FATA Situation

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

A thread for any events FATA (non SWAT) related

27 militants killed in S Waziristan​

ISLAMABAD: At least 27 militants were killed in two days of clashes in South Waziristan along the border with Afghanistan, a military official told AFP on Wednesday.

The clashes broke out after pro-Taliban militants kidnapped four Pakistan soldiers in South Waziristan tribal district on Tuesday, the official said. “Five militants were killed yesterday and 22 overnight,” he said.

The official said the kidnapped soldiers were delivering food rations from one post to another when militants seized them. Their fate was not immediately known. After Pakistan forces fired at militants, five of them were killed and 20 were taken into custody, the official said.

Later a tribal peace council was convened but failed to resolve the stand-off, he said. Both sides used heavy weaponry in tit-for-tat firing that went on through the night, resulting in the death of 22 militants with no loss of life on the Army side, he said.

Rugged tribal areas along the Afghan border are a known hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who slipped into the region after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Pakistan has deployed 90,000 troops to hunt down militants in the region.

27 militants killed in S Waziristan

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Baitullah’s hideout’ in S. Waziristan bombed​

By Our Correspondent


TANK, Jan 3: Warplanes bombed suspected locations of militants in South Waziristan on Thursday after an intelligence report that Pakistan Tehrik-i-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was hiding somewhere in the area.

Local people said that two planes dropped six bombs and attacked various areas in Tiarza, Emer Raghzai and Enzer in Sara Rogha subdivision at about 2pm.

Reports about casualties were not available till late night.

Sources said that a bomb exploded near a seminary in Emer Raghzai.

The government has blamed Baitullah for the gun-and-bomb attack at Liaquat Bagh on Dec 27 in which former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and 23 other people were killed.

The militant commander has denied the government claim.

On the Tank-Wana road, some armed men in the area, meanwhile, looted four vehicles carrying food for security forces in Berwand area.

Describing the situation in the Mehsud area as serious, former MNA Maulana Mirajuddin said the militants had linked release of four paramilitary soldiers with the freeing of their six comrades.

The former MNA, who has been negotiating with the militants to secure the release of the kidnapped soldiers, said that the Taliban had reiterated their condition that their six associates must be freed.

The militants had kidnapped the soldiers of Dir Scouts in Tiarza on Tuesday.

Maulana Mirajuddin said the government had agreed to release the six militants and 25 suspects in exchange for 213 hostage soldiers on Nov 4.

He said the situation was deteriorating as security forces and the militants were preparing for a confrontation.

He said that innocent people had been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of the security personnel.
‘Baitullah’s hideout’ in S. Waziristan bombed -DAWN - Top Stories; January 04, 2008

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Military operations in Swat, Fata​

Thursday, January 03, 2008

By Mushtaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (Taliban movement), a conglomerate of all militant groups operating in Fata and settled districts of NWFP, Wednesday gave a two-day deadline to the government to stop military operations in Swat and rest of the tribal areas, else it would re-launch attacks on security forces and government installations.

And in South Waziristan Agency's Ladha subdivision, a tribal jirga succeeded in putting an end to the 2-day clashes between militants and paramilitary forces that erupted with the abduction of four FC soldiers Tuesday.

Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for TTP and Commander Baitullah Mahsud, called The News from an undisclosed location and said the decision to give a deadline to the government was taken in their Shura meeting.

He said senior militant commanders from all the seven tribal agencies, Frontier Regions (FRs) and settled districts of NWFP attended the meeting. Omar said all of them were unanimous on giving the two-day deadline to the government to stop military operations in Swat, North Waziristan and rest of the tribal regions and release all the detained militants.

The deadline started Wednesday and would expire today (Thursday), he explained. "We would definitely launch attacks on security forces and other government installations if our demands are not accepted before the deadline," remarked the militants' spokesman.

When asked about extension of a ceasefire announced by militants in North Waziristan Agency till January 20 to facilitate a tribal jirga negotiate between them and the government to restore peace, Maulvi Omar said: "This issue was thoroughly discussed in the Shura meeting. We are in contact with senior commanders of militants in North Waziristan who assured us of their full cooperation in case of any resistance against the government," he claimed.

Omar said after merging their groups in Tehreek-e-Taliban, all militant commanders have agreed not to hold talks or sign peace accord with the government on their own. He said all the militant groups would take the TTP Shura into confidence prior to any talks or signing peace agreement with the government.

Baitullah Mahsud is the Amir (central leader) of the movement, Maulana Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is militants' head in North Waziristan, senior Naib Amir and Maulana Faqir Muhammad, militants' commander in Bajaur, as the Naib Amir.

In his televised speech to the nation Wednesday evening, President Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf personally mentioned Baitullah Mahsud and Maulana Fazlullah and blamed them for masterminding the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi.

Baitullah has however already defended his position and denied his hand in the assassination while Fazlullah, who had not been accused earlier by the government, is yet to clarify his position.

Meanwhile, following heavy clashes between the paramilitary Frontier Corps and militants in Ladha subdivision, a tribal jirga has initiated efforts for restoration of peace and ceasefire between the two sides.

A pro-MMA senator from South Waziristan, Maulana Selah Shah told The News that they started efforts to stop the fighting. He said the jirga would sit with both the sides to listen to their viewpoints. There were unconfirmed reports that 20 people were killed in the latest spate of fighting between militants and security forces but officials termed it baseless.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/arc_default.asp

 

[Spring Onion]

Agno owing to the Govt operation plan in the wake of assassination of BB by Baitullah Mehsud men, many of his men had already started going into hidding soon after the incident.

some of them had also been reported to join some controversial groups to escap raids and arrests.

BTW there is no support for so-called TTP

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

In Musharraf's press conference yesterday, he called a Western reporter "naive" for suggesting that Pakistan could have gone and captured Mehsud when they intercepted his phone call. He said that were Pakistan to go in to get Mehsud, it would be up against thousands of militants, and the resulting fight would result in huge collateral damage, along with militand and troop casualties. That statement to me indicates that he will not initiate a ground based operation before a new government is in charge. He may actually be hoping for a coalition including the PPP, to get national support for such a move.

 

[Energon]

Has there been any solid proof linking Meshud to BB's assassination?

Also, can the momentum from this military campaign be used to start a mass mobilization in all the tribal areas? I don't think it will be a permanent solution, but it will certainly curb the growing strength of the militant factions.

 

[Spring Onion]

Has there been any solid proof linking Meshud to BB's assassination?.

Has there been any solid proof linking Osama Bin Laden to 9/11 ???

has there been any solid proof linking Iraq to WMD???

anyway even if you put aside BB's assassination, even than Baitullah Mehsud is wanted in many terrorism attacks and terrorism across Pakistan plus he is also involved in killing of Chines Engineers.

Plus his links with Lal Masjid and foreign elements including help from India is enough to draw him out and turn him into pieces.

Also, can the momentum from this military campaign be used to start a mass mobilization in all the tribal areas? I don't think it will be a permanent solution, but it will certainly curb the growing strength of the militant factions.

As far your suggestion of mass mobalization well i think you are not aware of the geography of our tribal areas.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Has there been any solid proof linking Meshud to BB's assassination?

Also, can the momentum from this military campaign be used to start a mass mobilization in all the tribal areas? I don't think it will be a permanent solution, but it will certainly curb the growing strength of the militant factions.

The biggest link was the statement of a senator from FATA, who is considered very close to Mehsud, which claimed that Mehsud said he was going to welcome BB with suicide bombers or some such thing. HE recanted later, but I don't find that authentic. He is much too close to B Mehsud to have made such a gaffe. I think he realized that the statement was going to backfire and recanted, which the local media was all to eager to report in their desire to pin everything on Musharraf and bring him down. Its sort of funny, after the Indian media, it has to be the Pakistan media that blames even the stray being run over on the ISI!

BB had said that she was going to destroy the Taliban in FATA, that was her promise to the West and to Pakistanis, so there is no reason to believe that Mehsud had any liking for her. A statement by one of her aides said that Mehsud got in touch with her and told her that he was not her enemy but her friend is ludicrous. He represents the Taliban in FATA, he has been chosen their "United Leader", his movement is the one BB promised to destroy, and now we are to believe that BB and him were chums? Perhaps she never did cut of her ties to the Taliban then, after supporting their rise during her first time around.

 

[mujahideen]

I dont think the source of this problem lies in Pakistan, I think the source is in Afghanistan. Behind these people are India and Russia, who provide these elements with money and weapons.

 

[hoodhood1]

Mujahideen. You are right again. The training ground for BLF, Taliban and like outfits are in Afghanistan. With US Eyes wide Shut.

 

[mujahideen]

Mujahideen. You are right again. The training ground for BLF, Taliban and like outfits are in Afghanistan. With US Eyes wide Shut.

The U.S. is well aware of it. They dont want Pakistan to unite, in fact no one wants a united Pakistan because they know that if the Pakistani people unite their is nothing Pakistan would not be able to accomplish. We mustn't let such plans succeed. We must realize our hidden power and use it, so that we may be the dream that Allam Iqbal saw, so that we may be the nation which the Quaid-I-Azam had envisioned us to be.

 

[muse]

Denial is not a river in Egypt? It hurts Pakistani pride, but reality is that Al-Qaida and Taliban and just about any other variety of extremist ideologies, have strong bases in Pakistan and have strong support among significant numbers of Pakistanis.

There certainly are Taliban and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan, the difference is that daily aliban and Al-Qaida are targetted and killed in Afghanistan, whereas almost, it seems, daily, Taliban and Al-Qaida issue statements from Pakistani territory, almost daily, without fear or remorse, they kill innocents, and incredibly, I don't know if any other word would apply, incredibly, they do so with seeming immunity. Why is that? How is it that the much vaunted Pakistan military forces have lost more than 1000 of their numbers to Taliban and Al-Qaida? Were these Pakistani soldiers fighting Taliban on the Afghan side of the border?

Maybe we would be better off if we could at least try to be fair and attempt to see things as they are and as we wished they were. All this denial and blaming everybody else for our problems, does not really help us, it won't solve our problems.

 

[blain2]

Muse I agree with most of the content in your post, however I must point out one thing. For the rest of the world, its really easy to muddy up the lines between Al-Qaida and Taliban. Such is not the case in Pakistan and neither do we have the luxury to do so.

In Pakistan, while we can all claim Abdullah Mehsud to be a Talib and AQ sympathizer, the reality is that he is just as much a Pakistani as any other Pashtun living in NWFP or the tribal areas. He has relatives who have served in the Pakistan Army (a Major who actually was trying to broker peace between his side and the Pakistan Army).

When we talk of bases, yes ideologically the support for all of the above exists in Pakistan (for that matter ideologically, support for these same elements exists in every part of the Muslim world because many in the Muslim world consider these guys to be fighting a US backed Pakistani government which is perpetuating this war against the Muslim countries under the garb of GWOT). As far as training bases (physical) are concerned, the terrain in both Afghanistan and Pakistan (in the Northern areas) is just as suitable but we have to be cognizant that in Pakistan, these groups have a steady supply of members and also resources.

The bigger problem that I see is that we need to make people aware that in the name of Islam a lot of militancy is also going on, however the other side's response is that for as long as US is illegally occupying a Muslim Country (Afghanistan), the jihad and supporting it is a "must"...how do you convince these folks or for that matter the US to step back? The reality is that this war will go on indefinitely because the Afghans and Pashtuns will not stop until and unless Afghanistan is free of occupation (you have the history of Afghanistan behind this assumption).

 

[Proud to be Pakistani]

I agree that we need to make people aware that in the name of Islam a lot of militancy is also going on, however the other side's response is that for as long as US is illegally occupying a Muslim Country (Afghanistan), the jihad and supporting it is a must...how do you convince these folks or for that matter the US to step back?

That is why a double policy is being adopted ........ and the bad part is US knows...

 

[blain2]

I think its not a problem that US knows. The US could care less about this Pashtun/Taliban issue if the AQ leadership was still not at-large. They are/must be aware that the militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistani border areas has increased due to their presence. The fix for the US and ISAF is that if they withdraw from Afghanistan without having OBL or Zawahiri, the homecoming would be rather bitter.

The cost and the reluctance of most of the NATO countries to commit fighting forces will be an issue for most governments (quite a few are up for elections including the US) in the near future.

So I think the US and Western government (I should emphasize US) know that Pakistan is also limited in the sense that it can't go after every body in the FATA with guns blazing because we have to live with these guys and Pakistan's disintegration is in nobody's interest.