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October 12, 2008
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Sunday
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Shawwal 12, 1429
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Taliban-tribes row preceded bombing
By Abdul Sami Paracha
KOHAT, Oct 11: The death toll of Friday’s suicide attack at a jirga in Orakzai Agency rose to 60.
Officials told Dawn on Saturday that evidence gathered so far from the blast site pointed to the Taliban of the Darra Adamkhel who had entered the tribal region last month.
An official report said that a 20-year-old clean-shaven youth drove his explosive-laden white truck into the jirga and detonated it. The jirga was about to send a tribal lashkar led by 25 elders to destroy the Taliban headquarters in the area.
The sources said that on Sept 28, the Taliban had asked the Alikhel tribe, the biggest and the most influential in the area, and its sub-clans – Hasratkhel, Mirwaskhel, Sokari, Zamkakhel and Baba Almasay – to leave the area because they belonged to Shia community. The tribesmen had left the area.
The political agent had summoned a grand jirga of all the 18 tribes of the Orakzai Agency in Hangu on Sept 30 and got the area cleared of the Taliban employing a lashkar on Oct 6.
The next day the Alikhel tribe returned to their homes and held a jirga on Oct 7 to take collective action against the Taliban along with the representatives of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat. On Oct 10, the tribesmen gathered at Khadizai to destroy the Taliban headquarters and houses of people sheltering them.
According to the official report, the administration knew that Taliban would attack the Alikhel jirga but no action was taken to avert it. Officials said that the report was not final and many aspects of the attack remained to be investigated.
The administration had sent several teams to nearby villages to gather information about the missing people to ascertain the exact death toll, officials said.
The intensity of the blast indicated that about 250 to 300 kilogrammes of explosives made from urea, petrol and RDX were used, said Bomb Disposal Squad Chief Akbar Khan.
Political Agent Kamran Zeb said that tribesmen had found a clue but were waiting for burial before pointing finger at anybody or take action against the suspected perpetrators.
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