Pakistani troops attacked in Taliban-held district
23 Apr 2009 21:35:06 GMT
* Gunmen attack Pakistani forces in Taliban-held district * U.S. officials call Pakistan developments 'disturbing' * Taliban influence spreads in the country's northwest (Updates with U.S. comments, paragraphs 1, 6-10) By Zeeshan Haider ISLAMABAD, April 23 (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen attacked Pakistani paramilitary troops who deployed on Thursday to a district virtually taken over by the Taliban, as the United States called developments in Pakistan "very disturbing." Around 100 paramilitary troops were sent to Buner district, not far from Islamabad, police said. Soon after they arrived, militants attacked their convoy, killing a policeman escorting them, said Arsala Khan, a deputy police superintendent. "A platoon of the Frontier Corps has arrived in Buner to help police maintain security in the district," Khan told Reuters. Surging violence across Pakistan and the spread of Taliban influence in the country's northwest has revived concerns about the stability of the nuclear-armed state, which is crucial to U.S. efforts to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan. After failing to quell the Taliban through force, President Asif Ali Zardari last week approved enforcement of Islamic sharia law in the Swat valley and adjoining areas despite criticism from Western countries and Pakistani liberal and rights groups. U.S. officials expressed fresh concern. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Pakistan's leaders to take action against the spread of Taliban militancy, saying failure to confront the threat could affect U.S.-Pakistani relations. 'EXISTENTIAL THREAT' In a visit to a military base in North Carolina where U.S. Marines are preparing for deployment to Afghanistan, Gates said some Pakistani leaders recognize the "existential threat" facing the country's democratic government from the Taliban. "But it is important that they not only recognize it but take appropriate actions to deal with it," he told reporters. At the White House, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said of the developments in Pakistan: "The news over the past several days is very disturbing." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday Pakistan's government had abdicated to the Taliban by agreeing to the Swat deal, adding the country now posed a "mortal threat" to the world. The chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, met Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and other military officials and discussed security issues, a military official said without giving details. Mullen arrived in Pakistan on a brief visit on Wednesday. Within days of the government's announcement of the imposition of Islamic sharia law in Swat, 125 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, militants forced their way into nearby Buner, closer to the capital Islamabad. They said their aim was to push their harsh version of Islam across the country. Residents said the Taliban had occupied police stations in Buner and that gun-totting fighters were roaming market places urging people to support their efforts to impose Islamic law. Pakistani shares <.KSE> ended over 3 percent lower on Thursday on fears of the spread of Taliban influence, dealers said. "Investors are scared about the Taliban issue and the fear of more violence," said Tauseef Ladak, a dealer at Taurus Securities Ltd. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani reiterated on Thursday that the government had agreed to Islamic law in Swat on the advice of a secular party that leads the provincial government, but it could review the pact if peace was not restored. Even politicians who pushed the government to enforce sharia law have begun expressing worries about the growing clout of the Taliban. "If the Taliban continue their advances at the current pace they will soon be knocking at the doors of Islamabad," Fazl-ur-Rehman, head of the Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam, the country's largest Islamic party, told parliament on Wednesday. Militants earlier on Thursday torched seven trucks carrying fuel to Western forces in Afghanistan on the outskirts of the main northwestern city of Peshawar, police added. (Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony in Islamabad, Junaid Khan in Mingora, David Alexander in Washington and David Morgan in North Carolina; Editing by Dean Yates and Will Dunham)
A man tries to extinguish a fire after fuel trucks were set aflame in the northwestern city of Peshawar April 23, 2009. Militants set aflame seven fuel trucks, reserved for NATO ...
