Sharif urges Karzai to stop militant exodus

FE Team | Published: June 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

BANNU, June 17 (agencies): Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has urged Afghanistan's leader to help stop insurgents escaping a major military offensive near their border, as residents who fled the area anxiously awaited news Tuesday from those left behind.
Sharif asked President Hamid Karzai to seal their border along a mountainous tribal area, where the Pakistani military has deployed troops, tanks and jets in a long-awaited crackdown on the Taliban and other militants.
Fresh air strikes early Tuesday targeted three Taliban strongholds in the town of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan area and killed 25 of the militants, according to official statements, raising the total insurgent death toll to 201.
The figure could not be independently confirmed and some residents who had escaped the area spoke of civilian casualties from aerial bombing before the operation was officially launched, as they awaited a break in the fighting to rescue relatives who remained behind.
Thousands of people have fled across the border into the Gorbaz district of Afghanistan's Khost province, according to local officials there, and are being provided with food and aid.
Others have made their way to the town of Bannu in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 10 kilometres (six miles) to the east of the border with North Waziristan.
Pakistan's army launched the offensive-a longstanding demand of the United States-on Sunday, a week after an attack on Karachi airport killed dozens and marked the end of a troubled peace process.
An exodus of militants from the area had been a concern before the operation, with residents and officials reporting that most Taliban and foreign fighters had fled to the border area.
Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said Sharif had requested Karzai to help stop the flow.
"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called Hamid Karzai last night to request him for the closure of Afghan border to avoid exit of militants to Afghanistan from Pakistan during the military offensive," she told AFP.
In a separate incident eight people were killed on Tuesday when police clashed with followers of an influential preacher in Lahore, a rare act of political violence in the city that is Sharif's power base.
The clashes involved supporters of cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, who lives in Canada but came to Pakistan last year to lead a major anti-corruption march before elections. The killings could increase political pressure on Sharif's government.
Meanwhile:  At least seven people were killed on Tuesday when Pakistani police clashed with followers of an influential preacher in Lahore, hospital officials said, a rare act of political violence in the relatively peaceful city.
The clashes involved supporters of cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri who resides in Canada but came to Pakistan last year to lead a major anti-corruption march prior to elections.
The cleric, who is seen as a religious moderate, is due to return on June 23 where he hopes to lead a "peaceful revolution" against the country's parliamentary democracy.
The violence came as Pakistan's military is engaged in a major offensive against Taliban militants in the country's restive northwest and could put political pressure on the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
"We received seven dead bodies including two women. All of them had bullet wounds," said Doctor Abdul Rauf, Medical Superintendent at the city's Jinnah Hospital.