A divided nation | Peace or War with Taliban?

[PeaceGen]

My thanks on the above message is to signal a thanks to the poster for posting the article, NOT for seeing ANY peacetalks fail. FYI.

 

[pak-marine]

they want war lets give them enough of talks drama .. 13 days 13 attacks today again there was a lethal strike on rangers comander in khi he narowly escaped death

 

[PeaceGen]

Karachi residents live in fear as Pakistani Taliban gains strength - The Washington Post

Karachi residents live in fear as Pakistan Taliban gains strength

KARACHI, Pakistan — Armored car sales have soared, and some new luxury apartments feature bulletproof glass. Local police officers, slain this year at an average rate of one per day, are demoralized. And now even the journalists are trying to arm themselves.

Pakistan’s biggest city has been plagued by crime and political violence for decades, with Urdu- and Pashto-speaking groups battling for influence. But the bloodshed is worsening as the domestic Taliban insurgency expands.

The militant group was largely responsible for a 90 percent spike in terrorist attacks in Karachi last year, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, which monitors violence. In the latest such attack, an explosion tore through a bus carrying police Thursday morning, killing a dozen officers. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

The bloodshed in this city reflects the Pakistani Taliban’s growing national offensive against the government and religious minorities. But the insurgents are also using violence to take control of some city neighborhoods, where ordinary residents are forced to contribute to their cause, analysts said.

The mayhem is raising concerns that one of the world’s most populous cities is teetering on the brink of lawlessness.

“Something must be done soon, if Pakistan is to be saved,” said Nasir Jamal, a deputy director of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a major political party.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif insists that Karachi can be tamed through targeted security operations and peace talks launched last monthwith the Pakistani Taliban. But residents of the country’s economic and cultural hub are deeply worried.

“Everyone is just waiting their turn to be killed,” said Zamin Ali, son of a prominent Shiite attorney who was fatally shot outside a Karachi courthouse in July, part of a surge of sectarian killings being carried out by the Taliban and other Sunni-dominated militant groups.

For all the unrest, Karachi hardly resembles Baghdad or Mogadishu. It is home to dozens of international corporations, the Pakistan stock exchange and two major ports. Streets remain busy well into the night as residents flock to upscale shopping malls and events such as a new dolphin show at the aquarium and Pakistan’s first performance of the Broadway musical “Grease.”

Yet, that semblance of normality is increasingly being tested by Islamist militants surging into the city from northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan, part of a larger migration that has caused the city’s population to nearly double in just over a decade, to about 22 million.

The city has long suffered from violence linked to gangs, drug traffickers and political mobsters. But now, some areas of the city look increasingly militarized. In the Kati Pahari neighborhood, where a mountain of orange-tinged rock looms over the city, heavily armed officers man checkpoints, stopping cars in search of militants traveling from police no-go zones in the vast slums on the outskirts of town.

The influxbegan after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 caused al-Qaeda fighters and Afghan Taliban to flee that country. More recently, Karachi has become a haven for militants escaping U.S. drone strikes and Pakistani military operations in northwest Pakistan.

When The Washington Post recently asked a senior Karachi police commander how many Taliban sympathizers live in the city, he bluntly said, “A couple hundred thousand.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety. Other officials and analysts estimated that the number of active militants is far less — 10,000 to 15,000, including those aligned with groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

The Pakistan Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), formed when various Pakistani militant groups coalesced in 2007 and early 2008. It claims to be independent of the Afghan Taliban. But the groups are believed to coordinate activities. Both are dominated by Pashtuns, the biggest ethnic group in southern and eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan.

For years, Karachi had been plagued by clashes between Mohajirs, Urdu speakers who long dominated this economic hub, and Pashtuns, who were newer arrivals. But now, even Pashtuns say they feel threatened.

‘INCREASING THEIR POWER’

Zia Ur Rehman, author of the book “Karachi in Turmoil,” said at least 10 percent of the city’s residents live in neighborhoods effectively controlled by the Pakistani Taliban.


“Day by day [the Taliban] is increasing their power, and there is no hope of betterment,” said Abdul Rauf, a local leader in the Pashtun-dominated Awami National Party. He said 17 party officials were killed in his central Karachi district alone last year by Taliban insurgents seeking to control Pashtun neighborhoods.

Huma Yusuf, a Karachi-based researcher, said the rise of Taliban influence is making the city more ungovernable. She said that during prior conflicts between politically and ethnically based groups, there was usually someone who could step in to ease tensions because the various actors had financial and cultural stakes in the city. The Taliban, she said, “doesn’t answer to anyone.”

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 3,251 people died in violence in Karachi last year, which local news media outlets called a record high. Official police statistics show 2,507 killings last year, up from 2,124 in 2012. In January, 216 people were killed, including 28 law enforcement officials, police said.

Chaudhry Aslam, superintendent of the police Criminal Investigation Department, was killed in a suicide bomb blast.

In one killing that shocked this city, the head of the police Criminal Investigation Department was assassinated in January when a car packed with explosives rammed his convoy. The Taliban asserted responsibility for the attack against Chaudhry Aslam, who had gained a reputation for relentlessly pursuing militants in the city.

A week after Aslam was killed, Karachi was jolted when three employees of Express News Live television network were shot at point-blank range as they sat in their news van. The Taliban asserted responsibility, saying it was taking revenge for the station’s recent reporting on the group’s activities. The assassinations came on the heels of a grenade attack in December and a shooting outside the TV station in August. Reporters and other station employees are now seeking permission to carry weapons, said Aslam Khan, the bureau chief.

“And it’s not just because of the Taliban,” Khan said.

Indeed, as the threat from militancy grows, Yusuf said, other criminals are finding “more space” to terrorize residents through kidnapping, extortion and robbery.

Karachi’s police force is roughly the size of New York City’s — even though its population is three times as big — and its officers are overwhelmed, Yusuf and several officials said. Criminals increasingly claim to be working for the Taliban, when they have no actual ties to the group, police said.

Muhammad Taqi Alvi, a local newspaper editor, said he was driving with family recently when gunmen threw tires in front of his car. His wife and three small children were taken hostage, and the gunmen — who said they were affiliated with the Taliban — demanded $20,000 for their release. After three hours of negotiation, they settled for $120.

“For three hours, we hung between life and death,” Alvi said.

Ibrahim M. Zafar, a 33-year-old dentist, recently hired a 24-hour armed guard for his office after being robbed at gunpoint at a traffic light. He said he and his friends have also stopped using smartphones and wearing expensive watches in public.

Others are rushing to reinforce vehicles, at a cost of up to $50,000, amid a wave of killings being carried out by men on motorcycles.


“It used to be protection from small-arms fire, but now there are hundreds of thousands of Kalashnikovs and high-powered rifles on the street, so now people want protection from that,” said Khurrum Hamirani, a businessman who relocated his armored car business to Karachi several years ago after business slowed in Baghdad. He said his business grew by 100 percent last year.

Perhaps the most telling sign of the city’s troubles is the sense of helplessness gripping the police force.

“The bombproof cars we have can only handle 25 kilos” — 55 pounds — of explosives, the senior police commander said, adding that the Taliban had used more than 200 pounds of explosives in killing Aslam. If the militants attack, he said, “it’s just not possible to secure us.”

...is all i can say after reading this report....

 

[Devil Soul]

COAS, PM weigh options

February 19, 2014
SIKANDER SHAHEEN
Islamabad - The unabated wave of deadly attacks on security forces and civilians in different parts of the country has prompted the top security bosses to review the security strategy to neutralise the hostile militant factions sabotaging the peace initiatives.
Amid no let-up in terror attacks, the military establishment has purportedly briefed the ruling gurus that the use of force against the miscreants has become inevitable. In this regard, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif is said to have conveyed to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that recent attacks on the security forces were not likely to stop unless some hostile groups of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were neutralised. The development surfaced on Tuesday, with the army chief having called on the PM to brief him about the security situation in the country.
“The policy of inaction costs us dearly,” said an intelligence insider while quoting the COAS as briefing the PM. “Soon, there would be a change (in policy), a visible one,” the source said in an implied reference to the army’s prevailing policy of following a ceasefire vis-à-vis TTP in line with the government’s efforts to make peace with the hardcore terrorists by means of holding dialogue with them. Reportedly, the PM and the army chief shared a unanimity in the view that that the terrorists would not be allowed to keep striking with impunity. “Peace talks or no peace talks. Bloodshed has to stop,” the intelligence insider summed up the meeting’s agenda.
It merits a recall here that The Nation on Tuesday exclusively reported that the army chief would meet the PM to brief him about the existing security situation, in the story headlined “COAS to meet PM to discuss retaliation.”
When approached, the PM Spokesman and Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid did not share the specifications discussed in the PM-COAS meeting. He said the government pursued the peace talks process with utmost sincerity. To a query, he said the government had in store the ‘other options’ in case the peace talks ceased to work. “It would be extremely unfortunate if these talks fail. But we have other options. We have to restore peace and the writ of state at any cost, either through amicable means or with the use of force. Whether we go for the second option depends on the first option’s outcome.”
The intelligence source said certain TTP factions including that of the Mohmand Agency chapter were against the peace talks. “They need to be neutralised even if the peace talks are to be proceeded ahead.”
Unilaterally been followed so far, the ceasefire period has seen dozens of deadly attacks on the civilian population, polio workers and the security personnel.
Alone on Tuesday, a major-ranked officer of Pakistan Army lost his life when the reported terrorists from TTP attacked a military vehicle in Peshawar. Three militants were also said to be killed in the reported exchange of fire between the military and miscreants. Separately, a police mobile was attacked in Hangu the same day. The number of casualties was not known till filing of this report on Tuesday night.
The deceased victim of Peshawar assault was identified as Major Jahanzeb Adnan, 31, hailing from Multan. He is survived by a wife and three children.
Earlier on Monday, a Pakistan Army sepoy was killed when the militants stormed a check post in South Waziristan Agency (SWA) at Ladha, an area that has the dominant influence of TTP commander Khan Said Sajna. The deceased soldier was identified as Mehrab. He is survived by a wife and a son.
Prior to that, 23 Frontier Corps (FC) men were slaughtered and 13 police commandos were killed in Karachi. Nine members of a pro-government tribal militia were killed in Peshawar and a pro-government tribal elder was fatally targeted in Orakzai Agency. Several other terror incidents having taken place in the recent days resulted in the loss of several lives including those of the security personnel and the civilians.
In the 169th Corps Commanders Conference held on February 10, the army commanders had pledged to follow the policy of ceasefire during peace talks with the militants in compliance with the government’s related decision but reiterated to retaliate in response to any direct attack on the security personnel.
Agencies add: Separately, gunman on a motocycle fired on a vehicle being used by French aid organisation ACTED near Kohat on Tuesday, wounding the driver, police said.
COAS, PM weigh options