Civil War is being Incited in Pakistan - a new murderous phase begins

[Satyagraha]

JSQM threatens to demolish IDP camp
Monday, May 25, 2009
* MQM proposes IDPs stay in Punjab

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\05\25\story_25-5-2009_pg1_2

LAHORE/KARACHI: The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) has threatened to demolish the relief camp for the Swat displaced set up by the Sindh government on the outskirts of Karachi if the authorities did not wind it up in 24 hours, a private TV channel reported on Sunday.

According to the channel, the JSQM staged a protest demonstration against the Kathore camp and its chairman said Taliban were coming to Karachi disguised as internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Meanwhile, senior MQM member Anees Advocate proposed that the IDPs be settled either in their own province, the NWFP, or in Punjab.

He said that the influx of hundreds of thousands of IDPs into Sindh would change the demography of the province, and permanent residents have a right to object to it in view of the bitter experiences of the past. daily times monitor/staff report

[bigron]

Sunday, May 24, 2009

16:26 Mecca time, 13:26 GMT 
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/05/200952411916978127.html
 
Focus 
 
Regaining control of Swat valley 
 
 
By Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna
 

 
Pakistan's military has seized Baine Baba Ziarat, the highest point in Swat valley, from the Taliban

It is the roof of North West Pakistan: Baine Baba Ziarat is the highest peak in the Swat valley.

It was also until less than two weeks ago a stronghold of forces aligned to the Taliban.

I was taken by helicopter up to the peak by the Pakistani military, eager to give evidence to its claims that it is making major advances on the ground in the ongoing offensive.

This is more a fortress than a camp.  It is a staggering complex of caves, tunnels and concealed gun emplacements – and commands a view of virtually the entire Swat valley. 

It’s a place that was built over years rather than months.  The caves show signs of permanent habitation – the entire underground labyrinth wired for electricity provided by multiple generators. 

It is difficult to comprehend how the fighters were able to bring all the equipment up the mountain – it would be a journey of weeks by mule train.

Earlier at a military briefing, we were shown surveillance footage of the area taken shortly before the army launched its operation to seize control.

Armed individuals are clearly discernible – but what ultimately gave the location away was the network of trails leading to the peak.  There would be no reason for anyone other than those seeking concealment to be there.

Swat strategy

Also in the briefing was a very clear exposition of the strategy behind the Swat Valley operation, one that has political as well as military components.

Major-General Athar Abbas, a military spokesman, explained the wider campaign against internal insurgency began as far back as December 2007.


 
This went through various phases of military action followed by either surrender or periods of negotiation with various armed groups.

The peace deal reached earlier this year with Taliban groups in the Swat Valley was yet another pause in the ongoing game of high stakes cat and mouse.

When the deal was broken and the Taliban groups advanced towards the capital, Islamabad, a new phase began.

Abbas says this phase is one that will not end in negotiation – the instructions from the political leaders are to push the campaign until the enemy is defeated.

Essentially the gloves are off, and the military is operating with the assurance that there will be no pause for any negotiation. 

Isolating the Taliban

At the same time, there appears to be an understanding among the military of the wider strategy as outlined by the government: The armed offensive is just one component of regaining control of the Swat Valley, the other and perhaps even more important aspect - certainly in the long term - is to regain political control.

In order to achieve this, those supporting the Taliban need to be isolated politically as well as defeated militarily.

The end of the military offensive would be just the beginning of the critical phase in establishing what General Abbas calls “the writ of the government”- the ultimate end of the campaign is to allow the return of a civilian administration that has the support of the majority of people in the valley.

It is only with this in the government view that the challenge of armed insurgency can be dealt with on a long-term basis.

This need to maintain civilian support brings with it specific operational considerations: underlying the ongoing campaign is an absolute imperative to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, the military says.

The officer commanding the 19th Division of the Pakistani army is Major-General Sajjad Ghani, the officer in charge of operations in the upper Swat valley.

General Ghani says the full resources of the military can be deployed in rural areas- for example the capture of Baine Baba Ziarat involved the use of fighter aircraft, helicopter gunships, mortars and artillery.

Urban combat

However Ghani said none of these resources are being deployed in urban combat because that would put civilians in the middle of the fighting at greater risk.

Instead, the general maintains it is infantry and infantry alone that is being deployed in densely populated regions. It is for this reason, perhaps, that the current operation to take control of Mingora will be, according to the army, “painfully slow”. 

There are an estimated ten to twenty thousand civilians still in Mingora, and if the declared operational parameters are being followed then only foot soldiers are being deployed with little or no air or artillery support.

The military briefing also made clear that the operation against armed insurgency will not end in Swat.

Major-General Abbas told me that the offensive in Swat could well provide the blueprint for campaigns in other parts of the country.

I asked specifically whether he was referring to North and South Waziristan and he said yes. 

He says the government will ultimately determine the priorities - and in consultation with the military - will deploy forces where and when needed according to what is regarded as the greatest challenge to national sovereignty at any given time.

Victory in the Swat valley then, if achieved, may not be the end of the government’s campaign to establish national control – it may well just mark the beginning.
 
 
 Source: Al Jazeera 
   
 
 
 
 

[bigron]

Monday, May 25, 2009
07:35 Mecca time, 04:35 GMT 
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/2009524141212281322.html

 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA 
 
Pakistan rally against Swat assault 


 Protesters criticised the offensive as part of Washington's so-called 'war on terror' [AFP]
 

 
Hundreds of supporters of Pakistan's opposition Jamaat-i-Islami party have demonstrated in what is believed to be the first major protest against the military's offensive against the Taliban in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The demonstration in the capital, Islamabad, on Sunday took place as the army fought bloody street-to-street battles in Mingora, the main city in the Swat valley.

"To this point there has been absolutely total political support for the ongoing operation in Swat valley," Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from Islamabad, said.

"But now there is the first sign that there are sectors in society who are opposed to what is going on."

Public discontent

Many of the protesters were carrying banners carrying slogans condemning the role of the United States in Pakistan.

"This is a great point of contention for many Pakistanis, not just the supporters of the political party gathered here," Hanna said.

 

"The speakers are basing part of their criticism on their belief that Pakistan is doing ... the work of the United States in its so-called 'war on terror'."

Washington has declared its support for the military operation in the NWFP, after criticising a peace deal signed by Islamanbad and pro-Taliban groups in the region in February.

The US sees the area as vital to its efforts to combat a resurgent Taliban across the border in Afghanistan.

Qazi Hussein Ahmed, the leader Jamaat-e-Islami, told Al Jazeera that the military offensive was directed at the "innocent people of Malakand division".

"They have targeted the population by bombardment from the air and use of artillery .. they will hit the population, their villages, their towns and a fear has been created among the people," he said.

Ahmed said that the military's actions would lead to an increase in pro-Taliban violence.

"[The government] should consult the people of the area, they have traditional ways of containing the militancy, they have got traditional ways of consulting each other. These people can contain all the people who are creating chaos within their society."   

Another protest was reported in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province.

Street battles
 
Pakistani security forces said they had seized several key areas in Mingora inside the Swat valley on Sunday.

Military officials said troops were in control of several main intersections and three main squares after heavy urban clashes, the military said.

 
Scenes from the conflict zone
Pakistani troops entered the town a day earlier, engaging in street battles with the Taliban and killing at least 17 fighters, Major-General Athar Abbas, a military spokesman, said.

"We have blocked all the entries and exits," he told Al Jazeera.

"Now the forces that were already present inside have linked up with the outside forces, and with this increased ratio they are moving from one end to the other.

"It will take more time."

Mingora, the administrative and business hub of Swat in the NWFP, has been under the effective control of Taliban fighters for weeks.

Many of the 300,000 people who live in Mingora are believed to have fled since the military began its offensive in Swat, Lower Dir and Buner districts of the NWFP several weeks ago.

However, the military says that between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians remain trapped in Mingora, with dwindling supplies of food and no access to medical care.

Orakzai attack

The military also sent helicopter gunships and ground troops to launch an attack in the nearby tribal area of Orakzai on Sunday.

"Troops backed by attack helicopters retaliated, killing eight militants," a security official told the AFP news agency.

Mohammad Yasin, a local government official, told The Associated Press news agency that the military had targeted strongholds of Hakeemullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban leader.

Hundreds of people have fled the area amid the fighting, he said.

The military has said that about 1,100 suspected Taliban fighters have died so far in the offensive, but is still to give a total of civilian casualties.

Residents fleeing the region have reported dozens of ordinary Pakistanis killed in the fighting.
 
 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

[cristiano]

Nice to meet you again.Pakistan has two options. The country can give in to militancy or it can conduct military operations against it, influential advisor to the Interior Ministry, Rahman Malik, said on Thursday. And the government is not going to negotiate with militants, he added.Thank you.
____________________________________________
floating tanks
dbol

[bigron]

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
12:39 Mecca time, 09:39 GMT
 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/200952682026492224.html

 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA 
 
Pakistan risks 'human catastrophe' 



More than two million people fled the area ahead of the military offensive [AFP]
 

 
       
 
Thousands of civilians trapped in Pakistan's Swat valley, where the military is battling Taliban forces, face a "humanitarian catastrophe" unless help reaches them soon, a rights group has said.

Human Rights Watch says the military must lift its curfew of the area, which has been in place for a full week, and airdrop essential food, water and medicine to the 200,000 residents trapped there.

Brad Adams, the Asia director of the US-based group, said on Tuesday: "People trapped in the Swat conflict zone face a humanitarian catastrophe unless the Pakistani military immediately lifts a curfew that has been in place continuously for the last week.

"The government cannot allow the local population to remain trapped without food, clean water, and medicine as a tactic to defeat the Taliban."

Human Rights Watch said it was getting persistent reports of civilian casualties from army shelling and aerial bombardments as well as reports that the Taliban is killing civilians.

Tens of thousands of people remain in the region where the army is carrying out its campaign against the Taliban. A peace deal fell apart earlier in the year.

'Human suffering'

More than two million people fled the military offensive, but those left behind are unable to leave because of the fighting and because the military has surrounded towns and blocked off valleys.

 

The massive displacement caused poses not only a major burden on the economy, being kept afloat by a $7.6bn International Monetary Fund loan, but could undercut public support for the offensive.

Adams said: "The Pakistani government should take all possible measures including air drops of food, water, and medicine to quickly alleviate large-scale human suffering in Swat.

"Both sides should allow a humanitarian corridor that would let civilians escape the fighting and for impartial humanitarian agencies to evacuate and aid civilians at risk."

There was no immediate comment from the military.

Battle for Mingora

Last week, Lieutenant-General Nadeem Ahmed, who heads the government's relief operation, said that up to 200,000 civilians are stranded and that the authorities might have to drop food to them.

Ahmed said most people still in the valley were in its northern reaches, which had been relatively calm, and the authorities wanted them to stay put, rather than risk travelling through the war zone in and around Mingora to the south.

In Swat's main city of Mingora, soldiers are moving from house to house battling fighters. Clashes are also taking place in other parts of the valley, according to military reports.

The military has said its operation in Mingora, where between 10,000 to 20,000 civilians are thought to still be trapped, will be a slow process "to avoid civilian casualties".

Further attacks

A Taliban commander reportedly ordered his fighters to leave the city on Monday, saying the move was necessary to prevent civilian casualties.

Major-General Athar Abbas, a military spokesman, dismissed the Taliban's call as a  "ploy" to allow their fighters to escape.

Elsewhere in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province on Tuesday, two blasts killed a man and wounded five people.

One roadside bomb targeted a police van patrolling in Tank district, near the tribal area of South Waziristan, injuring two policemen.

In a separate attack in the nearby region of Dera Ismail Khan, a hand grenade was lobbed into the home of a Shia family, killing one man and wounding three others, a police official in the region said.
 
 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 
 
 

[bigron]

Bomb in Pakistan's Lahore kills 22, wounds scores


Wed May 27, 2009 6:34am EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL35626520090527?feedType=nl&feedName=usmorningdigest

By Mubasher Bukhari






LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked a police headquarters in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, setting off a car-bomb that killed at least 22 people in what the government said was revenge for an offensive against the Taliban.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack which wounded nearly 300 people and caused extensive damage. It came after warnings of strikes in response to the army's attack on militants in the Swat region in the northwest.

The blast also hit after General David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, was in Islamabad for meetings on Tuesday with government and military leaders.

The United States needs Pakistani action against militants to help defeat al Qaeda and disrupt support for the Taliban in Afghanistan. It has welcomed the Swat offensive.

"I believe that anti-Pakistan elements, who want to destabilize our country and see defeat in Swat, have now turned to our cities," Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters.

The Swat offensive and insecurity in general have worried stock market investors but the main index was up 0.05 percent at 7,182.82 at 0900 GMT (5:00 a.m. EDT).

The bomb, which officials said was a suicide attack, brought down a government ambulance service building and damaged a nearby office of the military's main intelligence agency.

Top city official Khusro Pervez Khan said 22 people had been killed and 285 wounded. Rescuers were searching through the rubble and the toll could rise, another city official said.

Just before the blast two men got out of a car and opened fire at police guards at the gate, provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters, adding several suspects were later detained.

Witnesses said about four gunmen got out of a car and started firing.

"Four to five men got of the vehicle and fired at a police guard who tried to stop them," lawyer Subtain Akhtar Bokhari told Reuters.

One man told Express TV he had seen four young men dressed in black firing indiscriminately before the blast.

WARNING

Militant violence has surged in Pakistan since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces, as well as government and Western targets.

Officials had warned militants might launch bomb attacks in retaliation for the offensive in Swat, where the military says about 15,000 members of the security forces face 4,000-5,000 militants.

The Wednesday blast was the fifth since fighting in the Swat region intensified in late April.

Lahore is capital of Punjab province, Pakistan's most populous and prosperous. The country's second biggest city is also traditionally home to top bureaucrats and senior military brass.

The city has seen several bomb attacks over the past couple of years but its citizens felt much safer than other parts of the country until March, when militants launched two brazen assaults.

Attackers firing rifles and throwing grenades stormed a police training academy on the city's outskirts on March 30, killing eight recruits, wounding scores and holding off security forces for hours.

That attack, claimed by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, came less than a month after a dozen gunmen attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team in the city, killing six police guards and a bus driver.

Share market dealers said despite the various security problems stocks got a boost after the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that popular former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his politician brother could contest elections, removing a cause of political uncertainty.

The government has been struggling to revive a flagging economy being kept afloat by a $7.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan agreed in November.

[Satyagraha]

Lahore suicide blast death toll mounts to 23
http://www.geo.tv/5-27-2009/42917.htm

Updated at: 1334 PST,  Wednesday, May 27, 2009

LAHORE: The suicide car bomb blast at Rescue-15 building adjacent to CCPO Office killed 23 people and injured over 200 others here in Civil Line area on Wednesday.

The injured have been shifted to different hospitals of the city where medical aid is being provided to them.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has strongly condemned the blast.

According to sources, gunshots were being heard near the blast site for minutes before a speeding red van laden with explosives broke the barriers outside the Rescue-15 building and blew up with a loud blast, bringing down the entire building.

The suicide bomber intended to target the office of the CCPO, sources added. (Note: CCPO is a military 'special forces' police station.)

Explosives weighing 100 kilograms were used in the explosion which was followed by gunshots in the area with intervals while four suspects were arrested from the blast site.

Windowpanes of the nearby buildings and houses were shattered and 15 vehicles were destroyed as thick smoke clouded the blast site.

Rescue activities were kick-started after the blast and the injured were whisked away by ambulances to Meo, Gangaram and Services hospitals.

Machines are being used to recover people trapped under the debris. Six of the ten bodies brought to Meo Hospital were of policemen while two bodies are beyond recognition.

[Satyagraha]

This reminds me of Oklahoma City: This blast -from a van - has pretty much leveled a 12-story building. Not just the front of the building. The whole building went down, and debris was thrown outward. Why did the four men get out of the car and start firing? They had a bomb... what was the point? Perhaps masking other sounds from within the building? This is suspicious to say the least. See the pic posted above by bigron.

Also - the bombers 'missed' their real target - they hit the ambulance building next door. So they plan an attack, then hit the 'wrong' building. Ok.

Photo gallery of the blast site is here:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/media-gallery/17-lahore-attack-on-the-mall-ek-02?pageDesign=new_mg_wht_detail12-12

[Satyagraha]

24 killed in Lahore suicide attack 
  Updated :   Wednesday  May  27 , 2009  10:40:09 AM
 http://www.aryoneworld.net/

LAHORE (Mian Aslam, Wudood Mushtaq, Nasrullah Malik): In a suicide attack at Mall Road area of Lahore 24 persons were killed and around 320 people were injured, ARY OneWorld reports citing locla police officials.

The deceased include many policemen and officials of an intelligence agency, it was reported. The injured were admitted at Ganga Rama Hospital and Mayo Hospital of Lahore.

According to early reports thirty persons more than 20 people were died on spot and scores of others were injured in a suicide attack outside the Rescue 15 building at Lahore's Mall Road near the GPO Chowk on Saturday.

The buildings of Rescue 15 and adjacent CCPO office were collapsed in the attack. Police have arrested six suspect from the scene of the blast and other areas.

Police sources said some 40 persons are on duty in the Rescue 15 building. Rescue teams rushed to the point to start relief work. The area, including offices of security agencies, has been cordoned off by the agencies.  The powerful blast was heard even outside the radius of one kilometre, it was reported.

According to reports the building of Rescue 15 was completely razed to ground while a portion of the nearby CCPO Lahore office was also collapsed in the attack. The rescuers were trying to take out the people trapped under the debris of the collapsed buildings.

The sounds of firing were also heard after the blast, eyewitnesses said. (Note; this was described as a 'suicide' attack - who was still firing from the grave??? or were there other sounds 'like gunfire' shots...)

Emergency has been declared at all the hospitals of Lahore. The forces have cordoned off the area after the blast.

At least 40 vehicles were destroyed in the attack.

According to reports 80 to 90 kilogram explosives were used in the blast.

Meanwhile, CCPO Lahore has confirmed 24 casualties in the blast while according to him more than 230 were injured.

[bigron]

Pakistan diary: New battle lines?  

 
Dozens are feared dead following Wednesday's suicide bomb attack in Lahore [AFP]
 


Imran Khan, Al Jazeera's reporter in Pakistan, is filing regular dispatches from the country as the army battles Taliban fighters in the North West Frontier Province.

On the road to Lahore, Wednesday, May 27, 06:41GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/05/200952773518388374.html

I have now been covering Pakistan for a number of years, but today's attack in Lahore is the thirteenth I have either covered or witnessed.
 
There was always a fear that Pakistan's war with the Taliban would spill over into the major cities.

We have seen attacks in the last 10 days in Peshawar, but this attack in Lahore has all the hallmarks of something more organised and more deadly.


Ordinary Pakistanis now fear the country as a whole is under threat [AFP]


Lahore is one of Pakistan's most iconic cities. Known for its liberal attitudes, it is the home of Pakistan's art cinema community.

The attack here shows that not only are Pakistan's security forces under threat, but the ordinary people of Pakistan too.

The fear now among many - particularly the friends I have spoken to in Lahore - is that even if the Pakistani army wins the battle for the Swat valley, Pakistan itself will be under threat.
 
It is worth noting that, although the Pakistani Talbian have a significant presence in the North West Frontier Province, they also have a reach across Pakistan.
 
I hope this isn't the beginning of a new wave of attacks in Pakistan, however, all the indications suggest that that is exactly what it is.

 

[bigron]

Pakistan: Trapped civilians face catastrophe:
HRW Urges Islamabad to lift curfew;
UNHCR says 126,000 displaced daily by conflict

The News International
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54587&hd=&size=1&l=e

 

Internally displaced men, fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley region, are treated for dehydration at the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) Jalala Camp in Takht Bahi located in Mardan district, north-west of Pakistan's capital Islamabad May 25, 2009. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood



Wednesday, May 26, 2009


ISLAMABAD: Thousands of civilians trapped in the Malakand Division face "humanitarian catastrophe" unless help reaches them soon, a rights watchdog said on Tuesday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said people were living with scant food and water in the war zone where security forces were bombarding the militants in a push to extinguish their two-year insurgency.

"People trapped in the Swat conflict zone face a humanitarian catastrophe unless the Pakistani military immediately lifts a curfew that has been in place continuously for the last week," said Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director.

"The government cannot allow the local population to remain trapped without food, clean water and medicine as a tactic to defeat the Taliban," he said.He urged Islamabad to lift the curfew in the under-siege Swat Valley and nearby districts.

Reports of civilians killed in the crossfire continued to flood in, the group said, as people broke the curfew in desperate bids to find food and water for their families, or try and escape the aerial and ground bombardments.

"The Pakistani government should take all possible measures, including airdrops of food, water and medicine to quickly alleviate large-scale human suffering in Swat," said Adams."Bodies lay unburied and the critically-injured faced likely death as all medical facilities in the valley had shut down and medicines were unavailable," the group’s statement said.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said about 126,000 people were daily fleeing the fighting in the Malakand Division in one of the fastest major displacements in recent years."Pakistanis continue to leave the areas of conflict between government forces and the militants in search of refuge in Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi and Nowshera districts," said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UNHCR. "Some 18,000 families — about 126,000 people — are registered on average every day in these districts," he told journalists in Geneva. — AFP

Reuters adds: Redmond said most of the more than two million IDPs were now taking care of themselves and not relying on international aid.

Only 200,000 of the 2.38 million people estimated to have fled the Swat violence are living in camps, he said, adding: "The vast majority of people are staying with friends, relatives, taking care of themselves, even renting accommodation."





 

[bigron]

Police on the run in Malakand region

Almost 75% desert force in Buner, 40% in Swat


by Javed Aziz Khan

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54576&hd=&size=1&l=e


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

PESHAWAR: Almost 75 per cent desertion has been reported in Buner district police force while over 40 per cent are staying off the duties in Swat after deterioration in the law and order in Malakand division, a source confided to 'The News’.

Over 30 per cent of the total strength of Malakand police has either quit jobs or cops are not reporting to their police stations concerned and offices for the past several months. Not only the constabulary but senior officers are also avoiding posting in Malakand for the past two years.

"Almost 310 cops out of the total 400 policemen have reportedly deserted the force in Buner while 820 have quit jobs in Swat. The Swat police comprise of around 2000 policemen," a source disclosed.

Besides, those, who are not reporting to their respective stations despite repeated orders, include over a 100 cops of the Elite Police Force (EPF) and four platoons, comprising around 136 individuals, of the Frontier Constabulary.

Also, 175 cops have deserted from amongst the 1,300 strength of Dir Lower and over 70 out of the total 800 policemen of Dir Upper districts.

The EPF had already refused to be deployed in Swat when they were tasked to improve the law and order situation there around four months back, saying they would prefer quitting jobs to posting in "the death zone". The same was the stance of the cops of EPF and policemen of different districts of Frontier when they were directed to report to Buner.

The inspector general of police (IGP) had recently directed the cops of Buner Police migrating along with their families to the IDP camps, to report to their respective police stations and offices. However, the call fell on deaf ear.

Once considered prized posting for senior police officers of the Frontier, Swat valley has lost attraction for the cops as majority has made all-out efforts during the last many months to have their transfer to the volatile district cancelled. Apart from DPOs, SPs, DSPs and SHOs are using all their contacts to put pressure on the Frontier police authorities for transferring them out of the picturesque town. The job is now left to those who are either junior or have no contacts in the power corridors.

Only a couple of years back, a grade-19 officer was serving as DPO in Swat but today the authorities are yet to find any grade 19 DIG to head the entire region.

"Twelve officers have been posted as DPO Swat during the past 21 months, out of which three cops even refused to assume the charge. The rest served for some weeks before getting a better posting in other parts of the province and country," a source disclosed.

Apart from the DPO of Swat, the posts of DIG of Malakand, additional SP Swat and SP for FRP were also occupied by the officers for brief periods, until they succeeded in getting another lucrative position. The fact is that suicide attacks, ambushes and rocket barrages have made posting in Swat a nightmare for every cop.





 

[Satyagraha]

Lahore Car Bombing Kills 30 In One Of Pakistan's Deadliest Attacks This Year

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/27/lahore-car-bombing-kills-_n_208000.html

LAHORE, Pakistan — Gunmen detonated a car bomb Wednesday near police and intelligence agency offices that collapsed one building and sheared the walls off others in one of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan this year. About 30 people were killed and at least 250 wounded.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the bombing could be retaliation for the government's military offensive to rout Taliban militants from the northwestern Swat Valley.

Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, sits near the Indian border and is considered a liberal, cultural capital. Assaults there have heightened fears that militancy in nuclear-armed Pakistan is spreading well beyond the northwest region bordering Afghanistan. Wednesday's attack was the third major strike in Lahore in recent months.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest bombing. Police said two suspects were detained.

Raja Riaz, a senior minister in the Punjab provincial government, told reporters about 30 people were killed. Sajjad Bhutta, another senior government official, told reporters more than 250 people were wounded.

A police building collapsed in the blast, and rescuers rushed to free officers buried in the rubble.

The explosion also sheared the walls off neighboring buildings in a main business district. The ceilings of operating rooms in a nearby hospital also collapsed, injuring 20 people.

Agents from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency were among the dead, a senior official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

"The moment the blast happened, everything went dark in front of my eyes," witness Muhammad Ali said. "The way the blast happened, then gunfire, it looked as if there was a battle going on."

Sajjad Bhutta, a senior government official in Lahore, told reporters a car carrying several gunmen pulled up on a street between offices of the emergency police and the intelligence agency, Pakistan's premier spy organization.

"As some people came out from that vehicle and started firing at the ISI office, the guards from inside that building returned fire," he said. As the shooting continued, the car exploded, he said.

Police had little chance to react to the gunshots before the blast.

"All of a sudden we heard a loud sound and the roof collapsed on us," said Mohammad Rehman, a police official who was wounded and taken to a nearby hospital. "First of all though, we heard the sound of gunfire, then the blast occurred."
Malik blamed the attack on militants that government forces are fighting in the Swat Valley and the border region where U.S. and other officials believe al-Qaida and Taliban militants are using to plan attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan.

"They are anti-state elements, and after being defeated in Swat, they have moved to our big cities," Malik told the Express news channel.

President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack and said in a statement the government remained committed to rooting out terrorism.

The offensive in Swat is seen as a test of the government's resolve to combat the spread of militancy, and is strongly backed by Washington and Pakistan's other Western allies. The army has said at least 1,100 militants have been killed in the monthlong operation and that Taliban fighters are in retreat.

The military on Wednesday said troops had cleared militants out of Piochar, a village in a remote part of Swat that is the rear base for Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, and predicted that Mingora, the largest town in the valley, would be cleared of militants within three days.

Two other areas, Sultanwas and Mohmand, had also been emptied of militants and were now safe enough for refugees who have fled the fighting to return home.

It was the first time the military has invited some of the more than 2 million refugees from the region to return to their villages since the fighting began, setting off an exodus that aid officials have warned could turn into a humanitarian disaster.

In March, a group of gunmen attacked Sri Lanka's visiting cricket team in the heart of the city, killing six police officers and a driver and wounding several players.

Later that month, gunmen raided a police academy on the city's outskirts, leaving at least 12 dead during an eight-hour standoff with security forces, including army troops. Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility.

A variety of militant groups exist in Pakistan beyond al-Qaida and the Taliban, and officials and analysts believe they are increasingly inter-linked, which could make it easier to stage more sophisticated attacks.

Punjab is Pakistan's most populous province and home to some of its most violent groups.

___

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed to this report from Islamabad.

[Satyagraha]

Waziristan militants start mining region: report

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/04-waziristan-militants-start-mining-qs-04

ISLAMABAD: A latest advisory issued by the Interior ministry to the country’s security agencies reveals that the Taliban and other militants operating in Waziristan have started planting landmines in the area, a BBC report said.

Given the ongoing military operation in Swat, militants, after consulting with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud, have begun mining the area, the advisory says.

Mehsud has ordered Asmatullah Muawiya and Qari Zafar to plant landmines across the South Waziristan tribal region, whereas, different militant groups active in North Waziristan have taken the task on.

Meanwhile, a source in the interior ministry said top police officials in all four provinces had been alerted regarding a possible terrorist plot in the Punjab province. They had also been advised to beef up security in their respective areas, the source told BBC.

The government advisory said militants were planning suicide attacks in different areas of the Punjab province in reaction to the ongoing anti-Taliban operation in Swat and other districts. The fundamental targets in these attacks are likely to be the armed forces and law enforcement institutions.

[bigron]

Market bombs kill two, injure 70, in Pakistan


Story Highlights :

NEW: Back-to-back blasts hit two markets Thursday in Peshawar, provincial capital

Taliban claims responsibility for Wednesday bombing in Lahore, vows more attacks

The Lahore attack killed at least 27 and left more than 250 people wounded

U.S.: Taliban uses Afghan-Pakistan border area to launch attacks on coalition


Pakistanis look Thursday at the rubble of a police building in Lahore hit by a suicide bomb on Wednesday.


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Back-to-back explosions shook two markets in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Thursday evening, killing two civilians and wounding 70 others, an official from the deputy police superintendent's office said.

Another official, Sahib Zada Muhammad Anis Khan, the district coordination officer for Peshawar District, told CNN the blasts took place in the center of the city at adjacent markets: Qissa Khawani Bazaar and Kabari Bazaar.

GEO TV showed dazed people mingling and running in the streets, amid burned-out vehicles and mounds of building debris.

Peshawar is the capital of North West Frontier Province, an area where the military has launched a massive operation against Taliban militants.

Meanwhile, the Taliban claimed responsibility Thursday for a deadly suicide attack the day before on a police building in Lahore, in eastern Pakistan, that killed at least 27 -- and vowed similar attacks in other cities.

Taliban Commander Hakimullah Mehsud said the Wednesday morning attack in Lahore was payback for the ongoing military offensive in the northwest part of the country, which has become a haven for Islamic militants.

"If the government continues to carry out activities at the behest of America, we will continue to hit government installations," Mehsud said.

The Taliban has said the military operation is meant to appease the United States, which has long asked Pakistan to battle insurgents operating from the stretch of tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

The United States says the militants have launched attacks on U.S.-led coalition and NATO troops across the border.

On Wednesday, another group, calling itself Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab, claimed responsibility for the Lahore blast.

Mehsud, who is second-in-command to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, dismissed that claim.

"Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is a single organization," Mehsud said. "There is not such group called Tehrik-e-Punjab. We are organized under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud and we're against the U.S. and its allies."

The Lahore attack, which involved gunmen and an explosives-laden van, also left more than 250 people wounded -- most of them police officers and staffers.

Soon after the blast, police arrested three suspects, authorities said.

Suspicion immediately fell on the Islamic militants. Baitullah Mehsud had threatened to target major Pakistani cities if the operations did not cease.

"The enemies of Pakistan are trying their very best to use every venue to destabilize the country," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters Wednesday. "Please do not forget we're in a state of insurgency."

The blast occurred on Mall Road near the city police headquarters and the high court. It is one of Lahore's busiest areas.

A passenger van, laden with explosives, broke through a security barrier and was headed toward the police building when guards opened fire to stop it, said Lahore's district coordination officer, Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta. Watch more on the attack in Lahore »

The two sides exchanged gunfire, with the attackers hurling grenades, said Faisal Gulzar, deputy police superintendent.

The van exploded before it could reach the building. It was carrying an estimated 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives, Bhutta said.

The impact was immense.

The targeted building -- Building 15 -- collapsed. It housed the city's rapid response team, which is dispatched during emergencies.

The police headquarters that sits adjacent to the building was punched in. The roof of four operating rooms caved at nearby Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, with 40 medical staff members suffering minor wounds. Watch rescue workers respond to the attack »

Lahore is Pakistan's cultural capital, far removed from the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that is embraced in the north of the country.

Still, it has sporadically been swept into widening Islamist violence that grips the country.

In March, gunmen hurled grenades and opened fire on officers at a police training center, killing at least seven cadets.

The same month, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying members of the Sri Lankan national cricket team on their way to a stadium for a match. The attack wounded at least eight members of the team and killed a driver and six Pakistani police officers.

CNN's Reza Sayah and journalist Nazar Ul Islam contributed to this report.

All AboutPakistan • The Taliban
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

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http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/The_Taliban
Watch more on the attack in Lahore »
#cnnSTCVideo
Watch rescue workers respond to the attack »
#cnnSTCVideo
Pakistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Pakistan
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http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/The_Taliban

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/28/pakistan.peshawar.blast/index.html 
 

[bigron]

THE ROVING EYE


Pipelineistan goes Iran-Pak



By Pepe Escobar

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE29Df02.html

The earth has been shaking for a few days now all across Pipelineistan - with massive repercussions for all the big players in the New Great Game in Eurasia. United States President Barack Obama's AfPak strategists didn't even see it coming.

A silent, reptilian war had been going on for years between the US-favored Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline and its rival, the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, also known as the "peace pipeline". This past weekend, a winner emerged. And it's none of the above: instead, it's the 2,100-kilometer, US$7.5 billion IP (the Iran-Pakistan pipeline), with no India attached. (Please see Pakistan, Iran sign gas pipeline deal, May 27, 2009, Asia Times Online.)

This whole saga started way back in 1995 - about the time

 

California-based Unocal started floating the idea of building a pipeline crossing Afghanistan. Now, Iran and Pakistan finally signed a deal this week in Tehran, by which Iran will sell gas from its mega South Pars fields to Pakistan for the next 25 years.

According to Iranian energy officials speaking to the ISNA news agency, the final deal will be signed in less than three weeks, slightly after the first round of the Iranian presidential election. The last 250 km of a 900-km pipeline stretch in Iran between Asalouyeh and Iranshahr, near the border with Pakistan, still needs to be built. The whole IP pipeline should be operational by 2014.

The fact that Islamabad has finally decided to move on is pregnant with meaning. For the George W Bush administration IPI was simply anathema; imagine India and Pakistan buying gas from "axis of evil" Iran. The only way to go was TAPI - an extension of the childish neo-conservative belief that the Afghanistan war was winnable.

Now, IP reveals Islamabad's own interests seemed to have prevailed against Washington's (unlike the virtually US-imposed Pakistan army offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley). The Barack Obama administration has been mum about IP so far. But it will be very enlightening to hear what former Bush pet Afghan Zalmay Khalilzad - who's been infiltrating himself as the next CEO of Afghanistan - has to say about it. (Please see Slouching towards Balkanization, May 22, 2009, Asia Times Online.) Khalilzad's Pipelineistan dream, since the mid-1990s, has always been a trans-Afghan pipeline capable of bypassing both Iran and Russia.

IP, IP, hurrah
India, for a number of reasons (the pricing system, transit fees and above all, security) de facto shelved the IPI idea last year. Had it not been the case, IPI would become a powerful vector in terms of South Asian regional integration - doing more to stabilize India-Pakistan relations than any diplomatic coup. Nevertheless, both Iran and Pakistan still have left an open door to India.

India's (momentary?) loss will be China's gain. Since 2008, with New Delhi having second thoughts, Beijing and Islamabad had set up an agreement - China would import most of this Iranian gas if India dropped out of IPI. China anyway is more than welcome business-wise to both Iran and Pakistan. Only in transit fees, Islamabad could collect as much as $500 million a year.

For Beijing, IP could not be more essential. Iranian gas will flow to the Balochistan province port of Gwadar, in the Arabian Sea (which China itself built, and where it is also building a refinery). And Gwadar is supposed to be connected to a proposed pipeline going north, mostly financed by China, along the Karakoram Highway (which by the way was largely built from the 1960s to the 1980s by Chinese engineers ... ).

Pakistan is the absolutely ideal transit corridor for China to import oil and gas from Iran and the Persian Gulf. With IP in place and with multi-billion-dollar, overlapping Tehran-Beijing gas deals, China can finally afford to import less energy via the Strait of Malacca, which Beijing considers exceedingly dangerous, and subject to Washington's sphere of influence.

With IP, not only China wins; Russia's Gazprom also wins. And by extension, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) wins. Russian deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yankovsky told the Kommersant business daily, "We are ready to join the project as soon as we receive an offer."

The reason is so blatant that Gazprom officials have not even bothered to disguise it. For Russia, IP is a gift-from-above tool in rerouting gas from Iran to South Asia, and away from competing with Russian gas. The big prize, in this case, is the Western European market, dependent almost 30% on Gazprom and the source of 80% of Gazprom's export profits.

The European Union is desperately trying to keep the Nabucco pipeline project - which bypasses Russia - afloat, so it may reduce its dependence on Gazprom. But as anyone in Brussels knows, Nabucco can only work if it is provided enough gas by either Iran or Turkmenistan. The Turkmenistan distribution system is controlled by Russia. And a deal with Iran implies no more US sanctions - still a long way away. With IP in place, Gazprom reasons, Nabucco is deprived of a key supply source.

All eyes on Balochistan
With IP firmly in place, the strategic spotlight focuses even more on Balochistan. (Please see Balochistan is the greatest prize, May 9, 2009, Asia Times Online.) First of all, there's an internal Pakistani question to be settled. An editorial in the Pakistani daily Dawn has stressed how Islamabad must be serious about hiring indigenous Balochi labor and making sure "the gains of the economic activity ... are focused on Balochistan for the benefit of its poverty-stricken people".

The port of Gwadar, in southwest Balochistan, near the Iranian border, is indeed bound to become a new Dubai - but not the way the vice president Dick Cheney and gang in Washington once dreamed of. Gas from the South Pars fields in Iran will definitely flow though it. As for gas from the Daulatabad fields in Turkmenistan, assuming TAPI ever gets built though war-torn Afghanistan, that's much more unlikely.

This all raises the crucial question: how will Islamabad deal with ultra-strategic Balochistan - east of Iran, south of Afghanistan, and boasting three Arabian sea ports, including Gwadar, practically at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz?

The New Great Game in Eurasia rules that Pakistan is a key pivot to both North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the SCO, of which Pakistan is an observer. Balochistan de facto incorporates Pakistan as a key transit corridor to Iranian gas from the monster South Pars fields, and not to a great deal of the Caspian wealth of "gas republic" Turkmenistan. For the Pentagon, the birth of IP is mega bad news. The ideal Pentagon scenario is the US controlling Gwadar - in yet one more prime confluence of Pipelineistan and the US Empire of Bases.

With Gwadar directly linked to Iran and developed virtually as a Chinese warehouse, the Pentagon also loses the mouth-watering opportunity of a long land route across Balochistan into Helmand, Nimruz, Kandahar or, better yet, all of these three provinces in southwest Afghanistan, where soon, not by accident, there will be another US mega-base in the "desert of death". From a Pentagon/NATO perspective, after the "loss" of the Khyber Pass, that would be the ideal supply route for Western troops in the perennial, now rebranded, GWOT ("global war on terror").

Balochis surging
Islamabad has promised an all-parties conference "within days" to seriously deal with Balochistan. No one is holding their breath. Over a year ago, Balochistan was promised greater control over its immense natural resources - the undisputed, number-one Baloch grievance - and a massive aid package. Not much has happened.

Punjabis derisively refer to Balochistan's "backwardness". But the heart of the matter is systematic, hardcore pillage by Islamabad - combined with hardcore repression and serial Latin America-in-the-1970s-style "disappearances" of political activists and senior Baloch nationalists. Not to mention virtually no investment in health, education and job creation. This Third World dictatorship catalogue of disasters fuels Baloch nationalism and separatism.

Islamabad's paranoia is "foreign involvement" in the different strands of Balochistan's nationalist movements. That would be, in fact, the CIA, MI5 and the Israeli Mossad, all engaged in overlapping agendas which manipulate Balochistan for balkanization of Pakistan purposes and/or as a base for the destabilization of neighboring Iran's southeast. While the Taliban, Afghan or Pakistani, can roam free across Balochistan, Baloch nationalists are intimidated, harassed and killed.

Sanaullah Baloch, a secretary of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, told Dawn how "several Baloch political parties tried to file charges against [former president General Pervez] Musharraf, but the country's institutions lack the will or courage to accept our plea against him." Studies show that rural poverty in Balochistan when Musharraf was in power increased 15% between 1999 and 2005.

Sanaullah Baloch roundly denounces the "civil-military elites" of Pakistan as implicated in the systematic repression going on in Balochistan; "Without their consent, no political regime can undo their policy of continued suppression."

And his analysis of why Islamabad has made a deal with the Taliban in Swat but won't do a deal with Balochis could not be more enlightening: "The establishment in Pakistan has always felt comfortable with religious groups as they do not challenge the centralized authority of the civil-military establishment. The demands of these groups are not political. They don't demand economic parity. They demand centralized religious rule which is philosophically closer to the establishment's version of totalitarianism. Islamabad's elite are stubborn against genuine Baloch demands: governing Balochistan, having ownership of resources, and control over provincial security."

So Islamabad still has all it takes to royally mess up what it has accomplished by approving IP. For the moment, Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia win. The SCO wins. Washington and NATO lose, not to mention Afghanistan (no transit fees). But will Balochistan also win? If not, all hell will break loose, from desperate Balochis sabotaging IP to "foreign interference" manipulating them into creating an even greater, regional, ball of fire.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

[Satyagraha]

Times of terror: Blast hits Peshawar

A succession of blasts tore through northwest Pakistan on May 28, killing 10 people, after the Taliban claimed a deadly attack in Lahore and threatened further mayhem to avenge an offensive. The four bombs wounded more than 80 people in Peshawar and another northwest city, as fears grew of mounting militant revenge for a punishing, month-long military assault against militants.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/media-gallery/17-times-of-terror-blast-hits-peshawar-ek-01

[bigron]

Friday, May 29, 2009
13:36 Mecca time, 10:36 GMT 
 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/20095295329882366.html

 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA 
 
Pakistan on alert after blasts

 
 
Armed men opened fire on police as they rushed to the scene of the market bombings in Peshawar [AFP]


 
Pakistan's major cities are on high alert following a series of explosions and shootings that killed at least 12 people in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Heavy security was deployed in the capital, Islamabad, and other cities on Friday as people braced for further violence in an apparent backlash to the military offensive in Swat valley.

Three bombs exploded on Thursday in Peshawar, the provincial capital of NWFP, while another was detonated in Dera Ismail Khan, about 300km south.

The bombings came just hours after the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in the city of Lahore a day earlier.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief, said that Wednesday's suicide attack, that killed at least 27 people, "was in response to the Swat operation where innocent people have been killed".

"I appeal to [people] of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to vacate their cities as there will be more such massive attacks, more dangerous than this and we will target government buildings and places," he said.

'Sense of foreboding'

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from Islamabad, said that the capital had been on "red alert" for a number of weeks, but that warning had now been spread to other cities.

"These type of attacks were expected, they have not come as a surprise to the public or the government," he said.

 
"There are attacks in the north and the south of the country, there are different kinds of attack, and all of this has immense impact on a public that to-date has been utterly supportive of the government in its ongoing offensive in the Swat valley."

On Friday, the residents of Peshawar said that people were afraid to leave their houses because of the fear of more violence.

"Things have come to such a pass that from morning till evening there is a sense of foreboding," Shah Gul, a shopkeeper, said.

"When a person leaves his house in the morning, his wife, his sister, his parents are not sure if he will return in the evening."

Thursday's attacks began with two explosions in a market in Peshawar. Armed men on rooftops fired at policemen as they arrived in the narrow lanes below.

At least 70 people were injured in the two blasts.

Shortly after, a suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, killing a police officer and a civilian and injuring 15 others.

In addition to the fatalities, the suicide attack on a police checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan left 13 people wounded.

Military offensive

Some people criticised the government for launching its military offensive to drive the Taliban out of the Swat valley, Lower Dir and Buner districts. 

"Our rulers should get some sense into their heads and change their policies," Mohammad Ishfaq, a local businessman, said.

"They are sitting in their palaces while poor people are dying in the streets. What is their fault."

Tasneem Quresh, Pakistan's interior minister, told reporters that the battle against the Taliban would continue.

"We cannot have any compromise with those who are against the solidarity and security of the country,' he said shortly after the Peshawar attacks.

About 15,000 Pakistani troops are battling up to 2,000 Taliban fighters in the Swat valley, the military says. More than 1,200 Taliban fighters have been killed, it says.

'Long haul'

On Friday, the military claimed it had cleared another area previously controlled by the Taliban.


 
"Security forces continued with cordon and search operation and successfully cleared the stronghold of miscreants at Peochar village," the military said in a statement.

Earlier this month, commandos were flown into the area, which is said to a stronghold of Maulana Fazlullah, a pro-Taliban leader with a $62,000 reward out for his capture.

Ayaz Amir, a columnist at The News, a Pakistani newspaper, told Al Jazeera: "I think most people realise this is not going to be a short war. Pakistan and the army are in it for the long haul.

"Even ordinary people on the street realise it as well and if they needed any more evidence, they could look to the large number of refugees who have come from different areas.

"People also realise how bad the situation is. I mean, what is the alternative? There are none."
 
 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

[bigron]

Residents seethe as Pakistan army destroys homes


By CHRIS BRUMMITT, AP
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54651&hd=&size=1&l=e

 

A Pakistani woman carries her soon as she walks through the rubble of houses destroyed in an air strike in Sultanwas village, in Buner district, Pakistan, on Wednesday, May 27, 2009


May 28, 2009

SULTANWAS, Pakistan (AP) — When Pakistan's army drove the Taliban back from this small northwestern village, it also destroyed much of everything else here.

F-16 fighter jets, military helicopters, tanks and artillery reduced houses, mosques and shops to rubble, strewn with children's shoes, shattered TV sets and perfume bottles.

Commanders say the force was necessary in an operation they claim killed 80 militants. But returning residents do not believe this: Although a burned-out army tank at the entrance to Sultanwas indicates the Taliban fought back, villagers say most fighters fled into the mountains.

Beyond any doubt is their fury at authorities for wrecking their homes — the sort of backlash the army doesn't want as it tries to win the support of the people for its month-old offensive against the Taliban in Pakistan's northwest frontier region near the border with Afghanistan.

"The Taliban never hurt the poor people, but the government has destroyed everything," Sher Wali Khan told the first reporting team to reach the village of about 1,000 homes.

"They are treating us like the enemy," he said as he collected shredded copies of a Quran from the ruins of a mosque, one of three that were damaged, possibly beyond repair.

The anger in this village is an echo of recent years, when previous army offensives against the Taliban in the northwestern frontier area caused widespread civilian casualties and damage to homes. The military's heavy-handed approach here shows it may still be more equipped to fight conventional war with India than guerrilla warfare in the shadows of mountain villages and towns, where militants use civilians as cover.

The Associated Press traveled to Sultanwas on Wednesday after the Pakistani army briefly lifted a curfew in the Buner district to allow residents to return.

But the fight for the region is clearly not over. Just beyond the village, a makeshift army checkpoint shows where its control ends. Beyond that, the army and villagers say the Taliban are in charge, patrolling streets on foot and in pickup trucks.

The United States wants a resounding victory against insurgents who are threatening not only the stability of this nuclear-armed country, but also the success of the American-led mission in neighboring Afghanistan.

The army launched its operation in April to take back the northwest after the militants lost popular support across the region partly because of their defiance of a peace deal with the government. The Taliban have also carried out atrocities in the northwest and claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians elsewhere in Pakistan.

But residents of Sultanwas say the militants in their village threatened no one.

Khan, a 17-year-old who is quick with a smile and hopes to attend medical school, said about five militants occasionally came to a mosque. There, he said, they preached an ultraconservative brand of Islam and called for overthrowing the government because it was not implementing Islamic law. He said he did not agree with either position.

Khan fled with his family and most other residents when the army warned them last week to get out because the offensive was about to reach them.

The Taliban entered Buner last month from the Swat Valley, an advance that triggered the military's offensive. There was very little damage to buildings in the road leading to Sultanwas, which military officials said used to be one of the Taliban's major strongholds in the district.

The army says it is making every effort to avoid damaging buildings in the offensive. Reporters on a military-escorted trip to part of the Swat Valley last week saw no significant destruction.

But the army used helicopters, F-16 jets, tanks and artillery in the battle for Sultanwas. While the military says this tactic reduces army casualties by "softening up" areas before troops move in, critics question its effectiveness against a small and, for the most part, lightly armed insurgent force moving in and out of towns.

Khan and others insisted the militants were not living in their homes either before or after the attack.

There were no bodies, blood or obviously buried corpses in the rubble, which spans an area the size of two football fields, roughly a third of the village. A reporter could find no sign any rebels had dug in there or used the area as a base. Residents said the same.

"When the operation started, the Taliban all ran away from the area," said Rosi Khan, citing an account from the only three villagers who he said stayed behind. He could not say where those villagers are now.

Spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said fleeing villagers had told military officials that militants were using Khan's house and others nearby. He said 80 insurgents were killed in the operation, and that other militants apparently removed their bodies.

But two officers involved in the Buner operations said most of the roughly 400 fighters believed to be there escaped to the mountains — terrain they know far better than do army troops trucked in from elsewhere in Pakistan. The two officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give information to reporters.

It is a pattern the military says the outgunned and outnumbered militants are following elsewhere in the region, including in the main Swat Valley city of Mingora.

A defense attache for a Western embassy said the Swat operation appeared to be better organized and more coordinated than earlier ones in the northwest. But he questioned whether the 15,000 troops deployed against roughly 4,000 militants were enough to secure the region.

Besides Swat, Pakistan needs to keep troops elsewhere in the border region where al-Qaida and other militants are strong. But most of its roughly 700,000-member army is stationed on or close to the border with India, the country's traditional rival.

To claim victory, the government will have to ensure the militants do not return to the Swat Valley and Buner, and that the 2.4 million people who fled the fighting stay on the government's side when they come home.

The army is appealing for refugees to return to Sultanwas, but as elsewhere in Buner, few were heeding the call.

A week after the battle for this village ended, there was still no police, electricity or civilian administration.

"The political leadership is not here, there is no police," said a senior army officer, who asked not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "How can you expect them to return?"

An AP photographer saw several people looting food and drinks from a damaged store in Sultanwas. They stopped only when other villagers reprimanded them.

At a checkpoint in Sultanwas, young men riding in buses from Taliban-controlled Pir Baba were ordered to lift their shirts and be searched, but there was little sign they were making serious checks of all those leaving the area.

In Pir Baba, Taliban fighters armed with rocket launchers and assault rifles are patrolling the streets, said Mohammed Yusuf, a 50-year-old farmer who was leaving but intended to return after buying vegetables at the nearest open market, several miles away.

"They are on the streets in the morning and evening," Yusuf said. "They are friendly. Some of them I know from my area."

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press


 

[bigron]

Tales of U.S. Hegemony and Pakistani Government Betrayals


By Talha Mujaddidi. Axis of Logic

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54640&hd=&size=1&l=e

May 28, 2009

War it is! Prime Minister Gillani announced to the Pakistani public on national television that the Government has decided to launch an operation against Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) 1 (Operation Rah-e-Raast or straightpath).

Who wants peace?

The Pakistani public opinion was divided on the peace deal. But the parties that played a key roles in the breakdown of the fragile peace agreement were the TTP (described below); the U.S. government; Prime Minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani; and General Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan's Army Chief.

The earlier peace deal collapsed after TTP failed to surrender their weapons and let police return into Swat. The U.S was never in favor of the Swat peace deal and the Clinton/Holbrooke team did their part in orchestrating a breakdown. The Pakistani Minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, announced that nation must give unconditional support to Pakistani Army to remove the TTP from their strongholds and restore the writ of the government. General Ashfaq Kayani complied and ordered the attacks. We all agree that this operation against the TTP was a necessity, given the circumstances, especially since the TTP had again started resorting to acts of violence after the peace agreement. The biggest violent act was the kidnapping and then beheading of four Special Services Group (SSG) Officers of Pakistan Army. Later on, the nation saw the video of the officers being held hostage on Pakistani private news channel. All the political parties, media groups and civil society are behind the army operation.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)

As I had mentioned earlier that the TTP had nothing to do with peace deal or Shariah law, it’s a brutal militant outfit following Takfiri ideology (a Muslim who believes that all other Muslims even orthodox are not true Muslims and they are just collaborators of infidels and deserve to be attacked and killed. All Muslim scholars are unanimous in declaring Takfiris 'heretics’ of Islam) and they will fight until the last man standing. Sufi Mohammad 2 turned out to be a culprit since he played at the hands of the TTP. Sufi called Pakistan a Kafir (infidel) nation; he called Pakistan’s constitution Kafir. What is worse; is that Sufi has declared that the freedom movement, in Indian occupied Kashmir, is not a Jihad but a war for resources (something that must have made India proud). These statements and antics together were more than the Pakistani Government could tolerate under mounting U.S pressure to let go off the peace deal. U.S and TTP wanted the peace deal to break down. Why is that? Eric Margolis’s new book, "The American Raj" provides the answer. U.S, like Russians, Israel and India has a habit of playing double game in almost all conflicts. The U.S is supporting TTP through Afghani and Indian intelligence agencies at the same time pressurizing the Pakistani government to go after the TTP using Pakistani Army.


 
Map showing TTP presence in NWFP, most of the areas of TTP presence are FATA (Federally Administrated Tribal Areas) which are still not governed under Pakistan law. (Map: BBC).

                 
After Swat the TTP moved into Dir and Buner areas. This was basically part of the U.S. plan to take control of areas surrounding Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, using the excuse of fighting the TTP and Al-Qaeda, and pushing Pakistani government authority as far back as Indus River. Thus, the Pakistan Army didn't have much choice but to launch a big operation against the TTP. If unchecked, the TTP would continue to grab control of more area around northern Punjab and South Eastern NWFP. There are some key military and government installations in that area, hence control of that region by TTP cannot be allowed.

As a consequence, the Pakistani Army decided that an operation had to be launched against the TTP. The U.S didn’t instruct the Pakistan Army to start the operation but simply created conditions under which no other alternatives were available to the Pakistan Army. The U.S would like Pakistan Army to start a simultaneous operation in North and South Waziristan, where supposedly Baitullah Mehsud is located. The U.S will not kill Mehsud with a drone-strike but will keep pressurizing the Pakistani government to start another military operation. U.S puppet President Zardari has already said that soon an operation in South Waziristan will start. The Pakistan Army must not launch an operation in South Waziristan, while it is engaged in Swat and adjoining areas. As mentioned earlier U.S would like to stretch Pakistan Army as much as possible. It is important that TTP are eliminated as much as possible, so that one area of conflict is closed down. If TTP are not eliminated, there is a possibility that Pakistan Army will have to fight them and BLA in Baluchistan at the same time. This must be avoided at all costs. Supplies for TTP are coming from Afghanistan; therefore it is vital that Pakistan Army secures the border region so that supplies for TTP are limited.

Zardari's damage to Pakistan

As much as the U.S, India, Afghanistan are interfering into Pakistan’s internal affairs, an equal amount of damage is being done by Zardari and his government to Pakistan’s national interests. The government should have made appropriate arrangements for the residents of Swat, Buner and Dir, who are evacuating from the areas where the military offensive is taking place. These evacuees are in serious need of humanitarian assistance. The Government should have known that making accommodation for evacuees, who are Internally Displaced People (IDP), would be extremely difficult. Currently more than a million people have been displaced from their homes. Zardari is going around the world begging for money for the IDP’s while he himself has given nothing for the IDPs from his personal looted wealth. He is a billionaire in US dollars. Same goes for other corrupt Pakistani politicians. As in most "third world countries", corrupt government officials will plunder most of the foreign aid which often comes with strings attached.

"Af-Pak" - U.S. Imperialist Policy for Afghanistan & Pakistan

As I have mentioned in previous articles, the U.S would like nothing more than to cut off the land link between Pakistan and China. The "AfPak" plan calls for attacks on TTP militants who control FATA, Swat areas, the Pushtoon dominated border region of Afghanistan-Pakistan border, up to Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan. Quetta has been called the headquarters of Afghani Taliban by US authorities. Admiral Mullen himself has admitted that U.S troop surge in Afghanistan will push more militants into Pakistan.



 
FATA, Swat areas, the Pushtoon dominated border region of Afghanistan-Pakistan border, up to Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan.



AfPak would like more trouble in Baluchistan. As mentioned my article last article, 'Finding Clarity in the Baluchistan Conundrum’,
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_55546.shtml
the current Baluchistan government is another proxy of U.S, hence they have announced that government will spend millions of rupees to make Gwadar, the winter capital of Baluchistan. Quetta is the current capital for the province, and it’s predominantly Pushtoon. A parallel government is to be setup in Gwadar, from where Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and Jandullah can operate from. BLA will operate inside Baluchistan, and Jandullah will try to create trouble in Iran. Iran has, since last year, begun to fence its border with Baluchistan. Once violence is escalated in Baluchistan, BLA will claim that we have setup an independent Baluchistan government in Gwadar. The U.S can use either terrorism or an alternate supply route as a pretext to take control of most strategically located Gwadar. Pepe Escobar calls Baluchistan the biggest prize for U.S in this region.

Baluchistan comprises 48% of the land area of Pakistan. It is poorly protected as Pakistan does not have enough troops to man different areas of Baluchistan, especially when Army is fighting in Swat. The Pakistan Navy is a small force, and is no match to the U.S. Navy carrier group which is just off the coast of Gwadar. On the other side of the Pakistan border. in Afghanistan (Helmand province), a brand new U.S airbase is being built and that area also called, 'desert of death’ will house some eight thousand U.S troops. Cross border special operations into Pakistan and Iran from there will be very easy once the base is operational.


 
Baluchistan comprises 48% of the land area of Pakistan
 


       
Nuclear Weapons

If the TTP gets control of the border areas of Afghanistan-Pakistan and enough chaos is created in Baluchistan using BLA, Jandullah, the U.S will tell the world community that Pakistan has become a failed state. U.S can go to the UN Security Council and demand the world to help the U.S and its allies restore order in Pakistan. This is an option that U.S will have if the TTP end up controlling the troubled areas of Pakistan. Of course, the U.S will ask the U.N to pressurize Pakistan government to cap its nuclear program and allow IAEA inspection and eventual dismantling of the nuclear weapons. This will take place under the pretext that TTP or Al-Qaida might take over nuclear weapons. Zardari already knows this, in his recent visit to France; he was told by French authorities that France can provide equipment to Pakistan so that certain codes can be placed on the nuclear weapons to prevent the Pakistan Army from using nuclear weapons in any conflict with India without these special release codes. Zardari will get his cut in return for obliging the French. But it’s not that simple, he can’t do this unless the Pakistan Army allows this to happen. His handyman Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, has made some suspicious remarks on the nation’s nuclear program, only to deny them afterwards. Zardari government has already cut 35% funding for Pakistan’s nuclear program, as has been verified by top investigative journalist Ansar Abassi of The News and Dr. Shireen Mazari, Director of Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad (The News Aug 3rd 2008).  This like all other matters was done without bringing the issue to the parliament for discussion.

The endgame for U.S in Afghanistan?

The U.S has already expanded the war on terror inside Pakistani territory. The reason is that U.S has realized that soon it will run out of options in Afghanistan, and they will have to leave in humiliation. Usually, wars end with "peace talks" and the "negotiating table", but there is no negotiating table" for U.S and NATO in Afghanistan. The situation on ground has become so dire that Kabul is surrounded by the Taliban, who control over 70% of the country. It’s a matter of time only before they start attacking vital installations in Kabul. The U.S has sent more troops into Afghanistan on the hope that situation will be controlled. This is a flawed strategy. The Red Army had several hundred thousand troops there and still couldn’t control the resistance movement. The following maps highlight, the control of Taliban at the end of 2007, and November 2008.


 
Map 1: Taliban complete control in dark pink, considerable control in pink, and no control in grey, at the end of 2007



 
Map 2: Taliban complete control in dark pink, considerable control in pink, and no control in grey in November 2008.

Patrick Cockburn, journalist, also highlights the failure of Afghan Government in Afghans to Obama get out take Karzai with you.

"A measure of the failure of Mr. Karzai, his government and his Western supporters is that I was able to drive from Kabul to Kandahar eight years ago. But if I tried to make the same journey today, I would be killed or kidnapped soon after leaving Kabul". He continues, "It is not so much that the Taliban is strong and popular, but that the government is weak, corrupt and dysfunctional".

"Security has not deteriorated because of what the Taliban has done," says Daoud Sultanzoy, a US-trained commercial pilot who is a highly respected MP from Ghazni province, south-west of Kabul, "but because people feel the government is unjust. It is seen as the enemy of the people, and because there is no constitutional alternative to it, the Taliban gain."

The U.S wants Pakistan to get rid of its allies inside Afghanistan, namely, Mullah Omar 3, Gulbadeen Hikmatyar, Anwar ul Haq Mujahid, and Jalaluddin Haqqani (all historic Mujahedeen from the time they were fighting Soviet Army). The Pakistan Army and ISI are well aware of the history of this region and the Soviet defeat; the U.S simply ditched Pakistan and moved away. Pakistan was left to deal with the mess. The Pakistan Army and ISI 5 are not interested in going against their assets in Afghanistan, for if the U.S were to abandon Afghanistan again, the Pakistan would like to have some friendly people in Afghanistan. The fact that all these Afghan leaders/war lords, have never caused any harm to Pakistan or Pakistani people so there is no need for Pakistan Army to make enemies out of them. Other than the U.S, Pakistan’s arch enemy, India, now has a strong base inside Afghanistan. If the U.S were to leave Afghanistan, these warlords will be used to remove Indian influence in Afghanistan. Finally, the US Army has always been reluctant to kill Baitullah Mehsud 4, the leader of the TTP. This has impaired the trust level between the Pakistan Army and Pentagon, which has been publicly acknowledged by Admiral Mullen as well.

U.S plans for Pakistan and a puppet Pakistani government

The United States has placed the following demands for the Pakistani government.

Completely freeze Pakistan’s nuclear and missile program


Handover the existing enriched uranium to U.S special task force so that it can be moved to a "safe location" outside Pakistan


Keep following the IMF/World Bank guidelines for managing the economy of Pakistan


Change the Pakistan military doctrine; make India an ally in "war against terror", instead of an enemy nation.


Move Pakistani troops from eastern border with India


Accept Indian hegemony in South Asia, and allow India to send its supplies (transit trade) through Pakistan into Afghanistan.


The U.S needs another supply line from Pakistani port of Gwadar; hence the Pakistan government would cooperate in that regard.
This is the U.S agenda for Zardari and his government; otherwise he will be removed - "regime change". The U.S has asked Nawaz the leader of the opposition to join the government in Pakistan, so that PPP 6, ANP 7, MQM 8 and PML (n) 9 can forward the U.S agenda together in Pakistan. Nawaz has always been seen as part of center right in Pakistan’s political spectrum. His policies during Musharraf’s rule have always been anti-U.S, at least in his statements. But the problem for Nawaz is that he has no choice but to oblige. He is as corrupt as Zardari, plus he owes his escape from jail (under Musharraf) to Bill Clinton, hence he has to oblige Uncle Sam. See my 3/26/09 article, The "Long March" in Pakistan Ends. U.S. plays both sides to maintain control).

Before this, another agreement was done between President Musharraf, Benazir, and the US, known as the NRO 10. The result of that agreemen was that Benazir gave unconditional guarantees to the U.S before she actually arrived in Pakistan. Once in Pakistan, she realized that Pakistani public opinion is totally off tangent to that of U.S demands. She was caught in middle not sure of which path to take. She tried to represent the pulse of the people but the result was not good. She was no more, and Musharraf too had to leave in humiliation in the aftermath of Benazir’s assassination. Nawaz should know very well what it would mean if he is dragged into a similar deal with the US. The ground reality is that a pro-American leader in Pakistan will not be accepted by the people. Nawaz should know better, but then again there is no room for dissent when you have corruption cases against you lying in Pakistani courts and plundered loot hidden in Swiss bank accounts.

The biggest question to ask now is, under what terms and conditions did IMF and World Bank give the harsh loans to Pakistan? Why doesn’t the government disclose the terms and conditions to the Pakistani public? What are they afraid of? Why should we listen to IMF, honor these onerous agreements that continue to destroy our economy. Taking loans on heavy interest from IMF and the World Bank has always resulted in disaster for the nation. Naomi Klein in her best seller book, "The Shock Doctrine, rise of the disaster capitalism", has described the disastrous effects of IMF and WB policies. John Perkin, a former economic hit man has described the details of such policies and economics shocks, in his best seller books, "Confessions of an economic hit man", and "Secret history of the American Empire".

Why must our finance minister be a former Citibank employee? The current finance advisor and the governor of the State Bank are both former Citibank officials. Neither are not accountable to the Pakistani public.

Like I mentioned earlier, India has blocked Pakistan’s water supply from Chenab River and there is the Kashmir dispute that remains to be resolved. Plus there are other outstanding issues, the biggest being RAW’s (Research and Analysis Wing, India’s top intelligence agency) committing terror attacks inside Pakistan. Despite all this, how is it possible that Pakistan can remove its troops from Indian border? On the other hand India is busy in war games near Pakistani border, involving six of its strike corps. The best part is that since terrorist attacks in Mumbai India has not moved its forces from the border.

If India is allowed to move its supplies through Pakistan into Afghanistan, Pakistan will be responsible for security of these supplies. If there is an attack on their convoy, then India will send its troops into Pakistan to secure their supplies? This is surely something that Pakistan Army will not entertain, nor the people of Pakistan.

The U.S would like an alternate route through Pakistan, and Gwadar fits the map most ideally. Its most strategically located. There is already a port there, built by China. Therefore, occupying Gwadar would not only provide the U.S. with an alternate supply route through Baluchistan into Afghanistan, but also cut off China, damaging the Chinese 'String of Pearls’ theory. 

The Pakistani government is not doing anything in Pakistan’s national interest. There is the problem of incompetence, corruption, and treachery. People like Pakistani Ambassador to U.S, Hussain Haqqani are only pleading U.S case against Pakistan rather than pleading Pakistan’s case in Washington D.C. Rehman Malik the Interior Minister suffers from lost credibility just like the President Zardari. Pakistan’s most trusted allies China and Saudi Arabia don’t trust Zardari since they know of his corrupt past. The Saudi’s are also skeptical of Zardari’s (Shia Muslim) close working relationship with Iran. The Pakistan Army is also very skeptical of Zardari, Malik, Haqqani, and the entire setup of this government, but Gen. Kayani is a professional soldier and he does not want to drag the army into politics once again. This is especially true since the army is fully occupied in battling insurgencies inside Pakistan. However there are also few realistic choices left for the Army. They must have drawn a 'Red Line’, which shall not be crossed by Zardari government. I also think that there is a line that is drawn for the U.S as well. I don’t think that Pakistan Army will allow a blank check to the U.S., especially at the expense of accepting Indian hegemony. What Pakistan needs now is a caretaker nationalist government to be setup under the Supreme Court of Pakistan and it must make fundamental policy decisions and curb U.S influence in Pakistani politics.

It’s really is a very tough scenario for decision-makers in Pakistan. There is no easy way out of this quagmire, is there? The economy is heavily dependent on IMF and WB. Political parties are unable to deliver anything good for the public. They are just one step away from going at each other’s throats. People are fed up with the lies and incompetence of the politicians.

At the moment the eyes of the nation are fixed at the military operation going on in Northern Areas. We all hope that this operation is successful in restoring the writ of the government in Swat, Buner, Dir and other areas that were under TTP control, so that there is peace in those areas and IDPs can go back to their homes. But lasting peace in Pakistan will only come about when there is a nationalist government rather than a government of corrupt scoundrels. We need to make major policy changes, and stop following the dictates of the U.S. Like I said it’s not NWFP or Baluchistan where the root cause of Pakistan’s trouble lie. It’s Afghanistan, where the nerve center of turmoil inside Pakistan is located. Until Pakistan has a nationalist government who is courageous enough to renegotiate terms and conditions with the US, the turmoil in Pakistan will continue and Pakistan will remain a battle ground for US strategic energy driven goals. The TTP, Zardari government, BLA, and Jandullah are just tools being used by U.S to expand its Great Game in Pakistan. It is also important the Pushtoons are included in government in Afghanistan. This is because of the Pushtoon populations sympathize with Pushtoons of Afghanistan. A pro-Pakistan government in Kabul is a must for peace in Pakistan. General Zia (Pakistan Army Chief and President from 1977-88) was right when he said that pro-Pakistan government in Afghanistan is a must for Pakistan’s stability otherwise Pakistan will burn.

READ THE BIO AND MORE ARTICLES BY AXIS COLUMNIST, TALHA MUJADDIDI :

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Talha.shtml

Glossary of Terms and people mentioned

1. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is the main anti-government party in Pakistan at the moment. Because the TTP bears the name "Taliban" the western media often confuses them with the Taliban in Afghanistan. This is a grave mistake. The Afghan Taliban rejects the TTP. The TTP views the ANP to be pro-US and part of the pro-US Pakistan government. The TTP is a group based on Takfiri ideology (a Muslim who believes that all other Muslims, even orthodox Muslims are not true Muslims. They view all others as collaborators with the West. All Muslim scholars are unanimous in declaring Takfiris 'heretics of Islam.

2. Sufi Mohammad has moved into Swat with 9000 followers. He is the original leader of the Swat Islamic Courts Movement and the current leader of the Movement to Implement Islamic Laws in Swat under the name, Tehrik-e-Nizam- e-Shariat e Mustafa (TNSM).  Sufi Mohammad had virtual control over Swat during the 90’s but now no military power on ground.

3. Mullah Mohammad Omar, founder, leader and ruler of Afghanistan until US invasion in 2001. Mullah Omar has never been against Pakistan. He wants complete withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan.
4. Baitullah Mehsud is the leader of TTP, and his cousin Abdullah Mehsud was the founder of TTP, he founded TTP after he was released from Guantanamo Bay, by US authorities. 

5. ISI- Inter Services Intelligence is Pakistan’s top spy agency. Very close ally of CIA. Also knows some intimate secrets of Afghan Jihad against Soviet, which was partnered by CIA and Regan administration. Recently ISI has been told not to interfere in domestic politics by Gen. Kayani.

6. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is the ruling political party under President Zardari.

7. ANP is predominantly Pushtoon political party that is currently ruling the NWFP province. ANP is a Marxist party, and the founder of the party didn’t want to join Pakistan at the time of partition of India, but the muslim majority of NWFP wanted to join Pakistan. 

8. MQM is a political party in Sind, started off an ethnic party to represent the urdu speaking or Mohajir (those people who left india at time of partition and moved to newly created Pakistan) community of Pakistan. MQM chief Altaf Hussain is in a self chosen exile in London.

9. PML (N) is the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz group, currently PML is split into three groups. The three groups can come together soon. PML (Q) was also called King’s Party’ since it was formed by President Musharraf, now with Musharraf out of the scene Q and N are likely to join hands again.

10. National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) is the brainchild of Condi Rice, Richard Boucher, and John Negroponte. The NRO brought the current Pakistan government under President Zardari into power. One of the key functions of the NRO was to "baptized" all the corrupt politicians of the past, erasing their crimes and misdeeds.

11. Pervez Musharraf is former dictator-turned- president of Pakistan. He was forced out of office due to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and his loss of support by his former sponsor, the U.S. government


© Copyright 2009 by AxisofLogic.com

This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!

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[bigron]

Millions displaced as Pakistani military extends its offensive


By James Cogan
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54624&hd=&size=1&l=e




An internally displaced girl, fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley, waits for food to be distributed at a UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) camp in Mardan, about 120 km (75 miles) north west of Pakistan's capital Islamabad May 27, 2009.



28 May 2009

The Pakistani military is deepening its assault against Islamist militants in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) district of Swat Valley and beginning to extend its operations into other ethnic Pashtun-populated areas. The Obama administration insisted that the Pakistani government launch the offensive as part of US efforts to crush the anti-occupation insurgency over the border in Afghanistan.

The present focus of the fighting is Mingora, once the largest city in Swat with a population over 250,000. It is estimated that all but 10,000 to 20,000 of its inhabitants fled before the military assault. In the east of the valley, troops have reportedly seized the former ski resort town of Maalam Jabba. To the west, operations are continuing against the remaining militants in the Peochar Valley.

About 1,500 armed Islamists are thought to be holding Mingora against the advance of government troops. Military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, told journalists that the army had seized over 50 percent of the city. He said many militants were believed to have escaped north, toward the town of Kabbal, rather than make a last stand. The military claims to have encountered "stiff resistance" in the Kabbal area.

A resident who recently left Mingora downplayed reports that the militants had abandoned the city. According to ABC News, he told his family that they had pulled back from the suburbs and taken up positions in easier-to-defend office blocks, underground basements and parking lots in the central business district. He claimed the military was preventing people from leaving their homes and had issued warnings that people on the streets would be shot on sight.

The official casualty figure has barely changed this week. The government claims that some 1,190 militants have been killed at the cost of 75 Pakistani soldiers. There are no official or independent estimates of civilian deaths. The military has flatly denied a Human Rights Watch report that shelling on May 26 killed 19 civilians in the township of Charbagh, some 16 kilometres north of Mingora.

There is no dispute over the massive scale of the refugee crisis that has been caused by the military offensive into the Swat Valley and the neighbouring districts of Buner and Lower Dir—known as the Malakand region. The UN refugee agency estimates that at least two million people have fled or been forced from their homes since operations began in late April. In an interview with CNN, a man claimed that troops ordered his entire village on the outskirts of Mingora to evacuate.

Combined with the refugees who fled from the army offensive last year in the tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand, there are now as many as three million predominantly ethnic Pashtun internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Malakand.

While hundreds of thousands are sheltering with extended family in cities and towns across NWFP, thousands more have been forced into overcrowded and poorly serviced camps that have sprung up across the province. Infectious disease outbreaks have already been reported.

The plight of those who did not flee the combat zone is worse. They are unable to get out due to military operations, curfews and roadblocks. The civilians—possibly as many as 200,000 in the northern reaches of the Swat Valley—have only limited access to essentials.

Human Rights Watch issued an appeal on Tuesday: "The government cannot allow the local population to remain trapped without food, clean water and medicine as a tactic to defeat the Taliban." The military has refused to ease up its assault, saying militants could escape. Major General Abbas told the press: "Lifting the curfew would mean letting the operational situation slip out of hand."

Military attacks have begun in other areas of the FATA, coinciding with the operations in Swat. On Sunday, air strikes repeatedly pounded Taliban positions in the tribal agency of Orakzai. Reports from the area stated that a number of students were wounded when a seminary allegedly housing militants was bombed.

On Tuesday, helicopter gunships attacked sites in South Waziristan, one of the strongholds of the main Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud. Mehsud’s 15,000-strong Pashtun tribal militia has close ties with the Afghan Haqqani network, which is one of the main resistance groups fighting US and NATO forces.

According to a report by the Emirates-based National, a deal has been struck between the government and Waziri leader Haj Nazeer. Large numbers of troops are said to have moved unchallenged through the areas held by his militia and taken up positions adjacent to territory controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. A senior intelligence officer told the Dawn newspaper: "We’re ready for an operation in South Waziristan. Now it’s just a matter of time."

Thousands of civilians are now fleeing the agency in anticipation of a major confrontation. Preparations are being made in the town of Tank for the possible arrival of as many as 200,000 refugees over the coming days and weeks.

Communalist tensions

The movement of millions of ethnic Pashtuns out of their traditional homelands has triggered a xenophobic response in other parts of Pakistan, especially by parties in Sindh province.

Over the past several decades, several million Pashtuns have sought a better life in the more developed urban centres of Sindh, such as Karachi, Pakistan’s main financial and commercial centre. Many of their relatives who are being forced from the FATA and NWFP are hoping to take refuge with them.

Strikes and protests have been called by Sindhi demagogues since Sunday to demand that the government prevent any of the IDPs entering the province. Feeding off the propaganda surrounding the so-called "war on terrorism", all Pashtuns are being branded as a threat.

Speaking to the Adnkronos news agency, a leader of the Sindhi communalist party, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), justified anti-Pashtun discrimination saying: "The arrival of people from NWFP has increased the presence of the Taliban in Sindh. We have information that there is a plan to shift Al Qaeda’s base to Sindh. We will not let this happen."

One family from Mingora, comprised mainly of women and children, who managed to reach relatives in Karachi, told Radio Free Europe they had been stopped on the road by armed Sindhi nationalists. They were instructed to go back "because you are Pashtun ... you are Taliban and terrorists". They were only allowed to continue after hours of pleading.

Large-scale clashes could result. The home of a leader of the Pashtun-based Awami National Party (ANP) was bombed on Sunday. His nephew was killed. The same day, communalist violence was reported in various parts of the city.

The Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), which is part of the Pakistani government and mainly draws support from the descendants of people in Sindh who were forced to flee from India during the 1947 partition, has joined in the ethnic persecution of Pashtuns. Its leaders are demanding that the IDPs either stay in NWFP or go to Punjab province.

Communalist agitation against Pashtuns is also developing in Punjab, however, particularly following Wednesday’s suicide bombing against police and military intelligence offices in the Punjabi capital Lahore, which killed at least 23 people and wounded over 200. The offices of the notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were damaged and the police emergency-response building was flattened.

Just months after Obama announced his policy of an AfPak war and demanded the Pakistani government hurl its military against the Taliban-controlled Pashtun areas, the result is the steady drift of the country toward civil war and communal conflict.



 

[Satyagraha]

US weapons being used against Pak forces

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/06-us-weapons-being-used-against-pak-forces-rs-05

By Iftikhar A. Khan
Friday, 29 May, 2009 | 09:03 PM PST |

ISLAMABAD: The military on Friday said US weapons stolen from Afghanistan were being used against security forces in Swat and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

While speaking to Dawn, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the terrorists in FATA and Swat were getting material and financial support through the Afghan border and alleged that some hostile foreign agencies were abetting them.

Answering a question about the assertions over the security of strategic assets of Pakistan, he said the United States should stop worrying about the nukes and start thinking about the weapons lost in Afghanistan.

'We are not surprised if these weapons slip out from Afghanistan and many of them are found in Swat and are being used against our troops', he remarked.

Giving details on the progress of operation Rahe Rast, he said security forces have recovered a huge quantity of looted and stolen food items and a cache of arms including 12.7 mm guns from four tunnels discovered during search and cordon operations in Peochar.

He said that the food items recovered from tunnels were apparently stolen and looted as these were otherwise not locally available.

He said the packing of the food items also shows that they were part of relief goods meant to reach the people stranded in the areas where the military operation against militants was taking place.

General Athar Abbas said the security forces continued with cordon and search operation and successfully cleared the stronghold of miscreants at Peochar village.
     
He said that forces have secured Bahrain and the area was under their complete control.

General Athar Abbas also said that 28 miscreants were killed and seven were apprehended in various areas of Swat during exchange of fire, while five soldiers and two civilians were injured.

The military spokesman said cordon and search operations were still continuing in Mingora.

[bigron]

America seeks to destroy Pakistan


by Atif Salahuddin

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54686&hd=&size=1&l=e

May 29, 2009

The events of September 11, 2001, have transpired to be a tremendous watershed for Pakistan. Since then Pakistan has followed a trajectory of events that has been almost unprecedented in Pakistan's history. Yet despite this trajectory being largely plotted by Pakistan's own rulers the irony is that Pakistan now faces a terrible and perilous situation. Today American warplanes attack Pakistani territory and kill its citizens with impunity. Instead of defending Pakistan's sovereignty against these attacks, the Pakistani regime has launched its own military operation fighting it's own people that has displaced over 2.4 million people as Pakistan's rulers plead they fight for Pakistan's survival. Moreover random bombings occur in the country that have created a sense of fear in the people.

 

The build up to this tragic situation has unfolded over the last eight years. In the last 2 years though, since the twilight of the Musharraf regime, the West's political and military focus has shifted away from Afghanistan to Pakistan itself. Despite the fact that these Western armies have failed to pacify Afghanistan themselves and are actually seeking to negotiate with parts of the Pakhtoon resistance, we find Western leaders have made accusation after accusation against Pakistan itself.

 

The British Foreign Secretary David Milliband claimed in March 2009 that The reason that we're in Afghanistan is precisely because 9/11 was launched from the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan". Shortly after that in April 2009 the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Pakistan poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world. This was followed by the British Prime Minster Gordon Brown who in his recent April visit to Pakistan said There is a crucible of terrorism in the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This was then followed by a statement from General David Petraeus, prior to the launch of the Swat operation, who said that Pakistan had just 2 weeks left to destroy the Taliban or risked falling itself.

 

These statements from these Western leaders in the space of a few weeks show how their political discourse has developed into outright hysteria in such a short space of time. No one has ever claimed before, let alone provided any evidence, that 9/11 was executed from Pakistan's tribal areas. To believe that the Pakistani state itself will fold under the pressure of a few thousand irregular fighters, 5000 at best as claimed by the Zardari regime, is an even bigger lie than Milliband's 9/11 claim. Pakistan has a modern professional 650,000 man army that has successfully held off the million plus soldiers of India on numerous occasions, most recently demonstrated in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks and bellicose Indian threats. To peddle such propaganda is the height of deceitfulness and actually reveals the fallacy of the West's Talibanisation argument. Pakistan is not in danger of falling and in fact coupled with Zardari's Nizam-e-Adl manoeuvre, this propaganda was actually a crude attempt to try to turn Pakistani public opinion in favour of the military operation underway in Swat.

 

America itself has failed to control Afghanistan; it badly needs the Pakistan army to conduct this operation to save it's failing occupation of Afghanistan. This operation is designed by the Zardari regime to punish the people of Swat for their support to the fighters who attack the American and NATO supply convoys heading for Afghanistan and for their Pakhtoon brethren across the border who are fighting the American led occupation. By displacing up to a staggering 2.4 million people from the area, the Zardari regime, coupled with the terror of the American drone strikes in the area, has effectively cleansed the area of it's population and thereby sought to increase the security of the American and NATO supply lines. By creating an area free from it's population, the Zardari regime has also created a buffer zone along the Afghan border in order to stem Western losses inside Afghanistan.

 

In the process Zardari has created the biggest humanitarian refugee crisis the world has seen since the Rwanda genocide in 1994 according to the United Nations. With no independent journalists allowed inside the theatre of operation, it is anyone's guess as to how many men, women and children have died, how many have been injured and how many have lost their homes and had their livelihoods destroyed in the process. At the height of the Irish conflict, the British never attacked the entire Catholic population in Northern Island to stop the IRA bomb attacks in mainland Britain. Even the Indians have not resorted to such methods in Kashmir. To argue that such an approach will stop a few alleged terrorists is a lie; such brutal tactics are the collective punishment of an entire population and were deployed by the Israelis against the Palestinians in their recent slaughter in Gaza. On Zardari's political epitaph, history will record his bloody tyranny.

 

Yet for Pakistan the political fallout is yet to come. No country can simply attack it's own civilian population and not suffer from the inevitable consequences. A government which attacks it's own people with fighter jets and artillery shells will no longer be seen as a legitimate ruling entity; it will henceforth only be seen as an occupying force. It will lead to further ethnic division and fighting within a country whose federation is not known for it's political strength. The end result can only be more bloodshed on both sides, with Muslim fighting Muslim, threatening a civil war. Not only will the people of Swat suffer but the Pakistan army will also be sucked into an occupation that will weaken it over the duration. Nobody can argue that this is in Pakistan's interest.

 

This though is the calculus being applied by policy makers in Washington and London. For this campaign in Pakistan is not just about Afghanistan and the support to the resistance against the American occupation by their brethren tribes in northern Pakistan. It is about dealing with the greater revival of Islam throughout the Muslim lands, a call which the people of Pakistan are strongly embracing. During the cold war, the West was preoccupied with the Soviet threat. In fact the same people that they call terrorists today were the same ones they called Mujahideen and freedom fighters as they funnelled billions of dollars in weapons and aid through the CIA and Britain's MI6 using Pakistan's ISI agency. But today, as the Islamic revival takes place whilst global Capitalism is in crisis, a Muslim country which has nuclear weapons, a strong military and the potential for change is strategic nightmare for Western policy makers. No longer will they have obedient political stooges such as Zardari and Nawaz Sharif to do their bidding; instead they face the prospect of an ideological Islamic state, the Khilafah, which will be governed by Islam in the interests of it's people, outside the scope and control of Western powers. This is the real issue behind the facade of the Western propagated terrorism agenda against Pakistan.

 

Those who claim that this is Pakistan's own war against terrorism are being deceptive and offer an incredulous argument. Before the events of 9/11 there was no fighting between Pakistan's security forces and those who lived in the tribal areas. In fact there was no history of suicide bomb attacks either. The tribal areas were at peace whilst the Pakistan army was busy consolidating Musharraf's rule in the aftermath of the coup overthrowing Nawaz Sharif's regime. Pakistan not withstanding the spontaneous random acts of sectarian violence, was at relative peace with itself. It was the American occupation of Afghanistan and the continued support for this from the Pakistani rulers which has triggered the instability in the tribal areas. The argument that it has no choice in the face of declining American power is false. America is powerless to act against North Korea which has just conducted it's second nuclear test. If a fledgling power like North Korea can defy America, then Pakistan with it's advanced nuclear and missile programs can also ignore America's demands.

 

It is clear that Pakistan's secularists have not stopped to properly evaluate the situation which Pakistan finds itself in. To resort to military attacks against your own people is an act which will only bring more turmoil; America despite all it's wealth and military might has not been able to subdue the people of Iraq and Afghanistan over these past years. This indicates a total absence of thought and the abject failure of Pakistan's politicians. The secularists viewpoint does not even stand the scrutiny of pragmatism and in truth represents dogmatic political support for a military offensive that is a dangerous error of judgement.

 

In the aftermath of Musharraf's Lal Masjid massacre the Americans together with the incumbent rulers have learnt their lesson in the art of black propaganda. The rulers are deliberately trying to exploit the terrorist outrages in the country to shore up political support for their deeply unpopular alliance with America Pakistan first is the rallying cry for the faithful. How can Pakistan be said to be put first when it's villages are being attacked by America at will? The Zardari regime claims to be acting to restore the writ of the state, to restore it's honour; yet the Americans have attacked countless number of times, violating the writ of the Pakistani state, to murder it's men, women and children with their indiscriminate drone strikes. The Zardari regime continues to condone this, there is no honour in that.

 

These secularist apologists also conveniently ignore the role of the American FBI and CIA who now have numerous bases throughout Pakistan; they were instrumental in the kidnapping of Dr Afia Siddiqui and her children who is now held in an American prison. One only has to google the word CIA to reveal it's dirty history in destabilisation and black operations abroad. No responsible government would allow a foreign power to establish it's intelligence apparatus on it's soil with a free hand. This though is exactly what Pakistan's rulers have done, they have handed over Pakistan's internal security. These are the actions of a foolish and immoral regime.

 

Islam condemns that a Muslim fights a fellow Muslim and no Muslim is allowed to either launch a military offensive or use random bomb blasts for this purpose. Allah (SWT) warns:

 

And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell to abide therein, and the Wrath and the Curse of Allah are upon him, and a great punishment is prepared for him.

[Surah An-Nisaa 4:93]

 

RasulAllah         said




"When two Muslims face each other in fighting and one kills the other, then both the killer and the killed are in the hell-fire. The Companions asked, "O Messenger of Allah, this is the killer - what about the poor person who has been killed?" The Prophet, said He had the intention to kill his companion.

 

It is no coincidence that the Western media and it's officials openly talk about Pakistan collapsing; this is what they want, they want to create a new Iraq. The West's target is Pakistan itself and it will not rest until the Muslims of Pakistan stop aspiring to be ruled by Islam, something that will not happen. Islam runs through the veins of the Pakistani people and attempts to forcibly remove the Islamic identity are doomed to failure. Moreover over the last sixty years western values such as secularism and democracy have failed to bring prosperity and good governance to the people of Pakistan; both military rule and democracy have failed. The Muslims of Pakistan live with this legacy of failure everyday. This is because they are alien to the Muslims and you cannot superimpose western values without justifying their basis. To do that you would have to make an argument against Islam itself. Allah(SWT) has revealed his Shariah as the basis for the Muslims to be ruled by and implemented by the Khilafah state.

 

Pakistan's secularists fail to realise that the West is not just fighting a military battle but an ideological war, first and foremost. Most of them believe that by siding and supporting America's War on Terror, Pakistan will be let off the hook whilst the ruling elite can make a few billion dollars in the process. If Pakistan's secularists hope that by offering the blood of their fellow citizens as sacrifice to appease the West will work, then they are wrong. Tony Blair, the Iraq war architect, declared in April 2009; The ideology, as a movement within Islam, has to be defeated. This battle cannot so easily be won. Because it is based on an ideology and because its roots are deep, so our strategy for victory has to be broader, more comprehensive but also more sharply defined. In the use of hard power, we have to understand one very simple thing: where we are called upon to fight, we have to do it. The West is undermining and attacking Pakistan because of it's Islam. The West will not stop until it ends what it sees as the political threat emanating from Islam in Pakistan.

 

The people of Pakistan gave many sacrifices to establish Pakistan in 1947 so that they could live in peace and security under the shade of Islam. That dream is yet to be fulfilled but our forefathers did not give their lives more than 60 years ago so that their rulers would betray their people in such a treacherous way. The global tide of Islamic revival in is growing in Pakistan and it's people will not be denied that. Not by America and certainly not by the minority secularists in Pakistan who have nothing in common with the average Pakistani, who continue to defend the broken and corrupt political system that has brought nothing but misery for it's people.

 




The writer is a Pakistani analyst who specialises in International Relations.



 

[Satyagraha]

Pakistan PM Gilani expresses concern over increase of US forces
By Iftikhar A. Khan
Saturday, 30 May, 2009 | 09:09 PM PST |

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Saturday expressed concern over the increased presence of US forces in Afghanistan, saying that it would enhance the chances of Taliban infiltration into Pakistan.
 
Talking to reporters, he said he had already taken up the matter with US officials and had stated that the increased number of US military personnel in Afghanistan would build a pressure forcing militants to cross the border and move into Pakistan.

Gilani said the US authorities had promised to have greater interaction and an enhanced intelligence sharing between the countries. He said Pakistan would never allow its soil to be used for terrorist activities.

Answering a question, he said President Asif Ali Zardari and PML(N) leader Shahbaz Sharif would meet on Monday to discuss the law and order situation in Punjab province, in light of the recent bomb blasts in the provincial capital.
 
About the ongoing military operation in Malakand Division, the Prime Minister said it will continue against all anti-state elements including foreign militants namely Chechens and Uzbeks.

He said drug money was being used by the militants for their survival, and added that the government had sufficient proof in this regard.

He said the government was taking effective steps for the elevation of displaced persons following the line of 3 Rs - Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

He said it was the government’s resolve to facilitate the IDPs, and appealed to international donors to help in the assistance of displaced persons.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/06-gilani-expresses-concern-over-increase-of-us-forces-rs-03
 

[Satyagraha]

Number of displaced persons exceeds three million  
Saturday, 30 May, 2009 | 03:02 AM PST |

PESHAWAR: The number of internally displaced persons (IDP) has crossed the three million mark, according to the NWFP government.

Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said at a press conference at the Officers’ Mess here on Friday that the number of IDPs now stood at 3.4 million — 2.8 million of them from Malakand division alone.

He said the provincial government was determined to provide all possible facilities to the displaced people and a substantial number of lady doctors had been deputed to look after them.

The minister said 11 doctors were attending to displaced people in Nowshera, 15 in Mardan, 13 in Swabi, two in Malakand, three in Haripur and six in Charsadda. In addition, 73 doctors had been appointed at basic health units set up in the camps.

Mr Hussain claimed that security forces had dismantled the network of terrorists and they were on the run, but they would be pursued till their defeat and surrender.

He said security personnel had arrested some militants from the IDP camps and they were being interrogated.

He said earlier the militants had put leaders on their hit list, but now the government had announced head money on them. ‘We are thankful to the federal government for increasing head money on Malakand Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah from Rs5 million to Rs50 million.’

The names of those who blew the whistle on militant leaders and warlords would be kept secret, the minister added.

Referring to reports about thrashing of medical representatives of pharmaceutical companies in Dabgari area, he said militants wanted to scare people in different ways. (Pharma sales people out trying to make a buck???)  He requested journalists not to give coverage to such events.

When his attention was drawn to a threatening letter sent to an Urdu daily, he said only cowards could send threatening letters to shopkeepers and newspapers.

The minister said militant gangs had started using all options of destruction in one go.

‘If a suicide bomber fails to blow himself up, his senders blast him by remote control. If the move fails, he is shot at by his collaborators.’

In Peshawar on Thursday, the militants first detonated a planted bomb and then resorted to firing to frighten people, he recalled. The same modus operandi was later used in Dera Ismail Khan.

The minister said the government had changed its strategy against militants after the attacks.

He accused the religious parties opposing the military operation of doing a great ‘disservice to the nation by indirectly supporting the agenda of militants.’

Mr Hussain said the operation would continue till the annihilation of all militants in Malakand region.
 
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/11-number-of-displaced-persons-exceeds-three-million--il--09
 

[bigron]

Ethnicity Salts Swatis' Wounds

by Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54713&hd=&size=1&l=e



An internally displaced woman, fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley region


May 30, 2009

SLAMABAD – As if being forced to flee his home and property under the yoke of raging fighting between the government and Taliban in Swat and adjoining districts was not enough, Mustaqeem Khan, an aging Pushtun, is not allowed to seek shelter with relatives in the southern Sindh province.

"They (police) are threatening us to either go back or get ready for arrests," a pale, weak and weather-beaten Khan told IslamOnline.net.

The governments of Punjab and Sindh, the country’s two largest and richest provinces, have banned the entry of internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the grounds that they will disturb the demography and may pose a security threat.

Heavy contingents of police stopped around 3000 IDPs at Sindh border on Friday, May 22, telling them to go back to their North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), which borders war-stricken Afghanistan.

"We cannot afford more IDPs due to the peculiar situation in the province," Sindh Information Minister Shazia Marrit told IOL.

She believes it would be better to restrict the displaced problem within NWFP or adjoining cities of Punjab, saying such a number of IDPs poses a security risk.

"Terrorists may enter Sindh and disturb the law and order under the guise of IDPs. That is why we have requested the federal government to restrict them within the camps in the NWFP."

The minister says IDPs who have already reached Karachi and other parts of the province are hard to control.

"Camps are not the permanent solution. Ultimately, these people will go and live with their relatives. It would be very difficult for us to register and monitor them."

Singh is largely populated by Sindhis, the second largest ethnicity in Pakistan numbering 24 million out of the total population of 170 million.

The province has always been very sensitive as far as ethnicity is concerned and has had a history of ethnic riots between Sindhis and Pushtuns.

Similar orders have been issued by the provincial government of Punjab led by former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

Contingents of police and paramilitary troops have been detailed on Attock Bridge on the border between NWFP and Punjab.

Aliens

But Khan, the displaced Pushtun, feels he is being unfairly treated by his own government.

"I am being considering an alien in my own country," he fumes.

"They are treating us like Afghan refugees. We are not Afghans, we are Pakistanis, and we have the right to move to anywhere in Pakistan."

Khan and his ten other family members want to go to a suburban area of Karachi to stay with relatives.

"My entire family is not moving to Karachi. My two sons and their families are staying with our other relatives in Peshawar," he explained.

"They (relatives) cannot afford all of us. That’s why we are moving to our other relatives."

The aging Pushtun has very harsh words for the government.

"We have been forced by the military operations to leave our homes and yet we are being treated as aliens in our own country," he fumes.

"We were promised food and shelter by the government but it has miserably failed us."

The UN has registered more than 1.7 million displaced people since early May when the righting flared up in Pakistan's northwest province.

It has appealed for a total of 543 million dollars to help Pakistan accommodate the displaced.

Losing Hearts

Experts warn that such entry bans would fan ethnic sentiments.

"Pushtuns are already facing a huge trauma. The government should not add salt to their wounds," Abdul Khalique Ali, a Karachi-based analyst, told IOL.

"We have been screaming at the government not to force the displaced people to prefer Taliban over military troops. Their homes and hearths have been destroyed, now we should not destroy their souls," he added.

"Such derogatory attitude may change their minds and then the government would certainly lose the moral edge it enjoys this time over Taliban."

Ali believes the government has miscalculated its actions.

"The government launched military operations claiming it would wipe out Taliban within a week or two.

"If the operation is not completed soon, and the derogatory behavior of IDPs continues, the government will totally lose the sympathy of the Pushtuns."

Tariq Khan, a young Swati Pushtun, is very disgruntled.

"There is no place left in refugee camps. Now where should we go?"

He broke down in tears when asked why the displaced did not stay within their NWFP province.

"Over two million people have been displaced by the army operations. We have not left our homes willingly or because of Taliban. Taliban were not bombing our houses. We have left our homes because of the military operations," he burst out.

"And now when we have left our homes, we have become suspects. Banning us from entering other provinces is just unfair."





 

[bigron]

Pakistan’s war on civilians


by Paul Rogers

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54727&hd=&size=1&l=e

May 29, 2009

The extension of war in Pakistan - from the Afghan border regions to Lahore - is inflicting a terrible toll on the country's poor and displaced.



The car-bombing in Lahore of a police station and the local headquarters of  Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agency on 27 May 2009 is more than the seventh major attack on the city since January 2008 - and the third since March 2009, when the Sri Lankan cricket team and a police academy were targeted. The bomb, which killed twenty-seven people and and injured over a hundred, is a further indication of the systemic, interrelated and deep-rooted nature of Pakistan's internal-security troubles.

Lahore, after all, is Pakistan's cultural centre, a sophisticated city that lies close to India and is a long way from the intense fighting currently being waged in the Swat valley in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). If it can be repeatedly attacked with apparent impunity, it tells its own story about how the different parts of the country are becoming implicated in an all-consuming conflict (see Ayesha Siddiqa, "Pakistan: a country on fire", 24 September 2008).

The military machine 

The exact link between the Lahore bombing - and the twin attacks that followed in Peshawar on 28 May that killed eleven people and injutred dozens more - and what is happening in Swat is not yet clear, but Islamist militants in western Pakistan had threatened attacks across the country in response to the army's operations in the NWFP.  What is clear, though, is that those operations are massive and sustained and are having huge human consequences, whatever the belief in Islamabad that they are necessary to counter the increasing power of the Taliban and other militias.

A United Nations source has estimated the flow of internal refugees since mid-May 2009 as 2.4 million people; by 29 May, the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) calculated that the figure exceeded 3 million. There are few examples of such vast and sudden movements in recent history; the scale of what is happening recalls the traumatic events prior to the founding of Bangladesh in 1970-71, when many millions of people fled from the Pakistani army across the border into India.In addition to his weekly openDemocracy column, Paul Rogers writes an international security monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group; for details, click here

Paul Rogers's books include Why We're Losing the War on Terror (Polity, 2007) - an analysis of the strategic misjudgments of the post-9/11 era and why a new security paradigm is needed. A third edition of his Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century (Pluto Press, 2009) is forthcoming

Much of the destruction in Swat is because the Pakistani army is simply not constructed for counterinsurgency or counter-guerrilla warfare - and the conflict in Swat is a combination of this with an out-and-out civil war. Pakistan has a standing army of 550,000, equipped with nearly 2,500 main battle-tanks and over 4,000 artillery pieces, five times the size of the British army.  That may be large by any standards; but the "threat" from India has long dominated the Pakistani military posture, and India commands well over a million troops, 4,000 tanks and more than 10,000 artillery pieces.

What is essentially a powerful land army geared to armoured battles and artillery bombardments on the plains of south Asia, is now engaged in a war against its own people in a bitter internal conflict that is being conducted under a blanket of tight media control. Because of this, every impression is being given of a successful campaign against weak opponents - the Taliban - who are being put to flight.  Where foreign journalists can report at all, they do so under tight army control and the rare visits they are able to make are to towns that are firmly under the army's control (see Shaun Gregory, "Pakistan and the 'AfPak' strategy", 28 May 2009).

The civilian impact

Even so, two issues are emerging. One is that the assault will be prolonged and very violent.  The army is readily using its huge firepower advantage, but the militias that it is trying to defeat are proving highly resilient. Even army sources now speak of "steady progress amid stiff resistance" and acknowledge that the war has some time to run (see Robert Birsel, "Bombs seen stiffening Pakistan resolve on militants, Reuters, 29 May 2009).   

In the city of Mingora, for example, there has been intensive street-fighting, yet the government security forces have gained control of just one quarter of the urban area. More generally, the militias are now avoiding conflict in exposed places and are dispersing to towns and villages across the valley. The army in response is using helicopter gunships, strike-aircraft and artillery, whose main effect is widespread destruction including the wholesale flattening of villages.

The second issue follows: the serious humanitarian consequences (both short- and long-term) of the conflict. The United Nations estimates that $450 million is needed for immediate aid to respond to exceptional displacement of peoples. An indication of Washington's concerns over the situation is the decision on 22 May to make an immediate commitment of $110 million in humanitarian aid. But this will barely touch the larger problem that many thousands of civilians are caught up in the fighting and prevented by a a Pakistani army curfew from escaping the conflict-zone. 

Also on 22 May, the United Nations and several partner agencies launched an appeal for $543 million in aid; but by 28 May, the "humanitarian action plan" had reached only 21% of this total.

A leading Islamabad newspaper cites a report from Human Rights Watch's Asia director, Brad Adams: "Reports of civilians killed in the crossfire continued to flood in...as people break the curfew in desperate bids to find food and water for their families, or try and escape the aerial and ground bombardments" (see "Trapped civilians face catastrophe in Swat", Dawn, 26 May 2009).

The surge of over 2 million refugees who have fled from the area has overwhelmed the Pakistani government and agencies: 

"The true dimensions of the refugee problem are apparent in Mardan, one of the primary destinations for civilians fleeing the battles in Swat and in neighbouring Buner and Dir. The city is studded with refugee camps consisting of endless rows of tan canvas tents that bake under the 110-degree skies.   Schools are packed to capacity with families sleeping on concrete classroom floors, with each classroom housing 40 or more people" (see Griff Witte, "Pakistani Refugee Crisis Poses Peril", Washington Post, 25 May 2009).

A small proportion only of these refugees - 20%, according to Save the Children - is housed in government camps. Most are living outside them; half of the displaced are children.

The signal of war

The inability to cope with a crisis caused by its own military action means that Pakistan's government is ceding influence to others (radical groups in particular) that are quick to fill the vacuum:

"The army has warned that some Taliban fighters joined the fleeing residents and may have infiltrated the refugee camps...  Outside the camps, radical Islamist agendas are rushing in to fill the void left by the paucity of government services.   The Falah-e-Insaniyat foundation, the successor to a group known as Jamaat-ud-Dawa, has established a major presence near Swat, feeding tens of thousands of displaced people and providing them with quality medical care" (see "Foundation provides food to 275,000 IDPs", The News, 17 May 2009)

In the longer term there are indications that the physical damage done to settlements will take years to repair. Qamar Zaman Kaira, Pakistan's information minister, said that the authorities had started "initial satellite surveys for the rehabilitation of homes, businesses and cultivable lands". The very fact that the destruction demands satellite surveys gives some indication of the impact of the war after barely two weeks.

The war in northwest Pakistan may still be in its early stages, but it is already operating with an intensity that is not fully appreciated beyond the region. Pakistani army sources are presenting the operation as an extensive and determined effort to isolate a relatively small group of extremist militias. But three factors - the failure to cope with refugees, the ability of the militias to disperse, and the rapid provision of aid by radical movements - suggests that the long-term effects of the army's campaign could be to intensify Pakistan's divisions. The Lahore bombing and Peshawar attacks may be early signals of that.



 

[bigron]

Posted on Sun, May. 31, 2009

Pakistan plan to attack Taliban haven promises wider war


Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: May 31, 2009 08:34:44 PM
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/69137.html

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Waziristan, the remote area that's the epicenter of Taliban and al Qaida militants in Pakistan, is set to become the next war zone in the nation's fight against Islamic extremists, where clashes between insurgents and the army erupted over the weekend.

So far, there are just skirmishes in Waziristan but the key U.S. ally plans a full-scale military offensive there this summer, according to Pakistani and Western officials, a fight that is certain to be deadlier than the current operation in Swat valley and with profound international repercussions.

Western leaders have repeatedly said that international terrorist plots are being hatched in Waziristan, while the area provides a sanctuary for Afghan insurgents and al Qaida leaders, possibly including Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahiri.

South Waziristan, a part of the wild tribal territory that lies along the Afghan border, houses Pakistan's public enemy number one, warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who has thousands of armed followers around him. The insurgency across the country is fueled by fighters and suicide bombers sent by Mehsud. North Waziristan is also under the control of a Taliban warlord.

Pakistani forces are making rapid progress through Swat valley, in the North West Frontier Province, and they've previously claimed to have cleared two other areas that were under Taliban domination, Bajaur and Mohmand, which are part of the tribal territory.

But the specter of Waziristan, the fountainhead of extremism, now looms.

"The final battle will be fought in South Waziristan," said Asad Munir, formerly head of military intelligence for the tribal area and the North West Frontier Province. "They've started it (the offensive against the insurgents) and if they leave it mid-way, they should be mentally prepared to hand this country over to the Taliban. They have to complete it. There is no other way."

Pakistan has launched multiple operations against Taliban on its soil since 2004 but critics say that each time they have been half-heartedly pursued and ended with a truce that left the militants in control, including a peace deal in South Waziristan in early 2008.

But, under intense international pressure, the current offensive in Swat, and before that the recent operation in Bajaur, have finally hit the insurgents hard.

Failure now would hugely embolden the militants, Asad said. Taking back Swat and the tribal area, especially Waziristan, would deny the insurgents the vast tracts of territory that they now control, where training camps and schools for indoctrinating suicide bombers are freely run.

While Washington and other western allies pressed Pakistan to take action in Swat, which lies just 100 miles from the capital Islamabad, the valley is not thought to be a significant base for Afghan insurgents or al Qaida. But Waziristan is seen by Western countries, from the United States to Spain, as crucial to their homeland security.

"Waziristan is at the heart of Western counter-terrorism interests in this region," said a Western security official based in Pakistan, who could not be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. "Waziristan would hit the sweet spot for us. But we'd rather not have a campaign than a campaign (in Waziristan) that failed."

Waziristan provides a crucial safe haven to Afghan insurgents, as well as a launching pad for Pakistani jihadists heading to Afghanistan. It is also a headquarters for international terrorists.

The offensive in Swat has led to bloody terrorist reprisals, with a chilling threat issued last week by the Taliban to escalate the attacks by striking some of Pakistan's biggest cities.

Revenge for army action in Waziristan could cause carnage across the country, severely testing hard-won public support for taking on the Taliban, even destabilizing the country. It would also add to the humanitarian crisis of people displaced by fighting, which stands now at some 3 million.

Militarily, Waziristan poses a huge challenge to Pakistani forces. Its harsh mountainous terrain is ideally suited to guerrilla warfare, while the Taliban is concentrated in the area, where they have been entrenched for years, allowing them to build tunnels, bunkers and fortifications.

Unlike Swat, where the population largely welcomed the army once they saw that it was a serious operation, the fierce tribal people of Waziristan are deeply hostile to outsiders, including the Pakistani military.

South Waziristan, covering 2,500 square miles, has lawless regions to three sides — North Waziristan to the north, Baluchistan province to the south and the Afghan province of Paktika to the west, providing ready escape routes to the insurgents.

Analysts said that a successful operation would need to seal off South Waziristan, especially the option of retreat into Afghanistan, requiring strong co-ordination with the U.S.-led forces across the border. Joint Pakistan-U.S. planning for the operation is likely to be underway, mirroring the collaboration undertaken last year when the Bajaur offensive began and U.S. forces intercepted fleeing Pakistani Taliban in the bordering Afghan province of Kunar. The Waziristan campaign should coincide with the arrival of the extra "surge" of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

"They should co-operate with the Americans and employ the classic 'hammer and anvil' technique, with Pakistan forces isolating South Waziristan and pushing them (the Taliban) towards the border," said Javed Hussain, a former Brigadier with Pakistan's Special Services Group commando unit. "That's where the American forces should act as the anvil, and the Pakistani forces as the hammer. In between the two, the insurgents are crushed."

The operation in Swat valley, launched on 7 May, could be over in "two to three days" senior Pakistan defense official Syed Athar Ali told a conference in Singapore Sunday. There is speculation that Waziristan could follow as early as this month (June), though July or August may be more likely given the need to stabilize Swat.

Sensing the coming showdown, Taliban in South Waziristan have started to attack army bases and check posts in the area, with 25 militants and at three soldiers reported killed by the authorities Sunday.

Shah is McClatchy's special correspondent in Pakistan and is based in Islamabad

[Satyagraha]

Militants kidnap 400 students, others in Pakistan
Mon Jun 1, 2009 1:23pm EDT
By Alamgir Bitani

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan kidnapped up to 400 students from a military-run college, with teachers and relatives, on Monday as they were traveling in mini-buses, police said.

The abduction took place while the Pakistani army pressed on with an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley in another part of the northwest.

Taliban fighters with hand grenades seized the students' convoy heading home for the summer holiday from the North Waziristan ethnic Pashtun region on the Afghan border to the town of Bannu, 240 km (150 miles) southwest of Islamabad.

"The driver of one of the vehicles managed to escape and students reported to us that their colleagues have been kidnapped by Taliban," said Razaq Khan, a police official in Bakka Kheil village in North West Frontier Province.

"The students reported that one Taliban carrying a hand grenade boarded each of the buses and took them away. We don't know where they have gone," he said.

Bannu police chief Iqbal Marwat said up to 400 people in 28 vehicles were seized. Sixty-seven escaped, he said.

Militant violence has grown in nuclear-armed Pakistan since mid-2007, with attacks on security forces, and on government and Western targets.

The violence has alarmed the United States, which needs Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and get to grips with the Taliban insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan.

There are several Taliban- and al-Qaeda-linked groups based in North Waziristan in a loose alliance with Taliban in Swat. The army has not launched an offensive in North Waziristan.

Militants have captured many members of the Pakistani security forces in the past few years but the kidnapping of civilians is relatively rare.

Mirza Mohammad Jihadi, an adviser to the prime minister on the tribal areas, said efforts were in progress to secure their release.

"Contacts have been established with the kidnappers and talks are under way," Jihadi told Reuters.

Government officials said they were checking the report.

NOTHING TO EAT

Pakistan launched an offensive against a growing Taliban insurgency in the Swat valley, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of northwest of Islamabad, a month ago.

The army captured Swat's main town, Mingora, on Saturday, and the next day lifted a curfew, allowing thousands of people trapped by the fighting to leave.

"There is nothing to eat, no water, no electricity, no gas, no telephone, no hospital," said Nisar Khan, a Mingora resident, who brought his family out on Sunday.

Fighting was continuing elsewhere in a valley once famed for its alpine beauty and the military said on Monday 18 militants and two soldiers had been killed in the previous 24 hours.

The army sent in 15,000 troops, backed by artillery and air power against a militant force initially estimated at about 5,000, but later put at 2,000 hardcore fighters.

There were no independent estimates of casualties but the army said more than 1,230 militants had been killed, while it had lost more than 90 men since the fighting began.

Most of Mingora's 300,000 residents fled after the army told them to get out before launching its attack. About 50,000 stayed behind, suffering the privations of a city under siege.

Officials say an estimated 2.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Swat and adjoining areas, prompting U.N. warnings of a humanitarian crisis.

Up to 90 percent, have been given shelter by friends or relatives and the remainder have crowded into camps.

Aid workers say many civilians have been wounded in the fighting or have perished trying to reach safety.

"A lot of people have been wounded in the fighting but there are no medical services in many areas," said Fazil Tezara, head of the Belgian branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Pakistan.

"Wounded people are trying to get to the nearest hospital in Timergara, but that is a seven-day trek through mountains and people are dying on the way and their bodies are just lying there," Tezara said, referring to the main town in Lower Dir, a district to Swat's west.

The militants have responded to the offensive with eight bomb attacks in various towns and cities since late April and have threatened more. Main cities are on alert.

(Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Andrew Dobbie)

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5504KH20090601

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Terrorists Killing Pakistanis With Indian/US Weapons


by Dan Qayyum

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54764&hd=&size=1&l=e

June 1, 2009

Finally, the military admits what Pakistan’s pro-U.S. government has been hiding for months. The weapons that the terrorists – the fake Pakistani Taliban – are using to kill Pakistanis are coming from U.S. and India. Some members of the Karzai puppet regime have privately confirmed to Pakistani officials that they are incapable of stopping Indian terrorist activities on Afghan soil. To avoid embarrassment, Washington quickly 'leaked’ a story that U.S. weapons given to Afghan security forces have reached insurgents. The timing of the leak conveniently coincided with the Pakistani army discovering the American double game. The Americans have been taking Pakistan for a ride for seven years.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Briefing reporters about the progress of operation Rahe Rast, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas yesterday revealed the extent of foreign support that the TTP terrorists are getting from Afghanistan. Large caches of weapons of US and INDIAN origin have been found as the security forces completely secure control of Mingora city, destroying various training centers of terrorists and killing important militant commanders, the military said.

 

The Americans have their excuses in order – Earlier this year it was revealed that over 200,000 US weapons – including assault rifles and grenade launchers – are 'missing’ from the US army’s inventory in Afghanistan. The US army is unable to provide serial numbers for a large number of the missing weapons and no records have been maintained for the location or disposition for the rest.

 

The Pakistan Army, quite rightly, has told the Americans to stop worrying about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and start worrying about the weapons 'lost’ in Afghanistan.

 

Coming to the issue of Indian made weapons found in Swat – India claims its consulates in Afghanistan only issue visas for Afghan tourists to India and runs scholarship programs for Afghan students. The Indians also claim their presence in Afghanistan is limited to reconstruction and aid efforts.

Here is what Christine Fair of RAND Corporation had to say about India’s actual operation in Afghanistan and Iran:

 

"I think it would be a mistake to completely disregard Pakistan’s regional perceptions due to doubts about Indian competence in executing covert operations. That misses the point entirely. And I think it is unfair to dismiss the notion that Pakistan’s apprehensions about Afghanistan stem in part from its security competition with India. Having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity! Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is likely doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Qandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Baluchistan. Kabul has encouraged India to engage in provocative activities such as using the Border Roads Organization to build sensitive parts of the Ring Road and use the Indo-Tibetan police force for security. It is also building schools on a sensitive part of the border in Kunar–across from Bajaur. Kabul’s motivations for encouraging these activities are as obvious as India’s interest in engaging in them. Even if by some act of miraculous diplomacy the territorial issues were to be resolved, Pakistan would remain an insecure state. Given the realities of the subcontinent (e.g., India’s rise and its more effective foreign relations with all of Pakistan’s near and far neighbors), these fears are bound to grow, not lessen. This suggests that without some means of compelling Pakistan to abandon its reliance upon militancy, it will become ever more interested in using it — and the militants will likely continue to proliferate beyond Pakistan’s control."

 

The Foreign Policy Magazine also recently confirmed the Indians were neck deep in supporting the TTP in Pakistan:

 

While the U.S. media has frequently reported on Pakistani ties to jihadi elements launching attacks in Afghanistan, it has less often mentioned that India supports insurgent forces attacking Pakistan. "The Indians are up to their necks in supporting the Taliban against the Pakistani government in Afghanistan and Pakistan," a former intelligence official who served in both countries said. "The same anti-Pakistani forces in Afghanistan also shooting at American soldiers are getting support from India. India should close its diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan and get the Christ out of there."

 

Wounded Pakistani soldiers interviewed have recalled the stiff resistance they have faced while attempting to flush out terrorists armed with sophisticated weapons in Swat.

 

"They are well-equipped, they have mortars, they have rockets, sniper rifles and every type of sophisticated weapon," says one Lt. Zaigham."I am certain that foreign elements are behind these militants. Can I ask something very simple — who are their sponsors? What are their sources of funding? Who runs their logistics?"

 

Pakistan has substantial evidence and statements recorded by captured terrorists that confirm the involvement of Indian intelligence agencies in sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan from Afghan soil.

 

Even some Afghan officials have confirmed that India is using Afghanistan to stir trouble in Pakistan.

 

"India is using Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan and Afghan security agencies are unable to stop Indian intervention due to absence of centralized government mechanism", said Afghan Government’s Advisor, Ehsanullah Aryanzai, on the sidelines of Pak-Afgan Parliamentary Jirga at a local hotel on April 2, 2009.

 

The Lahore Police Commissioner Khusro Pervez has also said earlier today that Pakistan had unearthed evidence of a commute in Afghanistan a year and a half ago between members of Indian, Afghan and Israeli intelligence agencies.

 

'I have firsthand knowledge of captured terrorists trained by Indian nationals in Afghanistan, who then crossed over and carried out attacks in Pakistan. The failed kidnap attempt on Sri Lankan cricketers earlier this year was carried out by militants working directly for Indian and Israeli intelligence agencies’, Khusro added.

 

Ironically, the suspects of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers were inside the ISI building on the very morning of the massive bombing that resulted in the collapse of the building on May 27, 2009.

 

It has been blatantly obvious to Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies that the Indians are up to their necks in supporting terrorism in Pakistan. Now that Indian made weapons have been found in Swat, will the civilian government take up the matter on a diplomatic level?

 

© 2007-2009. All rights reserved. AhmedQuraishi.com & PakNationalists

 

[bigron]

Index on War in Pakistan, May 2009

(THE MOST COMPLETE REFERENCE TO THE WHOLE AFPAK SITUATION)


by Sarah Meyer, Index Research
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e

 

National Flag of Pakistan


June 1, 2009

1. Preface: Themes in Three Wars:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#1000

2. Gas in Pakistan
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#2000

3. Strategic Imperatives
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#3000

4. Demonising the Taliban
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#4000

5. The War
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#5000

6. Drones
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#6000

7. Pakistan’s Supply Depots for Afghanistan
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#7000

8. Blame and Counterblame
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#8000

9. Backlash to War & Censorship
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#9000

10. Nuclear Issues
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#10000

11. Refugees
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#11000

12. Aid to Pakistan
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#12000

13. References
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54756&hd=&size=1&l=e#13000


THIS IS A MUST READ IF YOU WISH TO DEEPLY UNDURSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON  

[bigron]

News
 World news
 Pakistan
 
Mysterious 'chip' is CIA's latest weapon against al-Qaida targets hiding in Pakistan's tribal belt

• Tribesmen plant devices to guide drone attacks
• Locals shun fighters for fear of becoming targets
 
Declan Walsh in Peshawar
Sunday 31 May 2009 23.55 BST 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/31/cia-drones-tribesmen-taliban-pakistan

The CIA is equipping Pakistani tribesmen with secret electronic transmitters to help target and kill al-Qaida leaders in the north-western tribal belt, in a tactic that could aid Pakistan's army as it takes the battle against extremism to the Taliban heartland.

As the army mops up Taliban resistance in the Swat valley, where a defence official predicted fighting would be over within days, the focus is shifting to Waziristan and the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud.


Declan Walsh: 'Microchips are the talk of the town in tribal areas' Link to this audio
But a deadly war of wits is already under way in the region, where tribesmen say the US is using advanced technology and old-fashioned cash to target the enemy.

Over the last 18 months the US has launched more than 50 drone attacks, mostly in south and north Waziristan. US officials claim nine of the top 20 al-Qaida figures have been killed.

That success is reportedly in part thanks to the mysterious electronic devices, dubbed "chips" or "pathrai" (the Pashto word for a metal device), which have become a source of fear, intrigue and fascination.

"Everyone is talking about it," said Taj Muhammad Wazir, a student from south Waziristan. "People are scared that if a pathrai comes into your house, a drone will attack it."

According to residents and Taliban propaganda, the CIA pays tribesmen to plant the electronic devices near farmhouses sheltering al-Qaida and Taliban commanders.

Hours or days later, a drone, guided by the signal from the chip, destroys the building with a salvo of missiles. "There are body parts everywhere," said Wazir, who witnessed the aftermath of a strike.

Until now the drone strikes were the only threat to militants in Waziristan, where the Pakistani army had, in effect, abandoned the fight.

But now, emboldened by a successful campaign to drive militants out of Swat, a region about 80 miles from Islamabad, the army is preparing to regain lost ground in the more remote tribal belt.

It will be a much tougher campaign than in Swat, with the army pitched against a formidable, battle-hardened opponent. Yesterday Taliban fighters ambushed a military position in what could be a prelude to much more intense combat.

For the US military, drones have proved to be an effective weapon against al-Qaida targets, and they are becoming increasingly accurate.

On 1 January a drone-fired missile killed Usama al-Kimi, a Kenyan militant who orchestrated last year's Marriott hotel bombing in Islamabad, a senior official with Pakistan's ISI spy agency said.

It is a high-tech assassination operation for one of the world's most remote areas.

The pilotless aircraft, Predators or more sophisticated Reapers, take off from a base in Baluchistan province.

But they are guided by a joystick-wielding operator half a world away, at a US air force base 35 miles north of Las Vegas.

Barack Obama has approved the drone campaign, which is cheap and limits the danger posed to US troops. But the strikes have many unintended victims. A Pakistani newspaper estimated that 700 people had been killed since 2006, most of them civilians, as a result of drone attacks.

For the tribesmen who plant the microchips and get it wrong, the consequences can be terrible. Last month the Taliban issued a video confession by Habib ur Rehman, 19. "They money was good," he said in a quavering voice, describing how he was paid 20,000 rupees (£166) to drop microchips hidden in a cigarette wrapper at the home of a target.

Rehman said his handler promised thousands of pounds if the strike was successful, and protection if he was caught. The end of the video showed Rehman being shot dead with three other alleged spies. Residents say such executions – there have been at least 100 – indicate how much the drone strikes have worried the Taliban.

In Wana, the capital of south Waziristan, foreign fighters are shunning the bazaars and shops, and locals are shunning the fighters. "Before, the common people used to sit with the militants," said Wazir. "Now they are also afraid.

Paranoid militant commanders are closely monitoring cross-border traffic with Afghanistan, from where they suspect the chip-carrying CIA spies are coming, said Imtiaz Wazir, a resident of Spin Wam village in north Waziristan. "If I go to Afghanistan without any purpose, the militants come to ask why," he said.

A local transporter named Haji Hamid who gave the wrong answer, he said, was found shot dead two months ago, his legs and fingers broken.

The drone strikes are despised across Pakistan, where politicians including President Asif Ali Zardari denounce them as a breach of sovereignty. But behind the scenes his government is quietly colluding with Washington.

A former CIA officer who served in Waziristan in 2006 said that small American teams comprising CIA agents, radio experts and special forces soldiers are stationed inside Pakistani military bases across the tribal belt.

From there, the CIA recruits a network of paid, and sometimes unwitting, informers – known as "cut-outs" – to help identify targets, he added. In most cases they are poor local men.

Ironically, support for the drone strikes is strongest in the frontier, especially among embattled security officials. "They are very precise, very effective, and the Taliban and al-Qaida dread them," said the provincial police chief, Malik Naveed Khan, with undisguised admiration. The strikes have caused friction between the US and the ISI, which would like America to give it control over the new technology. "The problem with the Americans is that the only instrument up their sleeve is the hammer, and they see everything as a nail," said a senior official.

The ISI resents the US for failing to target Mehsud, whose deputy claimed for last week's Lahore attack that killed at least 24 people, including an ISI colonel.

But as the army prepares to attack South Waziristan, with broad public support, the warlord's luck may be running out. Authorities in North West Frontier Province are preparing for up to 500,000 refugees, added to 2.5 million displaced by operations in Swat.

Mehsud faces other challenges, too. Rival militant groups, with army support, are challenging his dominance in South Waziristan.

And he faces the ever-present danger that some visitor could drop a "pathrai" at his doorstep, and bring an American drone with it.

• This article was amended on Monday 1 June 2009. The original located the tribal belt in the east, and a drone reference appeared contradictory. This has been corrected

[bigron]

Published on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 by CommonDreams.org


A Weaver's Welcome in Swat Valley



by Kathy Kelly

ISLAMABAD -- Shortly after arriving in Pakistan, one week ago, we met a weaver and his extended family, numbering 76 in all, who had been forcibly displaced from their homes in Fathepur, a small village in the Swat Valley.

Fighting between the Pakistani military and the Taliban had intensified. Terrified by aerial bombing and anxious to leave before a curfew would make flight impossible, the family packed all the belongings they could carry and fled on foot. It was a harrowing four day journey over snow-covered hills. Leaving their village, they faced a Taliban check point where a villager trying to leave had been assassinated that same morning. Fortunately, a Taliban guard let them pass. Walking many miles each day, with 45 children and 22 women, they supported one another as best they could. Men took turns carrying a frail grandmother on their shoulders. One woman gave birth to her baby, Hamza, on the road. When they arrived, exhausted, at a rest stop in the outskirts of Islamabad, they had no idea where to go next.

While there, the weaver struck up a conversation with a man whom he'd never met before. He told the man about the family's plight. Hearing that they were homeless, the man invited them to live with him and his family in a large building which he is renovating. He offered to put the reconstruction on hold so that the family could move into the upper stories of his building.

The weaver was also fortunate to have known, for many years, a family that had sold his art work through a small shop in Islamabad. Women in this family have been working, as volunteers, to assist refugees who've come to Islamabad. They and their companions have delivered one thousand "food kits," plus cots, mats and cooking supplies, to desperately needy people. Two of the women, Fauzia and Ghazala, invited our small delegation to visit the weaver and his family, in Islamabad's Bara Koh neighborhood.

When we arrived, older men and boys were outside, ready to unload a truck delivering mats and flour. The generous building owner invited members of our group into his home, on the ground floor, where plans were already being made to turn the top floor into a school for the children.

Several tots led me upstairs to meet their grandparents. The elderly couple sat, cross-legged, on cots. When we entered, the grandmother stood, embraced me, and then softly wept for several minutes. Soon, about twenty men, women and children clustered around the cots. All listened attentively while one of the weaver's brothers, Abdullah Shah, spoke with pride about the school in Fathepur where he had been a headmaster. The village had three schools, and his school was so successful that even Taliban families sent their children to study there. Now, the Taliban has destroyed all of the schools in Fathepur.

He and his brothers wonder what their future will be. How and when can they return to their village? And how will they start over? The crops are ruined, livestock have died, and land mines have been laid. Most of the shops and businesses have been destroyed. Many homes are demolished.

The trauma endured by the refugees is overwhelming. Yet, numerous individuals and groups have swiftly extended hospitality and emergency aid. We visited a Sikh community, in Hassan Abdal, which has taken in hundreds of Sikhs, housing them inside a large and very famous shrine. Nearby, we stayed for several days in Tarbela, where families in very simple dwellings have welcomed their relatives. The townspeople quietly took up a collection to support the refugee families. Some of the townspeople accompanied us to Ghazi, just up the road from Tarbela, where 155 people are staying in an abandoned hospital, relying entirely on the generosity of their new neighbors. Doctors from Lahore invited two of us to go with them to villages near Mardan, where people from the Swat Valley are still arriving. The doctors were part of a project organized jointly through Rotary Lahore, Pakistan Medical Aid, and Jahandan, which has worked with area councils to convert schools into refugee centers. The doctors take turns, several times a week, delivering relief shipments and helping supervise distribution.


Generosity in the face of such massive displacement and suffering is evident everywhere we go. But Pakistan needs help on a much larger scale. The U.S. has pledged 100 million dollars toward relief efforts. Two other disclosures about money budgeted for Pakistan should be considered in light of the unbearable burdens borne by close to two million new refugees. First is the decision to spend 800 million dollars to renovate and expand the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and to upgrade security at U.S. consular offices elsewhere in the country. Secondly, the U.S. will spend 400 million dollars, in 2009, to teach counter-insurgency tactics to Pakistan's military. The 2010 Defense Spending budget requests an additional 700 million for counter-insurgency training in Pakistan.

What would happen if U.S. officials put plans to expand the U.S. Embassy on hold? Suppose the U.S. were to declare that helping alleviate the misery of people forcibly displaced by Taliban violence and the recent military offensive is a top priority, one that trumps spending money on renovating and expanding the U.S. Embassy.

Suppose that the U.S. were to redirect funds designated to train counterinsurgents and instead make these funds available to help alleviate impoverishment in Pakistan. No one seems to know how the Taliban are funded, but they clearly use large sums of money to build their ranks, giving each new recruit 25,000 rupees, a sum that exceeds what a teacher earns in one year. In villages where people don't have enough resources to feed their children, the Taliban would initially move in with plans to build schools and offer two meals a day, plus clean clothes, to the children. Later, they would exercise increasingly fierce control over villages. But their initial forays into villages were marked by offers to reduce the gaps between "haves and have-nots."

Enormous resources will be spent to "crush" the Taliban, and as always happens in warfare, the bloodshed will fuel acts of revenge and retaliation.

The relationship that began when a stranger took the risk of offering shelter to a weaver holds a lesson worth heeding.

The weaver and his family will never forget the extraordinary, immediate kindness extended to them when a man put his renovation project on hold so that he could help them find shelter in his building.

The U.S. could help assure that every Pakistani family displaced by the fighting has enough to eat and the security of at least a temporary home. It would be an unusual but sensible homeland security initiative within Pakistan. And it would be a signpost pointing to greater security for the United States. The maxim that guides this idea is simple: to counter terror, build justice. Build justice predicated on the belief that each person has basic human rights, and that we have a collective responsibility to share resources so that those rights are met. This means eliminating the unjust and unfair gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots." It means weaving new relationships that don't rely on guns and bombs for security.

Kathy Kelly, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. [1] Kathy Kelly's email is kathy@vcnv.org [2]



Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/02

[Satyagraha]

US seeks sustained military effort in Fata
Wednesday, 03 Jun, 2009 | 06:33 AM PST

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/13+us+seeks+effective+operation+in+fata-za-14

WASHINGTON: A US general chosen to lead American and international forces in Afghanistan told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that effective military operations were key to disrupting and dismantling the safe havens of Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s restive tribal areas.

At his confirmation hearing, Lt-Gen Stanley McChrystal told the Senate Armed Services Committee he did not believe the prospects for both cleaving Al Qaeda from the Taliban and for reincorporating the Taliban into the Afghan government were very bright.

President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the US-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, also emphasised the need to reduce civilian casualties, warning that any victory would be ‘hollow and unsustainable’ if allied operations created popular resentment by killing civilians.

The general defended strikes by unmanned drones and Special Operations ground units but pledged to make sure that these attacks would be ordered only based on solid intelligence, and would be as ‘precise’ as possible.

‘Effective military operations in the Pakistani tribal areas are a key to disrupt and eventually deny safe havens to Al Qaeda and the Taliban from which they launch these incursions,’ said Lt-Gen McChrystal.

He conceded that preventing all incursions was difficult due to the length and porous nature of the border, but said that greater cooperation among Afghan, Pakistani and international forces could improve border security.

[Satyagraha]

Cut in development funds may spur extremism: SBP
http://www.geo.tv/6-4-2009/43461.htm

Updated at: 1122 PST,  Thursday, June 04, 2009
 KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan lowered on Thursday its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the 2008/09 (July-June) fiscal year to between 2.0-3.0 percent from its previous estimate of 2.5-3.5 percent.

Pakistan achieved GDP growth of 5.8 percent in the 2007/08 fiscal year, and the government had originally set a growth target of 5.5 percent for the current year.

In a quarterly report, the State Bank of Pakistan also raised its 2008/09 average inflation forecast to between 20.5-21.5 percent from an earlier forecast of between 19.5-20.5 percent.

The State Bank also fears that the reduction in the uplift fund may trigger a new lease of extremism in Pakistan.

The report said slash in the development expenditure may lead to the sense of deprivation in the people, as it would lead to extremism and terrorism.

[Satyagraha]

Providing security to IDPs not our job: Holbrooke
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/12-providing-security-to-idps-not-our-job-holbrooke--bi-01

MARDAN: A top US envoy visited refugees who have fled fighting between military and Taliban and told them Thursday that the United States can't offer them security, but it can offer them aid.

‘It's up to the Pakistan army to give you security —that is not our job,’ Richard Holbrooke said Thursday, going tent by tent to talk to refugees in a camp in Mardan. But he said the US could help on the humanitarian front. ‘We are giving assistance.’

The visit by Holbrooke, the top US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, is one of a series of unusually high-profile gestures by US officials here in the wake of the refugee crisis.

Up to 3 million people have been displaced by military's month-old operation in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas.

US officials who visit or work in Pakistan tend to be careful in advertising their presence or aid projects due to worries about security in a country where anti-Americanism runs deep.

The US has already pledged $110 million in aid to the refugees, and the White House is pushing to send another $200 million.

Holbrooke and his entourage flew into the camps using four helicopters whose arrival spurred a quick sandstorm in the already dusty, hot camps. The group was accompanied by a heavy contingent of US and Pakistani security.

The camps Holbrooke visited were run by the Red Cross and the UN. The envoy asked refugees for their individual stories and about the Taliban. Many refugees said they needed electric fans for the sweltering heat, and complained about the food.

Abdul Sajid, a farmer from the Buner district just south of Swat, told Holbrooke: ‘Our crops are destroyed, and we are getting nothing here. It is coming, the food, but it is not good. I am not satisfied with the conditions at the camp. Now we need your help.’

The US has given a lot of support, ‘but it is up to the United Nations and the Pakistan government to carry out the programs. We are not in the camps,’ Holbrooke replied.—AP

[Satyagraha]

Militants blow up girls’ school near Peshawar
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/19-militants-blow-up-girls-school-near-peshawar-sf-06

Thursday, 04 Jun, 2009 | 01:42 PM PST |
PESHAWAR: Militants blew up a girls’ school on the outskirts of Peshawar on Thursday as the military pressed on with an offensive against the Taliban, police said.

The school was heavily damaged in the attack in the Budaber area, about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Peshawar, local police chief Abdul Ghafoor Afridi said.

At least 40 kilogram’s (88 pounds) of explosives were used to blow up the school, he said, adding that ‘four rooms were completely destroyed and three were damaged.’

Another police official, Shakarullah Khan, said militants used a timed device to blow up the building. There were no casualties as schools are closed for the summer, he said.

Police suspected the bombing was part of an intimidation campaign because the government has used schools to shelter some of the 2.4 million people displaced by the military operation since late April.

Militants in the district of Swat, where the operation is concentrated, have destroyed scores of schools, mostly for girls, during a two-year campaign waged by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah to enforce sharia law.

Militants destroyed 191 schools in the valley, including 122 girls’ schools, leaving 62,000 pupils without classrooms, local officials have said.

There has been no co-education in Swat for several years and schools have created totally separate sections for boys and girls.—AFP
 
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/19-militants-blow-up-girls-school-near-peshawar-sf-06

Copyright © 2009 - Dawn Media Group
 

[bigron]

U.N. envoy calls for probe into U.S. drone attacks


Story Highlights :

U.N. envoy rips U.S. over investigation into drone attacks overseas

Private contractors protected by "zone of impunity," envoy says

Pakistan claims drone attacks have killed hundreds


Civil rights activists protest the use of unmanned U.S. drones in Pakistan.



(CNN) -- The United States has created a "zone of impunity" by rarely investigating private contractors involved in the unlawful killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, a U.N. human rights envoy said.

The U.S. government should track the number of civilians killed in its military operations abroad and limit collateral damage from unmanned drone attacks, Special Investigator Philip Alston said in a stinging report submitted Wednesday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

"The government has failed to effectively investigate and punish lower-ranking soldiers for such deaths, and has not held senior officers responsible," Alston said. "Worse, it has effectively created a zone of impunity for private contractors and civilian intelligence agents by only rarely investigating and prosecuting them."

Alston recommended that the United States establish a national commission to independently look into the policies and practices that are leading to the deaths. He also urged that an independent special prosecutor be charged with pursuing criminal allegations against government officials accused of wrongdoing.

"First, the government has failed to track and make public the number of civilian casualties, or the conditions under which deaths occurred," he said. "Second, the military justice system fails to provide ordinary people, including U.S. citizens and families of Iraqi and Afghan victims, basic information on the status of investigations into civilian casualties or prosecutions resulting therefrom."

Alston called the United States' reliance on pilotless missile-carrying aircraft "increasingly common" and "deeply troubling."

U.S. forces operating in Afghanistan have used drones to attack militant targets in Pakistan. Pakistan has said the attacks have claimed hundreds of civilian lives.

Mark Cassayre, the American representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council, said U.S. military and intelligence operations during armed conflict did not fall within the special investigator's mandate.

Alston is the special investigator on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

"We wish to be clear that the prosecution of private contractors who commit crimes is an important priority of the Department of Justice, and despite the difficulty of these cases, the United States continues to attempt to bring private contractor cases to justice," Cassayre said.

All AboutPakistan • Afghanistan • United Nations Human Rights Council
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

Pakistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/pakistan
U.N. Human Rights Council
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/united_nations_human_rights_council
Pakistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Pakistan
Afghanistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Afghanistan
United Nations Human Rights Council
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/04/drone.attacks/index.html 
 

[bigron]

June 4, 2009

Is It Really a War on Pasthuns?

Clearing Misconceptions on Pakistan's War in Swat

By AYESHA IJAZ KHAN

http://www.counterpunch.org/khan06042009.html


Amid all the conflicting voices that report on the Pakistani military’s ongoing operation in Swat, it is difficult to ascertain what the reality is.  There are however a few misconceptions that must be cleared.

Is this Pakistan’s war?

This is most definitely Pakistan’s war, but those targeting Pakistan and its people are not always Pakistani.  A multinational conglomerate of Arabs, Uzbeks, Chechens, Turkomen along with Pakistani militants are responsible for the insurgency in Pakistan’s northwest and for terrorist activities in the rest of Pakistan.  As their power grew, they were joined by local criminal networks, which assisted them in targeted killings and kidnapping for ransom.  Those most often targeted are law enforcement personnel, and Pakistan’s police forces have borne the brunt of the attacks.

There is widespread realization in Pakistan today that these anti-state elements need to be eliminated for Pakistan’s own sake and those who continue to speak of this operation as “America’s war” or “America’s war for which Pakistan is being paid” are but a fraction of the population.  Primarily such rhetoric is spewed from a few members of the right-wing media and bitter politicians, like those representing the Jamaat Islami and playboy-turned-born-again Muslim, Imran Khan.  Interestingly, Mr. Imran Khan’s party, at its zenith, won one parliamentary seat, and the Jamaat Islami has never done well in elections either, with the exception of the 2002 election, which is widely believed to have been rigged.

Pakistan’s military, under General Kiyani, and the ruling civilian coalition of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the centre, along with the Awami National Party (ANP) in the North West Frontier Province have taken collective ownership of the war.  The main opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-N (N for Nawaz Sharif) has also backed the military operation.  Public opinion, as reflected by the elected political parties, is eager for the military to eradicate the militants, albeit with as little collateral damage as possible.

Is this a war against the Pashtuns?

It is sometimes incorrectly stated that the militant insurgency in Pakistan’s northwest (Pashtun dominated areas) is a symbol of Pashtun nationalism.  There is no truth to this.  As Professor Mohammed Taqi writes, “This is actually the cultural result of militarized madrassas and refugee camps where Pashtun children were forced to grow up during and after the Soviet-Afghan war in the eighties.  Many of these people have never really been true citizens of Pakistan or Afghanistan and nor have they ever really experienced Pashtun tribal society.”

It is quite amazing when the likes of Fareed Zakaria claim on CNN that the current military operation in Pakistan will spark ethnic fires between Pashtuns and Punjabis.  His statement represents a complete lack of understanding.  First, the military operation is being done at the behest of the ANP, which is the foremost representative of the Pashtun sentiment in Pakistan.  Like other innocent civilians in the NWFP, members of the ANP too have suffered beheadings, kidnappings and torture at the hands of the militants and are fully backing the military operation in their province so that the writ of the government can be established.

What Mr. Zakaria also does not understand is that the Paksitan Army has a strong Pashtun contingent.  Therefore, it is not as if a Punjabi army is waging a war on a Pashtun insurgency.  The insurgency is often led by Saudis and Libyans (as demonstrated by the recent capture of several foreign militants, whose passports manifest surprisingly lax control at Iranian checkpoints) while the Pakistan Army works in close collaboration with the Frontier Constabulary, consisting exclusively of Pashtuns.

It is relevant to quote from two opinion pieces recently written in Pakistan’s widely read English daily, The News (to which I also regularly contribute).  Noor Khan, an internally displaced person (IDP) from Swat, writes:

“Like most Pakhtuns, I say the only feasible solution at this stage is a complete military operation resulting in the confirmed elimination of the leadership of the Taliban in Swat and ensuring that they do not return after the area is cleared. If it is abandoned in the middle yet again, the much-reduced supporters of the government will be finished off, and Swat will become as hostile as Waziristan…. The people of Swat are living in a situation of constant fear. When our loved ones are alive, we fear for their safety, when they are taken away, there is anguish over whether they will come back alive, when they are murdered, there is terror that their bodies will be left for scavengers to feed on, when they are returned, whole or in parts, there is the torment of giving them half-Muslim, secret burials in unmarked graves and when they are buried, there is constant dread of their graves being desecrated and their corpses being subjected to dishonour and humiliation. Our children are taken away and turned into monsters; our men are forced to lay down their lives to murder innocents and our sisters are dragged out of their homes by disappointed suitors and flogged publicly for imaginary crimes.”

Zubair Torwali, an IDP from Bahrain (a scenic town in upper Swat) writes:

“On May 28 the Pakistan army entered Bahrain and was greeted by the local people who came forward with white flags and kept on chanting “Pak Fauj Zindabad’ [Long Live Pakistan Army]. This is unique in that something like this has happened for the first time in the whole of the troubled Swat valley. It was also unique as Bahrain had been under the control of the Taliban since the beginning of April. When the brave soldiers of the Pakistan army saw this scene they also became emotional and began chanting slogans in favour of the army and the people. The people were so happy at this spectacle of the state forces that they happily carried the ammunition, guns and other luggage of the soldiers to their positions…. The war against the militants can only be won by winning the hearts and minds of the local population — and this has been done in Bahrain.”

Do the people in Swat want to be governed by Sharia or Islamic law?

Like elsewhere in Pakistan, the people of Swat are religious and very defensive about Islam.  However, like elsewhere in Pakistan, when it comes time to vote, they vote for secular parties.  The 2008 election was no exception, when they voted overwhelmingly for ANP candidates.

Much is made about the fact that the people of Swat lived under Islamic law before they became a part of Pakistan and hence want to return to it.  While it is true that the people of Swat want justice and opportunity, running water and electricity, and a chance to send their children to school, whether they are provided these basics under Islamic or secular law is of little concern to them.  In fact, given voting patterns, it can be argued that they have more faith in acquiring these rights by voting for secular political parties.  After all, the Islamic parties make Sharia a key electoral promise, yet they perform poorly in elections.

It is important also to reflect upon the history of Swat.  Prior to the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, Swat was a princely state, ruled by a wali.  Although the Wali was inclined towards Sufism, he introduced a legal system that was a combination of Islamic and customary Pashtun laws.  Yet, not only did he build infrastructure and schools promoting both education and tourism, but also legally sanctioned bars and “dancing girls”. 

At the time of Partition, the Wali of Swat opted to join Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s Pakistan voluntarily, but until 1969, Swat remained a semi-autonomous state with its own police and small army.  General Ayub Khan, who ruled Pakistan between 1958 and 1969, married his beautiful daughter, Nasim, to Captain Miangul Aurangzeb, who was the wali ahad (crown prince) of Swat, and was serving Ayub Khan as his aide-de-camp.  Although the marriage was a catalyst to merging semi-autonomous Swat into the rest of Pakistan, it wasn’t until Ayub Khan was asked to step down, that his successor, General Yahya, dethroned the Wali of Swat.

Subsequently, the ruling family merged into Pakistan quite readily, remaining active in national politics, but the people of Swat suffered from the inability of successive governments to fill the void in governance left by dethroning the Wali.

What is required therefore is to bring the legal system of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA), of which Swat is a part, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in line with that of the rest of Pakistan and to focus on enhancing a poor law enforcement structure.  And although the legal system in Pakistan in general could do with much reform, it must be uniform all over the country so as to avoid feelings of discrimination.

Romanticism with the past is not the answer.  The Wali of Swat may have administered the state passably, modernizing it in his dream to create a “Switzerland of Asia”, but there were also repressive practices.  Practices that would not go down well in a society aspiring for democratic norms and civil liberties. 

For example, the family of Afzal Khan Lala, one of Pakistan’s most respected politicians who hail from Swat, was expelled from their native land by the former Wali because he considered their influence in Swat a challenge to his despotic rule.  It is interesting also to note how Afzal Khan Lala and Miangul Aurangzeb (both in their eighties) differ on the Swat operation.

In an interview with Azhar Masood in Foreign Policy Journal, the former wali ahad of Swat, Miangul Aurangzeb, dubiously sits on the fence, stating of the military operation:  “I neither approve it nor disapprove it.”

Afzal Khan Lala takes a clear position.  Having suffered the loss of two grandsons and been ambushed by the Taliban himself, he remains steadfast in his defiance, stating categorically:  “The Taliban movement is not an ideological movement. All the men of Sufi Muhammad and Maulana Fazlullah are loyal to Baitullah Mehsud. In fact, all the Taliban are loyal to Mullah Omar and most of them are criminals, looters, bandits, car  snatchers, absconders and  drug  runners. He is the centre of gravity both for Pakistani and Afghan Taliban.”

When asked if it was a class struggle, he responded:  “In class struggle between haves and have-nots, you do not become a criminal. You do not harm innocent people, snatch vehicles, dump arms and ammunition; you get popular through the force of ideology and not force. Taliban are terrorists and have no ideology.”

Is it possible to defeat the Taliban?

Yes, it is possible for the Pakistan Army to defeat the militants.  There are plenty of stories of the bravery and heroism of Pashtun fighters who are helped along by the rugged terrain in Pakistan’s northwest such that no invader could capture these freedom-loving people.  That may well be true, but it is only true for foreign invaders.  So Americans should beware. 

But the Pakistan Army is no foreign invader.  They know the terrain as well as the militants.  The historic Ambela Pass, which could not be taken by successive foreign intruders and led to their defeat at the hands of the Pashtuns, was taken by the Pakistani security forces, assisted by the Frontier Constabulary, in a matter of days.  So, in the case of Pakistan’s own war, it is much more a matter of will than ability.

In the past, during Musharraf’s time, the fight was often not sincere and plagued with half-baked “peace deals” because Musharraf and his cronies believed that if the Islamic threat was eradicated altogether, it would be impossible for Musharraf to present himself as the bulwark against terrorism and continue to win the west’s support.  As a result, operations were conducted with duplicity and alliances were entered into with political forces that supported extremist ideology.

Presently, the army, under General Kiyani, appears sincere in its efforts and not distracted by competing concerns of maintaining a political hold on the country.  The politicians, for their part, are backing the army and consolidating public opinion behind their efforts.

The most difficult part is not the military operation, but rehabilitation of the displaced and rebuilding of the destroyed infrastructure.  In this, Pakistan must be helped.  Presently, of the 2.5 million IDPs, only 200,000 are living in camps set up by the government and various relief agencies.  The rest are staying with relatives and friends.  The Pakistani people are very generous even with excruciatingly limited resources.  The state and the international community must ensure that the burden taken on by these friends and relatives does not break their backs.

Aid must flow to Pakistan.  But, given the unfortunate corrupt state of government affairs, it must be tied to strict requirements of transparency and accountability.  The international community should also take a special interest in infrastructure projects for the affected areas where a lot has been demolished as a result of this “grim but necessary war”, as Cyril Almeida, one of Pakistan’s finest columnists, remarked.  Building an expensive “super embassy” in Pakistan, as reported by some media sources, will do little good and much harm.  Not only will it give credence to the few that claim “this is America’s war”, but it will also lead Pakistanis in general to conclude that America is simply motivated by imperialist designs. 

Stabilizing and developing Pakistan is beneficial to the world at large.  The US also owes it to Pakistan to help it out of this quagmire, to make up for its abdication of responsibility in the aftermath of the Soviet defeat.  Hillary Clinton’s remarks in this context are gracious, honest and welcome, but they must be matched with appropriate action.

Ayesha Ijaz Khan is a London-based lawyer and political commentator and can be contacted via her website www.ayeshaijazkhan.com

[Satyagraha]

Great historical review - particularly about Swat. I think the people of Swat were, for years, a very peaceful people, kind of 'Amish' in their isolation and simple lifestyle. Hard to believe what's happened to them; the innocent among them have had their lives ripped apart.