Pakistan reeled from an upsurge in violence by Islamic militants yesterday after bloodshed erupted again in Karachi and troops clashed twice with al-Qaeda-linked fighters in tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden may be hiding.
Thirty-five foreign militants and 15 troops were killed in gunbattles near the northwestern tribal town of Wana on Wednesday, the military revealed yesterday. Three civilians were also killed in the crossfire, raising the toll to at least 53.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The clashes marked the first eruption of fighting between troops and al-Qaeda-linked combatants since the army wound down a major offensive late March after losing 46 troops, and opened talks by offering amnesty to them if they agreed to register and lay down arms. They have refused to register.
Down on the Arabian Sea coast, one of the army's top generals, Karachi corps commander Lieutenant General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, survived a brazen attack on his convoy on Thursday as he was driven to work through an upmarket beach suburb.
Gunmen sprayed his convoy with bullets, killing seven soldiers, three policemen and a pedestrian.
The military said the attack was a clear bid to kill the commander.
It is the first time a senior military figure -- other than President Pervez Musharraf -- has been directly attacked in Pakistan and marked a turn in the kind of violence which has riven Karachi for decades and intensified over the past month.
"It is now the leadership of the institution the militants are targetting. It is certainly a new dimension and a more serious one," a senior security official told reporters, pointing out that most attacks in Karachi have been religious, ethnic, political or anti-Western in nature.
Hayat is one of the Pakistani army's 11 corps commanders, who fall directly under the army chief and deputy chief.
The strike on his convoy was the sixth deadly attack in Karachi in just over a month.
Two devastating suicide bomb attacks on mosques packed with worshippers from the Shiite Muslim minority, the assassination of a senior cleric from the Sunni Muslim majority, a double car bomb attack near the US consul general's residence, a parcel bomb at the port and three days of riots left 51 dead.
Pakistan's commercial capital is a hotbed of Islamic extremists and its crowded apartment blocks have been used as hideouts by several senior al-Qaeda fugitives, including alleged Sept. 11 terror attack planners Ramzi bin al-Shaibah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.
Law enforcers see the upsurge in violence as a gang war between police and militants, following a series of arrests of hardline Islamic extremists linked to attempts to kill Musharraf as well as suicide attacks in 2002.
But some officials said it could be connected to the army's renewed offensive against al-Qaeda-linked fighters in the northwest.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese