Acts of Terrorism in Pakistan

[S-2]

"A Peshawar-based NGO has come under pressure from the authorities and the media for discovering exactly what was revealed by the TV reporters on Wednesday night."

Well we certainly know that by the reaction to AIRRA's survey at this board. Damn near universal condemnation.

Point taken, though. Where AIRRA's survey matters most, most other Pakistanis really don't care. They've got a different agenda than those under open assault by the militants. Always, ALWAYS condemn the Americans and their drones.

Remember always the nat'l drumbeat is the only accepted message.

Nothing in your editorials that I haven't been getting routinely slammed for saying since I arrived here again in late October.

Move your army west and fight for your lives, please?

Thank you.

 

[notsuperstitious]

5 children amid 17 civilians killed in Miranshah suicide attack - GEO.tv

5 children amid 17 civilians killed in Miranshah suicide attack

MIRANSHAH: At least 17 civilians including five children were killed in a suicide attempt on the security forces at the Headquarters of North Waziristan here.

Sources said that Pakistan army convoy was on way from Bannu to Miranshah, when a suicide bomber attempted to ram his explosive-laden vehicle with the convoy, but the FC alert gunmen preventing the attack on convoy blew it up by firing, which unfortunately resulted in the death of 17 civilians including five children, while several were injured, as the spot of incident was crowded with people at that time besides the children were returning from the schools.

Following the blast, Miranshah Bazaar was shut down, while the security forces have besieged the area.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Editorial: Listen to Mr Hoti!

April 04, 2009

Speaking at the National School of Public Policy in Peshawar on Thursday, Chief Minister NWFP Mr Ameer Haider Hoti said that the “NWFP is at war, and governance of the province is becoming difficult”. He pleaded lack of money in this very unequal war against the Taliban whose chief in South Waziristan has more funds at his disposal and pays his warriors more than Mr Hoti does his khasadars. Although the province has perennially quarrelled over royalties for its resources, Mr Hoti hopes to get the attention of Islamabad when he points to his plans to strengthen the police force, which is facing lack of infrastructure, modern training and equipment.

Those who say “it’s not our war” and advise pursuit of honour on an empty stomach should listen to a chief minister who might resign one of these days and plunge the country into yet another crisis. The people who had voted strongly for his party, the ANP, are “fighting a war for the survival and existence of the whole country”, and if they are not helped in time we might as well say goodbye to the Pakistan of our dreams and accept to live in hell. Mr Hoti said, “FATA-like conditions are slowly developing in other parts of the country after starting in the settled districts of the province. There is a need for the other three provinces, in collaboration with the federal government, to help us because ignoring these conditions today could cause severe problems tomorrow”.

Mr Hoti admits that his settled districts like Hangu and Dera Ismail Khan have fallen to the terrorists, and Peshawar can be taken any day if Baitullah Mehsud so wishes, because the people can’t take the pain any more of waiting for the state to appear on the horizon and succour them.

Consider this. The Bab-e Pakistan, the anti-India monument of hate coming up in Lahore, has soaked up Rs 2.5 billion so far. But Mr Hoti has no money to give to all the people who have suffered casualties and lost their homes under the murderous juggernaut of the Taliban. His warnings should be heeded: what he can’t stop in his province is soon coming to Lahore and Karachi.

 

[RabzonKhan]

analysis: Targeting Lahore

Abbas Rashid
April 04, 2009

The attack on a police training centre in Manawan by 10 well-armed terrorists was the second of its kind in Lahore in the month of March. At the beginning of the month, the Sri Lankan cricket team was similarly targeted. It was also the third attack on a security establishment in the city. The earlier two were suicide attacks on the FIA building and the Navy War College in March 2008.

There is a reading of the attack that attaches significance to the proximity of the training centre with the Indian border, suggesting that raising tensions on this border could be a possible motivation for the attackers. While that cannot be ruled out, Lahore has been a target for the terrorists because demoralising this city, viewed as a cultural centre and extolled for its carefree and liberal ways, promises obvious dividends.

The number of casualties from the attack was considerably smaller than estimated at the time the siege began. And the result was not the demoralisation the terrorists sought. It was outrage and defiance on the part of the citizens who kept on shouting encouragement to the security forces that converged on the site.

Apart from the fact that there were remarkable acts of courage that need to be acknowledged, there appears to have been a relatively greater level of coordination between the police’s Elite Force and the Rangers as well as army personnel to bring the siege to an end.

At one level, the action underscores the need for such coordination to be institutionalised. It also points to the broader issue that effective counter-terrorism has to be led by police and intelligence equipped and trained for the enterprise, with the army providing the necessary support.

There is, of course, the other issue of why the training centre was not adequately guarded, considering that the police has been targeted and such centres attacked on a number of occasions in the NWFP as well as Punjab. This is not a security lapse. It is part of our longstanding security framework that admits to a degree of seriousness only when it comes to VVIP security detail, regardless of which government is in power.

What is increasingly clear is that the old ways do not work anymore. The threat is no longer limited to FATA or the NWFP, and ideally we should have woken up when the terrorists began to acquire increasing traction in that area. Instead, President Musharraf, looking to MMA support for his continuation in office, concluded in 2005 a peace with Baitullah Mehsud. It turned out to be less a peace and more an absence of war till it suited the latter.

Instead of being wiser after that experience, we have now concluded another peace with Sufi Muhammad. In both cases, ‘peace’ has served to strengthen those actively seeking to undermine the Pakistani state and oppress the people using the cover of sharia law.

This is not about religion, it is about power. Baitullah Mehsud has claimed responsibility for the Manawan attack to ensure that there is no confusion as to the source of the terror. And Sufi Muhammad, having consolidated his gains in Swat, has apparently decided to target Dir. It is instructive that an elected representative from Swat cannot go back to his electorate because his safety cannot be guaranteed — according to the man himself on a TV talk show this week. On the same programme, Samar Minallah spoke about teenaged old girl being whipped days earlier in line with the imperatives of Taliban justice.

Ms Minallah’s point was simple: whatever our constraints, if we are abandoning the people of Swat to the Taliban, let us at least admit that we have lost there. Only when we come to terms with what has happened can we determine an appropriate course of action for the future.

Meanwhile, a US drone strike in Orakzai Agency has killed twelve people, reportedly associates of Baitullah Mehsud. It was for the first time that such an attack was carried out in Orakzai. If it has become a stronghold of the Tehreek-e Taliban, it is likely that drone attacks will increase. But for the US to expand the arena of such attacks to include Orakzai is ominous given that the agency does not share a border with Afghanistan.

Once again, this development underscores the need for an effective strategy on the part of Pakistan to counter the militants itself and rescue its citizens from becoming ‘collateral damage’ in drone attacks or victims of the militants’ oppression.

This paper cited a survey in yesterday’s editorial (“Logic of drone attacks”) that puts matters in perspective. The Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy (AIRRA) carried out a survey in a number of agencies and the responses conveyed close to evenly split opinion on questions pertaining to drone attacks’ accuracy, effectiveness and rise in anti-American feelings in the area.

But on the question of whether the Pakistan military should carry out targeted strikes against militant organisations, nearly three-quarters of the respondents were reported as answering in the affirmative. Clearly, the people in these areas want to be relieved of the oppression of the militants and they want the government to meet its obligation by re-establishing its writ in these areas.

The new US administration has announced a substantial package of development and military aid in order to bolster Pakistan’s effort to confront the military threat. This can help, but the real issue is whether we are willing to concentrate our resources on the battle at hand.

Here, the regional approach favoured by the Obama administration could make a significant difference, particularly if India could be persuaded to move towards a settlement of the Kashmir issue acceptable to the Kashmiris. This would allow the issue of Talibanisation to be viewed outside the context of the Pakistan-India rivalry and in light of the threat that it poses to the values of our society and the integrity of the state.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Lashes to lashes, dust to dust

Don't shoot the messenger

Sunday, April 05, 2009
Shandana Minhas

If you expected better from the Taliban, you probably have a shaky grasp of recent history, or really any kind of history at all. But that's all right because it's not your fault. If you have been raised and educated in Pakistan, your access to accurate information and ability to contextualize has probably been hamstrung by bad textbooks and worse teachers. This is why you have internalized a tolerance to pseudo religious fascism, and why you still continue to wonder why Bangladesh stalked off in a huff all those years ago. But do not fear, media is here!

Thanks to the media, the cell phone video of a 17-year-old girl being flogged has been beamed directly into every home in Pakistan. Thanks to the media, we know that we care. The sadistic and perverted spectacle has led to mass outrage. The Chief Justice has taken suo moto notice of the incident and demanded the girl be brought before him; whether she is or is not will be an accurate indicator of political will. Human rights activists are organizing protests. Ordinary people are asking how we got to where we are. The privileged are giving thanks for their privilege.

Why we are moved by this image of wanton brutality towards a young girl and not as an injured police recruit dragged himself across a road is something I don't understand. Is it that we have not yet being desensitized to this particular vision of violence? I think immediately of that stock footage of the Zia years, the black and white story of a half naked man being flogged by the moral police.

Perhaps people are protesting more passionately now because they finally realize their incompetent leaders' statements, rooted as ever in self-interest, will never mirror the intensity, or sincerity, of their own revulsion. President Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar said he was 'shocked' and had called for a report from the government and provincial administration. Will any commission appointed to probe the incident include his point man Rehman Malik? The interior affairs adviser had this to say: "We are investigating the matter. But sometimes anti-state elements make fake or artificial footage or images to bring disrepute to Pakistan." Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani pointed out that Islam teaches us to 'treat women politely', a statement I am sure was balm to the wounds of all those who feel the real problem with the Taliban is their fundamental lack of courtesy.

But there is an aspect to this story that is nudging me towards a closer look at our local media. I first saw the footage on a foreign news site. A writer for the Guardian said the video was passed on to him by a Pakistani filmmaker and activist who said "I have distributed this video because I feel people are in denial. They don't want to believe what is happening." Various other stories in the local and international press subsequently say the video is about a month old, citing 'sources who did not wish to be identified'. If local journalists knew about it, why wasn't it released earlier? How culpable is the broadcast media in contributing to this state of denial?

Those who remember when there was one news channels were very excited when the media genie was let out of the bottle. The fundamental imbalance between propaganda and news, we felt, would be rectified. The fledgling rose to the challenge, or tried to. Jousting about the judiciary, sermons on sovereignty, conferences on the constitution, rants on religion, countless hours of air time have been devoted supposedly to making us more self aware, less likely to suffers fools and exploitation gladly. But sadly most talking heads have proved to be as myopic and reactionary as most of the rest of us. And as I watch talk show hosts caught in a vicious ratings war backpedal furiously and condemn the movement they were advocating benign engagement with not too long ago, I must ask the question that has hopefully been haunting people other than me for some years now. Ankhain hain ya button?

Part of the reason this and previous governments were able to sell compromise with the loons currently running Swat to the wider population is because the Pakistani Taliban has had an image makeover, courtesy any number of commentators. From an extremist movement behind heinous attacks and punishments against anyone and everyone- suicide bombings, burning music and books, banning education, impeding access to healthcare, flogging women for leaving their homes, throwing acid on girls faces, public executions without trial, archive footage of most of which exists in digital libraries across the country- an effort has been made to market it as a romanticized movement of idealistic men with guns who fight injustice when the state doesn't and really just want to bring the world closer to God you know?

Public perception of them has been muddied further by two consistent, irresponsible assertions by those commentators. One, that they are Pakistani first too and share with us a love for the vision and spirit behind our country and are also governed by the need and desire to preserve it. Really? If Clint Eastwood made a movie about the only land the Taliban feel allegiance to, it would be called No Country for Old Men, Young Women, Innocent Children, or Animals You Cant Eat.

The second is that somehow their barbarism is justified, their 'brand' of Islam prompted by America's war on terror. The Taliban existed before the drone attacks began. They existed before 9/11 happened. They were dismembering dissidents and hanging their bodies from lamp posts, assaulting girls during the capture of 'enemy territory' and carrying out the Balkan style ethnic cleansing of minorities in Afghanistan long before the word Predator entered our local lexicon.

As for who created them, who funded them, who set them on the path that puts them in direct confrontation with just about everyone else, that is something that is good to know and pointless to dwell on. Good to know, because 'history is written by those who survive their past'. Pointless to dwell on, because wallowing serves a useful purpose only for buffalos.

Time now to answer the most pertinent question of all: how many Pakistanis does it take to change a light bulb? One hundred and seventy million and counting…

 

[RabzonKhan]

Swat Taliban enter Buner

By Ghulam Farooq
April 06, 2009

MINGORA: Around 100 armed Taliban entered Buner district from Swat on Sunday and were stationed at Gokand Dara, locals and officials said.

The officials told Daily Times that when tribal elders heard that Taliban had entered Buner, a grand jirga was held in the office of the Buner district coordination officer to devise a strategy to tackle the Taliban.

The jirga decided that prompt action must be taken against the Taliban and called on the people of Buner to take up arms to evict them from the district. They gave the Taliban one day deadline to leave the district, warning that the residents would otherwise be compelled to take action against them.

The police and armed civilians took up positions at Bhangra area to stop the Taliban from moving further into the district.

However, the Taliban said they meant no harm to the people of Buner, adding that they had come to make a peace deal with the people of Shal Bandai.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Troops kill 18 Taliban in Mohmand

April 06, 2009

PESHAWAR: Troops backed by helicopter gunships and jets killed at least 18 Taliban in Mohmand Agency, officials said on Sunday.

The strikes launched on Saturday continued overnight. “At least 18 Taliban were killed and 20 others wounded in a full-fledged military operation in Mohmand,” a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity and another security official also confirmed the toll.

The militant death toll could not be confirmed independently as the area is sealed off under military operations.

“We have also arrested two suspected militants and recovered five paramilitary soldiers who had been kidnapped by militants few days ago,” the official said.

The official said troops had taken a compound used by the Taliban as their centre, forcing them to flee the area, and had also occupied the key heights on the hills ringing Anbar village.

The Tribal Areas have been wracked by violence since Afghanistan’s Taliban regime was toppled by the 2001 US-led invasion. afp

 

[jbond]

PESHAWAR: Troops backed by helicopter gunships and jets killed at least 18 TALIBAN in Mohmand Agency, officials said on Sunday....

would it not be better to call them rebels..The word Taliban has its own meaning.STUDENTS i think..(not sure though).
Besides calling them Taliban somehow gives them part support of some people in pakistan who do not see them as opposed to the state of pakistan.
Aren we agreed that they are completely against the state of Pakistan??!!

 

[RabzonKhan]

The real battle

Monday, April 06, 2009
Zafar Hilaly

The prime minister never tires of reminding us that in Afghanistan and Swat the struggle that we face is all about “winning the hearts and minds of the people.” But the struggle is really about reclaiming minds and hearts from those claiming to be Muslims but who, for many Muslims, are the very antithesis of what they claim to be. One animal centre in the UK protested that associating animals with these “detestable species of mammals” was unfair.

As to how we should deal with those who subject those who do not share their version of the Sharia to lashes and beheadings, the answer is, take them on and defeat them. Obviously, given the character of the enemy, the fight will be one in which no quarter is asked and none given. Soviet soldiers were skinned alive by Pushtun tribal women when captured. So they carried cyanide pills to commit suicide rather than undergo such a death. In retaliation, the Soviets took no prisoners, killing more than a million Afghans. Noticeably, the Taliban terrorists who attacked the Manawan Police Centre last week blew themselves up rather than face capture.

The Taliban are the 21st century’s Mongols. Their mission too, like that of the 12th century Mongol hordes, is to destroy the culture, faith and way of life of their opponents, and to capture and kill them if they resist. But unlike the Mongols hordes they do not simply traverse the land like a swarm of locusts, instead they stay.

The Taliban are counting on the fact that the peoples of the areas which presently constitute Pakistan will, when it comes to confronting invaders, surrender. The Taliban take heart from the fact, that though battle has not yet been joined in earnest, Pakistan has already surrendered in Swat and FATA.

Extremism is a disease that has invaded the body politic of Pakistan; all echelons of government and the establishment carry visible scars of the infection and in some segments of society, such as the urban lower middle classes and the poor, it has become a contagion. Among the leadership, too, and especially in the military, adherence to the Salafist version of Islam was and is worn as a badge of pride. In past regimes, like that of Zia-ul-Haq, it was an asset in winning promotion. Similarly, recruitment policies under the last two military dictators generally favoured religious types, notwithstanding Musharraf’s sham liberalism.

The nursery of the extremism that has Pakistan in its grip today is some of the 18,000 or so madrasas scattered all over the country. Often funded by foreign Wahhabi charities, these madrasas are the recruiting centres of the Taliban and the several murderous Jaishes that have proliferated. Their political patrons like the JUI have seized every opportunity that incumbency provided to enhance their student intake while jealously shielding their curricula and teaching methods from government supervision and inspection. Such has been the success they have enjoyed, and so close are the links maintained with former madrasa students, that according to one unnamed intelligence source, quoted on a KTN News programme entitled “50 minutes” hosted by Mr Manzoor Shaikh a few days ago, they have as many as 70,000 armed followers in Pakistan’s main population centres, awaiting the call to action.

There is virtually no other countervailing force but the military in Pakistan which can confront them. However, the military, including the intelligence agencies which fathered some of the Jaishes are loath to take them on or cleanse the madrasas of extremists. Even though, it seems, that the realisation is belatedly dawning on the military, at all levels, that their own lives are at stake, and so too Pakistan’s existence.

The question that arises, however, is whether the penny has dropped too late in view of the traction extremism has gained in Pakistan and the disruption such a campaign will now cause and the lack of any certainty of success. The fact that US unpopularity has never been greater, or the religious political parties more opposed to action against the Taliban, or the secular political leadership more discredited, suggests that it is. Besides, the bloodletting, chaos and turmoil that a civil war of this sort will unleash are almost certainly beyond the control of an unpopular and weak government. Indeed, some argue plausibly that it will lead the country to the very pass that we wish to avoid. Perhaps our leaders, like the Shah of Iran, have missed the boat. His much vaunted military, pampered and marvellously equipped as it was, deserted him when it came to the crunch. In East Pakistan too, by the time resolute action was ordered, it was too late; the game, so too speak, was over.

The Taliban and their supporters know this and are banking on it. The truces and agreements they offer to postpone the inevitable confrontation work in their favour. They are biding their time till the situation ripens. The scenario in Pakistan today is like a Greek tragedy: we all know the end but are powerless to prevent it.

The writer is a former ambassador.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Counter-terrorism in cities

Editorial
Wednesday, 08 Apr, 2009

ON the front line of the battle against militancy in Pakistan’s cities are the country’s policemen. But, beset by problems of poor training, inadequate resources and low morale, the police have been pummelled by the terrorists, and urban Pakistan has become exponentially more dangerous over the past few years. Now, the federal government has decided to form a special anti-terrorism force to curb terrorism and suicide bombings that have rocked Pakistan’s cities and towns. But will the plan work? Not without a proper assessment of what ails the police force. Early on in Gen Musharraf’s regime police reform became a mantra, and the push for change culminated in the Police Order 2002. Reform was proposed in four key areas: the police had to be thoroughly depoliticised; it needed full autonomy; strict, external accountability was required; and the resources at the disposal of the police had to be beefed up. Unsurprisingly, the Musharraf regime got cold feet and by 2004 changes to the Police Order had killed off any chance of genuine reform. More resources were admittedly thrown at the police, but the core problem remained: the age-old executive practice of using the police to quell political opposition continued unchecked.

On the terrorism front, a report by the International Crisis Group last July found it “hardly surprising” than an “under-staffed, ill-equipped, deeply politicised, and pervasively corrupt (police) force has failed to counter the growing extremist menace”. Firstly, the police ranks have been penetrated by the very sectarian and jihadi groups they are tasked with containing. Secondly, poor coordination at the inter-agency level hampers effective counter-terrorism efforts. As the ICG noted: “In Punjab, for instance, the police maintain updated lists of sectarian activists with criminal records, but intelligence agencies only take action after a terror attack has occurred.” In January, the government did set up the National Counter Terrorism Authority, tasked with coordinating intelligence among the FIA, IB, ISI, etc., and appointed a former DG of the FIA as the NCTA’s national coordinator. But a good idea on paper can only become a good idea in practice if the government shows real commitment to its success, and the requisite urgency has been missing in the case of the NCTA. Clearly, something radical needs to be done to ready our police force to take on the militants. But success will only come if the plans are drawn up and executed by professionals with minimal political interference.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Taliban kill five in Buner

Staff Report
April 08, 2009

BUNER: Taliban killed five people, including three policemen, in clashes with tribesmen and police, officials and witnesses said on Tuesday.

Seeking anonymity, the officials said Assistant Sub-Inspector Afreen Khan, Head Constable Jehanzada and Constable Muhammad Akbar had a clash with the Taliban who crossed into Buner district from Swat.

“Malakand Division Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed has held talks with senior Taliban leaders, but they have refused to leave Buner,” they said.

Separately, unidentified men kidnapped a traffic police official at gunpoint from Green Chowk in Mingora and took him to an unidentified location, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, scores of Taliban occupied the hostel of polytechnic college in Mingora. Taliban sources said students had been ordered to leave the hostel, as the Taliban wanted to stay there.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Taliban will soon capture Islamabad, says Mullah Nazeer

April 09, 2009

MINGORA: Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Nazeer Ahmed said in an interview with Al Qaeda’s media arm, Al-Sahab, that the Taliban would soon capture Islamabad.

Pakistani Taliban factions had united and would take their war to the capital, he said.

“The day is not far when Islamabad will be in the hands of the mujahideen.”

He accused the Pakistan Army of sending spies to facilitate US drone strikes against Al Qaeda and Taliban, and said Pakistani authorities were misleading the public by saying it was the United States carrying out the attacks.

“All these attacks that have happened and are still happening are the work of Pakistan,” he said, according to a transcript of the interview posted on Al-Sahab’s website.

Alarmed by deteriorating security in Afghanistan, the United States has since last year stepped up drone strikes in Pakistan. Pakistan objects to the strikes, calling them a violation of its sovereignty.

Mullah Nazeer Ahmed also blamed the Pakistani military’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for sowing divisions between factions, saying the ISI was the Taliban’s main enemy. reuters

 

[RabzonKhan]

China asked Zardari to act against ETIM?

Daily Times Monitor
April 09, 2009

LONDON: China has called on Islamabad to take action against the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which it says may be plotting attacks into China from the Tribal Areas.

In two meetings over recent months, senior Chinese officials have warned the Pakistani government about the threat. Chinese officials revealed details of the meetings to Mushahid Hussain, a former minister, during a visit to Central Asia.

“They told me that the ETIM has its military headquarters in [the Tribal Areas] and is planning to attack China on the 60th anniversary celebration of the communist revolution in October,” said Mushahid. He said in February Meng Jianzhu, China’s minister for public security, flew from Beijing to Shanghai to discuss the threat with Zardari during his visit to China. “The minister met with him for 90 minutes to discuss this issue.” In March, said Mushahid, Beijing dispatched a special envoy to Islamabad to discuss the alleged threat posed by the ETIM.

 

[Bull]

I would love to see how China react to terror attacks from Pakistani tribal areas. It might work well for China, with they being forced to join Pakistan in a joint fight against terrorists.

 

[HAIDER]

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