Taliban tribal leader was assassinated Friday in a roadside bombing, the latest in a series of attacks against pro-government militias in the Afghan border area of northwestern Pakistan, officials said. Elsewhere, authorities found the bullet-riddled body of another tribal elder who was seized from his home late Thursday. Violence has increased in Bajaur and other northwestern tribal regions since the army launched an offensive in South Waziristan in mid-October. Many militants are believed to have escaped and have retaliated with a series of clashes and bombings. Shahfur Khan was returning to his home in Badan village to receive guests after prayers marking the start of Eid Al-Adha, when the roadside bomb exploded, killing him and wounding three other people, according to local officials Jamil Khan and Abdul Malik. Khan emerged as a militia leader in the Mamund area of the Bajaur tribal region after his predecessor was killed with at least 14 other people in a suicide bombing last year. Bajaur has seen continued violence despite a military offensive that was declared a success last year. Some people in the semiautonomous tribal regions began celebrating Eid a day ahead of the official start of festivities in Pakistan. Militants in the adjacent tribal region of Mohamand also abducted another anti-Taliban tribal elder, Ameer Saiyed, late Thursday after storming his house and killing his son, Hazrat, local official Jawed Khan said. Authorities found the father's body Friday near his home in Wali Kor village, the official said. Tribal elders have traditionally had massive influence in northwestern Pakistan but have increasingly been targeted by Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters as they joined forces with the government. The government has supplemented its military campaigns by helping tribal leaders and supporting local militias to battle the Taliban. The militias, known as lashkars, have drawn comparisons with government-backed groups in Iraq known as Awakening Councils, which have been credited with beating back the insurgency there. But the lashkars are less organized and the tribesman use their own, often aging, weapons.
