Pakistani tribal chief killed near Afghan border

Tank (Pakistan), May 30: Masked gunmen shot dead a pro-government tribal elder and wounded two people in Pakistan's trouble-plagued South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, government officials said today.

Islamist militant supporters of al Qaeda and Afghanistan's Taliban have killed dozens of officials and pro-government chiefs in Waziristan in recent years as the government tries to impose order on an area long infested with militants.

Five gunmen ambushed Mehr Dil Khan as he was travelling in a van to Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, killing him and wounding two other passengers yesterday.

''It was a targetted killing as he was a government supporter and a member of the region's council,'' said a government official in Wana, who declined to be identified.

Many al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas on the Afghan border after they were chased out of Afghanistan by U S and Afghan opposition forces who overthrew the Taliban in 2001.

On Sunday, a pro-government tribal chief was shot dead in Mir Ali town in North Waziristan where security forces are also fighting al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies.

Reuters