Reclaiming Pakistan's Frontier!

[kidwaibhai]

hope this guy is given the death penalty and all the members of the now defunct MMA be investigated for the havoc that they have created in Pakistan and especially in NWFP.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Taliban Resume Swat Valley Attacks

JULY 27, 2009

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG in Peshawar, Pakistan, AND ZAHID HUSSAIN in Mingora, Pakistan

Taliban militants driven from the Swat Valley by Pakistan's army in recent months are again infiltrating the region's towns and villages, kidnapping and beheading perceived enemies and ambushing soldiers, as hundreds of thousands of refugees return home.

Whether the latest violence represents the last gasp of a dying insurgency or the first sign of the militants' recovery is hard to tell. But the renewed violence is a sharp reminder that the offensive for the strategic valley, which won effusive praise from the U.S. and European nations, remains far from complete.

One of the most recent incidents took place around midnight Thursday, when eight bearded men with Kalashnikovs and dressed in army uniforms came looking for Jahan Zada, the head clerk of a small-town police station in Swat. Three took up positions on the roof of the boxy, two-story brick home, said a neighbor who witnessed the incident. The other five kicked down the front door.

"That's when we knew they were Taliban," said the witness, who asked that he be identified as Junaid. "They dragged him out and took him away."

Within hours, four of the alleged Taliban kidnappers were killed by security forces, officials say. Mr. Zada is still missing.

Pakistan's military declared the valley secure two weeks ago, after weeks of intense fighting against the Taliban in what has been viewed as the start of a major pushback by Pakistani forces against the militants' spread. The military has since been encouraging the more than two million people who had fled the area to return. But some of the militants who melted away in the face of the offensive are re-emerging, while others remain holed up in mountainside redoubts.

Pakistan's military spokesman, Maj. Gen Athar Abbas, said that until the military has a better handle on the valley, it is unlikely to open another front in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, the Taliban's most important strongholds in Pakistan and the rear base for militants fighting U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.

In the past week, three civilians have been beheaded by the Taliban in and around Mingora, the valley's main town. Mr. Zada was kidnapped in a nearby town, Sangota. In another nearby village, the janitor at a police station was killed, say military officers, diplomats and aid workers.

The army, meanwhile, is engaged in near-daily firefights with pockets of Taliban resisters. Most clashes are small, but dozens of militants have been killed in recent days, along with a few soldiers, the army says.

"The situation is still uncertain," said Shazeb Ali, 28 years old, who returned to his home and mobile-phone shop in Mingora two weeks ago. "We can hear the sound of firing some distance away."

Military commanders say the violence is nowhere near the level seen in Swat in the wake of a February peace deal that effectively handed the valley to the Taliban, or at the height of the offensive, which began in late April after the militants pushed into two neighboring districts and came within 100 kilometers of Islamabad, the capital.

The offensive was the Pakistan military's biggest push against the Taliban to date. More than 30,000 soldiers backed by fighter jets, helicopter gunships and artillery were sent in to battle the militants.

The recent beheadings, gun battles and threats are a sharp reminder for Pakistan and its foreign allies, "that there is no quick solution to the challenge we face from these miscreants," said Gen Abbas.

The violence in Swat is making it difficult to rebuild: Pakistani officials and Western diplomats say authorities are having trouble recruiting police and administrators because candidates fear being targeted.

The violence is also making it hard to re-establish some semblance of the valley's social order, which was upended by nearly two years of unrest in which the Taliban imposed a harsh brand of Islamic law and fomented a peasants' rebellion by chasing off the small class of landlords who controlled most of the valley's business.

A faltering reconstruction could leave the strategic valley again exposed for what would be the third Taliban takeover since 2007.

The military says it has decimated the Swat Taliban's command-and-control abilities and its logistics infrastructure, and soldiers now control the main roads, towns and villages on the banks of the Swat River.

But the "Taliban are still entrenched in some mountainous areas," said Brig. Tahir Hameed Rana, a commander in Mingora.

The valley's Taliban commanders, especially its leader, Maulana Fazlullah, also remain at large, which "is, frankly speaking, our biggest failure," said Gen. Abbas, the spokesman.

"We're going to continue these raids and these snatch-and-grab operations until we have them," he said. "We can't allow them to continue instilling fear in the population."

Mr. Fazlullah, known as the 'radio mullah' for the fiery broadcasts he used to deliver on the Taliban's pirate FM radio station, was again heard on the airwaves for three days last week. The roughly hour-long broadcasts were identical and most likely pre-recorded.

Muslim Khan, the Swat Taliban's spokesman, has also resurfaced. He told local journalists in telephone interviews last week that the Taliban's main forces would return.

The broadcasts and statements had the desired effect. "I hear [Mr. Fazlullah's] voice and I fear the Taliban are preparing to come back," said Junaid, the man who witnessed last week's kidnapping of Mr. Zada.

Still, he said that he and his family, who are among the 350,000 people who have so far returned, are staying for now.

Military commanders say they are banking on such people to help root out Taliban holdouts.

Gen. Abbas cited an example of residents of a small mountainside village, Shamo Zai, leading soldiers to a graveyard where the Taliban had stashed weapons.

"They pointed out three or four graves. The soldiers dug them up and found a treasure of weapons and ammunition," he said.

Authorities in Peshawar said Sunday they had arrested Sufi Mohammed, the radical cleric who negotiated the failed Swat peace deal on behalf of the Taliban, and two of his sons.

The three were arrested for encouraging violence and terrorism, and would be investigated for their role in the failed peace deal, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister of North West Frontier Province, which includes Swat.

There was no immediate comment from Mr. Mohammed's spokesman. Azmat Ullah, 12 years old, told the Associated Press that Mr. Mohammed and the two others were taken by police from their home on the outskirts of Peshawar without a struggle.

—Rehmat Mehsud contributed to this article.

 

[muse]

Taliban militants driven from the Swat Valley by Pakistan's army in recent months are again infiltrating the region's towns and villages, kidnapping and beheading perceived enemies and ambushing soldiers, as hundreds of thousands of refugees return home

Classic insurgent - but look at who the Talib have been able kidnap and behead:

In the past week, three civilians have been beheaded by the Taliban in and around Mingora, the valley's main town. Mr. Zada was kidnapped in a nearby town, Sangota. In another nearby village, the janitor at a police station was killed, say military officers

Also note how the article itself is crafted: nowhere in the article is there any reference to the Pakistan government and her policies - it's all army -- why do you suppose the article has been crafted the way it is?? It's just a guess, but if I had to, I would guess the article was printed in the NYT or IHT which is a partnership of NYT and WP.

 

[muse]

Please read the post preceding this one - sometimes it's confusing who is signaling who, how and why


ISI and signalling
Ejaz Haider


Two interesting reports have appeared in recent days in the foreign press, both pointing to pro-active strategic signalling by the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence. Consider.

The first appeared in the New York Times on July 22. Titled “Pakistan Objects to US Plan for Afghan War”, the report, filed by Eric Schmitt and Jane Perlez, said:

“The country’s perspective [on the US surge in Afghanistan] was given in a nearly two-hour briefing on Friday for The New York Times by senior analysts and officials of Pakistan’s main spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Service Intelligence. They spoke on the condition of anonymity in keeping with the agency’s policy. The main themes of the briefing were echoed in conversations with several military officers over the past few days.

“One of the first briefing slides read, in part: ‘The surge in Afghanistan will further reinforce the perception of a foreign occupation of Afghanistan. It will result in more civilian casualties; further alienate local population. Thus more local resistance to foreign troops.’”

The second report came out in the Indian newspaper, The Hindu. Filed by Nirupama Subramanian and Siddharth Varadarajan, the report opened thus:

“Days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani met in Egypt, the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence floated a suggestion that India deal not just with Pakistan’s civilian government but also directly with its Army and intelligence agency.”

This has since been denied by the ISI and also the Foreign Office but we shall return to that theme later. Let us for now consider some other aspects.

The report further said: “Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha made the out-of-the-box overture during a meeting earlier this month with the three Indian defence advisers representing the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force attached to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, The Hindu has learnt.

“The sit-in at Lt. Gen. Pasha’s office in Rawalpindi on July 3 took place entirely at his initiative, though it was ostensibly convened in response to a request made by the Indian High Commission ‘years before’. It is normal for defence advisors attached to various diplomatic missions in Islamabad to seek and be granted calls on the ISI director-general — a wing of the ISI is the coordinating agency for them — but Indians have rarely had an audience.”

What is going on?

Signalling? And if the ISI is doing it, one needs to see why.

Strategic signalling is a growing and controversial area with more unknowns than knowns and involves various factors. Moeed Yusuf, who has done work on nuclear signalling between India and Pakistan during the 2001-02 standoff, categorises signalling as direct, indirect and tacit. His findings are interesting in so far as he contends that “it is not the use of indirect or tacit channels of communication but the potential for misinterpretation of actual military posturing that is the foremost cause for concern”.

If we take out the phrase “of actual military posturing”, the question we are left with is whether there would still be “potential for misinterpretation”.

For instance, could it be that the Indians would think it useless to deal with the civilian government in Islamabad, and since they can’t deal with the ISI directly, despair of the possibility of any forward movement on the dialogue framework?

Or could it be that the Indians think that the civilian government has signalled to them through the ISI that the latter is part of anything that comes out of Islamabad?

Or is it that the DG-ISI is signalling to them that there should be three channels, civilian principals, army to army contacts and, now, a secret channel between the intelligence agencies?

More than the signalling then, it is a matter of interpretation. One could assume, in this case — as opposed to Yusuf’s study of a crisis situation — that this signal would be — at least should be — supported by corresponding signalling from other quarters to ensure that there is no misinterpretation.

For now, of course, the report’s contents have been denied. There are two possibilities: one, the Indians, after the meeting, interpreted whatever transpired wrongly; two, they decided, to put a spin on it for their purposes.

On the Pakistani side, the ISI could have used the element of plausible deniability because it was understood on both sides that such a proposition would be denied; or, the ISI realised that the meeting had gone wrong for whatever reasons; or, the denial is correct!

The NYT story is a much straighter affair. It talks about a briefing. Those of us who have had the opportunity of being present at such briefings know how they happen. The issue of why they happen is left unsaid in a Pinteresque manner, if you will. Sometimes that work; often it doesn’t. This is where the issue of interpretation again comes in.

There are official channels at various levels between Pakistan and the US. Pakistan has already notified the US of how it feels about the surge in Afghanistan. Could it then be that someone decided to reroute the signal and go directly to a US newspaper. Normally, deep briefings are not to be attributed so it is difficult to determine the exact content of the briefing. But it could be that the ISI decided to inform the NYT reporters of some of their concerns and did not embargo attribution since that was part of the signalling exercise.

While this article is not about an examination of how signalling works or doesn’t, that being a far more complex affair, suffice to say that someone at the ISI and/or the government should be monitoring the interpretation to see how this round has gone and whether it has achieved the desired results.

Another important issue, given the general impression of the Pakistan Army and the ISI, is whether this kind of signalling would be interpreted to denote those two entities as parallel power centres in Pakistan or as being on the same page as the government and working in tandem with it in a subordinate role towards the actualisation of a larger national security policy.

That’s a moot question. Let’s hope that whoever conceived of this signalling exercise had thought deep and hard about it.

Ejaz Haider is Consulting Editor of The Friday Times and Op-Ed Editor of Daily Times. He can be reached at sapper@dailytimes.com.pk

 

[RabzonKhan]

Ditch Mehsud or face action

By: Shaiq Hussain | Published: July 29, 2009

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s security forces will launch a large-scale military operation against all the Taliban commanders in Waziristan along with the ongoing air offensive against Baitullah Mehsud if they failed to accept the government’s demand for their detachment from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief.

The Taliban leaders in Waziristan, other than Baitullah, including Hafiz Gul Bahadur, Mullah Nazir and Siraj Haqqani, the son of most influential militant commander in the region, Jalaluddin Haqqani, have been asked to refrain from extending support to the TTP chief in the face of the military operation.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur has carried out a couple of deadly assaults against Pakistani security forces in the areas under his control in North Waziristan in the recent past whereas intelligence reports suggest that other militant commanders are also expected to side with Baitullah when the ground offensive is launched against him.

“The Taliban commanders have been clearly told that the security forces will not hesitate from operations against all of them if they decided to side with Baitullah who is responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and other gory acts of subversion on Pakistani soil,” said a well placed source asking for anonymity.

After success against Taliban militants in Swat, Buner and Dir, the Pakistani security forces are face-to-face with the tough task of military operation against Baitullah, who is considered to be the most dangerous local militant commander based in the harsh terrain of South Waziristan.




Soldier killed in Waziristan suicide attack

By: Mohammad Hanif | Published: July 29, 2009

MIRANSHAH - A soldier of Khasadar Force was killed and five others injured as a result of suicide attack against a check post at Miranshah, Headquarters of North Waziristan Agency, on Tuesday.

As per details, a suicide bomber struck his explosive-packed motorcar with the boundary wall of Deer Doni check post in Miranshah town.
A portion of the check post was damaged whereas one soldier of the Khasadar Force was killed on the spot and five others injured.
The body of the suicide bomber was blown into pieces and the motorcar was completely destroyed.

Soon after the suicide attack, the administration imposed curfew in the Civil Colony and important roads. During this period, the personnel of security forces opened fire against the occupants of a motorcar for violating the curfew.
Four occupants of the vehicle were killed whose identity was yet to be confirmed.

Curfew like situation exists in most parts of Miranshah town where all bazaars and shops were closed. Traffic on main roads connecting Miranshah with Pak-Afghan border, Bannu, Mirali and Razmak came to halt.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Taliban kill Muqam’s relative heading lashkar in Shangla

July 30, 2009

* Two assailants also killed as over 50 Taliban raid Khalil’s house

SHANGLA: Suspected Taliban stormed the house of a pro-government elder in Shangla and killed him on Wednesday, local police said.The lashkar leader, Khalilur Rehman, was killed when more than 50 Taliban raided his residence. Khalil’s son and two others were injured in the attack, police officials said, adding that two assailants were also killed in when security forces engaged the assailants.

District Police Officer Gul Wali said the lashkar leader was related to Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid NWFP President Amir Muqaam.“Early on Wednesday, suspected Taliban opened indiscriminate fire in Chogha village and later they stormed into the house of Khalil Khan, killing him and wounding his son and two other relatives,” family members were quoted as saying.

Khalil, 60, formed a private tribal lashkar and used to provide logistic support to groups fighting the Taliban, residents told AFP. The injured were taken to hospital in Khwazakhela in Swat by a military chopper.
According to locals, the Taliban have set up their headquarters in the area close to the border with Swat and Buner districts and use it as a launching pad for attacks on security forces in Swat. staff report/afp

 

[S-2]

And this on top of the WSJ article about three beheadings and a kidnapping in SWAT last week.

The kidnapping victim was also subsequently beheaded.

All around Mingora.

Lots of work to do.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Elimination of terrorists in Pakistan's interest : Kaira

ISLAMABAD, July 31 (APP): Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira as said that elected government has inherited the menace of militancy from the previous regime and it was now in country's own interest to eliminate the terrorists.Talking to a private television channel late Thursday night the Minister said that movernment explored all the options to settle the issue of militancy through peaceful means before launching an operation. Kaira said that elected government was not in favour of using force for settlement of the issue but the militants crossed all the barriers.

He said that government could not allow killing, kidnapping and destruction of public and private property by the miscreants.

He said that entire Pakistani nation backed the military operation against the militants.

To a question he said that security agencies had cleared some of the militancy hit areas but it cannot be guaranteed that no untoward incident would take place there in the future.

It is difficult to have foolproof check on the activities of terrorists even in the settled areas like Islamabad, he said.

He said that the damaged infrastructure and the services are being restored in the affected areas where the residents have started to return.

He said that there might have been some shortcomings in the relief activities but overall the government as well as the entire nation made serious and sincere efforts to provide relief to the IDPs.

To a question he said that, no survey had been conducted in the affected areas to assess the damages incurred so far and it would be inappropriate to give the accurate details of the losses at this stage.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Taliban tactics

Sunday, August 02, 2009

The Taliban who escaped the military action in Swat are said now to have assembled in the neighbouring Shangla district. Politicians there have confirmed the presence of the militants in large numbers. They also appear unshaken by the action against them and have been establishing check posts and road blocks to assert their hold over the area. Local people quite naturally feel alarmed. Attacks have been reported on the homes of some influential people who have opposed extremism or spoken out against the Taliban. Quite evidently their tactics and methods remain the same. We wonder how the authorities plan to tackle this situation. It now seems quite apparent that this is the line of action the Taliban will follow. As they are hunted down in one part of the province they will simply retreat to another. From here they may already be planning an eventual return to areas wrested away from them after a massive effort. People in Shangla are now demanding they be flushed out of their towns and villages as well, but have been concerned about possible civilian casualties in case the army moves in.

We need to find a solution. The one at present resembles some childish game of hide and seek. But for people it has deadly repercussions. It is obvious also that the Taliban possess enough gun power and force to present a threat even now. Key leaders who remain on the loose are possibly organizing their actions. We need a plan to deal with the militants in a more holistic manner. They must be prevented from terrorizing one group of people and then another. There is no sense in chasing them out from one location only to have them assemble in another. A plan needs to be put into effect to achieve this and rescue the NWFP of a scourge it has faced for far too many months and years.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Seminary blown up in Lakki Marwat

Monday, August 03, 2009
Our correspondent

LAKKI MARWAT: The security forces and police in a joint search operation blew up a madrassa on Begukhel Road in Machenkhel on Sunday.

Official sources said that the security forces and police raided Siddiqia Madrassa at 5:30 a.m. and blew it up, destroying five rooms of the building. Head of the madrassa, Maulana Gul Muhammad, was not present at the time. There was no casualty as the seminary was empty.

Official sources said there were authentic reports that the seminary was being used as a shelter by the local and non-local militants. Meanwhile, unidentified militants fired at a police checkpost near Shah Hassankhel village on Saturday night.

The forces have fenced the village to stop the entry of the militants into the area. The security forces carried out an operation in Shah Hassankhel village recently, recovering arms and raid-ing a madrassa and arrested a number of suspected militants and students of a religious school.




Two injured, 15 shops damaged in Balakot blast

Monday, August 03, 2009
Our correspondent

MANSEHRA: Two brothers were injured and about 15 shops damaged when an explosive device ripped through a market in Balakot town early Sunday.

A device planted outside a compact disc (CD) shop at Paradise Market went off, injuring Mohammad Faisal and Mohammad Taufique, who were present in their barbershop. The injured were shifted to Civil Hospital, Balakot.

The explosion was heard throughout the town and people immediately reached the scene. Police also rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area to collect evidence. District Police Officer Akhtar Hayat Khan told reporters at the scene that it was an 8-kilogram remote-controlled device. According to the bomb disposal squad, the explosion left a five-foot deep crater.

Akhtar Hayat Khan said police had already informed the CDs sellers to be careful. Provincial Minister for Industry Syed Ahmad Hussain Shah also visited the spot and assured the affected traders that he would take up the issue of compensation with the chief minister.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Army majors arrested for collaborating with terrorists’

Daily Times Monitor
August 04, 2009

LAHORE: Elements in the intelligence agencies who were sympathetic towards terrorists had resigned and had been arrested, a private TV channel quoted Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday, adding they were officers of the rank of major and wanted to target army generals.

He said there have been some elements in the intelligence agencies who have had links with terrorists, including Baithullah Mehsud, Qari Ilyas and Qari Hussain and with banned organisations.

To a question, he said South Waziristan had become a hub of anti-state activities and terrorists from various areas, including Hangu, Bajaur and Mohmand agencies, were operating against security forces.

Malik said he would bring the culprits behind Benazir Bhutto’s murder to justice.

He said terrorists were responsible for the current economic and law and order situation.

He said the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Muhammad supported Taliban and Al Qaeda in destabilising the country, adding all madrassas were not involved in illegal activities.

 

[muse]

US's $1bn Islamabad home is its castle
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

ISLAMABAD - The ambitious US$1 billion plan of the United States to expand its presence in Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad underscores Washington's resolve to consolidate its presence in the region, particularly in pursuit of the endgame in the "war on terror".

This marks the beginning of direct American handling of "war and peace" diplomacy in the region, following the forging of a seamless relationship between the Pakistani military establishment and the US military. (See Pakistan-US plan falls into place Asia Times Online, July 24, 2009.)

Standing in the way are Pakistan's restive tribal areas and the seemingly never-ending - and escalating - Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan's Pashtun provinces.

According to reports, the US will spend $405 million on the reconstruction and refurbishment of its main embassy building in the diplomatic enclave of the capital; $111 million for a new complex to accommodate 330 personnel; and $197 million to construct about 250 housing units.

For this purpose, the US Embassy has acquired about 7.2 hectares of land at what is widely considered a mark-down price of 1 billion rupees (US$12 million), courtesy of the state-run Capital Development Authority. A Turkish firm has already built a 153-room compound for the embassy.

The fortress-like embassy will eventually accommodate close to 1,000 additional personnel being sent to Islamabad as part of the US administration's decision to significantly raise its profile in the country. The new staffers will augment the current 750-strong American contingent already based in Pakistan; this against a sanctioned strength of 350.

"What appears to be more alarming is that this staff surge will include 350 [US] marines. Additionally, the Americans are pressuring Islamabad to allow the import of hundreds of Dyncorp armored personnel carriers," reported Pakistan’s largest English-language daily Dawn.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad, Richard W Snelsire, told Asia Times Online that the US was "redoing" the embassy compound as it was 40 years old. He said this was also largely because US aid to Pakistan had tripled to US$1.5 billion a year and therefore additional staff were needed. Snelsire dismissed the report of armored vehicles being used at the embassy and also said the notion of 350 marines being stationed there was "fictitious".

The point can't be denied, though, that the embassy is undergoing massive expansion, and one cannot easily assume all of the new staff will be pencil-pushers.

Indeed, since the last few months of 2008, the Americans have quietly been working on extending their physical footprint in the country.

During this period, about 300 American officials landed at Tarbella, the brigade headquarters of Pakistan's Special Operation Task Force approximately 20 kilometers from Islamabad. They were officially designated as a "training advisory group", according to documents seen by Asia Times Online. (See The gloves are off in Pakistan Asia Times Online, September 23, 2008.)

Investigations by Asia Times Online indicate that this was no simple training program. According to sources directly handling the project, the US bought a huge plot of land at Tarbella, several square kilometers. Twenty large containers were then sent there. They were handled by the Americans, who did not allow any Pakistani officials to inspect them. Given the size of the containers, sources familiar with such shipments believe they carried special arms and ammunition and even possibly tanks and armored vehicles - and certainly nothing to do with any training program.

These developments at Tarbella and now the bigger facility in the heart of Islamabad are reminiscent of American policy in the Middle East, where the Jordanian capital of Amman was turned into a hub for the US's handling of Iraq, Syria and Palestine.

Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the biggest embassy in the world was built in Baghdad. The facility not only provided logistical support to US troops in Iraq, it helped tackle Palestinian jihadi outfits in Jordan and worked to reduce their influence in Syria and Lebanon. It also helped reduce the influence of Iraqi resistance groups based in Jordan and tried to form closer relationships between Israel and Arab countries.

In Pakistan, after Islamabad sided with the US following the September 11, 2001, attacks, the US Central Intelligence Agency established low-key facilities in cities such as Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. In recent years, increasing numbers of unmanned Predator drones have used Pakistan as a base for attacks against militants inside the country and in Afghanistan.

Contacts close to the top decision-makers in Pakistan tell Asia Times Online that the improved US Embassy will significantly and publicly step up Washington's involvement in the country and beyond.

The immediate targets are the Taliban and al-Qaeda. There is talk that once again the idea of peace dialogue will be explored with them in the border areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border.

Apart from the troubles in Afghanistan, where this month foreign forces are being killed in record numbers, Pakistan's tribal areas have to be "tamed" if the US is to further its regional aims.

In the meantime, infrastructure work necessary to realize these aims is already underway - Pakistan, Afghanistan and some Central Asian republics - notably Uzbekistan and Tajikistan - are building communication links such as roads and railways to enhance regional trade.

It is envisaged that regional economic powerhouse India, at a later stage, will be a part of this trade loop through Pakistan. After some frosty years between Islamabad and Delhi, the US is actively working to get them to resolve their differences, the chief of which is over divided Kashmir.

But first, the war that won't go away in Afghanistan and which has now taken root in Pakistan.

The US and its allies might be thinking of striking deals with some of the Taliban, but leader Mullah Omar is having none of it. He has ordered that all backchannel talks with the Americans through Saudi Arabia and other contacts be severed and that the war against foreign troops be accelerated. (See Taliban will let guns do their talking Asia Times Online, July 14, 2009.)

There has also been a strategic switch in the militant camps of the North Waziristan tribal area where previously Tajik fighters were trained to fight in Afghanistan. They are now returning home, via Turkey, and the Taliban are desperately trying to capture the western Afghan province of Herat to open direct access to the Central Asian states through Turkmenistan.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has abandoned the jihadi assets it built to take on India by closing training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Many of these fighters are now in the hands of al-Qaeda and there is all likelihood, confirmed by analysts privy to the Pakistani establishment as well as by militants, that if India enters in the grand American game, al-Qaeda will activate these cells for operations in India.

"At the moment, India does not have any direct role in Afghanistan, but if it tries to play one by sending its troops or any other support to the American war, it will be the beginning of Ghazwa-e-Hind [the war on India promised by the Prophet Mohammad as part of the end of the time battles]," retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, former head of the ISI, said in a recent television interview.

As much as the US wants to expand its war efforts, inter-connected jihadi and militants groups are already thinking beyond their traditional boundaries to meet the challenge.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

 

[muse]

Quiet summit on the side

Without arousing much attention in Pakistan, an important four-power summit has concluded in Dushanbe in Tajikistan after discussing “an increase of foreign investment in the sphere of hydropower projects, construction of transmission lines and development of transport infrastructure”. The four presidents who signed the summit joint statement were Mr Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, Mr Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan, Mr Dmitri Medvedev of Russia and Mr Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

Significantly, there was a separate three-power discussion involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, which signed on implementing the construction of rail, roads and highways on the Panji Poyon-Sherkhon and Bandar-Kabul-Peshawar routes, giving Tajikistan access to sea through Pakistani ports. President Zardari ended up saying the Dushanbe summit decision would be appreciated by generations to come.

The Russian president was there when the summit appealed for investments and control of the smuggling of drugs and weapons and cross-border crime. Pakistan and Russia promised to push their stalled relationship forward by agreeing that “terrorism and militancy were not only a threat to peace and stability of the region, but to the world as a whole” and that the two would strengthen bilateral trade.

Around the same time last year a Pakistani delegation had gone to Dushanbe to talk about importing 1,000MW of electricity from Tajikistan and its neighbour Kyrgyzstan at a rate which was four cents less than the one Pakistan was paying to the IPPs. This year, too, there is talk of Central Asian electricity; and the summit declaration has talked about doing something about the “transport infrastructure” in the region. It is obvious that transport infrastructure is what is lacking, and Pakistan in particular should worry about facing the same kind of difficulties with electricity pylons as it is facing with its indigenous gas pipelines.

The Central Asian region is silently moving to a new political configuration and Pakistan can no longer separate itself from it just because it is negatively preoccupied in South Asia. This is more important because the time has come to think of connecting South Asia economically with Central Asia where Russia and China are the big factors of change. Those who say that Central Asian states are sparsely populated and therefore not important from the point of view of exports from India and Pakistan, must have also taken note of how Pakistan has been consistently looking to Tajikistan for the strengthening of its national power grid; and that Tajikistan has been eying Gwadar for an outlet to the sea through Pakistan.

Pakistan has been quietly supplying the food markets of Central Asia through smuggling. The Pakistani potential for growing food crops can only be realised if it becomes a permanent source of supply to the region through secure trade routes. Food in return for electricity would be a fair deal under any circumstances. Other countries including India can also share the route facilities provided by Pakistan — an MoU in this regard has already been signed by the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan — while a recently built bridge across the Amu Darya, the river which divides Afghanistan and Tajikistan, will allow Chinese goods to be sent down to Pakistan for export from Gwadar. China has already built a new road linking Xinjiang, its westernmost province, with Tajikistan.

Where China and Russia lead the regional groupings — as they do in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) — the effort is to replace terrorism with trade as the mode of communication between states. China was not in Dushanbe but its influence was unmistakable. It is the largest investor in Afghanistan and it is the closest strategic ally of Pakistan. The SCO to which all the summit members send their delegations targets Islamic extremism as the main source of terrorism in the region. President Rakhmon — he used to be Rakhmonov not long ago — guards the interests of Uzbekistan which is targeted by Tahir Yuldashev, the Uzbek warlord, who is hiding in Pakistan today and also operating against Pakistan’s interests.

It is important for Pakistan to become a player in the Central Asia region through trade and trade routes and stand firmly against the export of extremism from its non-state actors. Its geographic location sets it apart from other states of South Asia. It can enhance the importance of Central Asia and become a key regional state in the process.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Dir lashkar claims killing 167 Taliban

August 07, 2009

PESHAWAR/MINGORA/SULTANWAS: A pro-government lashkar on Thursday claimed to have killed at least 167 Taliban in two months, an indication of the growing reach of private armies in the northwest.

Officials said up to 1,000 villagers in Upper Dir formed a lashkar two months ago to avenge a mosque bombing that killed 38 people on June 5 in Hayagai Sharqai village.

“We started with 200 men and now there are 3,000 people,” Malik Moatbir Khan, the lashkar chief told AFP.

“We have killed 167 Taliban so far in many gunfights helped by the army,” Khan said, adding that 97 volunteers were also killed. There was no independent confirmation of the death toll. Saddled with a standing army that lacks equipment and counter-insurgency specialists, one of the country’s answers has been to arm and support tribesmen to protect local communities.

The Frontier Corps paramilitary force had no details about death tolls, but confirmed that security forces were cooperating closely with tribal lashkars. “The local lashkars are helping security forces close in on militants and we have close coordination with them,” a local paramilitary spokesman said. “We are providing them with rations, vehicles and ammunition,” he said.

Lashkar: Meanwhile, the residents of the Swat valley have formed an armed lashkar to fight the Taliban. The lashkar killed three Taliban on the first day of its operation on Thursday, locals and officials said.

Tribal elders including nazims of Tutalai Bandai and Kalagai area of Kabal tehsil formed a 350-strong lashkar which included teenagers under the supervision of the security forces. According to locals, the armed lashkar, led by Said Bacha, Saifullah, Mustahiq and Ajmir Khan, started a search operation against the Taliban and killed three of them, identified as Habibullah, Iftikhar and Sardar Hussain. Military sources told Daily Times that during the launching ceremony of the lashkar, army officers handed over three guns and 30,000 rounds to the lashkar leaders.

Meanwhile, a man, Nadir, gunned down two Taliban in Charbagh tehsil of Swat district when they were trying to kidnap his brother.

Buner: Separately, village leaders in Buner are rebuilding their own lashkar to protect the area from the Taliban holding out in nearby hills after fleeing the army’s offensive last spring, AP reported. Locals said the Taliban fighters are hiding in the hills outside Sultanwas, a village pulverised by airstrikes and tanks during the offensive.

So villagers are leaving nothing to chance: They have reorganised their own lashkar and say they are talking to nearby villages to join forces.

The authorities say such lashkars can prevent the Taliban from rebounding in the strategic area north of the capital. The groups have been compared to Iraq’s Awakening Councils, which helped US forces turn the tide against Al Qaeda there.

“The army is protecting the main road, and we are protecting the village,” said one of the militiamen, Abdul Rauf, 43. With the Taliban gone, the lashkar members are now organising patrols and setting up positions. “We are sure if the Taliban come back, we will fight,” said Rauf.

Thirty members of the Sultanwas lashkar recently teamed up with the security forces in a clearance operation in the area. Frontier Corps commander Major General Tariq Khan said the lashkars play an important role because they allow the army to operate elsewhere instead of being tied down guarding villages. More importantly, they can identify local Taliban whom outsiders might not recognise. “The lashkars are the right type of people who control the markets, control the bus stands and can see who’s coming and who’s going out,” Khan said. But critics say the lashkars could become a threat without proper supervision. staff report/agencies

 

[S-2]

This expedient has always existed. No doubt it can also prove an effective near-term remedy.

The concerns, however, are legitimate. Granting temporary powers during a country-wide emergency runs the risk of embedding such institutionally. Those with power are ALWAYS reluctant to freely cede such back. They've been EMPOWERED, after all, and that matters when heretofore you've not had influence on events.

Further, it places the onus, where done so, upon the government to prove worthy of ceding back such power. Woe be to that uniformed police force and local court system that can't manage it's affairs and allows ruin to return. The state's writ and legitimate monopoly on violence will be forever destroyed the second time around.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm encouraged and believe that Pakistan's population is far more unified to defend itself than those in Afghanistan. Pakistanis appear more outraged and less worn out by war and neglect. Your citizens have more energy and determination to assist in their own defense.

However, arming these lashkars must be clearly understood to be an expedient and that the state hasn't aborgated it's responsibility for such. The GoP will have to make that a visible reality and maintain such for some time yet before that premise isn't questioned.