Earlier, a levies checkpoint in the Darbano area, situated on the boundary between Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies, was attacked.
The officials said that the assailants first fired rockets on the checkpoint and then kidnapped Izzat Khan, Sahibzada Khan, Bashir and Farhatullah, who were on duty. Bajaur political agent Shakeel Qadir Khan has constituted a jirga, headed by Mamond tribe’s chief negotiator Malik Abdul Aziz, to resolve the kidnapping issue.
According to an editorial of a leading newspaper, with a death toll of at least 24, including a Pakistan Army Lt. Colonel, the Lal Masjid standoff continues, with no sign of compromise on either side. Ghazi Abdur Rasheed, earlier thought to be the more pragmatic of the two brothers running the Lal Masjid, has repeatedly expressed that he would rather face martyrdom than give up. He is open, however, to the option of a safe passage. The government, on the other hand, has taken a break from its six-month-old attitude of near paternal indulgence to the mosque by being absolutely intransigent on the issue, despite the fact that there are scores of hostages holed up inside the Mosque’s compound. The President didn’t mince any words addressing a press conference in Quetta. Surrender or die, he said. Meanwhile, it is becoming increasingly clear that the students inside the compound are being held against their against their will. There are reports of 12 female students who have been on hunger strike within the mosque.
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