Bruce Tefft
Fri, 03 Nov 2006 06:36:51 -0800
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Pakistan_Tribal_Protest.html
Thousands protest Pakistan airstrike By HABIBULLAH KHAN ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER KHAR, Pakistan -- Thousands of tribesmen Friday protested a Pakistani airstrike that killed 80 people at an Islamic school in northwestern Pakistan, while a strike closed shops and halted public transport in the tribal region's main town. Some 3,000 tribesmen marched along a road about two miles from the village of Chingai, where Pakistan's army says it fired missiles from helicopters to destroy an al-Qaida linked seminary used to train militants fighting across the border in Afghanistan. Residents and hardline religious parties say the victims were either Islamic students or teachers and claim the attack was launched by U.S. drones. Pakistan and the U.S. military said the United States was not involved. The opposition coalition Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal called Friday's strike and protests across Pakistan. Shops were closed and public transport halted in Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal region. Another 2,000 people protested in the Bajur town of Inayat Qala. "We reject the government claim that America is not behind this attack," tribal leader Akhwanzada Chitan said at the demonstration near Chingai, urging the government to apologize for killing "innocent people" and pay compensation to their families. "We will continue our protest until the acceptance of this demand," he said. <http://anad.tacoda.net/ads/ad12047a-map.cgi/SZ=300X250A/V=2.0S/BRC=11506/BC PG41211.65305.74724/> The seminary was run by fugitive cleric Liaquat Hussain, whom officials said was an associate of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Hussain was killed in the airstrike. Late Thursday, state-run Pakistan Television broadcast an aerial surveillance video that the government said showed men receiving militant training before the attack. The poor-quality footage, shot with an infrared camera, showed people doing simple physical exercises, such as leg stretches and running in a circle. No weapons were visible. In January, a U.S. missile attack hit a border village in Bajur where officials say al-Zawahri had been due to attend a dinner. Thirteen civilians were killed. Pakistani intelligence officials claimed some al-Qaida operatives were also killed, but their bodies were never found. Al-Zawahri was not hurt. Meanwhile, pro-Taliban militants beheaded a Muslim seminary teacher in the North Waziristan tribal region, accusing him of spying for the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, residents and an official said Friday. Maulvi Silahuddin, a teacher at a madrassa or Islamic religious school, went missing Thursday, and villagers spotted his headless body the next day near a ditch, said Gul Janan, a resident. He had also been shot in the chest. A letter found nearby read: "Anyone spying for America will face the same fate," a local security official said on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak to the media. The government in September signed a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants and elders in North Waziristan. Although the truce is holding, local militants still sometimes kill people suspected of spying for Pakistani or U.S. forces. Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, and it has deployed about 80,000 troops in its semiautonomous tribal regions, from where Islamic militants are believed to cross over to Afghanistan to target Western forces. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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