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'36 tribal elders orchestrating rocket attacks'
 Thirty-six tribal elders have been accused of orchestrating deadly rocket attacks against natural gas facilities in southwestern Pakistan that disrupted supplies to millions of people, police said. At least eight people, including three soldiers, were killed during the January 7-11 attacks, in which renegade tribesmen were suspected of firing hundreds of rockets, damaging a gas plant and pipeline at Sui in Balochistan province. Tribesmen on Thursday claimed the government had deployed tanks and army troops that were searching house-to-house in Sui.An intelligence official in Quetta said troops rounded up dozens of tribesmen for questioning and seized weapons during the search, but the account could not be independently confirmed. Phone lines to the town were not operating and no government official was available for comment. Khalid Dogar, a senior police officer in the area, said police filed a case against 36 tribal elders, after the head of security at the state-run Sui Southern Gas company accused them of ordering the attacks on the company's facilities and inciting people against the state. The elders include a son and grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the head of the Bugti tribe that dominates the area where the gas field — Pakistan's main source of natural gas — is located. Posted by: Fred 2005-01-22 |
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