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CHRIS BRUMMITT Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD — An onslaught of militant violence has transformed Pakistan’s capital from a sleepy oasis to something of a city under siege, with its tree-lined streets barricaded, schools shuttered and jittery residents wondering when the next attack will come.

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A security official stands behind a barrier while workers put barbed wire on the wall at the entrance of a school, closed for security reasons, recently in Islamabad, Pakistan.

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The fear shows how Taliban and al-Qaida-led insurgents based along the Afghan border have brought the war into Pakistan’s political and diplomatic heart, something they hope will force the government to halt a new army offensive into their stronghold.

The unease has been heightened by the range of targets attacked despite a nationwide security clampdown. Suicide bombers hit the International Islamic University and a U.N. office in Islamabad; militants took officers hostage for 22 hours at army headquarters in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi; commando-style raids paralyzed the eastern city of Lahore; and bombs have ripped through markets in the northwest.

Security forces fighting their way through a mountainous Taliban stronghold killed at least seven militants Sunday and injured several more, officials said, while Pakistan’s foreign minister said the offensive in tribal South Waziristan should finish sooner than originally expected.

As part of the government’s ramping up of its fight against the militants, it will offer bounties of up to 50,000,000 rupees ($600,000) for each of the top three Taliban leaders, according to an official advertisement to be published Monday in Pakistani newspapers and obtained by The Associated Press.

But the recent successes of the campaign in South Waziristan — and the optimism of Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi that it would soon achieve its objectives — were offset by a string of anti-government attacks in other tribal regions, where militants kidnapped and killed a prominent pro-government activist and blew up a girls’ school.

The kidnapping occurred Saturday night in the town of Khar, the largest in the Bajur tribal region, when a group of about 60 militants stormed the house of Jahangir Khan, said Adalat Khan, a town official.

“The bullet-riddled body of Jahangir Khan was found a kilometer (half-mile) away from the main town, with his legs and hands tied with a rope,” he said. Khan had apparently been dragged before being shot, he said.

The same militants also kidnapped one of the town’s wealthiest landlords along with his son, his grandson and another relative. It was not immediately clear why they were kidnapped, though abductions for ransom have become increasingly common.

Pakistan launched a major offensive in Bajur last year and now insists it has total control nearly everywhere in the region, including in Khar — a claim undercut by the Saturday attacks and a series of other violent incidents in recent months.