At least 80 killed in attack on 'al-Qaida training centre'
Pakistani troops backed by missile-firing helicopters killed an estimated 80 militants today after destroying a purported al-Qaida-linked training facility near the Afghan border, the military said.
The pre-dawn attack targeted a religious school – known as a madrassa – in Chingai village near Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal district, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.
Sultan said initial estimates, based on intelligence sources on the ground, indicate the attack killed about 80 suspected militants from Pakistan and other countries.
The death toll was expected to rise as villagers retrieved body parts that littered the smashed madrassa building, which was levelled by four to five missiles fired from helicopter gunships.
Pakistan’s military has been trying to stamp out pro-al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists operating inside the semi-autonomous tribal-dominated region and against US and Afghan forces across the poorly marked frontier in Afghanistan, where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be at large.
The remote Bajur region borders Afghanistan’s volatile Kunar province and militant groups are believed to routinely smuggle fighters, weapons and supplies across the frontier.
Sultan said helicopters fired four to five missiles into the madrassa, killing “many” militants at what he described as a terrorist training facility. He did not have an exact death toll as soldiers at the scene were counting the bodies.
Among the dead was Liaquat Hussain, a local Islamic cleric who ran the madrassa and is believed to have been sheltering al-Qaida militants, and several of his aides, locals said.
Siraj ul-Haq, a Cabinet minister from the North West Frontier Province, condemned the attack and announced he would resign from the government in protest.
“The government has launched an attack during the night, which is against Islam and the traditions of the area,” ul-Haq said during the funeral. “They (the victims) were not given any warning. This was an unprovoked attack on a madrassa. They were innocent people.”
At the madrassa, dozens of villagers sifted through the rubble of the building, shifting blocks of smashed concrete and mud bricks aside to try find any survivors.
Body parts scattered the area, lying in pools of blood, on torn bed mattresses and among Islamic books, including copies of the Koran. Villagers put mutilated body parts into large plastic bags normally used to hold fertiliser.
“We heard helicopters flying in and then heard bombs,” said one of the villagers, Haji Youssef. “We were all saddened by what we have seen.”
Ul-Haq, who belongs to the powerful Islamic political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, said protests would be staged throughout the northern tribal region tomorrow to denounce the attack.
The attack came two days after 5,000 pro-Taliban tribesmen held an anti-American rally in the Bajur area near Damadola, a village close to the site of a US missile attack in January that purportedly targeted – and missed – al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, but killed several al-Qaida members and civilians.
It also came on the day a peace deal was expected to be signed between Bajur tribal leaders and the military along the lines of an accord signed earlier this year in nearby North Waziristan, which aims at stopping militants operating in the area and crossing into Afghanistan.
“This attack is very strange as we were told yesterday that the peace agreement would be signed today,” said local politician Mohammed Sadiq.
Sultan, the military spokesman, declined to say if an accord was scheduled to be signed today, but added that militants cannot not hide behind peace deals. He also said the purported militants using the madrassa had rejected orders to end their activities.
At least three men aged 22-25 years from the madrassa were brought to Khar’s main hospital in critical conditions, said a doctor at the hospital, Imran Khan.
A senior intelligence official in Bajur also said a local al Qaida leader who led Saturday’s rally, Faqir Mohammed, was believed to have been inside the madrassa. It was unclear if Mohammed was among those killed.
Pakistan became a key US ally in its war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks and has deployed about 80,000 soldiers to flush out Taliban and al Qaida members hiding in the mountainous frontier tribal region.
Afghan and US officials have been urging Pakistan to stop militants using its territory to stage attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan rejects suggestions it is not doing enough to crack down on terrorists.
US and Afghan officials have also suggested Pakistan’s recent truce with tribal leaders in North Waziristan area could lead to the area becoming a terrorist haven.
Pakistan said the cease-fire was aimed at stopping violence that had killed hundreds of soldiers and militants, but the military vowed to use force if militants resumed operations in North Waziristan again.
