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Missiles fired on Pakistan town

ISLAMABAD: Pro-Taliban militants fired “missiles” from Pakistan’s tribal areas on a town in the North-West Frontier Province in the early hours of Wednesday killing at least nine persons and wounding more than 40, adding to the uncertainties of a region reeling under militant violence since the beginning of this month.

Bannu, a town bordering the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, was hit by four missiles, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani told Dawn television. Two missiles exploded, while security officials defused two others later.

The town is less than 40 km from Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal agency where tribal militants scrapped a September 2006 peace deal with the Government on July 15.

The militants accused the Government of deploying troops in violation of the agreement. It was based on the Pakistan military halting all military operations in the area in return for a commitment by tribals not to give sanctuary to militants.

Earlier this week, U.S. President George Bush led the chorus of official voices in his administration declaring that the agreement had failed, and created safe havens for Al-Qaeda.

But Pakistan maintains that this is the most “comprehensive” approach to tackle militancy, as it combines a political and economic carrot for the tribal areas with the option of military stick where necessary.

NWFP Governor Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai, who steered the agreement, has been making hectic efforts to salvage it but a “peace committee” of tribal elders tasked with talking to the militants has not made much headway.

But Pakistan has also stepped up military activity in the region at the same time as Bush Administration voices started dropping hints about U.S. military strikes against alleged Al-Qaeda bases inside Pakistani territory.

The missile attack by the militants on Bannu came less than a day after Abdullah Mehsud, one of Pakistan’s most prominent Taliban leaders, blew himself up in the Balochistan town of Zhob after security officials surrounded the house in which he was staying near the Afghan border. Mehsud was buried in his native South Waziristan on Wednesday. The burial was attended by hundreds of gun-toting militants who praised Mehsud as a “martyr” and pledged to carry on the jihad, according to reports reaching here.

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