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| Local militants claim Dir suicide attack |
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Monday, February 08, 2010
By Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Fugitive chief of Taliban in Dir Lower on Saturday claimed that Wednesday’s suicide attack in Shahi Koto area was aimed at the US military personnel, regretting the killing of schoolgirls and harm to journalists.
The attack had killed eight people — three American soldiers, four schoolgirls and a paramilitary force personnel — and wounded over 100 others, most of them students.
Calling Amjad Ali Shah, a Dir Lower-based journalist, Commander Hafizullah said they had planned the attack against the US soldiers to take them out, hinting they had prior information about the convoy’s movement.
The military authorities have already rejected the claim that the attack was American-specific. “The target was the commandant of the scouts in Dir Lower who was travelling in the convoy, but luckily survived,” a security official said, requesting anonymity. Colonel Nadeem Mirza was reported to have suffered injuries in the attack.
But the security analyst and former secretary security, Fata, Brig (Retd) Mahmood Shah, endorsed the Taliban claim. “Yes, the Americans were the target,” he said. “Information about the movement of American soldiers may have been leaked,” he said and hastened to add that one could expect it from a territorial force — the Frontier Corps (FC) — that had recruits from the local population. He said the FC was not as disciplined a force as the Army and except for its officers, who belong to the Pakistan Army, the rank-and-file could not be trusted to keep secrets.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
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