July 24, 2007	Tuesday	Rajab 08, 1428

MIRAMSHAH, July 23: Heavy fighting killed at least 35 militants and two soldiers in the tribal areas, the military said on Monday. The latest clashes in the restive North Waziristan Agency bordering Afghanistan came as pro-Taliban groups there warned Pakistani soldiers to quit fighting or face the “gift of death” through new suicide attacks.

Washington has intensified pressure on Islamabad to step up military action, warning it may launch strikes there — comments Pakistan called “irresponsible and dangerous”.

Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad, the chief of the Inter-Services Public Relations, said on Monday that at least 30 militants died in a series of clashes since late Sunday, and five more were killed in a battle that continued on Monday evening.

Two soldiers had been killed and another 12 wounded in the violence over the past 24 hours, he added, but gave no further details.

A peace delegation made up of Pakhtun elders from six other tribal agencies returned empty handed late Sunday but was scheduled to resume on Tuesday talks to salvage a collapsed peace accord, in Miramshah, North Waziristan’s main town.

However, pamphlets distributed in the town on Monday did not bode well for peace.

Entitled “Till Islam Lives in Islamabad” and signed by a group calling itself the Mujahideen-i-Islam, they threatened that suicide bombs would again bring soldiers the “gift of death”. They warned that suicide attackers “love death more than you love your 5,000-rupee salary, nude pictures of Indian actresses and liquor.” “We know that you have become America’s slave and are serving infidel Musharraf and have become a traitor to your religion for food, clothes and shelter.”—AFP

Our Correspondent adds from Miramshah: At least seven army and paramilitary soldiers were injured in two roadside explosions in the region on Sunday night and Monday, officials said.

A checkpoint in the Dangeen area and another in the Razmak area came under rocket attacks in which two paramilitary soldiers were wounded.

An army convoy going from Miramshah to Razmak was attacked near Dosali area. Six soldiers were injured. After the attack, military helicopters hovered over the area but they did not initiate any action.

A Khasadar checkpoint was blown up near a government school in Miramshah. However, no casualty was reported.

Our Correspondent from Khaar adds: A militant leader has dissociated himself from “masked men posing as Mujahideen” and announced to reactivate an outlawed outfit, Tehrik Nafaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM), in Bajaur Agency.

Speaking at a meeting in Jamia mosque in an Inayat Kallay bazaar on Monday, Dr Ismail said the masked gunmen had no relation with Mujahideen. “We are waging jihad against the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq and have no hand in or any relation with (recent) terrorist activities in Bajaur Agency,” he said.

He criticised the bomb blasts in the agency and said some elements posing as Mujahideen wanted to disturb peace in the agency. “We have nothing to do with such elements, or such activities.”

Dr Ismail said that being an old worker of the TNSM he would reactivate it and continue to work from the same platform.

Dr Ismail was a top aide of TNSM leader Sufi Mohammad and the two had led thousands of youths to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban against the US forces. He was arrested along with Sufi Mohammad in the Kurram Agency after the fall of the Taliban. He was released last year from the Dera Ismail Khan prison, where he had been kept with Sufi Mohammad.