Pakistan Blast Kills Anti-Taliban Mayor

Pakistan Blast Kills Anti-Taliban Mayor
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Copyright by Reuters
Published: November 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/world/asia/09pstan.html?ref=global-home


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A mayor who publicly opposed the Taliban was killed in a suicide bombing in a cattle market near the northern city of Peshawar on Sunday, officials said, in what appeared to be an attempt to curtail grass-roots opposition to the militant group.

A Taliban spokesman, reached by telephone from Peshawar, said the group claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place in the village of Mattani and killed 12 people, including the mayor, Abdul Malik, according to the head of the Peshawar Police Department, Liaqat Khan.

On Monday, a suicide bomber killed three people, including a police constable, and wounded five others in Peshawar, The Associated Press reported. No group immediately claimed responsibility, according to A.P.

Mr. Malik was central to the resistance against the Taliban in the area, and his death was a blow to government efforts to fight the militants. He raised a militia to keep the Taliban out of his district, Adazai, which is close to areas where the Taliban dominate.

“It’s a big loss,” said a police official in the area.

“He was really a linchpin in resisting the spread of Taliban in the area; he was a very important figure,” added the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

Local militias have been part of Pakistan’s struggle to quell a growing insurgency. The militias, known here as lashkars, have been decimated in the past, in part because the Pakistani government failed to support them against the militants.

But Pakistan’s military has been fighting the Taliban in the north and west since the spring, giving local residents more confidence to resist the militants.

A spate of devastating attacks in October, including a raid on the Pakistani military’s headquarters, unsettled the country and prompted the beginning of a long-awaited campaign against the militants in the western mountains of Waziristan.

In the patchwork of shifting allegiances that is Pakistan’s northwest frontier, Mr. Malik had previously been part of the Taliban. He had allowed them into his area, but he had recently turned against them, taking a strong public stance. Whether that was because of a personal grudge or a belief that they were doing harm to society was not clear, officials said.

The police official said Mr. Malik also had been involved in illegal business activities.

The Taliban had made several attempts on the mayor’s life before Sunday.

Mr. Khan identified the bomber as a young man, thought to be in his early 20s, who walked up to Mr. Malik at the market — a sprawling area where villagers come to buy and sell livestock.

The market was particularly crowded on Sunday because of an approaching Muslim holiday, Id al-Adha. When the bomber was close, he detonated his vest of explosives, killing Mr. Malik and 11 others, some of them militia members. More than 20 people were wounded.

The Taliban spokesman, who gave his name only as Omar and whose identity could not be confirmed, said that Mr. Malik had long been a target of the Taliban. “We attacked him before, but he escaped,” Omar said. “But this attack got the desired results.”

Mr. Khan said he did not believe that the killing would inhibit local resistance to the Taliban. Local tribesmen have long been the victims of Taliban violence, and he said that he believed this attack would not influence their resolve to fight.

“Now the general public is against the Taliban,” he said. “This will have some effect, but not much.”

Irfan Ashraf contributed reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan.