Pakistan tribal leader killed: officials

Posted 07 4 2009 2:42AM

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A pro-government tribal leader and vocal critic of Islamist militants was assassinated on Wednesday in an ambush near his home in northwest Pakistan, officials said.

Guli Shah, 60, had strongly criticised militants operating in lawless Khyber tribal district, which borders Afghanistan, and was an intermediary between his tribe and the Pakistani government.

Pakistan has been pressing a two-month offensive against Taliban militants in the northwest and says it is preparing to open a new front against warlord Baitullah Mehsud in the rugged tribal belt.

"Unknown gunmen shot dead Guli Shah when he was leaving home in his car. His driver was also killed on the spot, while four relatives were critically injured," Rahat Gul, an official of Khyber tribal district, told AFP.

Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and waiting in another vehicle, the assailants ambushed Shah in a market close to his home, officials said.

Relatives said Shah, a main leader in the Koki Khel tribe, had received written threats from militants and was warned to stop colluding with the government by a militant organisation he initially co-founded.

Wednesday's attack comes eight days after a gunman shot dead Qari Zainuddin, a top rival to Pakistan's feared Taliban chief Mehsud who was increasingly critical of suicide bombings targeting civilians.

Bomb attacks have killed about 2,000 people in the last two years.

The United States has put Pakistan at the heart of its war against Al-Qaeda and pledged to stabilise Afghanistan, welcoming a military push against militant havens.

Zainuddin was killed in the northwest town of Dera Ismail Khan, where a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded another on Wednesday, police said.

A passer-by was killed when the bomb was detonated as a police vehicle approached, local police official Shafiq Khan told AFP.

In a statement update on the two-month offensive against militants in the northwest, the army said five militants and one soldier were killed over the last 24 hours.

The military said that 22 men from a local lashkar, or tribal militia, were wounded and "a number of terrorists" killed during clashes in the village of Shatkas in the district of Dir.

Pakistan's military has been keen to harness tribal support in the battle against insurgents.

Death tolls released by Pakistan are impossible to confirm independently because fighting takes place in closed military zones, and the army has faced increasing scepticism that more than 1,600 militants have been killed.