PESHAWAR: An angry mob of hundreds of Pakistani villagers seeking revenge for a deadly mosque bombing have killed 14 suspected Taleban as vigilante violence entered a third day yesterday, the army said.
A spontaneous militia took up arms on Saturday and besieged militant strongholds in Upper Dir district, a day after 38 people were killed in a suicide blast at a mosque in the same area of the northwest.
One local security official said the Taleban — the focus of an intense six-week government offensive in nearby Swat Valley — were on the run in the area targeted by the militia, which are known locally as Lashkars. “Taleban have lost the local support in the area and are now firing back only to move away,” the security official told AFP.
“Taleban are surrounded from both eastern and western sides and are now fleeing the area after leaving their weapons and disguising themselves.” Police officials have said that the weekend clashes left six suspected militants dead, and fighting continued yesterday with 14 more reported killed.
“Local Lashkar set ablaze 13 houses of terrorists and killed three terrorists at Dhok Darra (village) in retaliation to a suicide attack in a mosque,” the army said in a statement yesterday.
The vigilantes also surrounded Shatkas and Mena villages and killed 11 insurgents including a Taleban commander, the statement said. The army did not confirm that six militants were killed on Saturday.
Already grappling with a refugee crisis spawned by fighting in the Swat Valley region, Pakistan is facing a second exodus from North and South Waziristan, strongholds for hardcore Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants that US and other officials believe must be routed to win the war in Afghanistan and end extremism in Pakistan.
There are no official numbers of refugees flooding into Dera Ismail Khan, Tank and other regional population centers, and no big refugee camps have sprung up as they did near Swat, with relatives and friends absorbing the influx. One tribal leader, Faateh Khan, told AP more than 100,000 people from his Bitani clan alone had left their homes.
