15
International FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2013
Militants fire on Pakistan quake relief helicopter Survivors complain aid not reaching
SAMBA: Indian army soldiers stand vigil during a rebel attack on an army camp in Samba, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Jammu yesterday. —AP
Police say rebel attacks kill 10 in Indian Kashmir SRINAGAR: Suspected separatist rebels stormed into a police station in the Indian portion of Kashmir yesterday and shot and killed at least six people before attacking a nearby army camp, killing four soldiers, police said. Security forces killed three attackers after nearly six hours of fighting inside the army camp, said Ashok Prasad, a top police officer in Jammu-Kashmir state. He said the attackers used guns and grenades. “The firing from the militants has stopped and we are mopping up the area,” Prasad said. Police officer Rajesh Kumar said only three militants were involved in the attacks, based on eyewitness accounts. Four soldiers died and two others were critically wounded in the second attack, an army officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The deputy head of the army’s cavalry unit was among the dead and the unit’s commanding officer was being treated for injuries, the officer said. Television footage showed a helicopter hovering near the army camp as soldiers fired at the attackers. Two tanks moved inside the camp looking for the assailants. In the first attack, three gunmen dressed in Indian army uniforms sprayed bullets at a police station, killing at least four officers and two civilians, according to several police officers. Another three police officers and one civilian were wounded in the firing, Prasad said. The attackers then hijacked a truck and drove away. Kumar said they likely drove another vehicle to the army camp, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) away. A man identifying himself as Shams-Ul-Haque and claiming to be the spokesman of a previously unknown militant group Shohada Brigade, or Martyr’s Brigade - claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in a phone call to a local English daily, the Kashmir Monitor. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attacks and said in a statement that India was “firmly resolved to combat and defeat the terrorist menace that continues to receive encouragement and reinforcement from across the border (in Pakistan).” He said, however, that such attacks would not succeed in derailing India’s efforts to resolve its differences with Pakistan through dialogue. Singh and Pakistan’s new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, are scheduled to meet this weekend on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting. The two are expected to discuss steps to improve ties. The area where the attacks took place is nearly 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir. Shortly after the attacks, authorities closed traffic on the nearby main highway linking Indian Kashmir with the rest of the country. Omar Abdullah, the top elected official in Jammu-Kashmir state, said the attacks were aimed at derailing this weekend’s meeting between the two prime ministers. “We should not allow such forces to succeed,” he said. However, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party demanded that Singh call off his scheduled meeting with Sharif. —AP
AWARAN, Pakistan: Two rockets fired by militants in Pakistan’s quake-struck region narrowly missed a government relief helicopter yesterday as survivors complained that aid was not reaching far-flung areas and the harrowing death toll climbed to 348. The attack underscored the dangers authorities and aid workers face in helping victims in southwestern Baluchistan province where a massive, magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit earlier this week. Two days after the tremor struck, rescuers were still struggling to help survivors. The death toll from the quake reached 348 yesterday, with more than 500 people injured. In the town of Arawan, about 100 protesters gathered around the district office to call attention to the plight of those living in outlying villages still waiting for help. “The people who survived the earthquake are dying now because they have no food or water,” said Abdul Latif, one of the protesters. Tuesday’s massive quake was centered in Awaran district, one of the poorest in Pakistan’s most impoverished province, Baluchistan. The area’s medical infrastructure has struggled to care for the hundreds of injured who were crushed beneath mud brick houses when the quake struck. That task has been made even harder by the danger from separatists in Baluchistan who have been battling the Pakistani government for years. The militants fired two rockets Thursday at a helicopter carrying top Pakistani officials in charge of relief operations. The rockets missed and no one was injured, said the deputy district commissioner, Abdur Rasheed. The helicopter was carrying the head of the country’s National Disaster Management Authority, a Pakistani
Army general in charge of relief operations and other officials. Before the incident, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told members of parliament Thursday that rescuers were already having a hard time reaching some areas due to security problems. They were trying to use C-130
miles), said Thursday that they didn’t have an X-ray machine or a laboratory to treat the more than 400 patients that have come through the hospital since Tuesday. The supply of antibiotics and other medicines was low, said Dr. Ameer Buksh, who’s in charge of the facility. He
LABACH: Pakistani villagers collect belongings as their houses destroyed following an earthquake in Labach, the remote district of Awaran in Baluchistan province yesterday. —AP planes to reach those spots, said Nisar. Baluchistan is Pakistan’s largest province but also the least populated. Medical facilities are few and often poorly stocked with supplies and qualified personnel. Many of the injured were ferried to the port city of Karachi or Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, for treatment. A doctor at the main hospital for Awaran, a district of 300,000 spread out over 29,000 square kilometers (11,197 square
said the hospital only has two ambulances, making it difficult to reach patients in the villages or transport the most serious to the port city of Karachi. The Edhi Foundation, which runs a network of ambulance services and other aid operations around the country, donated eight ambulances, he said. The quake flattened wide swathes of the district, leaving the mostly mud brick houses in crumbled piles and their former residents homeless. —AP
Ex-Afghan Taleban chief’s touted peace role in doubt ISLAMABAD/KABUL: A former Afghan Taliban commander, who Pakistan said had been released at the weekend, is being held under virtual house arrest by his Pakistani handlers who watch his movements and listen to his phone calls, an arrangement likely to undermine his role as a peacemaker. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in Pakistan in 2010 and has since emerged as a figure Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States believe could help persuade his former comrades to lay down arms and talk peace after the withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan next year. Baradar was once a close friend of reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who gave him his nom de guerre, “Baradar”, or “brother”, and he belongs to the same tribe as Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced last week that Baradar would be released on Saturday but as of yesterday, he was still being kept in a safe house in Karachi, Pakistani sources told Reuters. Afghanistan, which suspects its neighbor of trying to influence its internal affairs, wants Baradar to be handed over. But Pakistan’s powerful military, with its long history of sup-
porting the Taliban as its proxy in Afghanistan, appears determined to control efforts to end more than 10 years of war. Even at the time of Baradar’s arrest in 2010, Afghan officials suspected Pakistan had captured him simply because he was trying to broker a peace deal without involving Islamabad. “First they arrested him to keep him from talking to others. Now they’re releasing him presumably so he can talk to others,” said a senior Western diplomat in Islamabad. “It’s a reversal but the commonality is that in both cases, Pakistan decides who he talks to and who he keeps away from.” One Pakistani intelligence source with direct knowledge of Baradar’s movements said he had reached out to several Taliban figures - at the request of his minders. “Baradar has been instructed by security personnel guarding him to make calls to try to persuade the Taleban to bring an end to the bloodshed and enter into meaningful dialogue,” he said. The official said a laptop and a satellite telephone confiscated from Baradar during his arrest in 2010 had been returned and that a group of 10 security men kept an eye on him at the house where Baradar occupied the first
floor. Pakistan made the announcement of his release just before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew to the United States in what was seen by many as Islamabad emphasizing its readiness to help. Baradar himself has not publicly commented on the events and it is unclear how committed he is to embark on a peace mission. Deals with the Taliban have broken down in the past. Many believe war-hardened insurgents are also likely to be suspicious of a man seen as close to Pakistani authorities. “It is better if we have Mullah Baradar in Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Anwar Esaaqzai, a senior member of the High Peace Council, the body established by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2010 to pursue peace with the insurgents. “If that’s not possible, then he must be handed over to a third country away from Pakistan’s control and influence.” Another Pakistani intelligence official privy to Baradar’s movements told Reuters in Islamabad that he had made several phone calls to Taliban members. “He has reached out to his colleagues in Afghanistan, Turkey and the United States and discussed his role in the peace process,” the official said. —Reuters