Army helicopters pounded mountains near the Afghan border on Sunday and troops exchanged gunfire with militants, a day after more than 50 people were killed in clashes with pro-Taliban fighters. The fighting erupted on Saturday in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. “Firing continued intermittently during the night and in the early morning,” army spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told a news conference. “There are reports of sporadic firing in the afternoon.” Sultan said 46 militants and five government troops were killed on Saturday when the militants launched a series of attacks and seized several government buildings in revenge for the killing on March 2 of 45 of their comrades. He said security forces had retaken the government buildings including the telephone exchange. “They forced the people to close shops. They were bent upon firing at the army camp at Miranshah,” he said. He said it was also possible that there were civilian casualties. 25 militants were killed in Miranshah and 21 in Mir Ali. “It could be more. I am not sure how many are foreigners,” he said.
A man identifying himself as Maulvi Abdul Ghafoor and claiming to speak for the militants told AP by satellite phone from an undisclosed location that fighters killed 55 soldiers and captured 14 others. Helicopter gunships fired rockets into mountains to the east of Miranshah on Sunday morning, but there were no reports of casualties, a resident said. Virtually all of the town’s shops were boarded up and streets and markets deserted. Hundreds of villagers fled Miranshah, carrying suitcases and bundles of clothes. Vehicles weren’t allowed in or out of the town, so people had to walk 15 kilometres to a security checkpoint, where they could find transport. “They are going to safer places,” Sultan said. “Such thing happened in South Waziristan in 2004 but later they returned.”Sultan said the violence was directly linked to Afghanistan’s insurgency. “The border is porous. Militants do keep on coming and going ... so it’s quite likely that more militants might have come from Afghanistan. So that’s our main problem,” he said, adding that Pakistan’s border areas would only be brought under control when the Afghan side was stable.
Staff report adds from Peshawar: NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman, chairing a meeting on the Miranshah situation, said the government would “respond with full might” to “provocative acts by miscreants” to ensure its writ in the tribal areas. Rehman said that the militants who attacked security forces had not only challenged the writ of the government but also attempted to disrupt the ongoing political process for a peaceful resolution to the troubles in the area. He cautioned tribesmen not to shelter foreigners.
 Built themselves a little problem with their Great Gaming, haven't they? The Paks brewed up the Taliban in Waziristan, and the ISI and fundo proxies have been conducting the war from there since they were thrown out of Kandahar. But even when the Talibs were running things in Kabul their loyalties were Pashtun loyalties, not to the Punjabis and Sindhis. Now, with the Arab and Central Asian reinforcements they've got, they're feeling their Pashtun oats at home. Perv's going to have to fight them, or he's going to see Miranshah turn into a new Kabul, complete with its own version of Brigade 55 (remember them?) strutting around. Tribal lashkars just aren't gonna cut it, and he's going to have to bump off at least the local holy man. The bit about Waziristan not settling down until the Afghans have established order in their own house was particularly rich. |