Pindi blast linked to tribal belt offensive

A suicide attack which killed the army’s top medical officer was likely in retaliation for operations against militants along the Afghan border, the army said on Tuesday.
Pakistani intelligence and security agencies have launched a joint investigation into Monday’s attack in Rawalpindi, which killed the army’s Surgeon General, Lieutentant General Mushtaq Baig, and seven others. Initial indications pointed to a link to the military’s struggle against militants in the troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, DG ISPR Major General Athar Abbas said. “I think apparently it is in response and reaction to the Pakistan army’s operations against militants in South Waziristan and other places in Fata (the federally administered tribal areas),” Abbas told AFP. Exact details would be known once the investigation is over, he said. Baig was the most senior army officer to be killed in a militant attack since President Pervez Musharraf joined the “war on terror” after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the army said. Monday’s blast in Rawalpindi, where the army headquarters is located, came a week after mostly peaceful parliamentary elections in Pakistan. Officials said a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up next to Baig’s car when it stopped at a traffic light on a busy road, killing the general, his driver and a guard, along with five civilians including a woman.