PAKISTAN: Suicide bomber kills 6 Pakistani troops in Waziristan

Record ID: 357776

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Suicide bomber kills 6 Pakistani troops in Waziristan
  • Date: 27th June 2006
  • Summary: (W4) ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (JUNE 26, 2006) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF FOREIGN OFFICE
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE7710EEZBU71D3OXLHT7N1IAD
  • Story Text: A suicide car bomber rammed a Pakistani paramilitary check post on Monday (June 26), killing himself and at least six troopers in a tribal region where the army has been fighting al Qaeda and pro-Taliban militants for months, officials said.
    The attack in North Waziristan came a day after a militant commander said a month-long ceasefire had been called to give time for tribal elders to broker a settlement to end the conflict in the semi-autonomous region.
    Interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, condemning the attack, said it could reverse the positive atmosphere created by the call for a ceasefire.
    "The suicide attack today that martyred five to eight 'jawans' (soldiers) is a negation of that (ceasefire call by militants)," Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad.
    He said the government had not anticipated "such a reversal at this juncture" but it would continue its efforts to restore law and order in the rugged region.
    "As far as the policy of our government is concerned, we want peace in South and North Waziristan, and we are trying to formulate a Grand Jirga (tribal elders' council) for that purpose," he said.
    Abdullah Farhad, the militant commander who declared the ceasefire, told Reuters the attack was an attempt to sabotage the call for a ceasefire and local Taliban had no connection with it.
    Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said six paramilitary troops were killed in the attack and several more were wounded, some of them seriously.
    Security forces have killed more than 300 militants, including 75 foreigners, in North Waziristan since last year, after the military switched its offensive from South Waziristan.
    Several Arab lieutenants of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden have been killed in North Waziristan, and U.S. drone aircraft have carried out missile strikes on al Qaeda targets from across the border in Afghanistan.
    The car bomber struck as a paramilitary convoy pulled up at the Esha checkpost, some 12 km (seven miles) from Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, on the road to the town of Bannu.
    An intelligence official said the attack was carried out by a single person in a white car.
    The approach to the site of the suicide attack, around 300 km (187 miles) southwest of Islamabad, was cordoned off.
    Fighting in North Waziristan escalated dramatically in March after militant Muslim clerics called on tribesmen to take up arms following a missile strike by Pakistani helicopters on a large al Qaeda camp close to the Afghan border.
    Pakistan has some 80,000 regular army troops on the border with Afghanistan, most of them deployed in North and South Waziristan where al Qaeda linked militants have been operating alongside Taliban and tribal sympathisers.
    There has been growing unease in Pakistan that the military's strategy in Waziristan may result in a blowback from the fiercely independent Pashtun tribes in the years to come.
    The Governor of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, is trying to organise a tribal council, or jirga, to calm the tribes on the frontier.
    In a meeting of the Motahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a six-party alliance of Islamist parties, the leaders welcomed the ceasefire call.
    "The Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) welcomes the ceasefire. We also declare that the steps taken by the NWFP (North West Frontier Province) governor in this context are positive," Maulana Fazlur Rehman, general secretary of MMA told reporters after the meeting.
    He condemned the suicide attack but cautioned that involvement of "a foreign hand" in the attack should not be ruled out.
    "We are concerned about certain foreign powers who we believe want to cause harm to Pakistan," Rehman said.
    "We have to frustrate their conspiracies also."
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