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| India-Pakistan |
| More fighting in North Waziristan |
| 2006-04-06 |
| Pakistani security forces and Pakistani opposition fighters battled for a second day yesterday near the Afghan border, leaving four soldiers and 16 fighters dead. Another 19 militants were captured in the fighting in the North Waziristan tribal region, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said. Eight militants were killed on Tuesday night after troops retaliated to a rocket attack by the fighters on a military base, and the eight others died in the ensuing fighting with security forces yesterday, he said. The fighting — that follows a spree of bloody clashes between pro-Taleban tribesmen and Pakistani troops in recent weeks — erupted after a rocket attack late Tuesday on a military base in Mana, a village about 50 km west of the main town of Miranshah, that left at least two soldiers dead. Two more soldiers were killed in fighting yesterday. Helicopter gunships backed ground troops in yesterday’s fighting that had ended by late afternoon, Sultan said. He refused to identify the militants who surrendered or give their nationalities, adding that troops have the bodies of eight of those who were killed in the clashes yesterday. The latest clashes came as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited the United States and US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher made his first visit to Pakistan. Asked to comment on a perception that Pakistan often launches crackdowns against militants when a senior US official is visiting here or a Pakistani leader travels to the United States, Sultan said: “Did we ask them to attack (the troops) last night?” The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Boucher told Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that Washington wanted a lasting strategic relationship with Islamabad. Musharraf briefed Boucher on Pakistan’s economic growth and said its expanding energy needs would be met through a variety of sources including nuclear power, the statement said. Pakistan responded to last month’s US civilian nuclear deal with India by demanding equal treatment. The official statement did not say whether Musharraf raised the issue with Boucher. However, Boucher told a news conference later that the India-US nuclear deal came up during discussions with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri. “We are not oblivious to the effects of what we are doing. We don’t do similar things that we do with Pakistan and India,” he said. “The question is, are we meeting the needs of Pakistan, its aspirations for economic growth and education assistance, helping toward building a secure society?” |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |