After the Pro-Taliban demonstrators stormed the home of a rival cleric, at least 6 protesters were shot dead.
Four of those killed in the clashes were Pro-Taliban students.
Pakistani tribesmen offer funeral prayers to children killed in a gunfight between security forces and tribesmen in Bara town in the Khyber tribal region April 23, 2007. At least four children were killed in a gunfight between security forces and tribesmen protesting over the arrest of a hardline Islamic cleric in a northwestern Pakistan on Monday, officials said. (REUTERS/Ali Imam)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Security forces opened fire on pro-Taliban extremists who tried to storm the house of a rival Islamist leader in a Pakistani tribal region on Monday, killing six people, officials said.
More than 1,000 members of the hardline Lashkar-i-Islami (Army of Islam) organisation gathered in Bara, a town bordering Afghanistan, to demonstrate against the rival Ansar-ul-Islam (Companions of Islam) group, they said.
Some armed members of the mob then marched towards a nearby village to attack the house of Ansar-ul-Islam’s leader, Pir Saifur Rehman, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“In a bid to disperse the crowd, local tribal police and paramilitary units opened fire and six people were killed and 10 injured,” the official said.
Most of the victims were men in their late teens or early 20s, he said.
Lashkar-i-Islami spokesman Misri Khan said he knew of five people who had died on the spot and dozens of others who were wounded. “The number of dead could go up,” he added.
Local tribesmen later said that six bodies were buried in village graveyards near Bara and that the mourners dispersed peacefully.
…Two of the dead were local students who participated in the protest and the other two killed belonged to Lashkar-i-Islami.
This sort of thing sometimes happens when you are out protesting for the Taliban and storm into a rival cleric’s home.
Pakistani tribesmen offer funeral prayers to children killed in a gunfight between security forces and tribesmen in Bara town in the Khyber tribal region April 23, 2007. (Reuters)
Iranian News has more on the clashes:
According to reports school students took out a procession to protest against firing on their colleagues on Sunday.
Three school students were injured in cross-fire between armed supporters of Lashkar-i-Islam and law-enforcement personnel in Bara.
The law-enforcement personnel posted at the house resisted the move which resulted in the crossfire and Lashkar activists opened fire at one of the security checkpoints.
Hundreds of school children and armed supporters of
Lashkar-i-Islam set six check posts of the local militia force on fire.TV channels reported that the militia force resorted to firing in the air to disperse protesting students and Lashkar activists.
Local tribesmen carry the dead body of a boy for funeral, who killed in a gun-battle between secure forces and supporters of an Islamic cleric in Bara Town in the Pakistans Khyber tribal region. (AP)
