Acts of Terrorism in Pakistan

[fatman17]

The News International - No. 1 English Newspaper from Pakistan - Thursday, June 05, 2008

66% prisoners ‘picked up from Pakistan’

By Saadia Khalid

6/5/2008

As many as 66 per cent of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay were picked up from Pakistan during last six years in exchange of millions of dollars accepted by President Musharraf.

This was revealed by United Kingdom (UK) Legal Director Zachary Katznelson while delivering a lecture on ‘Forgotten prisoners of Guantanamo Bay’, organised by Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) on Wednesday.

Zachary said that it was the President Musharraf who sold the innocent people of his country without proving any charge against them. “Not a single charge has been proved against these prisoners till now,” he said.

He said that 20 per cent of the prisoners were handed over by the Afghanistan government while rest of 14 per cent were handed over by other countries. “Not a single trial had been conducted since the opening of Guantanamo Bay in 2002,” he said.

Zachary said that the prisoners housed in Guantanamo Bay were living in miserable conditions where they were not allowed to meet or contact their families through telephones.

He displayed the photographs of various camps of Guantanamo Bay where the United States (US) abandoned all human values and legal rights. The six camps were no larger than an area of 2x3 metres and the ventilation system was nowhere.

He also displayed the pictures of a cell made up of the iron walls, iron ceiling and iron floor. “The officials turn the air-conditioning on when they intend to torture some prisoner which led to decrease in mercury up to the minus degrees,” he said.

The pictures of recreational cages at Guantanamo Bay were also displayed in which the prisoners were allowed to visit for two hours in a day while for the rest of 22 hours they have to spend in the camp.” The so-called recreational cages are also built in a way that hardly any light or air comes in,” he added.

Zachary also pointed out various techniques used for torturing the prisoners to make them accept the crime that they had never committed. “One of the barbarous techniques for torture is water pouring, in which the prisoner is left with no choice than to admit that he had committed some crime as his lungs are filed up with water,” he said.

He said that four prisoners had been died during last six years, which the CIA officials termed as suicide while one Abdur Razaq said to have a natural death. He further added that no compensation had been given to the prisoners’ families who died during imprisonment or had been released. “President Bush is not acting as a public representative or a president but acting as if he is a god,” he said.

He said that the citizens of US have high hopes with Obama as he himself said that the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay would be released immediately.

He said majority of Pakistani prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were innocent. He quoted the case of Mohammad Paracha who had been arrested in 2003 from Bangkok by the CIA officials.

“They alleged that Paracha had a talk with Usama Bin Laden during 2001 but in fact he is an innocent man who was running his business of import and export in Bangkok. Some officials from Pakistan Ministry of Interior met Paracha and concluded that he was neither a terrorist nor a threat to Pakistan and America,” he said.

Zachary said that Foreign Minister of Pakistan would be going to America for the release of Paracha in the coming days. “The negotiations between Pakistan and America should not be confined to the release of Paracha but the other six innocent prisoners including Mjid Khan, Umar Baloch, Khalid Sheikh, Abdur Rahim Rabbani and Mohammad Rabanni,” he said.

He said that the CIA officials were not in favour of following any rule regarding the human rights or the rights of prisoners and claimed that the terrorist did not deserve any relief in this regard. “The officials put forward the point that if terrorist are not following any rules then why the investigating agencies should follow them,” he said.

On the occasion Professor Khalid Rehman said that anyone who kills innocent civilian was a criminal whether it was an individual, group or a state. “It is because of the incapability of present rulers who for their vested interests handed over the innocent people of their country,” he said.

Rehman said that currently there were 3,000 missing persons in Pakistan and it was a time to launch a concrete investigation on this particular issue. “It is a wake up call for us to raise our voices against the exploitation of innocent prisoners at Guantanamo Bay,” he said.

 

[niaz]

Look at all those released from Guantanamo prison; such as Baitullah Mahsood. Are they not die hard extremists? What most of these were doing in Afghanistan any way if not fighting for the Taliban, worst extremists and terrorists ever.

Have we forgotton what evil Lashkar Jhangvi activists petpetrated in the name of religion on innocent Pakistanis? All of these criminals were finding haven in the Taliban Afghanistan. They killed someone known to me personally; Shaukat Mirza, MD of PSO, just because he was a Shia. Believe me he was a very moderate Shia if that!! IMO all those in that infamous prison deserve to be there and I hope they die there. If they ever return they will make Pakistan worse than hell by their extremist actions.

I quote the following from Daily News of today.


Evil in our midst
Thursday, June 05, 2008

While curbing growing intolerance was one of the promises made by President Pervez Musharraf soon after he came to office and on many occasions afterwards, today, over eight years on we find ourselves living in a society within which extremists have taken control of more and more facets of life. The bomb attack on a girls' school near Mardan and at least two separate attacks on CD shops in the same area within the past few days are the latest evidence of this. It may be noted that till now, educational institutions for women in Mardan had not been targeted. The latest instances go to show the evil in our midst is expanding. The same holds true in the case of the threats made to cinemas in Peshawar. Extremists who, in the past with the connivance of the former MMA government, have already cracked down on music in the city and forced out scores of musicians from the province, are now apparently out to crack down on the dwindling sources of entertainment still available to people.

Taken alone, each of these incidents may seem relatively minor. Seen as a whole, the picture that emerges is no a pretty one. Apart from the numerous attacks on girls' schools in northern areas, attempts to stop musical or theatrical functions at educational institutions have been periodically reported from major cities. Books as innocuous as Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' remain a source of controversy at some centres of higher learning and women in many places have reported warnings delivered to them to cover their heads or dress 'appropriately'. The actions of the Jamia Hafsa brigades in Islamabad last year are a reminder of how dangerous such vigilantism, fuelled by misguided religious fervour, can be.

But, as we approach the anniversary of the operation on the Jamia Hafsa, we seem to have already forgotten about the need to act against the extremism being bred everywhere. While, on the surface, there has been some improvement since the days of Ziaul Haq, when even actresses shown arising from slumber in PTV dramas did so with their dupattas neatly draped over their heads, the seminaries dotted everywhere in our country continue to produce dangerous zealots. Even mainstream school curriculums, with the gender stereotypical roles assigned to women and the failure to mainstream non-Muslim citizens, play a part in strengthening this mindset of intolerance.

If the attacks in the north are to be stopped, and the vibrant, diverse society Pakistan once was recreated, a holistic policy needs to be adapted. This must cover many facets of life, ranging from education to the media. Our policy makers must remember there is no time left to lose. The failure by President Musharraf to keep his promise on this issue has created many difficulties. They must not be allowed to grow over the coming years.

Evil in our midst

There are so many forces at work bent upon destroying Pakistan and my naive country men are being seduced by the Taliban sympathizers such as Saadia Khalid. The cancer of extremism started by the evil Zia and his cronies is now eating away at Pakistan's fabric and the simpleton citizens are happy about it. Must we destroy our beloved country for the sake of these evil men wearing religous garb.

 

[niaz]

An article published in today's Dawn. The facts are well known and repeated elsewhere, nevertheless, it is a summary of what is happening.



Terrorism’s perspectives

By Rifaat Hamid Ghani


THERE are two aspects to terrorism and Pakistan. First the phenomenon inside Pakistan itself hitting state and society; and then the western conception of Pakistan as adjunct to the Al Qaeda brand of terrorism that declaredly threatens their world.

The one has Pakistan a victim and the other has it a possible facilitator because segments of the population may be sympathetic, particularly to Afghanistan’s routed Taliban.

Both America and Pakistan would agree there is some kind of confluence in the waging of the war on terror and the terrorism that Pakistan itself experiences, but they inter-relate cause and effect differently. A terrorist act is as much an outcome of political opinion and experience as of religious and cultural outlook. The terrorist’s mode for violence is dictated by weakness. As well as a stratified cross-permeated historical narrative, geography and demography are important factors in terrorism and Pakistan.

The NWFP’s tribal belt is federally administered (Fata) and shares ethnicities with Afghanistan. That stubbornly undefined border has a tradition of illegal traffic and smuggling as well as of inviolable sanctuary and refuge. Since Pakhtuns also inhabit the valleys and plains of Federal Pakistan’s Sarhad province, that ethnicity is not confined to Fata. It brands provincial politics.

In Karachi, the Pakhtun labour force constitutes a large presence. And there are Afghan refugees — Pakhtuns and non-Pakhtun — dotting Balochistan, Sindh and major cities; some living as virtually settled migrants, in conditions that range from affluence to destitution. Because of Pakistan’s contiguity with Afghanistan, the dislocation of Afghans from war zones seeking asylum as refugees or fugitives would affect Pakistan directly, whether or not it was a partner in America’s war on terror.

America has had two separate ideological engagements — less than two decades apart — in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s presidents (military dictators in both cases) quite eagerly involved themselves and the country with both efforts. The first engagement was against the ‘godless’ USSR’s intrusion into Afghanistan. America found the Muslim jihadist concept a useful tool; and Pakistan’s semi-official facilitation of the Mujahideen was much facilitated by the US. When the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, America also withdrew from proxy engagement. At that stage, it did not matter how the Afghans resolved their contradictions in the evolving civil war.

Pakistan sought to gain ‘strategic depth’ and rather foolishly fancied itself in the role of kingmaker amid conflicting factions. Inevitably, this alienated tranches of the Afghan population. In NWFP where nationalist, secular elements compete with an obscurantist clerical stream, political sentiment was from the outset sharply divided about involvement in Afghan affairs. When the now notorious Taliban established some kind of writ over most of Afghanistan, Pakistan pinned hopes of strategic depth on them.There is some assuming the government (Benazir Bhutto was in her second tenure as prime minister) gave encouragement if not quite sponsorship to the fledgling Taliban movement. To this day, Pakistanis do not know where the truth lies. Pakistanis believe US officialdom possesses some of the facts. Yet, so murky has the Afghan context become configuring the current triangle, American commentary and disclosure are suspect.

However, one thing is indisputable. Well before the Taliban emerged, Pakistan, thanks to its clumsy Afghan policy, had earned enemies within neighbouring Afghanistan and generated grudges within its own NWFP. Favouring Pakhtun ethnicity among Mujahideen factions alienated other Afghan ethnicities. By siding with the Taliban, powerful warlords gave progressive secular Afghans cause for double rancour. Eventually, when camps closed at UN direction, even returning refugees left feeling hostile about losing shelter!

In its first engagement, America impacted Afghanistan befriending the tribesmen’s mores and rejecting foreign troops on their soil. The second time the US was the invader and the tribesmen were the enemy. Osama had sanctuary with the Taliban who refused to give him up to the US, though they were less reluctant to negotiate handing him over to intermediaries. This possibility was not pursued.

In the Cold War perspective, America used the jihadist mindset deliberately and dispassionately. Its recoil was visceral post 9/11, originating in fear of Muslim fundamentalism perceived as irradiating terrorism. The Mujahid America had encouraged Pakistan’s establishment to link up with was now the jihadist they had to smoke out.

The American-led global alliance pulverised Taliban resistance along with the hills and caves of Tora Bora and much else in ‘collateral damage’. But Osama eluded them. Eventually, they installed what may be called a puppet regime, for their troops are not yet able to withdraw. To ordinary Pakistanis, America’s Afghan role now seems quasi-suzerain.

But the war on terror goes on and Pakistan comes under more and more pressure — internationally for not doing enough and nationally for not protecting its citizens’ lives and property from Nato incursions. There is contempt of the macho tribal warrior sort for a government that lacks autonomy and anger with the American bully. But anti-Americanism is not restricted to chauvinist fundamentalist mindsets.

Pakistan’s progressives are exacerbated by the world’s foremost democratic power actively supporting its military ruler. The US role in procuring his deal with Ms Bhutto offers a disconcerting parallel to the ISI role in politics! On another plane, many secularists reject a global corporate culture.

Why assume orthodox tribal Muslims or urbanised defendants of madressah schooling are pro-terrorist? This is not to deny that a resurgent Islamism is entwined with the war on terror; and religion is deeply entwined with Pakistan’s own saga of violent clandestine politicking. But those manipulations favour vested interests.

The demands of America’s first Afghan engagement were coincident with sanitising and stabilising General Zia’s usurpation. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto whom he overthrew had been contending with a massive wave of protest at electoral rigging.

General Zia exploited the context to create an opposition between the workings of parliamentary democracy and egalitarian Islam. Dissent was branded un-Islamic and democracy a secular value. He extended a clerically-led party base through expanding the maulvi’s social scope — rather as General Musharraf used the PML-Q and the doctrine of enlightened moderation.

In the war on terror, America, too, finds an innate opposition between democratic pluralities and ‘Islamic’ exclusivity. Local hostility to pre-emptive interventionism or cultural makeovers in America-moulded matrices is confounded with xenophobia and fanaticism.

If such Muslim reaction is halfway to terrorism, the American attitude is halfway to an invitation. And the question still remains: why should the quite kosher local democratic aspirations be over-ridden? No elected Pakistan government, whatever its hue, would support terrorism.

It should not be that hard for Nato or the western public to understand that Pakistan’s citizens are both bewildered by and resentful of strikes as at Damadola. The one thing Pakistan does not lack is an institutionalised military machine. If the US thinks this machine is no longer monolithic and has ominous dualities, territorial violations and fiats on the ambit of dialogue with Fata elders only make Pakistan’s government lose face and reinforce rather than weaken the subconscious grounds for Al Qaeda mindsets.

Unimpassioned Pakistanis apprehend America and Pakistan’s consciously distorted projection of Talibanism; as well as some genuine blunders in handling fundamentalism in and around Afghanistan aggravate sectarian violence and terrorism. Quite as much as Pakistan needs to keep religion clear of politics, America needs to keep clear a separating boundary between the war on terror and a Pax Americana.

DAWN - Opinion; June 09, 2008

 

[fatman17]

so the question posed is where do we draw the line? or i am afraid its too late!

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

so the question posed is where do we draw the line? or i am afraid its too late!

Depends on what the goals are I suppose.

How do we get most Pakistanis to understand that "peace deals" do not work?

I would argue by allowing a "democratically elected government" to go through the whole charade of these "deals", and then watching them fall apart and the violence start all over again.

The problem here is that if the militants actually back off on their anti-state activities within Pakistan (which so far they haven't done, with schools, businesses and the occasional SF personnel still being attacked) then Pakistanis will see the peace deals as "working".

However the militants have blatantly refused to cease attacks on NATO and Afghan forces across the Durand line, so those attacks would continue and eventually invite retaliation from NATO (drone attacks etc.). The Taliban would then do what they have always done, and start attacking Pakistani targets again, and people will blame the US for "breaking the accords", rather than the Taliban, so we will have achieved nothing, while the Taliban will most likely have strengthened domestically (they are not going to be fighting NATO without stockpiling weapons and explosives and training camps).

Of course if the government is smart then it will hopefull highlight every incident of the Taliban's violation of the peace deals (which occur everyday as we speak) and build up public sentiment against the Taliban so that military action can be taken with public support.

All of this ignores what the policy makers might be juggling in terms of their perceptions of US/NATO commitment to staying in Afghanistan and US/NATO force levels in Afghanistan, and as Muse mentioned somewhere, the lack of US interest in helping adress any of Pakistan's strategic concerns in the region.

The US does not want to upset the Afghan apple cart led by Karzai by putting pressure on the Afghan government to move on certain issues, but on the other hand there seems to be the expectation that Pakistan should care nought for its own complexities and "ensure US interests are catered to".

Pakistan may be biding time until the new adminsitration takes charge.

 

[micheel george]

Terrorism in Pakistan has been prevalent since the 1980s mostly by due to the Soviet-Afghan War.The war brought numerous fighters from all over the world to South Asia in the name of jihad, often financed by the United States or Saudi Arabia.
There are three terrorism groups namely Lashkae-e-omar, Lashkae-e-Toiba,Sipah-e-Sahaba-pakistan.

-------------
micheel george
social media marketing

 

[blain2]

US told not to back terrorism against Pakistan




Tuesday, August 05, 2008

By Kamran Khan

KARACHI: Pakistan has complained to the United States military leadership and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that Washington’s policy towards terrorism in Pakistan was inconsistent with America’s declared commitment to the war against terror.

Impeccable official sources have said that strong evidence and circumstantial evidence of American acquiescence to terrorism inside Pakistan was outlined by President Pervez Musharraf, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj in their separate meetings with US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and CIA Deputy Director Stephen R Kappes on July 12 in Rawalpindi.

The visit by the senior US military official along with the CIA deputy director — carrying what were seen as India-influenced intelligence inputs — hardened the resolve of Pakistanís security establishment to keep supreme Pakistan’s national security interest even if it meant straining ties with the US and Nato.

A senior official with direct knowledge of these meetings said that Pakistan’s military leadership and the president asked the American visitors “not to distinguish between a terrorist for the United States and Afghanistan and a terrorist for Pakistan”.

For reasons best known to Langley, the CIA headquarters, as well as the Pentagon, Pakistani officials say the Americans were not interested in disrupting the Kabul-based fountainhead of terrorism in Balochistan nor do they want to allocate the marvellous predator resource to neutralise the kingpin of suicide bombings against the Pakistani military establishment now hiding near the Pak-Afghan border.

In the strongest evidence-based confrontation with the American security establishment since the two countries established their post-9/11 strategic alliance, Pakistani officials proved Brahamdagh Bugti’s presence in Afghan intelligence safe houses in Kabul, his photographed visits to New Delhi and his orders for terrorism in Balochistan.

The top US military commander and the CIA official were also asked why the CIA-run predator and the US military did not swing into action when they were provided the exact location of Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan’s enemy number one and the mastermind of almost every suicide operation against the Pakistan Army and the ISI since June 2006.

One such precise piece of information was made available to the CIA on May 24 when Baitullah Mehsud drove to a remote South Waziristan mountain post in his Toyota Land Cruiser to address the press and returned back to his safe abode. The United States military has the capacity to direct a missile to a precise location at very short notice as it has done close to 20 times in the last few years to hit al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan.

Pakistani official have long been intrigued by the presence of highly encrypted communications gear with Baitullah Mehsud. This communication gear enables him to collect real-time information on Pakistani troop movement from an unidentified foreign source without being intercepted by Pakistani intelligence.

Admiral Mullen and the CIA official were in Pakistan on an unannounced visit on July 12 to show what the US media claimed was evidence of the ISI’s ties to†Taliban commander Maulana Sirajuddin Haqqani and the alleged involvement of Pakistani agents in the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.

Pakistani military leaders rubbished the American information and evidence on the Kabul bombing but provided some rationale for keeping a window open with Haqqani, just as the British government had decided to open talks with some Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan last year.

Before opening new channels of communication with the Taliban in Helmand province in March this year, the British and Nato forces were talking to leading Taliban leaders through†Michael Semple, the acting head of the European Union mission to Afghanistan, and Mervyn Patterson, a senior UN official, before their unprecedented expulsion from Afghanistan by the Karzai government†in January this year.

The American visitors were also told that the government of Pakistan had to seek the help of Taliban commanders such as Sirajuddin Haqqani for the release of its kidnapped ambassador Tariquddin Aziz, after the US-backed Karzai administration failed to secure Aziz’s release from his captors in Afghanistan.

Admiral Mullen and Kappes were both provided information about the activities of the Indian consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad and were asked how the CIA does not know that both Indian consulates are manned by Indian Intelligence who plot against Pakistan round the clock.

“ We wanted to know when our American friends would get interested in tracking down the terrorists responsible for hundreds of suicide bombings in Pakistan and those playing havoc with our natural resources in Balochistan while sitting in Kabul and Delhi,”, an official described the Pakistani mood during the July 12 meetings.

Throughout their meetings, the Americans were told that Pakistan would like to continue as an active partner in the war against terror and at no cost would it allow its land to be used by our people to plot terror against Afghanistan or India . However, Pakistan would naturally want the United States, India and Afghanistan to refrain from supporting Pakistani terrorists.

Pakistani officials have said that the current “trust deficit” between the Pakistani and US security establishment is not serious enough to lead to a collapse , but the element of suspicion is very high, more so because of† the CIA’s decision to publicise the confidential exchange of information with Pakistan and to use its leverage with the new government to try to arm-twist the Army and the ISI.

The Pakistani security establishment, officials said, want a fresh round of strategic dialogue with their counterparts in the US, essentially to prioritise the objectives and terrorist targets in the war against terror, keeping in mind the serious national security interests of the allies.

 

[Flintlock]

9 killed in bomb blast in northwestern Pakistan

By RIAZ KHAN – 2 hours ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected militants bombed a bus carrying prisoners in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least nine people as fighting between security forces and extremists flared across the country's tribal belt.

The powerful blast left a massive crater in the middle of a bridge in Bannu and left the burnt-out vehicle completely mangled.

The fresh violence came just over a week after longtime U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf resigned as president, triggering a scramble for power that collapsed Pakistan's governing coalition.

The party long led by slain former Prime Minister Bena zir Bhutto is now in a position to dominate the government and it is toughening its stance against Islamist extremists.

The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, are becoming increasingly bold, claiming responsibility for a wave of suicide bombings and gun attacks.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack Thursday, though police said militants were the likely culprit. It happened as a bus carrying prisoners crossed a bridge in Bannu, a town in the North West Frontier Province, said Waqas Ahmad, an area police chief.

The dead included police officers and prisoners, said Jalil Khan, another police official. But he could not provide an exact breakdown.

Hours earlier, security forces drove off a Taliban attack on a fort and pounded another band of militants holed up in a health center, officials said Wednesday as fighting spread to new areas in the tribal belt along the Afghan border.

As many as 49 insurgents were reported killed in separate attacks.

Pakistan's 5-month-old government initially sought to calm militant violence by holding peace talks.

But the initiatives have borne little fruit, and U.S. officials have been pressing for tougher action against insurgent groups blamed for rising violence across the border in Afghanistan and in cities further inland.

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad, Ishtiaq Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Ashraf Khan in Karachi contributed to this report.

 

[Shoaib_Sham]

Pakistan bomb kills elite troops

At least 15 soldiers have been killed in a suspected suicide bombing at an army base south of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Most of the victims were officers from an elite counter-terrorism force, the Special Services Group, a military spokesman said.

Violence has soared in Pakistan since troops ousted radical Islamists from Islamabad's Red Mosque in July.

Troops based at the barracks were part of the raid against the mosque.

Chief military spokesman Gen Waheed Arshad said 11 soldiers were wounded in the blast, six seriously.

He could not confirm whether any of the victims were involved in the Red Mosque raid.

"The commandos were taking dinner in their mess at Tarbela town when a suspected suicide bomber blew himself up at its gate," a security official told Agence France Presse news agency.

Last week twin suicide bombings killed several intelligence officers in the main garrison town of Rawalpindi.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says this latest attack suggests that militants are no longer targeting simply the army but the army's elite officer corps.

Border fighting

Earlier there was heavy fighting between Pakistani troops and pro-Taleban militants near the Afghan border which left dozens dead, both sides say.

The army says it has killed up to 70 militants. The rebels say twice that number of troops are dead. Neither claim can be independently verified.

The latest fighting coincides with a visit to Pakistan by the American deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte.

The United States is pressing Pakistan to take stronger action against Taleban and al-Qaeda militants operating from its border areas.

In talks with Mr Negroponte, President Musharraf said Pakistan's commitment to fighting the militants should never be doubted.

This was an incident of one of its own kind. Hitting the Special Forces group in an Army mess. Some say this was the same SSG squad who participated in the LM operation. I was really wondering that if security/intelligence forces have caught the perpetrators behind this or atleast have they got clues of possible hands behind this attack?
I think this attack was very significant in terms of the message it delivered.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Terrorism has left psychological scars on military, civilians alike’

August 31, 2008
ISLAMABAD: The government will support setting up of a modern psychotrauma research centre to deal with the psychological effects of terrorist attacks, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Saturday.

Inaugurating the first international conference on psychotrauma, the premier said “we will ensure the implementation of the Plan of Action as proposed by the conference to deal with the serious issue”. The people of Pakistan have been traumatised by some of the worst terrorist attacks in the history.

“However the nation has the resilience and the courage to stand up to such challenges,” Gilani told the participants of the conference titled, “Trauma in the changing world; challenges and opportunities”. Gilani said the Pakistan Army was at the forefront in the war against terrorism and was confronting this trauma daily. app

 

[RabzonKhan]

Karzai, take back your refugees!

Pakistan has been hosting about 2.5 million Afghan refugees for three decades despite economic and security burdens on its society. We have had enough, it’s about time all of them must be repatriated without any further delay. It’s a known fact that Taliban and AQ recruit many of them for terrorism inside Afghanistan and Pakistan.


Second Editorial: What is the ANP government doing about terrorism?

September 08, 2008. At least 30 people were killed and 70 wounded by a teen-aged suicide-bomber at the Zangli checkpost 20 km from Peshawar on the road to Kohat. Seven policemen present at the checkpost were among the killed. Peshawar is now vulnerable to the Taliban because the MMA government allowed some very important cities like Kohat, Hangu and Darra Adam Khel to be dominated by the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The last time we went looking for the Afghan refugees in the camps in order to repatriate them, none were found there. But we didn’t have far to look. They are all ensconced around the road going from Peshawar to Kohat and onwards to Hangu and Kurram Agency. These settled areas are now our strategic soft underbelly.

The massacres in Kurram Agency have seen regular trickles of Shia migration. Over the years, cities like Thal, Hangu and Kohat have developed significant pockets of Shia population. But this area is also the target of the Afghan refugees who have leaked out of the Afghan refugee camps and don’t plan on going home because being a part of the Al Qaeda fighting machine is more lucrative. They take the identity of Taliban and do a lot of Shia-killing on the side. Informally named ghetto Shiagarh is an obvious target, located just 10 miles from Kohat going to the city of Hangu. The local administration takes orders from rich citizens serving Al Qaeda, last seen during the siege of Lal Masjid in Islamabad. These districts are now challenging Peshawar. What is the ANP government doing about it? *

 

[Imran Khan]

Pakistan police arrest would-be teen suicide bomber
Agencies
Published: September 08, 2008, 10:01

Islamabad: A 16-year-old boy wearing a suicide-bomber jacket and carrying a hand grenade was arrested Monday in an army-controlled area in Pakistan's troubled northwest, police said.

Senior police officer Akhtar Ali Shah said the youth was taken into custody on Monday morning at a military cantonment, about 30 miles (45 kilometers) east of Peshawar, the site of a suicide bombing Saturday that killed 35 people.

"Swift action by the police yielded the arrest of the boy, who was brought into the cantonment area by accomplices who are being traced," Shah said.

He said the boy was being interrogated by a joint team of senior investigators from the police and security agencies.

He would not speculate on the possible target but said the army's supply corps is located in the area.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[RabzonKhan]

How evil can one get.


Fourteen killed in grenade attack in Pakistan mosque

Sep 11, 2008

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 14 people in a gun and grenade attack on a mosque in Pakistan's restive northwest on Wednesday, officials said.

"The attackers first lobbed grenades into the mosque and then opened fire with Kalashnikovs on the worshippers," Bahadur Khan, the mayor of the village in Dir district of North West Frontier Province, told Reuters.

Dir police chief Fida Hasan Shah said 14 people were killed and 35 wounded. He said the death toll could go up.

Muslims are observing the fasting month of Ramadan, and the assailants struck while people were praying.

Militancy has spread across the northwest in recent months.

Pakistani security forces, backed by artillery, killed 11 Islamist militants and wounded seven in an offensive in the northwestern Swat Valley on Wednesday, the military said.

After being sworn in on Tuesday, President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to fight al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the northwest.

Swat was one of Pakistan's main tourist destinations until last year, when Pakistani Taliban infiltrated from sanctuaries in lawless lands on the Afghan border to support a radical cleric campaigning to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Late last month, the Pakistan army launched a major offensive in Bajaur, a tribal region that had become a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and the Taliban. The army said 600 militants were killed. (Reporting by Kamran Haider and Alamgir Bitani; Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

 

[RabzonKhan]

EU planning anti-terror aid for Pakistan

BRUSSELS: The European Union is preparing to help poorer countries like Pakistan, Algeria and Morocco combat terrorist groups better, EU Anti-terrorism Co-ordinator Gilles de Kerkhove said on Thursday.

De Kerkhove said the EU was drafting a plan at the request of the United Nations.More.

 

[Kharian_Beast]

How evil can one get.


Fourteen killed in grenade attack in Pakistan mosque

Sep 11, 2008

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 14 people in a gun and grenade attack on a mosque in Pakistan's restive northwest on Wednesday, officials said.

"The attackers first lobbed grenades into the mosque and then opened fire with Kalashnikovs on the worshippers," Bahadur Khan, the mayor of the village in Dir district of North West Frontier Province, told Reuters.

Dir police chief Fida Hasan Shah said 14 people were killed and 35 wounded. He said the death toll could go up.

Muslims are observing the fasting month of Ramadan, and the assailants struck while people were praying.

Militancy has spread across the northwest in recent months.

Pakistani security forces, backed by artillery, killed 11 Islamist militants and wounded seven in an offensive in the northwestern Swat Valley on Wednesday, the military said.

After being sworn in on Tuesday, President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to fight al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the northwest.

Swat was one of Pakistan's main tourist destinations until last year, when Pakistani Taliban infiltrated from sanctuaries in lawless lands on the Afghan border to support a radical cleric campaigning to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Late last month, the Pakistan army launched a major offensive in Bajaur, a tribal region that had become a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and the Taliban. The army said 600 militants were killed. (Reporting by Kamran Haider and Alamgir Bitani; Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Not even the taliban would kill Muslims praying in a mosque during Ramadan...This smells like something a Sikh or Hindu would amuse himself with.

We seriously need to get a hold of our country before it is bled dry.