Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Militants Kill 28 in Northwest Pakistan | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55284158
Caption:

A Pakistani masked tribal militant with assault rifle smashes an audio player seized in a raid at a music market in Khar (AP)


A Pakistani masked tribal militant with assault rifle smashes an audio player seized in a raid at a music market in Khar (AP)

A Pakistani masked tribal militant with assault rifle smashes an audio player seized in a raid at a music market in Khar (AP)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, (AP) -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-Qaeda.

The bomber at the police headquarters in Dera Ismail Khan, near the Afghan border, 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 of the police headquarters 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 suspected 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.

“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.

And in North Waziristan, militants on Sunday distributed a document disavowing a 10-month old peace deal with the government. The document, distributed in the bazaar of the main town 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.

Supporters of opposition main Islamist alliance Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) shout slogans as they welcome Pakistan's suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (EPA)

Supporters of opposition main Islamist alliance Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) shout slogans as they welcome Pakistan’s suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (EPA)

Pakistani police officials collect battery and timers from a half-burn car which was apparently being used to blow an army-affiliated Askari bank in Peshawar Pakistan (EPA)

Pakistani police officials collect battery and timers from a half-burn car which was apparently being used to blow an army-affiliated Askari bank in Peshawar Pakistan (EPA)