Tribals blame Haqqani offshoot for
blast By Malik Ayub Sumbal
ISLAMABAD - Tribals elders are blaming an
offshoot of the Haqqani network after a car laden
with explosives rammed into Kashmir's busiest
market in the Pakistani tribal regions, killing at
least 14 Shi'ites and leaving 70 more people
seriously injured.
The car bomb at the
bazaar in the town of Parachinar, the headquarters
of Upper Kurram agency, was detonated on Monday
afternoon. Locals said the atrocity was an attempt
by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Islami Pakistan
(TTP-Islami), headed by Fazal Saeed Haqqani, to
inflame sectarian violence in the region that
recalled the town's bloody history, especially in
2005 and 2007.
Sources in Parachinar Turi
and Bangash tribes say the attack was in revenge
for raids by security forces in the Lower Kurram,
Bagan area over the past few weeks that resulted
in the arrest of key elements of the group. Local
journalists, who declined to be
identified and said they
would fear of their lives if they named Fazal
Saeed in their reports, also pointed the finger at
the group, formed in 2011 after conflicts within
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) led him to
quit.
"The Fazal Saeed Haqqani group
TTP-Islami is deep rooted in Kurram Agency and the
Bagan area after its separation from TTP and
Haqqani network," one told Asia Times Online on
condition of anonymity. Shi'ites are the main
targets of Fazal Saeed's attempts to create unrest
and sectarian violence in Kurram Agency, according
to the journalist.
Elders of the Turi and
Bangash tribes held a grand jirga (council
meeting) on Tuesday to condemn Monday's blast.
They announced three days of mourning for Shi'ites
and Sunnis, and urge the security forces to act
swiftly against the perpetrators. The Turi tribe
is Sunni and the Bangash predominantly Shi'ite.
Syed Shahab Ali Shah, the Kurram Agency
Political Agent, told Asia Times Online said: "We
are unable to get any information regarding the
recent attack on Shi'ites but still it is
premature to name Fazal Saeed Haqqani behind this
incident." He said that the Pakistan Army and
levies are active in the Kurram Agency and a fully
fledged military operation is now under way. The
agent was unable to pinpoint the exact location of
Fazal Saeed, saying the TPP-Islami has no fixed
base.
Before joining the TPP, Fazal Saeed
had been a member of the Haqqani Network, operated
by Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son,
Sirajuddin Haqqani, in North Waziristan. The
United States last week designated the Haqqani
Network as a terror organization and put up a
US$200,000 bounty for Siraj Haqqani. The Haqqanis
were at the forefront of US-backed forces fighting
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The
TTP-Islami leader had formerly led the TTP in the
Kurram Agency at the invitation of its chief
Hakimullah Mehsud in 2007. On forming the new
militant group last year, Fazal Saeed said his
breakaway faction opposed the TTP policy of
attacking innocent Muslims as well as Pakistan's
security forces.
"We abhor killing
innocent people through suicide attacks and bomb
blasts, attacks on our own army and destruction of
social infrastructure ... The new organization
will not attack our own security forces," he told
Dawn newspaper on June 28, 2011.
The
faction has since been involved in a number of
Shi'ite killings and suicide bombings in Kurram
Agency, including the deaths of 42 Shi'ites and
injury of dozens more in an attack in Parachinar
in February, for which it accepted responsibility,
vowing to continue the campaign.
Fazal
Saeed has a strong hold and influence in the
Bagan, Lower Kurram Agency area along with his
2,500 to 3,000 fighters, according to the sources
in the Turi and Bangash tribes. Security forces,
however, put that number at between 200 to 500
militants. Bagan is the third-largest town in
Kurram after Parachinar and Sadda.
In
April, November and December 2007, Kurram Agency
witnessed its worst sectarian clashes to date,
with hundreds killed. The main road linking
Parachinar with Thall in Hangu has remained closed
for almost four years. Locals of Upper Kurram have
to travel via Afghanistan if they want to go to
Peshawar or any other parts of the country.
With the Kurram Agency plunged into
renewed sectarian violence, it seems certain that
TTP-Islami will be intent on aggravating unrest
further while Sunni and Shi'ite tribal elders try
to restore the peace.
Malik Ayub
Sumbal is a senior investigative journalist
based in Islamabad. Malik won the Syracuse
University Mirror Award for 2012. He can be
reached at ayubsumbal@gmail.com
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