16 dead in Pak ambush

Hangu district mayor Haji Khan Afzal confirmed the latest death toll, which makes the skirmish one of the deadliest for Pakistan’s security forces in recent months. Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik, however, ruled out a full-fledged military operation in response, despite ongoing US pressure on Pakistan to confront insurgents.

The clash occurred in an area wedged between some of Pakistan’s tribal regions, where Central Government authority has traditionally been weak. The tribal regions are considered Pakistan’s main havens for Taliban and al-Qaida-linked fighters, but militants have recently increased activities in other parts of the northwest, which borders Afghanistan.

Hangu district has been a hot spot in the past week since the arrest of a suspected militant leader known as Rafiuddin and some of his associates. Taliban militants temporarily laid siege to a police station in the area demanding freedom for their colleagues. They dispersed after army troops showed up, but took a group of hostages and have threatened to start killing them if the government does not hand over their associates.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar has said militants are holding 29 people, most of them security forces. Afzal said only 16 or 17 people were being held.

Saturday’s clash also came as Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Pakistan on an unannounced one-day trip. Mullen met several top political and military leaders and discussed security issues, in particular his growing concern over the increase in insurgents across the border with Afghanistan, according to his spokesman.

Mullen recently said militants are flowing into neighbouring Afghanistan more freely this year compared to last year because Pakistan is not putting enough pressure on them.

Of particular concern to US officials has been the new government’s efforts to strike peace deals with militant groups, pacts that American critics worry will simply give insurgents time to regroup and gain strength.

The Pakistani government in late June did shift a bit, launching a paramilitary operation in Khyber tribal region to flush out militants after they began to increasingly threaten Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, as well as a key road used to send supplies to US forces in Afghanistan. But after several days of the operation, authorities struck a peace accord with tribal elders who promised to rein in the militancy.

On Sunday, Interior Ministry chief Malik ruled out similar action in Hangu. “We are not doing an operation,” Malik told Dawn News television. “But we will do the targeted action based on qualitative intelligence,” he said. “When you talk of operation, that means you’re bombarding the whole area, and we don’t want our innocent sisters, brothers, innocent children to become the victims.”