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Jihadis target foreigners at a Pak eatery |
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Militants behind a wave of recent attacks in Pakistan have changed their tactics to target foreigners. A bomb blast at an Islamabad restaurant killed a Turkish woman and injured at least 10 foreigners, including some US diplomats. Reports said, four of those hurt in the blast on March 17 were FBI agents. This was the first attack in which foreigners have been targeted in Islamabad since 2002 and a top official in Islamabad said, it shows a new trend. Most bombings in Pakistan over the past 14 months targeted security forces and civilians.
The Islamabad police chief said an improvised explosive device was used in the attack. The 5-6 kg explosive with pellets and ball bearings was used – a trade mark of pro-Taliban militants.
In another incident, at least 20 people were killed and several others injured in a missile strike on a home in Pakistan’s restive South Waziristan tribal area where the military is battling the local Taliban. Reports said, at least seven missiles hit the residential compound at Shahnawaz Kot village on March 16. The missile is said to have been fired from Afghanistan. Earlier last month, US-led forces in Afghanistan launched at least two missile strikes on Pakistan’s north-western tribal areas with pilotless drones last month, including an attack that killed top Al-Qaeda commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, on Feb 4.
Meanwhile, even as a clout in Islamabad ordered the arrest of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and four others by April 21 in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a top Pakistan Taliban commander has offered the country’s new Government, to be formed by the PPP and PML[N], a ceasefire and talks if it stopped supporting President Musharraf’s pro-US policies. Maulana Faqir Mohammed said the Pakistani Taliban could not trust the Government as long as Musharraf is around.
A view is gathering ground in Washington that Pakistan’s pledge to fight Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in the restive tribal areas is being weakened by disagreements in Pakistan’s military and security forces over what their priorities should be. The divisions, US officials believe, have emerged as a source of growing frustration to the Bush Administration. While one section of Pak security forces agrees that counter-terrorism against Islamic extremists should be geared up, the other section is in favour of shoring up a conventional force focused on potential threats from India.
China’s mid-air terror trail leads to Pakistan
Pakistan Jihadis are not sparing China, a long-time friend of the country. Investigations into the attempted mid-air bombing of a Chinese airliner on March 7 have thrown up evidence that a Pakistan-based Islamist terror group may have aided the perpetrators. Chinese civil aviation sources said the two terrorists who attempted to blow up the China Southern flight CZ6901 from Urumqi to Beijing carried Pakistani passports, although their nationality still remains undetermined. A third member of the cell, believed to be a Pakistani national, is reported to have escaped.
Chinese officials said a woman, whose identity has still not been made public, smuggled two soft-drink cans. She had intended to ignite the fuel in the Boeing 757 jet’s restroom, but lost her nerve at the last moment and was overpowered by the crew. Flight CZ6901 was able to make a safe emergency landing at Lanzhou. The officials said, “The crew would have had little chance of putting out the blaze once it began.” Fires spread with great speed in the pressurized cabins and have claimed hundreds of lives in accidents. Chinese authorities believe that the bombing was attempted by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), one of two major terror groups operating in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Both groups have been increasingly active in the build-up to the Olympic Games.
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