‘Ex-MNA among 30 killed in SWA suicide attack

WANA/PESHAWAR: Thirty worshippers, including a prominent religious scholar and former Member of the National Assembly from South Waziristan Maulana Noor Mohammad, were killed on Monday and several others sustained injuries in a suicide bombing at the mosque-Madrassa complex run by the slain Maulana in Wana, eyewitnesses said.
Maulana Noor Mohammad, an influential cleric, was laid to rest later in the day at his ancestral graveyard in Wana and more than 10,000 people were reported to have attended his funeral prayer.
Eyewitnesses said Maulana Noor Mohammad, 80, was leaving the mosque after delivering a sermon to a large number of the faithful when he came under attack.
They said some of Maulana’s followers were shaking hands with him in the courtyard of the mosque at the time and he was heading for the mosque’s main exit when a teenager was seen running towards him.
“People mistook him for one of Maulana Noor Mohammad’scountless students or followers and many thought he also wanted to shake hands with him. But he blew himself up near the Maulana and suddenly it became dark and there was dust everywhere. Many people, including Maulana Noor Mohammad, were lying in a pool of blood and several others were screaming due to injuries,” narrated a local Taliban commander belonging to Maulvi Nazeer group.
Talking to The News by phone from Wana, the Taliban commander said he too was among the sizeable number of tribesmen attending the Holy Quran and Hadith class that Maulana Noor Mohammad used to organise in Ramazan at the mosque.
He said 31 people, belonging to different sections of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe, including Mughalkhel, Zalikhel, Gangikhel, Khojalkhel, lost their lives and several others were injured in the blast. Out of 46 injured people, five were reported to be in a critical condition and were airlifted in a military helicopter to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Rawalpindi.
The remaining injured people were admitted to

the Agency Headquarters Hospital and the FC Scouts Hospital in Wana, the principal town of South Waziristan.
The tragic news of the suicide attack on Maulana Noor Mohammad spread like jungle fire in Wana and its adjoining villages. Many panicked tribesmen were seen arriving in Wana and desperately searching their near and dear ones.
Tribal sources said two floors of the mosques were jampacked with people who used to come from various villages to perform Zuhr prayer and then attend the Holy Quran and Hadith classes at the same place.
The crowded Rustam bazaar in Wana town was closed immediately. The traders and shoppers announced that the bazaar in Wana and other towns in South Waziristan would remain closed for a day today (Tuesday) to mourn the death of the respected cleric.
No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. However, local tribesmen and those who survived the attack said the suicide bomber whose head was recovered from the site of the bombing appeared to be an ethnic Uzbek. The Uzbeks aligned with the Tahir Yuldashev-led Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were expelled by the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe from Wana and Shakai area a couple of years ago.
Maulana Noor Mohammad, who also belonged to the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe, contested the 1997 general elections and was elected MNA from South Waziristan. The Maulana was very articulate and never indulged himself in controversial issues.
Though a strong opponent of the mainstream Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), formed by Baitullah Mahsud, and its policy of suicide bombing at public places, he avoided issuing statements against the militant network and its leadership and thus remained unharmed.
However, in 2007, he publicly supported Maulvi Nazeer and his armed men in their armed drive against the Uzbek militants and evicted them from the Ahmadzai Wazir inhabited areas of South Waziristan after bloody clashes.
Sources close to the late cleric said he had received threats from undisclosed enemies and had raised his security. “He was aware of threat to his life and always kept armed bodyguards with him,” a tribesman close to him said on condition of anonymity. He had good ties with the Afghan Taliban and other former Afghan Mujahideen leaders.
Maulana Noor Mohammad was a writer and had written several books. Two of his books “Jihad-e-Afghanistan” and another against cultivating poppy and producing opium became popular among the Taliban and tribespeople.
He was also teacher of slain militant commander Nek Mohammad and had played a key role in brokering a peace deal between the government and Taliban in April 2004. He was considered among the few notables of South Waziristan who had the ability to unite all nine sub-tribes of Ahmadzai Wazir.
APP adds from Islamabad: President Asif Ali Zardari and Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar have strongly condemned a suicide blast in South Waziristan mosque, killing several innocent people, including former MNA Noor Muhammad.
In their separate statements, they expressed deep shock and grief over the tragic incident and expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.They said such acts of cowardice could not deter the governmentís resolve to continue its fight against terrorism till its logical end.