November 21, 2008	Friday	Ziqa'ad 22, 1429

KOHAT, Nov 20: Militants targeted the Kohat Garrison Officers (KGO) Club in the cantonment area with a rocket that exploded in one of its lawns late Wednesday night. No casualties or any other damage were reported.

Soon after the rocket explosion, military and police officials reached the site along with the bomb disposal squad and collected pieces of the rocket.

Sources said intelligence agencies had received reports that militants were planning to launch a major attack on the Kohat Cantonment and on vehicles travelling through the Orakzai Agency-Bezote-Kohat-Peshawar road.

They said the Taliban belonging to Darra Adamkhel had subjugated Orakzai tribesmen by carrying out a suicide attack and killing tribal chiefs to gain control there after their expulsion from the Frontier Region of Kohat.

The Darra Taliban, they said, had also overpowered the local Taliban in the Orakzai Agency and made it their new stronghold.

Some reports said the Taliban had trained at least six suicide bombers who could target any place in the country and more were being trained at a secret location in the Chappar area of the Orakzai Agency.

Officials admitted that the Darra Taliban were creating law and order situation in the area and had increased their attacks from the Orakzai Agency in the settled areas of Peshawar, Kohat and the semi-autonomous tribal regions. But, they said, ground troops could not be moved into the area due to thick jungles and more difficult terrain as compared to Waziristan.

Only air strikes could be made in the area, which could cause collateral damages, they added.

Sources said the Darra Taliban had increased their activities after forcing the interior ministry to swap the detained deputy of Baitullah Mehsud, Maulvi Rafiuddin, with 10 security personnel a fortnight ago.

BANNU: Suspected militants fired a rocket on the Bannu cantonment on Thursday from an unspecified location. However, no casualty was reported in the attack.

The rocket landed in an open area in the cantonment.

It was the second attack on the cantonment as a rocket had been fired by unidentified outlaws a day earlier, which had landed in the under-construction building of the University of Science and Technology, near the general bus stand.