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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan: Blast in northwest kills one, injures two |
| 2009-01-24 |
| (AKI/DAWN) - A remote-controlled bomb targeting a military convoy on Friday killed a civilian and injured two others in northwest Pakistan's troubled Swat valley, security officials said. The bombing took place at a village near the town of Mingora, where the military is battling militants loyal to Mullah Fazlullah who have launched a violent campaign to impose Islamic law in the area. 'One civilian travelling in a car was killed and two others sitting with him were injured by shrapnel,' a security official was quoted as telling AFP news agency. A soldier was also injured, the official said. He added that the main convoy was unscathed because the road-side bomb went off when the convoy had just passed by. The picturesque Swat valley, once a popular destination for Pakistani and foreign holidaymakers, boasting the country's only ski resort, has descended into chaos with pitched battles between militants and security forces. More than 1,500 Pakistani troops have been killed at the hands of militants since 2002, after the Islamabad government joined former US president George W. Bush's 'war on terror'. Pakistan rejects western accusations that it is not doing enough to tackle the extremist threat on its soil, where a wave of attacks have killed more than 1,500 people in 17 months. US president Barack Obama on Thursday said extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan posed a grave threat that his new administration would tackle as a single problem under a wider strategy. He announced the appointment of seasoned US diplomat Richard Holbrooke as special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Obama said that the US diplomatic effort would include working with NATO allies and other states in the region, which could include central Asian countries and India. Obama's newly appointed secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Thursday described Afghanistan-Pakistan and the Middle East as the two most pressing foreign policy issues facing the United States. |
| Posted by:Fred |