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Afghan Among Militants Captured in Pakistan's North Waziristan

Posted on: Saturday, 30 July 2005, 06:00 CDT

Text of report by Iqbal Khattak, published by Pakistani newspaper Daily Times website on 30 July

Peshawar: Security forces raided a terrorist hideout used for planning and organizing militant attacks and killed a militant and arrested another three, including an Afghan, in a military operation in North Waziristan, military and tribal sources said on Friday [29 July].

The operation was carried out after the arrest of a militant leader, Amir Hamza, and his four accomplices on Thursday. A military statement said that one militant was killed while three others, including a foreigner, had been arrested in the operation conducted on a seminary, Shoaibul Uloom, and adjoining compounds near the Afghan border.

According to residents of Dargah Darpakhel near the Ghulam Khan check-post, more than 2,000 special commandos, troops and paramilitary personnel took part in the operation, which was the longest in recent months - starting at 3.30 p.m. [1030 gmt] on Thursday and ending around 10 a.m. [0500 gmt] on Friday.

"In spite of repeated warnings to the inmates holed up in the compounds to surrender, the miscreants not only refused to lay down their weapons but resorted to fire," the military statement said, adding that local tribal elders and political administration officials had also tried to persuade the militants to surrender. Local residents said that security forces shot dead a militant when he came out of the compound to throw a hand grenade at them, adding that the militant was later identified as Abdul Latif, a resident of Lakki Marwat district.

The military statement and local residents said that after killing Latif, security forces stormed the compounds and arrested three other militants, including an Afghan. The statement said that the troops found rocket launchers, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), detonators, booby traps and ammunition during a search of the compounds. Intelligence sources told Daily Times that letters "from Afghanistan" suggesting how, where and when the terrorist activities could be resumed had also been seized from the compound.

"Some of the letters spoke of terrorism in Pakistan while others gave broader outlines on how IEDs and small bombs could be made and how a rocket could be fired with a timer," sources said, adding that the Amir Hamza group was believed to be involved in the recent rocket attacks on military installations in North Waziristan and the arrested militants were being interrogated by security agencies.

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

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