TTP says it will continue suicide attacks in Pakistan

[Gazzi]

So the British can divide people even from the same religion for their political purposes? Is it that easy to divide people from same religion? Then what do you think will prevent present political elite to take advantage and divide you further? How come each sect of Islam calls itself the "correct" form? I never seen a Shia say that Sunni sect os correct - they are so brainwashed that they are right.

Same case with every religion and every sect. It is impossible to find common ground with these differences. As far as I know this method of "trying to find a common ground" will be impossible with hardliner- the Al Qaeda - types.

Again, an opinion from yourself..........Yes division have been made within Islam by internal and external sources.......and every group belives they are correct over the other, however when one examines the difference, they are very minor issues which can, as I have said before be resolved through dialogue.

However, we are going way off topic from the thread and will stop at that before the Mods start getting reaaly tired of us......

 

[SMC]

TTP isn't strong enough anymore to carry out a sustained campaign of terrorism. The operations in Swat, SW, Orakzai, Khyber, and Kurram have really hit them hard. They need help from other terrorist groups such as LeJ, SSP, etc. LeJ, SSP, etc are more powerful groups now. We need to keep the pressure up on TTP in FATA but we really need to go all out after LeJ, SSP, etc, to help kill terrorism.

 

[Gazzi]

TTP isn't strong enough anymore to carry out a sustained campaign of terrorism. The operations in Swat, SW, Orakzai, Khyber, and Kurram have really hit them hard. They need help from other terrorist groups such as LeJ, SSP, etc. LeJ, SSP, etc are more powerful groups now. We need to keep the pressure up on TTP in FATA but we really need to go all out after LeJ, SSP, etc, to help kill terrorism.

Agreed...........turning the other way is no longer an option........if these people are going to attack in the manner that they have done, then they need to be crushed.

 

[Sliver]

TTP isn't strong enough anymore to carry out a sustained campaign of terrorism. The operations in Swat, SW, Orakzai, Khyber, and Kurram have really hit them hard. They need help from other terrorist groups such as LeJ, SSP, etc. LeJ, SSP, etc are more powerful groups now. We need to keep the pressure up on TTP in FATA but we really need to go all out after LeJ, SSP, etc, to help kill terrorism.

look at the number of places you had to fight them. And the number of organizations more ready to help them. How were these people allow to grow to such an extent in the first place?

 

[Gazzi]

look at the number of places you had to fight them. And the number of organizations more ready to help them. How were these people allow to grow to such an extent in the first place?

You want the truth behind that one..............

It goes a bit like this............

After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, there was no such talk of Holy Wars. The very word holy War doesn't even exist in the Quran. Jihad, means to strive to struggle which can be done in battle or a student tsriving to pass his exams.

The US, in its divine wisdom decided that they were going to teach the Soviets a lesson in Afghanistan due to what happened in Vietnam. They began this new, very dangerous ideology of Jihad. The main American friend then was OBL's mentor Abduallah Azzam.

Long story short, the Soviets Effed Off and the US found no further need to stay either........and guess who had to pick up the pieces......Pakistan and Afghanistan. However the ideolgy was such that Pakistan decided to do the next best thing, send them to India. Theres a War going on in Kashmir so why not.

Only after 9/11........the US came back, and now these groups, who were able to root in the region are doing now what they are doing. And guess what, Obama has anounced withdrawal plans in July 2011...........way to go America........cut and run when the going gets tough again........I wonder where Pakistan is going to throw them this time..........Iran maybe.

 

[Sliver]

You want the truth behind that one..............

It goes a bit like this............

After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, there was no such talk of Holy Wars. The very word holy War doesn't even exist in the Quran. Jihad, means to strive to struggle which can be done in battle or a student tsriving to pass his exams.

The US, in its divine wisdom decided that they were going to teach the Soviets a lesson in Afghanistan due to what happened in Vietnam. They began this new, very dangerous ideology of Jihad. The main American friend then was OBL's mentor Abduallah Azzam.

Long story short, the Soviets Effed Off and the US found no further need to stay either........and guess who had to pick up the pieces......Pakistan and Afghanistan. However the ideolgy was such that Pakistan decided to do the next best thing, send them to India. Theres a War going on in Kashmir so why not.

Only after 9/11........the US came back, and now these groups, who were able to root in the region are doing now what they are doing. And guess what, Obama has anounced withdrawal plans in July 2011...........way to go America........cut and run when the going gets tough again........I wonder where Pakistan is going to throw them this time..........Iran maybe.

how come these people simply did not "stop" after the Soviets left? Who was funding them after the US funding stopped?

 

[SMC]

look at the number of places you had to fight them. And the number of organizations more ready to help them. How were these people allow to grow to such an extent in the first place?

They were ignored before. We were never supportive of them but never acted against them. After the Lal Masjid episode, they really gathered strength and it was around early 2008 that their terror campaign seriously got going.

 

[SMC]

how come these people simply did not "stop" after the Soviets left? Who was funding them after the US funding stopped?

A whole ideology was created during that era - now called "Taliban". It just doesn't go away like that.

 

[NWO]

how come these people simply did not "stop" after the Soviets left? Who was funding them after the US funding stopped?

Opium, which is used to make heroin. Which is used mostly by Europeans, and some of it finds its way to the streets of America.

The reason they didn't stop is the same reason the Republican party didn't stop after it accomplished its original goals after the American Civil war. They had power, and they wanted to keep it, just like every other single political party in the world.

 

[muse]

While Karzai invites Mullah Omar to talks and Mullah Omar invites the US/ISAF/NATO to evacuate Afghanistan -- and perhaps the TTP realize that they may soon become isolated, they have stepped up efforst against Pakistan

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Taliban and US get down to talks
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

ISLAMABAD - United States President Barack Obama has pledged to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011, and as a part of the initial outlines of this exit strategy the Taliban are for the first time in serious negotiations with the US.

The Pakistan military and Saudi Arabia are acting as go-betweens to facilitate the talks, a top Pakistani security official directly involved in the negotiation process has told Asia Times Online.

According to the official, the Pakistan army has already been in contact with top Taliban commanders, including Sirajuddin Haqqani. Information is then passed onto the Saudis, who in turn liaise with the Americans.

At this stage, no direct contact has been made with Taliban leader Mullah Omar, although he characteristically does not involve himself personally in such talks; they are handled by close associates.

The security official indicated, however, that unlike in the past nine years since the ouster of the Taliban and the US-led anti-insurgency operations in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar has shown a positive and flexible attitude.

The Taliban have previously insisted that all foreign troops - currently numbered at 150,000 - leave Afghanistan before any peace talks could begin. Separately, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has set up a High Peace Council to facilitate talks with Taliban leaders.

The initial talks have covered two main areas - the issue of about 60 Pakistanis in the US's Guantanamo detention facility, and al-Qaeda.

"A delegation of Pakistani officials will soon visit the Guantanamo Bay prison to personally interview the Pakistani prisoners. [Their release] would be a goodwill gesture from the American side, and also set the stage for negotiations between the Taliban and Washington," the Pakistani official told ATol.

Another element touched on in the talks is the American demand that it maintain a military presence in northern Afghanistan, while agreeing to give control of the south to the Taliban. The Taliban do not agree with this - they want a complete US withdrawal. This remains a point of major disagreement.

The al-Qaeda factor

A key problem remains al-Qaeda - the US has no interest in any deals with the group and wants to specifically separate the Taliban from al-Qaeda.

The US has always insisted that any future Taliban government would have to expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan. The Taliban agree on this, but want al-Qaeda to be given "honorable treatment". It was the presence of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda in Afghanistan that led the US to invade the country in late 2001 in retaliation for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

On its part, al-Qaeda, armed with new allies, has its own agenda regardless of whether the Taliban make peace with Washington or continue their war.

Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, is fully cognizant of the sensitivities of the issue. The army does not want to shove anything under the rug, it aims to address every issue so that when more advanced negotiations begin with the Taliban, all irritants will have been resolved.

The Pakistani military has established a system of backchannel communications in which issues are discussed with Taliban leaders. Notes are then shared with Washington and Riyadh simultaneously. In this process, Saudi Arabia plays a central role.

In view of the al-Qaeda problem - which has the potential to derail any peace efforts - Kiani recently went to Riyadh and spent five days in discussions with King Abdullah, intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz and other officials. The central theme was how to rehabilitate bin Laden and other Saudi citizens, beside arranging refugee status for other al-Qaeda members. Bin Laden was stripped of his Saudi citizenship in the 1990s.

The director general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, was sent to Washington regarding a proposal for al-Qaeda to shift from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia.

Al-Qaeda's struggle is entering a decisive phase, one in which it does not necessarily need the protection and support of the Taliban - unlike in 2002, when al-Qaeda was badly beaten as a result of US attacks and reduced to a few thousand members in a rag-tag militia. It had also lost a number of leaders in the "war on terror", either killed or arrested by Pakistan from 2002 onwards.

Since then, the organization has revived its fortunes, from the Caucasus to the Pakistani tribal areas, from India to Iraq and Somalia.

In Afghanistan, the southwest is controlled by Mullah Omar's Kandahari clan, while the southeast is completely under the command of pro-al-Qaeda commanders such as Qari Ziaur Rahman and Sirajuddin Haqqani. Their forces include thousands of non-Pashtun linked with the anti-Iran Jundallah and the powerful 313 Brigade of Ilyas Kashmiri. They also draw support from the Laskhar-e-Jhangvi and last but not least the Pashtun Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban).

Recently, al-Qaeda launched Chechen and Uzbek fighters from the Pakistani tribal areas back into the Central Asian republics and Russia. In the latest attack, on Thursday, 18 people were killed and more than a hundred injured in a suicide bombing in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz.

Under the command structure of Laskhar al-Zil, a shadowy army comprising various al-Qaeda-linked groups, al-Qaeda is reasserting itself in Iraq, Yemen and Somalia, and at the same time planning to open up a new and constant front in India.

According to ATol contacts in the militant camp, al-Qaeda has no objection if the Taliban strike a deal with Washington that paves the way for an American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda would simply leave Afghanistan and jack up its operations in Pakistan and India. Al-Qaeda has already escalated attacks in Pakistan to create space for itself.

In the past few weeks, al-Qaeda-linked groups like Tariq Afridi have struck deals with local warlord Mangal Bagh to target major cities in restive Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, including Kohat and the capital Peshawar.

Commander Badr Mansoor has been tasked to increase activities in cities near the tribal areas, including Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Lucky Marwat. Sabir Mehsud of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been asked to escalate attacks in the main urban centers of Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta, while commander Bin Yameen has been ordered to mobilize cadre in the Swat Valley.

While the Taliban-Washington dialogue process is in its early stage, al-Qaeda is well on the way to setting up an infrastructure to prove that it - not any state, army or the Taliban - is the real player of the upcoming game.

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

 

[nForce]

How much people's support does TTP have??Can anybody give me a fair idea???

 

[somebozo]

It would be wrong to say America directly created Talibans.
American outsourced the Afghan war to Pakistan much like the Chinese did to Vietnamese gorillas. Pakistan organised the gurellia fighters funded, trained and armed by Chinese, Israelis, Saudis and Americans. Basically anyone and everyone who did not like the soviets had a stake in mujahideen forces. However due to religious nature of campaign sooner of later it began to attract all kind of hardliners. The real blow came upon the victory of these Mujahideens when hard lines islamic factions around the world began to use violent tactics and underground extremist leaders much despised by society became pop figures. Once the war was finished Mujahideen quickly disbanded and many found recruitement in regular armies of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries. The left over useless pool of Mujahideen would then found a medival idealogy millitant group named "talibans" with ambitions of global jihad.

Funding came from drugs and opium trafficking, smuggling and contra band. Post soviet union highly discontent over its defeat in Afghanistan also assisted the newly born talibans indirectly by its clandestine arms smuggling networks. And slowly the Talibans turned their guns against the state which created them.

The refuge of Osama binladen in then war ravaged lawless afghanistan had a lot to do with radicalization of talibans.

 

[Gazzi]

How much people's support does TTP have??Can anybody give me a fair idea???

I don't know exactly........say about the popluation of India........or maybe its intelligence agency.........just maybe

 

[Safriz]

Ohhh You opend my eyes.....Learn the history....Then speak.

I know the history..I know they once fought with Pakistan army..Half a century ago,and again..
But that doiest mena they should be allowed to harbour criminals,terrorists,drug lords and export all this menace to main land pakistan for eternity.
There has to be an end to this.

 

[Gazzi]

It would be wrong to say America directly created Talibans.
American outsourced the Afghan war to Pakistan much like the Chinese did to Vietnamese gorillas. Pakistan organised the gurellia fighters funded, trained and armed by Chinese, Israelis, Saudis and Americans. Basically anyone and everyone who did not like the soviets had a stake in mujahideen forces. However due to religious nature of campaign sooner of later it began to attract all kind of hardliners. The real blow came upon the victory of these Mujahideens when hard lines islamic factions around the world began to use violent tactics and underground extremist leaders much despised by society became pop figures. Once the war was finished Mujahideen quickly disbanded and many found recruitement in regular armies of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries. The left over useless pool of Mujahideen would then found a medival idealogy millitant group named "talibans" with ambitions of global jihad.

Funding came from drugs and opium trafficking, smuggling and contra band. Post soviet union highly discontent over its defeat in Afghanistan also assisted the newly born talibans indirectly by its clandestine arms smuggling networks. And slowly the Talibans turned their guns against the state which created them.

The refuge of Osama binladen in then war ravaged lawless afghanistan had a lot to do with radicalization of talibans.

Is that a personal outburst or based on facts.

As facts dictate that Mullah Omar was nothing more then a mosque preacher who became involved in an armed struggle after the raipe of two females and when atrocities began being committed. Persons with like minded thoughts who wanted to root these thugs joined forces and quickly dominated the region. Hence, the formation of the Taliban who had received their education from Afghanistan and from Madrassahs in Pakistan.

There are hundreds of western sources, who although criticised the Taliban for their methods and treatments of women, also admitted the eradication of opium fields in the Taliban controlled regions.

However, like any other media campaign, when War was being treatened, all of a sudden, overnight, Taliban became the biggest dealers of heroin.........a story which rings abit like the Tony Blair dossier where Saddam Hussain can launch a missle strile into Europe within 45 minutes and was pursuing nuclear weapons........we all know where that story went.........

I recall a similat type of attack by the British tabloid against Pakistan when the US accused Pakistan of negotiating with the TTP. All of a sudden, overnight, all you saw about Pakistan was how backwards the region was and how they treated their women and educational problems. It became the talk of cafes, however, quickly stopped when Pakistan launched its campaign.

And by the way, the campaign was launched after the US stated that the TTP had broken its deal with the State of Pakistan and were harbouring AQ. A recent report from the US now shows that that intelligence report was a lie to get Pakistan to break this deal and fight the TTP...................

I wouldn't be too quick to jump on the bandwagon to bash another people..........especially not when it comes from Western reports, tabloids or the State.