WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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Pakistan to US after clash: Stay away from border
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-27 07:44 "Pakistan should have reacted against the Americans like this earlier," said Mushtaq Khan. "They started late, but still it is a welcome step." Sarwar Shah, a 45-year-old bus driver who witnessed the incident, said he was happy to see the Pakistan army firing at the helicopters. "If the army needs our help, we will help it against the Americans," Shah said. Pakistani officials have long warned that unilateral US actions in the tribal zone risk alienating residents whose cooperation they need in battling the insurgents. "These incursions strengthen the hands of the militants, that is the result of this," said Talat Masood, a military and political analyst. "You don't want to strengthen them, you want to weaken them." Pakistan has cited its offensive in the northwestern Bajur border region as an example of its commitment to rooting out extremists there. Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan told reporters on an army-organized trip to the area Friday "that the consensus is that more than 1,000" militants had been killed since operations began in early August, including "seven or eight renowned Taliban commanders" as well as Arab and Uzbek fighters. He said 63 troops have died and 212 were wounded. "My timeframe for Bajur is anything from between 1 1/2 to two months to bring about stability," Khan said. Military officials paraded 10 blindfolded and handcuffed men said to be Taliban fighters arrested in the operation. One said he was innocent, adding that he was picked up because he looked like a militant. "I was on my way to my madrassah and ... they arrested me," said the man, who identified himself as Shah Khalid. "They didn't find any weapons with me, they just arrested me because of my hair." The raid in Karachi targeted militants believed to be part of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an extremist group linked to al-Qaida. Police said a tip from a captured member of the group led security forces to the house. The militants were suspected of planning an attack on a "high-profile" target in the city, said Sindh Police Chief Babar Khattak. Officers seized at least 22 pounds of explosives, two suicide jackets, seven pistols and 12 grenades from the house. Violence across Pakistan showed no sign of letting up following last weekend's truck bombing of the Hotel Marriott in Islamabad that killed 53 people. Police raided a militant safehouse in Karachi, sparking a gunfight in which three extremists either blew themselves up or were shot. A handcuffed man held captive and identified as a supplier of fuel and goods to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan also died, said senior police official Aleem Jaffry. |
