Pakistan, India agree on Kashmir troop reduction, says Mirwaiz

[Neo]

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Pakistan, India agree on Kashmir troop reduction, says Mirwaiz

SRINAGAR: Pakistan and India have agreed on reduction of troops on both sides of the divided Jammu and Kashmir, All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Friday.

“We are happy that India and Pakistan have agreed on withdrawal of troops from Jammu and Kashmir and Azad Kashmir which would be the first step towards resolution of the Kashmir issue,” Press Trust of India quoted Mirwaiz as saying in his Friday sermon at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar. Farooq said that during a recent meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri in New Delhi, the Hurriyat delegation was told that the two countries were working out modalities for troops’ withdrawal from either side of the Line of Control (LoC). He said that New Delhi and Islamabad had also agreed that there was no military solution to the Kashmir problem and that progress towards a lasting settlement would have to be made in a phased manner.

The withdrawal of troops and revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act make a perfect beginning to the phased resolution of the Kashmir issue, he said. “We want to assure both India and Pakistan that Hurriyat will extend its full support and cooperation in pushing forward the peace process,” he added. Without naming the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Farooq said that some political groups were giving an impression that they were the moving force behind the changes taking place in the state. “India and Pakistan are taking several steps towards resolution of the Kashmir issue due to supreme sacrifices of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and they (some political groups) have no role to play in the demilitarisation,” the Kashmiri leader added.

Farooq said that it was unfortunate that some “pro-India parties” were claiming credit for developments on the Kashmir issue. “Their aim is to get power and secure their vote bank. They are trying to fool people, which will not happen this time around. “He (PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed) is forgetting that he was the one who brought army to Kashmir. These people are not bothered about what will happen to the people or the Kashmir issue.”

In a veiled reference to the National Conference, the veteran Kashmiri leader said that another party was thinking about contesting elections instead of trying to get together on the peace process.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam refused to comment on Farooq’s statement regarding troop reduction in Kashmir. “I have no information about it,” she said. agencies

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\03\03\story_3-3-2007_pg7_4

 

[Contrarian]

Its damn foolish to remove even 1 soldier from Kashmir. WTF is Congress playing at?

 

[Adux]

Stupid Kangraz

 

[Srirangan]

I wonder what Mirwaiz has been smoking!

 

[Janbaz]

Its damn foolish to remove even 1 soldier from Kashmir. WTF is Congress playing at?

Why the angry feelings. It is good for pakistan so that now we delpoy more troops on the Western frontier where Karzai howls dirt at us. We should show him how to take the Taliban down.:flag:

 

[Contrarian]

Yeah, but its bad for us, it means that there will be a slack in the anti terrorist ops.

 

[Srirangan]

Well.. PTI reports Manmohan shooting down Mirwaiz's claims as mere speculation. I guess the media will have to get Mirwaiz to clarify after he gets over his hangover! Holi ka bhang!

 

[Moin91]

Are you anwser me,
wht is (rep power) ??

 

[Janbaz]

Yeah, but its bad for us, it means that there will be a slack in the anti terrorist ops.

No but we are sincere for lasting peace and if we work hard to satisfy all parties the terrorists will be tamed.

 

[Contrarian]

I hope you are right, but i donot share your optimism.

 

[dabong1]

It will be another stupid move by mushy if he withdraws forces from kashmir.
The indian occupation of kashmir will extend to azad kashmir if the pakistani army vacates the area .
There are more indian army in kashmir then there is pak army in azad kashmir,let the indians cut troop numbers to the same level as pakistan before we start talking about any withdrawl of pak army.
One of the main reason india gives about not withdrawing the army is about cross border movement by freedom fighters,the media including the india media agree that movement has been cut and all indicators show a sharp drop in violence since talks first started,This still has not satisfied the indians and the same allegations are thrown against pakistan.
I hope the talks take us towards peace but going of the record the indians are just messing around and wasting time.

 

[dabong1]

Why the angry feelings. It is good for pakistan so that now we delpoy more troops on the Western frontier where Karzai howls dirt at us. We should show him how to take the Taliban down.:flag:

The taliban are pro pakistan unlike the present leadership in kabul.
The pak army could not take down the waziri tribesman but somehow it is going to defeat the taliban.
Bro i think you are taken in by all the anti taliban rubbish that the media vomit.



KARACHI - The Pakistani establishment has made a deal with the Taliban through a leading Taliban commander that will extend Islamabad's influence into southwestern Afghanistan and significantly strengthen the resistance in its push to capture Kabul.

One-legged Mullah Dadullah will be Pakistan's strongman in a corridor running from the Afghan provinces of Zabul, Urzgan, Kandahar and Helmand across the border into Pakistan's



Balochistan province, according to both Taliban and al-Qaeda contacts Asia Times Online spoke to. Using Pakistani territory and with Islamabad's support, the Taliban will be able safely to move men, weapons and supplies into southwestern Afghanistan.

The deal with Mullah Dadullah will serve Pakistan's interests in re- establishing a strong foothold in Afghanistan (the government in Kabul leans much more toward India), and it has resulted in a cooling of the Taliban's relations with al-Qaeda.

Despite their most successful spring offensive last year since being ousted in 2001, the Taliban realize they need the assistance of a state actor if they are to achieve "total victory". Al-Qaeda will have nothing to do with the Islamabad government, though, so the Taliban had to go it alone.

The move also comes as the US is putting growing pressure on Pakistan to do more about the Taliban and al-Qaeda ahead of a much-anticipated spring offensive in Afghanistan. US Vice President Dick Cheney paid an unexpected visit to Pakistan on Monday to meet with President General Pervez Musharraf.

The White House refused to say what message Cheney gave Musharraf, but it did not deny reports that it included a tough warning that US aid to Pakistan could be in jeopardy.

A parting of the ways.

The Taliban saw that after five years working with al-Qaeda, the resistance appeared to have reached a stage where it could not go much further.

Certainly it has grown in strength, and last year's spring offensive was a classic example of guerrilla warfare with the help of indigenous support. The application of improvised explosive devices and techniques of urban warfare, which the Taliban learned from the Iraqi resistance, did make a difference and inflicted major casualties against coalition troops.

However, the Taliban were unable to achieve important goals, such as the fall of Kandahar and laying siege to Kabul from the southern Musayab Valley on the one side to the Tagab Valley on the northern side.

Taliban commanders planning this year's spring uprising acknowledged that as an independent organization or militia, they could not fight a sustained battle against state resources. They believed they could mobilize the masses, but this would likely bring a rain of death from the skies and the massacre of Taliban sympathizers. Their answer was to find their own state resources, and inevitably they looked toward their former patron, Pakistan.

Al-Qaeda does not fit into any plans involving Pakistan, but mutual respect between the al-Qaeda leadership and the Taliban still exists. All the same, there is tension over their ideological differences, and al-Qaeda sources believe it is just a matter of time before the sides part physically as well.

Pakistan only too happy to help
Ever since signing on for the US-led "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, Pakistan has been coerced by Washington to distance itself from the Taliban. The Taliban were, after all, enemy No 1 for harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's training camps.

So when the opportunity arose, Islamabad was quick to tap up Mullah Dadullah. This was the perfect way in which Pakistan could revive its contacts in the Taliban and give the spring uprising some real muscle, so the argument went among the strategic planners in Rawalpindi - in fact, so much muscle that forces led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would be forced into a position to talk peace - and who better than Pakistan to step in as peacemaker and bail out its Western allies?

The next logical step would be the establishment of a pro-Islamabad government in Kabul - delivering a kick in the strategic teeth of India at the same time. After all, Pakistan invested a lot in Afghanistan after the Soviet occupation in the 1980s yet it received little in return. Whether it was former Afghan premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or Taliban leader Mullah Omar, they refused to be totally Pakistan's men.

A man for all seasons.

Mullah Dadullah, 41, comes from southwestern Afghanistan, so he is "original Taliban", and has a record of being a natural leader in times of crisis.

Mullah Dadullah made a name for himself during the Soviet occupation, during which he lost a leg. And with victories against the Northern Alliance after the Taliban took over Kabul in 1996, he pushed the alliance into the tail end of Afghanistan. This made him Pakistan's darling from Day 1.

He was Mullah Omar's emissary in the two Waziristan tribal areas before the spring offensive of last year. Here he brokered a major deal between the Pakistani armed forces and the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan had lost more than 800 soldiers in operations against the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda and it needed a face-saving way to extricate itself from the mess.

Mullah Dadullah's peace deal provided this, and the army made an "honorable" withdrawal from the volatile semi-independent region. Whenever the ceasefire was violated, Mullah Dadullah would settle things down.

The 2006 spring offensive was veteran mujahideen fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani's show. Nevertheless, the main areas of success were not Haqqani's traditional areas of influence, such as southeastern Afghanistan's Khost, Paktia and Paktika. The Taliban secured major victories in their heartland of the southwest, Helmand, Zabul, Urzgan and Kandahar. And their leader was Mullah Dadullah, whose men seized control of more than 12 districts - and held on to them.

Pakistani strategic circles are convinced that as a proven military commander, Mullah Dadullah will be able to work wonders this spring and finally give the Taliban the edge over the Kabul administration and its NATO allies.

This, ultimately, is Pakistan's objective - to revive its role in Kabul - and Islamabad is optimistic that Dadullah's considerable diplomatic skills will enable him to negotiate a power-sharing formula for pro-Pakistan Afghan warlords.

Even if Mullah Omar disagrees about any major compromise, Islamabad believes that Dadullah would by then have made such a name for himself in the battle against NATO that Omar would have little option but to accept whatever terms were agreed on.

A new string in the Taliban bow
A notable addition to what can only be described as a limited Taliban arsenal this year is surface-to-air missiles, notably the SAM-7, which was the first generation of Soviet man-portable SAMs.

The Taliban acquired these missiles in 2005, but they had little idea about how to use them effectively. Arab al-Qaeda members conducted extensive training programs and brought the Taliban up to speed. Nevertheless, the SAM-7s, while useful against helicopters, were no use against the fighter and bomber aircraft that were doing so much damage.

What the Taliban desperately needed were sensors for their missiles. These detect aircraft emissions designed to misdirect the missiles.

And it so happened that Pakistan had such devices, having acquired them from the Americans, though indirectly. The Pakistanis retrieved them from unexploded cruise missiles fired into Afghanistan in 1998, targeting bin Laden. They copied and adapted them to fit other missiles, including the SAMs.

Now that the Taliban and Pakistan have a deal, these missiles will be made available to the Taliban. Much like the Stingers that changed the dynamics of the Afghan resistance against the Soviets, the SAMs could help turn things Mullah Dadullah's, the Taliban's and Pakistan's way.


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IC01Df03.html

 

[dabong1]

Yeah, but its bad for us, it means that there will be a slack in the anti terrorist ops.

At the present moment the kashmir freedom fighters have stopped anti terrorist ops.This is also not good news for the people under occupation,who have to live with the fear of indian terrorist attacks against themselfs and there familys.
The pakistani government has taken a lot of steps towards finding a peaceful settlement to the kashmir issue but so far the indian government has not moved showing its real intent of keeping the kashmir people under indian occupation.

 

[Contrarian]

At the present moment the kashmir freedom fighters have stopped anti terrorist ops.This is also not good news for the people under occupation,who have to live with the fear of indian terrorist attacks against themselfs and there familys.

How the hell can kashmir freedom fighters stop anti terrorist ops?? You mean to say that Indian Army has stopped anti terrorist ops? Then no, they go on as usual, and yes there is a slackening of terrorism in the valley, but that does not mean it wont pick up again. Every one of those terrorists and their sympathisers needs to be shot or moved from India. Pakistan supports them, there are no doubts on that.

Surprisingly, if India did want to do terrorist attacks in Kashmir, then there would have been no kashmiri alive by now. That is not the case now is it!

BTW, how coolly you say generally the "people under occupation", i know of many kashmiris who hate Pakistan with a passion because of their support to terrorists. And they include Hindu's as well as Muslims.

The pakistani government has taken a lot of steps towards finding a peaceful settlement to the kashmir issue but so far the indian government has not moved showing its real intent of keeping the kashmir people under indian occupation.

This is the reason why Mushy gives so much interviews and most of his 'out of the box' ideas in them, rather than in teh meetings with India, which he knows will be rejected and are not practical, so that he can go back home saying 'sorry guys, im doing my best, but these Indans dont want peace'.

 

[Cheetah786]

Surprisingly, if India did want to do terrorist attacks in Kashmir, then there would have been no kashmiri alive by now.

This is the Most childish statement i have seen from YOU.

This is the reason why Mushy gives so much interviews and most of his 'out of the box' ideas in them, rather than in teh meetings with India, which he knows will be rejected and are not practical, so that he can go back home saying 'sorry guys, im doing my best, but these Indans dont want peace'

.

finally Pakistani government is playing the game the way it should have been.just like Indians were crying all the time as victims.don't like it when you on the receiving end mushy is doing hell of a job.simple reason we don't discus or put forward any thing to the Indians quite frankly is we don't want to.not cause we think you will refuse it its for the simple matter of politics.its working like a charm.no one is looking at Pakistan as an aggressor in Kashmir any more.