Swat Peace Deal - The Aftermath

[ejaz007]

Armed Taliban back on Mingora roads : TNSM rejects Darul Qaza

* Sufi’s spokesman says NWFP govt acted unilaterally
* Taliban destroy girls’ high school, grid station, attempt to blow up bridge in Swat
* Behead two FC officials, rob bank in Chakdara

MINGORA: Swat cleric Sufi Muhammad’s banned Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) – which had promised to ensure peace in the restive valley in return for the establishment of sharia courts – on Sunday rejected the Darul Qaza appellate court set up by the NWFP government.

Ameer Izzat Khan, the chief spokesman for Sufi Muhammad, said that the government had acted unilaterally in establishing the Darul Qaza and had violated the peace agreement.

He said it had been decided in a May 1 meeting between the provincial government and the TNSM in Timergara that the government would first announce an end to the operations in Malakand following which the Taliban would declare a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, armed Taliban were out on Mingora streets on Sunday in what the ISPR called gross violation of the peace deal. “Militants are involved in various criminal activities threatening the lives of the civilian population, the civil administration as well as security forces personnel,” it said.

Early on Sunday, the Taliban blew up a girls’ high school in Ningolai area of Kabal tehsil. The building was completely razed.

Late on Sunday, a mechanic was held from Watakai Chowk when he was preparing a vehicle for a suicide attack.

Another vehicle prepared for a suicide attack was on its way to Saidu Sharif Swat when the troops spotted it. The vehicle was destroyed after a gunfight.

Three Taliban were arrested along with a suicide vehicle in Mingora, the ISPR said.

The Taliban attacked a grid station with rockets, destroying the facility and disrupting power supply to Mingora. They also attacked a police station in Rahimabad late on Saturday. The ensuing gunfight continued until Sunday morning.

The Taliban also attempted to blow up the Chamtalai Bridge in Khawazakhela. The key bridge was partially damaged. Four Taliban were reportedly injured in a clash after they attacked the security forces in Sambat Ridge area. The Taliban abducted the Mingora town municipal officer and his son from Sharifabad. They released the two later but seized their vehicle.

In Madyan, the Taliban fired at security forces killing one soldier.

Three other soldiers were injured in various clashes with the Taliban in Swat.

A civilian was killed as security forces and the Taliban clashed in the Madyan summer resort. Two beheaded bodies were found in the Alam Ganj area of Khwazakhela. Witnesses said both were FC personnel. The Taliban also robbed a bank in Chakdara bazaar. Reports said they took away Rs 600,000 from Habib Bank. ghulam farooq/irfan ghauri/app

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[ejaz007]

Taliban must lay down arms or face action: ISPR

* 80 Taliban killed, 21 suicide bombing vehicles destroyed in Buner offensive
* 20 girls trapped in Daggar Girls College evacuated

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban in Swat must disarm or face military action, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said on Sunday.

“Now peace has been restored and the Nizam-e-Adl has been introduced. The miscreants do not have any justification for continuing their armed activities,” Gen Abbas – the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) – said in an interview with BBC. In a press release on Sunday about the military action in Buner the ISPR said the armed forces had killed 80 Taliban in the operation so far. Three soldiers had also died in the operation and eight others had been wounded, it said.

The dead Taliban include an important commander who the ISPR identified only as Khalil. “His real name is Alam Buneri and [he] was among the mainstream leaders of banned organisation – Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” the press release said.

According to the military, the security forces have also eliminated 21 vehicles prepared for suicide bombings, and several attackers.

“The operation in Buner is progressing smoothly. Consolidation of positions is being carried out today in Daggar, Buner and surrounding areas,” the press release said.

Meanwhile, troops rescued 20 girls trapped in the Daggar Girls College, the press release said. Fifteen of them were evacuated in a vehicle and were sent to Mardan while five were evacuated by helicopter.

Also on Sunday, the security forces procured medicines for the Daggar Civil Hospital. The hospital had been short of medicines after a Taliban takeover and the subsequent military action.

In the BBC interview, Gen Abbas said the areas where the security forces had faced severe resistance had now been cleared of the Taliban. “The situation is absolutely under control in Buner. The security forces have conducted successful operation on the Ambela-Daggar axis and established linkage with troops at Daggar,” he said.

The ISPR director general said the security forces were now clearing landmines that the Taliban had planted in the area. Movement in the area had been restricted until it has been cleared, he added.

He denied civilians had been killed in the areas in the operation.

To a question about the peace deal in Swat, he said, the government had begun a reconciliatory process in the valley so that peace could be restored. irfan ghauri/app

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[ejaz007]

TNSM creating hurdles to peace: NWFP minister

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) is placing hurdles in the path to peace by making spurious demands, NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said on Sunday.

He said the government had fulfilled its promise by establishing the Darul Qaza, and it was now the responsibility of the TNSM to keep its commitments, a private TV channel reported. The qazis appointed to the Darul Qaza would be experts of Islamic jurisprudence, as agreed upon in the Swat agreement, he added.

Hussain said that if anyone took up arms and challenged the writ of the state following the establishment of qazi courts, the government would use all its resources to stop them at all costs. According to APP, Hussain said the NWFP government chose speedy establishment of Darul Qaza to ensure a delay in implementation was not blamed for failure of the deal.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[ejaz007]

Pakistan regaining control in NWFP, says Robert Gates

WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that Pakistan has started regaining control of parts of NWFP that were recently taken over by the Taliban, and acknowledged the growing recognition in Islamabad of the terrorist threat.

“It is my impression from the great distance that they have begun to regain the initiative,” Gates told CNN when asked about the Pakistan Army’s operations against the Taliban in Buner and other areas around Swat valley.

Gates also pledged to provide necessary counterinsurgency equipment to Islamabad.

He claimed the ‘failure’ of the agreement in Swat was a ‘real wake up call’ for the Pakistanis. He said the Taliban posed an ‘existential threat’ to the democratic government, and praised realisation on its part to confront the terrorists and extremists.

The US leader also voiced understanding of the Pakistani situation in its proper historical perspective.

Gates said that Pakistan was also beginning to develop the counterinsurgency capability, and citied America’s own experience of several years in changing its tactics after the Iraq war. About training for the Pakistan Army, he said Islamabad did not want a significant American footprint on its soil.

A private TV channel also quoted Gates as saying that reconciliation with the Taliban in Afghanistan could be harmful and would not yield positive results. app

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[RabzonKhan]

Editorial: Two-pronged policy against Taliban

May 04, 2009

Pakistan’s Taliban policy in Swat is now clearly two-pronged: it is confronting the militants in the Malakand Division, having effectively blocked their advance in Lower Dir and Buner; and it is talking to the TNSM’s Sufi Muhammad for the establishment of qazi courts in Swat and other districts in exchange for the laying down of arms by the Taliban. For many the policy is understandably risky. But it is different from the earlier policy of letting the Taliban of Fazlullah take territory in violation of agreements while the government implemented the sharia in cooperation with Sufi Muhammad.

The qazi courts approach failed, as predicted by many when it was embarked upon, but its failure brought with it a public disenchantment with Sufi Muhammad’s ability or intent to deliver on his promises. The country was divided over the qazi courts between the conservative opinion that didn’t mind the sharia courts and thought they would bring quick and cheap justice to the people; and liberals who thought there was a barely concealed negation of the state of Pakistan and its sharia laws in Nizam-e-Adl which otherwise looked harmless in its text. When Sufi Muhammad began to talk about Pakistan’s legal system as a kind of gloss to what he was envisaging for Swat, he lost a lot of support and helped bridge the conservative-liberal divide in the country.

That’s when the army moved in. Given the new opinion environment, it was able to share more of its information about warlord Fazlullah without fearing a negative backlash: it made public that Fazlullah was caught talking on the phone planning a violation of the Sufi Muhammad accord on the Taliban quitting Buner. The shock produced by the fact that the Taliban were actually planning to stay on in Buner after they had announced their departure, broke the tendency among Pakistanis to take the Taliban on trust. (This will help taking more realistically the deceitful battlefield statements made by the warlord Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan.) On the other hand, the disclosure raised the credibility of the Pakistan army despite a steadily eroding belief among the victim populations that it will come to their help and then stay on.

The gradually dominant presence of the army in parts of Malakand has affected the unfolding of the process of qazi courts. Before the army decided to move in, this process was going on under the diktat of Sufi Muhammad who developed the habit of issuing a steady stream of adverse commentary on how the NWFP government was handling the job. He had made it clear that the qazis unacceptable to him on a personal basis would not be acceptable in Malakand.

Sufi Muhammad also supplied legal interpretations of Darul Qaza (Appeals Court) and Darul Darul Qaza (Higher Appeals Court) when he said that they would be separated from the constitutionally empowered judiciary of Pakistan. He lost support even among the heretofore supportive clergy in Pakistan when he termed democracy un-Islamic. It now develops after the military action that the NWFP government is quite assertive in setting up Darul Qaza with its constitutional linkages and will insist on selecting the qazis under its jurisdiction.

One lesson that has emerged from the operation in Swat is that the army has to move in an environment of civilian consensus or it will risk internal lack of cohesion as it fights “its own people”. (Once it was in Dir and Buner, it was able to reveal that not all the Taliban were our “own people” and that there were aliens busy fighting the war of dispossessing Pakistan of its territory.) Once it has taken root, terrorism is not easy to dislodge.

The state needs to pay heed to the relationship of coercion which the terrorist develops with the victim population on the basis of intimidation. The army therefore goes in among people who will not show loyalty to it in the initial phase. The logic of military action will succeed only if the army stays on and doesn’t retreat from the theatre of war. It cannot allow the civilian government to negotiate with the terrorists in a military vacuum and then assume that it has given primacy to “political solutions”.

 

[linkinpark]

Zardari was forced to sign the Swat Deal, says Holbrooke


Lalit K Jha
Washington, May 5 (PTI) Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had opposed a peace agreement with the Taliban in the Swat Valley but he was "forced to sign" the deal with the militants, Special US Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke disclosed today.

Testifying before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Pakistan, Holbrooke informed the agitated US lawmakers that Zardari told him about this when he met the Pakistani President last night.

Zardari arrived in Washington yesterday to attend the tri-lateral summit with his counterparts from the US and Afghanistan at White House tomorrow.

Holbrooke said he already has met Zardari after his arrival.

Referring to his meeting with Zardari, Holbrooke said the Pakistani President told him that "he had opposed the Swat deal" from the very beginning and that he was "forced to sign it." The deal was bound to fail and it has now failed, Holbrooke said, adding the Pakistani Army has now moved inside the Swat Valley to take action against the Taliban militants holed up there. PTI

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Who forced it Mr. Zardari? (PA, National Assembly or Taliban)

 

[RabzonKhan]

Sunnis want treason case against Sufi

May 06, 2009

LAHORE: Ahl-e-Sunnah parties on Tuesday demanded the government restore its writ in Swat and asked it to register a treason case against Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi chief Sufi Muhammad. A private TV channel said a declaration issued at the conclusion of ‘Stability of Pakistan Convention’ in Rawalpindi, the Ahl-e-Sunnah parties declared Sufi Muhammad a “rebel of sharia and the constitution”. They also called upon the government to restore its writ in the country without yielding to the terrorists and condemned the killings of innocent civilians, demolition of shrines and insult of religious clerics in the name of Islam. daily times monitor

 

[Neo]

Civilians told to flee ahead of Pakistan offensive against TalibanStory Highlights​

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Some 500,000 civilians are expected to flee Pakistan's Swat Valley, heeding a government evacuation order issued Tuesday ahead of an expected military offensive in the Taliban-dominated region.

1 of 2Dr. Lal Noor Afridi said many people "panicked" when they heard the order and quickly fled, including many women and children in the Swat town of Saidu Sharif. At least 18 civilians were wounded in the town Tuesday, caught in the crossfire between Taliban militants and government forces, he said.

They were treated at the main medical facility in Swat, Saidu Teaching Hospital, where Afridi is the medical superintendent. He spoke to CNN from his home during a curfew.

"I can hear shooting all around," Afridi said. "The Taliban are in the streets." Watch as thousands flee military offensive »

The violence comes on the eve of a meeting between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and U.S. President Barack Obama.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, dismissed rumors Tuesday that the Obama administration is backing away from its support for Zardari as he is tested by Taliban and al Qaeda extremists.

Taliban militants attacked a police station in Saidu Sharif shortly before 5 p.m. (7 a.m. ET), sparking a firefight that was still ongoing hours later, according to an officer in charge of the station.

The top civilian official in the region issued an order Tuesday for residents to evacuate neighborhoods in and around the Swat district capital of Mingora, which is flush with Taliban militants.

The militants are marching on the streets of the city, threatening the lives of civilians, local administrators, and security forces, according to the Pakistani military. See a map of Taliban-controlled areas »

Authorities in Swat lifted a curfew Tuesday between 1:30 and 7 p.m. to allow residents to leave the area, Swat District Coordination Officer Khushal Khan said. He noted that after Wednesday, "there will be no time" for evacuations.

For the last two weeks, Pakistani troops have battled Taliban fighters in Buner and Lower Dir, two districts bordering Swat. Army generals claim to have killed scores of militants.

The military is expected to broaden its offensive in Swat on Wednesday. The government has ordered evacuations and banned the use of motorcycles, which are commonly used by Taliban militants.

The provincial government is planning to set up six new camps for the influx of displaced civilians, in addition to existing camps in and around Peshawar, according to a North West Frontier Province spokesman.

The expected civilian exodus will add to the already massive displacement of people in northwestern Pakistan. The United Nations estimates more then 50,000 civilians have fled the fighting in Buner, which is a little more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of the Pakistani capital.

In an interview Sunday, Yahya Akhunzada, the district coordinating officer in embattled Buner, said Pakistani forces probably will advance into Swat in coming days.

"We are planning ahead toward the Swat Valley ... these are the areas which are required to be cleared," he said.

The fighting has spilled into other areas of Pakistan's tribal region. In the Mohmand district on the Afghan border, militants attacked a security forces checkpoint, prompting a firefight that killed 15 militants and two Pakistani soldiers, the military said. Six other soldiers are missing after the attack in Spinkai Tangi.

 

[Neo]

Pakistan expects 500,000 to flee Taliban fighting​

MINGORA, Pakistan – Black-turbaned militants roamed city streets and seized buildings in a northwestern Pakistan valley Tuesday as thousands of people fled fighting between the Taliban and troops that the government said could lead to an exodus of half a million people. The Taliban declared the end of their peace deal with the government.

Buses carrying the residents of Mingora, the region's main town, were crammed inside and out: Refugees clambered onto the roofs after seats and floors filled up. Children and adults alike carried their belongings on their heads and backs — all of them fleeing fighting they fear is about to consume the region.

Pakistan's leader prepared for talks in Washington with President Barack Obama on how to sharpen his country's fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, which are blamed for attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The deteriorating Swat Valley truce with the Taliban, which American officials opposed from the start, is expected to play a prominent role in the discussions.

Khushal Khan, the top administrator in Swat, said Taliban militants were roaming the area and laying mines.

A witness in Mingora told an Associated Press reporter that black-turbaned militants were deployed on most streets and on high buildings, and security forces were barricaded in their bases. Another reported heavy gunfire for much of the day. Both asked for anonymity out of fear for their life.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the militants were in control of "90 percent" of the valley and said they were responding to army violations of the peace deal — citing attacking insurgents and boosting troop numbers. He accused the government of caving to U.S. pressure.

Pakistan agreed to a truce in the Swat Valley and surrounding districts in February after two years of fighting with militants in the former tourist resort. It formally introduced Islamic law last month in the hope that insurgents would lay down their arms, something they have not done.

Last week, the insurgents moved from the valley into Buner, a district just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the capital, triggering alarm at home and abroad. The army responded with an offensive that it says has killed more than 100 militants, but has yet to evict them.

"Everything will be OK once our rulers stop bowing before America," Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman, told The Associated Press by cell phone, adding the peace deal had "been dead" since the operation in Buner.

Khushal Khan, the Swat official, said curfew was suspended so people could leave Mingora, and a camp was set up for the displaced in a nearby town. Hundreds were leaving, according to an AP reporter in Mingora.

"We are leaving the area to save our lives," said Sayed Iqbal, a 35-year-old cloth merchant who was putting household goods in a pickup truck already loaded with his elderly parents, wife and two children. "The government has announced people should leave the area. What is there left to say?"

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for the North West Frontier Province, said up to 500,000 people were expected to flee the valley. Hundreds are already gone, adding to roughly half a million people driven from other regions in the northwest over the last year by fighting between soldiers and insurgents, witnesses said.

Hussain said authorities were releasing emergency funds and preparing six new refugee camps to house them.

While an army offensive would be welcomed abroad, it was far from certain the government would be able to dislodge the militants, who have had three months under the peace deal to rest and reinforce their positions.

Pakistan has waged several offensives in the border region in recent years that have often ended inconclusively amid public anger at civilian casualties. The country's army, trained to fight conventional battles against rival India, is not used to guerrilla warfare.

Washington has called for tougher action, and U.S. officials said Obama would seek assurances from President Asif Ali Zardari that his country's nuclear arsenal was safe and that the military intended to face down extremists in coordination with Afghanistan and the United States.

Although the administration thinks Pakistan's nuclear weapons are secure for now, concern that militants might try to seize one or several of them is acute. The anxieties have heightened amid the Taliban's recent advances, the officials said.

Pakistan is struggling to thwart an increasingly overlapping spectrum of extremist groups, some of whom have enjoyed official support. Few extremist leaders are ever brought to justice.

Also Tuesday, the High Court in the southern city of Karachi upheld an appeal by two men sentenced to death for the 2002 slayings of 11 French nationals and four other people in a bombing outside the city's Sheraton Hotel.

The judges said they suspected that the confession of one of the men, Asif Zaheer, was "not voluntary" and that prosecution witnesses had been "set up" by authorities, said state prosecutor Saifullah, who goes by only one name.

Authorities were considering appealing the acquittal, Saifullah said.

 

[kingkong]

The Pakistani government should never give in to the demands of the terrorists if this militants
make demands tha Pakistani army instead must destroy all
the terrorists fighters in SWAT valley.
War on terrorism should continue in SWAT,using all the
tools of the government especially military force.

 

[LCA]

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Swat exodus as ceasefire crumbles

Swat exodus as ceasefire crumbles

Civilians are desperate to escape the fighting in Swat

Thousands of civilians are reported to be fleeing their homes in Pakistan's Swat valley where a peace deal with the Taleban looks increasingly fragile.

Officials say that more than 40,000 people have so far fled from clashes between the army and militants in Swat.

Fighting broke out on Tuesday night in Mingora, the main town in Swat, where the Taleban occupied key buildings and defied a curfew, officials say.

At least nine people have been killed in the latest Swat fighting, they say.


Army helicopter gunships have pounded emerald mines in the Shahdara area, near Mingora, which are being operated by the militants.

The army claims to have killed several militants in this attack, but there is no independent confirmation of their claims.

Local people and journalists say five civilians who lived in a settlement near the mine also died in the attack, while many others were injured in a separate air strike.

While civilians strive to flee Mingora and its adjoining areas, some are reported to be trapped by the fighting and the curfew.

Three members of a single family were killed when a mortar fell on their home in Mingora's Bacha Saib locality during one of these battles, officials say.

Shelter

Locals say the army continues to rely on long range weapons and artillery to target the militants, but the Taleban have complete control on the ground.


Taleabn members in Swat

The Taleban and Swat's emeralds

They say the militants have mined the area they control and entrenched themselves for a long battle.

"More than 40,000 have migrated from Mingora since Tuesday afternoon," Khushhal Khan, chief administration officer in Swat, told the AFP news agency.

The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government is now rushing to provide shelter for 500,000 people they expect to flee Swat over the next few days.

The NWFP Information Minster, Mian Iftikhar, said that the breakdown of the peace deal rested solely with the Taleban.

"They are entirely responsible for the situation today," he told a crowded news conference in Peshawar.

"The government went to great lengths to resolve the matter through dialogue.

"This was despite great international pressure to take action against the militants.

"But they refused to lay down their arms and continued patrols in the (Swat) valley, despite the implementation of Sharia law.

Mr Iftikhar also accused the Taleban of attacking military convoys and kidnapping government officials.

'Fitting reply'

Taleban spokesman Muslim Khan responded by claiming that the militants control "more than 90%" of Swat.

He blamed the latest deaths on the security forces.

"If the government launches an operation against us we will give them a fitting reply, which it will remember for a long time," he told the AFP news agency.


It is now the duty of the government to take action against the Taleban

The BBC's Mark Dummett in Islamabad says that camps are being set up with UN help to look after people who cannot stay with relatives.

The renewed tension in Swat comes before US President Barack Obama meets President Karzai of Afghanistan and President Zardari of Pakistan in Washington.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that the events in Swat have come full circle since a peace agreement was signed with militants earlier this year.

Last week the government set up higher Islamic courts in the Malakand region - of which Swat is a part - to meet a key demand of the militants.

But the government's appeals to the militants to disarm - which they say was agreed in the peace agreement - have fallen on deaf ears.

Correspondents say that there is also unrest in the Lower Dir area of north-west Pakistan following last week's military action to prevent the spread of Taleban there.