Unrest in the North

PESHAWAR: Dozens of armed militants attacked a mosque and a police checkpoint in Peshawar, killing two local elders, police said Wednesday.

In the first attack, twelve militants raided a mosque, on Tuesday in Adezai village, on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing two local elders while they were praying. Qadir Khan, one of the heads of Adezai Qaumi Lashkar, claimed that the men belonged to the Tehrik-i-Taliban group and were led by Commander Jangrez.

An hour later, about 150 insurgents from Lashkar-e- Islam fired on a police post in Sarband village, on the western edge of Peshawar, leading to a 40-minute gunfight but no injuries. “They were Mangal Bagh’s people,” Mohammad Karim Khan, a senior police official, said, adding that the group came from the Khyber tribal district, before fleeing the scene.

Fahimuddin, head of the anti-Taliban militia in Adezai village, confirmed the attacks. Mangal Bagh is the head of the Lashkar-e-Islam and is accused by officials of running torture centres and private jails that met out brutal Taliban-style justice in some parts of Khyber.

Bagh himself escaped to the remote mountains on the border with Afghanistan after an offensive by Pakistani troops late last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2010.