BANNU, 8 September 2003 — Attackers fired three rockets at an airport housing Pakistan troops hunting for Al-Qaeda and Taleban fugitives, but there were no injuries or damage, a military official said yesterday.
The attack occurred late Friday in Bannu, a conservative tribal city about 250 kilometers southwest of the capital, Islamabad, said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, a military spokesman.
Bannu is located at the edge of a tribal region where Pakistani and US officials are searching for Al-Qaeda and Taleban fugitives, who are believed to use Pakistani soil to launch attacks into neighboring Afghanistan.
There was no claim of responsibility and Sultan said officials were investigating who was responsible. “We are ascertaining details of the attack,” he said. Nawaz Khan, a police official involved with the investigation, said tribesmen are the most likely culprits.
“According to initial information these rockets had a range of 25 kilometers and they were most probably fired from the tribal area,” said Khan. Two rockets exploded in deserted areas inside the airport grounds. The third rocket failed to explode, he said.
Local residents reported earlier this week that the military had stepped up activity in the area, sending dozens of helicopters to Bannu airport.
Some helicopters were spotted carrying “foreign” troops, a reference to American forces. The helicopters were flying over the tribal area near Bannu. But yesterday, the helicopters were gone and the tiny airport all but abandoned.
Abbas Khan, 60, a worker at the airport, told The Associated Press that the Pakistani military had pulled out Saturday afternoon after an operation that lasted several days. “At 3 p.m. all the helicopters and troops left. They were here for three days. There were a lot of flights but we don’t know what they were doing,” said Khan, who has worked at the airport for 20 years.
Ismail Khan, the owner of a tea house near the airport, said there were many Pakistani soldiers in the area, and that the townspeople speculated they were looking for Al-Qaeda.
“It was the talk of the town that they were here searching for Al-Qaeda people,” Ismail Khan said. “We don’t have any Al-Qaeda people here in our area.”
Pakistan’s military has said it deployed the troops in Bannu for a “routine exercise,” but military operations in the deeply conservative area are anything but routine. Tribesmen in the area, which borders Afghanistan, resent the presence of foreign and Pakistani troops.
Sympathies among the tribesmen run high for the Taleban because many share the ousted militia’s harsh interpretation of Islam and its Pashtun ethnicity.
They are also suspected of sheltering fugitives from the Taleban and Al-Qaeda, a charge that was denied by tribal elders. “Those involved in terrorism or having intentions of terrorist operations will not find shelter on our soil. We will punish and fine those giving them shelter,” said Haji Mainal Khan, a 55-year-old elder from the Bakakhel tribe, most of whose members live near the airport.
Wearing a turban and sporting a graying beard, Khan said the tribe would hold a jirga, or meeting, today to try to find out who launched the attack on the airport. He said if someone from his tribe was found to be involved in the attack the perpetrator would be fined 5 million rupees and his home would be demolished.
Some tribesmen, however, said they would not deny sanctuary to Taleban or Al-Qaeda fugitives. “We are Muslims. Our doors are open for Muslims,” said Attaullah Khan, 35, an AK-47 rifle slung over his shoulder as he watched over his small grocery store in a local bazaar. “It is our duty to help a Muslim brother in time of hardship.”
