My personal opinion is that these people should be deportated to Kabul. It costs us land and food while all we get his bad mouth from Karzai. If the Afghans keep blaiming us accepting terrorists then we should return its civilians first. They are the ones that smuggle heroin and terrorism.
Saving Pakistan
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opinion786
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We ca't afford the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechans, Arabs, Afghans, etc .... all using our land and setting up safe havens in our mountains to launch attacks on NATO & US forces.
The USA is already finding difficulty in handling the internal situation in Afghanistan. The attacks by foreigners from our soil will only worsen the situation. All of the USA grunt will fall upon us.
Its better that we root & stamp out these militants ourselves from our soil. Pakistani land is not passport free entrance....
The USA is already finding difficulty in handling the internal situation in Afghanistan. The attacks by foreigners from our soil will only worsen the situation. All of the USA grunt will fall upon us.
Its better that we root & stamp out these militants ourselves from our soil. Pakistani land is not passport free entrance....
Tiki Tam Tam
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In international affairs, the knowledge of religious elements does not govern nationhood, nor statecraft. Therefore, their perceptions is of no use to man or beast. The govt's perception is what matters and they are equally well versed and in the proper medium - the verities of running a country! All poltical systems are ''discredited'' when it does not conforms to one's own view!
As far as all people of the Islamic faith is concerned knowing, do tarry a while. Islamic countries are run by monarchies, sheikdoms, dictatorships, totalitarism. Do they care for their people's views? Therefore, who cares what the people think?!
niaz
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An insight into how suicide bombers are recruited published in today's Dawn. The writer suggests an action plan as well.
What is worrisome that the in their hate of USA, rational people such as Hamid Mir overlook whatever Taliban are doing and justify everything on the injustices done to the Taliban. I ask all supporters of Taliban, if my house has been burgled; does it give me the right to burgle my neighbours house? This is exactly what Taliban are doing and all the bleeding hearts are justifying their actions merely as a reaction. When will we ever learn?
War on terror & census
By Nasser Yousaf
A COUPLE of weeks ago 18 children, all teenage boys, were reported missing from their homes in a small town in the restive Swat district. The children went to their seminaries in the morning and did not return home until late in the evening.
The distraught parents reported the matter to the authorities and the news was splashed in the media. One of the fathers was pictured showing a photo of his two sons, concern written on his old, wrinkled face. These boys went missing at the same time as two girls at a seminary in one of the southern districts of the NWFP also disappeared. The two sisters were recovered by their father with great difficulty. They had been captured by some people who reportedly intended to train them as suicide bombers.
These are the two latest incidents of their kind in the fast worsening law and order situation in the country, in the Frontier in particular. A number of suicide incidents during the last couple of years have been linked to young children. Television pictures of the militants also show a majority of the combatants being young children. Most of these fighters have at some stage been the students of religious seminaries and have successfully undergone rigorous indoctrination.
The extreme views these gullible children hold on religious issues will shock even their strongest supporters. Of immediate concern is the identity of these thousands of youngsters, their parentage and the regions to which they belong. Given the wide television coverage they have received, by now at least some of them should have been exposed. Why didnt some of the parents come forward and express concern about the safety of their young ones? This should ring alarm bells.
Where does the government figure in this conundrum? The authorities woke up to an unexploded time bomb in its backyard after 9/11. They attempted to register and regulate the seminaries. By then it was too late, or so it was thought. The move was immediately branded as one motivated and orchestrated by the United States. The religio-political parties doubted official motives and threatened to pre-empt the move by provoking religious sentiments. The government dithered and the issue remained in limbo.
The critics of the so-called reforms did not raise their voice out of any sympathy for the inmates of countless seminaries. They had their own axe to grind. The students were to form their front lines in their march to the corridors of power and in the worst-case scenario act as cannon fodder. It needs just a visit or two to a seminary to observe the pathetic conditions that those milling crowds of students, nay the destitute, are languishing in. They go through rigorous courses not easier than those taught in any university of the world to find themselves ending up dependent on charity, or at the most competing for one of the very few posts of low-paid seminary teachers or that of a prayer leader in a mosque owned by the Auqaf department.
The government failed to wrest the initiative from the clergy by not taking the public into confidence. The government seems to be repeating this mistake by not enlisting popular support in the fight against militants. A dangerous situation was created by confusing the issue of registration with that of changes in the syllabi. It did not strike the right chord and resultantly met an anticipated end.This lapse of judgment and foresight cost the government dearly in Swat. People with a deep knowledge of Swat seriously doubt the domicile of the insurgents. Incontrovertible proof existed of how Swat would become a battleground in the chaos that was expected. There were at one time more than 50,000 unregistered motor vehicles plying on the roads in the six districts of Malakand and the provincially administered Malakand tribal area.
Such vehicles are still there on the ridiculous ground that the Customs Act has not been extended to the area. The governments indecision is attributed to the involvement of vested interests. Had this not been the case wouldnt the government have seized the opportunity presented by the current military action to at least get the unregistered vehicles off the roads?
Yet another opportunity, and a crucial one at that, will be presented to the government in the form of the forthcoming national census. The chief census commissioner has already announced that all arrangements have been finalised for the count which according to the constitution must take place every 10 years. The census was last held in 1998.
These are not ordinary times for Pakistan. The entire country is at war with an invisible and extremely unpredictable enemy and the whole edifice of the country is threatened. The census commissioner would thus be required to gear up for what should be an extraordinary exercise with extraordinary attention to detail. Every house, shop, business premises, mosque, church and dharamsala and every standing structure whether built of concrete or mud must be counted through the most scientific methods. The government must enforce fully the existing birth and death registration laws.
The present situation is not a temporary phenomenon and calls for a long-term strategy to deal with the fallout of the war. The enemy will keep reappearing after every drubbing it receives. The count is crucial for it is no longer required only for the announcement of the National Finance Commission award. The census document must be shared with the law enforcement agencies down to the level of the respective police stations to enable them to weed out the aliens. According to some estimates there are over 10,000 foreigners actively engaged in militancy. How could such a large number evade the prying eyes of the pursuing agencies if the pursuit is earnest?
The government should also come down hard on non-registered vehicles and must urgently extend official cover to the seminaries, not with the idea of keeping a tab on their inmates but with the resolve of providing a respectable livelihood to those passing out of these institutions. Reforms could come later.
Finally Pakhtuns living in Pakistan and Afghanistan will have to read the writing on the wall vis-à-vis the Durand Line. Reality must overtake emotions. The areas adjoining the line are no longer manageable even with the help of state-of-the-art satellite surveillance. The mayhem on the line has cost the Pakhtuns heavily. The Durand Line will have to be fenced and let the fencing be done by the one most willing to do it, which must be the United States. Let the stigma be washed off and the dirty linen hung on the line once and for all
The link:
DAWN - Opinion; July 29, 2008
What is worrisome that the in their hate of USA, rational people such as Hamid Mir overlook whatever Taliban are doing and justify everything on the injustices done to the Taliban. I ask all supporters of Taliban, if my house has been burgled; does it give me the right to burgle my neighbours house? This is exactly what Taliban are doing and all the bleeding hearts are justifying their actions merely as a reaction. When will we ever learn?
War on terror & census
By Nasser Yousaf
A COUPLE of weeks ago 18 children, all teenage boys, were reported missing from their homes in a small town in the restive Swat district. The children went to their seminaries in the morning and did not return home until late in the evening.
The distraught parents reported the matter to the authorities and the news was splashed in the media. One of the fathers was pictured showing a photo of his two sons, concern written on his old, wrinkled face. These boys went missing at the same time as two girls at a seminary in one of the southern districts of the NWFP also disappeared. The two sisters were recovered by their father with great difficulty. They had been captured by some people who reportedly intended to train them as suicide bombers.
These are the two latest incidents of their kind in the fast worsening law and order situation in the country, in the Frontier in particular. A number of suicide incidents during the last couple of years have been linked to young children. Television pictures of the militants also show a majority of the combatants being young children. Most of these fighters have at some stage been the students of religious seminaries and have successfully undergone rigorous indoctrination.
The extreme views these gullible children hold on religious issues will shock even their strongest supporters. Of immediate concern is the identity of these thousands of youngsters, their parentage and the regions to which they belong. Given the wide television coverage they have received, by now at least some of them should have been exposed. Why didnt some of the parents come forward and express concern about the safety of their young ones? This should ring alarm bells.
Where does the government figure in this conundrum? The authorities woke up to an unexploded time bomb in its backyard after 9/11. They attempted to register and regulate the seminaries. By then it was too late, or so it was thought. The move was immediately branded as one motivated and orchestrated by the United States. The religio-political parties doubted official motives and threatened to pre-empt the move by provoking religious sentiments. The government dithered and the issue remained in limbo.
The critics of the so-called reforms did not raise their voice out of any sympathy for the inmates of countless seminaries. They had their own axe to grind. The students were to form their front lines in their march to the corridors of power and in the worst-case scenario act as cannon fodder. It needs just a visit or two to a seminary to observe the pathetic conditions that those milling crowds of students, nay the destitute, are languishing in. They go through rigorous courses not easier than those taught in any university of the world to find themselves ending up dependent on charity, or at the most competing for one of the very few posts of low-paid seminary teachers or that of a prayer leader in a mosque owned by the Auqaf department.
The government failed to wrest the initiative from the clergy by not taking the public into confidence. The government seems to be repeating this mistake by not enlisting popular support in the fight against militants. A dangerous situation was created by confusing the issue of registration with that of changes in the syllabi. It did not strike the right chord and resultantly met an anticipated end.This lapse of judgment and foresight cost the government dearly in Swat. People with a deep knowledge of Swat seriously doubt the domicile of the insurgents. Incontrovertible proof existed of how Swat would become a battleground in the chaos that was expected. There were at one time more than 50,000 unregistered motor vehicles plying on the roads in the six districts of Malakand and the provincially administered Malakand tribal area.
Such vehicles are still there on the ridiculous ground that the Customs Act has not been extended to the area. The governments indecision is attributed to the involvement of vested interests. Had this not been the case wouldnt the government have seized the opportunity presented by the current military action to at least get the unregistered vehicles off the roads?
Yet another opportunity, and a crucial one at that, will be presented to the government in the form of the forthcoming national census. The chief census commissioner has already announced that all arrangements have been finalised for the count which according to the constitution must take place every 10 years. The census was last held in 1998.
These are not ordinary times for Pakistan. The entire country is at war with an invisible and extremely unpredictable enemy and the whole edifice of the country is threatened. The census commissioner would thus be required to gear up for what should be an extraordinary exercise with extraordinary attention to detail. Every house, shop, business premises, mosque, church and dharamsala and every standing structure whether built of concrete or mud must be counted through the most scientific methods. The government must enforce fully the existing birth and death registration laws.
The present situation is not a temporary phenomenon and calls for a long-term strategy to deal with the fallout of the war. The enemy will keep reappearing after every drubbing it receives. The count is crucial for it is no longer required only for the announcement of the National Finance Commission award. The census document must be shared with the law enforcement agencies down to the level of the respective police stations to enable them to weed out the aliens. According to some estimates there are over 10,000 foreigners actively engaged in militancy. How could such a large number evade the prying eyes of the pursuing agencies if the pursuit is earnest?
The government should also come down hard on non-registered vehicles and must urgently extend official cover to the seminaries, not with the idea of keeping a tab on their inmates but with the resolve of providing a respectable livelihood to those passing out of these institutions. Reforms could come later.
Finally Pakhtuns living in Pakistan and Afghanistan will have to read the writing on the wall vis-à-vis the Durand Line. Reality must overtake emotions. The areas adjoining the line are no longer manageable even with the help of state-of-the-art satellite surveillance. The mayhem on the line has cost the Pakhtuns heavily. The Durand Line will have to be fenced and let the fencing be done by the one most willing to do it, which must be the United States. Let the stigma be washed off and the dirty linen hung on the line once and for all
The link:
DAWN - Opinion; July 29, 2008
muse
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Good cop, bad cop: Pakistan reels
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Ever since Pakistan signed onto the United States' "war on terror" in 2001, Washington has adopted a carrot-and-stick approach in an attempt to prod its often reluctant partner.
In the process, US-led forces are losing the war in Afghanistan, and Islamabad has lost its writ over parts of the country, especially in the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.
Yet the game continues. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is in Washington this week for talks with President George W Bush on, among other issues, reform of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which is widely perceived in the US as having a mind of its own when it comes to tackling the Taliban and militancy.
At the same time, the acting commander of the US Central Command, Lieutenant General Martin E Dempsey, was sent to Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi to supervise the handover of four F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed as part of the US's military aid to Pakistan for its support in the "war on terror".
Yet even as this ceremony was taking place, Pakistan said an unmanned US Predator drone had fired four missiles at a suspected militant base in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area. Six people were said to have been killed in the attack on a madrassa (seminary), including a suspected al-Qaeda operative, Mursi al-Sayid Umar.
According to some reports, Umar, an Egyptian, was a chemical and biological weapons expert with a US State Department bounty of US$5 million on his head.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen warned recently during a visit to Pakistan that if Pakistan did not deliver in the battle against militants, American forces would take matters into their own hands.
The attack on the seminary was in Taliban commander Haji Nazeer's area. Haji Nazeer is a rival of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and considered to be close to the Pakistani security forces. In January 2007, he led a massacre of Uzbek militants who had settled in South Waziristan.
Pakistan claims that it has played its part in arresting many al-Qaeda operatives, and points out that none have been seized in Afghanistan. Yet fingers are still pointed at Pakistan, most recently by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This often acrimonious blame-game has led to reduced cooperation on the part of Pakistan.
The gainers are the Taliban and al-Qaeda, who are increasingly cementing their position in the tribal areas.
On Sunday, the chief of the militants in Swat Valley, Mullah Fazlullah, held a press conference at which he pronounced that except for Peshawar Valley, the entire North-West Frontier Province is in the hands of the Taliban.
On Monday, the Taliban proved the point when they wiped out checkpoints of the security forces in Bajaur Agency and occupied a television booster of state-run PTV. The government's response was a call for the Taliban not to "misbehave" - the state apparatus is unable to mobilize its forces.
Storm in a port
While these developments unfold in the tribal areas, tensions are rising in the southern port city of Karachi, the financial capital of the country said to have the biggest Pashtun population in the world.
After 9 pm, armed Pashtu-speaking youths take to the streets of middle-class Gulshan-i-Iqbal and search vehicles. In the Pashtun slums of Banaras, any person wearing modern trousers and shirts is beaten up. Political leaders in the city, including elected representatives of the Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM), call it "Talibanization".
MQM member parliament Dr Farooq Sattar said in an interview, "Elements who were forced out from the Waziristans and other tribal areas took refuge in Karachi, where they settled on empty land, mostly at the northern and southern entry routes of the city. The city is virtually under siege from these elements."
A senior official from the Ministry of Interior commented, "They are not 100% Taliban, but ethnic Pashtuns who have increased their activity in the city and they have received ammunition from North-West Frontier Province. A big clash is imminent in the coming days between the non-Pashtun residents of the city and ethnic Pashtuns. This is not Talibanization but an organized bid to take over the resources of the city."
The MQM, however, insists that the majority of the people in these Pashtun areas are directly connected with the Taliban. It is claimed they raise resources for the Taliban and plan to create chaos in the city to weaken the state writ.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Ever since Pakistan signed onto the United States' "war on terror" in 2001, Washington has adopted a carrot-and-stick approach in an attempt to prod its often reluctant partner.
In the process, US-led forces are losing the war in Afghanistan, and Islamabad has lost its writ over parts of the country, especially in the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.
Yet the game continues. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is in Washington this week for talks with President George W Bush on, among other issues, reform of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which is widely perceived in the US as having a mind of its own when it comes to tackling the Taliban and militancy.
At the same time, the acting commander of the US Central Command, Lieutenant General Martin E Dempsey, was sent to Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi to supervise the handover of four F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed as part of the US's military aid to Pakistan for its support in the "war on terror".
Yet even as this ceremony was taking place, Pakistan said an unmanned US Predator drone had fired four missiles at a suspected militant base in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area. Six people were said to have been killed in the attack on a madrassa (seminary), including a suspected al-Qaeda operative, Mursi al-Sayid Umar.
According to some reports, Umar, an Egyptian, was a chemical and biological weapons expert with a US State Department bounty of US$5 million on his head.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen warned recently during a visit to Pakistan that if Pakistan did not deliver in the battle against militants, American forces would take matters into their own hands.
The attack on the seminary was in Taliban commander Haji Nazeer's area. Haji Nazeer is a rival of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and considered to be close to the Pakistani security forces. In January 2007, he led a massacre of Uzbek militants who had settled in South Waziristan.
Pakistan claims that it has played its part in arresting many al-Qaeda operatives, and points out that none have been seized in Afghanistan. Yet fingers are still pointed at Pakistan, most recently by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This often acrimonious blame-game has led to reduced cooperation on the part of Pakistan.
The gainers are the Taliban and al-Qaeda, who are increasingly cementing their position in the tribal areas.
On Sunday, the chief of the militants in Swat Valley, Mullah Fazlullah, held a press conference at which he pronounced that except for Peshawar Valley, the entire North-West Frontier Province is in the hands of the Taliban.
On Monday, the Taliban proved the point when they wiped out checkpoints of the security forces in Bajaur Agency and occupied a television booster of state-run PTV. The government's response was a call for the Taliban not to "misbehave" - the state apparatus is unable to mobilize its forces.
Storm in a port
While these developments unfold in the tribal areas, tensions are rising in the southern port city of Karachi, the financial capital of the country said to have the biggest Pashtun population in the world.
After 9 pm, armed Pashtu-speaking youths take to the streets of middle-class Gulshan-i-Iqbal and search vehicles. In the Pashtun slums of Banaras, any person wearing modern trousers and shirts is beaten up. Political leaders in the city, including elected representatives of the Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM), call it "Talibanization".
MQM member parliament Dr Farooq Sattar said in an interview, "Elements who were forced out from the Waziristans and other tribal areas took refuge in Karachi, where they settled on empty land, mostly at the northern and southern entry routes of the city. The city is virtually under siege from these elements."
A senior official from the Ministry of Interior commented, "They are not 100% Taliban, but ethnic Pashtuns who have increased their activity in the city and they have received ammunition from North-West Frontier Province. A big clash is imminent in the coming days between the non-Pashtun residents of the city and ethnic Pashtuns. This is not Talibanization but an organized bid to take over the resources of the city."
The MQM, however, insists that the majority of the people in these Pashtun areas are directly connected with the Taliban. It is claimed they raise resources for the Taliban and plan to create chaos in the city to weaken the state writ.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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