Blast kills 7 in Pakistan's Khyber: residents
Reuters
Published: June 30, 2008, 09:19
Peshawar: An explosion destroyed the home of a militant in Pakistan's Khyber region on Monday, killing seven people, but the cause of the blast was not clear, residents said.
Pakistani security forces launched an offensive in Khyber, in the country's northwest, on Saturday to push back militants who have been threatening the city of Peshawar.
"The house belonged to a member of the Haji Namdar group and seven people were killed," said Sher Khan, a resident of the town of Bara where the blast took place.
Haji Namdar leads a militant faction in Khyber, a mountainous region inhabited by ethnic Pashtun tribes between Peshawar and the Afghan border and home to the Khyber Pass, through which supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan pass.
Namdar told Dawn Television the blast might have been caused by a missile. Bara is about 15 km southwest of Peshawar and about 40 km from the Afghan border.
"I don't know who did it. We don't have any conflict in our tribe. We are enemies of those who are enemies of Islam," he said.
The offensive in Khyber is the first major military action a new government has launched since it took power after February elections, and comes after growing alarm about the spread of militants in the northwest.
It also came as US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, Richard Boucher, arrived in Pakistan for talks with government leaders.
Security forces backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters met virtually no resistance when they moved in and secured Bara and destroyed several militant compounds as well as an FM radio station and an interrogation centre, officials said.
The commander of the main militant group in the area, Mangal Bagh, left Bara for the remote Tirah valley before the offensive.
He told media on the weekend he had ordered his men to go home and not put up a fight, adding he did not know why security forces were attacking his group which did not harbour foreign militants or have links with the Taliban or Al Qaida.
Threat
Bagh is not allied with notorious Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, and his men are not known for crossing into Afghanistan to attack Western troops.
But in recent weeks, Bagh's men have been roaming into some neighbourhoods of Peshawar, threatening music and video shop owners, and ordering barbers to stop shaving men's beards in line with Taliban edicts.
Peshawar residents had begun to fear that the city could fall into the clutches of the Taliban, even though the main army garrison for the northwest is in the city of 3 million.
Apparently in response to the offensive in Khyber, Pakistani Taliban leader Mehsud, who is based in South Waziristan, to the southwest of Khyber, said he was suspending talks with the government and he threatened retaliation.
The government led by Bhutto's party has been trying to end violence through talks, although the United States has raised concern that peace pacts enable militants to step up attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
Reuters
Published: June 30, 2008, 09:19
Peshawar: An explosion destroyed the home of a militant in Pakistan's Khyber region on Monday, killing seven people, but the cause of the blast was not clear, residents said.
Pakistani security forces launched an offensive in Khyber, in the country's northwest, on Saturday to push back militants who have been threatening the city of Peshawar.
"The house belonged to a member of the Haji Namdar group and seven people were killed," said Sher Khan, a resident of the town of Bara where the blast took place.
Haji Namdar leads a militant faction in Khyber, a mountainous region inhabited by ethnic Pashtun tribes between Peshawar and the Afghan border and home to the Khyber Pass, through which supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan pass.
Namdar told Dawn Television the blast might have been caused by a missile. Bara is about 15 km southwest of Peshawar and about 40 km from the Afghan border.
"I don't know who did it. We don't have any conflict in our tribe. We are enemies of those who are enemies of Islam," he said.
The offensive in Khyber is the first major military action a new government has launched since it took power after February elections, and comes after growing alarm about the spread of militants in the northwest.
It also came as US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, Richard Boucher, arrived in Pakistan for talks with government leaders.
Security forces backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters met virtually no resistance when they moved in and secured Bara and destroyed several militant compounds as well as an FM radio station and an interrogation centre, officials said.
The commander of the main militant group in the area, Mangal Bagh, left Bara for the remote Tirah valley before the offensive.
He told media on the weekend he had ordered his men to go home and not put up a fight, adding he did not know why security forces were attacking his group which did not harbour foreign militants or have links with the Taliban or Al Qaida.
Threat
Bagh is not allied with notorious Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, and his men are not known for crossing into Afghanistan to attack Western troops.
But in recent weeks, Bagh's men have been roaming into some neighbourhoods of Peshawar, threatening music and video shop owners, and ordering barbers to stop shaving men's beards in line with Taliban edicts.
Peshawar residents had begun to fear that the city could fall into the clutches of the Taliban, even though the main army garrison for the northwest is in the city of 3 million.
Apparently in response to the offensive in Khyber, Pakistani Taliban leader Mehsud, who is based in South Waziristan, to the southwest of Khyber, said he was suspending talks with the government and he threatened retaliation.
The government led by Bhutto's party has been trying to end violence through talks, although the United States has raised concern that peace pacts enable militants to step up attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
