Reclaiming Pakistan's Frontier!

[RabzonKhan]

Editorial: Baitullah’s evil tactics

July 02, 2009

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the amir of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Baitullah Mehsud ordered 18 of his wounded men slaughtered before retreating in the face of the army operation going on against him. The men lost their lives because they were no longer fit to keep up with the rest as they made good their escape. Seeing the operation unfolding effectively against the TTP, the parents of the boys he had shanghaied into his suicide-bomber training camps begged him to release their offspring. He refused.

Baitullah is showing signs of being under pressure by employing savage tactics of retaliation too. Anyone who speaks against him inside the vast tracts occupied by the various warlords is liable to get killed. As he moves from one safe place to another safe place to avoid being hit by the Pakistan jets, he is carefully monitoring his rivals within the Taliban and eliminating them. As he faces what may be the last chapter in his book of unbelievable cruelty, he is carefully sustaining the psychology of intimidation among populations that are forced to live under his authority.

Fear of death will catch up with the most valiant among human beings. The Pashtun nation, known to be the bravest in the world, has suffered the humiliation of being at his beck and call simply because the state of Pakistan was too weak to face him and read him the riot act. There are many not so noble reasons behind why the state of Pakistan became impotent, but the effect of loss of internal sovereignty has been devastating on the psyche of the Pashtun. Used to living honourably, the Pashtun man has had to tolerate being enslaved by the warlords.

Baitullah’s technique is based on the extremely savage ways of inflicting death. He has had people he doesn’t like slaughtered on CDs and then distributed the gruesome scenes all over the tribal areas and the whole wide world. One report about him said that when a commander complained that a local population was reluctant to accept his authority, Baitullah quietly asked him to take a dozen elders of the area out and behead them in front of the local population. Now that people are a little less scared of him they admit that public beheadings were something that the bravest among them could not withstand.

Above all, Baitullah has used “Islam” as a part of his evil enterprise. Nowhere in the world has the risk of being deceived by fake piety been greater than in Pakistan. Warlords in Swat and Khyber have been haranguing local populations on their campaign of “Islamic correction”. They have been inflicting cruel punishment on men and women by saying that these were prescribed by Allah and the Sharia. The authority of the Taliban in Afghanistan was based on inhuman treatment of the common man in the name of Islam; but what the Pakistani Taliban have achieved in Pakistan has eclipsed anything that Mullah Umar did during his dark period of rule.

Baitullah got away with a lot as long as the people of Pakistan thought he was an Islamic soldier and was spreading true Islam in the face of America’s infidel assault on Afghanistan. Tragically they ignored the truly pious men he killed when they disagreed with his modus operandi. Pakistan ignored the innocent local elders he put to death and also turned its face away when he eliminated the clergy who disagreed with him. When he spoke, he was believed; when the state of Pakistan spoke, it was not believed. After killing Ms Benazir Bhutto in 2007, he saw that the public reaction was not good, so he declared that he had convened a shura in South Waziristan and announced that “harming a woman was against the teachings of Islamic Shariah”. The tragedy is that even after eyewitnesses have vowed that they saw him sending the killers after Ms Bhutto, most Pakistanis believe him.

Far from being a pious warrior in the Pashtun tradition, Baitullah uses deceit as a tactic of popular disarmament. The people now know him but are helpless living under his authority. The people’s true verdict will come after the Pakistan army has hunted him down.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Action at last

Friday, July 03, 2009

After a long wait, troops finally moved into the Kurram Agency, forcing a truce between warring tribes which have been locked in battle for over a fortnight. The battles, set against a backdrop of fierce sectarian animosity, feature the Toori tribe against Bangash tribe clansmen. There is however an additional complication: the Shia Toori tribe has set up a 'Lashkar' to battle militants linked to the Taliban. With the fighting now continuing for days, the Tooris called on authorities to move in and assist them.

This has eventually happened. But what is a mystery is why authorities waited so long to act, doing nothing at all to stop the violence that has wreaked havoc on the lives of people. Anti-Taliban 'lashkars' in Kurram have stated they had been desperate for help for many days. The delay in action is hardly likely to encourage people in other places to rise against the Taliban. Indeed the fact that the government seemed content to stand by and watch for so prolonged a period is likely to have just the opposite effect. The closure of the main road leading into Parachinar, the principal town of Kurram, is another reason why action should have come. For long durations over the past two years, the highway has remained shut, resulting in acute shortages of food and other supplies. This has resulted also in a spiraling in the prices of basic commodities. It seems like criminal neglect that this situation was allowed to continue for so long. The government owes an explanation to the people of Kurram, and indeed to all of us.

So far, 150 or so people, most of them militants, are said to have been killed in the fighting that has taken place with troops. Soldiers are now deployed in the area, hoping to maintain the peace. But is this enough? The Kurram area has key links into Afghanistan. Routes through it are used regularly by militants, according to the information available on their movements. It is therefore important to conduct an operation in it against the militants, and to make sure they are driven out of the area. It is also true that the people of Kurram have suffered far too many years of bloodshed. They need to be rescued from still further misery and mayhem. It is the duty of the government to ensure this happens, as part of a strategy against militants and as part of their responsibility to the people of Kurram.

 

[Shiji]

Action at last

Friday, July 03, 2009

After a long wait, troops finally moved into the Kurram Agency, forcing a truce between warring tribes which have been locked in battle for over a fortnight. The battles, set against a .............................
................part of their responsibility to the people of Kurram.

Why not let them fight and kill each other? These people kill their daughters in name of honour, rape them, beat them. They don't let girls go to school, these guys don't deserve to live.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Lashkar comes under attack in Mohmand; nine dead

By Fauzee Khan Mohmand
Sunday, 05 Jul, 2009

GHALANAI: Nine members of a tribal volunteer force (lashkar) and three militants were killed during a clash in Mohmand Agency on Saturday.

According to officials, a group of armed militants attacked members of the Qaumi Lashkar in Pamp Pokha area of Ambar tehsil late on Friday night when they were returning to their base.

Lashkar sources said that militants had captured three tribesmen and taken them away. They said militants might have fled to Bajaur. Five militants were injured in the fighting.

‘We have asked the Mohmand administration to take up the matter with the Bajaur administration to block the infiltration of miscreants into the region,’ they said.

‘Militants from Bajaur often cross into Mohmand for attacks.’

Lashkar volunteers demolished dozens of houses of militants and captured several suspects in Shati Maina, Adam Kor and Omarkhel areas of Ambar tehsil on Saturday.

They also claimed to have controlled a number of strategic villages and destroyed several militant hideouts.

Sources said that the Qaumi Lashkar, led by Chandi Khan and Sadat Khan, had over 1,500 volunteers and their number was rising.

Soon after the Taliban attack, a jirga of 200 elders and volunteers held a meeting with Mohmand political agent Amjad Ali Khan.

They urged the government to set up security checkposts in Shati Kandao, Danish Kool Khward and Sar Lara Sar areas.

The political agent announced a compensation of Rs100,000 for families of each of the lashkar fighters killed in the clash with militants.

He claimed that security forces had arrested Taliban commander Fazal Hadi outside the Nadra office in Ghalanai and 36 suspects in Khwaizai and Bazai areas. He said that Alingar area had been cleared of militants.

Mr Amjad said that about 2,000 militants were still in Mohmand. About 600 of them have surrendered to the political administration and 300 have been killed during operations in different areas of the region.

A large number of militants had fled the area because of the action by security forces, he added. He said that most of the militant hideouts had been destroyed.

Syed Zahid Jan in Upper Dir adds: Clashes between a tribal lashkar and militants erupted again on Saturday in Doog Darra area of Upper Dir after a two-day break.

According sources, about 40 to 50 militants attacked the lashkar’s positions in Tutam Khwar area in the village of Badarkanai.

Lashkar fighters repulsed the attack and killed one foreign militant and injured another.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Taliban cash in on Pakistan's untapped gem wealth

By Charlotte McDonald-Gibson – 23 minutes ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A treasure trove of precious stones is locked in the rocks of Pakistan's rugged northwest. Violence, legal tussles and state mismanagement have deterred investors but allowed the Taliban to cash in on the bounty, dealers say.

In the narrow lanes of a market in Pakistan's northwest capital Peshawar, dealers squat on carpets and spread out a rainbow of precious gems on the floor for potential buyers.

Chunks of bright blue lapis lazuli, and rough rocks studded with flashes of light and colour clutter window displays, but no one is buying in a city hit by a wave of deadly bombings blamed on Taliban militia.

"God has given us enormous wealth in terms of emeralds from Swat, rubies, pink topaz, beautiful tourmaline," said Ilyas Ali Shah, a gemologist with the government-run Pakistan Gems and Jewellery Development Company.

Shah said that if Pakistan properly mines these deposits the impoverished country could reverse its hefty foreign debt: "But we need peace."

In February this year, Islamist extremists waging a bloody insurgency to expand control opened three shuttered emerald mines in the northwest Swat valley around the main town Mingora and invited villagers to blast away.

The military says it has reclaimed all Swat mines from the Taliban during a fierce offensive, but for at least three months proceeds from emerald sales lined the rebels' coffers and helped bankroll their insurgency.

"They would collect the emeralds and there would be an open tender every Sunday," said Azhar ul Islam, a 44-year-old gem trader from Swat. "The profits were divided up -- two-thirds for the miner and one-third for the Taliban."

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are believed to hold up to 30-40 percent of the world's emerald deposits, Shah says, with the precious stone fetching up to 2,000 dollars per carat depending on quality.

Azhar told AFP the Taliban earned about four million rupees (50,000 dollars) a week from Mingora's main mine -- shuttered since 1995 because of a legal battle -- money he said was spent on "buying explosives, making weapons."

"I was frightened what would happen if the government re-established control, so I didn't buy those emeralds from the mines, but most of my friends bought these emeralds from the Taliban," he said.

At the Namak Mandi market in Peshawar, another dealer from Swat who did not want to be named estimated that the rebels made between five and six million rupees a week from the stones.

No one in the market would admit buying Swat emeralds from the Taliban, but one dealer said he procures green garnet from a Taliban-owned mine over the border in Afghanistan, where the militants are also waging an insurgency.

"We don't like the Taliban, we don't buy it because we want to help them, but we want the stones," 30-year-old Ali Akbar told AFP.

He says his business has been crushed by spiralling insecurity in Pakistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States thrust the nuclear-armed nation into the heart of the "war on terror".

"For five months I had no customers," he said.

Shah says Pakistan's gem-industry profits have plunged up to 50 percent in one year because of the instability, with foreign investors staying away.

Most of the country's gems, including emeralds, garnet, pink topaz, spinel and tourmaline are located underground in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the heartland of the Taliban insurgency.

Experts say the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) -- a mountainous area largely outside government control along the Afghan border and stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud -- hides deposits of rare quartz and precious stones.

"I think we have explored three percent of the whole of NWFP. We have large areas of FATA that are not under control, so we have a lot of precious material untapped which needs to be explored and exploited," Shah said.

Pervez Elahi Malik, former chairman of the main gem exporters' association, blames the local NWFP government for not sorting out legal tussles and getting potentially lucrative mines up and running under state control years ago.

At the moment, local villagers and tribesmen blast away at the rocks and transport their haul to Namak Mandi -- a damaging mining process that experts say can destroy 80 percent of the stones.

"We are lacking in technical knowledge, we are lacking stability in the country," said Shah. "Our mining is not technically sound and safe -- we are destroying our wealth."

 

[RabzonKhan]

Pakistan: Jets target N. Waziristan, up to 6 die

By RASOOL DAWAR – 53 minutes ago

MIR ALI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani fighter jets targeted suspected Taliban hide-outs in a tribal region near Afghanistan on Sunday, killing as many as six people and raising the odds of a future military offensive there, intelligence officials said.

Elsewhere in the northwest, two bomb explosions killed two people and wounded 15 more in Upper Dir district, police said. The district sits at the edge of Swat Valley where Pakistan army says it is wrapping up a two-month-old offensive against Taliban militants.

Pakistan's military has been targeting the Taliban in several northwestern areas since May, when it launched the Swat offensive to oust the militants, who sought to impose their harsh interpretation of Islam over large areas and are accused of plotting attacks on American troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Sunday's airstrikes in North Waziristan hit several homes near the Afghan border, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The officials said six people died and several were wounded. They did not say if the dead were militants.

Two local residents, however, said that two people were killed and seven injured, and that all the victims were tribesmen. The witnesses, Shanawat Khan and Akhtarullah, told The Associated Press via phone that three local tribesmen's homes were hit in the Degan village area, roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Afghanistan.

Pakistan's armed forces are laying the groundwork for a full-scale offensive against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, but in recent days, clashes with insurgents and statements by militant leaders in neighboring North Waziristan have raised the possibility of army action there as well.

Pakistan's army operations have been strongly supported by U.S. officials eager to see an end to hide-outs for the militants implicated in attacks on American forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Over the past week, North Waziristan militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur said he was pulling out of a peace deal with the government, and his fighters took responsibility for a deadly ambush of troops in the region.

The army has warned that it will retaliate against tribes in the area who shelter Taliban militants, though it has stopped short of saying it will pursue an offensive. Sunday's bombing may have been part of the retaliatory efforts.

Pakistan is trying to isolate Mehsud, who is blamed for a string of suicide attacks across the country.

Last week, in what appeared to be a boon for the army, militant leader Maulvi Nazir of South Waziristan declared a cease-fire against security forces in a deal whose terms were kept private.

But overnight Sunday, an army camp in Angoor Ada, a part of the region purportedly under Nazir's control, came under attack, prompting retaliatory fire from security forces, two other intelligence officials said. No casualties were immediately known.

Also, suspected militants attacked the Chakmalai army camp in South Waziristan with rockets and gunfire, wounding six soldiers.

Security forces repulsed the assault with mortars and heavy artillery, said the two officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

Media access to North and South Waziristan is severely restricted, and the regions are dangerous, making it nearly impossible to independently verify the accounts offered by officials.

In a recent interview, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas described Mehsud as the main "center of gravity" for militants along the frontier. He said eliminating Mehsud and clearing South Waziristan was a higher priority than going after lesser militant leaders elsewhere.

Abbas could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.

The army remains engaged in an offensive against Taliban fighters in the Swat Valley, another region in the northwest. In a statement Sunday, it said three soldiers were killed in the previous 24 hours in an exchange of fire in that area.

Government officials say the militants have carried out a string of bombings in Pakistani cities in retaliation to the army offensive, killing more than 100 people since May last week.

The latest bombing Sunday in Upper Dir is one of such attacks, said police official Rahim Gul. "These miscreants are killing innocent people after being defeated in Swat."

The official said a remote-controlled bomb exploded near a van in Hayati village in Upper Dir district, killing one passenger and wounding 10 more. By the time people had gathered at the scene, Gul said, another bomb went off, which killed a child and wounded five more people.

Associated Press writer Nahal Toosi in Islamabad, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Pakistani police ill-equipped in war against Taliban

July 06, 2009

* Underpaid, poorly-trained police still a crucial fighter in anti-terror war
* Experts say Taliban attack police because they are easier targets than military

Daily Times Monitor

MATTANI: Sub-Inspector Naseem Hayat is fighting a war he knows police should not be asked to, he told the Chicago Tribune on Sunday.

With a handful of officers, the 48-year-old spends his days and nights opening car trunks, never knowing whether the next vehicle that pulls up is the one primed to explode.

“On May 28, that's exactly what happened. A white pickup pulled up, then rammed a police truck around which several of Hayat's officers were standing. Before they could react, the suicide bomber at the wheel detonated his explosives. Three of Hayat's men died,” the paper said.

"We are on the front lines," Hayat told the paper. "We know this is not our job. But we have been ordered to do this, to check every vehicle. That's why we do it."

Fighters: The police force is underpaid, poorly trained and ill-equipped, but has still become a crucial fighter in the war to rid the country of the Taliban. As the army drives the Taliban from their strongholds in Swat and surrounding areas, the terrorists have shifted focus to other cities.

"The police in this situation are not trained, equipped or geared to fight insurgency," Malik Naveed Khan, the inspector general of the NWFP police and the conflict zone's top cop, told the tribune.

"It's a very serious war. You're fighting the shadows of an invisible army."

“For a force of 50,000, Khan's department has 7,500 bulletproof vests and 17,000 automatic rifles. The department lacks explosives-detection equipment, a computerised fingerprint database and updated ballistic lab equipment,” the tribune reported.

The microscopes that technicians use to conduct ballistics examinations, Khan said, "are the same ones used in high schools".“The department has 12 armoured personnel carriers, only three of which function. They are Russian-made and from the 1960s.”

"They're so old that we have to put a mechanic inside while they run," Khan told the paper. "Every 3 kilometres, they break down."

Easy targets: Experts say the Taliban have stepped up attacks on the police because they find them far easier targets than the military, which has employed helicopter gunships, tanks and heavy artillery to push the Taliban out of Swat. Talat Masood, a military analyst, said the government had been slow to train and equip the police for a wave of attacks.

"The police aren't giving the impression that they are fully prepared for any eventuality," Masood was quoted by the paper. "Police aren't wearing body armor. Some of the officers at checkpoints aren't armed. Funding needs to be made available to improve the police, because it's the police that are going to prevent terrorism and stand on the front line."

The police said the will to fight the Taliban was not in question. The June 6 attack on the Rescue 15 building in Islamabad could have been far more devastating if it were not for Imtiaz Ahmed, 25, an officer who spotted the oncoming suicide bomber and shot him from 20 feet away. The attacker's explosives detonated before he could get inside the building.

"It was my job -- I had to do that," Ahmed told the tribune, his fractured, heavily bandaged hands resting on his stomach while he recovered at a hospital in Islamabad.

But as the Taliban focus its sights on police stations and checkpoints, police commanders know it takes more than fighting spirit to fend off the terrorists. Khan's officers work 14 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week. They receive a few days off each month to return home to see their families, Khan said. The average provincial cop makes about $120 a month, the paper reported. In Mattani, officers say they keep working for two reasons: There is no other work, and there's no one who will take their place.

Malik Khan Wali, 42 and on the force for 21 years, said he was biding his time until he could retire with a pension in two years.

"In the morning and evening, there are very long lines of cars," said Wali, a checkpoint officer with a handlebar mustache and a weathered AK-47 in his hands. "It's very tough for us to check every car, and the threat is always there. You never know if the car next to you has a bomb."

 

[RabzonKhan]

Hoti addresses public meeting in Mingora

July 07, 2009

PESHAWAR: During his first visit to Mingora city since the military operation began in NWFP, NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti announced that the police force in Swat and Buner districts will be doubled and the number of police stations and tehsils will also be increased to maintain law and order. Addressing a public meeting, the CM said the provincial government would form Community Police Force in all seven districts of Malakand division. Hoti said rehabilitation and reconstruction of the conflict-hit districts of Malakand was the government priority. He said the government had prepared short-, medium- and long-term strategies for the rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons. staff report

 

[RabzonKhan]

14 killed in attack on Swat hideouts

Tuesday, 07 Jul, 2009

PESHAWR, July 6: The army claimed to have killed 14 militants during the operation in Swat on Sunday and Monday. Four soldiers suffered injuries.

According to the ISPR, security forces captured several terrorists and seized 50 mules loaded with arms and ammunition, medicines and foodstuff in Banjut area.

Troops attacked suspected hideouts in Tiligram and killed 14 terrorists. Four improvised explosive devices, one 14.5 gun barrel and 26 detonators were seized. One soldier was injured when an IED exploded in Thana area.

Security forces secured Tighak Banda and Gakhe Banda areas. Two soldiers were injured during an exchange of fire in Pir Patai ridge.

Surgical equipment and nine hand-grenades were recovered from the house of a militant in Tahirabad area of Mingora.

One grenade, a high-altitude sleeping bag, two SMGs and a gas mask were seized in Dadhra, Uchrai Sar, Ziarat Khapa and Datpanrai areas.

In Dir, security forces confiscated 2,156 rounds of SMG, 9,728 rounds of LMG, seven grenades and eight magazines from a vehicle in Kharkhanai Chowk.

One child was killed and 10 others were injured when an IED planted by terrorists exploded near a vehicle in the village of Sarati Sherangal in Upper Dir. Security forces captured two terrorists and seized 5kg of explosives during an operation in Rajgae Kandao area of Buner.

In Bannu, militants fired mortars at the Jani Khel fort. A policeman and a soldier were injured.

According to the ISPR, a conference on “Return Strategy” was held which was attended by the provincial relief commissioner and representatives of the UNHCR.

The ISPR said that 4,872 families had returned to their homes in Bajaur, Buner, Shangla and Dir. As many as 6,140 cash cards have been distributed among the displaced people of Malakand. About 754 tons of relief goods have been distributed in Shangla, Mingora and Charbagh.—APP

 

[RabzonKhan]

At Least 16 Killed in Reported Drone Strike in Pakistan

By SALMAN MASOOD and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
Published: July 7, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Two missiles fired from a remotely piloted American aircraft struck a militant base on Tuesday in the South Waziristan tribal region, killing 16 militants, according to intelligence officials and residents reached by telephone.

A recent attack on the same village, Zangara, missed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban by hours, a Pakistani security official said soon after that missile strike.

The United States and Pakistan routinely withhold comment on suspected drone attacks.

The Pakistan military, which is locked in renewed battle with the Taliban, has been preparing a full-scale offensive in South Waziristan, where the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, is based. In the prelude to the offensive, drone attacks have appeared to try to home in on Mr. Mehsud and forces loyal to him.

Before that, the United States was mainly sending drones to attack foreign members of Al Qaeda or Taliban commanders who focused their attacks on neighboring Afghanistan. Mr. Mehsud, however, has taken on the Pakistani government and is accused of masterminding a string of deadly suicide bombings in the country.

One intelligence official who spoke about Tuesday’s drone attack on the condition of anonymity said three Uzbek militants had been killed along with 13 local Taliban militants.

Mr. Mehsud’s subtribe, the Shabi Khel, is based in the area, and Makeen, a town where intelligence officials have thought Mr. Mehsud is based, is nearby. “The attack was very precise and accurate,” a resident reached by telephone said.

Several rooms of the militants’ compound were destroyed in the attack, which took place at midday, the intelligence official said.

The mountainous region where Mr. Mehsud’s fighters are entrenched is considered one of the most difficult terrains for conventional warfare.

Publicly, Pakistani officials have been critical of the drone strikes, citing them as a breach of the country’s sovereignty. But privately, Pakistani officials acknowledge the utility of such attacks, especially when militants are struck with few civilian casualties.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly asked the United States to give it drones to conduct attacks on its own. In an interview The Daily Telegraph in Britain published on July 6, Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, reiterated the demand. “My position is that I have always asked for possession of the drone; I want the Pakistani flag on it,” the paper quoted Mr. Zardari as saying.

Opposition politicians, on the other hand, vociferously oppose drone strikes and see them as a major cause of public dissatisfaction with the United States.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Pakistan Says Battle in Swat Nears End as More Missiles Fired

By James Rupert and Khalid Qayum

July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s 10-week offensive against Taliban guerrillas in the Swat Valley is almost over, officials said today as more missiles hit the insurgents’ main stronghold near the Afghan border.

Major General Athar Abbas said the army has completed major combat operations and holds 90 percent of Swat, which the Taliban used as a base in April to advance toward the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the southeast.

“There is zero possibility that Taliban leadership can reorganize in Swat,” said Abbas. “They cannot carry out further organized attacks,” meaning the government can now focus on restoring services and returning 2 million people uprooted from their homes, he told reporters in Islamabad.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said at the press conference that the battle in Swat is close to being finished.

The stabilization of Swat would be welcome news for Obama administration officials who have voiced concern that Pakistan’s army might become overstretched as it attacks Taliban in the mountains of Waziristan, nearly 400 kilometers southwest of Swat. That operation is targeted at Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the country’s main Taliban group.

Two missile attacks today, apparently by U.S. unmanned aircraft, killed as many as 26 Taliban in Waziristan today, said Pakistani news reports, citing local officials.

Drone Strikes

Agence France-Presse quoted officials as saying as many as 48 suspected militants may have died. U.S. officials don’t comment on reported strikes in Pakistan by American drones.

Missiles roared into a militant training camp near Makin, a village close to the Afghan border, the Online news agency reported. A second set of missiles destroyed a convoy of Taliban vehicles northeast of Waziristan’s main town, Wana, the Geo TV news channel said.

Pakistani officials have criticized what they called stepped-up attacks by U.S. Predator drones, saying the attacks often kill civilians and complicate the government’s efforts to rally the ethnic Pashtun tribes of Waziristan and other border districts against Mehsud.

At the press conference, Kaira and Abbas said the government now is turning to the restoration of government services to encourage displaced persons to return to the valley.

“There are pockets of resistance and there may be a few terrorists attacking security forces, for which the army will stay in Swat,” Abbas said. He said 158 army troops died in the battle for Swat, while the government says more than 1,600 Taliban were killed.

Refugees Seek Return

The government’s reports of new security are credible, said Muhammad Farooq Khan, a psychiatrist and Islamic scholar who visits Swat. “The refugees are anxious to go back before August 22 or 23, at the start of Ramadan,” the Islamic month of fasting, Khan said by telephone from Mardan, 50 kilometers south of Swat.

An early return of refugees is important in helping the government sustain political support for what has become its most sustained battle against the Taliban since the movement arose after 2002.

The refugee flight is Pakistan’s worst since 1947, when the country was founded. TV news footage of Swat refugees struggling to survive heat and shortages of water and food have raised public doubts about the offensive, Khan said.

Abbas said the army is prepared to stay in Swat for a year while the government builds a new police force.

The government “must do a much better job of providing competent police, courts and government services in Swat; its past failure to do so were what helped create” the Taliban rebellion, said Talat Masood, a political consultant in Islamabad.

Swat, a former princely state, was formally absorbed into Pakistan in 1969, but “has never been fully integrated into the Pakistani state,” said Masood.

To contact the reporters on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net; Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at 7634 or kqayum@bloomberg.net

 

[RabzonKhan]

Taliban eye new allies

Daily Times Monitor
July 10, 2009

ISLAMABAD: In the wake of renewed attacks by the Pakistan military and the United States, the Taliban and Al Qaeda might join Jundallah, a group that has staged attacks on Iran and strained Iranian-Pakistani relations, military specialists told Washington Times on Thursday.

Ashraf Ali, a Peshawar-based specialist on the Taliban,
told the paper that given Jundallah’s historical connections with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, led by Baitullah Mehsud, might seek refuge in Balochistan or join the ranks of Jundallah.

“This would give a totally new dimension to the dynamics of Taliban/Al Qaeda militancy in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region and may shift some of the problem to the Pakistan-Iran border region,” Ali told the paper. “This is very much possible, as apparently there seems to be no [Pakistani] troops deployment on the south of the conflict zone towards Balochistan.”

Last week, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a hotel in Balochistan’s Kalat district, killing four people and injuring 11. The attack appeared aimed at disrupting supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan, since drivers of NATO supply vehicles were eating at the hotel.

Analysts said the incident was a sign of rising Taliban/Al Qaeda activities in Balochistan, as well as a possible indication of growing contacts between Waziristan-based militant groups and Jundallah.

Malik Siraj Akbar, a journalist in Quetta, told The Washington Times that Abdul Malik Rigi, the leader of Jundullah, studied at madrassas in Karachi, where Taliban leaders also got their schooling.

The possibility of a new alliance among the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Jundallah could provide common ground among the United States, Pakistan and Iran against the terror threat.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Bastard!

Govt will not be allowed to restore writ in Swat: Fazlullah

Daily Times Monitor
July 11, 2009

LAHORE: Swat Taliban chief Fazlullah on Friday said the government would not be allowed to restore its writ in Malakand and Swat, a private TV channel reported.

According to an audio message the channel claimed to have received from Fazlullah, the Taliban leader criticised the government for launching the military operation in Swat and Malakand, saying that for siding with the government, residents of the area should suggest their punishments themselves. Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan confirmed the authenticity of the message.

Meanwhile, the Online news agency said Fazlullah had also vowed to continue struggling for the imposition of sharia.

Fazlullah said he and other top Taliban leaders were alive and would continue their struggle.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Military to rely on air power in Waziristan

July 12, 2009

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: A planned military operation in Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud’s stronghold South Waziristan will heavily rely on air power rather than a ground offensive.

According to a report published in the US-based McClatchy Newspapers, the planned approach will likely be ineffective in eliminating the Taliban leader and is likely to disappoint the country’s western allies, Pakistani officials and analysts told the paper.

The military is ending its operation against the Taliban in Swat, is soon expected to initiate one against Baitullah in Waziristan, but it would be much different to the strategy in Swat, which 20,000 troops swept across the region.

Ground troops: The military plans to use artillery, jet fighters and helicopter gunships to target the Taliban, with ground troops playing a limited role in the mountainous Waziristan, which largely favours traditional guerrilla warfare that the Taliban resort to.

The paper said the operation was unlikely to destroy the enemy, but was likely to raise questions about the country’s seriousness to fight the insurgents. “The nature of the operation is totally different from what we did in Swat,” a senior Pakistani security official told the paper on condition of anonymity. “It is just blocking the entrance. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out. We’ll keep punishing (the enemy) with long arms, air (power), Cobra (helicopters).” “The tactics have been reversed. Initially they (the Taliban) used to wear us out; now the army is planning to wear them out.”

 

[RabzonKhan]

Thirteen Al Qaeda suspects held in Dera Murad Jamali

Tuesday, 14 Jul, 2009


Security personnel have intercepted a bus and arrested three Turks, two Saudis, two Kuwaitis and five Afghanis near Dera Murad Jamali.—AP

QUETTA: Security agencies arrested on Monday at least 13 suspected Al Qaeda militants from a place near Dera Murad Jamali.

Security personnel intercepted a bus going to Multan from Quetta after receiving information about the movement of militants and found three Turks, two Saudis, two Kuwaitis and five Afghan nationals and a Pakistani in the vehicle.

The suspects were carrying five suicide vests and an 11-kilogramme bomb in their baggage.

They were also carrying currency notes of 4,240 US dollars, 694,000 Pakistani rupees, 50,000 Iranian tumans and more than 100,000 Afghanis.

Some documents were also seized. Security officials did not announce the names of the arrested Al Qaeda suspects.

‘They were going to Multan for carrying out suicide attacks in southern Punjab,’ sources said.