SUCIDE BOMBER S ATTACKED PAKISTANI UNIVERSITY, KILL 4 WOUNDED 18
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Suicide bombers attacked an Islamic university popular with foreigners in Pakistan's capital Tuesday, killing four students in apparent retaliation for an escalating army offensive on a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold near the Afghan border.
- An Associated Press reporter close to the battle zone in South Waziristan met a group of Taliban fighters who challenged army claims of progress in the four-day assault, saying they had pushed soldiers back from the strategic town of Kotkai.
- Intelligence officials also said the army had been repelled from the town after being close to taking it. They asked that their names not be used for operational reasons.
- The suicide bombers hit a faculty building and a women's cafeteria at the International Islamic University, where nearly half the students are women and hundreds are foreigners.
- The blasts, which left bits of flesh and body parts strewn on the floor, killed two male and two female students and wounded at least 18 others. The two attackers were also killed, officials said.
- No group claimed responsibility for the attack on what some people thought was a surprising target for Islamist extremists, but the president of the university and authorities said they believed it was the work of militants in the northwest.
THOUSANDS FLEE TRIBAL PAKISTAN LAWLESS REGION AHEAD OF OFFENSIVE
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Tens of thousands of people have fled Pakistan's lawless tribal region ahead of an expected army offensive, officials said Wednesday, as fighter jets pounded Taliban positions.
Source: AFP
- The government in June ordered an operation into the mountainous northwest stronghold of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, but so far only air raids and occasional artillery strikes have hit rebel sanctuaries.
- However, a wave of Taliban attacks in Pakistan killing 125 people since last Monday has stoked fears that the long-awaited ground offensive is looming, sending more people fleeing to neighbouring districts.
- An AFP reporter in Dera Ismail Khan on Wednesday saw dozens of families entering the city in cars and trucks, packed full of belongings the panicked residents had managed to gather before fleeing.
- "Again people have started coming out of the area because of the fear of an army operation," Amir Latif, chief administrative official in Tank district, told AFP.
- Most people were flocking to relatives' homes or were renting houses, while officials said the government planned to establish one refugee camp in Dera Ismail Khan and another in Tank.
- An anti-Taliban offensive in and around northwest Swat valley earlier this year forced nearly two million people from their homes, creating a massive humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country.
PAKISTAN COMMANDOS RESCUE 39 HOSTAGES, 3 KILLED
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: Pakistani commandos stormed an office building on Sunday and rescued 39 people taken hostage by suspected Taliban militants after a brazen attack on the army's headquarters.
Source: Reuters
- The strike at the heart of the powerful military called into question government assertions the militants were virtually crippled by recent setbacks. But officials said it only underlined the need to finish them off.
- "It has been decided, the civilian leadership has decided ... the operation is imminent," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters in an interview in Singapore.
- Three hostages, two commandos and four of the gunmen were killed in the pre-dawn rescue operation, said army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. One wounded gunman was captured and Abbas said he was the ringleader.
- "Now there is no terrorist left there. The operation is over," Abbas told Reuters.
- The United States condemned the latest attack and expressed confidence in the security of its ally's nuclear arsenal.
- Pakistani Taliban militants linked to al Qaeda have launched numerous attacks over the past couple of years, most aimed at the government and security forces, including bomb attacks in Rawalpindi.
- On Saturday, gunmen wearing army uniforms attacked the army headquarters, killing six soldiers including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel in a gunbattle at a main gate.
DEADLY BLAST HITS PAKISTANI MOSQUE
At least 22 people have been killed after a suicide bomber detonated a device at the entrance to a Shia mosque in north-east Pakistan, police say.Dozens of others were injured in the blast south of the capital, Islamabad.
A religious congregation attended by upwards of 1,000 people was taking place at the mosque in the Chakwal area of Punjab province.
A day earlier eight paramilitary soldiers were killed in a suicide attack on an Islamabad security base.
Nadim Hasan Asif, a top regional security official, said the bomber "was stopped at the entrance (to the mosque) and pushed himself in and exploded," AP news agency reported.Another official, provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah told AFP: "The bomber was intercepted at the entrance otherwise he could have caused large-scale casualties."
Eyewitnesses described the bomber as a male teenager dressed in black.
A doctor at a nearby hospital said more than 60 people were injured and that some of them were in a critical condition.
It is not clear who was behind the latest attack but analysts say it appeared to be sectarian in nature.Pakistan has a long history of tit-for-tat attacks by militants from the majority Sunni and minority Shia communities and thousands of people have been killed, correspondents say.
Last month, a suicide bomber killed 48 people and wounded many others at a mosque near the Afghan border in the worst such attack to strike Pakistan this year.
Courtesy: BBC NEWS
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