Pakistani investigators were hunting yesterday for links between a surge of violence in the northwest and an assault on a mosque in the capital as the death toll from two suicide bomb attacks on Sunday rose to 45.
Nearly 100 people, most of them members of the security forces, have been killed in attacks in the northwest since July 3, when government forces surrounded Islamabad's Red Mosque after clashes erupted.
And there are fears the collapse of a 10-month pact with militants in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border would lead to more violence.
PHOTO: EPA
"We haven't found any clues yet but we're looking into that aspect," a senior investigator in the city of Dera Ismail Khan said, referring to the action against the mosque.
"Yesterday's attacks are likely to [be] linked to the Lal Masjid [Red Mosque]," said the investigator, who declined to be identified.
A suicide bomber mingled with a crowd of young men at a police recruiting center in Dera Ismail Khan, in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), on Sunday before blowing himself up. Twenty-nine people were killed.
Earlier on Sunday, two suicide car bombers ambushed a paramilitary patrol in the Swat valley, in the same province, killing 16 people.
Militants based in the North and South Waziristan tribal regions with allies in towns and cites were believed responsible, the investigator said.
"Their bases are in the tribal regions, but they obviously have local support as they can't carry out such attacks by themselves," he said.
Pakistan's rugged northwest is a hotbed of al-Qaeda and Taliban support. Militants based in tribal regions on the Afghan border have been expanding their influence into cities across the province.
Commandos stormed the heavily fortified Red Mosque last Tuesday, ending a week-long siege and killing 75 supporters of hardline clerics.
Many of the militants at the mosque and many of the religious students who studied at the complex were believed to have been from the NWFP.
Complicating things for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was the collapse of a peace pact in North Waziristan. Militants there said on Sunday they were abandoning the pact after accusing authorities of violating it.
Thousands of Pakistanis fled North Waziristan after the peace pact collapsed. The exodus came as officials held crisis talks with clerics and tribal elders in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP.
Bazaars were deserted in North Waziristan's main city of Miranshah as hundreds of families fled the town for safer areas. State-run Radio Pakistan went off the air when broadcasters joined other government officials in leaving the tense area, local residents said.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS