A powerful explosion destroyed a militant compound and killed up to eight people yesterday in a volatile tribal region where Pakistan security forces are waging an offensive against pro-Taliban militants, residents said.
A militant spokesman said it was a missile strike launched from neighboring Afghanistan, where US and NATO forces are based, but there was no official confirmation of such an attack.
The blast in Khyber hit a compound owned by a supporter of Haji Namdar, a local militant leader whose Vice and Virtue Movement is suspected of cross-border assaults.
Pakistani paramilitary forces launched an offensive in the region four days ago against militants threatening the main northwestern city of Peshawar and a key supply line for the US military effort in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani show of force comes amid US concern that the newly elected government’s efforts to negotiate peace deals with militants have given Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked extremists more space to operate along the lawless border.
Khyber resident Nawaz Khan Afridi said he was awakened by a loud explosion before dawn, rushed out of his house in Bar Qambarkhel village and joined dozens of other residents in helping to rescue survivors from rubble. He said he saw eight dead bodies.
Two rooms at the compound had been shattered by the explosion, he said, adding that he did not know what caused it.
Munsif Khan, a spokesman for Namdar’s group, claimed it was a missile strike that killed at least six supporters of the Vice and Virtue Movement and wounded 20. He said the village, in the Bara area, lies at least 40km from the Afghan border.
“Maybe this was done by NATO forces in Afghanistan,” Khan said.
“Our friends saw a flash of light coming from the direction of Afghanistan” before the explosion, he said.
Pakistani and US military officials in Afghanistan could not immediately be reached for comment.
The offensive in Khyber appears to be a shift for Pakistan’s government, which has sought to reduce violence through the peace deals since it took power after February elections. It coincides with a three-day visit to Islamabad by senior US State Department official Richard Boucher, which began Monday. A five-member congressional delegation also is visiting the country.
The operation was launched to secure Peshawar from threats by “lawbreakers and militant groups,” the Ministry of Interior said in a statement late on Sunday.
It would continue until “all the objectives are achieved,” it said.
Three groups operating in Khyber — Lashkar-e-Islam, Ansarul Islam and Haji Namdar’s group — have been outlawed and the “government is determined to end their nefarious activities,” the ministry said.
Officials accused the militants of setting up a parallel administration and of crimes including kidnapping.
Officials said on Sunday that paramilitary forces destroyed four militant centers, including a radio station, and unearthed alleged torture rooms. But troops have encountered little resistance and have reported killing just one militant.
In response to the operation, Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan’s top militant leader, said he was suspending talks between his allies and the government.
His spokesman, Maulvi Umar, demanded on Sunday that the operation be halted.
“The government should not ruin the country just to please the Western world and should immediately halt the operation in Khyber agency,” Umar told reporters. “If it is not stopped, it will bear very grave results.”
Two large explosions heard in the Pakistani capital and nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi yesterday added to jitters that militants could take revenge for the operation in Khyber.
But police said they could trace no blast in either city, and officials said it was likely caused by a sonic boom from an aircraft, although Pakistan’s air force said none of its jets were in the area at the time.
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