A suicide car bomber killed at least eight Pakistani paramilitary troops yesterday in a region near the Afghan border that has been a target in a surge of suspected US missile strikes.
The bombing occurred at a checkpoint near the main gate of the Zalai Fort where Frontier Corps troops were gathered, said Major General Athar Abbas, the Pakistan army’s top spokesman.
The fort is 20km outside Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, a tribal region considered a hub for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters involved in attacks on US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
South Waziristan was the site of one of two suspected US missiles attacks on Friday that killed 29 people, including several suspected foreign militants, intelligence officials said.
It was not immediately clear if yesterday’s suicide attack was linked to the missile strikes. However, the missile strikes have strained Pakistan’s alliance with the US in its war on terror and spurred militant calls for revenge.
The Pakistani troops were washing their vehicles yesterday when the suicide attacker came, two intelligence officials said. They described the explosion as “large” and said it destroyed the checkpoint and damaged the front wall of the fort.
The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. It was not possible to immediately verify the details. South Waziristan is a dangerous, remote area where travel by foreigners and many journalists is restricted.
Meanwhile, gunmen in Pakistan kidnapped the brother of Afghanistan’s finance minister while he was walking to his mother’s home after praying at a mosque, Afghan officials said yesterday.
Zia ul-Haq Ahadi was abducted in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, said Haziz Shams, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s Finance Ministry. The kidnapped man’s brother is Afghan Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahadim.
Shams said it wasn’t known who kidnapped Ahadi. No demands had been made, and the kidnappers have not contacted officials or the Ahadi family.
Ahadi is a businessman who lives in Afghanistan and was in Peshawar to visit his mother, who is ill, said Abdul Razaq, an assistant to the finance minister.
Ahadi was walking home after Friday prayers at a neighborhood mosque when he was taken, Razaq said.
Earlier this year, Taliban gunmen kidnapped Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan on the main highway in between Peshawar and the Afghan-Pakistan border. He was freed after three months in captivity.
Kidnappings in Afghanistan have spiked in the last year because criminal groups have found it to be a lucrative way to make money through the ransoms that families and companies usually pay for hostages.
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