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| Warplanes pound militant positions in NWA |
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
By Mushtaq Yusufzai & Malik Mumtaz Khan
PESHAWAR/MIRAMSHAH: The government finally reacted to the militants’ brazen terrorist activities in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) by targeting the suspected positions of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Taliban fighters by warplanes on Tuesday.
Also, fearing losses in the likely military operation against the militants, hundreds of Utmanzai tribal families started migration to relatively safer places in towns of Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Peshawar.
Some of the families living on the Pak-Afghan border villages like Madakhel, Dattakhel and Lowara Mandi even crossed into neighbouring Afghanistan’s Urgoon area, where an Afghan official welcomed the displaced tribal families and gave $300 to each family.
Situation in the volatile North Waziristan tribal region turned tense after two attacks on the Pakistan Army convoys by the local militants and then scrapping their peace accord with the government.
Security forces suffered heavy losses in the two attacks that led to heavy bombing by the PAF fighter planes on suspected positions of the militants. Before the warplanes could arrive, Security forces based at Dattakhel and Gharlamay military camps continued shelling the suspected positions of the militants.
Tribal sources said two warplanes arrived in the afternoon and started heavy bombing on suspected locations of Gul Bahadur-led militants at Lattaka and Doga villages of Madakhel. Heavy explosions caused by bombing on Madakhel village were heard in Miramshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan.
Madakhel, which is hometown of Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, is about 50 kilometres west of Miramshah. There were no details about the losses suffered by the militants and local tribesmen in the bombing.
A senior military official, when reached by telephone, told The News that bombing by jets on Madakhel was a reaction to the Sunday’s attack on the military convoy by terrorists in which 30 soldiers — three of them officers — were killed and 35 others injured.
He did not confirm whether the government was going to launch a military operation against the militants in North Waziristan. The government may not open another dangerous front for security forces, which had been engaged in the non-stop battle against the militants in almost all the seven tribal regions as well as the restive Malakand Division.
Though the Taliban scrapped the peace accord with the government and said they closed all doors for talks, tribal elders and senior clerics continued efforts for defusing the tension between the government and the Taliban.
The Jirga members were satisfied with positive response from the government officials regarding peace talks with the militants. Pleading anonymity, one of the Jirga members seemed hopeful about their efforts and said they would soon bring the two sides on the negotiation table.
Dozens of families were seen fleeing their homes at the border area and shifting to other towns in Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Peshawar. Some of the tribal families crossed the border and went to Urgoon town in Afghanistan’s Paktika province to evade losses in case the government launched the military operation. According to tribal sources, an Afghan official was deputed on the Pak-Afghan border to receive the displaced Pakistani tribal families.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
