Turkish Press : Troops cordon off Pakistan airstrike town

Troops cordon off Pakistan airstrike town

November 1, 2006

KHAR, Pakistan (AFP)

Pakistani troops have sealed off a troubled frontier zone amid a third day of tensions over a deadly air raid on an Islamic school that was said to have been visited by Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The clampdown came despite calls by a human rights group for an independent investigation into claims that the 80 people who were killed in the attack in the troubled Bajaur region on Monday were all students and teachers.

Hundreds of soldiers threw a tight cordon around the rugged and conservative district bordering Afghanistan a day after 15,000 tribesmen protested against the Pakistani and US governments and vowed to take revenge.

"They are not allowing anyone to leave or enter Bajaur, it is completely sealed off," resident Irfanullah told AFP, speaking by telephone.

Markets and schools in Khar, the main town in Bajaur, also remained closed for a third day.

Pakistani authorities said the area was sealed for "security reasons", without elaborating. Part of neighbouring Mohmand tribal agency was also cordoned off.

Security forces were also on alert nationwide against the possibility of militant reprisals for the airstrike on the seminary, particularly with Britain's Prince Charles in Pakistan on a high profile tour.

He and his wife Camilla were visiting earthquake-hit Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday.

Anti-Western feeling has been high amid allegations by Islamist leaders that US forces based in Afghanistan either launched the raid themselves using Predator drones or ordered Pakistan to carry it out.

US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch Wednesday urged the Pakistan government to give journalists and activists access to the shut-off area to establish the facts behind the raid.

"The Pakistani government should allow independent investigators into the area to determine who carried out the attack, how it was planned and executed, and who was killed," HRW South Asia researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said.

"The onus is on the Pakistani government to provide a credible account of the legitimacy of the attack resulting in the deaths of so many," Hasan said in a statement.

However Pakistan security officials say that Egyptian born Zawahiri -- Osama bin Laden's deputy -- and London airliner bombing plot mastermind Abu Obaida Al-Misri had frequently visited the seminary in the past.

Neither were in the madrassa at the time of the attack, the officials said at a briefing.

They identified Al-Misri as Al-Qaeda's operational commander in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, which borders Bajaur.

They also said he was a mentor to Rashid Rauf, a Briton arrested by Pakistan in August in connection with the alleged conspiracy to blow up transatlantic jets, the security official said.

"The madrassa that was targeted was frequently visited by Al-Qaeda leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Obaida Al-Misri," one official said on condition of anonymity.

The attack followed months of surveillance and was necessary because the training camp's chiefs were "in a hurry to push them out after training for attacks" in either neighbouring Afghanistan or Pakistan, they said.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has said Zawahiri escaped a CIA Predator raid in Bajaur in January. Reports said at the time that Al-Misri may have also died but the security official said they were untrue.