No militants killed in Pakistan madrassa attack, commission says:
By Turkish Press
11/14/06 "Turkish Press" -- Islamabad - A legal panel in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province has ruled out any militant link to a religious school that was bombed last month, leaving 82 people dead, media reports said Tuesday.
The Peshawar High Court Bar Association's commission investigating the airstrike in the Bajaur area said in a report that no foreign elements were enrolled in the madrassa located in the remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan, according to the Daily Times newspaper.
All those killed in the October 30 airstrike were students, aged 9 to 18, it said, contrary to government claims that the school was a training centre for Islamic militants and that all the casualties were adults being prepared to carry out terrorist attacks.
While the Pakistani government took responsibility for the bombing, the commission said the airstrike came from Afghan territory where US-led coalition troops are fighting Taliban forces.
American aircraft were "heard flying in the area" on the day of the attack, the report added, citing witnesses.
The commission also said no arms or ammunition was recovered from the bombed school that would indicate any militant training.
The incident triggered a wave of anger among Pakistan's tribal regions against the central government, which was accused of killing innocent people in its support of the US-led war on terrorism.
After the Bajaur strike, 42 Pakistan Army recruits died in a November 8 suicide bombing at a camp in Dargai, also in North-West Frontier Province, located north-east of the provincial capital, Peshawar. Analysts saw the attack as retaliation for the Bajaur strike, but government authorities said it was too early to establish such a link.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a strong ally of the United States, reiterated that action against terrorists would continue and the government would rein in extremist forces in the country.
dpa - © 2006 Deutsche Presse Agentur. All rights reserved
LinkHere
11/14/06 "Turkish Press" -- Islamabad - A legal panel in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province has ruled out any militant link to a religious school that was bombed last month, leaving 82 people dead, media reports said Tuesday.
The Peshawar High Court Bar Association's commission investigating the airstrike in the Bajaur area said in a report that no foreign elements were enrolled in the madrassa located in the remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan, according to the Daily Times newspaper.
All those killed in the October 30 airstrike were students, aged 9 to 18, it said, contrary to government claims that the school was a training centre for Islamic militants and that all the casualties were adults being prepared to carry out terrorist attacks.
While the Pakistani government took responsibility for the bombing, the commission said the airstrike came from Afghan territory where US-led coalition troops are fighting Taliban forces.
American aircraft were "heard flying in the area" on the day of the attack, the report added, citing witnesses.
The commission also said no arms or ammunition was recovered from the bombed school that would indicate any militant training.
The incident triggered a wave of anger among Pakistan's tribal regions against the central government, which was accused of killing innocent people in its support of the US-led war on terrorism.
After the Bajaur strike, 42 Pakistan Army recruits died in a November 8 suicide bombing at a camp in Dargai, also in North-West Frontier Province, located north-east of the provincial capital, Peshawar. Analysts saw the attack as retaliation for the Bajaur strike, but government authorities said it was too early to establish such a link.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a strong ally of the United States, reiterated that action against terrorists would continue and the government would rein in extremist forces in the country.
dpa - © 2006 Deutsche Presse Agentur. All rights reserved
LinkHere
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 8:45 AM
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