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Deadly blast destroys Pakistan militant’s house

By admin | June 30, 2008

An explosion killed six people at a Pakistani militant’s house Monday on the third day of a government offensive, as a US official arrived in Islamabad for counter-terrorism talks.

Militant chief Haji Namdar, who survived the blast in the northwestern Khyber tribal district, and a security official said the house was destroyed by military action but the government said troops were not involved.

Pakistan, which is under growing Western pressure over its efforts to negotiate with Taliban militants, launched an operation in Khyber on Saturday and says it has saved the northwestern city of Peshawar from rebel advances.

Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, flew into in Islamabad on Monday for talks with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other senior officials.

Gilani told Boucher that Pakistan was following a policy of dialogue with hardline elements who have laid down their arms and joined mainstream politics.

“We will however never negotiate with militants nor allow foreigners to use our soil against another country,” a government statement quoted Gilani as saying.

He added that the government had received “a lot of public support” for the offensive in Khyber, the main supply route for international troops fighting a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, declared a truce in April after saying he was negotiating with the authorities, but on Sunday his spokesman said he had halted all talks and peace deals because of military operations.

The declaration raised fears of further unrest and there were jitters in the capital on Monday after loud blasts were heard. The air force later said the noise was caused by a sonic boom from a fighter jet.

In Khyber, an AFP photographer saw six coffins lined up outside the rubble of the house of Namdar, who heads a group seeking Taliban-style Islamic laws and is accused of attacking convoys supplying US and NATO troops.

“It looked like a guided missile strike. It could have been the work of both Pakistani and NATO forces. We will take revenge,” Namdar told AFP at the scene in the Par Qambarkhel area, about 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the Afghan border.

The top administrative official in Khyber said in a statement that the blast killed five people and wounded three.

“An enquiry is being conducted to ascertain the actual facts of the explosion as our security forces have not fired on the said building,” the statement said.

But a senior Pakistani security official told AFP earlier that the destruction of the house “was part of the ongoing operation. Our ground forces were involved.”

Previous unexplained blasts in Pakistan’s tribal belt have variously been attributed to explosives stored in militant hideouts and to missile strikes by international forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistani troops destroyed the house of Mangal Bagh, the leader of the hardline Lashkar-e-Islam group, on Saturday in Bara. They also demolished the headquarters of a separate group early Sunday.

But residents said most of the militants active in the region had moved nearer the border with Afghanistan. Khyber is home to three banned militant groups: Bagh’s, Namdar’s and the pro-Taliban Ansar-ul-Islam organisation.

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