Four militants killed in Waziristan missile attack

PESHAWAR, August 30: At least four militants have been killed in a missile attack on a house in Pakistan’s restive South Waziristan tribal agency on Saturday.

Reports and eyewitness accounts suggest that at least two of those killed in the missile strike were Arab nationals while identities of the other two are not known. Some locals said five people were killed in the attack.

Locals also said that the missile was fired by an unknown aircraft from the air. However, officials in South Waziristan did not comment.

The spot of the missile strike is located five kilometers west of Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, and is considered the stronghold of a pro-Pakistani government warlord Maulvi Nazeer.

Nazeer and armed Lashkar (army of volunteers) from Wazir tribe had fought bloody battle against Uzbek militants last year. The Uzbek were later forced out of the area which is under Nazeer’s control and comparatively calm.

However, an attack was made on the same area some 10 days back in which six people, most of them Arab nationals, were killed.

Unlike Baitullah Mehsud in Waziristan, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad in Bajaur and Mullah Fazlullah in Swat, Nazeer is not fighting against the Pakistani government and troops.

However, analysts believe the recent attacks on areas under Nazeer’s control would open another front for the Pakistani armed forces, which are already engaged in battle with Taliban in Bajaur, border southeastern parts of Afghanistan, and the tourist resort of Swat.

The Pakistani government and opposition parties have different stances about the ongoing military operations, which are no more restricted to the rugged tribal areas of that country.

While the government is continued with the use of military might to quell the insurgency in the tribal areas, the opposition parties are asking for negotiations to settle the dispute and bring peace to the nuclear-armed country.

Besides the tribal belt, military operation is also in the offing in the surrounding areas of Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s Pakhtunkhwa or North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP), where militants are continuously attacking security officials and challenging writ of the government by blowing up buildings of girls’ schools, power transmission lines and telephone pylons.

The city of Peshawar and adjacent areas were plunged into darkness for several days when militants blew up an electricity tower in Shaikh Mohammadi areas on the outskirts of Peshawar.

The incident was followed by the blowing up of a girls’ high school in Badhber area, located some 10 kilometres southeast of Peshawar. Earlier, militants have forcefully closed barber shops and shops dealing in business of compact discs (CDs) for being un-Islamic in those areas.

According to a private Pakistani television channel Express News, the government has also launched an anti-Taliban operation in the semi-tribal Darra Adam Khel area on Saturday.

Darra Adam Khel is known for being a flourishing arms market which has been scene to attacks on security forces over the previous six months. On August 29, three civilians were killed and 25 security personnel were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself near the tunnel connecting the city of Peshawar with the seven southern districts of NWFP.

The 1.9-kilometre long tunnel is located at Darra Adam Khel on its one side and opening in the district of Kohat on the other side. Thousands of passengers and goods vehicles cross the tunnel made with the cooperation of the government of Japan and named as Pak-Japan Friendship Tunnel.

A few months back, the same tunnel was captured by militants snapping contacts of the southern districts of NWFP with its provincial capital of Peshawar, which is the main transit route to eastern Afghanistan.

ENDS