Pakistan Views

The military has removed all roadblocks in the stronghold of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud to open the troubled South Waziristan tribal district to rest of the country amid a proposed peace deal, a news report said on Sunday.Pamphlets were distributed on Saturday in the area on behalf of the security forces, declaring that the road access was being restored to facilitate the local population, and to return to normality, press reports said.Though the peace accord between the government and the Mehsud tribesmen is yet to be signed, the troops are observing a ceasefire after clearing the area of insurgents, the pamphlets read. They also asked the people to fulfil their responsibility by ridding South Waziristan of militants.The process of reconciling with the hard-line tribesmen restarted after a change in government. Nationalists in NWFP have expressed their firm resolve to pursue peace talks with Taliban to put an end to vviolence.

A missile strike early on Thursday killed at least 13 people, most of them Arabs, in South Waziristan officials and residents said. Residents in Azam Warsak village in South Waziristan told AFP that a house was destroyed by a missile fired from a pilotless drone and the loud blast was heard miles (kilometres) away in the rugged valley.
US drones have launched several previous strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region targeting militants from Osama bin Laden’s network, although there was no immediate confirmation from Pakistani forces. A spokesman for the US-led coalition force based in Afghanistan said neither it nor the separate Nato-headed force were involved in the strike.
We have no reports that any of our forces are involved, coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher told AFP. Security officials said they had received a report that a guided missile fired from neighbouring Afghanistan had hit a house belonging to a local tribesman at about 2:00 am Thursday (2100 GMT Wednesday).
The death toll is now 12 to 13 people — three of the dead appear to be from Punjab (central Pakistani province where several militant groups are based) while the rest are Arabs, a security official told AFP. At least five people were also injured in the attack, officials added. The security officials said they had no information on who could have been targeted in the attack. Pakistani officials do not confirm US strikes against al Qaeda-linked militants on its territory because of political sensitivities over sovereignty.
Libyan militant and Osama bin Laden’s operational number three Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in a missile strike on January 29 in the neighbouring Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri vowed to avenge al-Libi’s death in a videotape message broadcast on an Islamist website on Wednesday.
Thousands of al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled into Pakistan’s tribal belt after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Forty miscreants have been killed in the last 24 hours and 30 miscreants apprehended while many injured in South Waziristan, the ISPR said in a statement on Thursday.

Eight soldiers had also been killed and 32 wounded, it said.

Security forces have carried out operations in Spinkai Raghzai, Nawazkot, Tiarza and its surrounding areas, where all militants have been reportedly cleared out of these areas. Militants were killed in a series of raids on Wednesday and Thursday during clashes with the army who were backed by artillery and helicopter.

Security forces have moved 3 tanks in Jandola to protect military convoys that are on the move as the army advances in the area.

Seven paramilitary troops and at least 37 militants were killed in clashes on Tuesday in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, the army said.

Five of the soldiers and all of the militants were killed after insurgents attacked a military fort at Ladha in South Waziristan before dawn, chief military spokesman Athar Abbas told AFP.

“Through air intercepts and our sources we have confirmation now that at least 37 militants were killed when forces retaliated the attack in Ladha,” Abbas said.

He had earlier confirmed the five deaths and seven wounded soldiers but had said only that the insurgents suffered heavy casualties.

In a separate incident in the neighbouring region of North Waziristan, two security personnel were killed and six others were injured when militants fired rockets at a military fort in Razmak, Abbas said.

Security forces are using helicopter gun ships to root out militants from suspected hideouts in Ladha and Makin regions of South Waziristan.

Security forces have shifted heavy artillery and tanks from Jandola to Chakmalay and Saplatui areas. A massive operation against militants is expected in these areas.

Sources said that the army operation follows an earlier attack by militants on a security forces camp and the cadet college in Razmak, located in North Waziristan.

The cadet college suffered minor damage, while the boundary wall of the security camp was destroyed. No casualties were reported.

Pakistani helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant positions on Sunday in South Waziristan, residents and officials said.

The military said they fired artillery after coming under attack in Ladha village of South Waziristan district, where a Taliban commander linked to the martyrdom of former premier Benazir Bhutto is said to be hiding.

“At 0100 hours miscreants fired 12.7 millimetres gun from old Ladha to Ladha observation post. Security forces retaliated with artillery guns fire,” a military statement said, but gave no casualties.

Residents however said that shells fired from six helicopter gunships killed two people and left seven others wounded, but officials were not immediately available to confirm the deaths.

The military said on Saturday that troops captured 50 Islamist militants in an operation in the rugged Chaghmalai and Ladha areas of South Waziristan.

The clashes started after hundreds of heavily armed militants overran Sararogha fort on Wednesday, killing seven soldiers and leaving another 15 troops missing, presumed kidnapped.

The fierce clashes were the latest in a series to rock the tribal region, the stronghold of wanted Islamist warlord Baitullah Mehsud and his al Qaeda and Taliban allies.

Militants have stepped up attacks on troops in the region since Benazir was martyred in a gun and bomb attack last month.

Pakistan was already on high alert for the Muslim festival of Ashura, being observed on Sunday.

Seven Pakistani soldiers and over 40 Islamic militants were killed in clashes after hundreds of rebels captured a paramilitary fort near the Afghan border, the army said Wednesday. Heavy fighting erupted after militants armed with rocket launchers attacked the outpost at Sararogha town in the South Waziristan tribal district overnight”, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. “Yesterday around midnight 400 miscreants attacked the Frontier Corps at Sararogha. There are reports of 40 to 50 dead miscreants, while seven personnel embraced martyrdom,” Abbas said.

Militants in northwest Pakistan attacked a paramilitary camp and up to 30 soldiers were missing, security officials said on Wednesday.The militants attacked the camp in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border late on Tuesday, the officials said. A military official said there had been fighting in the area but he did not have details.”About 700 militants attacked the fort at Sara Rogha at about 9:30 p.m. (1630 GMT on Tuesday) and communication with the fort was cut at around 2 a.m.,” a security official said. “There were about 37 paramilitary troops in the fort and seven of them were able to escape while the rest of them are missing and feared dead,” said the official, who declined to be identified.Security forces have been battling al Qaeda-linked militants in South Waziristan for several years.Separately, a bomb exploded as a military patrol was passing along a road in the Swat valley in North West Frontier Province on Wednesday but there was no immediate word on casualties, police said.

Two Uzbek militants were killed Sunday when a group of them attacked the house of a pro-government tribal elder in troubled tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.

The pre-dawn clash erupted when dozens of militants launched an attack on the house of Khan Khannan in South Waziristan district, local administration official Ayaz Mandokhel told AFP.

Khannan’s men guarding the house retaliated and killed two Uzbek militants, he said, adding that “their bodies were still lying in the area.” Other militants fled after the clash, he said. Khannan is a pro-government elder in Shakai where gunmen shot dead six members of a tribal peace committee about one week ago.

The tribesmen blame those killings on Baitullah Mehsud, a leading warlord who has also been accused by the government of masterminding last month’s assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. The military in a statement said security forces apprehended 41 suspected militants including local commander Mohammad Raheem, a close relative of Fazlullah, during a search operation.

Suspected militants fatally shot eight tribal leaders involved in efforts to broker a cease-fire between security forces and insurgents in South Waziristan, foreign news agency reported on Monday.

The men were killed in separate attacks late Sunday and early Monday in South Waziristan tribal region, reports said.

Gunmen killed three of the men at a market in Wana, the region’s main town, while the other five were shot to death in attacks at their homes in a town north of Wana.

The authorities have not confirmed the incident immediately.