ISLAMABAD: Twenty people including three children were killed during rocket attacks by an outlawed extremist organization in Darra Adam Khail of Khyber Agency yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting between Pakistan’s security forces and militant Taleban continued in different parts of Swat yesterday. Seven people were confirmed killed, Swat Media Center said in one of its press releases.
Official forces have recovered main towns of Mingora, Matta and Chahrbagh and forced militants to retreat into surrounding hills. Authorities have imposed curfew in Swat for an indefinite period, while people were directed to remain in their homes.
Security forces backed by helicopter gunship continued to pound the suspected militants’ positions in Aligrama area. Five people were killed and three others hurt when a rocket hit houses in Ogdai area, sources further said.
Two people died over yesterday’s shelling at Takhtband, in the outskirts of Mingora city. Two others were severely wounded after a missile landed at a house in Kanju while one security officer sustained injuries due to ongoing clashes between security forces and militants in Kambar area.
A spokesman of Tehreek-e-Taleban Maulvi Omar claimed through a telephonic call to Peshawar’s newspaper offices from an unknown location that Taleban carried out an attack at a fort of Frontier Corps in Khar killing five security men.
Meanwhile, Poland condemned as “bestial” the apparent beheading of one its citizens by Pakistani militants, a killing that underscored the challenges facing a new US envoy who arrived in the region yesterday to try to stem the terror threat.
The Polish hostage, Piotr Stanczak, was abducted close to the Afghan border on Sept. 28 by armed men. On Sunday, the Taleban released to local and foreign media organizations a seven-minute video of him apparently being beheaded. A man on the film says Stanczak was killed because the Pakistan government refused to exchange him for Taleban prisoners.
If confirmed, Stanczak’s death would apparently be the first killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since US journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002.
Polish Security Services Minister Jacek Cichocki said yesterday in Poland that in his opinion “that is the Pole and the film is authentic,” adding final confirmation would have to wait until diplomatic and consular services receive the body. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said the video showed a “bestial execution” and that he would try to ensure the killers were punished.
— With input from agencies
