Pro-Taliban militants seized control of a shrine in northwestern
Pakistan and renamed it after Islamabad's Red Mosque, while seven
people died in violence Monday near the Afghan border, officials
said.
The upheaval added to the sense of insecurity in the tribal
regions, where President General Pervez Musharraf is already under
pressure to crack down on Taliban and Al-Qaida.
The government again rejected the possibility of US military
strikes and criticized another form of US pressure - a bill that
would tie development aid to Pakistan's progress in fighting
militancy.
About 70 pro-Taliban militants occupied the shrine of renowned
Pashtun freedom fighter Sahib Turangzai and its accompanying mosque
at the town of Lakarai in Mohmand tribal region on Sunday, a
militant representative and a local official said separately.
The militants declared their support for the radical leaders of
the Red Mosque that Pakistan's army stormed this month after its
clerics launched a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign in the
capital.
As well as renaming the mosque in Lakarai after the Red Mosque,
the militants vowed to set up a girls' seminary at the site -
reminiscent of the one in Islamabad where the anti-vice campaign
was centered.
Authorities demolished that seminary last week after the mosque
siege that left 102 people dead and triggered reprisal attacks by
militants, particularly in the restive northwest.
"We will ensure education here for students who were dispersed
after the operation against Lal Masjid in Islamabad," Khalid Omar,
a man who claims to speak for the militants, said in telephone
calls to journalists in Peshawar.
Turangzai was a religious and nationalist leader who led Pashtun
fighters against British colonial forces, and who died in the early
1900s.
A government official in Mohmand, who sought anonymity because
he was not authorized to speak to journalists, confirmed the
militants had taken control of the shrine. He said authorities have
sought the help of tribal elders to get them out.
Meanwhile, at least three security forces and four civilians
died in violence in North Waziristan, a tribal region where
militants this month pulled out of a peace deal with the
government.
Pro-Taliban militants have launched a wave of attacks in North
Waziristan after pulling out of the September 2006 peace
deal.
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(China Daily via agencies July 31, 2007)
