ISLAMABAD – MILITANTS on Saturday killed two close aides of an Islamist hardline cleric who negotiated a peace deal in the northwest between Taleban rebels and the Pakistani government, the military said.
The militants ambushed a convoy of security forces carrying prisoners from Malakand town to Peshawar in the northwest of the country.
‘Spokesman Ameer Izzat and Mohammad Alam, a deputy of Islamist cleric Soofi Mohammad, died in the terrorist attack,’ a military statement said.
‘The convoy was attacked by an improvised explosive device (IED) followed by firing by terrorists at 5.10am (2310 GMT) at Sakhakot,’ the statement said.
It added that ‘a non-commissioned officer embraced shahadat (martyrdom) while five others were injured.’ The dead aides were arrested on Thursday along with three Afghan nationals.
The deal in February to put three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace in the Swat valley fell apart when Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad in April.
The terrorist ambush came a day after a suicide bomb ripped through a mosque packed with worshippers in the village of Hayagai Sharqai in Upper Dir, killing 38 people.
Hayagai Sharqai borders the district of Swat, where the military has focused a blistering air and ground assault against the Taliban.
Under US pressure, Pakistan launched an offensive at the end of April and the beginning of May in the districts of Lower Dir, Buner and Swat to crush the militants.
Pakistan has not released civilian casualty figures as a result of the operations but says more than 1,300 rebels have been killed. The fighting has displaced around 2.4 million people. — AFP
Popularity: 1% [?]
