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As Pakistan considers counter-terrorism strategy, more airstrikes kill militants Pakistani forces kill alleged organizer of school massacre
(about 9 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Two suspected U.S. drone strikes in northwestern Pakistan killed at least eight militants on Friday, and Pakistani forces also killed a Taliban commander who helped carry out last week’s school massacre in Peshawar. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Security forces on Friday killed an alleged organizer of the brutal school massacre last week, the latest sign that the government and military are stepping up their assault on the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamist militant groups.
According to Pakistani intelligence officials, a U.S. drone fired two missiles into a compound in North Waziristan used by militants from the Punjabi Taliban. The group is an offshoot of the Pakistan Taliban and has been known to carry out attacks in Pakistan as well as in neighboring Afghanistan. The slaying of the Taliban commander, known as Saddam, comes as Pakistani leaders are vowing to forcefully respond to the attack on the school. With the country still mourning the deaths of 149 students and teachers, security forces are taking their battle deep into Pakistani cities while the country’s air force pounds militant safe havens along the border with Afghanistan.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said five militants were killed in the attack. Saying he plans “to wipe terror out of Pakistan,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif huddled with his cabinet for much of the day on Friday to oversee the implementation of a newly announced anti-terrorism policy. While Pakistan’s battle against Islamist militants has appeared to sputter for much of the past decade, Sharif has stressed in recent days that the current operations will be define his term as prime minister.
The second drone strike, which also occurred in North Waziristan, killed three militants affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The group has close ties to al Qaeda. “To me, zero tolerance is zero tolerance, and violence in any form against my people equals terror,” said Sharif. He vowed that Pakistan “shall come down heavy on it.”
U.S. officials did not immediately confirm the strikes. But in recent days, there has been growing indication that the American drone campaign along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is accelerating. Under its new policy, the government is planning to quickly establish military courts to try terror suspects as well expedite the executions of prisoners being detained on terrorism charges.
Last week, after the Pakistan Taliban killed 149 students and teachers in school massacre, there were two suspected U.S. drone strikes in the border region. A senior Interior Ministry official said 6,777 Pakistani residents are now being monitored around-the-clock for suspected ties to militant groups. Mass arrests are likely in the coming days, the official added. On Friday, 83 people were picked up in the capital of Islamabad, Pakistan’s The Nation newspaper reported.
On Tuesday, Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, and Sher Muhammad Karimi, leader of Afghanistan’s army, traveled to Islamabad to meet with Pakistani Army Chief Raheel Sharif to discuss ways to better coordinate offensive operations against militants. The Pakistani military also issued a statement saying fresh airstrikes in North Waziristan along the Afghan border had killed 23 militants, including some Taliban commanders. Earlier in the day, eight militants were slain in two suspected U.S. drones strikes in the same area, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.
Over the past week, Pakistani military officials say they have killed more than 150 suspected terrorists. Saddam was killed in a firefight with security forces in Khyber Agency, located in the country’s unruly tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan. The 25-year-old is believed to have provided lodging for the seven Taliban fighters who stormed the army-run school in Peshawar on Dec. 16, according to local officials. He later helped guide the attackers, all of whom were killed in the attack, to the school, officials said.
In a clash with security forces late Thursday in Kyber Agency, a top militant commander wanted for helping to carry out the school massacre was also killed, said Shahab Ali Shah, the top civilian administrator in the area. Over the past week, key regional Pakistani Taliban commanders were also killed in Karachi and Peshawar. But Pakistani political leaders say this time the country’s campaign against terrorism will extend far beyond the Taliban.
Shah said the commander, known as Saddam, was the “facilitator” of the school massacre in Peshawar. He was also the alleged mastermind of recent attacks on polio workers, including one that killed 13 security personnel in 2013, Pakistan’s DAWN newspaper reported. Pakistan is home to more than three dozen terrorist organizations, some of which have links to the country’s powerful intelligence agency and carry out attacks in neighboring India and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was huddled with top advisers on Friday discussing ways to implement the country’s new counter-terrorism strategy. U.S. officials remain skeptical that Pakistan will aggressively confront groups such as the Haqqani Network, which has targeted U.S. forces in Afghanistan, or Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Lahore-based militant group that has carried out attacks in India.
In an address to the nation shortly after midnight on Thursday, Sharif announced the formation of military courts to try terrorism suspects. The government also plans to crack down on unregistered madrassas, eliminate terrorists’ access to social media and other communications networks, and outlaw any armed group from operating within the country. But Pakistani military analysts say it would be a mistake to underestimate the resolve of the country’s new army chief, Raheel Sharif.
Pakistan is also moving forward plans to execute as many as 500 prisoners being held on terrorism charges. Analysts say the military leader has felt embarrassed by the number of brutal attacks that the Taliban and other militant groups have been able to carry out inside Pakistan, including a siege this summer of the Karachi International Airport.
A senior Interior Ministry official also told the Washington Post that 6,777 Pakistanis and foreigners are also being monitored around-the-clock for suspected ties to militant groups. Several of the attacks also targeted the country’s military, including a suicide bombing that killed more than 50 people in early November during an army procession at the country’s main border crossing with India. Dozens of soldiers and officers also lost children or wives last week during the attack on the Army Public School and College.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss a sensitive matter, said at least some of those under surveillance could be arrested over the next two days. “People are very angry and so is the army, and there is a deep sense of revenge, so we now see terrorists killed and hanged,” said Saad Muhammad, an Islamabad-based military analyst.
In another major escalation in the government crackdown, a local court in Islamabad issued an arrest warrant on Friday for Abdul Aziz, chief cleric of the city’s Red Mosque. Sharif, who is not related to the prime minster, has met twice over the past 10 days with Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, and Sher Muhammad Karimi, leader of Afghanistan’s army, to discuss ways to better coordinate offensive operations against militants.
The mosque was the sight of a bloody government crackdown in 2007 that helped spur the creation of the Pakistani Taliban. Last week, several Islamabad residents filed a complaint accusing Aziz of issuing threats against them. Robert Hathaway, a Pakistan scholar with the Wilson Center in Washington, said there was “no doubt” that the Pakistan military is now “taking out bad guys.” But Hathaway said the “jury is still out” about whether the country can undertake the multi-pronged effort needed to curb the insurgency in a meaningful way.
If he is apprehended, some of Aziz’s followers have vowed an unprecedented wave of retaliation against the government, including suicide bombings in the capital of Islamabad. But it was not immediately clear on Friday whether Pakistani police or the army would move to enforce the arrest warrant against him. “The Pakistani army faces many of the same problems that U.S. and NATO forces encountered, both in Afghanistan and in Iraq,” Hathaway said. “A successful counter-insurgency campaign is very difficult, and will take a long time. It can be done. Right now, what we’re seeing is the military side of it. But that is not going to be sufficient. Too many people are disgruntled and alienated from the government for a military effort alone to be sufficient.”
Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar and Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report. Hathaway is also skeptical about whether the Pakistani and Afghan armies can sustain their recent commitments to more closely work together in battling the militants on both sides of the porous border.
“The two armies have not been able to coordinate in the past,” he said. “I think it would be a modern day miracle if in the last week they suddenly achieved the capability to cooperate effectively. “
But Pakistan’s government and military are under growing pressure from the middle class to take action against both militants and those perceived to sympathize with them.
On Friday, a court in Islamabad issued an arrest warrant for Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric of the Red Mosque. The mosque was the site of a bloody government crackdown in 2007 that helped spur the creation of the Pakistani Taliban.
In a television interview last week, Aziz declined to condemn the Peshawar attack. Aziz later apologized and denounced the incident, but there have been demonstrations against him for the past week. Protesters have filed a criminal complaint against him accusing him of making threats and inciting violence.
The protests were a rare show of defiance againstIslamic leaders in Pakistan. It was not clear on Friday whether the police or army would move to enforce the warrant against Aziz. Aziz said through a spokesman he and his followers would resist any effort to apprehend him.
Demonstrators gathered outside a police station on Friday night vowed they will expand their protest in the coming days if Aziz is not arrested.
“He should be arrested and added to the list for the death penalty, because he’s basically a terrorist living in Islamabad,” said Syed Kausar Abbas, a protest organizer. “When he didn’t condemn the terrorist attack, it means he’s supporting the terrorist people.”
Hasan Askari Rizvi, an Islamabad-based military and political analyst, said the Aziz case could become an early barometer of just how far the government plans to go in trying to clamp down on extremism.
“If it arrests him there is fear of backlash and violence,” Rizvi said. But authorities didn’t detain him, he said, they would face public wrath.
Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.