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Month/Date
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Incidents
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January 14
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Two girls and a woman belonging
to the same family died when they stepped on an explosive device
in the Matta area of Swat district in the North West Frontier
Province (NWFP). Eye-witnesses said that the victims - Nimro,
16, her sister Jan Bibi, 5, and Fahmeeda, wife of Gul Hameed –
were cutting grass in the fields when the explosive device went
off, killing them on the spot.
A bomb exploded at an Afghan refugee
camp in the Nowshera district of NWFP, killing four people and
injuring five others. Eyewitnesses and officials said that the
explosion at around 11 p.m. blew up the house of a prayer leader,
Maulvi Masoodullah, killing his brother Ismail and three guests.
However, officials put the death toll at two. Masoodullah was
reportedly arrested later.
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January 25
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One person is killed and six others
sustained injuries in a car bomb attack at Hangu in the NWFP.
However, AFP reported that two men are killed in the attack
and as many are injured. "At the moment, it appears to be a suicide
attack," Station House Officer of Hangu Police Saeed Khan told
reporters. Saeed said the dead man is identified as Hayat, an
Afghan refugee who is living in the Katakarni camp in Hangu. Deputy
Inspector General of Kohat Police Salahuddin told reporters that
police had arrested three men in connection with the attack– one
in Kohat and the others in Peshawar.
Suspected militants ambushed a
police vehicle and killed one police personnel and injured another
in the Tank town of NWFP, adjoining South Waziristan.
Suspected militants ambushed a
police vehicle and killed one police personnel and injured another
in the Tank town of NWFP, adjoining South Waziristan.
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January 27
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15 people, including six police
officials, were killed and 60 others injured in a suicide attack
targeting a Muharram procession near Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in
the Dilgaran area of Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar, capital
of NWFP. Peshawar police commissioner Mallik Muhammad Saad, a
Deputy Superintendent of Police, three other police personnel
and a Nazim (local official) were among those killed in
the blast. Superintendent of Peshawar Police, Zaibullah, said
that an unidentified bomber detonated explosives strapped to his
body when police stopped him from entering the procession, which
was to be taken out from Qasim Ali Khan Mosque. A senior security
official said the two severed legs of the suspected bomber had
been recovered from the site. The blast also caused a power outage
that left the city centre in darkness, complicating rescue efforts.
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January 30
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Two people died in a town in NWFP,
where a pre-dawn rocket attack on a Shiite Muslim procession sparked
a burst of sectarian violence. Army personnel were sent into Hangu,
100 kilometres south of Peshawar, capital of NWFP, to restore
order after the rocket landed near police protecting the procession
to mark the holy festival of Muharram. The two fatalities were
from the Sunni community, said Mayor Ghani ur-Rahman. However,
it was not immediately clear if the men are killed by the rocket
or during the brief clashes between Sunnis and Shiites that followed.
Nineteen people were reported injured.
A curfew is imposed in Hangu after
a mortar is fired at a Shia procession and shooting broke out.
The two people killed are reportedly Afghan refugees who were
not taking part in the procession
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January 31
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Two people are killed in a shooting
incident at an unauthorised procession of Muharram in the
under-curfew town of Hangu, adding to two deaths in a mortar attack
on a Shia procession the day before.
A police personnel who was injured
in a suicide blast in Peshawar succumbed to his injuries, bringing
the total number of police personnel killed in the incident to
seven.
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February 10
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A blast at the office of the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Peshawar at around 4:30am
damaged four vehicles and some property, but nobody was injured
as the office was closed. The US advised American citizens to
avoid crowded markets and public demonstrations in Peshawar, following
the blast at the ICRC. "Americans are advised against visiting
Peshawar’s Old City and Sadar Bazaar, and restrict movement throughout
the city, staying mainly in the University Town area," read
a notice issued by the US Embassy in Islamabad.
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February 11
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A non-governmental organisation’s
office in the main bazaar of Darra Adam Khel in NWFP is badly
damaged in a bomb blast. Muhammad Faisal Afridi, chief executive
of the NGO working against the spread of drugs and to rehabilitate
drug addicts, said the blast occurred around 11:15pm. Over the
last week, the offices of two international NGOs – Save the Children
in Battagram and the International Committee of the Red Cross
in Peshawar – have been attacked in NWFP.
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February 14
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In a suspected sectarian incident,
two unidentified gunmen killed Shia leader Jawad Hussain in the
Dera Ismail Khan city of NWFP. Hussain was a local leader of the
Shia group Tehrik Nifaz Fiqa-i-Jafria (TNFJ). Maqbool Hussain,
brother of the deceased, registered an FIR at the City Police
Station, stating that he had been receiving threats for a couple
of days.
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February 15
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The Government has decided to
repatriate all Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan by 2009. This
was announced at a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Cabinet Committee
held in Islamabad on February 15. The committee – headed by Interior
Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao –devised a strategy to send
all Afghan refugees back to their homeland in three years, from
2007 to 2009. Under the strategy, four camps of Afghan refugees
located in Balochistan and the NWFP will be removed in the ongoing
year. In the first phase, two of them -- one in each province
-- will be dismantled in March. According to official figures,
approximately 2.4 million Afghans are living in Pakistan – one
million in camps and 1.4 million in the urban areas. Since 2002,
about 2.8 million Afghan refugees have reportedly been repatriated
to their homeland.
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February 16
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A bomb blast occurred at the main
market of Tank district. However, no loss of life or injuries
is reported. According to police sources, unknown assailants had
planted the homemade bomb near the house of Akhter Nawaz, a resident
of the area. The blast slightly damaged Nawaz’s house, but there
are no casualties.
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February 20
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A tribal elder is shot dead in
the Tank district. Police said armed men intruded into the house
of Malik Karim Khan in the Totkai locality of Tank and shot him
dead.
Armed men reportedly snatched
an official vehicle from an employee of the Tribal Electric Supply
Company near Tank.
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February 23
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At least five private English
medium schools providing co-education remained closed in Peshawar,
capital of NWFP after security agencies advised their management
to make security arrangements for themselves. The institutions
are reportedly in the grip of rumours that suicide bombers may
target private schools that provide co-education.
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February 27
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A militant is killed and his accomplice
wounded during a clash with police at Tank after a gang took away
the city’s fire engine from Wazirabad locality. Witnesses said
three police personnel are injured when the militants hurled a
hand grenade on them.
A police station is partially
damaged in a rocket attack at Bannu. However, no casualties are
reported. "The Mandan police station is attacked the night between
Sunday and Monday," said police officials.
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March 1
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A madrassa (seminary) teacher, identified as Akhtar
Usmani, is killed by suspected Taliban
militants for allegedly spying for the United States and his beheaded
body is found in Jandola - a town in Tank, near the border of
South Waziristan. Tribal officials aid that the slain teacher
had also made recordings of anti-Taliban speeches. Urdu word 'munafiq'
(hypocrite) is scrawled across his forehead.
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March 9
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Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed
a Shia businessman, Anwar Ali Shah, at Dera Ismail Khan.
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March 10
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Unidentified assailants shot dead
a retired Shia soldier in Dera Ismail Khan and a government employee
from the community in the same region. Local police officer Aslam
Khattak said, "The murders appear to be sectarian terrorism".
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March 13
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Gunmen shot dead two persons,
a Shia and a Sunni, in the Dera Ismail Khan Town, raising the
toll from sectarian violence in the town in the last week to seven.
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March 12
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Suspected Sunni militants shot dead a Shia man,
identified as Syed Arshad Abbas, in Dera Ismail Khan city of the
NWFP.
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March 13
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Gunmen on a motorcycle killed
Maulana Farooq Ahmed, a Sunni cleric, in the same city, said local
police officials. Ahmed was a member of the outlawed SSP.
Gunmen injured Hafiz Ishaq, another
SSP activist.
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March 16
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The NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad
Jan Orakzai said that continued hostilities between two religious
groups in Bara had threatened peace and were hampering development
projects in the Khyber Agency. According to an official statement,
Orakzai was talking to a jirga of Afridi tribe elders, who called
on him at the Governor’s House to apprise him of progress made,
so far, in resolving the dispute between the two religious factions
in the Bara subdivision. He said numerous innocent people had
lost their lives in the ongoing conflict, warning that the political
administration could not allow such a tense situation to persist
any longer, as it was bringing a bad name to the Afridi tribe
and the political administration.
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March 18
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Unidentified men gunned down a
watchman and blew up four video CD shops in Bukshali Bazaar in
Mardan in the NWFP.
Two people were injured in an
explosion in Bhana Marhi Police precincts in NWFP.
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March 19
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Militants shot dead a traffic
policeman at a bazaar in Tank. The shooting appeared to be linked
to a string of attacks on Policemen by suspected pro-Taliban militants
in the region since January.
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March 22
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After Dir and Bajaur, barbers
in Mardan in the NWFP have also received letters from a purported
jihadi outfit to stop shaving beards.
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March 23
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Unidentified insurgents blew up
an electricity tower in Mohmand Agency in the NWFP. Unidentified
miscreants had sabotaged some towers in November 2006. The MRM
has been blamed for previous sabotages of electricity towers and
Government officials have accused the organisation for this recent
subversive activity. However, the MRM has denied involvement in
this incident, saying that the administration was making false
allegations against the organisation to foil its March 26 strike.
The MRM demanded that 25 villages, which were part of the agency
and later included in the settles areas, be re-included in the
agency.
Suspected militants have now started
sending threatening letters to owners of internet cafés
and video centres and principals of Government and private schools
in Charsadda, following similar incidents in other areas. The
letters warn, "Do away with un-Islamic practices, otherwise you
will have to face dire consequences." It was written in the notes
that all video centres and Internet cafes must be closed between
March 23 and April 23. According to the letters, female students
should start wearing veils or "face dire consequences".
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March 24
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The NWFP can only be renamed through
a referendum, Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination
Salim Saifullah Khan said in a statement.
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March 26
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A police officer and two attackers
were killed, while 13 others, including three paramilitary soldiers
and a constable, were wounded when suspected militants attacked
a police station, an armoured personnel carrier and FC fort with
hand grenades in Tank city of NWFP, Police and residents said.
Suspected militants hurled a hand
grenade on an armoured personnel carrier in Darwaza Bazaar, wounding
three FC personnel — Mohammad Sharif, Lance Naik Wali Mohammad
and Sepoy Abdul Haleem — and six civilians — Mohabat Khan, Saifur
Rehman, Imran, Baz Khan, Maqsud Ali and Hikmat Shah.
Four people, including president
of the NWFP Olympic Association and former Senator Syed Aqil Shah,
were injured when a bomb went off outside a bank on the Saddar
Road.
Militants on a pick-up coming
from the Wana side attacked the FC fort with a hand grenade. FC
personnel opened fire on the vehicle, which sped away, leaving
one wounded attacker, Mohammad Alam Mahsud. A short while later,
the militants in the same truck hurled a hand grenade at the Saddar
police station, wounding two passers-by, Akbar Hussain and Aziz
Barki.
Sources said that a few days ago
militants had picked up a group of more than 20 students from
a government high school and some private schools and shifted
them to an unknown location for training.
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March 27
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Insurgents detonated dynamite
in an open field near the ICRC’s office, which was bombed on February
10, in the Pishtakhara area of Peshawar failing to cause any casualties.
Troops retaliated as militants
fired eight rockets at a paramilitary fort in Tank.
Taliban militants abducted the
principal of a school, Farid Mehsud. He had called for police
protection after the Taliban visited his school in a bid to recruit
youth for jihad.
An all-tribes Jirga (tribal
council) of Tank district has decided to meet pro-Taliban militant
leader Baitullah Mehsud to seek his help in bringing normalcy
to the district, bordering South Waziristan. Senator Saleh Shah
of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal said that representatives of all
tribes in the district would meet Mehsud on March 28 with a "peace
message".
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March 28
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At least 25 Taliban militants
and a paramilitary soldier were killed in a gun battle that continued
for six-hours in the Tank town. Tank District Police Officer Mumtaz
Zarin said that security forces killed at least 25 militants when
more than 200 Taliban cadres attacked the city from all sides.
A police source said that two police stations, a paramilitary
fort and bank branches were damaged in the Taliban attack.
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March 29
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Taliban militants seeking to impose
Islamic law blew up two video shops and torched a cable television
operator’s office in Kohat.
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March 30
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Taliban militants freed the principal
of a high school who was abducted four days ago for stopping the
rebels recruiting his students, said his family. Farid Mehsud,
the principal of the Oxford Public School in Tank, and his brother
Humayun were abducted by about a dozen gunmen from his house on
March 27.
Security agencies will launch
a house-to-house search operation within the next 24 hours to
collect illegal weapons in Tank, said a spokesman. Deputy Inspector
General of Police, Zulfiqar Ahmed Cheema, said security forces
(SFs) would launch an operation if residents did not hand over
illegal weapons voluntarily.
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April 5
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A bomb exploded near the City
District Women Degree College in the Hashnagri region on the Grand
Trunk Road in Peshawar. Police said that the blast occurred at
7:15 pm but nobody was hurt, adding that the explosive weighing
1.5 kg had been planted in an empty plot. However, AFP reported
that two passers-by were wounded.
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April 6
|
An explosion at the Peshawar bus
terminal in the Gulbahar area damaged a Quetta-bound vehicle.
Unidentified assailants exploded
two bombs at the site of a mela (fair) scheduled for April 7 (today)
in Dera Ismail Khan. The blast damaged the site of the mela. "The
assailants also left pamphlets calling the mela an un-Islamic
activity, and warned the people to stay way or face such blasts,"
said Police.
A blast in the Bahzadi Chakkarkot
area of Kohat on damaged a music shop. Police said two men planted
a bomb at a music centre in Bangesh Plaza and they had been arrested.
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April 8
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Four paramilitary soldiers were
injured in two separate bomb attacks at Tank and Bannu in the
NWFP. Local police official Abdullah informed that the bomb attacks
had been remote-controlled and that the soldiers had been targeted
from the nearby mountains. Sources added that unidentified men
also snatched a government vehicle with record of development
schemes from local government assistant director Akhtar Munir
near the Chakmalai area in Tank.
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April 9
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A barber’s shop at Darra Adam
Khel was blown up after Taliban militants had warned barbers not
to shave men’s beards because it was "un-Islamic". However, no
loss of life or injuries was reported in the blast which occurred
at the shop in Akhorwal Market. Pro-Taliban militants have reportedly
been distributing pamphlets in towns of the NWFP and the tribal
areas, warning barbers against shaving beards.
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April 10
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Two children sustained injuries
in a rocket attack on a residential area in the Bannu city. Officials
said that two rockets were fired from an unknown location which
hit the house of one Mohammad Ashfaq in the Kastuddin Street.
The explosion partially damaged the house and wounded two children.
District Police Officer Mazharul Haq while confirming the rocket
attack also disclosed that police had seized seven rocket launchers,
four bombs and ammunition from a truck on the same day.
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April 16
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Three children were killed and
four other people, including two women, were wounded when a hand
grenade exploded inside a house in the Badhbare village in the
outskirts of Peshawar.
An official of the Khasadaar Force
(a local security force), Iran Gul, was shot dead and two others
wounded by two suspected militants on the Kohat-Peshawar road.
Militants had reportedly issued warnings to Iran Gul and others
10 days ago to stop taking action against them and not to monitor
their activities. Militants had given them April 10 as deadline
and warned them of dreadful consequences if they did not stop
action against militants.
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April 17
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NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani
said no seminary in the province and the tribal areas was involved
in terrorism, adding that some "secret forces" were creating law
and order problems to bring a bad name to the provincial government.
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April 20
|
A rocket was fired at the residential
compound of JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman at Dera Ismail Khan.
The rocket created a hole in the outer wall of the compound but
did not cause much damage.
The Taliban have threatened to
launch an attack on Bannu city in the NWFP if the local police
do not release seven of their associates. According to posters
displayed by Taliban throughout the city, Bannu police have been
warned to either release their activists, or prepare for severe
consequences. Bannu police reportedly arrested seven Taliban activists,
including ‘commander’ Fazal Karim, a week ago for forcefully preventing
people from beating drums during a marriage ceremony.
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April 21
|
Three video and music shops were
blown up in a bomb blast at the Gulzada Market in Swabi, about
100 kilometres northeast of Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Islamist
extremists who claim music and movies are un-Islamic have described
the shopping complex as the "Hell market" and some shopkeepers
have received warning letters in the past.
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April 23
|
In the Upper Dir district, a salon
and a music shop were blown up in the Wari Bazaar. Traders and
shopkeepers in Wari reportedly took out a procession in protest
against the worsening law and order situation in the area and
declared the blasts a terrorist activity. Barbers and music shop
owners in Upper and Lower Dir had received threatening letters
in March 2007.
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April 24
|
Two barber shops were blown up
and four adjacent shops damaged when two bombs exploded at Ahmad
market in Kumbar, the native village of Maulana Sufi Mohammad,
leader of the banned Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, in
the Maidan area of NWFP.
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April 25
|
Unidentified militants shot dead
three people in a targeted sectarian attack in the Dera Ismail
Khan district. The assailants fired from a Kalashnikov rifle on
a vehicle in which two brothers from a prominent Shia family,
Najaf Ali Shah and Syed Ali Shah, and their Sunni employee were
travelling. An unnamed official of the NWFP government is reported
to have blamed the attack on the banned Sunni group SSP and urged
Shias to remain peaceful.
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April 26
|
Following the killing of two more
persons in sectarian violence, the administration imposed a curfew
in the Dera Ismail Khan district. Police said two motorcycle borne
unidentified gunmen opened fire on two people sitting outside
a shop, killing them on the spot in the cantonment area.
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April 28
|
31 people, including five police
personnel, were killed and Federal Interior Minister Sherpao and
his young son Sikandar Sherpao Khan were among several people
wounded in a suicide attack, moments after the minister finished
a speech at a public rally in his hometown Charsadda in the North
West Frontier Province (NWFP). The head of the suicide bomber,
who had a brown beard and was aged between 30 and 35 years, was
found at the site of the blast near Station Koroona in Charsadda,
and "he looks like an Afghan," NWFP Inspector General of Police
Sharif Virk told reporters.
A bomb exploded at the Peshawar
International Airport canteen causing minor damage to the building.
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April 29
|
Investigators said Russian-made
explosive material had been used in the attack on a public meeting
addressed by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. Charsadda
district police officer Feroz Shah said that high-intensity MVU
type explosive had been used in the bomb. Assistant Inspector
General of Police Fiaz Ahmad Khan Toru said preliminary findings
had revealed that the suspect bomber appeared to be from a hilly
area, but it could not be said with certainty if he was an Afghan
or Uzbek.
Two employees of the Barani Area
Development Project of the NWFP government were wounded during
a bomb blast at their office in Kohistan. Local clerics had reportedly
delivered sermons during Friday prayers urging "the faithful"
to attack offices of NGOs who inducted women staff for their project
activities in the remote district. The clerics asked the people
to restrict the entry of female staff of NGOs into their houses,
saying these women were urging local women to go for family planning
against their husbands’ will, which was a sin. Sources added that
two partner NGOs of the BADP had inducted four female employees
for their health and education projects but the local clerics
objected to this and asked them to expel the women.
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May 4
|
Suspected militants targeted music shops with
explosive devices, damaging around 20 outlets in two different
places in NWFP. No group has claimed responsibility for the two
blasts but letters from suspected Taliban have warned local shopkeepers
against continuing their businesses.
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May 5
|
Two unidentified gunmen killed a Shia man, identified
as Imdad Hussain, at Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP, days after
a weeklong curfew was lifted.
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May 9
|
Video and music shopkeepers in
Mardan district have reportedly sought protection from the government
after two bombs exploded in the video market in the Parhuti area
of Mardan at 1am, destroying 15 shops. The shopkeepers had been
warned in an anonymous letter 20 days ago to wind up their businesses.
In Charsadda, unidentified men
blew up two music shops at Mir Abad in the Umerzai police precincts.
The unidentified men hurled explosives at two CD shops owned by
Kashif and Amjad Ali of Qando Kali at around 00:45am.
Unidentified people blew up a
hair-cutting saloon at Lal Qila in the Maidan area of Lower Dir
district. Barbers in both the Lower and Upper Dir districts had
been reportedly receiving pamphlets from unknown miscreants asking
them to stop shaving off beard or else face destruction of their
shops.
Two motorcyclists abandoned their
vehicle near a police picket in Tangi and escaped. The police
later found a locally-manufactured bomb when they searched the
motorcycle.
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May 13
|
Police resorted to baton-charge
and fired teargas shells to disperse protesting activists of the
proscribed TNSM in the Kabal area of Mingora in the NWFP. At least
25 of the group’s activists were arrested and an unspecified number
of police personnel and other people were injured in the clashes.
The activists had reportedly gathered at the Kabal ground to demand
release of their associates arrested during the last couple of
days.
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May 14
|
A 24-hour curfew was clamped in
the Tank town of NWFP after a paramilitary soldier and a civilian
were killed and 10 people sustained injuries in a series of grenade
and rocket attacks on SF personnel and exchange of fire between
militants and SFs.
A shutter-down strike was observed
across the NWFP, particularly in the Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat,
Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Swat districts, while there was partial
support for the strike in Swabi district during a strike called
by opposition parties and lawyers’ bodies in protest against the
violence in Karachi.
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May 15
|
25 people were killed and at least
35 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up on the
ground floor of the Marhaba Hotel in Peshawar, capital of the
NWFP. Most of those killed were Afghans, including the restaurant’s
owner Sadruddin and his two sons, two women and a five year-old
child. Witnesses and police said that restaurant owner Sadruddin
was an Uzbek of Afghan origin and he was a supporter of former
Uzbek warlord Abdur Rashid Dostum. The NWFP Law Minister Malik
Zafar Azam told reporters that it was a suicide attack. Azam said
it would be premature to say who was behind the suicide attack,
"but it may be a reaction to Taliban military commander Mullah
Dadullah’s killing two days ago in Afghanistan."
Militants attacked a police post
in the Tank city where authorities imposed a curfew after clashes
between militants and security forces on May 14.
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May 16
|
Six people were killed and 15
others, including four police personnel, were injured in clashes
between SF personnel and Islamic militants in the Tank city. According
to witnesses, a rocket fired by the militants landed in the Rizwan
Grain market of the city on Tank-Dera road, killing five civilians,
including two brothers. Clashes in different parts of the city
occurred for more than two hours and both sides used rockets and
light cannons, causing collateral damage to bazaars and residential
areas, residents said.
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May 17
|
Police at Bannu arrested three
men suspected of being members of the Taliban and recovered some
explosives from their possession at the GTS Chowk.
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May 18
|
Christians at Charsadda have been
warned by some unidentified elements through chalking on a wall
of the Church to convert to Islam or leave the area, otherwise
get ready for serious consequences.
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May 19
|
Police in the Bannu district seized
three jackets intended for use in suicide attacks from a Lahore-bound
bus. Police checked the bus on a tip off, and found the jackets
packed in luggage belonging to Islamic preachers. Each jacket
contains six rocket shells filled with plastic explosives.
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May 21
|
Four shops were damaged when a
bomb exploded in a market near the house of federal Interior Minister
Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, in the Sherpao area of Charsadda district.
Police arrested a suspect, Mohammed Saeed, a student of a local
seminary, near the blast site.
Ten oil tankers waiting to cross
the Pakistan-Afghanistan to take supplies for US-led coalition
troops in Afghanistan were burnt in a fire sparked by two rockets
fired at a parking lot near the border town of Torkham. The owners,
the drivers and the area residents managed to save the remaining
10 oil tankers. Each oil tanker reportedly contained 40,000 litres
of oil. The authorities later defused three more rockets from
a nearby mound. According to Shakir Afridi, president of the Truckers’
Association, said that 22 oil tankers and containers had been
destroyed and damaged during the last one-and-a-half months in
different parts of the NWFP but no steps had been taken by the
government to provide security to the transporters. He informed
that oil tankers have been attacked and damaged in Peshawar, Kohat
and Khyber Agency.
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May 21
|
Suspected militants blew up a
music shop in a grenade attack in Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed
Khan Sherpao’s village. A dental clinic and a computer business
were also damaged in the blast. Two militants on a bicycle lobbed
a hand grenade into the Wahab Music Centre at Sherpao village
and later fled. However, one of them was subsequently arrested.
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May 22
|
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal led
NWFP government struck a nine-point peace agreement with an Islamist
cleric who has led a campaign through an unlicensed radio station
against polio vaccinations and education for girls in the Swat
district. In exchange for allowing the FM radio station to continue
broadcasts, Maulana Fazlullah of the outlawed TNSM agreed to now
support the polio vaccination campaign and education for girls,
as well as government efforts to establish law and order. He also
agreed to wrap up all training facilities for militants and making
of weapons, and support the district administration in any operation
against anti-state elements.
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May 23
|
Suspected militants abducted three
government officials, including a Military Intelligence (MI) agent,
from Bannu, the hometown of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani.
MI agent Hasan Zeb, Christian Hospital contractor Younas Masih
and driver Akhtar Niaz were abducted on the Bannu-Kohat highway
near Dumal at 6:00am.
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May 24
|
Unidentified men fired seven rockets
at a paramilitary fort in Tank city in an overnight attack. No
casualties were reported.
Three rockets were fired at a
police station in Bannu, damaging a wall of the station. No loss
of life or injuries was reported.
Police in Peshawar recovered some
arms and ammunition from a passenger bus on the Kohat Road and
arrested an alleged smuggler. Chief Capital City Police, Abdul
Majeed Marwat, said they received information that arms and ammunition
would be smuggled through a bus from Peshawar to Karachi, capital
of Sindh province. A Kalashnikov, two repeaters, two pistols and
about 1600 rounds were seized from the bus and its driver, identified
as Nadeem, arrested.
|
|
May 25
|
In a telephonic address on the
occasion of the inauguration of the basement of a mosque at Kohat,
the Islamabad-based Lal Masjid (Red mosque) cleric Maulana Aziz
asked the Taliban to continue their jihad against obscenity,
prostitution, video shops and other social vices and expand it
to the entire NWFP. According to him, "it is now the responsibility
of all believers to support the activities of the Taliban in the
province against CD shops and obscenity."
|
|
May 26
|
A roadside bomb exploded near
a military convoy in the Tank town, killing at least two soldiers
and injuring seven others. Mohammed Idris, an area police chief,
said the troops were going to the adjacent South Waziristan when
the blast occurred. Spokesperson for the Pakistan army, Maj. Gen.
Waheed Arshad, confirmed the attack and casualties.
Militants have warned music and
video shops, as well as clandestine hashish and alcohol outlets,
at Dara Adamkhel to close their business. "The Taliban have
set July 1 as a deadline to abandon all ‘un-Islamic’ business
in the area," local resident Murtaza Khan said. The threat
came in pamphlets distributed in the town. The pamphlets also
warned shopkeepers to stop downloading songs as mobile telephone
ring tones. "All the music shops in this area are closing
now," shopkeeper Jan Alam said.
|
|
May 28
|
Four local Taliban militants were
killed in a clash with police in the Bannu district. Two police
personnel and civilian were injured in the encounter, officials
said. The four militants belonging to the Hayat group who had
been patronising local Taliban militants in the district have
been identified as Bahadur Khan, Abid, Muhammad Rehman and Amir
Hayat.
A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden
Land Cruiser into a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle in the same area,
killing two FC personnel, identified as Fareed Hussain and Nametullah
and injuring another identified as Masood Afsar. Area Force Commander
Muqabil Mahsud said that the FC convoy comprising three vehicles
was heading from Tank to Boltonabad to secure the area when it
was ambushed. He said the explosive-laden Land Cruiser coming
from the opposite direction rammed into the paramilitary vehicle,
causing a massive blast while another car driven by militants
sped away.
Militants shot dead Mir Zarwali
Khan, assistant district officer of the FC in the Boltonabad area
on the Tank-Jandola road in the Tank city. The officer was going
to Peshawar from Tank when the militants ambushed his vehicle
and opened fire, killing him on the spot. The driver of the vehicle
also suffered injuries. Later, the militants set the vehicle on
fire.
|
|
May 30
|
Militants attacked the house of
a senior government official in the Jatai Qala area of Tank district
after midnight and shot dead 13 people, including two women. Two
children were injured, police said. Chief of the Gomal police
station, Sanaullah Marwat, informed that militants attacked the
house of Amiruddin Khan, Khyber tribal region’s political agent,
with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and assault rifles.
He said that the militants had come from the adjoining South Waziristan.
The dead reportedly included six members of the family and seven
guests.
The district administrator of
Hangu, Ghani-ur-Rehman, escaped unhurt after a bomb explosion
damaged his vehicle. Rehman was on his way home from his office
in the afternoon when the attack occurred on Thall Road, police
said.
|
|
May 31
|
"Independent cells"
on the pattern of al Qaeda inspired by the Taliban are actively
spreading Talibanisation across the NWFP and Tank district is
the "litmus test" for these cells to prove how serious
a threat they pose to the state, officials said.
There is reportedly a province-wide
offensive on girls’ schools, video stores and barber shops in
the NWFP by the Islamist radicals, their supporters and sympathisers.
These three, viewed as "symbols of Western-oriented life",
are being destroyed by religious extremists in a growing wave
of violence. Four girls’ schools have been bombed and violent
threats have been circulated that girls should stay home. While
no girls or school staff have been killed, girls in some areas
have stopped attending classes, the report points out.
|
|
June 1
|
A civilian, identified as Mohammed
Rashid, manager of the Agriculture Bank of Pakistan, was injured
in a bomb blast at Bannu. Mohammed Rafiq, a local police official,
informed that the homemade-bomb had probably been planted inside
the civilian’s vehicle.
Unidentified men fired at least
four rockets targeting the Mandan police station in Bannu. However,
no loss of life or injuries was reported.
|
|
June 3
|
Two bomb blasts destroyed two
CD shops in different parts of the Kohat city, but no loss of
life was reported. The first blast occurred at 11.30 PM in Bazaar-i-Mustafa,
blowing up a shop owned by Shahid, though he had already declared
that he would soon switch over to some other business. Another
CD shop situated near a mosque was destroyed when a bomb planted
in a ghee can exploded outside the shop.
|
|
June 4
|
Militants have banned the movement
of tribesmen at Darra Adamkhel after 10pm and announced that any
vehicle not stopping for ‘checking’ would be fired at. The Taliban
told local people to remove ring tones of film songs from their
cellular phones and personal computers and replace them with Quranic
verses and jihadi songs. The handbills said that Taliban
would launch an armed campaign from July 1 against ‘indecency’
and those involved in ‘un-Islamic activities’, including music
centres, prize bond dealers, usurers, narcotics dealers, car lifters
and barbers who trim beards. A poster pasted on a wall said Taliban
would provide alternative self-employment opportunities to those
affected by the campaign.
|
|
June 4
|
A senior Government official,
Syed Mehdi Hussain, was shot dead in Peshawar. Police suspect
it to be a sectarian attack.
|
|
June 5
|
A bomb was lobbed into a private
school in the Hayatabad locality of Peshawar. However no loss
of life or property was reported.
|
|
June 7
|
Police at Dera Ismail Khan arrested
Rauf Baloch, a leader of the banned Sunni outfit SSP, who was
wanted in various cases of sectarian terrorism and murder.
|
|
June 11
|
The Karachi Police has arrested
three terrorists and identified the suicide bomber who was allegedly
responsible for the Nishtar Park incident in Karachi on April
11, 2006. Two LeJ cadres were arrested during raids in two different
areas of Karachi. Based on their information, the police conducted
an operation in Peshawar, in NWFP where it arrested the third
alleged terrorist. All three of them, police claimed, had confessed
to their involvement in the suicide attack. The suicide bomber
has been identified as Siddiq and is said to have hailed from
Mansehra in the NWFP.
|
| June 14 |
Approximately 22 music shops have
been bombed in recent months at Charsadda, forcing around half
of the 100 such shops in the area to close down, The News reported.
Similar incidents have been reported from across the province
in recent months: barbers are being threatened against shaving
beards, girls are being warned against going to schools without
wearing veils, etc. In some remote parts of the NWFP, radical
clerics are running private FM radio stations to propagate their
teachings, the report said.
Unidentified people set ablaze
two music shops in the Akhundabad area of Peshawar, capital of
the North West Frontier Province, damaging several CDs and television
sets. The shops were reportedly owned by Iqbal and Amir Nawaz.
|
|
June 15
|
A video/CD shop was blown
up injuring two passers-by in the Balokhel area on Kohat Road in
Peshawar. This is the third incident of targeting CD shops in Peshawar
during the last three months. |
|
June 16
|
A suspected militant, identified
as Imtiaz Khan, was wounded when an explosive device went off before
he could plant it outside a vocational centre in Labour Colony on
the main Nowshera-Mardan Road in Mardan. The centre had reportedly
received an anonymous letter about a month ago asking its management
to order female trainees to observe proper veil or be prepared to
face consequences. |
|
June 17
|
A man hailing from the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas was killed in Peshawar allegedly by
Taliban as they suspected him of selling narcotics. The deceased,
identified as Syed Kamal Mulakhel, was returning home from his
under-construction building in Mulakhel when motorcycle-borne
attackers opened fire on him. He was reportedly warned by the
Taliban about two weeks ago to terminate his narcotics business.
|
|
June 21
|
One person was killed and 21 others
sustained injuries in a grenade attack at a religious gathering
at Bannu. Police said the attacker lobbed the grenade at a Tablighee
gathering opposite the Bannu airport at around 10.55pm. People
present at the gathering reportedly captured the attacker, but
he was not handed over to police.
|
|
June 24
|
A security guard shot dead a Taliban
militant when they tried to abduct the foreign principal of a
school at Bannu. Four masked men tried to scale the wall of the
private school and the guard opened fire to stop them, local police
chief Dar Ali Khattak said. One was killed by the guard and the
other three escaped, he said, adding that the guard was also injured.
Khattak identified the principal as a New Zealand national, saying
he had been living in Bannu since 1995.
|
|
June 26
|
An explosion destroyed the Singeet
Nigar CDs Centre and partially damaged dozens of nearby shops
in the Shabqadar area of Charsadda district. However, there were
no casualties. Police said the locally made bomb weighed two kilograms.
Earlier, CD shops in the Shabqadar area received anonymous letters
asking their owners to shut down their businesses since it was
"un-Islamic."
|
|
June 27
|
Three CD shops were blown up in
the Matani locality of Peshawar. However, no loss of life or injuries
was reported. Owners of the shops, Akhtar Munir, Hamayun and Iftikhar,
told the police that they had not received any prior letters or
calls for the closure of their businesses. This is the fourth
incident of attacks on CD and video shops in the city. Earlier,
video and CD shops were attacked on March 18, June 12 and 15.
|
|
June 28
|
Pro-Taliban militants at Landi
Kotal blew up 13 oil tankers supplying fuel to international troops
in Afghanistan. The explosion targeted tankers parked in the main
town of Khyber tribal district, 35 kilometres west of NWFP capital
Peshawar.
|
|
June 30
|
Two suspected terrorists were
killed while attempting to plant a bomb in a Hazarkhani warehouse,
in the jurisdiction of Yakatoot police station in Peshawar. Three
time bombs, hand grenades and two kilograms of explosives were
recovered from the incident site.
Two people were wounded in a bomb
explosion inside a bus at a bus terminal in Peshawar. Witnesses
said three buses were destroyed and seven others were partially
damaged.
|
|
July 4
|
Four civilians were killed and
two police personnel were wounded in a bomb blast that targeted
a police vehicle in the Swat district. Police officer Saeed Khan
said that it was not clear whether a grenade was thrown at the
vehicle or whether a roadside bomb exploded. A number of eyewitnesses
claimed that a suicide bomber carried out the attack using an
IED near the Kanju Bridge. However, police officials did not confirm
the suicide attack but said it cannot be ruled out.
A police personnel, Zahir Shah,
was killed and four others sustained injuries during a rocket
attack on a police station in the Mata area of Swat district.
The blast followed calls on a private Islamist FM radio station
in the area for launching a jihad against the government
in retaliation for the mosque confrontation in Islamabad.
NWFP police chief Sharif Virk
blamed Maulana Fazlullah, who leads a proscribed militant organisation,
for both these attacks. Fazlullah, who had recently signed an
agreement with the NWFP government, in broadcasts on his FM channel
on July 3 and 4, asked his supporters to take up arms against
the government to avenge the action taken against Lal Masjid and
carry out suicide attacks.
Four police personnel were killed
and two others sustained injuries when suspected Taliban militants
attacked their vehicle in the Mattani police precincts of Peshawar.
The official said that the attackers fired nearly 500 rounds on
the police party amidst slogans of ‘Allah-o-Akbar’. He added that
the assailants had come from Darra Adam Khel, which borders Matani
village.
Another attack was carried on
two security force personnel going on a motorbike in the Charbagh
village when armed assailants opened fire on them from a van killing
Faiz Ali on the spot while his colleague Raza Khan escaped.
A shepherd and dozens of his goats
died when a bomb exploded at a graveyard in the Badrashi town
of Nowshera district.
|
|
July 5
|
Four missiles were fired on an
army base at Landi Kotal. Officials of the Landi Kotal political
administration said that one missile landed in a garden in front
of the main gate of the Khyber Rifles and another near an abandoned
army store, about 100 meters from the main gate. However, no loss
of life or injuries was reported. This was the first missile attack
on an army camp in the area.
|
|
July 6
|
Four Pakistan Army personnel,
including a Major and a Lieutenant, were killed in an IED attack
on a military convoy in the Dir district. According to the locals,
the outlawed TNSM could be "behind the blast." Dir is a stronghold
of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the outlawed TNSM.
Four security force personnel
were injured when their vehicle was ambushed near Matta police
station in the Swat district. Police said the officials were passing
through Baryam Chowk area when their vehicle came under fire from
a hillock.
A Frontier Corps convoy going
to Shandur to provide security to the polo festival escaped a
roadside bomb blast in the Darora area of Upper Dir district.
However, no loss of life or injuries was reported.
|
|
July 7
|
Police in the Mansehra district
released four central leaders of the outlawed Sunni group SSP,
a day after their arrest. Hafiz Alam Tariq, Maulana Amir Mahavia
and two other leaders were reportedly arrested from the district’s
Ghazikot area along with two triple-M licensed guns. Sources said
they were released following interrogation.
|
|
July 8
|
Unidentified gunmen shot dead
three Chinese workers and injured another in Peshawar The Chinese
reportedly were engaged in the business of turtles and exported
hides to China and other countries.
An Assistant Sub-Inspector of
Police, Sulaiman Khan, was killed and three constables, Naimatullah
Khan, Rasul Jan and Sawdad Khan, wounded when a police party was
ambushed with grenades at Bannu.
|
|
July 9
|
A police contingent was reportedly
attacked on the Karakoram Highway in Kohistan. However, no casualties
were reported.
|
|
July 9
|
Unidentified assailants shot dead
an activist of the outlawed Sunni group SSP in the jurisdiction
of Shah Qabool police station in Peshawar. Police officer Latif
said that Hayat Khan was shot dead at around 2 a.m. outside his
Nishtarabad house.
A grenade was lobbed at a police
post in the Tajazai area in Ghaznikhel. However, no loss of life
or injuries was reported.
|
|
July 10
|
A soldier, Abdul Ghaffar, was
killed and two others sustained injuries after unidentified people
lobbed a grenade targeting a military checkpoint at Kohat. The
army had established temporary checkpoints in many parts of Kohat
on July 9 in view of the Lal Masjid standoff in Islamabad. Further,
a blast was also reported in a populated area along the canal
road.
In the Lower Dir district, 10
policemen were injured in two bomb blasts. Officials said a vehicle
carrying a police contingent was struck by an improvised explosive
device in the Khal area, injuring five police personnel. Another
roadside explosion in the area damaged a police van, wounding
five more police personnel.
In the Battagram district, rioters
reportedly set ablaze offices of two international relief organizations,
the US-based Care International and the French Red Crescent, and
blocked the Karakoram Highway. The tribesmen reportedly took positions
at hilltops in groups and fired shots on passenger vehicles intermittently,
residents said. Eye witnesses said armed men shot at soldiers
of the Frontier Constabulary, injuring one of them.
In the capital Peshawar, NWFP
police chief Sharif Virk termed the incidents a reaction to the
storming of the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa compound. "Except Lower
Dir and Battagram, the overall situation in the province is under
control," said Virk. Army troops have reportedly been dispatched
to the Swat district and army personnel have also started patrolling
the Mingora town.
|
|
July 12
|
A suicide bomber killed three
police personnel, Sub-Inspector Taj Maluk and constables Riaz
and Islam Gul, by detonating the explosives wrapped around his
waist in the Swat district. The suicide attack came moments after
a military convoy passed through the area, informed police officer
Abdur Rashid Khan. Unconfirmed reports said that there were two
suicide bombers.
A roadside bomb exploded when
a military convoy was passing through the Kabal area of Swat district.
However, no loss of life or injuries was reported.
Unidentified people fired 17 rockets
targeting a Frontier Constabulary check post at Bara. However,
no casualty was reported.
|
|
July 13
|
Police arrested three suspected
militants and seized an explosives-laden vehicle along with arms
and ammunition and some jackets meant for suicide bombers from
a house in the Akber town area of Dera Ismail Khan. Police also
found seven suicide jackets, 10 mortar shells, two anti-tank mines
and two missiles. The three were identified as Jamshed, from Tank
in the NWFP, and Nisar and Ahsan, both from Mirali in North Waziristan.
President Pervez Musharraf directed
all federal and provincial governments to crackdown on religious
extremism and militancy in the country, reiterating the government’s
determination to free the country from terrorism. Referring to
growing extremism in the NWFP, he directed the provincial security
agencies to combat militancy by carrying out coordinated efforts
in the tribal and settled areas of NWFP. Gen. Musharraf also approved
a plan for the immediate deployment of paramilitary forces in
the Swat valley of NWFP to crush the growing militancy in the
area. He also directed armed forces personnel not to wear their
uniforms in public in the NWFP for fear of backlash from the Lal
Masjid operation. He said the federal security agencies would
execute and monitor all military operations in the NWFP and FATA
and the NWFP government would only assist them.
The government moved an army brigade
to the Tank district. Tank District Police Officer Mumtaz Zarin
said that the army had been called in to improve security and
to stop incursions from the tribal areas. He, however, refused
to comment on how many soldiers were being deployed there, but
said the army deployment was a gradual process. Sources said that
12,000 troops, backed by artillery units, were moved to the Tank
and Dera Ismail Khan districts from Okara. Security forces were
also being deployed in the Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts, considered
to be strongholds of militancy. Besides, troops have also reportedly
been stationed in the northern Swat and Lower Dir districts.
|
|
July 15
|
At least 47 people were killed
and over a hundred injured in suicide bombings targeting security
forces in the Swat and Dera Ismail Khan districts of the NWFP
in apparent revenge attacks by militants for the Lal Masjid operation.
In the first attack, at least 13 SF personnel and six civilians,
including three children, were killed and more than 50 people
sustained injuries at Matta in the Swat district when two suicide
bombers rammed two cars packed with explosives into an army convoy
early in the morning. No one has claimed responsibility for the
attack so far. At approximately 4:15 pm (PST), a suicide bomber
blew himself up at the Dera Ismail Khan Police Lines as candidates
took police entrance exams. Police official Safiullah said that
26 people were killed, including 12 police personnel and the suicide
bomber, and 61 others were wounded. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed
Sherpao said the two attacks could be a militant response to the
Lal Masjid assault. Many of the locals were terming the incident
as act of the banned JeM, which according to them had well-trained
and brainwashed people in the district.
|
|
July 17
|
Three police personnel, including
the Station House Officer of Och police, were injured when an
explosive device planted along the Chakdara-Timergara road went
off near Gulabad Bridge in the Lower Dir district.
Police recovered a hand grenade
from the same place at Dera Ismail Khan Police Lines where 26
persons were killed and 61 others in a suicide attack on July
15.
Investigators probing into firing
on President Pervez Musharraf’s aircraft on July 6 have arrested
three more persons for their alleged involvement in the incident.
The three suspects have been picked up from Bannu and shifted
to an undisclosed location for investigation. The arrests were
made after gleaning the phone record of the suspects.
|
|
July 18
|
A Military Operations Directorate
meeting, chaired by President General Pervez Musharraf, at the
General Headquarters in Rawalpindi has directed the NWFP district
governments to form peace committees at district, tehsil and police
station levels by July 31.
The NWFP government will hold
a meeting with a 45-member jirga (council) that negotiated
the peace deal with the militants in 2006. "We have been invited
for a meeting with NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai on Thursday (today).
We don’t know the agenda, but the meeting will obviously focus
on the peace deal," said Malik Waris Khan from Khyber Agency,
who is among 45 other elders from six tribal regions to attend
the meeting.
Police defused a toy bomb planted
under a vehicle near a family planning office in the Machni police
station area in Peshawar.
|
|
July 19
|
15 persons, including a prayer
leader and two children, were killed and several people injured
when a suicide bomber blew himself up during night prayers at
a mosque at Pathan Lines Centre in the Kohat Cantonment area.
Most of the victims were reportedly army officials. The federal
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said, "Indirectly these attacks
are a backlash reaction against the Red Mosque."
Five civilians and two police
personnel were killed and 35 others injured when a suicide bomber
set off his explosives-packed car at the Hangu Police Training
College (PTC). Police official Rehman Gul Khan said the suicide
bomber wanted to take his car inside the PTC on the main Hangu-Kohat
Road where 500-600 police cadets were doing their routine morning
parade. The suicide bomber blew up the vehicle when police personnel
deployed at the PTC gate tried to stop him. Hangu District Police
Officer Ghulam Mohammad said that around 40-50 kg of explosives
was packed in the car.
The federal government has decided
to provide PKR 3.6 billion to the NWFP government to recruit more
personnel to the law enforcement agencies in the province. Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz said that the NWFP government had asked
for an additional 15,000 police personnel where the federal government
agreed to provide half of the grant.
|
|
July 20
|
A meeting presided over by President
Pervez Musharraf approved ‘an all-encompassing strategy’ to combat
terrorism, extremism and growing militancy in the country, particularly
in the NWFP and tribal areas. Sources said the meeting decided
to provide ‘necessary financial and security support’ to NWFP
Chief Minister Akram Durrani to restore law and order in the province.
|
|
July 21
|
Suspected Taliban militants detonated
three blasts in the Bannu area.
|
|
July 22
|
Suspected militants reportedly
attacked a Frontier Corps checkpoint with three rockets and injured
one soldier in the Bakakhel area of Bannu district.
Security forces defused a bomb
planted near a checkpoint in the Fizza Gat area.
|
|
July 23
|
A bomb exploded near Khwazakhela
police station in the Matta area of Swat district, partially damaging
its boundary wall and windowpanes of nearby houses. However, no
loss of life or injuries was reported.
|
|
July 24
|
At least nine persons, including
a woman, were reportedly killed and 40 others wounded when unidentified
militants fired a series of rockets on civilian population in
the Bannu city of NWFP. Police official Khawaja Muhammad said
that a rocket hit a house at Tafsil Street in the Bannu main bazaar
at around 1:35am. He said that when people gathered at the site
another rocket landed in the area, killing nine people. He said
that another rocket hit a house in the Gopa Khel area, one hit
a bookstore in Chowk Bazaar, while a fifth rocket struck a mosque.
Bannu District Coordination Officer Syed Jamaluddin Shah while
confirming the nine deaths said "I am not sure if the attack was
in revenge for Taliban commander Abdullah Mehsud’s death."
|
|
July 26
|
The proscribed TNSM has distanced
itself from the recent bomb blasts on security agencies and also
condemned the killing of security force personnel in the Dir district.
TNSM district chief Badshah Zeb alias Gorkoi Mulla said that his
movement had never resorted to violence against the government
in its struggle for Sharia enforcement in the area. "Security
forces personnel are our Muslim brothers and Islam does not allow
killing of Muslims. No Mufti has issued any Fatwa (decree)
to attack army or police and those carrying out attacks on forces
or in public places are committing murders," he said. He claimed
the TNSM had nothing to do with Maulana Fazlullah, who, he added,
was not following the orders of his imprisoned father-in-law and
TNSM founder Maulana Sufi Muhammad.
|
|
July 27
|
Three people were arrested in
Peshawar for their alleged involvement in bomb blasts in the NWFP.
|
|
July 28
|
Three police personnel were killed
when militants opened fire on them in the Lal Qila Midan area
of the Lower Dir district. An unidentified caller informed police
about the presence of armed people in a graveyard on Hiyaseri-Lal
Qila road, sources said, adding, as the police reached the scene,
the militants opened fire, killing Additional SHO Azam Khan and
another police personnel. Another police personnel, identified
as Shahzad Gul, sustained injuries in the firing and died later.
|
|
July 29
|
Suspected militants fired five
rockets in Kohat from mountains near the Ghamkol refugee camp.
Kohat District Police Officer Vaqar said that five rockets fell
into the fields near the camp causing explosions. But, no loss
of life or property was reported.
|
|
July 31
|
Suspected militants killed a FC
soldier and abducted four others after a shootout with the paramilitary
personnel in the Bannu district.
In the Tank district, six Frontier
Corps personal were injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside
bomb.
Four police personnel were wounded
when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb at Allabad area
in the Swat district.
Militants hurled a hand grenade
at former government official’s house at Kuza Banda in Kabal.
But no casualties were reported.
|
|
August 1
|
Security forces raided a militant
hideout at Bannu and subsequently attempted to free seven soldiers
taken prisoner a day earlier. One captive soldier was killed,
three rescued, and the militants escaped with the remaining three.
The seven soldiers were seized by suspected militants on July
31 in NWFP as they rode in two vehicles.
A police checkpoint was blown
up in the Shakardara area of Swat district. Suspected militants
had reportedly planted an improvised explosive device at the post
located at some 15 kilometres from Mingora.
|
|
August 3
|
A suicide blast targeting the
family of a government official killed two persons and injured
six members of the family in the Gora village of Swat district.
Four persons, including one police
personnel and a prayer leader, sustained injuries in a bomb explosion
near the Serai Naurang police station of Lakki Marwat district.
Police is reported to have defused
a roadside bomb in the Sambat area of Swat district.
|
|
August 4
|
Militants blew up two unmanned
police posts in the Swat district, but there were no casualties.
The Sangota check post in the Mingorah police area and Alam Ganj
check post in the Khozakhel police precincts were blown up. These
had reportedly been earlier vacated due to security concerns.
Colonel Jawad and Colonel Sarfaraz
of the Pakistan Army told a meeting of local elders, councillors
and political leaders that there would be no military operation
in Swat. They said the army had been called in to maintain law
and order, which was why the troops did not retaliate despite
terrorists’ attacks on the army.
|
|
August 6
|
Suspected pro-Taliban militants
shot dead an alleged leader of a gang after he ignored warnings
to stop criminal activities in the Darra Adam Khel town. Residents
said 45-year old Ameer Sayed, had been warned by militants that
he would be killed if he did not stop activities that allegedly
included car jacking, drug smuggling and kidnapping for ransom.
Two personnel of the PAF and a
child accompanying them were injured when a bomb exploded near
their vehicle on the Kohat Road in Peshawar. The Bhana Manri police
said the explosive device had been planted on the structure of
under-construction shops along the main road, which exploded when
the PAF vehicle was passing by the place.
Police seized three rocket-propelled
grenades, one anti-aircraft gun and other arms and ammunition
from a house in the Danna area of Mansehra district.
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August 7
|
Three people were wounded in a
bomb blast near a police station at Bannu.
A time-bomb exploded at a bus
terminal in Peshawar, damaging a vehicle but causing no casualties.
Militants attacked a Frontier
Corps check post at Bagh Deri in the Khwaza Khela area of Swat
district, partially damaging its walls. However, no loss of life
or injuries was reported. Police also reportedly defused a 16-kg
bomb placed near the check post.
Taliban militants snatched rifles
from personnel of the Khasadar force in the Lakki Marwat district.
More than 12 militants came to the Kotikhawa check post in the
Shadikhel locality in three vehicles and snatched rifles from
personnel of the Khasadar force. "Anyone among you if seen at
the check post in future will be killed," sources quoted Taliban
militants as having told the personnel.
Police arrested at least 14 people,
including 11 suspected militants, trying to illegally enter Balochistan
from the NWFP and also seized a large cache of weapons. Alleged
foreign militants were reportedly en route to Balochistan via
Dera Ismail Khan in two trucks, but security forces cordoned off
the area and arrested them. Tajik nationals Agha Muhammad, Abdul
Ghaffar, Samiullah and Bashir, Uzbek nationals Muhammad Hussain,
Shah Wali, Muhammad Latif, Sheer Ahmed and Muhammad Taqqi, and
an Afghan, Wahidullah, were arrested. Three local aides - Abdullah,
Sarwar Khan and Hakeem Khan - were also arrested.
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August 8
|
Taliban militants captured Chargano
village at Darra Adamkhel when rival tribesmen surrendered to
them after clashes which left five people dead and at least 10
others injured. Witnesses said that some 20 families of the Qasimkhel
tribe surrendered themselves to the militants after 35-hour-long
gun fight between the two sides. Both sides targeted each other’s
positions with rockets and heavy machine-guns. After capturing
the village, the Taliban militants were seen looting houses of
tribesmen belonging to Qasimkhel.
A mortar shell hit a house in
the Manikhel area, injuring six people while one child was wounded
when a shell struck a compound in the Bazikhel village.
Militants fired five rockets,
which landed in different areas of the Hangu city. However, no
loss of life or injuries was reported.
The police foiled a terrorist
attempt to target hit the Peshawar International Airport and seized
five missiles aimed at the airport. The missiles had been placed
on the bed of the Bara River near the Bazidkhel village.
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August 10
|
The Taliban blew up eight houses
of alleged criminals in a "drive against anti-social elements"
at Darra Adam Khel. The Taliban also found four people, who had
been abducted for ransom, and 18 stolen cars from the hideouts
of the alleged criminals. The Taliban have so far killed four
criminals, including Ameer Said alias Charg, the leader of an
alleged criminal gang.
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August 11
|
Three police personnel were killed
by militants in the Hangu district. A police team was patrolling
Hangu’s main road when the miscreants opened fire on them, killing
constables Din Khan, Ahmad Hussain and Lal Muhammad. Two civilians,
Hayat Nawaz and Khalid Nawaz, were also injured.
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August 12
|
The provincial secretary-general
of the banned SSP, Aslam Farooqui, was shot dead in Peshawar.
Alam Zeb, brother of the deceased leader, caught hold of one the
attackers and handed him over to police. A police official said
one Shoaib Hussain of Parachinar, who belonged to a paramilitary
force, had been arrested.
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August 13
|
Four civilians were killed and
eight others sustained injuries when a vehicle of the National
Rural Support Programme struck a roadside explosive device in
the Ushu Valley, near the tourist resort of Kalam in the Swat
district.
The local Taliban handed over
control of Darra Adam Khel to the government after a jirga
(assembly) assured them that there would be no more criminal
and ‘un-Islamic’ activities in the area. According to the agreement,
the Taliban would retake control of Darra Adam Khel if the jirga
or the local administration failed to fulfil their promise.
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August 14
|
Two persons were wounded in a
bomb blast at Toolianwala Chowk in the Dera Ghazi Khan district.
In a separate bomb blast at Fort
Munro in the same district, another person was injured.
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August 15
|
Two persons were killed in a bomb
blast at Turlandi in the Swabi district. The bomb exploded at
around 9:00am at Saleem Tuition Centre, about 30 kilometres from
the district headquarters, killing two teachers, Salimullah and
Umer Nasir. Police said one of the dead had links with some jihadi
groups.
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August 18
|
One police personnel was killed
and four others sustained injuries when unidentified persons hurled
a grenade targeting a checkpoint on the Kaki Road at Bannu.
Militants killed a policeman when
they lobbed a hand grenade at a police checkpost in Bannu, said
police officer Dar Ali Khattak. Five other officers were also
injured in the attack.
A suicide bomber blew himself
up in Bannu after being cornered by police, injuring a policeman
and a civilian, informed the police officer.
Militants fired three rockets
targeting an army garrison centre in the Thall town of Hangu district.
One of the rockets landed in the main ground of the Baloch Regiment
and the other two hit the fort’s building. No casualty or damage
was reported.
Two home-made devices exploded
near a military check-post close to the Signal Training Centre’s
ground in Kohat cantonment, killing several buffaloes in the nearby
army dairy farm.
Unidentified militants in the
province’s Karak district have threatened some international oil
exploration companies working in the area with suicide attacks
if they did not withdraw Frontier Constabulary personnel from
their offices. The Schlumberger, Mool and Tilo – all international
oil exploration companies – had been threatened with suicide attacks.
The Chinese company BJP, which is conducting a seismic survey
in the area, had also been sent written threats. The companies
were reportedly considering leaving the area due to the threats.
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August 20
|
Six SF personnel were killed and
18 persons, including a civilian, were wounded when a suicide
bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a checkpoint on Kurram
Road in the Hangu district. Hangu District Police Officer Ghulam
Mohammad Khan disclosed that the suicide bomber came in a blue
jeep from Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, and struck
the Militia Mandoori check-post. A woman is reported to have died
when SFs opened indiscriminate fire after the incident. The Taliban
claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. Their purported
spokesman, Abdul Hai Ghazi, said from Waziristan, "We carried
out the suicide attack in Thall and killed 20 soldiers." He also
said the bomber was from North Waziristan.
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August 21
|
A bomb blast destroyed an oil
tanker filled with petroleum at Landi Kotal. However, no loss
of life or injuries was reported in the incident.
The Frontier Corps fort in the
Tank city was partially damaged when unidentified attackers fired
three rockets on it.
Security force personnel arrested
Mumtaz, a top Taliban ‘commander’ from Afghanistan, during a raid
in the Saddar Bazaar area of Peshawar. Mumtaz, hailing from the
Nangarhar province, is believed to be a loyalist of senior Taliban
leader Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani.
The local Taliban have banned
music and sale of narcotics in Zargari and some other areas of
the Hangu district. Reports from Naryab village stated that the
militants had set a deadline for owners of CD and cassette shops
and narcotic dealers to terminate their businesses and warned
that their shops or houses would be destroyed if they did not
heed the call. They said the ban would be effective in Zargari,
Shanawari, Chappari Naryab, Naryab and Kahi villages and some
other areas. It announced violators will be fined PKR 50,000.
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August 22
|
Three Frontier Corps (FC) personnel
and three militants were killed when militants attacked a check-post
jointly manned by police and FC personnel in the Miran police
precincts of Bannu.
The Swat District Coordination
Officer (DCO), Syed Mohammad Javed, has stopped NGOs from working
in the district after they received threatening letters from suspected
militants. Two NGOs – SPEED and PLAIN – which had set up offices
near the office of the Swat DCO were sealed by the DCO. Militants
have also sent threatening letters to Swat Serena Hotel and Mary
Stopes, an NGO. Sources said the letters asked women performing
in CD-dramas or working at beauty parlours to stop their "immoral
activities". Earlier, medical representatives in Swat were asked
to stop wearing paint/jeans and shirts as they are "un-Islamic
dresses."
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August 23
|
Unidentified militants targeted
a police van with a remote-controlled explosive device in the
Charbagh area of Swat district, injuring four police personnel.
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August 24
|
In a suspected sectarian incident,
unidentified assailants shot dead an activist of the banned SSP
in the Dera Ismail Khan city. 22-year old Kaleen Ullah was shot
dead in the Tareenabad Colony in Cantonment Police Station’s jurisdiction.
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August 25
|
A man and his two children were
injured in a bomb blast outside their house in the Miankhel Bazaar
of Kohat town.
Suspected militants attacked a
camp of Thall Scouts of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the
Hangu district with four rockets. However, no loss of life or
injuries was reported.
In the Bannu district, police
seized 31 rockets from a car and arrested three people in the
Bakakhel area.
Militants blew up four video centres
in the Swari Bazaar of Buner district. Militants had sent threatening
letters a few days ago to the owners of video centres located
at the general bus stand and another video centre at Dozukh market
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August 26
|
Four police personnel were killed
and two others sustained injuries in a suicide attack on a police
van in the mountainous Shangla district. It was reportedly the
first-ever terrorist incident in the Shangla district.
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August 27
|
Security forces arrested a local
doctor, pediatrician Dr Muhammad Rasool, and the wife of an Arab
al Qaeda explosives expert in a pre-dawn raid on a house in the
Dir Lower district, triggering protests from the Jamaat-e-Islami
party which termed the arrests as "American agenda."
"We had actionable intelligence that Muhammad Yousaf alias
Abdur Rahim, a Saudi Arabian national, was in the house but he
fled before we conducted the raid," sources said.
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August 28
|
Police arrested Habibullah alias
Talib, an alleged militant, and seized five hand-grenades and
two Kalashnikovs from his residence at Cheena Deri in the Buner
district. The raid was reportedly conducted in the aftermath of
a serried of bomb blasts that damaged three video-shops in the
Swari bazaar.
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August 29
|
A civilian was injured when suspected
militants fired a rocket on a vehicle in the Yakatoot police precinct
of Peshawar. Yakatoot Police Station Duty Officer Syed Bacha said
that a rocket hit a bus leaving for Parachinar with 14 passengers
on board. He said the attack partially damaged the vehicle and
that a passenger named Israr Ali was wounded.
Threats purportedly issued by
the local Taliban to different segments of society have increased
in the Buner district. In a letter pasted at a local mosque in
the district headquarters hospital, doctors were asked to ‘mend
their ways,’ and stop charging fee from patients, ban the entry
of men in women wards and during surgeries. A warning was also
issued to owners of medical store asking them to grow beard and
end the practice of overcharging customers and selling substandard
drugs. Taxi drivers in the hospital’s car parking area have been
asked to stop playing music in their vehicles.
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August 30
|
Seven security force personnel
died and an unspecified number of people were wounded when suspected
militants attacked the FC check post at Swat.
Militants destroyed a plaque that
had been erected recently on a bridge in Takhtaband in memory
of three police personnel killed in a suicide attack on July 12.
Police seized 10 bags of explosives
from a passenger bus in Bannu and arrested the driver.
The Police arrested seven people
and seized a large quantity of illegal weapons during a raid on
an arms bazaar in Kohat. Police officer Athar Waheed disclosed
that some arms dealers had brought smuggled weapons from Darra
Adam Khel and got registration numbers for them from local manufacturers.
Owners of video centres and barbers
in several areas of Swat have received threatening letters asking
them to terminate their businesses or face the consequences. Nisar,
owner of Nisar Video Centre in Gulab Market, reportedly closed
his business and burnt the CDs and other material in Matta Bazaar.
He stated that the previous night attacks destroyed six CD shops,
in addition to damaging nearly two dozen nearby shops and three
houses. The owners of CDs shops received threatening letters 15
days ago and several shops at the market were blown up after the
expiry of the deadline. Barbers in Matta have also been threatened
to wind up their business within 15 days or face a similar fate.
The threatening letters contain the words "Taliban Zindabad" at
the end, but there is no reference to the organisation that had
issued the letters.
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August 31
|
Two soldiers of the Frontier Corps
(FC) and a civilian were killed and eight people sustained injuries
in two attacks at Mingora. FC personnel and police stationed at
the Pakistan-Australia Institute for Hotel Management came under
attack in the Guli Bagh area leading to the death of two paramilitary
soldiers, Noor Bahadur and Waheed Nawaz, and injuries to six soldiers.
Official sources said that a police patrol rushed to the area
and struck an improvised explosive device on the Langar Road.
A civilian, Hazrat Ali, who had been arrested for timber smuggling
and was in the police van, was killed in the blast while two police
personnel were wounded.
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September 6
|
Suspected militants beheaded two
women, identified as Maino and Malaki, for alleged prostitution
in the Cantonment Police precincts of Bannu. An unnamed police
officer stated that the two women were abducted on the same day
from Sokari Jaba and their bodies were later found in Domanzi.
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September 7
|
Suspected militants blew up 63
CD and shoe shops in the Mina Bazaar and Ali Plaza area of Swat
and partially damaged 21 nearby shops, but there were no casualties.
In Ali Plaza, the explosion destroyed 19 shops selling shoes and
a mobile repairing shop in the basement, while 27 CD shops and
a mobile repairing shop were destroyed in the first floor of the
plaza. In Mina Bazaar, the blast destroyed 15 CD shops and partially
damaged nine nearby shops. Around 12 mobile repairing shops were
partially damaged in Qadria Market. Offices of Daily Times,
Aaj TV and Online news agency were also partially
damaged due to the Mina Bazaar blasts. A few days ago, unidentified
people had reportedly threatened the owners of these video and
CDs shops through letters, warning them to close their "un-Islamic"
business or face bomb attacks. The owners of the video centres
had started negotiating with the local administration to find
alternative businesses. However, the militants bombed the CD shops
after the deadline expired.
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September 8
|
Four soldiers were killed and
another two injured when suspected militants opened fire on a
small military convoy in the Kohistan district. It was reportedly
the first attack on the army in Kohistan.
At least 24 persons were injured
when a time bomb planted in a car exploded within the limits of
the East Cantonment police station in Peshawar at around 11.15
am.
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September 9
|
Militants triggered a bomb blast
at Islampura in Mingora district that destroyed a video centre
owned by one Gul Shad and partially damaged three other shops.
However, no loss of life or injuries was reported.
Taliban militants destroyed two oil tankers in Darra
Adamkhel. The tankers were returning after delivering oil to foreign
troops in Afghanistan. According to sources, the militants sprinkled
oil on the tankers and set them ablaze. However, the drivers escaped
unhurt.
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September 10
|
An attempt to blow up a CD shop in the Kohat
city was foiled by police. Athar Waheed, an Assistant Superintendent
of Police, disclosed that terrorists had placed a five kilograms
bomb outside the CD shop which is located in the old bus terminal
area. Bomb disposal squad personnel later defused the explosive
device.
Barbers have imposed a ban on shaving the beard
and fixed PKR 5,000 fine for violation of their decision. Some
of the 500 members who attended a meeting held at the home of
Swat barbers’ federation president Fazal Khalid reportedly stated
that they had received threatening letters from militants.
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September 11
|
19 people were killed and 15 others wounded when
a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up near a thickly-populated
area of Bannu Choongi in the Dera Ismail Khan district. The incident
occurred at around 3:10 pm (PST) when police directed a suspected
passenger of a pickup on the way to Kech village to come out and
offer a body search. As the passenger came out of the vehicle,
he blew himself up, killing 18 people on the spot, including two
police personnel, who wanted to search the bomber. Another person
succumbed to his injuries later, raising the death toll to 19.
Deputy Inspector General Police, Habibur Rahman, told The News
that the bomber was 14 to 15 years of age.
A bomb detonated by pro-Taliban militants damaged
a rock engraved with images of the Buddha at Malam Jabba in the
Swat district.
11 personnel of the Frontier Constabulary were
abducted and a police constable and three other people were injured
when militants attacked a check-post in Azad Mandi area of Bannu.
The militants fired rockets and lobbed hand-grenades at the post
manned jointly by paramilitary forces and police. Local people
said that about 120 militants who took part in the attack surrounded
the post and forced the soldiers to surrender their weapons. Militants
also took away 23 AK-47 rifles, one light machinegun, 72,000 rounds
of ammunition, communication tools and other equipment from the
check-post. An armoured personnel carrier parked near the post
was reportedly damaged in the attack.
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September 13
|
Nine shops, including six of CD shops, were destroyed
in a bomb blast in a market in the Bilitang town. However, no
loss of life or injuries was reported.
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|
September 14
|
Intelligence agencies arrested a suspect, who
they believed could have provided clues to the lone suicide bomber
who struck a special anti-terrorist unit in Tarbela Ghazi near
Islamabad on September 13 and killed 15 soldiers, from a village
in Swabi. Security personnel raided a house in Haider colony in
the sub-district of Topi and arrested Amir Mohammad Khan along
with his two brothers. Officials said that Amir had retired from
army one and a half years ago.
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September 15
|
A video centre was destroyed completely and more
than a dozen shops damaged partially when an IED exploded at Pir
Baba area, injuring two civilians.
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September 19
|
Militants ransacked and then blew up a hotel
at Chota Kalaam in the Swat area of NWFP. The militants took the
hotel owner and staff and later dropped them off at a deserted
place. The Sardar Hotel owner said he received anonymous letters
threatening to destroy the hotel because women customers came
to eat at his restaurant, which the letters termed "un-Islamic".
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September 20
|
Five security force personnel sustained injuries
when a bomb exploded near Paithom Hotel in the Gali Bagh area
of Swat district. Swat district Police Officer Muhammad Iqbal
confirmed the incident, saying that a patrol unit had reached
the hotel at around 8.15 am (PST), when a remote-controlled bomb
exploded, injuring five people at the hotel. One of the injured,
head constable Fazal Nawab, later succumbed to his injuries.
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September 21
|
Unidentified militants opened indiscriminate
fire on former federal minister and Awami National Party (ANP)
leader Muhammad Afzal Khan Lala at Bedara, killing his driver
and gunman and wounding the ANP leader, his nephew and two servants.
Pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah asked his
followers to hit official targets, after the government ignored
a demand to release his supporters. Abduction of government officials
was part of the targets that the cleric said should be achieved.
"I ask you to attack the targets. Now I will show the government
what I can do," he told a council at Iman Dheri outside Mingora
city, his headquarters. Earlier, local police had arrested three
persons, in connection with the Patham Hotel explosion, whom the
cleric declared as his followers and demanded their immediate
release.
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September 22
|
A police personnel was killed when armed supporters
of cleric Maulana Fazalullah attacked the Totano Bandi police
post in the Kabal area of Swat district. The assailants also abducted
two police personnel and took away two rifles, three Kalashnikovs,
100s of live rounds, wireless sets and other things from the police
post.
A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden
jeep into a military truck near Tank, killing himself and wounding
three soldiers.
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September 23
|
Local Taliban in Kohat have warned tailors to
strictly observe religious code while sewing clothes for men and
women and keep their shops shut during prayer time. In a letter
sent to tailors, the Taliban claiming to be from the Jamaat-i-Islami
asked them not to play music during night and threatened to blow
up the shops of those not following the orders.
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September 26
|
Two militants of the Taliban were
killed and eight others sustained injuries during a clash with
a gang of alleged criminals in the Naryab area of Hangu district.
The encounter reportedly continued for several hours and the Taliban
took seven men of the gang hostage. They also took away a vehicle
and set another on fire. The Taliban also abducted three men of
the group from the Doaba area.
Seven shops were destroyed when
a bomb planted near a barber shop in the Matta area of Swat district
exploded. The Matta police station house officer said that some
militants, who were presumed to have planted the bomb, also fired
at the police station. However, no casualties were reported.
Militants belonging to some unnamed
banned outfits have started a new campaign of issuing life threats
through letters to Christians, especially in the NWFP and Punjab
for the last three months. Aftab Alexander Mughal, in his report
on minorities' concerns in Pakistan, said Christians in Peshawar,
Charsadda and Shantinagar had been receiving threatening letters
for the last three months. The letters read, "We have already
sent you letters some times back but you did not listen to our
advice. We know that either you have torn or burnt the letters.
Through this action you have committed blasphemy and you are liable
to death. We will spare you only if you follow our demand otherwise
you will be killed." He said people were scared and did not know
what to do. "Police and other local authorities are not taking
this issue seriously and they are living in fear. Christians,
Hindus and Sikhs form a tiny minority in the NWFP and are living
under constant pressure. Many laws also curtail their freedom
as equal citizens. The blasphemy law is a classic example, which
has been misused against us," he added.
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September 29
|
Buildings of two girls’ schools
in the Kabal area of Swat district were damaged by a bomb blast.
Militants, who have been targeting women’s educational institutions
for a couple of weeks, had planted an explosive device in the
Government Girls’ High School, near the Kabal police station,
which exploded, damaging part of the building and the wall of
the adjacent Government Girls’ Primary School.
An anti-terrorism court at Dera
Ismail Khan sentenced a man to rigorous imprisonment for 24 years
after convicting him of being a would-be suicide bomber. The man,
Sohail Zeb, was arrested by the Tank city police on March 8, 2007,
along with two jackets used in suicide bombings, explosives and
nuts and bolts. Besides the jail sentence, the judge also fined
him PKR 50,000. The name of Sohail Zeb, who was a student of the
Tank Degree College, was in the list prisoners whose release was
sought by militants during talks with a tribal jirga (council)
held for the release of abducted soldiers in South Waziristan.
The convict, whose organisational name was Waheedullah, had admitted
during interrogation to having received terrorist training in
a camp in the Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan.
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October 1
|
A suicide bomber disguised in
a woman’s burqa (veil) blew himself up at a busy police
check-post in Bannu killing at least 16 people, including four
police personnel, and injuring 29 persons. Police officer Asar
Islam told, "A man disguised in a burqa got out of an auto-rickshaw
when police stopped the vehicle for a search at a checkpoint.
He then blew himself up."
35 troops went missing in the
Bakka Khail area of Bannu. They are suspected to have been abducted
by the militants after a gunfight. Abdul Nawaz Khan, district
officer of the Bannu frontier force, said more than 100 militants
had surrounded a post, and communication with the troops had then
been lost.
Two Frontier Constabulary personnel
were killed in a militant attack on the Rocha check-post in Bannu.
Six army soldiers were injured
when the regional headquarters of the Frontier Constabulary located
near the naval recruitment centre in Swat came under a rocket
and mortar.
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October 2
|
Two police personnel, Tajjamul
Hussain and Taj Hussain, and a Levies Force soldier, Arbab Khan,
were killed and two others wounded when militants attacked a check-post
on the main Thall Road in the Hangu town. Deputy Superintendent
of Police, Irshad Khan, told journalists that unidentified persons
in a car attacked the Kotki check-post when the police personnel
were breaking the Ramadan fast. The check-post is adjacent to
the residence of NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai.
A spokesman for the cleric, Maulana
Fazalullah, denied involvement in the recent attacks and bomb
blasts in Swat. "Our movement and activists are peaceful and they
have no role in the violent and terrorist attacks in the district,"
the spokesman, Sirajuddin, said. "We do not believe in intimidating,
harming or killing Muslims, and this is against the teachings
of Islam," Sirajuddin claimed. He also said the Lal Masjid operation
had caused hatred among people against the army and the law and
order situation would worsen if movement of troops in the area
continued. He stated, "We do not want army’s deployment here.
Before deployment no violent incident had taken place in Swat.
Peace will prove elusive as long as army is stationed here."
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October 3
|
A man was killed when a bomb he
was carrying exploded near the Nishat Chowk in Mingora. Officials
were uncertain about the target of the attack. It was not clear
if the man was a suicide bomber, the officials added.
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October 6
|
Five paramilitary soldiers, abducted
last week along with 28 others from Bakakhel in the Bannu district,
escaped from their captors and returned home. Militants had captured
at least 33 soldiers of the Frontier Constabulary after an attack
on the Rocha check-post in Bakakhel on October 1. Two soldiers
were killed and seven others were freed the next day.
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|
October 7
|
Militants beheaded a man they
said was ‘spying for the government’. The body of Gul Faraz was
dumped in the Darra Adamkhel bazaar and a note found near it alleged
that the man was a ‘government spy’. It warned other ‘spies’ of
a similar fate if they did not stop helping the ‘corrupt administration’.
Another body was found on a mountain
near Darra Adamkhel town. It could not be identified, but officials
suspect he had been killed by the local Taliban.
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|
October 8-9
|
There were at least 12 bomb blasts, including
nine in Swat and three in Malakand agency, while two barber shops
were targeted in Lower Dir on the night between October 8 and
9. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported in these
blasts.
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October 9
|
25 people were injured in a bomb blast at the
Hussain CD Market in Peshawar. The bomb, planted on a water cooler,
exploded at 4pm (PST) when a large number of people were present
in the plaza. It was a Russian-made time device, which badly damaged
at least 10 shops, police and officials of the Bomb Disposal Squad
said. Capital City Police Officer Abdul Majeed Marwat linked the
incident to the series of bomb attacks on CD shops across the
province. An unknown radical outfit had reportedly been issuing
threatening letters to owners of CD shops for the last four months
to terminate their "un-Islamic" business, otherwise, they would
be taken to task.
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October 10
|
The NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai dissolved
the provincial assembly and appointed the former Water and Power
Development Authority chairman Shamsul Mulk as the caretaker chief
minister.
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|
October 11
|
Two soldiers were injured when an improvised
explosive device struck a military convoy coming from North Waziristan
near Bannu.
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|
October 12
|
The pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah’s private
Shariah court reportedly punished three alleged criminals
by lashing them in public. "After the government’s indifference,
we have set up our own private Islamic court to dispense justice
to the people and today is the beginning of the struggle for a
cherished goal (enforcement of Shariah)," Sirajuddin, spokesman
for Maulana Fazlullah said after the court’s first Islamic punishment
was executed in the Swat district. According to the spokesman,
the three alleged criminals were caught "red-handed" while trying
to abduct two women from the Matta sub-division in September 2007.
Shamroz, Bukhtiar and Muhammad Sher were awarded 25, 20 and 15
lashes each, respectively.
|
|
October 13
|
Four persons were killed and another sustained
injuries when militants ambushed their vehicle in the Arkot area
of Swat district. Local people said a businessman, Afzal Gujar,
was injured, while his two brothers — Ayub Khan and Ahsanullah
— and Shahzaman and Akber Bacha were killed.
|
|
October 21
|
Eight shops, including a barbershop, were blown
up in Bunair district’s Pirbaba area. The barber told reporters
that he had received a threatening letter a few days ago asking
him not to shave or trim beards. However, no loss of life or injuries
was reported.
|
|
October 22
|
A pro-Taliban militant was killed and two others
wounded in a failed attempt to blow up the office of a women’s
rights group in the Karak district. The militants had been attempting
to plant a bomb at the Khawando Kor (sisters’ home), local police
officer Hajit Khan said. The bomb exploded prematurely and one
militant was killed, Khan said, adding that two injured accomplices
had been arrested. The office was not damaged. The trio had taken
part in the war against the Soviets in neighbouring Afghanistan
in the 1980s and was now supporting the Taliban in NWFP. The Khawando
Kor group, which has several offices across the NWFP, has been
promoting education and increased rights for women in the area.
|
|
October 23
|
At least four security force personnel
were injured in a bomb attack on a military caravan in the Chak
Darrah area of Malakand. Some unidentified men reportedly blew
up with a remote-controlled bomb a ration-laden truck included
in a 50-vehicle military convoy moving to the Swat district.
Police arrested three individuals
suspected to have links with al Qaeda in the Muhalla Gulbahir
locality of Mardan. They were identified as Asmatullah, an Afghan
national, Shahzad, a generator mechanic, and his assistant Sirtaj.
Asmatullah is reported to have returned to Multan from Karachi
a few days ago. The brother of Shahzad, the arrested generator
mechanic, was killed in Kashmir and was a member of the outlawed
Sunni group LeJ.
|
|
October 24
|
Two persons were wounded in three
bomb blasts that targeted the offices of the PWD and National
Rural Support Programme at Daggar in the Buner district. The owner
of the building which housed the PWD office said he had received
threats from some people alleging that the government department
was involved in anti-Islam activities.
The army had announced that it
was sending in 2,500 additional troops to Swat to maintain law
and order.
|
|
October 25
|
18 soldiers and two civilians
died and 35 others, including nine civilians, were injured in
a bomb blast aimed at a vehicle carrying FC personnel in the Swat
district. The blast occurred at Nawan Killi, about a kilometer
from Swat city, at around 2:45 pm (PST). It set off an explosion
of ammunition carried inside the military truck, triggering bullet
fire. The blast also damaged 25 shops, a service station, a CNG
station and a petrol pump. Deputy Inspector-General of Police
Akhtar Ali Shah said the evidence suggested a suicide bombing.
A close aide of Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric who heads the pro-Taliban
group TNSM said that the cleric’s supporters were not behind the
blast. "
|
|
October 26
|
Militants publicly executed four
security force personnel in a village, 16-km west of Mingora,
the headquarters of Swat district, and exchanged heavy gunfire
with security forces in a nearby sub-district.
NWFP Home Secretary said two civilians
were killed and another wounded in an encounter between militants
and security forces in Imam Dheri, the village of Maulana Fazlullah,
leader of the TNSM.
|
|
October 27
|
Militants publicly executed two
more security force personnel and seven civilians in the Swat
district, taking the total such killings since October 26 to 13.
Maulana Sirajuddin, spokesman for the pro-Taliban cleric Maulana
Fazlullah, confirmed that they had beheaded the security force
personnel.
|
|
October 28
|
At least 29 people were killed
and 55 others wounded on the third consecutive day of clashes
between Taliban militants and the SFs in the Swat district. The
dead included 15 militants, 11 SF personnel and three civilians.
A girl was killed and 12 civilians injured by stray shells fired
during the fighting between militants and SFs.
Unidentified terrorists attacked
the Peshawar Cantonment with three rockets, one of which landed
at the residence of nationalist leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour, narrowly
missing the US Consulate building in the city. Russian-made MBR-12
rockets were fired through a launcher from Bazidkhel village on
the outskirts of the provincial capital. Two other rockets were
recovered from the spot. No loss of life was reported in the attack.
|
|
October 29
|
Pro-Taliban militants and security
forces agreed to a temporary cease-fire in the Swat district after
four days of clashes in which at least 60 militants were killed.
"There is a temporary (truce) arrangement," said NWFP Inspector
General Police Sharif.
The NWFP Home Secretary Badshah
Gul Wazir said that there were "reports around 60 miscreants were
killed in three days of fighting. The toll could be higher." He
said that a total of 20 security force personnel and civilians
were killed since October 26. Another eight soldiers and four
police personnel were missing, he added.
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|
October 30
|
Six persons were wounded in a
bomb blast inside the office of Sustainable Participatory Organisation,
a non-governmental organization, at Battagram. Police said that
some people had also fired rockets on an army camp and the offices
of Care Pakistan, an international NGO, had come under intense
fire in Battagram on October 29-night.
|
|
October 31
|
Official sources said that a paramilitary
camp in Kanju and an army base in Kabal were attacked, but there
were no casualties.
A supporter of Fazlullah known
as Mullah Nidar warned in a speech over the radio that the militants
may use suicide attackers if the government launched any major
operation in Swat.
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|
October 31-November 1
|
Fierce clashes ensued on October
31-night between the militants and the security forces SFs at
Khwazakhela town in the Swat district with conflicting reports
about casualties. The NWFP Home Secretary, Badshah Gul Wazir,
put the number of casualties at 60-70, all militants, while the
Taliban spokesman claimed that only one of their colleagues and
seven civilians, including two women, were killed. There were,
however, some independent reports of the killing of 56 people,
including 41 militants and 11 SF personnel, and injuries to some
26 persons. According to some reports, a FC camp also came under
the Taliban siege, which the Home Secretary rejected. Sirajuddin,
who is the spokesman and military commander of Maulana Fazlullah,
claimed that they had taken at least 70 paramilitary soldiers
and two foreigners as hostage.
|
|
November 2
|
Militants loyal to pro-Taliban
cleric Maulana Fazlullah paraded 48 SF personnel before the media
in Swat. The SF personnel had surrendered during a week of fierce
clashes. One unnamed soldier said, "The militants told us that
we would not be harmed if we surrender. If not, then the entire
population from the village below will climb up the hill and may
kill you." The soldiers subsequently were given PKR 500 each before
being released. One of the soldiers said that they do not want
to fight with their Muslim brothers who are fighting for the implementation
of Sharia.
Maulana Fazlullah met a delegation
of clerics and local politicians and called for the withdrawal
of troops from Swat to open the way for negotiations to end days
of fighting.
An explosion at the Karkhano Market
of the Peshawar city destroyed at least 14 shops and cabins selling
CDs, TV sets and music albums. The bomb exploded at the junction
of SS and Shinwari Markets and also damaged two electricity transformers.
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|
November 5
|
An army major is injured as a
remote-controlled improvised explosive device hits a Special Services
Group military vehicle in the town of Nowshera. Pabbi police station
official Sardar Hussain says, "The SSG jeep carrying Colonel Sajid
and Major Ayaz was bombed at Daurabad Bridge around 8.15am when
it was coming from Chirat Cantonment to Nowshera." It is reportedly
the second attack on SSG personnel after the force took part in
an operation against Lal Masjid in Islamabad in July 2007.
Sporadic clashes continue between
local Taliban militants and security force personnel in the four
subdivisions of Swat.
|
|
November 5
|
Militants capture Madyan town
and hoist their flags over buildings after security forces surrender.
"They seized Madyan town today, they have already overrun Matta
and Khawazakhela towns," said an unnamed police official. He admitted
that the police gave up their weapons, vehicles and control of
local police stations.
|
|
November 6
|
Pro-Taliban militants captured
one police station, paramilitary force camp and other government
buildings at Kalam, extending their hold over the Swat valley.
Militants loyal to the rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah are reportedly
in control of six tehsils (revenue division), including
Kabal, Matta, Khawazakhela, Charbagh, Maydan and Kalam, out of
the eight tehsils in the Swat district. Militants have ‘appointed’
officials in the towns they control and ‘seized’ government and
non governmental organisation vehicles. Before taking Kalam, the
militants captured the town of Bahrain.
Government continues its crackdown
on political leaders across NWFP and arrested eight Pakistani
Muslim League-Nawaz leaders, two Awami National Party leaders
and dozens of other political activists.
|
|
November 7
|
Government either arrested or
placed under house arrest 10 leaders of the PML-N, the Awami National
Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami in Peshawar.
|
|
November 8
|
A person, Rustam Ali Shah, is
shot dead by an unidentified assailant at his residence in the
Bannu district.
At least 60 Frontier Constabulary
personnel surrender and hand over their weapons to Taliban militants
who besiege Drushkhela camp at Matta tehsil (revenue unit)
of Swat district.
|
|
November 9
|
Three persons are killed and two
others, including a former provincial minister, are injured when
a suicide bomber blows himself up in the house of Federal Minister
for Political Affairs Amir Muqam in Peshawar. The blast occurs
at around 3.45pm (PST) when the minister was having a meeting
with some of his associates at his home in Hayatabad. Muqam, who
is also provincial president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League,
escaped unhurt.
At least two soldiers are killed
and 14 others wounded when a military convoy hits a roadside bomb
near Kabal in the Swat district.
Militants set free all the 51
Frontier Constabulary personnel, who surrendered before the Maulana
Fazlullah-led militants at Darushkhela town in the Matta subdivision.
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|
November 10
|
One shopping complex is destroyed
when a bomb exploded near Police check-post No. 4 at Muslim Bazar
in the Dera Ismail Khan district. Muhammad Asif Ali Wala, the
owner of the shopping complex, said that goods worth PKR 1 million
were completely destroyed.
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|
November 11
|
Militants abduct a cleric, Mufti
Muhammad Ali, from Banday in the Swat district for his alleged
connivance with the security forces. He was also running a private
FM radio station.
|
|
November 12
|
A militant and a civilian were
killed and five other people were injured when Cobra helicopters
and ground forces attacked suspected positions of militants in
the Swat district, after the government deployed army troops to
defeat the militancy in the district.
Security forces arrested a top
militant accused of harbouring al Qaeda insurgents, beheading
troops and supplying arms to TNSM leader Maulana Fazlullah. Major
General Arshad confirmed that security forces had arrested a "top
suspect involved in militancy". "He is under interrogation. The
man identified himself as Parwant and says he is local," he said,
adding the man’s real name was not yet known.
"Yes, the army has taken over
command in Swat from Monday and will lead security forces to eliminate
militancy," military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad
told Dawn from Islamabad.
The militants stated that they
will not surrender or end their movement without achieving their
objectives. "We will lay down arms when the government enforces
Sharia in Swat; otherwise we’re ready to die," Maulana Mohammad
Alam, commander of the militants in Khwazakhela, said at a public
meeting.
|
|
November 13
|
Four militants were killed and
over 50 others injured as army helicopters continued pounding
their positions in various areas of the Swat district late on
November 12-night and early on November 13. Military spokesperson
Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed that four militants were
killed and four or five of their bunkers and an ammunition dump
were destroyed as gunship helicopters targeted their hideouts
in the Sambat area. Another militant check-post in the Kabal revenue
division was also destroyed, he informed, adding that approximately
35 militants were injured in the air-strike.
At least 20 militants were injured
when they tried to attack and capture the Saidu Sharif airport
late on November 12-night, said Gen Waheed, adding that five suspects,
including four locals and one Afghan, were detained by paramilitary
personnel in Chakdara on November 13. He said telephone directories
had been confiscated from the suspects. "Some weapons were also
recovered from their possession," he stated. While the spokesman
said the government was not aware of any civilian deaths during
the operation, locals however said that one civilian was killed
and seven wounded in the aerial strikes on November 12-night and
November 13.
Around 500 local Taliban militants
took over control of Shangla district headquarter Alpuri, occupying
the District Police Office, District Coordination Office and police
lines offices without facing any resistance from the government.
Eyewitnesses said the armed militants urged locals to stay calm
and extend all possible support to them. Alpuri union council
Nazim Sabir told Daily Times that the armed militants, led by
Maulana Muhammad Alam, a close associate of TNSM leader Maulana
Fazlullah, captured the district.
The government imposed a curfew
in Swat, the army said. "The curfew has been imposed to check
the movement of the militants," chief military spokesman Major
General Waheed Arshad told AFP, adding that it would be in force
from midnight November 13 to November 14.
A man died when a bomb exploded
in a cyber café in the Gulbahar police precincts of Peshawar,
capital of the NWFP. Gulbahar Police Station Investigation Officer
Mirza Khan informed that a Russian made bomb, weighing around
700-800 grams, exploded around 2.30pm in the Nihar Net Café located
near the Gulbahar Police Station. Senior Superintendent of Police
Tahir Khan stated that the blast had blown off both hands of the
deceased, and "it seems that he was trying to plant the bomb".
Two police personnel were injured
when over two dozen armed men chanting slogans in favour of the
Taliban hurled two grenades on a police check-post in the Khaki
town of Mansehra district.
|
|
November 14
|
Thirty-three militants, two soldiers
and five civilians were killed as army helicopters continued targeting
Taliban positions in various areas of Swat for the third consecutive
day. Military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP
that 17 militants were killed when gunship helicopters attacked
their vehicle, while the remaining 16 were killed in separate
clashes.
Five civilians, including two
minors, were also killed in bombing by army helicopters in the
Shangla and Kabal revenue divisions. However, the military spokesman
confirmed the deaths of only two civilians.
Eight military personnel were
injured as unidentified militants targeted their convoy with a
remote-controlled bomb in Batkhela.
Security forces and Taliban militants
exchanged fire in the Baily Baba area, located around six kilometres
from Alpuri, the Shangla town taken over by militants on November
13.
Two music centres were destroyed
partially when a bomb planted near Gam Ghol in the Kohat area
exploded. However, no casualties were reported.
Militants blew up another music
centre in Teri Bazaar in the Karak district.
A bomb planted near a girls’ primary
school in Adina, some 18km west of Swabi, exploded, damaging its
boundary wall and windows. No group has claimed responsibility
for the blast, but about 10 days ago a letter sent by the local
Tehrik-i-Taliban to non-governmental organisations and schools
run by them, video centres and internet cafes in the district
had asked them to wind up their activities and businesses.
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|
November 15
|
Thirty more people, including
20 militants and four civilians, were killed and more than 70
others, including 50 civilians, injured as security forces continued
bombing suspected militants’ hideouts in the Shangla and Swat
districts on the third consecutive day. Military spokesperson
Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed that 20 militants were killed
- 12 of them in Shangla and eight in Swat.
The News quoting Army sources
based in the Swat district reports that 20 more militants were
killed when troops backed by helicopter gun ships and artillery
attacked pro-Taliban militants in Kuza Banda, Basham and Shangla.
Six persons, including three women, sustained injuries when gunship
helicopters targeted residential buildings in Kuza Banda and Charbagh.
There are 500 to 700 militants
operating in small groups in different troubled areas of the NWFP,
The News reported. Military spokesperson Major General
Waheed Arshad stated this to a private television channel, while
commenting on the present situation in the Swat district. He said
the militant groups do not have a broad-based support of locals
therefore they terrify peace-loving civilians to co-operate with
them. He claimed that the militants were being supported and funded
from outside the area. There are also reports regarding presence
of some foreign elements, he said adding that there were several
incidents of torture and victimisation of those who did not co-operate
with them.
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|
November 16
|
Police said dozens of militants
were wounded when their hideouts were neutralized in various parts
of Swat district.
Militants captured Puran subdivision
in the Shangla district. Militant spokesman Sirajuddin told The
News that they had captured the subdivision and later handed
it over to a commission of local pro-Taliban Ulema (clerics) and
elders on the condition they would not allow the security forces
and police in the town. "They signed an agreement with us and
promised physical and financial assistance," he claimed. He said
that the Ulema and elders would now run affairs of the subdivision,
as police and other government officials had disappeared before
militants’ arrival. Residents in Puran said after their arrival
in the town, the militants set up check-posts at Yakh Tangi, Dherai
Top on Chakesar Road and Dua village. "By capturing both the subdivisions
– Alpuri and Puran – they virtually took hold of the whole Shangla
district," said a local union council official.
|
|
November 17
|
Pakistan Army accelerated its
operation in the Swat and Shangla districts killing 20 militants.
Officials and local residents told that artillery and mortar shelling
forced the militants to retreat from Alpuri subdivision, which
serves as district headquarters of Shangla. Military spokesman
Major-General Waheed Arshad told that security forces targeted
militant hideouts and positions in different areas of Shangla
district, killing 20 militants and injuring several others. He
further said that Alpuri was cleared of militants.
|
|
November 18
|
More than 40 people, including
10 civilians, were killed in the Swat and Shangla districts when
gunship helicopters and security forces continued targeting militants’
hideouts and faced retaliation. Approximately 30 civilians were
injured in the prolonged shelling by military choppers and artillery
in the two districts. Military spokesperson Major General Waheed
Arshad said that the security forces continued pounding militants’
strongholds in both the regions but said he did not have the actual
death toll suffered by the militants on November 18. Gen Waheed
also termed a claim made by militants’ spokesman Sirajuddin to
have killed 45 Pakistani soldiers in the Belay Baba area of Shangla
district as baseless and ridiculous, saying that when the ground
forces did not take part in any kind of activity, then how did
they kill the soldiers.
The military spokesperson disclosed
that about 120 militants had been killed in the past few days,
with five soldiers also dying in the clashes.
A railway employee died in a
bomb blast at a railway track near the Ajab Khan area, in the
Azakhel police precincts of Nowshera district.
|
|
November 19
|
Thirty-five more persons, including
16 Taliban militants and seven soldiers, were killed in fresh
clashes between the security forces (SFs) and militants.
Thousands of people started fleeing
their villages in the Kabal sub-division after announcements were
made by SFs asking them to leave the area, as the army was set
to launch a massive operation against what it called terrorists
hiding there. Unnamed officials stated that over 500,000 people
have so far fled the region. Majority of them shifted downtowns
mostly to Malakand Agency, Mardan, Charsadda, Nowshera, Peshawar
and Islamabad. Meanwhile, militants reportedly made announcements
asking people not to leave their homes as they had arranged suicide
bombers in case SFs came out of their bases to attack them.
In what appears to be a revenge
action for sectarian killings at Parachinar in the FATA, the Taliban
beheaded three truck drivers near Darra Adamkhel. The drivers
belonging to the Juzara and Marai areas of Kohat district had
been abducted by the Taliban on November 18-evening when they
were passing through the Darra Adamkhel bazaar on their way to
the troubled Kurram Agency. The three were identified as Islam,
Fateh Ali and Rafique. After the incident, a mosque in Darra Bazaar
came under fire when prayers were in progress. Six people were
injured in the attack. Tribesmen reportedly chased the culprits
and killed one of them and arrested another. Later, the Taliban
took away the body from the Zarghunkhel hospital. According to
unconfirmed reports, the Taliban had abducted three more people
from Darra Adamkhel after checking their national identity cards.
|
|
November 20
|
At least 30 more militants loyal
to the pro-Taliban group TNSM were killed in clashes with security
forces (SFs) in the Swat valley of NWFP, the army said. The latest
deaths take the toll reported by the army from a week of fighting
to around 150. "Our offensive against militants has been continuing
since last night and there are reports that 20 to 30 more militants
have been killed," military spokesperson Major General Waheed
Arshad told AFP. Maulana Fazlullah’s spokesman, meanwhile,
claimed that 15 soldiers had been killed and their weapons seized
in the Shangla district, but the calm could not be confirmed from
independent sources, Dawn reported.
Waheed said troops were now controlling
a key road in Swat's Shangla district, which leads to Alpuri.
Residents in different areas of Swat valley said that gunfire
continued and helicopters hovered in the sky as scores of people
abandoned their homes in the Dagai and Akhund Kalai areas of Kabal
sub-division.
Civilians were reported fleeing
in large numbers from various parts of Shangla and the government
sought the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
to set up four relief camps.
Militants attacked a police station
in the Kabal area and three rockets landed near an army camp.
No casualty was reported in the incidents.
A police constable was wounded
in a bomb attack on a police station in the Rustam village of
Mardan district. Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ghulam Mohammad,
said the explosion could be a reaction to the army operation launched
against militants in the Malakand region.
A police post was destroyed in a rocket attack
in Dir Lower. However, there was no casualty.
A locally-manufactured bomb exploded near the
gate of a girls’ high school in Shawa Tehsil Adenzai. The bomb
exploded about half an hour before the school was to open. No
casualty was reported.
The militants were reported to have started abducting
local people, particularly their opponents, in certain areas of
Swat.
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|
November 21
|
Some 52 persons, including 30
militants and 10 civilians, were killed in fresh violence in the
Swat and Shangla districts as the troops and Taliban militants
continued to clash and more villages were emptied of their fleeing
population. On the casualties suffered by the security forces
(SFs), military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad said
three soldiers were killed and five or six sustained injuries
in attacks by militants in the Kabal area of Swat. While he expressed
ignorance about military casualties in the adjoining Shangla district,
unconfirmed reports said seven soldiers were killed in fighting
there. Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman faction) Senator
Rahat Hussain, who belongs to Shangla, and other sources said
seven SF personnel, seven civilians and 30 militants were killed
in the latest round of fighting in the district.
A huge explosion was reported
near the Saidu Sharif airport. SF sources said a car filled with
explosives exploded when it failed to stop at a military checkpoint
and was fired at by the troops. They said the driver was on a
suicide mission and had loaded the car with a big quantity of
explosives. The militants’ spokesman Sirajuddin, based in Mamdheray
village near Mingora city, admitted that the car was being used
for a suicide bombing attack.
Unidentified terrorists attacked
the Bannu Cantonment with nine rockets that landed at different
places. No report of casualty was, however, received from any
part of the Cantonment as the rockets mostly landed on barren
land.
|
|
November 22
|
Another 25-30 militants and 13
civilians were killed and several soldiers injured in fighting
in the Swat and Shangla districts even as the exodus of villagers
continued. Military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad informed
that 25-30 militants were killed in fighting in Shangla. He said
the Army used gunship helicopters and artillery and mortar guns
to target the militant hideouts and evicted them from Shangla.
He admitted that six to seven soldiers were wounded in the fighting
in Shangla and an unspecified number of troops sustained injuries
in Swat.
The militants released two paramilitary
soldiers in the presence of reporters in Mamdheray village, the
headquarters of TNSM chief Maulana Fazlullah located across the
River Kabul from Mingora city. The duo disclosed that they were
captured by the Taliban at Salanda village near Manglawar in Swat
and kept in a dark room bereft of sunshine. They also said they
had seen the bearded Army major and six other soldiers who were
abducted by the militants near Shamozai area in Swat in Taliban
custody.
Official sources said the military’s
signal corps had blocked Maulana Fazlullah’s FM radio and the
militants in control of Fazlullah seminary on the banks of River
Swat had pulled down their antenna. The military has set up five
of their own FM channels, including one using Fazlullah’s radio
frequency, to block the cleric’s broadcasts.
The NWFP caretaker government
sent a delegation of two ministers and the Inspector General of
Police and the Home Secretary to a hospital in the provincial
capital Peshawar to hold talks with the ailing TNSM leader Maulana
Sufi Mohammad and seek his assistance in defusing the volatile
situation in Swat and Shangla districts.
Eight video and music shops were
badly damaged by a powerful bomb blast at the Punjab Regimental
Centre market in the Mardan district. However, no loss of life
or injuries was reported.
|
|
November 23
|
Fifteen more people were killed
in continuing clashes between the security forces (SFs) and militants
in the Swat and Shangla districts. The residents said Pakistan
Army's Cobra helicopters were seen in the air pounding militants'
positions at Kotki, Dherai, Yakh Tangi, Ghorband and other remote
small villages mostly situated on hilltops. Sources said militants
vacated Alpuri, the district headquarters of Shangla, and took
positions in the nearby mountains. Military spokesperson Major
General Waheed Arshad disclosed that gunship choppers, artilleries
and mortars targeted militants' hideouts in different places of
Shangla, inflicting heavy losses on them.
The paramilitary Mahsud Scouts
detained two injured Uzbek fighters clad in women’s dress at the
Fiza Gat checkpoint in Swat.
|
|
November 25
|
Security forces claimed that they
had killed 30 militants and captured two strategic mountain positions
of militants and key routes to Imam Dehri in the Swat valley.
Troops, backed by artillery and helicopter gun-ships, captured
the key positions of Najia Top and Usmani Sar after shelling the
Imam Dehri, Koza Banda and Bara Banda areas. According to a military
press release, 30 militants had been killed in the operation since
November 24-night. It further said that two soldiers had been
killed and two others injured in the operation. There were also
reports of some civilians killed by the artillery fire.
An unnamed commander of the Khan
Khitab alias Baba group, which controlled the Matta sub-division,
was reportedly killed.
The military said that security
forces had cleared the area up to Imam Dheri and captured key
mountain heights.
The militants’ spokesman Sirajuddin
insisted that 25 soldiers were killed in the fighting and another
20 had been besieged near Mam Dheri, the village of Maulana Fazlullah,
and the headquarters of his group.
The supply of food and daily-use
items has reportedly been disrupted to the Swat, Upper Dir, Lower
Dir and Chitral districts and Malakand Agency because the main
approach road, Mardan-Malakand Road, had been blocked to all kinds
of vehicular traffic since November 24-afternoon. Cellular-phone
services have been jammed while landline telephones have gone
collapsed in the Shangla, Swat and Battagram districts. A large
number of people who wanted to move to safer areas from Swat,
were reportedly stranded on the roadside, in fields and gas stations
and other places on the Mingora-Malakand road. The government
has been slow to set up camps for the displaced people at Barikot
in Swat and far away in Risalpur in the Nowshera district, reports
added.
|
|
November 26
|
Security forces (SFs) used artillery
and gunship helicopters on pro-Taliban militants in the Swat valley,
killing 40 militants, including two commanders, and losing four
soldiers, said military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad.
He said five more soldiers were injured in the operation. Arshad
informed Daily Times that the hilltops had been cleared,
while SFs were now advancing towards areas where the militants
had taken refuge.
Militants' sources claimed 14
SF personnel were killed in fighting in the Najia hills, according
to The News. They said they were still holding their positions
in Mam Dherai, village of TNSM leader Maulana Fazlullah and headquarters
of his group, and other nearby villages.
Three civilians, including a child,
were killed and an unspecified number of them were injured in
firing by the SFs. Villagers said a man was shot dead in the Kabal
sub-division. In the second incident, one Karim and his unidentified
younger brother were killed walking in the fields while on the
way to Aligrama via Sarsenay village.
Five soldiers were injured when
a military convoy was attacked in a roadside bomb blast triggered
by remote-control near the Police Lines in Mingora city.
The Swat operation would be completed
before elections, caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan
told reporters in Islamabad.
A bomb exploded in the Government
Girls Primary School in the village of Sher Bahadur near the provincial
capital Peshawar, destroying the main gate, windows, doors and
boundary wall of the school. However, no loss of life or injuries
was reported.
|
|
November 27
|
After suffering huge losses, the
militants in Swat vacated all the seized police stations and other
government buildings and decided to go underground while the government
closed down all the FM radio channels in the district, including
the one run by TNSM leader Maulana Fazlullah.
In the adjoining Shangla district,
the security forces (SFs) retook the main town Alpuri from the
militants and forced them to retreat to the nearby mountains.
Military officials in Mingora
said four militants were killed in clashes with the SFs.
Maulana Fazlullah directed, through
his FM radio channel, his armed followers at around 11:45 pm to
stop fighting and shift to safer places and wait for his other
important message regarding the future line of action.
Owners of garment shops in capital
Peshawar have either removed the mannequins used for displaying
dresses or covered them with clothes after receiving threatening
letters from militants.
|
|
November 28
|
Military authorities said they
had evicted militants from most of the troubled areas in the Swat
valley while all the displaced government officials returned to
their jobs in Shangla district after the retreat of Maulana Fazlullah-led
militants from their positions in the district headquarters of
Alpuri. Major Amjad Iqbal, the military spokesman in Mingora,
told reporters that the majority of militants were either killed
or had escaped to the mountains after the security forces (SFs)
targeted them in their hideouts. He said 230 militants had so
far been killed in clashes with the SFs in the Swat and Shangla
districts. He said most of the militants were killed in Shangla
while their death toll in Swat was 56.
Maulana Muhammad Alam, a close
aide of Maulana Fazlullah, made a speech from his mobile FM radio
in which he denied that the militants had left their positions.
He claimed that the real battle against the SFs had started now
and would continue indefinitely.
Unidentified miscreants fired
about six rockets at Police Lines in Tank in the early hours.
The rockets, however, landed in a deserted area, and no casualties
were reported.
|
|
November 29
|
At least 12 civilians were killed
and 11 others wounded when helicopter gun-ships pounded the Allahabad
village of Swat district. Police and residents said a two-year-old
boy and his mother were among the dead, who otherwise were mostly
males aged 16 to 22, AFP reported. However, military spokesperson
Major Amjad Iqbal told Reuters that he had no information
about civilian casualties in the village but confirmed that a
clash had occurred there after militants fired rockets at troops.
Officials claimed to have arrested
20 militants, including a brother of TNSM leader Maulana Fazlullah.
Frontier Corps personnel arrested Maulana Fazal Ahmed, the brother
of Maulana Fazlullah, at the Ghaligai check-post, outside Mingora
on the Peshawar-Swat road. Among the other 19 militants who were
detained near Fizzagut was one Daud, who is said to be a nephew
of Sirajuddin, the militants’ spokesman in Mingora. Official sources
said that one of the detained militants was a would-be suicide
bomber and he possessed a jacket meant for such attacks.
The district administration and
police have reportedly started functioning in Alpuri, the headquarters
of Shangla district, whereas security forces have been pounding
some areas in the district to flush out militants.
A large number of militants attacked
a forest check-post at Kalpani in Barawal, a town of Dir Upper
District along the border with Afghanistan, and destroyed it completely.
The assailants used rockets in the attack that were followed by
indiscriminate firing that wounded two police officials, one each
from the Upper and Lower Dir districts.
|
| November
30 |
A
Swat Media Information Centre spokesman told reporters that 11 militants
were arrested at Ayub Bridge in Kanju and that the security forces
had seized weapons and explosive material from their possession.
Around 50 suspects were detained by the security forces in Mingora
city. |
|
December 2
|
The
local Taliban killed three people and injured five others in an
attack on a cockfight fare at the Shene Ghundae village in the Shabqadar
dub-division of Charsadda district. Witnesses said the weekly fare
was in progress when a group of militants appeared from nowhere
and opened indiscriminate fire on the people. Three persons, Nawar,
Bismillah Jan and Mohammad Ali were killed on the spot. A spokesman
for the local Taliban, Abdu Nauman Askari, said that they had earlier
warned Akhtiar Khan, the organiser of the cockfighting fare and
alleged ringleader of gambling dens in the area, to abandon the
‘anti-Islam’ practices.
In the provincial
capital Peshawar, a CD shop was damaged when a bomb exploded in
Zargerabad while another explosive planted beside a CDs market
in Mohallah Faisalabad was defused before it could explode. No
loss of life or injuries was reported.
Security forces occupied
two important mountain tops which had been recently vacated by
militants in their stronghold of Matta sub-division in the Swat
district. People in Pir Kalay said the militants had abandoned
the posts a few days ago and retreated to the Puchaar area near
the sub-division’s border with Dir district.
A Frontier Corps
(FC) spokesperson in Swat said 22 militants had been arrested
at the FC checkpoint at Ayub Bridge in Kanju, two each at Fizzagut
and another two at Landaki. Among those arrested are Afghan national
Waheedullah, who allegedly headed the propaganda wing of the militants;
Maulana Ghaniur Rehman, a cleric of Imam Dehri in Swat; and Mohammad
Iqbal, believed to be a financer of the militants.
|
|
December 3
|
The army destroyed a petrol and
ammunitions depot used by militants in the Swat district with
heavy artillery fire from helicopter gun-ships. Fuel supply to
the militants has been suspended after the destruction of a key
petrol station in the Kooz Shor area of Matta sub-division, said
Amjad Iqbal, a military spokesman at the Swat Media Centre.
Security forces seized sophisticated
weapons and explosives from a house in the Nangolai area of Kabal
sub-division, said Iqbal. Troops have taken control of the area
between Kanjoo and Baryam Chowk of Swat, he added. He informed
that troops had set up check posts at Pir Kalay and Barymam Chowk
- areas previously controlled by the militants.
Unidentified militants blew up
a video shop situated on the Mardan-Malakand road. However, no
loss of life or injuries was reported. Earlier, unidentified men
distributed pamphlets in residential areas of Mardan warning people
to halt ‘un-Islamic’ businesses, or face consequences.
A CD shop and a barber shop were
blown up in the Sheikh Mohammadzai area of provincial capital
Peshawar. The owner of the CD shop, Daud Khan, told police that
they had received threats from some people.
The Frontier Corps (FC) seized
a huge quantity of arms in Swat in two separate raids. FC soldiers
raided a girls’ school at Mingalai and a shop near the Mingora
Airport on a tip-off and seized two suicide vests, six rocket
launchers, 250 rocket shells, four drums of improvised explosive
devices, 50 anti-personnel mines, one car, dozens of Kalashnikovs
and bullets.
Security forces arrested 30 militants,
including a commander. Among the detainees was militants' head
in Khwazakhela, ‘Commander’ Liaqat.
|
|
December 4
|
In the first such attack of its
kind, a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a high security
zone in Peshawar. Except for the suicide bomber, who was said
to be in her mid-30s, no other casualty was reported in the blast.
Peshawar police chief Tanveerul Haq Sipra said the bomber blew
herself up when she was stopped at a military check-post on the
on Babar Road. Sipra said the woman’s belly was blown up while
her chest, face and legs were intact. "From her body parts, we
have confirmed the gender of the bomber. She seems to be an Afghan
and around 34 years of age," he added.
|
|
December 6
|
Security forces captured Imam
Dheri, headquarters of the pro-Taliban militant leader Maulana
Fazlullah of the TNSM, and the Khwazkhela area in Swat district.
The army also blew up the houses of Fazlullah and his spokesman
Maulana Sirajuddin, besides seizing several weapons, computers
and some bottles of liquor from the site. The liquor was believed
to be seized at militants’ check-posts from people. A militant,
however, denied that the liquor belonged to them and termed it
‘a drama’. "They are in control of that area and they can stage
any drama they want. It has nothing to do with us," said Afsar
Khan.
Two militants were killed in the
Shakardara area near the Usmani Sar mountain. They were reported
to be carrying a rocket-launcher and were planning an attack on
the forces from the mountaintop.
Five CD and video shops were blown
up at Chota Lahor in the Swabi district. Official sources informed
that the blasts also damaged two other shops and adjacent buildings.
A leaflet in Urdu distributed a few days ago asked shop-owners
to close their businesses or face consequences.
Police in the provincial capital
Peshawar arrested two persons, identified as Aman and Baz Mohammed,
and recovered automatic weapons and ammunition from their possession.
The arms and ammunition were apparently being smuggled to Punjab.
|
|
December 7
|
A policeman and a militant were
killed and three policemen were injured when a check-post came
under attack in the Charsadda district. Police sources said that
about 15 militants had attacked the post, some 18 kilometres north
of Charsadda city, at about 1am. Police subsequently returned
fire, killing a militant.
Security forces arrested 22 militants
from the Mingora and Matta areas of Swat district. Military spokesman
Major General Waheed Arshad said that the militants were arrested
while they were trying to flee from the area. He said those apprehended
were accomplices of TNSM leader Maulana Fazlullah and were involved
in subversive activities.
|
|
December 8
|
The Pakistan Army claimed that
it has cleared almost all militants from Swat after killing 290
rebels and arresting another 143 in recent weeks. Major General
Nasser Janjua said 20,000 troops backed by helicopter gun ships
and artillery had driven the militants out of their strongholds
in an ongoing military operation. "Fazlullah is still on the run
with hardcore militants estimated to be between 200 to 400, including
some foreigners," Janjua told reporters in Mingora.
A girls’ school was damaged in
a bomb blast in Ahmed Shah village near the provincial capital
Peshawar. Teachers and students of the Government Girls Middle
School had earlier received several warning letters asking them
to start wearing the veil.
Security forces arrested 24 suspected
militants in the Kanjoo and Baryam Top areas, including a confidante
of Maulana Fazlullah identified as Maulana Muhammad Esa.
|
|
December 9
|
Three police personnel and seven
civilians, including two children, were killed and a child was
wounded in a car bombing in the Swat district. The suicide bomber
detonated his explosive-laden jeep when he was stopped at the
Ningolai check-post in Kabal sub-division at around 11.15am. According
to a bomb disposal official, about 10kg to 15kg of explosives
were used in the blast. "It was a suicide attack," said Swat Media
Centre spokesman Major Amjad Iqbal.
Bodies of three people, abducted
by militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah some three months ago,
was found in the Arkot area of Matta sub-division.
Security forces arrested four
people, including Maulana Rasheed, a candidate for a National
Assembly seat from Swat, on charges of having links with the militants.
Maulana Rasheed was part of a team which had earlier negotiated
with the government on behalf of Maulana Fazlullah in the past.
Two missiles landed near the runway
of the Pakistan Air Force base in Peshawar. However, no loss of
life or injuries was reported.
|
|
December 10
|
Five persons, including four of
a family and a child, were killed and another child was injured
when Army neutralised suspected militant hideouts with artillery
in the Chaparyal and Venai areas of Swat district.
Provincial government spokesman
Amjad Iqbal said that seven soldiers escaped from captivity after
overpowering their Taliban guards.
Seven people, including a would-be
suicide bomber, and one foreign national were detained in Kanjoo
and Mingora.
Houses of Maulana Fazlullah’s
aides, Akbar Hussain and Ishaq, were demolished by locals in the
Kabal sub-division.
Major Amjad Iqbal, a spokesman
of the government media centre in Mingora, disclosed that five
militants having close links with Maulana Fazlullah of the TNSM
were arrested – three from Kabal and two from Mingora.
|
|
December 11
|
Troops launched artillery attack
on suspected militant hideouts near the Piochar and Loe Namal
towns in the Swat district on December 10-night, killing 20 militants
and injuring at least 15 others. "According to our information,
20 militants were killed while 10-15 were injured on Monday night,"
military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.
The army said in a statement that
it detained a man in the Khwazakhela town for allegedly recruiting,
training and harboring suicide bombers. It said the suspect was
affiliated with the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). A cache of
arms, bombs, fake passports and an FM radio transmitter were reportedly
seized from his house.
Militants publicly executed an
alleged outlaw, Dildar, wanted by the Kohat police in connection
with two murder cases in Darra Adamkhel. Local Taliban chief Tariq
claimed that the accused had ‘confessed’ to having killed six
people for money and refused to leave the area. He had been captured
on December 9.
Four CD and video shops were destroyed
in separate bomb blasts in the Badha Bera Bazaar and adjoining
areas of provincial capital Peshawar. No loss of life or injuries
was reported. Owners of CD and video shops had recently received
anonymous letters, asking them to close their business. The letters
stated that selling of CDs was un-Islamic and it spread obscenity.
|
|
December 12
|
Troops killed 20 militants in
an ongoing operation against supporters of Maulana Fazlullah of
the TNSM in the Swat district. Troops targeted suspected hideouts
of the militants in the valley’s Puchaar and Loee Namal towns.
The operation, which commenced on December 11-night, continued
the next day, in which 20 militants were killed, AFP reported.
Provincial government spokesman Amjad Iqbal said that the troops
"extensively engaged militant locations, which resulted in a number
of militant casualties."
Troops shot dead a man and wounded
two others for violating curfew restrictions in the Fizaghat town.
|
| December 13 |
A woman was killed and two others
sustained injuries in the shelling by security forces at Peochar,
a militant stronghold, in the Swat district. However, officials
refused to confirm or deny the shelling.
Security forces arrested 14 militants,
including a close aide of Maulana Fazlullah, and continued to
target militant strongholds in the Swat district. "Maulvi Bashir
was among the 14 militants arrested. The arrests were made during
search operations in Matta, Kanju and Fizaghat," said security
officials.
A policeman was injured in a rocket
attack in Bannu.
|
| December 14 |
Maulana Fazlullah’s brother reportedly
asked the TNSM chief to surrender. Fazle Ahad - who was arrested
by security forces at the beginning of the military operation
- said in a message aired on government-run radio: "Fighting the
government is not in the interest of Pakistan and the nation.
Therefore, militants have to lay down their weapons."
Taliban militants from tribal
areas and some districts of the NWFP decided to set up a centralised
organisation for a joint war against the US and NATO forces in
Afghanistan and appointed Baitullah Mehsud as their Central Amir
(chief), a spokesman for the militant commander told Dawn.
The militants have named their movement as Tehrik Taliban-i-Pakistan
and said the aim of the movement was to enforce Sharia (Islamic
law) in their respective areas. The decision was taken at a meeting
of 40 Taliban leaders, held in an undisclosed place in South Waziristan.
"The sole objective of the Shura meeting was to unite the
Taliban against NATO forces in Afghanistan and to wage a ‘defensive
jihad’ against Pakistani forces here," Baitullah’s spokesman
Maulana Omar said.
|
| December 15 |
A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden
bicycle into a military check-post, killing five persons and injuring
11 others in Nowshera. The District Police Officer Mubarak Zeb
said that six people, including the suicide bomber, were killed
as he detonated himself at the entrance of the Army Supply Corps
centre.
Security forces arrested seven
suspected militants from Kuza Banda village near Maulana Fazalullah’s
native area of Imam Dehri, on December 15-night. The military
stated that Abdul Shakoor, a cleric suspected of having issued
decrees in support of beheading soldiers, and his four sons were
among the seven persons detained. Mohammad, one of the sons of
the cleric, was allegedly preparing for a suicide bombing mission
and a jacket used for such attacks is reported to have been found
in their possession.
|
| December 17 |
At least 12 army recruits were
killed and two wounded in a suicide attack near the Army Public
College in the heart of the Kohat cantonment area. The recruits
were returning to their barracks after the morning exercise when
a boy aged 15 to 17 years rushed towards them and blew himself
up. Ten recruits were killed on the spot and two others died later
in hospital.
Three women were injured in a
bomb blast outside the Frontier Constabulary’s (FC) headquarters
in the Oghi sub-division of Mansehra district. Police said the
bomb which damaged the wall of the FC headquarters had been planted
near a house.
Suspected militants detonated
two bombs that damaged the shrine of Abdul Shakoor Malang Baba
situated in the limits of Chamkani Police station in provincial
capital Peshawar. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported.
SFs recovered an explosive laden
vehicle during a search operation against militants in the Swat
valley.
|
| December 18 |
Four security force (SF) personnel,
including two captains, were reported missing from Kohat. A police
officer told BBC that the two officers of fourteenth division,
along with two soldiers, were going from Dera Ismail Khan to the
provincial capital Peshawar, but they suddenly disappeared after
entering Kohat. He said there was no contact with them since December
17-evening. They are believed to have been kidnapped by Taliban
between Darra Adamkhel and Mattani. Their vehicle was also taken
away.
Troops arrested two militants
who are believed to be close associates of TNSM chief Maulana
Fazlullah at Bariam check-post.
Militants lobbed a bomb at a police
post on Ring Road in the precincts of Yakatoot Police Station,
Yakatoot Police Station Moharir Watan Khan said, adding that there
were no casualties.
Security forces (SFs) arrested
eight suspected militants and targeted militant positions in the
Puchar and Manjad areas of Swat district. SFs destroyed several
militant hideouts and the eight people arrested from the Baryam
Pul and Fizagat checkpoints were said to be close aides of the
TNSM chief Maulana Fazlullah.
|
|
December 19
|
Suspected militants bombed an audio-cassettes
shop in the Chamkani Police Station limits of Peshawar. The blast
damaged the shop, but no casualties were reported.
|
|
December 20
|
An internet centre and two CD shops were blown
up in various areas of Peshawar. According to police, the explosives
had been planted inside the shops. An unnamed senior police official
said the explosion left police with no other option but to force
the owners of internet centres, snooker clubs, CD and video shops
to close their businesses, which was not being tolerated by the
Taliban.
|
|
December 21
|
At least 50 persons were killed and 80 others
injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of
worshippers offering Id-ul-Adha prayers at the Markazi Jamia Masjid
Sherpao in Charsadda, 20-km from Peshawar. The apparent target
was Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the Interior Minister in the just-dissolved
government, who was among the worshippers. The former Minister,
however, escaped unhurt in the attack, but his son Mustafa was
among the wounded. The mosque is located next to the former Minister’s
home and was packed with more than 1,000 worshippers at the time
of the attack.
In the Kohat district, armed Taliban militants
intruded into the heavily guarded office of the Assistant Political
Agent of Kohat, tied up his guards and some officers with ropes
and looted cash and weapons. They also took away two vehicles.
|
|
December 23
|
Nine civilians and four security force personnel
were killed and more than 25 persons wounded in a suicide attack
on a military convoy in Mingora in the Swat district. According
to an army press release issued in Rawalpindi, at 18:00 hrs a
suicide bomber who was riding a vehicle blew himself up near Mehboob
Petrol Pump in Mingora city killing 13 persons and injuring 25
others. The convoy was returning after carrying out counter-insurgency
operations in the various areas of Khwazakhela and Charbagh in
Swat district when it was attacked. Claiming responsibility for
the suicide attack on the convoy, Taliban spokesman Sirajuddin
told Daily Times via telephone that the Taliban had started their
suicide attacks on security forces from December 23. He said Baitullah
Mehsud had earlier given a 10-day ultimatum to the government
to end the military operation in Swat.
A military convoy in the Kot area was hit by
a remote-controlled explosive device. However, no causality was
reported.
A bomb blast damaged three grocery shops in the
Jahangira bazaar of Swabi district. Unidentified militants planted
a bomb weighing one kilogram bomb outside the shop owned by Rehman-ul-Haq.
It was the first incident wherein the militants had targeted a
grocery shop.
A bomb blast at the office of a cable operator
in Mardan district has reportedly prompted other cable operators
to close down their services in protest. The explosion, besides
destroying the cable operator’s office also partially damaged
the nearby election office of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party.
A CD shop was blown up in the Irfan Market in
the Lower Azakhel area of Nowshera district. Police said the blast
was of low intensity and it caused no casualties or damage to
adjacent shops.
In an operation in Charbagh, the security forces
(SFs) blew up the house of a local Taliban commander, Rasheed
Ahmad, while in a similar operation in Gulibagh, the madrassa
(seminary) of a Taliban commander, Maulana Mushtaq, was also
blown up by the SFs.
The death toll in the suicide bombing at a mosque
in the Sherpao town of Charsadda district on December 21 has reportedly
increased to 60. Two Afghan refugees were among four suspects
arrested in connection with the suicide attack. Security officials
said the men, one of them a seminary student as well as a local
prayer leader, were arrested in addition to two others detained
earlier.
|
|
December 24
|
Two persons were shot dead by the security forces
for violating the curfew in the Swat area. One of the dead was
identified as Akbar Zada, while the identity of the other is not
known.
The number of those killed in December 23 suicide
attack in the Mingora area of Swat district increased to 14 as
two more dead bodies, identified as Sakeena of Madian and Nawab
of Amankot, were recovered from the blast scene.
Several trenches were destroyed as several gunship
helicopters pounded Taliban positions in the Bamakhela area of
Matta tehsil (administrative division) in Swat. The Mingora
Media Centre in-charge Colonel Nadeem said that the helicopters
had targeted Taliban positions at Bamakhela. He, however, did
not disclose the number of militant casualties.
|
|
December 25
|
Security forces (SFs) blew up the hujra (living
quarters) of Mahmood Khan, an associate of TNSM leader Maulana
Fazlullah, in the Hazara village of Kabal subdivision in the Swat
district. The government’s media centre alleged that the building
was being used as a centre for planning terrorist activities.
It claimed that the house and a seminary run by Mahmood had been
left untouched on "humanitarian grounds".
SFs also claimed arresting Alam Khan, another
associate of Maulana Fazlullah, near the Fizzagut checkpoint.
Police defused an explosive device planted along
the roadside at Kot village in the Charbag area.
|
|
December 26
|
A music centre situated in the Bano Market of
Dera Ismail Khan was blown up. While no loss of life or injuries
was reported, the explosion damaged at least 40 shops and a transformer
in the area.
Unidentified people blew up the office of a cable
TV network situated on the Agha Mir Jani Shah Road in the provincial
capital Peshawar. Sources said that the owner of the office, Ejaz
Hussein, had been threatened to close the business.
Security forces arrested 18 militants from different
locations in the Swat district, said a press release of the Media
Information Centre in Mingora. These militants were involved in
terrorist activities, it said, adding the militants' hideouts
were also attacked in Piochar and Gorra.
Police arrested a would-be suicide bomber who
tried to enter the rally of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
in Peshawar. The 15-year-old boy, who had a small bomb consisting
of dynamite and nails, was caught at the security checkpoint by
the police, said local police officer Rahim Shah.
Militants abducted 10 policemen after blowing
up a checkpoint of the Haivad police station in Bannu.
In Dara Adamkhel, the local Taliban brought down
billboards, posters and banners of all candidates for the NA-47,
tribal territory-12 seat and warned of ‘dire consequences’ if
these are put up again. The Taliban reportedly took the step on
the directive of their ‘high command’, claiming that it was needed
to prevent clashes among supporters of the candidates over sites
for displaying election material. The NA-47, Dara Adamkhel constituency
comprises parts of the Frontier Region Kohat, Peshawar, Bannu,
Lakkai, Tank, and Frontier Region areas of Dera Ismail Khan.
|
|
December 27
|
Two police personnel sustained injuries when
the vehicle they were traveling in was hit by a remote controlled
explosive device in the Buner district.
|
|
December 28
|
The former Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam
(PML-Q) minister, Asfandyar Amirzaib and eight others were killed
and several others injured in a roadside bomb explosion near the
Manglore village of Swat district.
|
|
December 30
|
Suspected local Taliban militants attacked Matta
police station in the Swat district. The militants fled away when
police retaliated. This is the first attack on the police station
since security forces recaptured it from the militants last month,
said official sources.
The security forces targeted the hideouts of
suspected militants in the Piochar and Totano Bada areas.
Unidentified people set ablaze the house of local
militant commander Nisar in the Shor area of Matta. One more house
was destroyed in artillery fire in the same area. However, no
casualties were reported in these incidents.
Unidentified assailants fired rockets at a police
check-post in the Mardan district. However, no loss of life or
injuries was reported. Even as police opened retaliatory firing,
the assailants managed to escape from the incident site.
|
|
December 31
|
The troops arrested eight militants, including
one suspected suicide bomber, at Ayub Bridge and Fiza Ghat check
post in Swat.
|