Tweet
Pakistan gunships kill 80 at religious school
Mon Oct 30, 2:09 PM ET
KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani helicopter gunships have destroyed an Islamic school allegedly used as an Al-Qaeda-linked training camp near the Afghan border, killing up to 80 suspected militants.
Local leaders however insisted that most of the dead were teenage students, many of whom were "reduced to bits and pieces", and protests erupted against the Pakistani government and its ally the United States.
The airstrike that targeted a madrassa in the troubled Bajaur tribal agency was one of the biggest ever in Pakistan's frontier region, where many Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents have sought sanctuary since 2001.
"Information we have received from certain local sources and intelligence sources suggests that there may be about 80 dead," chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.
"We had information about the presence of 70 to 80 miscreants, including some foreigners, who were engaging in militant training in this madrassa and we carried out an operation using gunship helicopters and precision weapons," he said Monday.
"Most of the compound was destroyed."
A local Taliban commander known as Maulvi Liaqat, who ran the madrassa and was wanted by the authorities for sheltering insurgents, was among the dead, a senior security official and witnesses said.
Sultan said the madrassa compound was far from any civilian areas and added that no women or children were inside at the time of the attack, which happened at around 5:00 am (0000 GMT).
"There was no collateral damage," he added.
Witnesses said at least three army helicopters had hovered over the madrassa in Chingai, near Khar, the main town in Bajaur agency. Then they heard a huge explosion before the choppers flew off.
Most of the occupants were asleep while some had awoken for pre-dawn prayers, they said.
Twenty bodies wrapped in sheets were laid out for funeral prayers and people pulled dozens more from the rubble and put them in sacks, an AFP correspondent said.
Siraj-ul-Haq, the deputy chief minister of North West Frontier Province, which borders the area, said after attending the funeral that he was resigning "to express solidarity with those innocent 80 students who died."
"This attack has been launched by America and its allies which includes Pakistan," he told reporters in the provincial capital Peshawar. "Only 45 bodies were in shape. The rest have been reduced to bits and pieces."
An Islamist legislator who also attended the prayer service, Haroon Rashid, said 83 people had been killed. Three injured people were taken to hospital.
There was a complete strike in Khar and tribesmen planned a major protest on Tuesday, the correspondent said. Meanwhile around 200 bearded Islamist students burned a US flag in the southern port city of Karachi.
The attack came two days after thousands of pro-militant tribesmen gathered in Bajaur agency and chanted their support for Al-Qaeda chief
Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, security sources said.
Sultan said the attack was not linked to the meeting and was based on prior intelligence.
But Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, a wanted hardline cleric who led the rally and who had links with the dead cleric Liaqat, said that the dead were civilians and vowed that their deaths would be "avenged".
Al-Qaeda's Egyptian deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was said to have escaped a US missile attack about two kilometres (over a mile) away at Damadola village in Bajaur agency in January.
Pakistan's lawless northwestern tribal areas became a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled
Afghanistan after US-led forces ousted the ultra-Islamic Taliban regime five years ago.
Pakistani forces have since launched a series of military operations throughout the semi-autonmous tribal zones in which more than 1,000 militants and 600 soldiers are said to have died.
Monday's raid came on the first full day of a visit by Britain's
Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, during which the British heir to the throne thanked President Pervez Musharraf for helping fight terrorism.
Charles is also scheduled to visit a madrassa in Peshawar during his five-day tour as part of an focus on "inter-faith harmony".
Mon Oct 30, 2:09 PM ET
KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani helicopter gunships have destroyed an Islamic school allegedly used as an Al-Qaeda-linked training camp near the Afghan border, killing up to 80 suspected militants.
Local leaders however insisted that most of the dead were teenage students, many of whom were "reduced to bits and pieces", and protests erupted against the Pakistani government and its ally the United States.
The airstrike that targeted a madrassa in the troubled Bajaur tribal agency was one of the biggest ever in Pakistan's frontier region, where many Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents have sought sanctuary since 2001.
"Information we have received from certain local sources and intelligence sources suggests that there may be about 80 dead," chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.
"We had information about the presence of 70 to 80 miscreants, including some foreigners, who were engaging in militant training in this madrassa and we carried out an operation using gunship helicopters and precision weapons," he said Monday.
"Most of the compound was destroyed."
A local Taliban commander known as Maulvi Liaqat, who ran the madrassa and was wanted by the authorities for sheltering insurgents, was among the dead, a senior security official and witnesses said.
Sultan said the madrassa compound was far from any civilian areas and added that no women or children were inside at the time of the attack, which happened at around 5:00 am (0000 GMT).
"There was no collateral damage," he added.
Witnesses said at least three army helicopters had hovered over the madrassa in Chingai, near Khar, the main town in Bajaur agency. Then they heard a huge explosion before the choppers flew off.
Most of the occupants were asleep while some had awoken for pre-dawn prayers, they said.
Twenty bodies wrapped in sheets were laid out for funeral prayers and people pulled dozens more from the rubble and put them in sacks, an AFP correspondent said.
Siraj-ul-Haq, the deputy chief minister of North West Frontier Province, which borders the area, said after attending the funeral that he was resigning "to express solidarity with those innocent 80 students who died."
"This attack has been launched by America and its allies which includes Pakistan," he told reporters in the provincial capital Peshawar. "Only 45 bodies were in shape. The rest have been reduced to bits and pieces."
An Islamist legislator who also attended the prayer service, Haroon Rashid, said 83 people had been killed. Three injured people were taken to hospital.
There was a complete strike in Khar and tribesmen planned a major protest on Tuesday, the correspondent said. Meanwhile around 200 bearded Islamist students burned a US flag in the southern port city of Karachi.
The attack came two days after thousands of pro-militant tribesmen gathered in Bajaur agency and chanted their support for Al-Qaeda chief
Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, security sources said.
Sultan said the attack was not linked to the meeting and was based on prior intelligence.
But Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, a wanted hardline cleric who led the rally and who had links with the dead cleric Liaqat, said that the dead were civilians and vowed that their deaths would be "avenged".
Al-Qaeda's Egyptian deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was said to have escaped a US missile attack about two kilometres (over a mile) away at Damadola village in Bajaur agency in January.
Pakistan's lawless northwestern tribal areas became a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled
Afghanistan after US-led forces ousted the ultra-Islamic Taliban regime five years ago.
Pakistani forces have since launched a series of military operations throughout the semi-autonmous tribal zones in which more than 1,000 militants and 600 soldiers are said to have died.
Monday's raid came on the first full day of a visit by Britain's
Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, during which the British heir to the throne thanked President Pervez Musharraf for helping fight terrorism.
Charles is also scheduled to visit a madrassa in Peshawar during his five-day tour as part of an focus on "inter-faith harmony".
Comment