Mangal Bagh threatens government workers

Says Lashkar-i-Islam to oppose all public welfare schemes until negotiations.

KHYBER AGENCY: Chief of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Islam Mangal Bagh has said that officials working to register voters and conduct a census in Khyber Agency will be ‘sentenced to death’ unless they immediately halt their activities.

“We will continue opposing government policies unless the government or its advisers begin talks with us,” Bagh said, in an address broadcast on his private FM radio channel in Tirah valley, Khyber Agency.

Bagh said that elected representatives and elders of the area are ignoring the pressing issue of law and order in Khyber Agency and taking more interest in voter registration and census. “Hundreds of people have died in Khyber Agency but no government agency or public representative has bothered to list their names or establish a team for the purpose,” he said.

Speaking against the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Bagh said that his organisation will not let the programme succeed in the area and threatened with dire consequences if anybody tried to participate.

Clashes continue

Meanwhile, in continuous clashes, a seven-year-old child died and three persons were injured as security forces fought militants in Bara Malik, Deen Khel area. Those injured include two security officials and three vehicles of security forces were also set ablaze.

Militants attacked a security forces’ convoy with heavy weapons and rockets at Soorghar, which was bound towards Fort Slope. Ensuing exchange of fire left the child dead and his grandfather Hawas Khan injured. Four militants were arrested from the area.

Nato terminal attacked

Two people were seriously injured when a bomb ripped through a Nato terminal in Torkham area of Khyber Agency. Torkham is situated close to the Pak-Afghan border. Nato containers were also damaged in the attack and the injured were taken to hospital in Landi Kotal.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th,  2011.