Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | October 13, 2008
THE threat of civil war intensified in Pakistan's FATA region yesterday after unprecedented violence between government-supporting tribal lashkars (armies) and militants from al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
The beheaded bodies of four tribal elders who had raised a local lashkar to fight the militants in the Bajaur region were found yesterday amid reports of tribal fighting across the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Battles erupted after a suicide bomb blast aimed at a tribal peace jirga (council) in the relatively peaceful Orakzai Tribal Agency. More than 80 elders were killed and 165 injured when militants drove an explosives-laden truck into the meeting.
The clashes coincided with reports that the Pakistan army - already involved in a huge military offensive centred on Bajaur - was mobilising tens of thousands of troops to attack militants in the North Waziristan Agency, believed to be the base for many of al-Qa'ida's leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
The Pakistan army is convinced that it has displaced al-Qa'ida leaders from Bajaur and that they have fled to North Waziristan. The army had been mobilised, a leading commentator reported last night.
Earlier, a US drone missile attack missed its targets - al-Qa'ida and Taliban leaders meeting in North Waziristan - but killed nine people, including six Arabs.
"There was a meeting of around 30 foreign al-Qa'ida and local Taliban commanders in a house, but the majority of them left the building 10 minutes before the missile attack," a senior security official said yesterday.
Officials in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province, told The Australian that "fighting between the lashkars and the al-Qa'ida and Taliban people is now going on more fiercely than ever before. Many people are being killed."
The violence reportedly forced one of the most senior members of Pakistan's Government to flee to London following a failed attempt on his life by a suicide bomber.
Asfandyar Wali Khan is leader of the Awami National Party, the dominant party in the NWFP and a member of the ruling national coalition. The Pashtoon tribesman lives near Peshawar.
The jihadi militancy has reached into what were known as "settled areas" such as Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
Meanwhile, the tough task for Pakistan's security forces was highlighted as new details emerged of last week's suicide bomb attack on the headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist Squad in Islamabad, when two bombers pierced the heart of the building.
It was disclosed that the bomb, in a car that entered the compound, was carried in a gift package of sweets sent to a leading member of the ATS by a commander of Jaish-i-Islami Pakistan, one of the militant groups.
Notified in advance that the gift would arrive, an officer in the building is said to have told guards on the gate to permit its delivery.
After the bomb went off, a note that accompanied the package was found. It read: "If Pakistan does not separate itself from the American crusade on Muslims, these sorts of attacks shall continue."
THE threat of civil war intensified in Pakistan's FATA region yesterday after unprecedented violence between government-supporting tribal lashkars (armies) and militants from al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
The beheaded bodies of four tribal elders who had raised a local lashkar to fight the militants in the Bajaur region were found yesterday amid reports of tribal fighting across the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Battles erupted after a suicide bomb blast aimed at a tribal peace jirga (council) in the relatively peaceful Orakzai Tribal Agency. More than 80 elders were killed and 165 injured when militants drove an explosives-laden truck into the meeting.
The clashes coincided with reports that the Pakistan army - already involved in a huge military offensive centred on Bajaur - was mobilising tens of thousands of troops to attack militants in the North Waziristan Agency, believed to be the base for many of al-Qa'ida's leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
The Pakistan army is convinced that it has displaced al-Qa'ida leaders from Bajaur and that they have fled to North Waziristan. The army had been mobilised, a leading commentator reported last night.
Earlier, a US drone missile attack missed its targets - al-Qa'ida and Taliban leaders meeting in North Waziristan - but killed nine people, including six Arabs.
"There was a meeting of around 30 foreign al-Qa'ida and local Taliban commanders in a house, but the majority of them left the building 10 minutes before the missile attack," a senior security official said yesterday.
Officials in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province, told The Australian that "fighting between the lashkars and the al-Qa'ida and Taliban people is now going on more fiercely than ever before. Many people are being killed."
The violence reportedly forced one of the most senior members of Pakistan's Government to flee to London following a failed attempt on his life by a suicide bomber.
Asfandyar Wali Khan is leader of the Awami National Party, the dominant party in the NWFP and a member of the ruling national coalition. The Pashtoon tribesman lives near Peshawar.
The jihadi militancy has reached into what were known as "settled areas" such as Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
Meanwhile, the tough task for Pakistan's security forces was highlighted as new details emerged of last week's suicide bomb attack on the headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist Squad in Islamabad, when two bombers pierced the heart of the building.
It was disclosed that the bomb, in a car that entered the compound, was carried in a gift package of sweets sent to a leading member of the ATS by a commander of Jaish-i-Islami Pakistan, one of the militant groups.
Notified in advance that the gift would arrive, an officer in the building is said to have told guards on the gate to permit its delivery.
After the bomb went off, a note that accompanied the package was found. It read: "If Pakistan does not separate itself from the American crusade on Muslims, these sorts of attacks shall continue."
Source: The Australian
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