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Operation Rah-e-Rast (Swat)

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ASIA PACIFIC
Date Posted: 18-Sep-2009

Jane's Defence Weekly

Pakistan highlights intelligence-gathering advances in Swat arrests

Farhan Bokhari JDW Correspondent - Islamabad

The Pakistan Army claimed on 17 September to have arrested Sher Mohammad Qasab, the alleged architect of the Taliban's terror campaign in the country's northern Swat valley, along with 23 other militants.

The arrests demonstrated that the Pakistani military had significantly improved its intelligence-gathering techniques in Swat and may have also successfully established information-gathering sources among the Taliban, a Western defence official told Jane's . "You don't get so lucky just by chance," he said. "You don't suddenly have people popping up in this way unless the military has succeeded [in infiltrating Taliban ranks]."

Mohammad was injured on 16 September while trying to avoid capture, according to government officials. His arrest followed that of Muslim Khan, the main Taliban spokesman in Swat, on 13 September.

However, despite these successes the Taliban is still offering resistance in small pockets of the Swat valley, contrary to reports in the Pakistani media on 13 September that the Swat Taliban had completely surrendered.

Pakistani government officials said success in cementing the military gains in Swat was timely given the difficulties being experienced by US and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan. The officials said that Pakistani troops, if equipped with the necessary hardware, could enhance their role in policing the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan - the main centre of Taliban and Al-Qaeda activity.

Mohammad shot to notoriety in April this year, when a video of Taliban militants in Swat carrying out public beheadings was circulated to Pakistani news organisations.

A Pakistani security official told Jane's that Mohammad had travelled to southern Afghanistan to train with Uzbek Islamists. "Once back from his training sessions with the Uzbeks, Sher Mohammad passed on the same technique to local Taliban. In the end, he created a small group of people who were able to carry out beheadings," he said.
 
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New UK army chief hails Pak action in Swat

* Sir David Richards hopeful of Taliban defeat, but says war far from over

LONDON: The growing aversion to Taliban has helped the Pakistan Army drive them out of Swat, the new UK army chief General Sir David Richards said on Friday.

He said that although the war against these elements was far from over he was hopeful that they would be eventually defeated.

Richards thought that defeat for the international coalition would have an "intoxicating impact" on extremists around the world.

Citing Iraq’s example, he said the coalition forces were unsuccessful initially, but when they found the right formula, they gained ascendancy and eventually prevailed over Al Qaeda elements. Similarly, he said he was optimistic the coalition would get the formula right in Afghanistan as well. The British chief of general staff said it was essential that Britain saw the mission through in order to preserve its relationship with the US and honour its responsibilities to the Afghan people, adding that failure could have an "alienating and potentially catalytic effect" on millions of Afghans, while leading to a resurgence of Al Qaeda-inspired terrorism and the spread of instability to nuclear-armed Pakistan.

While insisting that the alliance could still succeed in Afghanistan, he warned that Western forces risk losing the support of the Afghan population. He spoke of radical changes in the conduct of future armed conflicts and said the state-to-state warfare would be greatly reduced and replaced by fighting between the state and the non-state actors due to rapid globalisation and changing technologies.

app
 
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Pakistan tests civilian militias to keep Taliban out of Swat Valley

The ranks of lashkars have grown to 8,000, according to local leaders, since the Army retook the valley in June. Some residents worry about militarizing the population.

By Issam Ahmed | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the September 17, 2009


Tontana Bandai, Swat, Pakistan - For Tilawat Shah, a middle-aged farmer in a village on the remote western border of Pakistan's Swat Valley, the dark days of Taliban rule must never be forgotten. "They coerced people into giving them money and shelter, they put guns to the heads of our elders, they cut down our trees, blew up schools, and killed anyone who got in their way," he recalls.

In an effort to keep the Taliban out after a three-month Army offensive ended the militants' two-year rule here, Mr. Shah and some 8,000 other villagers have taken up arms and joined military-sponsored militias, or lashkars.

The civilian fighting forces have cropped up across Pakistan's northwest before to try to keep the Taliban away, often with disappointing results, because they are weaker than the militants and lack backing from the military. Now, the Army is reviving the idea in Swat, and promising to provide the assistance needed.

Two weeks ago, a posse of Taliban fighters that entered a mosque during Ramadan was repelled by the local lashkar, who shot three of them dead and forced the rest to flee. One local villager was also injured, and, in a sign of growing cooperation between the militias and the Army, was whisked by soldiers to a military hospital.

On Monday, military officials presented the latest lashkar in front of the media in the town of Piochar – the former base of operations for Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.

The first lashkar since the military retook Swat in June was formed in August, and plans are now afoot to ensure that every union council – roughly equal to every village – in the Swat Valley eventually boasts its own, according to Swat military spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan. "The military is going village to village, speaking with elders and encouraging them to form their own lashkars and unite with existing ones," he says.

Current estimates by local leaders put the number of fighters at more than 8,000, a figure some tribal elders claim will at least double by the end of November.

Lashkars' troubled record

The idea of sponsoring the traditional tribal security structure is nothing new. During the era of British rule, the system was used to quell the subcontinent's Wild West frontier. The lashkars sponsored in recent years by the Pakistani government, however, usually fizzled in the face of a marauding, well-organized, and well-supplied Taliban that effectively outgunned and demoralized local opposition.

A recent case in point was the murder of anti-Taliban leader Pir Samiullah in December 2008. His body was exhumed by the Taliban to be hung up in the main market square of Mingora as a warning to others who would resist.

The much-touted Salarzai lashkar in Bajaur, one of Pakistan's tribal areas, initially succeeded in missions against the Taliban, during the summer of 2008. But it suffered greatly following the killing of its leader and is now much less active, according to Rahimullah Yusufzai, the Peshawar bureau chief of The News, an English daily.

Lashkars have been a "limited success," Mr. Yusufzai says. "They could be temporarily used in some areas where the Taliban are weak or heavily resented, like in Swat. But at the end of the day, the villagers need to do their work; they can't be armed every night."

Rifaat Hussain, an analyst at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, agrees that lashkars can be effective only in places where the Taliban are already weak. Though the project may work in Swat, he says, the military should think twice about trying to extend it into Pakistan's tribal agencies, where the Taliban are more entrenched.

"It's a very interesting experiment. But if it works in Swat, this can't be replicated anywhere else, because the guys that they were pitted against were way too powerful – the murder of Qari Zainuddin [a rival who sprang up against the late Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud] was a case in point."

Totana Bandai was until recently a key base for Taliban insurgents. Lying to the west of the River Swat and bordering the district of Dir, its picturesque stepped green hills, lush open fields, and neat rows of houses became the backdrop to pitched battles during the last military operation. Insurgents occupied homes abandoned by locals in the village's main street, and today, every second or third house and shop in the village's main street is bombed out, riddled with bullet and shelling holes, or both.

At a lashkar meeting in a farmhouse, Ajmir Khan, a lashkar leader from a neighboring village who led the clash against the Taliban, notes that "when the Taliban first came, they were greeted here because they talked about Islam and implementing sharia [Islamic law], which people supported." That initial trust dissolved by May, when the Taliban refused to lay down arms despite concessions by the government to allow new Islamic courts.

The government has in the past been criticized for initially backing, but ultimately failing to fully support, the lashkars. The Army says this time will be a whole-hearted joint effort, and has set up a cordon around Saifullah Khan's farmhouse. A cache of new rifles and dozens of crates stenciled "BOMBS" in English are stashed in the backyard.

Army hunting the Taliban

The closer cooperation comes at a time when the Army is apparently making strides in securing Swat. On Thursday, the military claimed it killed 10 militants in a pre-dawn raid in northern Swat. On Wednesday, the military announced it had captured Sher Mohammad Qasab, the so-called chief of the Taliban's beheading squad in Swat, along with 16 other militants during a search operation in the Charbagh area. Also on Wednesday, the military media claims 37 other militants were forced to lay down their arms.

Last Friday, the Army announced the capture of Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan and commander Mahmood Khan and five other commanders, while on Monday interior ministry Rehman Malik declared that Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah was now "encircled" and his capture imminent.

News of progress is, however, tempered by reports of military sponsored mass-killings of Taliban fighters. The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says its sources point to state-sponsored extrajudicial killings and have called for a parliamentary inquiry.

In recent weeks several mass graves have been dug up and the bodies of prominent Taliban commanders placed on display in Mingora. The Army says the deaths were either the result of locals settling personal scores or the Taliban killing the weak among them to prevent their capture.

Some residents, such as Ziauddin Yusufzai, a private-school principal, believe further militarizing the people of rural Swat may backfire. "Creating these private militias may work in the short-run, but what if they later turn on each other to settle personal scores?" he says. "If the Army could clear and hold a town of 400,000 like Mingora, I don't understand why the villages are so difficult."
 
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Pakistan Army Captures Afghans, Finds Tunnels in Malakand Raids - Bloomberg.com


Pakistan Army Captures Afghans, Finds Tunnels in Malakand Raids



By Paul Tighe

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s army captured three Afghans and discovered tunnels and bunkers in raids against pro- Taliban militants in the Malakand district south of the Swat Valley in the country’s northwest.

The Afghans were among seven suspected terrorists detained in the region of North West Frontier Province, the official Associated Press of Pakistan said, citing a statement by the army yesterday. A local militant commander was among those detained, the military said.

Soldiers found “four-interconnecting tunnels along with shell-proof bunkers” in the Biakand area, APP said, citing the army statement.

Pakistan says Taliban forces are in disarray after military operations in North West Frontier Province, including Swat, and in the Waziristan and Khyber tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says Pakistan wants the U.S. to provide it with drone technology to help the military combat militants on the Afghan frontier.

“We have the terrorists on the run,” Qureshi told CBS News in a Sept. 21 interview, according to a transcript. The local population in the tribal belt “has risen against them” and people are “for the first time, moving along with the troops searching” for the militants.

Pakistan faces the problem of a constant flow of weapons coming across the border from Afghanistan, Qureshi said.

U.S. Drones

There is opposition to the U.S. using drones to attack suspected terrorist bases because of the issue of Pakistan’s sovereignty and the collateral damage they cause, he said.

“That is why Pakistan is saying -- transfer the technology to us,” Qureshi said. “Give us the ownership and we can use this technology for the purpose that you want it to be used for.”

Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the main militant movement, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, was killed in a U.S. drone attack last month in South Waziristan.

Security forces killed at least 34 members of the group in fighting in South Waziristan, the Dawn newspaper cited local officials as saying. Soldiers killed eight militants when a force of about 600 TTP fighters attacked a security post in North Waziristan, Dawn reported yesterday.

The army carried out a 10-week offensive against the Taliban in Swat that ended in July. Fighting resulted in more than 2 million people fleeing their homes.

Transit Camps

While many have returned to towns and villages, the International Committee of the Red Cross says more than 55,000 people are in camps or with families in the Lower Dir district and 12,000 in Lower Malakand.

More than 50,000 people fled after fighting began earlier this month in the Khyber Agency between the army and the Taliban. Khyber is on the main land supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan where NATO-led forces are fighting a resurgent Taliban, mainly in the country’s south.

President Asif Ali Zardari discussed the plight of displaced people with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon in New York yesterday as the UN said it has revised its appeal for aid to the region to $680 million from $542 as thousands of people remain uprooted.

The appeal is about $308 million short, Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said yesterday, according to the UN.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.
 
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Rawalpindi - September 23, 2009:

Update Operation (Rah e Rast) 23 September 2009

1. Search and clearance operations are continuing in Swat and Malakand.

2. Swat

a. Security forces conducted search operation at Kanatai and Gamsar and 2 suspects including Muhammad Amin Qari (notorious terrorist who played a major role in the murder episode of Pir Sami Ul Haq) were apprehended. An amount of Rs 44,000/- were also recovered from suspects.

b. Security forces conducted search operation at Rema (1.5 km north of Barshaur) and discovered a 15 ft long empty tunnel inside the house of Akbar Zada.

c. 14 individuals voluntary surrendered to security forces at Bar Shaur alongwith 2 SMGs and 2 x 12 bore guns.

d. 7 terrorists surrendered to security forces at Devolai, Salhand and Shah Dheri.

e. Security Forces conducted search operation at Kanju and apprehended a suicide bomber (Ehsan).

f. An Eid get together for all ranks and notables of area was held at Alpurai Camp. It was attended by notables and elders of Alpurai, Liluani, Karora and Shahpur. The notables expressed their full confidence in the Army and pledged for all out spot.

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KIT Over n Out :victory::pakistan::sniper:
 
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No 374/2009-ISPR Dated: September 25, 2009
Rawalpindi - September 25, 2009:

Update Operation (Rah e Rast) 25th September 2009


1. Search and clearance operations are continuing in Swat and Malakand.

2. Swat

a. 44 terrorists voluntarily surrendered themselves to security forces at Kanju.

b. On information from apprehended terrorist’s leader Abu Faraj, Security forces conducted a search operation at Mahak near Shadand Banda and recovered 4 IEDs and a Geyser full of explosives. Abu Faraj also disclosed that he was regularly getting salary of Rs. 150,000/- from Fazalullah.

c. Security forces conducted search and clearance operation at Rema near Bar Shaur and apprehended 9 terrorists.

d. 6 terrorists voluntarily surrendered themselves to security forces at Sangota.

e. 3 terrorists voluntarily surrendered themselves to security forces at Devolai.

f. Security forces conducted search and clearance operation at Mam Dheri and apprehended 4 terrorists.

g. 4 terrorists voluntarily surrendered themselves to security forces at Chuprial.

3. Bajur. In Bajur Security forces foiled a bid to smuggle arms and ammunition from Afghanistan. The arms and ammunition was being transported from Kunar Province via Khagga pass by 4 Mules when security forces raided at Suprai and apprehended one terrorist. The other terrorists managed to escape.
 
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The NATO and US forces in Afghanistan are the direct beneficiaries of the Swat and FATA operations. Their financial contribution towards the settlement of displaced persons and poverty eradication is paltry and insignificant. Pakistan is left holding the bag, paying enormous operational and social costs.
At the least NATO / US can allocate 10% of their Afghan operational budget to support Pakistan (about US$ 12 b / year). With such investment there will be enough opportunities for the young Pushtoons to quit extremism and get on with their lives.
 
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^yes for every 30$ spent in afghanistan, 1$ is spent on Pakistan in comparison.
 
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Pakistan army arrest 20 militants in operations_English_Xinhua

Pakistan army arrest 20 militants in operations
English_Xinhua 2009-09-26 21:34:47

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's security forces arrested 20 militants in the continued search and clearance operations in northwest Pakistan's Swat and Malakand districts during the last 24 hours, the army said Saturday.

The army said in a daily update that all of the 20 militants voluntarily surrendered themselves to the security forces during the search operations in various areas of Swat.

The security forces also recovered some explosives and other devices during the operations, said the statement.

Meanwhile, Pakistan army say that its ongoing operations have severely dented the Taliban-led insurgency in the country's northwest.

Military officials said the campaign is being gradually extended to what they consider the rebel stronghold, the region of Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

Military authorities in Pakistan believe that the gains the anti-insurgency campaign has made in the past few months, in and around the Swat valley, have weakened the Taliban militants and set the stage for ridding the country of them.

They said the killing of nearly 2,000 militants, including key commanders, and arrest of some of the top Taliban leaders in the Swat offensive have helped bring down terrorist attacks in the country, in recent months.

In their recent talks with U.S. leaders, Pakistani officials have repeatedly urged Washington to give Islamabad the drone technology that the United States has used to take out several top Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan's tribal areas.
 
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No 377/2009-ISPR Dated: September 27, 2009
Rawalpindi - September 27, 2009:
Update Operation (Rah e Rast) 27 September 2009

1. Search and clearance operations are continuing in Swat and Malakand.

2. Swat
a. A terrorist commander Maaz apprehended by security forces near Fizaghat.
b. Security forces conducted search operation at Ser Colony near Tiligram and apprehended 5 terrorists.
c. 4 terrorists apprehended by security forces at Banjot, Dagai near Kabbal and Tarkani near Shah Dheri.
d. 4 terrorists voluntarily surrendered to security forces at Tighak, Galoch near Tutan Banda and Kabbal Camp.
e. Security forces conducted search operation at Bajoro Killay, near Shergarh and apprehended 6 terrorists including a terrorist commander Janat Gul.

3. Relief Activities.
a. 304,335 cash cards have been distributed amongst the IDPs of Malakand.
b. 7.3 billion rupees have been distributed amongst the IDPs of Malakand.
 
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Chinese engineer’s saviour murdered in Swat

MINGORA: A resident of Swat who sheltered a Chinese engineer was found dead on Wednesday, said witnesses, and blamed Taliban for the brutal murder. The body of the man – identified only as Jamauddin and a resident of Khawazakhela – was found in Changalai area of Khawazakhela. The Chinese engineer was kidnapped by Taliban in Dir earlier this year, but he escaped and was sheltered by Jamauddin. Meanwhile, officials said troops had wiped out “unnecessary checkposts” from Amankot, Malookabad, Baba Chowk and other areas of Mingora. staff report
 
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Pakistan army kill 2 militants, arrest 10 in operations _English_Xinhua


Pakistan army kill 2 militants, arrest 10 in operations
English_Xinhua 2009-10-01 17:20:23

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's security forces killed two militants and arrested another 10 in the continued search and clearance operations in northwest Pakistan's Swat and Malakand districts during the last 24 hours, the army said Thursday.

The army said in a daily update that the security forces conducted a raid on a tip off in Toprai near Gat in Swat, killing two militants. Two security soldiers were injured in the action.

In the operations in other areas of Swat, the security forces apprehended six militant with four others voluntarily surrendered themselves, said the statement.

On relief activities, the army said, so far 306,350 cash cards have been distributed amongst the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Malakand.

Over 1,700 militants have been killed since Pakistani security forces launched the military operation against Taliban militants late April after militants in early April entered the Buner district from the neighboring Swat district and refused to vacate the area despite their pledge to do so.
Editor: Fang Yang
 
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Rawalpindi - October 1, 2009:

1. Search and clearance operations are continuing in Swat and Malakand.

2. Swat

a. Security forces conducted a raid on a tip off in Toprai near Gat. During the raid on a house, one of the 2 terrorists present inside who was wearing a suicide jacket exploded himself. Resultantly, 2 terrorists were killed and 2 soldiers were injured in the action.

b. Security forces coducted search operation at Garhi near Shamozai and apprehended 4 suspects.

c. A terrorist voluntarily surrendered himself to security forces at Dagai.

d. Security forces coducted search operation at Kalla Kalle and apprehended 2 terrorists while 3 terrorists voluntarily surrendered themselves to security forces.

3. Relief Activities. 306,350 cash cards have been distributed amongst the IDPs of Malakand.

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KIT Over n Out:victory::pakistan::sniper:
 
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