Reclaiming Pakistan's Frontier!

[Cha.Cal]

Military Official Discusses Pakistani Offensive

By John J. Kruzel

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2010 – Roughly 40,000 Pakistani troops are conducting operations against militants in the country’s North Waziristan region near the Afghan border, a senior U.S. military official said today.


Unlike a larger, “steamroller” offensive last year that uprooted enemy fighters in neighboring South Waziristan, the current engagement comprises smaller, piecemeal operations, the official told Pentagon reporters on background.

“We are seeing quite a bit of activity [in North Waziristan] that’s going on that supports what General Kiyani’s been telling in some of the strategic dialogues about his campaign plan,” the official said, referring to Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani army’s chief of staff.

Kiyani pledged in 2008 to step up offensive operations against militants within Pakistan, starting in the northern area of Bajaur, working through the federally administered tribal areas, the Swat Valley and the Northwestern Frontier.

The official said Pakistan “seems to be abiding by that kind of campaign plan to go and uproot the insurgencies” in the areas where militants have been entrenched.

“You’re seeing a trend where they are trying to remove the areas that were once unapproachable,” the official said, noting that Kiyani announced that the recent Pakistani military offensives marked the first any military had occupied South Waziristan.

The official characterized the accomplishments of the Pakistan security forces as “quite impressive.”

“To see the gains that they have made in this short time is a real testament to the resolve, the fighting spirit and the leadership of Pakistan’s armed forces,” the official said.

About 200 U.S. military personnel in Pakistan are providing security assistance and training to the Pakistani military and to paramilitary operatives and members of the frontier corps. The official left open the possibility that the number of U.S. forces may increase if the U.S. delivers military equipment to Pakistan that requires specialized trainers.

“We stand fully behind Pakistan in its relentless drive to restore peace and security in this region,” the official said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates held talks last week with a delegation of Pakistani officials, including Kayani.

“What we are interested in is looking at the long-term in the relationship between the United States and Pakistan,” Gates said before the meetings, “how we can strengthen our relationship, and how we can help Pakistan in dealing with the security challenges that face them, but also face us and NATO as well.”

Military officials have said that what spurred on Pakistan to greater action against militants within their borders was the realization that Taliban operatives -- working in Afghanistan and Pakistan – and al-Qaida behave as a “syndicate,” working in support of each other.

“Although they might not be bearing the big al-Qaida banner,” the official said, “these forces do work together in different ways.”

The official also noted that Pakistan began to take threats from the syndicate more seriously after militants began encroaching in areas that traditionally have not been home to insurgent forces.

“When the forces started packing into the settled areas of Pakistan within the last two years, I think they really realized that this is an extremist they have to deal with,” the official said. “As they were taking over the Swat area -- [in addition to] very dramatic attacks inside Peshawar, Islamabad, Karachi -- I think it was a wake-up call to some extent that they needed to deal with this insurgency, and it became their war, not our war, as it may have been portrayed.”

The official said coordination has improved among the U.S.-NATO coalition forces, Afghan security forces and Pakistan.

“That [Afghanistan-Pakistan] border that was very fluid,” the official said, “now is starting to be problematic for the insurgency.”

 

[T-Faz]

ON the wall of a stone cell inside Peshawar's 2000-year-old Bala Hisar Fort, a message of hope is scrawled in elegant Pashto script: "This time will pass."

From his office less than 100m from where that melancholy grafittist left his mark, the man who leads the 50,000-strong Frontier Corps on the front lines of Pakistan's war on terror believes that time is near.

Major General Tariq Khan says the Frontier Corps is just two months away from flushing Islamic militants from all but one of the country's tribal agencies - North Waziristan - and once again bringing the country's western border with Afghanistan under government control.

It is a bold security assessment of a 1200km land strip that has become a redoubt for some of the world's most dangerous Islamic extremists. Even more so given Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, admits that one of Afghanistan's most feared militants, the Taliban-allied Afghan fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani, continues to spend up to 15 days each month in North Waziristan.

"There are no roads not open to us, no villages not accessible to us," General Khan boasts. "It makes me very happy to say that out of seven agencies, four of them we have total writ over. We're just waiting for the major operations - like Orakzai and Khyber - to finish in a couple of months to spare us the troops to start changing our methodology."

When that happens, the Frontier Corps - traditional defenders of the western border for more than 150 years - will conduct operations across the Federally Administered Tribal Area, going house to house in search of weapons caches and the remnants of the Pakistani Taliban leadership.

If it is true that Pakistan has finally turned the hose on the Islamic militants who have in the past found safety and even state support in FATA - and there is still scepticism it has - it could prove decisive for NATO and US forces fighting a Taliban insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.

The US has consistently accused Pakistan of playing a double game in the war on terror, co-operating with Western powers to rout Taliban forces while covertly supporting Afghan extremists in FATA to maintain leverage after the US pull-out.

Militant commanders such as Haqqani have long been regarded as a "Pakistani asset" (although the military is preparing to launch an operation in North Waziristan.) But US rhetoric has changed markedly in recent months as the Pakistani military has made material gains in FATA and Swat and arrested several high-profile Afghan Taliban leaders, even as the ISI has reportedly let others go.

"You have to give them a lot of credit for what they have done," one senior US official said of the Pakistani military this week. "They definitely are shrinking the safe havens inside Pakistan."

Yet in recent days General Khan has publicly criticised NATO and the US for failing to act on recent Pakistani intelligence that militants are escaping over the border into Afghanistan.

"At a tactical level, we have a very close relationship (with NATO and the US) but we're all governed by our own rules of engagement and in Afghanistan the rules of engagement are not allowing those people to operate the way they were operating," the straight-talking general says.

"I don't blame them (NATO troops). They're as frustrated as we are."

Civilian deaths in Afghanistan have forced NATO into accepting new rules that forbid troops from firing on an unarmed person, which means militants only have to drop their weapons and they may move away unhindered.

With the Pakistan military in the ascendant in its own backyard, General Khan believes his troops have succeeded where the better-equipped NATO and the US have so far failed.

"When I took command in August 2008, the Khyber Road was threatened, Peshawar and the surrounding areas had 50 kidnappings for ransom a day, Buner was occupied, the motorway (into Islamabad) was threatened," he says.

"Swat had its own constitution, Bajaur was days away from declaring allegiance to Afghanistan, Mohmand was a no-go area and Waziristan" was the acknowledged headquarters for Taliban insurgents.

"What's the situation now? The road to Kabul is open. Bajaur is secure. In all agencies bar one, we have the writ of the government."

In recent weeks, the Frontier Corps has spruiked its victories by flying journalists out to Damadola, in Bajaur Agency, to tour a complex of 156 caves developed by militants over seven years, within clear view of eastern Afghanistan. The area was the headquarters of al-Qa'ida and the Taliban and the home of al-Qa'ida No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri until a failed drone attack in 2006 forced him to flee the area.

The Frontier Corps's victories have not come without US help, however. More than $US100 million in US aid has been spent in the past five years to help convert the corps from an under-resourced law enforcement agency struggling with mass desertions into a disciplined counter-insurgency force. Annual salaries have increased more than fourfold, and weapons, military infrastructure and living conditions have all improved significantly.

US Special Operations trainers, several of whom were seen by The Weekend Australian at Bala Hisar, now work with the corps to set up infrastructure in liberated areas, including tube wells, medical camps and FM radio stations with a dial-up network that villagers can use like a 000 or 911 emergency system.

Khadim Hussain from the independent Pakistani think tank Ariana Institute says many Pakistanis remain sceptical of military victory declarations they have heard many times before.

"Pakistanis generally are not yet clear as to what the military establishment is up to with respect to dealing with non-state actors and militant Islamic forces," he said. "The Taliban network, and its leadership, is still intact and still capable of launching strikes across Pakistan."

General Khan agrees the key to long-term stability in FATA is ensuring the support of the people there. Across most of the tribal areas he insists his troops - who are recruited from within the tribal agency itself - are greeted as liberators from the misery of life under Taliban rule.

But that is not universally the case. The military has faced heavy criticism for causing civilian deaths during operations and this week the army was forced into a rare admission over one of the most serious incidences yet in the Tyrah Valley in the Khyber Agency. About 57 people were killed in an aerial attack that was thought to be targeting a militant hideout but in fact hit the home of a tribal elder sympathetic to the government.

General Khan concedes such incidents do not help Pakistan win over the famed and feared FATA tribes, and appears to hold similar views on the US unmanned drones, used to devastating effect over the past 18 months to target militants, including the late Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

"We have to take the people with us. There's no other way."

General Khan says $1 billion is needed to rehabilitate the tribal areas, to ensure Taliban forces do not return to fill the vacuum.

If that occurs, then the FATA will no longer pose a threat to the country's stability, regardless of what happens over the border.

Pakistan army sure it has upper hand in tribal areas | The Australian

 

[rizhussain44]

This seems to be an interesting discussion on the topic being discussed here, I hope I am posting it in the right section.

I found it interesting and thought of sharing, I have only watched the part 1 so far.

Sorry if it is a re-post.

 

[Xeric]

38 militants killed, 23 arrested in NW Pakistan: army

38 militants killed, 23 arrested in NW Pakistan: army
English.news.cn 2010-06-17 20:26:40

ISLAMABAD, June 17 (Xinhua) -- At least 38 militants were killed and 23 others apprehended by security forces during raids in Pakistan's Mohmand agency on Wednesday, the spokesman of Pakistan army stated Thursday.

Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) of Pakistan said in a press release that the clashes that took place Wednesday in Mohmand Agency, along with Afghan border, also left 10 Security forces personnel killed and 13 injured.

According to sources, the raids against militants were carried out in Nesko Shah, Rajab China, Gudar and Sarko areas located on border of Mohmand agency.

Pakistani security forces are still continuing the operations against militants in the tribal area of the country, which Washington considers as the center of Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants.

Last year two military offensives were carried out in Pakistan' s northwest, killing thousands of militants.

 

[fatman17]

History Of Pakistan's Tribal Zones

June 17, 2010

June 17, 2010

Many of the U.S. military's most wanted are believed to be hiding in a swath of rugged mountains in Pakistan, just over the Afghan border. President Obama has called the tribal region "the most dangerous place in the world." Pakistani Journalist Imtiaz Gul explains to Steve Inskeep what Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas actually are.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Next we'll look at phrase that is constantly in the news. The phrase is: The tribal areas - as in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Sometimes we call them lawless or ungoverned. We say they're in the mountains near Afghanistan. We report on U.S. drone attacks against militants who hide there.

This morning we will try to explain what Pakistan's federally-administered tribal areas actually are. Our guide is the journalist Imtiaz Gul, author of the book "The Most Dangerous Place."

What are the origins of these zones that we describe as the tribal areas of Pakistan?

Mr. IMTIAZ GUL (Author, "The Most Dangerous Place"): It was created after several futile efforts by the British to conquer these areas. They didnt succeed so then they created these special zones called Federally Administered Tribal Areas - at that time was part of India.

INSKEEP: And basically they were governed by the British but not really governed by the British.

Mr. GUL: Not really.

INSKEEP: Is that right?

Mr. GUL: It was a quid pro quo. The British entered into an agreement with the tribes that inhabit this area, saying that you can do whatever you want on this piece of land - it's 27,200 square kilometers. And in return you would allow us safe passage up to the border with Afghanistan. So here, you know, you have a route running through this area, 50 feet both sides of the road...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GUL: ...way down(ph) to the federal government. The rest belongs to tribesmen and they will do whatever thought was fit: drugs, smuggling, crime, people would take refuge there, criminals, fugitives. And the same system then we retained after Pakistan came into being in 1947.

INSKEEP: And there are seven of these tribal zones?

Mr. GUL: There are seven tribal zones.

INSKEEP: And there are federal officials in each of these seven tribal areas, right?

Mr. GUL: The way Pakistan government controls these areas is through an administrator, which is called the political agent. He's the link between the federal government and the tribes living in those areas. And those tribes are now represented by the tribal chiefs. There are about 35,000 of them in the seven tribal zones.

INSKEEP: So there's not any kind of democracy, even in times when there's democracy in Pakistan.

Mr. GUL: There's no democracy, no. It's the legacy of the colonial rule and it continues to date. And the common man in these areas doesnt have a sense of justice. And the genesis of the militancy, the Islamist movement, also lies in the absence of a legal justice system in these areas.

INSKEEP: Because that encourages people to look for some other kind of justice - Islamic justice in some cases.

Mr. GUL: Yeah, for them the Islamic justice is their shortcut. The justice delivery is very, very quick. Here you have a complaint. The judge is sitting there - the so-called judge. He adjudicates the matter in a day or two and there you have it.

INSKEEP: If we go back 20 or 30 years, what happened that caused this very loose governing system to start to fall apart?

Mr. GUL: Both Pakistan and the United States began using this area for training Mujahedeen...

INSKEEP: To fight in Afghanistan...

Mr. GUL: To fight...

INSKEEP: ...against the Soviets.

Mr. GUL: ...against the Soviet Union. And that gave birth to a new breed of people, which is called Mujahedeen or the militants or the Taliban. What we are dealing with now is a second generation of jihadis, who really believe in jihad for whom not only was the Soviet Union a devil but also the United States and its allies. And they turned this area into their launching pad, their training ground for their jihad against the United States.

INSKEEP: How sympathetic do you think the people of the tribal areas are to that jihadist point of view?

Mr. GUL: Not the majority. It's a small minority. But when you are dealing with armed bands who are using religion and tradition to dictate their terms, common people become helpless.

INSKEEP: As you know very well, the Pakistani military has now spent quite a lot of time going into certain tribal zones, flooding areas with troops, and have made announcements that in some cases theyve cleared out tribal zones. What if anything is actually changing in the tribal areas as this happens?

Mr. GUL: At the moment nothing is changing. It's just the military which has gone into those areas. It's cleared many regions of militants, but it's not a lasting solution. At the moment, there is no civilian authority...

INSKEEP: Because the...

Mr. GUL: ...because...

INSKEEP: ...civilian system we described has collapsed. Is that what you're saying?

Mr. GUL: The civilian - the moment the army went in, nine years ago, the civilian system simply collapsed. They simply rendered the civilian administration as ineffective.

INSKEEP: It has been suspected widely in the United States that the Pakistani military is only going to selected areas of the tribal zones - areas where the Pakistani Taliban, people who are dangerous to Pakistan, seem to be hiding -not going to, for example North Waziristan, where figures who are active in Afghanistan seem to be hiding.

The Pakistanis have said we'll get around to it. Do you think Pakistan is serious about that?

Mr. GUL: I think Pakistan is serious about that and also being considerate about its own limitations. It's a question of capacity. Pakistan is not the United States. It doesnt possess enormous human and financial resources to open so many fronts at the same time. And I think one consideration is that if they cracked down on these crooks in North Waziristan, their allies on mainland Pakistan could hit back at the state of Pakistan.

INSKEEP: Oh, meaning that if the army moves into North Waziristan, this remote tribal zone, a bomb is going to explode in the big city of Lahore, for example.

Mr. GUL: This is what has been happening. We saw the military campaign that was conducted in May 2009. Pakistan was on fire. There was more than 36 suicide bombings.

INSKEEP: One other thing about these tribal zones that youve traveled in on and off for many years. Whats it like to travel there?

Mr. GUL: It's not easy to travel into these areas. When I first went into these tribal areas, I thought I had come to an area set back in 300 years. The drive time from Islamabad to one of these tribal areas is about 12 hours.

INSKEEP: And it's not very far on the map at all.

Mr. GUL: Its just about 500 kilometers. But the society living there is very behind the rest of Pakistan. People are set back in the medieval ages. The mindset, it's very conservative. There are no employment opportunities there. Thats why these areas became a haven for a lot of non-state actors, particularly when General Pervez Musharraf banned some of the militant organization in January 2002.

All these people moved from mainland Pakistan into the tribal areas to plan from there. And they also then hooked up with al-Qaida, with Afghan Taliban. Thats how this nexus came about.

INSKEEP: I love how you describe it as the tribal areas and mainland Pakistan, almost as if they were off on an island somewhere. But it's that remote, isnt?

Mr. GUL: To a certain extent it's that remote. People dont have a sense of belonging to Pakistan.

INSKEEP: Imtiaz Gul is author of "The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier." Thanks very much.

Mr. GUL: Welcome.

 

[Xeric]

No diversion of forces from militant fight: Army | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

No diversion of forces from militant fight: Army

Published: August 14, 2010

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Army is playing the leading role in rescue efforts after the worst floods in decades, but it will not divert forces from the battle against militants, military officials said on Friday.
The floods, the country’s most severe natural disaster, began two weeks ago and have killed more than 1,600 people, forced 2 million from their homes and disrupting the lives of about 14 million people, or 8 percent of the population.
The army has deployed about 60,000 troops for rescue and relief operations out of a force of about 550,000 soldiers.
Soldiers in helicopters and boats have plucked numerous survivors from the water that has inundated the Indus river basin. Army engineers are rebuilding broken bridges and washed-out roads while other units have set up relief camps.
But there has been worry, especially in the United States, that the Pakistani military would have to withdraw some of its 140,000 soldiers fighting militants in the northwest, along the Afghan border, to help with the floods. But the military played down that worry.
“The involvement of our troops in relief activities will have no impact on our fight against militants,” said military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas.
“We were mindful of this factor when we carried out deployment for relief activities and I don’t think there will be any need to withdraw troops from the western border,” he said.
The mountainous northwestern has been largely spared the worst of the floods and most troops involved in relief work were from units in the flood areas, said a senior security official.
“We have not withdrawn any troops from the western border and we hope we will not need to do so,” said the official, who declined to be identified.
“There has been an impact on our training activities as most troops involved in relief efforts were undergoing training, but our activities, operations as well as deployment along the border with Afghanistan have not been affected at all,” he said.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Pakistan plans to target militants in North Waziristan’

Thursday, 14 Oct, 2010

WASHINGTON: US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said the Pakistani military has pledged to go after militants that the US wants targeted in the North Waziristan tribal region.

Mullen said Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani has given assurances that he will mount an offensive in the tribal region along the Afghan border.

"He has committed to me to go into North Waziristan and to root out these terrorists as well," Mullen reportedly said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Conversations with Judy Woodruff" to be broadcast this weekend.

"He clearly knows what our priorities are…North Waziristan is the epicentre of terrorism," Mullen said.

"It's where al-Qaeda lives."

He further said that the objective was to defeat al-Qaeda and ensure Afghanistan would not again become a haven for the group.

Pakistan says its army is stretched by the fight against militants in six tribal regions and a flood that inundated a fifth of the country in July.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Army waiting for ‘right time’ to launch NWA operation

Daily Times
By Iqbal Khattak
November 26, 2010

PESHAWAR: The military will wait until it has completed the operation in Orakzai, stabilised Swat and Bajaur and handed over stable places such as Shangla to civilian control before it launches action in North Waziristan, where Washington is wanting an army operation against safe-havens of the Haqqani network and its local and foreign facilitators, top officials said on Thursday.

“Oh yes, we have to go to North Waziristan for action to restore the dignity of the state, but not by leaving other ongoing missions half done,” the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Daily Times, in what could be the first hints at preparations for much-awaited action around the border areas of North Waziristan. North Waziristan, according to reports, has been the last bastion for local and foreign militants after the military regained lost ground in Swat, drove them out from South Waziristan and put them on the “back foot” in Bajaur.

The officials said it was principally agreed to take action in North Waziristan. “However, we will wait for the appropriate time before doing that,” they said.

“For actions in North Waziristan, the military will need to remove troops from areas where they are already engaged against militants or stabilised other areas. Leaving the ongoing missions half done will be an extremely unwise move to take.” With reports that the political leadership of the country authorised Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to take the decision as to when action should begin in North Waziristan, it looks less likely the army will take action in winter.

 

[unicorn]

Govt announces Rs. 10 million for spying against Taliban

ISLAMABAD, Nov 27 (APP): The Federal government on Saturday announced Rs.10 million reward, security, employment for the individual who would spy for the government against Taliban.Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik while seeking nation’s support against Taliban said the government would also facilitate the informer to settle in any foreign country if he/she fears that Taliban can hurt them.He said the government has broken the back of Taliban and they are breathing their last adding that the desperate Taliban were carrying out terrorist activities against innocent people in mosques, holy shrines and in public places.
He expressed the government resolve to wipe out these Taliban from the country.
Malik said the two terrorists arrested a day before were tasked to carry out a suicide attack in a mosque of F-8 sector and possible they could attack the parliament House as well.
He appreciate the performance of law enforcement agencies in the apprehension of these two suicide bombers.
To a question regarding Mumbai attack, he said his Indian counterpart in a press statement expressed dissatisfaction on trial of accused of Mumbai attack in Pakistan, adding that we made the statement of Ajmal Kasab as base but our courts require validation of his statement and we have written this to India.
He said we have proposed India that a Pakistani commission can visit New Delhi to ensure to validate Ajmal Kasab’s statement, but India has yet not given any response so far. The delay is on Indian side, he added.

 

[unicorn]

This tactic is too old to work.Americans have tried a hundred times.

 

[RabzonKhan]

EDITORIAL: Orakzai peace jirga

Daily Times
December 07, 2010

The holding of a peace jirga in Orakzai Agency, where Shia and Sunni tribes decided to open the roads that had been closed for each other since 2005, is a very welcome development that could be the harbinger of the return of relative peace in this conflict-torn region. It also indicates that the military is taking the campaign against local militants very seriously and would not allow them to regroup in this region. The military has finally come to grips with the issue of militancy in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where militants facing the heat in one area take flight to another from where they re-launch attacks on the security forces. The military has realised that without integrating tribal society through political means, it cannot defeat the militants. If successful, this strategy would have a far-reaching impact on other Agencies.

It would be instructive to review the history of the Shia-Sunni divide in the region. During the Afghan jihad of the 1980s, Orakzai Agency, together with Kurram Agency, held great strategic importance for launching the mujahideen into Afghanistan after necessary training in other parts of FATA and the rest of Pakistan. The emergence of the local Taliban in FATA has led to rifts along sectarian lines and victimisation of the local Shia population, notably in Kurram and Orakzai Agencies, either due to theological differences or the Shias’ outright opposition to the Taliban. The jihadis and their Sunni hosts have maintained an upper hand. Blockade of roads in both Agencies has been variously used by the military to curtail supplies to militant areas, by militants to victimise Shias opposed to their presence in Orakzai, and by local tribes to restrict the movement of opponents. These blockades made the life of ordinary tribesmen very difficult due to scarce supplies and insecurity of routes. The lifting of the blockade in Orakzai Agency will, hopefully, pave the way for normalisation of life in the area and return of the internally displaced persons.

The fact that the Shia-Sunni peace jirga has been sponsored by the government in order to prevent militants fleeing active conflict zones from regrouping, points to a refinement of the military strategy, which is now relying on political means as well to succeed. Harmony among Shia and Sunni tribes would ensure that they put up a united front against any outsiders who try to use their area for militant purposes. Without the aid of local people, the military cannot hope to defeat the militants. The strategy, if successful, must be replicated elsewhere where sectarian tensions are high, particularly Kurram Agency.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Multi-week offensive kills 120 terrorists

February 16, 2011

GHALANI: An official said security forces have cleared terrorists from 90 percent of targeted Tribal Areas near the Afghan border in a nearly three-week offensive. Mohmand Agency official, Amjad Ali Khan, said on Tuesday that 120 terrorists have been killed in the fighting, including seven local Taliban commanders. Four soldiers were also killed, he added. The offensive began on January 27 that included aerial bombing, artillery and ground assaults in five tribal regions. Khan said government forces would continue with the operation until they routed the terrorists. Officials said about 22,000 people were displaced by the fighting. Khan said 20 families have been repatriated and they hope to bring others home next month. ap

 

[RabzonKhan]

Speculations grow about operation in N. Waziristan

Dawn
By Zulfiqar Ali

PESHAWAR: The federal government has directed the Fata Disaster Management Authority to prepare a contingency plan for thousands of families likely to be uprooted after a military operation in North Waziristan Agency, an official told Dawn on Saturday.

The official said about 50,000 families (roughly 500,000 individuals) could be displaced from the agency, where speculations about the military operation against militants have been doing the rounds for quite some time.

The army has deployed over 20,000 troops, including two wings of the Frontier Corps, in the agency. The region is regarded as a bastion of Al Qaeda and Taliban.

“The FDMA has received directives from the federal authorities to chalk out a plan in consultation with the United Nations’ agencies and other humanitarian bodies to cope with the displacement,” he said.

Knowledgeable sources said the federal government had not set any timeframe for completion of the contingency plan, but the FDMA had been asked to keep the plan ready.

“We have been asked by the authorities to complete the task as soon as possible, but we have no idea about the timing of a military offensive,” the sources said.

The US government has been pressuring Islamabad, since the Times Square (New York) bomb plot in which a Pakistani national Faisal Shahzad was arrested in May last year, to launch an operation against militant groups, particularly the Haqqani network, to dislodge them from their redoubt in North Waziristan. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed that it had masterminded the car bomb plot.

Islamabad, however, has stuck to the line that it alone would take a decision on the launch of an operation, citing lack of resources as the biggest handicap.

The FDMA, according to officials, had alerted the UN and its satellite organisations to the likelihood of a big displacement in the event of an operation, advising them to make provisions for shelter, food and other assistance.

They said that sites would be identified and selected for relief camps after consultations with the UN and other stakeholders.

According to official estimates, 50 per cent of the families feared to be displaced would take shelter in relief camps and the rest would settle with relatives and in rented houses.

Sources said camps were likely to be set up in neighbouring districts.

About financial resources, they said UN agencies had expressed willingness to foot the bill for tents, food, NFIs, water, sanitation and health. Officials said the average cost of a tent was 310 dollars.

The FDMA is already looking after 148,893 registered displaced families (over 1.1 million individuals) which had been displaced due to violence and subsequent military actions in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata).

About 23,505 families have been living in camps and 125,388 other displaced families have been staying with their relatives.

A recent military action in Mohmand Agency caused the displacement of some 6,000 families. They were accommodated in two camps.

On the other hand, the IDPs displaced from Orakzai and South Waziristan agencies have started returning home.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Opportunity in Khyber

Dawn
Editorial
April 04 2011

THE scourge of Khyber Agency, tormentor of Peshawar and leader of the Laskhar-i-Islam, Mangal Bagh, has found himself in a fight for survival. Members of the Zakakhel tribe, a sub-tribe of the Afridis, and known their tribal fierceness have turned on Mangal Bagh and sent him on the run from the Zakakhel area of the Khyber Agency. As the fighting has spread, military helicopters have entered the fray, pounding Mangal Bagh’s strongholds in the hope perhaps of regaining control of parts of Khyber Agency. As ever, in the murky world of Fata dynamics, some background is necessary. Despite occasional claims about ‘gains’ and ‘successes’ by the state, Khyber Agency remains a serious problem. Away from the present fighting, the Bara area, from where Mangal Bagh’s cohorts have been ‘evicted’ by security forces, has been under a curfew for a year and a half, the state apparently believing in containing a problem rather than trying and fixing it. Mangal Bagh and his organisation — named the Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) but really just a group of criminals and thugs who have cloaked themselves in the veneer of Islam — continue to remain a serious threat in Khyber and beyond, having the capability to cause trouble in Peshawar and the adjoining Orakzai Agency via Tirah.

The Zakakhels, while presently fighting Mangal Bagh, are no paragons of virtue, either. Many of the commanders who have risen against Bagh in recent days were only too happy to form common cause with Bagh and offer him shelter when he was ousted from the Bara area. Age-old reasons applied. Commanders like Ghuncha Gul were involved in kidnapping and other crimes and benefited from the association with the LI, which remained a formidable entity despite being under pressure from the security forces. But there is little honour among thieves (and worse), at least in the Khyber agency at the moment. Rivalries and enmities spilled over, pitting factions of the Lashkar-i-Islam against each other. When a prominent cleric respected by the Zakakhel tribe, Maulana Mohammad Hashim, was kidnapped and killed in March, apparently by fighters loyal to Mangal Bagh, the Zakakhel tribe rose in revolt against its temporary and previously convenient ally. The cleric is believed to have earned the ire of Mangal Bagh after trying to mediate in a dispute between the LI factions.

Now, if the state plays its cards right by supporting the Zakakhels and putting pressure on LI in other parts of Khyber, there is a chance to eradicate a menace. But tribal dynamics are tricky and if not handled properly, Mangal Bagh and the LI may yet live to torment parts of Fata.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Flow of Western militants to Pakistan continues: officials

By AFP
April 16 2011

ISLAMABAD: A steady, modest flow of Western militants plotting to launch bomb attacks abroad continue to trickle into Pakistan’s northwest for training, Pakistani and Western officials say.

As Pakistani authorities detain two Frenchmen picked up in the eastern city of Lahore on suspicion of links with the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, diplomats say many more suspects are holed up in Taliban and Al Qaeda enclaves.

A host of bombings and aborted attacks in Western cities in recent years linked to the tribal area believed to hide Osama Bin Laden form evidence of the real threat posed by this small but hard-to-detect band of migrating militants.

Bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, a foiled plot in Barcelona and the Mumbai siege in 2008, as well as the botched plot in New York’s Times Square in May last year, all led back to Pakistan.

Al Qaeda receives logistical support from the Pakistani Taliban who have trained up hundreds of suicide bombers responsible for the majority of the 4,200 people killed in attacks across Pakistan in the past four years.

Diplomats say the most difficult foreigners to track down are British and Americans of Pakistani origin, as they arrive with legitimate visas and blend in with the local population as they make their way to the Waziristan region.

“The British-born Pakistanis are mostly young boys who are adventurous by nature and don’t find it hard to come to Pakistan and move around,” a security official told AFP last year, requesting anonymity.

“There are some basic flaws in our immigration system. It’s very easy for these suspects to pass through,” another senior security official said.

The French who come are mostly of North African origin and number “20 or 30″ in rebel camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border, according to sources familiar with the matter.

“Ten or fifteen” at most have been identified, according to an official who requested anonymity.

Two French youths arrested about ten weeks ago in Lahore are suspected of being part of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks that killed 202 people, officials told AFP.

They were arrested by police hunting Indonesian militant Umar Patek, a suspected mastermind of the Bali attacks and a member of JI, which is blamed for a string of deadly bombings across Indonesia.

Five German jihadists were killed in October last year by a US drone strike on a militant hideout in a Pakistani tribal district bordering Afghanistan.

Most of the militants arrive with a working knowledge of the local language, Pashto, and wear local dress, making them difficult to identify, an intelligence official said.

Retired Brigadier and security analyst Mehmood Shah, a former security chief in the tribal areas, said local facilitators and handlers meet the European fighters on arrival in Pakistan and later send them on to the tribal region.

“Al-Qaeda converts these people to their cause before they arrive… once foreigners arrive in North Waziristan they are already fully motivated,” he said.