Over 50 dead in three weekend suicide attacks in Pakistan

A Pakistani policeman in Peshawar. Unidentified gunmen with assault rifles early shot dead four policemen and injured another in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, police said.(AFP/File/Tariq Mahmood)


Over 50 dead in three weekend suicide attacks in Pakistan
Posted: 15 July 2007 2019 hrs

ISLAMABAD: Suicide bombers killed more than 50 people in three weekend attacks in Pakistan, police said Sunday, after Islamic militants called for holy war over a deadly army raid on a pro-Taliban mosque.
At least 14 people were killed Sunday in a blast at a police recruitment centre in North West Frontier Province, hours after two explosives-packed cars plowed into an army convoy in the province's Swat Valley, claiming 17 lives.
The previous day, a suicide car bomber killed 24 people in a similar attack on a paramilitary convoy in North Waziristan tribal region, launching the string of attacks that has also left scores of troops and civilians wounded.
The bloodshed came amid outrage across the mainly Muslim nation over the army's raid last week on Islamabad's Red Mosque, which has saddled President Pervez Musharraf with the worst crisis since he took power in 1999.
The army attack that killed 86, mostly militants, led Al-Qaeda's number two to call for jihad against the Pakistan government, which has sent thousands of troops into remote tribal areas to try to keep a lid on bubbling popular anger.
Pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan scrapped a controversial peace accord reached with the government last year, in which the tribal groups had promised to hunt down foreign fighters in return for security assurances.
The Taliban Shura (Taliban Council) said in pamphlets that it would refuse all dialogue and cooperation with authorities after the government had failed to meet a Sunday deadline to abandon 25 new military checkpoints.
"We had signed the agreement for the safety and protection of the lives and property of our people," the statement said. "But the government forces continued to launch attacks on the Taliban and have killed a number of people."
Residents of the town of Miranshah said about 100 local families had left, fearing clashes, and that the town's main bazaar was deserted, while families of government employees had left their homes in the rugged mountain area.
Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad earlier said the latest killings could be revenge attacks over the week-long siege of the Red Mosque which culminated in a bloody two-day raid.
More than 100 people - mainly militants and security personnel - were killed.
Asked if the attacks were in retaliation for the mosque raid, he said: "We can't say much. The militants (in the Red Mosque) had linkages in the tribal areas and northwestern region, so it could be. We are investigating."
Militants last week had attacked police and security posts in the Swat
Valley after local pro-Taliban cleric Maulvi Fazlullah in radio broadcasts urged followers to wage jihad over the mosque attack.
Pakistani army trucks carrying additional troops have rumbled into remote mountain areas in recent days after Musharraf vowed to crush extremists and "root them out from every corner of the country."
Besides the spate of violent attacks on government forces, there has been political fallout in the world's second-largest Muslim nation amid the heightened tensions triggered by the Red Mosque raid.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed - the powerful head of the six-party Islamic alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal - said Saturday he would resign from parliament to protest the raid and the ongoing troop build-up.
The United States has raised pressure on ally Musharraf, the army chief who grabbed power in a coup eight years ago, to do more to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents hiding in Pakistan's rugged lands bordering Afghanistan.
New US intelligence reports suggest Al-Qaeda is gaining strength and has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan for training and plotting new attacks, the Washington Post said last week.
White House national security advisor Stephen Hadley, speaking on US television, said Musharraf had failed to contain al-Qaeda and said his plan to give tribal leaders more autonomy "has not worked the way it should have." - AFP/yy