QUETTA, 26 December 2004 — Unknown attackers ambushed the mobile convoy of Frontier Corpse (FC) in tehsil Balida of district Turbat yesterday, killing four soldiers and wounding several.
Spokesman for FC Balochistan said that the convoy had been patrolling in Naag Nullah area, some 30 km west of Balida, when they were attacked. Attackers managed to flee from the scene. Four soldiers were killed and several wounded in the attack. Wounded were shifted to CMH Quetta.
Investigations are underway in Balida and Naag Nullah, the spokesman added.
Meanwhile a terrific explosion at a shop of spices located at Mannan Gate in Bannu district killed one person wounded seven yesterday.
According to details, the shop with full of customers was completely destroyed by the explosion. The wounded were shifted to civil hospital, Bannu. The cause of explosion could not be known immediately.
Meanwhile Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested two Afghan men suspected of being members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, intelligence sources said.
Wahid Khan and Shamshad Khan were arrested in a raid late Friday. Agents recovered 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,700), two laptops and several weapons.
Late Thursday, Lahore police arrested three other suspected Al-Qaeda members following the discovery of a weapons cache in a taxi.
According to police, the men were to hand over the weapons to terrorists.
The three men were arrested in what police called a routine check of public transport.
Meanwhile Six Pashto-speaking foreigners, apparently Afghans, were arrested in suspicious circumstances in Makeen area in South Waziristan tribal agency on Friday night.
Ahmad Shah Mahsud, president of the Amn Committee, Makeen which assisted the troops in apprehending the six unarmed men from Makeen said that the suspects were caught in a dry stream near the town’s bazaar. He said the men were carrying food, spoke Pashto and weren’t known to local people.
Officials in Makeen, Wana and Peshawar said the six men were being interrogated to find out more about them. Col. Zahid of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the arrested men were non-Pakistanis. When asked if they were Afghans, he said they spoke Pashto and could be Afghans. However, he added that things would become clearer once they were investigated.
Tribal sources and the Amn Committee, Makeen President Ahmad Shah Mahsud said two other men managed to escape when Pakistan Army and paramilitary Frontier Corps troops along with local tribesmen tried to arrest all the eight men they had surrounded in the dry streambed. They said the troops later laid siege to a village where the two men had run away. However, they had not been caught until nightfall.
Those caught were reportedly carrying biscuits, cakes and dates. There was also speculation that the six arrested men may be carrying food items for foreign militants holed up in the area. Ahmad Shah Mahsud said his Amn Committee had actively supported the troops in fighting and tracking down the foreign and local militants and would continue to do so in future. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to cleanse our area of foreign terrorists and their local collaborators,” he declared.
Ahmad Shah Mahsud’s brother was killed and son wounded in a remote-controlled bomb explosion outside his home in Makeen some months ago. The explosion caused by the improvised explosive device (IED) had targeted him but he survived the attack.
