[HCDX] Tribesmen riot after suspected Taliban destroy radio station

["Arnaldo" <slaen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

PESHAWAR: Hundreds of tribesmen in South Waziristan’s Wana headquarters 
ransacked government buildings in the area hours after suspected Taliban 
blew up a two-room state-run FM radio station on Friday.

Talking to Daily Times, eyewitnesses said authorities deployed security 
forces several hours after the attack. “Suspected Taliban destroyed the 
station during the early hours of Friday after taking away the equipment in 
it,” local administration officials in Wana said on condition of anonymity. 
A tribal journalist in Dera Ismail Khan also confirmed the destruction of 
the radio station. “Hundreds of tribesmen took away everything they could 
get their hands on, including the bricks of the radio station, construction 
material and office equipment,” the eyewitnesses added, saying no government 
forces had attempted to stop the people from doing so. However, they said 
army and paramilitary forces were deployed in the area several hours later 
and took control of Wana’s Rustam bazaar after local residents shuttered 
their shops. “Nothing was left on the ground,” said one resident. “I saw 
people taking broken bricks and office chairs,” he added.

Suspected Taliban attacked the building at 2am on Friday. In the third 
attack on the station since its establishment in 2004, they removed all the 
equipment and then blew up the building. Local residents said the station 
had stopped airing music after being threatened by Taliban and had been 
broadcasting commentary on development projects, sports news and Islamic 
teachings for the past two years. The station had been airing six hour of 
programming daily, they added. According to eyewitnesses, the attackers 
allowed two security personnel guarding the station to leave. The tribal 
journalists, meanwhile, said the motive for destroying the station was still 
unknown. The federal government had set up a number of FM stations in 
different tribal regions where Taliban or Al Qaeda-linked militancy had made 
it difficult for independent journalists to do their jobs.(Dayly Times)

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