By NNN-PTI,
Islamabad : Rattled by a wave of suicide bombings, Pakistan government has said that such attacks were perpetrated by people from within the country and not by Indians or Americans, a rare candid statement from authorities here.
Those carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan are neither Indians nor Americans, Interior Ministry chief Advisor Rehman Malik told a seminar organised in Lahore by a society affiliated to the influential ‘Jang Group of Newspapers’.
“Rather, they are our own brethren while those who were urging them to do so were also our own people,” Malik was quoted as saying by newspapers.
The war on terror would continue “till the last terrorist was eliminated” as it was a war for the survival of the country, he said.
“Our own people are involved in terrorism. However, the arms and rocket launchers seized in tribal areas are coming from across the border (with Afghanistan),” Malik said in an obvious reference to the missile attacks by the US-led forces coalition forces.
Authorities had arrested at least 14 would-be suicide bombers due to effective and improved security measures.
Out of 10,000 foreigners who came to Pakistan after the end of the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, 3,000 had married local women in the tribal areas and were “now living as sons-in-law of the tribal people”, he said. PTI
Meanwhile, at least 10 Taliban militants were killed Monday by Pakistani security forces in fresh clashes in the troubled northwestern Swat valley.
Exchanges of fire erupted after the security forces launched a search operation in a militant stronghold in Khwazakhela sub-district.
TV channels quoted security officials as saying that 10 militants were killed in the clashes.
The security forces faced stiff resistance from the Taliban, the reports said.
Pakistani troops have launched a major operation against militants in Swat Valley led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, a deputy of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, following a surge in violence in the area about two months ago.
A peace deal signed in May by the Taliban and the government of the North West Frontier Province has virtually collapsed.
Troops have also carried out operations against the Taliban in the restive tribal belt. Up to 27 militants, including two commanders and 12 potential suicide bombers, were killed in strikes by gunship helicopters in the Aurakzai Agency yesterday.
The strikes came two days after a suicide car bomb attack on an anti-Taliban jirga or tribal council at Khadazai in Aurakzai Agency killed at least 80 people and injured more than 130. The jirga had convened to discuss ways to evict the Taliban from the region.