Hundreds of Pakistanis banded together and attacked Taleban strongholds in a troubled northwestern region, killing 11 militants, to avenge a deadly suicide bombing at a local mosque, officials said Sunday. The incident Saturday indicated a swing in the national mood toward a more anti-Taleban stance, a shift that comes as suicide attacks have surged and the military wages an offensive in the Swat Valley. Some 400 villagers from neighboring Upper Dir district, where a suicide bomber killed 33 worshippers at a mosque in the Haya Gai area on Friday, formed a militia and attacked five villages in the nearby Dhok Darra area, said Atif-ur-Rehman, the district coordination officer. The citizens' militia has occupied three of the villages since Saturday and is trying to push the Taleban out of the other two. Some 20 houses suspected of harboring Taleban were destroyed, he said. At least 11 militants were killed, the district police chief, Ejaz Ahmad, said. The government has encouraged local citizens to set up militias, known as lashkars, to oust Taleban fighters. “It is something very positive that tribesmen are standing against the militants. It will discourage the miscreants,” Rehman said. Ahmad said around 200 militants were putting up a stiff resistance in their strongholds surrounded by the villagers. “We will send security forces, maybe artillery too, if the villagers ask for reinforcement,” he added. The surge in suicide attacks reached Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, late Saturday when a man wearing an explosive-laden jacket attacked a police compound but was shot down before he could enter the main building. Two officers died and six were wounded, police said. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack at the police emergency response center, but it fits with a Taleban threat of strikes in major cities across Pakistan in retaliation for the military's month-old offensive in Swat. The Swat battle is seen as a test of Pakistan's resolve to take on militants challenging the government in the northwestern regions near Afghanistan. More than 1,300 militants and 105 soldiers have died so far, the military says. The US supports the Swat offensive, hoping it will eliminate a potential sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants implicated in attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan. The campaign began after the collapse of the most recent peace deal, which imposed law in Swat and surrounding districts. The agreement was brokered by hard-line cleric Sufi Muhammad, three of whose aides were arrested by security forces last week. Two of the aides were killed Saturday after the Taleban attacked their convoy, the army said. The motive for the ambush was unclear. It could have been an attempt to rescue the men or kill them before they gave intelligence to the military. Bajour was the focus of a previous military offensive, and the military said it vanquished the Taleban there in February, but reports of militant activity in the region persist.
