At least 13 people were killed when unidentified gunmen entered the house of a senior Government official in northwestern Pakistan.
The house of Pir Aurangzeb, a senior official with the government-run power utility, WAPDA, was attacked with rockets and hand grenades. Those killed include Aurangzeb himself, and five members of his family and seven guests.
We are investigating the motive behind the murder. It would be premature to name elements behind the attack,
said Mumtaz Zareen, a senior police official in Tank.
Previous year, incursions by Taliban militants into Tank led to a total collapse of the civil administration in the district.
Tank is the entry to the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border, known as a breeding ground of support for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants. The place looks deserted. It has been the worst hit, and is as good as lost to the militants. Even the police have dumped their posts, and banks have been told to organize their own security.
There is strong evidence of “Talibanisation“, or the spread of militant influence from remote tribal regions on the Afghan border to more developed, populous areas.
Terrorists, angered over Pakistan’s support for the U.S.-led war on insurgency, have slaughtered a large number of government officials in the past few years in the tribal regions.
Pakistan is finding itself caught in the web that it embedded for others. The militants, once known as die-hard Pakistan supporters have turned somersault.
Via: Reuters
