Militants kill 28 in northwest Pakistan By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
news.yahoo.com
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Suicide attackers struck a police headquarters and a military convoy on Sunday in Pakistan's northwest, killing at least 28 people in an intensifying anti-government campaign in the border region long known as a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida.
The government has deployed thousands of troops to the region to thwart calls by extremists for a holy war to revenge the bloody storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque last week, and the region's Islamic militants are increasingly training their attacks on the soldiers — and apparently other government targets as well.
Militants in one of the most volatile parts of the border region, North Waziristan, disavowed a 10-month old truce with the government that critics said gave them militants a safe haven from which to launch attacks on Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
In Dera Ismail Khan, near South Waziristan, the bomber at the police headquarters struck as recruits were testing to join the force, said Gul Afzal Afridi, a police officer.
"It was a suicide bombing and the attacker mingled among the scores of people gathered for the test and physical examination," Afridi said.
More than 150 people were on the grounds when the bomber struck, killing 14 people and wounding 30, some of them seriously. A man's head, severed from a mutilated body, was believed to be that of the attacker, he said.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao also confirmed 14 deaths.
Elsewhere, in a mountainous area of North West Frontier Province near the Afghan border, a convoy of army and paramilitary troops was attacked by suspected militants, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said. Eleven soldiers and three civilians were killed, he said.
"These were two suicide attacks in which two blue Suzuki vans were used as well as an (improvised explosive device) blast," said Arshad, who said 39 soldiers were wounded by the explosions.
On Saturday, at least 24 soldiers were killed and 29 wounded on a road near Daznaray, a village about 30 miles north of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, Arshad said.
The document disavowing the 10-month old truce between militants and the government was distributed in the bazaar of Miran Shah, complained that government forces had attacked militants, failed to pay compensation created problems at check points.
"The peace agreement has ended," said a militant spokesman, Abdullah Farhad, confirming the document's authenticity.
Signed by the shura, or council, of North Waziristan, the document warned local militia and elders against cooperating with the government. The signatories referred to themselves as the Taliban, a term commonly used by some Pakistani militants in northwest Pakistan.
On Saturday, at least 24 soldiers were killed and 29 wounded on a road near Daznaray, about 30 miles north of Miran Shah, Arshad said.
The driver plowed his explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy in one of the most lethal suicide attacks in recent months. Although no one claimed responsibility, Arshad said he could not rule out the possibility that it was a reaction to the assault on the Red Mosque.
Tensions are high in Pakistan after the raid, which ended an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters, who had sought to impose a Taliban-style Islamic rule in Islamabad. More than 100 died during the standoff.
The region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has seen increased activity by local militants, the Taliban, and — according to a recent U.S. assessment — al-Qaida.
Arshad said reinforcements had been sent to the northwest to beef up some 90,000 troops already in the region. Officials say the fresh troops have moved into at least five areas.
In Islamabad, authorities Sunday detained Shah Abdul Aziz, a National Assembly member from an alliance of religious parties, for allegedly inciting people against the government during the Red Mosque siege.
He would be detained for 30 days, said Chaudhri Moohammed Ali, a senior Islamabad district official.
Aziz, who told a local television station that he had done nothing wrong, was among a delegation of ministers and religious scholars who attempted without success to peacefully resolve the standoff. |
