Suicide bombing: Mehsud repatriation halted

The displaced people stopped returning after an attack in South Waziristan.

ISLAMABAD:

The repatriation of Mehsud tribesmen to South Waziristan Agency was reported to have temporarily halted on Friday after Taliban militants attacked a Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) vehicle in Kot-kai village, the home town of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fugitive chief Hakimullah Mehsud, which military claims is under its complete control.

The attack is said to have occurred on Thursday in which two local contractors associated with the FWO were injured and their vehicles were extensively damaged.

Also on Friday, militants killed two members of pro-military Bhittani group in what appeared to be early signs of a Taliban comeback in anarea which had been under army control since 2009.

Sources in Tank and South Waziristan told The Express Tribune that FWO contractors Hazrat Ali Ishangai and Umar Hayat were injured when a suicide bomber struck their vehicle.

But the men survived because the teenage suicide bomber’s vest is said to have exploded prematurely.

Hazrat Ali was a pro-military tribesman, while one of his sons was part of the TTP suicide bombing squad, who later joined the Qari Zainuddin Mehsud group, a cluster of militants behind the killing of several of Hakimullah’s commanders in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.

Local sources said the attack might have been motivated by a ‘personal enmity’ but the mere fact that the Taliban were able to send a suicide bomber into an area tightly controlled by the military had sent a worrying signal to those  wishing to repatriate to their hometown.

The killing of two Bhittani tribesmen in the Surgarh area, just 10 kilometres from Kot-kai, the very next morning had intensified fears, prompting the displaced Mehsud tribesmen to stay away.

TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud had warned his fellow tribesmen against returning to the South Waziristan in an interview recently telecast by a Norwegian television and Flashpoint Partners website.

“I urge them not to return to the war zone…we are in the middle of the fighting, the one for which there look to be no end,” said Mehsud.

A military source here said the repatriation was slow but insisted it was more due to the civil administration’s incapability rather than the presence of Taliban militants.

He denied there was any attack on the FWO convoy.

According to a handout, Chief of the Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani discussed the issue of army offensive in the country’s tribal areas and sources said the repatriation to South Waziristan also came under discussion.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2011.