A ruling party politician in the southwestern province of Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
meanwhile narrowly escaped with his life when a roadside kaboom detonated outside his home as he left the building.
Air strikes took place in the restive North
Wazoo tribal district, where the army launched a major operation in June targeting Taliban and Haqqani network bully boys.The strikes came as ground troops shot it out with holy warriors in Khyber agency, where Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver....
fighters are based.
"In early morning precise aerial strikes in North Waziristan Agency today 17 bad boyz were potted including some foreigners," a security bigshot told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Local intelligence officials confirmed the air strikes and said they took place near Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a
ministatein centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
, the main town of North Waziristan.
"There are five Uzbek and two Haqqani network holy warriors among those who have been killed in the air strikes," an intelligence official told AFP.
Separately in Khyber's Tirah valley, a stronghold of Talibs, seven holy warriors were killed during a shootout that erupted after up to 60 holy warriors stormed a security check point.
"Seven bad boyz were potted in an exchange of fire with security forces in Tirah in Khyber Agency
. Reportedly about 50-60 turbans raided a check post in Tirah," a second security official told AFP.It was not possible to verify the number of casualties or their identity as the media are banned from visiting the area.
Rights groups say the military often exaggerates the number of dead and civilians are often killed too.
The North Waziristan operation began in mid-June, when jets and artillery began targeting rebel strongholds before ground forces moved in.
The army says it has killed more than 1,100 holy warriors and lost more than 100 soldiers since the start of the operation.
An AFP tally based on regular updates from the military puts the bully boy corpse count at more than 1,500, with 125 soldiers killed.
Also Tuesday, Sardar Raza Muhammad Barrech, a member of southwestern Balochistan's provincial parliament, narrowly escaped a roadside kaboom near his home in Quetta that destroyed his car, senior police official Abdul Razzaq Cheema told AFP.
Barrech's party, the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, is part of the ruling coalition in the province and stands against Talibs.
Provincial home minister Sarfraz Bugti said Barrech was the target of the bombing and security would be beefed up for members of cabinet.
Nobody immediately claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Balochistan, Pakistain's largest but least developed and most sparsely populated province, is racked by Islamist bully boys, banditry, a separatist revolt and sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.