9 killed in strikes on militant hideouts in Pakistan

Helicopter gunships targeted a militant training facility in the country’s northwest on Saturday, killing nine insurgents in the latest violence to disrupt troubled peace negotiations, according to police and security officials.

The strikes came as a spokesman for the Pakistani Taleban rejected a government demand that the militant movement halt attacks, saying the government should first announce a ceasefire.

Underscoring the militants’ refusal to stop attacks, a roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying a pro-government elder in the northwestern town of Buner, killing him and two of his guards, police official Javed Khan said.

Police said the remote-controlled bomb hit the vehicle of Adalat Khan, a local leader of nationalist Qaumi Watan Party, killing him along with two associates.

“Adalat Khan and his two associates have been killed. Two others in the car were critically injured,” Asif Iqbal, a senior police official said.

No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but a local intelligence official said that Khan had supported an anti-Taleban village militia in 2009. The head of that militia was later killed in a suicide attack in November 2012.

Curfew imposed from Miranshah to Datta Khel MIRANSHAH — The political administration has imposed curfew from Miranshah to the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan owing to a deteriorating law and order situation in the region. According to sources, security forces were patrolling the streets while security has been tightened along all entry/exit points. Meanwhile, around 700,000 residents of North Waziristan are feared to migrate to safer places if the government decides to launch an operation against militant groups in the region. The administration is considering setting up camps on Indus Highway for displaced people as several families, fearing military operation, are reportedly migrating to Kohat, Kurram Agency, Bannu, Peshawar, Punjab, Sindh and even Afghanistan. On the other hand, the government has not officially announced launching of a military operation in the conflicted zone. — Online

The military launched on Saturday morning’s strikes after confirming reports about the presence of militants at a compound in the village of Thal in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, two security officials and a local police officer said. They said the identity of the slain men was not immediately known and agents were trying to get details.

It was the third such strike in recent days. On Wednesday and Thursday, officials said, Pakistani aircraft killed 20 suspected militants in the country’s troubled North Waziristan and Khyber tribal regions.

The strikes follow a breakdown in negotiations between the government and the Pakistan Taleban earlier this week.

The Pakistani Taleban for their part, insist they would agree to a ceasefire only if government negotiators could assure them there would be no more killings of their members. They have also demanded the release of women and children, which they claim were in government custody.

Taleban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told a group of journalists in North Waziristan on Friday that they were still in favour of “serious negotiations”.

Further complicating negotiations, an army spokesman denied Taleban claims about detainees, saying not a single woman or child was in the custody of the security agencies.

Commenting on the issue, an ISPR spokesman clarified that not a single woman or child is in the custody of the security forces. He made it clear that women and children have never been detained.

This is a totally baseless allegation levelled by the TTP and hence a mere propaganda to divert the attention from real issue of their blatant and dastardly acts of terror across the country, the spokesperson said. — AP, Online