வடமேற்கு பாகிஸ்தானில் பெரும் போர்

பாஜுல்லா என்ற முஸ்லீம் இமாமின் துருப்புகளுக்கும் பாகிஸ்தான் போர் வீரர்களுக்கும் கடும் போர் நடைபெறுகிறது.

இதுவரை பலர் மரணமடைந்துள்ளதாக தெரிகிறது. 2500க்கும் மேற்பட்ட பாகிஸ்தான் துருப்புகள் இங்கு போரிடுவதாக பாகிஸ்தான் தரப்பிலிருந்து தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டாலும் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகம் என்று கூறப்படுகிறது.

Pakistan Forces Attack Cleric Stronghold
By RIAZ KHAN – 5 hours ago

SWAT, Pakistan (AP) — Paramilitary troops battled supporters of a radical cleric in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least one in a fierce fight with heavy weapons near the scene of a suicide attack that killed 20 people the day before, witnesses said.

Militants kidnapped eight police officers and paramilitary troops from a minibus they halted on the outskirts of the district, police said, adding that rescue efforts were under way. Three civilian passengers were let go.

The clash in the village of Imam Dheri erupted when security forces backed by helicopters attacked a stronghold of Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric who leads a banned pro-Taliban group that sent thousands of volunteers to fight across the border in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Militants fought back and the two sides traded fire with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other weapons across the rushing Swat River, witnesses said. Hundreds of residents fled, local shop-owner Rahman Khan said.

Residents said they saw four helicopters hovering over the area and heard loud explosions from heavy weapons fire. Mohammed Zubair, 35, said he saw one of the helicopters firing rockets near Fazlullah's house.

The security forces launched their assault by attacking a building where Fazlullah had been appearing in recent days to urge followers of his Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law to target the army, police and other security forces, said Muhib Ullah, a police official in the nearby town of Mingora, the main town in Swat district. Swat is about 30 miles north of the city of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, and has been one of Pakistan's main tourist destinations because of its mountain scenery.

An aide to Fazlullah said one of his fighters was killed and four were wounded in the fighting.

"God willing, casualties on their side (security forces) will be more," Fazlullah's aide, Sirajuddin, told The Associated Press by telephone from Imam Dheri. He uses only one name.

"We are sitting in our homes and mosque ... we are defending ourselves. We have carried out retaliation," he said. "We have enough heavy weapons."

Violence has been on the rise, and official control decreasing, throughout the conservative region near the border with Afghanistan where militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida increasingly hold sway. The rise of militancy in the region has shaken the authority of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror.

Sirajuddin said the cleric's supporters would fight to the death. He said Fazlullah had abandoned his stronghold and gone into hiding.

Fazlullah announced in an FM radio broadcast on Wednesday that he was shifting to the neighboring mountainous district of Kohistan, according to a resident who heard the broadcast.

Near the scene of Friday's clashes, militants fired at a helicopter carrying a senior army officer but missed and the helicopter safely landed, according to a local police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad declined to comment on the fighting, saying only that some 2,500 paramilitary troops deployed in Swat to combat Fazlullah's supporters, but the army had also sent forces which are being kept in reserve in case they are needed by local authorities.

On Thursday, a suicide car bomber hit a truck carrying Frontier Constabulary paramilitary troops through a crowded area of Mingora, killing 19 soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 35 people.

A spokesman denied the cleric's involvement in the bombing, saying he wanted peace in the region and only wanted to impose Islamic law.

The Mingora blast came a week after the bloody assassination attempt in the southern city of Karachi on ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who plans to start traveling elsewhere in Pakistan on Saturday.

Bhutto has blamed Islamic militants for last week's attack on her convoy that killed 143 people, but also accused elements in the government and security services of complicity in assassination plots, demanding international experts be called in to help in the investigation. The government has rejected such a move.

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad, and Zarar Khan in Karachi contributed to this report.