Reclaiming Pakistan's Frontier!

[RabzonKhan]

Editorial: Endgame closing in on Baitullah

Daily Times
June 25, 2009


Baitullah Mehsud has had his opponent Qari Zainuddin murdered in Dera Ismail Khan for disclosing facts about him that he had denied. If this is a measure of how Baitullah will react to his diminishing hold over his objectors, then he is sure to kill another local rival Turkistan Bitani who had made public his criminal activities last week. Does this mean that Baitullah is gaining the upper hand in the region where the Pakistan Army is now challenging him with an operation? The fact to keep in mind is that Zainuddin and Bitani were encouraged to speak out because of the hope revived in them by the military operation. That Baitullah has had to kill Zainuddin instead of ignoring him as in the past points to his growing insecurity.

Pakistan has been opposed to the American drone attacks on its territory, but not without some evidence that the local population living under the heel of Baitullah Mehsud did not mind them. There was a time when the drones did not target Baitullah simply because he was not attacking American troops across the Durand Line. This was a tactic of keeping down the number of people operating in Afghanistan through the “incentive” of “non-strikes”. Now that pattern is changing and the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is feeling the heat of missiles coming from the drones. On Tuesday, these missiles killed at least 51 Taliban in South Waziristan, where the army is poised for an attack on Baitullah’s stronghold.

South Waziristan under attack is going to expose a whole lot of people hiding there and operating in neighbouring countries. The estimates about the strength of the people Baitullah has under arms keep changing; so do the estimates about the funds he has at his disposal. He is now said to have approximately 20,000 militants. There was a time when people thought he could mobilise 50,000. Only the “foreigners” he was protecting were supposed to be 5,000. To the number of Uzbeks, Arabs, Chechens and Uighurs have been added a number of Tajiks who are fighting against the Uzbek-dominated regime of Tajikistan. Uzbekistan has suffered a number of attacks guided from South Waziristan by Qari Tahir Yuldashev of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Baitullah has also allegedly used IMU men to kill the innocent people of Swat.

Before the decision to mount a military operation against him, Baitullah enjoyed the kind of grudging recognition that tyrants enjoy when they are unchallenged. The mere fact that the army has decided to go for him has changed that point of view. The greatest weakness suffered by him is the loss of support from the people of Pakistan who now consider him a threat to the state and to Islam itself. Not only have his opponents come out of their hiding to speak out against him, his suicide-bombers are being caught “before the fact” in all the vulnerable cities of Pakistan because of the slackening of the will to die for someone who is no longer a model for them.

Perhaps it was a wrong strategy to mop up his lieutenants on the margins and leave him alone at the centre to gradually suffer a waning of his power. Fazlullah in Swat and other commanders in Bajaur and Orakzai were engaged simply because they were more manageable as targets in territories considered easy terrain. That strategy has partly paid off because the commanders have tended to run away to South Waziristan after being defeated in their regions. But the decision to go for South Waziristan is without a doubt more effective in lowering the prestige and outreach of TTP in the whole of Pakistan. TTP minions who cut a man’s both hands in Hangu on Tuesday for theft will be sorted out after Baitullah has got his comeuppance from the army.

 

[muse]

The assasination of Qari Zainuddin, not in the wilds of Waziristan but in government controlled city of DIK, suggests a massive intelligence and security failure - it is a serious blow to Pakistan Army's strategy.

Yes, there is blame and it not the army or intelligence services, but rather a attitude - security is simply not given the kind of importance it need to be accorded.

Readers will not have missed that the assasin escaped, in a govt controlled city.

Hint: Read between the lines.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Cheer! If Qari Hussain is really dead, then I think the US has done a great job. This bastard was responsible for most of the suicide attacks all over Pakistan, which took the lives of many innocent civilian and security personnel.


Missile kills key trainer of Taliban suicide bombers

By Alamgir Bhittani and Pazir Gul
Thursday, 25 Jun, 2009


Baitullah narrowly escaped missile attack on Tuesday. However, his lieutenant Qari Hussain was killed in the strike.—Reuters/File

TANK/MIRAMSHAH, June 24: Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, had a narrow escape on Tuesday when he left only moments before an attack by US drones on the funeral of a militant commander in South Waziristan.

The strike, however, claimed a significant scalp in the shape of Qari Hussain, a lieutenant of Baitullah who was popularly known as Ustad-i-Fidayeen, or teacher of suicide bombers. Circles in TTP had widely tipped him as Baitullah’s successor.

According to residents of Bekh Mary Langara, the scene of the attack, 80 people, 30 militants among them, lost their lives.

Doctors at the government hospital in Miramshah, North Waziristan, said 27 injured people, including children, were brought for treatment.

Taliban denied reports that militant commander Maulvi Sangeen Zadran, who attended the funeral along with three other leaders, had been killed in the attack.

‘Reports about Sangeen Zadran’s death are baseless and his video statement will be released within two days,’ Taliban leader Noorullah told Dawn in Miramshah.

He, however, confirmed that some militant commanders had died, including Maulvi Bilal, Khushdel and Shabir Khan.

The attack took place when a large number of people had assembled for the burial of an Afghan militant commander, Khoze Wali, who had been killed in a similar missile strike.

Some officials believe that commander Sangeen had come from Afghanistan’s Paktia province to attend the funeral of one of his key colleagues and the drones might have picked up his movement.

However, some locals said several Taliban commanders, including Baitullah and Sangeen, attended the funeral, but left moments before the strike.

‘About 5,000 people attended the funeral and the main commanders, including Baitullah, had left before the missiles were fired,’ said an injured man at the Miramshah hospital.

Taliban commander Wali Rehman said the dead had been buried in a mass grave. He said the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.

Meanwhile, two Khasadars were injured in an explosion near a checkpoint in Miramshah on Wednesday.

 

[muse]

Operational plans against Mehsud on

By Iqbal Khattak

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Operational plans being made against Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in Waziristan might need “a slight readjustment” after the death of rival commander Qari Zainuddin, but plan to take on the “enemy No 1” will “stay the course”, military authorities told Daily Times.

Zainuddin was assassinated by his own guard while on his way from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan two days after he agreed to an interview with Daily Times.

Some analysts call Zainuddin’s death – days before formal kick-off of Operation Rah-e-Nijat, or Path of Salvation, against Mehsud – a “setback” to government preparations, but military authorities argue such action “is not planned around a single individual”. They add that the killing of the anti-Mehsud commander had “come at the wrong time” but was not “a major cause of concern”.

The analysts said Zainuddin would have been “more effective” if he was holding territory inside Waziristan.

“The government delayed the investment in Zainuddin and the result is that today the state stands humiliated as it could not protect its man against likely threats from Mehsud,” analysts told Daily Times.

Signs of all-out support of the government to Baitullah’s rival Abdullah and Turkistan groups was clearly visible in both Tank and Dera where government and private buildings were being used by anti-Mehsud groups to recruit foot soldiers and set up regional bases around Waziristan.



And in a couple of years we will have do this all over, this time we will have to kill Turkistan and Abdullah -- forget these deals, the mehsuds need leaders, then let them have the fauj as their leader.

 

[Interceptor]

The assasination of Qari Zainuddin, not in the wilds of Waziristan but in government controlled city of DIK, suggests a massive intelligence and security failure - it is a serious blow to Pakistan Army's strategy.

Yes, there is blame and it not the army or intelligence services, but rather a attitude - security is simply not given the kind of importance it need to be accorded.

Readers will not have missed that the assasin escaped, in a govt controlled city.

Hint: Read between the lines.

Hardly a failure, his death just gave way to army intervention, your not expecting a militia to beat Biathullah are you now. The rival commanders removal was about matter of time, the Army is only allowed the militia to do what it can to bolster the morale of the locals, now army action is imminent, look at this way they wanted him dead and these people would use all means to kill him suicide attacks are impossible to stop and so are assassins lurking around for the right time.

 

[Gabbar]

Kudos to Pakistani authorities and yes, US forces as well. Bathullah cant hide now from Pakistani army. He will pay for lots of innocent lives.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I for one am glad to see the death of Qari Zainuddin. He was just as bad a "bad" Taliban as Mullah Omar, IMHO. While he may not have been attacking inside Pakistan, he strongly advocated attacking NATO and Afghani forces in Afghanistan. Enough of the double dealing. Any irhabis in Pakistan who want to attack inside Pakistan, or outside Pakistan, should be killed.

 

[ajpirzada]

^^ same applies to those who go around invading other countries. they are all the same.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Militant commander Bhittani speaks out against Baitullah

Thursday, 25 Jun, 2009

ISLAMABAD: More cracks have emerged within the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan leadership, as another militant commander has spoken out against the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud.

Turkistan Bhittani, a dissident militant commander, has said that his militia is determined to uproot terrorism from Waziristan. Earlier, another senior leader — Qari Zainuddin — also spoke out against Mehsud and TTP policies.

Bhittani said that the Mehsud tribesmen disapproved of Mehsud’s policies, adding that they were willing to cooperate with the Pakistani Army as well as American forces to combat the TTP head.

He vowed that his militia would fight until Baitullah Mehsud’s network was eliminated.

On Tuesday, dissident leader Qari Zainuddin was killed by his bodyguards in Dera Ismail Khan. Zainuddin openly spoke against Baitullah Mehsud, in what some say was a power struggle within the ranks of the militants. — DawnNews

 

[RabzonKhan]

A difficult road ahead

Dawn Editorial
Friday, 26 Jun, 2009

AS the state inches closer to what could possibly be a definitive showdown with Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, events are already beginning to unfold on other fronts. On Thursday, groups that are rivals of Mehsud fought with militants loyal to the South Waziristan warlord in Tank bazaar, resulting in the death of two fighters. The fighting was triggered by the assassination of Qari Zainuddin in D.I. Khan earlier this week, a killing that the Mehsud group has claimed responsibility for. Meanwhile, in South Waziristan itself a series of drone strikes have targeted Mehsud strongholds and killed dozens, though it is unclear if any senior militant leader was killed. In an area as fraught with danger and complexity as South Waziristan, there are so many seemingly disparate threads to tie together that understanding the dynamics at work is no easy task. Compounding that difficulty is the fact that much of the information emanating from the Waziristan agencies is hard to verify independently given the dangers involved for reporters and journalists.

However, one of the major foreseeable difficulties is the security situation on either side of the Durand line. Dislodging the Baitullah Mehsud network in South Waziristan may lead to militants fleeing across the border to the Afghan provinces of Paktika, Khost and Paktia. Meanwhile, the impending American push against militants operating in southern Afghanistan, particularly in the province of Helmand, may cause militants to flee towards Pakistan. On the Afghan and Pakistan sides, then, a double whammy of militancy may be looming. The Pakistan Army high command has been engaged in intense discussions on this very subject with its American and Afghan counterparts and assurances are believed to have been extended by all sides to mitigate the expected fallout of a serious push against the militants on several fronts at the same time. If there has ever been an occasion for the three main parties, Pakistan, the US and Afghanistan, to cooperate to the fullest extent possible this is it, and it should not be squandered.

There is another aspect that the state here must prepare more urgently for: looking after the local population that will likely exit from the Waziristan agencies if fighting starts in earnest. The military operation in Malakand division exposed the state’s inadequate preparation on this crucial aspect of any successful counter-insurgency, and a repeat must not occur. With Operation Rah-i-Rast too there was a precedent — hundreds of thousands left Bajaur Agency after the start of a military campaign there to flush out the militants — so surely the state cannot fail to prepare for a third time in a row. After three million IDPs it should be clear that counter-insurgencies are not won through the barrel of a gun alone

 

[RabzonKhan]

Surrender or be crushed, Zardari warns Taliban

June 27, 2009

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday warned the Taliban to give up militancy and submit to the state or be prepared for extermination.

“The president said the government is determined to pursue the ongoing drive to its conclusion. He said the militants had to renounce militancy and submit to the state authority or be prepared for physical extermination. This charade cannot be allowed to go on,” the president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar quoted the president as saying.

The president’s comments came during a meeting with NWFP Governor Owais Ghani at the Presidency where they discussed matters pertaining to the ongoing operation against the Taliban in Waziristan and the relief and rehabilitation of the displaced population.

Babar said the governor gave Zardari an update on the relief and rehabilitation of the IDPs. The spokesman added the president said all necessary measures should be taken to ensure that the IDPs did not face any difficulty while returning to their hometowns. “The president also appreciated the provincial government’s contribution in relief efforts,” he said. staff report.



20 Taliban killed in South Waziristan

June 27, 2009

* Three soldiers killed as military convoy attacked twice in North Waziristan

LAHORE: At least 20 Taliban were killed and 15 others injured when security forces shelled TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud’s hideouts in South Waziristan, a private TV channel reported on Friday.

Fighter jets bombarded Taliban hideouts in the agency’s Ladha, Saam and Makeen tehsils, it said

North Waziristan: Meanwhile, four persons, including three security personnel, were killed and 24 others injured in two remote-controlled bomb attacks on a security convoy in North Waziristan Agency on Friday.

Local sources told Daily Times that an army convoy from Bannu was proceeding to Miranshah in the morning when it was targeted with a remote-controlled bomb on the Chashma Pul – around two kilometres from agency headquarters Miranshah.

The attack killed three security personnel and a pedestrian and injured 20 personnel. The injured were moved to a hospital in Toochi Fort. The same convoy was targeted a second time as it reached Nooruk, 20 kilometres from Miranshah. The second explosion injured four security personnel. daily times monitor/haji mujtaba

 

[RabzonKhan]

Pakistan offers reward for Taliban commander

By RYAN LUCAS - Associated Press Writer - Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan ramped up its campaign against Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Sunday, placing a bounty on the chieftain's head and launching air strikes on his stronghold in the country's northwest.

The government has expressed its determination in recent weeks to eliminate Mehsud, who is viewed with increasing alarm in Islamabad as a major threat to security in the country. His group has been blamed for a string of suicide bombings across the nation that have killed more than 100 people in the past month.

The intensifying conflict between Pakistani security forces and Mehsud has been centered in North and South Waziristan — part of the mountainous tribal belt in the northwest — where the army appears to be preparing for a fresh offensive aimed at eliminating Mehsud and his militant network.

But the Taliban has not been cowed by the government's attacks, claiming responsibility for a strike Sunday that killed 12 soldiers in North Waziristan and vowing to continue its assaults if the military does not halt its operations.

This week, Mehsud's group also demonstrated its ability to strike wherever it wishes, launching a suicide attack on Friday in Pakistani Kashmir — the first such attack in the divided territory targeting government troops.

On Sunday, the government upped the stakes in its battle with Mehsud, publishing an announcement in two national newspapers offering a 50 million rupee ($615,000) reward for information leading to his capture or death. Smaller amounts were offered for information on his top lieutenants.

"The condemnable and cruel acts of these callous people are not only earning a bad name for Pakistan, but also for Muslims worldwide," the announcement said. "Such people are certainly killers of humanity and deserve punishment."

The U.S. State Department has already authorized a reward of up to $5 million for Mehsud.

A Taliban commander with close ties to the militant leader told The Associated Press that the bounties will have no impact on its fight with the government.

"We are like a suicide squad. Mujahedeen (holy warriors) do not care about head money. Our mission goes on," Qari Hussain Ahmad said by telephone. "It is an old tradition of infidels to put head money on mujahedeen."

Hussain, who has a 10 million rupee ($123,000) reward on his head, pledged "more surprises and more attacks" against the government.

Pakistan's military continued its bombing campaign on suspected militant hideouts in South Waziristan, with fighter jets striking the village of Kani Guram overnight, leaving eight militants dead. Helicopter gunships also hit positions in Shah Alam and Raghhzai, killing three fighters, intelligence officials told The AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information.

It was not possible to independently confirm the casualty counts or the identities of those reported killed as journalists have little access to the remote, dangerous region.

Meanwhile, the Taliban stepped up its campaign on security forces in North Waziristan Sunday, killing 12 soldiers and wounding 10 more in an ambush on an army convoy, the military said in a statement. The army said 10 militants were killed in the ensuing firefight.

However, intelligence officials said 20 soldiers were killed in the attack and 35 were wounded. The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Ahmadullah Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the strike.

"We will keep on attacking the forces as long as the military continues operation in this region," he told The AP by phone.

Another government soldier died in South Waziristan when militants launched a pair of attacks on army outposts near Wana shortly after morning prayers, the army said in a statement.

The government's campaign against Mehsud and allied Taliban militants are seen as a test of its determination to confront an insurgency that has grown in recent years after earlier military operations failed to finish the job and peace deals with the Taliban collapsed.

Washington strongly supports the campaign, hoping it will eventually bring greater stability to Pakistan and help shut down al-Qaida and Taliban networks that use the border region to plan and launch attacks on U.S. and other forces in Afghanistan.

Speaking to reporters Sunday in Lahore, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ruled out any leniency for the extremists, arguing that now is the time for strong-willed action against the Taliban.

"The nation wants peace and the elimination of terrorism in the country, so this is not the time for talks but for a final decision (against terrorism) and the decisive action is on," Gilani said.

Also Sunday, Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, met with Pakistan's military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for talks on security issues, Pakistan's military said in a statement.

___

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Mohammad Rasool Dawar in Mir Ali contributed to this report.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Editorial: The long wait in Kurram

June 29, 2009

As Kurram Agency on the border with Afghanistan waits for the return of the writ of the Pakistani state for the past three years, the Taliban depredations in the guise of sectarianism continue around the headquarters of the Parachinar agency. At least 33 people were killed and 65 others injured in “sectarian clashes” in various parts of Kurram Agency on Friday night and Saturday. In the last 12 days, the casualty list includes 89 people dead and 175 injured.

The local population has virtually given up on Pakistan during the two years that have seen all roads going to Pakistan cut off and the federal government ditching them after promising to come to their help “within a fortnight”. The local administration, if it can be called that, “cooperates” with the Taliban in the interim and exposes the besieged Shia majority population of Parachinar. According to a local tribesman quoted in the press: “We have had over 700 young people martyred but have not allowed these militants to secure a toehold in upper Kurram. Now the influx of Taliban from Swat, Dir and other areas is worsening the situation”.

Because Pakistan has virtually said goodbye to Kurram, it is no longer possible for the people of the agency to get food and medicine from Pakistan. The Sunni Taliban and their cohorts accuse the Shia of getting help from Afghanistan; the Shia accuse the Sunni groups of getting ever-increasing fighting manpower from Waziristan and Hangu.

Kurram faces Tora Bora on the other side of the border. This is the route that Al Qaeda and its Taliban supporters took to escape from Afghanistan in 2001. The local Parachinar population, being Shia, did not cooperate because of the age-old rivalry between them and the surrounding Sunni tribes. After the establishment of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) things have got much worse since the Sunni militias that hunt the local Shia are commanded by warlords owing allegiance to Baitullah Mehsud.

The sectarian scourge is also strengthened by the schism in the nearby Orakzai Agency where Baitullah’s commander Hakimullah has nearly 8,000 fighters under him and is busy warring with the opponent Shia militia of Hussain Ali Shah with 7,000 fighters at his disposal. As this war spilled into Kurram, another commander of Baitullah Mehsud, Qari Hussain, the expert in preparing suicide-bombers in a matter of hours, has been operating against the Shia in Kurram. Qari Hussain was reported killed recently during military operation, but his partners are carrying on the sectarian massacre after him.

If and when Pakistan decides to tackle the crisis in Kurram it will find that after years of neglect, the killing machine of the Taliban has bound Kurram to Orakzai, Khyber and Darra Adamkhel through the activities of commander Hakimullah. Other NWFP cities like Hangu and Kohat have caught the virus because of the presence of the Taliban at their outskirts with local administration increasingly in the subordinate mode with them. The Taliban and Al Qaeda sympathisers in Kohat are the actual rulers in this region and have their outreach into Islamabad through the Lal Masjid clergy.

After the death of Qari Hussain, it is the warlord of Darra Adamkhel, Commander Tariq, who is carrying on the war against the Kurram population with the help of other TTP allies. Long years of neglect have tilted the Shia population in favour of some help that they get from the Hazaras of Afghanistan. Also, after the area was cut off from the rest of Pakistan, the Kurram Shias were said to be receiving some assistance from Iran. This has actually exacerbated the situation with a more intensified polarisation between the Shia and those fighting a covert war against Iran.

The people of Kurram have waited a long time for the state of Pakistan to rescue them. Now as the state asserts itself for sovereignty in South Waziristan and the TTP and Al Qaeda terrorists are on the run, the time may have come for the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, to fulfil his pledge that Pakistan would come to the rescue of Kurram “within a fortnight”. That was said many months ago.

 

[seekers]

When we talk about the roots of these terrorist.
we use to intentionally or un intentionally avoid to disclose the facts.

Everybody knows who had sown the seed of this,which have now being turned into a big tree.

certainly this is not time of nipping the evil in the bud.

But two special task could lay down the terrorist tree.

1. Curb the funding pipline.
2. Curb the man powering institutions.

I know authorities are fully aware about this but this is not easy task ,we could lose some international ties.

But this is only a clean up solution of taliban cancer,which need surgery.

 

[muse]

Seekers

Excellent post - a question, Why is this not the best opportunity to rid ourselves of this whole militant Islam business?

I do take your point about funding and manpower (very well put by the way)