Sunday, June 7, 2009

Upper Dir tribesmen avenge mosque blast, attack Taliban

ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of tribesmen banded together and attacked Taliban strongholds in a troubled northwestern region to avenge a deadly suicide bombing at a local mosque, a top government official said Sunday.

The incident Saturday underscored a swing in the national mood toward a more anti-Taliban stance —a shift that comes as suicide attacks have surged and the military wages an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley.

Some 400 villagers from neighboring Upper Dir district, where a suicide bomber killed more then 30 worshippers at a mosque in the Haya Gai area on Friday, formed a militia and attacked five villages in the nearby Dhok Darra area, said Atif-ur-Rehman, the district coordination officer.

The citizens' militia has occupied three of the villages since Saturday and is trying to push the Taliban out of the other two. Some 20 houses suspected of harbouring Taliban were destroyed, he said. At least four militants were killed, he said.

The government has in the past encouraged local citizens to set up militias, known as lashkars, to oust Taliban fighters.

‘It is something very positive that tribesmen are standing against the militants. It will discourage the miscreants,’ Rehman said.

The surge in suicide attacks reached Islamabad late Saturday when a man wearing an explosive-laden jacket attacked a police compound but was shot down before he could enter the main building. Two officers died and six others were wounded, police said.

Meanwhile, Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan claimed Sunday that authorities killed the TNSM’s deputy chief, Maulana Mohammad Alam, and spokesman Amir Izzat because US envoy Richard Holbrooke was visiting.

‘It is a gift the government has presented to Holbrooke,’ Khan told The Associated Press via phone from an undisclosed location. ‘We believe that they are martyred. We want to tell the government that their martyrdom is not going to be futile.’

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