Taliban backers seize Islamic shrine in Pakistan

US officials have floated the possibility of unilateral military strikes in the tribal regions, a possibility that Pakistan once again strongly rejected.

"Pakistan will not allow any foreign forces to conduct activities inside its territory," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told legislators yesterday, according to a government statement.

"The integrity and sovereignty of the country will be protected at all cost, and no outside interference will be allowed," Aziz said.

The government also criticized a bill that would tie development aid to Pakistan's progress in fighting militancy.

About 70 pro-Taliban militants overran the shrine of renowned Pashtun freedom fighter Sahib Turangzai and its adjoining mosque in Mohmand tribal region Sunday, a militant representative said.

They evicted the mosque's caretakers, renamed it, and declared their support for Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the late deputy cleric of the Red Mosque, who has spearheaded an increasingly aggressive, Taliban-style antivice campaign in the capital.

Troops finally cracked down on the mosque, and Ghazi was killed, along with at least 101 other people, after a weeklong siege that ended July 12.

In Mohmand, the militants vowed to set up a girls' seminary at the site -- reminiscent of one in Islamabad where the antivice campaign was centered and which was demolished by authorities after the siege. "We will ensure education here for students who were dispersed after the operation against Lal Masjid in Islamabad," Khalid Omar, a man who says he speaks for the militants, told journalists in Peshawar by telephone.

A government official in Mohmand, who sought anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, confirmed that militants had taken control of the shrine. He said authorities have sought the help of tribal elders to get the militants to leave the area peacefully.

Meanwhile, at least three security officers and four civilians died in violence in North Waziristan, a tribal region where the army recently redeployed forces and set up checkpoints.

In reaction to the redeployment, militants pulled out of a September 2006 peace deal with the government and launched a wave of attacks that killed dozens of people, mostly security forces.

Late Sunday, rockets hit a military camp near Miran Shah, slightly wounding four troops, army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.

Near Bannu, a town bordering North Waziristan, troops fearing a suicide attack shot and wounded a civilian who failed to heed an order to stop as he drove toward an army convoy, police official Shafiullah Khan said. Four civilians were killed.

A roadside bomb killed three paramilitary troops near a checkpoint about a mile north of the main town of Miran Shah, an army statement said. Seven suspects were detained for planting another bomb in an attack on a troop convoy route that caused no casualties, it said.