Bomb attacks in northwestern Pakistan kill up to 42
Monday, 16 July 2007
PESHAWAR, July 15 (AP): Suicide bombers struck Sunday in two areas of northwestern Pakistan, killing up to 42 people, while Taliban militants broke a 10-month-old peace pact with the government along the frontier with Afghanistan.
Yesterday at least 24 paramilitary soldiers were killed in another explosion in a remote region near the Afghan border.
The militants said the cease-fire agreement was being terminated in North Waziristan, where Taliban and al-Qaida operate, because government forces had attacked the militants, failed to pay compensation to those harmed and created problems at check points.
"The peace agreement has ended," Abdullah Farad, a militant spokesman, told journalists in the city of Peshawar.
He said the Taliban chief in North Waziristan, Maulvi Gul Badahar, made the decision at a council meeting after the government had failed to abide by its demand that it withdraw troops from checkpoints by 4 p.m. (1100 GMT) Sunday.
The announcement came as suspected militants launched suicide attacks and a roadside bomb in the northwest which together killed 38 persons and wounded more than 80.
The government has deployed thousands of troops to the restive region to thwart calls by extremists for a holy war to avenge the bloody storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque last week.
Three blasts struck a military convoy in Swat, a mountainous area of North West Province, killing 18 people and wounding 47, a government official said, citing an official report being sent to Islamabad.
In the day's second attack, a suicide bomber targeted scores of people taking medical and written exams for recruitment to the police force in the city of Dera Ismail Khan. The blast killed 20 people and wounded 35, said police officer Mohammed Aslam.
More than 150 people were on the grounds of the police headquarters when the bomber struck. Aslam said the suicide bomber's head and suicide vest had been found.
On Saturday, at least 24 soldiers were killed and 29 wounded on a road near Daznaray, a village about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, Arshad said.
The driver plowed his explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy. Although no one claimed responsibility for the attack, Arshad said it may have been in response to the bloody army raid on the Red Mosque on Wednesday.
Tensions are high in Pakistan after the raid, which ended an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the standoff.
In Islamabad, authorities on Sunday detained Shah Abdul Aziz, a National Assembly member from an alliance of religious parties, for allegedly inciting people against the government during the Red Mosque siege.
The region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has seen increased activity by local militants, the Taliban, and - according to a recent U.S. assessment - al-Qaida.
Arshad said reinforcements had been sent to the northwest to beef up some 90,000 troops already in the region. Officials say fresh troops have moved into at least five areas.
Yesterday at least 24 paramilitary soldiers were killed in another explosion in a remote region near the Afghan border.
The militants said the cease-fire agreement was being terminated in North Waziristan, where Taliban and al-Qaida operate, because government forces had attacked the militants, failed to pay compensation to those harmed and created problems at check points.
"The peace agreement has ended," Abdullah Farad, a militant spokesman, told journalists in the city of Peshawar.
He said the Taliban chief in North Waziristan, Maulvi Gul Badahar, made the decision at a council meeting after the government had failed to abide by its demand that it withdraw troops from checkpoints by 4 p.m. (1100 GMT) Sunday.
The announcement came as suspected militants launched suicide attacks and a roadside bomb in the northwest which together killed 38 persons and wounded more than 80.
The government has deployed thousands of troops to the restive region to thwart calls by extremists for a holy war to avenge the bloody storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque last week.
Three blasts struck a military convoy in Swat, a mountainous area of North West Province, killing 18 people and wounding 47, a government official said, citing an official report being sent to Islamabad.
In the day's second attack, a suicide bomber targeted scores of people taking medical and written exams for recruitment to the police force in the city of Dera Ismail Khan. The blast killed 20 people and wounded 35, said police officer Mohammed Aslam.
More than 150 people were on the grounds of the police headquarters when the bomber struck. Aslam said the suicide bomber's head and suicide vest had been found.
On Saturday, at least 24 soldiers were killed and 29 wounded on a road near Daznaray, a village about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, Arshad said.
The driver plowed his explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy. Although no one claimed responsibility for the attack, Arshad said it may have been in response to the bloody army raid on the Red Mosque on Wednesday.
Tensions are high in Pakistan after the raid, which ended an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the standoff.
In Islamabad, authorities on Sunday detained Shah Abdul Aziz, a National Assembly member from an alliance of religious parties, for allegedly inciting people against the government during the Red Mosque siege.
The region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has seen increased activity by local militants, the Taliban, and - according to a recent U.S. assessment - al-Qaida.
Arshad said reinforcements had been sent to the northwest to beef up some 90,000 troops already in the region. Officials say fresh troops have moved into at least five areas.