In a
dangerous new development, Pakistani terrorist movement, Taliban,
have opened a new front in Gilgit-Baltistan, one of the
internationally sensitive areas, being called as Northern Pakistan.
Historically and legally, this area forms the northern reaches of the
Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and belongs to India, but has been
illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1947. This area is roughly to
northwest of Siachin glacier and east of Xinjiang province of China.
The majority of population here are Shia Muslims and they live
peacefully. There has been no instance of any Islamic militancy in
this area earlier, but deadly sectarian violence targeting Pakistan’s
Shiite Muslim minority has been seen here during recent past. Chinese
soldiers in thousands, under disguise of construction workers are
believed to be involved here in the construction activities.
Geographically
speaking, the terrain is totally mountainous with many of the tallest
peaks of the world, including famous killer mountain, 'Nanga Parbat'
situated here. Three of the world's greatest mountain ranges, Hindu
Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya converge here and create a stunning
landscape. Pakistan actively promotes trekking and climbing based
tourism here as the area has many challenging peaks and has been very
peaceful and foreigners have never been previously targeted in these
remote parts of this region.
'Fairy
Meadows' is a base camp in the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan,
which borders China and Kashmir, used by most of the climbers trying
to climb Nanga Parbat mountain, which is 8,126 metres (26,660 feet)
high and is considered as the second highest mountain in Pakistan
and the ninth highest in the world. On 22nd June 2013, a group of 15
Taliban terrorists wearing uniforms of 'Gilgit Scouts,' a unit of
Pakistani army stationed in Gilgit, abducted two local guides and
with their help reached this camp consisting of a group of tents and
ramshackle huts around 1 AM.
They
began by beating the mountaineers and taking away any mobile and
satellite phones they could find, as well as everyone’s money. The
gunmen then shot dead a Pakistani guard and held other workers at
gunpoint as hostage and started firing indiscriminately on the
foreign tourists and later made their escape. Some climbers and
guides were able to run away and ware saved. Sawal Faqir was a local
guide, who survived the shooting. He was able to hide a satellite
phone and later used it to notify authorities of the attack. In all
9 or 10 foreign climbers(Exact number not yet certain) were found
dead along with one Pakistani guard. In the dead, were 2 Chinese, one
American and six Ukrainian nationals. Some climbers including a
Chinese climber managed to escape.
A
Pakistani militant group known as Jundullah, who have previously
attacked Shia muslims in this region claimed first that they were
behind the raid and said: "These foreigners are our enemies and
we proudly claim responsibility for killing them, and will continue
such attacks in the future."
Later
Pakistan's Taliban movement also claimed that it had shot the
trekkers in retaliation for a U.S. drone strike in May that killed
its second in command, Wali-ur-Rehman.
The
implications of this daring attack are easy to see. This area on
Chinese border is totally remote with sparse population and is under
control of Pakistan Army. The ease with which the terrorists were
able to attack a group mountaineers here shows how dangerous and
unsafe, this region is becoming. So far, Pakistan's Afghan border
areas were considered as dangerous and unsafe. The terrorist
activities now in northern Kashmir on Chinese border is a bad omen
not only for Pakistan but also for China and India.
24
June 2013
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