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Sufi’s aides killed in ambush

ISLAMABAD: Militants ambushed a military convoy in Pakistan’s volatile north-west on Saturday, killing two detained aides of a senior cleric with close ties to the Taliban in the Swat Valley, the Army said.

It was not clear if the attack was an attempt to rescue the prisoners or assassinate them before then could provide intelligence to the military — or even if the attackers knew that Taliban-linked prisoners were in the convoy.

But it underscored the instability in the north-western region, even one month after some 15,000 troops poured in to end the Taliban’s control there.

A roadside bomb and gunfire hit the convoy as it travelled from Sakhakot town near Swat to the main north-western city of Peshawar early on Saturday, said the Army. One soldier also died in the attack and five were wounded.

The army identified the prisoners as Muhammad Maulana Alam and Ameer Izzat Khan, top aides to hard-line cleric Sufi Muhammad, who is father-in-law to Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah. Sufi Muhammad negotiated a peace deal with the government that was widely seen as allowing the Taliban to seize control of the valley.

The deal collapsed earlier this year when the Taliban advanced into neighbouring districts, triggering a military offensive that prompted a spree of retaliatory attacks by militants in the northwest and beyond.

“These two were being transported so that intelligence agencies could investigate them when an IED and gun attack was launched on the military convoy,” Army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told reporters Saturday, using the abbreviation for an improvised explosive device.

Security forces detained Alam and Khan during a raid last Thursday at a religious school in a district near Swat. Another aide to Muhammad, Syed Wahab, was also seized. It was not immediately known if Wahab was in the convoy on Saturday.

The Taliban has vowed a campaign of retaliatory attacks for the military offensive, and a series of bombings and shootings have hit security forces and civilian targets across the northwest, including a marketplace and a bus stop. On Friday, an attacker wearing an explosive vest blew himself up inside a packed mosque during prayers, killing at least 33 people and wounding 40 more in Haya Gai village in Upper Dir. An official in Upper Dir said the mosque may have been targeted because villagers had opposed Taliban who wanted to move into the area. —AP

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