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| Tuesday, 15 June 2004 |
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Pakistani troops achieve target, Al-Qaeda hideouts smashed ISLAMABAD Monday (AFP) Pakistani military Sunday said it had achieved the target of destroying hideouts of foreign militants in the rugged terrain near the Afghan border as the government announced the arrest of 13 people including a leading Al-Qaeda operative. The operation which started in the Shakai valley of South Waziristan region after militant attacks on military check posts in area on Wednesday "is nearing completion," a military spokesman said. "Security forces are in control of the Shakai valley," he said adding that with the destruction their hideouts "the miscreants are on the run." Pakistani warplanes had conducted air strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts along with a massive ground operation, officials and residents said. The bombing had targetted a training site for Al-Qaeda and some houses in the Shakai valley, 25 kilometres (16 miles) west of Wana, they added. However, residents in the region's main town, Wana, said no sound of combat was heard overnight. Some 300 to 400 mainly Chechen and Uzbek Al-Qaeda-linked militants are believed to be hiding in Pakistan regions bordering Afghanistan. Arabs as well as ethnic Uighur Muslims from China are also said to be among them. "As many as 20 miscreants have been killed by the security forces during last two days," the military spokesman said, raising the militants toll since Wednesday to at least 55. "Bodies of a few more miscreants killed during the action are believed to be still lying in the under the debris of destroyed sanctuaries." Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told AFP late Sunday that security forces had arrested a nephew of a top Al-Qaeda operative and several other foreigners blamed for a series of attacks including an assassination attempt on a military commander in Karachi. The forces arrested an Al-Qaeda operative who is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, and had a one million dollar reward on his head, the interior minister said. Mohammad, one of the chief planners of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003 in a raid from the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad. The minister identified the man as Musabir Urumchi. "Our security forces have arrested an eight-member gang of foreign Al-Qaeda operatives for their involvement in acts of terrorism in Pakistan, including Thursday's attack on the Corps Commander's convoy in Karachi," Hayat told AFP. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said 13 people had been arrested, including some Pakistanis. |
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