Acts of Terrorism in Pakistan

[Bull]

This is nasty, 45 soldiers killed inside own territory. PA definitly is alienated in that area and the locals seems to be leaking PA's movement to the tribals.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

burqa is quite a serious problem to face. Probably more to do with rules of engagement. Clear cut instructions that having a complete burqa on, you cant venture xyz meters near the checkpoints or face retaliation might help.

Not feasible in an Islamic country, and more so in the NWFP or FATA, as I think.

Jana, who is a lady and from the NWFP, would be the best person to give authoritative comments on this issue.

She is a news reporter and I am sure she has to be in a burkha when she is interviewing men or snooping around for a story!

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

This is nasty, 45 soldiers killed inside own territory. PA definitly is alienated in that area and the locals seems to be leaking PA's movement to the tribals.

It is nasty, but then the PA will surely soon take control of the situation.

It always happens in insurgency prone areas.

The tribals, I am sure, will be tamed one day.

The problem is that there is a greater force which is subverting the people - the AQ with its Islamic message, which many Moslems feel is twisting the facts! The day, it dawns on these misguided tribal that the AQ and Taliban is misusing Islam, everything will fall in place.

 

[IceCold]

This is nasty, 45 soldiers killed inside own territory. PA definitly is alienated in that area and the locals seems to be leaking PA's movement to the tribals.

Since you are so keen in mentioning the death toll of PA, also do mention the 150 militants the PA killed and sent them straight back to hell. Locals are not leaking PA's movement, because how do you think PA gets its information from about the militants moving in a selceted area, but its obivious when army will move in open pickups, they are always prone to an attack and which results in a high casualti rate.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

Mehsuds formally ask army to leave Tank compound

SAROKI: Chieftains of the Mehsud tribe have formally requested that the Pakistan Army evacuate the political compound in Tank, South Waziristan. Tribal elders submitted a written application framing this request to South Waziristan Political Agent Hussain Zada Khan on Thursday.

In the application, the tribal elders say the Political Katchairy in Tank has been the headquarters of the Mehsud tribe since 1906. They say hundreds of citizens belonging to the Mehsud tribe, including veiled females, visit the compound daily in connection with formalities and documentation relating to national identity cards, domicile and other such routine matters.

The application says the army had slowly taken over the political compound, which caused locals severe stress.

The elders requested that the army evacuate the political compound to respect and restore the rights of local citizens and tribal traditions.

Tank, a small town on the edge of South Waziristan, has drawn much attention of late as it is seen to typify creeping Talibanisation in the North of the country, particularly in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It is largely considered to be under the sway of the pro-Taliban South Waziristani commander Baitullah Mehsud.

The significantly increased troop deployment in the area, which has been in place for months now, is perceived to be part of efforts to block the Taliban commander from expanding his influence into neighbouring Dera Ismail Khan.

Local citizens and government officials have commented that military deployment and operations, along with General Pervez Musharraf’s attempted reforms in the area have eroded the power of the local administration and curtailed citizen’s rights.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

Very audacious and scheming of the Mehsud clam!

They work against the govt and now they are contriving reason to ensure that the Army gets handicapped!

 

[dabong1]

- DAWN - Latest Stories; September 29, 2007

I suppose this, like the Bamiyan Buddha incident, was because the UN was not "offering funds for Taliban run orphanages" - pathetic excuses and justification for terrorists and their actions.

Noboby was trying to justify the actions of the taliban,but giving a reason as to why they blew up the statues!

 

[solid snake]

Suicide bomber kill 5 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Pakistan Air Force employees Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding about 40, the military and police said.

The attack occurred near Sargodha, a city in eastern Punjab province, said Hamid Mukhtar Gondal, the district police chief.

Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the spokesman for the Pakistan army, said the attacker was on a motorcycle when he rammed into the bus.

"The targeted bus was carrying employees from the Pakistan Air Force," he said

The latest attack came two days after a suicide attacker blew himself up at a police checkpoint in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad, killing seven people, including three police officers.

Suicide bomber kill 5 in Pakistan - Yahoo! News

 

[Bull]

Militants taunt Pakistan security forces

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Militants taunt Pakistan security forces

 

[Bull]

Another bomb blast...Suicide bomb hits Pakistani bus.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Suicide bomb hits Pakistani bus

 

[Spring Onion]

The attack was on bus carrying PAF employees in Sargodha.

The death toll has risen to 9.
4 are civilian employees while 4 PAF.

 

[Always Neutral]

Militants gaining ground in Pakistan - Yahoo! News

Militants gaining ground in Pakistan

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer

SWAT, Pakistan - Muslim extremists are expanding their control of northern Pakistan, challenging the U.S.-backed government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and adding to the lands where terrorists allied with Osama bin Laden find refuge.

Once restricted to pockets in the mountains along the Afghanistan border, radical mullahs and their followers now wield power in vast areas of northwest Pakistan. They have moved in the past few months beyond the tribal regions and into northern Pakistan cities and the Swat Valley.

The increased influence of the Islamic radicals was highlighted this week by intense fighting between local gunmen and government troops. The government said about 180 people have been killed, mostly militants, in violence including bombings, abductions and shootouts.

"I can tell you there is money coming from al-Qaida and if al-Qaida did not lead these things we couldn't fight," said Abdul Samad, a stocky militant from Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province who serves as a liaison between Taliban groups on both sides of the border. Even during the fighting, radicals have made themselves available to speak with visiting journalists.

The growing instability in northwest Pakistan has shaken Musharraf's authority at a time when he's also being upstaged by the return of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto — a jubiliant homecoming shattered by a terrorist bombing that killed more than 140 people.

Taliban and al-Qaida were pushed back after the U.S. and its Afghan allies toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001. Today, residents say Arabs, Uzbeks and Tajiks have rejoined the ranks of the local radicals, mostly Pashtuns, the same ethnic group as the Taliban across the border in Afghanistan.

"The Pakistanis, and by extension the United States, have almost no control of events" in the northern, ethnically Pashtun regions, said Milt Bearden, a former CIA station chief in Pakistan.

"I don't think anyone in Washington really gets it," he said. "Losing Swat is shocking."

Pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah has set up a virtual mini-state in Swat, a province of 4,000 square miles. He uses an FM radio station to help spread fundamentalist Islam in an area once known to tourists as the "Switzerland of Asia" for its stunning, snow-covered mountains.

Militias following Fazlullah's teachings, identified by their shoulder-length hair and camouflage vests over traditional shalwar kameez clothing, have bombed girls schools and blown up video and CD shops. They drilled holes into the face of a 20-foot- tall stone Buddha, obliterating the features of the 1,300-year-old sculpture.

Sher Mohammed, a lawyer in Swat and a human rights activist, said the enforcers — including Afghans and Arabs — "are roaming freely, checking barber shops in the small villages."

"They come out at midnight. They are not local people," he said.

Samad, the militant organizer, says he traveled in recent weeks to North Waziristan and recruited scores of militants to reinforce Fazlullah's followers in Swat Valley.

"It's not just in Swat or in Waziristan or in Bajaur. We are getting stronger everywhere in the area," he said. Recent suicide bombings are direct evidence of al-Qaida's influx, he said.

Fazlullah, who draws tens of thousands to his rallies, has launched a broad campaign against Western influence. He uses his outlawed FM radio station to preach jihad against America and Musharraf and teach his strict interpretation of Islam.

Fazlullah has called for a ban on polio vaccinations because he said it was a ploy by the West to sterilize Muslim babies. He demands women wear the all-encompassing burqa and frowns on barbers who give haircuts in styles deemed un-Islamic.

This month, Pakistani authorities sent about 2,500 extra police and troops into Swat district to challenge Fazlullah's followers. A group of tribal elders and clerics has been holding talks with Fazlullah's aides about ending the bloodshed.

Still, many Pakistanis fear the government has waited too long to confront militant clerics like Fazlullah.

"For three years no one did anything. Two years ago you could have arrested Fazlullah with two police constables. Today you need a division," Mohammed said.

A police official, who asked for anonymity fearing reprisals from militants and from his superiors, said sympathizers within the government, police and intelligence service have allowed Fazlullah to gain stature in the region.

A confidential memo circulated to Pakistan's National Security Council in July and made public soon afterward warned that radicals from the border region were exerting wide influence.

It spoke of a "nexus" between radical clerics behind the bloody siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, which resulted in more than 100 deaths, and the clerics in northwest Pakistan. Besides Fazlullah, those include Baitullah Mehsud, who allegedly threatened to meet Bhutto's return to Pakistan with suicide attacks.

"When I was following the Red Mosque, one thing was very clear — that they had strong sympathizers within the establishment and within the military," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading independent Pakistani defense analyst. Rizvi said Pakistan's powerful armed forces remain ambivalent about religious extremists, whom the military supported during the Afghan war with the Soviets in the 1980s.

Pakistan's military has often used extremists as proxies in the violent secessionist battle against India for control of Kashmir, he said.

"The government is perturbed because of their activities in Pakistan," he said, but doesn't object when they fight Western-backed leaders in Afghanistan or Indian troops in Kashmir.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Pakistan's military has often used extremists as proxies in the violent secessionist battle against India for control of Kashmir, he said.

"The government is perturbed because of their activities in Pakistan," he said, but doesn't object when they fight Western-backed leaders in Afghanistan or Indian troops in Kashmir.

Was the US perturbed about the mayhem, bloodshed and destruction it caused in Latin America with its interventionist policies? Was it perturbed about the violence and instability it caused by overthrowing the Mossadegh government in Iran at the behest of an arrogant and imperialist Britain?

Whats that saying about people in glass houses chucking stones....

And yes I know the guy quoted is Pakistani, but the author is not, and she chose that quote for her final punch line, indicating quite clearly what she was getting at..

 

[roadrunner]

Militants gaining ground in Pakistan - Yahoo! News

Militants gaining ground in Pakistan

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer

They have moved in the past few months beyond the tribal regions and into northern Pakistan cities and the Swat Valley.

No doubts Jana will be burqa clad soon in that case.

International media do like making a mountain out of these things. I bet nothing has changed for 99% of Pakistan. Just that 1% where radicals seem to be coming and going.

 

[Spring Onion]

No doubts Jana will be burqa clad soon in that case. .

Yeh RR dear despite what this news claims about growing militants' influence
Jana still have pic without dupata on her articles what to say about Burqa

And i tell you one more intresting thing alot of Indians i know and who live mostly aborad and also in India questioned me "Jana do you wear Burqa we heard they will kill you if you dont wear burqa"
when i tell them i wear a short chaddar that too to feel comfortable and save myself from lust-filled satring of men at my body, the indians surprise at my reply .

Now RR all those who were advocating "High Heels back in Afganistan/Kabul" now could still see the women there wearing Burqa though Taliban are no longer in power there.
So its a phenomenon related to the culture and no one can impose anything be it modernity or forced self-made verdicts by Taliban.

International media do like making a mountain out of these things. I bet nothing has changed for 99% of Pakistan. Just that 1% where radicals seem to be coming and going.

Not only he international but also the local as Media had become an industry and everyone is taking advantage of current situtaion.
Its realy strange that even a kid can through a letter with warnings to CDs shops, women and educational institute using name of Taliban or religiouse figures and the media no sooner make it a horrible thing.
How on earth they can prove that it was done by the elements they are blaming for ?

 

[Bull]

How on earth they can prove that it was done by the elements they are blaming for ?

When they blow you up or slit your throats, but i guess that would be too late.

Extremism and terrorism is an existant danger, and a very omnious one in this particular case for Pakistanis.