Suicide bomber kills 31 at funeral in Dir

[Michin Khel]

Suicide bomber kills 31 at funeral in Dir * 63 others injured g Bomber targets members of anti-Taliban militia operating in the area * No one claims responsibility for attack PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber blew himself up during funeral prayers in Lower Dir on Thursday, killing 31 people and wounding 63 others, police said. The attacker struck as mourners were preparing for prayers being held in open ground near cornfields in Jandol town in Lower Dir, 100 kilometres from Swat Valley. The blast came two days after four boys connected to another northwestern anti-militant group were killed in another explosion that was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attack. “The death toll has risen to 31 with 63 wounded in the attack,” said senior police official Salim Khan Marwat, adding that the bomber targeted members of a state-sponsored anti- Taliban militia operating in the area. He said the bomber’s head had been retrieved from the scene and indicated that the attacker, who had hidden in the nearby fields, was in his late teens. “It was a suicide attack. A bomber came on foot and blew himself up in the middle of people as they were about to start prayers.” Local senior police official Akhtar Hayat Gandapur said there were more than 100 people attending the funeral. Witness Gull Rehman said he saw the attacker, who was killed in the bombing, describing him as a man with a long beard. Rehman said he was knocked down by the blast but he was able to get up and help transport the injured to hospitals. The scene of the attack was strewn with bloodstained shoes in the blood- soaked grassy field, and officers collecting pieces of the bomb. The funeral was for Bakhat Khan, who was a member of a local “lashkar” or militia that is opposed to Taliban rule in the region, police said. He died Wednesday night. The tribesmen in the northwest have formed several such militias, for which they typically receive some government funding. They have had some success at stopping militant infiltration but are routinely struck by revenge attacks. Many of the bloodiest bombings of the last three years have targeted “lashkar” members or their families. On Tuesday, Taliban gunmen killed four children as they were returning from school close to the main northwestern city of Peshawar. agencies

[Michin Khel]

Few days ago 28 members of ANA were arrested in Dir. The border along dir should be atleast sealed.

[Janana]

Astaghfirullah, I just can't understand why a person would do that.

[Karachi]

These killings have become a joke from a satanic cult way of thinking. Its a fun game for these people to kill innocent people.This has nothing to do with islam, these people follow the way of satan

[Michin Khel]

Border incursions: Suspicions grow about Afghan support for TTP

Border incursions: Suspicions
grow about Afghan support
for TTP
By Naveed Hussain / Zia Khan
Published: September 11,
2011 ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Pakistan’s military believes
the fugitive leaders of the
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP) are receiving outright
support from militants as
well as officials in Afghanistan, where they
have found a safe haven. The suspicion comes in the wake of an upsurge in cross- border incursions in Pakistan’s border regions led mainly by TTP militants and backed by their Afghan collaborators. “The TTP senior cadres Maulana Fazlullah, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad and Abdul Wali, aka Omar Khalid, have been receiving support from local Afghan authorities and miscreants,” the military’s chief spokesperson Major-General Athar Abbas told The Express Tribune. Maulana Fazlullah, also known
as Mullah Radio, was the chief
of TTP in Swat, while Maulvi
Faqir and Omar Khalid headed
the group in Bajaur and
Mohmand, respectively. Military officials have gone
so far to accuse the
authorities in northeastern
Afghanistan of being
complacent in these raids –
a claim vehemently denied by Afghan officials. The military itself does not
directly blame them, but
analysts believe some Afghan
Taliban may be aiding their
Pakistani namesakes, with or
without approval from the group’s top hierarchy.
Hundreds of TTP insurgents
had fled the military
operations in the tribal
regions of Bajaur, Mohmand
and Malakand Division of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to find
a safe haven in the Afghan
provinces of Kunar and
Nuristan.
The exact number of TTP
militants in Afghanistan is not known but Maj-Gen Abbas
said that 200 to 300 militants
have been mounting cross-
border attacks in Dir and
Chitral districts, suggesting
they have a massive presence there.
Salfi Islam is the bedrock of al
Qaeda’s ideology, which is
also followed by the Taliban
controlling Kunar and
Nuristan. This ideological convergence brought the two
closer to each other.
Qari Zia is believed to be once
a close confidante of Osama
bin Laden and hosted him
once after his epic escape from the Tora Bora mountains
in 2001.
Peshawar-based security
analyst Brigadier (retd)
Muhamaad Saad believes the
Taliban are not a monolithic entity. “They can be divided
into three broad categories:
Kandahari Taliban, led by
Mullah Omar; Pakti Taliban, led
by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his
son Sirajuddin Haqqani; and Salfi Taliban,” he said. “It’s the
Salfi Taliban who pose a real
threat to Pakistan. They may
not be obeying the Taliban
supreme leader Mullah Omar.”
But the Afghan Taliban deny any schisms in the movement.
“All mujahideen are united
under the leadership of Mullah
Omar,” Taliban spokesperson
Zabiullah Mujahid told The
Express Tribune by phone from an undisclosed location
in Afghanistan.
A respected cleric who runs
an Islamic seminary in
Shekandai, a village on the
border between Chitral and Nuristan, endorses Mujahid’s
claim. “There is no evidence of
Qari Zia’s group defying the
authority of Mullah Omar,” said
Maulana Jamal Abdul Nasir.
Two years ago, the Nuristan Taliban had kidnapped a
Greek professor from Chitral.
And they had offered to free
him in return for the release of
three Afghan commanders –
Ustad Yasir, the second-in- command of the 1980s jihadi
leader Abdul Rasool Sayyaf,
Maulana Rehmatuddin
Nuristani, a local commander
from Nuristan and Maulvi
Abdullah Akhund from Kandahar.
“This shows there are no
differences between the Salfi
Taliban and those led by
Mullah Omar,” said Maulana
Nasir. The Afghan Taliban do not interfere in the affairs of
Afghanistan’s neighbouring
countries. “No member of
Taliban can go against the
movement’s policy,” Mujahid
said – blaming the TTP for all cross-border incursions. He
also denied Qari Zia’s group
was sheltering the TTP
militants.
The governor of Nuristan
province also appears to be exonerating the Afghan
Taliban. “The Afghan Taliban
have never carried out cross-
border attacks in Pakistan,”
Tameem Nuristani told The
Express Tribune by phone from his home.
He also put the blame squarely
on the TTP. “Look, they
(Pakistani Taliban) have killed
hundreds of people in bomb
and suicide attacks across Pakistan, they’re Pakistan’s
enemy,” he added. Nuristani,
however, conceded that the
TTP militants have found ‘safe
havens’ in Kunar and
Nuristan. Asked why the Afghan authorities do not
move against them, Nuristani
said, “Like Waziristan, we, too,
have areas where the
government’s writ does not
exist.” Scores of Pakistani military
and paramilitary troops and
policemen have been killed in
cross-border raids by militants
in Dir and Chitral districts. Last
month, dozens of people were killed in militant attacks on
security check posts in Chitral.
And earlier this month, dozens
of young men from Bajaur
Agency were seized by TTP
while they strayed across the border in Nuristan during an
outing.
What is Pakistan doing to stop
such raids?
“In Dir (Upper and Lower)
extra troops have been deployed to man the border
region. And in Chitral, new
check posts are being set up
at a bridge connecting the
region with Afghanistan. We
are sending huge reinforcements there,” said
Maj-Gen Abbas.
The unnamed senior military
official said the military was
also encouraging formation of
village defence committees in Chitral on the pattern of Amn
committees (qaumi lashkars)
in the tribal regions. But he
conceded that local residents
were unwilling to join, fearing
reprisals from the militants. Published in The Express
Tribune, September 11th,
2011.

[randolph85]

lol @ afghan authorities supporting the ttp. support how? they can barely support themselves.

so where is the commander of the faithful in all of this. for being the commander of a billion plus muslims, he is awfully quiet.

[gadoonwal]

This is nonsens ,,,,,,afghanistan got nothing to do with ttp.
The afghan govt can,nt even control their own country so how can they support these people.
TTP is paid and trained servants of ,,isi,,and they have the full blessing of napak army.
Blaming afghan govt mean to creat division,hatered between the people of pashtunkhwa and afghanistan.
We know this dirty game of ,,isi,,and their partner blackwater terrorists.
Sealing border mean to insult pashtuns more and more.
We have families related to eachother on both side of durandline.
How can these punjabi rats treat pashtun like this.

[emkhan]

This is all a revenge war game...
Nothing to do with Islam.