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Counter
Strikes overview Fighting
in 'self-defense' Chinese
connection "The peace
agreement would remain intact" Mullah of Imam
Dehrai Shariat
movement Scrapped! Armed
response to army Dir
consequences
The media is often accused
of moving too quickly, from one subject to another, without TNS Special Reports have rigidly followed the same pattern, whether we liked it or not. Isolated incidents leading to more such isolated incidents worthy of special reports...week after week... Not very often does one incident become a catalyst for more incidents like it became in the case of Lal Masjid that led to what the clerics of the mosque had been ominously warning against -- a spate of suicide bombings and IED attacks across the country. And never before in history have the armed forces looked so vulnerable. The province worst hit in the backlash is NWFP. Obviously the tribal areas and settled areas like Swat were already weaks spots, owing to government's foreign policy in the past years and decades. Violence in NWFP and the adjoining tribal areas bordering Afghanistan is the subject of this Special Report, a logical conclusion from last week's on Lal Masjid. The retaliatory attacks in the NWFP and FATA to avenge the bloodshed in Islamabad's Lal Masjid make it obvious that the two sides are moving toward a prolonged period of armed confrontation By Rahimullah Yusufzai The fallout of Pakistan Army's recent military operation against Islamic militants and students holed out in the Lal Masjid mosque and Jamia Hafsa seminary in Islamabad has been most intense in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the adjoining Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan. Already, there have been several suicide bombings and attacks on security forces and more violence is feared following fresh deployment of troops by the government in some of the insurgency-hit trouble spots in the area. The retaliatory attacks in the NWFP and FATA to avenge the bloodshed in Islamabad's Lal Masjid and the adjacent Islamic school for girls, Jamia Hafsa, didn't come as a surprise. Most of the students at this seminary, as well as those studying at the nearby Jamia Fareedia for boys, belonged to the NWFP and FATA. The news of the death of hundreds of male and female religious students has travelled fast to their towns and villages and fuelled anger against President General Pervez Musharraf and the armed forces. Though the government quickly and quietly buried most of the dead in a graveyard in Islamabad to minimise the impact of the human losses (resulting from its decision to storm the mosque and seminary with maximum military force), the death toll is believed to be much higher than the 102 conceded by the authorities. President Musharraf's political opponents are claiming figures as high as 700 to 1,000 dead while the government is trying hard to lend credibility to its claims -- not only about the death toll but also the presence of foreign militants and heavy stockpiles of arms in the mosque-seminary complex. As no hard evidence has been presented yet to back up all these claims, families of those who perished in the nine-day military operation are angry with the government and are demanding a judicial probe. Sentiments were inflamed when bodies of some of the dead were brought for burial to their native villages in the NWFP and FATA. Their funerals turned into huge gatherings where President Musharraf was bitterly criticised for blocking a peaceful and negotiated solution of the issue and instead ordering the military operation against the Lal Masjid to please the US and its Western allies. In Nawagai area of Bajaur tribal region on the border with Afghanistan on July 12, clerics addressing funeral prayers for three young students killed in the Islamabad seminary pledged to avenge their deaths. Inflammatory speeches were also made elsewhere as bodies of other students reached their homes. The slain Islamic students were hailed as martyrs in contrast to the claim made by the government that the 12 soldiers who lost their lives in action at the Lal Masjid had embraced martyrdom. The debate as to who is a real martyr is likely to continue in view of the likelihood of more deaths in this deadly confrontation between the military and the militants. It is pertinent to mention here that the Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the military operation, was one of the signatories to the fatwa, or religious decree, issued by prominent clergymen two years ago in which Pakistan Army soldiers dying in US-backed military operations against fellow Pakistanis and Muslims in Waziristan tribal region were omitted from the list of martyrs. The clerics were forbidden from leading funeral prayers for them. Offended by the fatwa, the government had filed cases against Ghazi and some other clerics and stopped the media from publishing the text of the controversial religious decree. The violence that flared up in the aftermath of the military operations against the mosque and madrasa complex in Islamabad has until now claimed around 80 lives in NWFP and FATA. The death toll was 28 in Dera Ismail Khan where a suicide bomber struck a police recruitment centre killing 17 cops and 11 candidates and their relatives. It was an Iraq-style attack and it was the first time that a recruitment centre for police was ruthlessly targeted. The North Waziristan militants, who prefer being called Pakistani Taliban or mujahideen, distanced themselves from the suicide bombing and blamed it on those angered by the military assault on the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. In the mountainous Swat district, known both for its religious extremism, as many as 35 people were killed in suicide bombings and roadside blasts. A maverick cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, is leading the campaign against the government in Swat and calling for revenge against those who ordered the military operations at the Islamabad Lal Masjid. For the first time in Swat's history, a suicide bombing took place against security forces there on July 12 killing three policemen and the two bombers. The two suicide bombers rammed their vehicles into a military convoy heading to Matta, a stronghold of the banned Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM), killing about 20 people, most of whom were soldiers. In neighbouring Dir Upper and Dir Lower districts, police officers and soldiers have been the target of ambushes. Cops were also killed in Peshawar, Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts and a suicide bomber struck Miramshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan tribal region. The suicide bomber and two government officials were killed in the attack, the target of which is believed to be.Pirzada Khan -- a political agent of North Waziristan -- and three others including a leading cleric were wounded. The political agent survived the attack primarily due to the sacrifice of his staff members who stopped him from entering his office. A subsequent suicide bombing killed three soldiers and a bystander at the Khajuri checkpoint at the entry-point to North Waziristan on the Bannu-Miramshah road. More worrying for the government is the July 15 decision by the Islamic militants in North Waziristan to scrap their September 5, 2006 peace accord with the government. Despite pleas by the NWFP Governor Lt General (Retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, they have declined to revive the peace agreement unless the Pakistan Army troops redeployed at several road checkpoints in the area are withdrawn. The militants' previous spokesman, Abdullah Farhad, and his successor Abdul Haye Ghazi have said their shoora, or council, under the leadership of Hafiz Gul Bahadur had directed their fighters to resume guerilla-style attacks against the security forces. They accused the government of deploying troops at the checkpoints and carrying out military operations in North Waziristan in violation of the terms of last year's peace agreement. The first attack after calling off the peace deal was a suicide bombing against troops manning the Khajuri checkpoint near the town of Mir Ali. The government, on its part, has also been accusing the militants of not honouring their promise under the accord not to harbour foreign fighters belonging to Arab and Central Asian countries and refrain from sending Taliban and others across the border to Afghanistan to fight US-led coalition forces. The controversial peace accord had brought a semblance of normality in North Waziristan even though it was criticised by the Afghan government and the US and its allies for enabling foreign militants and Taliban to find safe haven in the area. The end of the peace agreement could trigger a fresh wave of violence in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region and fuel unrest in neighbouring South Waziristan and rest of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. A militant commander Baitullah Mahsud in South Waziristan has already warned of retaliatory strikes to avenge the blood of the male and female students killed in the Lal Masjid incident. He is the same commander who was accused by President Musharraf of sending fighters to Afghanistan to fight US and Nato forces. The President warned last February that Baitullah Mahsud was a wanted man. Maulvi Abdul Hameed, a spokesman for Baitullah Mahsud, recently warned that movements of fresh Pakistan Army troops in parts of the Mahsud tribal territory in South Waziristan are a violation of the peace agreement of February 2005. He warned that it could lead to a confrontation between Baitullah Mahsud's fighters and the government. He said the government would be responsible for the consequences in case of such a confrontation. Another militant commander Maulana Faqir Mohammad from Bajaur tribal region has also threatened to seek revenge for the Lal Masjid killings. He staged a big protest rally of about 20,000 tribesmen near Khar, headquarters of Bajaur, where fiery anti-Musharraf and anti-US speeches were made and calls for revenge were made. The body of an Afghan refugee was found a few days later in a Bajaur village with the note that this would be the fate of all those spying for the US. It was a chilling reminder to pro-government tribesmen. Al Qaeda deputy leader Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has in recent months been regularly issuing video-tapes, in new footage urged the Pakistani people to stage a revolt against their military rulers for toeing the American line in the latter's war on terror. From the statements of the militant leaders and those of President Musharraf and his ministers, it is obvious that the two sides are moving toward a prolonged period of armed confrontation in the tribal borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Fighting in
'self-defense' Maulana Faqir Mohammad, a former leader of the radical Islamic organisation, Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM), in Bajaur Agency and commander of pro-Taliban tribal militants, told TNS in an interview that he and his colleagues would take revenge for any attack by the military in Bajaur. He said his men were fighting in self-defense and were against taking any offensive action against the Pakistan Army or other security forces. "But we have the right to try to avenge any losses suffered by our people," he stressed. Speaking on phone from an undisclosed location in Bajaur, the wanted cleric said he wanted peace and prosperity in his area and was cooperating with the jirga of tribal elders. He said he had agreed to the 'Qaumi Tarun', or undertaking, under which the jirga of tribal elders and clerics in Bajaur had given their word not to harbour foreign militants and cooperate with the government in maintaining law and order in Bajaur. However, he added that the government too should stop harassing him and his men and refrain from taking any action against the local Taliban. Explaining his worldview, Maulana Faqir Mohammad held the US responsible for the instability in the world and accused it of waging a war on Muslims by occupying Afghanistan and Iraq and forcing Pakistan and other Islamic countries to toe its line. He backed the Taliban resistance in Afghanistan, described Mulla Mohammad Omar as his leader, and criticised President General Pervez Musharraf of pursuing policies to appease the US in a bid to prolong his rule. -- Rahimullah Yusufzai
The mysterious murder of three Chinese near Peshawar on July 8 By Javed Aziz Khan Investigators are still
groping in dark and have been unable to find a single lead even after In the attack on July 8, three Chinese were killed and a fourth was injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them inside a workshop in the Khazana area, a suburb of Peshawar on Charsadda Road. The police, going by the statements of villagers, said that a number of bearded men came to the house in three jeeps and barged into the small factory that the Chinese had set up for manufacturing three-wheel auto-rickshaws (Qingqi) and fired at the foreigners before fleeing. Later the wounded person, Joe, told police that three men had entered the compound, demanded money and scuffled with his son and nephews before killing them. He disclosed that the murderers had filmed the dead bodies before fleeing. The three persons who were killed have been identified as Lee, Fing and Lillee. The family is traced back to Shandong Province in China. Peshawar has been struck by terror many a time since September last year when a bomb went off outside the West Cantonment police station. The blast was followed by numerous others in different parts of the city. Most recently the law enforcing agencies have thwarted a major sabotage bid by recovering two anti-tank mines from a car in cantonment area while another explosive targeting the office of an NGO was also defused. Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam, condemned the killing of Chinese citizens but added the incident would not affect Sino-Pakistan friendship. Mao Siwie, the Chief of Mission of Chinese Embassy, maintained that the two countries enjoyed excellent relations. "The incident would not affect the Pak-Sino friendship," Mao opined after meeting senior police officials and the wounded foreigner during his visit to Peshawar. President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz are updated about the case everyday. The president has also reportedly talked to his Chinese counterpart, assuring him that the killers would be arrested soon and the rest of the Chinese (almost 3000 who are involved in mega developed projects at present) would be provided security. Peshawar Police while quickly responding to the directives provided security to almost all the members of the small community of foreigners in the city while the rest were asked to arrange for their own private security guards. Offices of the international bodies and NGOs settled in the rural and suburban parts of the provincial capital have been advised to shift to the cantonment where security arrangements are relatively better. The first ever attack on Chinese nationals took place on May 3, 2004, when their convoy was blown up in Gwadar, Balochistan, on its way to a project site. Three Chinese were killed and seven sustained injuries in the incident. Anti-government Baloch nationalists were feared to be behind the attack. Two Chinese were kidnapped in Tank, a troubled district of NWFP that shares border with the North Waziristan tribal agency, when private militia of Baitullah Mahsud intercepted them on their way to the site of Gomal Zam Dam project on October 14, 2005. The purpose of kidnapping the Chinese, according to Baitullah Mahsud, was to force the Pakistan government to stop military operation in Waziristan. The Pakistan army had to launch an operation for the recovery of the foreigners during which they were able to rescue one person while the other was killed. Five kidnappers were also killed in the military action. Work on the Gomal Zam Dam is yet to be resumed. The Chinese came under attack in Balochistan once again on February 15, 2006. This time it was the Hub district where their vehicle was ambushed, killing three of them along with their local driver. The NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai, whose provincial assembly constituency includes the locality where the murders took place, said it would be premature to blame the militants for the attack. "Those behind the attack were trying to harm Pakistan's excellent relations with China but it is not going to happen," Daudzai, who is also official spokesman for the MMA government, remarked. "There is confusion in the statement of the wounded, Joe. If the three persons had really come to rob them or had any minor dispute why would they film the bodies as well as the interior of the building before fleeing?" the city police chief Abdul Majid Marwat tells TNS. The senior police officer also says that though there were some differences of opinion between the locals and the Chinese they believe that the locals would not go to this extent. "We have arrested one Hamidullah, who belongs to Tall, who had a petty dispute with the Chinese family and are interrogating him to find any leads in the case," opines SSP Operations, Mohammad Tahir. It is believed that the Chinese technicians were experimenting to run Qingqi rickshaws on electric power. However, in recent months, the four Chinese had developed an interest in collecting turtle hides and used to send them to Kashgar in China's Xinjiang province which borders Pakistan's northern areas. Some of the residents say that the Chinese were planning to return home by the end of the month. Though, the motive behind the murders is not clear, some people have regarded the killings as a backlash by militants against the military operation at Lal Masjid.
"The
peace agreement would remain intact" Governor of NWFP, Lt
General (Retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, was the architect of the After the signing of the accord between the government and the tribal Islamic militants on September 5, 2006, he travelled with President General Pervez Musharraf to Washington and Kabul to brief the US and Afghan leaders on its advantages and salient points. On July 19, he convened members of the 45-member Grand Jirga drawn from all seven tribal agencies and six Frontier Regions as well as the 21-member peace jirga from North Waziristan to discuss ways and means to save the deal that the militants had unilaterally scrapped on July 15. The Governor arranged for the jirga members to be flown back to Miramshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, the same day to resume efforts in right earnest to salvage the peace accord. However, it remains to be seen how the militants respond to the new developments. Until now, they have resisted holding talks with jirga members by arguing that they would consider doing so when the government undid violations of the peace accords and withdrew troops recently redeployed at several roadside checkpoints in different parts of North Waziristan. They also wanted payment of the promised compensation to families that suffered human and material losses in previous military operations. The government has paid some compensation to the affectees but others complain that they haven't been compensated. The militants also consider military operations during recent months as violation of the terms of the accord, which made it clear that such an action would be coordinated with members of the peace committee. All members of the peace committee quit some months ago after complaining that the military went ahead with unjustified operations without taking them into confidence and killed innocent people. Governor Aurakzai, on his part, told TNS that both the militants and the government had complaints from each other about violation of the accord. He reminded that he has been warning about renewed military operations if the issue of the presence of foreign militants in North Waziristan wasn't resolved. He said he had activated the members of the peace jirga to contact and engage the local Taliban in talks for saving the accord. "I am hopeful that the peace agreement would remain intact. The government and the jirga haven't scrapped the accord yet," he argued. Regarding the militants' demand for dismantling the roadside checkpoints and pulling out troops deployed there, the Governor said the checkposts were manned by soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Corps and the Khassadars, a form of tribal police. He stressed that Pakistan Army soldiers were deployed at the checkpoints as backup for the FC personnel and Khassadars and were not involved in checking people and vehicles. "The troops were deployed at the checkpoints to control crime following the rise in incidents of kidnappings, gun-running, vehicle-snatching, and IED explosions and suicide bombings targeting the army and the FC. The troops could be pulled out and the checkpoints removed once the law and order situation is controlled," he explained.
Mullah
of Imam Dehrai Born on March 1, 1975 at the house of Beladar (late) at a small village of Imam Dehrai near Kanjoo, the Maulana, who until now was unknown, is the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Mohammad, the founding leader of the now defunct Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM). Maulana Sufi Mohammad is currently serving a life sentence in a jail in Dera Ismail after his arrest by Pakistani security forces. He was arrested in the Kurram tribal agency, upon his arrival from Afghanistan where he had led thousands of armed supporters from Malakand region to fight alongside the Taliban against US-led invading forces. Hundreds of Sufi Mohammad's supporters were later killed in air strikes by the US forces and in clashes with the disorganised Northern Alliance while many were held by the Afghan warlords and later released after being paid by their relatives. Many of his supporters went underground after the government, in 2002, banned some of the religious and jihadi organisations including Maulana Sufi Mohammad's TNSM. Maulana Fazlullah, in his 30s, broke the silence and resurrected the once forgotten TNSM when he started criticising the government's pro-Western policies. The Maulana passed his secondary school certificate from the village school and then took admission at the Government Degree College Saidu Sharif in Swat from where he passed his intermediate examination. Later he went to Maidan town in Lower Dir district and was given admission at the religious seminary run by Maulana Sufi Mohammad, Jamia Mazahir-ul-Uloom. During his stay at the madrasa, Maulana Fazlullah developed good contacts with the madrasa administrator Maulana Sufi Mohammad and later Maulana Sufi married his daughter with Maulana Fazlullah. It was also Maulana Sufi who renamed his student Maulana Fazlullah. The Maulana after completing his religious education returned to Mamdherai near Fiza Gat and started imparting religious education at a mosque-cum-madrasa. The Maulana, however, admits that he has no madrasa certificate and has only received some religious education from his father-in-law. In 2001, like thousands of Sufi Mohammad's followers, he too went to Afghanistan along with his father-in-law to fight alongside the Taliban there. He was also taken into custody by the Pakistani security forces along with Sufi Mohammad and few of his comrades and was sent to prison in DI Khan. He remained in jail for one and a half year. Sporting a long beard and a Taliban like hairstyle, the Maulana is fond of horse riding and exercising (in the presence of his armed bodyguards). In 2004, the Maulana launched his illegal FM Radio channel and became popular among people in Swat for his anti-government and in-favour-of-Islamic-system speeches. One of his brothers, Fazal Ahad was killed in an air strike reportedly carried out by the American forces based in Afghanistan on a madrasa in Bajaur's Chingai village on October 28, 2006 in which 80 students and their teachers perished. After the incident, the Maulana announced he wanted to construct a big madrasa and appealed to the people through his FM radio to provide him financial assistance. As a result Maulana succeeded in collecting millions of rupees for his mega project. The people in Swat and its surrounding localities donated Rs 38, 00000 within the first 24 hours. Constructed over nine kanals of land on the bank of River Swat, the Maulana has so far received Rs 35 million from his followers for the madrasa and 80 per cent construction work of which has already been completed. Maulana Fazlullah vowed that he would use his FM channel for the reformation of the society and he has been campaigning against TV, VCR, CDs etc and termed these things 'sources of evil and promoting obscenity and vulgarity.' On his appeal, thousands of people burnt their television sets and VCRs publicly all over Swat. He then started a campaign for giving a number of villages in the district Islamic names. He turned against female education and urged people not to send their daughters and sisters to schools, an action that he termed un-Islamic. It was as a result of this appeal that prompted parents in Swat to remove about 1700 girl students from schools within two to three months. Maulana Fazlullah then termed polio drops as an un-Islamic practice and urged people not to vaccinate their kids. According to him, it was a conspiracy by the West to make them infertile. Interestingly, the Maulana also argued that there was no concept of a cure before the disease in Islam. The recent turmoil in the area has caused acute hardships for the local residents. And since this is the tourist season, thousands of people are feared to suffer across the valley if an amicable solution is not found of the conflict.
Shariat
movement Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) was formed by Maulana Sufi Mohammad, an active leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, in 1992, with the objective to enforce Islamic laws -- by force if necessary. TNSM succeeded in gathering strength in the suburbs of Mingora town and Tehsil Matta, Swat. Its clashes with the local administration brought the entire administrative structure there, to a standstill. Later, when the American forces invaded Afghanistan, Sufi Mohammad exhorted his followers to join the Taliban in Afghanistan in their armed struggle against the American forces and the Northern Alliance at the time of the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. Various figures regarding the number of jihadis that crossed the border and entered Afghanistan under his command were floated, with some claiming the number to be as high as 10,000. Most of these jihadis were killed or arrested by the Northern Alliance and only a few were able to return to Pakistan, including Sufi Mohammad, who was immediately arrested by the authorities here and is still behind bars. Sufi Mohammad lost much of his support after his return because the locals held Sufi Mohammad's incompetence and lack of combat skills responsible for the death of thousands of mujahideen. The organisation was banned in 2001 and since then, authorities have been killing or arresting TNSM sympathisers that reduced the organisation's effectiveness and have rendered it completely dormant in its stronghold of Swat and the adjoining areas. After the devastating earthquake that hit the region on October 8, 2005, Sufi Mohammad's followers capitalised on the incident. Making good on the strong and growing belief among the people of Swat and Malakand districts that the earthquake was punishment for their misdeeds, remnants of the TNSM successfully convinced the people to burn their valuable electronic equipment in order to avoid the sinful life and prevent further retribution. A procession led by TNSM leader Maulana Abdullah at the Bilogram village in Malakand set fire to thousands of audio and video cassettes, televisions, computers and CDs. The same episode took place simultaneously at Brikot village in Malakand. Most of the people from Dherai, Damghar, Kanju, Kabal, Matta, Kuza badi, Bara bandi, Mingora, Saidu Sharif and from all over Swat valley set the electronics goods on fire. As a result of Sufi Mohammad's imprisonment, his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah is now leading the TNSM movement. Thousands of people tune into its FM radio transmission, which is still operational despite being banned by the provincial government. The provincial government, due to political reasons, cannot afford the revival of TNSM. The ruling religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, and particularly JI consider Malakand and Swat their strongholds and will not allow TNSM to damage their positions in the region. It is worth mentioning that Sufi Muhammad is a JI dissident. Fazlullah established his FM radio station at Imamdairi, a small town in Swat district. The station is used to deliver teachings of the Quran and persuade people to destroy their musical appliances. A potential clash between the TNSM and the district government was averted on August 18, 2006 following a meeting between NWFP Sports Minister Hussain Kanju and the TNSM leader Maulana Fazalullah. According to the deal, the TNSM was to bring its campaign against TVs and VCDs to an end and in return the government would release its activists. The government also allowed the TNSM to use its illegal FM radio station. "If others can use illegal FM stations, why can't the TNSM?" a national daily quoted Kanju as saying.
Scrapped! The North Waziristan peace accord collapsed on July 15. The militants announced at 4 pm that their four-day deadline to the government had ended and they were scrapping the 10-month old agreement due to non-acceptance of their demand for withdrawal of troops that were redeployed almost a week ago at several checkpoints on roads leading from Miramshah to Bannu, Razmak, Dattakhel, and Gulam Khan on the border with Afghanistan. Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the 'Ameer' of the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan, then directed his fighters to start a guerilla war against the military. There had been two suicide bombings there even before the peace accord was scrapped, though the militants pointed out that these weren't ordered by their shura, or council. North Waziristan's political agent, Pirzada Khan, survived one of the suicide bombings in his office in Miramshah but two of his staff members were killed and two were wounded. Another suicide bombing near Mir Ali killed some members of the security forces travelling in a convoy. After the scrapping of the peace agreement, there has been two suicide bombings, a major ambush of a military convoy, and some attacks using improvised explosives device (IED). The suicide bombing at the heavily guarded Khajuri checkpoint, which serves as entry-point to North Waziristan while coming from Bannu, killed three troops and a truck driver. The second suicide bombing caused the loss of 24 soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Corps and wounded 29 others, including five Pakistan Army soldiers, when the bomber rammed his explosive-filled vehicle into a military convoy at Daznaray near Razmak. The ambush by militants took place in the Dattakhel area and again targeted an army convoy. The attack killed 17 soldiers and injured 13. The IED explosions and snipers' fire also caused casualties or injured some troops and civilians. The suicide attack on the police recruitment centre in Dera Ismail Khan which killed 28 people, including 17 policemen and 11 candidates for recruitment or their relatives, and the suicide bombing outside the Police Training College, Hangu on July 19 that killed seven persons also appears to be the handiwork of the militants but it isn't clear if it was done by those from North Waziristan, South Waziristan or somewhere else. On their part, the North Waziristan militants denied their involvement in any attack outside their own tribal agency. -- Rahimullah Yusufzai Armed
response to army Severe tension gripped Swat, the Switzerland of Pakistan, particularly after army deployment that attracted two suicidal and an improvised explosive device's attacks simultaneously on July 15 morning, killing at least 22 people including 11 troops of Pakistan army, seven civilians and two paramilitary Frontier Constabulary personnel and injured more than 60. people The incident, the most
serious in the history of scenic Swat valley took place when one Two suicide bombers, who were waiting for the convoy in Suzuki cars, struck the convoy, one at its head and the other at the tail. The bombers were calculated in their target, as the one hitting the convoy in the front left seven vehicle most of which were carrying police and FC men and struck the eighth one -- a 65-seater coach -- boarded by army men. The other car collided with a truck filled with army personnel some 200 metres behind and yet another military truck carrying luggage ran over an IED. The blasts were so severe that the three vehicles were badly damaged besides completely blowing away the Suzuki cars used in the attack. Only the engines of the cars could be seen hundreds of yards away from the places of occurrence. The locals, who witnessed the incident, were not ready to accept the officially confirmed number of casualties. They were of the view that the number of casualties might have crossed the figure of 50, as they said they saw countless bodies lying scattered all around. Soon after the blast the army men resorted to heavy firing in the air as well as at those coming in their way. The blasts had also demolished two houses and some shops, killing at least six civilians including three children. An inmate of one of the houses, who had lost his father and two brothers and a sister in the incident, when saw his house caving in, rushed towards it and fell prey to the bullets of the panicked army men, said Idrees a resident. The army personnel cordoned off the entire area for about three hours till they shifted all the injured to hospitals and removed the dead bodies. After the army controlled the situation they left for the nearby Government College where they had to station. There were certainly some law and order problems even before the operation in some parts of the valley for which a hard-liner religious cleric Maulana Fazlullah, son-in-law of founder of defunct Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) used to be blamed. But, the Maulana whose sole medium to communicate his teachings to his followers was and still is his illegal FM radio, struck a peace agreement with the district administration through a traditional local jirga in May under which he agreed to the conditions of the district administration. It was after the Lal Masjid operation, that Maulana Fazlullah announced scrapping of the agreement and waging 'Jihad' against security personnel. But, he refuted this announcement the same day, saying that he was still honouring the accord. He also termed the attacks on police personnel during the prolonged Lal Masjid operation in which one police cop was killed and four others including a district police officer injured as a conspiracy to malign him and his movement. A day before the attack on the army convoy, the Maulana made his final speech and went into hiding. He thought that a military operation and clashes between the army and civilians was evident, therefore he stated that he was going into hiding to avoid any untoward happening. The general public as well as the district administration of Swat do not consider Maulana Fazlullah as any serious threat to peace. They see no hand of the Maulana in the attack on the army, as according to them he is not brave or cruel enough to carry out such activities in which the target is none other, but our own army. The district administration is also of the view that the Maulana is a simple man and not responsible for terrorist activities. However, when contacted, District Coordination Officer Syed Mohammad Javed said that the Maulana had returned to his seminary in Imam Dehrai. The agreement with him is still intact, as he is abiding by maximum of its clauses. He had violated only one clause of the agreement, by staging a demonstration after the Lal Masjid operation, for which he is being tactfully taken to task, Javed said. There is a general perception among the common people of Swat that the main reason of tension in the valley was deployment of the army. They say if the army goes back to barracks, the situation would automatically be normalised. The grand jirga of elders of the entire Malakand division -- Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Swat, Buner, Shangla districts and Malakand agency -- comprising of parliamentarians and leaders of various political parties called on NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani in Peshawar after the July 15 tragedy to discuss the law and order situation. The grand jirga was unanimous to demand the honourable withdrawal of the army from Swat and Dir, where two brigades of the army have been deployed. The chief minister agreed to the demand of the jirga, but said that the army would be withdrawn at a proper time. In the meanwhile, the army would remain confined to their specified places. They would make no movement and set up no post. The army, he said, is on the discretion of local administration would not carry out any operation. If the army launched any operation without his consent, he would have no right to stay in power, the chief minister assured the jirga.
The district is in focus and troops moved in to add to the doubts of the people Clouds of scare and speculations about military operation are hovering over Lower Dir after the deployment of Army in the backdrop of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa standoff. Troops moved to the comparatively peaceful Dir after the Islamabad 'Operation Silence' and rhetoric of a cleric in the neighbouring Swat district for what people guess to be a military operation and which the district coordination officer, Dr Attaur Rahman has ruled out. All political parties in the district, at a meeting, asked the government not to create confusion by unnecessary deployment of army as the situation did not demand so. Though it is home to Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the founding amir of the now defunct Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) Dir has so far not witnessed any untoward happening except the Tuesday's remote control bomb incident at Gulabad that injured SHO Ouch police station and damaged his vehicle. A few days back some miscreants fired a rocket on Malakand University where troops are stationed, but which didn't result in any deaths. Stationed at Malakand University at Chakdarra, Government Elementary College Qaziabad, Timergara, bulldozers workshop near Dir Scouts fort and Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, Samarbagh, the troops are confined to their stations but people foresee an operation. Since a number of students from Dir were studying at Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa, any reaction from their parents and relatives could also be the cause of army deployment in the district. Army, however, has not been moved to Upper Dir district. Dir Scouts has also beefed up its security by raising a wall around the ground being used for scouts training, to avoid any possible suicide attack. The situation in Dir is not tense like the neighbouring Swat, but being the home to TNSM the government might expect reaction from its activists, especially from Maidan, the native town of Sufi. There are also speculations about sending troops to areas on the boundary with Swat district to counter TNSM activists' or local Taliban's infiltration to Swat valley. Even with TNSM revolt against the government in 1994 and armed clash with paramilitary troops in Kabul and Matta (Swat), the situation in Dir never went out of control, except for a minor infiltration of the Tehreek activists in Swat. Maulana Sufi Muhammad launched the TNSM movement from Maidan in Dir and extended it to the whole of Malakand division and Kohistan district of Hazara, but the people of Malakand, Bajaur, Swat and Buner districts showed more resistance as compared to Dir whenever any showdown against government was planned. Sufi, the jailed leader of the Tehreek always chose a point outside Dir for any show of strength against the government. The road blockade at Malakand Pass, besieging of government installations in 1990s, killing of Badiuz-Zaman, a PPP PMA from Shangla and rallies at Zafar Park, Batkhela are the best examples of this. Presently TNSM activities in the district are almost invisible like Swat, but even then the district is in focus and troops moved in to add to the doubts of the people. It is generally believed that the army deployment may serve no end but instead instigate violence in the otherwise peaceful district.
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bothering to come back to what it projected as the biggest issue of the
moment, a few days ago. New events, unprecedented in their own way, often
preclude any possibility of a follow-up and hence follow-ups are rarely done.
two weeks of the tragic incident in which three Chinese nationals were
murdered.
peace accord in North Waziristan. He has steadfastly defended the
controversial deal, which was criticised by the Afghan government and the US
and its Western allies, and is even now trying to keep it intact. Himself a
tribesman from the Orakzai tribal agency, the first one to become the
Governor of the province, he knows that conflicts and disputes in the tribal
areas can only be resolved through traditional methods such as jirga.
battalion of the army stationed at Kanju Township was moving towards
Government College Matta via Khwazakhela for further deployment in a convoy
of 35 vehicles. Escorted by six vehicles of the police and Frontier
Constabulary at its head, the convoy faced the tragedy when it reached Sambat,
the entry point of Matta town.