MIRAMSHAH, Feb 1: At least five security personnel were killed and 13 others injured when a suicide car bomber blew himself up at the Kajhori checkpoint, some 3km north of Mirali town in North Waziristan on Friday.
Local people and military officers said the suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into the military checkpoint at about 4:30pm, breaking the ceasefire declared by the local Taliban a couple of months back.
Subedar Iqbal and Naik Zahidullah of Swat Scouts and sepoys Masood Jan and Rangi Khan of Khasadar force were killed on the spot and another soldier died in the Bannu Combined Military Hospital. Five FC soldiers and eight personnel of the Khasadar force were injured. They were taken to the Mirali headquarters hospital and Bannu CMH.
The attack took place near the site of the recent alleged missile strike by a US drone in which Al Qaeda commander Abu Laith Al Libi is reported to have been killed.
An intelligence official said the Al Qaeda kingpin was present at the place at the time of the strike in which 12 other militants, including Obaidah Al Masri, were killed. It was the second attack on the checkpoint in two months.
AFP adds: “Five security personnel were killed and another eight were wounded in the vehicle-bound suicide attack today,” military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas said.
Two soldiers suffered minor injuries in a roadside bomb blast outside Wana in South Waziristan, he said.
South Waziristan is the stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud, who has been accused by Pakistani and US officials of masterminding the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Abdul Sami Paracha adds from Kohat: The government is considering a plan to ban the sale of lethal weapons and explosives manufactured in Darra Adamkhel.
The weapons have been used by militants and members of banned religious groups for terrorist activities in different parts of the country.
Under the plan, the arms manufacturers and sellers will be allowed only to make and sell small pistols, hunting guns, daggers and ammunition used in such weapons. The smuggling from Afghanistan would be stopped for which a foolproof and effective plan was being devised to curb the illegal business.
The authorities had taken the decision well before the recovery of arms explosives and suicide jackets were found in Darra Adamkhel, a high-level source told Dawn.
It may be mentioned that the military authorities had seized tons of explosives, foreign-made batteries used in roadside attacks on military convoys, chemicals used in the preparation of suicide jackets, cheque books of banks situated in Kabul, receipts of goods brought in trucks from Kabul and detonators made in a European country for India.
The military on Friday continued searching for ammunition in Dara Adamkhel and found a large quantity of weapons in Gar area of Akhorwal. The bomb disposal squad also destroyed explosives seized during the operation near Tor Chappar on Friday.
The headquarters of seven commanders, who had escaped during the operation, were still being searched for weapons and proofs of the involvement of foreign hands in the terrorist activities in Pakistan.
It is learnt that most of the heavy arms, like rocket-launchers, machine-guns, anti-aircraft guns, mortars and lethal explosives like C3, C4, dynamite and mines, were being sold to militants and members of banned organisations in Darra Adamkhel.
Officials said that all weapons shown on TV after encounters with terrorists and militants were not made or sold in Darra but were brought into the country in huge quantity through Balochistan and tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, like Khyber Agency and Kurram Agency.
The authorities have now asked the tribesmen running more than 900 small and big arms manufacturing units in the town of Darra Adamkhel to stop producing heavy artillery and smuggling of explosives into the country from Afghanistan.
An official said the government had no objection to production of 30-bore pistols, bullets, hunting guns and copies of antique but had reservations about unregulated manufacturing and sale of Kalashnikovs, machine-guns and explosives.
