It seems that our friends in Waziristan, the ISI and their agent Baitullah Mehsud, are showing signs of nervousness because of the increasing USA/NATO pressure on the Taliban hideouts in Pakistan.
Pakistan militants blow up radio station in NW region
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-03 21:08:34
Special Report: Pakistani Situation
ISLAMABAD, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan militants blew up a building of state-run radio station in the country's tribal region on Friday, said officials.
The militants blew up the radio station building in Wana, main town of South Waziristan tribal agency bordering Afghanistan, News Network International (NNI) news agency quoted officials as saying.
The militants also blew up the check post of security forces near the radio station building.
No casualties were reported as the building was empty at the time of the blast.
...
The Pakistani Taliban have blown up a state-run radio station in the northwestern tribal belt and taken away all its equipment.
Taliban fighters stormed the radio station in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan Agency, early this morning. They broke its doors and took away all the equipment before blowing up the building with explosives, officials said.
The Taliban also blew up a check post of the security forces that was recently built near the radio station. No one was injured as the radio station and the check post were empty at the time of the attack.
Radio transmission in the area was suspended after the attack, local residents said.
Local residents said this was the third attack on the radio station in Wana. The facility was first attacked in 2004 shortly after transmission was launched from the station. The station was attacked again in 2006, suspending transmission for a few weeks.
The radio station was transmitting six-and-half hours of programming in the local Pashto language. This included sports and news about regional developments.
The station had stopped beaming news and music programmes two years ago after receiving threats from the Taliban.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/03/content_11128255.htm
وانا: ریڈیو سٹیشن پر حملہ، لوٹ مار
وانا میں تیسری مرتبہ ایف ایم سٹشن کو نشانہ بنایا گیا ہے
پاکستان کے قبائلی علاقے جنوبی وزیرستان میں نامعلوم افراد نے جمعہ کی شب صدر مقام وانا میں سرکاری ریڈیو سٹیشن پر حملہ کر کے سٹیشن کے تمام آلات قبضے میں لے لیے اور عمارت کو بارود سے اڑا دیا۔
دوسری طرف مقامی لوگوں کا کہنا ہے کہ وانا ریڈیو سٹیشن پر حملے کے بعد جمعہ کو عام شہریوں نے سکاؤٹس قلعہ کے سامنے سرکاری املاک میں لوٹ مار شروع کی۔
ایک شہری نے بی بی سی کو بتایا کہ وانا بازار کے مغربی حصے میں واقع پریس کلب، ریڈیو پاکستان، نو تعمیر شدہ رہائشی کوارٹر، جنگلات کے دفتر اور سول ہسپتال کے کوارٹر میں عام شہریوں نے لوٹ مار شروع کر دی اور وانا بازار سے سینکڑوں کی تعداد میں لوگ لوٹ مار کے لیے وہاں پہنچ گئے۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ کوئی اینٹیں اٹھارہا تھا، کوئی لوہے کے سامان کو گاڑیوں میں ڈال رہا تھا۔حتیٰ کہ جو بھی سامان ان کے ہاتھوں میں لگا وہ لے جا رہے تھے۔ان کا کہنا تھا کہ اس علاقے میں بجلی کے تار؛ ٹرانسفرمر اور کھمبوں کو بھی اُکھاڑ دیا گیا اور گاڑیوں میں ڈال کر لے گئے۔
کوئی اینٹیں اٹھارہا تھا، کوئی لوہے کے سامان کو گاڑیوں میں ڈال رہا تھا۔حتیٰ کہ جو بھی سامان ان کے ہاتھ لگ رہا تھا وہ لے جا رہے تھے۔ اس علاقے میں بجلی کے تار؛ ٹرانسفرمر اور کھمبوں کو بھی اُکھاڑ دیا گیا اور گاڑیوں میں ڈال کر لے گئے
ایک شہری
حکام کے مطابق متاثرہ علاقے میں ٹینک اور سینکڑوں کی تعداد میں سکیورٹی فورسز کے اہلکار کے پہنچ گئے ہیں اور لوٹ مار کرنے والے لوگ واپس چلے گئے ہیں۔وانا بازار غیر اعلانیہ طوربند ہوگیا ہے۔ لوگ گھروں میں محصور ہو کر رہ گئے ہیں۔
مقامی لوگوں کا کہنا ہے کہ سکیورٹی فورسز نے گاڑی میں لاؤڈ سپیکر لگایا ہے وہ بار بار یہ اعلان کرہے ہیں کہ جنگ کا کوئی خطرہ نہیں ہے، لوگ گھروں کے اندر رہیں، کوئی بھی باہر آنے کی کوشش نہ کرے۔
وانا بازار کے ایک ہسپتال میں موجود ایک شخص نے بی بی سی کو بتایا کہ بازار مکمل طورپر بند ہوگیا ہے سکاؤٹس فورس کے سینکڑوں اہلکاروں نے اونچی اونچی عمارتوں پر پوزیشنیں سنبھال لی ہیں۔ان کا کہنا تھا کہ کسی کو باہر جانے کی اجازت نہیں ہے اور وانا بازار سے ملنے والے تمام راستوں کو بھی بند کیا ہے۔
اس سے پہلے حملہ آوروں نے ریڈیو سٹشن پر حملے کے بعد قریب ہی نو تعمیر شدہ لیویز کی چیک پوسٹ کو بھی دھماکے سے تباہ کر دیا۔
یہ وانا ریڈیو سٹیشن پر اپنی نوعیت کا تیسرا حملہ ہے۔ اس سے قبل سن دو ہزار چار میں اس ریڈیو سٹیش کے قائم ہونے کے چند ہی روز بعد نامعلوم مسلح افراد نے اسی طرح بم نصب کرکے اس کی نشریات بند کر دی تھیں۔
دوسری مرتبہ بیس مارچ سن دو ہزار چھ میں بھی نامعلوم افراد نے سٹیشن کے انٹینا کو بم سے اڑا دیا تھا جس کی وجہ سے کئی ہفتوں تک اس کی نشریات معطل رہی تھیں۔
وانا میں مقامی انتظامیہ کا کہنا کہ گزشتہ رات دو بجے کے قریب نامعلوم مسلح افراد نے وانا سرکاری ریڈیو سٹیشن کو اپنے گھیرے میں لے لیا اور عمارت کے دروازوں کو توڑ کر سٹیشن کے تمام آلات کو گاڑیوں میں ڈال کر اپنے ساتھ لے گئے۔
انتظامیہ کے ایک اہلکار نے بی بی سی کو بتایا کہ عمارت کو الات سے خالی کرنے بعد نامعلوم افراد نے عمارت میں بارود سے دھماکے کیے جس سے عمارت کے دو کمرے مکمل طور پر تباہ ہوگئے۔
وانا ریڈیو سٹیشن کی تباہ شدہ عمارت کا ملبہ
انہوں نے کہا کہ ریڈیو سٹیشن کے قریب ہی لیویز کی ایک چوکی کو بھی دھماکے سے مکمل طور پر تباہ کردیا گیا۔ اہلکار کا کہنا تھا کہ لیویز کی چوکی کچھ عرصہ پہلے ہی مکمل ہوئی تھی جس میں ابھی تک لیویز اہلکاروں کو تعینات نہیں کیا گیا تھا۔ دھماکے کے وقت چوکی خالی پڑی تھی۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ ریڈیو سٹیشن کی عمارت میں خاصہ دار فورس کے اہلکار موجود تھے لیکن ان کو نامعلوم افراد نے کچھ نہیں کہا اور ان کو دھماکے سے پہلے عمارت سے نکال دیا۔
ریڈیو پاکستان وانا سٹیشن سے روزانہ ساڑھے چھ گھنٹے کی نشریات ہوتی ہیں جو تمام کی تمام مقامی وزیرستانی لہجے والی پشتو میں ہوتی تھیں۔
اس کے ذریعے اسلامی پروگراموں کے علاوہ سپورٹس اور علاقے میں حکومت کے ترقیاتی کاموں کے حوالے سے پروگرام نشر ہوتے تھے۔ دو سال پہلے خبریں اور موسیقی بھی سنائی جاتی تھی۔ لیکن مقامی طالبان کی طرف سے دھمکی ملنے کے بعد خبریں اور موسیقی کے پروگراموں کو بند کرنا پڑا تھا۔
2 comments:
Listen to Mr Hoti!
Speaking at the National School of Public Policy in Peshawar on Thursday, Chief Minister NWFP Mr Ameer Haider Hoti said that the “NWFP is at war, and governance of the province is becoming difficult”. He pleaded lack of money in this very unequal war against the Taliban whose chief in South Waziristan has more funds at his disposal and pays his warriors more than Mr Hoti does his khasadars. Although the province has perennially quarrelled over royalties for its resources, Mr Hoti hopes to get the attention of Islamabad when he points to his plans to strengthen the police force, which is facing lack of infrastructure, modern training and equipment.
Those who say “it’s not our war” and advise pursuit of honour on an empty stomach should listen to a chief minister who might resign one of these days and plunge the country into yet another crisis. The people who had voted strongly for his party, the ANP, are “fighting a war for the survival and existence of the whole country”, and if they are not helped in time we might as well say goodbye to the Pakistan of our dreams and accept to live in hell. Mr Hoti said, “FATA-like conditions are slowly developing in other parts of the country after starting in the settled districts of the province. There is a need for the other three provinces, in collaboration with the federal government, to help us because ignoring these conditions today could cause severe problems tomorrow”.
Mr Hoti admits that his settled districts like Hangu and Dera Ismail Khan have fallen to the terrorists, and Peshawar can be taken any day if Baitullah Mehsud so wishes, because the people can’t take the pain any more of waiting for the state to appear on the horizon and succour them.
Consider this. The Bab-e Pakistan, the anti-India monument of hate coming up in Lahore, has soaked up Rs 2.5 billion so far. But Mr Hoti has no money to give to all the people who have suffered casualties and lost their homes under the murderous juggernaut of the Taliban. His warnings should be heeded: what he can’t stop in his province is soon coming to Lahore and Karachi.
Mullahs and Innovative Ménage à trois. I wonder where are the Floggers [Is Imran Khan Listening???]. Imran should grow beard because he is keeping a company which could be very dangerous even for a Handsome Men what to talk of Ms. Shireen M Mazari of Tehreek-e-Insaaf [she should quit trimming her hair immediately because Swat is only 100 KM away from Islamabad and be ready for flogging].
Maulana Samiul Haq aka Sammy the Sandwich [Maulana Samiul Haq earned the nickname “Sandwich Sammy” after being photographed (presumably by Pakistani intelligence officers) in an inventive position with several bedmates - Jamiat-e-Ulma Islam [S] and he was in MMA and alliance of Mullahs and Religious Parties concocted by US Backed Military Dictator General Musharraf in 2002 to support his Illegal Activities.
General's Election By TIM MCGIRK / KHANA-KHEL Monday, Oct. 07, 2002
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501021014-361788,00.html
You'd think there'd be plenty of campaign issues to discuss in Pakistan these days especially in a general election that is supposed to restore democracy after three years of one-man rule. But at a rally not far from the Afghan border, in a village at the bottom of a ravine where there are more goats than party faithful, there is only one issue that counts: America the Awful. A speaker rises from beneath a broad tree and shouts, "Americans are killing our Muslim brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. And soon, they will come to Pakistan!"
The voice bellows not from some bearded firebrand but from Sumbal, a five-year-old girl in a bubble-gum-pink smock. After her speech, delivered with a child's pure-spun rage, Sumbal encounters TIME's correspondent, an American citizen. Trembling, she hides behind her teacher's legs and tries to bury her face in the baggy folds of his salwar kameez. This is her worst nightmare: after memorizing her diatribe against blood-thirsty Americans, one of them has come stalking up the ravines after her.
President Pervez Musharraf is holding polls on Oct. 10 to fulfill his promise to return Pakistan to the democratic path. But it is a brand of democracy that suits the General better than anyone else. He rewrote election rules to disqualify former Prime Ministers Mohammed Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, and threatened to toss them in jail if they returned from abroad, which badly undermined both Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League and Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP). And once the polls are over, the elected government will work under a constitution amended by Musharraf, which gives expanded powers both to him and a new military-heavy National Security Council. Musharraf insists he is merely trying to prevent corruption and bad governance; critics say he has no intention of letting elected civilians run Pakistan. Faced with such criticism, Musharraf appears eager to divert public attention away from the election�hence, last Friday, Pakistan test-fired a nuclear-capable missile, and India performed a parallel missile test hours afterwards.
The President must have known his tinkering would take some of the oomph out of an election campaign, which in Pakistan is usually as thunderous, and joyfully welcomed, as the yearly monsoon. But Musharraf prefers it dull, and that is how it is: the Pakistan Muslim League and the PPP combined normally get more than 50% of the popular vote, but now their camps are apathetic, producing one of the dullest campaigns in memory. What Musharraf did not expect was the force that has filled the vacuum: an alliance of six hard-line religious parties that calls itself the Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). The MMA is volubly anti- American, as Sumbal, the five-year-old anti-Yankee rabble-rouser, demonstrates. More worrisome for Musharraf: it has also become a focus for popular discontent against him for his actions since Sept. 11, especially his crackdown on insurgents going to fight jihad in Kashmir, and what is perceived to be his pro-America pandering.
In the past, Pakistani religious parties seldom grabbed more than five percent of the vote. The country's intelligentsia likes to claim this is because, once all the hollering dies down and ballots are cast, Pakistanis are moderate, secular folk. In fact, most Pakistanis are poor, unschooled people who traditionally vote as their feudal squires command or suffer their wrath. With the two big parties in retreat, the hard-line religious coalition is leading a whole lot of voters to the booths. Polls indicate that the MMA could win 30 to 50 of the 270 National Assembly seats. (Another 70 seats are reserved for women and minorities, a Musharraf innovation.) That is nowhere near a majority. But in a splintered Parliament, it could be enough to give the clerics a few berths in a future coalition government. From there, the clerics could snipe and demand radical Islamic changes in schools and social programs.
Hatred is a powerful motivator. Until the clerics made common cause against America, the six hard-line party leaders were rivals. They stormed each other's mosques and split hairs over ideological disputes dating back to Islam's early days. Their differences were stark: some worship at the tombs of local Sufi saints; others dismiss that practice as blasphemy. Most of the parties want their women veiled from head to toe, although more liberal groups argue that it ought to be the woman's choice. The personalities of the parties' leaders have also clashed. Qazi Hussain Ahmed from the Jamaat-e-Islami is a cultured, well-traveled cleric who speaks with the measured finality of a judge passing a grim sentence. Several of his new brethren, in contrast, are unquestionably flamboyant. Maulana Fazlur Rehman wears robes of golden thread and was dubbed "Maulana Diesel" after allegations were made�though never proven that he was involved in a fuel scam. Maulana Samiul Haq earned the nickname "Sandwich Sammy" after being photographed (presumably by Pakistani intelligence officers) in an inventive position with several bedmates. "We have our differences, some of them centuries-old," concedes Ahmed, "But we have enough in common."
The MMA's stronghold lies in the tribal band along the Afghan border. Its Baluch and Pashtun supporters are ethnically and ideologically tied to the former Taliban rulers in Afghanistan, thus their anti-Americanism. The region is where Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officers believe many al-Qaeda fighters, possibly even Osama bin Laden, may be holed up. Guns are in plentiful supply. Basha Kamal from Khana-Khel village, in the hills behind the turquoise Indus River, slaps his hip and says: "Of course I carry an automatic pistol. That doesn't mean I'm a terrorist." He adds, "But I refuse to bow to the Americans. This is our land."
The clerics have a long litany of gripes against the Americans and Musharraf, whom they dismiss as "an American agent" and "a puppet." They resent him for allowing the U.S. to use Pakistani military bases in Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier province as staging posts in its Afghan campaign. It angers them that agents of the fbi wiretap Pakistani telephones and organize raids on suspected al-Qaeda hideouts. The Islamic hard-liners even fret that cameras at the Karachi airport are feeding images into CIA computers. What riles them most is that Musharraf has buckled to U.S. pressure and scaled down Pakistan's covert support of Muslim militants fighting in Indian-held Kashmir. "This is against our sovereignty," says the MMA's Ahmed.
Musharraf has plainly given the religious groups more free rein in the campaign than he has allowed the two big parties that were his main rivals. In Jhang city, in Punjab province, Maulana Azam Tariq, leader of an outlawed extremist group called Sipah-e-Sahaba, which has been linked to numerous sectarian killings, is being allowed to run as an independent despite election laws that disqualify any candidate who has criminal charges pending, or even those who did not earn a college degree. "It makes no sense that Benazir can't run in the election," says one Islamabad-based diplomat, "and this nasty guy can." Musharraf may have underestimated the power of nastiness, the depth of the Islamic conservatives' popular support, and the intensity of their hostility towards him. That anger also extends to his American allies, especially where it counts the most: in al-Qaeda country.
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