Suspected pro-Taliban militants kills a government official

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

WANA, Pakistan, Sep 20: Suspected pro-Taliban militants gunned down a government official and his two friends in a drive-by shooting in Pakistan's troubled South Waziristan tribal region today, an intelligence official said.

The attackers riding in a car ambushed the car of Gul Zada, an official in the local administration, as he was coming out of a regional court along with four friends.

''Gul Zada and two of his friends were killed. Two others are wounded,'' the intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.

He said pro-Taliban militants, who are active in the region, were suspected of the attack.

The rugged South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, was the scene of fierce fighting between Pakistani security forces and militants in 2004 in which hundreds of people were killed.

The fighting subsided after most of the militants fled to neighbouring North Waziristan. However, the militants have gathered strength in the region over the past few months.

The government this month struck a deal with the militants in North Waziristan who promised to stop attacks in the region as well as across the border in Afghanistan in return for a halt to military operations. The deal also bars militants from running a parallel administration in the North Waziristan region.

Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, governor of the North West Frontier Province, who is top administrator of Pakistan's seven tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, said last week the government plans to sign a similar deal with militants in South Waziristan.

Pakistan's tribal belt is inhabited by conservative Pashtun tribes who sympathise with al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies, many of whom took refuge in the lawless areas after fleeing the US-led hunt in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Reuters

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