Pakistani men react as a car burns in Qissa Khawani bazaar after a bomb blast in Peshawar Pakistan, Thursday, May 28, 2009. Militants detonated two bombs in a busy market and attacked two police checkpoints in northern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 14 people, wounding scores more and testing the resolve of the government as it takes on the Taliban in the Swat Valley.
In the initial Peshawar attacks, bombs were on two motorcycles and detonated by timers, bomb disposal squad chief Shafqat Malik told reporters, according to Associated Press news agency.
'Sudden blast'
Tahir Ali Shar, a resident of the Peshawar, told Reuters news agency he could see about 15 wounded people lying on the ground.
Some of the wounded are believed to be in a serious condition.
Shops and vehicles were damaged and television images showed men trying to douse flames, while injured people were being dragged out of the market to safety.
"It was a sudden blast and then there was fire all around, a cloud of smoke filled the sky," injured shopkeeper Khair Uddin told Reuters news agency.
Gunmen started shooting in the narrow alleyways as police arrived.
Police later said two suspected militants had been killed and two arrested.
While the gunfight was going on, a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives at a military checkpoint on the outskirts.
The apparent co-ordination of the attacks, coming so soon after Lahore and the Taliban warning, could herald a new wave of violence in Pakistani cities, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad. 
Pakistani men arrive at the scene after a bomb blast at Qissa Khawani bazaar in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Thursday, May 28, 2009. An officer says a suspected suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Peshawar shortly after two deadly bomb blasts at a market in the northern Pakistani city. Police official Yaseen Khan said at least four police and the attacker were killed in the blast on the outskirts of Peshawar.
Also on Thursday, a bomb killed at least three people and injured several in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, about 186 miles, (300km) south of Peshawar.
Peshawar is the capital of the North Western Frontier Province and has seen an increase in violence in the past three weeks:
• Six days ago a car bomb outside a cinema in a busy marketplace killed at least six people and injured about 70
• On 16 May a car bomb exploded in the densely populated Kashkal area, killing at least 11 people and injuring many others.
Swat revenge
The attack in Lahore a day earlier was in response to the army's operation in the Swat valley, Taliban deputy Hakimullah Mehsud told the BBC by phone.
The army is claiming sweeping victories against Taliban insurgents in the Swat valley, near the Afghan border. 
Pakistani special forces search for suspects involved in an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Thursday, May 28, 2009. An officer says a suspected suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Peshawar shortly after two deadly bomb blasts at a market in the northern Pakistani city. Police official Yaseen Khan said at least four police and the attacker were killed in the blast on the outskirts of Peshawar.
The army says more than 1,000 militants have been killed in the past month. There has been no independent confirmation of the figure.
It says it has recaptured 70% of Swat's main city, Mingora, and expects to secure it in a matter of days.
Hakimullah Mehsud, Taliban commander for Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions, called on citizens to "evacuate their cities"
He warned of further attacks on "government targets" in the Pakistani cities of Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Multan.
Pakistan's government said in the immediate aftermath of the Lahore bomb that it suspected it to be an act of revenge by militants in Swat.
The attack on Wednesday, which injured more than 200 people, targeted buildings belonging to the police and intelligence agency, the ISI.
A group of men shot at police officers before detonating a powerful car bomb, reportedly killing at least one ISI agent and 12 police officers, along with one child. 
ress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of the Republic of Korea to support the upgrade of 35 F-16 Block 32 Aircraft. 
Longbow Helicopters and associated equipment, parts, training and support for an estimated cost of $820 million. 
Pakistan emergency workers and police comb through the rubble of the police building after a suicide bomb attack killed at least 23 people and wounding around 200 on May 27, 2009 Lahore, Pakistan. The attack came in the center of the city aimed at the offices of the police and Pakistan's main intelligence agency. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, the third in Lahore, but most blame the Taliban for the violent retaliation since the army launched a sweeping operation against the Taliban in Swat region three weeks ago.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to the Pakistani Taliban chief, Baitullah Mehsud, told the Associated Press that the attack on the offices of the police chief and Pakistan's main spy agency, the ISI, was connected to the military operation.
"It was in response to the Swat operation where innocent people have been killed," Mehsud said. The little-known group Taliban Movement in Punjab has also claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack was the third in Lahore in as many months and Pakistanis have been bracing themselves for violent retaliation since the army launched a sweeping operation against the Taliban in Swat valley three weeks ago.
"These terrorists were defeated in Fata [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] and Swat and now they have come here," the interior minister, Rehman Malik, said yesterday. "This is a war, and it is a war for our survival."
As Malik spoke, rescuers were scrambling to pull the dead and wounded from the wreckage of destroyed buildings. Twelve police officers and one child were among the dead, a television station reported. Twenty people were injured when the roof of the operating theatre in a nearby hospital collapsed on them.
Sajjad Bhutto, a senior government official, said four men had leapt from a car that pulled up outside a police building near the ISI headquarters. The men, who were described as young and clean-shaven by witnesses, started shooting.
Guards outside the spy agency returned fire, sparking a short gun battle that ended when the car, which had crashed into a security barrier, exploded. The blast levelled an emergency response building across the street and sheared a wall from the ISI office, where two intelligence officers and six others were killed.
It left a scene of devastation along the mall – a tree-lined, colonial-era thoroughfare. A petrol station was destroyed, and broken glass and crushed vehicles littered the road. Later distraught relatives turned up, looking for family members.
Bhutto said 100kg of explosives were used in the bomb.
The attack was no surprise, said Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based defence analyst. "We were expecting there would be some kind of retaliation," he said, drawing a link with the ongoing operations in Swat. "The surprise was that it was such a massive attack."
Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, has become a favoured target for militants. In March, gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team, killing seven people and plunging Pakistan into international sporting isolation.
Weeks later other gunmen mounted a siege of a police training centre on the city's outskirts, killing several recruits. The Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge US drone attacks against his mountain base in South Waziristan.
Lahore is the heartland of Pakistan's military and cultural elite. Most of the army is recruited from the surrounding agricultural plains, and the city is the base of many powerful politicians, including the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif.
"They thought that if they could demoralise people here, it would have a lot of impact and a restraining influence on the military," said Rizvi.
But the ease with which the militants struck raised tough questions about who was helping them, and why the country's security services had failed to pre-empt the attack.
Although the largest militant groups are based in the tribal areas, they operate in Punjab with the aid of local extremist groups. Southern Punjab is a notorious hub of sectarian and jihadi activity. "They always have a linkage. It could be a mosque, a madrasa, or a link to one of the various militant groups," said Rizvi.
As the threat to Pakistan's stability rose this year, the US has stepped up pressure on Islamabad to act forcefully. Yesterday's blast coincided with a visit to Islamabad by General David Petraeus, the head of the US central command.
But the military and Pakistan's spy agency are compromised by their own cloudy history – the army has a history of cracking down on some jihadi groups, but favouring others as proxy fighters to be deployed in Afghanistan or India.
In Lahore, local television showed police dragging two suspects through an angry throng of onlookers, who beat one as he was shoved into a police van.
In Islamabad, the military spokesman reported "considerable progress" in the battle for control of Mingora, the main city in Swat, which should be cleared of militants by Saturday, he said.
Pakistani Army soldiers cover themselves as an helicopter, unseen, takes off from the top of a defense position on a former base of Taliban militants at Banai Baba Ziarat area, northwest of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, Pakistan. Troops are encircling Taliban militants in their mountain base as well as the main town in the Swat Valley, a Pakistani general said, as the U.N. appealed for US$543 million to ease the suffering of nearly 2 million refugees from the fighting.
Brig Tahir Hameed, the incharge of operation Rah-i-Raast in Mingora, told reporters that militants would be wiped out from the city within a few days.
‘It is now a matter of days, not weeks, to secure the town,’ he added.
A group of journalists was taken to Mingora for the first time since the operation was launched earlier this month.
The town of over 300,000 people, once a hub of tourists, was as silent as a graveyard because of curfew and massive displacement. Helicopters were hovering and security forces were guarding main intersections.
Markets wore a deserted look with many buildings and shops carrying marks of shells and bullets, showing intensity of the fighting. Hotels and shops were also targeted.
Residents stranded in Mingora because of curfew said they had been facing a severe shortage of food and medicines.
An old woman, Bakhti Jan, said that she could not leave the place because her husband was seriously ill. ‘We are facing scarcity of eatables and medicines,’ she said.
Another resident, Altaf, said the people had been braving food and medicine shortage. He said no doctor was present in hospitals. ‘There are no electricity and telephone services.’
Brig Tahir said that militants, numbering between 1,000 and 1,500, had fled to other areas, shaving their beards off. Troops found a cache of weapons during search operations in Mingora.
He accused the militants of looting banks and shops besides being involved in kidnappings and killings.
Security forces had adopted a three-pronged strategy to flush out militants, according to military official.
‘In the first stage, the security forces conduct surgical strikes and then encircle the militants. In the final stage the target is eliminated to clear and secure the area,’ he said.
Troops had foiled two suicide attacks on May 8 and May 10 when they hit the bombers before they could hit the target.
He said the terrorists were on the run now and soon the entire city would be secured.
Witnesses said that troops took control of hilltops around Mingora and were firing artillery to flush out militants from suburbs of the city. The entire city reverberated with artillery and tank shelling throughout the day.
FOUR SOLDIERS KILLED: Four military personnel were killed and six others injured when a convoy was attacked with an improvised explosive device in the Kota area on Wednesday.
Sources said that the convoy was on its way to Mingora when it came under attack. The injured were taken to a hospital.
Security forces had claimed to have cleared the Kota area of Taliban two weeks ago. ISPR BRIEFING: Security forces had made significant gains in Mingora and were close to eliminating resistance, the ISPR chief told a briefing in Islamabad on Wednesday.
‘The security forces are most likely to gain complete control of the city in the next two days,’ military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told Dawn. He, however, said the return of internally displaced people (IDPs) depended on restoration of electricity, water and other services.
He said considerable progress had been made in Mingora town and house-to-house search was in progress in most areas. He said during search operations eight terrorists were arrested from Nishtar Chowk.
He said many truckloads of relief goods had reached the besieged people in all areas affected by the operation and efforts were afoot to address food shortage.
He confirmed that incidents of snatching of relief items by the Taliban took place in some areas.
He said 12 terrorists were killed in various areas of Swat during an exchange of fire with security forces on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, while one soldier laid down his life and three were injured.
Asked to comment on reports that Sufi Muhammad, head of an outlawed militant outfit, had been killed in an air strike, the spokesman said: ‘Not to my knowledge’.
Gen Abbas said that security forces had continued cordon and search operations, destroying strongholds of terrorists in Peochar. During a clash there with insurgents, two soldiers were injured.
He said that Kanju-Kabal road had been cleared and intense fighting was continuing for securing Kabal. A vehicle driven by a would-be suicide bomber was destroyed near the Shamozai Bridge.
Security forces had secured their positions in Madyan, Bagh Derai and Kala Kot, Sakhra valley and important heights west of Fathepur.
An important Taliban commander, Irfanullah, was killed on Tuesday during the operation in Maalam Jabba. Bodies of three terrorists and a huge cache of arms were recovered while a soldier died in the area during clashes.
He said that the Taliban had regrouped in Mohmand Agency, which had now been cleared of terrorists. All IDPs of the Mohmand Agency could go back, Gen Abbas added.
About Buner, the military spokesman said the area up to Sultanwas had been cleared of insurgents and IDPs could return up to Sultanwas.
Asked if an operation in Pir Baba was being planned, he said that locals were raising a lashkar and would launch an attempt to flush out terrorists on their own. He said that security forces would launch an operation, if the move did not work.
five countries in the near future, the company's deputy general director said on Tuesday.
The Pechora-2M is an upgraded version of the Pechora (SA-3 Goa) low-altitude surface-to-air missile system. The modernized system features a longer range (up to 27 kilometers), an increased kill probability, better resistance to jamming, and the ability to engage multiple targets, including cruise missiles.
"We will deliver Pechora-2M air defense systems to three former Soviet states and two [other] foreign countries soon," Vyacheslav Karatayev said, without specifying the customers.
He added that the company was holding talks with another 10 countries on sales of Pechora missile systems.
"This system is very popular around the world. However, we have not yet been able to increase the production capacity to 15-17 systems annually, as was the case during the Soviet era," the official said.
Some Russian media sources earlier reported that the portfolio of 2009-2011 export orders for Pechora-2M and Pechora-2A SAM systems totaled 200 units, including 70 for Egypt.
The Defense Systems joint venture was formed in 1996 under a Russia-Belarus intergovernmental agreement. The company comprises 38 subsidiaries in both countries and focuses on the production, export and post-sale servicing of Pechora-2M air defense systems.
 |
