The political administration on Thursday served notice to Mehsud tribesmen to launch house-to-house searches to track down militant Abdullah Mehsud, the mastermind behind the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers. The Mehsud tribesmen sought time to persuade the local population to start the search operation.
"Oh, yeah? How long will you need?"
"About 12 years!" |
They said many tribesmen had shifted to safer places to escape the crossfire between the army and militants and the search operation would be difficult without their permission. However, the administration refused to give them much time and convened a Mehsud jirga for today (Friday) to discuss the search operation. Meanwhile, army helicopter gunships pounded a suspected hideout of Abdullah's a short time before sunset after the shooting between the army and militants had stopped temporarily on Thursday afternoon, security officials said. Military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan neither denied nor confirmed the attack, saying "engagements" took place at short intervals. A gas station caught fire in the attack, sources in Jandola told Daily Times.
"We're almost out of gas, Mahmoud!"
"Let's stop up here, Fatimah... Whoa! I think we can make it a little further!" |
"The attack happened at around 4:00pm," they added. A military source confirmed that the firing had temporarily stopped in the afternoon to let a jirga recover bodies from the area. "Logically speaking, the shooting must stop before the political administration-backed jirga goes in to negotiate with tribal elders," he added. A Mehsud elder in Tank said the jirga recovered three bodies. "One was of a soldier while three were civilians," he said. | (counting on fingers) "One, two, three, four.....three, that's three bodies." |
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