It was a civilian vehicle, stressed the general, who qualified the tragedy as "yet another terrorist attack" out to destabilize developments in a province that borders on Afghanistan.
Missiles were shot from ambush on an army truck caravan yesterday in North Waziristan, tribal autonomy within the North-West Frontier Province, with center in Peshawar. The area owes its name to the Waziri, a Pathan tribe predominant in the population.
A junior officer died. Six soldiers were badly injured and taken to hospital. Three of them are at death's door, reports the INP news agency. Terrorists ambushed the column close to the town Razmak. According to eyewitness accounts, one of their missiles came into a lorry in a direct hit.
The U.S. and its allies launched big anti-terror action in Afghanistan toward the end of 2001. It overthrew the Taliban, a radical Moslem movement that had been holding sway in the country, and robbed them of political authority. Taliban chieftains and their Al Qaeda supporters survived the initial, most severe months of action in East Afghan and North Pakistani highlands, hard of access. They regrouped their decimated forces and started recruiting sympathizers into their ranks out of local Pashtoon tribes-the Pashtoon make a Taliban majority. With all that, international terrorists have turned the area populated by independent Pashtoon tribes into another of their strongholds. Pakistani authorities are doggedly striving to oust the terrorists-all to no avail. Every day brings more victims as Pakistani soldiers are clashing with them. Be that as it may, President Perwez Musharraf alleges full control ofthe developments-that in an awkward attempt to reassure the world that all is well in his country.
