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All the killed were militants: Musharraf

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: As thousands of people in the Bajaur tribal area on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan took to the streets in protest a day after a military air raid on a madrassa killed 80 persons, President Pervez Musharraf asserted that those killed in the strike were "all militants".

"Anyone who is saying these were innocent Taliban is telling lies," he said delivering the inaugural address at a security seminar here on Tuesday.

In Khar, the main town in Bajaur, tribesmen raised slogans against the Musharraf regime and the U.S. for the killing of students they said were "innocent." There were protests in other parts of the tribal agency, and in the neighbouring North-West Frontier Province.

Gen. Musharraf said the military action followed days of surveillance on the madrassa, and those killed were undergoing military training.

"We were watching them since the last six, seven days. We knew exactly who they are, what they are doing. They were all militants, using weapons, doing military training within the compound." He said Pakistan would not hesitate to use force against militancy.

Speculation

But the raid on the madrassa has quickly become another episode in what Pakistanis view as abject capitulation by the Musharraf regime to the Bush Administration's directives that began with 9/11 and is since continuing.

While the military said it carried out the raid using gunships, speculation is rife that the U.S. conducted the strike. But Islamabad owned up to it to avoid domestic repercussions.

The Dawn reported eyewitnesses saying the first missiles were fired by U.S. predator drones, and Pakistani helicopter gunships came 20 minutes later and fired rockets into the hillside. Commentator Talat Masood, a former Lieutenant-General, said it made no sense for the military to carry out a messy air-strike when it would have been easier for it to surround the madrassa and give those inside the option of surrendering.

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