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Violence spreads across Pakistan’s northwest region

Suspected militants bombed a bus carrying prisoners in northwest Pakistan on yesterday, killing at least nine people, as fighting between security forces and extremists flared across the country’s tribal belt.

The powerful blast caused a massive crater in the middle of a bridge in Bannu and left the burned-out vehicle completely mangled.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, though police said militants were the likely culprits. It happened as a van carrying prisoners crossed a bridge in the North West Frontier Province, said Waqas Ahmad, an area police chief.

The dead included police officers and prisoners, said Jalil Khan, another police official.

Hours earlier, security forces drove off a Taliban attack on a fort and pounded another band of militants holed up in a health center, officials said on Wednesday as fighting spread to new areas in the tribal belt along the Afghan border.

As many as 49 insurgents were reported killed in separate attacks.

Meanwhile, hundreds of lawyers demonstrated and blocked roads in major cities yesterday, demanding the reinstatement of judges purged last year by former president Pervez Musharraf.

Black-suited lawyers were joined by political party workers and other supporters carrying black flags as they blocked key roads for two hours in Islamabad, shouting slogans against the government.

They also chanted slogans against Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former prime minister Benezir Bhutto, who was assassinated last December. Zardari is the favorite to replace Musharraf when lawmakers select a new president on Sept. 6. But his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is accused by lawyers of not reinstating the judges sacked by Musharraf last year.

However, the protesters numbers were smaller than in the past and supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif largely stayed away.

Sharif’s party quit Pakistan’s four-party coalition on Monday after the PPP dragged its feet on the judges issue.

The government has since reappointed eight judges sacked by Musharraf but lawyers’ groups have dismissed the gesture as a political stunt designed to harm their demands for the reinstatement of all those removed last year.
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