Pakistan under pressure to launch attacks on Islamist militants

A deadly bomb attack struck a hotel in North Waziristan on Monday where Pakistan is under increasing US pressure to launch a major operation against Islamist militants.

Pakistan is passing through the most difficult phase in its history when even "bearded and turbaned" people were not safe, according Maulana Fazlur Rehman Photo: AFP

American officials believe that Islamabad is dragging its heels on plans to root out groups linked to al-Qaeda and may retains ties to extremists.

However, a Pakistani newspaper yesterday claimed Pakistan was ready to begin operations against sanctuaries for al-Qaeda and the Taliban in North Waziristan apparently after Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, secured an agreement during her visit last week.

One person was killed and eight wounded in a blast at the hotel in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.

"An improvised explosive device that was planted in one of the rooms went off, initially wounding nine people," according to an intelligence official.

The United States has long put pressure on Pakistan to mount an air and ground offensive in the region to deny insurgents bases from which to attack international forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be of its own time and choosing, arguing that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are already overstretched.

Instead, the US uses a secret drone programme to kill suspected militants.

No one from the Pakistani military was available to comment on the planned offensive.

* Pakistan is passing through the most difficult phase in its history when even "bearded and turbaned" people were not safe, according Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the head of the country's biggest Islamist party and a long-standing ally of the Afghan Taliban movement.

Speaking at a meeting of his Jamiat Ulema-I-Islam party, he said madrassas and Islamic scholars were being targeted by the US and said the strife resulted from the reign of Pervez Musharraf.

"The decision taken by a military dictator to take part in the US war against terror has made the entire nation suffer," he said.