'.
The suspects - aged between 17 and 23 - have created "sufficient
suspicion" for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to believe
they pose a 'potential danger' to Britain. At least four are thought
to have been fighting in Afghanistan, and intelligence officials
say they have heard 'English accents' while listening to satellite
and mobile phone chatter between the UK and the Tribal Areas.
The TNSM Maulana chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad threatened
to halt his efforts for the restoration of peace if the Government
did not immediately nullify all un-Islamic laws in the Malakand
Division and empower Qazi courts to hear all cases. He also accused
the Government of not entrusting Qazi courts with authority to
hear all cases.
The Taliban warned the Government to stop expanding
its mobile telephone network in Waziristan, claiming it would
be used to spy on them. They circulated a pamphlet in Wana, the
main town of South Waziristan, telling authorities to stop the
network expansion and ordering vendors to stop selling SIM cards,
residents and officials said. "A Jewish, Zionist-backed company
is setting up the mobile phone network in Waziristan, which would
be used to spy on Taliban activities and for drone attacks," said
the pamphlet.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued a
list of members of banned outfits and ordered all banks to scrutinise
the list before opening accounts or transferring money. An unnamed
bank official said the purpose of the list was to stop the banned
outfits from operating their accounts and transferring money.
The SBP spokesman Syed Waseemuddin said Pakistan was bound to
follow the instructions of the United Nations, which had banned
several religious outfits for their alleged involvement in terrorism.
He said the list, provided by the UN, was regularly updated.
The Australian Government on March 16 re-listed
six groups as terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code,
following advice from Australia's security agencies. The re-listing
ensures that it remains an offence to associate with, train with,
provide training for, receive funds from, make funds available
to, direct or recruit for these organisations. The outfits that
have been re-listed are: Ansar al Islam (formerly Ansar al-Sunna);
Asbat al Ansar; Islamic Army of Aden; Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan;
JeM; and LeJ.
March 25
Seven militants, believed to be Arab nationals,
were killed and three others injured when two vehicles they were
traveling in, came under attack from the US drones near Makeen
area of South Waziristan Agency (SWA). Sources close to the militants
in the area told by telephone that the two vehicles had just left
the Makeen bazaar to drop the men at their homes in Malik Shahi
village of the SWA when they came under attack from the CIA-operated
drone. Makeen town is on the border with Razmak sub-division of
the North Waziristan Agency. The area is in control of tribal
militants affiliated with Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the banned
TTP. According to militant sources, the victims were junior-level
Arab fighters and there was no prominent figure among them.
The United States offered up to $11 million in
rewards to find and capture three al Qaeda terrorists, including
TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud. The US announced a $5 million bounty
for the location or arrest of Mehsud. The other two terrorists
named in the list were Sirajuddin Haqqani and Abu Yahya Al-Libi.
March 26
12 persons, including a woman, were killed and
22 others sustained injuries when a teenage suicide bomber blew
himself up outside a crowded restaurant in the Jandola bazaar
of Tank District in NWFP. A pro-government group of Bhittani tribesmen,
led by Haji Turkistan, is believed to have been the target of
the suicide attacker. Eyewitnesses told from Jandola - the gateway
to South Waziristan - that a young boy blew himself up outside
the crowded restaurant in the bazaar. The bazaar is located in
front of heavily guarded British-era fort, currently inhabited
by the Frontier Corps and the Army. The Taliban claimed responsibility
for the attack. "The TTP claims responsibility for the suicide
attack in Jandola," spokesman Maulvi Omar said in a telephone
call from an unknown place to reporters in Bajaur. He called the
suicide attack a revenge for the clashes in 2008. "Turkistan Bitani's
fighters killed 35 of our people last year, and we killed his
people today in the suicide attack," Omar added.
Three Sunnis were killed in an apparent sectarian
attack in Dera Ismail Khan. Motorcycle-borne gunmen opened indiscriminate
gunfire on a medical store, killing its owner and two relatives.
Three other men were injured, an unnamed Police official said,
adding that the victims were from the Sunni community. "The killings
were linked to sectarian violence," he added.
President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the Balochistan
Government to form a parliamentary committee to hold talks with
the disgruntled elements in the province. Presiding over a briefing
on law and order in the province, he stressed the need for expediting
the reconciliation process so that the disgruntled people could
be brought into the mainstream and play a proactive role in the
province's development and progress. Zardari assured the meeting
that the federal Government would ensure the provision of funds
for strengthening and capacity-building of the law enforcement
agencies of the province. He assured Balochistan that its share
in the revenue generated through the exploitation of natural resources
would be increased and ordered the formation of a federal parliamentary
committee to look into the matter and submit recommendations.
March 27
83 persons, including 16 Security Force personnel,
were killed and over 100 injured in a suicide attack on a mosque
at Peshawar-Torkham Highway in the Jamrud sub-division of Khyber
Agency in FATA during the Friday congregation. The huge explosion
reduced the single-storey roadside mosque to rubble. Witnesses
said they heard a huge explosion just as the Imam (prayer leader)
concluded his Friday sermon and the people stood up for the Friday
prayer. The dead included the prayer leader, his brother, four
personnel of the Frontier Corps and 12 Khassadars (tribal police).
The others were tribesmen belonging to the nearby villages, Pakistani
and Afghan civilians traveling between Peshawar and Torkham, and
drivers and conductors of trucks carrying goods to neighbouring
Afghanistan. While the Khyber Agency Political Agent Tariq Hayat
has confirmed that it was a suicide attack, the Associated Press
reported that a Government official has accused the Taliban of
carrying out the bombing in revenge for a recent offensive aimed
in part at protecting the major supply route for NATO and US troops
in Afghanistan that passes in front of the mosque.
Germany is home to several hundred "potentially
dangerous Islamists", including a hard core of around 100 people
classed as dangerous, a senior Interior Ministry official said.
Between 60 and 80 "jihadists" out of some 140 have returned to
Germany, who had undergone training in camps in the Tribal Areas
on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, State Secretary August Hanning
said.
There are "indications" that elements of Pakistan's
intelligence service are supporting al Qaeda and the Taliban,
the United States top military officer said. "There are certainly
indications that's the case," US Joints Chiefs of Staff Committee
Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told CNN when asked if elements
of Pakistan's intelligence agency were backing al Qaeda and its
Taliban allies. "Fundamentally that's one of the things that has
to change," Mullen said.
President Asif Ali Zardari announced a PKR 46.6
billion development package for Balochistan. Out of this sum,
four water storage reservoirs would be constructed at a cost of
PKR 36 billion, small delay-action dams at a cost of PKR 2.5 billion,
PKR 3 billion will be spent on projects in Quetta and PKR 5 billion
on transmission lines. The President said in provincial capital
Quetta he had recommended amendments to the Constitution for an
amicable resolution of the Balochistan issue. "Evolving a package
of amendments to the Constitution to resolve the Balochistan issue
is the way forward," he stated. Zardari said he could announce
a general amnesty in Balochistan but it could not bear the desired
results because such moves made in the past several time had not
been successful. "I have asked the governor and the chief minister
to form a provincial parliamentary committee, which may work with
the federal parliamentary committee for resolution of the problems
of the province," he said.
March 28
SFs backed by helicopter gun ships killed 26 Taliban
militants in the Mohmand Agency of FATA. An official statement
issued by the Frontier Corps, NWFP headquarters, said the SFs
pounded Taliban hideouts during a search operation in the Saapri
area of Yakaghund tehsil (revenue division), killing 26
Taliban, adding that the forces had secured the area around Saapri.
However, local sources said 18 Taliban militants were killed in
the operation.
March 29
Three Police officials, including the District
Police Officer (DPO) of Lower Dir, a former acting District Nazim
and his nephew, were killed in clashes with suspected militants
in Shah Bandai and Lajbok areas of the Lower Dir District. DPO
Khurshid Khan, hailing from Swat Valley, was leading a Police
team to fight the militants who had earlier kidnapped a bank manager
and killed former acting district Nazim Alamzeb Khan. In a gunfight
at Shah Bandai area, the militants killed the DPO and his two
guards, Muhammad Islam and Muhammad Ajmeer, while his driver sustained
injuries.
The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to cut contacts with extremists
in Afghanistan who were "an existential threat" to Pakistan, Daily
Times reported. The ISI has had links with extremists "for a long
time, as a hedge against what might happen in Afghanistan if we
were to walk away," Gates said on "Fox News Sunday". "What we
need to do is try and help the Pakistanis understand these groups
are now an existential threat to them and we will be there as
a steadfast ally for Pakistan," Gates said. "
March 30
Eight Police recruits and a civilian were killed
when a group of 10 terrorists attacked the Police Training Centre
in Manawan near Lahore with guns and grenades. SFs regained control
of the facility in an operation that lasted for more than eight
hours. About 93 cadets and civilians were injured. One of the
attackers was arrested, another was able to flee after being hit
by a bullet and three blew themselves up to avoid arrest, Punjab
Police Inspector General Khawaja Khalid Farooq said. He believed
the other attackers might have fled unhurt in the densely populated
neighbourhood. There were about 1,000 Police personnel in the
facility at the time of the attack. A Taliban operative who identified
himself as Omar Farooq told by telephone that a little-known group
called Fidayeen al-Islam was behind the attack and that he was
speaking on their behalf. "As long as the Pakistani troops do
not leave Tribal Areas, these attacks will continue," he said.
Interior Adviser Rehman Malik told journalists that the terrorist
attack was planned in South Waziristan. The arrested attacker
belonged to the Paktika province of Afghanistan, Malik said, and
preliminary interrogation revealed he is linked to Taliban leader
Baitullah Mehsud.
Seven persons, including five Army soldiers, were
killed and nine others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber
rammed his explosive-laden car into a military convoy near a filling
station on the Bannu-Miranshah Road. The dead also included an
Assistant Engineer of Radio Pakistan Razmak station, Basharat
Afridi, and a lady travelling in a passenger coach. However, military
spokesman and ISPR Director-General Major General Athar Abbas
said the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device
planted in a roadside car.
Operation Daraghlam (Arriving)-II was launched
in Khyber Agency, the Khyber Agency Political Agent Tariq Hayat
Khan said. During a news briefing, Khan said orders to shoot the
Taliban militants on sight had been issued. He announced that
the victims of the suicide attack at a mosque on the Peshawar-Torkham
Highway in the Jamrud Sub-division on March 27 would each be given
PKR 300,000. Khan said a ban had been imposed on Taliban from
patrolling the area, adding that they could be behind the suicide
attack.
March 31
The TTP chief Baitullah
Mehsud claimed responsibility for a series of recent terrorist attacks,
including the March 30 assault on a police training centre in Lahore.
He also threatened to show his power to the world when his people
would attack the US capital as a reaction to frequent drone attacks
in the tribal areas and the reward on his head. "By the grace of
Allah Almighty, I am claiming responsibility for the attack on the
police training school in Lahore with eagerness, honour and love
and will continue similar strikes across the country, if the US
drones were not stopped from killing innocent people in the tribal
areas," Baitullah Mehsud said in his telephonic conversation with
reporters. Baitullah also claimed responsibility for two other suicide
attacks, including one on a military convoy near Bannu in the NWFP
on March 30 and another on the Police intelligence office in Islamabad
on March 23. Baitullah said his men were out to target Government
installations against its failure to protect tribesmen against non-stop
drone attacks. About the recent reward of $5 million for his head
by the US State Department, he said he loved to be martyred, but
threatened his men would soon attack Americans in their own country,
not in Afghanistan. He said his men would soon teach a lesson to
the Americans in Washington and the White House. An Associated Press
report added that Baitullah said his group was planning a terrorist
attack on the White House that would "amaze" the world. "Soon we
will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in
the world," said Mehsud.
April 01
Three minors and two women were among the 12 people
who died in the first-ever US drone attack in Orakzai Agency of
FATA. Sources said that an unmanned CIA-operated spy plane fired
two Hellfire missiles on the two-storey house of a militant commander
Maulvi Gul Nazeer alias Gul Mulla, in Khadeezai village, about
35 kilometers northwest of Ghiljo, Tehsil (revenue division)
headquarters of the Orakzai Agency. They said the drone first
fired one missile and fired another after an interval. The attack
was the first of its kind in Orakzai Agency, the only tribal region
out of the total seven regions of the FATA, which does not share
its border with Afghanistan. Reports said the dead included four
Arabs, one of them known as Kaka, reportedly a senior al Qaeda
operative. The victims included two women and three children,
including the wife of Gul Nazeer, his daughter-in-law, his two
sons and a nephew. The children were identified as Abdullah, Abdul
Latif and Mohammad Shoaib. Maulvi Gul Nazeer survived the attack.
The sources said an important meeting of senior militant commanders
of Baitullah Mehsud-led banned TTP was scheduled to be held at
the house of Maulvi Gul Nazeer.
Three soldiers were killed and four others sustained
injuries when their vehicle hit a bomb in the Safi area of Mohmand
Agency. The soldiers were reportedly going to the Frontier Corps'
base in Momad Gutt from Ghalanai.
Militants ambushed a Police mobile van on the
Dir-Kohistan Road in Upper Dir District, killing five Police officials,
including a Station House Officer and an Assistant Sub-inspector,
and injuring two others. Area residents and officials said the
militants fired two rockets at the van in Jitkot village in the
jurisdiction of Sheringal Police station, setting the vehicle
on fire. After the rocket attack, the militants, whose strength
could not be ascertained, opened fire on the van. The rocket and
rifle attack killed five Police officials, including two senior
officers.
More than 70 Taliban militants attacked the famous
Gojaro Kalay emerald mine in Shangla District and took control
of the mining operations. The mine had been leased to American
firm Luxury International, which had been paying Pakistan PKR
40 million a year. The company had left recently because of the
security situation. The Taliban took positions around the mine
after the security guards fled. They announced to take control
of mining operations and offered the locals to work with them
and share the profits.
SFs released 10 more Taliban militants. Sources
said SFs, under the peace pact signed between the NWFP Government
and the banned TNSM, freed 10 more militants. Those released were
identified as Maulana Abdul Shakoor, Rohul Amin and his namesake,
Amjad, Aftabuddin, Muhammad Sahib, Khan Nawab, Zakria, Fazal Akbar
and Gul Akbar. The Government has released a total of 44 Taliban
militants so far.
US President Barack Obama said that al Qaeda was
planning to attack the US mainland from Pakistani soil and added
that the US would chase and defeat the terror organisation wherever
it was present in the world. Addressing a joint press conference
with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama said the US policy
was clear for both Pakistan and Afghanistan, while Afghanistan
would not be allowed to become a safe haven for a -Qaeda.
The US Senate voted on April 1 to boost aid to
Pakistan by $4 billion next year. As the US lawmakers continued
work on a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal
year, Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, won adoption of a $4 billion
increase next year in aid to Pakistan. Earlier, the Associated
Press had reported that the Obama administration plans to seek
as much as $3 billion over the next five years to train and equip
Pakistan's military and is considering sending 10,000 more troops
to battle the Taliban in Afghanistan.
April 02
A would-be suicide bomber shot himself dead before
hitting his target i.e. the funeral prayers for slain Police official
Fateh Rehman in the Haryan Kot area of Dargai sub-division in
NWFP. Five Police personnel, including Station House Officer Fateh
Rehman, were killed in a rocket and rifle attack on a Police mobile
van by militants near Jitkot village in Upper Dir District on
April 1. Sources said the bomber abandoned a bag full of explosives
and his suicide vest and hurled two hand-grenades at the people
before fleeing. However, the hand-grenades did not explode and
he shot himself on the spot with a pistol. The villagers found
a national identity card with the body identifying him as Irshadul
Haq, son of Niaz Muhammad, of Targhao area in Bajaur Agency.
April 03
A would-be suicide bomber was killed when he tried
to target the Pakistan People's Party-Sherpao (PPP-S) NWFP President
Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao in Charsadda District. Sherpao, a
member of the NWFP provincial assembly and a son of the former
NWFP Chief Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, was addressing a
public gathering in the Mandani area of Charsadda, at the time.
Dozens of armed Taliban militants stormed a NATO
supplies container terminal in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, and
torched nine vehicles and several offices. Police and locals said
the terminal, located on the Ring Road in Pishtakhara Police station
precincts, was attacked early in the morning, adding that the
Taliban and Police exchanged heavy fire, but no casualties were
reported. Police officials said there were more than 100 militants
who participated in the raid.
President Asif Ali Zardari has strongly condemned
the flogging of a 17-year-old girl in public in Swat and ordered
an inquiry into the matter. Presidential spokesman Farhatullah
Babar said Zardari had sought a report from the NWFP Government
and the local administration and called for arresting those responsible.
The two-minute video reportedly shows the girl, wearing a veil,
face down on the ground with two men holding her arms and feet
and a third man in a black turban with a long beard whipping her.
The incident occurred in the Kala Killay area of Kabal sub-division.
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan acknowledged that his group was
responsible for the flogging in public, "because no indoor arrangement
for Islamic punishment could be made, as we are at war with the
government". The provincial Government spokesman Mian Iftikhar
said the flogging took place on January 3, much before the peace
deal with the Taliban. "We believe there is a conspiracy to sabotage
the peace process by airing a video recorded before the deal,"
he claimed. Muslim Khan, however, said, "this incident took place
nine months ago." Muslim Khan also said the Taliban had handed
out a 'lenient' punishment to the girl - suggesting she would
have been stoned to death had a 'serious view' of the 'crime'
been taken. Samar Minallah - who works for a Pakistani human rights
organisation - distributed the video given to her by people in
Swat to the Western media. "The entire village knows she is innocent,"
Samar told. She told The Guardian that the flogging had
taken place in the last 10 days.
April 04
Eight Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel were
killed, and seven others injured, when a suicide bomber blew himself
up at an FC check post on the Margala Road in national capital
Islamabad. The blast, which took place at 7:35pm, was followed
by an exchange of fire between FC personnel and unidentified accomplices
of the suicide attacker.
Seven civilians, including two schoolchildren,
and a soldier were killed when a suicide attacker blew up his
explosives-laden vehicle after being intercepted near a security
check post and an approaching military convoy at Miranshah in
the North Waziristan Agency of FATA. "Five private cars were also
damaged in the suicide attack. Security forces opened fire in
all directions, pre-empting a possible follow-up attack by the
insurgents," said a doctor at the nearby state-run hospital. 12
schoolchildren and six soldiers were among 39 persons injured
in the suicide attack.
A suspected US drone fired two missiles on an
alleged Taliban hideout in the North Waziristan Agency of FATA,
killing 13 people. Unnamed security officials told that the dead
and injured included local and foreign Taliban militants. The
officials said the family of the man who owned the attacked house
was also killed.
April 05
A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance
of an Imambargah (Shia place of worship) at Chakwal in Punjab
province, killing 24 people, including three children, and injuring
140 others, at a religious gathering. The target was the gathering
of about 800 people, who were attending a Majlis-e-Aza (a gathering
to mourn Imam Hussain) at an Imambargah in Muhallah Sarpak. The
Majlis ended at 12:15 pm and the people were preparing to leave
the Imambargah when a 15-year old boy, who looked to be an Afghan,
stormed into the crowd and blew himself up after private security
guards tried to stop him. The Inspector General of Police Shaukat
Javed confirmed that the suicide attacker was a single person
and said the incident was the continuity of the recent wave of
terrorist attacks. He also said the suicide bomber appeared to
be a 15-year-old boy whose legs and head, with damage to the face,
had been found at the blast site.
Troops backed by helicopter gunships and jets
killed at least 18 Taliban militants in the Mohmand Agency of
FATA. "At least 18 Taliban were killed and 20 others wounded in
a full-fledged military operation in Mohmand," said an unnamed
security official.
Six Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were killed
in a remote-controlled bomb attack targeting a Security Forces
convoy in the Sohbatpur area of Quetta, capital of Balochistan.
According to a private TV channel, a man who claimed to be a spokesman
for the Baloch Republican Army phoned various media organisations
and claimed responsibility for the attack.
Chand Bibi, the young girl who was shown being
flogged by the Swat Taliban in a videotape aired on television
channels, gave a statement to a Qazi (Islamic judge), denying
the incident. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the NWFP Information Minister,
told that she made the statement to Mohammad Riaz, the judge of
the Qazi Court for Matta Tehsil (revenue division), and the Commissioner
of Malakand Division, Syed Mohammad Javed, both of whom visited
her village, Kala Killay, in Kabal sub-division. Quoting the Commissioner,
Mian Iftikhar said Chand Bibi made it clear that she was indeed
married to Adalat Khan and everyone in the village knew about
it. She refuted the reports that both of them were flogged by
the Taliban as punishment for maintaining illicit relations and
then forcibly married. According to the information minister,
the Commissioner and the Judge had visited Kala Killay to record
the statements of the couple on the directive of the NWFP Chief
Secretary. The Chief Secretary and Inspector General of Police
(NWFP) had been directed by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, to appear before his
court and also produce the girl who was flogged. The Chief Justice
had taken suo moto notice of the case after the two-minute
videotape was shown on TV channels.
After two months of captivity, the BLUF released
the UNHCR Quetta head John Solecki in Khadkocha area of Mastung
District. The BLUF spokesman said Solecki was released on humanitarian
grounds. The Mastung District administration confirmed later in
the night that they had received John Solecki and he left Mastung
for provincial capital Quetta with high security. The BLUF spokesman
telephoned a news agency office claiming that John Solecki was
released some 50 kilometers away from Quetta. The Advisor to Prime
Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, confirmed the release of Solecki.
John Solecki had been abducted on February 2, 2009 while he was
on his way to office in the Chaman housing scheme. His driver
was killed in the kidnapping incident.
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman
Malik, has said that those involved in the suicide bombings are
Pakistanis and that they are playing with the lives of innocent
people for the sake of a few pennies. Talking to the media after
the suicide attack at Chakwal, he said that "the price of a suicide
bomber is from Rs 0.5 million to Rs 1.5 million while the family
of the bomber gets Rs 0.5 million". He further said that Islamabad
and Lahore were the worst affected cities due to the recent series
of terrorist incidents.
The chief of the banned JuD (the Lashkar-e-Toiba
[LeT front], Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, and its three other leaders
have challenged their detention before the Lahore High Court (LHC).
A petition, filed under Article 199(1)(b)(i) of the Constitution,
said the petitioners in custody within the territorial jurisdiction
of the court be brought before it, so that the court could see
on its own that the detainees were kept under detention unlawfully.
The other leaders of the banned outfit who challenged their detention
included Col (retd) Nazeer Ahmad, Mufti Abdul Rehman and Ameer
Hamza. The petitioner's counsel, A. K. Dogar, submitted that Hafiz
Saeed had earlier been detained by the Government of Pervez Musharraf,
but was released by the LHC, observing that there was no allegation
on record against the petitioner or his organisation. The counsel
said the LHC had also observed that the organisation had never
been involved in any terrorist activity in Pakistan and no FIR
had ever been registered against it or any of the persons under
arrest. He added that there was no finding of any blood-shed,
terrorism or destruction of property anywhere in the country.
He said the JuD was an independent organisation which had no connection
with the LeT.
The Taliban on April 5 vowed that they would carry
out two suicide attacks per week in Pakistan. Taliban chief Baitullah
Mehsud's deputy Hakimullah told Associated Press that the Taliban
had carried out the April 4 suicide attack against a paramilitary
camp in Islamabad and vowed more assaults unless the US shelved
drone attacks in the FATA. He also said Pakistani troops should
withdraw from parts of the northwest. "The Islamabad attack was
in retaliation for a drone attack in Orakzai," said Hakimullah.
April 06
The TTP in Bajaur Agency declared
amnesty for all anti-Taliban tribal elders and appealed to the
internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in refugee camps to
return to the tribal region. The TTP also said political parties
were creating hurdles in the return of IDPs. In a telephonic conversation
with reporters, the TTP central spokesman Maulvi Umer said the
Taliban remained committed to a cease-fire they had declared in
February 2009 to improve law and order in the agency. Umer said
some political parties were inciting the IDPs to demand enforcement
of Sharia (Islamic law) in Bajaur after Swat and were using
them for vested interests.
The top leadership of the Taliban
is hiding in Balochistan province, Admiral Mike Mullen, the US
Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said. He said this while
talking informally, along with Richard Holbrooke, the US Special
Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, to a select group of invitees
at US Ambassador Anne Patterson’s house in the US embassy in Islamabad.
Asked if the US was winning or losing the war in Afghanistan,
Admiral Mullen said that since the US was not winning, it could
be said that it was losing it. Admiral Mullen also said that the
US was targeting Baitullah Mehsud now because he had established
strategic links with al Qaeda in the past year or so and was facilitating
al Qaeda’s attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.
April 07
21 people, including 16 Taliban
militants, were killed in an overnight clash when local volunteers
and Police personnel tried to enter the Gokand Valley to flush
out militants who had infiltrated into Buner area on April 4 from
the neighbouring Swat District. Three policemen and two Lashkar
(militia) volunteers were among the dead. When the combined force
attempted to enter the area via Rajagaly Kandow from the Pir Baba
side and dislodge the militants, Taliban militants took position
and reportedly refused to go back. Sources said that the militants
had sent 16 bodies and taken 13 of their wounded colleagues to
Swat via Kalil Kandow.
Expressing satisfaction over the
truce in the Malakand Division, the NWFP Information Minister
Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the Government’s writ had been restored
in about 70 per cent of Swat area after the February 16 peace
deal. "This is a suitable recipe for bringing peace and we
shall apply it wherever it is needed once it proves successful
in Malakand Division," Mian Iftikhar told a press conference
in Peshawar. Briefing journalists after the 10th meeting of the
provincial cabinet, the minister said militants had agreed to
lay down arms after the enforcement of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation
in Malakand. The minister, however, admitted that situation in
parts of Swat was not ideal, but there was no reason to call it
disappointing. He claimed that schools and colleges had been reopened,
businesses had been resumed and the people were happy.
The top leadership of Afghan Taliban
is hiding in Pakistan and controlling the covert war against US-led
forces in Afghanistan, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan
and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said. "The Taliban leadership
is in Pakistan and the Taliban militants are fighting in Afghanistan,"
said Holbrooke, accompanied by US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman
Admiral Mike Mullen. Talking to reporters in Islamabad, he said
the US knew from various sources that the Taliban shura (executive
council) was hiding in Balochistan and that had serious implications
for the new US strategy for the region. He also said the issue
had been discussed with the Pakistani leadership. Further, Admiral
Mullen said Baitullah Mehsud was a direct threat to the US and
his men were crossing into Afghanistan to fight against the NATO
and ISAF forces.
April 08
Four suspected militants were
killed and five others injured in a drone attack in the Gangikhel
village of South Waziristan Agency (SWA). The village is located
10 kilometers south of Wana, headquarters of the SWA, locals said.
An unnamed senior official said the drone fired two missiles at
a vehicle parked by the Taliban in the village graveyard. The
official also said the Taliban had fitted heavy weapons on the
vehicle to target the CIA-operated spy plane which, he said, was
seen hovering over Wana and the adjoining villages at an extremely
low altitude. Militant sources confirmed the killing of their
four colleagues in the attack. They said three among the slain
militants belonged to the Punjab and one was affiliated to a group
of pro-government militant commander Maulvi Nazeer.
12 persons, including 10 Pakistanis,
were arrested on suspicion of having links with al Qaeda in a
series of raids in northwest England, the Police said. Reports
said those arrested included two students who were surrounded
by armed Police at John Moores University in Liverpool. Ten of
the men were reportedly from Pakistan and in Britain on student
visas.
Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah
Nazeer Ahmed said in an interview with al Qaeda’s media arm, Al-Sahab,
that the Taliban would soon capture Islamabad. Pakistani Taliban
factions had united and would take their war to the capital, he
said. "The day is not far when Islamabad will be in the hands
of the Mujahideen," he declared. He accused the Pakistan
Army of sending spies to facilitate US drone strikes against al
Qaeda and Taliban, and said Pakistani authorities were misleading
the public by saying it was the United States carrying out the
attacks. "All these attacks that have happened and are still
happening are the work of Pakistan," he said, according to
a transcript of the interview posted on Al-Sahab’s website. Mullah
Nazeer Ahmed also blamed the Pakistani military’s ISI agency for
sowing divisions between factions, saying the ISI was the Taliban’s
main enemy.
The United States has assured
Pakistan it will not carry out drone attacks in Balochistan, President
Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview with Dunya TV. "Not
only the people of Pakistan, but also the government is concerned
over the drone attacks," Zardari said. He said the US had
incorporated several of Pakistan’s suggestions in its new policy
for Afghanistan, but the two countries disagreed on the drone
strikes. However, he said Washington "has assured us it will
not carry out drone attacks in Balochistan".
April 09
The mysterious killing of three
leading Baloch nationalist leaders - who were allegedly arrested
by intelligence agencies on April 3 - have sparked a wave of protests
and violence across Balochistan that has so far killed one Police
official. Police found the decomposing bodies of the three Baloch
leaders - Ghulam Mohammad Baloch and Lala Munir of the Balochistan
National Movement and Sher Muhammad Baloch of the Baloch Republican
Party - in the Pidrak area of Turbat District on April 8-evening.
The Baloch leaders were allegedly arrested by the intelligence
agencies from the office of Kachkol Ali Baloch, a former leader
of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly. According to local
sources, the Baloch leaders had been shot in the head. Violence
and protests broke out across Balochistan soon after the news
of the leaders’ killing broke out. Reuters reported that
two people had been killed in the violence.
Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the TNSM
chief, concluded his "peace camp" in Swat, in protest
against the delay in the implementation of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation.
"But the peace deal with the provincial government is intact,"
Sufi Muhammad told a press conference in Mingora before moving
out of the District. "If something unpleasant happens after
our peace camp has been wrapped up, President Asif Zardari will
be held responsible," Sufi read a written statement in Pushto.
He alleged the federal Government was not sincere. TNSM spokesman
Amir Izzat Khan said Sufi Muhammad left for Amandara town in Malakand
where he will chair a shura (executive council) meeting.
"The ball is now in the president’s court," he told.
However, the Malakand Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed said the
federal Government would sign the regulation soon.
The Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan
said peace in the country is only possible through the imposition
of Sharia (Islamic law). Talking to Daily Times, he joined
Sufi Muhammad in condemning the president for not signing the
Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. "We support Sufi Muhammad’s stance
against the federal government… If clashes between Taliban and
the security forces resume, the president will be responsible,"
he said.
April 10
The Taliban beheaded two men they
accused of spying for the United States in North Waziristan. The
beheaded body of Shahid Mehsud was found along the Miranshah-Razmak
Road in Dundin area, 40 kilometers south of Miranshah, while the
body of Gul Mir Jan was found along the Datta Khel-Miranshah Road
in Degaan area, 20 kilometers west of Miranshah. Notes found near
the bodies warned that anybody found involved in spying for the
US would meet the same fate.
The Taliban extended the cease-fire
in Darra Adam Khel for 10 more days. The Taliban announced the
extension during a jirga with five local tribes at an undisclosed
location. The Taliban also authorised local elders to hold talks
with the Government.
Taliban militants triggered a
bomb blast in the Chamkani area, outside provincial capital Peshawar,
destroying six tankers supplying fuel to the NATO troops in neighbouring
Afghanistan. Around 35 tankers were parked at the incident site,
when militants placed a bomb under one of the vehicles loaded
with diesel, petrol and aviation fuel, Police official Asmatullah
Khan told. The blast triggered a fire which spread to another
five tankers, he said.
The Taliban announced the enforcement
of Sharia (Islamic law) in the Bajaur Agency of FATA and
stopped women from going outside without male relatives, banned
shaving of beard and warned the people against availing assistance
from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). The announcement
was made by Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, Taliban chief in the agency,
in his 40-minute speech delivered through his group’s illegal
FM radio channel. Faqir, who is deputy leader of the Baitullah
Mehsud-led TTP, addressed the tribesmen on the FM radio on weekly
basis. He said he and his men would spare no efforts to strictly
implement the Islamic laws in the region. In this regard, the
Taliban has reportedly prepared a special armed force named "Action
Group" to ensure the enforcement of Sharia and punish the
violators. Faqir said shaving of beards and walking of men without
having cap on their heads were practices of the Jews and their
followers, which, he warned, the Taliban would not allow in Bajaur.
Faqir said he would not allow the BISP to operate and "mislead"
simple women of the tribal region. He said work on preparation
of lists of people supporting the BISP and other NGOs had already
been initiated. Faqir threatened that the Action Group would soon
produce such people before their Sharia Court. In addition, he
strictly warned women against coming out of their homes and acquiring
Computerised National Identity Cards, which is reportedly mandatory
for getting monetary benefits from the BISP. The militant commander
said if the people were found guilty of supporting the BISP or
getting its monetary benefits, the violators would be punished
according to Sharia in which minimum fine would not be less than
PKR 10,000.
April 11
Gunmen shot dead eight persons
in separate incidents in Balochistan, amid protests over the killing
of three local leaders, Police said. Gunmen on a motorbike shot
dead a Police official in Quetta, senior Police officer Rana Khalid
told. In another drive-by shooting, gunmen killed one person and
wounded another, he said. "Both incidents could be linked
to a three-day strike being observed in the province" since
the bodies of three separatist politicians were found on April
9, he said. Police also recovered dead bodies of six employees
at a coalmine in Margat. "The victims who were abducted on
Friday, were killed before dawn on Saturday," local Police
officer Jaffar Hussain said. "They were shot dead,"
he said. Meerak Baloch, spokesman for the BLA, claimed responsibility
for the Margat killings in a phone call, saying those targeted
were people from Punjab and the NWFP.
April 12
A security guard was killed and
three others injured when armed men stormed into three terminals
storing NATO supplies in the limits of Yakatoot Police Station
in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. A Police official said that
around 200 suspected Taliban militants, who attacked the Aasim
and Amanullah Terminal on Ring Road, also set ablaze 12 vehicles.
He said a guard, Arif, had succumbed to his injuries, while three
others were injured.
President Asif Ali Zardari referred
the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, 2009 to the Prime Minister with the
advice that he may consider placing it before parliament for debate.
The TNSM and the Swat Taliban
warned parliamentarians against opposing the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation
in the National Assembly. "Even holy prophets had no authority
to make religious laws or amend them, then how can the National
Assembly do it?" TNSM spokesman Amir Izzat Khan told The
News. "If members of the National Assembly opposed the
judicial system of the Shariat-e-Muhammadi, they will enter the
category of non-Muslims and Pakistan will become Darul Harb,"
he warned. Explaining Darul Harb, he said when the rulers of a
country opposed the Sharia (Islamic law), they did not
remain Muslims anymore. "So a country with non-Muslims as
its rulers becomes Darul Harb," he said and added that it
made Jihad mandatory on rulers. Muslim Khan, the spokesman for
the Swat militants, warned that those opposing the Nizam-e-Adl
would be declared Murtad or apostate. "Then, he or she should
contest election on minority seat, if he or she remains alive,"
he said.
April 13
Three Taliban militants from the
Mullah Nazir group were killed in clashes with SFs in South Waziristan–
marking the first intense clashes with the group since April 2007.
The Federal Government in Islamabad
presented the peace accord to lawmakers for approval. Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani had said the deal would be presented in the
National Assembly to reach a consensus on the subject.
Pakistan’s Interior Adviser Rehman
Malik said that information provided by Indian authorities regarding
Mumbai terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008 is incomplete and
Islamabad has asked New Delhi to provide the missing information
for the successful prosecution of the culprits. "We had sent
32 questions to India on the Mumbai attacks and India sent its
response on March 13... We sent it to the investigation team for
evaluation. Based on the reservations shown by the Pakistani investigators,
we have written to the Indian high commissioner and gave him a
briefing on what is missing and what is not provided," Malik
told a press conference. "Pakistan has asked India to provide
an attested copy of the judicial statement of Ajmal Kasab,"
he said. "We have sought a copy of statement of ATS chief
investigator Karkre on the Samjotha Express incident, we have
asked Indian authorities to provide details of the SIM cards,
the GPRS system, the credentials of those Indian arrested in connection
with the attacks, the report on Kasab’s DNA and a copy of charge
sheet against the culprits," Malik said. The interior adviser
said the DNA reports of Kasab and another suspect, Ismail, were
identical. He also said another suspected facilitator of the attacks,
Shahid Jamil Riaz, had been arrested.
April 14
The death toll in the week-long
unrest in Balochistan has increased to 20 as another person succumbed
to injuries in a local hospital in the provincial capital Quetta.
22-year old Asfandyar Khan Pashtun, a MBA student in the Balochistan
University, was shot dead unidentified assailants while standing
outside a house of his relatives in the Jinnah town on April 11.
Meanwhile, some armed men shot dead a man on Sariab road. The
victim was identified as Zahoor, an employee of the Civil Defence
department.
President Asif Ali Zardari signed
the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation for Swat, after the National Assembly
passed a resolution in favour of the draft regulation. "Yes, the
president has signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation before leaving
for Dubai on a two-day visit," said presidential spokesman Farhatullah
Babar. Earlier on April 13, the National Assembly unanimously
passed a resolution recommending the President sign the regulation
to be imposed in the Malakand Division in accordance with a peace
agreement between the NWFP Government and the TNSM. The Muttahida
Qaumi Movement had expressed its reservations over the resolution
but abstained from voting to allow it to be passed unanimously.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly that
the issue had been brought before the House to build a broad national
consensus and establish the supremacy of Parliament.
Sharia (Islamic law) courts
formally started functioning in Swat after the enforcement of
the Sharia justice system. These courts had started functioning
in six Tehsils (revenue divisions) of Swat, including Bari Kot,
Kabal, Matta, Khwazakhela, Bahrain and Babozai, from March 12,
2009 but owing to delay in signing of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation
by the president, their powers were very limited. However, after
approval of the regulation, these courts will have full powers.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
signed an international accord aimed at blocking financial aid
to terrorists. A private TV channel reported that the SBP Governor
Salim Raza signed the agreement at a ceremony in Karachi. He said
the agreement would also help contain money laundering. He said
the budget of a special department established to block donations
to terrorists had been increased. Raza, however, said the SBP
did not have the capability required to stop ‘suspicious transactions’.
The White House said the Nizam-e-Adl
Regulation accord signed by the NWFP Government with the TNSM
to introduce Sharia in Malakand Division and the Kohistan District
of NWFP was against human rights and democracy. White House spokesman
Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama’s administration believed
that "solutions involving security in Pakistan don’t include less
democracy and less human-rights. The signing of that denoting
strict Islamic law in Swat valley goes against both those principles".
He also said "We are disappointed that parliament did not take
into account legitimate concerns around civil and human rights."
Afghanistan warned that the peace
deal with Swat Taliban for imposing Islamic law might have "dire
consequences" for the region and could harm Pakistan-Afghanistan
ties. The criticism came after President Asif Ali Zardari signed
the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. "We do not interfere in Pakistan’s
internal affairs," President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said. However,
there were concerns that "dealing with terrorists and handing
over parts of one country to terrorists could have dire consequences
in the long term", he said.
April 15
18 persons, including nine Policemen,
were killed and five others injured when a suicide bomber rammed
an explosives-laden vehicle into the Harichand Police Post in
Charsadda District. The NWFP Inspector General of Police, Malik
Naveed, said Police wanted to stop the suicide bomber’s speeding
car and fired at it, but it had reached close to them by the time
the explosives went off. The blast also left a crater about three
metres wide, damaged windows in nearby buildings and severed power
cables, plunging the area into darkness.
An accused in the Mumbai terrorist
attack of November 26, 2008 recorded his statement before the
Special Judicial Magistrate Ahmed Masood Janjua and confessed
that he was involved in the attack. The court sent the accused
to the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on 14-day judicial remand and
directed the Special Investigation Cell to produce him again on
April 28. The accused, Shahid Jamil Riaz alias Muhammad
Riaz from Nazir Colony in Bahawalpur in the Punjab province, recorded
his statement under section 164 and confessed that he and other
four accused, Hamad Ameen Sadiq, Zarar Shah, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi
and Hamza alias Abu Alqa, were involved in the Mumbai attacks.
However, the court refused to provide information about his confessional
statement to the media. The Federal Investigation Agency sources
told that Shahid Jamil Riaz belongs to the LeT and has confessed
that he, along with other four accused, provided all kinds of
transportation facilities, accommodation, internet and other facilities
to those who carried out Mumbai attacks.
The NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed
Ghani signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, formally enforcing Sharia
in Malakand Division and Kohistan District. "Today, it
is an historic day," he told reporters in provincial capital
Peshawar after signing the law two days after President Asif Ali
Zardari approved it following a nod from the National Assembly.
The Sikh community living in the
Orakzai Agency of FATA conceded to the Taliban demand to pay them
jizia – tax levied on non-Muslims living under Islamic
rule – and paid PKR 20 million to Taliban in return for ‘protection’.
Officials told that the Taliban also released Sikh leader Sardar
Saiwang Singh and vacated the community’s houses after the Sikhs
accepted the Taliban demand. The officials said the Taliban announced
that the Sikhs were now free to live anywhere in Orakzai. They
also announced protection for the Sikh community, saying that
no one would harm them after they paid jizia. Sikhs who had left
the agency would now return to their houses and resume their business
in the agency, the officials said.
The Taliban will not lay down
their arms in NWFP as part of the peace deal that included the
introduction of Sharia (Islamic law) but will take their
"struggle" to new areas, a spokesman of the group said.
"Sharia doesn’t permit us to lay down arms… If a government,
either in Pakistan or Afghanistan, continues anti-Muslim policies,
it’s out of the question that Taliban lay down their arms,"
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said by telephone. "When we
achieve our goal at one place, there are other areas where we
need to struggle for it," he said. Khan also said militants
would go to Afghanistan to fight US-led forces if the Afghan Taliban
called for help. "Our struggle is for a cause and that’s
to enforce Allah’s rule on Allah’s land. We will send mujahideen
to Afghanistan if they demand them," he said.
A three-member Supreme Court bench
granted bail to former Lal Masjid chief cleric Abdul Aziz in the
last of over two dozen cases against him. Aziz – who was arrested
during the Lal Masjid operation as he tried to sneak out of the
mosque dressed in an all-covering burqa (veil) – will be
freed within two or three days, according to his lawyer Shaukat
Siddiqui. The bench, consisting of Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice
Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Zahid Hussain – observed that
Aziz deserved bail because there was insufficient material on
record against him in the Occupation of Children’s Library case.
Al Qaeda and other militant groups
within its territory pose "an ever more serious threat to
Pakistan’s very existence", General David Petraeus, head
of US Central Command (CENTCOM), has said. In an interview with
Philadelphia Inquirer, he said US President Barack Obama
had made Afghanistan and Pakistan the focus of his foreign policy
because of the presence of al Qaeda in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
To questions on why troops were being increased in Afghanistan
if the real threat were in Pakistan, he said: "You have to
ensure that Afghanistan doesn’t become once again a place where
Al Qaeda establishes safe havens." If Taliban ideologues
regain control of Afghanistan, it would further destabilise Pakistan,
he added.
April 16
The Government released Maulana
Abdul Aziz, former chief cleric of the Lal Masjid, from a sub-jail
in Rawalpindi after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the
last case related to the Children’s Library. The Supreme Court
had on April 15 granted him bail, but the details of his surety
bond, worth PKR 200,000, had yet to be worked out. Maulana Abdul
Aziz lauded the decision of the Supreme Court and said he would
continue to spread the message of Islam.
April 17
The National Assembly was informed
that there were 1,842 terrorist attacks from January 2008 to March
2009 that killed at least 1,395 people. Replying to two identical
questions by Members of National Assembly Marvi Memon and Nighat
Parveen, the Interior Ministry told the Lower House that Balochistan
was the worst-hit by terrorism – with a total of 1,122 terrorist
attacks that killed 436 people, followed by NWFP with 692 attacks
that killed 732 people, Punjab with 12 attacks that killed 119
people, Sindh with nine attacks that killed 21 people and Islamabad
with seven attacks that killed 87 people. Replying to a supplementary
question, Mujtaba Kharral said no inquiry report had been submitted
to Parliament, but promised that the Government would soon table
inquiry reports on all incidents.
April 18
27 SF personnel were killed and
55 others injured in a suicide attack on a security check post
in the Doaba area of Hangu District in NWFP, hospital sources
said. Locals told that the attack on the checkpoint, about 45
kilometres southwest of Hangu, took place at around 4:15pm (PST)
when SF personnel were visiting the area for the inspection. Two
Police vehicles were passing by the check post when the suicide
bomber driving a double-cabin pickup rammed the vehicle into the
structure, they said. The explosion destroyed the check post,
adjacent building housing troops and Police, and eight SF’s vehicles.
Four people were killed in a remote-controlled
bomb blast in the Tirah Shalobar area of Bara tehsil (revenue
division) of Khyber Agency in FATA. Sources in the area told that
the dead included Sadiq – a shura (executive council) member
of militant outfit Ansarul Islam (AI) – and an aide. The men were
on their way to Tirah Larbagh when the explosive device – planted
on the side of the road – went off. The men were injured by the
explosion and died later.
April 19
Fighter planes and gunship helicopters
targeted suspected hideouts of militants in different areas of
the Orakzai Agency, killing 16 militants, while 10 others, including
a soldier and two teachers, sustained injuries. Sources said militants
had occupied a rest house, a women’s community centre, the Government
Primary School in Ghiljo sub-division and the Government High
School in Dabori area. The militants had been using these places
as their bases, which came under severe air attack by the Pakistan
Air Force fighter planes and gunship helicopters. Suspected hideouts
of militants in the Khadizai and Mamuzai areas of Ghiljo were
also heavily bombed. Security Forces claimed that 16 militants
were killed in the daylong shelling, while eight persons, including
a soldier, two teachers and some civilians, sustained injuries.
Eight persons were killed and
two others sustained injuries when a suspected US spy plane fired
missiles at two houses in the Ziyari Noor area near Rustam Adda
in South Waziristan Agency. Sources said the US drones continued
hovering over the area for hours and one of them fired missiles
at the houses of Daim Khan Wazir and Wali Khan Wazir at 10:00
am, leaving eight civilians dead and two others injured. The houses
were completely destroyed in the attack and three vehicles parked
inside were also damaged.
Interior Adviser Rehman Malik
has said six suspects have so far been arrested in connection
with the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Talking to the media in Lahore,
Rehman said Pakistan had asked New Delhi to provide it the chargesheets
against the lone arrested LeT militant Ajmal Kasab and his confession
before the court.
The US special envoy for Pakistan
and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, warned that no other place
in the world today faced a more dangerous situation than Pakistan.
In an interview to CNN, Holbrooke said Pakistan also faced a "very
difficult economic situation" and needed immediate help. "This
is a really dangerous situation in Pakistan today and we are focussed
on this very heavily," said Holbrooke. Asked if the terrorist
threat could cause Pakistan to collapse, the US envoy said that
President Asif Ali Zardari and other Pakistani leaders too conceded
that it was a very dangerous situation. "Swat is not in the tribal
areas. It is only 100 miles from Islamabad … it is like East Hampton
and Manhattan … people from Islamabad went to Swat for holidays
… it is really an extraordinary situation." Ambassador Holbrooke
termed the current situation in Pakistan as ‘very perilous’ and
claimed that the militants operating from Swat and FATA had already
increased their reach to Punjab. "There can be more terrorist
attacks in cities like Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi," he warned.
He opined the Swat truce always seemed like a confused deal to
him. The Pakistani military, he said, felt that it was ‘stretched
thin’ and that’s why it concluded this deal. Holbrooke pointed
out that if the Pakistani military wanted to persuade the militants
to lay down their arms by concluding this deal, it did not succeed
in doing so. The chief spokesman for the Swat Taliban "publicly
renounced the part of the deal that requires the militants to
lay down arms", he said, adding "You cannot deal with these people
by giving away territory. They are now getting closer and closer
to Islamabad and Punjab."
The TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad
declared that the country’s superior courts were un-Islamic and
could not hear appeals against decisions of the newly set up Qazi
(Islamic) courts. "There is no room for democracy in Islam," said
Sufi while addressing a gathering in the Mingora town of Swat
District. Western democracy was a "system of infidels" and had
divided the clerics and the people of Pakistan into factions,
he said, and the Supreme Court and the high courts were strengthening
the system. The TNSM chief told the Government to withdraw all
judges from Malakand Division – including from Kohistan District
– within four days and set up a Darul Qaza to hear appeals against
the decisions of qazi courts. He also demanded the appointment
of Qazis at the district and tehsil (revenue division) levels
throughout the Division. "The government will be responsible for
all the consequences if our demands are not implemented," he warned.
April 20
A two-day-old ceasefire in South Waziristan collapsed
as the Taliban attacked bases of SFs hours after a drone attack
targeted suspected Taliban hideouts. Three persons, including
a woman and a child, were also killed in crossfire between the
Taliban and SFs, said locals. The Taliban attacked at least four
security check-posts. The SFs also reportedly shelled and launched
air strikes against Taliban positions in Wana, killing eight suspected
Taliban militants, said officials.
Helicopter gunships and jets targeted Taliban
positions in the Orakzai Agency, killing at least 11 militants
and injuring five others. The military operation against militants
has reportedly been expanded to the Mamozai, Maidan, Jabba, Samma
and Buda Khel areas. SFs launched operations on April 19 after
the TTP claimed responsibility for the April 18 suicide attack
in Doaba in which at least 23 soldiers and five civilians were
killed. The SFs are reported to have missed an important target,
the house of local TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, during the air
raid in Dabori.
The TTP and TNSM announced to ban political parties
and politics in the Bajaur Agency after talks. Both the outfits
also banned the assembly of more than three people at a place.
The ban was enforced following a jirga (council of elders), after
four persons were killed in a clash between the activists of the
both the outfits.
The Northern Areas Legislative Assembly Deputy
Speaker, Syed Asad Zaidi, was killed on the Park Link Road in
Gilgit when unidentified gunmen ambushed his official vehicle.
A senior Police official said one person died on the spot, while
the Deputy Speaker and another man sustained critical injuries.
They were shifted to the DHQ Hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
The TTP spokesman Muslim Khan has said Sharia
(Islamic law) would not be restricted to the Malakand Division
in Swat District, and that the Taliban will not lay down weapons
unconditionally. Asked whether the Taliban would extend Sharia
to other areas of Pakistan, Khan said: "Sure, because [the holy]
Quran is not only for Malakand division. It is for all humanity,
for all Muslims and we will go for the implementation of Sharia
in other parts of Pakistan as well." He also said Taliban would
not lay down their weapons unconditionally. "We are Pakhtuns and
every Pakhtun has a gun. We have no tanks, no helicopters or jets,"
he said. Muslim Khan said the Taliban would keep their weapons
if the qazi courts allowed them to. He said nobody had asked American
forces to keep their weapons on the other side of the Atlantic
Ocean or to surrender, but everyone had been asking the Taliban
to lay down their arms. About international criticism that the
Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 is a parallel system of Government,
the Taliban spokesman said: "We don't care about the reaction
of the government in Pakistan or abroad."
Osama Bin Laden's top lieutenant Ayman Al-Zawahiri
has criticised Pakistan's Government for its attempts to make
deals with the Taliban along its border with Afghanistan. In an
audio recording on a jihadi Website, Ayman al-Zawahiri accused
US President Barack Obama of encouraging Pakistan's Government
to make such deals, calling the strategy "a delusion". "Obama
is cheating you; the problem will not end there. It will escalate,"
AP quoted him as saying.
April 21
The Taliban in Swat have said they are not bound
to honour the peace accord between the Government and TNSM Maulana
Sufi Muhammad. They said the NWFP Government had signed the deal
with the TNSM, and not with the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Muslim
Khan in a telephone interview with the CNN demanded the imposition
of the Taliban's model of Sharia (Islamic law) throughout Pakistan
and beyond, "even in America". He also denounced any Pakistanis
who disagreed with his interpretation of Islam, calling them "non-Muslims".
He also called for the imposition of jiziya, a tax to be levied
on all non-Muslims in Pakistan. In an Associated Press
interview, he said Osama bin Laden was welcome in Swat. "Yes,
we will help them and protect them," he stated. Muslim Khan counted
the LeT, the JeM, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al Qaeda,
and the Taliban of Afghanistan among his allies. "If we need,
we can call them and if they need, they can call us," he said.
The TTP is reported to have warned lawyers in
the Shangla District of NWFP of serious consequences if they continued
to appear in un-Islamic courts (civil and district courts) from
April 22. "Lawyers are warned through this notice not to appear
before civil and district courts," a member of the Shangla District
Bar Association quoted the letter as saying.
The Interior Adviser Rehman Malik warned of stern
action if the TNSM violated the peace agreement it had made with
the NWFP Government. He said that the Nizam-e-Adl was invoked
in 1994, under which a session judge was named Qazi. "No one should
create the ambiguity that any Maulvi (cleric) will hold the charge
of a judge," he said. Malik also ruled out lifting the ban on
the TNSM.
Taliban militants from Swat took control of Buner
and started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in the District.
The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on
April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the
past five days. They have robbed Government and NGO offices of
vehicles, computers, printers, generators, edible oil containers,
and food and nutrition packets. Sources said that leading political
figures, businessmen, NGO officials and Khawaneen (feudal lords),
who had played a role in setting up a Lashkar (militia) to stop
the Taliban from entering Buner, had been forced to move to other
areas. The Taliban have extended their control to almost all tehsils
(revenue divisions) of the District and law-enforcement personnel
remained confined to Police stations and camps. The Taliban, equipped
with advanced weapons, were reported to be advancing towards border
areas of Swabi, Malakand and Mardan, the hometown of NWFP Chief
Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti. The militants have reportedly
set up check-posts and camp bases in Kangar Gali village, along
the Malakand border Naway Dhand village, along the Mardan border
and Tootalai village, along the Swabi border. Officials of the
Frontier Corps camp in Jorh had asked people to vacate their homes
in view of threats of an attack.
The Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 was challenged
in the Supreme Court and the court was asked to stop its enforcement
as it trespassed the jurisdiction of the apex court and breached
the fundamental rights of security of a person guaranteed by the
Constitution. The petition was filed by Shahid Orakzai under the
Article 184(3) of the Constitution, making the Secretary of Law
and the NWFP Governor as respondents. He prayed to the court to
take immediate steps for the reinforcement of the Article 9 of
the Constitution that says: "No person shall be deprived of life
or liberty except in accordance with law." The petitioner stated
that under the regulation, the new forum called 'Darul-Qaza' will
seemingly exercise the appellate jurisdiction of the apex court.
"Under what authority the governor of the NWFP transplanted the
jurisdiction of the apex court?" the petitioner questioned. He
said in the eyes of the Constitution, the writers of the Nizam-e-Adl
Regulation were not to be taken as Muslims until they acknowledged
the Qur'anic rules and amended the flawed regulation.
The Netherlands' national intelligence agency
is reported to have stated that a growing number of West Europeans
are attending terror training camps in the border region between
Pakistan and Afghanistan. The General Intelligence and Security
Service chief Gerard Bouman said Al Qaeda is boosting its capacity
to carry out attacks by increasing co-operation with other extremist
groups. He also said there is still a real threat of attacks in
the region.
April 22
The Taliban have said they will not leave Buner
District until the Nizam-e-Adl was implemented in Malakand Division.
"The Taliban will leave Buner after enforcement of the Nizam-e-Adl,"
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP
from Swat. "The government writ is not being challenged" in Buner
and the Taliban were not creating problems for the administration
there, he claimed. "We went into Buner because the administration
there had totally failed to provide justice to the people and
resolve the problems being faced by them," he added.
The Government informed the Senate that Russia
and India were supporting the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)
in its secession bid, saying the same outfit had kidnapped the
UNHCR official John Solecki from Quetta. Making a policy statement
at the end of the five-day debate on the killing of there Baloch
leaders and the deteriorating law and order in Balochistan, Adviser
to Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, claimed they had
proof of foreign involvement in the province. While talking to
the media later, Malik called on India to stop its interference
in Balochistan, dubbing it an open enemy of Pakistan. He noted
that the proposal of reviving the 'Sardari system' in the province
was being considered. He added the FC had been put under the chief
minister and all the 36 FC check-posts had been removed. Malik
also revealed that the BLA chief Brahamdagh Khan Bugti lived close
to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's presidential palace in Kabul
and enjoyed local support. He added thousands of Baloch students
had got training in Russia and were present in Balochistan.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she
believed the Pakistani Government was abdicating to the Taliban
and other militants. In a testimony before the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, she warned that nuclear-armed Pakistan was becoming
a "mortal threat" to the world. "I think that the Pakistani government
is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists,"
Clinton said. According to her, "Pakistan poses a mortal threat
to the security and safety of our country and the world… And I
want to take this occasion ... to state unequivocally that not
only do the Pakistani government officials, but the Pakistani
people and the Pakistani Diaspora ... need to speak out forcefully
against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the
insurgents." "(We) cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential
threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances
now within hours of Islamabad that are being made by a loosely
confederated group of terrorists and others who are seeking the
overthrow of the Pakistani state," Clinton said.
April 23
46 militants have been killed and 26 injured in
the four-day military operation in the Orakzai Agency, tribal
and official sources said. The sources said jet fighters and gunship
helicopters targeted the militants' hideouts in Balozai area of
the Kalaya Tehsil (revenue division) at 2:00 pm, killing five
militants and a civilian. A number of hideouts and bunkers of
the militants were reportedly destroyed on Shawazar mountain.
Several Government and private installations were also damaged
during the shelling by the jet fighters and gunship helicopters
on April 22. The Inter-Services Public Relations media cell said
the SFs had killed 11 militants in the Orakzai Agency after striking
militants' hideouts in the Chapri, Ferozkhel, Khwajakhizar and
Bizoti areas. It further said that the SFs in operations on April
21 and 22 killed 27 militants in Ghiljo Tehsil.
Nine members of a family, including two women
and seven children, were killed when a house in the Storikhel
area of Khyber Agency was allegedly attacked by jet fighters and
gunship helicopters. Sources said jet fighters and gunship helicopters,
which were busy in the operations against militants in the neighbouring
Orakzai Agency, fired two missiles at a house owned by Gul Zarin,
Shah Zarin and Niaz Amin in Storikhel, killing two women and seven
children.
The SFs claimed to have killed eight militants
and destroyed their ammunition depot during operation in different
parts of the Kohat region. SFs said that they launched a major
operation against militants in the Jammu, Jawaki, and Bulai Khand
areas and helicopter gunships killed eight militants during shelling
in the mountains of Darra Adamkhel. In addition, the ground troops
and helicopters targeted a huge ammunition storage facility of
militants in Bulai Khand.
The Taliban spokesman in Darra Adamkhel claimed
to have killed 35 SF personnel during a clash in Kohat. The spokesman,
Mohammad, told by telephone that the Government took their cease-fire
decision as their weakness whereas they had announced a unilateral
truce keeping in view the sufferings of the tribesmen.
Six tankers supplying fuel to the NATO forces
in Afghanistan were set ablaze and a guard sustained injuries
after suspected Taliban militants opened fire on them. A Chamkani
Police official told that five militants equipped with sophisticated
weapons and rocket launchers entered the Pakistan Oil Tanker terminal
at Jhagra Chowk at around 3 am and opened fire on the tankers
parked there. He said the guard, Razam Khan, sustained injuries
and six tankers were charred. He said at least three blasts were
also heard, but the cause was not certain yet.
President Asif Ali Zardari vowed not to allow
anybody to challenge the Government's writ or run a parallel Government
in any part of the country, and said the Government is aware of
the problems emanating from extremism and terrorism. The pledge
came during talks with the US President's special envoy to Pakistan
and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, who had called the president
over the telephone.
Eight Frontier Constabulary platoons were rushed
to Buner to protect vital state installations in the northwestern
town now virtually under Taliban control, while the Taliban entered
the adjacent Shangla District. Local residents and Police in the
Poran tehsil (revenue division) of Shangla said around 30 armed
Taliban militants arrived in the town. "They entered the tehsil
in cars and are still in the area," a Police official said. The
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas claimed the situation
in Buner was not as dire as some have portrayed. He told that
Taliban were in control of less than 25 percent of the District,
mostly its north. "We are fully aware of the situation," Abbas
said.
April 24
The Taliban announced its withdrawal from the
Buner District in NWFP after a meeting between the TNSM chief
Maulana Sufi Muhammad and key Government officials. "All the Taliban
who have come from [outside Buner] will go back," Amir Izzat Khan,
a spokesman of Sufi Muhammad, told. However, sources close to
the Taliban said that the "local Taliban will stay in Buner".
It was not clear if those who stay will surrender weapons. Witnesses
in the Poran sub-division of Shangla District also reported a
Taliban withdrawal. The Malakand Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed
told the withdrawal was a result of the peace talks with Sufi.
The Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani, rejected the notion that the peace deal through Sufi Mohammed
amounted to giving any "concession" to the armed Islamists, and
declared that not only the Army had the resolve to take on the
militants but, according to him, "victory against terror and militancy
will be achieved at all costs". Speaking at a meeting of top military
commanders at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, the army
chief acknowledged that doubts were being voiced about the intent
and capability of the army to defeat the militants. But, he added,
the army "never has and never will hesitate to sacrifice, whatever
it may take, to ensure safety and well-being of the people and
country's territorial integrity". He described the recent peace
deal with Maulana Fazlullah's Swat-based militants as an "operational
pause" that was meant to give the "reconciliatory forces" a chance,
but declared that it "must not be taken for a concession to militants".
The banned LeT is planning to create further unrest,
the commander of US forces in the Middle East said. "We should
observe that the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba ... are trying to do more damage
and they're trying to carry out additional attacks," General David
Petraeus told US lawmakers. Petraeus said the US expected that
"extremists that are trying to cause that kind of tension and
also to take (Pakistan's) focus off of the internal extremist
threat would indeed strive to do that."
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said
in an interview broadcast that he was "extremely concerned" that
Pakistan could be overtaken. "We're certainly moving closer to
the tipping point where Pakistan could be overtaken by extremists",
Admiral Mike Mullen said in the interview with NBC Television.
Mullen said he hoped the arrival soon of an additional 17,000
American combat troops in Afghanistan will stabilise things there
and in Pakistan.
There is no evidence that India is supporting
violence in Pakistan, the US Special Representative on Afghanistan
and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said. "If the Indians were supporting
those miscreants in Pakistan that would be extraordinarily bad,
really dangerous, but they are not doing so. There is no evidence
that Indians are support miscreants in western parts of Pakistan
or in Balochistan," he said in an interview with a private TV
channel. He also said India was the second largest country in
the world and one of the most important. "If we are interested
in helping Pakistan, we will have to talk to its neighbours, which
include China, India and Afghanistan," he added. He said India
had given about $1 billion assistance to Afghanistan, and it should
not be a cause of concern for Pakistan. "Pakistan does not need
to worry about India in Afghanistan, but it has to be worried
about miscreants and militants in its western parts," he added.
April 25
12 children were killed and four others injured
when girls of a local primary school in the in the Luquman Banda
area of Lower Dir District in NWFP had found the toy bomb and
were playing with it when it exploded. The dead girls were aged
between four and 12 years. Seven of the 12 dead children were
from the same family. A woman and three children were injured.
Five militants and a FC soldier were killed 25
in an alleged armed clash and a landmine explosion in the Dera
Bugti area of Balochistan. The spokesman for the Baloch Republican
Army, Sirbaz Baloch, claimed that five militants had been killed
while SFs lost 19 troopers. He said 25 others were injured in
clashes and the landmine explosion. Officials, however, said that
no armed clash occurred between the SFs and militants in the area.
They said that six soldiers were injured in a landmine explosion
in the Marvi area.
April 26
26 Taliban militants, including an important commander,
and a trooper were killed after Security Forces launched an operation
in the Maidan area of Lower Dir. "At least 26 bodies of Taliban
were found from Lal Qila. The FC [Frontier Corps] has taken control
of Lal Qila," said the SFs, after the Government decided to establish
the writ of the state in areas bordering Swat. An Inter-Services
Public Relations statement said, "On the request of the provincial
government and the people of Dir, the Frontier Corps launched
the operation early on Sunday against suspected Taliban positions
in Islampura and Lal Qila in Lower Dir. An exchange of fire took
place in Kala Dag and scores of Taliban were killed." It said
that a soldier was also killed and four others were injured.
A spokesman for the TTP, Dir chapter, said the
military operation in Dir was unjustified and against the Swat
peace deal. Talking to a private TV channel, Mullah Mansoor Dadullah,
the TTP spokesman for Dir, said the Taliban would retaliate to
the SFs with full force. The government, he said, has no intention
to ensure the implementation of the Swat peace deal. We have not
violated the deal and, therefore, the operation is unjustified,
he claimed, adding the Taliban would attack those who had ordered
operation against them in Dir. In addition, the TNSM spokesman
Izatt Khan said the operation by SFs in Lower Dir is a 'violation'
of the Swat peace deal. Talking to a private TV channel, the spokesman
claimed that the house and a seminary owned by TNSM chief Maulana
Sufi Muhammad had also been damaged in the operation.
Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said the Government
has no option but to take action against the Taliban. Malik said
citizens "cannot bear such unwanted elements in the country that
compel the government to take action against them". In Islamabad,
the Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the Government's
peace deal with the Taliban in Swat is 'intact' despite the launch
of a military operation in Lower Dir. Babar said the operation
did not void the pact. Lower Dir is part of the Malakand Division,
which is covered by the agreement.
Five members of a family, including three women,
were killed and four children sustained injuries when an explosive
device went off inside a vehicle in the Smalkhel area of Datakhel
sub-division in the North Waziristan Agency. Sources said the
family members of Faizullah were on their way home in the vehicle
when the explosion occurred, killing two women, driver Islahuddin
and a boy on the spot and injuring a woman and four children.
While the injured children admitted to the Miranshah Hospital,
the wounded woman succumbed to her injuries en route to hospital.
The vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast. It was unclear
whether the family was carrying the explosive device or someone
had placed it in the vehicle.
The ISPR Director General, Major General Athar
Abbas has said that certain splinter groups are not even under
the control of the TNSM or the TTP, and "these are the groups
creating problems,". Abbas, however, told a foreign television
channel that the Government was confident of implementing the
Swat peace deal. He rubbished as baseless reports that the Taliban
could also enter Islamabad. "It is impossible for a group of 200
Taliban, who have come to Buner from Swat, to storm Islamabad
despite its close proximity to Buner district. No doubt, Buner
is situated within a radius of 100 miles of the federal capital
... [but] the threat cannot be measured in terms of distance,
rather it has to be measured in terms of counter capabilities,"
he said, adding that it would be ridiculous to say that the Taliban
were a threat to Islamabad. He claimed that there were no more
than 50 Taliban militants in Buner District. "They were recruited
by the Swat Taliban, who left them behind after ... they left
Buner," he added. He also said the Security Forces would flush
out those left in Buner if they created further problems.
Banned terrorist groups in Pakistan's Punjab province
are gaining strength after joining hands on a new platform called
the Muslim United Army (MUA). LeT, JeM and LeJ have a common cause
under the banner of MUA and their activities are also in line
with those of the Taliban, according to a report drawn up by the
CID. The report also said militancy has been rapidly taking roots
in Punjab province, especially in the five districts of Muzaffarghar,
Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Bhakkar. "As several
members of the three banned groups have taken part in the Afghan
war, they have developed a nexus with the Taliban," a senior CID
officer said. "In the suicide bombings of the Naval War College
and Federal Investigation Agency office in Lahore and the terrorist
attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and police training school
in Manawan, the facilitators of the perpetrators were from these
organisations operating in Punjab," the officer said. Police officials
also believe the three groups had joined hands primarily to target
the security forces.
April 27
Frontier Corps (FC) personnel killed 26 Taliban
militants, including key commanders, as Operation Toar Tander-I
(Black Thunderstorm-I) continued in the Maidan area of Lower Dir
of NWFP for the second day. "Forty (Taliban), including commanders
Maulana Shahid and Qari Quraish, have been killed in the last
two days of operation," the FC said in a press statement. Officials
said the SFs were gaining ground against the Taliban and their
hideouts in Kalkot, Islam Dara and Hoshyari Dara were targeted.
"After a stiff encounter with the [Taliban], the Frontier Corps
soldiers regained control of Lal Qila and flushed them out from
Maidan valley," the FC statement added. Paramilitary troops and
helicopter gunships bombed suspected Taliban bases during the
operation, an unnamed military official told. "Eight security
officials were also killed in two days of operation," another
military official said. The operation was launched on April 26
after the Taliban militants attacked SFs and Government officials
and closed roads for the movement of government and FC convoys.
The NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar warned
the Taliban of military action if they did not leave Buner district.
"Leave Buner or face action," the minister said while addressing
a news conference in Timergara where new Malakand Commissioner
Fazal Rahim Khattak was also present. The minister said the provincial
Government has received reports of presence of "foreign militants"
in Buner, where some of the Taliban had been speaking languages
the locals could not understand. The foreigners are likely Uzbeks,
Chechens or Arabs. The minister said there was no military operation
going on in Lower Dir, adding that the clashes there were "retaliation
to the attack by miscreants on the security forces". The armed
forces were present in Malakand division "only to maintain peace
and harmony".
The TNSM has suspended talks with the NWFP Government
to protest against the military action in Dir, the TNSM spokesman
Amir Izzat Khan told in Mingora city. "We, however, still adhere
to the February deal," he told, referring to the accord that sought
Taliban disarmament in return for the imposition of sharia law
in Malakand division. "We will not hold any talks until the operation
ends," he told Associated Press. "The agreements with the Pakistan
government are worthless because Pakistani rulers are acting to
please Americans," Muslim Khan, spokesman for Taliban in Swat
valley said. A Taliban spokesman identified as Umar said to Associated
Press that the Taliban would agree to talks about the situation
in Dir, but only if the military operation is halted. "We were
living peacefully in Dir," Umar added further.
A survey conducted by Community Appraisal and
Motivation Programme (CAMP) with the help of the British High
Commission in Islamabad reports that 56 percent respondents described
Afghanistan's Taliban as "Islamic heroes fighting western occupation".
A paltry 12.1 percent called them "a terrorist group". More than
54 percent respondents said they were "dissatisfied with life"
in FATA in general. The number of satisfied people stood at 18.15
percent, according to the survey, and 17.5 percent said they were
neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Some 73.25 percent tribesmen
referred to provision of justice as "the most important service"
that the Government should provide in their areas followed by
64.6 percent voting for education, 52.1 percent for health and
47 percent for tackling terrorism. Just 2.95 percent respondents
referred to the United States as a "very favourable" country,
compared with 66.2 percent who called it "very unfavourable".
April 28
The Inter-Services Public Relations
Director General, Major General Athar Abbas, told a news conference
in Rawalpindi that the military operation in the Lower Dir District
of NWFP, which started on April 26, had been completed. "The
operation in Dir has successfully been completed, during which
70 to 75 militants were killed," he said. Ten personnel of
the Security Forces were also killed during the operation. He
said over 300 militants had started entering Lower Dir on April
2 and 3. Despite warning from the Government officials, they did
not stop their unlawful activities, he added. "They were
involved in kidnapping for ransom, killing police and other security
officials and other unlawful acts," he said. He also said
no foreign militant was found during the Dir operation.
The NWFP Government is all set
to establish the Darul Qaza appeals court in Malakand and appoint
Qazis in the area, Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar
Hussain said, inviting the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad for
talks to implement the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009.
The TNSM warned of a ‘storm’ across
Pakistan if the Malakand peace deal collapses. "The peace
accord has weakened and is shaky," Sufi Muhammad’s son Rizwanullah
Farooq said from Swat. "If it breaks, there will be a storm
in the whole country."
April 29
Troops took control of the main
Daggar town, headquarters of the Buner District after being dropped
by helicopter behind Taliban lines, killing over 50 Taliban militants
in two days of fighting, the military said. Troops were operating
on three axis – Ambaila, Malandar and Karakar – military spokesman
Major General Athar Abbas told reporters in Rawalpindi. "Two
high-value targets — Maulvi Shahid and Qari Quresh — are among
the 50 militants killed so far in Buner when gunship helicopters
targeted militants’ positions during the operation launched on
Tuesday afternoon," Abbas stated. "The security forces
are facing stiff resistance, particularly around Ambaila heights,"
a key gateway to the mountainous region where the Taliban detonated
three roadside bombs, he said. One soldier had been killed in
the operation and three were injured. "The airborne forces
have linked up to police and Frontier Constabulary in Daggar,"
the spokesman said. The Army spokesman informed the media that
Daggar has been cleared of the militants while Sultanwala, Nawagai
and Pir Baba Ziarat are still in the militants’ control. The military
estimated some 500 militants were in the Buner Valley and that
it might take a week to clear them out.
Six people were killed and two
injured when two missiles were fired by a suspected US drone at
Kani Garam village in South Waziristan. "Six people were
killed when a moving vehicle was hit by one [of the] missiles
fired by a US spy plane," tribesmen told. They said that
all of those killed were locals. Four people had also been injured
in the strike. A local administration official and intelligence
officials confirmed the missile strike.
Four militants were killed and
two others sustained injuries in artillery shelling by the SFs
in the Khwaizai Baizai area of Mohmand Agency in FATA. SFs are
reported to have targeted suspected locations of the militants
in different areas early in the morning, killing four militants
and wounding two others. The troops also seized a pickup truck
in the area and recovered rockets, mortar shells and explosives.
Three children were killed and
their mother injured when they stepped on a landmine at a village
near the border of Dera Bugti District. Police said the landmine
had been planted in Goth Metha Bugti in the Sobatpur area. A Police
officer said the woman and her children were on their way to a
dispensary.
The Taliban in Swat have announced
that they will ‘reform’ the banking system and journalism in the
areas they control, shifting the focus from barbers and CD shops.
Taliban spokesman Haji Muslim Khan said Taliban’s next target
would be the banking system "where un-Islamic affairs are
being carried out". He said the Taliban would penalise the
media with the Sharia (Islamic law) punishment for telling lies.
The Taliban would take action against the people "who are
trying to conceal facts by publishing and broadcasting false reports".
He admitted that Taliban had issued posters warning the media
in Swat.
April 30
The ISPR Director-General Major
General Athar Abbas said that 24 militants had been killed so
far in the military operation in Buner and SFs had cleared the
District headquarters Daggar of the militants. Addressing a press
conference in Islamabad, he said due to the successful operation,
launched jointly by the FC and Pakistan Army, life was returning
to normalcy in Lower Dir. He also said the number of casualties
might increase in Buner and Lower Dir. Abbas added that the militants
were still holding positions at Sultanwas and Pir Baba.
The Taliban in Orakzai Agency
of FATA have banished 50 Sikh families from the agency for not
paying Jizia, a tax levied on non-Muslims living under Islamic
law. According to a private TV channel, Taliban militants occupied
houses and shops of the Sikhs and auctioned their valuables for
PKR 0.8 million in the Qasim Khel and Feroz Khel areas. The Taliban
had demanded PKR 12 million from the Sikh community but they had
only paid PKR 6.7 million to the Taliban, the channel said.
Pakistan’s top military leaders
resolved to support the Government in showing "zero tolerance"
towards militancy in the Malakand Division of NWFP in a meeting
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC). "While examining
the prevailing situation in Malakand division, the JCSC expressed
satisfaction over the progress of operations in Lower Dir, Buner
and adjoining areas and resolved to extend maximum support to
the government in stamping out any spillover of militancy in these
areas with zero tolerance," an ISPR spokesman said after the meeting.
The ISPR Director-General Major
General Athar Abbas dismissed a report in The New York Times
that claimed that Pakistan had agreed to move 6,000 troops
from its Indian border to its western border with Afghanistan.
"The story is not correct," he said.
May 1
SFs have killed approximately
60 Taliban militants in the Buner District of NWFP over the last
24 hours as helicopter gunships continued shelling suspected hideouts,
with almost 400 militants putting up a fierce resistance to the
military operations. According to the ISPR spokesman, Major General
Athar Abbas, "Nearly 55 to 60 Taliban have been killed over
the last 24 hours in the Buner operation." He informed the
media that two Frontier Corps personnel had also been killed and
eight injured in the operation, which entered its fourth day on
May 1. Abbas said the troops were killed when a suicide bomber
blew up a booby-trapped house. The military spokesman said the
resistance the Taliban had put up and their weapons – assault
rifles, anti-aircraft missiles and mortars – showed they had come
to Buner with the intention to stay. He said locals had confirmed
that foreigners were also present in Buner and fighting the SFs
along with the Taliban. Abbas said the SFs had foiled Taliban
plans to target the troops in suicide attacks. He claimed that
one would-be suicide bomber had also been arrested, after he attempted
to blow himself up. He also said ground troops backed by helicopter
gunships destroyed nine suicide vehicles and six vehicles of ‘fleeing
Taliban’. Three suicide motorcyclists were shot dead by ground
troops advancing on narrow mountain tracks, he added.
Representatives of the NWFP Government
and the TNSM failed to reach agreement on the appointment of Qazis
in the Malakand Division as talks resumed between the two sides.
In addition, the provincial Government turned down the plea of
TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad to halt the military operation
in the Lower Dir and Buner Districts.
Commander of the US Central Command,
General David Petraeus, has told American officials that the next
two weeks are critical to determining whether the Pakistani Government
will survive. "The Pakistanis have run out of excuses"
and are "finally getting serious" about combating the
threat from Taliban and al Qaeda extremists operating out of northwest
Pakistan, the general added. But Petraeus also said that "we’ve
heard it all before" from the Pakistanis and he is looking
to see concrete action by the Government to destroy the Taliban
in the next two weeks before determining the United States’ next
course of action.
May 2
Taliban militants attacked a security
post in the Mohmand Agency of FATA, triggering a battle that left
16 Taliban militants and two soldiers dead. About 100 Taliban
militants attacked the Spinal Tangi post before dawn, the army
said in a statement. "Sixteen militants were killed in retaliatory
fire. Two security forces personnel embraced shahadat (martyrdom),"
it added. Three troops were also wounded.
Five Taliban militants, including
two key commanders, were killed in fighting with the SFs in the
Charbagh tehsil ((revenue division) of Swat District. Sources
said the troops also seized a car prepared for a suicide attack
and arrested three armed Taliban militants.
May 3
Brigadier Fayyaz Mehmood Qamar,
who is in-charge of military operations in the Buner District
of NWFP, said the operations will be completed within a week.
Briefing the media in District headquarters Daggar, he said SFs
killed 27 suicide attackers, bringing the death toll of militants
to 80. Three SF personnel were also killed in the operation, he
added. The Brigadier said SFs faced stiff resistance while entering
into Buner, as the presence of militants at the Ambela hills was
very thick and suicide bombers, riding on motorcycles and vehicles,
were out to target the troops. Militants were still present in
Pir Baba and Suleman Bakhsh and a plan had been chalked out to
launch operation in this area, he said. The SFs have not initiated
any land offensive so far and the entire operation was conducted
with the help of artillery and gunship helicopters, he said. Brig
Fayyaz also said local militants were very few in strength while
Uzbek insurgents were present in large numbers, putting up a stiff
resistance. Further, the District Coordination Officer disclosed
that about 30-35 suicide bombers were still present in the area.
An Inter-Services Public Relations
(ISPR) press release stated that consolidation of positions was
carried out in Daggar and the surrounding areas. The press release
said the dead included a militant commander, Khalil alias Alam
Buneri, a main leader of the TTP. SFs also successfully evacuated
20 girls, who were trapped in the Daggar Girls College.
238 Policemen along with 126 soldiers
of the Army and 67 personnel of the paramilitary FC have been
killed in 1,240 terrorist attacks in the NWFP since January 2004,
according to official statistics. In addition, 526 Policemen,
204 FC personnel and 324 soldiers were wounded in these attacks
that also killed 806 civilians and injured 1993 others till April
15, 2009. Among those either killed or wounded during these attacks
were a number of senior officers of the Frontier Police, the FC
and the Army. The senior most of them was Deputy Inspector General
Malik Mohammad Saad, who was heading the Peshawar Capital City
Police when hit by a suicide bomber on January 27, 2007.
The banned TNSM – which had promised
to ensure peace in Swat District in return for the establishment
of Sharia (Islamic courts) –rejected the Darul Qaza appellate
court set up by the NWFP Government. Ameer Izzat Khan, the chief
spokesman for TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad, said the Government
had acted unilaterally in establishing the Darul Qaza and had
violated the peace agreement. He said it had been decided in a
May 1 meeting between the provincial Government and TNSM in Timergara
that the former would first announce an end to the operations
in Malakand following which the Taliban would declare a cease-fire.
Reports indicated that the Swat
peace deal stands dissolved and the militants present in Swat,
Matta, Kabal and Sangla as well as their commanders have asked
for permission to fight everywhere. "Our peace agreement
with the NWFP government practically stands dissolved," confirmed
Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Swat chapter of the banned TTP.
SFs are attacking us and our fighters are also retaliating, he
said. The TTP Swat spokesman vowed that their fighters would now
attack SFs and Government figures everywhere. He alleged the rulers
were obeying every directive of US President Barack Obama. When
asked about the dissolution of the Swat peace agreement, ANP spokesperson
Senator Zahid Khan said they had signed the accord with the TNSM
chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad and not with the Swat Taliban. He
said the Taliban had been violating the accord time and again.
However, the TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan said he did not know
about the scrapping of the agreement but if the operation continued
in the region, the situation would return to the one that prevailed
before the pact. He claimed the general public in Swat was now
opposed to the Government.
May 4
A suicide car bomber killed four
SF personnel and wounded eight persons in the outskirts of Peshawar,
the NWFP capital. Police sources said the attacker rammed his
car into a vehicle carrying SF personnel.
The Swat peace agreement crumbled
as Taliban militants took over Mingora, the district headquarters
of Swat in the NWFP, taking positions atop Government and private
buildings and patrolling the deserted streets. "The city is in
complete control of the Taliban, who say they are taking positions
to guard the local population," Mingora residents said. Local
residents said both the Security Forces and the Taliban militants
set up checkposts on roads leading to Mingora and soldiers were
seen on high alert in Kabal. Military authorities had announced
curfew in the city from 7pm to 6am and had warned the violators
of stern action.
The Taliban have made about 2,000
civilians in Buner of NWFP hostage and are using them as human
shield, the chief military spokesman said. The ISPR Director General
Major General Athar Abbas told the state-run Pakistan TV that
the Taliban had made the civilians hostage in Peer Baba and Sultan
Was areas and were not allowing them to leave.
Calling the Pakistani Government
and Army "enemies of Muslims", the Swat Taliban vowed to march
forward till death. "Either we’ll be martyred or we’ll march forward,"
said Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan. He also said elements in the
military and the Government were trying to sabotage the peace
process to please the United States.
The spokesman for TNSM has said
establishing peace was the responsibility of the government and
not the TNSM. Talking to reporters in Batkhela, he said the TNSM
would only be responsible for peace if Sharia was enforced
in the Malakand division. According to the channel, he called
for an end to the military action against the Taliban in parts
of the division and said peace could not be restored by force
and could only come through "the enforcement of sharia". He said
the NWFP Government had not consulted the TNSM on the appointment
of qazis.
The NWFP Government will not tolerate
any violation of the Swat peace agreement any longer, provincial
Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said. Talking to reporters,
he said the Government had demonstrated full sincerity in the
promulgation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation and had announced the
establishment of Darul Qaza to fulfil the demands of Sufi Muhammad
and the Taliban for peace in Malakand. However he warned of stern
action and "the use of the second option" against anyone who would
challenge the writ of the state. The minister asked the Taliban
to lay down weapons and support the government in its peace initiatives,
and told them the government would not tolerate any violation
of the agreement in future after the implementation of Nizam-e-Adl.
May 5
During clashes between the SFs
and militants in the Swat District, at least 18 persons, including
three militants and two SF personnel, were killed and 20 others
sustained injuries. Sources said clashes were going on in Mingora
city, Khwazakhela, Barikot and Shamozai areas, while heavy shelling
was witnessed in Qambar area. The shelling and firing continued
overnight in which scores of houses were destroyed. Militants
also attacked the DIG of Police’s office, Commissioner Office,
Police station and museum in Saidu Sharif and captured the DIG
office.
While talking to reporters, Taliban
spokesman Muslim Khan claimed militants were in control of ‘90
per cent’ of the valley and said their actions were in response
to "Army violations of the peace deal." The NWFP Government, however,
accused the Taliban of not honouring their commitments under the
peace deal despite the announcement of Darul Qaza in the Malakand
Division.
Seven people, including two children
and a Frontier Corps soldier, were killed and 48 others sustained
injuries an explosives-laden car rammed into a pick-up near a
check-post on the Bara road near Peshawar. The Bara Qadeem check-post
was manned by the Police and Frontier Constabulary. Eyewitnesses
said the car on a suicide mission was following a Frontier Corps
pick-up from Bara and hit it when it slowed down near the check-post.
The pick-up was carrying students to a school in Peshawar.
15 Taliban militants and two SF
personnel were killed in a Taliban attack on the Spinki Tangi
check-post in Mohmand Agency, the Inter-Services Public Relations
(ISPR) said. It also said six of the troops had gone missing after
the Taliban attacked the check-post around 3:30am. The SFs retaliated
by targeting Taliban hideouts in the Baizai and Safi sub-divisions
of Mohmand Agency. However, no casualties were reported.
A review board of the Lahore High
Court has extended for 60 days the detention of JuD (the Lashkar-e-Toiba
[LeT] front) chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed,
while releasing two outfit leaders Mufti Abdur Rehman and Ameer
Hamza. The board comprising Justice Mian Muhammad Najam-uz-Zaman,
Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Justice Fazal-e-Miran Chohan
turned down the home department’ request to extend the detention
of Mufti and Hamza after feeling dissatisfied with the material
produced against them. They would be released on May 6 (today)
after the expiry of their detention period. In the case of Hafiz
Saeed and Nazir Ahmed, the board extended their detention citing
security concerns.
The Federal Investigation Agency
in Rawalpindi submitted a charge-sheet against five men accused
of being involved in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The court
will frame chares against the accused on May 12. Anti-Terrorism
Court-II Judge Sakhi Mohammad Kahot, who has been conducting the
trial of the accused Shahid Jameel Riaz a resident of Bahawalpur,
Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of Islamabad, Abdul Wajid alias Zarar Shah
of Sheikhupura, Mazhar Iqbal alias Abu al-Qama, a resident of
Islamabad, and Hammad Amin Saddiq of Karachi in Adial Jail, distributed
the copies of the charge-sheet among the accused who would formally
be indicted on the next date of hearing.
The United States Special Envoy
for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said the Swat peace
deal was dead. Appearing before the House Committee on Foreign
Affairs, Holbrooke claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari had
already told the US that the agreement would not work. He said
Zardari was opposed to the deal and had only signed it under pressure.
Holbrooke suggested that the US might set benchmarks for its aid
to Pakistan in various areas, adding that such conditions must
not worsen the existing trust-deficit that was plaguing relations
between Washington and Islamabad. He also said security assistance
to Pakistan must be linked to results and the country must demonstrate
its commitment to defeat al Qaeda and other terrorists on its
soil.
May 6
In a bid to recapture the Government
buildings seized by the Taliban in Swat, SFs targeted militants’
strongholds with gunship helicopters and artillery, killing 60
militants. In the daylong fighting across the District, 40 civilians
and two FC soldiers were also killed.
The Taliban have planted countless
landmines and explosive devices around the populated areas of
Swat to stop the people from leaving their homes and for using
women and children as human shields against the military operation,
a federal cabinet meeting was told. However, sources close to
the Taliban denied mining of the area.
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan
told Al Jazeera that they are in control of "90 percent"
of the Swat valley. Blaming the breakdown of the Swat peace deal
on the Pakistani military, Khan said the peace accord with the
Government in Swat was over.
22 militants were killed after
the paramilitary forces raided Elahi village in the Buner District.
"The FC conducted a raid in the village of Elahi, located
west of Daggar, killing 22 militants," the FC said in a statement.
"Reportedly, 50 militants were looting the villagers and
on receiving this information, a force was sent to control them.
After a stiff encounter, 22 militants were killed and the rest
of them ran away," the FC stated. The death toll, however,
could not be independently confirmed due to the ongoing military
operation.
Suspected Baloch insurgents killed
three SF personnel and injured three others when they attacked
their van in the Thali area of Karmo Wadh town close to Sibi District.
May 07
Jet fighters and helicopter gunships
targeted Taliban hideouts and centres in various parts of the
Swat and Lower Dir Districts, killing 60 Taliban militants. "We
have carried out air strikes on known centres of militants killing
around 60 [Taliban] in Swat and Lower Dir," chief military
spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told.
The SF killed a son of the TNSM
chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad in a clash with the Taliban in Lower
Dir District, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said
in a statement. During an exchange of fire, 10 militants, including
Kifayatullah – son of Sufi Muhammad – was killed, it said. The
TNSM spokesman Amir Izzat Khan said the 43-year-old was killed
in helicopter gunship firing in Maidan area. "In an attempt
to eliminate and flush out [Taliban] from the area, FC [Frontier
Corps] launched an attack in early morning today… During exchange
of fire, 10 [Taliban] were killed including Kifayatullah, son
of Sufi Muhammad," the ISPR said.
Five members of a local armed
Lashkar (militia) were killed and six others injured when militants
opened fire at them in the Siyalo Talab area of Hangu District
in NWFP.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza
Gilani ordered the armed forces to launch an operation against
the militants and terrorists so as to flush them out completely
from Swat and Malakand in order to ensure security, restore honour
and dignity of the homeland and for the protection of the people.
"The government will not bow before the militants and terrorists
but will force them to lay down their weapons and will not compromise
with them," he said in his 20-minute televised address to
the nation.
President Asif Ali Zardari said
in Washington that military operations against extremists would
last until "normalcy" returns to the troubled Swat Valley.
"It is going to carry on until life in Swat comes back to
normalcy," Zardari said in reply to a question at a press
conference along with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US senators
John Kerry and Richard Lugar.
Army chief General Kayani has
said the army would employ all resources to ensure a decisive
ascendancy over militants. Chairing the corps commanders’ conference
at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, he said the army was fully
aware of the gravity of the internal threat. Gen Kayani told the
conference the army had developed full-scale facilities to focus
on low-intensity conflict-related operations. According to a press
release of the Inter-Services Public Relations, the Army chief
said: "The present security situation requires that all elements
of national power should work in close harmony to fight the menace
of terrorism and extremism."
May 8
SFs killed more than 140 Taliban
militants as the military operation continued in the Swat valley
of NWFP. 13 of them were killed in a major gun battle at Matta
Police station. Seven soldiers were also killed as the SFs took
control of Khawazakhela and Chamtalai, ISPR Director General Maj
Gen Athar Abbas said in a media briefing. He said military had
launched a "full-scale operation" in Swat and the Taliban
militants were on the run. He said the Taliban militants were
trying to block an exodus of civilians through coercion, taking
hostages, bombings and blocking roads with trees. According to
Reuters, he said there were 4,000 to 5,000 Taliban militants
in Swat, including Uzbeks and Tajiks.
Four people were killed and several
others injured when a rocket fired from an unidentified location
hit an Afghan refugee camp in the Jangal Khel area of Darra Adamkhel
in NWFP.
According to security sources,
an operation had been launched against the Taliban militants in
the Shen Dhand, Tor Chappar, Sunni Khel, Bosti Khel and Akhorwal
areas of Darra Adamkhel.
More than one million people left
their homes in the violence-hit Malakand region after a Taliban
surge and a military response, NWFP Environment Minister Wajid
Ali Khan said in a press briefing. "We appeal for international
help to cope with the rising number of internally displaced persons,"
the provincial minister told a news briefing. "We need huge
funds to provide [essentials] at the camps," he further said,
adding, "The funds provided by the federal Government are
insufficient... We need billion of dollars."
Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed
on a comprehensive "action plan" to flush out terrorism,
organised crimes and drug trafficking and plan to form a joint
border SF, a private TV channel reported. The plan will be put
before the federal cabinet’s of both countries for formal approval,
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in a press conference with
his Afghan counterpart Muhammad Hanif Atmar. "The safety
and defence of the two countries are inter-linked," the minister
said, adding, that Islamabad and Kabul now "fully realise
the need of working shoulder-to-shoulder to provide peace and
security to their people". The two countries agreed to help
each other by sharing real-time information and improving border
control management. They will also hand over to each other criminals
and "other anti-state elements". The interior minister
said Pakistan would provide facilities for training of Afghan
law-enforcement agencies’ personnel.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari
said that Pakistan will be able to root out violent extremism
with the help of sustained international support. "I can
assure the world on behalf of the people of Pakistan that we are
up to the task. Just help us. Get us the capability and we can
defeat the common enemy for a better tomorrow for our children
and the coming generations," he said. According to a private
TV channel, Zardari said in an interview with a US newspaper that
Pakistan could not remove its troops from the Pakistan-India border
to deploy them on its western borders. He said Pakistan had already
deployed a significant number of troops on the western border.
He added that the drone attacks would be more effective if the
US provided the technology to Pakistan.
May 9
SFs killed 55 Taliban militants
in various areas of Swat in NWFP, while 14 Taliban were killed
in Lower Dir District after gunship helicopters targeted Maidan
area. "We have hit certain militant positions in Mingora
with helicopter gunships," said military spokesman Major
General Athar Abbas. "The Taliban were harassing the civil
population and intensely involved in various activities of looting
and arson in the city of Mingora and, in an early morning attack,
helicopters engaged militant hideouts and reportedly left 15 militants
dead," Abbas added.
SFs also targeted suspected Taliban
positions at Rama Kandhao ridge in Matta tehsil (revenue division)
and destroyed the main headquarters of the Taliban there, a military
statement added. "Reportedly, 30 to 40 militants have been
killed," it added. Indiscriminate mortar fire by the Taliban
militants in Mingora had caused civilian casualties, it said but
no details were provided. A Taliban source confirmed heavy bombardment
of the Taliban positions by jet planes and helicopters.
Four missiles fired by a suspected
US drone killed an unspecified number of Taliban militants at
South Waziristan in FATA. Officials claimed that 10 Taliban militants
had been killed, while a deputy Taliban commander said five were
killed. However, tribesmen claimed they had counted 25 dead bodies.
Five suspected terrorists were
killed and a Policeman injured during an encounter at Baghbanan
Road in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Three of the dead have
been identified as Arab Shah, Abdul Akbar and Musarrat Shah, all
residents of Afghanistan.
A day earlier, General Petraeus,
head of the US Central Command, is reported to have stated that
Pakistan has become the nerve centre of Al Qaeda’s global operations.
"It is the headquarters of the Al Qaeda senior leadership,"
said the general. A ring of Tunisian suicide bombers arrested
recently in Iraq appeared to have received their directions from
Pakistan as well, he said.
May 10
SFs said they had killed up to
200 Taliban militants in 24 hours during the on-going operation
in Swat even as they secured the Shangla top and important towns
and ridges in the Dir and Buner Districts. Troops engaged the
Taliban in their Peochar headquarters and at hideouts in Kanju,
Mingora, Banai Baba, Namal, Qambar, Fizagath, Tiligram and Chamtalai,
the Inter-Services Public Relations said in an update. The Inter-Services
Public Relations claimed that 140-150 militants were killed in
an attack on the Banai Baba training camp in Shangla and 50-60
militants were killed in different areas of Swat valley.
The SFs secured Shangla top advancing
up to Biladram town, encountering improvised roadside bombs and
fierce Taliban resistance on Chamtalai bridge. The troops resumed
operation from Point 2245 and Point 2266 heights captured on May
9, and advanced up to Shalwal Kandao, where one soldier was killed.
The SFs also destroyed a Taliban training camp at Banai Baba in
Shangla, where up to 150 militants were confirmed dead.
The Taliban’s indiscriminate mortar
fire and roadside bombs planted in populated areas killed an unspecified
number of civilians. The Taliban also blew up two schools at Barikot
and Maniar, and killed a local prayer leader, Zahid Khan, at Nishat
Chowk.
In Dir, troops secured Kala Dag
and advanced up to Haya Sarai and continued to secure positions
on Gulabad heights.
Three civilians were killed in
strafing by gunship helicopters and a paramilitary soldier was
shot dead by militants in the Malakand Agency.
Reports from Timergara indicated
that SFs have secured areas from Kaladag to Hayaserai and killed
five militants in an operation in the Maidan area of Lower Dir
District. Other sources put the number of militants’ casualties
at 10. Major Qilla, considered to be one of the strongholds and
defence line of militants, was also captured.
26 Taliban militants were killed
in a three-hour encounter that followed a Taliban attack on a
frontier Corps (FC) camp in the Ambar valley of Mohmand Agency
and 18 militants were killed when troops retaliated to an attack
on their convoy in South Waziristan. In Mohmand, about 150 heavily
armed militants launched a midnight attack on an FC camp in the
Had area. Four FC soldiers were also injured during the ensuing
encounter. In South Waziristan, the Taliban attacked a security
convoy in Spin area south of Tanai. An officer, Captain Muneeb,
also died in the attack.
President Asif Ali Zardari has
announced that his Government would take over all Madaris (religious
schools) as part of Madaris reforms and separate the students
from extremists and they would be imparted modern education along
with religious education. He said in Washington that the Government
has resolved to bring reforms in the Madaris systems whereby the
academic courses will be made rather advanced while it will bring
them under the Government system.
The next few weeks would be pivotal
for Pakistan’s future, a top US general warned. In an interview
with Fox News, General David Petraeus, head of the US Central
Command, said "The next few weeks would be very important
and, to a degree, pivotal in the future for Pakistan." He
also pointed to Pakistan’s intensifying offensive against the
Taliban in Swat as a sign its political leaders, people and military
were united against the militants. "The actions of the Pakistani
Taliban seem to have galvanised all of Pakistan," he said.
"Certainly the next few weeks will be very important in this
effort to roll back, if you will, this existential threat — a
true threat to Pakistan’s very existence that has been posed by
the Pakistani Taliban," he added.
May 11
SFs claimed to have killed 52 militants in the
Swat District during the last 24 hours, while 31 persons, including
three civilians, were killed in Lower Dir District. Three soldiers
were also killed and 14 others wounded in Swat. In addition, seven
bodies, including one of a prayer leader at a mosque, were found
in different towns of Swat valley.
11 people were killed and 13 others injured in
a suicide attack on a camp of the FC in the Spina Thana area of
Darra Adamkhel in NWFP. The banned TTP, Darra Adamkhel chapter,
claimed responsibility for the attack, saying more suicide attacks
would be carried out if the military operation was not stopped
in Swat and other parts of the country. Spina Thana is located
between Matani village of Peshawar and the gun-manufacturing town
of Darra Adamkhel.
A Taliban commander close to Baitullah Mehsud
was among six people found dead from various areas of South Waziristan
- two months after the men went missing. The bullet-riddled body
of commander Tikka Khan Burki - the Taliban chief for Salayrogha
area in upper Kaniguram region - was found in Karwanmanza area
of Ladah sub-division.
The SFs have killed 700 Taliban militants in four
days of military operations in the Swat District, Interior Minister
Rehman Malik said. 20 SF personnel had also been killed, and nineteen
others injured. "The operation will continue until the last Talib...
We haven't given them a chance. They are on the run. They were
not expecting such an offensive," Malik said.
The military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas
said that "We have prepared for house-to-house fighting but if
the militants leave Mingora, then we will avoid it." He said the
SFs were heading towards Mingora from two directions and they
would link up before assailing the city in force.
In Mardan, an NWFP Government official said 100,000
displaced people were expected to join the 252,000 already there.
May 12
Reports from Mingora and Peshawar quoting Frontier
Corps sources said the SFs killed 13 militants in the Torwarsak
area of Buner District while there were reports about the killing
of 37 Taliban militants in an assault in the Gulabad area of Dir
Lower District and four others in Swat. Six bodies were found
in parts of Swat Valley while a person was shot dead in Kanju.
The SFs said four militants were killed in a clash triggered by
Taliban's firing at Mamdherai. Further, six beheaded bodies of
unidentified persons were recovered from Suhrab Khan Chowk, Peopleís
Chowk, Rahimabad, Landikas and Green Chowk. Arshad Kanju, resident
of Kanju, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen.
Fierce clashes between militants and the SFs were
reported from Gulabad and Chakdara towns of Dir Lower. Sources
said 37 militants were killed in an attack on Government Degree
College Gulabad, which was occupied by militants. Sources said
that 17 bodies were recovered from the building, damaged in clashes.
One soldier was also reported to have been killed in the clashes.
Nine militants, including a commander, were arrested in Chakdara
and Gulabad.
The Pakistan Army dropped helicopter-borne troops,
including commandos, in the stronghold of militants' chief Maulana
Fazlullah to conduct a search operation, while SFs made significant
achievements in the operation named as Rah-e-Haq 4. "The troops
have landed in the Peochar Valley in the north of Swat to accomplish
the task assigned to them," military spokesman Major-General Athar
Abbas said at a press briefing in Islamabad.
General Abbas said SFs in Swat, Shangla, Dir Lower
and Buner Districts had achieved considerable successes and, so
far, 751 militants and 29 SF personnel had been killed in the
ongoing operation while 77 soldiers sustained injuries. "The operation
was progressing smoothly, the militants were on the run and the
criminal elements, which had earlier joined the Taliban militants
in Swat, were deserting them along with new recruits," he added.
12 people were killed in a US drone attack in
South Waziristan Agency near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Tribal sources said six, or possibly more, missiles were fired
at three to four houses at Sunrai Zyara Leeta border village at
8 am. One of the houses was destroyed and others were damaged.
An unnamed senior Government official claimed the targeted compounds
were being used by local militants as a training and transit camp
to launch attacks in Afghanistan. He conceded there was no Government
presence in the area. He also had no information about the identity
of those killed and injured.
A charge-sheet submitted by Police in an anti-terrorism
court says that the Lashkar-e-Toiba assassinated former Commander
of the Special Services Group, General Aamir Faisal Alvi, to avenge
the role he played in the fight against militants in FATA. According
to the chargesheet prepared by Islamabad's Koral Police against
Major (retd) Haroon Ashiq, a resident of Pakistan occupied Kashmir,
Mohammad Nawaz Khan of Peshawar, and Ashfaq Ahmed of Okara in
Punjab, the murder was ordered by Ilyas Kashmiri of the LeT who
provided funds and weapons.
More than half a million people have fled fighting
between the military and Taliban in Malakand and registered with
authorities in the last 10 days, the UN refugee agency said. "As
of late yesterday (Monday), a total of 501,496 displaced people
from the new influx have now been formally registered ... since
May 2," the UNHCR said in a statement.
The Mardan Commissioner Khalid Umerzai said 432,000
internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been registered in Mardan
and nearby areas so far, and that 55,000 IDPs were residing in
the camps in Mardan. Talking to Dunya News, he said 884 new tents
had been pitched on May 11 while 1,600 more had been set up by
the afternoon of May 12.
May 13
11 militants and four SF personnel were killed
in clashes in the Swat District as troops dropped from the helicopters
gained a toehold in Peuchar, the Taliban headquarters. In addition,
five beheaded bodies were found in and around the Mingora city.
Further, there were reports of 24 casualties, including 18 militants,
in Lower Dir District. The Swat Media Centre (SMC) said 11 militants,
including 'commander' Naseebur Rahman, were killed in the ongoing
military operation against Maulana Fazlullah-led militants in
Swat. The SMC said four soldiers were also killed and 12 others
sustained injuries during operations in the last 24 hours. The
military on May 12 said that SFs had suffered 29 casualties and
inflicted 751 casualties in operations in Swat, Buner and Dir
Lower.
Normalcy is reportedly returning to Buner district
where people have started harvesting their crops, the SMC said,
adding that shops had also been opened. It said that steps were
being taken to clear the Sultanwas area.
Yahya Mustafa Kamran alias Hijrat, an Afghan national
and Taliban commander based in the Jamrud sub-division of Khyber
Agency, was killed along with four other militants in an encounter
with the SF personnel near Peshawar, capital of NWFP, about three
days ago. He had been arrested three months ago by Pakistani security
agencies for leading a series of attacks on NATO supplies. He
was associated with the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP and was one of
his loyal commanders. Baitullah had appointed him commander for
the strategic Peshawar-Torkham Road, and tasked him to disrupt
and destroy the NATO supply line to neighbouring Afghanistan.
Security agencies have arrested three key accused
of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. A private
TV channel reported that the arrested suspects were members of
the banned Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and hail from southern
Punjab. Two of the arrested men were directly involved in the
attack on the Sri Lankan players while the third provided logistic
support to the attackers in the city, the channel's sources said.
The channel also said the assailants had received training in
a militant camp at Wana in South Waziristan.
The US military has begun flying Predator drones
in Pakistan and given Pakistani officers significant control over
targets, flight routes and decisions to launch attacks, US officials
said. Officials said the project has been started recently to
bolster Pakistan's ability and willingness to disrupt the militant
groups active in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Under the new
partnership, US military drones will be allowed under the direction
of Pakistani military officials, working with American counterparts
at a command centre in Jalalabad. US officials indicated the programme
is aimed at getting Pakistan "more directly and deeply engaged"
in the Predator programme. "This is about building trust... This
is about giving them capabilities they do not ... have to help
them defeat this ... extreme element ... in their country," said
a senior US military official.
The JuD, the front for LeT, designated by the
United Nations Security Council as a terrorist outfit in the wake
of the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, has resurfaced
as a charity organisation providing food and other relief to the
thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Swat District. Eyewitnesses
said that the JuD is active in Mardan where most of the refugee
camps are located. They are distributing food and medical care.
One eyewitness who visited the area on May 9 said JuD workers
were organised under a charity organisation called Falah-i-Insaniyat.
They had set themselves up at a roundabout in Mardan town called
College Chowk, where they were collecting food donations for the
displaced. Despite the Government crackdown on the group after
the U.N. designation, the canopied stall was openly flying the
black-and-white flags of the JuD, with the insignia of the sword
and the Kalma, the Islamic doctrine of faith. The organisation
has also set up a relief distribution centre at a village called
Rustam, on the outskirts of Buner.
A Taliban spokesman issued a series of threats
and ultimatums against officials and demanded that all national
and provincial assembly members from the Malakand Division in
NWFP must resign within three days. "Otherwise, we will arrest
all their families… We will destroy all their buildings," Muslim
Khan threatened in a telephone interview with CNN. He issued a
separate directive aimed at prompting a public show of support
for the militants from Islamist political parties. "All these
parties must help the Taliban… They must give a press conference
to show the people that we need sharia in the Malakand division,"
he said.
The number of people who have fled from fighting
in the Swat District of NWFP and registered with authorities in
the last 11 days has increased to more than 670,000, the UN refugee
agency said. "The new figure of registered people since May 2
for the new influx is 670,906. That breaks down to 79,842 in the
camps and 591,064 out of camps," the UNHCR) spokeswoman Ariane
Rummery said. Those who were not sheltering in camps might be
renting homes, staying with friends or relatives, or camping out
elsewhere, Rummery said. The total number of those displaced by
the latest fighting between the Pakistani military and the Taliban
was likely to be higher, she added. The May 13 number was up from
the 501,496 people who had registered as of late May 12.
May 14
60 Taliban militants and nine soldiers were killed
during the ongoing military operation in Swat District. Military
spokesman Major General Athar Abbas confirmed 54 Taliban deaths
in a daily briefing, and said the military was taking "extra-ordinary
measures to avoid collateral damage". He said the army destroyed
at least 15 Taliban hideouts in the Ramotai Loe area of Shangla
District. Abbas said SFs in Barikot removed roadside bombs and
eliminated the remaining Taliban resistance to clear areas up
to Udigram, six kilometers short of Mingora, the main town in
Swat. While 13 militants were killed in the Tursak suburb of Mingora,
three of the, including a key commander, were killed during clashes
in Udigram. Further, Frontier Corps sources said 30 Taliban militants
were killed in Kalpani and 20 more were killed in the Hayasarae
area of Lower Dir District when troops destroyed the house of
a local administration official that the Taliban had occupied.
In addition, intense fighting was reported from Shalpalam and
Sultanwas, the Taliban stronghold in Buner District.
The Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani, visited Swat valley and vowed to flush out militancy from
the area. Gen Kayani visited Swat and met field commanders and
troops taking part in the operation. Appreciating the high morale
of the troops, he reiterated the Army's resolve to flush out militancy
from Swat and defeat the militants.
Nine militants were killed and 12 others arrested
in a search operation carried out by the SFs in the Mulakhel area
of Darra Adamkhel in NWFP, which was launched after the militants
blew up a school in Akhorwal area. Sources said unidentified militants
had planted explosive devices in the Government High School for
Boys at Akhorwal, which went off at 5:00 am, destroying four rooms
of the school. Consequently, SFs launched a search operation in
the Mulakhel, Sanikhel, Akhorwal and Bustikhel areas, killing
nine militants were killed and arresting 12 others.
SFs killed five militants in the North Waziristan
Agency after a military convoy was targeted with an IED in the
Pir Killay area, in which three soldiers were killed and four
others sustained injuries. Sources said the SFs convoy was on
its way to Bannu in NWFP from Miranshah when it was attacked with
the IED, leaving three soldiers dead and four others injured.
The vehicle was completely destroyed in the explosion. The troops
retaliated by resorting to artillery shelling at the militants'
positions from the Miranshah Tochi Fort, killing five militants.
Parliamentarians belonging to the FATA rejected
the TTP ultimatum to step down as legislators within three days.
These legislators contended that they would pay no heed to such
warnings and continue serving people of their respective constituencies.
"We are elected representatives of people, who have voted us to
the legislative bodies so that we could serve them and contribute
to the nation-building. Such threats have no value," said Sajid
Hussain Toori, who hails from Parachinar in the Kurram Agency.
Toori is part of a 10-member independent group of legislators,
headed by Munir Khan Orakzai. Abbas Afridi, who is a Senator from
FATA, also rejected the ultimatum. Another Senator Haji Khan Afridi,
who is from Khyber Agency, said that on such warnings or demands,
he would never resign.
More than 834,000 civilians have fled the recent
military operation in the NWFP, the UN refugee agency chief said.
The figure was an increase of more than 163,000 people registered
since May 13, as families piled onto trucks and tractors, or streamed
on foot out of the affected Districts to hastily set up camps.
"Some 834,000 internally displaced persons have been registered
so far. This is a massive, massive displacement in today's world,"
said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.
May 15
While asking the internally displaced people (IDPs)
to help identify the fleeing militants, SFs claimed to have killed
55 militants in the Swat and Buner Districts during the ongoing
military operation against the Taliban. SFs conceded three casualties
besides injuries to 11 soldiers. The SFs also claimed to have
gained success in their actions in different areas of the valley,
but the areas were not specified. The ISPR said SFs had credible
reports that the Taliban militants had shaved off their beards
and trimmed hair to escape action. It said these militants were
fleeing the Swat Valley in the guise of civilians. It asked the
people to help identify the fleeing militants to SFs.
Three soldiers were killed and four others sustained
injuries when their convoy came under a bomb attack near Miranshah
in North Waziristan. Troops besieged Pir Kala, about 10km north
of Miranshah, and fired on suspected militants' positions. Helicopter
gunships were called in to support ground forces. According to
local people, militants fired back and the ensuing exchange of
fire continued for over three hours. Officials said the military
convoy was going to Bannu in NWFP when it was hit by the bomb
detonated by remote control.
Three militants, including a local Taliban 'commander',
were killed in a bomb blast in the Sheikhan area of the Khwezai
subdivision of Mohmand Agency. SFs, however, claimed that they
had killed the three by targeting suspected hideouts with heavy
weapons late on May 14-night.
Authorities have ordered a fresh crackdown on
a charity linked to the JuD following reports that dozens of its
volunteers were at the centre of relief operations for the internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in NWFP. The move to act against the
Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation came after The Independent newspaper
reported that JuD volunteers were providing first aid and emergency
assistance to the IDPs. A senior official, however, said on May
14 that the Government was aware of reports of the charity's re-emergence
and was ready to act. "The Interior Ministry has directed that
no banned organisation will be allowed to resume activities under
the garb of humanitarian work," he said.
In the second week of a full-scale military operation,
the Government offered talks with the Taliban if they lay down
their arms. The offer, which came at the end of a five-day debate
of special National Assembly session on the situation in the Malakand
Division of the NWFP was made on behalf of Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani, by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan who,
however, made it clear the military would not be withdrawn from
the area before a "sustainable system of governance" was put in
place there. Awan said, "Yes the door for dialogue is open, it
is still open." Making what he called an "offer on behalf of the
leader of the house" (or prime minister), the minister gave what
he called a legal formula for a dialogue: "Remove your masks,
come in the open, put the guns down … only then talks can be successful.
There is no other way for talks."
The military leadership told the national political
leadership that there was no chance of moving the armed forces
from Pakistan's border with India for their deployment at the
western borders. In a five-hour-long in-camera briefing to the
national leadership at the Prime Minister's House in Islamabad,
the military leadership clearly said that no guarantee from the
international community could be accepted. According to sources,
on the query of PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif about the situation
at the eastern borders, the military leadership told the political
leadership that the United States had asked for the deployment
of forces at the Afghanistan border by moving them from the Indian
border and was even ready to give guarantees that India would
not make any misadventure against Pakistan. But Pakistan rejected
the proposal and made it clear that on the issue of national security,
it did not trust any kind of international guarantees.
May 16
47 Taliban militants were killed in various areas
of Malkand Division in the NWFP during the last 24 hours, said
the ISPR spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. Claiming significant
achievements in the ongoing military operation against Taliban
militants in the Malakand division he confirmed the presence of
hardcore foreign militants fighting alongside the Taliban against
Security Forces, adding, some 'key' foreign intelligence agencies
were also involved in the insurgency. He also said that there
were around 4,000 fighters in Swat, at least 10 percent of whom
were not locals.
At least 11 people, including two women and two
children, were killed and 31 others were wounded when a powerful
car bomb ripped through a congested locality in Peshawar, the
NWFP capital. Superintendent of Police (City) Ijaz Abid told that
the explosion was caused by a timed bomb in a car parked in the
Kashkal area of the city. He said the apparent target of the blast
was a nearby internet café. The bomb went off at around 2:20pm
and destroyed 17 cars and around a dozen shops.
25 people were killed in a suspected US drone
missile attack on a seminary and a nearby vehicle in North Waziristan.
Sources said that US drones fired two missiles in Mir Ali sub-division
of the North Waziristan - with one missile hitting the Anwarul
Uloom Islamia seminary and the other a vehicle. "It was a drone
strike on a compound where militants were staying," said an unnamed
security official. Other intelligence officials put the death
toll as high as 28, saying the dead were mostly local militants
who had been preparing to leave for Afghanistan to carry out attacks.
The officials added, however, that the bodies of most of those
killed were burnt beyond recognition.
Nine Taliban militants were killed and another
13 injured when the SFs attacked Taliban hideouts in the Upper
Orakzai Agency. Political administration sources said that SFs
targeted Taliban hideouts in Dabori, headquarters of Upper Orakzai,
using helicopter gun ships. Locals said all the dead were local
Taliban militants and that no key commander was killed in the
attack. Local Taliban, however, denied that any of their men were
killed in the attack on their hideouts in the agency.
May 17
As troops closed in on militants in the Matta
sub-division on Swat District, SFs said they had killed 25 militants
in the Arkot and Peuchar areas during the last 24 hours. One officer
was killed while seven soldiers sustained injuries during the
fighting.
A statement from the ISPR said the troops were
expanding their foothold in Peuchar, the area which served as
the headquarters of Maulana Fazlullah and his fighters. The troops
attacked a militant location in the area and secured an important
position in the area. Fierce fighting took place for the control
of the militant position, which resulted in casualties on either
side. The ISPR said during the operation one officer was killed
and two soldiers sustained injuries. The militants engaged SFs
with rocket launchers and 12-7mm machine guns and in the retaliatory
action, troops killed around 20 militants. In the Arkot and Nazarabad
areas of Matta, the troops destroyed a compound of the militants
from where the SFs faced resistance during their advance. The
compound was surrounded and cleared from militants while five
militants were killed during the operation. Following fierce fighting,
SFs were successful in securing the area between Kanju and Nawan
Kallay (Ayub Bridge) and from Ballogram to Takhta Band Bypass.
The militants were reportedly putting up resistance on the outskirts
of Mingora, the District headquarters of Swat, where intense clashes
were reported.
SFs launched an operation against militants in
Dir Upper District as warplanes dropped bombs in five villages
of the remote Doog Darra area to target suspected hideouts of
the militants allegedly led by an Afghan commander. Sources said
the strikes killed a child and a woman and injured several people
but there was no word about the militants' casualties. Dir Upper
became the sixth district of the Malakand Division out of the
seven where SFs have launched military action against the Taliban.
Chitral is the lone district where there is no military operation
at the moment.
Four civilians were killed when a mortar shell
landed on a house in Maidan area of Dir Lower District, where
SFs have been engaged in operation against the militants.
Pakistan will soon extend its war on the Taliban
to the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan, President Asif Zardari
said. "We're going to go into Waziristan, all these regions, with
army operations… Swat is just the start. [There's] a larger war
to fight," he told The Sunday Times in an interview. He
said Pakistan would need billions of pounds in military assistance
and aid for up to 1.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs),
on account of the operation. "We need much, much more than the
$1 billion [military aid] we've been getting, which is nothing,"
Zardari said. "We've got 150,000 troops in [the Tribal Areas]
- just the movement of that number would cost $1 billion," he
added.
The NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain
said that the number of registered internally displaced persons
(IDPs) - at relief camps and elsewhere - from Swat, Buner and
Lower Dir Districts has risen to over 1.5 million, while the total
number of IDPs is now estimated to be over 2 million. Addressing
the media in provincial capital Peshawar, he said that 150,000
IDPs from various troubled areas had been registered over the
last 24 hours.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that more
than 1,000 Taliban militants had been killed in the military's
three-week offensive in Swat District. "More than 1,000 Taliban,
including two commanders, have been killed while their training
centres and bases have been destroyed," Malik told a press conference
in Mardan. The minister also called on the Taliban to lay down
their weapons. "The army offensive will continue until the Taliban
are flushed out ... the Taliban are on the run, they will be eliminated
at any cost," he said after visiting a camp for the internally
displaced persons (IDPs). Malik said Security Forces (SFs) were
hunting for Taliban leaders in Swat. "Those leaders, those commanders,
who are controlling the Taliban, obviously we're going to hit
them. We're not going to spare them… You'll hear good news soon,"
he said. Malik said Dir and Buner districts are under complete
Government control and the IDPs from these areas could return
home.
The Amy claimed that hundreds of foreign nationals
were among the militants battling SFs in Swat. "These are militants
from countries bordering Afghanistan," military spokesman Major
General Athar Abbas informed a press briefing in Islamabad, but
did not name the countries. He said that about 4,000 militants
were fighting in Swat and 10 per cent of them (about 400) were
foreign militants. He said that infiltration from countries bordering
Afghanistan was also taking place. Gen Abbas said 23 foreign militants
had been killed since the operation began, adding that some "hostile
agencies" were providing resources to militants.
May 18
27 militants were killed as the
SFs started a ground offensive in the Swat District. Three important
commanders, including Okasha, Malanga and Riaz, were among 27
militants killed during the operation that has now been named
as Rah-e-Rast, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas
informed the media. He said Mamdherai Markaz was targeted by the
SFs and 10 to 15 terrorists hiding inside were killed. He also
said three SF personnel, including an officer, were also killed
and 17 others injured during the fighting. Abbas stated that the
SFs were engaged with militants inside Kanju town to clear the
area and an operation was underway in Takhtaband area, where seven
combatants were killed in a close encounter. According to him,
SFs had also expanded their foothold in Peuchar and killed 12
militants in the area. The troops also attacked and secured the
Dumber training centre, which was being used by militants as their
logistics base.
Several persons, including women
and children, were killed and a number of others sustained injuries
when families fleeing the military operation in Swat District’s
Matta town were shelled while crossing a mountainous path to reach
Karo Darra in Dir Upper District. Eyewitnesses, who escaped the
attack or were able to reach Wari town of Dir Upper in injured
condition, said they were targeted by gunship helicopters. However,
Police officials said they might have been hit by a stray shell.
Local people said they saw some 12 to 14 bodies on a mountain
on the Swat side but could not go near to retrieve them or help
the injured for fear of another aerial attack.
An AP report stated that
the TTP Swat chapter spokesman Muslim Khan has said the Taliban
would resist the SFs until the "last breath". "We
will fight until the last breath for the enforcement of Islamic
law," Muslim Khan told in a brief phone call from an undisclosed
location on May 17.
SFs killed five militants, including
an important commander in the Mulakhel area, and arrested six
others in an injured condition. Sources said the militants, equipped
with heavy weapons and explosives, were traveling in five vehicles
towards a camp of the SFs located beside the Friendship Tunnel.
They said the militants wanted to attack the camp located near
the tunnel. However, when flagged down at the checkpoint in the
Mulakhel area, the militants opened fire on the SF personnel.
In the retaliatory action, the troops killed five militants and
wounded six others who were subsequently arrested. The slain militants
included ‘commander’ Bilal Afridi, who planned and executed attacks
on the SFs in Darra Adamkhel. The four others were identified
as Umar, Majeed alias Hussaini, Saifullah and Munkaray.
According to official figures,
as many as 1,059 persons, including SF personnel and civilians,
were killed in 671 terrorist incidents, which also included suicide
attacks, in the NWFP from 2008 till March 25, 2009. During 2008,
a total 524 incidents, including 30 suicide attacks, were reported.
In these attacks 146 Policemen, 32 FC personnel, 76 Army/SF officials
and 595 civilians were killed while 1,962 were injured. In the
first four months of 2009, as many as 140 incidents of terrorism
and seven suicide attacks were carried out. These incidents claimed
26 lives of Police officials, nine of FC personnel, 12 of Army/SFs
and 126 civilian, while 771 people were injured. The office of
the Additional Inspector General of Police (Investigation) NWFP
revealed that Police foiled 94 terrorist attacks in 2008 and five
in 2009. They recovered 52,408 kilograms of explosive materials,
23 suicide jackets, 729 hand grenades/dynamites, detonators and
anti-tank mines and 134 rocket launchers, bombs, missiles and
mortar missile shells.
May 19
A Major and three soldiers were
killed in the ongoing military operation in Swat District as SFs
killed 16 more Taliban militants in fierce street battles in 24
hours. With the area surrounded by the SFs, Major Abid was hit
in an exchange of fire with the Taliban inside Matta. "Operation
Rah-e-Rast is making headway as planned, and in last 24 hours,
16 Taliban were killed ... an officer and three soldiers also
died," said the Inter-Services Public Relations in a statement.
The military is reported to have
stated that approximately 15,000 troops are confronting about
4,000 well-armed militants in Swat. Authorities said more than
1,030 Taliban militants and at least 53 troops have been killed
in a three-pronged onslaught launched in the districts of Lower
Dir on April 26, Buner on April 28 and Swat on May 8.
An operation to clear Sultanwas
in Buner District is reportedly in progress and troops are conducting
cordon and search operations in the area.
Reports from Chakdara indicated
that three civilians, including two children, were killed and
several others sustained injuries when jetfighters allegedly bombed
houses in Kithiarai and other areas of Adenzai in Dir Lower District.
Residents said jetfighters hit a house owned by one Yar Mulla,
killing his wife and two children. Three persons were also injured
in the attack in the area. In Landi Shagi area of Ouch, gunship
helicopters carried out shelling in which, according to the residents,
four persons, including a woman, were injured.
SFs claimed to have killed 13
militants and arrested five foreign combatants in an encounter
near Khapakh check-post in the Halimzai sub-division of Mohmand
Agency. A spokesman for the Mohmand Rifles Media Centre said SFs
arrested five Burqa (veil)-clad foreign militants when they were
trying to infiltrate into Afghanistan via the Pakistan-Afghanistan
route. Following their arrest, the spokesman said local militants
attacked the Khapakh security checkpoint with sophisticated weapons
from all sides. He said SFs repulsed the attack and killed 13
militants in the ensuing three-hour encounter. He claimed that
after the clash, the militants swiftly took away the bodies of
their companions. However, the body of one of the alleged militants
was recovered from the area. "Three of the arrested militants
belong to Saudi Arabia and one each to Libya and Afghanistan,"
the spokesman added. Following the clash, SFs imposed a curfew
and launched a search operation in the area. The sources said
three local suspected militants, whose names could not be ascertained,
were arrested during the search operation.
The TTP Mohmand Agency spokesman
Akramullah confirmed that the TTP Khyber Agency chief Hijratullah
was killed by SFs a few months ago. The spokesman told the BBC
that SFs had killed Hijratullah following his arrest. He claimed
that Hijratullah and his associate, Arbistan, had been tortured
to death along with three others, denying reports that they had
been killed in a Police encounter.
Nawabzada Aali S. Bugti was elected
chief of the Bugti tribe to succeed his late grandfather Nawab
Akbar Khan Bugti. A ceremony was held in Sui to formally inaugurate
Aali Bugti as the tribe’s chief and Amirhan Faqir, the custodian
of the shrine of Pir Suri, helped him don the traditional turban
and handed over the tribal sword to him. Aali Bugti is son of
Nawabzada Saleem Akbar Bugti, who died of heart attack when Nawab
Bugti was alive. He was with Nawab Akbar Bugti when the latter
left his home to lead his tribesmen to the mountains when the
military launched an operation in the area and disappeared after
Nawab Bugti’s death on August 26, 2006. He returned to Sui three
weeks ago, along with his younger brother. After the ceremony,
Aali Bugti paid tribute to his grandfather for sacrificing his
life and pledged to uphold Baloch traditions and rights of the
Baloch people.
May 20
SFs have completely secured the
Sultanwas area of Buner District, overcoming tough resistance
and killing 80 militants, Director General of the Inter-Services
Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Athar Abbas said in Islamabad.
"Since Tuesday morning to the completion of operation before
dawn, 80 militants have been killed," Abbas told a press
briefing. However, he said there was no independent confirmation
of the casualties due to the ground situation in the area. Sultanwas
was the main stronghold of the militants in Buner, where they
had made concrete underground bunkers and ammunition dumps.
The military spokesman said 1,057
militants and 58 SF personnel had been killed in the Swat, Dir
and Buner Districts since April 27. He said the foreign nationals
arrested so far included Afghans, Uzbeks and Arabs. "The
strategy is to kill the maximum number of terrorists. The militant
leaders are paying $50 to 60 per day to the fighters," he
said.
SFs claimed to have killed over
200 militants during the ongoing military operation in the Maidan
area of Lower Dir District since the launch of the offensive.
Operational Commander Brigadier Amal Zada, in charge of the ongoing
military operation in Lower Dir, told reporters in District headquarters
Timergara that over 200 Taliban militants had been killed so far,
while 14 Security Force personnel were also killed and 30 others
injured. He said a large number of militants had left the area
in the guise of internally displaced persons. He, however, said
they had cordoned off the militant infested areas and established
checkpoints in Hayaserai and Lal Qila areas of Maidan.
The Government has directed law-enforcement
agencies to arrest seven "highly trained militants and Al
Qaeda masterminds in Iraq" who - according to reports by
intelligence agencies - have entered Pakistan. According to an
official document BBC Urdu claimed it had received, those who
have entered Pakistan are planning to train ‘like-minded people’
and target key Government officials, including President Asif
Ali Zardari, the chief ministers of the four provinces and intelligence
agencies’ officers and commanders. The group could also target
embassies of non-Muslim and pro-US Muslim countries in Islamabad.
The intelligence report also said that Al Qaeda commanders met
in Afghanistan’s Paktia province on May 3 and decided they would
continue supporting the TTP.
May 21
19 people, including 11 suspected
militants and three SF personnel, were killed in the ongoing military
operation and a roadside blast in the Maidan area of Dir Lower
District in NWFP. Sources said two SF personnel, identified as
Captain Omarzeb and Lance Naik Shahzad Alam, were killed and two
others sustained injuries when a military convoy was attacked
with a remote-controlled bomb in the Shahi Koto area of Maidan.
Consequent to the blast, SFs opened fire, killing four persons
and injuring two children. Further, one trooper, Mehboob, was
killed during the search operation in the Kumbar area. Four militants
were also killed in the search operation.
During clashes in the Nanbati
and Kalpani areas, seven militants were killed, while a soldier
sustained injuries. In addition, a man was shot dead in Chakdara
for violating curfew. Residents of the area reportedly said there
was a curfew in the area for the last eight days.
SFs said that ‘a number of Taliban’
– including an important commander – and five soldiers were killed
in 24 hours in Swat, in the latest update on the military operations.
"An important ... [Taliban] commander, Abu Tariq, was killed
and seven Taliban were apprehended… A number of Taliban were killed,
while five soldiers also died in Kanju and Takhtaband area,"
said the Inter-Services Public Relations. The SFs have cleared
a number of Taliban hideouts in Peochar valley, and are conducting
search and destroy operations that have resulted in several battles
between the Taliban and the troops. The SFs have reportedly secured
and cleared the area up to Shahid Khapa, and are strengthening
their positions around Takhtaband Bridge, Barikot, Gokdara and
Udigram areas. The SFs also attacked Banai Baba Ziarat on May
20 and secured the highest point in the area.
Four civilians and five SF personnel
were killed and 25 injured in a suicide attack near a Frontier
Corps (FC) fort in the Jandola area of Tank. According to a private
TV channel, an explosives-laden truck rammed into the FC camp
damaging several nearby shops and the fort.
The top US military officer said
he is concerned that the US troop build-up to oust insurgents
from Afghanistan could further destabilise neighbouring Pakistan.
However, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm Mike Mullen, speaking
to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the military planning
is under way to try to avoid that. Mullen said he believes the
upcoming increase of 21,000 US forces in Afghanistan "is
about right" for the new strategy of trying to quell the
insurgency and speed up training of Afghan Security Forces.
May 22
17 militants and three SF personnel
were killed and ten SF personnel sustained injuries during fighting
in various areas of Swat District. According to an official announcement,
troops are consolidating their positions and expanding their control
over the valley. The SFs are reported to have secured militants’
strongholds in Takhtaband village and Qambar. During an encounter
between the two sides, eight militants and one soldier were killed
and six SF personnel were wounded.
In the Shangla District, troops
took control of Baini Baba Ziarat, Nazarabad, Uchraisar, and Wanai
Ridge. During clashes between the Taliban and SFs, three militants
and an Army officer were killed.
A powerful car bomb exploded near
the Tasveer Mahal Cinema hall in the busy Kabuli Chowk area of
Peshawar, capital of the NWFP, killing at least 10 people and
injuring over 65 others. Besides destroying the front elevation
of the Tasveer Mahal Cinema, the powerful explosion also damaged
another nearby movie hall, dozens of music centres and shops as
well as several vehicles. The blast also disconnected power supply
to the area hampering rescue efforts. Windowpanes of buildings
in the adjoining Qissa Khwani, Khyber Bazaar, Mohallah Jhangi,
Shoba Bazaar and Namakmandi areas were damaged due to the impact
of the explosion. The Capital City Police Officer, Safwat Ghayyur,
while admitting a security lapse, said 40-50 kilograms of explosives
were used in the blast.
May 23
17 Taliban militants, including
a ‘commander’, were killed by troops at Mingora in Swat, chief
military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. He said the
troops had secured a part of the city from the Circuit House to
Makan Bagh. Battles to secure Nawan Killi have begun and a link
up between forces coming from Fiza Ghat to Whataki Chowk and Ayub
Bridge to Nawan Killi has been completed. Intense clashes were
reported from Nishat Chowk in Mingora. On the Qambar Ridge overlooking
Mingora, three caves with large quantities of ammunition and rations
were discovered during a search and destroy operation. Gen Abbas
said there were about 1,500 ‘hardcore militants’ still fighting
in Swat, and that the army would try to complete the operation
in eight weeks.
May 24
Fighter jets and helicopter gunships
targeted Taliban hideouts in the Orakzai Agency of FATA, with
the AP news agency reporting at least 18 people killed
in the offensive. AP quoted a Government official as saying
that the targets were strongholds of Hakeemullah Mehsud, a deputy
to Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Hundreds have reportedly fled
the area amid the fighting.
Troops have secured several important
areas in Mingora, including a crossing infamous for beheadings
carried out by the Taliban, said SFs as the military killed 10
more militants in various areas of Swat District. The Inter-Services
Public Relations said 10 militants and three soldiers were killed
in gun-battles in various areas of Swat, while 14 militants were
also arrested. Five of the militants were killed in Malam Jabba
when the SFs were tipped off about their presence in the area.
The troops secured various important areas in Mingora – including
Wattakai Chowk, Nawakilli Chowk, Nishat Chowk, Sirafe Chowk, Gulshan
Chowk, Green Chowk, Haji Baba Chowk and Sohrab Chowk – in the
24 hours preceding the latest ISPR update on the operation. Green
Chowk is infamous for beheadings carried out by the Taliban. The
military said troops defused four IED during the operation in
Mingora. Further, after surrounding Peochar valley, troops entered
Peochar village and seized a huge cache of arms from Taliban hideouts
and overtook a factory manufacturing bombs and IEDs.
May 25
The SFs claimed to have secured the training centre
and logistic base of militants in the Malam Jabba area of Swat
Valley. SFs also killed four militants during operations in the
Fizagat and Peuchar areas and arrested eight others. According
to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), SFs faced stiff
resistance from the militants in Malam Jabba. However, it said
the troops secured Malam Jabba, believed to be one of the strongholds
of the militants in the valley. Located on main line of communication
that links the Swat Valley with Mansehra, the area with thick
forest was being used as a training centre and logistic base by
the militants. SFs also secured Fizagat, a few kilometers north
of Mingora city, and the area up to Watakai. During the operation,
two militants were killed and six soldiers were wounded in an
encounter.
The Taliban chief in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah,
has asked his men to stop battling the SFs in Mingora, a stronghold
of the militants. "Maulana Fazlullah has directed all his mujahideen
to stop resistance in Mingora and its surroundings to avoid hardships
to the people and losses to the civilian population," said Taliban
spokesman Muslim Khan. "Most of our mujahideen have already left
Mingora," he said by telephone from an unspecified location. He
accused the military of killing civilians during its operations
in the Lower Dir, Buner and Swat Districts. The Army spokesman
Major General Athar Abbas, however, said the militants "have started
using ploys to escape. They are now remembering the civilians
whom they used to behead and decapitate."
Unidentified gunmen shot dead three Shia labourers
in a drive-by shooting in Dera Ismail Khan. The assailants, riding
a motorcycle, opened fire on a group of workers at a construction
site, local Police chief Muhammad Iqbal said. "Three of the workers
died on the spot and one was injured. The victims were all Shias,"
he told. The slain civilians were identified as Muhammad Nawaz,
Jahangir and Mumtaz Hussain.
May 26
SFs have gained control of half of Mingora city
and killed 29 militants in various areas of Swat Valley during
the last 24 hours besides arresting 14 others, the Inter-Services
Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Athar Abbas
said. "Six soldiers also laid down their lives and 11 others sustained
injuries," he told reporters at a press briefing in Islamabad.
"More than half of Mingora is under the army's control. We have
plugged all escape routes for militants," said Abbas, adding that
pockets of "hardcore militants" remained. The military spokesman
said the operation was progressing well despite stiff resistance
by the militants. He said street fights and house-to-house search
was going on in Mingora city. Athar said 18 militants were killed
in Mingora during an encounter and seven others were arrested
when they were trying to escape towards Buner District. He said
four IEDs were also defused in the area.
About Buner, he said 90 percent area of the District
had been cleared although some terrorists are present at Pir Baba.
During search at check-posts, four militants have been arrested,
he said. He added that in the night of May 25, about 100 to 120
militants attacked the Kalpani post in Dir Lower District from
three directions and the attack was repulsed and militants suffered
heavy casualties. Eight bodies have been recovered in close vicinity
of the check-post. Two SF personnel were also killed in the incident
and three others were wounded.
Several militants and five civilians were killed
and 10 others injured in shelling by the military gunship helicopters
in Shangla District. Sources said the SFs, backed by gunship helicopters,
targeted the militant-infested areas of Jabar, Amnavi and Achar.
The sources added these areas were heavily shelled and SFs on
the ground continued search and cordon operations. There were
reports that several militants and five civilians were killed
in the shelling.
Three Policemen and a suspected militant were
killed and an ASI sustained injuries in a pre-dawn encounter with
local and foreign militants in the Malikyar village of Haripur
District of NWFP. This was the first major case involving militants
in Haripur District. The suspected militants were believed to
have attacked the Police party in a bid to secure the release
of five women, who had been put under house arrest after the Police
arrested a foreigner, Abdullah, from there last week. Some hand
grenades, Kalashnikovs, computers and CDs having footages of the
Taliban, were also recovered in the raid.
The Taliban said they wanted to return to the
peace deal with the NWFP Government, similar to the one that collapsed
in April 2009 and triggered the military operation in Swat and
Malakand, CNN said. The TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad claimed
the Taliban in Swat District were willing to disarm if the Government
implemented Sharia (Islamic law) in the region, his spokesman
said.
SFs launched a military operation against the
Baitullah Mehsud-led militants in South Waziristan, reportedly
killing seven militants. However, the military spokesman, Major
General Athar Abbas, denied the operation in South Waziristan
and said SFs had just consolidated their positions in the region.
The UN is considering asking Pakistan to pause
its offensive against the Taliban in order to provide aid to those
trapped in the conflict, a top UN official has said. Thousands
of civilians are trapped in areas where aid workers say aerial
bombardment by the military and landmines planted by the Taliban
have forced people to remain in their homes with little food and
water, communications or medicines and no power. "We are ... very
concerned about those still trapped inside the conflict zone,"
Manuel Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan, told AlertNet. He also said,
"A humanitarian pause is a subject of discussion and with the
very good liaison we have with the armed forces, it is obviously
something that we would not shy away from asking for." Around
200,000 civilians are trapped in Swat and tens of thousands in
Buner and Lower Dir Districts.
The UNHCR said that almost 126,000 people were
being displaced daily, and most of them were taking care of themselves
instead of relying on international aid.
May 27
Suicide bombers detonated a vehicle loaded with
100 kilograms of explosives near offices of the capital city police
officer (CCPO) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Lahore-
killing at least 27 persons and injuring 326 others, in addition
to destroying a two-storey building of the Rescue 15 police service,
according to Police. An ISI colonel and 15 Police officials were
among those killed. Witnesses said the attack started midmorning
when two gunmen stepped out of a white van - which had pulled
up in a narrow street separating the police and ISI buildings
- cautioned civilians to take cover, and started firing at SF
personnel deployed down the street. The gunmen also hurled a grenade
at the SFs personnel. As the firing continued, the driver managed
to cross the concrete barrier, but could not get further and was
forced to blow up the vehicle there. Superintendent of Police
Sohail Sukhera said a threefold security cordon prevented the
attackers from getting to the offices CCPO and ISI offices. He
said the terrorist in the vehicle was shot - which prompted him
to blow up the vehicle about a hundred feet away from the intended
target, in front of the Rescue 15 building.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the blast
was in reaction to the military operation in the Malakand Division
of NWFP. Addressing journalists in Karachi, Malik said the attack
appeared to be a suicide blast, but did not divulge further details.
He said "terrorists have arrived here" after being defeated in
FATA. He said that TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud had threatened to
carry out attacks if the military offensive was not stopped.
15 Taliban militants were killed and several injured
by SFs shelling in South Waziristan Agency. According to a private
TV channel, the SFs shelled Taliban hideouts in Sarokai area,
killing 15 militants and injuring several others.
SFs said they would clear Mingora town in Swat
District of the Taliban within two to three days, as 12 more militants
were killed in the ongoing military operation. Mingora Force Commander
Brigadier Tahir Hamid told the media that SFs had secured 70 percent
of Mingora city. He said the army was chasing the Taliban through
the streets.
Troops claimed to have killed 10 militants in
the Maidan area of Lower Dir District. Militants' hideouts in
Zaimdara, Shagai, Dabako, Babagam and other place of upper Maidan
reportedly came under shelling. A local source said that the Taliban
militants were fleeing Maidan and only a few hardcore militants
were offering resistance. He said the militants who had come from
Waziristan were not seen patrolling the area for over a week.
"They have either been killed in the operation or have returned
to Waziristan," he added.
The NWFP Government has received reports that
TTP Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah has been killed in the military
operation in Swat, provincial Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain
said. He told the media in capital Peshawar that several key militant
commanders' deaths had already been confirmed. The NWFP government
has also decided to place head money on the Taliban leadership,
he added.
A senior official of the country's premier defence
nuclear establishment has said that a large force of nearly 10,000
people is in place to ensure security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal
and western fears about the safety of the weapons are unfounded.
Air Commodore Khalid Banuri, who is Director of Arms Control and
Disarmament Affairs at the Strategic Plans Division, said that
Pakistan's 'command and control structure' for the weapons was
better than that of many other nuclear states, and many countries
and their experts had officially acknowledged this. In an interview
with Dawn News, Air Commodore Banuri described as "preposterous"
western media reports that Pakistan's nuclear weapons might fall
into wrong hands - terrorists or other non-state actors. "The
intent clearly appears to be mala fide," he said, adding "It does
not make sense for anyone to continue to harp on this despite
having understanding of how Pakistan does its work." He said:
"We have taken stringent measures which are legislative, institutional,
procedural and administrative. We have ensured all aspects of
nuclear capability." Elaborating, he said that a large force of
highly trained and professional people - in fact over 10,000 people
were looking after the security of the nuclear assets.
May 28
Terrorists attacked Peshawar, capital of the NWFP,
and its environs as eight people were killed and over 68 sustained
injuries. Two separate blasts took place in the Qissa Khwani bazaar
while three Policemen were killed and nine others injured in a
suicide attack on a Police vehicle at the Sra Khawra security
post on the Kohat road. Two suspected militants were killed and
two others arrested in an encounter between the Police and alleged
terrorists who had taken shelter in a building located behind
Qissa Khwani bazaar soon after the two blasts.
A Policeman and two passers-by were killed and
13 people wounded when a suicide attacker exploded an auto-rickshaw
near a Police checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan.
SFs entered Bahrain, while seven more militants
were killed and four others, including an important commander,
were arrested during the last 24 hours in the ongoing operation
in Swat Valley, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
Four soldiers were also killed while 12 others sustained injuries
in clashes between SFs and militants in different areas of the
valley.
A report has indicated that the Taliban in Swat
pay mercenaries for killing Police and army troops, a suspected
Afghan terrorist arrested by local Police told the media, adding
that he was paid PKR 20,000 to kill a Policeman. "I beheaded five
policemen in Sitara Chowk," Ghaniur Rehman told reporters after
SFs arrested him from Malukabad area of the city a day earlier.
The suspected Afghan terrorist said he received training at a
Taliban training facility in the Charbagh area.
At least five persons, including a woman, were
killed when unidentified attackers opened indiscriminate fire
on a customer service centre in Quetta, capital of Balochistan.
The assailants, who were riding a motorcycle, attacked the service
centre on Kalat Street, Jail Road at around 11pm.
More than 20 suspected militants and their financiers
were arrested during separate operations in the Jamrud and Bara
areas of Khyber Agency in FATA.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a spokesman for the TTP chief
Baitullah Mehsud, claiming responsibility for the bomb-and-gun
attack in Lahore that killed 27 persons and injured 326 others,
warned of more violence in response to the military operation
in Swat and surrounding areas. Speaking to the media from an undisclosed
location, the Taliban commander said "I appeal to [people] of
Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to vacate their cities
as there will be more such massive attacks, more dangerous than
this and we will target government buildings and places". Referring
to the blast site in Lahore, he added, "We [have been] looking
for this target for a long time".
May 29
SFs have taken control of Bahrain and cleared
Peochar village in the Swat District, the Inter-Services Public
Relations (ISPR) said as SFs killed 28 Taliban militants, including
commander Khush Mir Khan a.k.a. Abu Huzaifa. "The security forces
have successfully secured Bahrain," said the ISPR in a statement,
adding that the army had also arrested seven Taliban militants
from various areas of Swat. Some of the heaviest recent fighting
is reported to have taken place in Bahrain. In a cordon-and-search
operation, the SFs cleared the Taliban stronghold of Peochar village.
"The army destroyed Taliban hideouts, including a madrassa, and
seized 12 UN-registered vehicles," said the ISPR, adding that
four tunnels storing rations stolen from NGOs were also discovered
and a 'huge cache of arms' confiscated.
During a search operation in the Kalpani area
of Lower Dir District, the army killed six Taliban commanders,
identified as Qadir, Noor Hameed, Aftab, Yousaf, Iftikhar and
Iftikhar.
The SFs also defused five improvised explosive
devices during a search operation around Daggar in Buner District.
The army is reported to have killed 13 Taliban militants hiding
in a compound during a gun-battle.
1,300 militants and 90 SF personnel have been
killed so far during the ongoing operation. Official sources said
the troops were moving towards Kalam and would soon enter the
area. Troops are also reportedly ensuring that the militants do
not return to the areas cleared of them.
Pakistan hiked a reward for Maulana Fazlullah,
the Taliban chief in Swat valley, wanted dead or alive, to PKR
50 million, 10 times more than an original bounty. "The federal
government has announced 50 million rupees," an Interior Ministry
spokesman told. "The five million rupees head money was announced
by the provincial government in the NWFP," he added. The Interior
Ministry also published a list of "miscreant-terrorists" from
the Taliban leadership in Swat and District capital Mingora, offering
PKR 50 million for Fazlullah and PKR 10 million each for 15 of
his aides.
The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)
has crossed the three million mark, according to the NWFP Government.
Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said at a press conference
in provincial capital Peshawar that the number of IDPs now stood
at 3.4 million - 2.8 million of them from Malakand Division alone.
He said the provincial Government was determined to provide all
possible facilities to the displaced people and a substantial
number of lady doctors had been deputed to look after them.
Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas has
said that "many of the Taliban's arms are coming across the border
from Afghanistan ... the US should stop worrying about Pakistan's
nukes and start worrying about the weapons lost in Afghanistan".
A private TV channel reported on May 29 that the Inter-Services
Public Relations (ISPR) Director General said the current conflict
in Swat was intricately linked to the situation in Afghanistan.
He estimated that 10 percent to 15 percent of the Taliban in the
Swat valley and its adjacent areas were foreign fighters. He also
said Mingora could be secured in 48 hours, but it may be "much,
much longer" before the area was totally pacified. He also said
that there was "no plan, date or time for the launch of an offensive
in South Waziristan".
May 30
SFs have cleared Mingora city in the NWFP of the
Taliban and destroyed the stronghold of the militant commanders,
ISPR Director General Major General Athar Abbas said. Addressing
a joint press conference with Information Minister Qamar Zaman
Qaira, he said 25 Taliban militants were killed during the last
24 hours, including commanders, Abu Saeed Misbahud Din and Sultan
Khan. He said SFs have successfully secured Nawagai and Najigram,
and seized a large cache of arms and ammunition. He also said
that the training centre of known Taliban commanders Lal Din,
Said Jalil and Mian Said Liaq have been destroyed in Peochar,
adding, five 100-foot-long tunnels have also been demolished.
Responding to questions, he said 1,217 Taliban militants were
killed and 79 arrested since the start of the military offensive
on April 26. In the same period, 81 SF personnel were also killed
while 250 others sustained injuries, he added.
Two Taliban militants and a soldier were killed
in a clash between Security Forces and militants in South Waziristan.
The TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud has ordered his
followers to carry out bombings in small villages of Swat and
FATA and establish hideouts in other areas of the country, a private
TV channel reported. In letters to various Taliban commanders
in Lower Dir, Swat and Buner, Mehsud said the bombings in the
villages would help conduct suicide missions in cities later.
He said the army had reached every nook and corner of Swat, therefore,
the Taliban must find new hideouts.
May 31
25 militants, including a senior commander of
the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP, Miraj Burki, and six soldiers were
killed and several others wounded in clashes between the militants
and SFs in South Waziristan Agency. Other reports said 13 soldiers
were killed and over two dozens injured. Fierce fighting between
the two sides has reportedly forced thousands of tribal families
to leave their homes in the Mehsud-inhabited areas.
Three soldiers, including a Lieutenant, were killed
and some others injured in an ambush on a military convoy by the
Taliban near Tiarza. The convoy was heading towards Tiarza from
Shakai when it was attacked.
SFs entered the Kalam Valley and took control
of Mingora city, while 12 militants were killed during the last
24 hours in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Rast, the ISPR said. Eight
SF personnel were also killed and six others sustained injuries,
it added. Mingora city is now reportedly in control of the SFs
who are manning every square, street and building and keeping
a vigil on every passing vehicle and people. The troops advancing
on the north of Mingora entered Kalam Valley at 10:00 am. The
ISPR said troops had secured Mankial, some 14 kilometers from
Bahrain, and continued consolidation of their positions in Bahrain,
Kuz Laikot and Kidam.
The military operation in Swat District will be
completed in two to three days, Secretary of Defence Syed Athar
Ali said. Speaking at a security summit in Singapore and talking
to Reuters later for an interview, Ali said the military
operation in Swat had "met almost complete success", with only
5 percent to 10 percent of the job remaining. "Hopefully within
the next two to three days these pockets of resistance will be
cleared," Ali told the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual meeting
of defence ministers, officials and experts.
Security Forces launched an operation in the Yakh
Tanghi Top area Alpuri in Shangla District, killing several Taliban
militants and destroying their hideouts and a base. Artillery
units based in Shangla Top attacked several hideouts of militants
who had sneaked into the area from the Swat and Buner Districts.
Official sources said that a Government rest-house in Yakh Tanghi
built by the former ruler of Swat and being used by militants
as their base was hit by shells, leaving several militants dead.
Videos made by the Taliban in Swat have reportedly
shown teenage boys being groomed as suicide bombers. Militants
went from house to house in May demanding a man or boy from each
family. The recruits were encouraged to volunteer for suicide
missions. A Taliban spokesman has said the recent suicide attacks
in Lahore and Peshawar were revenge for the army's assault in
the NWFP. Films obtained by Sunday Telegraph show boys
of 14 or 15 recording farewell messages before climbing into vehicles
filled with explosives.
The NWFP Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar
Hussain, has confirmed the death and arrest of the second and
third-tier leadership of the militants during the military operation
in Malakand Division and hoped their top leadership would also
be neutralized soon. About the Internally Displaced Persons, the
minister said some 19,838 families or 116,391 individuals had
been registered at camps, while 380,543 families or 2,805,073
people were living outside the camps in Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera,
Charsadda and Peshawar Districts.
June 1
SFs claimed to have killed 37 militants in the
Swat Valley and the Buner District during the ongoing military
operation against Taliban. In addition, troops launched an operation
in the Charbagh area of the valley to clear it of the militants,
while curfew was lifted from Kalam town after talks between SFs
and local elders. The Frontier Corps sources said SFs engaged
the militants in their hideouts in Pacha Killay, Tongo Pull, Jawar
and Gul Killay. 19 militants were killed during an exchange of
fire between the SFs and Taliban, the sources claimed. The ISPR
said 18 militants were killed and 12 others were arrested during
the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat Valley. The ISPR said
normalcy was returning to Mingora. The ISPR also said food items
and medicines were being supplied to the city, while hospital
staff and technicians had already been flown in.
SFs carried out a search and destroy operation
in the Dambar Kandao area of Peuchar and destroyed a training
centre of the militants. A newly-constructed, 50-foot-long tunnel
in the area was destroyed, along with a huge cache of arms and
ammunition. The ISPR claimed that nine militants were killed and
six others sustained injuries in the operation. One soldier sustained
injuries in firing by the Taliban.
Troops are reported to have dislodged militants
from most of the towns in Buner District, but Pacha Killay and
its surrounding areas are still believed to be infested with the
Taliban militants. The militants on May 31 reportedly beheaded
three persons in Pacha Killay for spying for the SFs. The Buner
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Yahya Akhundzada said the
situation in Pacha Killay had improved. He, however, admitted
that there was still a problem beyond Pacha Killay. "Pir Baba,
Gokand and Karakar are still volatile, but action will certainly
be taken to clear these areas of the militants," the DCO said.
About the overall security situation in the District, Akhundzada
said normalcy was returning to Buner. Yahya told that 50 per cent
employees had resumed their duties, while others had conveyed
by phone that they would rejoin on June 2 (today). About some
reports of suspension of Police officials, he said more than 100
Policemen had been suspended for failing to resume their duties.
Taliban militants abducted a convoy of 30 buses
carrying more than 500 students and staff of the Razmak Cadet
College (of North Waziristan) in Bannu in the NWFP. They were
on their way to Bannu after the college closed for its summer
vacation, town Police chief Iqbal Marwat said. "Only two buses
carrying some 25 students reached Bannu," Marwat said, adding
that about 28 buses carrying around 400 students were missing.
"They have been kidnapped by Taliban militants," said Marwat.
The college is an army-run educational institution for civilians.
A high-level meeting on national security approved
the establishment of a new special anti-terrorist force in all
the four provinces and the federal capital Islamabad. The meeting,
jointly presided over by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime
Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani at the Presidency, reviewed the
law and order situation in the country. Sources said it was decided
to constitute a new special anti-terrorist force in all the four
provinces and Islamabad. The force would be trained to deal with
acts of terrorism and provided with latest weapons. In the special
anti-terrorist force, the sources said, 25,000 personnel would
be recruited in each province and the federal capital. Each personnel
would draw a monthly salary equal to $300.
June 2
Battling the Taliban militants for the control
of Charbagh in Swat Valley, Security Forces faced stiff resistance,
killing 21 militants and suffering three casualties during the
last 24 hours, the ISPR said. In addition, 18 militants were arrested
during the Operation Rah-e-Rast in Charbagh and other areas.
SFs, after asking the local population to vacate the area, launched
an operation against the militants in Charbagh and Kabal areas.
The ISPR said that the troops, during the operation in Charbagh,
cleared the area between little-known Jangle Tekri and Sra Chena.
One soldier was killed during the clashes while four others sustained
injuries. However, the troops successfully secured Alamganj, Waliabad
and Gulibagh areas in Charbagh, the ISPR said. During the clashes
in Charbagh and Alamganj areas, it said 14 militants were killed
and 18 others arrested.
The ISPR said troops also undertook operations
in the Shangla District. An exchange of fire took place between
the two sides in which two soldiers were killed while two others
sustained injuries. SFs, it said, killed five militants during
the operation.
Dozens of unidentified armed men shot dead a Policeman
and security guard of the NATO supply terminal in Chaman town
before setting ablaze four trailers loaded with supplies for the
NATO forces in Afghanistan. No group has claimed responsibility
for the attack, which is the first of its nature in the border
town.
Around 50 cadets and teachers from the Razmak
Cadet College are still in Taliban custody, a private TV channel
reported after SFs said they had rescued 71 kidnapped cadets and
nine employees from North Waziristan.
A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) accepted
a habeas corpus petition and ordered the Government to release
JuD, the LeT front chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Col (retd) Nazir
Ahmad. The court observed that "After hearing the learned counsel
for the parties and perusal of the case law on the subject as
well as the material produced by the learned law officers in chamber,
for the reasons to be delivered later on, with a unanimous view,
we have held that this writ petition in the form of habeas corpus
is maintainable as prima facie the government has no sufficient
grounds to detain the petitioners for preventive measures." "As
far as the UN resolution is concerned, there is no matter before
us about the vires and the government can act upon the same in
letter and spirit if so advised. But relying on the same, the
detention cannot be maintained, as it was even not desired thereby,"
it read.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said India's
views on the release of Hafiz Saeed were misplaced. Responding
to a statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs
on the release of Saeed, the spokesman said: "The views expressed
therein are misplaced. It is best not to comment on a court decision."
He said the Government of Pakistan was well aware of its obligations
under the national and international laws. The spokesman said
Pakistan had demonstrated sincerity and commitment vis-à-vis inquiry
and ongoing investigations concerning the Mumbai attacks. "Polemics
and unfounded insinuations cannot advance the cause of justice
in civilised societies. Legal processes cannot and must not be
interfered with," he added.
June 3
SFs claimed to have killed three militants in
the Bedara area of Matta sub-division in Swat and secured Charbagh,
where troops were now consolidating their position.
In Lower Dir District, the SFs launched an operation
and successfully secured the area from Gulabad to Shewa, Kithiari
and Asband.
In the Buner District, the SFs started an operation
early in the morning and successfully secured Pir Baba and Bhai
Killay.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told
reporters on a military-organised tour of Mingora town that it
could take another two months of fighting to overthrow the militants
from all their hideouts in Swat and the surrounding areas. He
added, though, that the two months timetable was "a rough estimate."
Earlier, Major General Ijaz Awan, a senior commander in Mingora,
said the military hoped about 2,500 Police personnel would return
to Mingora by end of June 2009 to take over security, but that
the army would probably have to stay in the Swat region for at
least another year to fully secure it.
220 schools were reportedly blown up by the militants
in Swat, during the ongoing wave of militancy while more than
10 private institutions were also destroyed. More than 60,000
students could not appear in the intermediate exam and all of
them are now living in other cities as displaced persons. This
was revealed in a report released by the Global Peace Council
(GPC). President of the GPC, Ziaullah Yousafzai, while addressing
a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, said the 92-year-old
infrastructure of Swat had been completely destroyed during the
insurgency in the valley. He also said students of the entire
District were vulnerable to the post traumatic effects and most
of them had already developed psychological diseases.
Pakistani authorities said that they would appeal
against a court order to release the JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad
Saeed. "The government has decided to file an appeal against the
release order of Hafiz Saeed," Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah
told after the Lahore High Court ordered Saeed's release. "We
have received the detailed verdict of the court. Our legal advisers
are studying it, and we told them to file an appeal against this
verdict," he said.
US President Barack Obama is seeking an additional
$200 million to help the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of
Swat and Malakand Division, the US Special Representative for
Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Hobrooke said. "Today, the president
(Obama) requested the Congress of the US to allocate an additional
$200 million," he told a joint press conference with President
Asif Ali Zardari and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in
Islamabad. He said the reconstruction phase would be very important
and critical, and assured full American help and support in this
phase. "We are committed to helping you strengthen democracy,
to defeat militants in the west who threaten democracy in Pakistan,
democracy in Afghanistan and stability throughout the region,"
he said. The US has already announced $110 million for the IDPs,
and Holbrooke said if the additional $200 million were allocated,
the total US aid would exceed $300 million. The special envoy
also urged other nations, including the European Union and the
Gulf Cooperation Council to do more to assist Pakistan deal with
the IDP crisis.
June 4
SFs said that they killed 10 Taliban militants
and arrested six others in various areas of the Swat and Buner
Districts, while a soldier was killed and two others injured in
various clashes. Troops engaged fleeing militants at a check-post
at Shangla and killed six of them and arrested four others, according
to the ISPR.
Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq
Parvez Kayani said that the tide in Swat had decisively turned
with the Army's resolve to defeat the terrorists. Expressing the
Army's commitment to aggressively hunt high-value targets, Gen
Kayani announced that the Army would continue carrying out operations
at a limited scale with an objective of clearing the remaining
hideouts and sanctuaries of terrorists. Addressing the 119th Corps
Commanders' Conference held at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi,
Kayani said major population centres and roads leading to the
Swat valley had been largely cleared off the organised resistance
by terrorists. The COAS said isolated incidents of violence would
continue and would have to be managed. "The Army will stay in
Swat to provide security to the people," he added.
Seven SF personnel, including three Police officers
and a Special Services Group (SSG) captain, were killed when the
militants attacked a Buner-bound joint Police and Frontier Corps
convoy at Natian, triggering a full-fledged operation in the area
that continued till late night. Military sources, however, denied
the killing of the military captain. Further, there were reports
of the killing of one militant and injuries to several others.
The exact number of causalities from the militants' side could
not be ascertained. However, 32 people are reported to have sustained
injuries in the clashes.
The Taliban released the remaining 46 kidnapped
students and two teachers of the Razmak Cadet College from the
South Waziristan Agency and handed them over to a Jirga
(council of elders) of Torikhel and Utmanzai Wazir tribes near
Razmak. The cadets and two staff members of the college were released
without any condition. They were held somewhere in South Waziristan
after their abduction from the Frontier Region (FR) Bakakhel,
Tribal sources said their release was negotiated by a tribal Jirga
of Torikhel and Utmanzai Wazir tribes and members of a peace committee
of North Waziristan Ulema and Taliban leaders.
June 5
A suicide bomber killed 49 worshippers, including
12 children, at a mosque in a remote village of the Dir Upper
District of NWFP. Dozens more were injured as a young man detonated
explosives fastened to his body minutes before the Friday congregation
in the Hayagay Sharqi village. No group has so far claimed responsibility
for the suicide attack. The village, located in the mountains,
is situated approximately 20 kilometers east of Dir town, the
District headquarters. Reports indicated that the Hayagay Sharqi
village has been strongly opposed to the presence of the Taliban
militants in the Doog Darra area of Dir Upper.
SFs said they had killed 10 Taliban militants
and arrested four people, including three activists of the TNSM,
while 14 SF personnel were killed and 14 others injured in clashes
with the Taliban in Malakand Division.
The federal Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, warned
of strict action against those challenging the Government's writ.
Speaking to the media at the Parliament House in Islamabad, Malik
said media reports regarding the arrest of TNSM Chief Maulana
Sufi Muhammad and the TTP chief Maulana Fazlullah were incorrect.
"Neither Maulana Fazlullah has been killed nor he or Maulana Sufi
Muhammad were arrested. The Swat Operation is going on and the
situation for the return of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
would be clear within next few weeks," he said. Malik also stated
that the SFs arrested some militant commanders and their deputies.
He told a questioner that the infrastructure was badly affected
in the Operation Zone and daily use items were not available.
Consequently, Malik noted that no timeframe for the return of
the IDPs can be set.
President Asif Ali Zardari directed the NWFP Government
to immediately fill all vacant posts in the provincial Police
department. Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said Zardari
had issued the directive after consulting with Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani and the Finance Division. Babar said the president
ordered that 2,500 former-defence personnel should be recruited
in the Police department on a two-year contract by the end of
June 2009. The recruits would be deployed in the troubled regions
of the NWFP, he added. The expenditure incurred would be borne
by the federal government and the adjutant general of the Pakistan
Army would act as the focal person for recruiting the ex-defence
personnel.
SFs claimed to have killed 10 militants and secured
the Chakesar area of Shangla District during military action against
the Taliban militants. The ISPR said SFs carried out action in
the Shangla District, situated to the east of the Swat valley,
killing 10 militants in Chakesar. It claimed that the troops had
cleared the Chakesar area of the militants. In addition, the area
from Chakesar up to Aloch, Bazarkot and Shell Qasar were cleared
and a linkup was established with the Charbagh area of Swat at
Dakorak, the ISPR said.
Four farmers harvesting wheat crop in fields were
reportedly killed when hit by mortar shells in the Tawa area of
Puran sub-division in Shangla District. During their advance towards
Chakesar, SFs shelled the suspected hideouts of militants in the
Yakhtangi area of Shangla District. The farmers, harvesting wheat
crop in Tawa, were hit by shells. Some reports from the Martoba
area suggested that three more civilians were killed and two others
injured when mortar shells struck them.
Four soldiers were killed and two injured when
their patrol pickup hit an IED on the Jandola-Spinkai Raghzai
road in South Waziristan Agency. The Army and paramilitary Frontier
Corps personnel have been guarding the Jandola-Spinkai Raghzai
road in South Waziristan. The pickup truck was destroyed, while
another was partially damaged in the attack.
Pakistan has extradited 10 arrested terrorists
belonging to the pro-independence Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement
(ETIM) to China, an Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed. The
spokesman in Islamabad, confirming the extradition, said the ETIM
militants had actually been arrested after they attacked Pakistani
Security Forces in the tribal areas. Ten of the over two-dozen
arrested Chinese were handed over to Beijing after it was established
that they belonged to the ETIM, which Beijing describes as an
armed secessionist group with bases in Xingjian-Uighur Autonomous
Region in the northwest of China, and in Pakistan.
June 6
Four Taliban militants were killed after hundreds
of tribesmen attacked their houses at Hayagai Sharqi in Upper
Dir District. Residents of the area launched the attack, a private
TV channel reported. It said six houses belonging to the Taliban
had also been destroyed.
Two Policemen were killed and four others injured
in a suicide attack on a Rescue 15 office at Sector G-8 in capital
Islamabad. "It was a huge blast that jolted the area and shattered
everything into pieces in front of my eyes," an eyewitness said.
Islamabad police arrested some people in connection with the attack,
police spokesman Muhammad Naeem said. "We have found a hand and
two legs of the bomber. We have not been able to find his head
so far," said senior Police officer Bin Yameen.
At least 60 Taliban militants were arrested by
the SFs from the relief camps established for the internally displaced
persons (IDPs) in various parts of the NWFP and elsewhere, said
Lt. Col. Wasim, representative of the SFs.
June 7
Three SF personnel, including an officer, were
killed and seven others sustained injuries, while four militants
were also killed during the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Rast,
the ISPR said. According to the ISPR media update, two soldiers
were killed while fighting the militants in Kabal area, between
Gul Jabba and Hazara Bridge.
The SFs are reported to have also consolidated
their positions and established check-posts in the Bara Bandai,
Koza Bandai and Ningolai areas of Swat. The SFs also successfully
secured the Aloch area in Puran sub-division of the Shangla District,
besides capturing areas in north and south of Faqirabad.
Intensifying the offensive against the Taliban
militants, the armed villagers of Hayagay Sharqi in Dir Upper
District, backed by the people of dozens of other villages, besieged
the militants from all sides, killing six more of them. Locals
and the Lashkar (militia) sources said 12 Taliban militants, including
two commanders, had been killed so far in the siege, while fighting
was continuing till last reports were filed. Capturing several
hamlets, the villagers also torched 21 houses owned by the Taliban
and their supporters. The people of Hayagay Sharqi, located in
mountains some 20 kilometers east of Dir town, the District headquarters,
launched an armed action against the Taliban to avenge the killing
of 49 persons in the suicide attack at a mosque on June 5.
Mortar shells hit a group of people fleeing the
fighting in Swat Valley in the Gulibagh area of neighbouring Upper
Dir district, killing five civilians, including two women and
a child.
The Taliban attacked a Security Forces' convoy,
killing the TNSM deputy chief Maulana Alam and spokesman Amir
Izaat while they were being transported to Peshawar, the NWFP
capital. The ISPR Director General Major General Athar Abbas told
reporters in Rawalpindi the Taliban attacked the convoy after
it hit an improvised explosive device. He said one non-commissioned
officer was also killed in the attack, and five others were wounded.
He said the convoy was carrying prisoners needed for a "special
investigation" by intelligence agencies. Responding to questions,
he said the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad was not in custody,
but confirmed that TNSM leader Maulana Wahab was currently being
interrogated by the SFs.
The ISPR Director General, meanwhile, said SFs
had cleared Barabonde, and had established check-posts at Kuzabonde
and Goraghat. He said 17 Taliban militants had been killed in
the Qambar sub-division during the past 24 hours, adding one soldier
had also died in the process. He said the Taliban had fired rockets
on a check-post of the SFs in Khawazakhela, resulting in two soldiers
being killed and one being injured. He said according to estimates,
three to four percent of the terrorists killed or arrested by
the SFs are foreigners, including Arabs, Central Asians or Afghans.
During clashes between two groups of militants
in the Mamond area of Bajaur Agency, four combatants were killed.
Supporters of Maulana Faqir Muhammad, of the TTP, and Commander
Salar Masood of the TNSM are now reportedly preparing for a major
showdown in the area. The clash took place after the Salar group
kidnapped Jarar Hussain of the TTP following a dispute over money.
According to sources, Salar Masood's militants were repulsed when
they attempted to overrun the headquarters of the TTP in Sewai.
The sources said three of the slain militants belonged to the
Salar group, Shah Tamas Khan, Zafarullah and Musa Khan, and one
to the TTP, Najeebullah. Five men from both sides sustained injuries
in the clashes.
Around 90 percent of the local tribesmen have
left South Waziristan and are now living in settled Districts,
the South Waziristan Senator Saleh Shah said. He said the Government
had not made any arrangements for those who had relocated. The
Senator said a committee of political functionaries and tribal
elders has estimated that the previous military operations had
cost around PKR 1.30 billion in damages to different areas and
more than 4500 houses and shops had been damaged in the current
operation.
June 8
An Upper Dir tribal Lashkar (militia) seeking
retaliation for the suicide attack (June 5) at a mosque has killed
14 Taliban militants, including 'commander' Chamto Afghani, and
burnt the houses of another 13 as they besieged two Taliban strongholds
of Shatkas and Mena villages. Locals said heavy firing continued
on third consecutive day as the militants, whose number was said
to be between 200 and 300, had been holed up. In addition, 21
more Taliban militants were killed in various parts of the Malakand
Division, according a press release by the ISPR.
In the Swat District, three Taliban militants
were killed in Charbagh after a tip off from the civilian residents
during a cordon and search operation. "Security forces carried
out search operations in Bara Banda, Shahdhand Banda and successfully
established link up at Damber Sar. During exchange of fire, one
terrorist was killed. Security forces also established link up
at Shakardara," the ISPR added.
June 9
A massive truck bomb explosion at the five-star
Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, killed
17 people and injured 60 others. The attackers entered the compound
on two vehicles at about 10:30pm, firing at the security guards
at the hotel gate with bullets from one and blowing up the other
in the hotel parking. "It was a suicide attack," Capital City
Police Officer Sefwat Ghayur told AFP. "There are two foreigners
among the dead," NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain
said. Among those who were injured are the ruling Awami National
Party's minister Zarshed Khan, Senator Nabi Bangash, UN officials,
three foreigners and an airline's crew. 40 vehicles parked in
the compound were destroyed and the building was seriously damaged.
A Bomb Disposal Squad official told reporters at least 500 kilograms
of explosives were used in the attack.
Troops killed 27 Taliban militants in various
parts of Malakand Division, while a soldier was killed and nine
others injured in clashes with the militants. A military statement
said 14 militants were killed and 22 arrested during a search
and destroy operation in Peochar valley. "A tunnel, a cache of
arms and ammunition, and explosives were seized," it said. Troops
also conducted a cordon and search operation to secure Darmai
village in Sakhra valley.
Troops killed 27 Taliban militants in various
parts of Malakand Division, while a soldier was killed and nine
others injured in clashes with the militants. A military statement
said 14 militants were killed and 22 arrested during a search
and destroy operation in Peochar valley. "A tunnel, a cache of
arms and ammunition, and explosives were seized," it said. Troops
also conducted a cordon and search operation to secure Darmai
village in Sakhra valley.
Tribal militia in the Upper Dir District secured
four villages and killed 13 Taliban militants. Foreign news agencies
said they were backed by army helicopter gunships.
The TNSM Swat unit chief and two other suspects
were arrested from the Hayatabad area of Peshawar. Iqbal Khan,
who belongs to the Matta area of Swat, was the District chief
of the TNSM, while the other two suspects are his relatives. They
were reportedly staying in a rented house in Phase-IV of the Hayatabad
locality.
Security Forces launched an operation against
the Bakakhel and Janikhel tribesmen in the Frontier Region (FR)
of Bannu District for their failure to hand over the kidnappers
of the Razmak Cadet College students and teachers. There were
reports that 20 militants were killed and several others injured
in the operation. However, these reports could not be confirmed
from independent sources. The administration under the Frontier
Crimes Regulation launched the operation against the tribesmen
for their failure to protect the cadets and their teachers from
being kidnapped, and then failing to hand over the culprits to
the Government. The two tribes were given a five-day deadline
to either hand over the kidnappers or face punitive action.
June 10
Troops have killed more than 100 Taliban militants
during two days of operation in the Jani Khel and Baka Khel areas
of Frontier Region (FR) Bannu. A private TV channel reported that
Taliban commander Sher Alam was among the dead. Up to 800 Taliban
militants have reportedly arrived in the semi-tribal area of FR
Bannu that borders North Waziristan to fight the army that has
started an operation in the area. "Reportedly 600 to 800 terrorists
reached Jani Khel from Miranshah and Razmak. They are planning
to strike at various places in the NWFP," the military said in
a press release.
23 Taliban militants and two soldiers were killed
in clashes in parts of the Swat District. While one militant was
killed during a search operation in Batkhela, six others were
killed when the army retaliated an attack in Banmani Sar. The
army is reported to have secured the Shalkosar Top and Shalkosar
Kandao in Peochar valley. 16 militants were killed in fierce fighting
over Shalkosar. In addition, a soldier was killed in a Taliban
attack on Bariam Bridge near Matta, and another when they fired
a rocket at Kabbal Camp.
A previously unknown Al Qaeda-linked group, the
Abdullah Azzam Shaheed Brigade, claimed responsibility for the
suicide attack on Hotel Pearl Continental on June 9. A spokesman
of the organisation, Amir Muawiya, telephoned reporters in the
Kohat city of NWFP, claiming responsibility for the attack and
threatened more such bombings. He said the bombing was in retaliation
to the operations by the Pakistani armed forces, at the behest
of the US, in Swat and rest of the Malakand region and also in
the tribal areas of Darra Adamkhel and the Orakzai Agency. Amir
Muawiya was a Pakistani Taliban commander operating in the semi-tribal
area of Darra Adamkhel, located between Peshawar and Kohat. According
to Amir Muawiya, the central Shura, or council of the Taliban
and also al-Qaeda, had decided that only the Abdullah Azzam Shaheed
Brigade would claim responsibility in future and others would
keep quiet. The spokesman said his group would be willing to explode
a small bomb outside the BBC office in Islamabad to prove the
group's power and capability. He also said his group had carried
out the attack on the Police Training Academy at Manawan in Lahore,
the bombing of the NATO transport terminals in Peshawar and other
attacks.
Foreign missions have suspended their activities
in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP, following the June 9-suicide
attack on the five-star Hotel Pearl Continental in which 17 persons
were killed. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), the American Consulate
in Peshawar and several other diplomatic missions and international
bodies suspended their activities in the city by directing foreign
officials to restrict their movement. The WFP also suspended its
operations, but its activities for the internally displaced persons
(IDPs) of the Malakand Division will continue. Two foreign UN
officials, Serbian national Aleksandar Vorkapic of the UNHCR,
Perseveranda So of the Philippines working for the UNICEF, and
three local officials of the United Nations Population Fund, Muhammad
Miskin, administration relief assistant, Muhammad Tahir and a
driver Muhammad Fawad, were among those killed in the suicide
blast.
June 11
SFs killed 66 more militants and arrested nine
others, while four soldiers also died and 12 others sustained
injuries in various areas of Malakand Division and Bannu, the
ISPR said.
In Bannu, according to the ISPR update, the troops
secured Kotka Saifullah and Sara Bangal areas. During search operations
in Sara Bangal, 34 militants were killed, while three others were
arrested. The ISPR said about 400 militants attacked the Siplatoi
and Jandola Fort late on June 10-night, killing three soldiers.
In retaliatory firing by the SFs, 22 militants were killed and
scores of others sustained injuries.
SFs intensified military operation in the FR Bannu
and targeted the Taliban positions with jet fighters, gunship
choppers and artillery in Janikhel and Zaidi Akbar Khan areas,
killing 50 more militants. Official sources said more than 150
militants had been killed in the three-day military offensive.
The military launched the operation on June 9 after expiry of
the deadline for Janikhel and Bakakhel tribal leaders to hand
over the militants wanted by the Government for kidnapping of
students and teachers of Razmak Cadet College.
The SFs shelled suspected hideouts of the militants
in Janikhel and Zaidi Akbar Khan with artillery from the Bannu
Cantonment while gunship choppers and jet fighters also strafed
the militants' locations in these areas. The gunship helicopters
and jetfighters also bombed the Taliban hideouts in the precincts
of Sra Dargah and Haved Police station while massive shelling
was carried out in Zaidi Akbar Khan area. At least, 50 militants
were killed in the daylong military offensive in the region.
SFs claimed to have killed five militants during
an encounter in the Kambar area of Dir Lower district, while two
children were killed in fighting between the armed Lashkar (militia)
of villagers and militants in Dir Upper District.
The NWFP Minister for Prisons, Mian Nisar Gul
Kakakhel, was seriously injured in an armed attack near the Friendship
Tunnel in the Darra Adamkhel area, while two of his security guards
and an attacker were killed in the exchange of fire. The minister,
who is a resident of Karak District, was on his way to Peshawar
when his motorcade was attacked in Darra Adamkhel.
A man was killed and 13 others, including nine
Policemen, sustained injuries in a hand grenade-cum-suicide attack
on a Police party in the Lateefabad area on Ring Road in Peshawar,
the NWFP capital. Capital City Police Officer Safwat Ghayyur told
the media that a Police party was on a routine duty on Ring Road
in the jurisdiction of Faqirabad Police station when unknown miscreants
hurled a hand grenade at the Policemen, injuring one of them.
Even as reinforcements were being called for, a suicide bomber
came near a Police pick-up and blew himself up. The blast destroyed
two Police mobiles, a rickshaw and a motorcycle. Personnel of
the Bomb Disposal.
In another incident in the provincial capital,
two suspects were killed and six others arrested as Policemen
and troops deployed at the Peshawar Corps Commander's House foiled
a terrorist attack in the high security zone on Peshawar's Khyber
Road. Citing witnesses, a television channel said two suspects
riding a motorbike attempted to enter the Corps Commander's House
and fired at the security officials on being stopped. According
to the channel, two other gunmen, also on motorbikes, followed
the first pair. Two suspects were killed in the ensuing encounter,
the channel said.
The Pakistan Air Force jet fighters started bombing
suspected locations of Taliban militants in the Orakzai Agency
in FATA and the adjoining Hangu District in NWFP, killing 33 persons,
including the Sunni Supreme Council chief Maulana Muhammad Amin
and his nephew, and injuring 29 others. The local officials, however,
put the death toll in the two regions at 50, including women and
children. The warplanes targeted militants' positions in Mushti
Bazaar, Mushti Mela, Ferozkhel, Sheikhan, Dabori, Ghiljo, Khadeezai,
Shahuwam and Sultanzai. 26 people were reportedly killed and 13
others injured in the daylong bombing in these villages of Orakzai
Agency. The warplanes also targeted a madrassa (seminary) run
by prominent cleric and leader of the Sunni Supreme Council of
Hangu and Orakzai Agency, Maulana Mohammad Amin, at Shahuwam Bazaar
in Orakzai. Besides six other people, the Maulana himself and
his nephew Hafiz Rashid Ahmad were killed and a few others injured.
Maulana Amin had reportedly close links with militants. The planes
also targeted an alleged training centre of militants in Khapanga
area of Lower Kurram Agency. The camp was reportedly run by local
militant commander, Ismail Shah. Military officials said Maulana
Amin had close links with the Taliban. An Inter-Services Public
Relations (ISPR) statement issued from Peshawar said 40 terrorists
were present in the seminary during the attack. It said 13 of
the terrorists died, which the local administration confirmed.
The army killed 22 Taliban militants during fierce
clashes in South Waziristan, the ISPR said. According to reports
from Waziristan, the fighting broke out when around 400 militants
attacked the Siplatoi check-post and the Jandola Fort late on
June 10, and continued for several hours. Three soldiers died
and five were injured in the fight, the military said in a daily
update in Rawalpindi. Talking to Daily Times, hospital
sources confirmed 11 Taliban deaths. They said seven militants
were injured.
A remote-controlled bomb planted on a parked motorbike
in Khuzdar District exploded near a military vehicle, killing
three persons, including a paramilitary soldier, local Police
officer Juma Khan said. At least 10 persons, mostly civilians,
were injured in the blast.
The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)
has crossed the figure of 3.8 million as approximately 540127
families have moved to safer places due to military operations
against the Taliban in Malakand Division. According to a press
release issued in Peshawar by the NWFP information department,
the number of IDPs is 3870500, both in camps and off camps. The
number of the IDPs living in camps in different areas of the province
is 26145 families which constitutes 149701 individuals. The number
of families living off camps is 513982 which constitute a figure
of 3720800 individuals.
The UAE announced the assistance of $30 million
for IDPs from Malakand. The announcement was made by the UAE Minister
of State for Foreign Affairs Anwer Muhammad Gargash, during his
visit to the Shah Mansoor camp at Swabi.
The CIA Director Leon Panetta said the US intelligence
agency believes Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan,
and hoped joint operations with Pakistani forces will find him.
Asked whether he was sure that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan,
Panetta told reporters, "The last information we had, that's still
the case." Finding Laden is "one of our major priorities", said
Panetta. "One of our hopes is that the Pakistanis move in militarily,
combined with our operations, we may be able to have a better
chance" to find the Al Qaeda leader, he said. Panetta also said
Al Qaeda "remains the most serious security threat", adding that
there are "a number of people" on the ground in Pakistan providing
intelligence on Al Qaeda targets to the US.
June 12
39 more militants and 10 soldiers were killed
in clashes between the SFs and Taliban militants in the Swat valley.
A news update issued by the ISPR on the ongoing military operations
in Swat and other adjoining mountainous areas, said 10 soldiers
were killed and 24 others sustained injuries during the operation.
SFs reportedly secured and consolidated their positions at Chuprial
near Matta sub-division. During the process of consolidation,
an encounter took place between the two sides in which eight soldiers
died and 13 others were wounded. In retaliation, the SFs killed
39 militants and their bodies were reportedly lying at the encounter
site. Further, while securing areas around Kabal sub-division,
two soldiers were killed and eight injured in an exchange of fire
between the two sides. Casualties suffered by the Taliban could
not be ascertained.
18 more militants were killed as SFs continued
their operations in the Janikhel and Hindikhel areas of Bannu
District on the fourth consecutive day. Sources said SFs entered
the Hindikhel area after clearing Sra Dargah area of the militants.
"At least, 18 militants were killed in the daylong clashes in
different areas of the semi-tribal region," the sources said,
adding the troops faced stiff resistance in Hindikhel. The SFs
also targeted militants' positions with artillery from the Bannu
Cantonment. Official sources claimed that over 200 militants had
been killed in the four-day operation. The military launched the
operation on June 9-morning after the expiry of the deadline given
to Janikhel and Bakakhel tribal leaders to hand over the militants
wanted by the Government for the kidnapping of students and teachers
of the Razmak Cadet College.
Five worshippers were killed and 105 others sustained
injuries when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden van
into a mosque during the Friday prayers in the Cantonment area
of Nowshera in the NWFP. Sources said the congregation was in
the second Rakat (part) when the bomber in the vehicle, carrying
125 kilograms of explosives, struck the wall of the mosque near
the Army Supply Depot. Two soldiers were among the four persons
killed on the spot while 105 persons, including 30 civilians,
were injured in the explosion. Most of the wounded were reportedly
Army personnel. One of those wounded succumbed to his injuries
at the hospital.
Four Police personnel were killed and six others
injured by two remote-controlled bomb attacks in the Hangu District
of NWFP. In the first incident, suspected militants targeted a
Police van in the Tull sub-division with an improvised explosive
device, fitted in a pressure cooker. The blast killed four Policemen.
In a second incident, militants reportedly attempted to attack
another Police van with a remote controlled bomb in the Dawaba
Police station precincts. However, the Police van narrowly escaped
the blast.
SFs killed 12 militants in the Mohmand Agency,
targeting Taliban's hideouts. In addition, five persons were killed
when shells missed targets and landed in civilian areas. SFs are
reported to have targeted the militants' hideouts in Alingar,
Akhunzadgan, Sagi, Sheikh Baba, Sooran Darra, Guloona and Shandarra
areas of Safi and Khewzai Baizai sub-divisions with helicopters
gunship, artillery, tanks and other sophisticated weapons. Yar
Khan, his wife and two children were killed when an artillery
shell hit his house in Akhunzadgan area. Another civilian, Muhammad
Deen Shah, was killed in the Alingar area. Civilians were also
hit in the Upper and Lower Sagi areas. However, the number of
casualties could not be ascertained.
Seven Taliban militants were killed by the SFs
in Bajaur Agency's Charmang area, considered to be a Taliban stronghold.
Planes and helicopters attacked militants' positions in Tangi,
Hashim Ziarat, Kotki and Babara. Militants had reportedly used
Mamond and Charmang for regrouping after having signed a peace
deal with the Government. They built bunkers and dug trenches
to protect themselves against ground and air assaults and had
also occupied agricultural land of tribal elders and Government
buildings.
Seven persons, including a prominent anti-Taliban
cleric, were killed and seven injured when a suicide attacker
detonated himself at the Jamia Naeemia madrassa (seminary)
in the Garhi Shahu area of Lahore shortly after Friday prayers.
Targeting Sarfaraz Naeemi, the head of Jamia Naeemia, the terrorist
reportedly waited until the anti-Taliban cleric had reached his
office before launching his attack. Six people were with Naeemi
in his office at the time. A seminary student, Muhammad Faisal,
said the bomber had pretended to be a student. District Officer
(Civil Defence) Mazhar Hussain said the attacker had used a 20-kilogramme
suicide vest containing ball bearings and iron filings. Police
said the bomber was aged between 16 and 17, clean-shaven and had
a fair complexion. Naeemi was one of those moderate clerics who
believed in maintaining sectarian unity to counter terrorism,
and was among those clerics who had issued the edict declaring
suicide attacks against the Muslims and civilians as haram
(forbidden).
The TTP has claimed responsibility for the suicide
attacks in Lahore and Nowshera and the bombing of Hotel Pearl
Continental in Peshawar. "We claim responsibility for these attacks,"
a man identifying himself as Saeed Hafiz and claiming to be deputy
of Hakeemullah Mehsud based in the Orakzai Agency of FATA told
on telephone. He said the TTP would soon release the video of
the PC attack. He also said the suicide attacks on the Lahore
seminary and Nowshera mosque were to avenge the June 11 bombing
in Hangu and military operations in Swat, Bannu and South Waziristan.
June 13
SFs killed 41 Taliban militants in military operations
in the Malakand Division and Bannu area in NWFP, the ISPR said.
The ISPR also said a soldier was killed and seven others were
injured in the fighting. SFs continued conducting search operations
in Mingora and seized a cache of arms, night vision goggles and
other equipment abandoned by the Taliban militants. Two terrorists
were also arrested during the search operation. Troops also secured
the Karakar pass linking Buner with Swat. In Bannu, SFs secured
Zindi Akbar Khan, FC Fort Jani Khel and Marwat Canal, the ISPR
said, adding that 35 terrorists had been killed in the operation
in various areas of Bannu District. In the past few days, Pakistan
launched strikes on Taliban militants across the NWFP, most notably
in Bannu District at the gateway to Waziristan, where according
to the military more than 130 militants were killed since June
9.
The SFs killed 10 militants by targeting their
hideouts with jetfighters and gunship helicopters in different
areas of the Nawagai sub-division of Bajaur Agency.
June 14
SFs said they had killed 65 Taliban militants,
including foreigners, and injured 50 in various army operations
in South Waziristan and Bannu during the last 24 hours. "Thirty
terrorists were killed, including a few foreigners, and 50 were
injured at Makeen, South Waziristan due to the air strike on Saturday,"
the ISPR said in a statement. It said the offensive was partially
in response to the suicide attack on Mufti Sarfaraz Naeemi's madrassa
(seminary) in Lahore on June 12, in which seven civilians were
killed, and the suicide attack on the Nowshera mosque on the same
day in which five personnel were killed. 35 more militants were
killed in fresh action by the troops in the Bannu District of
NWFP. It said the SFs, continuing their operations against the
Taliban, had bombarded suspected militant hideouts from Janikhel
Fort.
SFs claimed to have killed 24 militants in an
operation in the Mohmand Agency. In addition, 12 civilians were
killed when shells missed their targets and landed in the civilian
areas of the agency.
Air force jets and helicopter gunships targeted
suspected positions of militants in the Salarzai and Nawagai areas
of Bajaur Agency in FATA. At least nine militants were killed
and several others injured, officials said. Reports indicated
that militants are still hiding in Government installations in
the plain areas of Bajaur Agency. They are said to have built
bunkers in some Government buildings. Sources said at least 24
militants had been killed during the operation since June 12.
A US missile strike targeting militants killed
three persons in the Laddha region of South Waziristan Agency.
"A drone attack targeting a militant vehicle killed three people
in Mardar Algad area… There is a training camp close to this area,"
said Amir Mohammad Khan, a local administration official in Laddha.
Three people were killed and two injured when
a vehicle carrying supplies for the NATO forces hit a roadside
bomb in South Waziristan. Two of the deceased have been identified
as Afghans, while one has been identified as a Pakistani. Political
authorities confirmed the incident.
Nine people were killed and more than 40 others
wounded when a in a bomb blast at a busy market in Dera Ismail
Khan in the NWFP. Sources said the bomb, weighing five kilograms
and apparently planted on a cycle cart, exploded in the busy Tejarat
Gunj Bazaar. The blast also destroyed the windowpanes of the nearby
shops and houses.
The Government ordered a "full-fledged" military
operation against the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud and Mehsud tribes
for harbouring terrorists, abetting terrorist activities and killing
innocent people. "Law-enforcement agencies have been ordered to
launch a comprehensive operation against Mehsud tribes and the
TTP chief and his followers for their failure to fulfill their
duties in accordance with the law of the land," said NFWP Governor
Awais Ghani at a press conference in Islamabad, but did not provide
a date for the launch of the operation. The Online news agency
claimed the operation would follow the offensive in Malakand.
He said "this would be an affective and decisive operation that
would root out terrorism from Pakistan." The decision to launch
the operation against Mehsud tribes, he said, had been made to
"protect the lives and properties of the people of Pakistan from
the barbaric terrorists of Mehsud tribes". "Mehsud tribes were
told time and again that their activities are unacceptable," he
added. Ghani said Mehsud tribes had not only failed to evict foreign
terrorists from their areas, but had also continued operating
training camps. Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told
The Associated Press: "The government has made the announcement.
We will give a comment after evaluating the orders."
June 15
SFs claimed to have killed 50 Taliban militants
during military operations in the Mohmand Agency, Bajaur Agency,
Malakand Division and Bannu District during the past 24 hours.
The ISPR said five Taliban militants were killed in retaliation
after they attacked a local Lashkar (militia) in the Dir District.
They said the Lashkar also destroyed three houses and injured
six militants. It said another member of the Taliban was killed
when Police fired at a car that refused to stop at a check-post.
"The car exploded, as it was primed for a suicide attack," it
added.
In Mohmand Agency, 29 Taliban militants were killed
and 25 injured when the SFs targeted their hideouts with jet planes
and helicopter gunships.
In Bajaur Agency, eight militants, including a
commander, were killed, a security official in Khar told.
In the Jani Khel area of Bannu District, Taliban
fired rockets at a Police station and an airport. "Seven Taliban
were killed in the retaliatory attack," said Zahinuddin, a local
Police official.
14 Taliban militants were killed in the Dir Lower
and Upper Districts while SFs. Sources said nine suspected Taliban
militants were killed in Dir Lower and five in Dir Upper, respectively.
SFs, the sources said, killed nine militants during a search operation
in Galgut area of Maidan. They said a soldier was also killed
and five others injured in the encounter. The ISPR said the Lashkar
(militia) killed five militants and injured six others in Dir
Upper. Sources in the area confirmed that three houses owned by
Kashar Khan, Nawaz and Omar were destroyed in Shatkas area when
the armed villagers targeted the locations of the militants. They
said about four to five militants were killed.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the Government
is determined to continue the war against terrorism till the Taliban
are flushed out of the country. He said that the terrorists were
using children for their barbarous terrorist activities, adding
a suicide bomber was paid PKR 500,000 to PKR 2.5 million from
terrorist outfits. Speaking at an award distribution ceremony
for martyred and other Police officials in Islamabad on June 15,
Mailk said the Government has decided to increase the Police strength,
and 20,000 more personnel would be recruited in the Capital Police
to overcome the shortage of the force.
June 16
SFs claimed to have killed 15 militants, including
a key foreign commander, in the Bajaur Agency of FATA and Dir
Lower District in the NWFP. Sources said the SFs heavily shelled
positions of the militants in the Charmang area of Nawagai sub-division
with artillery from Khar, headquarters of the Bajaur Agency, Loisam
and Tank Khatta camps, destroying several hideouts in the area.
An important foreign commander, known as Goraila, and three local
militants were killed in the action. SFs cleared the area of the
militants and took control of the key locations in Charmang, the
stronghold of the militants.
In Dir Lower, the SFs claimed to have killed 11
militants in the Maidan area of the District. Eleven militants
were killed, when the Taliban hideouts in Kulaldherai, Galgut,
Hayaserai and Kas Laghrai areas were targeted with artillery,
sources said. The sources said four persons were injured in the
artillery shelling by SFs when their house was hit by a shell.
The SFs captured and destroyed a training facility
of the Taliban at Balasar-Chuprial in Swat District, having 120
feet long tunnels, firing range and training area. A terrorist,
Shah Sultan, who was an expert in suicidal jackets making, was
killed in the Charbagh area. Further, during a search operation
three terrorists were arrested at Salhand near Fizagat. On a tip
off two vehicles prepared for suicide mission were recovered and
destroyed at Dangram. The SFs also destroyed two tunnels at Loi
Numalin, Peuchar Valley and two at Rampatai. A huge cache of arms
and ammunitions was recovered during a search operation in Gokand
Banda, Sersenai, Khairabad and Ghodanbanda.
At least three persons were killed and four others
sustained injuries in clashes between two groups in the Kurram
Agency. The clashes which erupted when the rivals belonging to
Balishkhel and Khar villages started building bunkers, sparked
sectarian tension. According to sources, the clash followed an
attack by Khar villagers near the Balishkhel checkpoint.
SFs targeted suspected hideouts of the Baitullah
Mehsud-led Taliban militants in South Waziristan Agency, causing
exodus of thousands of families from the troubled spots. SFs,
based at Manzai, Jandola and Tiarza Frontier Corps camps, fired
artillery shells towards suspected locations of the militants
in Ladha, Spinkai Raghzai, Chagmalai and Srarogha, where the military
officials believe Baitullah and his senior commanders were hiding.
However, no loss of life or injuries was reported. Tribal sources
said almost all villages and towns inhabited by the Mehsud tribe
had been deserted after the people fled to safer locations. The
tribesmen complained that despite an announcement by the Government,
no relief camp had been set up for the internally displaced persons
of South Waziristan.
The Government has, in principle, reportedly decided
to launch Operation Rah-e-Nijat against chief of the TTP
Baitullah Mehsud and his network in South Waziristan Agency (SWA),
as the Pakistan Army has received necessary orders in this regard,
a military spokesman said. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad,
Director General of the ISPR, Major General Athar Abbas, said
preparatory phase of the decisive operation against the militants
was already underway. He said the operation would be taken to
its logical end. Abbas refused to share operational and tactical
details about the operation with the media, saying it would benefit
the terrorists. According to unconfirmed reports, an Uzbek militant,
Tahir Yuldash, was injured in recent airstrikes on the hideouts
of Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan Agency, sources said.
In reply to a question, the ISPR chief said according to a press
statement of Baitullah he had a force of around 10,000 militants.
He said all the necessary arrangements were being made by the
security forces to block escape of militants from the area, where
the operation was to be launched.
The Ministry of Interior has advised the home
departments of all four provinces to tighten security after the
TTP threatened more suicide attacks on prominent religious leaders.
"Now it is your turn - we have sent a jacketwala (a man with a
suicide vest) to mend clerics like you. We will also send jacketwalas
to other clerics too," sources told Aaj Kal quoting a threatening
letter addressed to a cleric. In light of the letter, law enforcement
agencies have been advised to tighten security for leading religious
leaders.
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously
passed the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, (Kerry-Lugar
Bill) authorising $1.5 billion annually to Pakistan for the next
five years. The bipartisan measure will now have to pass the full
chamber before the Senate and the House of Representative hold
a conference to arrive at a reconciled version of the bill. The
US House has already passed the bill.
Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry emphasised
it is timely the US supported Pakistan's anti-militancy drive
as well as help look after the displaced people of Malakand. "This
is a critical moment for Pakistan," he said. He also said Pakistan
is taking critical action against the Taliban and stressed the
displacement of millions of people from Swat and other northwestern
parts offered the US and Pakistan an opportunity to help relocate
them. "It is all the more important to get the money moving at
this moment," he added.
June 17
While armed villagers in the Dir Upper District
killed six holed up Taliban militants in the Doog Darra area,
the Army claimed to have killed 22 more militants in the adjacent
Dir Lower and Swat Districts during the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Rast.
In Dir Lower, located in the south of Dir Upper
District, the ISPR claimed that SFs had killed 20 Taliban militants.
The ISPR said troops carried out a search operation in the Galgut
area of Maidan and killed 20 militants during a clash, besides
recovering a cache of arms and ammunition. It said 15 others were
arrested.
The Lahore Police claimed the arrest of a terrorist
involved in the attack on a visiting Sri Lankan cricket team on
March 3, with officials claiming the attackers had plans to take
the cricketers hostage to demand the release of jailed leaders
of their group. The Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Pervaiz
Rathore told a press conference that the arrested man, identified
as Zubair alias Naik Muhammad, who killed an unarmed traffic warden
in the attack was a member of the Punjab Taliban, an offshoot
of the banned LeJ group. Seven people, including six Policemen,
were killed when terrorists ambushed the Sri Lankan team while
it was being driven to Gaddafi Stadium for a match.
June 18
SFs killed 34 more Taliban militants in the ongoing
operation in the Swat and Dir Upper Districts, while seven others
were arrested, the ISPR said. The SFs continued action against
the Maulana Fazlullah-led militants in Kabal sub-division of Swat
even as the militants are still offering some resistance in the
area. SFs are reported to have secured the area around Bridge-II,
Kabal and Kotlai. During clashes in these areas, the ISPR said
12 militants were killed while five soldiers sustained injuries.
Further, six militants were killed in the Totano Banda area of
Kabal during an operation launched for the consolidation of SFs
positions. In the Shamozai area of Swat valley, the troops commenced
an operation for clearing the area and killed 10 Taliban militants.
According to the ISPR, 28 militants were killed in the Swat Valley.
More than 1,400 militants and 120 soldiers have
been killed during the 54-day operation in Swat and the nearby
Dir Lower and Buner districts, the military stated.
Suspected US drone strikes killed approximately
12 Taliban militants in South Waziristan. The drone targeted the
suspected hideout of Taliban commander Malang some 18 kilometers
northwest of Wana, said unnamed officials. Malang was a subordinate
of Wazir Taliban leader Maulvi Nazir, they added. "Four missiles
were fired at the hideout, where Taliban were believed to be training
new recruits," local tribal sources told. "The attack was staged
in two parts: An initial drone strike killed two Taliban. Then,
when people converged on the site, three more missiles were fired,
resulting in the deaths of 10 more people," they said.
Three women were killed and four children injured
when mortar shells hit their houses in the Aman Kot and Cheenari
areas of the Mohmand Agency.
The head of an association of madrassas (seminaries),
Mufti Munibur Rehman, has sought Government protection after receiving
death threats for denouncing the Taliban. The appeal comes one
week after another anti-Taliban cleric and Rehman's associate
Sarfraz Naeemi was killed in a suicide attack on his madrassa
in Lahore. "I am a target and have received threats," Rehman,
the president of Tanzeemul Madaris Pakistan, said from Karachi.
"The government's statements that they have provided us with security
are lies… We ourselves don't have the resources to hire private
security," Rehman said.
June 19
SFs killed 15 militants and injured seven others
in a shootout in the Charmang area of Bajaur Agency. Sources said
the militants attacked a patrolling party of the SFs near the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the Charmang area of Nawagai sub-division,
killing two soldiers and injuring three others.
11 Taliban militants were killed in the Doog Darra
area of Dir Upper District by armed villagers and artillery shelling
by the SFs as the militants started fleeing the area after giving
up resistance. The armed villagers have reportedly ringed the
Taliban militants, led by Afghan commander Amir Khitab, since
June 6 in the mountains of Doog Darra. They were heavily targeting
the positions of the Taliban militants and killed a number of
them. Helping the Lashkar (militia), SFs deployed artillery guns
in Panakot area near the Dir town and Beranjo in Doog Darra.
Amid reports of NATO's assistance in a military
offensive against the Baitullah Mehsud-led Taliban, Pakistani
warplanes and gunship choppers continued targeting suspected hideouts
of the militants in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), killing six
militants. Sources said that two jet fighters of the Pakistan
Air Force and the Pakistan Army's two gunship choppers bombed
suspected hideouts of the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud in Barwand,
Madejan, Serwakai and adjoining areas. Further, the sources said
artillery shells were fired from the Frontier Corps camps in Jandola
and Serwakai towards the suspected hideouts in various parts of
the SWA. Military officials said six militants were killed and
several others injured when gunship helicopters targeted their
positions near Serwakai.
SFs said they had killed four more Taliban militants
and arrested two in the ongoing operation in Malakand, while one
soldier was injured in the fighting. The SFs are reported to have
secured Akhun Kalle and established a check-post in the Swat's
Chungai area. The troops also launched an operation to clear areas
around Zara Khela, Khawazakhela and Matta, and seized three rifles.
The army conducted a search operation in Buner's Sar Qila area,
and successfully secured Mohmand Gate, Nawapass, Ghungat, Kuz
and Chamarkand in Mohmand Agency.
SFs killed four militants in Buner district and
were consolidating their positions in parts of the Swat Valley.
The ISPR said SFs clashed with militants in Sar Qilla area during
a search operation. Four militants, it claimed, were killed during
an exchange of fire.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced a
package of over PKR 24 billion for capacity building and strengthening
of Police and law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the NWFP. Addressing
Members of Provincial Assembly of the ruling alliance at the Governor's
House in Peshawar, Gilani stressed the importance of well-equipped,
trained and highly motivated LEAs to ensure durable peace and
stability in the province after completion of the military operation
under way in the tribal belt and Swat. The package is to be utilised
for recruiting additional Police and LEA personnel and acquiring
sophisticated weapons. The package will be delivered in installments,
each tranche comprising PKR six billion would be handed over to
the NWFP after every six months.
June 20
15 Taliban militants, including two key 'commanders',
were killed by the SFs during a counter-insurgency operation at
Charmang area of Bajaur Agency in FATA, a private TV channel reported.
The 'commander' Omar, a foreigner, was also among those killed
in the operation. The SFs also destroyed four hideouts of the
Taliban during the operation which was carried out after Taliban
militants blew up two boys' schools and a college in Bajaur on
June 19.
22 suspected militants and six soldiers were killed
in a daylong military action against the Baitullah Mehsud-led
Taliban in South Waziristan as the troops cleared a portion of
the Wana-Jandola Road. Two fighter planes and a couple of gunship
helicopters targeted the positions of the militants, who had occupied
hilltops and blocked the Wana-Jandola Road between Tanai and Serwakai
towns. Tribal sources from Jandola said that troops on June 19-night
continued shelling the suspected militants' positions with artillery
guns. They were, however, unaware of the casualties suffered by
the militants. Military officials said 32 militants were killed
when two warplanes and gunship helicopters bombarded the militants
occupying the road between Tanai and Serwakai. They claimed that
the Tanai-Serwakai portion of the Wana-Jandola road had been cleared
of the militants. The remaining militants affiliated with Baitullah
Mehsud were reported to have fled their positions in the area.
However, the militants denied any losses in the operation.
June 21
12 militants were killed and seven others sustained
injuries when gunship helicopters and fighter planes targeted
their suspected hideouts in different areas of South Waziristan
Agency, while 27 militants died in the military operation in Bajaur
Agency.
Tribal sources said SFs continued shelling Taliban
hideouts in the Makeen, Kaniguram, Badar and Mula Khan Serai areas
of South Waziristan, destroying four compounds of the militants.
SFs claimed that 12 militants were killed and seven others injured
in shelling by gunship helicopters and fighter planes. Another
main compound of the militants in Mula Khan Serai was reportedly
destroyed while a madrassa (seminary) was also targeted by the
gunship helicopters.
An AP report from Islamabad stated that military
jets and artillery targeted suspected Taliban hideouts in Bajaur
Agency, killing 27 militants.
SFs claimed to have killed seven more Taliban
militants in various parts of Swat District, even as thousands
of internally displaced families were awaiting the Government's
call for return to their native villages. In a statement, the
ISPR said during an exchange of fire at Langer in Khwazakhela,
a militant was killed and six others arrested, while 15 sub-machine
guns, one sniper rifle, one 8MM rifle, communication gadgets and
grenades were also recovered. SFs, it claimed, successfully secured
the areas around Peuchar, Kharkai, Kharkarai and Biha. An encounter
took place between the two sides in Biha in which six militants
were killed and 10 others arrested. The troops also recovered
20 machine guns, G-3 rifles, two rocket launchers with seven rockets,
12x12 bore rifles, two grenades and 6,000 rounds of SMGs and two
other rifles.
The SFs killed six militants and suffered four
casualties, besides injuries to eight others, in parts of the
Swat Valley. The ISPR said militants attacked positions of the
SFs in Shahdand Banda, Dewlai and Totano Banda. "Six terrorists
were killed during the exchange of fire," the ISPR said in its
daily update to the media. It said SFs secured Kotlai, Chungai
and Zarakhela areas in Kabal sub-division and started action in
the Dagai area. One soldier sustained injuries during the exchange
of fire with the militants. "Terrorists ambushed security forces'
vehicle on the Odigram-Akhun Killay Road. As a result, three soldiers
embraced martyrdom and seven others sustained injuries". SFs have
reportedly commenced a clearance operation from Malakand to Thana
in the nearby Malakand Agency. During the operation, the troops
clashed with some militants and in an exchange of fire a soldier
was killed.
Seven suspected militants were killed in a clash
with a Lashkar (the village militia) in Patrak area of Upper Dir
District in NWFP. Local people said the clash took place in Shekhan
Khwar near Patrak.
Five Taliban militants were killed and two soldiers
were wounded in the Dir Lower District.
Four persons, including two women, were killed
after armed assailants opened fire on the residence of tribal
leader Wadera Wazeer Khan at Dera Bugti in Balochistan. A Sui
Police official said the victims could not be identified.
June 22
The ISPR Director-General Major
General Athar Abbas said at a media briefing in Islamabad that
the SFs are in the final phase of eliminating terrorist hideouts
and camps in Swat. Abbas said: "In the north, Biha Valley
— the last stronghold of terrorists — has been fully secured and
in the west, Shamozai area is being cleared. Search operations
are being carried out in the secured areas to ensure that they
are safe for the return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs)."
The military spokesman said various search and cordon operations
were conducted by security forces whereby neutralising a number
of IEDs and destroying a number of small and big tunnels, while
22 more terrorists were killed and five others were arrested in
Malakand. He said 14 terrorists were killed by the SFs during
the ‘link up operation’ at the Shamozai Bridge, while eight large
size IEDs planted by terrorists were also neutralised. The SFs
successfully secured Biha Valley and also cleared Bartana South
of Chuprial. He said three small size tunnels were destroyed at
Loi Namal while locals handed over a terrorist to the troops at
Bahrain while four others were arrested at Wanai Bridge, Shalkosar,
Bashkhela and Drushkhela.
Athar Abbas said so far 1,592
terrorists had been killed in the operation while 60 to 70 others
had been arrested, who were being interrogated. He said the arrested
terrorists also included some Afghans and Uzbeks.
Three persons, including two women,
were killed and another sustained injuries when a rocket hit a
house in Zardad Killay in the jurisdiction of Hovaid Police Station
of Bannu District in NWFP.
Two Policemen were killed and
seven people, including three Policemen, sustained injuries when
a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the Thakot
Police check-post in Battagram District of NWFP, completely destroying
the check-post. "An explosion occurred in a small truck when
it reached the Dandai bridge in Shangla district (of Swat) ...
it was a suicide attack," said Gul Wali Khan, the District
Police chief in Shangla, told. The attack was the first-ever suicide
attack in Battagram District.
At least 21 people, both militants
and civilians among them, were killed and several others injured
during air strikes and retaliatory actions by the SFs in Waziristan.
According to locals, women and children were also among the dead
and injured. Air force planes reportedly bombed suspected militant
hideouts and training facilities in areas dominated by the Mehsud
tribe in South Waziristan. SFs also secured a main supply route
between Maulvi Khan Serai and Serwekai. According to officials
and locals, the planes shelled houses of Malik Mohammad Amir Khan
and Kabir Khan Berki in Salay Rogha area and killed 11 suspected
militants and injured five others. Sources said the militants
had occupied the houses whose owners had moved other areas, along
with their families. Helicopter gunships also targeted suspected
locations in Tor Wam, Tiarza, Bronda, Sararogha and other areas
of the Mehsud tribe. Troops shelled militants’ positions in Spenkai
Raghzai from their base in Jandola. The sources said that troops
had entered Spenkai Raghzai, but could not take complete control
of the area.
Helicopter gunships shelled a
residential compound in Shinkai area of North Waziristan. According
to sources, 10 people, including two women, were killed when the
house of a tribesman, Jalal Afghani, was bombed in North Waziristan.
Five militants were killed when
Cobra helicopters targeted a suspected location near Miranshah
in North Waziristan.
More than 45,000 people are reportedly
leaving their homes before the start of a military operation in
South Waziristan, officials said. Colonel Waseem Ahmed, spokesman
for a Government unit overseeing humanitarian affairs, said he
expected the number to rise to at least 60,000. About 37,000 people
had already left their homes in South Waziristan, said Manuel
Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, citing military figures. Bessler said Pakistan presented
a unique problem for humanitarian officials because 80 percent
of the displaced were not in UN camps, but were staying with family
and friends in ‘host’ communities.
Three Shias, including a union
council chief, were killed in Quetta, the Balochistan capital,
by unidentified men in a suspected sectarian incident. Unidentified
armed men reportedly opened fire on Talib Agha, Union Council
47 chief in Quetta, when he was on his way home along with his
driver and security guard.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik
said that TTP Swat unit chief Maulana Fazlullah had been trapped
by the SFs. The minister told reporters in Islamabad that the
militant leader had been spotted and there was no question of
his escape. He said "By and large we know the location where
he is hiding." "But the question is that it is not one
Fazlullah. There are many Fazlullahs who have to be eliminated,"
he added. However, the ISPR Director-General Major General Athar
Abbas said at a media briefing that he had no information about
Fazlullah. Malik also claimed that the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud,
against whom a military operation was in the offing, was still
in the tribal area, refuting reports that he might have escaped
to Afghanistan. Malik stated, "We have information about
where he is and we will not give him any chance to escape."
He also said a brother of Fazlullah had been injured during the
operation in Swat and members of his family had been detained
in Haripur. He said the mid-level command of militants had almost
been eliminated.
If it were in a position to do
so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight
against the US, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired
late on June 21, The News reported. "God willing,
the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans
and the Mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans,"
Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, said
in an interview with Al Jazeera TV channel. Abu al-Yazid
was responding to a question about the US safeguards to seize
control over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in case militants came
close to doing so. "We expect that the Pakistan Army would
be defeated (in Swat) ... and that would be its end everywhere,
God willing."
June 23
Approximately 80 people, including
a senior commander of the Baitullah Mehsud-led militants, Khwaz
Wali Mehsud, were killed and several others sustained injuries
in two separate attacks by US spy planes on a suspected militant
hideout and funeral prayers at Lattaka village of Ladha sub-division
in South Waziristan Agency. A US drone fired three missiles at
a suspected militant hideout at Lattaka village, killing six militants,
including senior Taliban commander Khwaz Ali, who was said to
be one of Baitullah Mehsud’s trusted commanders. Five other people
killed in the attack were said to be local tribal militants. Tribal
sources said it was the first-ever attack by US spy planes on
the Shabikhel area of South Waziristan - hometown of Baitullah
Mehsud. Later, when the militants and villagers offered funeral
prayers of the deceased militants at the village graveyard, two
more missiles were fired on the venue. Sources close to the militants
told that majority of the people after attending funeral prayers
of the slain militant commander Khwaz Ali had started leaving
the venue and few were there to have a final glimpse of Ali when
they came under a missile attack. They said two US drones fired
two missiles on the gathering killing over 60 people, majority
of them militants.
Six militants were killed in the
Shadas village of Maidan area in Lower Dir District when gunship
helicopters targeted the house of a local Taliban commander, identified
as Miftahud Din alias Shabar, who is blamed for attacking
convoys of the SFs in Shadas, Kala Dag and Hayaserai areas.
Five army men, including a major,
a captain and three jawans, were killed when a unit of the Baloch
Regiment was ambushed at Charbagh in the Malakand Division of
NWFP. According to the ISPR, the troops were returning after a
search operation when the incident took place at 7pm.
The News has reported that
Maulana Shah Dauran, deputy leader of the Taliban in Swat District,
was injured after a military operation against the militants.
Official sources said he was among several militants hit during
a military attack in the Kabal area of Swat.
SFs are reportedly carrying out
search and sweep operations in various parts of the Swat valley
in the final phase of the military operation, the ISPR said. It
said that in the last 24 hours, the SFs had arrested three Taliban
militants during a search operation in Mangai and recovered some
arms and ammunition.
A Taliban commander from South
Waziristan opposed to the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud and part
of an apparent plan to isolate the leader of the Pakistan Taliban
from his tribesmen ahead of a likely military operation in the
area was shot dead. Qari Zainuddin, a 26-year-old Mehsud tribesman,
who led his own group of militants, was shot dead by an unidentified
gunman in his office in Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP, from where
he had recently given interviews to Pakistani and international
media denouncing Baitullah Mehsud as an "agent" of America
and India. Qari Zainuddin, leader of the Abdullah Group, was shot
dead by his guard, Gulbuddin Mehsud, Police official Salahuddin
told reporters. "We confirm that Qari Zainuddin is dead,"
he said. "We were asleep after morning prayers when Gulbuddin
opened fire, killing Zainuddin on the spot," Kamal Mehsud,
one of Zainuddin’s guards, said. The assailant escaped in the
ensuing confusion, he added. Sources said that Misbahuddin Mehsud,
Zainuddin’s younger brother, had been nominated as the new chief
of the Abdullah Group. However, the group made no formal announcement
in this regard.
June 24
SFs killed seven more Taliban
militants in clashes in parts of the Dir and Swat Districts, while
six soldiers, including two officers, were also killed. Six militants
were killed in a search operation at Kota in Dir, and seven others
were arrested, the ISPR said. Further, the SFs carried out a search
and sweep operation at Charbagh and Mangaltan, where two officers
– Major Attique and Captain Amir – and four soldiers died and
three were injured. The SFs have reportedly consolidated their
positions in Kabal, Akhun Kalle, Dadhrah, Khazna and Gardi.
Three Policemen, including an
officer, were killed when some miscreants fired rockets and mortar
shells at the Arbab Tapu check-post in the jurisdiction of Matani
Police Station of provincial capital Peshawar.
Prominent Afghan Taliban commander,
Maulvi Sangeen, denied reports of his death in the June 23-drone
attack in South Waziristan. He called from an undisclosed location
to prove he was alive. "We have nothing to do with internal fighting
in Pakistan. Our job is to fight Jihad against the occupation
forces in Afghanistan," said the Taliban commander. He said neither
he had traveled to South Waziristan to attend the funeral nor
suffered any loss. Commander Sangeen said he will soon issue a
video statement to prove that he was safe. Maulvi Sangeen is affiliated
with top Afghan Taliban Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani and is in-charge
of Paktika province in Afghanistan.
Sources close to the Taliban commander
and trainer of suicide bombers, Qari Hussain, denied his death
in the drone attack on June 23. These sources claimed that Qari
Hussain was far away from the place of the attack.
Police claim to have arrested
at least 43 suspected terrorists from various parts of the Punjab
province as part of a countrywide crackdown against militants.
Officials revealed they had arrested 25 suspected Taliban militants
from Islamabad, some of who were plotting attacks on foreign targets.
"We have arrested 25 Taliban and recovered suicide jackets from
them. Six of the men arrested had been on the most wanted list,"
Islamabad Police chief Kaleem Imam said. "These terrorists, who
hailed from Swat and Waziristan, were planning sabotage activities
in Karachi, Lahore and other big cities… Their targets mostly
were law enforcement agencies, vital installations and foreign
dignitaries," he added. Confirming the threat, the Swedish Foreign
Ministry has claimed that one of the men arrested had told investigators
he had been preparing for attacks on embassies, including the
Swedish mission. The Punjab Inspector General of Police, Tariq
Saleem Dogar, told a top-level meeting in Lahore that 18 terrorists
and suicide bombers had been arrested from Punjab and suicide
jackets recovered over the past month and a half.
Baitullah Mehsud’s deputy and
spokesman Wali Rehman said his network had killed Qari Zainuddin.
He disclosed to the media that the TTP chief had ordered the killing
of the defecting commander. Qari Zainuddin, who was an opponent
of Baitullah Mehsud, was shot dead by Gulbadin, one of his guards,
at his residence in Dera Ismail Khan. "We killed Qari Zainuddin
because he was involved in activities against Taliban interests
in the tribal belt. His killing had been necessitated because
of his dubious activity… Anybody who is found to be involved in
anti-Taliban activity will face the same fate," Wali Rehman said.
57 personnel of the PAF ranging
from chief technicians to officers were arrested over their alleged
contacts with terrorists and involvement in anti-state activities.
The arrests were reportedly made during the last one and a half
to two years after conducting an inquiry. Sources disclosed that
six officials were sentenced to death. Among them were Khalid
Mehmood, Senior Technician Karam Din, Technician Nawazish, Niaz
and Nasrullah while 24 were arrested and dismissed from service
for opposing the policies of then President Pervez Musharraf.
The PAF personnel, allegedly found involved in having contacts
with terrorists, were given strict punishment. 26 PAF personnel
were court martialled for their ‘involvement’ in terrorism. Those
arrested were working in airbases including Pakistan Aeronautical
Complex Kamra, Minhas Airbase, Sargodha Airbase, Lahore Airbase,
Faisal Airbase and Mianwali Airbase. Spokesperson for the PAF,
Air Commodore Humayun Waqar, said action was taken against the
PAF personnel according to law and arrests were made in President
Musharraf’s tenure. He said no new arrests have been made adding
that several cases have already been decided.
June 25
Eight Taliban militants were killed
and three of their hideouts destroyed when helicopter gunships
targeted parts of Orakzai Agency in FATA. Sources said gunships
targeted Taliban hideouts in Atmankhel and Ferozkhel areas of
Lower Orakzai Agency, killing eight militants.
Fighter jets targeted the TTP
chief Baitullah Mehsud’s strongholds in the Zadranga and Shagha
areas of South Waziristan Agency’s Ladda sub-division, killing
six Taliban militants.
June 26
20 Taliban militants were killed
and 15 others wounded when Security Forces shelled TTP chief Baitullah
Mehsud’s hideouts in South Waziristan. According to a private
TV channel, fighter jets bombarded Taliban hideouts in the agency’s
Ladha, Saam and Makeen sub-divisions.
Four persons, including three
SF personnel, were killed and 24 others injured in two remote-controlled
bomb attacks on a security convoy in North Waziristan Agency.
Local sources said that an army convoy from Bannu in the NWFP
was proceeding to Miranshah in the morning when it was targeted
with a remote-controlled bomb on the Chashma Pul – around two
kilometers from agency headquarters Miranshah. The attack killed
three SF personnel and a pedestrian and injured 20 soldiers. The
same convoy was targeted a second time as it reached Nooruk, 20
kilometers from Miranshah. The second explosion injured four SF
personnel.
Police killed five suspects, believed
to be linked to Baitullah Mehsud, in an encounter in Karachi and
also recovered large cache of arms and explosives. The militants
were killed near Al-Asif Square in Sohrab Goth. Senior Police
officials said the militants were planning a terrorist strike
in the city. Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan said
the terrorists were in the guise of internally displaced persons
and were hiding in a small quarter behind a mosque near Pioneer
Garden. However, their six accomplices escaped under the cover
of fire, while taking advantage of darkness. Superintendent of
Police Anwar Khan said one terrorist was identified as Shahid
alias Shah Hussain, a Karachi based commander of the TTP.
A Taliban suicide bomber killed
two soldiers on June 26 when he blew himself up near an army vehicle
in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), in the first such attack in
PoK. The military said in a statement that three other soldiers
were injured in the early morning bombing in Muzaffarabad, the
capital of PoK, and rushed to a nearby hospital. Hakimullah Mehsud,
a deputy of the Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, told that the
assault was launched to prove that Baitullah had not been weakened
by more than a week of strikes on his suspected hideouts in South
Waziristan Agency. "We are in a position to respond to the
army’s attacks, and time will prove that these military operations
have not weakened us," Hakimullah said over telephone. A
Police officer said the army installation had probably been attacked
to give a message to the authorities that militants could expand
their area of operation and hit security forces anywhere, including
PoK. The barracks fall under the 5-AK Brigade of the Azad Kashmir
(AK) Regiment which is reportedly taking part in the operation
against militants in Swat and adjoining areas.
Terrorists have plans to attack
the American embassy, consulates and diplomats, according to an
intelligence report. Sources told Aaj Kal that the National
Crisis Management Cell of the Interior Ministry had already notified
all provincial home departments of the threat. According to the
intelligence report, a target has been assigned to a man named
Muhammad Ayub, a resident of Quetta.
June 27
42 Taliban militants were killed
and 50 others injured in the ongoing military operation at South
Waziristan, Dir and Kurram Agency in FATA. SFs bombarded Taliban
hideouts in the Ladha and Wana areas of South Waziristan, killing
15 Taliban militants and injuring 15 others. In Upper Dir, four
Taliban militants were killed and five others were injured in
a clash with a local lashkar (tribal militia) in the Ghazi Gai
area. Jet aircraft bombed various areas in South Waziristan, killing
16 Taliban militants and seriously wounding 10 others. Sources
said that of the 16 killed, four were foreigners, three belonged
to Orakzai Agency and the rest were locals.
June 28
22 soldiers were killed and 35
others injured in two separate attacks by militants in North and
South Waziristan agencies. In addition, 22 militants were also
killed in the day-long military operations by SFs in the region.
20 Pakistan Army soldiers, including a senior officer, were killed
and 35 others sustained injuries when dozens of militants, affiliated
with Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, ambushed a military
convoy in the Madakhel area of North Waziristan Agency. Further,
12 militants and two soldiers were killed in the ongoing offensive
in neighbouring South Waziristan Agency. Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a
spokesman for the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Taliban in North Waziristan
claimed responsibility for the attack on the military convoy and
warned to continue similar attacks on the SFs in the region till
the US drone strikes were not stopped. Ahmadi phoned from Miranshah
and claimed 60 soldiers were killed and 15 vehicles were destroyed
in the ambush. The Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Athar
Abbas confirmed the attack and said 12 soldiers were dead and
10 others wounded. Athar Abbas told that 10 terrorists were later
killed when the Pakistan Army gunship choppers targeted positions
of the terrorists where they had ambushed the military convoy.
Official and tribal sources said the convoy was traveling from
Madakhel to Wocha Bibi area near the border with Afghanistan when
ambushed by the militants.
12 militants were killed and seven
others sustained injuries as jetfighters bombed suspected hideouts
of the Taliban in South Waziristan. Tribal sources said gunship
helicopters and jetfighters bombed militant hideouts at 10:00
am in Saam, Kacha Lungerkhel, Kuram Garhi, Ladha Serai, Tangi
Budenzai, Makeen, Janata, Srarogha, Kotkai, Garhagah and suburbs
of Ladha sub-division, killing 12 militants and injuring seven
others. Six houses of civilians were reportedly bombed by the
jetfighters in Saam area. Sources said four compounds of the militants
were also targeted by the gunship helicopters in the mountainous
areas of the agency.
People are reported to have started
migrating from Waziristan amid shelling by the SFs towards the
Tank and Dera Ismail Khan Districts in the neighbouring NWFP.
Four militants were killed and
several houses were destroyed when SFs targeted militant positions
in different areas of the Nawagai sub-division in Bajaur Agency.
The SFs targeted militant bunkers and hideouts in the Charmang,
Hasham, Cheenar, Babara and Manogai areas with mortar and artillery
guns.
Chief of the Hindu community in
the Battagram city of Battagram District said that the Taliban
had threatened them to pay Jazia (tax) or accept Islam. "It
depends on you to choose between Jazia and Islam otherwise you
would face abduction and suicide attacks," Dr Oam Parkash
quoted the Taliban as saying. He said that so far he had received
two calls during the last two days: first by a Taliban commander
and then by a militant. "They demanded Rs6 million from me,"
the Hindu leader added. The Taliban is reported to have threatened
that "if you or any other member of your community were kidnapped
then we will not release the kidnapped person even after payment
of Rs10 million as ransom". Parkash said that he had made
clear to both callers that the Hindus in the region were not in
a position to pay such a huge amount. Parkash said that 15 Hindu
families were living in Battagram but none of them had enmity
with anyone in the District. "The government should take
precautionary measures to protect the Hindu community as the Taliban
have threatened even to target our place of worship in Battagram,"
he added.
June 29
Four Taliban militants were killed as jet aircraft
bombed suspected Taliban hideouts in South Waziristan Agency.
The aerial attacks hit a guesthouse used by the Taliban at Kani
Guram village, killing four militants.
Four soldiers who had been injured in a Taliban
attack on their convoy in North Waziristan have died in a military
hospital, the Inter-Services Public Relations chief Major General
Athar Abbas said in a press conference. The number of troops who
died in the attack has now reached 16, including Lieutenant Colonel
Tahir, Captain Abid and Lieutenant Zeeshan. However, some other
reports stated that the death toll has reached 30.
21 Taliban militants were killed in overnight
clashes with an anti-Taliban militia in Kurram Agency, tribal
elder Ali Akbar Toori and lawmaker Sajid Toori said. Four militiamen
were also killed.
SFs claimed to have killed at least 13 suspected
militants in attacks on their hideouts at Bazaar Zakhakhel area
of Landikotal in the Khyber Agency, while seven members of a family
were killed and four others injured when an artillery shell struck
a Hujra (guesthouse) in the Sra Shaga area of Jamrud sub-division.
SFs shelled the suspected militant hideouts in
Kobikhel area of Bazaar Zakhakhel. At least 13 militants were
killed and few others were injured, the FC sources claimed but
without giving the names of the slain militants. However, the
villagers at Kobikhel denied the presence of militants in the
area and said that all the slain persons were local residents.
Acting on a tip-off, the SFs shelled suspected
hideouts of militants in the mountainous Chora area with artillery
from the Forte Slope Camp in Bara sub-division. One of the shells
hit the house of Aqal Jan in Sra Shaga area, killing seven persons,
including three children, and injuring four others of his family.
SFs claimed to have killed eight militants in
the Khwazakhela area of Swat District. An ISPR statement said
the SFs raided a compound in Khwazakhela, killing eight militants.
Weapons and explosive devices were also recovered in the raid,
it added. In addition, sources said SFs commenced search and clearance
operations from Shalkosar to Jukhtai and Balasur to Shah Dherai,
arresting an alleged militant, Muhammad Raheem, near Shangla.
Previously known as pro-government militants,
the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Taliban in the North Waziristan Agency
(NWA) formally scrapped the peace deal with the Government in,
what they termed, protest against the US drone attacks. Ahmadullah
Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led militants, called
from Miranshah, headquarters of NWA, and said their Shura (executive
council) members had decided in a meeting to scrap the peace accord.
Hafiz Gul Bahadur has said he had scrapped the peace accord in
protest against the frequent US drone attacks in NWA. He claimed
that the drones had carried over 50 attacks since signing of the
peace accord in NWA in which hundreds of people, including women
and children, had lost their lives. The Taliban commander has
also reportedly demanded an end to the military operation against
the Baitullah Mehsud-led militants and drone attacks in the adjoining
South Waziristan Agency.
The death toll in the June 28-attack on a military
convoy in NWA rose to 30, as 10 more seriously wounded soldiers
succumbed to their injuries. The slain troops included a colonel,
a captain and a lieutenant.
Police in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) has
revealed that groups like the LeT and JeM are shifting bases to
PoK following a clampdown on their activities in the wake of the
Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 26, 2008. In a confidential
report submitted to the Government of Pakistan, the PoK Police
has said these groups have acquired large pieces of land in and
around PoK capital of Muzaffarabad and are pursuing a "jehadi"
agenda under the garb of religious activities. "After the ban
imposed on the JuD, the front of LeT by the UNSC, Pakistan forces
had taken control of their offices... The activities of the outfit
had gone underground for some months, but have again become active,"
the BBC quoted the report as saying. The report said that the
JuD has constructed a mosque, a school and a dispensary on the
land acquired by them in Dulasi and further construction is on.
The PoK Police report also mentions the activities of other jihadi
groups like the JeM and HuM which have also constructed madrassas
(seminaries) near Muzaffarabad. The JeM has also set up an office
and seminary near Muzaffarabad. Police has noted that most of
the activities of the militant groups have been observed in Neelam
Valley, near the Line of Control. Extremist organisations have
also reportedly set up offices in Kandil Shahi.
June 30
SF stated that Taliban militants in the Biha Valley
of Swat District had slaughtered 18 of their own injured comrades,
as they could not be moved out along with the retreating militants.
"It has been reliably learnt that during the clearance of Biha
Valley, 18 wounded terrorists, who could not be taken to safety,
were slaughtered by their own people on orders of their commanders,"
an ISPR statement said.
The SFs killed 16 militants and arrested 23 others
in Swat while three soldiers died and eight others, including
three officers, were injured.
Two Afghan border guards, four women and two children
were killed when a suicide bomber struck a security post close
to the town of Torkham on the Afghan side of the border. The suicide
bomber - reportedly disguised as a woman - blew himself up while
being searched at a Pakistan-Afghanistan check-post. The bomber
had crossed into Afghanistan from the Pakistani side of the border.
According to officials, the suicide bomber dressed as a woman
blew himself up inside a room used by female security guards to
search women going to Afghanistan from Pakistan.
Seven suspected militants were killed as jets
continued to shell their positions in North Waziristan. However,
it could not be verified whether the dead were militants or non-combatants.
Local people and sources said that planes had bombed militants'
hideouts in Wacha Bibi area, west of Miranshah, where terrorists
had ambushed a military convoy and killed 27 soldiers on June
28. Ten militants were killed when troops returned fire.
In the first-ever suicide attack in a Baloch-populated
area of Balochistan, at least four people were killed and 11 wounded
when a bomber targeted a hotel in Kalat. The attack in Kalat District
appeared to be aimed at disrupting supplies to NATO forces in
Afghanistan. The bomber detonated his explosives inside a hotel
in the Sorab area of the District, 250 kilometers southeast of
provincial capital Quetta. Most of the victims were reportedly
Baloch tribesmen. Witnesses said the suicide bomber, dressed in
white traditional clothes, parked his explosives-laden vehicle
outside the hotel on the Quetta-Karachi RCD Highway, and then
went into the hotel. When he blew himself up, the ensuing blast
also served as a detonator for the explosives in the parked vehicle.
The PoK Police have stated that the banned JuD,
LeT front is expanding its operations and recruitment in the region.
A confidential report submitted to the Pakistan Government has
revealed that the group had purchased 65 kanals of land in the
Dulai area of Muzaffarabad, the PoK capital, to construct a mosque,
a school and a dispensary, a private TV channel reported. The
PoK Inspector General of Police Javed Iqbal told the channel his
force was closely monitoring the group's activities. Information
Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, however, denied that banned Pakistani
groups were expanding their activities. "No such report has come
before the government claiming these organisations have revived
their activities," he told. However, he added, it was a different
matter if it was submitted by an intelligence agency.
July 1
A tribal Lashkar (militia) attacked Taliban hideouts
in the Kurram Agency, killing 28 militants and suffering seven
fatalities themselves, and the intensifying battles prompted them
to ask for Army troops to help, a local lawmaker said. The fighting
in the remote Kurram region was the latest in two weeks of battles
between militants and tribesmen there that have killed 141 people,
including more than 100 militants, two Government officials said.
Their information could not, however, be independently verified.
14 persons were killed and 26 others injured in
clashes between rival groups in Kurram Agency. Later, the elders
of Upper and Lower Kurram succeeded in brokering a cease-fire
after hectic efforts, sources said. Similarly, the rival tribes
- Mastokhel, Hamzakhel, Ghundikhel, Alizai, and Shia Bangash of
the Turi tribe and Parachamkani Masozai, Ali Sherzai, Zehmasht,
Mangal and Sunni Bangash - were still at war with one another
in Balishkhel, Sangeena, Khar Killay, Sadda city, Mingak, Makhzai
and Tangai areas of Lower Kurram.
At least 28 militants, including an unidentified
commander, were killed when gunship helicopters targeted the hideouts
of the banned Lashkar-e-Islam in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency.
Sources said that three gunship helicopters targeted the hideouts
of the Mangal Bagh-led group in Sandapal and Akakhel areas of
Tirah Valley. An official of the Frontier Corps (FC), Major Fazal,
claimed that 28 militants were killed in the action and among
them was a commander. However, talking to The News from an undisclosed
location, Lashkar-e-Islam spokesman Zar Khan denied any losses
to his group. Tribal sources said the murder of Malik Guli Shah,
a pro-government tribal elder in Jamrud, Khyber Agency, was the
immediate reason for the military action. Suspected Taliban militants
had killed a pro-government tribal leader, his driver and two
gunmen while they were on their way to Peshawar, the NWFP capital.
The vehicle of Malik Guli Shah was ambushed on the main highway
near Tedi Bazaar in Jamrud. The driver and one of the gunmen were
shot and killed immediately, while Guli Shah and the other gunman
died at a Peshawar hospital.
The Pakistan Army ruled out launching a military
operation against the Taliban in North Waziristan and pledged
to honour the February 17, 2008 peace accord signed with the tribes
despite the unprovoked attacks against its troops. However, violence
continued in the area as three persons, including two women and
a child, were killed and six others sustained injuries when military
helicopters targeted Madakhel village.
SFs said that they had killed five Taliban militants
in a clash in the Bannu District. "The Taliban ... raided a checkpost
near Hindi Khel in Bannu ... one soldier was killed and six injured,
while five Taliban were also killed," said the ISPR, adding that
a militia in Dir District had taken control of over half of Shatkas
village. The SFs also reportedly cleared Shah Dheri in the Swat
District, the ISPR stated.
Police claimed to have foiled a sabotage attempt
and defused three explosive devices planted in a car while one
of the militants riding the vehicle blew himself up in provincial
capital Peshawar. Suspected militants were reportedly riding an
explosive-laden car and when signaled by the Police to stop on
the Kohat road, they lobbed two hand-grenades on the Police that
didn't explode. Senior Superintendent of Police Qazi Jamilur Rehman
said the car with around five militants was coming from Darra
Adamkhel and armed with automatic weapons they exchanged fire
with the Police. "As the police encircled one of them near Mashokhel
Mera, he blew himself up," he said. The others, however, managed
to escape.
The United States imposed sanctions on an Al Qaeda
backer and three leaders of the LeT, believed to be behind the
Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008. The US Treasury said
it was imposing an assets freeze on the four, identified as Fazeelattul
Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen Al-Peshawari, Arif Qasmani, Mohammed
Yahya Mujahid and Nasir Javaid. Ameen Al-Peshawari allegedly provided
assistance, including funding and recruits, to Al Qaeda and the
Taliban currently fighting to regain control of Afghanistan. Qasmani
is said to be the chief coordinator for the LeT and Mujahid was
the head of the group's media department. Javaid had allegedly
served Lashkar's commander in Pakistan. The Treasury said its
action came two days after Al-Peshawari, Qasmani and Mujahid were
added to a UN blacklist of individuals.
Militancy in the FATA has cost Pakistan around
$2,146 million while the fighting has so far killed over 3,000
civilians, a Government report said. The report - "Cost of Conflict
in FATA" - prepared by the Planning and Development Wing of the
FATA Secretariat said the social cost of the militancy was far
greater than the cost of infrastructure, economic and the subsequent
environmental loss. However, it said the cost of the military
operation "is beyond the scope of this report and would be worked
out separately by the concerned agencies". The report put the
social cost of the conflict at $1,109 million, the cost to security
and internal displacement at $572 million, the environmental cost
at $188 million, the economic cost at $119 million and infrastructure
losses at $103 million. "Pakistan is suffering a series of overlapping
crises due to the conflict in FATA... and is need of immediate
humanitarian assistance," the report said.
Claiming that the militants' network in Malakand
Division had been dismantled, the NWFP Minister for Information
Mian Iftikhar Hussain said in provincial capital Peshawar that
reports about injuries suffered by the Swat Taliban leader Maulana
Fazlullah were yet to be confirmed. "The militants have either
gone into hiding or run away from their strongholds in Swat, Buner
and Dir Lower where security forces have expedited their offensive
against them," he said while briefing the media. The minister
also said the Government had information about the serious injuries
sustained by Maulana Fazlullah and his spokesman a week ago but
there was no solid evidence of his whereabouts and health condition.
"Interior Minister Rehman Malik may have confirmed the report
when he made a claim about serious injuries suffered by Fazlullah,"
Mian Iftikhar said.
July 2
SFs said they had killed 23 Taliban militants
in various areas of Swat District over the last 24 hours. "The
security forces consolidated their positions around Shah Dheri,
where 17 Taliban were killed in a clash," said the ISPR in its
latest update. Five more militants were killed during a search
operation in Kanju.
36 persons were injured when a young suicide bomber
rammed his motorcycle into a bus carrying employees of the Army-run
Heavy Mechanical Complex at the Peshawar Road near Chur Chowk
in Rawalpindi. The suicide bomber was the only reported fatality.
Initially, the death toll had been given as six but it was revised
to one killed (the bomber himself) by the security agencies. The
Additional Inspector General of Police, Nasir Khan Durrani, confirmed
that it was a suicide attack, saying that body parts of the suicide
bomber and other evidence had been collected. Eight vehicles,
standing around the targeted bus, were completely destroyed while
the windowpanes of buildings and shops in a radius of over half-a-kilometer
were damaged. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
After the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led militants in North
Waziristan, another pro-government militant commander, Mulla Nazeer,
also scrapped his peace deal with the Government in South Waziristan
Agency. A senior associate of Mulla Nazeer, Saada Janan, called
from Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, and claimed their
Shura or council unanimously decided to scrap the peace accord
with the Government to protest the frequent US drone attacks in
their territory. Asked about a similar stance already taken by
Taliban commander in North Waziristan, Hafiz Gul Bahadur over
US drone attacks, where drones did not fire missiles during the
past two months, Saada Janan opined that all the three Taliban
commanders - Baitullah Mehsud, Mulla Nazeer and Hafiz Gul Bahadur
- in February 2009 had formed the Shura Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen
or council of holly warriors, in which he claimed, all of them
promised to fight alongside if anyone of them was attacked.
July 3
13 persons were killed and seven others sustained
injuries in a US drone attack in South Waziristan Agency. Tribal
sources said a US drone fired three missiles at the office of
Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud in Serwakai sub-division at 9 am, killing
13 persons present in the office and injuring seven others. Another
drone attack was carried out in the Mantoi area of Ladha sub-division,
where three missiles were fired at a madrassa (seminary),
completely destroying the building. However, no loss of life was
reported in the attack. An official of the political administration
confirmed the drone strikes and added that authorities were trying
to ascertain the casualties.
An AP report stated that US missiles struck a
training facility operated by Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud
and a militant communication centre in South Waziristan Agency,
killing 17 people and injuring 27 others. In one attack, two missiles
struck an abandoned seminary in Mantoi that was being used by
the militants belonging to the Mehsud's group for training, officials
said. In another strike, a missile hit a militant communications
centre in the nearby village of Kokat Khel. In total, 17 people
were killed and 27 others were injured, they said. However, Maulvi
Noor Syed, an aide to Mehsud, told The Associated Press
that three Taliban militants died in the strikes. "We lost only
three Mujahideen in today's American missile attack," Syed said,
adding "These attacks cannot cause any damage to us."
Eight persons were killed and 12 others wounded
when fighter planes targeted a hotel in Deegan Bazaar, 25 kilometers
from Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan Agency. Sources
said people were having breakfast at the hotel when two fighter
planes struck at 7:30 am, killing eight persons and injuring 12
others. A gunship helicopter targeted another hotel in Manzarkhel
area, 25 kilometers from Miranshah. No casualty was reported in
the attack.
The internal threats endangering the country's
existence require immediate attention, Chief of Army Staff (COAS)
General Ashfaq Kayani said. "While external threats continue to
exist, it is the internal threat to Pakistan that needs immediate
attention," the COAS said while addressing the 91st Officers Commissioning
Parade at the Pakistan Naval Academy.
July 4
Fighter planes and gunship helicopters heavily
targeted suspected positions of militants in the Taliban-controlled
Orakzai Agency in the FATA, killing 26 militants a day after a
military helicopter crashed in the area. Military spokesman Major
General Athar Abbas confirmed the bombing and said the action
was taken as a reaction to the attack of militants on SFs and
a rescue team on July 3. He said the militants opened fire on
the SF personnel and rescue team when they went there to retrieve
bodies of the soldiers killed in the helicopter crash. Tribal
sources said six gunship helicopters heavily bombed various parts
of Ferozkhel area in lower Orakzai soon after the helicopter crash.
The sources said two warplanes and six gunship helicopters resumed
bombing of suspected hideouts of the militants at the hilltops
of Chappar and Ferozkhel, located between lower Orakzai and Khyber
Agency.
15 men of an armed tribal Lashkar (militia) and
three militants were killed when fierce clashes erupted in the
Fam Pokha and Kharai Darra areas of Ambar sub-division in Mohmand
Agency. Sources said the militants attacked the armed men of the
tribal Lashkar of Utmankhel tribe in Fam Pokha area, killing 15
people on the spot. However, official sources put the death toll
at 12. Further, the sources said three militants were killed and
seven others sustained injuries in the pre-dawn clashes in Fam
Pokha and Kharai Darra areas. The slain militants reportedly belonged
to Dawezai area of Mohmand Agency.
July 5
Ten militants were killed in shelling by the SFs
in the Mangaltan area of Charbagh sub-division in Swat District,
the military said. "Gunship helicopters shelled the militant hideouts
in Mangaltan area of Charbagh town. At least, 10 militants were
killed in the shelling," Major Nasir Khan, a military spokesman
in Mingora, said. Nasir said the air attacks occurred after fresh
reports of the militants' movement in the area.
SFs said that three soldiers were killed and six
others wounded while a few terrorists were arrested in the Malakand
Division. According to the Inter-Public Services Relations, SFs
raided the house of a terrorist in Mohalla Nehrabad in Kuza Banda
and recovered one Suzuki pick up, one small machine gun, two magazines,
one pistol and 175 rounds of miscellaneous caliber. During an
exchange of fire with the militants near Bari Kot, three soldiers
were killed and four others injured.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told
that the military had killed a commander loyal to the TTP Swat
unit chief Maulana Fazlullah on the outskirts of Mingora. "Ehsan
alias Abu Jandal, was killed two days earlier in Qambar area.
He was a mid-level commander," Athar said.
Seven persons were killed and 12 others sustained
injuries when missiles fired by jet fighters missed their targets,
hitting the civilian areas in Dattakhel in North Waziristan Agency.
Three imprisoned militants were killed and two
civilians sustained injuries when militants fired several rockets
at the Bajaur Scouts Fort in Khar, headquarters of the Bajaur
Agency. Sources said that the militants fired rockets on Bajaur
Scouts headquarters in Khar from a hilltop in Kohi Mor area and
one of the rockets struck the building of quarter guard, killing
three militants. The other rocket landed in the ground of the
fort compound, causing no casualty. Two more rockets fired by
the militants landed near the civilian population injuring two
persons.
A UK-based fundamentalist group has hatched a
plot to overthrow Pakistan's Government through a "bloodless coup"
and establish a "caliphate" in which Islamic laws will be rigorously
enforced, a media report said. Followers of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir,
which is banned in Pakistan, aim for a "bloodless military coup"
and creation of the caliphate in Islamabad. Members of the group,
which describes itself as "the Liberation Party in Britain", claim
they had targeted the UK as a base from which to spread Islamic
rule across the world. The report said a dozen British Hizb-ut-Tahrir
activists are currently based in Lahore and Karachi, or keep traveling
between the UK and Pakistan, and there are many more.
July 6
SFs killed 14 Taliban militants
in the Tiligram area of Swat District. According to the ISPR,
"Security forces killed 14 terrorists during an exchange
of fire in Tiligram. A huge quantity of ammunition and explosives,
four IEDs, one 14.5 gun barrel and 26 detonators were also recovered."
The SFs, it added, during a search operation in Banjut area recovered
50 mules, loaded with arms and ammunition, medicines and ration
items and arrested an unspecified number of terrorists. In the
Dir Lower District, SFs confiscated 2,156 rounds of small machine
gun, 9,728 rounds of light machine gun, seven hand grenades and
eight magazines of small machine gun from a vehicle at the Kharkanai
Chowk.
The NWFP Chief Minister Ameer
Haidar Khan Hoti who visited the Swat Valley said the militants
would not be allowed to regroup in the area and they would be
defeated. The Chief Minister, who also visited Buner District,
announced doubling the strength of Police force in Swat and Buner.
He said the number of Police stations would also be increased.
Five persons, including a prayer
leader and two brothers, were killed in separate incidents of
sectarian violence in Dera Ismail Khan. A private TV channel reported
that unidentified people shot dead a Shia rickshaw driver in Gali
Bagh Wali. He was identified as Bakht Wadha, a resident of Dinpur
village. Meanwhile, two Shia brothers were killed when unidentified
men on a motorbike fired at them. Police said the brothers, identified
as Azmat Ali and Muhammad Ali, were at their shop on Grid Station
Road. Further, two people, including a prayer leader, Amanullah,
were killed when unidentified men opened fire on four people sitting
at a shop near Wanda Mouchian Wala area. The channel also said
traders shut down their businesses in the city following the incidents.
Seven militants were killed and
several others injured when jets shelled militant hideouts in
North Waziristan. Officials and local people said the jets had
attacked militants’ positions in Wuchabibi and Madahkel areas
of Dattakhel sub-division, at about 3:30pm. "Seven militants
were killed and 12 injured when jet fighter planes pounded Taliban
hideouts at Madda Khel and Wuchabibi," an official based
in agency’s main town Miranshah said.
SFs intensified attacks on the
Taliban in Bajaur Agency, killing four militants and injuring
six others in the region’s Charmang sub-division. The SFs also
reportedly destroyed numerous Taliban hideouts in Charmang, defused
several remote-controlled bombs, arrested 15 suspects and recovered
missiles from their possession.
President Asif Ali Zardari has
stated that the military will turn its guns on extremist groups
it formerly supported as proxy forces in its battles with India,
according to The News. Zardari said in an interview that operations
would in the future target the figures who were the military’s
"strategic assets". "I don’t think anybody in the
establishment supports them any more… I think everybody has become
wiser than this," he said. "Military operations are
all across the board against any insurgent, whether in Karachi,
Lahore or whether he is in any part of Pakistan," said Zardari.
The President is reported to have said "My problem is terror.
I have focused myself on terror. The PPP has focused itself against
the extremist mindset. Terror is a regional problem, it cuts across
borders… I would love to be remembered for creating a Pakistan
where militancy — I know it can’t totally be diminished — is defeated."
July 7
A suspected US drone fired two
missiles at a militant training centre in the Laddha subdivision
of South Waziristan Agency, killing 16 militants and injuring
10 others. Five foreigners were among the dead, security officials
said. The camp allegedly run by militants loyal to Taliban leader
Baitullah Mehsud was in Chenakai area of the Shabikhels, a sub
clan of Mehsud tribe. There was no report if any high-value target
had been hit in the attack carried out at about 10am. Sources
said that a local commander of Baitullah was among the dead. The
missile strike destroyed a compound which a high-ranking official
described as a former office of Baitullah Mehsud, who has a five-million-dollar
price on his head and a bounty of $615,000 in Pakistan for allegedly
masterminding multiple bombings.
Helicopter gunships targeted militants’
hideouts in the Datakhel area of North Waziristan Agency, killing
four militants.
SFs said that they had killed
four Taliban militants and arrested 34 of them from various areas
of Swat and Bannu Districts. The ISPR said that Taliban commander
Muhammad Rasool was among the dead in Shukdara. Further, a local
Taliban commander, identified Wahab, was killed and 14 other suspected
Taliban militants arrested in a house-to-house search operation
in Bararai near Khawazakhela. The forces also conducted search
operation in Bannu’s Maddi area, killing a militant in a clash
and arresting seven others.
The federal and Punjab Governments
filed identical petitions in the Supreme Court challenging a Lahore
High Court decision, releasing Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, chief of
the banned JuD (the LeT front). Deputy Attorney General Shah Khawar
and Punjab Advocate General Muhammad Raza Farooq filed the petitions
on behalf of their respective Governments. The petitions request
the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of ending the detention
of Saeed and Col (r) Nazir Ahmad.
July 8
48 militants were killed and several
others injured in two separate attacks by US drones in the South
Waziristan Agency. However, some reports quoting officials of
law-enforcement agencies and political administration put the
death toll in the two attacks at 58. According to sources, besides
the tribal militants, the dead also included four Arabs and seven
Uzbeks. "Almost 90 per cent of the militants traveling in
the convoy were killed in the drone attack," said an unnamed
security official. Sources close to the militants said a convoy
of pick-ups was carrying militants from Ladha to Srarogha for
a meeting of militant commanders when it was attacked. They said
three drones were flying over the region during the attack. The
drones reportedly fired seven missiles and destroyed all the five
vehicles on the spot, killing at least 40 militants. Earlier,
sources from South Waziristan said eight militants were killed
and 12 others injured in the first drone attack at a training
camp of the militants at Karwan Manza village of Ladha Subdivision.
They said two US drones were seen flying over the area during
the attack. The sources said the building was being used for training
the newly-recruited militants. Senior commander of the Baitullah
Mehsud group, Noor Wali Mehsud, was reportedly running the camp.
He, however, remained safe. The drones fired six missiles at the
camp that razed it to the ground. The Taliban while confirming
the drone attack at the training camp, however, denied losses
to their men.
A suicide bomber died on the outskirts
of Peshawar, capital of the NWFP, when explosives hidden in a
mango cart went off before he could reach the intended target
– possibly the NWFP Assembly speaker, according to witnesses and
Police. "The bomber is the only person who died," senior
Police officer Ghulam Muhammad told reporters after the incident
in Malkhandher on Nasir Bagh Road. Unconfirmed reports indicated
that five people had been injured. Witnesses said that a teenager,
aged around 16 years, was waiting near a bridge when his explosives
went off. One eye-witness said the explosives had been hidden
under mangoes to dodge the troops. Bomb disposal squad chief Tanveer
said the explosives weighed around 20 kilograms and "pieces
of a suicide jacket" had been found. Police believe the bomber’s
original target was the NWFP Assembly Speaker Karamatullah Chagarmati,
who was using the Nasir Bagh Road en route to a funeral.
The military operation in Swat
and adjoining Districts is "complete" and various areas
of Malakand Division have been taken back from the Taliban, but
the army will stay on in the valley to conduct search-and-destroy
operations wherever required, said the NWFP Information Minister
Qamar Zaman Kaira and Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.
Addressing a joint press conference in Islamabad, Kaira said,
"The Swat operation has been successfully completed, and
the government will announce a schedule for the phased return
of IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] within the next two days."
Abbas said Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani had presided over
a high-level meeting at the General Headquarters to discuss a
host of issues related to the operation.
The army said the Taliban’s command-and-control
structures, logistics and training infrastructure had been either
destroyed or disrupted. They also said that a large number of
Taliban leaders had been killed or arrested. The meeting did not
rule out isolated incidents of terrorism in the area. "The
army will, therefore, stay in Swat," it said. The military
spokesman confirmed that Swat Taliban unit chief Maulana Fazlullah
was seriously injured and another militant leader, Abu Jandal,
had been killed. He said Taliban leader Shah Dauran was also reported
to have been killed. Replying to a question, Abbas said most of
the terrorist commanders and leaders were in the Swat valley and
only a few of them had moved out. However, there was no possibility
of the militants regrouping and operating in the valley, he added.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman
of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the Al Qaeda leadership
resides in the FATA of Pakistan and the United States is determined
to defeat them. "The top priority, with respect to that strategy,
is to defeat al Qaida, whose leadership resides in the FATA -
in the federal areas, the tribal areas - in Western Pakistan,"
Mullen said in his remarks at a luncheon held at the National
Press Club in Washington. Referring to the recent developments
in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Mullen said things are now moving
in the right direction and the United States now needs to remain
engaged in both the countries. "A year ago, not many people would
have said that the Pakistani military could pull that (Swat) off,
and yet they have made an awful lot of progress," he said.
South Waziristan Agency’s political
administration has asked residents of the areas where a military
operation is underway to shift to safer places. The channel said
tribes residing in Ziarat Ray, Toormandi, Sevay and Madi Jan had
been directed to shift to safer areas, such as Tank and Dera Ismail
Khan in the NWFP, within 48 hours.
Intelligence agencies have warned
the Government that the Taliban may attempt to hijack commercial
airliners, a private TV channel quoted an intelligence report.
The agencies suggested fundamental changes in the security procedures
for commercial airliners to avert the risk of hijacking. According
to the report, detained Taliban militants have disclosed that
the Taliban frequently use commercial airlines to travel.
Pakistan has, for the first time,
acknowledged at the highest level that militant groups were created
and nurtured by it for "tactical" objectives. Speaking
to retired civil servants, who met him to discuss national issues,
President Asif Ali Zardari said militants and extremists had been
"deliberately created and nurtured" as a policy for
"short-term tactical objectives." According to him,
"Militants and extremists emerged on the national scene and
challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened
and demoralized but because they were deliberately created and
nurtured as a policy to achieve short-term tactical objectives.
Let's be truthful and make a candid admission of the reality".
"The terrorists of today were heroes of yesteryear until
9/11 occurred and they began to haunt us as well," Zardari
said emphasising that Pakistan cannot be left alone at this stage
of the war on terror.
July 9
39 militants were killed when
military planes bombed Taliban hideouts in the Orakzai Agency.
According to unconfirmed reports, about 14 camps of the militants
were destroyed in the Starsam, Drogai and Behram Garh areas of
Chappri Feroze Khel in the lower and Ghiljo in upper Orakzai agency.
Independent sources confirmed that 39 militants had been killed
and eight injured in the strikes. Muhammad, a spokesman for the
Darra Adamkhel-based Taliban commander Tariq Afridi, admitted
that 18 of their fighters, including a senior ‘commander’, were
killed in the air strikes on their hideouts in Qasimkhel village
of Ferozkhel town in Orakzai Agency. Tribal sources told that
two fighter planes and three gunship helicopters targeted suspected
positions of the militants in Qasimkhel, Behram Garhi, Toi Mela
and the mountains between Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions. Further,
a woman and her child were killed when a house owned by local
tribesman Ghuncha Gul came under strikes by the planes.
12 militants were killed when
Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter planes targeted their suspected
hideouts in South Waziristan Agency. The jets pounded suspected
Taliban hideouts in four villages in Ladha and Kani Guram areas,
according to four unnamed intelligence officials. Two of the officials
said 12 bodies of militants were recovered from destroyed houses
where they were staying. The other officials confirmed the bombing,
but had no details of casualties. However, independent verification
of the targets and casualties was not possible because the region
is remote and largely inaccessible to journalists.
SFs claimed to have killed three
militants and injured five others in the ongoing operations in
various areas of Bajaur Agency. Sources said the SFs targeted
suspected locations of the militants in Charmang area of Nawagai
sub-division with artillery and mortars. The sources said three
militants were killed and five others sustained injuries while
several suspected hideouts of militants were destroyed in the
shelling.
At least five Frontier Corps (FC)
personnel were killed and 14 other people sustained injuries in
a series of bomb and landmine blasts in Dera Bugti, Sibi and Quetta.
Sources said a landmine planted in the Marwar area of Dera Bugti
District exploded, hitting a Frontier Corps vehicle. Five FC personnel
were killed and three injured in the incident. "It was an
anti-tank mine which destroyed the FC vehicle," said official
sources. Nine persons were wounded when a bomb exploded in Sibi
Bazaar, some 160 kilometers east of provincial capital Quetta.
Official sources said the bomb had been planted in a shop on Liaquat
Road. It exploded after the owner had closed the shop, injuring
nine passersby. A bomb fixed to a bicycle parked in front of a
Police Station exploded when it was being defused by the Police
personnel. One man was injured in this incident.
The SFs arrested 157 suspected
militants and demolished over 35 houses in the limits of Safi
sub-division of Mohmand Agency and Darra Adamkhel in NWFP, in
separate operations. Sources said that SFs along with the political
administration carried out a search operation in Karer, Palosai,
Ghari and Darwazgai areas of Qandaharo in Safi. Over 150 militants
were arrested during the operation while houses of 35 others were
razed to the ground.
July 10
Ten militants and six SF personnel
were killed in various areas of Bajaur Agency. Sources said the
SFs targeted hideouts of the militants with heavy artillery and
gunship helicopters in the Charmang, Chinar and Manogai areas,
killing 10 militants. Several hideouts of the militants were destroyed
in the operations. The sources added that two soldiers were killed
and five others sustained injuries in the clashes.
Four Levies troopers were killed
when unidentified militants attacked a check-post in Khar, the
Bajaur Agency headquarters. Sources said the militants attacked
the Bajaur Levies post with rockets and hand-grenades at 2:00
am, killing four paramilitary soldiers, Masood Jan, Rahatullah,
Abdul Ghaffar and Muhammad Ishaq Jan.
Two suspected US missile strikes
hit South Waziristan, killing at least eight Taliban militants.
The first strike targeted one of TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud’s
communication centres, killing at least three people, intelligence
officials said. Two missiles struck the centre in the Painda Khel
region, they told. Separately, quoting a private TV channel report,
the Online news agency claimed at least five militants were killed
in a drone attack in the Tiyarza area. It claimed the drone fired
two missiles at the TTP hideouts.
Ten Taliban militants were killed
during a clash with the SFs in the Zhob District of Balochistan.
Quoting official sources, a private TV channel said the militants
had been killed in retaliation after they attacked a security
check-post in the Sambaza area of Zhob. Local administration and
security officials told the APP news agency that an unknown number
of Taliban militants had killed one SF official, Hazrat Mir, and
wounded two others during the attack on the check-post.
SFs killed three militants and
destroyed seven tunnels and eight hideouts during a search and
clearance operation in parts of the Swat District, the ISPR said.
The tunnels and the hideouts of the militants, according to the
ISPR, were destroyed in Badar and Sar Colony areas of the valley.
July 11
Three security officials were
killed and another six injured in a remote-controlled bombing
in the Kohat District. The bombing targeted an army vehicle passing
through the Pirwala Khel area.
Three Taliban militants were killed
and several others injured during a military operation in the
Bajaur Agency. The SFs attacked the Chinar, Kohi Manogai, Karkanai
and Zirat areas in Charmang Valley with artillery, killing the
three Taliban militants.
July 12
12 militants were killed in shelling
by fighter planes on suspected hideouts of the Taliban in Sarwakai
sub-division of South Waziristan Agency. Sources said the fighter
planes targeted the compounds and hideouts of the militants in
Parwand and Novely Khan Serai areas in Sarwakai. Unconfirmed reports
said 12 militants were killed in the operation. A military statement
said one soldier also died in an exchange of fire with the militants
in South Waziristan.
SFs claimed to have killed five
foreign militants in the Maidan revenue division of Lower Dir
District in the NWFP. Official sources told that the SFs fired
mortar shells on a vehicle carrying militants, killing five of
them. The militants were reportedly foreigners and local people
did not know them. They said that bodies of the militants were
later taken away by other militants.
The militants killed three workers
of the ruling ANP in the Pir Baba area of Buner District. Sources
said the militants attacked Malik Pur village in Pir Baba and
killed three ANP activists, identified as Shamsher Ali Khan, Gohar
Ali Khan and Usman Ali Khan. The militants have been holding Jamil
Ali Khan, brother of Gohar Ali, as hostage for the last one month
and have demanded PKR 10 million as ransom.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik
has said Osama bin Laden and the top Al Qaeda leadership are not
in Pakistan, making US missile attacks against them futile. "If
Osama was in Pakistan we would know, with all the thousands of
troops we have sent into the tribal areas in recent months… If
he and all these four or five top people were in our area, they
would have been caught, the way we are searching," Rehman
Malik told. He added: "According to our information, Osama
is in Afghanistan, probably Kunar, as most of the activities against
Pakistan are being directed from Kunar."
July 13
11 persons, including six children,
were killed in a blast in a seminary in a village on the outskirts
of Mian Channu near Multan city in Punjab province. The explosion,
which occurred at 9:05am, also damaged around 30 houses. The blast
was apparently caused by a huge amount of explosives stored in
the house of a cleric. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said
the cleric, variously identified as Hafiz Riaz or Master Riaz,
and two other men who were in the house at the time, were arrested
from a hospital where they were admitted for injuries sustained
in the explosion. Police said they suspected Master Riaz of storing
the explosives for "terrorism" purposes. Children of the village
attended Koran classes at the house and a number of them were
inside at the time of the explosion. Khanewal District Police
Officer Kamran Khan told the media that two suicide jackets, detonators,
six rocket launchers and some Jihadi literature were recovered
from the incident site. Sources said Master Riaz was member of
a proscribed outfit and had participated in the Afghan war for
eight years.
Eight militants were killed and
three others injured in a clash with a militia in the Mohmand
Agency. Two militants were reportedly captured. Assistant Political
Agent Rasool Khan said the clash had taken place in the Anbar
valley. One tribesman was injured in these clashes.
Six suspected militants affiliated
with the Maulvi Nazeer-led Taliban were killed and 10 others injured
in an exchange of gunfire after an attack by the militants on
a roadside security post at Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan
Agency. Officials and tribal sources said a group of the militants
attacked Sur Pul check-post near Rustam Adda at 7am with heavy
weapons. The paramilitary FC personnel returned the fire, killing
six militants and injuring 10 others. According to the sources,
the militants took away three bodies of their slain accomplices
along with them and left behind three others.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik
said in Islamabad that top militant commanders have been killed
during the military operation in Waziristan while the TTP chief
in Swat valley, Maulana Fazlullah, was seriously injured.
SFs arrested 13 Al Qaeda terrorists
– en route to Punjab via bus – from Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan.
A German court jailed for eight
years a German man of Pakistani origin for helping to fund and
supply Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s NWFP. The 47-year-old, identified
only as Aleem N., was arrested in February 2008 and charged with
giving 27,000 euros (38,000 dollars) as well as materials, including
night-vision equipment, to the group. The court in Koblenz found
him guilty of belonging to a foreign terrorist organisation receiving
explosives training at an extremist camp and of helping recruit
volunteers to go to Pakistan.
July 14
23 militants were killed during
clashes between a tribal militia and militants in the Ziaray Kandao
area of Anbar sub-division in the Mohmand Agency. Four members
of the militia were injured, sources said. However, official sources
said only 18 militants were killed in the gunfight which continued
for several hours. They said militants also destroyed five houses
of the militia identified as Subedar Major Pasham Gul, Sultan,
Zahir Shah, Baghdad Shah and Rozi Shah. Three volunteers of the
tribal force were reported missing after the clashes.
SFs and political administration
in a joint operation arrested 89 tribesmen and seized two vehicles
under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes
Regulation in the Mullakhel and Akram Baig areas in Qandharo sub-division.
Two persons were killed and three
others injured when militants attacked an oil tanker in the Chingai
area of Landikotal subdivision in the Khyber Agency. Sources said
an oil tanker loaded with 50000 litres of GP1 petrol was en route
to Afghanistan via Torkham highway when the militants from the
nearby mountains attacked it with rockets and other automatic
weapons.
In the Swat Valley, SFs killed
nine militants and arrested several others during search and clearance
operations. According to an ISPR update, SFs conducted a search
operation at Kuza Bandai and during the consequent encounter five
militants were killed while four others were killed during clashes
between the two sides at Tahirabad and Billogram.
The Government of Punjab disassociated
itself from a case challenging the Lahore High Court order that
released the JuD (the LeT front) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, as
it filed an application with the Supreme Court (SC) to withdraw
its petition that challenged the release. Appearing on notice,
the Punjab Advocate General (AG) Raza Farooq informed the SC that
the Punjab Government had decided to withdraw its petition against
Saeed’s release, as it had insufficient evidence against him and
his aide, Col (r) Nazir Ahmed. Appearing on the behalf of the
federal Government, Deputy AG Shah Khawar requested the court
for additional time to seek the Centre’s instructions on the issue.
Accepting the request, the court reportedly adjourned the hearing
until July 16.
July 15
SFs claimed to have killed the
most wanted terrorist leader Abu Laith and 13 other Taliban militants,
including two foreigners, during the ongoing military operation
in Swat valley amid the arrival of displaced people. According
to the ISPR, the SFs conducted a search operation in Peuchar and
killed Abu Laith, a Swat Taliban commander in Peuchar, their former
headquarters. "The security forces carried out search operation
in Akhund Killay near Kabal and killed eight militants, including
two foreigners. One soldier embraced shahadat and three soldiers
including an officer were injured during exchange of fire,"
the ISPR said. During a search operation in Reema, the SFs claimed
to have killed three more militants.
The troops have reportedly pushed
back the Taliban militants in the 75-day old military operation
and there has been no active fighting for the last two weeks.
The latest killings of the militants took place at a time when
the people displaced from the Swat valley have been returning
to their homes since the last three days. However, Sajid Mohmand,
the Police chief in Swat, said that "The situation in Swat
has not improved to the extent of preventing violent incidents
in the valley in the near future." "There are reports
that some militants are still hiding in the mountains and these
are the elements which may deteriorate the situation in Swat,"
he said.
Five militants and two civilians
were killed and seven others wounded in air strikes and rocket
attacks in South Waziristan Agency. According to Security officials,
planes shelled two compounds occupied by militants in the Sararogha
and Laddha areas of South Waziristan, killing five militants and
injuring six others.
Reports from Miranshah indicated
that columns of infantry units with tanks moved into North Waziristan
and a curfew was clamped on several parts of the Agency. Witnesses
said hundreds of troops had reached their base in Miranshah, the
headquarters of North Waziristan, from Mirali, along with 25 tanks
and armoured personnel carriers and over 100 other vehicles. All
bazaars and markets in the two towns are reported to have remained
closed.
Al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman
Al-Zawahri accused the US of leading a crusade to turn Pakistan
from a Muslim nuclear power into a divided nation and urged Pakistanis
to join the jihad to resist. Taliban were in a tug-of-war with
the US-allied Government as they push to make Pakistan a "citadel
of Islam" in the region, Zawahri said. "It is the individual
duty of every Muslim in Pakistan to join the mujahideen,"
Zawahri said, Reuters reported. He is reported to have
said, "The crusade aims at eradicating the growing jihad
nucleus in order to break up this nuclear capable country, and
transform it into tiny fragments, loyal to and dependent on the
neo-crusaders."
July 16
SFs killed eight Taliban militants
in the Loi Namal area of Matta sub-division in the Swat District.
The ISPR said that SFs carried out search and clearance operations
in parts of the valley. "SFs conducted a search operation
in area around Loi Namal and Pansarat and killed eight terrorists,
including local commander Bilal," the ISPR claimed. A number
of tunnels and hideouts were unearthed in Matta. The SFs have
also reportedly wrested the headquarters of the Taliban - Peuchar.
During the operation in Loi Namal, the ISPR said 20 terrorist
hideouts were destroyed and eight machine guns, one rifle and
huge quantity of ammunition recovered.
Three persons were killed and
four others sustained injuries when an IED, planted by unidentified
miscreants, exploded on the Ghulam Khan Road, eight kilometers
from Miranshah, headquarters of the North Waziristan Agency. Official
and tribal sources said a local passenger vehicle on its way from
Ghulam Khan to Miranshah Bazaar when it hit an IED at 9:30 am,
killing three persons on the spot. However, the identity of the
victims could not be ascertained.
India and Pakistan agreed to renew
the bilateral relationship, frozen since the Mumbai terrorist
attacks in November 2008, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani agreeing that dialogue
between their two countries "is the only way forward."
While the joint statement issued after their meeting on the sidelines
of the Non-Aligned Summit at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt said nothing
about when and how the Composite Dialogue process would resume,
the two Foreign Secretaries have been tasked with meeting "as
often as necessary" in the run-up to a review by the Indian
and Pakistani Foreign Ministers in New York in September 2009.
Speaking to reporters later, Dr. Singh said Gilani had been keen
to resume the composite dialogue "here and now." "But
I said that the dialogue cannot begin unless and until the terrorist
acts of Mumbai are fully accounted for and the perpetrators are
brought to book," the Prime Minister stated. Unless this
happened, he stressed, "I cannot agree and our public opinion
will not agree." There was no road map for resumption yet,
he said, but added: "We have an obligation to engage Pakistan."
Asked by reporters if the joint statement meant India was ready
to resume the composite dialogue, Gilani said, "It is my
understanding that they are convinced it is the way forward."
He also drew attention to India’s readiness "to discuss all
issues with Pakistan, including all outstanding issues."
July 17
Five militants were killed and
four others sustained injuries in a drone attack on a suspected
hideout of the Taliban in Badar village, about 30 kilometers from
Razmak in the North Waziristan Agency. Sources told that a CIA-operated
spy plane fired two missiles at the house of a local cleric, Maulana
Abdul Majeed. The Badar village near Gharium is located on the
border between North Waziristan and South Waziristan. According
to sources, the five militants killed in the drone attack had
come from the adjacent South Waziristan and were affiliated with
the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud. It was not clear as to whether
the village cleric Maulana Abdul Majeed, whose house was reportedly
targeted, died in the air strike or not.
Two soldiers and an equal number
of Taliban militants were killed in the Swat and Dir Districts
of NWFP. "A security vehicle – en route to Peochar from Shahid
Khapa – was hit by an improvised explosive device near Serai…
two soldiers were killed," said the ISPR. A local militia
in Dir destroyed Taliban bunkers in Shahdas near Lal Qila and
killed two militants and injured two others.
A 36-page dossier handed over
by Pakistan has for the first time admitted that the LeT carried
out the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks. The dossier terming
Lashkar operations chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as the mastermind
and admitting the Pakistan nationality of Ajmal Amir Kasab along
with some others is said to have prompted India to be more accommodating
with Pakistan at the NAM Summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt. Pakistan
has reportedly given details on each of the accused, which includes
Zarar Shah, who has been identified as the person in-charge of
the communications, and there are also details of proclaimed offenders
like Ajmal Kasab. The LeT has been referred to as a defunct organisation
with no links to other outfits in Pakistan.
July 18
Six Taliban militants, including
a local commander, were killed and several others injured after
clashes with SFs in Bajaur, Swat and Malakand. According to the
ISPR, a soldier was also killed and three others injured in sporadic
clashes with Taliban fighters in the Shangla and Shakardara. Local
Taliban commander Abu Bakar was killed during a search operation
in Chamtalai. Four Taliban militants were arrested and one killed
in a search operation around Kanju.
Jet fighters pounded militant
positions in Orakzai Agency, killing seven people, including two
suspected militants. Two children and three women are said to
be among the seven persons killed when jets bombed a suspected
militant hideout in Moputay, Upper Orakzai. Locals, however, put
the death toll at nine. Gunship helicopters also struck areas
in Chappar Ferozkhel, Lower Orakzai, but no casualties were reported.
Three fighters were killed and
two others injured when Taliban militants attacked SFs during
a search operation in the Kohi and Ray areas of Charmang, Tehsil
Nawagai. The SFs also destroyed two Taliban hideouts.
A local Taliban commander was
killed and four of his aides injured when a US drone targeted
their hideout in the Shaktoi area of Ladha tehsil (revenue division)
in the South Waziristan Agency of FATA. The political administration
sources said the drone fired two missiles that landed near the
house of local Taliban chief Ameer Abdullah Mehsud. Commander
Zar Jan Mehsud of the Kekarai tribe died in the attack while four
others sustained injuries. The sources said a meeting was underway
in the compound when the missiles struck the house.
July 19
The Police launched a counterattack
on Taliban militants in the Sambat Cham area of Matta sub-division
in Swat District after the beheading of a Matta Police Station
class-1V employee, killing one militant besides demolishing seven
houses. In addition, three more militants were killed in the ongoing
military operation in Swat. The class-IV employee, Muhammad Iqbal,
was beheaded inside his home in Sambat Cham on the night between
July 17 and 18.
SFs continued their search and
clearance operations in parts of the Swat Valley. The Army-run
ISPR claimed that three militants were killed during an encounter
with the militants in Mauja Kandao.
The Foreign Office spokesman Abdul
Basit rejected US allegations that terrorists involved in attacks
on the US and India were living in Pakistan, calling the claim
baseless. Reacting to a statement by US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton that the perpetrators of 9/11 attacks in the US and the
Mumbai attacks were in Pakistan, the spokesman said the culprits
were in Afghanistan, not Pakistan. Talking to the media in New
Delhi, Hillary Clinton had asked Pakistan to act against the culprits
of the Mumbai attacks, adding that terrorism was a major problem
which threatened global peace.
The US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said the US was keeping a close watch on the actions being
taken by Pakistan against terrorists since the country had emerged
as home to a "syndicate of terrorism". "We are watching it and
we hope Pakistan will make progress against what is a syndicate
of terrorism — Al-Qaeda, Taliban and many other terror organisations
are connected in a way that is deeply troubling to us, and I know
to India. But it is also now troubling Pakistan," she said in
Gurgaon outside the Indian capital New Delhi. In response to a
question, the visiting US Secretary of State expressed hope that
the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks would meet their "day of reckoning"
soon. Referring to Pakistan, she said, "I have also sent messages
very directly to the Pakistani people that this (fight against
terrorism) is in the interest of Pakistan, the future stability
and security of Pakistan."
July 20
SFs claimed to have killed around 100 Taliban
militants in a massive military operation in a cluster of villages
in the Maidan area of Dir Lower District in the NWFP. Military
sources said the SFs launched action in five villages of Maidan
to dislodge the militants from their hideouts as they were launching
rocket attacks from there on the Scouts Fort in Timergara. "We
have inflicted huge human loss on them. According to the information
we have received, the casualties of the militants must not be
less than 100," a military official stationed in the area said.
He said a large number of foot soldiers backed by tanks, artillery
and mortars stormed the positions of the militants in Sherkhanay,
Shedas, Misrikhanay, Sangolai and Saparay on July 19. The official
said troops continued their operation for around 18 hours to destroy
the Taliban hideouts. He said during the action, some 100 militants
had been killed. Some 250-300 Taliban militants were hiding in
these five or six villages, according to the official.
The NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain
said that the Taliban in Maidan were still active. He told media
persons after a cabinet meeting that the provincial Government
has decided to fix a bounty of PKR 500000 each on the heads of
five top Taliban leaders of Maidan. They included 'commander'
Hafizullah, Qari Shahid, Dr Wazir, Muftahuddin and Abdus Salam.
14 militants, including two 'commanders', and
an Army officer were killed in clashes between the SFs and Taliban
in the Swat District. Locals from the valley reported pitched
battles between the two sides in the morning. They said the exchange
of a heavy fire and mortar shell firing were heard from Koza Bandai
village of Kabal area when the two sides clashed. Locals said
the fighting resulted in the killing of 14 militants, including
two 'commanders' identified as Zarqavi and Zulqarnain. Major Zahid
of the Pakistan Army was also reported to have been killed during
the encounter. Official sources in Mingora told that the operation
was carried out in the Shahdherai, Damghar and Dardial areas of
Kabal sub-division. The ISPR also confirmed the clashes, militants'
casualties and the killing of the Army officer. According to the
ISPR, the SFs conducted a search and clearance operation in Kamyrai
near Dardial. During the exchange of fire, Major Zahid was killed,
it said. 12 terrorists were killed in the exchange of fire with
the troops, the ISPR added.
Suspected militants of the Mangal Bagh group killed
four Policemen in an ambush on the outskirts of Peshawar, capital
of the NWFP. According to official sources, the Police team was
patrolling the Sarband cattle fair on Bara Road at around noon
when was attacked. Sub-Inspector Riaz Khan, constables Laiq Shah
and Khudadad and driver Zahir Shah were killed on the spot.
July 21
SFs killed 11 Taliban militants in the Swat District,
while suffering three fatalities. Locals said seven militants,
including two local 'commanders' identified as Khalifa and Pehlwan,
were killed in the Damghar and Mamdherai areas of Kabal sub-division.
A media update of the ISPR said "During a search operation at
Damgarh and Mamdherai, security forces spotted five terrorists
clad in Burqa, trying to escape from the area. They were apprehended,
along with short machine guns, while five terrorists were killed."
It said three soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer,
were also killed during an encounter with the militants in the
area. Locals said three militants were killed in Shahdherai area
of Kabal during an operation by the SFs. They also said four farmers
were killed in the evening of July 20 in the Bara Bandai area
of Kabal. They were identified as Bilal, Abdullah, Shamsher Ali
and Akbar Hussain.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that around
500 hardcore militants had been arrested so far from Swat, 90
per cent of whom were Afghan nationals. Talking to a private television
channel, he said Swat had almost been cleared of the militants
and the same approach would be adopted to pursue them in North
and South Waziristan. The armed forces will stay in the militancy-affected
areas until complete restoration of political and social infrastructure,
he said, adding that efforts would be made to achieve these goals
in minimum possible time. To a question, he said a sizable amount
of foreign-made heavy and sophisticated ammunition had also been
captured in the militancy-hit areas, which can be traded between
the states only.
Continuing their operation in the Maidan revenue
division of Lower Dir District in the NWFP, SFs claimed to have
killed 12 militants, including two ringleaders, identified as
Qari Hakimullah and Sher Khan. According to official sources,
troops have taken control of militants' strongholds in Takatak,
Undak, Misri Khani, Safaray and Kala Dag. Army officers told local
journalists who visited the violence-hit areas of Maidan that
80 per cent of the revenue division had been cleared of militants.
More than 100 militants were killed over the past two days. They
said militants had taken positions in Takatak, Undak, Misri Khani,
Sangolai, Safaray and Sher Khani.
July 22
28 militants were killed and several houses were
razed during the ongoing military operation Rah-e-Rast in the
Swat, Buner and Dir Lower Districts.
Ten militants were killed when military planes
bombed suspected positions of militants in the South Waziristan
Agency. The AFP quoted an official as saying that the planes bombed
two places in the Sarwakai area of South Waziristan. "Our jets
hit a militant base in Gurguri and a Taliban compound in Ous Pass
in Sarwakai. Both were destroyed and a total of four militants
were killed," the military official said. The militants killed
in the strikes reportedly belonged to the TTP, he said.
Four bodies, including two of sons of a slain
militant commander, were found on the Tank-Jandola road, Police
said. The bullet-riddled bodies, said to be of Idrees and Sher
Qanoon, the sons of late militant commander Gul Pir, Jamshed and
Younus, were found near the Fauji bridge. Gul Pir, a supporter
of Baitullah Mehsud, was killed during an operation in the Sheikh
Utar area two days ago.
Three Taliban groups in South Waziristan Agency
have formed a new anti-Baitullah Mehsud alliance, with Ikhlas
Khan alias Waziristan Baba as its chief. A private TV channel
reported that the Turkistan Bathni, Haji Tehsil Khan Wazir and
Ikhlas Khan Mehsud factions have named the alliance Abdullah Mehsud
group. The new group has reportedly already established offices
in Gomal, Umar Adda, Jandola, Pang, and Sheikh Autar areas of
South Waziristan. 42-year old Waziristan Baba believes that Baitullah
Mehsud was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto. He said he would avenge the killings of innocent people
who fell victim to attacks launched by Baitullah. "Those who destroy
hospitals and schools and kill our brothers and sisters are not
our well-wishers," he said. The alliance comes after Baitullah
assassinated archrival Qari Zainuddin - who was shot dead by one
of his own bodyguards.
July 23
SFs claimed to have killed eight more militants
and recovered a Prado used by the Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah
during search operations in the Mauja Kandao and Dadrah areas
of Kabal sub-division in Swat District. A spokesman for the Swat
Media Centre told reporters that the SFs launched operations in
Mauja Kandao, killing six militants. He said that a Prado used
by Maulana Fazlullah was also recovered, besides another one.
A media update of the ISPR said the SFs killed two militants and
arrested three others in Dadrah area during a search operation.
In addition, two bodies of militants, identified as Bakht Bedar
and Akhtar Ali, were found in Mingora city.
The TTP denied claims that Maulana Fazlullah,
the Swat unit chief of the TTP, was wounded, and threatened to
unleash a renewed "holy war". Pakistan said on July 8 it had "credible"
information that Fazlullah was hurt during a military operation
in Swat. "Taliban chief Fazlullah is alive, healthy and has never
been wounded," TTP spokesman Muslim Khan told over the telephone
from an undisclosed location. "All of the Taliban leadership in
Swat are alive and are in hiding with a strategy. We will continue
our jihad until the enforcement of Sharia [Islamic law]," he said.
"Army artillery and tanks cannot prevent us from achieving our
objective," he added.
One of Osama bin Laden's sons "may be dead", a
US counter-terrorism official told, after reports he was likely
killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan earlier in 2009. "There
are some indications that he may be dead, but it's not 100 per
cent certain," the unnamed official said, adding "If he is dead,
Saad bin Laden was a small player with a big name. He has never
been a major operational figure." An administration official said
the Al Qaeda leader's third-oldest son "was likely killed in Pakistan".
National Public Radio (NPR) reported on July 22 that Saad
bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by Hellfire missiles fired from
a US Predator drone "sometime this year". US spy agencies are
"80 to 85 per cent" sure that Saad bin Laden is dead, a senior
counter-terrorism official told NPR, acknowledging it was
difficult to be completely sure without a body to conduct DNA
tests on. It was unclear whether Saad bin Laden was close to the
location of his father, who is believed to be hiding in the mountainous
tribal belt along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, when he died.
According to the US Treasury, Saad bin Laden, who is believed
to have been in his 20s, was part of a small group of Al Qaeda
operatives who helped manage the organisation from Iran, where
he was arrested in 2003. He also allegedly helped facilitate communications
between Al Qaeda's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the
Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, following
an Al Qaeda attack on the US embassy in Yemen in 2008. Senior
Afghan Taliban and Punjabi militant commanders, having close association
with Arabs, have denied the reports of death of Saad bin Laden.
The Taliban commanders claimed they had been well-aware of events
taking place in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but they never heard
about Saad bin Laden's death.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral
Michael Mullen said he believed the top leadership of Al Qaeda,
including Osama bin Laden, was in Pakistan. Talking to Al Jazeera
TV, Mullen said Al Qaeda was on top of the US list of priorities
and threats around the world. Mullen also said Pakistan's ISI
had to change its strategic thrust in the long run, which, he
said, had been to "foment chaotic activity you know in its border
countries".
July 24
16 militants were killed by SFs in the Maidan
area of Dir Lower District while five militants and a soldier
were killed in different areas of the Swat Valley and Malakand
Agency in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Rast.
The NWFP Higher Education Minister Qazi Asad said
schools in the Swat Valley would reopen from August 1.
July 25
SFs shot dead at least 14 Taliban militants during
operations across Malakand, Buner and Swat in the NWFP. "During
last 24 hours, search and clearance operations were conducted
in Swat and Malakand division", the ISPR said. 10 Taliban militants
were killed in Buner, while four were killed in Swat, and the
SFs also arrested 29 militants from various areas of the two Districts.
July 26
SFs killed a local Taliban 'commander' in Swat
and six Taliban militants in the Bajaur Agency of FATA, after
fighter jets targeted the group's positions in Lower Dir District
of NWFP, killing at least 13 Taliban militants and destroying
their hideouts. "SFs conducted a search operation in the area
around Tal, Kamari Banda and Maira Banda, killing local commander
Maaz of Qambar," said the ISPR. In Bajaur, the SFs targeted Taliban
hideouts in Babra, Manugai, Chinar, Kohi Matak and Karkanai, killing
six militants. Two soldiers were killed in an explosion near Sarkari
Qila of Bajaur. In Lower Dir, the bombardment came late on July
25. "At least 13 Taliban were killed and 15 of their hideouts
destroyed," a security official in the area said.
The bodies of three alleged US spies were found
in the Bechi area of Mirali in North Waziristan Agency. Local
people said that a note found with the bullet-riddled bodies said
the three were spying for the US.
Police arrested the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad
and three other people from his rented house in the Sethi Town
area of Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. The TNSM chief - who resurfaced
on July 25 around two months after Operation Rah-e-Rast was launched
against the TTP - has been accused of helping the Taliban and
sabotaging the Government's fight against them. Witnesses told
that around 12 Policemen raided Sufi Muhammad's house at around
2pm, and arrested the TNSM chief and three others - identified
as Rizwanullah, Ziaullah and Tahir. Two of them are said to be
Sufi Muhammad's sons. Addressing a press conference, the NWFP
Information Minister Main Iftikhar Hussain confirmed the TNSM
chief's arrest. He said Sufi Muhammad resurfaced "a day ago" and
announced a meeting of the TNSM executive council in Malakand
- an attempt that could have jeopardised peace efforts in the
region. The minister said the arrests had been made to maintain
law and order. He said the TNSM's actions in the past may also
be investigated.
Security agencies arrested three terrorists believed
to be of the Qari Saifullah group for their alleged involvement
in attack (September 20, 2008) on Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
The chief of the Government's Special Support
Group, General Nadeem Ahmad, has said that disguised Taliban militants
may be getting money meant for the Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs). Gen. Nadeem made the comment at a crowded relief camp
outside Peshawar, the NWFP capital, amid plans to hand out PKR
4 billion to IDPs. People queue for hours to have their identities
checked and receive the money. But CNN said the cautious process
is not foolproof. "It is certain that some of those receiving
the money are Taliban, ready to return home and wreak havoc,"
the network reported.
July 27
Military helicopters killed 20 militants and destroyed
four militant hideouts, including a training centre for suicide
bombers in Tirah valley, 35km southwest of Landi Kotal in the
Khyber Agency. "Military helicopters shelled militant hideouts
in the afternoon, killing 20 rebels and destroying four of their
hideouts," a spokesman for the Frontier Corps, Major Fazal-ur-Rehman,
said, adding that the air strikes were ordered after an intelligence
tip-off. Sources said three helicopters shelled Daras Jumat, a
mosque in Akakhel area, near Bara, killing a boy and injuring
three others. A vehicle and two shops were also destroyed. The
mosque, believed to be a stronghold of the banned LeI, was damaged.
Lashkar sources, however, said their organisation had nothing
to do with the mosque.
11 militants were killed in a clearance operation
by the SFs and local militia in the Swat and Dir Upper District,
while 25 others were arrested during the ongoing. An ISPR media
update said nine terrorists also surrendered in different parts
of the Malakand Division. It said the local militia (Lashkar)
killed 10 terrorists and arrested six others in the Karodara,
Shakoh and Chopra Kandao areas of Dir Upper District. In a search
operation in Langar village near Khwazakhela, one terrorist was
killed, and two others were arrested, while seven terrorist hideouts
were also destroyed.
The NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour said
that 200 children of ages 6 to 13 years had been recovered from
Malakand who were completely brainwashed for conducting suicide
attacks. Talking to a private television channel, he said the
Government would try to educate these children in such a way that
they could live in a civilized manner. Around 20 children of the
same mindset were earlier discovered from training camps of terrorists
and were later trained and educated in the army institutions,
he said. He said that such children were emotionally trained by
terrorists in different ways. They firmly believed that after
committing a suicide attack they would directly enter into paradise,
the provincial minister said. These children are so influenced
by their trainers that they even term their parents as non believers
and would not hesitate to kill them, he said. He also said that
these children were presently in the custody of army.
The LeT chief, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, will not
be arrested since his alleged involvement in the Mumbai terrorist
attacks has not been proved, a private TV channel quoted Interior
Minister Rehman Malik as saying. Malik said Pakistan had demanded
details of Indian citizens convicted in the Mumbai attacks. He
also reportedly said Afghanistan had conceded there were Taliban
training camps on its soil and Afghan President Hamid Karzai had
ordered immediate closure of such camps.
July 28
A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a
checkpoint in North Waziristan, causing an explosion that killed
two SF personnel and injured five others. The bomber aimed for
a checkpoint some three kilometers north of Miranshah, local Government
official Rehmatullah said. Two intelligence officials confirmed
the casualty figures and said the wounded include three paramilitary
soldiers. Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a spokesman for the North Waziristan
Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, claimed responsibility for
the suicide attack. He said the suicide attack on the SFs was
a reaction from the Taliban against the silence of the Government
over the US drone strikes in North Waziristan Agency, in which,
he claimed, innocent tribesmen, including women and children,
had died. He threatened to continue attacks on the troops if the
drone attacks were not stopped.
SFs opened fire at a speeding car passing through
the Frontier Corps checkpoint in front of the Miranshah Headquarters
Hospital, killing three persons. Sources said all the three men
who died on the spot were said to be Punjabi Taliban militants.
July 29
Four terrorists were killed and 23 arrested in
24 hours during search and clearance operations by the SFs in
Swat and Malakand, the ISPR said. The SFs killed four terrorists
and arrested three suspects during search operations at Amankot,
Ahingro Derai, Minar Qambar and Landikas near Mingora. According
to the ISPR, the SFs conducted search operations at Tal near Shah
Dheri, resulting in the arrest of two terrorists and the demolition
of 10 hideouts.
An anti-Taliban elder and cousin of a Member of
Provincial Assembly (MPA) was killed and his son was injured when
suspected militants stormed their house in Shangla District.
Three militants were killed and four paramilitary
soldiers injured during an exchange of fire in the Dosali area
of North Waziristan Agency. According to sources, militants attacked
the Gerdai Rogha post, about 40km south of Miranshah. Frontier
Corps (FC) personnel returned fire and killed three of the attackers.
An official said four FC troopers were injured in the clash.
July 30
The Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) executed four men after
pronouncing them guilty of abduction and murder at a self-styled
court, witnesses and a spokesman said. The executions by firing
squad took place near Bara tehsil (revenue division) of
Khyber Agency. The LI announced the impending execution by mosque
loudspeakers in Bar Qambarkhel village, 10 kilometers northwest
of Bara, late on July 29 and urged locals to witness the killings,
a local tribesman said. "Four blindfolded criminals with hands
tied behind their backs were brought by LI men and lined up outside
the mosque. Four LI fighters sprayed bullets, killing them on
the spot," said witness Malik Qasim Khan Afridi.
Two Taliban militants and a trooper were killed
in a clash between the Taliban and SFs in Miranshah, headquarters
of North Waziristan Agency. Official sources told that the militants
attacked the SFs on the Dattakhel-Miranshah road when they were
setting up a check-post there. Two SF personnel and seven militants
were injured in the clash.
It is still unclear if Pakistan's offensive in
Swat has killed off the Taliban or simply scattered them, US special
envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said. "We
don't know exactly to what extent the Pakistani army dispersed
or destroyed the enemy," the Reuters news agency quoted
him as saying. "The test of this operation is, of course, when
the refugees return. Can they go home? Are they safe? And we're
just going to have to wait and see," he told a State Department
press conference.
July 31
SFs killed six Taliban
militants in the on-going military operation in Swat District, a
statement by the ISPR said. "Security forces conducted a search
operation in Charbagh and Allahabad and killed six terrorists and
also recovered a cache of arms and ammunition along with material
for preparation of IEDs," it said.
August 2
Paramilitary troops were deployed in the Azafi
Abadi village, also known as Koriaan, in the Punjab province where
10 people were killed in violence between Muslims and Christians
over the alleged desecration of the Koran. Pakistan Rangers personnel
took up positions in and around Azafi Abadi, a day after it witnessed
communal clashes. Persons from the two communities reportedly
exchanged fire and over 80 homes of Christians were set ablaze
by mobs. "We have arrested a number of suspects and exemplary
punishment will be given to those involved in heinous crimes.
This is a crime against humanity," Rana Sanaullah, Law Minister
of Punjab, told reporters. He said some outlawed religious groups
were involved in the violence but did not name them. A Police
source said activists of the banned SSP and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan
(SMP) were involved in the violence. The Federal Minister for
Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and provincial minister Sanaullah said
no Christian was involved in desecrating the Koran.
SFs killed four Taliban militants and arrested
27 others from the Swat District. According to the ISPR, two militants
were killed and seven others arrested during search-and-cordon
operations in Derai and Danda. In addition, two more militants
were killed and two others arrested in Gorai, Kotlai and Daragai.
A terrorist with links to the Al Qaeda was arrested
by security agencies from the federal capital Islamabad, Police
said. The man, identified by Police as Rao Shakir, was arrested
from the Bhara Kahu area of Islamabad. He was linked to several
terrorist attacks, including a suicide attack on a bus of an intelligence
agency, the suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad
in September 2008 and an attack in Rawalpindi. Shakir is believed
to be a member of an Al Qaeda-linked group suspected of involvement
in the 2002 abduction and killing (February 1, 2002) of Wall Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Charges of rebellion against the state have been
laid against the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad in the Saidu
Sharif Police Station in Swat District. A Police official said
a First Information Report was registered against Sufi under sections
120-D, 121, 124-A of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of
the Anti-Terrorism Act. The official said Sufi was charged with
inciting the masses during his address at Grassy Ground in Mingora
on April 20, 2009. He said in his address, Sufi had called the
Supreme Court and the high courts of Pakistan "un-Islamic". Sufi
had also termed all judges, lawyers and pro-democracy clerics
"rebels". Sufi was arrested along with his two sons, Ziaullah
and Rizwanullah, from Sethi Town in the provincial capital Peshawar
on July 26.
Afghanistan rejected reported claims by Pakistan's
Interior Minister that President Hamid Karzai had admitted that
'terrorist' training camps in Afghanistan were operating against
Pakistan. "This is absolutely not true. This is baseless," Interior
Minister Hanif Atmar said at a press conference, also denying
that Karzai had told his ministry to take action against these
training grounds. Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik reportedly
told a private television channel that Karzai had made the admission
during a meeting in Kabul in July 2009. Malik was also quoted
as saying: "Karzai directed his security adviser and interior
minister to destroy and close down all training camps working
against Pakistan." Rejecting this claim, Atmar said the president
had rather pledged "firm action" against threats to Pakistan from
Afghanistan should he receive evidence. Atmar also reportedly
disagreed with the Pakistani minister's reported claim that 90
per cent of militants arrested in Pakistan were of Afghan origin.
Kabul had "strong evidence" that Afghan as well as Pakistani,
Central Asian and Al Qaeda-linked militants of various nationalities
were operating from safe havens across the border, the minister
said.
Holding the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) responsible
for the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks, a British parliamentary
committee said several major terrorist attacks across the world,
including those in London, Madrid, and Bali, had their origins
in the tribal areas of Pakistan. A report by the Foreign Affairs
Committee quoted a former CIA chief as saying the Pakistan-based
LeT had reached a "merge point" with the Al Qaeda. "It was from
the tribal areas in Pakistan that the bomb plots in London, Madrid,
Bali, Islamabad, and later Germany and Denmark were planned,"
said the report on 'Global Security: Afghanistan and Pakistan,'
headed by lawmaker Mike Gapes. The report said the LeT, which
was responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks that targeted
Westerners, in particular U.S. and U.K, nationals, also operates
from these tribal areas. It added that a section within the Pakistani
Army and the ISI still feels that "India, rather than the Islamic
terrorists," was the main threat to it. "We welcome the increasing
recognition at senior levels within the Pakistani military of
the need for a recalibrated approach to militancy, but we remain
concerned that this may not necessarily be replicated elsewhere
within the Army and the ISI," the report said. It welcomed Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari's remark that terrorism, not India,
was the real threat to his country. However, the report raised
doubts over "whether the underlying fundamentals of Pakistani
security policy have changed sufficiently to realise the goals
of long-term security and stability in Afghanistan."
August 3
The Baloch Republican Army killed five abducted
officials, including a SHO, and threatened to kill the remaining
abducted persons if their demands were not met within 24 hours.
The BRA is reported to have thrown the bodies on Jathhar Kelji
Road. Speaking to a private TV channel by satellite telephone,
a spokesman for the BRA, Sarfraz Baloch, claimed responsibility
for killing the officials, including the Dera Murad Jamali SHO
Ahsanullah Khosa. The spokesman threatened that if the Government
did not release arrested Baloch leaders within 24 hours, the BRA
would kill the remaining officials and labourers in their custody.
The officials and labourers were working on Government projects
in different areas of Dera Murad Jamali, headquarter of Nasirabad
District, when they were abducted.
Jets shelled Taliban hideouts and killed at least
five militants near Swat. The aircraft raided Dok Darra town after
intelligence reports said that a large number of militants had
gathered in the area, military spokesman Major Nasir Ali Khan
said. "The bombing destroyed three Taliban bases and killed five
militants," he said. Local administration chief Javed Marwat confirmed
the air strikes and said at least five militants were killed.
Three militants were killed and several others
injured when the SFs targeted suspected hideouts of the militants
in different areas of Salarzai sub-division in Bajaur Agency.
Official sources said the SFs targeted the militant hideouts in
Darra, Ghundai and Sor Dagay areas with artillery guns, killing
three militants and injuring several others. They added that a
number of sanctuaries of the militants were destroyed in the operations.
Elements in the intelligence agencies who were
sympathetic towards terrorists had resigned and had been arrested,
a private TV channel quoted Interior Minister Rehman Malik, adding
they were officers of the rank of Major and wanted to target army
generals. He said there have been some elements in the intelligence
agencies who have had links with terrorists, including Baitullah
Mehsud, Qari Ilyas and Qari Hussain and with banned organisations.
To a question, he said South Waziristan had become a hub of anti-state
activities and terrorists from various areas, including Hangu,
Bajaur and Mohmand agencies, were operating against security forces.
He also reportedly said the LeT and JeM supported the Taliban
and Al Qaeda in destabilising the country.
The Supreme Court adjourned for an indefinite
period the hearing of a petition filed by the federal Government
challenging the release of the JuD (also known as LeT) chief Hafiz
Muhammad Saeed and his close aide Col (r) Nazir Ahmad. A three-member
bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry
Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja is hearing the case. Attorney
General Sardar Latif Khosa told the court on August 3 that the
record of the case was with the Punjab Government, but Punjab
Advocate General Raza Farooq had resigned and nobody else had
been appointed in his place. He said the case could not proceed
in the absence of the record, and called on the court to adjourn
the proceedings. Advocate A. K. Dogar, representing Hafiz Saeed,
did not object to the attorney general's request - which was accepted
by the court. The federal and the Punjab governments had filed
separate appeals with the Supreme Court against a Lahore High
Court order freeing Hafiz Saeed and Nazir from house arrest. But
the Punjab Government later moved an application for the withdrawal
of its petition, and told the court that if the federal Government
provided fresh evidence against Saeed, the provincial administration
would reverse its decision to withdraw the appeal. In its application
for the withdrawal of the appeal against Hafiz Saeed, the Punjab
Government said the LeT chief and Nazir were put under house arrest
on a directive by the federal Government, but the centre had "failed"
to provide concrete evidence for their house arrest.
August 4
Five civilians and four SF personnel were killed
and six civilians and an equal number of SFs injured in the North
Waziristan Agency. Militants fired rockets and missiles at an
army camp, northeast of Miranshah, killing four Army personnel
and seriously injuring another six. A missile hit a house in the
Chashma village, one kilometre south of Miranshah, killing three
civilians and wounding three others.
SFs killed at least six Taliban militants in fighting
in the Kabal and Barikot areas of NWFP, while a soldier was killed
and another sustained injuries, a Police official. Sources said
dead bodies of five of the slain militants were recovered. While
three dead bodies were recovered from Manglor on the outskirts
of Mingora, two other dead bodies were recovered from Landai Kas
and Qazi Abad areas.
August 5
SFs said that they, in collaboration with local
militias, had killed eight militants during the ongoing military
operation in Swat and Dir Districts. "The local Lashkar [militia],
during a search operation backed by the Frontier Corps, killed
four terrorists at Dog Darra in Dir, including Taliban commander
Shakoor," the ISPR said in a statement. The Lashkar also destroyed
the houses of nine Taliban militants. The militia killed five
militants, adding that three of the deceased were Afghan nationals,
while the remaining two were residents of Swat. The ISPR said
four more Taliban militants had been killed in two different areas
of Swat. It said the SFs, during a search operation at Goratai,
had killed three extremists, including an explosives expert. In
a separate incident, another member of the Taliban was killed
in Kotah near Barikot and some arms and ammunition recovered.
Four persons, including the second wife of TTP
chief Baitullah Mehsud, were killed and a few others sustained
injuries in a drone attack on the house of Baitullah's father-in-law
in Zangara village of Laddha sub-division in South Waziristan
Agency. Taliban sources close to Baitullah Mehsud confirmed the
killing of his wife in the drone attack, but denied reports that
the TTP chief too was killed in the missile strikes. "Yes, I can
confirm this bad news about the loss of his wife," said a senior
Taliban commander based at Mirali in North Waziristan Agency.
He, however, denied reports that Baitullah Mehsud too was killed
in the strike. Official and tribal sources said the US spy plane
fired two missiles at the house of Ikramuddin Mehsud. Officials
said it was the first casualty of any close relatives of the Pakistani
Taliban commander in US missile strikes. Baitullah Mehsud married
the daughter of Ikramuddin, a tribal elder from the Shabikhel
branch of Mehsud tribe, in October 2008. Baitullah is also from
the Shabikhel Mehsud clan.
The Government announced that 25 extremist and
militant groups and welfare organisations affiliated to them have
so far been banned because of their involvement in terrorist activities.
In a written reply submitted on August 5 in response to a question
in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said
the banned organisations included Al Qaeda, SMP, Tehrik Nifaz-i-Fiqah
Jafaria, SSP, JuD, Al Akhtar Trust, Al Rasheed Trust (ART), Tehrik-i-Islami,
JeM, LeJ, TTP, Islamic Students Movement, Khairun Nisa International
Trust, Tehrik-i-Islam Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
(TNSM), LeT, Lashkar-i-Islam, Balochistan Liberation Army, Jamiat-i-Ansar,
Jamiatul Furqan, Hizbut Tehrir, Khuddam-i-Islam and Millat-i-Islamia
Pakistan. Malik said the Jama'at-ud-Da'awa, Al Akhtar Trust, and
Al Rasheed Trust were banned on December 10, 2008, after they
were named in the United Nations Security Council Resolution No
1267 and the Sunni Tehrik was placed on the 'watch list'. He said
law-enforcement agencies were closely monitoring their activities
and stern action was being taken against people taking part in
objectionable activities.
August 6
Nine militants were killed and two others sustained
injuries during an operation by the SFs in different areas of
the Nawagai and Salarzai subdivisions in Bajaur Agency. The SFs
targeted Taliban hideouts in the Chinar, Kohi, Manugai and Banda
areas of Nawagai and Darra, Ghundi and Sur Dagai areas of Salarzai.
SFs killed seven Taliban militants and arrested
21 others in the ongoing military operation in Swat and Malakand,
the ISPR said. The ISPR said SFs killed four militants during
an encounter at Samsel Bandai near Kabal, while two others were
killed during a search operation in Amankot. A Taliban militant
was also killed in the Rashghatta-Kokarai area near Jambil.
The Interpol issued an alert asking member countries
to help locate 13 suspects wanted for the Mumbai terrorist attacks
of November 26, 2008 and notify Pakistan, who will then issue
arrest warrants and seek their extradition, an Interpol statement
said. The Government asked Interpol to issue a global alert for
the fugitives, the international Police agency said. "The authorities
in Pakistan are to be commended for making full use of Interpol's
global network and tools," said Secretary General Ron Noble in
the statement issued from the agency's headquarters in Lyon. "This
demonstrates their commitment to allowing all of Interpol's 187
member-countries to benefit from and help with the investigation
into the Mumbai terrorist attacks," he said. The 13 suspects were
not named in the media statement, but Interpol said their names
and other information would be included in the Police agency's
databases and circulated worldwide.
There is a strong likelihood that TTP chief Baitullah
Mehsud was killed, along with his wife and bodyguards, in a missile
attack, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in Islamabad. "We
suspect he was killed in the missile strike," Rehman Malik said,
adding "We have some information, but we don't have material evidence
to confirm it." His younger wife, daughter of Malik Ikramuddin
Mehsud, reportedly died in the air strike. Four children were
reportedly injured in the attack.
The Foreign Office said India had "not provided
enough evidence" to put JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed on trial,
but Pakistan is investigating him in line with the country's own
laws. "It needs to be underlined that we have received information
from India, but the material contained in dossiers on Hafiz Saeed
is not really enough and doesn't strengthen our position in proceeding
legally," said Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit at a weekly
briefing in Islamabad. However, he said that relations with India
were moving in a "positive direction", and the stalled peace process
would resume after upcoming meetings between the foreign secretaries
and the foreign ministers of the two countries. "We hope that
as a result of the next meetings between the foreign secretaries
and the foreign ministers, there will be some progress in the
context of resuming a sustained composite dialogue process," said
Basit. He said both countries were trying to schedule the time
and venue for a meeting of the foreign secretaries ahead of the
talks between the foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN
General Assembly session in September.
August 7
Quoting intelligence reports, Foreign Minister
Shah Mehmood Qureshi confirmed that the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud
was killed in a US drone attack in South Waziristan. "Based on
information gleaned from intelligence reports, the news of Baitullah's
death is correct. But we are going for ground verification, and
when the information has been confirmed, then we will be 100 percent
sure," he told reporters in Islamabad. He also told BBC Radio
that it was "pretty certain" that the Taliban chief was dead.
A Taliban commander and aide to Baitullah Mehsud, meanwhile, told
that the TTP chief was killed in the US strike. "I confirm that
Baitullah Mehsud and his wife died in the American missile attack
in South Waziristan," Taliban commander Kafayatullah said by telephone.
He did not give any further details. Baitullah Mehsud was allegedly
killed in a drone attack on August 5 while visiting his father-in-law
Maulana Ikramuddin's house in the Laddha sub-division. The attack
also resulted in the deaths of one of his wives, Ikramuddin's
daughter, and over half-a-dozen guards. "Information is coming
from that area that he is dead… I am unable to confirm unless
I have solid evidence," said Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
The TTP deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Muhammad said
he could neither confirm nor deny Baitullah's killing in the drone
attack. Meanwhile, intelligence officials and Taliban sources
have said that Taliban commanders were meeting in the FATA to
choose a successor. It was unclear when they might reach a decision.
A spokesman for US President Barack Obama has
said the White House cannot confirm the killing of the TTP chief,
adding the people of Pakistan are now safer if reports are accurate.
Describing Baitullah Mehsud as a murderous thug, the White House
spokesman Robert Gibbs said on August 5: "We cannot confirm whether
he is dead. There seems to be a growing consensus among credible
observers that he is indeed dead."
19 persons were killed and more than 18 injured
in a gunfight between pro and anti-Baitullah Mehsud groups in
the Tank District of NWFP. The clashes broke out soon after media
reports saying that the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud might have
been killed in a missile strike by US drones in South Waziristan
on August 5. A private TV cannel reported that Baitullah's men
attacked two offices of peace committees run by Turkistan Bhitani
in the Imamkhel and Umerada areas of Tank. Around 200 armed militants
reportedly took part in the pre-dawn raid. The gunfight continued
for about two hours, the channel reported. Turkistan Bhitani,
who had won the backing of the Government after challenging Baitullah
Mehsud in Tank and South Waziristan, had set up the camps in Government
school buildings. Turkistan Bhitani joined the anti-Taliban campaign
after 40 of his men had been killed by supporters of Baitullah
in 2008.
A Taliban commander killed six militants before
being shot dead by another militant in the Batara area of Chagharzai
in Buner District of NWFP. Sources said that the Taliban commander
Shah Zar Khan from Choga area developed differences with his associates
over the July 29 attack on the house of Haji Khalil, an activist
of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. Shah Zar is reported to have
opened fire on his colleagues when they were offering Maghrib
prayers, killing six of them on the spot, while he himself was
killed by another militant, deputed to guard them. The militants
later killed the son of Shah Zar who was stated to be a militant
as well. Shah Zar was said to be a close relative of Haji Khalil
and both hailed from the same village. Haji Khalil was killed
after killing two of the Taliban attackers and injuring three
others on July 29.
Ten people were killed and seven others sustained
injuries during clashes between two rival militant groups in the
remote Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency. Sources said the fighting
between LI and AI started when the AI cadres captured a post in
the Kookikhel area. After a fierce clash, with both sides using
heavy guns, the post was recaptured by the LI militants. Sources
said the dead included six AI men, three from the LI and a non-combatant.
Those killed from the LI also included 'commander' Rangeen Khan.
The civilian was killed when a mortar shell landed at a house.
August 8
TTP spokesman Hakeemullah Mehsud and Taliban commander
Waliur Rehman were allegedly killed in a gunbattle that erupted
during a meeting to determine the future of the organisation,
a few hours after Hakeemullah claimed Baitullah Mehsud is "alive".
Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters the Government
had received reports that only one of the two rivals for the leadership
of the Taliban was killed. "The infighting was between Waliur
Rehman and Hakeemullah Mehsud," he said, adding, "We have information
that one of them has been killed. Who was killed we will be able
to say after confirming." According to PTV, Rehman killed Hakeemullah
after the latter was appointed the new TTP chief. However, a Taliban
official in South Waziristan, where the meeting took place, told
the Government had fabricated reports of the infighting. Noor
Said, deputy spokesman under Baitullah, said: "There was no fighting
in the shura. Both Waliur Rehman and Hakeemullah are safe and
sound." However, an intelligence officer denied this, saying he
had reports that Hakeemullah was dead.
Senior Taliban commander Qari Hussain, maintaining
that Baitullah is alive, has threatened to unleash a wave of suicide
attacks to "avenge the Government-sponsored propaganda against
our leader".
August 9
A Khwazai peace committee chief, five others and
11 Taliban militants were killed in a clash in the Payazai sub-division
of Mohmand Agency. A political administration official said a
group of Taliban militants attacked the peace committee chief
Malik Ajmal's residence at around 2 AM. Ajmal's security guards
and volunteers retaliated, killing 11 militants. However, Ajmal
and five of his men were also killed in the attack. Local official
Javed Ali confirmed the incident. Ajmal Khan was a pro-government
tribal elder, who captured 12 Taliban militants and handed them
over to the Security Forces last week.
Insurgents shot dead four more Policemen and threatened
to execute other hostages unless the Government withdraws troops
and releases detainees in Balochistan, Police said. "The bodies
of four more policemen were found early on Sunday. They had been
shot dead overnight," senior Police official Kalim Ullah told
reporters. The insurgents had set as a deadline for meeting their
demands. The BRA claimed that it had killed four more kidnapped
Policemen after the Government failed to meet its demands and
thrown their bodies in lands. "We have killed four more policemen
and released seven labourers on humanitarian grounds," said spokesman
Sarbaz Baloch, in a telephone call to reporters in the provincial
capital Quetta. "In a day or two, we will decide about the fate
of other policemen, if our demands are not accepted by the government,"
he added. The Policemen and the labourers were taken hostages
late in July 2009 in the Naseerabad District.
Two civilians and a Policeman were killed when
Taliban militants ambushed a Police convoy in the Bannu District.
"Multiple sources are now confirming he (Baitullah)
is dead," including at least two Taliban commanders, the ISPR
spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. He said the reports
of infighting were "one of the biggest, latest indicators". According
to him, "Why is there a fight, why this fight for succession?
These are very strong indicators leading towards reasonable confirmation
that he was killed." He said there were reports of a clash among
Taliban guards at a meeting on Saturday evening and indications
that some people had been wounded, but there was no credible information
to suggest any of the Taliban leaders were among them. There are
also conflicting reports that a major fight broke out between
the two likely contenders to replace Baitullah - Hakeemullah Mehsud
and Waliur Rehman - with one or both being killed or wounded.
The US National Security Adviser James Jones said
that evidence suggests that Baitullah Mehsud is dead, noting that
the subsequent dissension within the Taliban represents an important
moment in the struggle against violent extremism in Pakistan.
"It goes to show that I think the strategy that we are engaged
with Pakistan is actually having some effect, and that is good,"
he told.
Haji Turkistan Bhittani, a commander of the Abdullah
Mehsud group, told various television channels that Baitullah
Mehsud had been killed along with 40 militants in the drone strike
and was buried in his house. He also said Qari Hussain, mastermind
of several suicide attacks, was seriously injured in the attack.
Bhittani added that Mufti Waliur Rehman and Hakeemullah Mehsud,
the two leading contenders for the TTP chief's post, were also
killed along with several aides when fighting erupted at a shura
(executive council) meeting held to choose a new chief of the
TTP.
August 10
SFs, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery,
shelled hideouts of the militants loyal to Hafiz Gul Bahadur after
a military convoy was attacked in North Waziristan. According
to officials, 11 militants were killed when troops launched a
counter-attack and fired heavy artillery and mortars to dislodge
the militants from their positions. Local people said that a heavy
exchange of fire continued for five hours and residential areas
were also hit. The military convoy was going to Mirali from Dosali
when it was ambushed near Asadkhel, injuring three soldiers. Gul
Bahadur's spokesman Ahmadullah Ahmadi claimed that 32 soldiers
had been killed and 14 military vehicles captured.
Two women and two children were killed and nine
others sustained injuries when a shell hit a house in the Shalobar
area of Bara sub-division in the Khyber Agency, during fighting
between the SFs and the Lashkar-e-Islam militants.
Militants who had kidnapped Police personnel and
labourers on July 30 claimed to have killed 10 more Policemen
and thrown their bodies in the Chattar area of Nasirabad District
in Balochistan. With the latest claim by the Balochistan Republican
Army (BRA), the number of Policemen killed by the kidnappers has
now reached 22. Police officials in Dera Murad Jamali told that
they had just heard this claim of the BRA. "Until the bodies are
found, we cannot say anything in this regard," an official said.
On August 8, the BRA had issued another deadline of 48 hours to
the Government to release detained Baloch leaders and workers
and threatened to kill more Policemen if the demand was not met.
The BRA spokesman Sarbaz Baloch told journalists on August 10
that the group had killed 10 more Policemen in retaliation for
the military operation in Dera Bugti. He claimed the BRA had also
attacked SFs in Dera Bugti and damaged a helicopter.
The TTP confirmed that the group's chief, Baitullah
Mehsud, had been killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan
on August 5, and announced a 15-day mourning period. Newly-appointed
TTP spokesman Azam Tariq told the channel the group would observe
a cease-fire during the mourning period. He said a successor to
Baitullah had not been chosen yet.
The US said it is "pretty sure" that Baitullah
Mehsud has been killed, White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill
Burton said. He said the development "shows that Pakistan has
made progress in moving to root out extremists". However, a close
aide of the TTP chief demanded that the Government prove Baitullah
was dead. "I challenge (Interior Minister) Rehman Malik to prove
that Baitullah is dead," Hakeemullah Mehsud, who was reportedly
killed in a shootout on August 7, told journalists over the telephone.
Hakeemullah said, "I am alive ... I am here to prove that I am
alive and so is Baitullah," he said. "Baitullah is alive and healthy
... he will come before the media soon. There is no succession,"
he said. However, Hakeemullah's statement that Baitullah is healthy
contradicted a statement by another Taliban leader, Maulana Noor
Syed, who claimed the TTP chief "is seriously ill". In a telephone
call to journalists from an undisclosed location, Hakeemullah
said: "Look, I am here, safe and sound." The 30-year-old Hakeemullah
reiterated that Baitullah was alive and promised that his videotape
would be soon delivered to the media. Hakeemullah confirmed, however,
that Baitullah's wife had been killed and added that the Taliban
would soon avenge her death. "Drones are still flying in the area.
The government is provoking Baitullah to speak on the telephone
so that he can be targeted and killed, but he will not do so,"
he said.
Al Qaeda is trying to install a new "chief terrorist"
in the Tribal Areas following the alleged death of TTP chief Baitullah
Mehsud, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. "Al Qaeda has been
grouping in the same place (South Waziristan) and is trying to
find somebody to install as the leader, as the chief terrorist
in that area," he told BBC Radio. He said the Taliban were in
disarray and fleeing the area following the apparent killing of
their commander. He hoped this would result in the border regions
being open to greater development. "All the credible intelligence
that I have received on the drone attack has led me to finally
confirm it (Mehsud's death)," he said to questions on whether
Mehsud was actually dead. "It's one of the achievements and I
also feel that after the killing of Baitullah Mehsud, the whole
TTP ... it will take some time for them to regroup," he added.
"Information gathered in the past three days has revealed that
most Taliban are running away from the area," AFP quoted him as
saying.
The Army will stay in Swat until the IDPs have
been rehabilitated and reconstruction completed, Prime Minister
Yousaf Raza Gilani said. "I am confident your presence in the
area will not only discourage anti-state elements from regrouping,
but also improve the pace of development in the area," he told
a gathering of soldiers during a visit to Malakand. Prior to his
address, the Prime Minister was informed that the Army now controlled
90 percent of the Malakand Division.
August 11
SFs used helicopter gunships in an operation against
the banned Lashkar-e-Islam in the Bara sub-division of Khyber
Agency, killing 17 militants and destroying six hideouts of the
militants. The Frontier Corps Media Cell said a huge ammunition
dump was also destroyed in the Shalobar area. A paramilitary commander
separately told that the operation was launched after militants
fired rockets at a paramilitary checkpoint early on August 10
in an assault in Peshawar, the NWFP capital that killed two civilians.
The pre-dawn rocket attack targeted a Frontier Corps base in the
city's Hayatabad neighbourhood, Peshawar Police chief Sifwat Ghayur
said.
14 militants were killed and seven others sustained
injuries in another attack by a CIA-operated drone at Kaniguram
town in the Ladha sub-division of South Waziristan Agency (SWA).
Tribal sources told The News that the US drone fired three
missiles at a house, which the militants had occupied from Zangi
Khan Burki, a local influential trader, and turned it into their
'Markaz' or headquarters. Zangi Khan and his family had left their
house and shifted to Karachi after tribal and foreign militants
took over Kaniguram. Another house owned by the Agency councilor,
Arif Zaman, located near the alleged headquarters of the Taliban,
was also damaged in the attack. Sources close to the TTP said
all those killed in the attack were local tribal militants.
Unidentified men killed eight Taliban militants
in the Orakzai Agency and abducted two others, said locals and
official sources. Official sources told that armed men attacked
a Taliban vehicle - en route to Mashti Bazaar from Ghaljo area
- in Garhi village, killing eight militants, including a brother
of Taliban 'commander' Sakhi. They said the slain militants were
members of the Mashti tribe. Locals said the assailants could
be Taliban militants from a rival group of Mufti Ziaur Rehman
from the Akhel tribe. In apparent retaliation to the killings,
militants from the Mashti tribe abducted at least 50 Akhel tribesmen,
including 16 militants.
The Taliban in Orakzai Agency announced that they
would not attack the SFs during Ramzan and Taliban Sharia
(Islamic law) courts would remain closed "until the tenth day
of Eid". The group's spokesman in the agency told journalists
over telephone that the Taliban leadership in Orakzai had decided
to halt attacks on the SFs during the holy month of Ramzan. He
said Taliban Sharia courts in the agency would remain closed from
August 12 until the 10th day of Eid.
The SFs, during an 18-hour-long operation in Akhund
Killay in the Kabal sub-division of Swat District, killed a militant
commander and three others and showed their corpses to the media
in Mingora. Briefing reporters, Lt-Col Akhtar of the IRPS media
cell in Swat, said the operation against the militants in Akhund
Killay continued for 18 hours. He said the militants had taken
positions in bunkers at the hilltops while SF personnel had to
move into the area by boats. He said the SFs succeeded in killing
four militants, including 'commander' Rahim Shah alias
Fauji. Two others killed in the operation were identified as Wajid
and Said Rahim while the name of the third militant could not
be ascertained.
The Khan of Kalat (the title of former rulers
of State of Kalat. Kalat state is now part of Balochistan), Mir
Suleman Dawood, announced the formation of a council for 'independent
Balochistan' and rejected any reconciliation with the Government
of Pakistan without the mediation of European Union and United
Nations. Addressing reporters from London on telephone, he said
the council would ensure the creation of an independent state
of Balochistan. The Khan said Baloch separatist forces of Pakistan
and Iran would have representation in the council. He said the
names of members of the council would be announced later. He,
however, said that Nawabzada Baramdagh Bugti, leader of the Baloch
Republican Party, will be a member of the council, adding that
he was in touch with him and other forces which stood for an independent
Balochistan. The Khan of Kalat said the Baloch had observed their
Independence Day because the British rulers had accepted the independent
and autonomous status of the Kalat state on August 11, 1947. He
said Kalat was merged into Pakistan in March 1948 and in reaction
Prince Agha Abdul Karim launched a revolt. The Khan also said
the Baloch had lost trust in Pakistani rulers. However, he said
that if European Union and United Nations mediated then negotiations
could be held with the Government of Pakistan.
The Government told the National Assembly that
it had asked provinces to keep a watch on the banned Sunni militant
outfit SSP, which is accused of fomenting recent violence in the
Punjab province's Jhang and Gojra towns. Interior Minister Rehman
Malik acknowledged there was a lot of truth in concern voiced
by an opposition lawmaker from Jhang who said the Government must
act against the SSP to avoid the kind of situation it had to face
in Swat valley of the North West Frontier Province after Taliban
militants were allowed to thrive there. Malik reportedly said
it was a fact that the SSP had had been involved in terrorist
activities in the past and added "The provincial governments have
been asked to keep a watch on its activities."
Of the more than two million people uprooted by
the anti-Taliban offensive in the NWFP, around 765,000 have now
returned home, the UN Office for the OCHA said. However, it said
the ongoing military operation is causing a fresh round of displacement
for the region. Around 1.2 million IDPs are still living with
host communities, while over 160,000 are sheltering in 21 camps,
according to the OCHA. Nine camps have closed down following the
IDPs repatriation, it added. But ongoing military operations in
the Upper Dir District have forced others into camps. With schools
in Lower Dir District having reopened, the IDPs are made to seek
shelter elsewhere.
Pakistan has denied it had agreed to accept the
bodies of four of the nine terrorists killed in the terrorist
attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 (26/11) as has been claimed
by the Home Minister of the State of Maharashtra in India. Pakistan
Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit said in Islamabad that
reports on this in the Indian media was baseless and fabricated.
"He strongly condemned this attitude of the Indian media and said
that it was not a suitable time to publish such kind of baseless
news items when only very recently the prime ministers of Pakistan
and India had held a very important meeting in Sharm El Sheikh
while the next course of secretary level dialogue was going to
be held in New York on the (sidelines) of the UN General Assembly
session," Online stated. Basit also said Pakistan's High
Commission in New Delhi had never made any request to India on
handing over the dead bodies of four of the 26/11 attackers. Maharashtra
home minister Jayant Patil said in Mumbai on August 10 that Pakistan
had owned up to four of the nine terrorists who were shot dead
during the November 26-29 attacks by the LeT. Patil said he was
informed that the Pakistan Government had accepted as its nationals
four of the nine who carried out the 26/11 terrorist attack in
Mumbai. The bodies of nine terrorists are lying in the morgue
of the Sir J.J. Hospital for the past nine months and their condition
is not very good, Patil added.
August 12
Fierce clashes broke out between supporters of
the slain TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud and rival Turkistan Bhittani
at Jandola in South Waziristan and each side claimed inflicting
heavy casualties on the other. According to sources, militants
loyal to Baitullah attacked Bhittani's men in the Soor Gher area
and set ablaze 33 houses. They said that seven supporters of Bhittani
were killed and 15 captured. Bhittani's men claimed to have killed
over 50 attackers. According to Associated Press, at least 70
militants were killed in the clash. Two intelligence officials
said that militants used rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft guns
against Turkistan's men. The officials, who cited wireless intercepts
from the area, confirmed that at least 70 people had been killed.
Bhittani claimed that 90 fighters were killed and more than 40
houses destroyed. A senior official confirmed the clash but did
not give details about casualties. "The local administration has
no writ in the area and we have no information about the number
of casualties," he added.
Masked gunmen are reported to have killed seven
Pakistani preachers at a mosque in Somalia. Six gunmen with assault
rifles and pistols stormed the Tawfiq Mosque in Galkayo and forced
six Pakistani preachers and a Somali man outside, said eyewitness
Ismail Hasan. The gunmen then opened fire, he said. Residents
said the attack took place after early morning prayers at the
mosque in Galkayo town and targeted a group of 25 mostly Pakistanis
who had arrived in the semi-autonomous northern region on August
11. "Six Pakistanis died on the spot while another Pakistani died
in hospital. These men are preachers from Karachi, Pakistan,"
Galkayo District Commissioner Hussein Abdullahi told. Pakistan's
acting ambassador in neighbouring Kenya, Manzoor Chaudhry, confirmed
that Pakistani nationals had been killed in Galkayo. The exact
death toll, however, was unclear because there have been conflicting
figures from different sources, he said.
Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas denied
a recent report that Taliban have attacked the nuclear facilities
three times in two years, saying there is "absolutely no chance"
the country's atomic weapons could fall into terrorist hands.
Abbas said an article written by a UK-based security expert was
baseless because none of the bases named actually had any nuclear
facilities. "It is factually incorrect," he said. Shaun Gregory,
a professor at Bradford University's Pakistan Security Research
Unit, wrote that several Taliban attacks have already hit military
bases where nuclear components are secretly stored. The article
appeared in the July 2009 newsletter of the Combating Terrorism
Center of the US Military Academy at West Point. The most recent
assault, he wrote, was the August 2008 coordinated suicide bombings
of the Wah Cantonment Ordnance Factory, which he said is considered
one of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons assembly sites. The other
two attacks were in late 2007 on the Sargodha Air Base, which
Gregory identified as a nuclear missile storage facility and the
air base at Kamra, the article said. Abbas, however, said none
of the military bases named were used to store atomic weapons.
He said the Wah Ordnance Factory makes small arms and ammunition,
Kamra is an air force facility and Sargodha is an air force ammunition
dump for conventional weapons. "These are nowhere close to any
nuclear facility," he said.
August 13
12 Taliban militants were killed when helicopter
gunships pounded several hideouts of Taliban 'commander' Hakeemullah
Mehsud at Orakzai Agency in FATA. "We targeted hideouts of Hekeemullah
Mehsud," said Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. Military
sources in Orakzai said that six of the bases in Tora Cheena and
Chappar Ferozkhel areas had been razed. The sources said dead
bodies of 12 slain Taliban militants were seen from helicopters.
Seven persons were killed in gunfights between
Taliban militants and a Lashkar (militia) in South Waziristan.
A tribal elder - who led a militia against Al-Qaeda-linked
foreign militants in South Waziristan in 2007 - his bodyguard
and two passers-by were killed in a remote-controlled bomb explosion
at Wana in South Waziristan. No group claimed responsibility for
the attack, but local Taliban commanders accused Al-Qaeda-linked
foreign militants who were flushed out from Ahmedzai Wazir areas
in the spring of 2007.
August 15
A Taliban suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden
vehicle into a security check post at Waliabad near Charbagh in
the Swat District, killing three soldiers and a civilian. "An
explosives-laden vehicle was rammed into a security check post
in Waliabad near Charbagh, killing three soldiers and a civilian,"
said an ISPR statement. "We believe the bomber was aiming to hit
a target in Mingora, where locals celebrated Independence Day
on a massive scale," said an unnamed security official.
Unidentified militants blew up three NATO oil
tankers supplying fuel to the US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan
at a terminal in Pishin District of Balochistan. A Police source
said around 10 masked militants entered the terminal, held the
watchman at gunpoint and planted remote-controlled bombs there.
They also planted a bomb inside a parked vehicle, but the Bomb
Disposal Squad defused it.
August 16
18 bodies of suspected militants were found dumped
in various parts of the Swat District while SFs killed six militants
and arrested 12 others elsewhere in the valley during a search
operation. Official sources said 11 bodies were found dumped on
the roadside in Kanju Dheri and Dewlai areas in Kabal sub-division.
Eight of the bodies were recovered from the Kanju area. Three
bodies were recovered from Islampur, one in Kota Aboha, another
from Gumband Mera and two more were found in Gorai area. Another
unconfirmed report said three more bodies were found in the valley,
raising the total to 21. In an interview with the BBC Urdu
service, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the
slain men weren't in the custody of the SFs and the military had
no hand in the killings. He also said people who had suffered
at the hands of the militants might have killed them to take revenge.
Since July 13 when the displaced people started returning to Swat,
a total of 102 bodies have been found dumped on roadsides and
on the banks of Swat River. Almost all of them were reportedly
stated to be of the militants. The SFs claimed to have killed
six more militants at Ningolai in Kabal. The slain militants were
identified as Sher Alam, Umar Rahim, Rehmat Ali, Muhammad Rafiq,
Nawab Ali and Aftab. The forces also arrested 12 suspected militants
from various parts of the District.
A soldier was killed and three others sustained
injuries in a suicide attack near a SFs checkpoint in the Swat
District. According to the ISPR, a suicide bomber was moving towards
the Naway Killay check-post when the soldiers asked him to stop.
However, the bomber entered a house near the check-post and blew
him up, injuring four soldiers. One of the soldiers later succumbed
to his injuries at the hospital.
Unidentified armed men killed 18 Taliban militants
on the Wana-Ladha Road in South Waziristan. The slain militants
were affiliated with the Mullah Nazir group. Taliban sources in
Wana said bullet-riddled bodies of 18 militants were shifted to
Wana in the evening. They said the militants had gone to the Paktika
province in Afghanistan to fight the US-led coalition forces and
were returning home when they were attacked by the armed men.
The sources also said the militants had come back to Pakistan
and were hoping to reach Shakai after passing through the territory
of the Mehsud tribe. The militants, under the command of Meeradin,
were reportedly traveling in two pickup trucks, when they were
ambushed by unidentified assailants at the Shawangi area in the
Ladha sub-division in the morning on August 15. Ladha is inhabited
by the Mehsud tribesmen and is under the control of the Baitullah
Mehsud-led TTP. A senior Taliban commander of the Mullah Nazir
group said they would not say as to who killed their men and why.
"Either the government, the Uzbeks or the Mehsud Taliban could
be involved in their killing. But right now, we cannot say anything
concrete," he said. Another senior Taliban commander later telephoned
from Wana and denied reports about the killing of Mullah Nazir
in the ambush. "There is no truth in these reports. I offered
Maghrib prayers with him on Sunday and he was safe and sound.
This man, Turkistan Bhittani, is spreading lies by claiming that
Ameer Sahib (Mulla Nazir) has been killed by the Baitullah Mehsud
group," claimed the Taliban commander and a close aide to Nazir.
He termed it part of a malicious propaganda launched by pro-government
commander Turkistan Bhittani to create differences between the
militants belonging to the Ahmadzai Wazir and Mehsud tribes.
Three passers-by were killed and 25 others, including
some women and children, sustained injuries when SFs resorted
to indiscriminate firing after a roadside bomb blast in the Darga
Mandi area of North Waziristan Agency. Tribal sources said unidentified
militants had planted an improvised explosive device on Gulam
Khan Road in Darga Mandi, which went off soon after a convoy of
the SFs passed through the area. The SFs opened indiscriminate
fire after the incident, killing three passers-by and injuring
25 others.
August 17
SFs said that they had killed
13 Taliban militants in Swat District and arrested 28 militants,
including 20 who surrendered in Dir District. "Troops conducted
a search operation in Shaheed Sar near Sar Qala, and destroyed
the Taliban headquarters there... 7 Taliban were also killed,"
said the ISPR, adding that six more militants were killed in a
search operation at Derai. Separately, 20 Taliban militants surrendered
to the SFs in Dir.
A Taliban spokesman from Swat
said that his men would soon step up attacks. "We stopped
our activity for a few days, but will resume during or after Ramzan,"
said Muslim Khan over the telephone. The Taliban also claimed
responsibility for two weekend suicide bombings in the Swat Valley,
saying that the blasts were a message to the visiting US envoy
Richard Holbrooke that the militants remained strong despite the
recent Army gains there. The bombings were "a gift to Holbrooke,"
Muslim Khan The Associated Press from an unidentified location.
He said the weekend bombings in Swat were avenging the alleged
killings of militants in the Army custody.
Seven persons, including three
children and two women, were killed and nine others sustained
injuries in a bomb blast in a passenger vehicle at a petrol station
in the Shabqadr sub-division of Charsadda District in the NWFP.
Driver Zahid Khan was getting fuel in his pick-up at the Attock
Filling Station on Michni Road near Shabqadr town, around 20 kilometers
northeast of provincial capital Peshawar, when the explosion occurred.
The vehicle was carrying passengers from Shabqadr town to Anbar
sub-division of the nearby Mohmand Agency when the blast occurred.
Leader of the Mohmand Agency-based Taliban, Qari Shakeel, reportedly
claimed responsibility for the blast, saying they would continue
such attacks on locals until the Government stopped raising armed
militias against the militants.
The bodies of nine Policemen taken
hostage in July 2009 by insurgents were discovered in Balochistan.
"We have recovered nine bodies of dead policemen. They were kidnapped
by the BRA," said senior Police officer Kaleem Ullah. The corpses
were found in Naseerabad, some 390 kilometres southeast of provincial
capital Quetta, and the Police officers were thought to have been
killed about four days ago, Kaleem added. The insurgents had taken
24 local Police officials and labourers hostage in late July.
Three Policemen escaped, and the bodies of 12 others have already
been found. Sarbaz Baloch, a spokesman for the BRA, had earlier
in August claimed responsibility for the kidnappings and deaths
in a telephone call to reporters in Quetta. He demanded that the
Security Forces leave the city.
In the fresh wave of target killing
incidents in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, four persons, including
a cardiologist, were shot dead in two separate places. Police
said cardiologist Dr Abid Iqbal Zaidi was shot dead by unidentified
armed men on the Fatima Jinnah Road when he reached his private
clinic around 6pm (PST). The cause of the murder is yet to be
confirmed, but the Police stated that it is an incident of target
killing. A man and his two sons were shot dead by unidentified
armed men on Sirki Road. Police said the owner of a welding shop,
Sher Ahmed, was on his way home along with his two sons - Shabir
Ahmed and Jalil Ahmed - when they were attacked. Police said some
unidentified armed men opened indiscriminate firing with automatic
weapons on them. While Jalil Ahmed died at the incident site,
Sher Ahmed and Shabir Ahmed succumbed to their injuries in the
Bolan Medical Complex Hospital.
Armed men shot dead Allama Ali
Sher Hyderi, chief of the banned SSP, along with his associate
Imtiaz Phulpoto at Khairpur in the Sindh province. Sources said
Allama Hyderi was returning home after delivering a speech at
a religious gathering in the Dost Muhammad Abro village within
the limits of the Ahmedpur Police Station when he was attacked.
Police sources said one of the attackers, identified as Aashiq
Ali Jagirani, was also killed in retaliatory fire by Hyderi’s
bodyguards.
The SSP leader’s murder triggered
violence in major towns of Sindh. There were reports of aerial
firing and armed SSP activists forced shopkeepers to close their
shops. The Army and the Rangers were called out to assist the
Police in maintaining the law and order. The protesters removed
the main railway tracks, suspending train link to the upcountry.
There were reports that the house of the suspected killer had
been torched by the people in Luqman town. Two persons were killed
and another sustained injuries in firing by paramilitary forces
that tried to stop an angry mob from removing railway tracks.
Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi
has been named as successor to Allama Hyderi. Allama Hyderi, who
hailed from Khairpur, was the fourth SSP chief to be killed since
it was formed in the late 1980s. After the Sunni outfit was banned
by former President Pervez Musharraf in February 2002, it was
operating under the name of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama’at.
Police arrested a key Taliban
commander from Bhara Kahu in the national capital Islamabad. A
police official told that Qari Saifullah, who was found injured
and is being treated at a hospital, was a member of the TTP. He
said Saifullah was a close associate of the slain TTP chief Baitullah
Mehsud and an accomplice of another high-profile terrorist, Fidaullah,
who had been arrested by the Police sometime in June 2009. Saifullah
reportedly told the Police he had been injured in a drone strike
in South Waziristan. Police have also arrested Saifullah’s brother
Zahid from the Secretariat Police precincts.
Pakistan asked India to share
information that formed the basis of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s
fears of more terrorist attacks allegedly being planned in Pakistan.
"Acting Indian Deputy High Commissioner Mr P. Kumaran was
called to the Foreign Office by Director-General of South Asia
Afrasiab Hashmi and told that Mr Singh’s remarks warranted serious
and prompt attention," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit
said. Addressing a conference of chief ministers on internal security
in the Indian capital New Delhi, Manmohan Singh had said that
there was a surge in infiltration and Pakistan-based terrorist
groups were planning attacks in India. Hashmi is reported to have
reminded Kumaran that both countries had agreed in Sharm El Sheikh
in Egypt to share information on terrorist threats. The joint
statement issued at the end of the Gilani-Singh meeting in Egypt
had said: "The two countries will share real time, credible
and actionable information on any future terrorist threats."
Kumaran was reportedly told that Pakistan needed information before
it could act against groups planning the attacks. "In all
sincerity, we would request India to share information that they
have and for our part we stand ready to cooperate fully in pre-empting
any act of terror," Hashmi was quoted as saying. Combating
terror, he claimed, required serious, sustained and pragmatic
cooperation.
August 18
A militant on suicide mission
rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into a check-post on the
Bannu-Miranshah road in North Waziristan Agency in the evening,
killing four Security Force personnel and injuring eight others.
The bomber reportedly struck the Esha check-post located near
Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, which was manned
by army and paramilitary personnel. An official said that an army
soldier and three paramilitary personnel were killed in the attack.
Three militants were killed in
a clash between the militants and the local Lashkar (militia)
in lower Orakzai Agency. Tribal sources said militants belonging
to the banned TTP clashed with the Lashkar of armed tribesmen
in the Qazikhel and Storikhel areas. The clash continued for four
hours and three militants belonging to Swat and South Waziristan
were killed and several others injured. The bodies of four unidentified
persons were found elsewhere in the Orakzai Agency. However, it
was not known who killed the four men.
A tribal Lashkar (militia) in
the Khwezai area of Mohmand Agency in FATA captured and handed
over to the SFs a top militant commander and spokesman for the
TTP Maulvi Omar. Maulvi Omar a.k.a. Said Muhammad was also deputy
to Bajaur Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad engaged in fighting
against the SFs since August 6, 2008. He used to reportedly sell
perfumes in a pushcart in the Inayat Killay Bazaar in Bajaur Agency
in the past and at one stage, studied and taught in a madrassa
(seminary). In recent weeks, the TTP had appointed another spokesman
named Azam Tariq, though Maulvi Omar insisted that he hadn’t been
replaced.
August 19
SFs said that they had killed
five Taliban militants in Bajaur Agency. "Taliban fired at a security
convoy near Kuz Chamarkand ... troops retaliated and killed five
Taliban," said the ISPR.
Unidentified armed men shot dead
three persons, including a soldier of the Bajaur Levies, in the
Shago area of Bajaur Agency.
The body of a suspected Al Qaeda
leader was found in a house in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP.
According to officials, the body with multiple wounds was of Abdullah
Noori, son of Abdul Qadir, an Algerian believed to be Osama bin
Laden’s top aide. They said the man had been suffering from kidney
ailment and was being treated by a private physician in a rented
house in the Tehkal area on the University Road. Ten other people
in the house were also arrested, but seven of them were later
released. The other three are said to be foreigners, one of them
from Algeria.
Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, a senior
leader of the outlawed TTP, claimed to have taken over the leadership
of the militant organisation on a ‘temporary basis’. He told the
BBC Urdu Service he was now acting chief of the TTP, replacing
Baitullah Mehsud for a ‘short time’ because he was ‘sick’. Maulvi
Faqir claimed that Baitullah was ‘alive but sick’. "But even if
Baitullah is killed it will not affect the Taliban movement,"
he added. About the reported dispute over succession, he said
neither Mufti Wali Rehman nor Hakeemullah Mehsud had the authority
to declare anyone as Baitullah’s successor. In a speech on his
FM radio Maulvi Faqir accused the peace committee of Mohmand Agency
of violating a ‘peace accord’ between militants and tribal elders
by capturing TTP spokesman Maulvi Umar. He warned that the TTP
would avenge Umar’s capture. "The Taliban will take action against
those members of the peace committee who captured our spokesman,"
he said. Maulvi Omar, he claimed, was functioning as a journalist
and his arrest would not affect the movement. He, however, said
that despite the ‘violation’, the agreement would remain in force.
A local militia captured Umar in Mohmand Agency in the night of
August 17 and later handed him over to the Security Forces. Faqir
told the BBC that Muslim Khan had been appointed TTP spokesman
in place of Maulvi Omar. Muslim Khan is currently the spokesman
of the Taliban in Swat.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC)
summoned the banned TTP Swat unit chief Maulana Fazlullah and
10 other militants to surrender or appear in the court within
seven days. The ATC Judge Khalil Khan Khalil asked Fazlullah,
who is the son-in-law of TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad, to
surrender to the local Police or appear before the court, along
with 10 other militants, within seven days to defend terror charges
against him or else the court would initiate hearing against him
and his associates under Section 19(10) of the Anti-Terrorism
Act in absentia. The court issued summons for 11 militants, including
Fazlullah, Yousaf, son of Khalid Khan, Tahir, son of Bihram, Hadi,
son of Habib Khan, Muhammad Hussain, son of Nusrat Ahmed, Aziz,
son of Fazal Majeed, Anwar, son of Jamshed, Qadir, son of Fazal
Rahim, Sher Ali, son of Feroz, Ziaur Rehman, son of Naseebzada
and Muhamamd Rasool.
August 20
Four bodies, believed to be of
militants, were recovered from the Charbagh and Nawagai areas
of Swat.
Dialogue with the Taliban is possible
only if they lay down their weapons and accept the writ of the
state, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said. Talking to
journalists in Islamabad, the Foreign Minister said the return
of the internally displaced people from Swat was proof that the
Taliban were on the run. He said the Government was democratically
elected and "will never shut the door on dialogue". To a question,
Qureshi said, "We have achieved great success by turning the people’s
opinion against the Taliban and now the local population is rising
against them and knows that the Taliban are a bad influence."
August 21
A pre-dawn drone attack killed
at least 21 militants in North Waziristan Agency. According to
sources, missiles fired by the suspected US pilotless plane hit
a residential compound in Dandy Derpakhel village near Miranshah,
frequented by militants mostly from the Punjab province. Militant
sources claimed that women and children, and not their men, had
been killed in the attack. The compound was adjacent to a large
seminary set up by the Afghan militant ‘commander’ Jalaluddin
Haqqani, said to be close to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
An unnamed official said the compound was used as a training centre
for militants but he was not sure which group was running it.
The air strike targeted Siraj Haqqani, a Taliban ‘commander’ blamed
for masterminding ambushes on American troops in Afghanistan,
intelligence officials said. It was unclear if Siraj Haqqani,
son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, was among the people killed in the
attack, the officials said, adding that three women were among
the dead.
SFs killed at least 12 militants
in different areas of Mohmand Agency and destroyed several of
their hideouts. SF sources said at around 2:00 pm, two gunship
choppers shelled militant strongholds in the Ghani Baba, Michni
and Seperay areas of Yakkaghund sub-division. "Twelve militants
were killed and four of their hideouts destroyed during the operation,"
the Frontier Corps said in a statement.
A suicide bomber blew himself
up after he was besieged by the SF personnel in Kohat. Official
sources said the Police were informed that a 15-year-old suicide
bomber would attack a mosque or imambargah anytime in the city.
The SF personnel spotted the bomber in a bazaar with two hand-grenades
in his hand and a firearm on his shoulder, the sources said. Seeing
the Police party, the bomber ran away and forced his entry into
the house of Inayatullah Jan in BB Pakdaman Street and took his
family members hostage. Later, the women and other members of
the family, except one Safdar Hashmi, were allowed to go out of
the house. Eyewitnesses said the only hostage, Safdar Hashmi,
managed to escape from the house and the Police party headed by
the Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdullah Khan fired tear-gas
shells and bullets at the house. The bomber later blew himself
up when he couldn’t escape. The house also suffered damage in
the explosion. Later, Safdar Hashmi, while talking to the media,
said the bomber was 15-year-old and hailed from Punjab.
August 23
Three persons were killed and
15 others sustained injuries in a powerful suicide blast close
to the house of the slain AI spokesman, Mobin Afridi, in the Momin
Town area of Peshawar, the NWFP capital. The blast also destroyed
four houses and damaged eight others in the street. "Three
people, including two women, were killed and 15 others injured
when the suicide bomber blew himself up in a street after he ran
short of ammunition," said SSP Qazi Jamilur Rehman. The bomb
disposal squad estimated around eight kilograms of explosives
were used in the attack. A large number of ball bearings and nails
were also used in the blast to increase its intensity. The SSP
said the attack was probably linked to the blast in Hayatabad
in the evening, which killed Ansar-ul-Islam spokesman Mobin Afridi
and his associate Haji Khan. The suicide bombers perhaps wanted
to attack the house of Mubin, where people had gathered to offer
condolence to his brother Sahibzada, who had rushed from Saudi
Arabia to attend the funeral, and other members of the family
on his death, sources said.
Unidentified men killed pro-government
tribal chief Malik Sarwar Khan Wazir and three others in South
Waziristan. Sarwar was traveling from his home village of Dazha
Ghundi to Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, when gunmen
attacked his vehicle, officials said, killing him, his son Bakhmal
Khan, brother Gulzar and an uncle of ‘commander’ Nek Muhammad.
However, the four persons had been killed along with Sarwar. Sarwar,
a tribal chief, had played an important role in fighting against
the Taliban in Wana.
The Taliban have killed chief
Baitullah Mehsud’s father-in-law and other relatives on suspicion
of spying on the former Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief,
the Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. Malik told in an interview
that he had credible information to this effect. Recent media
reports have suggested the Taliban had taken a number of Baitullahs’
relative’s hostage on suspicion that they might have given away
the TTP leader’s whereabouts to the US, leading to his subsequent
death in a drone strike in South Waziristan. Mailk also said the
SFs had arrested three would-be suicide bombers from capital Islamabad
in July 2009, who planned to attack the Parliament House. He told
the channel that the SFs had foiled the terrorist plot that aimed
to target the National Assembly building and other Government
installations in the federal capital. Malik also said operations
against the Taliban would continue during Ramzan. "There
will not be a ceasefire during Ramzan. We are not interested in
a ceasefire," he said. "The Taliban have not kept their
commitments in the past. We will continue our targeted actions
against them," the minister added.
Taliban militants in Pakistan
are committed to helping the fight in Afghanistan and consider
US President Barack Obama their "number one enemy",
a top commander said amid uncertainty about whether a new leader
had been appointed to head the TTP. Waliur Rehman made the remarks
in an interview. Speaking on August 22 - before aides to another
Taliban ‘commander’ said a second contender, Hakeemullah Mehsud,
had been appointed the next chief - Rehman said Baitullah had
given him full control over the TTP and that a new leader "would
be chosen within five days". He did not refer to the claim
that Hakeemullah had become the leader. Rehman is reported to
have met the AP journalists in a forest near Makeen village in
South Waziristan. "We are with Afghan Taliban. We will keep
on helping them until America and its allies are expelled,"
he said, adding this did not mean an end to attacks in Pakistan.
"American President Obama and his allies are our enemy number
one… We will sacrifice our bodies, hearts and money to fight them,"
he said.
The ‘commander’ Faqir Mohammad,
who had proclaimed himself as successor to the slain TTP chief
Baitullah Mehsud, on August 20, announced on August 22 that Hakeemullah
Mehsud was the new leader of the TTP. "I am stepping down
as leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban in the larger interest of the
movement," Faqir Mohammad, the TTP leader from Bajaur Agency
and Baitullah’s deputy, told reporters on phone from an undisclosed
location. "There were a few problems on certain issues last
week, but they have been resolved now," he stated. According
to him, "I am the most senior leader of the TTP after Baitullah
and the sacrifices I rendered for it are no less. However, due
to some unavoidable reasons, I am stepping down. There is no factionalism
within the TTP now." Faqir Mohammad claimed that a 42-member
shura (executive council) of the TTP met in Orakzai Agency and
it unanimously endorsed Hakeemullah as new leader of the Taliban
in Pakistan. The shura appointed Azam Tariq the new spokesman
for the TTP to replace Maulvi Omar, who was arrested by Security
Forces in Mohmand Agency a few days ago.
August 24
SFs killed four militants during a search operation
while 11 bullet-riddled bodies of the militants were found in
the Sar Tiligram area in the Swat Valley. Sources said the SFs
continued a search operation in Sar Tiligram area and killed four
militants identified as Sherzada, Yasin, Sabir and Bakht Rawan,
besides recovering 11 bullet-riddled bodies of the militants.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead Afghan journalist
Janullah Hashimzada in the Jamrud area in Khyber Agency when he
was on his way to Peshawar from Afghanistan. He was traveling
in a passenger coach to Peshawar to reach his home in Hayatabad
when four gunmen, driving a white colour car, intercepted the
vehicle in the Surkamar area on the highway linking Pakistan to
Afghanistan. Driver of the coach Abbas said the four gunmen came
out of their car and forced him and the cleaner to disembark.
"Then, two gunmen entered the coach and shot Janullah in the forehead
four times, killing him on the spot," he said. Another passenger,
Ali, also an Afghan national, sustained bullet injuries and was
shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar. Janullah
was the bureau chief in Pakistan for Afghanistan's Pashto TV channel,
Shamshad.
August 25
Troops killed three Taliban militants and arrested
seven others, while 11 locals - who were forced to get terrorist
training - surrendered at Swat and Malakand in the NWFP. "Troops
conducted a search operation in Taghan, Bishbanr near Gat and
killed two Taliban, while another was killed and one arrested
during a search operation in Asharbanr near Khawazakhela," said
a statement by the ISPR.
TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud died in August 2009
after a US missile strike, his "successor", Hakeemullah Mehsud,
confirmed, vowing revenge on the US for the attack. Hakeemullah
also declared himself the new leader of the group. Disputing the
US and Pakistani version of events, the Taliban said Baitullah
had survived until August 23. "Baitullah was injured in a drone
attack and died on Sunday afternoon," Hakeemullah told over the
telephone from an undisclosed location." He remained unconscious
after being seriously injured in a drone attack and died on Sunday.
Now the shura [meeting of elders] has unanimously appointed me
new head of the TTP," said Hakeemullah. "We will take revenge
and soon. We will give our reply to this drone attack to America.
The effects of our attack will go up to Washington," he added.
Hakeemullah said Waliur Rehman had been named Taliban chief for
South Waziristan. "All of the Taliban are united. The news about
the differences and fighting are baseless and those spreading
such type of news will face failure," he further added. The AP
news agency said Wali had confirmed Baitullah's death and the
announcement that Hakeemullah would lead the TTP.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik dismissed
reports that a new TTP chief had been appointed as "all speculation",
and said the group was in disarray. "It is all speculation until
Hakimullah Mehsud himself comes forward and says that he [is]
the TTP chief," he added. "Our information is that they have not
been able to appoint anyone despite the lapse of so many days
since Baitullah's death because now they are fighting among themselves,"
he further mentioned. Foreign Minster Shah Mehmood Qureshi also
said he doubted the TTP had appointed a new leader. "My information
is that there is no decision taken yet," Qureshi told a press
conference at Istanbul in Turkey. "There are a lot of claimants.
There is confusion. We have to wait and see who the next chief
is going to be," he added.
August 26
Three persons belonging to Punjabi community were
killed and three others critically injured in a targeted killing
claimed by the BLUF at Jinnah Road of capital Quetta in Balochistan,
when Baloch national parties observed a "black day" in addition
to a shutter down strike on the third death anniversary of Nawab
Muhammad Akbar Khan Bugti, former Chief Minister and Governor
of the province. All businesses, public and private institutions
were shut down following the Balochistan National Front's call
for a shutter down and wheel-jam strike.
Unidentified militants blew up an oil tanker carrying
fuel to Afghanistan near a bridge along the Torkham border in
the Khyber Agency of FATA. Border officials said the driver and
his helper had gone to a nearby mosque to say their prayers when
the tanker was blown up.
Richard Holbrooke, the top US envoy for Afghanistan
and Pakistan, told that the deadly Taliban insurgency in both
countries relies heavily on funding from the Persian Gulf. Such
donations, he told, outpaced even the multibillion-dollar exports
of opium and heroin from Afghanistan. "It seems to be ... individuals
carrying money in their suitcases," he said. "Sometimes they are
taking advantage of the pilgrimage. Sometimes from hawala. Sometimes
from charities," he added.
August 27
A suicide bomber blew himself up as Security Force
personnel gathered at sunset to break their daily fast (Muslims
keep fast from dawn to dusk in the holy month of Ramadan), killing
at least 22 soldiers and injuring 10 others at Torkham in the
Khyber Agency of FATA near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. An
injured soldier said that a man entered the compound where the
soldiers had gathered and blew himself up when they offered him
to break the fast with them. The bomber targeted soldiers from
the Khyber Zakhakhel tribe, and sources said the political authorities
of Torkham were tipped off about a week ago about the attack.
A suicide bomber was also recently arrested from Torkham.
10 persons were killed and five others injured
when a drone fired two missiles at a house in the Kanigaram area
of Laddha tehsil (revenue unit) of South Waziristan Agency.
Seven Taliban militants were killed and four others
arrested in a clash with the Police at Buner in the NWFP, a private
TV channel quoted a local Police official as saying.
More than 80 percent of the 2.2 million IDPs from
Swat and Malakand in the NWFP have now returned home, Lieutenant
General Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of the Special Support Group for
the displaced, said. "There are those who are saying to us 'We
will take you to the tunnels, we will take you to the caches,
we will take you to the places where they have been storing ammunition
and explosives and suicide jackets'," the relief official said.
He also said, "Insurgencies don't go away in months, they go away
in decades. We have seen this in our own neighbourhood - in Sri
Lanka, India and Afghanistan - but this is the first time that
we are talking about dealing with it so effectively in months."
August 28
Six militants and a minor were killed when gunship
helicopters targeted a hideout of militants in the Charbagh area
of Swat District. Acting on a tip-off, gunship helicopters targeted
the base of militants near River Swat in the Charbagh area, killing
six militants and injuring several others. A press release issued
by the Swat Media Cell said the base was being used as a launching
pad for preparing suicide bombers and using them for carrying
out terrorist activities in Kabal, Kanju and Mingora city. Sources
said a minor, identified as Ayaz, son of Fazal Rabbi, was killed
while Ma'ab and Sajjad Ali were injured when helicopters targeted
militant hideouts in Charbagh.
Five militants were killed in a clash with the
SFs in the Thana area of Malakand Agency in the early hours. Official
sources said unidentified militants opened fire on the convoy
of the SFs on Palai Road, west of Thana, at 4 am, and the troops
returned the fire, killing five militants. Some of the slain militants
were reported to be foreigners. Five Kalashnikovs, a rocket launcher,
rocket shells, five hand grenades, five wireless sets and explosive
materials were also recovered from the militants.
The Lahore High Court has asked the authorities
not to restrain the free movement of nuclear scientist Dr Abdul
Qadeer Khan. Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry also issued contempt
or court notices to five Police and administration officials of
Islamabad on Dr Khan's petition challenging his official protocol
and terming it a violation of his fundamental rights. Petitioner's
counsel Barrister Syed Ali Zafar submitted that Dr Khan had earlier
filed a petition challenging his virtual house arrest by the Musharraf
regime under the garb of providing security while the Islamabad
High Court had declared him a free citizen. The counsel submitted
that Dr Khan had agreed to a security protocol because the Government
not only wanted to ensure his security owing to his sensitive
status but the Islamabad High Court had also issued directions
in this regard. The counsel submitted that the security protocol
included conditions like informing the security agencies in advance
of his movement. The authorities, however, restricted his movement
to his house in violation of the court orders and the security
package agreed with them. The court, after hearing the arguments,
reportedly directed the Government not to restrain Dr Khan's movement
in any manner.
The TTP claimed responsibility for a suicide attack
in Torhkam in the Khyber Agency that killed 22 Khasadar force
personnel, saying it was their first retaliation for their former
chief Baitullah Mehsud's death. As reported earlier, a suicide
bomber blew himself up as troops gathered at sunset to break their
daily fast in the holy month of Ramadan, killing 22 soldiers and
injuring eight others at Torkham near the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border on August 27.
August 29
SFs killed at least 18 Taliban militants, including
six would-be suicide bombers, during the ongoing offensive against
the Taliban in Swat. Helicopter gunships were called in after
intelligence and locals said a suicide attack mastermind was present
in the Chaharbagh town of Swat. "At least six would-be suicide
bombers were killed in the shelling by helicopter gunships. The
place was being used as launching pad for training suicide attackers,"
an army statement said. The bullet-riddled dead bodies of six
suspected Taliban were found in a village in Swat, eight kilometres
from Mingora, Police said. "Six badly mutilated bodies were found
from two different places at Odigram," Ghulam Farooq, a senior
Police official said. The military sources said it continued search
and clearance operations across Malakand and Swat. "Security forces
carried out a search operation at Thana area and killed five terrorists
during an exchange of fire," military sources added. Another Taliban
militant was killed during an operation in Dandial.
August 30
16 Police recruits were killed and 11 others sustained
injuries after a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped
to his body at the Mingora Police Station. The volunteers for
the new community Police force were conducting drills in the yard
adjacent to the station when the attacker detonated his explosives,
said local Government administrator Atifur Rehman. Authorities
were investigating reports the attacker - possibly in uniform
- might have hidden among the dozens of recruits, he said. "Initial
investigations suggest the attacker climbed the small boundary
wall and blew himself up, but there is also a report the suicide
bomber was already inside," he added.
18 militants were killed and several others were
arrested during the ongoing military operation in the Charbagh
sub-division of Swat District. Brigadier Tahir Hameed said search
and clearance operations against the militants continued in Balash
Banar, Gutt and Mangaltan areas during which 18 militants were
killed and many others were arrested.
A Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), his driver
and two militants were killed in an ambush in the Karak District
of NWFP. Police said DSP Shafqatullah Khattak, posted in the Anti-Terrorist
Squad in Bannu District, was on his way to Latamber from Bannu
when the militants rammed their vehicle with the Police van and
at the same time opened indiscriminate fire on the Policemen.
The Police retaliated and as a result of the collision and firing,
DSP Shafqatullah, his driver Naeemullah Shah and two terrorists,
Abdullah Noor and another person, whose name could not be ascertained,
were killed.
Three militants were killed while eight others
were arrested, four of them reportedly well-trained suicide bombers,
during an encounter with the paramilitary FC soldiers at the Dosali
checkpoint on the Esha-Razmak Road in North Waziristan Agency.
Several vehicles carrying supplies for the NATO
forces in Afghanistan caught fire after a huge bomb blast followed
by heavy firing on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border near Chaman
in the Balochistan province. Police sources told APP that hundreds
of heavy vehicles, mostly carrying supplies for the NATO troops
stationed in Afghanistan, had to stop on the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border near Chaman as all types of cross border movement had been
suspended due to security reasons for the last two days.
August 31
SFs killed at least 15 Taliban militants in various
clashes in the Swat District. One soldier was also killed in crossfire
between the army and the Taliban. "The security forces conducted
a search operation in Allahabad near Charbagh. In an exchange
of fire with the terrorists, five Taliban and one soldier was
killed," an ISPR statement said. The SFs also killed seven more
Taliban militants and arrested 11 of them during a search operation
in Maira. Further, three more Taliban militants were killed during
an operation in Lundai Sarand.
At least 36 bodies, believed to be of militants,
were found dumped in various locations of the Swat valley. Official
sources said 30 bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in the
Manglawar and Banjot areas while the body of another militant,
identified as Bacha Rahman, was recovered from the Nawagai area
in Barikot. Three bodies were found in the Kanju area while two
were recovered from Akhund Killay. Bodies of the Taliban militants
were dumped on roadsides after being killed in mysterious circumstances,
the sources said. So far a total of 230 bodies have been found
dumped on roads and riversides in the Swat District.
Three militants were killed when two groups of
Taliban exchanged fire in the Ferozkhel area of Orakzai Agency.
Tribal sources said a group of militants belonging to the TTP
unit in Darra Adamkhel allegedly attacked a seminary at Mehmoodabad
in Lower Kurram, triggering retaliation by the Orakzai-based TTP.
September 1
At least 40 militants were killed as SFs launched
a massive operation in the Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency.
The operation, codenamed Bia Daraghlam (here I come again)
was launched in the aftermath of a spate of beheading in the region,
sources said. Locals said nearly 35 beheaded bodies were recovered
from different areas of Bara over the past one month. Briefing
journalists about the operation, sector commander of the SFs,
Brigadier Faiz, and Political Agent of the Khyber Agency Tariq
Hayat Khan said 40 militants had been killed and 43 were arrested.
The arrested militants were produced before the media along with
the arms seized during search operations. The two officials said
four militant hideouts were destroyed during the operation. They
also said the ground forces were supported by military helicopters
that targeted the hideouts of militants. Locals said the banned
LeI activists did not offer any resistance to the operation which
was launched in the morning. They had reportedly already vacated
their areas to take refuge in the nearby mountains.
Security Forces killed 15 Taliban militants in
fresh clashes in the Swat District. According to the Swat media
centre, 15 militants were killed in clashes in Kokari and Jameel
on the outskirts of Mingora, while two SF personnel were wounded.
Brigadier Salman Akbar, heading the military operation in Kabal
sub-division, told journalists that about 105 Taliban militants
- including a close aide of Maulana Fazlullah and a dozen trained
suicide bombers - surrendered in Kabal. He said they also handed
over 193 Kalashnikovs, one pistol, seven guns, one rocket launcher
and other modern weapons. He added that militants were contacting
SFs to surrender to the army. He said that around 165 militants
had surrendered over the last three days.
September 2
16 more militants were killed and 35 others arrested
on the second day of Operation Bia Daraglam in different
parts of the Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency. Two explosive-laden
vehicles, houses of six commanders, including those of Abid Murad,
Tayyab and Sabeel, and six hideouts of militants were destroyed
in the operation. At least 59 militants have been killed and 78
others arrested during the operation so far. Political Agent Khyber
Tariq Hayat Khan told reporters that the operation would continue
till the neutralization of all terrorists.
Five persons were killed when artillery and mortar
shells hit a residential area in the Mohmand Agency. Three persons,
identified as Gul Mohammad, Sher Mohammad and Welayat, were killed
when stray shells fired from an unknown direction hit their houses
in Musa Kor. Two persons were killed in shelling in Ghaljo Dara.
Three people were shot dead in the industrial
town of Hub in Balochistan. According to Police, Syed Walayat
Hussain, his friend and a bodyguard were going to Karachi after
attending a religious function in the Dureji sub-division when
motorcycle borne assailants opened fire at their car on the Sakran
Road. Police said it might be an incident of sectarian killing.
The Federal Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed
Kazmi was injured and his driver killed when unidentified men
attacked his car near the GPO Chowk in Sector G-6 of capital Islamabad.
The minister was attacked by two gunmen riding a motorbike when
he was passing through GPO Chowk after he had left his office.
According to an eyewitness, the men followed the minister's car,
which was not accompanied by any security escort, soon after he
left his office, firing at his vehicle at the Shaheed-e-Millat
Road, Senior Superintendent Police Tahir Alam Khan said. The firing
killed the minister's driver Muhammad Younis on the spot. The
minister was reportedly shot in his left shin and his security
guard was also seriously wounded. Interior Minister Rehman Malik
said in a brief comment it was a target attack. Later, the Police
found a bag with two pistols, a Kalashnikov and hand grenades
that the attackers had thrown a few hundred yards away from the
incident site.
A division bench of the Lahore High Court granted
bail to 11 activists of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD, the Lashkar-e-Toiba
[LeT] front), who were in jail since the UN imposed sanctions
on the JuD. Abdul Shakoor, Muhammad Hanif and others were arrested
from Bahawalnagar under the Anti-Terrorism Act. During the course
of hearing, Deputy Prosecutor General Chaudhry Jamshed argued
that the JD was a banned organisation but its activists continued
collecting funds, distributing religious literature and doing
other activities. However, the accused-petitioner's counsel Irshadullah
Chatta stated that there was no notification regarding the ban
on JD. He argued that an organisation could not be banned until
a notification under Section 11 B was issued. He said the Government
had already admitted in the Hafiz Saeed case that it had no substantial
evidence against the JD. The bench comprising Chief Justice Khawaja
Muhammad Sharif and Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry after hearing
the arguments granted them bail against surety bonds of PKR 100,000
each. The released JD activists included Muhammad Siddiq, Abbas
Dogar, Saeed Amir, Arif Ali, Muhammad Akram, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal,
Master Abdul Shakoor and Muhammad Anwar.
September 3
Three persons, including two FC personnel, were
killed in an exchange of fire with gunmen from the BRA in Turbat
District's Thump area. Official sources said an FC team was ambushed
during a routine patrol. The insurgents opened fire at the FC
vehicle on the Zubeda Jalal Road, killing the two soldiers. The
FC troops consequently retaliated and killed one of the attackers.
Murtaza Baig, a spokesman for the FC in provincial capital Quetta,
confirmed the attack and added that three FC troopers had also
been injured in the clash. However, unverified local accounts
suggested that six FC soldiers had been killed, but the figure
could not be independently confirmed. The BRA has claimed responsibility
for the attack. The slain insurgent was identified as Meer Jan
Miral, reportedly a Balochi poet.
A militia (Qaumi Lashkar) killed three militants
in an exchange of fire in the Kabal sub-division of the Swat District,
while seven militants were arrested in the area during a search
operation by the SFs. Sources said the militiamen traded fire
with the militants in the Galoch area in Kabal, killing three
unidentified militants. Besides, bodies of two militants, identified
as Rozi Khan and Ansar, shot dead by unknown persons, were recovered
in the Panr and Haji Baba areas.
September 4
SFs claimed to have killed two militants in the
Ambar area while one Mohmand Rifles trooper was killed and two
others sustained injuries during a search operation in the Baizai
sub-division of Mohmand Agency. Sources said the SFs exchanged
fire with the militants for about three hours in Ambar area early
in the day, killing two militants. There were reports that military
helicopters bombarded and destroyed suspected hideouts of the
militants in Atam Killay, Lakhkar Killay and Tani area in Baizai
near the Afghanistan border.
Five terrorists were killed and 24 others were
arrested during a clash with the Security Forces in the Bara sub-division
of Khyber Agency in the FATA.
September 5
At least 43 militants were killed and several
others were injured in a military operation in Tirah valley and
Kambarkhel areas of Khyber Agency. Troops pounded Lashkar-e-Islam
(LI) bases in Gogrina and Sandapal areas of Tirah valley. An LI
centre - being used as a hideout and training facility - was destroyed,
and at least 35 militants killed in that attack. Official sources
said six militants were killed in Kambarkhel area of the Bara
tehsil (revenue division), while two suspects were arrested
from Shakas area. Security sources added that 15 houses were also
demolished in Kambarkhel area of Khyber Agency's Bara tehsil.
September 6
At least 33 militants were killed when the SFs
targeted two militant centers - Tarkhokas Camp and Narai Baba
Markaz - on the sixth day of the counter-insurgency operation
Operation Bia Daghalam at Khyber Agency in the FATA. "Security
forces ... targeted Tarkhokas Camp [and] Narai Baba Markaz," said
the FC in a statement. "Both centres and six vehicles ... [were]
destroyed. Thirty-three militants ... [were] killed," added the
FC. AFP quoted FC spokesman Major Fazl Rehman as saying that helicopter
gunships and fighter jets strafed the militant boltholes, with
the strikes targeting the Lashkar-e-Islam outfit.
Three Policemen were shot dead by unidentified
militants at Hasan Abdal in Punjab in apparent act of targeted
killing, a senior Police Officer said. The victims were identified
as Muhammad Yaseen, Bashrat Shah and Muhammad Naeem. "The police
officials were sleeping in the guardroom after taking the pre-dawn
meal when they were shot dead," Police Officer Arshad Mahmood
said. "All had a single bullet wound to their forehead. It appears
to be a targeted killing," he added.
The SFs killed three Taliban militants and arrested
12 others from various parts of Swat in the NWFP. "On a tip off,
security forces conducted a search and cordon operation in Liluani
near Alpurai. In an exchange of fire, three Taliban were killed
and two were apprehended," an ISPR statement said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani revealed
that the terrorists who attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in
Lahore on March 3 were financed by the LTTE. Gilani said that
he had been told by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse during
his recent visit to Libya that the LTTE had funded the terrorist
attacks in Pakistan, including the commando-style attack on the
Sri Lankan cricket team at Lahore's Liberty market roundabout.
The Prime Minister said that both countries were investigating
this possibility, adding that the LTTE may have funded other attacks
in Pakistan as well. He also said that Interior Ministry officials
would visit Sri Lanka to follow up on this lead.
September 7
SFs killed 10 militants in the remote Tirah valley
of Khyber Agency on the seventh day of Operation Bia Daraghlam.
Security officials said 12 houses being used by militants had
been destroyed in the Akakhel, Shalobar, Malikdin Khel and Sipah
areas of Bara, while a militant stronghold and five hideouts were
destroyed in Tirah valley.
A missile fired by a US drone hit a house and
a madrassa (seminary), killing at least five persons and
wounding six others, security officials said. "The strike targetted
a madrassa and an adjoining house in Machikhel village in North
Waziristan," a security official told. "At least four people were
killed and six others injured," the official said.
Five soldiers were killed when a remote-controlled
bomb exploded in South Waziristan, a day after troops killed 33
Taliban militants as part of a weeklong campaign in the Khyber
Pass, officials said. The blast struck a routine military patrol
en route to Wana from Tayarzai. "The patrol was sent ahead of
a military convoy to check the security on the road and a bomb
planted by the Taliban went off and killed five soldiers," an
intelligence official said.
The former ISI chief Khalid Khwaja said that Osama
bin Laden introduced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief to the
Saudi royal family in the late 1980s, and - during a meeting -
the former Prime Minister had asked the al Qaeda chief to provide
employment to Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia. Khwaja - who was close
to Nawaz Sharief in the late 1980s and early 1990s - made the
claim in an interview. "During his first visit to Saudi Arabia
as chief minister of Punjab in the late 1980s, no one from the
royal family gave Nawaz importance," he said. "Thereafter, on
Nawaz's request, Osama introduced him to the royal family… A close
aide of the Sharif family and I arranged at least five meetings
between Nawaz and Osama in Saudi Arabia," added Khwaja.
September 8
24 militants were killed and their hideouts destroyed
in the counter-insurgency Operation Bia Daraghlam at Bara
in the Khyber Agency. "Security forces killed at least 24 militants
and destroyed two militant headquarters and two hideouts," said
a statement by the Frontier Corps.
At least seven people - including four children
who were on their way to school - were killed when unidentified
militants tried to abduct the schoolchildren in the Lower Orakzai
area of FATA.
In the Orakzai Agency, six militants were killed
and four hideouts destroyed in air strikes at a village east of
Kalaya.
A US missile strike from a drone killed at least
10 Taliban militants in North Waziristan. "The strike targeted
a Taliban compound in Dargamandi village of North Waziristan,
killing 10 militants," a senior security official told. Another
official confirmed the casualties, and said a US drone fired two
missiles at the compound. He said it was not immediately clear
whether any "high-value targets" were present in the area at the
time. It was reportedly the second US missile strike in North
Waziristan in less than 24 hours.
Suspected Taliban militants set ablaze eight oil
tankers near the Western Bypass in Quetta, capital of Balochistan,
when those tankers were carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan.
It is the first such attack in Quetta.
September 9
Troops killed 15 Taliban militants during operations
in the Swat area of NWFP. "Fifteen Taliban were killed in Banjut,
Jambil and surrounding areas during a search-and-cordon operation,"
said the military in a statement, adding that a huge cache of
arms, ammunition and explosives was also seized during raids.
The ISPR said a soldier was killed in fighting.
Three persons were killed and two others critically
injured when unidentified militants opened fire at the houses
of pro-Government Bugti tribesmen in Loti area of Dera Bugti District
in Balochistan. According to the local Police and hospital sources,
the armed men, who were on a motorcycle, fired at the houses killing
three persons, including a couple.
Three suspected Taliban militants were killed
after they attacked a Police vehicle on patrol at unspecified
place in FATA. Police also seized six grenades, a klashinkov,
a gun and a pistol.
September 10
21 Taliban militants, including six foreign nationals,
were killed and 14 others arrested by the troops in Swat. Security
sources said the Taliban militants were killed during a search
operation in Banjot. According to the sources, six of those killed
are said to be Uzbeks holed up in a house. The Swat Media Centre
confirmed 15 deaths in the area.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in an interview
that Pakistan is still studying the evidence provided by India
against the LeT chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and could not take
action against him on the basis of "hearsay". Malik also said
India must stop blaming Pakistan for not being cooperative in
the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks case. He attributed
any delays to "foot-dragging" by New Delhi in providing information
the Pakistani investigators had asked for.
Pakistani Army said at least 135 militants - including
local commanders Murad, Alam Shah, Habibur Rehman and Tehseen
- have so far been killed in the counter-insurgency Operation
Bio Daraghlam at Bara in Khyber Agency. Also, 19 militant
centers and 119 houses owned by militants have been destroyed.
Troops have also confiscated arms and ammunition - including 129
sub-machineguns, 167 rifles, 53 Kalakuf rifles, 121 pistols, eight
grenades, rocket fuses, and 50,070 rounds of 30-bore pistols.
Hashish, opium, cellular phones, generators, passports, batteries,
cars, motorcycles, foreign currency and computers have also been
seized.
September 11
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi
stated that no dossier on Balochistan was handed over to the Indian
Prime Minister Manmonah Singh. "No, we didn't. Actually, we flagged
the issue on Balochistan. We asked for a positive attitude and
asked for non-interference inside Balochistan," he said.
The UN said it was providing assistance to more
than 100,000 people displaced by the military operation in Waziristan.
Citing Pakistani authorities, a UN press release said over 128,000
people uprooted from Waziristan had been registered, while thousands
more, whose places of origin have yet to be verified, still remained.
September 12
The SFs, backed by helicopter gunships, killed
at least 22 terrorists in the Tirah and Sandapal areas of Khyber
Agency in the FATA during the ongoing operation against Taliban-linked
militants. Official sources said 12 vehicles and three Taliban
hideouts were also destroyed in the operation.
Unidentified militants shot dead three Shinwari
tribesmen on the main road in Landikotal. Two of the deceased
were brothers, identified as Arshad and Jamshed Shinwari. One
of them was the son-in-law of former senator Hafiz Abdul Malik,
who is a brother of Zakat and Usher Minister Noorul Haq Qadri.
The three men were driving from Torkham to Peshawar when they
were attacked near Khyber Takya.
The SFs shot dead eight Taliban militants, including
three Afghans, and injured nine others during operations in Swat
and Malakand areas of the NWFP. A security officer was also killed
and another injured in the clashes, the ISPR said. Sources said
that the SFs arrested nine militants, while 12 others surrendered
to them.
Five militants and a trooper were killed when
the troops carried out a search operation at Samter near Banjot.
One soldier was injured, while nine militants were arrested in
the incident.
Two Policemen were injured in a suicide blast
near Doaba Police Station in the Hangu District of NWFP. An eyewitness
said the suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into the main gate
of the Police Station five minutes before evening prayers during
the Ramadan season. They said the militant failed to enter the
Police station and blew himself up at the gate, injuring two Policemen.
September 13
Three troopers were killed and two others wounded
and three vehicles destroyed, when a bomb blast targeting a security
convoy was triggered in the Mandi Kas area of Khyber Agency. The
roadside blast also injured two SF personnel and destroyed three
vehicles. The SFs cordoned off the area following the attack and
at least three people were killed when troops pounded the area.
Four people were killed and three others injured
when a landmine exploded in the Pir Koh area of Dera Bugti in
Balochistan. The mine went off as Ahmed Ali, along with his family,
rode over it on an ox-drawn cart, District Police Officer Ashfaque
Jamali said.
Two Taliban militants and a soldier were killed
at Kuz Bamakhela near Matta in Swat, when troops conducting a
search operation were attacked by the Taliban.
September 14
27 Taliban militants were killed in clashes with
the SFs in the Malakand area of NWFP. The sources said that about
15 Taliban militants were killed in clashes in Charbagh. The dead
bodies of four Taliban militants were also found from Charbagh,
said officials. The sources said that Taliban fleeing Batkhela
clashed with troops in Derai Jolgraham. At least eight Taliban
militants were reportedly killed in that clash. A trooper was
also killed in the fighting.
Military officials said that about 152 Taliban
militants surrendered before the SFs in the Swat District.
Eight militants and a solider were killed during
fighting in the Kamarkhel area of Bara tehsil (revenue
unit) in the Khyber Agency. The Security Forces cleared the area
after intense fighting in Naraikarawal village, where militants
were holed up in a house. The militants and soldier were killed
in a gun battle, said the officials. A militant 'commander' was
also killed in the gun battle.
A US drone fired a missile targeting a car in
the Mir Ali tehsil (revenue unit) of North Waziristan Agency,
killing four persons and injuring one. The missile hit the car
around 5am (PST) when it was passing through Khushali Turikhel
village - 30 kilometres east of the Agency headquarters Miranshah.
According to unconfirmed report, there were two foreign nationals
among the dead.
September 15
At least five Taliban militants were killed and
four others wounded in air strikes on hideouts at Bajaur Agency
in FATA, which also destroyed an illegal FM radio station and
bunkers. Official sources said the strikes were carried out in
Darra, Chinar and Jirga areas.
Three Taliban militants were killed and 18 others
arrested in the ongoing military offensive at Swat and Malakand
in NWFP. According to the Swat Media Centre, SFs conducted a search
operation in Mangaltan, killing three Taliban militants.
September 16
A top Taliban 'commander', identified as Sher
Muhammad Qasab, was arrested and three of his sons were killed
by the troops at Chaharbagh in the Swat District. "Wanted terrorist
commander Sher Muhammad Qasab, whose duty was to behead security
personnel and anti-Taliban civilians and carried a head money
of Rs 10 million, was arrested during an operation. Qasab was
captured injured," the military said in a statement. Qasab's arrest
followed earlier arrest of Muslim Khan and Mehmood Khan, two of
his associates and close aides of the Swat Taliban chief Maulana
Fazlullah. An Army official said that Qasab "was running a slaughter
centre at Chaharbagh where he himself used to slaughter opponents
and security personnel."
September 17
Troops killed 10 Taliban militants, including
a local Taliban 'commander', in a pre-dawn exchange of fire near
a river at Swat. The Taliban militants were trying to cross a
river at night and infiltrate Mingora when Police and troops intercepted
them, said the military in a statement from Swat. "Police and
army acted jointly, and as a result of an exchange of fire, 10
Taliban were killed," said the military. Residents who identified
the slain militants said they included an important local Taliban
'commander' identified as Amjad Ali.
Pakistani officials said an al Qaeda 'operations
chief' in Pakistan and an Uzbek 'commander' were believed to be
killed in the US missile strikes in North Waziristan in early
September 2009. The 'operations chief' was identified as Ilyas
Kashmiri and the Uzbek militant as Nazimuddin alias Yahyo.
The authorities registered two cases against LeT
chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed on charges of delivering anti-State
sermons and collecting charity to fund terrorist activities. The
cases were reportedly registered in Faisalabad with the Madina
Town Police Station and the People's Colony Police Station in
Punjab province.
September 18
30 people were killed and more than 50 injured
in a suicide attack in Kohat District of NWFP. At least 13 shops
were also destroyed, and shockwaves were felt as far as a kilometre
away, witnesses said. "Some 30 people have so far been killed
... it is suspected the attack was carried out using an explosives-laden
car," said senior Police officials. Reuters reported that
the bomb was believed to have contained about 150 kilogrammes
of explosives. Locals put the death toll at around 40. The blast
took place in Kacha Pakka area, 17 kilometres from Kohat city.
Shopkeepers said most of the victims were Shias and coalminers
waiting for buses. "It appears the attack was carried out to target
Shias," they said. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility
for the bombing, saying it was carried out to avenge the killing
of one of their leaders. "We carried out the attack to avenge
the killing of Muhammad Amin," Usman Haider, claiming to be a
spokesman for the outfit, told BBC over telephone.
Unidentified militants opened fire at the funeral
procession in Kohat, killing four people. The men reportedly opened
fire during the funeral of a man killed in suicide bombing in
the Kacha Pakka area.
Troops killed 13 militants during an operation
in Khyber Agency's Tirah valley and Dabori area of the Orakzai
Agency in FATA. SFs also destroyed four vehicles and two militants'
hideouts during an operation in the Dabori and Sandapal areas
of Orakzai Agency.
The US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan,
Richard Holbrooke, said the partnership between Washington and
Pakistan was indispensable and reaffirmed the US President Baraka
Obama administration's commitment to help Pakistan counter extremism
along its northwestern border with Afghanistan. "We will support
[Pakistanis in] every way we can, in the [field of] media and
everywhere else. We are not going to set up American broadcasting
stations… We look forward to [the service] contributing to public
debate in this democratic country," he said.
September 19
Five passengers were killed when Taliban militants
opened fire on a vehicle in Swat. "Five passengers were killed
near Jerona village in Malakand due to the Taliban's unprovoked
firing on a pick-up van," according to an ISPR statement.
September 20
Troops killed eight Taliban militants and arrested
48 others in Swat. Among those arrested was also a first cousin
of former Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan, who is already in custody.
At least four people were killed and four others
injured, when unidentified militants opened fire at Pat Bazaar
in the Hangu District of NWFP, where people were assessing damages
to the shops blown up by a bomb blast.
Pakistan's law enforcement agencies are searching
for 83 high profile terrorists wanted for various crimes, ranging
from the attack on former President Pervez Musharraf to fanning
the separatist movement in Balochistan. According to a list maintained
by the Interior Ministry, 41 of the most wanted terrorists belong
to Punjab, 21 to Sindh, 13 to Balochistan and eight to the NWFP.
Of the 83 terrorists, Bramdagh Bugti tops the list with 31 information
reports registered against him. The available data shows the majority
of the terrorists belong to various sectarian and terrorist organisations,
including the HuJI, SSP, LeJ and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP).
The majority of the "most wanted" belong to the LJ and the SMP
and are wanted in various high profile cases, including assassination
attempts targeting Musharraf, former premier Shaukat Aziz and
the Karachi Corps commander; the blasts at the Sheraton hotel
and foreign embassies; arms smuggling; target killings of rival
groups, doctors, Police and intelligence officials and personnel;
kidnapping for ransom; and attacks on imambargahs (Shia places
of worship) and mosques.
September 21
Police officers foiled a plan to assassinate the
NWFP Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak in Tatalai District,
when they confronted four militants in a gun battle that ended
with a teenage suicide bomber blowing himself up.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
that the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas were the focal point
of terrorism and added that if the Taliban gets control over Afghanistan
again, then the Al Qaeda would stage a come back. In a television
interview, she said that US Government aims at ensuring protection
to the US and its allied countries from the terrorists holed up
in Pakistan-Afghanistan bordering areas.
September 22
At least 26 suspected militants were killed and
several others injured, when gunship helicopters pounded militant
hideouts in the Spina Tigha and Makeen areas of South Waziristan.
Eight suspected militants were killed in clashes
with the SFs in the Razmak area of North Waziristan. Sources said
a security checkpost in Upper and Lower Kofar in North Waziristan
came under attack by some 600 militants. In the ensuing clashes,
eight suspected militants were killed.
September 23
At least five militants were killed and four Security
Force personnel wounded during a clash at Malakand Division in
NWFP.
The factions of Pakistani and Iranian "spy services"
are supporting Taliban that carry out attacks on coalition troops,
Washington Post quoted top US and NATO Commander in Afghanistan,
General Stanley Mc Chrystal as saying. In a detailed analysis
of the military situation delivered to the White House, the US
military commander reportedly said he had evidence that the Taliban
in Afghanistan were being aided by Pakistan's ISI and the Quds
Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. He said they were contributing
to the external forces working to undermine US interests and destabilise
the Government in Kabul. "Afghanistan's insurgency is clearly
supported from Pakistan," Mc Chrystal wrote, adding that senior
leaders of the major Taliban groups were "reportedly aided by
some elements of Pakistan's ISI." "There is a mixture of motives
and concerns within the ISI that have accounted for the dalliances
that have gone on for years" with insurgent groups, Paul Pillar,
a former senior CIA counter-terrorism official was quoted as saying.
The US Congress approved USD 2.376 billion in
aid for Pakistan. According to a television channel, the aid was
meant for the fiscal year 2008-09, adding that the US Government
had also presented a USD 2.282 billion aid bill in the Congress
for the fiscal year 2009-10. The assistance included both military
and non-military aid.
September 24
Suspected Taliban militants killed seven members
of a pro-Government tribal Lashkar (militia) at Janikhel area
in the Bannu District of NWFP. The victims included tribal chief
Malik Sultan, who was raising a militia against the Taliban in
the region. "All seven were killed on the spot," Bannu District
Police Officer Iqbal Marwat said. In retaliation, militiamen killed
nine Taliban militants. Two Khasadar (a local Security Force)
personnel were also killed in the skirmishes.
Taliban militants killed seven tribal chiefs.
Their bodies were found from various parts of Bannu.
Troops killed eight Taliban militants while two
volunteers of a local Lashkar (militia) were killed during operations
in the Swat and Malakand areas of NWFP, the ISPR said. "Eight
terrorists were killed by security forces in the Palai area near
Dargai on Thursday. Two security forces personnel were also injured
in the firing," the ISPR said. It said the Taliban attacked the
SF personnel in Sar Colony and killed two Lashkar members.
A suspected US drone strike on premises allegedly
operated by an Afghan radical killed 10 suspected Taliban militants
in North Waziristan. "Ten dead bodies were recovered from the
debris of the house and two Taliban were wounded in the attack,"
said an unnamed security official. "The target was a compound
of Haqqani's men. According to our reports all of the dead belong
to the Haqqani network," the official said. The area is considered
a stronghold for the Taliban and Afghan former Soviet resistance
commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, around five kilometres northwest
of Miranshah. The building acted as an office where Taliban militants
would come to receive orders and rest between bouts of fighting
across the border in Afghanistan, local residents and intelligence
officials said.
The Jama'at-ud-Da'awa [the LeT front] chief Hafiz
Mohammed Saeed has neither been formally arrested nor put under
house arrest, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tariq Saleem
Dogar said, adding, that the Police had merely "restricted his
movement". The IGP also claimed that Punjab Police had solved
all major cases of terrorism, including the suicide bombing targeting
the 15 building in Lahore and other attacks in Rawalpindi and
had arrested suspects. "The involvement of the Indian intelligence
agency Research and Analysis Wing in any incident of terrorism
in Punjab has yet to be determined as investigations are underway
and all those arrested so far are Pakistanis," added Dogar.
September 25
Troops killed 10 Taliban militants in the Nawaz
Kot locality of Razmak area at North Waziristan Agency in FATA.
Official sources said that Taliban militants fired 12 missiles
on Razmak Army Camp, but no casualties to SFs were reported. SFs
retaliated, killing 10 Taliban militants and injuring several
others.
The Taliban movement is stronger than ever, despite
the killing of its top commander and will stage more suicide attacks
if the Army launches another offensive against it, a top Taliban
'commander' Qari Hussain Mehsud said. Qari Mehsud, known for training
Taliban suicide bombers, met with an AP reporter on September
24 at a secret location in North Waziristan. "Our movement has
gained more strength after the martyrdom of Baitullah Mehsud,"
he said, adding, "We are united." Mehsud said he had been appointed
the latest spokesman for TTP's new chief, Hakimullah Mehsud. He
acknowledged leading a group of suicide bombers who he said would
act if Pakistan proceeds with military operations in the FATA.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that India
would be responsible for the consequences if it did not share
information regarding any future terrorist acts being planned,
a private TV channel stated.
September 26
Two suicide attackers separately rammed their
explosives-laden vehicles into a Police station in Bannu and a
military-owned commercial bank in Peshawar cantonment area of
the NWFP, killing at least 23 people and injuring around another
200, officials said. At least 10 people were killed in the attack
in Peshawar, while seven, including two Policemen, were killed
in the assault on the Bannu Police station. But a Police official
in Bannu said 13 people had been killed. Around 94 people were
injured in Peshawar and 64, including 31 Policemen, in Bannu.
"It was a car suicide blast and according to our calculations
100 kilograms of explosives were used," Shafqat Malik, bomb disposal
squad chief, said at the incident site of the Peshawar attack.
"The suicide bomber sitting inside the car hurled a grenade and
then he detonated himself and the car," Malik said, describing
the target as a branch of a bank run by an Army welfare trust.
Eyewitnesses said Police arrested two suspicious persons from
the site of Peshawar blast, which occurred some 300 metres away
from the headquarters of the 11 Corps and the US Consulate in
the high-security zone. The TTP claimed responsibility for the
Bannu attack and threatened to unleash bigger attacks on the Government
to avenge the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US
drone attack in August 2009.
Four persons, including two Policemen, were shot
dead in various incidents of violence in Gilgit following a blast
in a local bookshop. Officials said the explosives were placed
in a bookstore in a busy market in Gilgit and the explosion killed
one person and injured four others. Following the blast, enraged
protestors started pelting shops with stones and one of the groups
clashed with the Police as well, in which Superintendent Ali Sher
was shot dead. A Police official was also killed when protesters
fired at a Police van. Police said a 15-year-old boy, Kamran Hussain,
was shot dead in the clashes.
September 27
The death toll in the September 26 suicide attacks
in NWFP increased to 27 with the recovery of more dead bodies
in the debris of the Bannu Police Station and the death of some
of those critically wounded in the attack. Two suicide attackers
reportedly rammed their explosives-laden vehicles into a Police
station in Bannu and a military-owned commercial bank in Peshawar
cantonment area separately.
September 28
12 Taliban militants were killed in a clash with
the SFs at Razmak in North Waziristan. The clash erupted after
Taliban fired rockets at the Shawaal Rifles Camp - 75 kilometres
from Miranshah - killing two troopers and injuring five others.
Official sources said at least "110 missiles have been fired at
the army camp over the last 24 hours."
Six Taliban militants were killed and nine others
injured when helicopter gun ships targeted hideouts at Upper Orakzai
in FATA. Officials said the strikes - which targeted Ghalju, Mulla
Pati and Khadezai areas - destroyed three Taliban hideouts.
Four persons, including a prominent anti-Taliban
cleric, were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden
vehicle into a car at Bannu in NWFP. "The attacker rammed his
explosives-laden car into a vehicle carrying pro-government local
leader Abdul Hakeem," said Police Official Iqbal Marwat. Witnesses
said Hakeem was on his way to office when the bomber struck.
Local peace volunteers killed 10 Taliban militants,
including 'commander' Momin alias Malang, in the Barikot
tehsil (revenue unit) of Swat, even as troops arrested
10 Taliban militants and 10 others surrendered. A volunteer was
also killed in the clash.
Troops handed over security arrangements in Mingora
and other parts of Swat to the Police, and decided to wind up
unnecessary check posts.
Rejecting US complaints that the Afghan Taliban
led by Mullah Omar was operating from Quetta in Balochistan, Interior
Minister Rehman Malik said there is no "Quetta shura" in the country.
"Over and again this topic has been coming up. But according to
us the Quetta shura does not exist in Quetta," he claimed. "What
we are requesting the US and the UK and all other stakeholders
is to please give us real-time information. If you know that they
are present you must be knowing their names, details ... if there
is any sign of Quetta shura, we will smash it," he added.
September 29
Two suspected US drone attacks killed nine Taliban
militants, while seven other militants were killed in air strikes
and military action in different parts of Waziristan. The first
drone attack targeted the house of local Taliban 'commander' Ifran
Mehsud in Sararogha, a village northwest of Wana in South Waziristan.
"A missile from a US drone fired on the compound of Irfan Mehsud
killed five militants and injured six," said a security official
in the area. He did not know if Irfan was among the dead. The
security official said the spy plane unloaded two missiles on
the compound, adding that reports suggested three of the dead
could be Uzbeks. Another drone attack at Danday Darpa Khel - four
kilometres north of Miranshah in North Waziristan - killed four
Afghan militants and wounding two others. The house targeted belonged
to Emarati, an Afghan national, and the Afghan militants killed
in the missile attack were said to be from the Jalaluddin Haqqani
group.
The Pakistan Air Force jet fighters bombed Taliban
bunkers in Kotkai, killing three militants in the strike. The
military also targeted the Makeen area with long-range artillery,
destroying three hideouts and killing four militants.
There are more than 10,000 Taliban militants present
in Waziristan, including Uzbeks and other foreign militants, a
private television channel quoted Inter-Services Public Relations
Director General Major General Athar Abbas as saying. Abbas said
the military operation was not aimed against any specific tribe
or region but was launched to wipe out terrorist networks such
as the TTP, and other coalitions of local and foreign Taliban
in the Tribal Areas.
At least five militants were killed during a clash
between two rival groups of the Lashkar-e-Islam outfit in the
remote Tirah valley of Khyber Agency in FATA.
September 30
Two US drones fired one missile each at two vehicles
Norat village - 20 kilometers east of Miranshah - on the Miranshah-Bannu
Road in North Waziristan, killing five Taliban militants and injuring
six others.
The entire Taliban leadership is in Afghanistan,
said a Taliban 'commander' Hayatullah Khan. "Pakistan is not safe
for us. More of our people have been captured in Pakistan than
in Afghanistan so everybody is here including Mullah Omar," Hayatullah
Khan, who said he was speaking from Afghanistan, although he declined
to be specific, said. He also stated that Afghan Taliban leader
Mullah Omar was not in Pakistan and the US was only saying he
was there to justify an expansion of its drone missile strikes.
"The Americans are making the Quetta shura an excuse for an expansion
of their drone strikes to Balochistan, nothing else," claimed
Khan.
October 1
At least two Taliban militants were killed and
several troopers injured when a Taliban militant blew himself
up during a raid at Swat. "Security forces conducted a raid ...
in Toprai near Gat. During the raid on a house, one of the two
Taliban inside the house - who was wearing a suicide jacket -
detonated the explosives strapped to his body, killing himself
and the other Taliban and injuring two soldiers," said the ISPR.
October 2
Troops killed 27 alleged militants at Khyber Agency
in FATA. According to sources in the Frontier Corps, attack helicopters
shelled militant training centres in the Tirah valley of Bara
District, killing 27 militants including two key commanders Ghulam
Nabi and Farooq Swati. Two hideouts, three caves and 19 vehicles
belonging to the militants were also destroyed during the operation.
Three militants were killed in a search operation
at Zulamkot-Serai of Swat District. An ISPR statement said the
SFs also conducted search operations in Shah Dheri and arrested
local Taliban 'commander' Rehmat, besides arresting five militants
at Shahid Khapa near Peochar and Sarsani.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari amended the
Anti-terrorism Act, 1997. Any intimidation or terrorising the
public, social sectors, business community and preparing or attacking
the civilians, government officials, installations, Security Forces
or law enforcement agencies can be tried under the amended Act.
October 4
The army killed nine Taliban militants - including
three key commanders -in the ongoing military operation in Swat.
According to the Swat Media Centre, six militants - including
three commanders identified as Kota Younas, Noor Amin and Fazal
Rabi - were killed in a clash with troops in Banjar village. The
troops also killed three Taliban militants in the Bazdara area
of Malakand. A Lashkar (militia) member was also killed in Bazdara.
A senior Afghan Taliban commander has confirmed
that Uzbek militant commander Qari Tahir Yuldashev was killed
in the US drone attack during the last week of August 2009 in
South Waziristan. "Its true he is dead. Unfortunately he was staying
at the same house which was struck by the drone in South Waziristan
in August," the Taliban commander acknowledged when contacted
by phone. Though he did not mention the village where Tahir Yuldashev
was killed, he said the incident happened during the last week
of August in South Waziristan. Other militant sources, however,
said the Uzbek commander died in Kaniguram in South Waziristan,
a place considered relatively safe for Taliban militants. The
Taliban commander said Tahir moved to the adjoining South Waziristan
after frequent US drone attacks in Mirali in North Waziristan
in which his men suffered heavy losses. He lived in Ladha and
Makeen in South Waziristan for sometime but then moved to another
town when US Predator planes started focusing on known strongholds
of the Taliban there.
Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said
an operation against the Baitullah Mehsud group had already started
and its training centres had been pounded by aircraft and artillery.
He said various roads leading to South Waziristan had been closed
but no decision had been taken about a ground operation.
October 5
Security Forces killed eight Taliban militants
and arrested 13 others in Malakand in NWFP.
Five militants were killed when helicopter gunships
targeted their hideouts on the Gurguri hilltop in the Bara sub-division
of Khyber Agency. The helicopters shelled the hideouts for over
two hours after militants attacked Fort Saloop, eight kilometres
west of Bara Bazaar. Three soldiers were injured when rockets
hit the fort, officials said. However, local people said five
troopers had been injured.
A suicide bomber targeted the United Nations World
Food Programme (WFP) office in Islamabad, killing five persons,
including a UN diplomat and two women employees. Six other staff
members were injured. The terrorist is reported to have entered
the WFP building in Frontier Corps uniform through the small gate.
He walked to the reception and blew himself up at 1217 hours,
an investigation agency source said. The WFP office is located
in a tightly-guarded residential area of the national capital.
The dead included a UN diplomat and Iraqi national Bootan Ali,
in charge reception Gul Rukh, assistant in charge reception Farzana
Barkat, Abdul Wahab and Abid Rehman. The Deputy Inspector General
of Police (Operations), Bin Yameen, said the recovery of a severed
head and two legs suggested that the attack was carried out by
a suicide bomber. Over 80 employees, including about 20 diplomats,
were inside the WFP office when the terrorist struck.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the National
Assembly that his ministry had reached an agreement with the Ittehad
Tanzeemat-i-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP) for setting up a regulatory
authority for seminaries. However, a leader of the Tanzeemat-i-Madaris
termed it a premature announcement. In response to a question,
Malik said the Government and office-bearers of the representative
body of five wafaqs of madrassas had agreed that a regulatory
authority would be set up to oversee the mainstreaming and working
of thousands of religious schools in the country. Under the National
Education Policy, the interior ministry has been asked to deal
with the ITMP which represents over 20,000 seminaries. The minister
said the seminaries would be answerable to the regulatory authority
over monetary assistance received from the government for their
mainstreaming and academic activities. However, the ITMP secretary
general Qari Mohammad Hanif Jallandhry said it was a premature
and one-sided statement because a paper for setting up the authority
was yet to be worked out.
The new chief of the TTP, Hakeemullah Mehsud,
thought by Pakistani and US officials to have been killed in infighting,
appeared before a small group of journalists at an unspecified
place in South Waziristan, vowing to avenge the killing of his
predecessor Baitullah Mehsud and expedite attacks on US and Pakistani
forces. The international media reported on October 3 that US
intelligence agencies believed that Hakeemullah died in a fire-fight
with a rival faction weeks ago. Hakeemullah was reportedly accompanied
at the meeting with journalists by Fidayeen-i-Islam commander
Qari Hussain Mehsud, Taliban's South Waziristan chief Waliur Rehman
Mehsud and TTP spokesman Azam Tariq. He alleged that both Pakistan
and the US were involved in drone attacks which had killed a large
number of innocent women and children. Hakeemullah said Pakistan
had been created in the name of Islam, but its rulers were subservient
to the American and Jewish lobbies. He said "This is why we are
opposed to the army and Pakistani rulers. The Taliban are not
against the people of Pakistan," adding that the jihad would continue
till the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in the country. Hakeemullah
also said that the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban were one and there
were no differences between them. According to him, "The Afghan
Taliban are fighting the allied forces under the leadership of
Mullah Omar and we are his followers." He accused the government
of violating several agreements it had reached with the Taliban
and said: "If it (the government) accepts our demands, we are
ready to hold talks."
October 6
Fighter jets bombed TTP strongholds of Makeen
and Nawazkot in South Waziristan - killing six militants and injuring
three others. Military sources said the strikes came a day after
TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud vowed to launch attacks against the
SFs in the country. "The air strikes are part of a major offensive
being planned against the terror network," sources told. According
to sources in Wana, the TTP holds considerable sway in both Makeen
and Nawazkot, and the group has established its command-and-control
structure there.
The TTP claimed it had carried out the suicide
attack on the main office of UN's World Food Programme in Islamabad
and vowed further attacks on Governments and foreign targets.
TTP spokesman Azam Tariq claimed responsibility and said his organisation
would not leave the people of Pakistan at the mercy of the Blackwater
security agency. He also said the Taliban were ready to face a
military operation in the FATA. Further, Azam Tariq said Interior
Minister Rehman Malik had refuted the fact that new TTP chief
Hakeemullah Mehsud was alive. "He (interior minister) should visit
South Waziristan and he would have a chance to meet Hakeemullah
there," he added.
October 7
SFs claimed to have killed six militants, including
commander Nisar, in the Swat Valley. The ISPR said: "Important
terrorist commander Nisar alias Ghazi Baba from Matta Tehsil
has been killed this morning in Biha Valley." Nisar was carrying
head money of PKR 10 million, the ISPR said, adding that he was
involved in terrorist activities in Peuchar and Matta. Nisar was
a member of the Taliban central shura and a close aide of Maulana
Fazlullah. The ISPR said Nisar was involved in the killing of
SF personnel and local elders. It said his son, whose name was
not disclosed, had been arrested.
Afghan Taliban militants killed six militant leaders
of the Hakeemullah Mehsud group for refusing to release two men
they had kidnapped. The incident occurred in the Hangu city in
the NWFP. According to sources, the two men, Shahid and Shah Nawaz,
had been kidnapped three days ago. An Afghan Taliban shura (executive
council) meeting held in the Orakzai Agency of FATA asked the
militants to release the men and 'sentenced them to death' when
they refused to do so. The shura was also reportedly attended
by members from Waziristan. The sources said bodies of Hafiz Kamal,
Hafiz Mujahid, Ghulam Mohammad, Basit and Manzoor were lying at
a place on the Orakzai-Parachinar border with bombs tied to them.
Troops killed six militants and injured two others
in a clash in the Razmak area of North Waziristan. According to
official sources, the clash occurred when troops retaliated after
the militants had attacked a military base and fired 11 rockets.
The Balochistan High Court has ordered the Station
House Officer of Dera Bugti Police Station to register an FIR
against former President Pervez Musharraf and others in the murder
case of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti. On a petition by Nawab
Bugti's son Nawabzada Jamil Akbar Bugti, a bench headed by Chief
Justice Qazi Faez Isa ordered registration of a case against the
respondents, except the NWFP Governor Owais Ghani. The petitioner
had nominated Gen (retd) Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat
Aziz, former Governor of Balochistan, Owais Ghani, former Chief
Minister Jam Mohammad Yousuf, former Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed
Sherpao and former Home Minister Shoaib Nausherwani. The court
accepted the submission of the petitioner, but excluded the name
of Ghani, who being governor of the NWFP, holds a constitutional
position. Nawab Bugti was killed on August 26, 2006.
October 8
The SFs claimed to have killed 17 militants in
Swat as General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Ashfaq
Nadeem, asserted that peace had been restored to 95 per cent areas
of the District. The SFs conducted search operations in Tiligram,
Benjot, Ser and Mangultan and killed 12 terrorists, the ISPR claimed.
In another operation in Kasona, it added that troops killed five
militants. Ashfaq Nadeem, while briefing the media at Circuit
House in Mingora, said peace had been restored to 95 percent of
Swat. He said majority of the militants had either been killed
or arrested during the Army offensive and some had surrendered.
He said curfew had already been lifted from most areas.
The bullet-riddled bodies of 15 suspected Taliban
militants were found in Swat. "I can confirm that 15 bodies were
found today, and our information is that they are Taliban… They
might have been the victims of infighting among militant groups
or killed by local people," Army spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan
told AFP.
Four militants were killed in an exchange of fire
with troops in the Shawal area of North Waziristan. The clash
took place after a vehicle in an army convoy going from Daber
Pepli camp to its base in Mana hit a bomb placed on the road and
one soldier was injured. Troops pursued the militants and subsequently
killed four of them.
Reports from Laddah stated that five militants
were killed and several others injured when troops mounted a ground
and air assault on suspected positions of the Taliban in South
Waziristan. Sources said that three militants were killed in the
Kalkala area and two in Shawal.
October 9
49 persons, including a woman and seven children,
were killed and 90 others were injured when a suicide attacker
detonated his explosives-laden car at the crowded Soekarno Chowk
in Khyber Bazaar in Peshawar, capital of NWFP. A Police official
said that people were busy in routine activities when a suicide
bomber detonated the explosives laden in his car. Many of those
killed and injured were passengers of a mini-bus that was passing
through the area at the time of the blast. Seven children, many
of them schoolboys, and a woman, were among those killed. The
blast destroyed around 30 vehicles and partially damaged over
60 shops in the nearby markets. Windowpanes of hundreds of shops
and offices were also reportedly destroyed. Among those killed
or injured were patients and their attendants going or coming
out of the nearby Lady Reading Hospital, the biggest public sector
hospital in the NWFP. An official of the bomb disposal unit (BDU)
estimated that around 50 kg of high-intensity explosives had been
loaded in the car, being driven by the suicide bomber, while another
official said the explosives were around 100 kg. There was no
immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
Security Forces claimed to have killed nine militants
and arrested six besides destroying a training camp and four other
hideouts in the Tora Cheena, Sherakai, Akhurwal and Bostikhel
areas of the gun manufacturing Darra Adamkhel town in NWFP. Official
sources said four soldiers were injured in the shootout. The SFs,
backed by gunship helicopters, targeted a militant camp in Tora
Cheena area and killed nine militants, including an important
'commander' identified as Zubair alias Anas.
The SFs said they killed at least six terrorists
in Swat. "Security forces conducted search operation at Banjot
and Kasona near Malamjaba and killed six terrorists," the ISPR
said.
October 10
Six Army personnel, including a Brigadier and
a Lieutenant Colonel, were killed and five others injured when
militants clad in Army uniform attacked the General Headquarters
(GHQ) of the Army in Rawalpindi at around 11:30am (PST). The ISPR
Director General Major General Athar Abbas said the militants,
armed with sophisticated weapons aboard a Suzuki van, entered
the office of the security staff outside the premises of the GHQ
and took 10 to 15 officials hostage. They opened fire and lobbed
hand grenades when they were stopped for checking at the first
check-post. He said five of the 6 to 7 militants who attacked
the GHQ were also killed in retaliatory actions by the troops.
"Five terrorists, one of whom was a suicide bomber, were killed
in the ensuing gunbattle. Three to four accomplices of the terrorists,
however, managed to cross over the grassy grounds unnoticed during
the shootout," Gen Abbas said. The SFs have cordoned off the entire
area and a siege was continuing to arrest the terrorists alive.
The slain Brigadier and Lieutenant Colonel were identified as
Anwaar and Waseem, respectively. The Ajmad Farooqi faction of
the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack.
Nine Taliban militants were killed and five injured
in a clash between the SFs and Taliban militants at Dara Adam
Khel in the NWFP.
At least four Taliban militants and three soldiers
were killed in operations across the FATA. Four Taliban militants,
including a key commander, were killed in the Laghari area of
Mamoond tehsil (revenue unit) in Bajaur Agency. SFs neutralised
four Taliban hideouts, sources said, adding that a Security official
was also killed and two others injured during the attack.
October 11
In a successful 18-hour operation, the armed forces
- in collaboration with Special Services Group commandos - killed
four terrorists, arrested one and rescued 39 hostages at a security
office outside the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, ending
a siege that began on October 10. Three civilians and two SF personnel
were killed, while seven SF personnel and three civilians were
injured during the 18-hour operation - which culminated in the
arrest of the ringleader, Aqeel alias Dr Osman. Although Aqeel
was injured, sources said his condition is stable. Six soldiers
and five terrorists had already been killed in the siege on October
10. The ISPR Director-General, Major General Athar Abbas, said
that two army officials were killed and seven others injured in
the commando operation. Three civilian hostages were also killed
in the operation, he added. The ISPR chief said eight SF personnel,
including a Brigadier and a Lieutenant Colonel, nine terrorists
and three civilians were killed on October 10 and 11, while the
total number of injured was 15 - 12 army personnel and three civilians.
He said the operation to rescue the hostages began around 6am
(PST), and continued for 45 minutes in the first phase - during
which commandos rescued 30 hostages and killed four terrorists.
He said the five terrorists killed in the first phase were armed
with suicide vests and tried to resist the troops. "The terrorists
had suicide jackets, improvised explosive devices, grenades...
they wanted to blow up all the hostages and cause maximum damage,"
the AFP quoted him as saying. "Terrorist Aqeel alias Dr
Osman was overpowered at around 9am in an injured condition when
he tried to blow himself up and the rest of the hostages ... triggering
a blast in adjacent offices of the security building ... five
security personnel were injured in the final phase of the operation,"
he said. The siege began just before midday on October 10, when
terrorists in military uniform and armed with automatic weapons
and grenades drove up to the Rawalpindi compound and shot their
way through a checkpoint.
21 militants were killed and eight others sustained
injuries when fighter planes targeted their positions in different
areas of Ladha and Makeen sub-divisions in South Waziristan Agency.
Tribal sources said two fighter planes started bombing Ladha Sarai,
Patowelai, Tangi, Bodinzai, Makeen, Bandkhel and other areas in
the afternoon. They said that 21 militants were killed and eight
others injured while five hideouts were destroyed in the air strikes.
Political Agent of South Waziristan, Syed Shahab Ali Shah, confirmed
that the Pakistan Air Force jets bombed different areas of Ladha
and Makeen sub-divisions. He said that it was not a full-scale
operation but a limited action to hit specific targets in the
agency. "The air strike was imperative after the rocket attack
on the Army camp in Razmak by the militants," he said, adding
that arrangements had been finalised for a major operation, which
would be launched after a final decision by the relevant quarters.
October 12
41 persons - including six soldiers
- were killed and 45 others were injured in a suicide attack on
a military convoy in the Alpuri area of Shangla District (which
borders Swat District), NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain
and a military official said. The bomber – believed to be 14 years
old and on foot – targeted the convoy while it was passing through
the busy Alpuri bazaar. The AP news agency, however, reported
that the bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near the
convoy. A military spokesman said that 12 shops and seven vehicles
were destroyed when the young bomber detonated explosives. "Some
vehicles loaded with ammunition were also part of the convoy...
they caught fire after the explosion," said the spokesman.
At least 15 Taliban militants
were killed and 16 others sustained injuries after SFs launched
Operation Sherdil in the Mamoond and Salarzai sub-divisions of
Bajaur Agency.
Jets bombed Taliban positions
in South Waziristan, killing six Taliban militants. SFs said that
three Taliban hideouts were destroyed in the Bajaur raids. The
AP news agency reported that fighter jets bombed suspected Taliban
hideouts. Meanwhile, 26 militants surrendered to the authorities
in the Laghari area of Mamoond.
The TTP claimed responsibility
for the GHQ attack, a militant spokesman told. "We claim
responsibility for the attack on GHQ. It was carried out by our
Punjab branch," said Azam Tariq, main TTP spokesman. "We
have the capability to strike at any place in Pakistan... We can
target many more important places," he told by phone from
an unknown location.
Three commandos injured in the
rescue operation at the GHQ in Rawalpindi died in hospital, raising
the death toll in the incident to 22, a military statement said.
"Three more Special Services Group (SSG) personnel who were
injured in an operation yesterday to save hostages embraced martyrdom,"
the statement said.
A division bench of the Lahore
High Court accepted two petitions moved by the JuD, (also known
as LeT) chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, and quashed two criminal cases
against him on charges of delivering a speech that urged Muslims
to fight against the US, Israel and India. The petitioner’s lawyer,
A. K. Dogar, said the cases had been registered under Section
11-F (4) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, but the section was not
applicable to JD, as it was "not a terrorist outfit".
The bench asked the Assistant Advocate General if he had any document
to prove if JuD was a banned organisation, but it was found that
no such notification had been issued by the federal or provincial
Governments. Aziz also said that the JuD had not been included
in the list of proscribed organisations, and the outfit was only
on a "watch list" because of its alleged involvement
in terrorism activities.
October 13
Six Taliban militants were killed
when fighter jets targeted the group’s positions in South Waziristan,
said officials, even as jets and helicopter gunships bombed Taliban
hideouts and ground forces fired heavy artillery in Bajaur Agency,
killing 26 Taliban militants and injuring dozens of others. Fighter
jets are reported to have launched another round of air-strikes
in South Waziristan, destroying around 15 houses in Makeen, Ladha
and Barwand, said a local intelligence official. The military
said in a statement that "Taliban fired 31 rockets"
at a security convoy in South Waziristan, injuring two soldiers.
Abdul Malik, a local Government official, said the military strikes
in Bajaur Agency took place in the Damadola and Sawai areas.
The death toll from a suicide
bombing in the Shangla District of NWFP increased to 45 from 41
even as the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack. "Two
people died overnight and two more died this morning," a
doctor told.
Security Forces said that they
had killed five more Taliban militants and arrested five others
in Swat. In addition, at least 33 more Taliban militants are reported
to have surrendered to the SFs.
The Crime Investigation Department
of Sindh Police claimed to have arrested a TTP ‘commander’ from
the provincial capital Karachi. SSP Fayyaz Khan said that the
TTP commander for Matta in Swat District, Ahmed Jan alias Ustad
Jee, was arrested when the Police carried out a raid in the Korangi
Industrial Area. An unspecified quantity of illegal arms was also
recovered from his possession. SSP Khan said initial investigation
revealed that Ahmed Jan hails from Matta and is associated with
the banned militant outfits JeM and TNSM.
October 14
19 persons, including some militants
and eight persons of a family, were killed and eight others sustained
injuries when fighter planes targeted different areas of South
Waziristan Agency. Four hideouts of the militants were also destroyed
in the air strikes. Fighter planes are reported to have bombed
the Maidan, Tangi, Bodinzai, Kacha Langarkhel, Sam, Ragh, and
Salay Rogha areas in Ladha sub-division. At least 11 persons,
including militants, were killed and seven others injured in the
bombing. The sources added that a training centre of the militants,
the house of a Taliban ‘commander’ and a hideout were destroyed
in the Sam, Ragh and Salay Rogha areas, respectively, in air attacks.
They said several houses were also damaged in the intense bombing
by the Pakistan Air Force jets in Salay Rogha. Tribal sources
said two fighter jets fired at a house of an 80-year-old tribal
elder Malik Nekam Khan in the Spinkai area of Sarwakai Tehsil
(revenue unit) at 3:00 pm, killing eight members of his family
on the spot and injuring seven others. Some of the dead were identified
as Faqir Khan Mahsud, Shama Gul Mahsud, three women and as many
children. The head of the family, Malik Nekam Khan, also sustained
critical injuries.
United States Consul General in
Karachi, Stephen Fakan, has said it would be unreasonable to deny
the presence of the Taliban in Balochistan. "We don’t want
the Taliban or extremists to gain the kind of foothold in the
province that is unhealthy for the people of Balochistan, too,"
said Fakan while talking to reporters in Quetta, capital of Balochistan.
"Seeing how difficult it was to dislodge them, but when you
squeeze these people there, so they have to move somewhere else
and so in some parts of Balochistan, so we are focusing on the
province from that perspective, and the US ambassador also tried
to make the point some time back," he added. "I think
that we have established over the years that the Taliban pass
the borders between Afghanistan and Balochistan, and even some
members of the government had said that they know they (Taliban)
travel to Karachi, they travel to Islamabad and they move all
around the country," the diplomat stated.
October 15
19 persons, including 14 SF personnel,
were killed and 41 others sustained injuries in three separate
terrorist attacks in Lahore, capital of Punjab province. All nine
attackers were also shot dead by the SFs, officials said. The
attacks were carried out at the FIA building on the Temple Road,
the Manawan Police Training Centre and the Elite Police Academy
on the Bedian Road. The District Emergency Control Room reportedly
received the first call of a terrorist attack at 9:40am (PST)
on the FIA building. After 15-16 minutes, the control room received
other calls of attacks on the Manawan Police Training Centre and
the Elite Police Training Academy at 9:55am and 9:56am, respectively.
In the first attack, a terrorist
wearing an explosive vest attacked the FIA offices. The assailant
reportedly opened indiscriminate fire at the people, killing six
persons, including two FIA inspectors, on the spot. Police cordoned
off the building and subsequently killed the terrorist. Police
recovered a hand-grenade, seven chambers, some dry fruit and an
explosive vest from the possession of the terrorist. The Police
also arrested a suspected youth, aged around 20, from near the
FIA building. However, at least three terrorists attacked the
FIA building, killing seven people. A witness said the attackers
shot dead two SF personnel, and entered the premises. FIA personnel
inside the compound killed one of the terrorists, while FIA sources
said one of the attackers was arrested. One of the gunmen escaped.
In the second attack, four terrorists
stormed the Elite Force Training Centre and an encounter continued
till afternoon until the SFs killed the two attackers and freed
a family they were holding hostage. Two other attackers blew themselves
up, Police said. The General Officer Commanding (GOC) Lahore,
Major General Shafaqat Ahmed, told journalists that the Pakistan
Army and Police carried out a successful operation and the training
centre had been cleared of terrorists. The SFs killed two out
of four terrorists — one at the main gate the other on the rooftop
of a building. The other two terrorists blew themselves up. An
Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, Ghulam Jaffar, and a civilian,
Adil, were killed and seven Policemen were wounded in the attack.
The attackers of the Manawan Police
Training School, wearing Police-like camouflage fatigues, lobbed
a grenade and opened indiscriminate fire at the trainees, killing
11 Policemen and a civilian and injuring 34 Policemen. However,
nine Policemen died and 60 were injured when four attackers wearing
suicide jackets attacked the compound. Three of the men blew themselves
up, while one was subsequently killed by the Police. This is the
second terrorist on the Manawan Police Training School. On March
30, 2009, eight police recruits and a civilian were killed when
a group of 10 terrorists attacked the training facility.
The TTP’s Amjad Farooqi faction
has claimed responsibility for the three attacks.
Military planes bombed suspected
militant positions in the Laddah, Nawazkot, Khaisora, Saam, Sararogha
and Tiarza areas of South Waziristan, killing at least 32 militants
and non-combatants. 12 people were reportedly killed and seven
others injured in the Kanigram and Karama areas of Laddah sub-division
and nine in Nawazkot area adjacent to North Waziristan. Five people
were killed when their car was hit in Maulvi Khan Sarai and six
people died and five wounded in Tiarza.
While the Government is yet to
formally launch a military operation in South Waziristan, the
Pakistan Air Force has reportedly intensified attacks in the region.
Over the past five days, more than 60 militants and non-combatants
have been killed. "We are targeting militant hideouts with
jetfighters and helicopter gunships in the first phase of an operation
in South Waziristan," said Secretary Law and Order FATA,
Tariq Hayat. "There are some 1,500 foreign militants including
Uzbeks, Chechens, Arabs and Sudanese in South Waziristan,"
he added. Residents said jets carried out repeated sorties in
the area.
Four Afghan Taliban militants
were killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan. The slain
men reportedly belonged to the Ghaznavi group of the Jalaluddin
Haqqani network of the Taliban in Afghanistan "Three missiles
were fired by the drone in Dandi Darphakhel area and killed four
Afghan Taliban from the Haqqani network," officials told.
The strike occurred in the backdrop of the army’s preparations
for an operation against the TTP in neighbouring South Waziristan
Agency.
Four militants were killed as
the Security Forces targeted militant hideouts in the Utmankhel
area of Orakzai Agency. Tribal and official sources said the jetfighters
targeted the hideouts and compounds of the militants in Utmankhel
area, killing four militants and targeting three compounds.
11 persons, including three Policemen,
were killed and 22 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber
rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the building of the Saddar
Police Station located in the military area of Kohat in the NWFP.
The DIG (Kohat region), Abdullah Khan, told reporters that a 22-year-old
suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden double cabin vehicle
just outside the main gate of Saddar Police Station, killing 11
people, including three Policemen Fayazul Hasnain, Muhammad Noor
and Khurshid, and injuring 22 persons, including four Policemen.
Among those wounded were two women and some schoolchildren passing
by the spot. The blast destroyed the northern part of the Police
Station building, eight vehicles, including a Police van, and
the wall of the Pakistan Air Force’s Officers Mess, said the DIG,
adding 100 kilograms of explosive material was used in the bombing.
The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack. The claim was made
by TTP central spokesman Azam Tariq who contacted reporters to
confirm that the attack was made by the Taliban militants operating
in Darra Adamkhel.
A day after the US Congress attached
an explanatory statement to the Kerry-Lugar Bill to clarify its
intent, US President Barack Obama signed the Enhanced Partnership
with Pakistan Act of 2009 in Washington. "This law is the
tangible manifestation of broad support for Pakistan in the US,
as evidenced by its bipartisan, bicameral, unanimous passage in
Congress," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
The statement also that the United States wanted to engage Pakistan
on the basis of strategic partnership, "grounded in support
for Pakistan’s democratic institutions and the Pakistani people."
"And this act formalises that partnership, based on a shared
commitment to improving the living conditions of the people of
Pakistan through sustainable economic development, strengthening
democracy, rule of law and combating extremism that threatens
Pakistan and the United States," Gibbs added.
October 16
15 persons, including three policemen,
were killed and 19 others sustained injuries after a suicide bomber
rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the CIA’s Special Investigation
Unit in Peshawar, the capital city of NWFP. The Bomb Disposal
Squad Chief Shafqat Malik said that 60-70 kilograms of explosives
had been used in the attack, adding that Police had recovered
a leg of the attacker.
25 Taliban militants and three
troopers were killed, as the military continued operations in
South Waziristan and the Bajaur tribal regions of FATA. 12 Taliban
militants were killed during the third day of bombings in South
Waziristan while 18 others were injured. They said six terrorist
hideouts had been destroyed and several houses had been damaged.
Helicopter gunships killed 10
Taliban militants during raids on suspected terrorist bases in
Bajaur Agency.
In Bajaur, three more terrorists
were killed and two injured during a clash between Security Forces
and the Taliban in the Salarzai area, local sources said.
October 17
The Pakistan Army launched Operation
Rah-e-Nijat (Path of Salvation), combating the Hakeemullah
Mehsud-led TTP killing 30 Taliban militants in air strikes targeting
the Kotkai, Makeen and Ladah regions in South Waziristan of FATA
on three different fronts. Four soldiers had also been killed
and 12 others wounded on the first day of the offensives. "The
ground offensive has started," military spokesman Major General
Athar Abbas said. "The headquarters of the defunct TTP will
be surgically targeted to dismantle the network of the terror
outfit," the APP news agency quoted him as stating
on a radio programme. He said intelligence reports had revealed
around 80 percent of the terror attacks in the country originated
from South Waziristan, adding about 1,500 foreign terrorists were
believed to be hiding in the area in addition to the locals. Meanwhile,
the Government imposed a curfew in the region, shutting down all
link roads to and from Waziristan and jamming the mobile and telecommunication
systems in Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Lakki Marwat and Bannu Districts.
Official sources said the military was converging on Taliban strongholds
from three directions — Jandola in the east, Shakai in the west
and Razmak in the north. They said initial reports had revealed
the Taliban were putting up "stiff resistance" to the
army’s advances. The local population of the conflict-stricken
areas has moved to safer places, with the UN predicting around
250,000 people fled their homes in anticipation of the operation.
Authorities have set up registration camps for these IDPs in Tank
and Dera Ismail Khan. Sources in the FATA Secretariat said 12,800
families had already been registered in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank,
adding, preparations were underway to accommodate more in the
relief camps.
12 Taliban militants were killed
and two injured in clashes between the SFs and Taliban in the
Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies of FATA. Political administration
officials told that three militants were killed in the Salarzai
tehsil (revenue division) of Bajaur Agency, adding two others
were injured.
A spokesman for the Frontier Corps
Media Cell said that the SFs killed nine Taliban militants, including
seven foreigners, in an overnight operation in Agra Post of Mohmand
Agency.
Three soldiers were killed and
six injured after two separate remote controlled bombings targeted
SFs convoys in Waziristan. Sources told that a security convoy
travelling to South Waziristan from the Razmak subdivision of
North Waziristan was targeted two kilometres from the army camp.
They said two soldiers were killed and four others injured in
the bombing, which also destroyed the vehicle. Separately, a security
official said that one soldier had been killed and two others
wounded in a bombing in Jandola town of South Waziristan.
October 18
The Army claimed killing 60 militants
and losing five soldiers with 11 others sustaining injuries in
the past 24 hours as Operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path of Salvation)
launched in South Waziristan Agency entered the second day. In
its advance towards the Taliban stronghold of Makeen, the SFs
clashed with militants, killing 30 of them in the Jandola, Kotkai
and Srarogha areas, said a statement of the ISPR. It said two
soldiers died and four others sustained injuries in these clashes.
The Mandana, Kund and Tarakai areas were secured from this side,
added the statement. The operation progressed seven kilometres
north of Shakai from the second direction where the SFs had captured
areas like Boya Narai and Wozi Sar from the militants, said the
ISPR, which also claimed that 20 militants and a soldier were
killed while three soldiers were wounded in the same area. Securing
some key heights around and south of Razmak, the Army said the
advancing SFs killed 10 militants and lost two soldiers with four
sustaining injuries.
In their first reaction since
the launch of the ground offensive by the Army, the Taliban rejected
the casualty toll mentioned by the ISPR and said only one of their
men was killed and three injured in an air raid in the Makeen
area. Calling media offices from an undisclosed location, Taliban
spokesman Azam Tariq claimed the militants had inflicted "heavy
casualties" on the troops and pushed them back from their
strongholds. There was, however, no independent confirmation of
the claims made by both the sides as mobile phones had not been
working in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu since the launch of
the operations on October 16-night while communication lines were
out of order in North and South Waziristan.
More than 100,000 people have
fled South Waziristan after the military operation was launched,
officials said. "Around 100,000 people have been displaced.
They are settling in neighbouring Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts,"
Colonel Waseem Shahid from an army support group said. "Some
80,000 people had already left Waziristan before the operation.
More people are coming out. In the last two days about 1,500 families
or you can say some 22,000 people have left the area," he
added. Officials said the number could rise to 200,000 with more
families expected to leave in the coming days, despite an indefinite
curfew slapped on parts of South Waziristan, home to a population
of 600,000. A spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Pakistan confirmed
that authorities had registered more than 100,000 displaced people.
"Over the last five days, 3,065 families (around 21,000 people)
registered... before this latest influx there had been about 80,500
people or 11,000 families," Ariane Rummery said.
All educational institutions run
by the Federal Government and the armed forces and some top-ranking
private sector institutions will remain closed for up to a week
in Islamabad, cantonments, all major cities, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan
and Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The channel said the Government
had decided to close schools and colleges for a week because of
security threats. The decision would not affect schools and colleges
run by provincial Governments and other private sector institutions.
Iran has received information
that "some security agents" in Pakistan were co-operating with
elements behind the October 18 attack on the Revolutionary Guards,
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying. Ahmadinejad
called on Pakistan not to waste time in co-operating with Iran
in apprehending the perpetrators. Iranian media said the Jundollah
claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, which killed more
than 30 persons, including at least five senior commanders in
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, in the south-eastern province
of Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"We were informed that some security agents in Pakistan are co-operating
with the main elements of this terrorist incident... We regard
it as our right to demand these criminals from them," Ahmadinejad
said, without giving details. "We ask the Pakistani government
not to delay any longer in the apprehension of the main elements
in this terrorist attack," he said. The State television said
Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned a senior Pakistani diplomat in
capital Tehran, saying there was evidence "the perpetrators of
this attack came to Iran from Pakistan."
The Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan
alleged that the Jundullah chief had taken refuge in Balochistan
in Pakistan. Mashallah Shakeri alleged that the Jundullah chief,
Abdul Malik Regi, has taken refuge in an unknown region of Balochistan
Province. However, Pakistan’s Foreign Office has denied that Islamabad
has information on the presence of the Jundallah chief in Pakistan.
Abdul Basit rejected the Iranian ambassador’s claim that the Jundullah
chief is hiding in Balochistan.
October 19
Eighteen Taliban militants and
two soldiers were killed and 12 soldiers were injured in the last
24 hours in South Waziristan, the ISPR Director General, Major
General Athar Abbas said. He told journalists at a press conference
that the SFs were advancing from three fronts: on the Jandola–Sararogha
axis, on the Shakai-Ladha axis and from the south and southwest
of Razmak. He said the SFs had surrounded Kotkai, the hometown
of Qari Hussain – reportedly the "mentor of suicide bombers"
- and secured Tor Ghundai (east of Kotkai) and Shishwarm (northeast
of Kotkai). He said the SFs were consolidating positions after
securing Sherwangi despite stiff resistance from the Taliban.
Abbas said the troops were also consolidating their positions
in the south and southwest of Razmak despite rocket fire from
Makeen.
12 members of a displaced family
were killed when a bomb hit them in South Waziristan. The dead
included women and children. According to sources, the family
was fleeing the army operation against militants in Hendi Zawar
area. Unconfirmed reports suggested that they were hit by a shell
fired from a jet plane. Some displaced people who had managed
to reach Razmak area of North Waziristan said the family belonged
to the Shabikhel tribe.
14 militants were killed and several
others sustained injuries when jet fighters targeted militant
hideouts in the Yakkaghund and Baizai subdivisions of Mohmand
Agency. Official sources said fighter planes of the Pakistan Air
Force targeted the militant hideouts in Karair, Koz Chinari, Shamshah,
Spinki Tangi and Badmanai areas of the Yakkaghund subdivision
and the Dawezai area of Baizai. They said the bombing killed 14
militants and many others wounded. Several militant hideouts were
also destroyed in the air strikes, the sources added.
Three children were killed in
the Dawezai area of Baizai sub-division when some bombs missed
the target and hit the civilian area.
Six Taliban militants were killed
and three others injured during operations by the SFs in the Salarzai
and Mamoond sub-divisions of Bajaur Agency.
A Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore
sentenced Hijratullah, a man charged with involvement in the March
30, 2009 attack on the Manawan Police Training School in Lahore,
to ten years in prison. Security Forces had arrested Hijratullah
near a makeshift helipad at the Manawan police training centre
on March 30.
Law enforcement agencies have
arrested at least 114 suspected Taliban militants from across
the country during an ongoing security operation. The Sindh Police
arrested 18 suspected militants, including a foreigner woman,
from Guddu area of Kashmoor District. The District Police Officer
Abdul Salam told reporters that in the last three days, they had
arrested 49 suspects from the Sindh-Punjab border and other areas
of Guddu. He said those arrested included Afghan, Iranian, Tajik,
Uzbek and Turk nationals. Meanwhile, the Islamabad Police on October
19 arrested an activist of the JuD (the LeT) from Pir Wadhai.
Pakistan has informed Iran that
Jundallah (Soldiers of God), the Pakistan-based anti-Shia militant
outfit, which has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack
in Zahedan, targeting the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards,
is carrying out coordinated terrorist operations with the help
of the TTP and the LeJ, to undermine Pakistan-Iran relations.
According to interior ministry sources in Islamabad, the explanation
has been conveyed to Tehran after the Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad alleged that the suicide attack, which killed at least
42 persons, had been plotted from Pakistan. Ahmadinejad had further
alleged that Abdul Malik Rigi, chief of the Jundallah, who has
claimed responsibility for the attack, operates from Pakistan.
Jundallah, also known in Iran as the Rigi group (after its chief
Abdul Malik Rigi), is a militant group of Iranian Baloch, who
claims to represent their minority’s rights in Iran’s southeast
province of Sistan-Balochistan. Their hideout is in Pakistani
Balochistan. Initially, patronised by late Taliban ‘commander’
Nek Mohammad, the Pakistan chapter of Jundallah usually draws
its cadre from Jihadi and sectarian groups like the SSP
and the LeJ.
October 20
The army killed 20 militants on
the fourth day of Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the TTP
in South Waziristan, the military said, as troops intensified
the battle for the control of Kotkai. The TTP claimed they killed
seven soldiers in an attack, but the army said only four soldiers
had been killed in the assault on positions around Kotkai – the
hometown of TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud and trainer of suicide
bombers Qari Hussain. The Taliban casualties have taken the death
toll to 91 since the launch of the operation on October 16. "We
are consolidating our positions around Kotkai, and control of
this town will pave the way for deeper advances towards Makeen
and other strongholds of the Taliban," said military officials.
They said troops battling their way into Kotkai were facing resistance
from the Taliban. "Fierce fighting going with the Taliban
is in progress... we have to take full control of the town before
we move deeper into Taliban territory," said the officials.
An ISPR statement said that the
Security Forces were consolidating their positions on Jandola,
and extending a security perimeter around Kaskai and Shisanwam.
It said Taliban militants from surrounding heights were engaging
the SFs with rockets and small arms. The army said important heights
surrounding Sherwangi had also been secured, and "Taliban
are abandoning their positions". Troops also seized arms
and ammunition during the course of the operation’s fourth day.
Long-range artillery, helicopter gunships and jet fighters are
backing ground troops in the operation, fleeing residents told
reporters in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
A report from Dera Ismail Khan
has stated that the Pakistan Army has struck deals to keep two
powerful tribal chiefs — Mulla Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur — from
joining the battle against the Government, officials told. Under
the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Mulla Nazir and Hafiz
Gul Bahadur will stay out of the current fight in parts of South
Waziristan. They will also allow the army to move through their
own lands unimpeded, giving the military additional fronts from
which to attack the Taliban. In exchange, the army will ease patrols
and bombings in the lands controlled by the two warlords, two
Pakistani intelligence officials based in the region told.
SFs killed three militants and
arrested two others during the ongoing operation in the Bara sub-division
of Khyber Agency, the Frontier Corps’ media cell said. During
the operation in Dora, Gurgray and Landay Killay, two militants,
identified as Najeeb and Shan, were killed.
Two suicide bombers targeted the
new campus of the International Islamic University Islamabad in
the H-10 sector of Islamabad, killing at least six students and
staff members, including two female students, and injuring more
than 29 others. This is the first terrorist attack on an educational
institution in Islamabad. The first blast occurred at the cafeteria
of the women’s campus at 3:07 pm while another took place at the
Sharia bloc five minutes later, damaging the main structure of
the building and dozens of cars parked near the blast site. The
Inspector General of Police in Islamabad, Syed Kaleem Imam, said
that a suspect, identified as ‘GM’, was arrested from the scene
after the suicide attack at the cafeteria. He said the suspect
belonged to Khanewal and had studied at the IIUI some seven years
back. Kaleem Imam said according to the preliminary investigation,
each bomber used 4 to 5 kilograms of explosive material and one
and a half to two kg of pellets and ‘C-4’ kind of explosives were
used in each suicide belt.
The provincial Governments ordered
the closure of Government and private educational institutions
across the country following the attack on the IIUI. The Sindh
Education Department announced the closure of all schools in the
province until October 25. The NWFP and Balochistan Governments
have also announced the closure of all education institutions
until October 25. Educational institutions in the federal capital
had already been shut down until October 25. In Punjab, a private
TV channel reported that all Government and private education
institutions would remain closed until further orders. Punjab
Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told the channel all education institutions
would reopen once the security situation improved.
The United Nations said that 170,000
people had been displaced from the South Waziristan Agency due
to fresh violence and the military operation by the Pakistan Army
against the Taliban and estimated that the number of IDPs would
reach 250,000 in the next couple of days. Michele Montas, a spokeswoman
for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, at a press briefing
at the UN headquarters in New York, said the Pakistan Government
had not set up any camps for accommodating the IDPs yet. She said
the UN was well aware of the problems being faced by the IDPs
arriving at the camps and provided 60 per cent of the fund meant
for accommodating and providing food to the displaced persons.
Michele said the UN was aware that most of the displaced persons
were living with their relatives because the Government had not
made any arrangement for their accommodation.
October 21
Fighter jets targeted Taliban
hideouts in South Waziristan, as the army hoisted the national
flag in the Shingwari area on the fifth day of Operation Rah-e-Nijat.
An ISPR press release stated that, in the past 24 hours, 15 Taliban
militants had been killed and 10 injured after jet fighters and
long-range artillery struck Taliban positions in the Badar, Sam,
Sararogha, Nanoo, Ladah and Makeen areas. It said four soldiers,
including an officer, had also died in the same period.
12 persons, including Arab, Pakistani
and Afghan militants, were killed and several others injured in
a bomb blast in Surkot village, five kilometres east of Miranshah,
regional headquarters of North Waziristan Agency. Tribal and Taliban
sources said four houses were destroyed in the blast caused by
explosives dumped inside the house in Surkot. Among those dead
was reportedly Al Qaeda operative Abu Musa al-Misri (an expert
at preparing suicide vehicles). However, militant sources denied
the killing of any senior Al Qaeda operative in the blast, but
admitted that some of the victims were "guests". They said a man
with the same name — Abu Musa al-Misri — has already been declared
dead in two previous drone attacks at Naurak and later at Khaisura
in the Mirali subdivision of North Waziristan. A senior Taliban
commander said the dead included Arabs, Pakistani and Afghan fighters,
and some children of Arab militants.
Three militants were killed and
as many injured during a search operation in the Charmang area
of Bajaur Agency.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik
said that Iran had been informed that Jundallah chief Abdul Malik
Reigi is in Afghanistan and not Pakistan. He said Islamabad had
forwarded knowledge of his whereabouts to Iran. Condemning the
incident in Iran, he said Pakistan had already repatriated Reigi’s
brother to Iran and would not hesitate to repatriate Reigi if
he were on its soil.
October 22
SFs continued consolidating positions
in the Tor Ghundai and Gurgurai Sar areas of South Waziristan
on the sixth day of Operation Rah-e-Nijat. According to
the ISPR, 24 militants and two Army soldiers were killed and four
soldiers were wounded in different areas on the Jandola-Srarogha
and Shakai-Ladha axis. There was no comment from the Taliban about
the casualty toll. Sources said 12 of the slain militants were
foreigners. Although Army officials confirmed the killing of two
soldiers, independent sources put the death toll at four.
Displaced people arriving in Tank
and Dera Ismail Khan through different routes said Taliban positions
were being targeted with artillery, jet fighters and gunship helicopters
in the Makeen, Ladha and Srarogha areas of South Waziristan. They
said majority of the areas where the troops had reached and which
were once considered the strongholds of Taliban had been vacated
by the civilians. The ISPR statement said intense fighting took
place in Tor Ghundai, which resulted in the killing of 13 militants
while the rest fled into the nearby mountains. The troops secured
the Tor Ghundai village after the battle. The area of Mizowam
in this sector had been secured, said the statement. The troops
captured the Gurgura Sar area on the Shakai-Ladha axis, and were
attempting to strengthen positions north of Sherwangai.
Militants are reported to have
attacked the SFs in Boay Naray, located west of Sherwangai. The
attack was repulsed and in the consequent encounter 11 of the
attackers were killed. One soldier was also killed and three others
wounded in the clash that took place, said the ISPR statement.
Security officials said the troops
started patrolling the Torwam-Sherwangai Road after seizing control
of the Torwam Bridge, which was under control of the militants
since 2007. The ISPR statement said the bridge was the key link
between Torwam and Ladha.
Displaced people from South Waziristan
continued arriving in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank. Many reaching
the two cities were handed over tents and some food but the displaced
people reportedly complained about lack of help by the Government.
According to the ISPR, 7,184 families have been registered in
Tank and Dera Ismail Khan since October 13. Five registration
points have been established in the city of Dera Ismail Khan.
The Government is, however, yet to establish a camp for the displaced
people.
Five militants were killed and
four others sustained injuries in clashes with the SFs in different
areas of Bajaur Agency. Sources said that troops returned fire
after a military convoy on patrol in the Charmang area of Nawagai
sub-division was attacked. Three militants were killed and two
others injured. One trooper also sustained injuries. Further,
two militants were killed and two others injured in a clash in
the Lowi Sam area of Khar sub-division.
SFs killed three militants and
demolished seven houses and six hideouts during operations in
different areas of the Mohmand Agency. Official sources said that
the SFs continued advancing towards the remote borderlands in
Baizai subdivision. The sources said a clash took place between
the SFs and militants in the Manzari Cheena area of Baizai sub-division.
Three militants were killed and several others injured during
the clash.
SFs claimed to have killed an
important Taliban ‘commander’ in the Banpur Sar area while three
bodies, believed to be of militants, were found dumped in Barikot
in Swat valley.
Unidentified gunmen attacked an
army vehicle in the federal capital Islamabad, killing a Brigadier
and his driver and critically injuring a guard. Police officials
said Brigadier Moinuddin Haider was en route to his office in
Rawalpindi when the assailants fired at his jeep at around 8:45am
near Street No 5, G-11/1. Police and witnesses put the number
of assailants at two – aged between 18-to-20 years – and said
they were riding a motorbike. "It was an act of terrorism… The
purpose was to kill and make news," military spokesman Major General
Athar Abbas was quoted as saying by Reuters. Brigadier
Moin reportedly arrived in Pakistan on leave a few days ago from
Sudan – where he was part of a UN peacekeeping mission.
October 23
18 persons, including some women
and children, were killed and six others sustained injuries when
a bus hit a landmine in the Mohmand Agency. According to Mohmand
Rifles, the bus carrying wedding guests from Rawalpindi hit the
mine at Suran Darra Chowk, some 25 kilometres from the Mamad Gat
Frontier Corps camp. "The device was placed by militants who wanted
to hit tanks and armoured personnel carriers," official sources
said.
Fierce fighting was reported from
the Sherwangai area in South Waziristan Agency as troops started
their advance towards the militants’ strongholds on the Shakai-Ladha
axis, the seventh day of Operation Rah-e-Nijat. The Army
claimed killing 13 militants, raising the casualty toll of the
Taliban to 142 since October 17. However, the Taliban said only
three of their men were killed since the launch of the operation.
However, claims from both sides could not be confirmed.
After three days of fighting,
SFs were seen in full control of Sherwangai, its surrounding heights
and the nearby village of Chalweshtai where troops had been deployed
on the mountain peaks to avoid militants’ attacks from different
directions, sources said. Fighter jets and artillery targeted
suspected militants positions in Mashta, Ragh, Sam, Srarogha,
Penga, Ladha and Makeen areas, but there were no reports about
casualties. A statement from the ISPR said that 13 militants and
two soldiers were killed in clashes and rocket fire in and around
Kotkai, Sherwangai and Chalweshtai areas. Seven soldiers sustained
injuries in the fighting. The ISPR said one soldier and seven
militants were killed and two soldiers injured during an encounter
around Kotkai while another soldier and six Uzbek militants were
killed in the fighting around the Sherwangai area. Five more soldiers
sustained injuries.
According to the ISPR, 142 militants
and 20 soldiers have been killed since October 17 in South Waziristan.
56 soldiers suffered injuries while the troops arrested six suspected
militants during the operation. The Taliban, however, has confirmed
the killing of only three of their men in the past one week.
Five militants were killed when
military planes and artillery attacked their positions in the
Mulla Syed and Banda areas of Bajaur Agency.
Eight persons were killed and
17 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber exploded himself
at a Police check-post on the GT Road near the Pakistan Aeronautical
Complex (PAC) in Kamra in the Attock District of Punjab province
in the morning. According to District administration sources,
a suicide bomber blew himself when SF personnel intercepted him
at the check-post near the PAC, some 60 kilometres from the national
capital Islamabad. Consequently, eight persons were killed and
17 others were injured. District Police chief Fakhar Sultan said
the attack killed six civilians and two Pakistan Air Force personnel.
The Air Force said 15 security staff were wounded and confirmed
two of its personnel were dead. "We have found a mutilated face,
as well as other body parts, including legs and arms of the bomber,"
said Sultan.
Three militants were killed, 15
arrested and seven surrendered to the SFs in different areas of
Swat District. According to the Swat Media Centre, the SFs, during
a search and clearance operation in the Talang area of Nejegram,
killed three militants after an exchange of heavy gunfire. The
SFs also arrested 15 suspected militants in the Mangaltan, Miandam,
and Chak Dawlat areas of Swat during a search operation. The military
stated that seven militants laid down arms and surrendered to
the SFs in the outskirts of Mingora.
US lawmakers on October 23 passed
a Pentagon spending bill that reportedly sets tough new restrictions
on military aid to Pakistan. The US Senate voted 68-29 in favour
of a $680 billion defence-spending bill for fiscal year 2010,
which was passed in the House of Representatives by a 281-146
margin on October 8 and now goes to US President Barack Obama
for his assent. The new limits reportedly include efforts to track
where US military hardware sent to Pakistan ends up, as well as
a warning that the aid must not upset "the balance of power in
the region" – a reference to tensions between Pakistan and India.
The military spending bill would impose new restrictions on how
Pakistan gets reimbursed out of a $1.6 billion fund for logistical
and military support of US-led efforts to battle the militants.
The measure requires that the US secretaries of state and defence
certify "whether such reimbursement is consistent with the national
security interest of the United States and will not adversely
impact the balance of power in the region". The bill also says
the Pentagon must certify that Islamabad is waging a "concerted"
fight against Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other fighters before
it can receive the massive package of aid to battle extremists
on its soil. It directs the Pentagon to track how Pakistan uses
military hardware it receives in order "to prohibit the re-transfer
of such defence articles and defence services without the consent
of the United States". The legislation instructs the White House
to send lawmakers a report every 180 days on progress toward long-term
security and stability in the country. The spending bill also
calls for spending another $130 billion on the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan in fiscal year 2010, which began October 1.
October 24
21 Taliban militants and three
soldiers killed were killed as SFs took control of Kotkai in South
Waziristan, an important TTP stronghold and the native town of
its chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, after intense fighting. Addressing
a joint press conference with Information Minister Qamar Zaman
Kaira, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Major
General Athar Abbas said 21 terrorists had been killed and three
soldiers martyred while eight people had been injured.
A suspected US drone killed 33
militants in the Bajaur Agency. The drone targeted a Taliban shura
(executive council) meeting in Damadola area, which is 12
kilometres north of Khar. Sources in the political administration
said TTP deputy chief Maulvi Faqir left the site minutes before
the strike, adding that his relatives were among the dead.
October 25
23 militants were killed as troops
advanced deeper into the Taliban-controlled territory in South
Waziristan and captured Gherlama, an important position north
of Kotkai, the hometown of TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud. Four
soldiers are reported to have died in fierce gun-battles in areas
around Gherlama, Kotkai, Nawazkot and Spinqamer. Shin Gher, a
vital hilltop near Razmak in North Waziristan, was also captured.
Tanks, backed by military jets and helicopter gunships, are reported
to have targeted Taliban positions. According to the ISPR, troops
secured the important Tarkona Narai hill after a 16-hour gun-battle
and made gains on the Jandola-Sararogha axis, securing important
ridges. ISPR said that 15 more terrorists and a soldier were killed
as troops moved beyond Kotkai. Troops have secured Point 1125
north of Shishwam, an important ridge on the Jandola-Sararogha
axis, and another point two kilometres north of Kotkai. On the
western side of the axis, the SFs secured forward ridges of Kaskai,
three kilometres north-west of Kotkai. Tarkona Narai, the highest
feature on an important junction east of Sherwangi, has also been
secured on the Shakai-Kaniguram axis. The hilltop had four strong
points and a series of bunkers. Four terrorists were killed in
the battle for the hilltop and eight others when they tried to
flee from the area. One non-commissioned officer and three soldiers
were also killed in the incident.
The TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud
is reported to have urged the Government to stop the operation
which he said had been launched to get US aid.
Many displaced people arriving
in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank Districts of the NWFP said that the
militants had left the villages recently captured by SFs days
before the launch of the military operation in South Waziristan.
"They have gone into the mountains or shifted to the neighbouring
Orakzai Agency while some moved to the adjoining parts of Balochistan,"
said a tribesman.
Six militants and three soldiers
were killed in a clash in the Mattak village of Nawagai sub-division
in Bajaur Agency. Tribal sources said a group of militants attacked
a check-post of the SFs in Mattak village, killing three soldiers
on the spot. Following the incident, the SFs targeted the positions
of the militants with artillery guns from Khar, the regional headquarters
of Bajaur Agency. Consequently, six militants were killed and
three others injured while several militant hideouts were also
destroyed.
Six militants were killed when
jet fighters targeted their hideouts in the Ghiljo area in Upper
Orakzai Agency. Eyewitnesses said that two hideouts and a camp
of the Taliban were also destroyed in the air strikes. They said
that jetfighters attacked hideouts of Taliban three times and
killed at least six militants in Ghiljo Bazaar, considered a stronghold
of Taliban affiliated with the Hakeemullah Mehsud group. The Tariq
Afridi group of Taliban controls a small part of lower Orakzai
Agency.
Unidentified gunmen killed the
Balochistan Education Minister Shafiq Ahmed Khan, a member of
the Pakistan People’s Party, outside his residence in the provincial
capital Quetta. The Baloch Liberation United Front claimed responsibility
for the assassination. Police in Quetta said unidentified motorcyclists
shot dead the minister outside his residence on Thogai Road, while
his brother’s father-in-law, Hydayat Jaffar, was injured in the
same attack. Shafiq Khan is the second minister from Balochistan
to have been killed over the last two months.
October 26
Continuing their advance from
three sides on the TTP strongholds of Srarogha, Ladha and Makeen
on the 10th day of Operation Rah-e-Nijat, the
SFs claimed killing 19 more militants in three separate clashes.
Six Army soldiers were also killed while 20 others sustained injuries
during clashes between the two sides in the Gharlai, Sarwek, Shaga
and Sharkai Sar areas. Independent confirmation of the casualty
was, however, not possible as the area has been under curfew for
the past 10 days and communication links had been snapped.
In their advance from three sides
over the past 10 days, the SFs have captured Kotkai, village of
the TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud and his cousin and suicide bombers’
trainer Qari Hussain, along with Sherwangai, Nawazkot, Chalweshtai
and some key ridges. However, the troops faced tough resistance
on the 10th day in their advance towards the TTP stronghold of
Srarogha. Sources said a clash occurred when the Taliban militants
tried to block the way of advancing troops near Srarogha. Military
officials said 10 militants were killed in the clash which also
claimed the lives of six Army soldiers. 14 soldiers sustained
injuries and were evacuated with the help of military helicopters.
Giving details of the advance made by SFs on the 10th day, the
ISPR said the troops secured the Kazhakas area on the road leading
to Inzar Killay and Srarogha. The troops also secured Gharlai
village on Kotkai-Srarogha road. On the Shakai-Kaniguram axis,
the ISPR said troops surrounded Sarwek village, one kilometre
north of Chalweshtai, and secured the surrounding ridges. Seven
militants were killed and five soldiers injured in the operation
in the same zone. From the Razmak side, the SFs claimed securing
the Shaga village and Sharakai Sar in the Nawazkot area. Two militants
were killed and one soldier injured in the operation. The political
administration officials said troops had secured the Moomi Karam
and Sarwek villages after getting control of Chalweshtai. They
said the troops would be able to reach and control the strategic
peaks of Asman Manza and Karwan Manza in next two days.
Thousands of people have reportedly
been displaced from areas inhabited by the Mehsud tribe in South
Waziristan and have taken refuge in parts of the neighbouring
North Waziristan Agency as well as the Tank and Dera Ismail Khan
Districts in the NWFP. Locals said almost all the people had left
Sarwekai and Ladha sub-divisions. Only a small number of people
had stayed behind to guard their houses and belongings, said tribesmen
arriving in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.
Nine militants were killed during
clashes with the SFs in different areas of the Bajaur Agency.
Sources said about 15 militants attacked a security post in the
Mattak area near the Afghan border on October 25 and killed a
Junior Commissioned Officer and three other SF personnel. Two
other SF personnel sustained injuries in the attack. Troops subsequently
fired back, killing six militants and injuring four others.
The militants fired seven missiles
on security posts in Tawheedabad and Sadiqabad and a base in Bilalabada.
However, the missiles caused no damage or casualty. Three militants
were killed and one was injured in an exchange of fire which continued
for over about an hour.
The Security Forces claimed to
have killed four militants and injured six others in aerial bombardment
carried out at Mamozai area in Orakzai Agency.
16 militants were killed and 23
others wounded during a joint operation by the Army and Frontier
Constabulary in the Tora Warai area of Hangu District in the NWFP
on October 25-night and October 26. 54 militants, including some
Afghans, were arrested during the operation. According to officials,
security officer Abdul Jaffar was killed and seven other SF personnel
sustained injuries in the operation which was launched after an
attack by militants on a military check-post in Tora Warai late
on October 25. Hundreds of militants of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
from Orakzai Agency and Hangu reportedly took part in the attack.
Troops repulsed the attack after a gun-battle which continued
for about two hours. Officials told that militants had taken away
the bodies of their colleagues and the injured. Six hideouts of
the militants were destroyed in Tora Warai and a large quantity
of arms and ammunition, including two rocket-launchers, five rockets,
two grenades, three shotguns, two rifles, four pistols and automatic
weapons, was seized. Militants reportedly use Tora Warai to enter
North Waziristan Agency from the Orakzai Agency. A few days ago,
the SFs blew up a road linking Hangu with North Waziristan to
stop the movement of militants.
Eight bodies of suspected militants
were recovered in the Swat District. Four bodies were reportedly
found dumped in the Khwazakhela area, official sources said.
October 27
SFs claimed killing 42 more militants,
raising the toll to 240 since the launch of Operation Rah-e-Nijat
targeting the TTP in South Waziristan Agency on October 17.
The troops admitted losing one soldier and injuries to two others
as they advanced on the militants’ strongholds of Srarogha, Makeen
and Ladha from three directions, using Wana, Jandola and Razmak
as their rear bases. Tribal sources said the troops were facing
stiff resistance during their advance towards Srarogha, the stronghold
of the TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, after the capture of Kotkai,
Sherwangai, Chalweshtai and other small villages and mountain
ridges from the Taliban. The political administration officials
said fighter planes bombed Ladha, Shpeshtin, Gadawai, Kacha Langarkhel,
Mashta, Sam and Selai Rogha. The villages of Badar, Nano, Kotkhel,
Jalandhar and Karama were targeted with heavy artillery guns from
the Wana side while the villages of Aimarkhel and Bandkhel were
targeted from Razmak. Sources said five hideouts of militants
were destroyed in bombing by the planes while a huge cache of
weapons was seized in the Badar area. The sources said nearly
three-dozen militants had been killed in bombing on different
areas. The troops were reportedly facing resistance from the militants
in Ghorlama village.
According to the ISPR, the SFs
cleared the village of Zeriwam on the Jandola-Srarogha axis. One
soldier and five militants were killed in clashes in and around
Zeriwam and Garlai areas, it added. Advancing from Chalweshtai
on Shakai-Kaniguram axis, the troops reached the suburbs of Kund
Mela and Momi Karam areas and started removing improvised explosive
devices from the roads. Seven militants were reportedly killed
during an engagement with troops in the same area. SFs said they
had regained the control of the old Frontier Corps post in Nawazkot
and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the area
located on the Razmak-Makeen axis. The ISPR statement said the
troops clashed with militants in Tawda Cheena, Vedan, Manza Sar,
Zare Sar and Makeen, killing 30 of them. Two soldiers were injured
as militants fired two rockets at the Razmak camp.
The United Nation’s figures revealed
that 205,000 people had been displaced from South Waziristan due
to the military operation. The latest figures released on October
27 suggested that some 50,000 to 80,000 people were still in the
area affected by the fighting. Mentioning security concern as
a problem, the statement said there was a little room for aid
workers to manoeuvre in the highly-volatile areas. A similar complaint
was reportedly made by the International Committee of the Red
Cross. The UN said it was expecting more people to be displaced
because of the ongoing fighting.
11 militants and two soldiers
were killed during an encounter between the SFs and militants
in the Baizai tehsil (revenue division) of Mohmand Agency.
The militants attacked a check post in the Baidmani area of Baizai,
triggering an attack by the SFs in which 11 militants and two
soldiers were killed and two others injured. Independent sources,
however, said that seven militants were killed in the clashes.
Law-enforcement agencies have
arrested Qari Ishtiaq, ‘acting chief’ of the TTP unit in Punjab,
from Bahawalpur. Ishtiaq allegedly masterminded the attack on
the Army’s GHQ in Rawalpindi on October 10-11. Security agencies
also seized a heavy cache of explosives and sophisticated arms
from him. An intelligence source told the channel that the TTP
Punjab chief had provided "important information" about
his three accomplices – Sajjad, Qamar and Adnan. The channel said
Police had also arrested 29 suspected terrorists from Bahawalpur.
US investigating agencies have
neutralised a plot by the Pakistan-based LeT to use an American
national for terrorist attacks in Denmark and India. The man,
identified as David Coleman Headley, was one of two suspects arrested
early in October 2009 by FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force at Chicago's
O'Hare International Airport before he boarded a flight to Philadelphia,
from where he was intending to travel to Pakistan to meet Pakistani
terrorist handlers, including the fugitive Ilyas Kashmiri. Headley's
partner in the terror plot, which included plans to attack the
Danish newspaper that published cartoons of Prophet Mohammed,
was a Pakistani-Canadian named Tahawwur Hussain Rana, also a resident
of Chicago who was arrested by the FBI on October 18.
October 28
A remote-controlled car bomb killed
117 people – including women and children – and injured around
200 others at the Meena Bazaar in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP.
Bomb disposal squad chief Shafqat Malik told reporters that 150
kilograms of explosives were used in the remote-controlled blast.
He said that some people were still trapped under the rubble.
The explosion brought down buildings. A three-storey building
and a mosque, Masjid Umme Habiba, situated in the narrow bazaar,
caved in while six other structures were engulfed by a huge fire
caused by the explosion. Around 12 houses and over 60 shops were
gutted while almost 300 other shops and houses were severely damaged
due to the powerful explosion at around 12:40 pm. The Meena Bazaar
is famous for women’s dresses, cosmetics and children’s garments.
Minister Iftikhar Hussain told journalists that the blast was
linked with the ongoing military operation in South Waziristan
against the Taliban, saying, "foreign terrorists – including Arabs,
Chechens and Uzbeks – stationed in Waziristan are carrying out
attacks in Pashtun areas". However, no group claimed responsibility
for the bombing. Meanwhile, the Taliban and Al Qaeda have denied
involvement in the bomb blast and claimed they do not explode
bombs in bazaars and mosques, The News reported. According to
an Al Qaeda statement, they are not involved in the killing of
innocent people. Al Qaeda sources said elements who want to defame
Jihad and refugees are behind the Peshawar bomb blast. The banned
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in an email sent to the media also condemned
the blast and denied its involvement in the incident.
The SFs were only a few kilometres
from Srarogha, the stronghold of the Hakeemullah Mehsud-led TTP,
on the 12th day of the Operation Rah-e-Nijat in
South Waziristan Agency. Sources said some militants were fleeing
to North Waziristan from the Srarogha side and via the Shawal
Road from Makeen due to increased pressure from the advancing
troops. Local sources said the troops were heading for Srarogha
after getting full control of Kotkai and securing the surrounding
areas and ridges. "The next important point is Srarogha, where
a tough battle is expected once the troops get close," said a
political administration official. The ISPR said 25 militants
were killed and a huge cache of arms and ammunition were recovered.
Five soldiers sustained injuries in the clashes and in attacks
from the militants in different areas, it added. The ISPR said
SFs made considerable progress on the Kotkai-Srarogha axis and
secured the area overlooking the TTP stronghold of Srarogha. Eight
militants were killed and three soldiers were wounded in incidents
in that area. The statement also said 25 Taliban training centres
and nine caves were destroyed in Kotkai while three more training
centres were overrun in the Murghaband area.
The ISPR chief, Major General
Athar Abbas, while addressing a press conference in the federal
capital Islamabad, said Uzbek fighters had made Mehsud and other
tribes hostage, adding that Mehsud tribes were not linked with
these foreigners. "As soon as the area is cleansed from terrorists,
including foreigners, the Mehsud tribesmen will return to their
area to resume their own system," he said. Abbas said it was confirmed,
through interceptions, that TTP ‘commander’ Waliur Rehman was
present in the area but nothing could be said about Hakeemullah
Mehsud. He rejected the impression that the TTP had made a tactical
withdrawal from Kotkai to launch another assault, saying that
the Taliban leadership was on the run.
Four suspected militants were
killed and three others injured in a clash with the SFs in Mohmand
Agency.
The District Administration of
Lahore has ordered that 17 Government schools in different areas
of Lahore and the Punjab University be shut down for security
reasons.
October 29
Continuing their advance towards
Srarogha, the stronghold of the TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud,
the SFs said they had killed 11 militants and lost one soldier
with two others injured, the 13th day of Operation
Rah-e-Nijat. However, reporters and cameramen of television
channels flown to South Waziristan and taken on a guided visit
to several points quoted the SFs as claiming that 82 militants
were killed in the fighting.
Local sources said the troops
had surrounded Kaniguram village and were preparing to secure
control of Masp Mela, Asman Manza and Karwan Manza in the next
24 hours. They said a clash took place between the SFs and militants
in Kaniguram but there was no information about the casualties.
Fierce clashes were also reported from Ahmadwam area near Srarogha.
Local sources said 20 militants were killed in the clash in Ahmadwam.
They did not mention casualties among the troops.
Jet fighters bombed Srarogha,
Spina Mela, Ladha, Piazha, Sam and other areas of South Waziristan,
believed to be the hiding places and strongholds of the TTP. These
areas were also being targeted by artillery guns from Army bases
in Razmak and Jandola, local sources said. They said several militants
had been killed and injured, but the exact casualty toll could
not be confirmed. An ISPR statement said the troops consolidated
their position on the Kotkai-Srarogha axis from Jandola side.
It claimed the troops captured Inzar Killay and clearance operation
also continued in Zariwam village. Five militants were killed
in Ganra Kas village in the same area. A mortar fire also killed
one soldier and injured two others.
Since the launch of the operation
in South Waziristan, security officials have claimed killing over
250 militants. They have also admitted the death of 31 soldiers
since October 17. However, there are no reports from independent
sources about the casualties and the gains by the troops. Most
of the information about the operation is provided by the ISPR.
Army troops have discovered the
passport of a militant linked to two hijackers involved in the
9/11 attacks, during an operation against the Taliban in South
Waziristan. A private TV channel reported on October 29 that the
passport belonging to Said Bahaji, a German of Moroccan origin,
was among documents, weapons and literature seized by the military
and shown to a group of journalists during an official trip. The
channel reported the passport showed the man had arrived in Karachi
just days before 9/11. However, military spokesman Major General
Athar Abbas, who accompanied the reporters on the trip to South
Waziristan, had no comments to offer. "I haven’t seen the passport.
These reporters may have seen it," he said. Bahaji’s name has
appeared in the 9/11 Commission Report.
The leadership of Al Qaeda is
in Pakistan, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "I find
it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where
they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to," she
added. "Maybe that’s the case maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t
know... As far as we know, they are in Pakistan," Clinton told
senior Pakistani newspaper editors in Lahore. Separately, Clinton
also reportedly met Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and exchanged
views on a host of security-related issues.
October 30
14 Taliban militants and two soldiers
were killed on the 14th day of the Operation Rah-e-Nijat
in South Waziristan Agency. All 14 militants were killed along
the Jandola-Sararogha axis, with troops advancing towards and
securing an important area west of Dralima and northwest of Ahnei
Kalle. Two soldiers were killed when the militants fired mortar
shells. "On the Shakai-Kaniguram axis, forces secured... ridge
point 6,954 – 3 kilometres north of Kundmela and 2 kilometres
west of Kaniguram," said an ISPR statement.
The US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton has said that the US does not have any evidence of India''s
involvement in Balochistan amid Pakistan’s allegation that New
Delhi was fomenting trouble in the province. "Well, first of all,
we have no evidence of that. I mean, we just have no evidence
of that," Clinton said in reply to a question that many Pakistanis
believe that India is fomenting trouble in Balochistan.
Pakistan’s Consul General in Chicago
personally knew both David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain
Rana, arrested by the FBI for planning to carry out a major terrorist
attack in India at the behest of the LeT, the US authorities have
claimed, according to Times of India. The FBI in its revised charge-sheet
filed before a Chicago court said the Consul General of Pakistan
in Chicago personally knows both Rana and Headley a.k.a. Daood
Gilani, as all three of them are from the same high school. According
to the Website of the Pakistan Embassy in US, Dr Aman Rashid is
the Consul General in Chicago. "On or about September 25, 2009,
Rana spoke by telephone with the Consul General at the Pakistani
Consulate in Chicago in an effort to obtain a five-year visa for
Headley to travel to Pakistan. It is clear from the email traffic
unrelated to terrorist plotting that the Consul General knows
Rana and Headley personally as all three attended the same high
school," the FBI claimed. However, the affidavit, does not say
anything if the Consul General was aware or had any inclination
of the terrorist connection of Rana and Headley. Rana (48) and
Headley (49) are residents of Chicago and also alumni of the same
military school.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik
said that the Taliban torched 409 educational institutions in
the Malakand Division of the NWFP and 64 in FATA. Calling the
Taliban "professional killers and liars", the minister said they
were enemies of Islam and Pakistan and had nefarious designs to
destabilise the country.
October 31
33 Taliban militants were killed
in the decisive battle for control of the Mehsud mainland in the
Sararogha area of South Waziristan. Four army personnel were injured
in the attack. "Security forces have entered Sararogha," the statement
added. "The town has been surrounded from all three entry points.
All the key positions and ridges around Sararogha have been taken
over by security forces," it said. "During the process of moving
forward, intense exchanges of fire took place. Thirteen terrorists
have been killed. The military will begin its clearance operation
of Sararogha in the next 24 hours. There is a substantial presence
of terrorists in the town," ISPR Director General Major Gen Athar
Abbas said. Separately, the military cleared Nawazkot of Taliban
militants and moved onto the outskirts of Makeen.
Pakistan Air Force fighter planes
bombed militant hideouts in the Orakzai and Kurram areas of FATA,
killing 15 Taliban militants. The official sources said jet fighters
bombed three suspected hideouts of TTP leader Hakeemullah Mehsud
in Orakzai, killing at least eight Taliban militants and wounding
several others. They said another air strike in Kurram killed
seven militants.
Seven Security Force personnel
were killed and 12 other injured when suspected Lashkar-e-Islam
militants attacked their vehicle using a remote-controlled bomb
in the Sur Dhand area of Bara in Khyber Agency.
November 1
The SFs killed 16 TTP militants
and injured 10 others in clashes during Operation Rah-e-Nijat
in the South Waziristan Agency. In the battle to control Sararogha,
one of the main TTP strongholds, SFs killed six militants and
injured four others. Separately, aerial strikes in Ladha, Saam,
Gadawai, Maidaan and Makeen killed five militants and injured
three others. Four TTP hideouts were also destroyed in the air-strikes.
In addition, the SFs captured Kaniguram, a town with a population
of 30,000, and seized heavy weapons during a door-to-door search
operation. Nine militants and two soldiers were killed during
the fighting, taking the TTP death toll to 331 in 16 days of fighting.
38 soldiers have been killed in the operation so far, according
to Army estimates, although there is no independent verification
of casualty figures. "The command and control structure of the
Taliban exists in Sararogha, Makeen and Ladha," a security official
said.
As part of the Government’s fight
against the militants, it will offer bounties of up to PKR 50
million each for TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, Waliur Rehman and
Qari Hussain Mehsud, AP reported. "Such people are killers of
humanity, and they deserve an exemplary punishment… The brutal
acts of these people are earning a bad name for the Muslims in
Pakistan and around the world," the advertisement states.
The Army hopes to neutralise the
TTP in South Waziristan Agency before the winter sets in, Foreign
Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said. "The operation so far has
been very successful. The resistance that we were expecting initially
did not come with the same swiftness we were expecting," Qureshi
- who is in Kuala Lumpur to attend a meeting of Islamic countries
starting on November 2 (today) - told reporters. "South Waziristan
is an area which is very important in order to check terrorist
activity in Pakistan. Not just Pakistan, but beyond," said Qureshi.
He said the armed forces had surrounded the area and choked supply
lines to the Taliban. "They are on the run. They are in retreat
and there is disarray over there," he claimed. Qureshi said it
would be difficult to give a timeframe for total military success,
but "we would want to achieve our objectives as much as possible
before the winter sets in… And it seems, as things are going on,
that we might be able to do so ... I can’t give you a date, but
that area becomes very cold (by late December). We want to operate
and establish our foothold before that."
The suicide attack at a United
Nations guesthouse in Kabul on October 28, 2009 was a joint operation
directed by an Afghan warlord based in the tribal areas of Pakistan
and by an Al Qaeda operative, the Afghan intelligence Director
said. The intelligence official, Amrullah Saleh, said six Afghan
suspects had been arrested, including an imam (prayer leader)
who had provided a hideaway for the attackers. He said the suspects
had said that the three suicide attackers were all from the Swat
Valley in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Saleh
said the operation was jointly directed. One group was the Haqqani
network, a Taliban-affiliated organization led by Jalaluddin Haqqani
and his son Sirajuddin which is based in North Waziristan, and
the other leader was an Al Qaeda operative known as Ajmal, who
fled to the Waziristan area. 11 persons, including five UN personnel,
were killed in the attack.
November 2
At least 35 persons, including two women and children,
were killed and 63 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber
blew himself up outside a branch of the National Bank of Pakistan
in Rawalpindi. The majority of the blasts victims were reportedly
military personnel and employees of the Defence Ministry who had
queued up at the NBP Shalimar Plaza Branch to draw their salaries.
It was the second terrorist attack in the Red Zone area of the
garrison city within a month. According to eyewitnesses, many
of the victims were retired military personnel who had gathered
at the bank to draw their pensions. Several surrounding offices,
part of a nearby hotel and a number of vehicles were also destroyed.
Eyewitnesses said the attack occurred at 10:40am when a man riding
a motorbike approached the parking lot of the plaza and blew himself
up in front of the NBP branch, in close proximity with the Pearl
Continental hotel, the military's General Headquarters and the
State Bank of Pakistan. Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer (RPO)
Aslam Tareen confirmed the eyewitnesses' account. "We found parts
of a suicide vest and some body parts of the suicide attacker.
At least 35 people were killed and 63 others were wounded," he
said. The Inter-Services Public Relations Director General, Major
General Athar Abbas, said four soldiers were killed and nine injured
in the attack.
The ISPR Director General, Major General Athar
Abbas, said that the Security Forces had gained complete control
of Kaniguram, a major stronghold of Uzbek fighters. He said the
terrorists there had been using modern weaponry, fortified positions
and bunkers, adding the entire area had been cleared of mines
and improvised explosive devices. He said the military had also
secured Karama village, east of Kaniguram, adding other strategically
important points around Kaniguram had also been secured. Giving
details of Operation Rah-e-Nijat, the ISPR chief said 12
militants had been killed in the last 24 hours, adding that six
SF personnel had been injured. He said he was not sure if the
Taliban's top leadership had escaped to North Waziristan or was
still in the area.
Seven Taliban militants were killed in clashes
with the SF personnel and aerial strikes in Bajaur Agency. The
air and ground assault focused on Ovishah, Seolai, Kharkay and
Badalai areas in the Mamoond sub-division, destroying four terrorist
hideouts. The SFs also reportedly clashed with the militants in
Mulla Said and Mataak in the Salarzai sub-division.
Police foiled a terrorist attack targeting a police
check-post at the Babu Sabu Interchange of the Lahore-Islamabad
motorway, an entry point into Lahore. According to eyewitnesses,
the attacker was travelling in a car with an alleged accomplice.
Upon being stopped by Police for a routine inspection, the man
got out of the car's passenger seat and detonated his suicide
jacket, injuring 25 persons, including the car's driver. Civil
Defence District Officer Mazhar Hussain told that eight to 10
kilograms of explosive material had been used in the attack. Mazhar
said the terrorist's head was found some 30 yards from the blast
site. He said the attacker's face was scarred but recognisable,
adding the attacker seemed to be 18. Police officials said the
car was packed with huge quantities of explosives and "could have
caused a catastrophe" had it entered the city. Official sources
said the injured included five Policemen, who were in critical
condition.
The United Nations announced an immediate withdrawal
of its staff from the NWFP and FATA due to the deteriorating security
situation there. The measure was taken after UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon assessed the security situation in the northwestern
region at 'Phase-IV'. "The decision has been taken bearing in
mind the intense security situation in the region," UN National
Information Officer Ishrat Rizvi said. She said the implication
of Phase-IV security would include reduction in the international
UN staff in the region, with presence of only those vital for
emergency operations, humanitarian relief, security operations
and any other essential operations as advised by the Secretary-General.
"All other UN staff involved in the running of programme activities
will be relocated," she said.
November 3
The SFs advanced towards Janta after securing
areas around the Taliban stronghold of Sararogha in the South
Waziristan Agency, where 21 militants and one soldier were reported
dead by the ISPR. Official sources said the troops had secured
the areas around Sararogha while clashes had taken place near
Makeen and Sam where the militants were offering resistance. The
troops claimed killing 16 militants during clashes in Sararogha
while a soldier was killed and another injured in a landmine explosion
in the area.
The military is reported to have claimed considerable
gains against the TTP on all the three fronts. Officials said
the troops were now advancing towards Makeen and Ladha, considered
as two major strongholds of the militants. With the 21 casualties,
as claimed by the Army officials, the death toll of the militants
has mounted to 364 in the past 18 days. However, claims and counter-claims
from the two sides could not be confirmed from independent sources
mainly due to inaccessibility of the area, severance of communication
lines, and displacement of people from South Waziristan and their
shifting to safer places.
Local sources said the SFs had captured the Janta
area located between Sararogha and Ladha. However, they said the
area had already been vacated by the militants. Janta is said
to be a mountainous area and once a base of the Taliban because
of its strategic location. They said the troops were now advancing
towards Ladha, Asman Manza and Karwan Manza, the next important
points after the capture of Kaniguram. The sources also said the
TTP hideouts were targeted by fighter jets and with heavy artillery
in Ladha, Makeen and Sam areas. Four militants' positions were
reportedly destroyed in the attack, the sources added. The ISPR
statement said besides killing 16 militants and the death of an
Army soldier, two suspected militants had been arrested in Sararogha.
It said militants fired six rockets on security forces in Kaniguram
as they were busy searching the area for IEDs, weapons and militants
to secure the adjoining ridges. The military said five militants
were killed during a clash in Ghanikhel near Kaniguram. On the
Razmak-Makeen axis, the troops said they had secured the area
from Cheena up to Mian Nurkhel. Manza Sar had also been secured
and the troops were consolidating their positions, the statement
added.
Refuting the Army's claims about gains in South
Waziristan, the TTP claimed that its fighters had staged a tactical
retreat from some areas to bring the troops into hilly and forested
areas. In a telephonic conversation with a foreign news agency,
TTP spokesman Azam Tariq denied the Army's claims of killing over
300 militants during the last 18 days. "Only 11 of our men have
been killed so far," Azam Tariq was quoted as saying. He said
they were prepared for a long war with the Army and that they
had retreated as part of a strategy from certain areas that the
Army was claiming to have captured.
A would-be suicide bomber was killed before reaching
his target in the Lachi sub-division of Kohat District. The Deputy
Inspector General of Police, Abdullah Khan said that a would-be
suicide bomber, riding a motorcycle, was heading to his alleged
target when he was blown up near the Iftikhar Well area in Lachi
at 9:15 pm (PST).
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance
approved the Anti-Money Laundering Bill 2009, declaring "terrorism
financing" a criminal offence. Officials of the Finance Ministry
and the SBP reportedly informed the committee members that Pakistan,
being a signatory to various UN conventions, required laws in
line with international standards to combat money laundering and
terrorism financing. The committee meeting, presided by Fauzia
Wahab, was attended by Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, Finance
Secretary Salman Siddique, the SBP deputy governor, SBP Banking
Policy director and other senior officials. The committee also
approved increase in penalty from PKR 1 million to PKR 5 million
for a company or its employees found guilty of an offence under
the proposed bill. The committee was informed that the amendments
were in line with international standards on combating money laundering
and financing of terrorism. In the proposed bill, the definition
of "financial institutions" includes any institution accepting
deposits and other repayable funds from public, lending in whatsoever
form, financial leasing, money or valuable transfer, managing
credit and debit cards, cheques, travellers cheque, money orders,
bank drafts and electronic money among other financial activities.
November 4
30 militants were killed and eight soldiers, including
two officers, sustained injuries in clashes and street fighting
as the troops entered the Taliban stronghold of Ladha in South
Waziristan Agency. Official sources said the fighting continued
in Ladha and Sararogha and the troops cleared a major part of
Sararogha following its capture a day earlier and withdrawal of
most of the militants from the area. Political administration
officials said the troops have also entered the Sam, Gadwai, Asman
Manza and Karwan Manza areas. They said the troops faced tough
resistance from the militants in Gadwai during their advance towards
Ladha. However, the SFs managed to reach there after clashes with
militants. The SFs also reportedly captured the Tehsil (revenue
unit) building and fort in Ladha. Official sources said 10 militants
were killed in the fighting. Official sources said the troops
started advancing towards Janta, Piazha and Makeen after securing
control of Sararogha from the TTP. The troops were also advancing
towards Ladha and Makeen from Razmak side thus narrowing the circle
around the militants' stronghold from all sides. The sources said
many militants had started deserting the TTP while others were
escaping into the neighbouring Orakzai Agency. The sources also
said the SFs had accelerated their advance towards the TTP strongholds
from Wana and Razmak sides.
A statement from the Army's ISPR said 16 militants
were killed during clashes with the SFs in and around Sararogha.
Eight soldiers, including two officers and one Junior Commissioned
Officer, sustained injuries in these clashes. On the Shakai-Kaniguram
axis, the SFs entered the Ladha town, one of the key strongholds
of the Hakeemullah Mehsud-led TTP. The ISPR has reported street
fighting in the town and confirmed the killing of at least 10
militants. The statement also said the troops have secured the
surrounding ridges. During a search operation, the troops recovered
arms, ammunition, a blasting machine and swords and knives. Advancing
from the third side on the Razmak-Makeen axis, the ISPR said the
troops secured the Cheena village and consolidated their positions
in that area. Four militants were killed while a soldier sustained
injuries in the same area, the statement said, adding a huge quantity
of arms and explosives were also recovered.
Sources said majority of the militants have either
gone underground or fled to the neighbouring Orakzai and North
Waziristan agencies instead of holding their positions to fight
the advancing Army troops.
Four militants were killed when the SFs exchanged
fire with them after an attack on a check-post at Hangu-Parachinar
border in the Kurram Agency in FATA. A woman was also killed and
three others sustained injuries when an artillery shell fell at
a house in Spim Wam during the exchange of fire. Official sources
said that militants fired three rockets at the security check-post
in Spin Wam which was followed by heavy machinegun fire. The SFs
subsequently retaliated with artillery shelling and ground troops
chased the militants. Troops claimed that four militants were
killed in the shootout.
Two female schoolteachers were killed when the
Taliban militants ambushed their car in Shandai Mor, two kilometres
from Khar in Bajaur Agency. Shazia Begum and Shamim Bibi, teachers
at the Communal Girls School, were travelling from the school
when militants fired on the vehicle, killing the two and injuring
two other persons. The driver of the vehicle in which the teachers
were travelling has reportedly been arrested.
SFs have killed at least four suspected Taliban
militants in the Hangu District. A private TV channel reported
that SF personnel were attacked by the Taliban at the Spin Thall
check-post, near the District's border with Kurram Agency in the
FATA. The SFs killed four militants in retaliation.
Two alleged suicide bombers accidentally blew
themselves up on their way to the PAF Range road, 25 kilometres
from Kohat city in the Kohat District. According to Police, the
suicide bombers were riding a motorcycle. After apparently slipping
on the road, one of the bomber's jacket accidentally exploded.
Police teams have recovered the arms, legs and head of one of
the bombers.
SF personnel have arrested the TTP Swat unit chief
Maulana Fazlullah's 'finance secretary' and 24 other militants,
official sources said. Military sources said that the SFs raided
a house at Koza Bandai in Kabal sub-division during search operations
and arrested Bakht Zaman, the TTP Swat finance secretary, and
Saifullah, a key Taliban commander. They also said troops recovered
PKR 81.5 million from the TTP 'finance secretary'. The SFs also
arrested 23 other TTP militants from various parts of Swat District
and also discovered two militant hideouts in Miadam.
November 5
The SFs secured Ladha Fort in South Waziristan
Agency and consolidated their positions on peaks around another
base of the militants. An ISPR statement said 28 TTP militants
had been killed, taking the death toll for the TTP to 422 since
the Operation Rah-e-Nijat began on October 17. Five soldiers,
including an officer, were killed and two were injured. "Security
forces have secured Ladha Fort and the northeast area of Shashak
and also cleared Bangel Khel," the ISPR statement stated. SFs
secured the Ladha Fort and consolidated their positions on the
peaks in the Sararogha area where the five soldiers were killed
in a blast, the military said. The troops also conducted house-to-house
search and clearance operations in the Spin Qamar, Wucha Kauna
Algad and Lugar Manza areas. The SFs also recovered a heavy cache
of arms from the Razmak-Makeen axis.
The TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud has urged his
fighters to stand fast against the military offensive in South
Waziristan, warning them in an intercepted message obtained that
cowards will go to hell. "Remember this is the commandment of
God that once fighting starts with the enemy, you cannot leave
the battlefield without permission from your commander, and don't
look for excuses to run away from the fighting," Hakeemullah told
his followers in a speech on November 3 broadcast over a wireless
radio network. Of those, who do run away, he warned, "Such people
will go to hell." The intelligence officials shared a recording
of the speech with The Associated Press, to show that the militant
leader is concerned about desertions in the ranks. "We are in
Jihad and we should not pay heed to the whispers of Satan. We
should sacrifice our lives for Islam so that we can feel pride
on the day of judgment," Hakeemullah said.
The political administration officials said the
troops had advanced some 30 kilometres from the Wana direction
so far. They have reportedly captured some strategically important
areas of Ladha Tehsil (revenue unit), which will facilitate their
advance on the Ladha town. According to officials, the SFs have
got control of Garde Serai mountain after consolidating positions
in Ladha and the freshly captured Ladha Fort, which was abandoned
by the FC after immense pressure from the militants more than
a year ago. Sources said the FC fort was mostly destroyed by the
militants. A clash was reported in Shamerai village near the Ladha
bridge. Officials said seven militants were killed and some others
sustained injuries in the incident. They said the rest of militants
fled the scene. The troops also captured Sheen Sar and the Hanrai
Tangi area in their advance from Jandola towards Sararogha. From
the Razmak side, the SFs have seized control of Panj Plorai and
Ashkar Kot to reach the Taliban stronghold of Makeen.
A statement from the ISPR said a blast near Sararogha
killed five soldiers, including one officer. Two more soldiers
sustained injuries. The explosion occurred as the troops were
busy in a clearance operation and consolidating their positions
on the Jandola-Sararogha axis. The troops have captured the areas
of Shashak and Bangalkhel on the Shakai-Kaniguram axis. Seven
militants were killed in retaliatory fire from SFs in Mangora
and Ghundai Ghar. The troops also secured the road from Asman
Manza to Gadawai, said the ISPR statement.
Four persons were killed when a US pilotless plane
struck a house with missiles in the Naurak village of North Waziristan
Agency. Tribal sources said the CIA-operated drone fired two missiles
at 1:25 am at a house of a tribesman named Musharraf in Naurak,
12 kilometres from Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan,
killing four persons. The political administration confirmed the
attack but denied any casualties. However, independent sources
confirmed the killing. Unnamed security officials were quoted
by the foreign and local media as claiming that those killed were
militants.
November 6
Troops entered Makeen - considered the headquarters
and the last bastion of the TTP in South Waziristan - as the military
killed 24 more militants in clashes. "Today, security forces moved
into Makeen, which is considered the headquarters of the Taliban.
A large part of town has been cleared. In the remaining parts,
a search-and-clearance operation is underway," said an ISPR spokesman
in a statement, adding that intense clashes were in progress,
and Taliban militants were fleeing the area - leaving behind their
weapons and ammunition.
Troops killed at least 21 militants in Makeen,
where a house owned by slain TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud was also
demolished. The Security Forces are also consolidating their positions
around Sararogha, where search-and-clearance operations are underway.
Troops, in addition, killed at least three TTP militants when
the group fired rockets in Sararogha. The SFs are also reportedly
consolidating their positions in and around Ladha, and conducting
search-and-clearance operations.
Eight militants were killed and four were arrested
during search operations in the Swat District. According to the
Swat Media Centre, SFs conducted search operations in the Dakorak
area of Charbagh sub-division early in the morning. During an
exchange of fire with troops, local Taliban leader Fida Hussain
and his four aides, Latif, Arsal Khan, Mohammad Anwar and Roshan,
were killed. Troops also seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
A military spokesman said that the Fida Hussain group was wanted
in cases of looting a bank's van, killing of a security guard
and attacks on the SFs in Charbagh, Khwazakhela and Alam Gunj.
In another encounter, militant leader Fazal Maabud was killed
and his unnamed associate was injured. In the Kabal sub-division,
troops killed suspected militants Abdul Wali and Bakht Sher in
a clash.
The deputy head of Iran's elite Revolutionary
Guards alleged that Pakistan arrested and later released the Jundallah
leader Abdolmalek Reigi a few days before the group carried out
a suicide bombing in Iran. "We have precise information about
the movement and places where terrorists are hiding," an Iranian
news agency quoted Brigadier General Hossein Salami of the Revolutionary
Guards as saying. "On September 26, Reigi was arrested in one
of the streets of Quetta but after an hour he was released following
the intervention of the intelligence service of our neighbouring
country," Salami said. Quetta, capital of Balochistan, borders
Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province where the Jundallah is active.
Some 42 people, including 15 Revolutionary Guards personnel, died
in the October 18 bombing in the Sistan-Baluchestan town of Pisheen.
"How is it possible that this guy can move freely (unless he is)
under the protection of the intelligence services?" Hossein Salami
said.
November 7
SFs killed 12 Taliban militants in Makeen town
of South Waziristan in FATA. The SFs cleared the eastern edge
of Makeen during efforts to secure the town. SFs also destroyed
a vehicle with fleeing terrorists on board, killing at least eight
Taliban militants. Also, three soldiers, including two officers,
were injured in clashes. Troops also recovered large caches of
weapons and ammunition from various compounds in Makeen. Troops
were consolidating their positions in Sararogha and the surrounding
areas, and killed four terrorists during clearance operations
north of Sararogha.
Five Taliban militants and three SF personnel
were killed in a clash at Tura Warai area of Hangu in NWFP. District
administration sources said that the Taliban attacked the Hangu
Frontier Corps fort with mortars and other heavy weapons, killing
three personnel. SFs retaliated, killing five Taliban militants.
The sources said two women were also injured in the three-hour
fighting between the SFs and the Taliban militants.
November 8
Troops killed 20 Taliban militants "over the last
24 hours" and found a huge cache of arms and ammunition, while
eight soldiers - including an officer - were injured in Operation
Rah-e-Nijat in various parts of South Waziristan. A statement
by the ISPR said that troops consolidated their positions around
Sararogha, Raghzai and Sagar Langer Gel, killing three Taliban
militants in a clash. "On the Shakai-Kaniguram axis, troops fully
dominated and controlled the entire axis and conducted a search-and-clearance
operation ... in Totai, Langar Khel, Tapparghai, Gutsurai, Gadowai,
Bangal Khel and Kund Mela," added the ISPR, adding that a huge
quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives was also found. "Eight
soldiers - including an officer - were injured and 12 Taliban
were killed ... a factory for manufacturing IED components ...
was found in Gadawai," mentioned the ISPR. In areas along Razmak
and Makeen, troops conducted a search-and-clearance operation.
"Taliban fired small arms and rockets in Blanki Sar, Lagar Manza,
Kund Mela and Makeen ... 5 Taliban were killed in clash," said
the ISPR.
10 Taliban militants were killed in a clash in
Zachmir Kund area of Mohmand Agency. The clash erupted when Taliban
militants attacked SFs with sophisticated weapons during a search
operation in the area. Two SFs were also killed in fighting -
which continued for about four hours. Five SFs were also injured.
Troops killed three Taliban militants and arrested
another one in an injured condition, while eight others surrendered
before SFs at Bajaur Agency. SFs used long-range artillery in
Mamoond tehsil (revenue unit) to target Taliban hideouts, killing
three Taliban militants.
At least 18 people, including a local councillor
heading an anti-Taliban Lashkar (militia), were killed
and 44 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in
a cattle market at Adezai village, 25 kilometres south of the
capital city of Peshawar in NWFP. Peshawar Senior Superintendent
of Police (Operations) Muhammad Karim Khan said that that around
eight-to-10 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast. The
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Police foiled a terror attack attempt when they
killed a would-be suicide bomber near a Golra police check post
at Islamabad in Punjab. While two accomplices of the attacker
managed to escape, a suicide jacket was recovered from the incident
site.
November 9
SFs fully secured the Shakai-Ladha road and started
patrolling the Kaniguram-Ladha axis as eight militants and four
soldiers died in fresh clashes in South Waziristan on the 24th
day of Operation Rah-e-Nijat. A local source said four
soldiers died in a roadside bomb blast in the Makeen area. However,
the Army militants fired several rockets at a security post in
the Makeen area, killing four soldiers and injuring another. Eight
militants were also killed in retaliatory action by the troops,
said a statement from the ISPR.
Local sources said ground troops were consolidating
their positions in Kaniguram and Makeen as fighter jets and helicopters
continued targeting the militants' hideouts in different areas
of South Waziristan. Locals said troops destroyed a stronghold
of militant commander Mumtaz Burki in the Jamalki Garagah area
in Kaniguram. A search operation was launched in Maidan, Kot Langarkhel,
Zay Killay, Habib Kot and the surrounding areas in Ladha sub-division,
said political administration officials. They also said that arms,
ammunition and explosives with suicide jackets and ball-bearings
were also recovered during search operations in the Shakai, Kaniguram
and Bangalkhela areas. Troops have reportedly secured the Wedan,
Ashkarkot and Tauda Cheena villages in Makeen as efforts were
underway to secure the town, known to be the nerve centre of the
militants. Most of the militants have, however, reportedly deserted
their positions and fled to the nearby North Waziristan, Kurram
and Orakzai tribal agencies. Officials said a security post had
been established in the Makeen area. They said resistance from
the militants had ended in Kaniguram, Shakai, Tiarza, Silay Rogha,
Asman Manza and Karwan Manza. The sources said troops had strengthened
their control over all those areas once known as the strongholds
of the militants.
The ISPR statement said SFs consolidated their
positions at the Jandola-Srarogha axis. A search and clearance
operation was also under way on the Shakai-Kaniguram axis. Locals
said a small number of the displaced people were coming to register
at the camp established in Ratta Kulachi in Dera Ismail Khan in
the NWFP. The ISPR said 9,343 cash cards had been issued to the
displaced families. It said over 4,845 patients from the displaced
families were treated at the Army field hospital in Dera Ismail
Khan.
Eight suspected militants were killed and several
others injured as military planes targeted their positions in
the Kurram Agency. According to sources, the areas which came
under the air attack included Chinarak, Spairkot and Ormigai in
the east of Parachinar. A vehicle carrying militants was hit in
Khwaidatkhel, leaving eight occupants dead. The sources said that
the banned TTP had shifted its weapons and other material to Orakzai
and central Kurram before the start of military operation in South
Waziristan.
Three Security Force personnel and two militants
were killed and a soldier sustained injuries in a bomb blast and
firing incidents in different areas of Bajaur Agency. Sources
said two soldiers were killed and another sustained injuries when
their vehicle was attacked with a remote-controlled bomb in the
Mulla Said area in Salarzai sub-division. In another incident,
unknown armed men shot dead Subedar Noor Zada of the Bajaur Levies
force in a high security zone in Khar.
Tariq Afridi, the TTP 'commander' for Darra Adam
Khel in the NWFP, has reportedly been appointed as the chief of
the banned organisation for Khyber Agency in the FATA and the
Matani area of Peshawar District in the NWFP. Taliban sources
said the appointment was made by the TTP Shura (executive council),
which met recently in Orakzai Agency. The sources said Muhammad,
the spokesman for the TTP in Darra Adam Khel, would also be the
spokesman for the organisation for the Khyber Agency and the Matani
area.
Three persons, including a Policeman, were killed
and five others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber riding
an auto-rickshaw blew himself up at a Police barricade on the
Ring Road in the Latifabad area of Peshawar, capital of the NWFP.
An eyewitness, Attaullah, told reporters that Policemen deployed
at a barricade near a canal signalled an auto-rickshaw to stop
around 10:00 am (PST). "A man in his early 20s, having a trimmed
beard and wearing brown clothes, came out of the three-wheeler
and detonated explosives strapped around his vest," he recalled.
Another eyewitness, Sher Afzal, said he saw two people going towards
the barricade in a rickshaw a few moments before the blast. Investigators
said five to six kilograms of explosives were used in the incident.
This was the second suicide bombing in Peshawar during the last
24 hours.
November 10
34 persons were killed and nearly 100 others sustained
injuries in a powerful car bomb blast at a crowded intersection
in the Charsadda bazaar of Charsadda District in the NWFP. Scores
of women and children are reported to have died and dozens of
shops and vehicles were damaged in the suspected suicide attack.
District Police chief Riaz Khan said the explosives were packed
in a car parked near the Farooq-i-Azam chowk. He said Police suspected
that it was a suicide attack because limbs and shoes of the suspected
bomber had been found. Shopkeepers and vendors were preparing
to put down the shutters and a large number of people were waiting
at a taxi stand when the explosion took place. Seven children
and three women were among the dead, Police said.
The Army claimed killing nine more militants to
raise the Taliban death tally to 492 since the launch of the Operation
Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan Agency on October 17. Among
the nine slain militants, the Army said five were killed in the
north of Ladha and four others were killed in the Tauda Cheena
and Fort Knoll areas of Makeen. Sources said the SFs were now
controlling more than 80 per cent of the Mehsud areas in the agency
as there was no or little resistance from the militants in recent
days. They said the majority of militants had either fled into
the neighbouring North Waziristan and Orakzai Agencies or sneaked
into the adjacent districts of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan in the
NWFP in the garb of fleeing population.
Azam Tariq, spokesman for the Hakeemullah Mehsud-led
TTP, claimed in a telephonic call to reporters from an undisclosed
location that the Army had so far captured only roads in South
Waziristan while the Taliban were holding the key locations in
forests and mountains. He said they had adopted the hit-and-run
policy and were preparing to fight a long guerrilla war against
the advancing Army. He also claimed inflicting casualties on the
SFs, but did not give the exact number. The TTP spokesman said
they were ready for a tough resistance against the Army.
Five militants were killed and seven injured when
fighter jets bombed Taliban hideouts in the Orakzai Agency. The
sources said that fighter jets bombed Ghalju, Khawga Rehri and
other parts of Upper Orakzai, destroying three Taliban hideouts.
Five militants were killed in an exchange of fire
with the SFs after attacks on the base camp of the Frontier Crops
and check-posts in the Bajaur Agency.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced a
"revolutionary" development package for Gilgit-Baltistan. Addressing
a public gathering, Gilani assured them that the Gilgit-Baltistan
election would be free, fair and transparent, and the Government
would encourage all political parties to participate in the election
process. He also said after the election, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan
would enjoy complete internal autonomy as they would have their
own Chief Minister, independent Public Service and Election commissions,
and a separate judiciary. Gilani also declared Skardu as a 'big
city', saying that the city had already been upgraded to the divisional
level. The Prime Minister said 200 schools and 100 dispensaries
would become operational in Skardu by the end of 2009, adding
that PKR 2 billion had already been allocated for education and
PKR 1 billion for healthcare. Allowance: He also announced Hill
Allowance for Government employees of grade 1-15 and fixed their
minimum salary at PKR 6,000. Gilani said the Skardu airport would
be upgraded to the international level in view of the city's tourism
potential. He stated that the Government had allocated PKR 100
million for the purchase of 100 buses for the students of Gilgit-Baltistan,
adding that 33 buses had already been bought. He added that salaries
of Police personnel in the area would be brought at par with their
federal counterparts, adding that 5,000 more staff would be inducted
in the Police force on quota at the district level.
A total of 264 candidates are contesting for 24
seats of the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly, the Associated
Press of Pakistan reported on November 5. In the November 12 elections,
there are 23 candidates contesting from PPP, 20 from MQM, 14 from
PML-N, 14 from PML-Q, 6 from Jamiat-e Ulema-e Islam, 3 from Jamaat-e
Islami, 10 from the Gilgit-Baltistan Democratic Alliance, 4 from
the ANP and 2 from TIP and 2 from the Balawaristan National Front.
The TTP claimed that the fight in South Waziristan
would be "tougher than in Kashmir". The TTP spokesman Azam Tariq
also vowed to fight a "tough, protracted guerrilla war" against
the army, and played down the group's losses in Waziristan.
The Afghan Taliban 'Commander' Abdul Manan a.k.a.
Mulla Toor Jan, has denied any link between the Afghan Taliban
and Pakistani militants, saying that the Afghan Taliban were not
in Pakistan but were fighting in Afghanistan against the occupied
troops. Abdul Manan said the Afghan Taliban was fighting against
the US and NATO troops as they occupied Afghanistan through force
and the Taliban would drive them out of their land. Responding
to a question regarding suicide attacks in Pakistan, he said:
"It is un-Islamic and wrong to target innocent people in blasts."
He also expressed his unawareness about the objectives of the
Pakistani Taliban. Asked about the Taliban Shura in Quetta, capital
of Balochistan, he said the Taliban had control of over 80 per
cent of Afghanistan and it would not be wise for the Taliban to
live in Pakistan, saying only one per cent or less Taliban militants
visit Pakistan to meet their relatives. Answering another question,
he rejected the influence of Al Qaeda on the Taliban, saying the
Taliban wanted an Islamic system in the country according to the
wishes of the people. Talking on coordination among the Taliban,
he said advisers of the Taliban existed all over the country and
they took decisions after consultation and their decisions had
to be followed by the Taliban.
November 11
A landmine blast and ambush killed 10 SF personnel
in the Mohmand Agency. "Eight soldiers were martyred and two were
wounded when their vehicle hit a landmine buried on the roadside…
The soldiers were on a routine patrol. The landmine was buried
by the militants. The explosion damaged the pick-up," Frontier
Corps spokesman Major Fazalur Rehman said. Two paramilitary personnel
were killed and eight others reported missing after Taliban militants
attacked their convoy at Ghanam Shah. Local official Rasool Khan
said two SF personnel, initially reported as missing, later made
contact. "A search operation is continuing for the remaining eight
who are missing," Khan said. Two bodies were recovered after the
ambush and 10 militants killed after attack helicopters shelled
suspected Taliban hideouts in the Bai Zai area.
Seven Taliban militants were killed and two soldiers
sustained injuries in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat
in the South Waziristan Agency, an ISPR statement said. "An intense
gunbattle took place at the recently-established checkpost at
Fort Knoll, where seven terrorists were killed and two soldiers,
including an officer injured," it said. The forces also reportedly
cleared Kaniguram and discovered eight tunnels inside the compounds
and seized arms and ammunition. The operation is now mostly focused
on consolidation of troops' positions in and around the TTP strongholds
of Makeen, Ladha and Sararogha.
Five suspected militants were killed when helicopter
gunships targeted the hideouts of Taliban in the mountainous area
of lower Orakzai Agency. Officials said that at least six camps
and hideouts of the Taliban were completely destroyed in the air
strike in Sultanzai area in the evening. The air attack was conducted
on the information that Taliban militants were fleeing South Waziristan
Agency and taking shelter in the Orakzai Agency. Local tribesmen
said that two women were also among the victims as militants were
residing in their house.
Security Forces killed three militants and seized
a huge quantity of arms and ammunition in the Bara sub-division
of Khyber Agency. Security officials in the Shahkas Fort of Frontier
Corps said that they launched a search operation in Gurguri and
adjoining areas after getting information about the presence of
some militants. They said that at least three militants were killed
in an exchange of fire.
The operational commander of Swat, Major General
Asfaque Nadeem, said that 100 per cent area of Swat was under
the control of SFs and all entry and exit points had been closed
so that militants could not escape from the valley. Talking to
a group of senior journalists in Mingora, he said the SFs were
conducting search operations in some areas of Swat District on
information about the presence of unwanted elements. Gen Asfaque
also said that work on development projects had already been started
and the SFs were repairing and constructing mosques.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the National
Assembly that the masterminds of suicide attacks on the International
Islamic University and the UN office in Islamabad had been arrested.
He said the Police investigation led to the arrest of two masterminds
and the Police officials extracted important information from
them. However, no details regarding the arrest were provided by
the minister.
November 12
17 soldiers were killed in stiff resistance to
Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan Agency by the TTP. This
is the highest death toll for the military since operations were
launched on October 17, security officials said. At least 15 soldiers
were killed in clashes while a roadside bomb blast killed two
soldiers in the Sararogha area further east, officials said. The
ISPR earlier said that five soldiers and 22 militants were killed
in the last 24 hours of the offensive. But the Army and security
officials in the area said that the military death toll was 17.
15 soldiers were killed in the clashes, an Army officer said.
It is the first time we have seen such stiff resistance, he said.
Another unnamed official also said the clashes included face-to-face
fighting.
The Army said five militants were killed during
a clash with militants in the Ghra Sar area on the Jandola-Sararogha
axis. The troops were busy clearing the area when they came under
fire from the militants. One soldier sustained injuries in an
exchange of fire. 14 militants and five soldiers were killed while
seven soldiers sustained injuries in another clash in the Kot
Langarkhel area near Ladha as the troops continued a search and
clearance operation on the Shakai-Kaniguram axis. The military
said caches of arms and ammunition were recovered in Sata, Mangora
Sar, Narakai, Gulit Killay, Torwam and Shabikhel areas. On the
Razmak-Makeen axis, the SFs continued advancing towards the south
of Makeen. A security post was also established in Zaidullah Gharyum
and troops started patrolling the area, the ISPR said. It said
the operation was under way to secure the Darra Algad area, located
south of Makeen. The statement said three more militants were
killed during a clash with troops in Rogha village. The political
administration officials said the Ladha-Wana Road had been cleared
of landmines while the operation was under way to clear the Ladha-Makeen
Road. Five remote-controlled bombs were discovered and defused
on the Ladha-Wana Road, officials added.
Syed Abul Hassan Jaffry, media manager of the
Iranian consulate in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, was shot dead
near his home in Gulbarg. Jaffry was going to his office when
he was shot at point-blank range as he turned his car towards
the Swati Phatak. Cantonment Circle Superintendent of Police Nisar
Khan Marwat said that it appeared to be a sectarian attack. He
said there was no eyewitness, but it was possible that more than
one assailant had fired at the car from two directions with 30-bore
pistols. Jaffry's brother-in-law Shah Agha said "It was a target
killing, but it is not clear if he was killed by Americans or
it was a sectarian attack. He had no enmity with anyone."
November 13
13 people - 10 military personnel and three civilians
- were killed and 60 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself
up in front of the regional headquarters of the ISI in Peshawar,
the NWFP capital. An ISPR statement said the bomber rammed his
explosives-laden vehicle into a military check-post on Artillery
Road at 6:45am (PST), killing 10 military personnel and three
civilians, and injuring 60. The NWFP Inspector General of Police,
Malik Naveed, said the vehicle was loaded with around 200 kilograms
of explosives. NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain told
the media that nine ISI officials were killed, while three were
missing. Hussain also said that surrounding walls and an entire
block of the agency headquarters were completely destroyed, while
six blocks had been partially damaged.
Ten persons, including nine security officials,
were killed and 22 injured in a suicide attack at a Police Station
in the Bannu town of Bannu District in the NWFP. A Police official
said that a suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden vehicle
into the Bakkakhel Police Station on Miranshah Road - killing
seven Security Force personnel, two Frontier Corps troops and
a pedestrian. He also said that 22 people, including 19 Policemen,
were also injured in the suicide attack. The station is close
to the border with North Waziristan. The bomber reportedly struck
25 minutes after the suicide attack on the ISI building in provincial
capital Peshawar.
Six militants and two soldiers were killed in
the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat in the South Waziristan
Agency, an ISPR press release said. The soldiers were killed and
an equal number were wounded during an encounter with the militants
at Ahmed Wam. SFs have reportedly fully secured the area from
Makeen to Marobi Raghzai. They also cleared Rogha and Mir Khoni.
Pakistan's focus in the war on terror is being
affected because of persistent tension with India, Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani said. "While Pakistan is fully committed to
taking to logical conclusion the ongoing operations against the
Taliban, the country's forces are over stretched because of perpetual
tensions on the eastern border," Gilani said at a meeting with
the visiting US National Security Adviser Gen (r) James Jones.
The Prime Minister said the US should be "sensitive" to Pakistan's
core interests - including the Kashmir dispute, issues related
to water, the Indian military's capability and the balance of
power in South Asia. He also said the US should use its influence
with India to resume the composite dialogue process and bring
down tensions with Pakistan, to enable Islamabad to concentrate
on the war on terror.
November 14
Troops killed 13 Taliban militants in two separate
clashes in Swat in the NWFP, the ISPR said in a statement. Five
terrorists were killed after a group of Taliban militants ambushed
a military convoy near Totakan village, while, another eight Taliban
militants were killed during a search operation in a forest near
Mangaltan village.
12 persons, including a Policeman and a three-year-old
child, were killed and another 35 injured when a suicide bomber
detonated his explosives-laden vehicle at a Police checkpost in
Peshawar, the provincial capital of NWFP, Police and hospital
staff said.
SFs killed seven Taliban militants in operations
in the South Waziristan Agency, the ISPR said in a statement.
The forces also cleared the area around Madike, located two kilometers
northeast of Ahmed Wam, and also secured an important height,
Point 1663, at Parmonkai Roghzai, the ISPR statement said, adding,
numerous propaganda CDs, maps and passports were seized during
a search operation for Taliban commander Nasrullah.
Seven militants were killed and a Taliban ammunition
depot destroyed as fighter jets pounded suspected Taliban hideouts
in the Lower Orakzai Agency.
November 15
Twelve more militants were killed in clashes with
the SFs in Karakar and Shamozai Gharai while 14 bodies were found
dumped in Charbagh's Gulibagh area in the Swat Valley. It was
the second consecutive day that clashes between the SFs and militants
were reported from Swat District. Eight casualties of militants
were reported from Charbagh on November 14 when the SFs claimed
killing them in a clash during a search operation in the Ashar
Banr and Nala areas. The troops killed 12 more militants in two
different areas of the valley. Four militants were killed in a
gunfight in the Shamozai Gharai area. In addition, eight bodies
were recovered from Karakar, a mountain connecting the Swat and
Buner Districts, while 14 bodies were found in the Gulibagh area.
The bodies dumped in Karakar and Gulibagh areas were stated to
be of militants. The ISPR said 12 militants were killed in Karakar
Banda, Ilam Saand, Ashar Banr and Gari Shamozai. It said the militants
were killed during a search operation. There was no mention in
the ISPR press release about the bodies recovered from the Gulibagh
area.
Volunteers of the Lashkar (militia) shot dead
three veil-clad men near the residence of an anti-Taliban Nazim
in Bazidkhel village of Peshawar District in the NWFP. Nazim of
the Bazidkhel Union Council, Faheemur Rahman had raised a voluntary
Lashkar comprising several hundred villagers to protect his area
from the militants. He has survived a number of bombings and attacks
on his life after a feud with Mangal Bagh, the chief of the Khyber
Agency-based militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Islam. "The three Burqa-clad
terrorists were on their way to my village Hujra, five kilometres
south of Peshawar on the Kohat Road, when someone informed the
Qaumi Lashkar volunteers and the villagers managed to kill them,"
Faheemur Rahman said.
The death toll from a suicide car bombing at a
Police checkpoint in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP, increased
to 15, Police and administrative officials said. The bomber detonated
his cache of explosives on November 14 as Police tried to stop
and search his vehicle at a check-post in the city. "The death
toll has risen to 15. Twenty-one injured people are still being
treated in hospitals," a senior Police official, Karim Khan, said.
The TTP has claimed responsibility for the November
13-suicide attack on the regional headquarters of the ISI in Peshawar.
Qari Hussain, a top TTP 'commander', telephoned reporters to claim
responsibility for the suicide bombing that targeted the ISI regional
headquarters off the busy Khyber Road in the Cantonment area.
Qari Hussain, cousin of the TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud and known
as the trainer of suicide bombers, threatened further attacks
against the Security Forces and law-enforcement agencies.
18 militants were killed as fighter jets targeted
Taliban hideouts in the Orakzai Agency. The bombings also destroyed
10 Taliban hideouts in the Ghaljo, Dabori and Mamozai areas of
upper Orakzai Agency. Shelling by helicopter gunships also destroyed
a Taliban ammunition depot in the area.
Five militants were killed in the ongoing Operation
Rah-e-Nijat in the South Waziristan Agency. The SFs claimed
killing five militants in Ahmadwam village on the Jandola-Sararogha
Road. Military sources said an exchange of fire took place between
the SFs and militants during a search operation in Ahmadwam that
resulted in the killing of five terrorists. The sources said the
troops cleared the villages of Shavazai, Khaznikai and Odin Sar
on the road between Jandola and Sararogha. A cache of arms was
recovered in the Tiarza area on the Shakai-Kaniguram Road, where
SFs are conducting a search operation. Four roadside bombs were
recovered and defused by the bomb disposal squad of the Army during
a search operation on the Razmak-Makeen Road. The SFs also reportedly
established a check-post in the Shawal Algad area on the same
route. The troops are reported to have cleared the Ladha Bridge
and recovered arms and ammunition during the operation in the
same area. Sources said the militants launched a rocket attack
on the SFs in the Tauda Cheena area. However, no casualty was
reported in the attack.
Intelligence agencies have arrested a top leader
of the TTP from a major city of the Punjab province after trailing
him for a week. The militant, who was only identified by his initials
N.A.Z, is said to rank amongst the top leaders of the category-3
classification done by the security agencies. Category-1 includes
Osama bin Laden, Mulla Omar and Aymen al-Zawahiri. Category-2
includes Hakeemullah Mehsud, Maulvi Fazlullah etc, while Category-3
top leaders comprise the cadre that is directly responsible for
specific territories, which in the arrested militant's case are
the entire Punjab province and the federal capital Islamabad.
He was described by an unnamed Police official as an "information
treasure trove". N.A.Z hails from a Middle Eastern country and
was reportedly the chief planner of terrorist activities in Punjab
and Islamabad, the sources said.
A militant, considered to be a close aide of the
TTP Darra Adam Khel 'commander' Tariq, confessed to killing a
Polish engineer earlier in 2009. The Taliban in Darra Adam Khel
had announced on February 8 that they had beheaded Polish engineer
Peter Stanczak. Attaullah said 'commander' Tariq had assured him
that the Peter's murder would earn them money and ensure the release
of their colleagues in Government custody. The TTP militant also
confessed to his involvement in a number of other incidents of
terrorism and abductions for ransom. Attaullah said he, along
with Abdul Samad, Umer Farooq, Mufti Abdul Rasheed and Abdul Ghafoor,
had killed dozens of people in various attacks and abducted several
others for ransom.
The CIA of the USA has funnelled hundreds of millions
of dollars to Pakistan's ISI since the 9/11 attacks, accounting
for as much as one-third of the CIA's annual budget - reported
an American newspaper, citing current and former US officials.
The Los Angeles Times quoted officials as saying that the
ISI had also "collected tens of millions of dollars through a
classified CIA programme that pays for the capture or killing
of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards
publicly offered by the State Department." The officials said
the payments have triggered intense debate within the US Government,
because of "long-standing suspicions that the ISI continues to
help Taliban who undermine US efforts in Afghanistan and provide
sanctuary to Al Qaeda members in Pakistan." But US officials have
continued the funding because the ISI's assistance is considered
crucial: "almost every major terrorist plot this decade has originated
in Pakistan's tribal belt, where ISI informant networks are a
primary source of intelligence", said the newspaper. The White
House National Security Council has "this debate every year",
said a former high-ranking US intelligence official involved in
the discussions. Despite deep misgivings about the ISI, the official
said, "there was no other game in town". The payments to Pakistan
are authorised under a covert programme initially approved by
former President George Bush and continued under President Barack
Obama. "The CIA payments are a hidden stream in a much broader
financial flow... the US has given Pakistan more than $15 billion
over the last eight years in military and civilian aid," said
Los Angeles Times. "The ISI has used the covert CIA money
for a variety of purposes, including the construction of a new
headquarters in Islamabad... that project pleased CIA officials
because it replaced a structure considered vulnerable to attack:
it also eased fears that the US money would end up in the private
bank accounts of ISI officials," it said.
November 16
The SFs killed four militants near Gulibagh in
the Swat District while the body of a militant 'commander' was
found dumped in the Sambat area of Matta sub-division. The ISPR
said the troops conducted a search operation in Roria near the
Gulibagh area of Charbagh. It said the SFs confronted the militants
during the action and killed four of them. Sources said the bullet-riddled
body of Ahmad Jan alias Tor Lala was found dumped on a
roadside in Sambat after unidentified men killed him. Ahmad Jan
was among the 'commanders' of the Swat militants wanted by the
SFs in numerous acts of terror in the area, the sources said.
Three persons were killed and more than 30 others
sustained injuries in a suicide car bombing which targeted the
Badaber Police Station on the Kohat Road near Peshawar, the NWFP
capital. The powerful blast razed to the ground a mosque, a large
portion of the Police Station and three nearby buildings. It also
injured some horses in the nearby horse stand and damaged several
vehicles in the vicinity. Eyewitnesses said Constable Umer Rahman
of the Frontier Constabulary opened fire as he became suspicious
about a fast-approaching vehicle near the Badaber Police Station
around 7:40am. "When the brave constable opened fire, the explosives
stuffed in the vehicle exploded. The soldier also suffered injuries
but he is safe and sound," Frontier Constabulary Commandant Zafarullah
Khan said. Those killed in the blast were identified as Dilshad
from Badaber village, Abdul Mannan from Mohmand Agency and Sher
Rahman belonging to the Kurram Agency. Officials of the bomb disposal
squad estimated that around 250 kilograms of explosives had been
stuffed in the vehicle. This was the fifth incident of its kind
in and outside Peshawar during the last eight days.
November 17
The Army has captured most of the population centres
and disrupted the terrorists' food supply line in South Waziristan,
military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. "The myth has
been broken that this was a graveyard for empires and it would
be a graveyard for the army," Abbas told reporters in Sararogha.
"Major town and population centres have been secured," he added.
An ISPR statement said the SFs had completely cleared Sararogha.
"Sararogha has been completely cleared and fully under control
of security forces," it said. They secured important feature point
1665, south of Janata, and conducted sanitisation of Khazhikai,
Shuza Sar and defused six IEDs. The SFs also consolidated positions
at Ghundai Gur, Tikrai Sar, Sultano, Pungai, Ladha Fort and Bangel
Khel, and carried out search operations at Gani Khel, Khaikaeh
Narai. The ISPR statement said the forces were strengthening their
positions on the Razmak-Makeen axis. They also cleared Blanki
Sar and destroyed six Taliban bunkers.
The Taliban chief in Swat District, Maulana Fazlullah
claimed that he had safely crossed over to Afghanistan. BBC
Urdu Service said Fazlullah telephoned its Peshawar reporter
Abdul Hai Kakar to claim that he was in Afghanistan and that his
fighters would soon start guerrilla attacks against the Security
Forces in Swat. The report said Fazlullah read a written statement
while speaking from a mobile phone having an Afghanistan code.
Fazlullah is reported to have threatened that the NWFP Information
Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, who is in the forefront in condemning
the Taliban, would meet the same fate as late Afghan President
Dr Najibullah who was shot dead and then hanged, along with his
younger brother Ahmadzai, in Kabul's Aryana Square by the Afghan
Taliban on September 27, 1996 on the day they captured the city.
November 18
Six civilians and 12 militants were killed, while
23 people sustained injuries as jetfighters shelled various parts
of the Orakzai Agency. Tribal and official sources said the jet
fighters targeted the hideouts and compounds of the militants
in Ghiljo, Mishti Bazaar, Mazidgarhi and Tor Kanray, killing 12
militants and injuring 17 others. Eight hideouts and four vehicles
were also destroyed in the attack. The sources said that some
of the shells missed the targets and hit houses in Shahukhel area,
killing three women, two minors and a man while injuring six others.
Those killed were identified as Utmankhela, Usmankhela, Naeema
Bibi, Asad, Samina and Abdul Wahid.
In Kurram Agency, the SFs targeted the Shashu
Ghund area with artillery, killing five militants and injuring
four others. Tribal sources said the SFs fired 70 artillery shells
at the hideouts of militants in Shashu Ghund. Some of the slain
militants were identified as Hamza, Masood and Saifullah.
Four militants were killed and two others sustained
injuries when fighter planes targeted their hideouts in the Mamond
and Nawagai sub-divisions of Bajaur Agency. SFs, sources said,
shelled the militants' positions with artillery and rocket launchers
in the Charmang Valley of Nawagai, killing four militants and
injuring two others.
SFs claimed killing six more militants in South
Waziristan Agency. A statement of the ISPR said six militants
were killed when they opened small arms fire on the SFs in the
Kund Mela area on the Shakai-Kaniguram Road. Five soldiers, including
an officer, sustained injuries in the attack. In retaliatory fire,
six militants were killed. On the Jandola-Srarogha axis, the SFs
continued consolidating their positions in Khazhankai, Adirai
Mela, Chagmalai and Siltoi. A roadside bomb exploded near a security
patrol, injuring one officer and two soldiers. On the Razmak-Makeen
Road, the troops destroyed eight bunkers in Lita Sar and Blanai
Sar areas. A huge quantity of weapons was also recovered during
a search operation in Cheena village, said the ISPR.
Azam Tariq, spokesman for the banned TTP, told
a news conference at a secret location in South Waziristan that
the Taliban never thought of Azad (independent) Waziristan, which
was the propaganda of the "pro-US" government in Islamabad. Only
three journalists from the neighbouring North Waziristan Agency
were reportedly invited to a meeting with Azam Tariq at a secret
location. The TTP spokesman told the journalists that they would
continue fighting the American and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
He said the Taliban in Waziristan had no dispute with the Government
of Pakistan and the Army, as the people of this region were patriots.
He alleged that the Government had risked the country and the
people by lending support to the United States and the TTP would
continue its war till the US control ended. He dissociated the
Taliban from the blasts in civilian areas and claimed the Blackwater
agency was involved in all such attacks. "Look, what it (Blackwater)
has done in Iraq with civilians," said Azam Tariq, adding the
security agency was brought into Pakistan under a well-planned
strategy. An AFP report added that Azam Tariq also said the Taliban's
guerrilla war would expel troops from South Waziristan. "We have
not been defeated. We have voluntarily withdrawn into the mountains
under a strategy that will trap the Pakistan Army in the area,"
the Taliban spokesman claimed. "The Army claims they have captured
most of the towns. This is wrong, in fact we have vacated old
forts which we captured from them in previous clashes. The troops
are trapped there and we will retake the area," he said.
Four militants were killed and five others injured
in a US drone missile strike in the Shanakhora village of North
Waziristan. "It was a US drone attack which targeted a militant
compound killing four militants and wounding five others," a senior
security official in the area said. He said two missiles were
fired from a US drone. Another security official confirmed the
attack. "The compound was being used by the Taliban militants,
however it is not clear whether there were any foreign militants
or high-value targets," the official said. Residents in Miranshah,
the capital of North Waziristan, said they heard two loud blasts
just before midnight.
Two women, three children and two men were killed
when military planes accidentally bombed some houses in the Hangu
District of NWFP. In the course of an attack on a seminary, the
planes are reported to have accidentally dropped some bombs on
adjacent shops and some houses in the Shahu Khel area of Hangu.
Besides the women and children, two labourers were also killed
in the attack.
Six more bodies of suspected militants were found
dumped in various areas of Swat Valley. Those whose bodies were
found also included a close aide to the slain deputy leader of
the Swat Taliban Maulana Shah Dauran. The corpse of Ihsanullah
was found dumped in the fields in Kokarai locality of Mingora.
The body of another militant, identified as Shamakhel, was recovered
from a roadside in Charbagh. Local sources said four bodies of
suspected militants were found in the Gorra area situated on the
border with Dir District.
November 19
20 people - including three Policemen - were killed
and 50 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at
the main gate of the Judicial Complex on Khyber Road in Peshawar,
the NWFP capital. This was the sixth suicide attack in 11 days
in the provincial capital. The bomber struck at around 10:20am
at the main gate of the complex, which houses district lower courts
and is close to the Peshawar High Court, Civil Secretariat, the
NWFP Assembly Flag Staff House and other Government offices and
installations. Peshawar District Coordination Officer Sahibzada
Muhammad Anis told reporters that it was a suicide attack, and
the bomber had tried to enter the court premises. "He was on foot
and detonated his explosives when security personnel tried to
stop him," said Anis, adding that three Policemen were among the
dead. The Cantonment Superintendent of Police, Nisar Marwat, said
that around eight-to-10 kilograms of explosives were used in the
attack.
13 militants and a paramilitary soldier were killed
and several other people injured in air raids and clashes in various
parts of the Bajaur Agency. Fighter planes and helicopter gunships
are reported to have targeted militant hideouts in the Speray,
Gatki and Sewai areas of Mamond sub-division. Two relatives of
a militant leader, Maulvi Muneer, were killed when a shell hit
his house in Sewai. One mortar shell hit the house of militant
leader Fam Jan in Kamangara area of Nawagai sub-division, killing
him, his wife and two sons. In addition, four militants were killed
and five others injured in a clash with the Security Forces in
the Charmang area of Nawagai sub-division. The clash erupted when
militants attacked a security post in Bar Cheenar area with heavy
weapons. The fighting, which continued for over an hour, also
left one paramilitary soldier, Sarwar Khan, dead and six others
injured. A girl was injured when a shell fired by militants hit
a house.
SFs are reported to have killed seven more Taliban
militants in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South
Waziristan Agency. The SFs "engaged and cleared a Taliban [hideout]
...near Kikrai" on the Jandola-Sararogha front, said an ISPR statement.
"During the clash, seven Taliban were killed," said the ISPR,
adding that troops also consolidated their positions around Tor
Wam, and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition. The SFs also
reportedly gained control of positions around Marghaband, and
seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition. They have started
clearing compounds in Janata village, and found some arms and
ammunition. The troops are also consolidating their positions
on the Razmak-Makeen front, and found the bodies of two Taliban
militants in Imarkhel Zangi.
November 20
Tribal and officials sources said five militants
were killed and nine persons, including a soldier, sustained injuries
during an exchange of fire in the Asman Manza area in the Ladha
sub-division of South Waziristan. The clash, which continued for
an hour, erupted when the militants attacked a military camp.
In the Khyber Agency, eight militants were killed
in a clash with the SFs in the Gandao area. Official sources said
the militants attacked a security check-post in Gandao with heavy
arms, prompting the troops to retaliate. The exchange of gunfire
continued for two hours in which eight militants were killed.
Further, a member of the BDU was killed in a roadside explosion
in Bara sub-division.
SFs targeted the hideouts of militants at Charmang
in Nawagai and Hazar town in the Mamond sub-division of Bajaur
Agency with artillery shells and mortar guns, killing six militants
and injuring four others. Four soldiers were killed and three
wounded when the militants attacked their check-post in the Chinar
area.
A US drone strike on a compound in North Waziristan
Agency killed eight Taliban militants. Two militants were also
injured in the attack on the building located in Michi Khel village
of Mir Ali revenue-division, 18 kilometres east of agency the
headquarters Miranshah. The targeted compound was owned by two
brothers and the Taliban militants frequently visited the building.
Five militants, including a foreigner, were killed
when the SFs targeted the militant hideouts in Speen Thall area
of Thall sub-division in the Hangu District. An Afghan militant
was among the dead.
The death toll in the bomb attack on a Police
party in the Yakatoot area of provincial capital Peshawar increased
to three after a Sub-Inspector and another Policeman succumbed
to injuries at the Lady Reading Hospital. According to the bomb
disposal unit, around 10 kilograms of high-intensity explosives
were used in the attack. The officials added that the explosives
were planted on the roadside and triggered through a remote-control
device when the patrolling car was passing through the area.
Mulla Muhammed Omar, chief of the Afghan Taliban,
has reportedly fled Quetta, the Balochistan capital, and found
refuge from the potential US attacks in Karachi, capital of Sindh,
with the assistance of Pakistan's intelligence. Mulla Omar had
been residing in Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban Shura had moved
from Kandahar after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Two
senior US intelligence officials and one former senior CIA officer
said that Omar travelled to Karachi in October 2009 after the
end of Ramadan. He inaugurated a new senior leadership council
in Karachi, the officials said. The officials accused the ISI,
Pakistan's external intelligence agency, of helping the Taliban
leaders move from Quetta, where they were exposed to attacks by
the US drones.
India is complicating issues to delay the peace
dialogue with Pakistan on all issues, Foreign Office spokesman
Abdul Basit said. Basit said Pakistan wanted initiation of a result-oriented
dialogue process with India. "We are not interested in mere photo
sessions," he added. India was not sincere about resolving the
Kashmir and water-related disputes with Pakistan, he claimed,
adding that the Indian behaviour testified that it did not want
peace in the region.
November 21
SFs killed 14 Taliban militants in Operation
Rah-e-Nijat in the South Waziristan Agency, as six soldiers,
including an officer, were also killed and another four injured.
The ISPR said the SFs secured Lakki Ghundi after an intense battle
with the Taliban. "During the operation, 14 terrorists were killed,
while six soldiers, including an officer embraced martyrdom and
four were injured," it said. SFs cleared Gandil Wala area near
Jandola and launched a search operation in Sarwekai and Paya near
Tiarza. SFs also conducted a mopping up operation at Yargha Khel
near Kaniguram and also discovered a 70-foot tunnel in the area.
Troops also secured Manna, Tut Kasko Khula and Kandao Sar west
of Razmak and secured Laghar Narai as well. The road from Laghar
Narai to Nawazkot was cleared and eight IEDs were neutralised.
A large cache of weapons was recovered, the ISPR added.
Three suspected militants blew themselves up after
Police surrounded them in Sarar village on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad
in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). "Police chasing the suspects
surrounded them in Sarar village" on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad,
Police official Raja Faisal said. "The militants, who were on
foot, blew themselves up after police surrounded them," he said,
adding that there were no Police casualties.
November 22
The SFs claimed to have killed 13 militants and
conceded one casualty and injuries to five soldiers during an
encounter in the Shahukhel area of Orakzai Agency. Military sources
said the FC launched a ground assault in the Shahukhel area (bordering
Hangu District of NWFP) early in the morning. During the battle,
the sources said 13 militants and one Junior Commissioned Officer
were killed and five soldiers sustained injuries. Tribal sources
said the hideouts and compounds of militants in the Shahukhel
area were bombarded by fighter jets, gunship helicopters and artillery.
The use of jet fighters, however, could not be confirmed officially.
Talking to reporters from an undisclosed location, the banned
TTP Orakzai chapter spokesman Ziaur Rehman, however, claimed that
no militant was killed in the fighting.
11 suspected militants, a majority of foreigners
among them, were killed and seven others injured when jets bombed
militant hideouts and an Afghan refugee camp in Orakzai Agency.
Strikes were also carried out in the Chappri Feroze Khel and Bezote
areas bordering Khyber Agency.
17 militants, including two 'commanders' and two
foreigners, were killed and eight others injured in bombing by
fighter planes and clashes between the SFs and militants in different
areas of the Bajaur Agency. Official sources said jet fighters
of the Pakistan Air Force carried out intensive bombing on militant
positions in the Saparay, Kharkay, Gotki and Sewai areas of Mamond
subdivision, killing four militants, including two foreigners,
and injuring five others. Four bunkers, they added, were also
destroyed in the attacks. In another operation, the SFs killed
10 militants and an important 'commander', identified as Rafiullah,
and wounded three others when fierce clashes broke out between
the two sides in the Lois am, Inzari and Rashakai areas. Reports
said the militants had attacked security checkpoints with automatic
weapons, which was retaliated instantly. A local militant 'commander',
whose identity could not be established, was among the dead. Meanwhile,
a militant commander was killed when the troops shelled his house
with artillery guns in the Tarkho area in Mamond.
Five militants were killed and nine others sustained
injuries in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South
Waziristan Agency. Officials said the troops came under attack
from the militants during their advance towards the Pash Ziarat
and Shawal areas. The SFs retaliated, killing two of the attackers
and injuring five others. The troops subsequently secured control
of the Pash Ziarat area after pushing back the militants, the
officials added. They were now reportedly advancing towards Shawal,
they said, adding a trooper also sustained injury in the clashes.
A clash was also reported from the Asman Manza area of Kaniguram.
Officials said the militants attacked a camp of the SFs from the
Murdar Algad area. Retaliatory fire from the troops resulted in
the killing of three militants. One soldier sustained injuries
in the encounter.
The SFs said that they had secured the Ladha-Makeen
Road and started patrolling the Wana-Kaniguram route in South
Waziristan. The troops also said they were in full control of
the Jandola-Wana Road and that electricity supply has been restored
in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan.
The LeT denied having any link to two men arrested
in Chicago on terrorism charges. David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain
Rana were arrested in October 2009 and are accused of plotting
an attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and unspecified
targets in India, the US authorities said in court documents.
The documents said the plans were discussed with the LeT and with
another militant Ilyas Kashmiri. The Indian authorities are also
investigating whether the two men had links to the Mumbai attacks
of November 2008. "David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana have
no connections with the LeT, linking them with our organisation
was propaganda aimed at maligning Kashmir's freedom struggle…
We strongly condemn it," Abdullah Gaznavi, the spokesman for the
group, told Reuters by phone. "All our members are local
Kashmiri Muslims and we have no network in America, or any other
place… We are only fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir,"
Gaznavi claimed.
The Government has amended the Anti-Terrorism
Act 1997 through the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance 2009,
which bars courts from granting bail to suspected terrorists liable
to the death sentence, life imprisonment or a 10-year prison term.
According to a copy of the ordinance available, the Government
has amended Section 21-D of the Anti Terrorism Act 1997, under
which no court, including the high courts and the Supreme Court,
can grant bail to a person liable to these punishments. The Government
had included Section 21-E in the act, under which the period of
physical remand of suspected terrorists has been increased from
30 days to 90 days, enabling Police to effectively interrogate
suspects. Under the new Section 21-E, banks and monetary institutions
are bound to provide information on transactions and accounts
having links with crimes or financial assistance to terrorists.
November 23
SFs claimed to have killed 17
militants in the Shahukhel area of Orakzai Agency. Official sources
said gunship helicopters targeted the hideouts and compounds of
the militants in the Shahukhel area. Ground forces also used heavy
artillery and took control of the area. The sources said during
the shelling, the SFs killed 17 militants and injured eight others.
Nine more Taliban militants have
been killed in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat in the
South Waziristan Agency. An Inter-Services Public Relations statement
said that three soldiers were also injured in the fighting. The
Security Forces cleared Golden Top west of Pash Ziarat in Tabai
Sar following "intense clashes" with Taliban, and consolidated
their positions around Lakhi Ghund and the Bunker ridge.
Six people were killed when a
shell landed in a civilian area during an exchange of fire between
the militants and SFs at Gagra check-post in the Khyber Agency.
In addition, 19 persons, including seven soldiers, sustained injuries
in the clash. Tribal and official sources said a group of militants
attacked a security check-post at Gagra in the Landikotal Tehsil
(revenue unit), prompting the SFs to retaliate. The sources said
10 mortar shells landed in a market in Landikotal while one of
the shells hit a coach and a pick-up near a filling station, killing
six persons on the spot. Those killed were identified as Ali Syed,
Iqbal, Akhtar Zeb, Arif, Sanaaf and Rehmatullah.
November 24
SFs killed at least 23 militants
during an operation in the Bara tehsil (revenue unit) of
the Khyber Agency. The SFs were backed by helicopters, tanks,
armoured personnel carriers and heavy artillery. A press release
issued by the FC media cell in Jamrud said that during the day-long
operation, codenamed Khwakh Ba De Sham at least 23 militants
were killed and 36 suspects arrested. 12 explosives-laden vehicles
were destroyed and a huge quantity of arms and ammunitions seized
in different localities of Bara.
Tribal and official sources said
helicopter gunships pounded the hideouts and compounds of militants
in the Daburi, Ghiljo, Khadizai, Mamozai, Tor Smat, Akhunkot,
Mazid Ghari, Saiful Darra, Machiney Killay, Arghanjo and Ghundi
Killay areas of Orakzai Agency, killing 19 militants and injuring
13 others. In addition, seven hideouts and four vehicles owned
by the militants were also destroyed.
Four militants were killed and
several others sustained injuries in clashes with the SFs in the
Khar sub-division of Bajaur Agency. Three members of a family,
including two children, and a prisoner were killed and four others
injured when rockets hit a house in Maminzo area and Bajaur Scouts
headquarters in Khar sub-division early in the day. Sources said
that militants fired a number of rockets on various checkpoints
of the SFs, Levies Force and Bajaur Scouts headquarters. Several
shells landed in the compound of Bajaur Scouts headquarters one
of which hit the lock-up, killing a prisoner and injuring two
troopers. The SFs subsequently retaliated, killing four militants.
Helicopter gunships targeted the
hideouts of militants in the Shahukhel and Tora Warai areas of
Hangu District in the NWFP, killing 11 militants and destroying
three of their hideouts. Sources said the action was taken after
a group of militants fired rockets at the SFs in Shahukhel and
Tora Warai areas, injuring a soldier. Soon after the incident,
the SFs launched an offensive against the militants, hitting their
hideouts.
Three militants were killed and
an equal number of them were arrested in two separate incidents
in the Swat District of NWFP. Official sources said the SFs clashed
with a group of militants in the Kokarai area on the outskirts
of Mingora city, killing three militants. In another incident,
the SFs arrested three unidentified militants during a search
operation at Gumbar Mera in the suburb of the city.
Five Pakistani Army officers have
been detained for questioning over possible links to the two US
terror suspects of the LeT, who are accused of plotting an armed
attack on a Danish newspaper, intelligence officials said. LeT
militants, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, were
arrested in Chicago during October 2009. US prosecutors said the
two men were believed to be working with an unidentified senior
member of the outfit and a senior Al Qaeda operative. Two Pakistani
intelligence officials said phone records showed the five Pakistani
officers had contacted Headley and Rana. They say the five include
a retired brigadier general and two active lieutenant colonels,
but did not provide more details.
The Federal Government unfolded
a five-tier multi-dimensional special package for the Balochistan
province - combining political, administrative and economic initiatives
- in a joint sitting of parliament. The package, named Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan,
was presented by the Pakistan People’s Party Senator Mian Raza
Rabbani, who heads the seven-member parliamentary committee, which
finalised the package in consultation with the political leadership
in parliament and other stakeholders. The five-tier package -
constitutional, political, administrative, economic and monitoring
mechanism - envisages the withdrawal of the Army from Sui that
would be replaced with the Frontier Corps, a fact-finding commission,
headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court/high court, to
probe into the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti, inquiry by the superior
judiciary into the murder of Baloch political workers, including
Ghulam Muhammad, Lala Munir and Munir Ahmed, and target killings
in the province. The package also included the release of all
political workers and withdrawal of cases against those who have
no charges, while the missing persons with charges would be brought
before a court of competent jurisdiction for trial within seven
days. Such missing persons would be allowed legal counsel of their
choice and the Government would assist them in this regard. Family
members of such persons be informed accordingly and allowed visiting
rights.
Presenting the details of the
package, Senator Raza Rabbani said necessary constitutional amendments
would be made to strengthen the provincial autonomy as demanded
by smaller provinces, especially Balochistan. The constitutional
reforms related matters include abolition of the Concurrent List,
end to the Police Order and the Balochistan Local Government Ordinance
2001 from the 6th Schedule and effective implementation of the
Article 153 relating to the Council of Common Interest. The package
assures effective implementation of articles 154 to 159 and 170
of the Constitution. The unanimously passed resolutions of the
Balochistan Assembly from 2002 till date related to the province
would be implemented within the legal framework of the Constitution.
On the economic side, the package
envisages that the federal government will pay royalty worth PKR
120 billion on the Gas Development Surcharge from 1954 to 1991,
to be payable over 12 years. Rabbani said the restructuring of
the National Finance Commission award criteria was already underway
and the criteria of inverse population, poverty and resource generation
need to be taken into consideration. About political matters,
the Senator said the Federal Government, in consultation with
the provincial Government, would release all political workers
except those involved in heinous crimes. A dialogue would be initiated
with all major stakeholders in the political spectrum of the province
to bring them into the mainstream, he said. He added that the
exiled leaders, who want to return to Pakistan, would be facilitated
except those who were involved in acts of terrorism. Referring
to the administrative measures, Rabbani said the Federal Government
should immediately review the role of federal agencies in the
province and stop all such operations that were not related to
war against terrorism. Rabbani said a commission, headed by a
sitting member of the superior judiciary from Balochistan, would
be constituted in respect of the missing persons. The names of
the missing persons would be identified and if found to be in
custody without any charges they would be released, he said. In
view of the decision of the provincial government, he said the
policy of conversion of ‘B’ areas into ‘A’ areas would be reviewed
from time to time.
The exiled Baloch leaders rejected
the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package on the grounds that it
doesn’t go far enough to meet their main problems. Hyrbyair Marri,
the London-based leader of the Marri tribe, while opposing any
compromise with the Government called the package a "mockery
and a cruel joke" with the people of Balochistan and said
it falls short of Baloch expectations and was only an exercise
in buying more time. He said "This package is misleading.
It’s another trap set for us to convince us that the federation
pains for us and wants the solution of our miseries." Marri
said President Zardari and his Government may have good sentiments
but they were powerless and the real powers rest with the military
establishment. Mir Suleman Dawood Khan, the current Khan of Kalat,
said the Government failed to take all stakeholders on board and
didn’t consult those it didn’t like. "Baloch nationalist
parties were not consulted and only allies of the current government
were informed about it a few days ago," he said. Noordin
Mangal, another leader, said the package doesn’t address the real
problems of the Baloch people.
Three leading Balochistan tribes
- Marris, Mengals and Bugtis - described the Balochistan package
as a political gimmick and charged that it was like rubbing salt
into the wounds of the Baloch people. The late Nawab Akbar Bugti’s
son and President of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Talal Bugti, charged
that the package was prepared by the invisible forces and not
by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s team or a parliamentary
committee. "The prime minister in his address to the parliament’s
joint session said the FC would remain in Balochistan, which means,
no change in the status-quo. If they are not serious, which I
believe, we have the option to knock at the doors of the United
Nations," Talal warned. The Balochistan National Party-Mengal
Vice-President Sajid Tareen said in Quetta that what had been
announced in the package had never been the demand of Balochistan’s
people. "Our stand remains unchanged that the federating
units must be treated as per the 1940 Pakistan Resolution,"
he said. "We don’t believe in dialogue anymore, as it has
been non-productive. We are not politically active as several
other parties are," said a source close to the veteran Baloch
leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, who is chieftain of the Marri
tribe. The package could not satisfy the people of Balochistan,
as it had nothing significant for them, Senator Dr Abdul Malik
of the Balochistan National Party said while talking to media
persons after the announcement of the package. Senator Hasil Bazinjo
said the package carries most of the old things and there is nothing
new in it. "The Baloch people want practical steps, not announcements,"
he added.
November 25
Seven more militants were killed
and 10 others arrested as the SFs continued their operations in
the Shahukhel area of the Orakzai Agency. Tribal sources said
the SFs targeted the hideouts of militants in the Shahukhel area,
killing at least seven militants and arresting 10 others. Over
30 militants have been killed in the operation so far.
The SFs killed three militants
in Swat. According to an Inter-Services Public Relations statement,
"Security forces carried out a search operation at Bar Kandao
and killed three terrorists." The SFs, on a tip-off, carried out
a search operation in Gumbat Maira near Kokarai and arrested four
terrorists, while five others surrendered in Roringar.
SFs claimed to have killed three
militants and injured eight others in the ongoing Operation
Rah-e-Nijat in the South Waziristan Agency. Official sources
said the SFs and militants clashed in an area between Asman Manza
Nand in the Ladha sub-division, leaving three militants dead and
eight others injured.
A day before the first anniversary
of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, an anti-terror court in Rawalpindi
indicted seven persons, including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, ‘operations
commander’ of the LeT, for their suspected involvement in the
attacks. The indictment on November 25, 2009 paves the way for
the trial of the seven men, which may begin on December 5, the
date for which the next hearing has been fixed. The seven persons,
all in custody, are: Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, "mastermind" of the
attacks; Abdul Wajid alias Zarar Shah, also of the LeT and described
as a "facilitator and expert of computer networks"; Hamad Amin
Sadiq, who is charged with "facilitating funds and hideouts" for
the Mumbai attackers; Mazhar Iqbal alias Abu al Qama, described
as a "handler"; Shahid Jamil Riaz, who is described both as a
facilitator for funds, as well as a crew member of a boat used
by the attackers; Jamil Ahmed, described as "facilitator"; and,
Younus, also a "facilitator." The in camera proceedings in Anti-Terror
Court 1 of Rawalpindi were held in the high-security Adiala Jail,
and reportedly lasted a little under two hours. Judge Malik Mohammed
Akram Awan framed charges against the seven under the Anti-Terrorism
Act, several sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, including Section
302 for murder and under the Explosives Act. All the seven pleaded
not guilty to the charges, including Shahid Jamil Riaz, who earlier
made a detailed confession about his part in the attacks before
a judicial magistrate in Rawalpindi, where he was first produced
after his arrest. Earlier, the court rejected objections by defence
lawyers at the last hearing over the admissibility of the confession
of the lone arrested LeT terrorist Ajmal Amir ‘Kasab’ as evidence.
They had argued that as he was neither an accused in the case
in Pakistan nor in the list of proclaimed offenders, his statement
could not be used for the purpose of framing charges against the
other accused. While holding that ‘Kasab’ could not be declared
a proclaimed offender as his whereabouts were known, the Judge
said he would be treated as an accused whose case had been separated
from the case under trial in his court, and who was being proceeded
against in another court.
November 26
18 Taliban militants were killed
and 14 others injured when fighter jets and helicopter gunships
targeted Taliban positions in Orakzai Agency. Seven Taliban hideouts
were also destroyed in the raids. Eight Taliban militants were
killed when fighter jets and helicopter gunships bombed the Chapri
Ferozkhel area of Lower Orakzai, while 10 Taliban militants were
killed in air strikes that targeted Dabori, Alf Khel and Toorsimt
areas of Upper Orakzai. The sources said Security Forces had gained
full control of Shahukhel, defusing eight mines and arresting
four Taliban militants.
November 27
Troops killed 15 Taliban militants
in the military offensive at South Waziristan, said the ISPR.
"Security forces cleared Narakai after ... a clash ... 15
Taliban were killed and one soldier injured," said the ISPR
in a statement, adding that troops cleared Sarwekai-Siplatoi Road
in the same area, defusing 10 IEDs planted along the road.
A FC statement said troops backed
by helicopter gun ships killed 15 Taliban militants at Khyber
Agency. The Army and the FC mounted the operation in Khyber three
days ago to crack down on militants, some of whom have attacked
convoys supplying foreign troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
November 29
Troops killed four militants during
a search operation in the Bara town of Khyber Agency. "Four militants
were killed and several others were wounded in search operations
in different parts of Bara," a senior military official said.
Four militants were killed in
Wana, the capital of South Waziristan Agency. "Troops retaliated
after militants fired rockets at their camp in Wana. Four militants
were killed and two were arrested," a local military spokesman
said.
November 30
The SFs killed 61
militants and arrested 85 others during the ongoing Operation
Khwakh Bad-e-Shum in the Khyber Agency, security officials said.
Briefing reporters at the Bara Fort, operation in-charge Brigadier
Fayyaz Khan said 25 vehicles were also destroyed during the operation.
Brigadier Khan said the SFs had captured several important areas
and hideouts in the Tirah valley and had also destroyed several
terrorist centres.
A statement by the
ISPR said two SF personnel were injured in clearing operations
in the South Waziristan Agency during Operation Rah-e-Nijat. The
ISPR said the SFs carried out clearing operations at Kulal Raghzai
and consolidated positions in the Jandola sector. It also said
that militants fired four rockets at Ladha Fort in the Shakai
sector, injuring one soldier.
Ten militants were
killed and 13 others injured when the SFs raided militants’ training
camps in the Dhol Ragha area of Kurram Agency. Seven injured militants,
including their commander, were arrested and three hideouts destroyed,
officials said. Troops with air support had launched operations
against the militants in central and lower Kurram last week and
taken over a training centre of militants in Shasho area near
the main Thall-Parachinar Road.
An AFP report added
that Major Fazlur Rehman, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps,
said the militants had arrived in Kurram Agency from South Waziristan
Agency where an army operation was underway.
Two Police officials
were injured when unidentified armed men attacked their vehicle
on the Indus Highway, Police said. A Police official said that
Mattani Station House Officer Riaz Khan and Constable Shamshad
were seriously injured when the attackers ambushed their patrol
vehicle.
The ISPR said in
a statement that one militant was arrested in Tank, while 10 suspected
terrorists were arrested during Operation Rah-e-Rast in the Swat
and Malakand areas in the last 24 hours. It also said the SFs
carried out a search operation in Chakral area and found a 15-foot-long
tunnel in Swat.
The LeT denied on
November 30 that the two men arrested in Chicago on terrorism
charges were among its members. David Headley, a Pakistani-born
American, and Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin,
were arrested in October 2009 on charges of plotting attacks in
India and Denmark. India has accused both of links to the LeT.
He also said the LeT was only active in Kashmir to end India’s
illegal occupation.
December 1
At least four militants
were killed and seven others sustained injuries when the SFs attacked
the headquarters of the proscribed TTP in the Dabori area of upper
Orakzai Agency. Several hideouts of the TTP were destroyed in
the Dabori bazaar and its outskirts when artillery shells fired
from the nearby Shahu Khel area in Hangu District in the NWFP
slammed into them.
Unidentified gunmen
killed three tribal leaders in Orakzai Agency, official sources
said. The unidentified gunmen killed the tribal chiefs when they
ambushed their vehicle in Oblan area. The deceased were identified
as Malik Gul Haider, Malik Sabz Ali and Malik Mir Aslam Khan.
The SFs killed four
militants in the Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency. The SFs conducted
a search and a clearance operation in Kamarkhel and Dorra on the
outskirts of Bara.
The SFs also cleared
Dunai Killi, the remaining portion of Janata and seized a huge
cache of weapons during Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan
in the last 24 hours, an ISPR statement said. The ISPR also said
the SFs arrested 10 suspected terrorists during search operations
in two different areas of Swat and Malakand in the NWFP.
Dr. Shamsher Ali
Khan, the Awami National Party legislator in the NWFP Assembly
from Swat, was killed and 13 persons were injured in a suicide
attack in his house in the Dherai area of Kabal sub-division.
A man with explosives strapped to his body walked unchallenged
into the grounds of Khan’s house and blew himself up, killing
the legislator, sources said.
Unidentified gunmen
killed the chief of a local peace committee in the Swabi District,
official sources said. Sources said that pro-Taliban militants
killed Ambar Pakhpokha, head of a local peace committee. The Taliban
have subsequently claimed responsibility for the killing.
December 2
In the Hangu District,
10 militants were killed in a clash and 128 wanted criminals were
arrested during a joint operation by the Police and the Frontier
Constabulary. The operation was carried out in areas adjacent
to Hangu and Orakzai Agency - Thall, Doaba, Shahu Khel, Kahi,
Naryab and Kotki. The District Police chief Abdur Rasheed said
three bombs with remote control devices, a rocket launcher, two
grenades, 19 Kalashnikovs, 18 rifles, 17 shotguns, 24 pistols,
10kgs of hashish and thousands of cartridges had been seized.
He said Police had also seized 1,950 bags of sugar and 868 of
flour which were being smuggled to Afghanistan.
Five militants were
killed in an exchange of fire with the SFs in the Palai area of
Malakand Agency in the NWFP. Official sources said the militants
attacked a convoy of the SFs in the Palai area, located near the
border between Malakand Agency and Mardan District. The SFs, however,
repulsed the attack and five militants were killed.
In the Shangotai
area of Matta sub-division in the Swat District, the bodies of
two persons, Shah Ji and his son Yaqub, were found. They were
reported to have had links with the Taliban and were wanted in
several militancy-related cases.
Six militants were
arrested in Peer Pati and Qambar. The SFs also arrested 20 suspects
from Mingora while eight militants surrendered in the Bar Sor,
Charbagh and Garga areas of Matta.
Planes bombed a
number of areas in the Warh Mamond and Nawagai sub-divisions of
Bajaur Agency, killing four militants and injuring three others.
Official sources said the Security Forces targeted positions of
militants in the Kharkay, Anga, Almazo and Gotki areas in Mamond
sub-division and Sharif Khana and Shah Khana in Nawagai.
Militant ‘commander’
Mulla Launcher and one of his accomplices were killed and six
others sustained injuries in clashes with the SFs in various areas
of Kurram Agency. In addition, the SFs arrested three militants
along with some heavy weapons while the militants blew up a key
bridge on the Parachinar-Peshawar Road in Arawali area.
An official of the
Pakistan Navy foiled a suicide attack on the Naval Headquarters
at Zafar Chowk on the Margalla Road in the national capital Islamabad.
However, two Navy personnel were killed in the attack, while 13
persons were injured. A spokesman for the Pakistan Navy confirmed
the death of two personnel - Amjad Ittwar and Muhammad Ashraf.
A 16-year-old suicide bomber blew himself up at 1:30 pm during
his body search, eyewitnesses said.
The US President
Barack Obama said that US success in Afghanistan – where he plans
to deploy 30,000 more troops and has vowed to "seize the
initiative" to end the unpopular war and start a pullout
in July 2011 – is "inextricably linked" to Washington’s
partnership with Pakistan. But the US president also warned that
the people and Governments of both Pakistan and Afghanistan are
"endangered".
Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton said that Washington will press Islamabad to do
more against all the militant groups threatening Pakistan, its
neighbours and the United States. Testifying about President Barack
Obama’s new strategy for the region, Clinton told lawmakers that
the Pakistanis had shown over the last year their "willingness
to take on the Pakistani Taliban which directly threaten them."
"The unity of support that the people of Pakistan are showing
for this effort is profoundly significant, but, as we have said,
it is not enough," she told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
December 3
SFs killed 13 militants
during raids at two locations in the Swat while two bullet-riddled
bodies were found dumped elsewhere in the District. Official sources
said the SFs had arrested a militant ‘commander’, identified as
Naseem alias Abu Faraj, recently. On his information, the sources
said SFs raided a militant hideout in Saigram near Koza Bandai
and in an exchange of fire 10 militants were killed.
A Police official
was injured in an explosion at a Police check-post in the Regi
area of capital Peshawar. A Police official said the blast created
a three feet deep and eight feet wide crater at the site.
In Bajaur Agency,
militants are reported to have attacked security checkpoints on
the outskirts of the main town of Khar. "It was an organised
attack. Troops effectively repulsed it, and five militants were
killed in the retaliatory fire," said Fazal Rabbi, deputy
commander of the local tribal police force.
The Security Forces
arrested Taliban ‘commander’ Hayatullah and his two associates
from the Larmai area of Mamoond sub-division in Bajaur Agency.
December 4
40 persons, including
17 children besides serving and retired Army officers and personnel,
were killed and over 86 others injured, when a Friday congregation
at the Parade Lanes mosque in Rawalpindi was attacked by a group
of terrorists. The high number of casualties was caused by hurling
of grenades and indiscriminate targeted firing by the terrorists,
reportedly numbering between six to eight. According to latest
reports, two of the terrorists blew themselves up while two others
were shot dead in an exchange of fire with the SFs. Exhaustive
combing of the densely-populated locality was also being carried
out by the SFs to flush out the other terrorists, who reportedly
managed to escape from the spot and took refuge in the vicinity.
Eight militants
were killed and their three hideouts destroyed in strikes carried
out by the PAF fighter jets in the Ferozkhel area of the Orakzai
Agency. Official and tribal sources said fighter jets targeted
the hideouts and compounds of militants in the Ferozkhel area,
killing eight militants and destroying their three hideouts and
four houses.
Six persons were
killed and 13 injured when a bus carrying a marriage party hit
a landmine in the Safi sub-division of Mohmand Agency. A political
administration official said Amanullah, resident of Qala Gai Lakaro,
Baseer Khan, Safi Jan, Haji Bakht Noor, resident of Landi Arbab,
the driver Khaista Rehman, resident of Haleemzai, and an unidentified
person were killed in the incident. The injured, including Amroz,
Saifullah, Hamayatulalh Khan, Rukhsana and Ayesha, were taken
to a hospital where four of them were said to be in critical condition.
A senior US diplomat
alleged that some Al Qaeda leadership could be present in Quetta,
the capital of Balochistan province. "Our intelligence shows that
some of the Al Qaeda leadership is in Pakistan," Candace Putnam,
the US Consul-General in Peshawar, told a media roundtable in
Peshawar. "I don’t know where Osama bin Laden is on any given
day, but we do know that some of the leadership is sitting in
Quetta and that they travel back and forth from Afghanistan to
Pakistan," she said. "We know that they are there. And I think
your government also knows this. Whether they want to say this
in public or not but I think they know they are there," she added.
She also said that the United States had been successful in removing
some of the Al Qaeda leadership. But increasingly, she added,
the United States had found that Al Qaeda was working with the
Taliban, LeT, JeM, LeJ and the TTP.
The White House
had authorized an expansion of the Central Intelligence Agency’s
drone programme in the tribal region and that American officials
are talking to Pakistan to explore the possibility of striking
in Balochistan. The expanded authorisation, it added, paralleled
President Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops to
Afghanistan.
US Army General
David Petraeus said that the Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar
stays most, if not all, of the time in Pakistan. He told NPR that
the Afghan Taliban were located "in various locations in Pakistan...
typically in Balochistan. It’s called the Quetta shura". "I’m
not sure that folks will say [the Taliban] right inside the city
[Quetta] or precisely — it will move around and so forth. But...
has historically been centred on that city," Petraeus said
December 5
Around 40 Taliban
militants attacked an Army checkpoint in Wana of FATA, killing
one SF. Six Taliban militants were also killed in the retaliatory
firing of the SFs. "Soldiers at the checkpoint on a bridge
in Wana retaliated after coming under fire on Friday night,"
said an unnamed Security official.
Taliban militants
in Ladha of South Waziristan killed one SF, as troops continue
the ongoing military operation in the region. "A soldier
was martyred when militants shot and killed him in Ladha,"
the Inter-Services Public Relations said.
SFs arrested 35
Taliban militants, including three important commanders, during
search operations in Bara tehsil (revenue unit) of Khyber Agency.
SFs arrested former
TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud’s right-hand ‘commander’, Rafiuddin,
along with five other terrorists in Hangu, official sources said
adding the SF had also killed a Taliban commander. The Taliban
commander Zahir Shah was killed during a military operation in
Tal area of Hangu.
December 6
Eight militants
were killed and many others sustained injuries in attacks by fighter
jets in lower parts of Orakzai Agency in FATA. Tribal sources
said the fighter jets pounded the compounds and hideouts of militants
in lower parts of the tribal agency, including Saifal Darra, Shakarkand
and Sra Gharai, killing eight militants and injuring many others.
Also, three hideouts and five vehicles of the militants were destroyed
in the raid.
Four SF personnel
were seriously injured in a roadside bomb blast in the Chinari
area of the Mohmand Agency. Official sources said SFs were patrolling
the Chinari area in Safi sub-division when their vehicle struck
a remote-controlled device planted by the militants. Four soldiers
sustained injuries in the blast.
Two anti-Taliban
tribal elders, identified as Khan Wali and Rehmatullah, were killed
and another two were injured in a remote-controlled bomb blast
near a mosque in Malangi area under Mamond tehsil (revenue unit)
of FATA. The injured persons were identified as Abdul Wadud and
Abdul Hadi. "Two tribesmen were killed and two were injured
in the blast. The bomb was planted outside a mosque," senior
Police official Fazal Rabbi said. An intelligence official in
the area confirmed the incident and said both tribesmen were respected
elders who spoke out against the Taliban.
Fighter jets bombed
Kharki, Gatki and Sparay areas of Salarzai tehsil and Banda area
of Mamoond tehsil. No casualties were reported.
Five militants,
including local ‘commander’ Gul Maula, were killed in an encounter
with SFs in the Dangram area in the suburbs of Mingora city of
Swat in NWFP. Sources said ‘commander’ Gul Maula and his four
accomplices, identified as Tariq, Khadim Shah, Muhammad Ali and
Ejaz, were killed during an encounter with SFs.
The SFs arrested
seven militants from Toda Cheena and Qalandher areas in Makeen
and recovered a huge cache of weapons, including anti-aircraft
guns, anti-tank mines and other arms.
SFs also arrested
six suspected militants in the Damghar area in Kabal tehsil (revenue
unit). The sources said the arrested men were shifted to an undisclosed
location for interrogation. The names of those held were not disclosed
to the media. The Army-run Swat Media Centre (SMC) said seven
militants surrendered before SFs in the Charbagh area.
At the Tanai check-point,
the sources said, SFs arrested six militants, including two important
‘commanders’.
The fighter jets
attacked suspected hideouts of Taliban militants in Kharkay Gotki
and Saparay areas in Mamond tehsil (revenue unit) and the Banda
area of Salarzai sub-division. However, there was no word on loss
of life or damage to property.
Swabi District Police
foiled a terrorist plot, seizing a large quantity of explosives
from a coffin. According to a private television channel, Police
stopped a vehicle near Shevah checkpoint. Upon searching it, they
found 511 dynamites, 90 detonators and 250-meters of fuse cable
from a coffin in the car. The Police arrested two persons for
further investigation.
The law-enforcement
agencies arrested 60 suspected persons from the twin cities of
Islamabad-Rawalpindi during a grand search operation in the wake
of Parade Lane mosque attack in Rawalpindi city. The Islamabad
Police arrested 60 suspected persons from the limits of Sabzi
Mandi Police Station. Meanwhile, the Rawalpindi City Police along
with other law-enforcement agencies arrested 10 suspected people
in search operation in Rawalpindi.
December 7
Two bomb blasts
killed at least 45 people, and injured more than 100 at the crowded
Moon Market in Allama Iqbal area of Lahore in Punjab. The two
bombs exploded 30 seconds apart at 8:45 PM (PST). The first blast
occurred outside a plaza housing a branch of the Muslim Commercial
Bank, while the other outside the Allama Iqbal Town Police Station,
situated across the road. A suicide bomber had also targeted Moon
Market in August 2008 in which nine people were killed. As the
first bomb went off, the plaza where the bank is situated, and
an adjacent building went up in flames, halting rescue work, Nazeer
Ahmed, a security guard who was at the spot when the blasts occurred,
said. Nazeer said the fire made it impossible to rescue anyone
from the burning buildings. The Punjab Law Minister, Police officials
and officials of the Bomb Disposal Squad, rescue officials and
witnesses could not say if the blasts were suicide attacks or
remote-controlled detonations. Punjab Inspector General Tariq
Saleem Dogar said the bombs might have been detonated by remote
control, while Superintendent of Police Ali Nasir Rizvi said he
was not certain if a suicide bomber was involved. "We have
recovered 33 dead bodies so far," said Dr Rizwan Naseer,
Director General of Rescue and put the toll for the injured at
95. However, Dawn reports 45 causalities in the twin blast.
A suicide bomber
blew himself up outside a court in Peshawar, the provincial capital
of NWFP, killing nine people, including two Policemen, and injuring
50 others. It was the second suicide attack on a court in the
city in three weeks. The earlier target was the Judicial Complex
on the Khyber Road and the bombing claimed 22 lives. The two Policemen
who died were identified as head Constable Naseer Ahmed and Assistant
Sub-Inspector Ruhullah. The blast damaged the court building and
damaged windows of the nearby MPA hostel, petrol station and some
other buildings. About half a dozen vehicles and motorcycles were
destroyed. Peshawar District Coordination Officer Sahibzada Mohammad
Anees said the bomber had come in an auto-rickshaw. He tried to
enter the session’s court building, but when the Policeman on
duty stopped him for a search, the man blew himself up. Dr Hameed
Afridi of the Lady Reading Hospital said that 54 victims had been
brought to the hospital. Six of them were brought dead and three
others died in the hospital. The condition of six of the inured
was critical, he said. Mohammad Tanveer told Dawn that the bomber
had used six to seven kilograms of explosives. Parts of his suicide
vest, ball bearings and his head and legs have been found.
Eight Taliban militants
were killed and several others sustained injuries in different
areas of Bajaur Agency in FATA. The official sources added that
fighter jets pounded suspected hideouts of insurgents in Kharkay,
Gotki, Anga and Banda areas in which four militants were killed
and several others injured. Two hideouts were also destroyed in
air raids.
There were reports
that three militants were killed when explosives stored in a house
went off in the Damadola area in the Mamond Sub-Division. The
house was reportedly being used by militants as their hideout
and was completely destroyed in the blast.
A fierce clash took
place in the Chinar area of Charmang Valley in the Nawagai Sub-Division
when militants attacked SFs. The official sources said one militant
was killed and several others sustained injuries in the clash.
SFs conducted a
search operation in Inayat Killay, the second business hub of
the Bajaur tribal region near Khar headquarters, and arrested
five militants and recovered weapons from their possession.
25 militants belonging
to Sor Dagai, Chinar and Lara Darra areas in Salarzai, surrendered
along with their weapons before SFs in Khar town.
A US missile strike
killed at least three civilians in a village near Mir Ali, a main
town in North Waziristan near the Afghanistan border of FATA.
The official sources also confirmed that the missiles destroyed
a car carrying three people.
The leader of Pasban-e-Aza,
a Shia organization was shot dead by unidentified militants in
a suspected sectarian attack in the remit of the Brigade Police
Station of Karachi. The slain leader was identified as Syed Shahid
Hussain. Police quoting eyewitnesses said three unidentified suspects
barged into Hussain’s apartment in the Assistant Commissioner
Apartments, and opened fire on him using 9-mm pistols.
A car bomb blast
injured nine persons and damaged several vehicles and shops in
Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. Sources said that at least
nine persons, including two children, were injured when the explosion
occurred at the main gate of the Junior Assistant Colony in the
Chaman Housing Society. Police said the explosives-laden vehicle
blew up 30 minutes after unidentified men left it at the gate
of the residential colony. An Assistant Commissioner was also
injured in the blast.
Daily Times
quoting an intelligence reports warned that the al Qaeda and the
TTP are planning to carry out attacks at the Karachi’s hospitals
and the airport to "avenge Operation Rah-e-Nijat". The
reports stated that the Taliban could strike in the guise of patients
or Haj pilgrims. A communiqué sent by the Interior Ministry’s
National Crisis Management Cell to provincial authorities warned
that Taliban could also use IED and suicide attacks against foreigners
in Karachi. A letter issued by Sindh Special Home Secretary Collin
Kamran Dost to Inspector General of Police Sallahuddin Khattak
quoted intelligence sources as saying that the Taliban’s possible
targets could be US citizens, people associated with American
projects and guests staying at hotels, and US diplomats and employees
working for foreign non-governmental organisations. According
to another communiqué, the TTP plans to target hospitals
and airports, while posing as patients in wheelchairs and as pilgrims
arriving in the city after Haj. Moreover, the Taliban are likely
to use vehicles covered with garlands – such as the ones used
in wedding processions – to carry suicide bombers and explosives
to the areas they seek to target.
The Government has
concrete evidence of India’s involvement in terrorism across the
country and the issue will be taken up during a round of talks
with New Delhi soon, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. Talking
to reporters after meeting clerics in Karachi, Malik said militants
and weapons were also coming in from Afghanistan, and Pakistan
had taken up the issue with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
He said the Government was working on an action plan for effective
surveillance of the Pak-Afghan border, adding that in this regard,
biometric checkposts would soon be set up at three points along
the border. Malik said al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden was not
in Pakistan, and if anyone had any information in this regard,
he should share it with Islamabad so that the country could take
appropriate action.
The Interior Minister
said religious scholars from all sects had declared suicide attacks
against the teachings of Islam, while the Government had also
sought the views of clerics from around the world on terrorism.
He said the Government would organise a conference on terrorism
where scholars from Muslim countries would be invited to give
their views on the issue. Malik said he would also meet clerics
across the country and in this regard, a meeting had been scheduled
in Lahore on December 10.
United States Defence
Secretary Robert Gates said that the U.S. is prepared to give
Pakistan more help in fighting against al-Qaeda if its Government
wants it, according to The News. Gates, who arrived in Afghanistan,
said it is Pakistan's ``foot on the accelerator'' when it comes
to fighting terrorists. But he said the U.S. could provide more
assistance ``at any pace they are prepared to accept.'' While
Pakistan is considered one of the closest U.S. allies in the war
on terrorism, it is also accused of giving anti-U.S. forces a
safe haven along its lawless border.
December 8
A group of three
Taliban militants launched a gun, rocket and suicide attack on
the office of ISI, killing at least 12 people and injuring several
others at Multan in Punjab. The blast in Multan destroyed the
facades off several buildings in a part of the city largely reserved
for Government and Security Agencies. The apparent target of the
blast was a building housing an office of the ISI which was also
damaged. Senior Police Officer Agha Yusuf said at least three
Taliban militants in a car carried out the attack. He said one
of them first fired a rocket and an automatic weapon at a police
checkpoint, and then drove to the intelligence agency – where
they blew it up. He said Security personnel were also among the
12 killed. "It was a suicide attack. There were two attackers
who were stopped at the checkpost, but they tried to flee and
Security personnel fired at them," another Police Official,
Arif Ikram told reporters. "The attackers returned fire and
also launched two rockets, and later exploded their vehicle."
Multan’s top administrative official, Syed Mohammad Ali Gardezi,
said that one military building was badly damaged in the blast.
"They did not succeed in hitting the target," he claimed.
The Taliban claimed
responsibility for the attack on the ISI office. Taliban spokesman
Azam Tariq claimed responsibility for the attack in a conversation
with an Associated Press reporter in Waziristan.
The death toll in
the December 8 bombing at Moon Market in Allama Iqbal Town of
Lahore rose to 54. A spokesman of the rescue operation said of
the 45 people, 28 were men, 11 women and six children. Nine people
were burned beyond recognition. More than 150 people were injured
in the attack, he said.
The Police and Bomb
Disposal Squad personnel said that the twin blasts at Moon Market
in Allama Iqbal Town of Lahore were suicide attacks. Iqbal Town
Police claimed to have recovered the remains of two suicide attackers.
Iqbal Town SP Ali Nasir Rizvi told Daily Times that a head and
limbs recovered from the site of the blasts are believed to be
of two suicide attackers, who according to initial reports were
not more than 18 years old and belonged to southern Punjab. Civil
Defence District Officer Mazhar Ahmed while talking to Daily
Times supported the version of the SP and termed both attacks
as suicide bombings. He said the material used in the twin blasts
included ball bearings that are used in suicide vests. Mazhar
said that 10 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the blasts.
He said there was also possibility that some hand grenades were
also used in the blasts, which targeted the building in a 150-yard
radius.
Two Arab nationals
were killed in a missile strike on a car by the CIA -operated
spy planes at Spalga village in North Waziristan of FATA in the
morning. A senior Government official based in Miranshah, the
headquarters of North Waziristan, told by telephone that the drone
fired two missiles on the car. He said two Arab nationals were
travelling in the car when it was struck by the drone. Four drones
were flying at the time of the attack over the area. The Taliban
sources also confirmed that both the men killed in the drone attack
were foreigners and belonged to Saudi Arabia. Both of them had
just left their homes and were on their way to the Afghan border,
where they were supposed to meet their colleagues, the Taliban
sources said. They said the identity of the two ‘guest fighters’
could not be ascertained as their bodies had been blown apart.
A tribesman of Spalga village, Hafiz Rasool, told The News by
telephone that the car was torn into pieces after being hit by
the drone.
The SFs arrested
13 suspected militants in the last 24 hours during Operation Rah-e-Nijat
and Rah-e-Rast in South Waziristan. According to a statement by
the ISPR, the SFs carried out a search operation at Ziarat in
the Jandola sector and also cleared Ospana Raghazai in the Shakai
sector. Clearance and search operations at Kudi Ghar Sar, Nanu
and Khaisura are underway. Taliban militants fired six rockets
at Spin Jamaat, which were responded to effectively. The forces
also cleared 46 compounds, including a training centre at Marobi
West and defused nine improvised explosive devices in the Razmak
sector. The Taliban also fired 10 rockets and fired Kalashnikov
rounds at the Saidullah Post near Dua Khula and Pash Ziarat, to
which SFs retaliated.
PNR 19,716 cash
cards have also been issued to displaced families of South Waziristan.
Two persons, including
one FC, were killed in separate incidents in the Karachi. Gul
Maalik (35) was shot dead by unidentified militants in the Quaidabad
Police Station of Karachi. The Police sources said that the incident
happened inside the victims’ house situated in Gulshan-i-Bunair
of Quaidabad, while he was asleep. During the investigation it
was found that the deceased was a recruit of the FC and was posted
in Abbottabad. A few days ago, he took a leave from headquarters
and came to Karachi for the construction of his house. The deceased
personnel was married and originated from Swat. The murder seems
to be a target killing incident.
One Naeem Qureshi
(40), a leather trader, was shot dead by unidentified militants
in the Awami Colony Station of Karachi. The Police sources said
that Naeem was sitting outside his house situated in C-Area of
Landhi, when two armed militants riding on a motorcycle came and
opened indiscriminate fire, killing Naeem on the spot, while injuring
his friend Basheer and subsequently managed to escape.
The death toll of
in Peshawar Sessions Courts suicide bombing on December 7 rose
to 13 as two more people succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.
The sources said public prosecutor in Mardan, Arifullah, a resident
of Badaber and Bakhtawar Shah, a rickshaw driver, died at the
Lady Reading Hospital.
Peshawar Police
foiled bomb blast bid in Bakhshupul area of the Peshawar, the
capital of NWFP, when they defused four bombs weighing 40 kilogrammes
each. Inspector General Shafqat Malik said the bombs could have
destroyed everything within a 100 meters radius had they not been
defused.
The Police recovered
10 mortar shells from the suburbs of Mingora city.
The SFs arrested
47 suspects from across Swat during search and clearance operations
and issued a list of 10 most wanted Taliban militants, directing
them to surrender. The SFs arrested 30 suspects from Koza Bandai,
10 from Galouch area of Kabal tehsil (revenue unit), two from
Tahirabad, four from Sarsenai and one from Mingora. However, some
of them were released after initial investigation.
Five Taliban militants
surrendered before the SFs at Sakhra and Asharai near Matta during
Operation Rah-e-Rast in Malakand. The SFs arrested nine suspects
at Kabal, Bakhro near Madyan, Qambar and Tahirabad near Mingora.
The Saryab station
house officer and two other Policemen were injured in a hand-grenade
attack on a Police convoy on the Sabzal Road in Quetta of Balochistan.
Police sources said SHO Jamil Marri was on routine patrol in the
area when unidentified militants hurled a hand-grenade at his
vehicle.
The United Sates
intelligence personnel stationed in Pakistan are trying to ascertain
whether Abdur Rehman alias Pasha, a retired major of the Pakistan
Army, who has recently been named by the FBI as a key link between
the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack suspect David Headley and his LeT
handlers, is the brother-in-law of Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the
absconding Ameer of the pro-Taliban Pakistani Jehadi outfit HuJI.
Rehman has been charged in a Chicago court by the FBI on allegations
of conspiring terrorist attacks in association with Headley, a
US national of Pakistani-origin, who is already in the FBI’s custody.
According to diplomatic circles in Islamabad, the United Sates
intelligence personnel are trying to determine if Abdur Rehman
Hashim Syed is the same person who had filed a petition in the
Supreme Court on October 12, 2004, challenging the arrest of Qari
Saifullah Akhtar and seeking his production in the apex court.
The petitioner had also sought a court order to prevent possible
deportation of Qari Saifullah, his brother-in-law, to another
country. The petition was thrown out on January 18, 2005. Qari
Saifullah Akhtar, the Ameer (chief) of the Pakistan chapter of
the HUJI, who had been arrested in 1995 for conspiring to topple
the second Government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, had been
named by the slain PPP leader in her posthumous book -- Reconciliation:
Islam, Democracy and the West - as a principal suspect in the
October 18, 2007 attempt on her life in Karachi.
The TTP will take
on the Army when winter arrives in the tribal region, TTP chief
T.T.P. Hakeemullah Mehsud said in a phone call with CNN. "We
will wait till January for our offensive since we are stronger
during the snowing season," Hakeemullah said. He said he
was confident despite the large-scale military operation currently
targeting the TTP in South Waziristan. "We have conserved
our energy and have not lost our morale," he said. "The
leadership of my organisation is safe," he said, but he did
not say where they were taking refuge. He neither denied nor confirmed
that the TTP was responsible for the December 8 suicide blast
outside the District court in Peshawar. "Being occupied in
other matters, I have not been able to contact my colleagues there,
so I will not be able to take responsibility at this time,"
Hakeemullah said.
The United States
has warned the Government that its SFs will chase Taliban forces
into Pakistan if Islamabad does not get tough with the insurgents.
Quoting unnamed US and Pakistani officials, the newspaper said
the blunt message was delivered in November when National Security
Adviser James Jones and White House counterterrorism chief John
Brennan met with the heads of the military and intelligence. "Jones’s
message was if that Pakistani help wasn’t forthcoming, the United
States would have to do it themselves," an unnamed official
said. That could mean the US expanding drone attacks beyond the
Tribal Areas and Special Forces raids in Pakistan against Al Qaeda
and Taliban leaders, the officials said. "I think they read
our intentions accurately," a senior US Administration Official
said. US officials said the message was intended to press the
Pakistani military to pursue Taliban insurgents.
The US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton said that Pakistan’s stability was critical
to the security of South Asia. Speaking to US Global Leadership
of Coalition, she said the Obama Administration was amplifying
its diplomatic and development efforts in the region and considered
civilian aid a key part of the overall partnership with regional
players. "We have also begun expanding our civilian effort
in Pakistan, whose stability is essential to the security of that
region and beyond," Clinton said. She further added that
President Barack Obama had made it clear while outlining his revamped
strategy for the region "that we cannot finish the (anti-terror)
job on our own, or with military might alone".
December 9
Three Taliban militants
were killed in the military operation in Bajaur Agency of FATA.
Political administration officials said that three Taliban militants
were killed in clashes between SFs and militants in the Chinar
area in Nawagai tehsil (revenue division) of the Bajaur
Agency.
The SFs neutralised
a militant plot and defused three powerful remote-controlled bombs
at Mamond tehsil (revenue division) of the Bajaur Agency.
The SFs arrested
11 suspected Taliban militants from Khawaza Khela tehsil (revenue
division), while two Taliban militants, including a key Taliban
‘commander’, surrendered before the SFs in Charbagh tehsil, officials
said.
Five suspected militants
were arrested at Miachan Baba in Shakai sector. The SFs also cleared
25 compounds at Tara Tiza Alghad and Mairobi Raghzai in Razmak
sector and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition.
The SFs cleared
Aka Khel Pungai near Ahmadwam and Abdullah Noor Kaskai near Kotkai
in Jandola sector during the latest action in Operation Rah-e-Nijat
and destroyed several improvised explosive devices. The SFs also
cleared Ghujre, two kilometres north of Pash Ziarat, and destroyed
tunnels and underground bunkers.
The SFs sources
said that 589 Taliban militants have so far been killed in Operation
Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan, while 79 of their personnel died.
According to a statement by the ISPR, a large cache of arms and
ammunition had also been recovered from different terrorist hideouts
since the operation began.
Unidentified Taliban
militants blew up a boy’s school in Bara tehsil (revenue
unit) of Khyber Agency in FATA in the night of December 9, according
to Daily Times. Sources said that unidentified Taliban militants
arrived at the Government High School for Boys at Shlobar and
abducted the school watchman. Later, the militants blew up the
school. However, no casualty was reported. Taliban blew up two
schools in Khyber Agency, officials said. They said most of the
buildings were reduced to rubble but no one was injured. "Both
main school buildings were completely destroyed," said Shafeerullah
Wazir, the top Administrative Official of the District, adding
only two classrooms remained standing in the two adjacent schools.
Wazir said the Taliban had buried large quantities of dynamite
around the outer walls of the schools. "Both Taliban and
Lashkar-e-Islam are involved in this act," he said.
The Police arrested
13 suspected militants in a raid conducted in Kharmato areas of
Kohat city in NWFP in the evening. Sources said the raids were
conducted after unidentified persons beheaded an employee of PESCO
in the area. Arms including 12 Kalashnikov rifles, five guns,
four pistols, five hand-grenades and 2,000 rounds were recovered
from the possession of the arrested militants.
The SFs arrested
10 suspected militants at Saidu Sharif, Fizaghat, Bishbanr, Mingora
and Jijal Kandao near Fatehpur.
Two Taliban militants
surrendered before the SFs at Salhand and Chamtalai posts in Swat.
Security Agencies
arrested six people, three foreigners among them, for their alleged
links with banned religious outfit Jaish-i-Mohammed and for planning
a terrorist attack in Sargodha of Punjab. Among the suspects were
two Egyptians, one Yemeni, two Pakistani-Americans and a local.
Sources said that these five militants were arrested from the
house of one of the suspects in Aziz Bhatti Town. Two computers
and some jihadi literature were recovered. The Pakistani-Americans
were identified as Omer Farooq and Waqar.
India is involved
in terrorism in Pakistan and wants to tear the country apart,
Jamaat-e-Islami ‘chief’ Munawwar Hasan said. Addressing a grand
tribal jirga (council) at Markaz Islami, the JI ‘Chief’ said India,
the United States and Israel were united against Pakistan. He
said India wanted to decide the Kashmir issue unilaterally, adding
that there would be no compromise on the issue. The JI ‘chief’
said his party condemned suicide bombings, but drone attacks,
military operations and alliance with the US were equally condemnable
and Ulema (religious scholars) should give fatwa against
them.
December 10
SFs killed 15 Taliban
militants in ongoing operations in Khyber Agency and South Waziristan
of FATA. The SFs targeted militant hideouts in Bara tehsil
(revenue unit) of Khyber, killing 10 militants in Zava area of
Tirah valley, official sources said. Sources said that troops
also destroyed four militant hideouts in the area, adding that
three militants, including a commander, were arrested during a
search operation in Akakhel area of Bara.
SFs killed five
militants, while a trooper was killed in the clashes in South
Waziristan. The ISPR said the SFs cleared the Nanu area and destroyed
militant hideouts in Barwand, including that of Taliban commander
Waliur Rehman. The SFs also cleared Partigai area near Ahmadwam
and Kazha Kats, and also secured 30 militant’s compounds in the
area around Abdullah Nur Kaskai, Bangiwala and Aka Khel Pungai.
The SFs conducted a search operation in Marobi Raghozai near Makeen
and neutralised an ammunition factory, along with a cache of arms
and ammunitions.
The SFs arrested
10 suspected Taliban militants and demolished three houses belonging
to the Taliban in Mattani area of Swat in NWFP.
December 11
SFs killed at least
17 Taliban militants in the ongoing military operations in FATA.
In Orakzai Agency, nine Taliban militants were killed and two
of their hideouts destroyed in air strikes on Ghiljo and Mamoonzai
tehsils (revenue unit), Paramilitary Force spokesman Major
Fazalur Rehman said. They included a man identified as a local
Taliban ‘commander’, Bacha Akbar, Military spokesman Major Mushtaq
Khan said.
Seven militants
were killed and 20 others injured when troops clashed with the
LI in Shalobar area of Bara tehsils (revenue unit) in Khyber
Agency. The clash occurred when troops raided a house in the area.
One unidentified
militant was killed in Charmang area of Nawagai tehsils
(revenue unit) of Bajaur Agency.
Three Taliban were
arrested from the Mamoond tehsils (revenue unit) of Bajaur
Agency. The SFs also destroyed two Taliban hideouts in Nawagai.
A top al Qaeda leader,
Abu Yahya al-Libi, was killed in a drone missile strike in South
Waziristan of FATA. Yahya managed to escape from the Bagram Airbase
of Afghanistan in 2005. He was born in Libya in 1963 and enjoyed
close relations with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri. United
States authorities had offered a bounty of USD five million for
his capture, dead or alive. According to an ISPR statement, no
US drone hit South Waziristan on December 10. Since August 2008,
at least 65 such strikes have killed around 625 people.
SFs discovered a
Jannat (heaven) in South Waziristan Agency, in which militants
used to brainwash suicide bombers. According to ISPR, a team of
journalists visited the jannat at Nawaz Kot area of the agency.
The ‘heaven’ consisted of four rooms. Each room contains beautiful
paintings of running canals of milk and honey surrounded by hoors
(maidens of paradise). Conducting Officer Major Saleem said Taliban
clerics showed the jannat to the would-be suicide bombers to convince
them that once they blew themselves up they would enjoy a status
equivalent to that of the companions of Prophet Muhammad. He said
they were also told that they would live forever in the company
of beautiful hoors. He said SFs had also seized hate literature,
CDs, hashish and other drugs from the site. The official said
two would-be suicide bombers and their trainers were also arrested
from the place.
SFs killed four
Taliban militants and arrested two others in the ongoing military
operations in Swat of NWFP.
At least five people
were injured when a petrol filling station was blown up through
a remote-controlled device in the main town of Lakki Marwat District.
The bomb was fitted to a bicycle. The injured included the owner
of the station, Naseer Khan, who is a former parliamentarian from
PML-N. Others injured were identified as Nazir Muhammad, Qasim
Khan, Jan Dad and Sher Muhammad. Lakki Marwat District Police
Officer Ayub Khan said the bomb weighed between eight to 10 kilogrammes.
Pakistan must cooperate
more fully with the United States to help wipe out al-Qaeda, US
President Barack Obama said in excerpts of a weekend interview.
In the interview with media, Barack Obama said the tribal militants
that straddle the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan were
the "epicentre of the violent extremism directed against the West...
and the United States." "Ultimately, in order for us to eradicate
the problem, to really go after al-Qaeda... we are going to need
more cooperation from Pakistan. There is no doubt about that,"
Barack Obama added.
The five Americans
arrested from Sargodha on charges of seeking jihad will not be
deported until investigation is complete, Interior Minister Rehman
Malik said. Addressing a press conference, Malik said US Ambassador
Anne W Patterson had informed him in writing that five US nationals
were arriving in Pakistan with "bad intentions". "Acting on the
information, our law enforcement authorities arrested the Americans,"
he said, adding that the US nationals were not being deported.
"We will first see which laws they have violated. Once our law
enforcement authorities clear them, only then can we deport them,"
he said.
December 12
At least 10 Taliban
militants were killed during the ongoing military operation in
the Kurram Agency of FATA. The killed Taliban militants included
a ‘commander’ wanted by Police in several incidents of sabotage
and insurgency. The SFs launched a massive operation in Marghan,
Dogar, Gawadar, Zangey and Terley area. The SFs are advancing
into other areas and have destroyed four Taliban hideouts so far.
They have also seized a large amount of ammunition and explosive
material.
10 militants were
killed while more than 150 suspects arrested in the Bara tehsil
(revenue division) of Khyber Agency. Officials said the SFs retaliated
when Taliban militants fired at them in the Shalobar area of Bara
during the operation, jointly conducted by the Army and the Frontier
Corps.
A patrolling party
of the Levies Force escaped a remote-controlled bomb attack in
the Kotki area of Khar tehsil in Bajaur Agency. They said 19 suspects
had been arrested in search operations. The sources said a bomb
went off during a routine patrol of the Levies Force, while another
remote-controlled blast occurred in the Nawagai bazaar.
The SFs also captured
an underground cave in South Waziristan Agency that was used as
a depot by the Taliban militants for storing arms and heavy weapons,
besides seizing a large cache of foreign-made weapons. Major Saleem
of the army told the journalists that the SFs had also recovered
a 22-pound cannon that could strike long-range targets. He said
the seized foreign weapons included anti-aircraft guns, missiles,
rocket launchers, mortar guns, hand grenades and land mines.
The SFs arrested
two suspects from Ghalanai tehsil of Mohmand Agency. According
to the Mohmand Agency’s political administration, one of the suspects
was arrested from Kashmir Kor by the SFs while the second was
arrested by the Ghalanai tehsildar.
Bonair Khan, a close
aide of Sufi Muhammad, was killed along with three other associates
as they tried to escape from the Army’s Red Fort in Maidan area
of Lower Dir in the NWFP. It has been reported that Bonair Khan
had masterminded several suicide bombings, target killings and
attacks on Security Forces and facilitated the Taliban in various
attacks.
December 13
The SF killed at
least seven militants in Kurram tribal region of FATA. Two soldiers
also died in the fighting, officials told the Associated Press
on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak
to the media. People began fleeing the area after SF urged villagers
to leave, the officials said. Reuters quoted administration officials
and intelligence agents as saying that the SF, backed by artillery
and fighter aircraft, had attacked terrorists in Kurram and destroyed
10 of their hideouts. 20 militants and 12 SF personnel were also
injured in the exchange of fire.
Unidentified militants
blew up and set ablaze the houses of eight Government officials
in Sharif Khana of Charmang area in Nawagai sub-division of Bajaur
Agency. The sources said that militants first blew up one by one
all the eight houses located in Sharif Khana, some 20 kilometres
from Khar headquarters, and then set ablaze all the structures.
The houses were completely destroyed in the blasts and fire. No
casualty was reported as the families had abandoned the houses
when the military operation was launched against militants in
the area. Eyewitnesses said that eight Government Officials identified
as Abdul Kabeer, Nazifullah, Mujtaba, Abdul Hadi, Muhammad Zubair,
Abdul Khaliq and Muhammad Aziz were earlier living in these houses.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the act.
Four militants of
the TTP, including their ‘commander’, were arrested in the Quaidabad
area of Karachi. The arrested militants were allegedly plotting
terror activities in the city during Moharramul Haram (Islamic
Religious Month) and four hand grenades, four Kalashnikovs and
three-and-a-half kilogrammes of hashish were recovered from their
possession. The Senior Superintendent of Police (East Zone II
Investigations) Choudhry Aslam Khan said the arrested men have
been identified as Noor Wali, Niaz alias Riaz, Kher Mohammad alias
Kaka and Niaz alias Omer. Giving details about the militant’s
background, Khan said they had abducted a businessman named Zain
Mehdi in Karachi, detained him for three months and later released
him after receiving ransom money of PNR one million. Two months
back, they had killed a man named Zubair at the Sohrab Goth graveyard
suspecting him of being a Police informer. They had also robbed
PNR one million from a petrol pump in Federal B Area of Karachi.
An intelligence
agency captured the Swat Taliban ‘leader’ Fazlullah’s driver,
Rahim Dad, from Shergarh area in Mardan of NWFP. Sources said
the personnel of an intelligence agency’s raided a house in Shergarh
area on a tip-off and arrested Rahim Dad, recovering a Kalashnikov
rifle and hand grenades from his possession. Rahim is a resident
of Gulshanabad in Batkhela Tehsil (revenue division) of
Malakand Agency.
The religious leaders
from various schools of thought in Punjab declared suicide attacks
as ‘haram’ (prohibited) and promised to cooperate with the Punjab
Government in the fight against terrorism. They expressed this
commitment in a unanimous resolution, passed after a meeting at
the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Lahore. The resolution, presented
by Muttahida Ulema Board Chairman Sahibzada Fazle Karim, stated
that suicide bombings had no place in Islam. It said the board
wanted to see the country on the road to development and peace.
Meanwhile, talking to journalists, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz
Sharif urged religious leaders to play a major role in countering
the challenges being faced by the country.
The former JI chief
Qazi Hussain Ahmed called suicide bombings "un-Islamic",
saying that United States drone strikes were an assault on the
country’s sovereignty and "cannot be tolerated anymore".
Addressing a conference, he said Islam did not allow killing of
"Muslim brothers" by launching suicide attacks and bomb
blasts on ordinary citizens. "Suicide attacks are not allowed
in Islam and our religion does not allow the killing of innocent
people. "The murder of a Muslim is in fact the killing of
all humanity," he said, adding that United States and NATO
forces would be defeated in Afghanistan due to their "anti-people"
policies. He said drone attacks in Pakistan were a violation of
international law and the country’s sovereignty. Qazi called for
strict action against elements involved in corruption adding that
clerics from different schools of thought should unite to guide
the nation in "these testing times" and protect it from
imperialist forces.
December 14
The SFs killed 18
Taliban militants in the ongoing military operations in FATA.
The SFs killed five Taliban militants in Operation Rah-e-Nijat
in South Waziristan, the ISPR said. It said the SFs killed four
militants at Mola Khan Sarai in the Shakai sector, while a trooper
was also injured during the clash. Another militant was killed
and a soldier injured during a clash in the Razmak sector.
Six militants were
killed when helicopter gunships targeted a terrorists’ vehicle
in Kurram Agency.
SFs killed two Taliban
militants and injured another three militants in various areas
of Khar and Nawagai in Bajaur Agency.
SFs carried out
an operation at village Tanga Patai and destroyed nine IEDs and
recovered a cache of arms from the area.
Unidentified militants
blew up a girls’ school in Saddokhel area of Khyber Agency in
FATA. Local residents said it was the second attack on Malik Ashraf
Killi Primary School. They said as many as 200 girls were enrolled
in the school. Political administration and security officials
also visited the site and warned Afghanistan nationals to vacate
the area within a week. "They are Taliban. They are the same
people who do not want children to get education," Rahim
Gul Khattak, a senior administration official said.
The SFs killed four
Taliban militants during a search operation at Najigram in Swat
of NWFP.
The TTP ‘commander’
for the Naugolai area in Swat of NWFP was arrested during a raid
at a hideout in Ittehad Town, a close proximity of Karachi city.
Police sources said a Crime Investigation Department team headed
by Investigations Senior Superintendent of Police Umar Shahid
arrested Rashid alias Tooti Khan. One TT pistol was recovered
from his possession. The arrested man is believed to be a close
associate of Maulvi Fazlullah and Abu Faraj of the TTP Swat and
was involved in killing law enforcement personnel and attacking
various sensitive installations and check posts.
A Spanish court
sentenced nine Pakistani nationals and two Indian nationals to
14-year jail terms for belonging to a terrorist outfit and making
plan for a suicide bomb blast in Barcelona. Earlier, these persons
were arrested in Spain on January 19, 2008.
The TTP urged clerics
to refrain from issuing edicts against suicide bombing without
lending an ear to the "jihadi point of view". TTP spokesman
Azam Tariq said, "We expect that the clerics will not issue
fatwas against suicide bombing without listening to the point
of view of the jihadi forces." "These clerics, if they
are forced by the Government to issue decrees against us, should
visit areas where Security Forces’ operation is going on to know
who is doing what." The TTP appeal came after the Government
sought edicts from renowned religious scholars and clerics against
suicide attacks. "Issuing fatwas against suicide bombing
on the basis of the Government’s propaganda is unjust," the
spokesman added.
Weapons being used
for terrorism in Pakistan come from Afghanistan, the NWFP Governor
Owais Ahmed Ghani said. Addressing a conference on ‘Improving
Governance: Towards Sustainable Growth, Peace and Equity’, he
said, "Every bullet, gun, bomb, rocket and explosives being
used in acts of terrorism in Pakistan comes from Afghanistan."
The NWFP Governor was chairing the session ‘Sustainable Governance
Strategies to Counter Terrorism’ on the second day of the three-day
conference. He said external factors were the main cause for the
increasing terrorism across the country. "Religious seminaries
and economic problems in the country existed before the advent
of terrorism in the country; therefore, these things cannot be
attributed as the reason behind the menace. Terrorism has actually
been triggered by external factors, primarily anarchy and unrest
in Afghanistan," he said. "The question that needs answering
is that who is providing the resources to the insurgents,"
Ghani said, adding that around Rs 40 billion had been spent by
terrorists in the NWFP and FATA in the last 10 years.
December 15
SFs killed 36 Taliban
militants in separate military operations in Orakzai, Bajaur and
Kurram Agencies of FATA. Sources said that 25 Taliban militants
were killed when gunship helicopters pounded their hideouts in
the Khost Sturi Khel and Sultanzai areas of Orakzai Agency. They
also said three hideouts and two vehicles were also destroyed
in the attack. An important training centre at Sultankhel was
also destroyed.
Frontier Constabulary
sources said SFs killed nine Taliban militants in Kurram Agency.
SFs killed two Taliban
militants and injured two other militants in Charmang, Mamoond
and Nawagai tehsils of Bajaur Agency. Eighteen Taliban surrendered
to security forces in Inayat Killay and various parts of Mamoond
tehsil (revenue unit).
Gunship helicopters
also pounded suspected Taliban hideouts in Tarali, Sultani, Tari
Tank, Dogar and Alwara Mela. As many as five Taliban militants
were injured and several of their hideouts were destroyed. Orakzai
is believed to be the base of Hakeemullah Mehsud, leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan, and is part of Pakistan’s tribal belt on the Afghanistan
border.
SFs recovered a
cache of arms and ammunition in South Waziristan Agency. SFs also
cleared Aqhzar, Tauda Uba, Jani Kot and arrested two suspects.
They also consolidated their positions in Shakai sector.
SFs conducted search
operation near Tara Tiza and neutralised 22 militant hideouts,
including two tunnels (35 feet long) in Razmak sector. SFs successfully
established link up at village Zawar near Ghariom. In Pash Ziarat,
15 militant hideouts were neutralised and a cache of arms was
recovered.
During ‘Operation
Rah-e-Raast’ in Malakand Division, SFs recovered a cache of arms
from Lalkhu Gharai, Batku, Hatrang, Tangar, Darogzar and Bashkhela.
SFs also conducted a search operation in Tutaki near Matta, Manglaur,
Charbagh, Harichand, Devolai, Imamdherai and Tighak-Galoch and
arrested 17 Taliban militants.
Four Taliban militants
surrendered at Shahdand Banda and Bara Banda.
A suicide car bomb
exploded in a market outside the home of the Punjab Chief Minister’s
senior adviser, Zulfiqar Khosa in Dera Ghazi Khan District of
Punjab, killing 33 people and injured 60 others. Unidentified
militants detonated the explosives outside the house of Khosa,
who was not in home at the time of explosion. An eyewitness, Naeem,
said a white-coloured car reached the gate of Khosa’s house and
exploded. Most of the dead and injured were persons shopping or
working at the market. It was unclear whether the bomber meant
to target the politician’s home or the market. The attack badly
damaged the house and several nearby shops and buildings, including
a mosque and bank. "The whole market has collapsed,"
said Raza Khan, a local resident. "There is smoke and people
running here and there." The attacker had packed the car
with about 900 pounds (400 kilogrammes) of explosives, Senior
Police Officer Muhammad Rizwan said. Zulfiqar Khosa’s son, Dost
Muhammad Khosa, said two of his cousins were among the wounded.
"It was a direct attack on us," Dost alleged, declining
to speculate who was behind the blast. Meanwhile, Sardar Zulfiqar
Khosa said that his residence was targeted in the suicide attack
but he is not sure whether he was the target of the bomber or
not. "All of my family members are safe and are in Lahore,"
he told a private television channel after a suicide bomber exploded
an explosives-laden car outside his residence. Khosa condemned
the explosion.
Unidentified militants
hurled a grenade at a Police bus in Quetta of Balochistan. Police
sources said the bus was slightly damaged and caused no casualties.
A pipeline supplying
gas to Loti Gas Field in Zain Koh area was blown up at Sui. The
Police sources said unidentified militants planted a bomb near
the 16-inch pipeline, adding the explosion destroyed a portion
of the pipeline.
Unidentified militants
torched two NATO oil tankers in Spiny Road of Quetta. Officials
said the unidentified militants opened fire on the tankers on
Spiny Road and managed to escape from the scene.
One Pakistan origin
American national, Syed Haris Ahmed (25) of Atlanta, and one Bangladesh
origin American national, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee (23) of Georgia,
were sentenced to 13 and 17 years in prison respectively by a
United States court, for their link to Pakistan-based LeT and
JeM and providing them with material aid and support for attacks
in the U.S. and abroad. District Judge William Duffey Junior of
Federal Court in Atlanta sentenced Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul
Islam Sadequee, following their convictions in 2009 in separate
but related criminal trials. Like David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur
Rana, Sadequee and Ahmed too were in contact with the LeT and
the JeM. However unlike Headley, who sent video footage and photographs
of possible LeT targets in India, Sadeequee and Ahmed sent video
clips of possible LeT targets in the US. "This is not about
your faith," Judge Duffey Junior. told them. "This is
about your conduct. This is about the rule of law in this country
that you have decided does not apply to you."
The Sargodha civil
court granted 10 days’ physical remand of the five United States
nationals arrested for their reported involvement in planning
to join militant outfits. They were brought to Sargodha from Lahore
amid tight security and presented before the judge, where a JIT
requested for their 10-day remand. Meanwhile, United State’s State
Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in response to a question
about the Lahore High Court order: "It sounds to me to be
a reasonable judicial procedure." The LHC had directed the
authorities in Pakistan not to deport the arrested US nationals
to any country. "We are in the process of working with the
Pakistani authorities to determine their legal status, and formal
charges haven’t been brought," Kelly said. Declining to comment
on the LHC verdict, Kelly said: "What we’re interested in
is that their legal rights are being respected, that the local
law is being followed, and that they have access to legal counsel.
And we normally provide them with a list of lawyers, who are available
in the matter that they’re being held for."
The JIT reportedly
decided to book the six United States nationals under Anti-Terrorism
Act. The Police had registered a case against Waqar Hussain Khan,
22 (Virginia), Ahmed Abdullah Mani, 20 (Virginia), Ramay S Zamzam,
22 (Egypt) Iman Hasan Yamar, 17, (California), Omar Farouk, 24
and his father Khalid Farouk (Virginia) under the Pakistan Penal
Code for criminal conspiracy and violation of Foreigners Act after
arresting them from Sargodha on December 9.
MQM ‘chief’ Altaf
Hussain appealed to religious scholars of all schools of thought
to highlight in their sermons and speeches the fact that Islam
forbids suicide bombing and to issue a fatwa (dictat) declaring
that it (suicide bombing) is impermissible under any circumstances,
according to Dawn. He was addressing from London a convention
of Ulema and mashaikhs organised to discuss ways of maintaining
sectarian harmony during Muharram. He condemned the rising incidents
of terrorism and suicide bombings across the country. Hussain
also condemned United States drone attacks in Pakistan when a
participant drew his attention to such attacks in tribal areas.
Such attacks, he said, often caused death of innocent people.
The Taliban leadership
is sending messages from various sources to the Government for
holding dialogue, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. "The
Government cannot hold talks with unreliable people who don’t
even fulfil their commitments. If the TTP really wants to hold
dialogue with the Government, they must surrender and lay down
their arms first," Malik said. He said TTP leader Hakeemullah
Mehsud had accepted responsibility for the Parade Lane mosque
attack in Rawalpindi, adding that the TTP had time and again accepted
the responsibility of militant attacks in various parts of the
country including suicide attacks on students at the International
Islamic University. "How can they (Taliban) blame the country’s
secret agencies for carrying out terrorist attacks," he asked,
adding that, "TTP spokesman Azam Tariq is a liar. He is the
person who first announced the death of Hakeemullah Mehsud and
said Faqir Muhammad will be the head of the TTP, but later backtracked."
"The leadership of TTP has realised that their so-called
and self-designed jihad is meaningless now as the clerics have
denounced suicide attacks and their jihad, which is against innocent
people," Malik said.
A Baloch Senator
said there is no proof that New Delhi is fomenting trouble there
(Balochistan). In a statement that could embarrass Pakistan, which
has claimed that India is fuelling unrest in Balochistan, the
Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo said that "We don’t have a proof.
As a representative of Baloch people and a leader of a National
Party, I have no information on this. Maybe, intelligence agencies
of India and Pakistan have knowledge about it". Asking India
to realise the threat posed by terrorism in its neighbourhood,
the Senator said terror emanating from Afghanistan reached Pakistan
in no time and New Delhi should keep this fact in mind.
December 16
The SFs killed 49
Taliban militants in separate military actions in the FATA. "At
least 18 militants were killed when helicopters pounded Toori
Khel town of Orakzai Agency when they (militants) were holding
an important meeting," paramilitary spokesman Major Fazlur
Rehman said. Local Administration Official Riaz Khan confirmed
the toll and said four more were killed in air strikes in the
Sultanzai town of Orakzai Agency.
The SFs lunched
a ground and air offensive in Dagar town in the Kurram Agency,
killing 21 Taliban militants, paramilitary spokesman Major Fazlur
Rehman said. However, Dawn put the death toll to 27. Another 18
Taliban militants were arreted from the same town.
Six Taliban militants
and one soldier were killed in the raids and clashes in the South
Waziristan.
As many as four
persons were killed and 27 others were injured when unidentified
militants hurled grenades at the participants of a music concert
at Shah Kas area in Jamrud tehsil (revenue division) of Khyber
Agency in FATA.
SFs arrested 25
suspected militants, including a ‘commander’, Syed Noor, during
a search operation in Shalober, Qamberkhel and Akakhel area of
Bara sub-division in Khyber Agency.
Unidentified militants
blown up two gas pipelines in separate incidents in Dera Bugti
of Balochistan, causing disruption of gas supply to many parts
of Karachi. Local sources said that unidentified militants blew
up a 16-inch diameter gas pipeline at Loti area of Dera Bugti,
which was connected to well number 2. Another 30-inch gas pipeline
passing from Sui was also damaged by unidentified militants. The
attack disrupted the supply of gas to several parts of Karachi.
Unidentified militants
fired several rockets in Peshawar city, the capital of NWFP. The
rockets landed in an uninhabited area and caused no loss of life
or property. Chamkani Station Police officials said that the explosion
occurred in Afridi Garhi on Chamkani Road at around 7:30 AM (PST).
The Bomb Disposal Squad said the rockets were of the MP-12 type.
The FBI interrogator
of David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani has, for the first
time, confirmed that "A section of serving Pakistan army officers"
are working in collaboration with India-specific jihadi groups
like LeT and JeM, according to Times of India. Sources said this
was revealed by Headley to his FBI interrogators in what is the
first confirmation by an independent probe agency of the involvement
of Pakistani Army officers in planning and executing terrorist
operations against India. This, sources said, had been conveyed
to the Indian side by the FBI team which visited India to share
information on Headley’s questioning. While Pakistan has explained
away the instances of the involvement of Army officials calling
them "aberrations", this has exposed the jihadi infiltration
of the Pakistani Army and their collaboration with terrorist outfits
in anti-India operations. Sources said the officials identified
by Headley were working with Lashkar on ‘Karachi project’ as part
of a larger campaign against India. This project involves using
jihadi fugitives from India sheltered in Pakistan to draw in vulnerable
Indian Muslim youth. The FBI interrogation of David Coleman Headley
has revealed a Lashkar training project involving jihadi fugitives
from India. The youth, after they are trained by Pakistani army
officials, are sent back to India as part of the gameplan to conceal
the Pakistani involvement and pass off the terror in India as
a home-grown phenomenon.
The top leadership
of al Qaeda and Taliban is in Pakistan and planning to kill "as
many Americans as they have" in the past, US Joint Chiefs
of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said. "The indication
that I have is that they (al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leadership)
are here [Pakistan] and are actually protected by others, particularly,
by the [local] Taliban. This is our information, we operate under
it and it’s the focus of our strategy," he said in an interview
at the US embassy in Islamabad. Mullen said both al Qaeda and
the Taliban had their "resource" and leadership in Pakistan
and are "still planning to kill as many Americans as they
have killed before". Mullen said the US was determined not
to let the terrorists use Pakistan as staging ground to launch
attacks in the future. "We are going to do everything we
possibly can do to make sure that it does not happen again,"
he said. Mullen avoided questions on possible US drone attacks
in Balochistan.
December 17
A key al Qaeda operative,
Zohaib Al-Zahidi, and seven other foreigners were among 17 persons
killed in two separate drone strikes in North Waziristan Agency
of FATA. Zohaib Al-Zahidi was an important al Qaeda cadre involved
in planning and executing several militant attacks in Pakistan
and Afghanistan. In the first attack, five US drones fired at
least 10 missiles at two houses in the Ambarshaga area killing
at least 15 people. Another US drone killed two Taliban militants
as it fired two missiles at their vehicle around 4 AM (PST) in
Godi Wala village in Datta Khel tehsil (revenue division), 40
kilometres west of Miranshah. Official sources said the first
missile missed the target due to which several militants escaped,
while two of them were killed by the second missile. However,
The News put the death to 16.
Six persons, including
three SF personnel and three Taliban militants, were killed while
five SF personnel injured in two separate attacks in Bara tehsil
(revenue division) of Khyber Agency in FATA. The sources said
two SF personnel were killed when a remote-controlled bomb struck
a security convoy in the Malikdin Khel area of Bara tehsil. In
the second incident, the Taliban militants attacked a security
check post in the Feroz Khel area, close to the Orakzai Agency
border. A SF official was killed while five others were injured
in the attack. Three Taliban militants were also killed when SFs
retaliated.
A teenage suicide
bomber blew himself up at a gathering in Bannu of NWFP, but guests
at the ceremony escaped unhurt. Senior Police Official Muhammad
Ayub said that it was a "miracle" that no one was killed
or injured in the bombing in Essakhel village. "A young boy,
aged 13 or 14, blew himself up in the middle of guests who were
visiting the house of a local political leader to congratulate
him on his return from Haj," Ayub said. The boy was killed
by his suicide vest, but Police said it was possible that not
all the explosives detonated, while a hand grenade the bomber
was carrying was also defused at the scene.
Two personnel of
the FC were injured in Khuzdar District of Balochistan after unidentified
militants opened fire on a routine patrol party. The FC team came
under attack in Zehri area of Khuzdar while on a routine patrol.
The attackers opened fire on the FC team and injured two personnel.
The FC retaliated, but the militants managed to escape. The injured
officials were moved to a hospital where their condition was reported
to be stable. Following the incident, the FC cordoned off the
area and began a search for the attackers. At least five suspects
were detained by the FC in connection with the attack. No group
has so far accepted responsibility for the assault.
The CID arrested
one Nooran Gul Mehsud alias Rocket, a close aide of TTP ‘chief’
Hakeemullah Mehsud from Ramzan Goth in Karachi. Senior SSP OF
CID Fayyaz Khan said an incomplete suicide jacket, 20 kilogrammes
of explosives, two kilogrammes of ball bearings and nails each,
six electric timers and wires, and one Kalashnikov rifle was recovered
from his possession. "The man’s name is included in CID’s
Red Book in the category of most dangerous terrorists," Fayyaz
Khan added. Khan said Nooran had organised a terrorist network
in Karachi on the directives of the slain TTP chief Baitullah
Mehsud. "Nooran was also involved in an attack on an Intelligence
Agency personnel and the Anti-Violent Crime Unit in Sohrab Goth,"
he said. "Two policemen were killed while several others,
including AVCU chief SSP Farooq Awan and an intelligence official
were wounded in the incident." The arrested militant was
also responsible for providing medical treatment to terrorists
in the city who were wounded while fighting the Pakistan Army
in Waziristan, Khan added further.
Times of India quoting
the report of Geopolitical intelligence group Stratfor said that
the investigation into the David Headley case has conclusively
proved that LeT and HuJI continue to enjoy great deal of operational
freedom in Pakistan because of their links with its Government
and military officials even as al-Qaeda barely manages to survive.
This is one of the conclusions drawn by Geopolitical intelligence
group Stratfor in its latest report on US investigations into
Headley which further authenticates India’s stand that Islamabad
is not doing enough to dismantle the terror infrastructure. According
to Stratfor, the case shows that LeT and HuJI operatives were
able to travel, raise funds, communicate, train and plan operations
in Pakistan with seemingly little interference. ‘‘This is a stark
contrast to al-Qaeda, which is hunted, on the run and experiencing
a great deal of difficulty moving operatives, communicating, raising
funds and conducting operations. The links between Headley and
his associates to current and former Pakistani military officers
and Government officials are likely what is affording LeT and
HUJI their operational freedom,’’ said the report, adding that
even while having to drift out from under the wings of ISI, the
two groups have developed an advanced central planning apparatus.
The report goes on to say that HuJI leader Ilyas Kashmiri’s links
with al-Qaida and the plans for Denmark attack are an indication
that HuJI has become more closely aligned with the transnational
jihadis targeting philosophy as a result of Kashmiri’s contacts
with Osama bin Laden and company. ‘‘It appears that LeT, on the
other hand, has retained more of a focus on India. So, while the
two organisations continue to cooperate, they do have some differences
in targeting philosophy, and it would seem that HuJI is creeping
further into the al-Qaida orbit than LeT,’’ states the report.
The Pakistan Army
will crackdown on the Sirajuddin Haqqani network after the completion
of the South Waziristan operation, a private television channel
quoted United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael
Mullen as saying. In an interview with the channel, Mullen said
Pakistan’s operation against terrorists in Waziristan was in its
final phase, adding that the Security Forces had gained considerable
success against the Taliban. To a question, Mullen said US President
Barack Obama had directed his administration to work to build
mutual trust between Pakistan and the US. He said Obama had discussed
the new Pak-Afghan policy with the Pakistani leadership over telephone
and addressed Islamabad’s concerns over the issue. He said Washington
respected Pakistan’s sovereignty, however, the US had conveyed
its reservations to Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.
Mullen said he had asked Kayani to fight al Qaeda, which was hiding
in the Tribal Areas.
December 18
SFs backed by fighter
jets killed 16 Taliban militants and injured another 22 when they
targeted militant hideouts in various areas of Orakzai Agency
in the FATA. Sources said the jets destroyed four hideouts in
Dabori, Ghalju, Mamuzai and Malpati areas of Upper Orakzai.
A US drone fired
four missiles in the Shagga village of North Waziristan, killing
eight Taliban militants and injuring five others. The US drone
struck at around 3:30pm (IST) in Pyekhel area of Dattakhel tehsil
(revenue division), 25 kilometres west of Miranshah. "The
US drone fired four missiles, hitting a house, a compound and
some makeshift buildings," a Security Official in Peshawar
said. "It looks like some key Taliban or al Qaeda figures
are hiding in this area, and that’s why the drones are targeting
this area again and again." An official said, "Our informers
told us that the Taliban had gathered to attend the funeral prayers
of those killed December 17’s missile attacks," he said.
SFs in South Waziristan
neutralised 30 bunkers and compounds, which were previously being
used by the Taliban militants. The SFs conducted a search operation
in Song Khula near Asman Manza and destroyed a watchtower that
was used by the Taliban militants. The Taliban militants fired
with small arms at a SFs checkpost near Razmak, injuring a soldier.
Unidentified militants
destroyed a boys’ college in Alamgodar area of Bara tehsil (revenue
division) in Khyber Agency. The sources said that the militants
attacked the college in the early hours of morning. They tied
up the guard with ropes and blew up the building using explosives.
The sources said 20 rooms of the college were completely destroyed.
SFs arrested 14
suspected militants during a search operation in the Malakdin
Khel and Qambar Khel areas of Bara tehsil.
12 persons, mostly
worshippers, were killed and 32 others sustained injuries when
a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden van near a mosque
in the Police Lines in Dir Lower District of NWFP. "The worshipers
were coming out after offering the Friday prayers from the Civil
Colony mosque in the Police Lines when the suicide bomber rammed
his explosives-laden vehicle into the wall," an eyewitness
said. "Eleven persons were killed and 32 others injured in
the explosion, which occurred at 1:30 PM (PST)," a Police
official said. It was the first incident of its kind in Dir Lower,
where SFs in the summer crushed a Taliban-led insurgency concentrated
in Maidan and Adinzai tehsil (revenue division) of the Dir Lower
District.
SFs arrested 30
suspected militants during search operations in Bala Sur near
Chuprial, as well as Hamwarai, Roria, Kontangat, Kotkai, Kamargai
area of Swat. A Taliban militant surrendered at Kharary near Matta.
December 19
SFs killed 20 militants
in operations across the FATA. The SFs killed six militants in
Bara tehsil (revenue division) of Khyber Agency and arrested
another four militants during a search operation in the area.
The six militants were killed when they tried to attack the Janki
Post in Bara, while the militants were arrested from the Shalobar
area. The SFs also blew up the house of LI ‘commander’ Arif.
SFs killed six militants
and neutralised three militant’s hideouts in the Orakzai Agency.
Also, unidentified gunmen shot dead two militants in the area.
The helicopter gunships pounded Feroz Khel and Shaikhan areas
of Lower Orakzai, killing six militants and neutralised three
of their hideouts. The two bodies of militants were recovered
from Sanpaga Kandao area of Upper Orakzai.
SFs killed six militants
in the Razmal area in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South
Waziristan. "Security forces conducted a search operation
in Lowara Punga near Mana. During the encounter six terrorists
were killed," The Inter-Services Public Relations said. The
SFs secured Sain Tanga and Malik Shahi areas in South Waziristan
and arrested four suspects during the clearance operation in several
areas of the Jandola sector.
SFs conducted search
operations in several areas of the Jandola sector in South Waziristan
and recovered a large cache of arms and ammunitions.
SFs also conducted
a search operation in Badam Shah near Pash Ziarat and neutralised
three militant compounds, two bunkers and a tunnel and cleared
four suspected houses.
The militants fired
rockets and small arms at a SFs patrol near Mana, which was effectively
retaliated. SFs also cleared 52 compounds in various areas and
recovered a cache of arms.
In North Waziristan,
the SFs conducted a search of Waziristan Hotel in Miran Shah and
arrested two militants and recovered three grenades and a jacket
from them.
At least three personnel
of the Balochistan Constabulary, including a DSP, were killed
and another two injured when unidentified militants opened fire
at them in Quetta of Balochistan. Sources said that DSP Habibullah
Qaisarani had left his home for office when the militants, riding
a motorcycle, ambushed his car on the Jail Road. Habibullah, Assistant
Sub-Inspector Muhammad Aslam and Constable Shafiq Ahmed died on
the spot. The driver of the van, Nazeer Ahmed, and another constable
Muhammad Yasir were injured in the attack.
A Police patrol
party convoy narrowly escaped a roadside bomb blast at a suburban
Afridi Garhi locality along the Ring Road-Chughalpura Road in
Peshawar of NWFP. Police said the blast occurred when DSP Iftikhar
Khan and some constables were passing through the area. The DSP
said he was on official duty, adding the bomb went off seconds
before the Police patrol party would have reached the spot. Speaking
with journalists, Peshawar Senior Superintendent (coordination)
Muhammad Alam Shinwari said the explosive device had been planted
along the road and was detonated using a remote control, adding
it seemed the actual target of the suspected militants was the
Police convoy.
SFs arrested 40
suspected Taliban militants during a search operation in Kabal
tehsil (revenue division) of Swat.
The SFs also imposed
curfew in Bara Bandai area of Kabal and conducted a search operation
in which they arrested several suspects.
December 20
SFs killed four
Taliban militants in Kalangi area of Malakand in NWFP. Security
officials said the Taliban were trying to enter Malakand through
Bajaur Agency of FATA, and fired at the SFs when they were intercepted
near the Kalangi checkpost. The subsequent gun battle led to the
killing of four Taliban militants. The SFs recovered a rocket
launcher, four machine guns, sixteen magazines and six grenades
from the possession of the slain militants.
The SFs recovered
bodies of four Taliban militants and a sub-inspector of Police
in Buner District, officials said. The sources said the beheaded
body of sub-inspector Umar Ghani was recovered from Manyari Gokad
area of Buner. Ghani was the in-charge of Gagra Police Station
and had been abducted in June while he was on his way home. The
bodies of the Taliban militants, identified as Imtiaz, Israr,
Saadat and Ismail, were found in the Nawagai Police Station area.
A private school
building was damaged in a blast in Mathra Police Station area
of Peshawar. A Mathra Police Station official said that the blast
occurred at around 2 AM (PST) in the Muslim Public School, damaging
two rooms, a gate and part of the boundary wall. However, no casualty
in the blast was reported.
The SFs recovered
IEDs, explosive material and weapons during search operation in
Dhoda area of the Lakki Marwat District. At least 20 persons were
arrested for further investigation "The militants had buried
the IEDs, explosive material, arms and ammunition in the underground
caves," the District Police Officer Muhammad Ayub said. The
recovered explosive devices and arms included eight IEDs, three
buckets each filled with 25 kilograms of explosive, detonators,
two bags full of explosive powder, eight Kalashnikov rifles, a
long machine gun, two shotguns, explosive wire (prime cord) and
2,605 rounds.
The SFs arrested
60 suspected Taliban militants during search operations in various
parts of Swat.
December 21
SFs killed four
Taliban militants in the ongoing operation Rah-e-Nijat in the
Totakna area of Swat District in the NWFP.
Unidentified militants
blew up the Khattako Bridge checkpost on the Shamshato Road in
the Urmur Police Station area of Peshawar. The checkpost was manned
by four Policemen, but none of them was present when the blast
occurred. The Senior Superintendent of Police (Coordination) Muhammad
Alam Shinwari said the remote-controlled bomb weighed around one
and half kilogrammes.
Two Taliban militants
were killed and three others arrested in the ongoing operation
Rah-e-Nijat in the South Waziristan Agency of the FATA. The ISPR
sources said the militants fired with small arms at the SFs check-post
near Janata, which was effectively retaliated. In the Shakai sector,
the ISPR said, the militants engaged SFs positions in Pungai near
Ladha from southwest of Narakai. During the ensuing clash, two
militants were killed, ISPR said. In the Razmak sector, militants
attacked the SFs check-post near Mana and Pash Ziarat, which was
effectively retaliated.
The CID of the Sindh
Police arrested a Taliban militant from Bin Qasim Town of Karachi
who is allegedly involved in high-profile terrorism cases in Mohmand
Agency of FATA. CID Superintendent Police (Investigations) Mazhar
Mashwani said a special CID team successfully raided Bin Qasim
Town and arrested the accused Mohammad Umer after an encounter.
During the initial course of interrogation, Umer revealed that
he had been involved in several heinous cases of crime, including
terrorism, in Mohmand Agency, he added. A shotgun and five bullets
were recovered from Umer’s possession.
December 22
At least 17 Taliban
militants were killed and another eight injured as the SFs, backed
by helicopter gunships, continued their offensive against terrorists
in Orakzai Agency of FATA. A private news channel said helicopter
gunships pounded militant’s hideouts in the region, killing seven
militants and injuring another eight. Six more militants were
killed in Ferozekhel during a encounter with the SFs. Ihsanullah,
an important Taliban ‘commander’, was also among the dead. However,
another TV channel claimed that Ihsanullah’s killing was a result
of clash between two militant groups.
The SFs killed four
militants in separate clashes during the Operation Rah-e-Nijat
(Path to Salvation) in South Waziristan. Sources said that two
militants were killed and two injured in Nazar Khel near Gani
Khel. The SFs killed two more militants during a search operation
in Ghariom.
The SFs conducted
a search operation in Janata area and recovered an unspecified
number of arms and ammunitions.
A girl’s school
was bombed in Kamar Khel area of Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency
by unidentified militants. Sources said that the militants planted
explosives in Government Girls Middle Schools. The blast damaged
the compound and rooms of the school, a local said. Moreover,
the continuing curfew has forced the closure of all educational
institutions in Bara.
The SFs discovered
and defused a roadside landmine in Shin Drang area. Officials
said that militants had planted the bomb to target the SFs.
Three people, including
a woman, were killed and another 24 persons injured when a suicide
bomber blew himself up at the main gate of the Peshawar Press
Club in Peshawar of NWFP. The building is situated on the Sher
Shah Suri Road close to the Cantonment Railway Station. Lady Reading
Hospital officials confirmed the toll in the first ever suicide
attack in the country aimed specifically at journalists. They
said two of the bodies were identified as police constable Riazuddin
and a passer-by, Rubina. Rubina, who died of a cardiac arrest,
was traveling in a rickshaw close to the press club when the blast
occurred. Peshawar Press Club accountant Mian Iqbal Shah succumbed
to his injury at the hospital later. Several passers-by, including
those travelling in a minibus, were injured in the blast besides
Peshawar Press Club employees Yasir, Ayub and Kamran. A photojournalist,
Khurram Pervez, also sustained injuries in the blast. Peshawar
City Police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told reporters that the suicide
attacker had tried to enter the premises. The Police guard at
the gate frisked the man and tried to overpower him when he discovered
that the person was wearing a suicide vest, however, the bomber
detonated his vest during the scuffle. The press club employee
Yasir Jamil, who was also injured in the blast said that the suicide
bomber was trying to enter the press club when the Police guard
stopped him. He said the attacker had an argument with the guard,
and blew himself up moments later. He said the bomber had a dark
complexion and short height and seemed around 18 to 19 years of
age.
SFs killed four
militants in Karakar area of the Swat District. According to the
Swat Media Centre, a group of militants were attempting to enter
Buner from Swat when Security personnel intercepted them, resulting
in an encounter. Two soldiers were also injured in the exchange
of fire. The SFs recovered two IEDs, two Klashnikovs, wireless
sets and a sub-machine gun from the possession of the slain militants.
December 23
SFs killed 10 Taliban
militants in Bajaur Agency of FATA after they came under attack
in Charmang area of Nawagai tehsil (revenue unit). Taliban
militants attacked two check posts in Charmang area, upon which
the SFs killed 10 of the militants in retaliatory fire. However,
The News put the militant fatalities to 12.
In the Bara tehsil,
SFs arrested five suspected persons, including a wanted militant,
during a search operation.
The SFs neutralised
a house in Akakhel area and arrested a Taliban ‘commander’ Malki
Khan, his two brothers and a son.
Daily Times quoting
a Senior Police Official reported that several militants of LeJ,
who were hiding and fighting in the tribal areas of the NWFP,
have reached Karachi to carry out terrorist activities during
Muharramul Haram. A senior police official, on condition of anonymity
said that militants affiliated with LeJ, who were fighting against
Security Forces in Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu and Waziristan, have
come to Karachi to evoke sectarian violence in the city. "They
plan to carry out suicide bombings and target killings,"
the officer said. "These militants want to show their strength
to the law enforcers and intelligence agencies, and they also
want to take revenge of the killings of their leaders and workers
in the last couple of months in the city." A source said
as many as 13 high-profile militants of LeJ had been killed in
different acts of violence, which resulted in them taking revenge.
It is believed that the prime target of the militants would be
the main processions and Majalis-e-Azza held in various parts
of the city during the first ten days of Muharram, the source
added.
The TTP ‘chief’
Hakeemullah Mehsud asked his ‘commanders’ not to interfere in
the matters of North Waziristan Agency of FATA. Warning of strict
action against those who violated the order, Hakeemullah asked
his group to desist from abductions and other criminal activities
and interference in the governance of Political Administration
of North Waziristan. He said those violating the order would be
held accountable.
The TTP ‘deputy
chief’ Waliur Rehman said he has sent thousands of fighters to
neighbouring Afghanistan to rebuff incoming US troops. Waliur
Rehman said the TTP remains committed to battling the Army in
South Waziristan, but they are essentially waging a guerrilla
war. "Since Obama (President Barack Obama) is also sending
additional SFs to Afghanistan, we sent thousands of our men there
to fight NATO and American SFs," Rehman said. While the military
estimated it had killed around 600 Taliban militants, Rehman claimed
that he had lost fewer than 20. He also said his group would stop
attacking Pakistan’s SFs if the country would sever its ties with
the US. He claimed the Taliban only attacked SFs and did not believe
in any strikes on civilian targets.
December 24
Four persons were
killed and 24 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself
up near a security post in Peshawar. Peshawar Senior Superintendent
of Police (Coordination) Muhammad Alam Shinwari said that four
persons, including one Policeman and three civilians, were killed
and 24 injured in the attack, which was carried out using a suicide
jacket packed with eight kilogrammes of explosives. The bomber
struck at the junction of Mall Road and Arbab Road in front of
an insurance company’s office, where a Security Force post had
been set up to inspect vehicles. A policeman said the bomber was
on foot and detonated explosives strapped to his body when Policemen
stopped him at the post.
Two people were
killed and another two sustained serious injuries in a landmine
explosion in Phelawagh village of Dera Bugti in Balochistan on.
The deceased were identified as Saifullah and Shah Gul, who were
killed when their vehicle hit a landmine in Phelawagh village.
A six-year-old girl,
Arooj, was killed and two people, including a head constable,
were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an
imambargah on Kurri Road in Rawalpindi. The bomber blew himself
up when Head Constable Ittefaq intercepted him at a picket set
up for the Security of the imambargah, where a congregation was
being held.
Three SF personnel
were injured when militants fired rockets at two military check
posts in Chamarkand area of Mohmand Agency late in the night.
Tribal sources said the militants fired rockets at Marjan-I and
Marjan-II check posts in Chamarkand area in Safi tehsil (revenue
unit). Three troopers on duty at the checkpoints were injured
in the attack. In retaliation, the SFs pounded the hideouts of
militants with artillery cannons but there was report on any human
and material losses inflicted on the militants.
December 25
The SFs shot dead
nine suspected Taliban militants in Orakzai Agency of FATA. A
Government official Muhammed Yasin said the Pakistan Army had
killed at least nine suspected Taliban militants in the country’s
northwest tribal region near the Afghanistan border. The Army
had used helicopter gunships to destroy three Taliban hideouts
in Orakzai Agency, he added further.
The SFs arrested
a militant during a search operation in Nawagai area of Bajaur
Agency.
Three militants
surrendered before the SFs in Lagharai area of Mamond tehsil in
Bajaur Agency.
The SFs neutralised
the house of a militant ‘commander’ in Mamond by using explosives,
besides targeting several militant positions in Mulla Said area
with artillery shells and mortar guns.
Two Policemen were
killed in a militant attack in Peshawar, the capital of the NWFP,
in the early hours. An official source said that unidentified
militants shot dead two Policemen at a check post in Taj Abad
locality of Peshawar. The official said the two Policemen were
identified as Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Javed, both from Swabi
District. According to the officials, the militants managed to
escape after killing the Policemen.
The unidentified
militants blew up three schools in separate attacks in Landikotal
and Peshawar. Buildings of two Government high schools about 1.5
kilometres apart were blown up in Landikotal. No casualties were
reported, as both schools were empty at the time. In the second
incident, the militants tried to blow up a Government boys’ high
school in Spin Wari village in Peshawar. According to the Police,
the blast only damaged the school’s boundary wall.
The Police recovered
500 kilogrammes of explosives from Mardan and 2,000 kilogrammes
from Bannu. A private television channel quoted NWFP Police Inspector
General (IG) Malik Naveed saying that the NWFP Government had
thwarted six potential suicide attacks in recent weeks. Speaking
with the media in Peshawar after the suicide blast at the Mall
Road, the IG said Police were conducting raids in the suburban
areas of the city. Regarding security arrangements for Muharram,
he said as many as 700 ex-servicemen of the Frontier Corps had
been recalled to protect citizens.
The Police recovered
a cache of arms and ammunition from Morrian area near Rawal Town
of Islamabad. The Police sources said that a citizen informed
Shahzad Town Police Station that arms and ammunition was lying
at a deserted place at Morrian near Rawal Town. Shahzad Town Police
and bomb disposal squad reached the place and found two hand grenades,
huge quantity of sulpher powder and other arms and ammunition.
Police arrested
four militants and recovered as many suicide vests and a large
cache of arms from their possession in Mianwali District. The
Police arrested a suspect, Muhammad Jamil, from Gulberg Chowk
and recovered videos of suicide bombings and also arrested his
accomplice, Egal Khan, on the basis of the information provided
by Jamil. Further information provided by the two men led to the
arrest of Amanullah Hattar and Imran Pathan from Kacha Gujrat
area of Mianwali. The Police recovered explosives, suicide vests,
CDs, cell phones, documents, maps and ball bearings from the possession
of the arrested persons. Officials said the arrested persons were
planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the city during Muharram.
The TTP has formed
a group to avenge the death of their commander Ilyas Abufraz who
was killed in an operation. The group, codenamed Mujahid Abufraz,
has been assigned to carry out terrorist activities in Rawalpindi,
Multan, Gujranwala, Karachi, Quetta, and Dera Ismail Khan during
Muharram. According to a circular issued by the CID to the regional
Police officers, TTP leader Qari Hussain Mehmood has formed a
group of four militants to avenge the death of Abufraz.
December 26
10 Taliban militants
were killed in Orakzai and Mohmand Agencies of the FATA as SFs
continued operations against the Taliban militants. Six militants
were killed and 11 injured when helicopter gunships bombed militant
hideouts in the Orakzai Agency, officials said. Political Administration
officials said that SFs attacked militant hideouts in areas close
to the border with Hangu, killing six militants and injuring 11,
adding that two militant hideouts were also neutralised in the
attacks. A clash between SFs and militants left at least four
militants dead and seven injured in Mohmand Agency. According
to security officials, the clash occurred in the Chamarkand area
in the night of December 24. SF personnel have started search
operations in various areas of the Mohmand Agency.
Three Taliban militants
were killed and two injured when a US drone fired two missiles
at a suspected militant compound in North Waziristan. The sources
said that the missiles hit the house of a local, Asmatullah, in
Danday Saidgy village, 20 kilometres north of Miranshah, at around
7pm (PST). Another Security official confirmed the drone strike
to AFP, adding that Asmatullah had links with the Taliban.
Five militants were
killed and two others injured in a clash between two banned militants
groups, Ansar-ul-Islam and Lashkar-e-Islam, in the Tirrah Valley
of Khyber Agency. Political administration officials said that
armed militants of the two groups were using heavy weaponry to
target rival hideouts in the valley. The SFs fired at hideouts
of Lashkar-e-Islam, neutralizing two of them.
Unidentified militants
assassinated an anti-Taliban tribal elder and dumped his beheaded
dead body by the roadside in Bajaur Agency. According to a local
official, Gul Muhammad (42), an elder of the Salarzai tribe, had
been actively participating in raising a village militia to battle
the Taliban in the region. "The body of Gul Muhammad was found
this morning in Mamund village," Faramosh Khan, the official,
said. "A note found on the beheaded body said that anyone who
would join the militia against the Taliban would be killed in
the same manner," he added.
A roadside bomb
blast injured at least 26 persons soon after a procession of mourners
passed the Khalifat Chowk in Paposh Nagar Police Station area
in North Nazimabad Town of Karachi. Karachi Capital City Police
Officer Waseem Ahmed said that it seemed that a remote controlled
device was used to detonate the bomb that weighed around half
a kilogramme. "Twenty-six people, including two rangers personnel
and two Policemen were wounded and taken to hospital. Six of them
have been discharged while others may be released soon," the Police
chief said. Ahmed added the bomb was placed close to a car parked
on the road, adding that from now on, the BDS would check all
procession routes beforehand. BDS Assistant Sub-Inspector Abdul
Rauf confirmed that around half a kilogramme of explosives was
used along with ball bearings, nuts and bolts, which also caused
cracks in the ground around the blast site. Sindh Police Criminal
Investigation Department Senior Superintendent of Police Fayyaz
Khan said that it was likely that the banned LeJ outfit and other
anti-Shia elements might have carried out the attack.
December 27
A US missile attack
that demolished a suspected Taliban compound in North Waziristan
killed 13 militants. A US drone slammed two missiles into the
building in Danday Saidgi village, seven kilometres north of Miranshah,
official sources said. "The Taliban have recovered more dead
bodies from the debris today (December 27). We have reports that
a total of 13 terrorists were killed and three injured,"
an intelligence official in Miranshah said. "One of the local
‘commander’, Abdur Rehman, was also killed," he added. "The
compound was used by local Taliban attached to the Haqqani network,
which has attacked US troops in Afghanistan," said another
Senior Security Official.
Eight Taliban militants
were killed and 14 injured in attacks on militant hideouts and
in a clash between militants and tribesmen in Orakzai Agency.
Sources said that air strikes pounded militant hideouts in Sturikhel
area of Orakzai Agency, killing five militants and injuring eight
others. The sources said three militant hideouts were also neutralised
in the strikes.
Three militants
were killed and six injured in a clash between militants and members
of the Sturikhel tribe. Sources said the militants had been threatening
members of the Sturikhel tribe in a bid to stop them from enrolling
in the Frontier Corps. They said the situation had escalated to
such an extent that a clash erupted between the militants and
members of the tribe firing at each other. Resultantly, three
militants were killed and six others injured.
Suspected Taliban
militants blew up the home of an official in Kurram, killing him
and five children as they slept, officials said. "Unknown
assailants planted dynamite near the boundary wall of the house
and exploded it between 2-3 AM (PST), completely destroying the
house," Abab Ali, an Administration Official, told AFP by
telephone. A junior local official, Sarfraz Khan, one of his sons
and four other relatives died. Three other relatives were wounded,"
he said.
"Besides the
official, those killed were aged five to 11. We don’t know who
was responsible," he added.
At least 15 persons,
including two Policemen were killed and over 100 injured when
a suicide bomber ripped through a Muharram procession near an
imambargah in Muzaffarabad of PoK. The procession was passing
close to a Police barricade in front of the imambargah on CMH
Road at about 6.30 PM (PST) when the bomber struck, a Senior Police
Officer said. At least 15 of those injured are in critical condition.
The gathering attracted about 1,000 people, said Police Officer
Tahir Qayum. Those killed included two policemen, he said. "The
bomber came in front of me. He was accompanying the procession.
Police searched everybody on the gate and the bomber blew himself
during the body search," said Atif Bashir, a medical storekeeper
with a bandaged forehead. "All of a sudden the electricity
cut. There was panic and people were crying for help," he
added.
Police arrested
a would-be suicide bomber near a religious congregation in Bagh
District of POK. The would-be bomber has confessed to involvement
in several attacks on SF. The arrested militant is a member of
a group that has remained active in Swat, Buner and other Districts
of NWFP. The group has been responsible for destroying two tanks
and the death of several troops. It also masterminded a suicide
attack at a polling station that killed more than 100 citizens.
SF arrested 50 suspected
militants, including two foreigners, during a search operation
in Mingora of NWFP. SF had earlier enforced a curfew in parts
of Mingora after they learned that several militants were hiding
out in the area. SF recovered a cache arms during the search operations.
December 28
A suicide bomber
targeted Pakistan's largest procession of Shiite Muslims on their
holiest day of Ashura, killing at least 30 people and injuring
more than 63 persons. The blast sparked riots in Karachi, the
financial capital, where angry mourners went on the rampage, throwing
stones at ambulances, torching cars and shops and firing bullets
into the air. Tens of thousands of Police and paramilitary forces,
fearing militant attacks on Ashura processions were deployed.
"The blast was so huge that I felt my hearing had gone, but
then I started hearing cries of injured people and saw pieces
of human flesh and blood on the road," said Abbas Ali, 35,
one of the mourners thrown to the ground. Interior Minister Rehman
Malik blamed TTP, against which the Army has been waging a major
operation in near the Afghan border, and LeJ, another of most
feared Islamist networks. "At least 30 people have been killed
so far in the suicide attack and 63 others have been injured,"
Provincial Health Minister Saghir Ahmed said. "We have declared
emergency at all hospitals in Karachi and doctors are making every
effort to save the injured. The situation is very grim,"
he added. Mohammad Ali Jinnah Road, where the attack happened,
was ablaze with burning cars and motorcycles, and covered in debris
from buildings attacked by rioters, said an AFP correspondent.
This attack was the deadliest in Karachi since a suicide bomber
targeted the homecoming of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
-- who was assassinated two months later -- killing at least 139
people in October 2007. It was the third attack on Ashura commemorations
in Pakistan in 2009. However, The News put the death toll to 40.
Police arrested
three suspected militants near Kashmore. The militants, travelling
from NWFP in a van, were on their way to Sindh and were carrying
a heavy quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives. District
Police Officer Kashmore Abdul Salam Sheikh said the militants
wanted to transfer the arms and ammunitions, including detonators,
explosives, guns and suicide jackets, to different parts of Sindh.
At least 15 militants
were killed in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Salvation)
in South Waziristan Agency of FATA, a press released issued by
the ISPR said. The militants raided Boya Narai Post in South Waziristan
Agency. SFs retaliated and as a result 15 militants were killed
including militant ‘commander’ Zainual. Two Security personnel,
Lance Havaldar Sikandar and Havaldar Aftab were killed while three
others were injured during the gun battle. Soon after successful
retaliation the SFs conducted search and clearance operation in
Marobi Raghzai and Zhawar Killi in Razmak sector and a compound
in Landi Wah near Lakki in Shakai sector and recovered a cache
a large cache of arms and ammunition.
The clash, which
was started between Taliban and a tribal militia in Orakzai Agency
on December 27, killed 15 persons more. The clashes broke out
when Taliban fighters attacked homes and trenches dug by the anti-Taliban
militia in the Sturikhel area of Orakzai Agency. Eight Taliban
militants were killed and 14 injured on December 27. Security
officials said the Taliban destroyed several houses and killed
nine men from a rival militia, which was set up to challenge the
Taliban who hold sway in parts of Orakzai. "They also killed
local tribal elder Malik Sharif and took over his house,"
one official said. "We have reports that nine militia men
and six militants have been killed. The fighting is still going
on," a Security official based in the neighbouring garrison
city of Kohat said by telephone.
Two SF personnel
were killed when suspected militants attacked a checkpost in Chamarkand
with rockets in the night. Five SF personnel were also injured.
Troops retaliated quickly and killed one militant and injured
several others. Militant hideouts were pounded with artillery,
but there was no report about casualties.
Unidentified militants
blew up a shop located along the Pak-Afghan Highway in Landi Kotal
tehsil (revenue unit) of Khyber Agency.
SFs arrested seven
militants from Bara tehsil of Khyber agency.
The Taliban blew
up five-room Government primary girls school in the Shabqadar
town of NWFP. Senior Police Official Mohammad Riaz Khan said that
the school was destroyed when two bombs planted by Taliban militants
exploded. A nearby house was also damaged but there were no casualties,
Khan added.
The SFs carried
out search and clearance operation in Atror near Kalam, Chuprial
and Nilgram areas of Swat and recovered several weapons.
Three unidentified
militants surrendered to SFs at Roringar and Devolai. SFs also
carried out search and clearance operation in Mingora city and
Tal, Kandao near Shah Dheri and Taghma areas of Swat and recovered
arms and ammunition.
December 29
Five civilians,
including four children and a woman, and two SF personnel were
killed in an exchange of fire and shelling in Mohmand Agency of
FATA during last 24 hours. Local people said the children were
killed when a mortar shell hit a playground in Sagai Bala area
of Safi tehsil (revenue unit). Another shell hit the house of
Qazi in Chamarkand area, killing a woman.
Unidentified militants
killed one trooper of the Bajaur Levies, Havaldar Mukarram Khan,
in Inayat Qila Bazaar of Khar tehsil.
Helicopter gunships
pounded militant’s positions in Shiekh Baba, Soran Dara, Golono
and Sagai areas.
The Taliban militants
detained a freelance journalist working for the Associated Press
(AP) for shooting in the volatile tribal region in violation of
a ban imposed by them in Miranshah of North Waziristan. Taliban
spokesman Ahmadullah Ahmadi said by phone from somewhere in North
Waziristan that the reporter had been taken into ‘custody’ for
violating the ban. He said the detained reporter identified himself
as Mohammad Rashid and was working for AP, an American wire service.
He said the 45-year-old journalist was arrested by a group of
Taliban fighters while making video of motor bargain centres in
the evening of December 27. He belongs to Rawalpindi, said Ahmadi.
Miranshah is the hub of non-custom paid expensive cars smuggled
into the area from Afghanistan. Dealers come from all over Pakistan
and buy these vehicles and take them to other parts of the country.
The Taliban spokesman said they seized a car, an expensive video
camera and some other items from the detained journalist.
The TTP have warned
khasadars (local tribal force) and construction contractors against
carrying out their duties by distributing pamphlet in Miranshah
in North Waziristan. The TTP said the decision had been made to
protect the life and property of the tribal people belonging to
the Mehsud tribe.
Two unidentified
militants fired at a petrol station, injuring Police officer Malik
Jan and his son Shoaib, in Munda area of Lower Dir in NWFP. It
was reported that Police killed both the attackers in retaliatory
firing.
The troopers killed
an alleged Taliban ‘commander’, Abu Zar, during a search operation
in Swat. "SFs conducted a search operation near Charbagh
tehsil (revenue unit) and killed Abu Zar, a wanted terrorist commander,"
a military statement said, calling him an explosives expert who
planned attacks against SFs. "Two other militants were also
arrested with a cache of arms and ammunition," the statement
added. A Senior Security Official said Muhammad Siddque alias
Abu Zar, a close aide of Maulana Fazlullah, was a "great
symbol of terror" in Swat, and had killed a number of Policemen
and Army personnel. The arrested Taliban were identified as Sher
Bahadar and Muhammad Ali.
The death toll of
December 28, 2009 suicide bomb blast during an Ashura procession
on the M.A. Jinnah Road near the Light House area of Karachi increased
to 43 as 13 injured persons succumbed to their injuries.
The Ruet-e-Hilal
Committee ‘Chairman’ Mufti Muneebur-Rehman has said the ‘Sunni
Rehbar Council’ will observe a countrywide shutter down strike
on January 1, 2010 to mourn the Karachi suicide blast. Talking
to the media persons in Karachi, Rehman said the suicide blast
was a result of security failure and questioned how the suicide
bomber managed to enter the procession amid tight security arrangements.
He called upon the Government to establish a commission to probe
the attack.
A bomb blast near
a hotel in Sibi of Balochistan injured the driver of a NATO oil
tanker and damaged his vehicle. Police sources said the drivers
parked the oil tankers near a local hotel in Sibi at night, during
which, unidentified militants placed two boxes filled with explosives
under the tankers. The explosives detonated as soon as the driver
switched on the engine in the morning, injuring the driver and
damaging the vehicle.
December 30
12 Taliban militants
were killed in a clash between SFs and militants in Bajaur and
Mohmand Agency of FATA. 10 Taliban militants, including ‘commander’
Shahabuddin, were killed and 18 injured in clashes between SFs
and Taliban militants in Chamar Kand of Safi tehsil (revenue unit)
in Mohmand Agency. The SFs also neutralised a militant hideout.
Two Taliban militants were killed and another injured during an
encounter between SFs and Taliban militants at Mamoond tehsil
in Bajaur Agency. Political administration said that Taliban militants
attacked a SFs checkpost at Mamoond tehsil. Retaliating, the SFs
shot dead two militants and injured another.
A would-be suicide
bomber and his three accomplices were killed before reaching the
intended target after their explosive-laden vehicle exploded due
to mishandling of the explosive material in Orakzai Agency.
One key anti-Taliban
elder, Taj Muhammad (38), was shot dead and his bullet-riddled
body found dumped on a roadside in Bajaur Agency. The bullet-riddled
body of Taj Muhammad, an anti-Taliban elder of the Salarzai tribe,
was found by a road in a village in Bajaur. "He had been
shot with an automatic weapon and a note from the Taliban said
anyone working against them would be killed in the same manner,"
said local Administration Official Faramosh Khan. Local residents
said the Taliban abducted Muhammad along with five other persons
a few days go.
SFs arrested 15
suspected Taliban militants while other four surrendered during
the last 24 hours as part of the on-going Operation Rah-e-Rast.
According to the ISPR, SFs carried out search and clearance operations
in and near Charbagh, Qambar, Tilligram and Garai Kalle. The SFs
arrested 10 militants and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition.
Also, four militants surrendered to SFs at village Chamtlai and
Khawazakhela. The SFs conducted search and clearance operations
in Baz Darra Bala, Thana and arrested five suspected militants
and recovered one stolen car.
Two persons, including
a union council nazim (member) from the Pakistan PML-Q, were killed
at Sultan Ibrahim Road in Khuzdar of Balochistan after unidentified
militants riding motorcycle fired at a garage. Local Police sources
said, Abdul Rasheed, a union council nazim belonging to the PML-Q,
was killed while he was having his vehicle repaired at a garage
on Sultan Ibrahim Road. The firing also resulted in the death
of a mechanic identified as Muhammad Riaz.
According to a delayed
report of December 20, the Police arrested Khalilullah, the Punjab
chief of the proscribed TTP, and 17-year-old would-be suicide
bomber, Usman alias Shahbaz, from Manawan locality of Lahore.
Khalil, who was said to be the right hand of late Baitullah Mehsud,
allegedly masterminded the twin suicide bombings at Moon Market
of Iqbal Town in Lahore on December 7, 2009. According to sources,
the Cantonment Division Police raided an outhouse of Malik Nazir
in a Manawan locality of Lahore on December 20 and arrested Khalil
and the 17-year-old would-be suicide bomber, Usman alias Shahbaz.
Police recovered explosive material and sensitive documents from
the place where he was living. On confession provided by Khalil,
Police captured another eight suspected militants, three of them
from Tandlianwala in Faisalabad District. During interrogation,
the suspected militants confessed that they were to attack the
flag-lowering ceremony at the Wagah border on December 22. Khalil
confessed before investigators that he had a team of 600 suicide
bombers. According to sources, Khalil was on the US list of most-wanted
terrorists. Capital City Police Officer Pervez Rathor said that
Khalil arranged food, accommodation, weapons and vehicles for
the bombers for attacks across the province.
The year 2009 proved
to be another bloody year of the decade for media in Pakistan
in which 10 journalists, in 163 cases of direct attacks on media,
paid the ultimate price of practicing a difficult trade in the
backdrop of rising terrorism and militancy and were killed in
the line of duty. Of these 10 journalists, four were killed in
Punjab, three in the NWFP and one each in the FATA, Balochistan
and Islamabad, according to the annual research on the state of
media in Pakistan, released by Intermedia, a Pakistani media development
organisation that focuses on media research, advocacy and training.
The total 163 cases included murders, assaults, abductions, explicit
threats, censorship cases and attacks on media properties and
establishments. Punjab bore the brunt of these attacks with 54
cases and the NWFP a close behind with 52, while Islamabad was
the surprise third biggest victim of attacks on media with 28
cases. Sindh recorded 12 attacks, six attacks each were recorded
in PoK and FATA, and three in Balochistan.
Ten journalists
were kidnapped in 2009, four in NWFP, two in Islamabad and one
each in Balochistan, FATA, Punjab and Sindh. The report also documented
at least 24 cases of assaults on working journalists across the
country, in which 70 journalists were injured — 36 in Punjab,
12 in Islamabad, 10 in the NWFP, seven in Sindh and five in PoK.
At least 28 journalists received threats in person or over the
phone. Of these, nine journalists were in Islamabad, eight in
the NWFP, seven in Sindh, and one in FATA. The Intermedia report
also documented at least 35 cases of official gag orders, censorship
or restrictions on publication or broadcast in 2009. Of these,
the highest number of cases, 23, was in the NWFP, four in Punjab,
three in Islamabad and one each in Sindh, Balochistan, FATA and
PoK.
Ten cases of physical
and armed attacks were reported on media property and establishments,
exemplified by the suicide attack on the Peshawar Press Club on
December 22, 2009. Of these attacks, four were in the NWFP, two
each in Fata and Punjab and one each in Islamabad and PoK. "At
least 45 journalists have been killed in Pakistan in the last
five years, several by suspected militants, but this is the first
time that suicide squads of terrorists have targeted media persons
as a specific, overt target, indicating a dramatic increase in
the level of threats facing the media in the country," Adnan
Rehmat, executive director of Intermedia, said.
The TTP claimed
responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 43 people in
Karachi, and threatened more attacks on "the US ally".
"My group claims responsibility for the Karachi attack and
we will carry out more such attacks within 10 days," said
Asmatullah Shaheen, one of the TTP ‘commanders’, who spoke by
telephone to a Reuters reporter.
Interior Minister
Rehman Malik, has reiterated that Indian Intelligence Agency R&AW
is involved in instigating the ongoing armed insurgency in Balochistan.
He made these comments while talking to reporters in Gawadar before
attending a federal cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister
Yousaf Raza Gilani. Malik said India was supporting the insurgency
in Balochistan and was trying to turn the Baloch against their
own country. The Pakistani Government would frustrate all such
plans by paying full attention to the problems of Balochistan,
he said. The recently announced Balochistan package and the consensus
developed between The Federal Government and all federating units
indicated that the Government was making progress in bridging
the gap between the Centre and the provinces, Malik added. To
a question about the Government’s reconciliatory plans, Malik
said the Government would give the Baloch people all those rights
that they had been denied in the past. It is the top most priority
of the Government to give every Baloch his genuine rights, he
added. When asked about the Government’s strategy to deal with
those leaders who kept harping on about an independent Balochistan,
Malik said he viewed the Baloch Republican Party chief Brahamdagh
Bugti as "a brother’’. "We will try to convince all
disillusioned forces in Balochistan. Justice will be done with
everyone affected in the past. All reservations of the Baloch
people will be addressed through democratic means," he assured.
December 31
The SFs killed four
foreign Taliban militants and a woman during a raid on a private
hospital in Wana, the capital of South Waziristan Agency, of FATA
in the morning. The SFs laid siege to the private clinic in Wana,
the main town of South Waziristan, at 2 AM (PST), leading an encounter
until around 7 AM, said local Administration and Intelligence
Officials. A Security Official said the raid followed a tip off
that wounded Taliban were brought to the hospital from Sherwangi.
"Commandos and Security Forces raided the hospital. Taliban
fired at the troops and in the gunfight, which lasted more than
four hours, four Taliban and a woman were killed, while 22 others
were arrested," said the official. "One soldier was
also injured. The three dead terrorists appear to be Arabs and
one of Sudanese origin," added the official. The identity
of the woman was not initially clear, said the official. An Intelligence
Official said 27 suspects were also arrested in the raid.
A US drone strike
killed at least four persons in North Waziristan, Security and
Intelligence Officials said. The missile struck a compound in
Machikhel village, 25 kilometres east of Miranshah. "A US
drone fired two missiles, which hit a compound of a local tribesman,
Karim Khan, killing four people and injuring two others,"
a Senior Security Official said. The identity of those killed
was not immediately known, adding it was also not clear whether
any high-value target was present in the area at the time of the
strike, the Security Official added further.
The suspected Taliban
militants blew up two boys’ schools in Bajaur Agency. A 21-room
Government high school and a five-room primary school, side by
side in Shago village of Bajaur, were blew up with explosives
overnight, local Administration Official Muhammad Jameel Khan
said. "It is the work of the Taliban … they have destroyed
several schools in the past," he said, adding that there
were no casualties. Gul Rehman, a Bajaur Education Officer, said
Taliban had destroyed more than 60 schools over a year in the
District.
The SFs killed four
Taliban militants during a search-and-clearance operation in Bangai
Banda near Barikot of Swat in NWFP. SFs also arrested 26 suspects,
while four others surrendered to SFs.
The ISPR Director-General
Major-General Athar Abbas said SFs had killed some 650 militants
in the ongoing operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Salvation) in South
Waziristan Agency of FATA in October-December 2009. In an interview
with Geo News, Major-General Abbas said militants had been flushed
out of South Waziristan while their hideouts had also been neutralised.
SFs have defeated militants in Malakand and South Waziristan due
to professional strategy and public support. The militants are
on the run. He rebuffed reports about the presence of Quetta Shura,
terming it baseless. He said insurgency had started again in Mohmand
and Bajaur Agencies after allied forces removed their Security
posts along the border areas in Afghanistan. The military spokesman
said the remaining few terrorists were carrying out terrorist
activities in the country. "We will overcome them soon,"
said Abbas. To a question, he said Pakistan had not accepted any
foreign pressure or help for the launch of military offensive
in Malakand and South Waziristan.
The International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned a deadly bomb attack
on the Peshawar Press Club on December 22, 2009 and warned that
it was a sign of a new "war on media" by political extremists.
Four people died in suicide bombing outside the Press Club in
Peshawar and 20 others were injured. "This targeted attack,
far from the frontline of conflict, illustrates that the war on
media by extremists is being taken into the heart of the cities",
IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said. "The Government must
spare no effort in finding those responsible." The IFJ is
backing the demands of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists
(PFUJ) and its calls for action to find those responsible.
A spokesman for
the TTP denied that the TTP was behind the suicide attack that
targeted a Muharram procession on December 28 in Karachi. TTP
spokesman Azam Tariq said over the phone from an undisclosed location
that his group was not responsible for the attack. About purported
spokesman Asmatullah Shaheen’s earlier claim for responsibility
on December 30, Azam said he could have been referring to his
own group, but TTP had nothing to do with the attack. Meanwhile,
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Asmatullah was a "self-proclaimed"
TTP spokesman.