ISLAMABAD: Pakistani forces yesterday rescued 44 security men, abducted by the Taleban-linked militants in Turi Mangal region of Kurram Agency a few months ago. The political administration officials of the Kurram Agency confirmed that the personnel rescued were from Frontier Constabulary.
Meanwhile, in Khyber Agency’s Bara region, government forces continued their combing operation. Pakistani forces demolished two buildings used by militants in the Khyber tribal district yesterday on the fourth day of an operation against rebels there, officials said.
Pakistan forces launched the operation in Khyber on Saturday to tackle militants who were threatening the northwestern city of Peshawar and attacking convoys supplying NATO and US troops in Afghanistan.
Security forces yesterday blew up an empty building used as a local headquarters of the hard-line Lashkar-e-Islami in the Khajoori area, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The building was previously the residence of Lashkar-e-Islam’s founder, Mufti Munir Shakir. “No one was injured or arrested as the building was completely empty when blown up with dynamite,” he added.
Separately, Lashkar-e-Islam followers attacked the empty house of a religious leader who was a rival of LI’s chief, Mangal Bagh, in the town of Pir Killay near the Afghan border, the officials said.
Troops moved the LI men away but they dynamited the house, which belongs to Pir Saifur Rehman, head of the Taleban-linked Ansar-ul Islam group, the officials said. Bagh’s own house was blown up by Pakistani forces on Saturday.
Both Bagh and Pakistan’s main organization of Taleban militants have denied that he is linked to the Taleban. Six people were killed on Monday when a blast destroyed the house of another militant leader, Haji Namdar, who survived the attack. Apart from one rebel shot dead on Saturday they have been the only casualties in the operation.
Namdar blamed a missile strike by NATO forces in Afghanistan while Pakistani officials said the cause could be the accidental detonation of explosives stored in the building.
Pakistan launched the operation after coming under pressure from Kabul and from US-led and NATO forces in Afghanistan, who suffered their deadliest months in the country since the 2001 ouster of the Taleban.
Afghanistan yesterday welcomed the Khyber offensive but urged Islamabad to expand the hunt, reiterating accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to curb militants launching cross-border attacks.
“Afghanistan’s government welcomes in principle the military operation there,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, told reporters in Kabul.
On Monday, a team of US lawmakers said they had “candid discussions” with Pakistani leaders about the importance of confronting militants within the country and along its border with Afghanistan.
The team met Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and President Pervez Musharraf, the group said in a statement from Islamabad.
“The government of Pakistan remains concerned over security and the need to directly confront this terrorist threat not only within Pakistan, but also along the border with Afghanistan,” said team leader and Democratic Sen. Benjamin Cardin. He said US lawmakers “were encouraged by the unity among Pakistani leaders to confront terrorists.”
— With input from agencies
