Pak top medical officer's killing may be linked to tribal belt offensive

Islamabad, Feb 26 : The Pakistani Army on Tuesday said the suicide attack that killed its surgeon-general Mushtaq Baig and seven others may be a retaliation to military operations against rebels along the Afghanistan border.

"I think apparently it is in response and reaction to the Pakistan army's operations against militants in South Waziristan and other places in FATA (the federally administered tribal areas)," the Dawn quoted chief military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, as saying.

Baig is said to be the senior most Pakistani military officer killed in a militant attack since President Pervez Musharraf joined the "war on terror" after the September 11, 200.

At least eight people, including Baig and two of his staff, were killed and several others were injured in a suicide bomb attack in Rawalpindi on Monday.

Around 25 people were injured in the incident that took place outside an office of the government's national data registration agency.

ANI