Pakistan, Militants In Deadly Border Fight

There is worry that violent militants inside Pakistan could destabilize the country.

American officials want Pakistan to intensify its fight against those militants because they complicate the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Pakistan's army has repeatedly driven out the Taliban from tribal zones near its border with Afghanistan. But the militants won't stay beaten.

Last month, militant violence struck a district along the edge of Pakistan's tribal region. The target was Shabqadar Fort, a 19th-century structure that serves as the headquarters for Frontier Constabulary troops, a paramilitary force recruited from among the local ethnic Pashtun tribes. They're supposed to keep order when a situation grows too violent for the police.

Several hundred recruits were going on leave, and they crowded around the fort's front gate. As they were boarding buses, a motorcycle rider rolled toward them down the street. The motorcyclist blew himself up, killing nearly a dozen people. More were wounded.

As constables rushed to the gate to help, a second attacker was watching.

Law enforcement official Usman Ijaz says that second attacker blew himself up inside the mob that was trying to help the wounded. The attacker had filled the bomb with ball bearings to kill more people.

After the second explosion, 79 lay dead.

Base commander Irshad Alam said the recruits "were lying there just like sheep and goats. I was picking them up with my own hands."

He said "the image kept replaying in front of my eyes."

The experience left Alam demoralized for more than two weeks. "Why are our children being killed?" he asks. "Maybe it's a punishment from God because our behavior hasn't been very good."

'There's No Such Thing As Victory'

Shabqadar Fort has stood against tribal uprisings throughout its history. Peacocks and other birds stroll around the grounds. It's a peaceful place in the middle of a war.

"Things may look normal," Ijaz says. "But they're not that normal."

In recent years, the area has become more secure after Pakistan's regular army deployed in the province. But militants keep filtering back.

Since the bombings, the frontier constables aren't even sure about the people in the bazaar right outside their gate.

Ijaz says it's hard for the army to find the manpower to be everywhere at once.

"They clear one area," he says, "they go to another area.

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Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested that the Syrian regime, which harbors militant Palestinian groups such as Hezbollah and a half-million Palestinian refugees in camps along the border, might have instigated Sunday's unrest — and similar unrest three weeks ago. He said it was an attempt to deflect the focus from a crackdown on its own protesters. At least 35 Syrians died in a government assault in the country's north over the weekend and Syrian television reported 40 police were killed in an ambush on Monday.

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