PESHAWAR: A kidnapped militiaman, who survived a Taliban atrocity and was admitted to a hospital with serious injuries late on Saturday night, died on Sunday, raising the number of the slain Levies Force personnel to 22. The nightmarish episode began early on Thursday when militants attacked posts of Levies Force in Hasankhel and Jina Kor areas of Frontier Region Peshawar. Two militiamen were killed by the attackers who overran the posts before taking away 23 personnel. The political authorities held a jirga with tribal elders of FR Peshawar on Friday, asking them to help the government rescue the personnel by Monday.
It’s not known what action the tribal elders were able to take till the small hours of Sunday when bullet-riddled bodies of 21 personnel were found amid reports that the rest of the kidnapped men had survived the Taliban killing spree. (According to Reuters, Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed responsibility for the attacks. “We killed all the kidnapped men after a council of senior clerics gave a verdict for their execution. We didn’t make any demand for their release because we don’t spare any prisoners who are caught during fighting,” he said. Dawn, The News, The Nation, The Frontier Post.
ISLAMABAD: The much-awaited report of the investigation into the US attack in which Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed has been completed and is likely to be presented to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf this week by the Abbottabad Commission’s chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal. The report prepared in more than one and a half years is expected to generate a fresh debate on the killing of Osama in a 40-minute midnight air raid by US Navy Seals in Abbottabad on May 2 last year. A private TV channel quoted Justice (retd) Iqbal as saying that the report had been completed and was likely to be presented to the prime minister on Monday.
However, the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Shafqat Jalil said no meeting between Justice (retd) Iqbal and the premier was scheduled on Monday. According to sources, the 400-page report contains the statements of more than 300 people and references to over 7,000 letters and other documents relating to Osama bin Laden. Dawn.
MIRAMSHAH: Two soldiers were killed and two others wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Gherlamai area of North Waziristan on Sunday. Helicopter gunships fired at residential compounds after the bomb attack and, according to local people, a house caught fire and several others were damaged. Sources said troops were being deployed along the main road in the area ahead of the movement of a military convoy when the explosion took place.
An explosive device placed along the road was detonated by remote control when a truck carrying soldiers reached Boya from the Gherlamai post. A curfew had been imposed on the area. Dawn, The News, The Nation, The Frontier Post, Daily Times.
WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ties with the United States appear to be improving gradually as the year 2012 ends, creating space for a relationship built on ground realities rather than unrealistic expectations. When the year began, the bilateral relationship was held hostage by two major incidents that happened in 2011, the US raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden and the Nov 24 US air attack that killed 22 Pakistani soldiers in Salala. Pakistan also had a new ambassador in Washington, Sherry Rehman, who was still struggling to create a space for herself in the US capital’s power circles. Bilateral contacts had been reduced to a minimum and mutual distrust was at its height. Dawn.
PESHAWAR: The government should accept the offer of talks by Taliban to bring tranquility in the country, said Tehrik-i-Istiqlal central president Rehmat Khan Wardag here on Sunday. Addressing a press conference, he said that the negotiations could be successful if government quit the war against terrorism. “The government should quit the war against terrorism as Taliban are against the intervention of the USA in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said. Mr Wardag said that situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan was disturbed owing to presence of the USA in the region. The government and all political forces in the country should put pressure on the US government to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, he said. Dawn, The News.
LANDI KOTAL: Two bullet-riddled bodies were found in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency while a woman was killed when a mortar shell hit a house in the same area on Sunday. Sources said that bodies of two persons were spotted by local people in Kohi Sher Haider area on Sunday morning but they could not pick them owing to imposition of curfew in the locality. People removed the bodies from the spot when they were allowed by security forces. The deceased identified as Ejaz and Najeebullah had gone missing few days ago. Both of them were relatives and belonged to Malikdinkhel tribe, sources said. Nobody claimed responsibility for their killing.
Scores of families vacated their houses in Kohi Sher Haider after security forces ordered them to leave the area in anticipation of a cleanup operation. In Malikdinkhel and Sipah areas, forces demolished the houses of four suspected militants on Sunday.
Meanwhile, a woman was killed and four of her siblings received injuries when a mortar shell hit the house of Bagh Wali in Dura Nehar locality of Sipah on Sunday. Dawn, The News, The Frontier Post.
ISLAMABAD: All the Levies personnel who were kidnapped from Hassankhel and Janay Khwar areas of Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar a day earlier and martyred by the Taliban on Saturday belonged to tribal areas and they were recruited by the Political Agent of the Agency, well-placed sources told The News here on Sunday. They said the killed Levies men were Pakhtoons and they were not considered as combating troops. The sources said the gory act has diminished the chances of dialogue between the so-called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the administration. Such dialogue would invite the wrath and anger of Pakhtoons of the area in the wake of killings. The News.
PESHAWAR: A person was wounded as a bomb went off outside a cinema near the Bacha Khan Chowk early Sunday morning. A police official said suspected militants had planted explosives at the Shama Cinema on the main Pajaggi Road that went off early Sunday morning injuring a passer-by. The wounded man, whose name could not be got confirmed, was taken to hospital. The News.
BARA: Three women were killed and six children sustained injuries when mortar shells struck three houses in Sepah area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency on Sunday, tribal sources said. The sources said that two shells landed at the houses of Alfat Khan and his nephew Bagh Wali in the Yousaf Talab area in Bara in which their wives were killed and two children were critically injured.
Meanwhile, a woman was killed and four children sustained injuries after a mortar shell hit the house of one Asadullah in Gandaw area. The injured were admitted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar. The sources said the security forces continued shelling the suspected positions of militants in the Sepah and Malikdinkhel areas in Bara and it is possible the houses were hit by some misdirected shells. The News.
PESHAWAR: Extremist elements blew up two government schools with explosive material in tehsil Bara of Khyber Agency on Sunday. According to government sources, the extremists blew up two primary schools in Aaka Khel, however, no loss of life was reported. A total of 70 educational institutions have been destroyed in Khyber Agency over the pass four years. The Frontier Post.
NAWAF KHAN, SHARAFAT ALI CHAUDHARY
