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Sultan said the strike was based on intelligence that 25-30 local and foreign militants were training local youths. |
ISLAMABAD — Pakistanis in Zamzola, 20 Kilometers from the borders with Afghanistan, and across Waziristan province protested on Tuesday, January 16, new airstrikes, refuting the army's argument that those targeted were militants, including foreigners.
"The army often claims to have killed foreign militants in such dubious operations, but never showed the body of even a single foreign militant," Zarnoor Ahmad Zai, a local tribesman, told IslamOnline.net by telephone.
"They just want to appease the US and are pushing the tribesmen to armed struggle for their rights," he added.
Zai insisted that the deceased were local tribesmen and Afghan refugees.
Major General Shaukat Sultan, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations, told reporters earlier that army helicopters bombed militant camps in Zamzola killing 25-30 fighters, including foreigners.
"Helicopter gunships pounded the camps of militants destroying three compounds out of five. Hardly any body could have escaped the air strike."
The army spokesman said the camps had been under surveillance for days before the operation was carried out at 6:55 am on Tuesday morning.
He insisted the strike was based on intelligence that 25-30 local and foreign militants were in the five compounds training local youths.
The spokesman said bodies of 10 suspected militants killed in the operation have so far been recovered from the debris.
He said the identities of eight militants had so far been ascertained, adding that three of them were locals and five were Afghans.
The bombing coincided with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates' visit to neighboring Afghanistan.
But the army spokesman ruled out any link.
"Pakistan has been fighting terrorism in its own interest. There is no logic in establishing linkage between Gates' visit and the bombing."
According to IOL's correspondent, visits by top US officials to the region over the past five years often coincided with Pakistani attacks against alleged militants and their camps.
Protests
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Angry tribesmen blocked the south Waziristan road for hours and pelted government buildings with stones. (IOL photo)
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The bombings sparked instant protests in and around Zamzola as armed tribesmen blocked the south Waziristan road for hours.
The angry tribesmen set tires on fire and pelted government buildings with stones.
"Tribesmen are patriotic to Pakistan and have been defending the northwestern borders without any pay but the incumbent rulers, under a calculated conspiracy, are bridging a gap between Pakistanis and the tribesmen," Dilawar Khan Mahsood, President of Agencies Councilors Union, told a huge rally of demonstrators in the adjacent city of Tank.
Chanting anti-US and anti-government slogans, thousands of angry tribesmen attended the rally.
"No foreign national has died in the bombing. They all are locals or Afghan refugees who had been residing here for years," insisted Mahsood.
He accused Pakistan's military rulers of killing innocent tribesmen just to appease America.
"But they must remember that the US will never be happy with them, and will demand more and more."
Qazi Hussein Ahmed, President of the six-party religious alliance Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which rules the NWFP province adjacent to federally-administered semi-autonomous tribal belt, agreed.
"The Pakistani government has presented another gift to the US in the form of the bodies of innocent tribesmen," he said.
"General Musharraf has turned the country into an American colony. He should not forget the fate of Saddam Hussein. Americans have the tradition to use their puppets and then throw them in the dustbin like tissue papers."
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