Hundreds of tribesmen in South Waziristan's Wana headquarters ransacked government buildings in the area hours after suspected Taliban blew up a two-room state-run FM radio station on Friday.Talking to Daily Times, eyewitnesses said authorities deployed security forces several hours after the attack. "Suspected Taliban destroyed the station during the early hours of Friday after taking away the equipment in it," local administration officials in Wana said on condition of anonymity. A tribal journalist in Dera Ismail Khan also confirmed the destruction of the radio station. "Hundreds of tribesmen took away everything they could get their hands on, including the bricks of the radio station, construction material and office equipment," the eyewitnesses added, saying no government forces had attempted to stop the people from doing so. However, they said army and paramilitary forces were deployed in the area several hours later and took control of Wana's Rustam bazaar after local residents shuttered their shops. "Nothing was left on the ground," said one resident. "I saw people taking broken bricks and office chairs," he added.
Suspected Taliban attacked the building at 2am on Friday. In the third attack on the station since its establishment in 2004, they removed all the equipment and then blew up the building. Local residents said the station had stopped airing music after being threatened by Taliban and had been broadcasting commentary on development projects, sports news and Islamic teachings for the past two years. The station had been airing six hour of programming daily, they added. According to eyewitnesses, the attackers allowed two security personnel guarding the station to leave. The tribal journalists, meanwhile, said the motive for destroying the station was still unknown. The federal government had set up a number of FM stations in different tribal regions where Taliban or Al Qaeda-linked militancy had made it difficult for independent journalists to do their jobs.