DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: A suspected US drone strike killed five militants in Pakistan’s tribal north-west yesterday including a senior ethnic Uzbek commander, intelligence sources said. The attack took place in the tribal South Waziristan region and was the first US drone strike in Pakistan since late September.
Air strikes by unmanned US aircraft, which are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, have become increasingly rare, particularly outside the North Waziristan region where the Pakistani army is fighting to flush out Islamist militants.
Intelligence sources said the latest strike killed five Uzbeks and wounded at least three people in the Shawal area of South Waziristan. The sources did not specify whether the three wounded people were also militants. Ethnic Uzbeks and other foreign militants fight alongside the Pakistani Taliban but their exact number in Waziristan is not known.
Drones, which are operated remotely, are key to the U.S. policy of targeting militants holed up in inaccessible corners on the Pakistani-Afghan border. The then leader of the Pakistani Taliban was killed in one such attack in late 2013.
Imran supporters clash over gifts
Islamabad: Clashes erupted among protesting activists of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in Islamabad over distribution of Eid gifts, Geo News reported.
Chairs and club-sticks were used to attack each other as some women party workers started distributing gifts at Islamabad’s D-Chowk, the protest site where cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has been staging a sit-in protest along with his supporters for over a month against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, demanding his resignation over alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.
PTI activists also misbehaved with media persons and attacked them to prevent their coverage, the report added.
Kidnapped Pakistani leader found
Islamabad: Awami National Party leader Arbab Abdul Zahir Kasi, kidnapped by militants last year, was found in Peshawar yesterday, Pakistani media reported. It was yet not clear whether Kasi’s family paid ransom to his captors or he was rescued by security forces, Dawn online reported.
Militants had asked for a huge amount of ransom from his family which his son Nawabzada Omar Kasi had refused to pay.
Zahir was kidnapped from Quetta on October 23, last year.
Four robbers killed in Karachi
Islamabad: Four alleged robbers were killed in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, Geo News reported yesterday.
Two alleged robbers were killed in a shootout with the police on Super Highway while two others were beaten to death by members of the public who caught them red-handed at a milk shop in Korangi, a neighbourhood in Landhi town. Police said weapons were also found in the possession of the two robbers killed in the shootout. The other two robbers were nabbed by public while looting people at the shop. They succumbed to their injuries at a hospital, police said.
Pakistani Haj pilgrims injured
Islamabad: Twelve Pakistani Haj pilgrims were injured during the ritual stoning of the devil in Mina. Saudi officials were quoted as saying that while three of them were discharged, nine others were still under treatment. More than two million pilgrims ritually stoned the devil on Saturday.
Agencies
