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Border Villages Rise Up Against Taliban

Dir Jirga agrees to raise Lashkar against militants

Monday, September 22, 2008

By our correspondent

PESHAWAR: Two influential tribes of Dir Upper on Sunday announced to raise a Lashkar of 20,000 tribesmen to prevent entry of Taliban militants into the area to eliminate their supporters and expel their families from the district.

Elders of the Sultankhel and Paindakhel tribes, after a grand Jirga in Wari, urged the government to enforce Shariah in the Malakand region to end violence and restore lasting peace in the area. Attended by around 300 elders, the Jirga came down hard on the miscreants for trying to destroy the peace of the district and vowed to defeat their nefarious designs.

Malik Sher Bahadar, Malik Faiz Muhammad alias Dogram Malik, Haji Gulfaraz Khan, Malik Fazal Raziq, Malik Zar Muhammad Khan, Syed Anwar Khan, Malik Shah Nawaz Khan and others, while addressing a press conference after the Jirga, said they were peaceful people and wanted peace in their area.

The elders said they would not allow the security forces to enter the district for maintaining peace, as they would take the responsibility of protecting their area. "We will not allow the security forces to come to the district. When we say we will not tolerate forces' deployment, then we make sure the security of our area. We have the capability and power to maintain peace here and are taking concrete steps for it," an influential Malik and member of the Jirga, Faiz Muhammad, said. About manpower for the force, he said every village would contribute to the force, and it would be called in wherever required.

Dir Jirga agrees to raise Lashkar against militants
 
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Two Bajaur tribes join drive against militants

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Ask govt to continue operation; 14 killed in fresh aerial strikes

By Mushtaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR: Pushed by the government, two more tribes -- Tarkhani and Utmankhel -- on Tuesday announced to follow their fellow Salarzai tribesmen and promised to support the government's ongoing armed campaign against the militants in the Bajaur Agency.

Military officials said 14 militants were killed and several others injured when jet fighters and gunship helicopters pounded their hideouts in various parts of the troubled region.

In a grand Jirga meeting of the two tribes held at the Civil Colony in Khar, Bajaur's headquarters, tribal elders belonging to Tarkhani and Uthmankhel tribes decided to take unilateral action against the militants and their supporters in their respective areas.

Prominent tribal elders, including Malik Fazal Karim, Malik Yunas Khan, Malik Hafzoor Khan, Malik Munjfar Khan, Malik Nawaz Khan, Malik Shahi Bakht, Malik Mian Masood Jan, Malik Hameedullah, Malik Shah Wali Khan and Malik Qabil Khan, attended the Jirga.

Speaking on the occasion, Assistant Political Agent of Bajaur Agency Mohammad Jameel Khan accused the militants of torturing and oppressing innocent tribesmen on the pretext of Jihad and Islam, adding the militants were the worst enemies of the Islam, Pakistan and the people of Bajaur.

The APA said it was the responsibility of the people of Bajaur to rise against the handful of miscreants who had turned their peaceful tribal region into hell by attacking and burning government installations and beheading their own fellow tribesmen without any reason.

Tribal elders, speaking on the occasion, reiterated their commitment to fight the militancy and said Pakistan was their country and Bajaur was their soil and, therefore, they would not allow anyone to create law and order situation on the directives of foreign agents.

The elders complained the militants had brought unprecedented destruction and violence to the once peaceful and fertile Bajaur.Some of the elders criticised the "criminal silence" of certain tribal elders over the activities of militants, adding the tribesmen were encouraged by the ongoing military operation which, they said, had weakened the militants' strength to a great extent.
Two Bajaur tribes join drive against militants
 
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On 23rd of sep(yesterday) a huge public demonstration was held in swat valley to protest against the elongated curfew hrs,civilian casualities during the ongoing op and electric supply failure(due to the bombing of the grid station by militants) .People have demanded very angrily that
"No one can move out in curfew but the militants do have that liberty.They bomb at will.The forces are unable to stop them." adding on a serious note
"Forces should evacuate the area and leave us at the mercy of the militants "
To make it even worse police opened fire on them and 3- 5 men are reportedly killed
I have not quoted any particular article or any newspaper bcz this report is on all media and has intensified the debate on the fallout of this operation.
There was a famous article " The Battle for Bajur" published in Dawn earlier which showed such concerns due to the rising number of civilian casualities and the prolonging op.
A few days ago, Dir locals have demanded both the military and militants to leave the area saying
"This is our territory and we will defend it";surely against the militants but a definite sign of mistrust in the military.
undoubtedly,public support,specially locals,is of prime importance in this op.If we failed on this, there is every likelihood of producing a new crop of locals who will fall in the hands of militants to take revenge of their beloved who have been killed by the Pakistani guns.
I request you to highlight the following:
1:Apart from being a settled area, what else is the reason for such a high no. of civil killings?
2:do we have precision systems?What type and of what caliber?
3:If we have precision weapons,to what extent they are being employed?
4:How to keep the public,particularly locals,in gov favour?
5:What steps must be taken to give relief to the people?
6:If we lose public support ,what next?
7:do u see an end to this war bcz i fail to see so?
 
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Well colateral damage is a part of any on going operation but then again, i think its easy said then done, because obviously for those who have lost some dear one, they certainly would not give a $hit about this term colateral damage. However the people of SWAT instead of protesting, should rise against the militants who are the ones responsible for this menace. SWAT for a very peace ful area before these *** holes like the fm mullah decided to spread there so called version of islam. Army should now focus on more boots on grounds rather then just using big guns. Search and operation should go and those who have been affected by what ever means be it from militants or the army should be compensated by the GOP with apology if someone has lost a dear one. Public support is what is a must to win any battle.
 
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SWAT for a very peace ful area before these *** holes like the fm mullah decided to spread there so called version of islam.
Well sir! The demand for enforcing sharia(whatever their version is)is not new in this area.Maulvi fazallullah and brfore him sufi muhammed had demanded it many years ago.
In 1960's the gov decided to send in troops but then the matter was resolved by GOP assurances that sharia will be enforced in this area. This was not fulfilled later and these people,their ancestors and decendants, take it as a promise not fulfilled by the GOP.
The matter was flared up in recent war on terror when militants used this issue to get support in swat.Now there are people from Afghan and Middle east origin also who are exploiting the situation(though local laws are not their concern).
I am not suggesting any misconduct by the GOP but only that the issue was not new.It has just been exploited
 
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this army and government is doing complete nonsense and bull ****

Thanks for the useful comments...:disagree:
Any solutions to offer?

Frankly the govt needs to be more effective in eradicating the vermin. Maybe the cantonment system used during the Malaya situation would solve the situation and starve out the retards in the hills.
 
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this army and government is doing complete nonsense and bull ****

Apart from the fact that we were dragged probably unnecessararily into this so called war on terror, I don't see quitting is an option anymore.
Stopping at this occassion, means losing all the advancements and a situation when again the FC will be restricted to their forts.
Please come up with a workable solution to put some sense into this nonsense.
Stop now and bet me u will have to start again in a few weeks
 
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Frankly the govt needs to be more effective in eradicating the vermin. Maybe the cantonment system used during the Malaya situation would solve the situation and starve out the retards in the hills.

would u please explain what the sys is?
 
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would u please explain what the sys is?

The British army when faced with Malayan insurgents during the 50's would form "cantonments" where they would move most of the local population. and keep control over who enters and leaves. (usually in big towns) this reduces the hiding places of the insurgents and removes their food and supply chain. Since the Civilians are scared. create agricultural and other cantonments and provide employment, safety, education , homes and food for the local civilian population. and suddenly the "insurgency will die. Civilians don't wanna be caught in the middle and would jump at the chance. It would not be cheap but then neither is constant low level warfare.

It would have to be done correctly. The Americans tried to do the same in Vietnam and failed.
 
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there are a lot of similar comparisons between the situation here and in the situation in Malaya in the 50's
 
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27 Sep 2008

RAGHAGAN: Toting rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs, the bearded tribesmen say they back the Pakistani government -- yet pledge they will fight to the death against US incursions on their soil.

The Pakistani military took reporters to the Pashtun tribal fighters in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan in a bid to show they have the support of locals for a month-long operation in the area, an Al-Qaeda and Taliban hotspot.

But there was also a strong message for US forces over the border, who have caused anger in Pakistan with a string of alleged territorial violations, including a raid by US ground troops on September 3 that left 15 people dead.

'We will fight against America until the last soul if they come to our country, said Malik Manasib Khan, the leader of a 'lashkar', or tribal force, called up to help Pakistan's army expel the militants -- and anyone else.

'For us, the Taliban, NATO and the United States are all equals,' the burly tribal chief told journalists in the bazaar at Raghagan, about 12 kilometres (eight miles) northeast of Khar, the main town in Bajaur region.

Fiercely independent, religiously conservative and obsessed by revenge, the tribes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have repelled all invaders for centuries and still hold the key to stability in the region.

When thousands of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the tribes sheltered them, viewing them as successors of the 'mujahedeen' who fought the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

In 2003, Islamabad launched army operations at Washington's behest in the tribal belt, especially the notorious Waziristan area, but civilian deaths helped to radicalise and fire up many more tribesmen against the government.

Pakistani authorities have in recent years made major efforts to win the support of leading tribesmen in a bid to drive out foreign Al-Qaeda militants and isolate the most hardcore Taliban commanders.

Yet that policy -- combined with US and Afghan suspicions that elements in Pakistan's intelligence agencies still back the Taliban -- has caused tensions with Washington, which wants Islamabad to launch an all-out offensive.

Pakistan complied and in August launched a military push in Bajaur, the smallest but increasingly the most dangerous of the country's seven tribal regions. The army said on Friday the operation had left 1,000 militants dead.

But the deaths of 11 Pakistani soldiers in a US air strike in June, a series of missile strikes and, on Thursday, an exchange of gunfire after Pakistani troops fired at US helicopters, have raised tensions to boiling point.

Members of a local jirga, or traditional tribal council, warned NATO and US forces in Afghanistan to stay away from their territory.

'They should abstain from interfering in our area, otherwise we will take action against them,' tribal elder Masood Jan said.

Another tribal elder, Omar Wahid, said foreign troops 'will not return alive from Pakistan if they try to enter our territory.'

Similar warnings for foreign troops to stay away from where they are not wanted were made by a young tribal leader as about 500 tribesmen chanted 'Allahu Akbar (God is Greater).'
 
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SEPTEMBER 29, 2008.

RAGHAGAN, Pakistan -- Tribal militias are emerging here in Pakistan's embattled northwest to combat an influx of pro-Taliban militants, who are trying to carve out Islamist enclaves along the country's border with Afghanistan.

Backed by Pakistan's army, the militia movement is spreading amid a backlash against incursions by the militants, mainly Pakistanis allied with Taliban and al Qaeda guerillas fighting in Afghanistan.

The movement has "similarities" with the so-called "Sunni awakening" in Iraq, where U.S.-supported Arab tribesmen turned against al Qaeda fighters in Anbar province and elsewhere, says Tanveer Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Institute of Strategic Studies. But some political analysts worry that emergence of the militias could escalate fighting in the border region into a mini-civil war, pitting pro- and anti-Taliban Pakistanis against one another.

Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies believe the origins of last week's deadly bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad and other recent anti-government violence are rooted in Islamist strongholds in border districts like Bajaur, where Raghagan is located.

More than 8,000 Pakistani troops have been deployed in a six-week campaign against militants here, and the army says it has killed 1,000 militants. But the fighting shows little sign of abating because a steady supply of Islamist guerillas from Pakistan and Afghanistan has been pouring into the region.

That's where the government hopes tribal militias can help turn the tide. "The tribesmen have risen against the militants. It could be turning point in our fight against militancy," Owais Ghani, the governor of North West Frontier Province, says in an interview. "We are providing them financial as well as moral support."

White-bearded Malik Munasib Khan, chieftain of the Salarzai tribe, leads one of the largest new militias. Sporting a white skill cap and toting an old Kalashnikov rifle, Mr. Khan exhorts villagers here in Raghagan to stand up against an estimated 4,000 militants who have moved into the Bajaur district over the last year. "They are killing our people and destroying our land," he tells hundreds of men gathered at a dusty market surrounded by mud houses.

Armed with machineguns and rocket launchers, some dating back Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in 1980s, the tribesmen respond with shouts of Allah-u-Akbar! (God is great).

The Salarzai tribesman's militia claims to have 4,000 armed fighters under its control, a figure the Pakistani military believes is accurate. Militia leaders say they've driven militants -- including Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda fighters -- out of their region, torching their homes and installations. "We will not let any Taliban enter our area," says Ayaz Khan, a member of the militia.

Initially, some in the Salarzai tribe -- one of five main tribes in the Bajaur district -- had been sympathetic to the Islamists, who had promised to restore law and order to the poorly governed tribal area. But many rebelled after the militants tried to impose their harsh system of Islamic rule on the local population. "Every family was asked to give one male member for fighting. They would forcibly take people from their houses," Mr. Khan said.

The militia movement could give Pakistan's army a much needed boost in Bajaur. "They are fighting for us, and we have to give them all support," says Lt. General Masood Aslam, the Peshawar-based commander of the army corps responsible for operations in Pakistan's tribal areas.

A senior military officer calls Bajaur "the center of gravity of the militant movement" and military commanders say the struggle for control of the tribal region is crucial to containing the spread of Islamist militancy to other parts of northwestern Pakistan. Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, the commanding officer of the military campaign in the region last week declared that "The threat of Bajaur radiates in all directions and affects the entire region."

Indeed, tribal groups in other parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province have started organizing their own militias to counter the militant threat. "It's a reaction against the Taliban threatening local tribal culture and tradition," said Khalid Aziz, a former chief secretary of North Frontier Province and who has also served in the tribal areas.

In the last few weeks, militias have emerged in the Kurram and Khyber tribal areas, as well as in the Dir district in North West Frontier province, according to residents and officials. Initially, the Lashkars were organized as indigenous resistance groups without help from local government administrations, but now they have full support from the military and the provincial government.

One 3,000-man militia in the Khyber tribal region last week forced Taliban guerillas out of an area close to the main highway linking Pakistan with Afghanistan, officials say. The militants had been involved in attacks on convoys carrying supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Leaders of the Payandakhel tribe in Dir district, which borders Bajaur, also announced last week that they would form their own militia after militants briefly took hostage some 300 pupils at a local school. The two hostage takers blew themselves up after armed tribesmen stormed the school building and freed the students. A tribal leader said the decision to attack the Islamist militants was taken because the local government administration had failed to protect the residents.

The militias emerging influence worries some analysts. "The militias have given a breather to the military which has suffered huge casualties in the fighting against militants," says Mr. Khan of the Pakistan Institute of Strategic Studies. "But we have to be more careful that they may become too powerful (and) challenge the government."

But Mr. Ghani, the North West Frontier's governor, rejects this argument. "It will not happen," he says. "They are operating under government control."
 
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Army-backed tribesmen kill several Taliban

* Bajaur residents say govt choppers drop leaflets asking people for support
* Taliban spokesman says nobody dares to oppose Taliban

KHAR: Tribesmen backed by army helicopter gunships battled the Taliban in Bajaur Agency on Tuesday, killing several of the Taliban, a tribal elder said.

The latest clash broke out in Mulla Saib Dara village, when a 6,000-strong tribal lashkar tried to set fire to the Taliban houses and hideouts. “Fighting is going on and to help us, the army sent some gunships which fired at the Taliban, killing several of them,” tribal elder Malik Younus told Reuters. :tup:

He said his men would battle the Taliban until they were cleared from the region.

“It’s now clear to everybody that we can’t tolerate lawlessness in our land. Everyone has to obey our tribal rules and they can’t make our land a hub of terrorism,” Younus said.

Four Taliban were killed and two were wounded in the shelling of a vehicle in Mamoond town, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Troops killed another five Taliban after their group launched an attack on a military checkpost in the same town, sparking a gunbattle that lasted nearly an hour, the official said.

A tribal lashkar killed two Taliban and captured another in Lower Kurram, following the kidnapping of a tribal elder, local administration told Daily Times.

Ferozkhel tribesmen set up pickets at various locations to search missing elder Malik Gulistan who was kidnapped by the Taliban on Monday.

“A vehicle ignored tribesmen’s signals to stop. Two Taliban were killed and one injured during clash between the two sides,” the political administration said.

Helicopter gunships also destroyed what authorities claim were Taliban explosive-laden vehicles at a basic health unit. The local administration said the Taliban subsequently blew up two security checkposts and a bride in retaliation to the vehicle attack late on Monday.

Leaflets dropped: Residents said government helicopters dropped leaflets in various parts of the agency calling for the support. But a Taliban spokesman dismissed the significance of tribal lashkars. “There is no revolt against the Taliban,” spokesman Maulvi Omar said over telephone from an undisclosed location, Reuters reported.

No one dares: “It’s government propaganda. Nobody dares stand up against the Taliban,” he said.

Omar said the Taliban had killed 15 tribesmen in fighting over the past two days.

Following the Salarzai and Charmang tribes, the Utman Khel tribe has also announced it will form a lashkar againt the Taliban after Eid, APP reported.

Earlier, an Utaman Khel jirga said it would help security forces in flushing the Taliban out of the agency.

The jirga participants said they would resist the Taliban and foreign forces in their areas.

They said strict action would be taken against those backing or sheltering the Taliban.

Assistant Political Agent Muhammad Iqbal Khan Khattak told the jirga that the government alone could not fight the Taliban, and that it needed the tribesmen’s support to eliminate the Taliban from the area.

The Kala Khel tribe has also raised a tribal lashkar of 5,000 men to fight the Taliban and expel them from Darra Adam Khel. agencies
 
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I think COAS Kiyani's stand against US strikes did the trick. The tribals see WHO is really fighting for Islam and now have no doubts about our intentions.

Alhamdulillah, everything is going perfectly, a military-tribal alliance. Keep in mind, this has only happened with the Pakistan army and the Afghan war.

This should send a clear message to afghans, indians, and other "failed" separatists, the Pashtuns will always back Pakistan.
 
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