FATA Situation

[batmannow]

6 militants resisting search killed in Darra Adamkhel
Updated at: 1948 PST, Monday, May 18, 2009

PESHAWAR: Six militants were killed including their key commander Bilal during a search operation in Darra Adamkhel, sources said.The security forces are carrying out the search operation against militants in Darra Adamkhel area of Upper Kohat.

 

[Elmo]

How did five schoolteachers get caught in a crossfire? Was the ambush laid near a school? Are classes commonly in session then? We've reports of dead, to include the teachers, but not of the militants.

I'd hate to see militants begin capturing people like schoolteachers and initiating ambushes then with these prisoners either in their possession or deliberately killed during the battle by the militants.

Would these forces be Frontier Constabulary or Frontier Corps troops?

Thanks.

It's the Frontier Corps [the Frontier Contsbaulary over the last couple of years is being assimilated into the Corps group].


Here's a brief history from globalsecurity.org Frontier Corps
"The Frontier Corps’ status as a locally-raised Pashtun force allows it access and acceptability amongst the indigenous population that even the Pakistani Army does not have. The 'Frontier Corps (FC) are a Federal paramiltary force manned mostly by people from the tribal areas and officered by officers from the Pakistan Army. The FC Stationed in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan Province, are known as FC NWFP and FC Balochistan, respectively. Both distinct provincial groups are run traditionally by an Army officer of at least major-general rank.

Another lesser-trained paramilitary force, having officers from the Police Service of Pakistan and other personnel from the Pashtun tribes, is also known as FC, though it stands for Frontier Constabulary."

[there is another link that I can't access right now, will paste that. More reliable info on the two available there.]

 

[S-2]

Thanks. I've a cursory knowledge of both organizations and was vaguely aware that the constabulary is being upgraded and integrated(?) in the F. Corps.

If you've something better I'd be happy to read it at your convenience.

 

[ajpirzada]

Bajaur IDPs start returning from Jalozai camp


ISLAMABAD (updated on: May 19, 2009, 14:57 PST): The affectees of Bajaur Agency have started returning to their homes from Jalozai camp refugee camp.

According to private news channel, a convoy of 43 trucks carrying 250 families of IDPs left for Bajaur Agency from Jalozai camp. They are reportedly belonged to Tehsil Mamond of Bajaur. On Monday a convoy of 36 trucks returned back.

The displaced persons were returning to their area after seven months. Political administration had arranged transport for the affectees.

Bajaur IDPs start returning from Jalozai camp : Business Recorder | LATEST NEWS



Most parts of Mohmand Agency cleared-off militants: Gen Nadeem

PESHAWAR (updated on: May 19, 2009, 12:02 PST): The head of Special Support Group for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Lt General Nadeem Ahmed has said that most parts of the Mohmand area has been cleared off militants.

In a press conference here on Tuesday, General Nadeem said forces are facing resistance at some places, which will be overcome soon. Electricity has been provided in IDPs camps but the biggest problem at the moment is the registration of affectees.

General Nadeem said the issue of meal in the camps has been resolved up to certain extent and it is our job to deliver aid to genuine affectees. First convoy of aid that comprised of ten trucks has been reached Khawaza Khela.

Chief of Special Support Group added that ration has been sent to those who had failed to migrate and transformers have been installed in the camps with the cooperation of Wapda.

He also mentioned that situation is improving in Buner and Lower Dir areas.

Most parts of Mohmand Agency cleared-off militants: Gen Nadeem : Business Recorder | LATEST NEWS

 

[SSGPA1]

Sounds like a good plan but PA needs to be very carefulr with Maluvi Nazir or Bahadur as they can change loyalties.

I am hopeful that our civil society will wake up and once SWAT and Boner are clear, civil society members are there to support locals.

 

[fatman17]

Editorial: Possible change in Taliban tactics

Events are taking place at a pace faster than they are analysed and interpreted. The Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) under Baitullah Mehsud has announced it is going to target the provinces to relieve pressure on the FATA and Malakand regions. That is understood as normal retaliatory policy. But is there something more to what the TTP is planning? The latest death of Maulana Sufi Muhammad’s two close TNSM deputies poses a conundrum that must be carefully probed for new signals. The recent abduction of the Razmak College students and the targeting of Rescue 15 offices have also to be understood in a different light.

The ISPR version is that TNSM deputies Amir Izzat and Maulana Alam were being transported in an army vehicle when an IED (improvised explosive device) planted on the road went off. After that, the Taliban attacked and finished off the two TNSM men along with an NCO. Here the reference to an IED is quite normal. Many roads in the region are booby-trapped with these devices; but why should the Taliban then attack the vehicle and kill the inmates if they were not dead already? If the story is not concocted to cover up the killing of the two TNSM men by the army, then what is it?

First of all, it could not have been a put-up job because one casualty in it was apparently an army NCO. The next question then: why should the Taliban attack an already disabled vehicle when they knew — it is not possible that they did not know who the captives were — that Amir Izzat and Maulana Alam were in it? The two men were too big locally not to have attracted attention to the vehicle. The truth could be that the vehicle was blown up by the IED that killed the men and then the Taliban opened fire on the army convoy. Be that as it may, if the Taliban killed them it points to a change in the TTP policy on the TNSM, now that that latter is no longer needed.

Religion is no longer working for Baitullah Mehsud as the national consensus in Pakistan veers against his TTP. After the Razmak College cadets were taken to Makin, Baitullah Mehsud’s headquarters in South Waziristan, they were asked if there were any non-Pashtuns among them. This was immediately taken by the students to mean that the Taliban had planned to kill any Punjabi cadets. This had been preceded by a series of Pakhtunkhwa or independent Pakhtunistan posters all over the FR (frontier region) cities of the NWFP. Although Punjabi auxiliaries from the jihadi militias are being used by the Taliban in their suicide missions, the policy could be exploring the ethnic vector in the affected region. It could also support accusations by official circles that some hostile agencies are funding Mehsud.

As if in anticipation, Ambassador (Retd) Rustam Shah Mohmand, opposed to the military operation, has aggressively put forward the case of “the persecution of the Pashtuns” in Pakistan. If that is so, then it must ring a bell with the ruling ANP in the NWFP which wants to embrace the case of the Pashtuns. Knowing full well that the ANP will never accept religion as its slogan, the TTP may be about to soften its stance and cut it off from the “national consensus” by an appeal to ethnicity. But whatever may be the policy, there is no doubt that Baitullah Mehsud is under pressure. The Western press says even Al Qaeda is under pressure in Pakistan after the death of some of its important leaders through drone attacks.

The Rescue 15 attack in Islamabad refutes the “theory” that it was the ISI chief General Shuja Pasha who was targeted when the Rescue 15 headquarters in Lahore was attacked by a suicide vehicle. Some said that it was the nearby ISI office that was in the cross-hairs and that the ISI chief was at that time inside the office, implying that the TTP had finally got its moles inside the ISI to help zero-in on the chief. The attack in Islamabad disproves this theory. It was actually related to disabling the system of advance warning and reaching the area of attack on time. It also means that Pakistan’s ability to face terrorist attacks is improving by the day.

Daily Times

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Pakistan shelling Taliban in tribal district​

Updated at: 1930 PST, Tuesday, June 09, 2009
PESHAWAR: A local government official says Pakistan's military has started shelling Taliban hide-outs in Bannu district in the country's northwest.

Bannu's district coordination officer, Kamran Zeb Khan, said the military operation began Tuesday morning after a deadline given to tribal leaders in the region to hand over militant suspects had expired.

Bannu sits alongside South and North Waziristan, two semi-autonomous tribal districts bordering Afghanistan where al-Qaida and the Taliban are believed to be entrenched.

Pakistan has launched an offensive against the Taliban in the northwestern Swat Valley. It was not immediately clear if the shelling in Bannu signaled the opening of a new front against militants.
Pakistan shelling Taliban in tribal district

This was preceded by:

Operation likely against Baka, Jani Khel tribes as Bannu under curfew​

Updated at: 1200 PST, Tuesday, June 09, 2009
BANNU: An indefinite curfew has been clamped in Bannu as police contingents patrolling in the area.

Security forces are preparing to launch an operation against Baka Khel and Jani Khel tribes after negotiations between administration and Baka Khel and Jani Khel tribes ended at failure.

Earlier, political administration had made an appeal to Baka Khel and Jani Khel tribes to hand over militants present in their areas. However, a jirga called for this purpose had been failed because both tribes refused to hand over miscreants’ to the government.

Curfew has been imposed in Bannu after failure of negotiations. Security forces said operation against Baka Khel and Jani Khel could be launch anytime.

On the other hand, tribes said that in case of operation, they will terminate the peace deal and government would be responsible for the situation.
Operation likely against Baka, Jani Khel tribes as Bannu under curfew

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

30 militants killed in Bannu: ISPR​

Thursday, June 11, 2009
23 terrorists die in Swat

By our correspondent

BANNU: Thirty militants, including their senior commander Sher Alam, were killed and several others injured in the ongoing military operation against the Taliban fighters in the Frontier Region (FR) of Bannu on Wednesday.

Other reports quoting officials of Bannu district administration put the death toll of the militants in the daylong military action at 80.The Bannu administration clamped curfew in the district where all educational institutions, trade and commercial centres remained closed.

The government launched the military operation on Tuesday against Bakakhel and Janikhel tribes in FR Bannu, when the two tribes failed to hand over culprits involved in the kidnapping of students and teachers of the Cadet College Razmak.

Twenty militants were killed in the first day of the military action. Military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, when contacted by telephone, told The News that 30 militants were killed and several others injured. He said the dead included a senior militant commander.

The military spokesman said several hideouts of the militants had been destroyed in both the areas. He said the operation against the militants would continue till all the terrorists were eliminated and the area was cleared of them.

Local officials in Bannu said six Army gunship helicopters were seen flying from the Bannu Cantonment and bombing suspected hideouts of the Taliban militants in Janikhel and Bakakhel areas.

Also, security forces fired artillery shells from the Bannu Cantonment towards the militants’ positions in the two troubled towns. Officials in Bannu said almost 90 per cent residents of the two towns had left their homes for safer places in North Waziristan, Bannu city and Lakki Marwat district.

Meanwhile, a local resident of Muslimabad town was shot dead by security forces for allegedly violating the curfew. He was identified as Pargul Daraz, son of Amin Khan. His body was later handed over to his relatives.

The authorities relaxed the curfew duration from 12 noon to 4 pm that enabled the residents to buy essential items from the markets.Due to the curfew and fighting, the main Bannu-Miramshah Road also remained closed for all kinds of traffic ...


... Security forces also secured Gat Khela and Jawar area of Buner. The ISPR said from 600 to 800 terrorists have reached Janikhel, which falls in Frontier Region of Bannu. “Janikhel is the staging area of all the militants operating in DI Khan, Bannu, Kohat and Peshawar and so far 600 to 800 terrorists have reached there from Miramshah and Razmak.

The ISPR said the terrorists were planning to strike at different places in the NWFP. According to reports, security forces have engaged suspected terrorist locations at Janikhel with heavy fire and clearance operation in the area of Zaidi Akbar Khan is in progress.

30 militants killed in Bannu: ISPR