முஸ்லீம் பயங்கரவாதிகள் தாக்கி 34 பாகிஸ்தான் ராணுவத்தினர் பலி

பாகிஸ்தானில் தாலிபான் ஆதரவாளர்கள், லால் மசூதியில் பாகிஸ்தான் ராணுவத்தின் நடவடிக்கைக்கு எதிர்ப்பு தெரிவிக்க பல்வேறு இடங்களில் பாகிஸ்தான் ராணுவத்தின் மீது தற்கொலை தாக்குதல்களை நிறைவேற்றினார்கள்.

இதில் 34 ராணுவத்தினர், பொதுமக்கள் பலியானார்கள்.

Bombers strike convoys; at least 34 killed
By Zulfiqar Ali and Laura King

Los Angeles Times
MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan -- In the deadliest suicide attack in many months in Pakistan's tribal borderlands, a bomber struck a military convoy Saturday, killing 24 troops and injuring nearly 30 others, authorities said.

Another suicide car bomber struck a convoy elsewhere in the border region early today, killing more than 10 security personnel, police said.

The escalating violence could presage a broader war by Islamist militants against government forces in the wake of the siege of a radical mosque last week by elite Pakistani commandos in the nation's capital, Islamabad, which left more than 100 people dead.

On the orders of President Pervez Musharraf, who is also the chief of the military, thousands of troops have been deployed in the volatile border region in recent days. Radical groups have vowed to avenge the government's storming of the Red Mosque and the killing of one of two brothers who presided over the complex. Troops surrounded the mosque July 2 and stormed it eight days later.

Musharraf, a key American ally in the war in neighboring Afghanistan, said Thursday that Islamist militants would be pursued in "every corner" of Pakistan in the wake of the Red Mosque confrontation.

But Pakistan's military-intelligence agencies have been accused of maintaining close ties with Islamic militant groups despite Musharraf's alliance with the United States.

The attack against Pakistani troops in North Waziristan coincided with violent incidents elsewhere in the border region. In the heart of Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, authorities said they found two anti-tank mines attached to a timing device in a car parked near a bank affiliated with Pakistan's military.

In another attack in the border areas, a vehicle carrying soldiers was hit by a bomb in the town of Banu, but there were no fatalities.

Saturday's suicide attack took place in the village of Daznaray, about 20 miles north of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said all those killed were army troops, and that the wounded included five members of the paramilitary forces.

Today, a convoy of army and paramilitary troops was attacked in Swat, a mountainous area of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Humayun Khan said. Troops opened fire after the attack and a gunbattle was continuing, he said. Dozens of security personnel reportedly were wounded.

Taliban commanders have set a deadline of today for government troops to remove recently established checkpoints in North Waziristan, the scene of a controversial government pact last year under which government troops were to remain in their barracks and Taliban-linked fighters were to refrain from cross-border attacks.

The accord, signed in September with tribal elders, is viewed as a failure. Attacks spiked in its aftermath.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company