KHAR, Pakistan: Pakistani forces have trained gunfire and dropped bombs on Islamic militants in and around the main town of a tribal region next to the Afghan border, forcing thousands of residents to flee, witnesses said yesterday.
Witnesses and local media reported that thousands of people were fleeing their villages in search of safer areas, with many heading north into the Dir region.
At least 13 people have been killed in recent bombardments, area residents said. An Associated Press reporter in Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal region, said he could hear bursts of gunfire yesterday. Few people were moving in the streets, as security forces continued to attack militants staking out positions.
Taleban militants attacked two Pakistani security posts in the tribal area bordering Afghanistan yesterday, sparking fierce clashes in which 20 rebels were killed, officials said. The attacks followed a week of the most intense clashes ever seen in the troubled Bajaur tribal region, and came as Al-Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman Al-Zawahri, issued a call for jihad in Pakistan.
Bajaur is a known haunt of Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants hostile to the US-backed governments in Islamabad and Kabul. Zawahri escaped a major US missile strike in the region in 2006. “The Taleban launched a big attack on Tor Ghundi fort and Iskandro post. Security forces responded and 20 militants were killed,” a paramilitary official told AFP.
Violence has intensified across Pakistan’s northwest after a lull that followed an election in February when a coalition government led by the party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto came to power seeking to negotiate peace. So far, officials have said at least 100 militants and nine paramilitary troops have died in clashes that began last week in Bajur. Witnesses on Sunday and yesterday said aerial bombardments killed at least 13 people, but it was unclear who all the victims were.
The US has urged Pakistan to crack down on insurgents in the thinly governed tribal belt along the frontier, which is considered a haven for militants attacking government and NATO troops in Afghanistan. The new government has instead sought to strike peace deals with Pakistani insurgent groups, though with little obvious success.
Details of the fighting in Bajur have been sketchy, with few officials responding to calls and conflicting claims emerging on casualties. So far, officials have said at least 100 militants and nine paramilitary troops have died in clashes that began last week in Bajur. At least one person died when a bomb fell on a hard-line seminary in the Mamund area, witness Shireen Jan said.
Witnesses said bombs also struck the house of a relative of Faqir Mohammed — a top Taleban leader — in Tang Khata, a village 10 km outside Khar. Pakistani media also reported that houses linked to Mohammad were targeted.
