Security forces on Wednesday used explosives to destroy a building here that militants used as a hideout, a government official said. The official identified the building as the Khalifa Madrassa near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, but Inter Services Public Relations denied that the building destroyed was a madrassa, saying it would be more accurate to call it a house since there had been no classes there since October. Most of the students there were Afghans.The official said it was the third seminary to be destroyed in the last fortnight after intelligence reports indicated that militants were hiding out in madrassas in the area and using them as launching-pads for attacks on government forces. “The seminary was destroyed as part of a campaign to deprive militants of any hideout,” he said. No one was in the building at the time it was destroyed, he added.
The action has followed fierce clashes between paramilitary soldiers and pro-Taliban tribesmen that have left around 170 militants and five troops dead. The ‘madrassa’ was set up by Khalifa, an Afghan cleric who died several years ago but who was an associate of former Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, the official said. An Associated Press reporter saw paramilitary troops remove books from the building before placing dynamite inside and blowing it up.
| Wouldn't want to desecrate any Korans, of course... |
“The present uprising against the government is not only from local Taliban but tribesmen as well. There will be no end to attacks on the military until the lives of the people of Waziristan are safe,” said the man who identified himself as Tariq Jamil. He claimed the military operation in Saidgai on March 1 was conducted while peace talks between the government and militants were in progress. Forty five foreign militants were killed in that operation.