Understanding the nature of Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan - By Ayesha Siddiqa

The nature of the beast

By Ayesha Siddiqa
Friday, 30 Oct, 2009 - Dawn

Soldiers keep guard on top of Kund mountain near Kotkai village. The state has buried its head in the sand by arguing that while there is a problem in Waziristan, there is hardly anything to worry about in Punjab. –Photo by Reuters/Faisal Mahmood

The series of recent terrorist attacks call for a close analysis of the militant threat and the formulation of a strategy to ward off such tragedies. At the moment, we seem to be jumping from one target to another, fighting some enemies and denying the existence of others. Hence the plan lacks strategic depth as the state appears to pursue one type of enemy leaving out others.

It will help to explain that the state of Pakistan is confronted with three enemies that are closely intertwined. Firstly, there is Al Qaeda, which comprises Arabs, Uzbeks and a select group of Pakistanis. Then there is the Taliban who consist of different branches including the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan. The latter are ideologically connected to the group known as the Pakistani Taliban who, although they consider Mullah Omar their ameer-ul-momineen, are engaged in fighting a battle inside Pakistan to capture the state.

This is considered essential to establish a system that could then be taken to the rest of the world. A glance through Farzana Sheikh’s recent book Making Sense of Pakistan demonstrates that some modern Muslim thinkers such as Abul Ala Maududi and Allama Iqbal also considered the state as a forum. However, this is not to suggest that these two thinkers advocated using violence in the same way as the Taliban.

Then there are the Punjab-based Salafi-jihadi groups wrongly termed as the Punjabi Taliban. Actually, Taliban is a term that has a certain historical context and can only be used in the case of the Afghan Taliban. Nevertheless, the Punjabi jihadis are ideologically-driven and keen to take on the state.

The various Punjab-based groups or those connected with Punjab assist others in Waziristan and Swat. They even use the tribal areas as a hideout. For example ‘Commander’ Ilyas Kashmiri, who heads the 313 Brigade of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-ul-Islami (Huji), took refuge in Waziristan in 2005 after he developed problems with Pakistan’s military. Then there is the Amjad Farooqi group, which was also involved in the assassination attempt on Pervez Musharraf.

The above description is meant to demonstrate that since the enemy is diverse, it cannot just be seen through the single lens of the Taliban. Unfortunately, the state has buried its head in the sand by arguing that while there is a problem in Waziristan, there is hardly anything to worry about in Punjab. The Punjab government in particular seems to deny the fact that there are Punjabis involved in religious militancy. The Punjabi jihadis, in fact, are crucial because they mingle easily with the crowd in places where the attack is to be carried out.

The attackers must reconnoitre the target in advance before chalking out a plan. An outsider can be spotted easily. Thus the dependence on Punjab-based militants to carry out attacks in the capital or Lahore. Recently, it was claimed that the mastermind of the Marriott bombing and the GHQ attack was caught from Bahawalpur.

Reading such reports one wonders why the Punjab government is going on the defensive, withholding information about the presence of militants in Punjab, especially southern Punjab. Naming southern Punjab as a possible place for jihadi recruitment does not mean that youth from other places such as Faisalabad, Gujranwala or Lahore are not involved. However, the concentration of religious militants is in this region.

This fact is logical because of the link between three major militant outfits in southern Punjab. One could argue that the government might not want people to concentrate on this region because of the presence of outfits which do not fight the state, such as Jaish-i-Mohammad or Lashkar-i-Taiba, and that the problem is only with the breakaway factions, as ISPR spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas recently argued. But the fact is that no one can control individuals or groups breaking away from the mother organisation and linking up with the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

It is amazing the extent to which the government can go to withhold information about the seemingly ‘friendly’ groups. For instance, recently during a television programme Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah went out of his way to suggest that the Jaish-controlled madressah, which is also the outfit’s headquarters, is not a no-go area. He even tried to make a lame excuse when informed that a team from a local channel was attacked when they tried to take shots of the area from the outside.

More interestingly, the minister immediately accused me of using a western lens to look at the situation, an accusation also made by Jaish-i-Mohammad in its weekly magazine Al Qalam. The article was written with the specific purpose to incite people against me. The writer had twisted words and facts from one of my previous articles and presented them in a way that made me appear as an enemy. This was immediately brought to the knowledge of the interior ministry, which promised to provide help. Intriguingly, it took the Bahawalpur DPO more than three hours to make the first contact. The lapse might have been at either end but considering that I could survive for three hours I declined their help.

In any case, one does not expect sympathy from a district administration that has lately been going out of its way to hide the activities of an outfit. The game is that you are not allowed an opportunity to prove anything because the evidence suddenly disappears once you raise a hue and cry.

The Punjab government’s attitude reflects political expediency. A lot of big traders in southern Punjab and other parts of the province who are constituents of the different factions of the Muslim League are believed to finance the outfits both directly and indirectly. This is not to suggest that other political parties are any better.

However, the bottom line is that while as an individual one feels unprotected by the state, it is sad to think that the authorities believe they can deal with religious militancy on a piecemeal basis. A holistic strategy is necessary, not to protect western interests but to safeguard the state and its citizens.

The writer is an independent strategic and political analyst. ayesha.ibd@gmail.com

And the obvious corollary: how can we expect to win this war if we aren’t fighting all the pieces in the militancy jigsaw? Have a look at the names and domiciles of the militants blamed for the current wave of violence in the country. At least half, if not a majority, of them are Punjabi, not tribal.

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SOS: Who will save the anti-Taliban Salarzai tribes from the wrath of the ISI and the Taliban?

The Mullah-Military Alliance seems to be very much alive and thriving in Pakistan.

The Taliban and Salarzais

Sunday, September 27, 2009 (The News) Farhat Taj I was in Pakistan in August and had the opportunity to meet the leaders of the anti-Taliban lashkar (volunteer army) of Bajaur’s Salarzai tribe. I am honoured that upon my request they travelled from Bajaur to meet me in Nowshehra and shared with me information about their anti-Taliban struggle. I am not mentioning their names for reasons of their security. The area of the Salarzai tribe is on the border with Afghanistan. The tribe have collectively decided that there won’t be any Taliban on their soil. The Taliban have been driven out of the Salarzai area. The Salarzai lashkar, mostly made up of labourers and peasants, has successfully kept the Salazai area free of the Taliban. Tens of Salarzail lashkar leaders have been target-killed. The Salarzai leaders informed me they hold the ISI responsible for the targeted killings. “The Taliban are just a façade. The real force is the ISI punishing us for our anti-Taliban struggle,” said one of the leaders. The leaders said that Mamond Taliban headquarters used to be in Damadola, which is a few kilometres from the FC fort in Bajaur. The Mamond Taliban used to bomb Salarzai villages. The Salarzai tribal elders requested the Political Agent, the authorities of the FC and the Pakistani army to stop the Mamond Taliban. None of these offered any help. Finally the Salarzai lashkar took positions on the mountains and for two hours heavily bombarded the surrounding villages of the Mamond Taliban. At that point the political agent and a colonel of the army asked the Salarzai lashkar to stop the bombing. They gave the same old logic: who will fight the NATO forces from across the Afghan border if you eliminate the Taliban? Following such encounters with the state authorities, the Salarzais decided to fire at any forces entering their area: be it the Taliban, Al Qaida, the army or the US or NATO. The Salarzais have taken up positions all over the area and are always on guard. The tribesmen take turns to defend those positions. Unlike the bombed out schools in the Taliban-controlled areas, all schools in the Salarzai region are functioning. The tribesmen are performing security duties in both girls’ and boys’ schools in the area. The leaders informed me that there is a set pattern of target-killing of anti-Taliban Salarzai leader. Before each targeted killing all telephone links with the far-flung Salarzai area are cut off. The targeted killing takes place in 24 to 48 hours later. The telephone links are restored a couple of days after the assassinated leader has been buried. A day or so later a news item of a few lines appears in the newspapers about the killing. “No one in Pakistan seems to be bothered about the state-sponsored targeted killing of anti-Taliban Salarzai leaders. Our area is too far from the rest of Pakistan and our agony means nothing to fellow-Pakistanis. The Pakistani media never ever tries to probe into the targeted killings,” said one of the Salarzai leaders. All telephone lines to the Salarzia area were dead the day I was meeting with the leaders. They said they were deeply worried whose turn it might be to be targeted for killing. Two days later the telephone links were restored. The same day they informed me on telephone that Malik Munasib Khan, the spokesman of the Salarzai lashkar, had been killed. They held the ISI responsible for his killing. The Salarzai leaders also informed me that last year the army deliberately fired at those villages in Bajaur that were known to be staunchly anti-Taliban. They said one of their colleagues called Maj Gen Alam Khattak to ask him to stop the bombing of his village. “Major General Sahib! I will start a vendetta with you if you did not halt the bombing of my village immediately. I will make sure to kill you and your family at the first available opportunity,” they quoted one of their colleagues as saying. The major general asked him to meet Col Sajjad who was bombing the anti-Taliban villages from his base in Timergara. That colleague saw a big Bajaur map affixed on the wall in the office of Col Sajjad. The map had several encircled villages. Col Sajjad informed him that the map had been handed over to him by his commanders with the order to bomb all the encircled villages. “Our colleague’s blood boiled with anger: none of the villages had Taliban in them,” said the Salarzai leaders. The villages included Butmali, Danqul, Attkay, Matasha, Baro, Raghjan and Nazkai. On the other hand, those Salarzai villages that had Taliban were not marked on the map or bombed by the army. Such villages are Pashat, Banda, Malasyed, Darra and Gundai. Now the Salarzai lashkar has cleared these villages from Taliban control, without any state support. The leaders also made the accusation that the Salarzais are discriminated against by the state in allocation of developmental funds due to their hostility to the Taliban. The FATA Rural Development Project (FRDP) is working in Bajaur Agency but entire Salarzai area of the agency has been deliberately excluded by from the project. “A wilful under-development has been imposed on us as punishment for our anti-Taliban stance. The Salazai area would be included in FRDP if we allowed the Taliban to take control of our area. Without this, we Salarzais can beg as much as we can for development, but the state will never budge,” said the Salarzai tribal leaders. The reason I write this piece is not to defame the institution of the Pakistani army, which I hold in high esteem. I just wish to request the President of Pakistan, the Chief of Army Staff and the DG of the ISI to pay attention to the complaints of the Salarzais and resolve their problems to the satisfaction of the tribe. The Salarzai leaders categorically told me they are loyal Pakistanis, but they are not ready to let the peace of their area be destroyed for the power games of the intelligence agencies. All they want from the state is peaceful and development. I would request fellow-Pakistanis all over the country to support the Salarzais. I wonder why the civil society of Pakistan is so silent over the heroic anti-Taliban struggle of the Salarzais. Salarzais are the natural allies of all those who are against the Taliban and civil society should forcefully support them. I would request the Pakistani media to keep a close watch on the Salarzai area to discourage targeted killings there. The Taliban are anti-civilisation. The Salarzais are the embodiment of civilisation because they are so oppose to the Taliban. I would request all civilised people in the world to morally support the Salarzais in the name of human civilisation. The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo, and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. Email: bergen34@yahoo.com ..... Tailpiece: The Quetta Shura: Pakistan's ISI continues to harbour and support the Taliban. The New York Times Report. Quetta shura top issue in US talks with Pakistan * American officials blame shura for recent violence in Afghanistan * Say they believe Taliban still get support from parts of ISI Daily Times Monitor LAHORE: The so-called Quetta shura issue is now at the top of the US’ agenda in its meetings with Pakistani officials, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Citing senior American officials, the paper said Taliban leaders were using sanctuaries in Pakistan to stoke a widening campaign in Afghanistan. The expansion comes as the US government struggles to settle on a new military strategy for Kabul. American military and intelligence officials told the paper the Quetta shura was directly responsible for the recent wave of violence in northern and western Afghanistan. The assessment echoes a recent report by Gen Stanley McChrystal portraying the Taliban as an increasingly sophisticated shadow government that sees itself on the cusp of victory. The report said Mullah Omar has appointed shadow governors in most provinces, levies taxes, establishes courts there and conducts a formal review of the military campaign every winter. Support: American officials said they believed the Taliban leadership still gets support from parts of the Inter-Services Intelligence as some of its officials see Mullah Omar as a valuable asset. The paper pointed out that the more the US government wrestles publicly with how substantial and lasting a military commitment to make to Afghanistan, the more the ISI is likely to retain and strengthen its bonds with the Taliban as Pakistan hedges its bets. American officials have long complained that Taliban leaders operating from Quetta provide money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to the Taliban in the south of Afghanistan, where most of the American forces were deployed. Recently, however, the Taliban have surprised American commanders by stepping up attacks against allied troops elsewhere in the country. A senior Pakistani official said the US had asked Pakistan to round up 10 Taliban leaders in Quetta. Of those, six had been killed or captured by Pakistan, two are believed to be in Afghanistan and two have presented no threat. In his message on Eid, Mullah Omar taunted his American adversaries for ignoring the lessons of past military failures in Afghanistan, and claimed that the Taliban had emerged as a nationalist movement that “is approaching the edge of victory”. “The Quetta shura – you can’t knock on their clubhouse door,” a Western diplomat said. “It’s much more of an amorphous group that as best we can tell moves around. They go to Karachi, they go to Quetta, they go across the border.” (Daily Times)

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After India, Afghanistan, & Iran it's now China which wants Pakistan to take action against militants !!! Isn't it time to wake up ???

China Leans on Pakistan to Deal With Militants

Washington is not the only ally calling on Islamabad to take action against militants based in its tribal areas along the Afghan border. Now, according to a prominent Pakistani politician, Beijing is calling on the Pakistani government to deal with militants based there and allegedly plotting attacks in China later this year.

In two separate meetings in the past two months, senior Chinese officials have warned President Asif Ali Zardari that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a group with roots in Xinjiang province, has established its "military headquarters" in Pakistani territory. Xinjiang is China's largest province and the homeland of a large Muslim minority, the Uighur. Uighur separatists allegedly attacked Chinese transportation in the period leading up to the Beijing Olympics.

The details of the meetings were revealed by Chinese officials to Mushahid Hussain, a close ally of former President General Pervez Musharraf and the most visible supporter of Islamabad's alliance with Beijing, during recent meetings in central Asia. "They told me that the ETIM has its military headquarters in [Pakistan's tribal areas] and is planning to attack China on the 60th anniversary celebration of the communist revolution," says Hussain. The ETIM has been designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and China.

The issue was first raised during Zardari's recent visit to China in February. The President was making his second trip in four months to what is considered Pakistan's principal ally in the region. He was visiting Hubei and Shanghai to observe China's progress in agriculture, hydroelectric power and the financial sector. There had been no plan to meet with the Chinese leadership. But according to Hussain, Meng Jianzhu, the Chinese Minister for Public Security flew from Beijing to discuss the ETIM threat. "The minister met with him for 90 minutes," says Hussain. Before leaving Shanghai, Zardari praised his country's alliance with China and told reporters: "We are not threatened by nations, but by non-state actors."

In March, Beijing followed up by dispatching a "special envoy" to Islamabad with the sole brief of discussing ETIM, according to Hussain. A spokesperson for Zardari denied knowledge of the meetings. "We know that China is extremely concerned about terrorism in the region, but we are unaware of any such meeting having taken place," the spokesman said.

The ETIM and other Chinese separatist militants have maintained a long but murky presence in Pakistan's tribal areas for a number of years. In 2003, Hasan Mahsoum, the group's founder, was killed by the Pakistan army. The Chinese government has claimed in the past that Mahsoum established links with Osama bin Laden as early as 1999. In 2005, the State Department described the group as being "linked to al-Qaeda and the international jihadist movement", and had been provided with "training and financial assistance" from al-Qaeda.

"The security threat from these groups is one of the top priorities for the Chinese government," says Yiyu Lu, a China expert at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs. "China has accused the ETIM of being a terrorist organization. It has asked the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to help it fight separatism and fundamentalism. There is a history of militants from Xinjiang going abroad, some were picked up in Afghanistan, others went to central Asia and Pakistan." Several ethnic Uighurs were held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba; many have since been released or relocated.

Source: TIME

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1890205,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom

Source: Daily Express: 11th April, 09

China asked Zardari to act against ETIM?

Daily Times MonitorLONDON: China has called on Islamabad to take action against the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which it says may be plotting attacks into China from the Tribal Areas.

In two meetings over recent months, senior Chinese officials have warned the Pakistani government about the threat. Chinese officials revealed details of the meetings to Mushahid Hussain, a former minister, during a visit to Central Asia. “They told me that the ETIM has its military headquarters in [the Tribal Areas] and is planning to attack China on the 60th anniversary celebration of the communist revolution in October,” said Mushahid. He said in February Meng Jianzhu, China’s minister for public security, flew from Beijing to Shanghai to discuss the threat with Zardari during his visit to China. “The minister met with him for 90 minutes to discuss this issue.” In March, said Mushahid, Beijing dispatched a special envoy to Islamabad to discuss the alleged threat posed by the ETIM.

Source: Daily Times--- 9th April, 09

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Pakistan cannot restore peace in Swat and FATA unless it hits the current leadership of (Pakistani) Taliban -

Muhammad Amir Khakwani, Express.
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Taliban torch 10 NATO supply trucks: ISI laughs...

Taliban torch 10 NATO supply trucks

* Alternate route opened in Khyber
* Security camp attacked in Landikotal

By Sajid Ali and Sudhir Ahmad Afridi

JAMRUD/LANDIKOTAL: Army engineers on Wednesday built a temporary alternate route for traffic, including NATO trucks bound for Afghanistan – a day after the Taliban blew up a key bridge in Khyber Agency – as suspected Taliban torched 10 containers they thought were loaded with NATO supplies near Landikotal.

According to an ISPR statement, the army engineers also continued repairing the bridge destroyed by the Taliban in Khyber Agency’s Ali Masjid area.

The collapse of the British-era steel bridge had disrupted the supply of goods via the Peshawar-Torkham route to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The political administration said the bridge would be repaired by Thursday (today) afternoon.

Meanwhile in Landikotal, suspected Taliban doused with petrol 10 containers they thought were carrying NATO supplies, and set them on fire. With most of the containers reportedly empty and only two loaded – four were completely gutted and the remaining were partially damaged.

Camp attacked: The containers were torched as a security camp and bunkers in the mountains nearby came under attack. No casualty has been reported. According to an intelligence official, more than ten rockets, missiles and mortars were fired at the camp and outside the cantonment. AFP, however, reported that 15 rockets had been fired at the camp.

For the next few hours after the attack, the security forces hit the mountains with shells. (Daily Times)
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Replicating the Al Anbar model in FATA, Pakistan? Some suggestions...

Replicating the Al Anbar model in FATA?

Saturday, January 31, 2009 Farhat Taj Al Anbar is a region in Iraq that was devastated by Al Qaeda inflicted violence. Several Sunni tribes of the region formed an alliance, supported by the US, and took up arms against the terrorists. The tribes successfully controlled Al Qaeda terrorism and stabilized the region. In media it was called 'Al Anbar Awkening'. All over the world think tanks studying the situation in FATA debate and discuss whether an Al Anbar style awakening is possible in FATA? Can FATA tribes take up arms against the Taliban and Al Qaeda? In my opinion there is tremendous potential for an Al Anbar style awakening in FATA. But there is one huge obstacle: the mistrust of the tribes in the military leadership, especially the intelligence agencies. The Taliban and Al Qaeda have been target killing tribal leaders and so far the military has failed to protect the latter. So far no one has even been officially accused or arrested of the target killing of more than 200 tribal leaders. The target killing of the tribal leaders started in South Waziristan almost at the same time when the US was bombing Taliban and Al Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan in 2001 and the militants ran towards Waziristan. They were not welcomed by the tribal leaders. In order to have a strong foothold in Waziristan, the militants killed more than 120 tribal leaders. Clearly the then government of General Pervez Musharraf was playing a double game. On one hand it joined the US led war on terror, on the other hand it allowed the militants to kill the tribal leaders and replace the tribal order with the Taliban order. Next the killing spree was taken to other tribal areas including Khyber, Orakzai and Bajaur agencies. There is a strong perception among many Pakhtun that this killing was carried out with tacit consent of the intelligence agencies of Pakistan to create full leadership space for Taliban in the Pakhtun tribal society. This is the key obstacle that is preventing the remaining tribal leaders and young people in FATA from taking up arms against the Taliban and Al Qaida. Despite this there is still a strong potential in FATA tribal leaders and young people to challenge the terrorists. I conclude this from the surveys conducted by AIRRA, an independent think tank working on human security, regional cooperation and radicalization, previous events in the area and my personal discussions with young men and women of FATA: They pointed out that in tehsil Pranghar of Momand Agency, the people rose against the Taliban as soon as the Taliban first assaulted Momand Agency. Consequesntly, Tangi in district Charsadda is safe because of this event. Since 2004, we find sporadic uprisings against the Taliban but due to the inability of the Pakistani security forces, the leaders of Qaumi Lashkars (national laskars) were mostly target killed by the Taliban. If the elders and the youth of the Pakhtun belt are taken into confidence and assured that an anti-Taliban tribal army will not be marked for target killing, the uprising can succeed. But for that to happen Pakistan army and the government of Pakistan have to take some confidence building measures to restore the faith of the tribes. I had discussions with some tribal men and women during my recent visit to Pakistan. They suggested the following as confidence building measures. One, some, if not all Taliban leaders must be target killed by Pakistan army. Two, all security forces must be issued a kill at sight order against the first and second layers of all Taliban and Al Qaida groups in Pakistan. Three, the government should announce head-money for killing or capturing any top, second or third level leaders of the Taliban. They also said that the Pakistan army must closely coordinate with the tribal armies made against the militants. They pointed out that the tribal armies had been fighting for days and Pakistan army, stationed near by never showed up to help the armies besieged by the Taliban till the armies were massacred by the Taliban, armed with much more sophisticated weapons than the tribesmen. They said the tribal leaders must stay in some kind of hot line communication with the top leadership of Pakistan army and government and in case of any Taliban attack, Pakistan army must send air borne commandos to help the tribal armies. They also said if necessary Pakistan air force must carpet bomb the Taliban and they are not averse to the ISI buying some suicide bombers in some kind of intelligence cover and sending them to bomb the Taliban leaders in meetings, just like they bombed the tribal jirgas in FATA. I would request the government of Pakistan and the leadership of Pakistan army to engage in discussions with the tribal leaders to work out details to form tribal armies, to take on the Taliban. I would request fellow citizens all across Pakistan to morally support such tribal armies and build up pressure on Pakistan army to stand by the tribal armies until the Taliban are controlled and writ of the government restored. I would also request the international community to keep financial plans ready for prompt reconstruction and development of FATA after the elimination of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. (The News) The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo, and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. Email: bergen34@yahoo.com

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For a sample of the success of the Iraq Operation, read this op-ed on BBC Urdu dot com published 30 January 2009.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/regional/story/2009/01/090131_iraq_provincial_elections.shtml

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English version:


Iraqi PM hails vote as 'victory'

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has hailed a largely peaceful vote for new provincial councils across the country as a victory for all Iraqis.

Voting was extended by one hour due to a strong turnout, including among Sunni Muslims who boycotted the last polls.

The first nationwide vote in four years is being seen as a test of Iraq's stability ahead of a general election due later this year.

Thousands of soldiers and police were deployed around polling stations.

The election is also being seen as a quasi-referendum on the leadership of Mr Maliki.

"This is a victory for all the Iraqis," he said, after casting his vote in Baghdad's highly-protected Green Zone.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7862177.stm
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President Obama 'orders Pakistan drone attacks'; also, why are drone attacks important?

(US Air Force/EPA) A Predator drone

Tim Reid in Washington (Times Online, 23 January 2009)

Missiles fired from suspected US drones killed at least 15 people inside Pakistan today, the first such strikes since Barack Obama became president and a clear sign that the controversial military policy begun by George W Bush has not changed.

Security officials said the strikes, which saw up to five missiles slam into houses in separate villages, killed seven "foreigners" - a term that usually means al-Qaeda - but locals also said that three children lost their lives.

Dozens of similar strikes since August on northwest Pakistan, a hotbed of Taleban and al-Qaeda militancy, have sparked angry government criticism of the US, which is targeting the area with missiles launched from unmanned CIA aircraft controlled from operation rooms inside the US.

The operations were stepped up last year after frustration inside the Bush administration over a perceived failure by Islamabad to stem the flow of Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters from the tribal regions into Afghanistan. Mr Obama has made Afghanistan his top foreign policy priority and said during his presidential campaign that he would consider military action inside Pakistan if the government there was unable or unwilling to take on the militants.

The strikes come just a day after Mr Obama appointed Richard Holbrooke, a former UN ambassador, as a special envoy for the region.

Eight people died when missiles hit a compound near Mir Ali, an al-Qaeda hub in Pakistan's North Waziristan region. Seven more died when hours later two missiles hit a house in Wana, in South Waziristan. Local officials said the target in Wana was a guest house owned by a pro-Taleban tribesman. One said that as well as three children, the tribesman's relatives were killed in the blast.

Pakistan has objected to such attacks, saying they are a violation of its territory that undermines its efforts to tackle militants. Since September, the US is estimated to have carried out about 30 such attacks, killing more than 220 people.

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Read report on BBC Urdu dot com

The report confirms that at least four killed are of Arab origin, most probably operatives of Al Qaeda and the Takfiri/Salfai branch of Islam (extremists).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2009/01/090123_waziristan_missile_attack.shtml

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A must read...

An analysis of drone / missile attacks on Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan's tribal areas. March-Nov 2008... Dawn, BBC, Daily Times Reports

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Mohmand operation and the need to close down extremist seminaries in the NWFP

Mohmand operation

Thursday, January 22, 2009 (The News)

At least 60 militants are said to have died within the last 24 hours in Mohmand Agency, as troops continue operations intended to regain control over the tribal territory. In stepped up action, jetfighters and gunship helicopters have pounded what are believed to be militant strongholds. As a result of the action, two civilians have been among those killed. Villages have also been hit and houses destroyed.

The target of the new blitz seems to have been a seminary run by alleged militants, where some key militants may have been present. Operations in Mohmand have been stepped up over the past few days. Other targets too have been hit in the same area. The military seems to have begun a new effort to regain control over the area in response to heightened militant action. We have seen similar efforts before.

The question to be asked is where all this is heading. The problem seems to be the lack of a consistent, well planned scheme of action against the extremists. Many seminaries for instance continue to run unhindered in NWFP. Some amongst them are known to be engaged in the recruitment and training of militants. A tiny handful may also be bringing in new suicide bombers to join the ranks of the teenagers who have blown themselves up for the sake of decimating others. There have been reports that some may have been hired out to those seeking to mask crime as acts of terror. If Pakistan's seven tribal agencies, all of which have been over-run by militants, are to be re-incorporated into the area of land under the control of the state of Pakistan, we need a more savvy strategy. While occasional operations involving the storming of specific areas take place every now and then, we also hear of stories of close ties between our agencies and the extremists. One account that has appeared in the US press speaks of seminary heads being warned to whisk away key figures ahead of an attack.

We need a uniform approach to the issue. There must be a united will to defeat the terrorists. This must be backed by a planned effort to shut down seminaries, backed by means to offer people alternative effort. Indeed, on a more general level development must be combined with gunfire in these areas, so that along with territory the state also regains the lost loyalties of its citizens.
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Bajaur's IDPs – stories of the silent victims of the Taliban brutalities....

Bajaur's IDPs – our wretched of the earth

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Farhat Taj I spend a whole day with the internally displaced people, IDPs, from Bajaur in a camp near Peshawar. I went from tent to tent to meet the traumatized families and to listen to their ordeals in their own words. Most of the time I interacted with women. Almost all IDPs have stories of horrors to tell. Some of the stories occurred to themselves, some to their relatives, friends or fellow villagers. Almost all women I met told me how their right to mobility was curbed by the Taliban. An elderly woman, a grandmother, said her daughter-in-law is widow and she used to accompany her children to a hospital in Peshawar, whenever they needed medical treatment. The Taliban threatened women with dire consequences if they came in the public unaccompanied by men. One of her grandchildren had asthma-related problems. His condition got serious. She could not rush him to Peshawar. She sent for men who were relatives, all of them worked outside Bajaur. It took a male relative two days to come and the child died before his arrival. She said she will never forget that the Taliban imposed restrictions on her mobility led to the death of the child. She said the child died in her hands and she could do nothing for him. Another elderly woman said she and her granddaughter were visiting a relative in another village when the Taliban threatened the drivers of the public transport against carrying unaccompanied females in their vehicles. One her way back, she said no public transport was willing to give her a seat in their vehicles. She had to walk all the distance to her home. The distance, her brother sitting near her said, was around 20 kilometres. A mother of four young girls said that she and her husband wish that all their daughters become doctors. She informed said that the Taliban had occupied the school of their daughters and banned girls' education. She said both she and her husband are very upset about the education of their daughters. Women in Bajaur observe purdah according to Pakhtun culture. Thus some wear burqa in public and some chaddar. Some women cover their faces with chaddar and some do not. A woman told me that Taliban ordered all women to wear burqa. A girl in her village refused to obey the order and continue to wear chaddar. The Taliban beheaded her to make an example for other women. Some women told me the Taliban used to capture their animals, goats and cows, grazing in the fields and on hills and slaughter them for their dinners. They said the Taliban never paid any compensation for the loss. Another woman said her teenage son was forced, along with other villagers, by the Taliban to watch the public beheading of a man. Her son, she said, has had nightmares since then. Also, a group of young men described to me in graphic details how the Taliban publicly beheaded a hifz-e-Quran in their village. They said the Taliban included foreigners: Afghan, Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and even Africans. Among the Pakistanis, were Punjabi Taliban and Pakhtun from various parts of FATA, including Bajaur. Many IDPs have one complaint against fellow citizens of Pakistan. They said the Taliban invaded and occupied Bajaur. They imposed a social order that was different from the Pakhtun social order that has always functioned in Bajaur. Anyone violating the Taliban order was publicly punished, sometimes in the most savage of ways, like being publicly beheaded. The Taliban terrorism was all over and everyone was suffering. But none of the fellow Pakistanis raised their voices against the Taliban occupation of Bajaur. No one reached out to them with help or even promise of help. "Perhaps they (people of Pakistan) do not consider us fellow citizens of equal worth. Even the Pakistan army did not come to challenge the occupation," said many IDPs. Finally the army did come, but not to release us from the occupation of the Taliban but because the Americans ordered it to do so – because the Taliban from Bajaur were attacking US forces in Afghanistan and retreating back into Bajaur after the cross-border forays. The Taliban put forward a much more tough resistance than the army expected. The army used massive aerial bombardment to break the resistance of the Taliban, the IDPs said. And it was this indiscriminate firing that many said made the people flee from their homes. 'We fled empty handed. Some were even shoeless', said one woman. 'Our homes are heaps of rubbles with all our belongings dumped under the rubbles', said several people. Most of them were poor people and said they cannot rebuild the houses on their own.' So how do they want to rebuild the houses?', I asked. They said because the army had destroyed the houses, the army must rebuild them as well. I discussed this with a serving colonel of the Pakistan army. He said he could not say whether the army would rebuild the houses, but that there was a tradition of compensating any material damages to the civilians. Thus for example, the army compensates for any damages done to standing crops or orchard during an army movement. This is a good tradition and I would request the chief of army staff to take this tradition to Bajaur and financially help the people in rebuilding their houses. This may be important for improvement of the tarnished reputation of the army in the eyes of the people of Bajaur. The people have double complaints against the army. First, for not showing up to release them from the occupation and terrorism of the Taliban. And second, for the destruction of their houses and killing of their relatives in the military operation. Like the people of Swat and Waziristan with whom I had long discussions, the people of Bajaur also said the army must conduct targeted operations to eliminate the Taliban in their hideouts and headquarters and must not indiscriminately fire to kill civilians. The IDPs who live in the refugee camps are the most poor people of Bajaur. Those who had the resources to rent out houses in safer places in Pakistan have already done so and have moved out their families there. Those who had relatives in other parts of Pakistan are staying with them. The remaining, the residents of the camps, are those who neither have the resources to rent houses nor relatives outside Bajaur to stay with. They feel twice abandoned by their compatriots, first to the terrorism of the Taliban and then to the ordeal of life as refugees. They constantly ask "are we not fellow citizens of equal worth?" I would request everyone in Pakistan – philanthropists, civil society, media, government armed forces, affluent sportspeople and those in showbiz – to reach out to the IDPs and do whatever they can to reduce their sense of rejection and dejection. They live in miserable conditions and life in refugee camps can never be like life at home. But still a lot can be done to bring some normalcy to their shattered lives. I wish to remind everyone in Pakistan that their support to the IDPs may also be in their self-interest. The support will send a message to the Taliban that society stands by the victims of their brutalities and reject their savage ways. Indifference towards the IDPs may embolden the Taliban, i.e. the latter will take the message that they can repeat what they did in Bajaur and that there is no one in Pakistan to challenge them. Society in Pakistan must condemn the Taliban with action and words. And this can begin by providing moral and material help for the IDPs from Bajaur. The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. Email: bergen34@yahoo.com

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Pakistan army is failing to protect the Pakhtuns against the atrocities of the Taliban militants...

The Pakhtun, the Taliban and ignorant outsiders
Thursday, January 15, 2009

Farhat Taj

The Pakhtun are caught up in one of the most difficult times of their history. The Taliban are aggressively attacking their lives, livelihoods, culture and history. Pakistan army, the defender of the frontiers of Pakistan, including the Pakhtun areas, is failing to protect them against the atrocities of the Taliban. Some influential outsiders continue to depict in media that the Pakhtun and Taliban are one and the same people. The outsiders have almost no or at best a superficial knowledge of the history and culture of the Pakhtun. Most of them never even care to come to the Pakhtun areas to see the realities of the people with their own eyes and still they believe themselves to be authorities on the Pakhtun. They seem to take pride in their ignorance about the Pakhtun. They do not even care to check the bases of their arguments in media discussions against the culture, history and current realities of the Pakhtun.

One such outsider is Dr AQ Khan who expresses views on Pakhtun that have nothing to do with their current realities, culture and history. An example of this is his article 'Grassroot Causes' in your newspaper dated 24 December 2008.

Dr AQ Khan portrays the Pakhtun and the Taliban as one and the same people. Actually the Pakhtun and the Taliban are not the same people. The Pakhtun belong to the areas that are presently known as NWFP, FATA, parts of Baluchistan and southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan. They are culturally, historically and geographically a homogeneous group of people. The Taliban are culturally, historically and geographically a diverse mix of different ethnic groups-the Pakhtun, Punjabis, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Arabs, Africans and even Europeans, both ethnic and Muslim immigrants. They have established bases in the Pakhtun areas because they (and their predecessors, the Mujaheedin) have been facilitated by the intelligence agencies of Pakistan to do so. The Taliban generate their revenue by relentlessly kidnapping affluent Pakhtun for ransom. They have imposed a savage social order, completely different from the Pakhtun social order, in the areas that Pakistan army have surrendered to them, i.e. several parts of the tribal areas and some parts of NWFP, including the beautiful valley of Swat. Many Pakhtun also believe that various groups of the Taliban are funded by the intelligence agency of Pakistan, i.e. the ISI and foreign agencies, like the Indian RAW, the American CIA, etc.

Dr AQ Khan advocates a dialogue with the Taliban to bring peace in the Pakhtun areas of Pakistan. A dialogue can only be successful if it stands on mutually respected ground between the two parties. In this case the common ground can be the law of Pakistan, the Code of Pakhtunwali and Islam. The Taliban respect neither of the three.

The Taliban have no respect for the law of Pakistan. There is abundant proof of it in their attacks on the security forces, destruction of infrastructure including bridges, hospitals and education institutions etc. Some of my friends who have had face to face discussions with foot soldiers of the Taliban informed that the Taliban do not accept the authority of the law of Pakistan. The Taliban have no respect for the code of Pakhtunwali. The most revered institution under the code is jirga. Even the mighty empires that the Pakhtun resisted- the Muslim Mughal Empire and the non Muslim British Empire did not violate the respect of jirga- I do not know of any attacks on jirga that were carried out by the Mughals and the British. The Taliban have repeatedly bombed jirgas all across NWFP and FATA. The code of Pakhtunwali dictates that there shall be no attacks on women and children. The Taliban have repeatedly violated the dictate by brutally killing women and children. The Taliban have violated the respected norms of Islam. Islam never justifies any disrespect of dead bodies. The Taliban takes pride in their humiliation of dead bodies. Islam orders every Muslim man and woman to get education. The Taliban forbid education for both girls and boys. In Islam there is no compulsion in religion. The Taliban imposed their version of the religion through terror and violence. How can there be a dialogue in such conditions with the Taliban. It is perhaps due to the lack of mutually respected grounds that almost all agreements between the Taliban and the Pakistan army fell apart.

Does Dr Khan know that Taliban are preventing the Pakhtun, in the areas that have been surrendered by Pakistan army, from integration into the state system? There are many examples of this. The latest example happened in North Waziristan where the Taliban recently stopped women from making Computerized National Identity Cards, CNIDC, with NADRA. The women had wished to enroll themselves in Benazir Income Support Program. As a precondition for the enrollment, they have to have CNIDC.

People of FATA had always seen the most oppressive and cruel face of the state of Pakistan. It happens rarely that they see the benevolent face of the state. They always happily welcome this face of the state. The Benazir Income Support Program is one of the rare opportunities to see the benevolent faces of the state. Many women in Waziristan welcome it. The enlargement of the Benazir Income Support Program to North Waziristan also shows that the state has some wish to integrate the tribal people into the its system. The local Taliban in Waziristan are preventing this integration. Those Taliban have signed a peace agreement with Pakistan army almost two years ago.

People in Waziristan and the Pakhtun in general want the Pakistan army to make the contents of their agreement with Taliban open to public. They want to know whether the agreement contain the condition that the Taliban will be free to prevent poor people of Waziristan from getting lawful benefits from state sponsored programs like the Benazir Income Support Program. If the agreement does not contain any such conditions, would Pakistan army care to tell the people of Pakistan why are the Taliban preventing the poor women of Waziristan from integration into the state system? Is there any one in Pakistan-in the government, media and the military establishment- to explain why are the Taliban stopping women from making national ID cards and what is being done to halt highhandedness of the Taliban? Would Dr. AQ Khan, a supporter of the Taliban, care to ask the Taliban, on behalf of the poor Pakhtun women, why have the women been deprived from making national ID cards and getting some financial benefits from the state?

Dr AQ Khan wrote: 'If we allow them (America) to enter our country/tribal areas, they will bribe/buy some traitors with green cards and greenbacks'.

The Americans do not need to offer green cards, green dollars or other kinds of bribes to the Pakhtun. Both Taliban and Pakistan army have created catastrophic conditions in terms of human rights. This may soon force the Pakhtun to be open to help from any where in order to survive. Thus tens of people of Swat told me they pray after every namaz for the US drones to fall on the headquarters of the Swat Taliban. 'Because Pakistan army has failed to eliminate the Swat Taliban, we would be happy if the American send their drones to do the job', many Swatis told me. Contrary to the wide spread believe in the wider Pakistani society, many people of Waziristan are satisfied with the US drone attacks on the militants in Waziristan. Both the Swatis and the people of Waziristan have one regret though: the American are doing the 'duty' (target killing of the militants) of Pakistan army. They said they would love to see Pakistan army eliminate the militants in precisely targeted operations. Pakistan army, they said, has so far proved to be unwilling or unable to decisively deal with the Taliban. The Taliban have created 'hell like conditions' in the words of a man, in the areas surrendered by Pakistan army to them. The terrorized Pakhtun of the areas have increasingly begun to look in their prayers towards anyone, the Americans or the devils, as one woman put it for help.

Dr AQ Khan has a right to support anyone he likes, even the Taliban, the murderers of the Pakhtun. However, as a Pakhtun I believe he has no right to float pro-Taliban suggestions that depict complete disrespect to the sensitivities of the Pakhtun, terrorized and traumatized, in the words of many tribesman and women, by the aggressive Taliban and passive Pakistan army.


The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo. Email: bergen34@yahoo.com
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The Taliban Militants in Mohmand - manufactured by the ISI, versus the Pakistan Army; The story of the 'reverse' jihad

Militants in Mohmand

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 The fierce clash between militants and security forces in the Mohmand Agency, in which 40 militants and at least six troops were killed, offers evidence that the Taliban and other elements continue to pose an immense threat to the nation and the writ of state. The exchange took place after several hundred militants, including foreign nationals, reportedly attempted to storm a fort occupied by the Frontier Corps. An exchange of fire lasting hours then ensued and militant positions were subsequently bombed. This ranks as the fiercest offensive by militants in the area since an operation began there several months ago. Fighters from Waziristan are said to have taken part in the effort, which had obviously been well-planned and meticulously executed. Other operations, similar to this one, have been seen in the past. (The News) There is a question that arises: why have the armed forces of Pakistan been unable to overcome a relatively small band of fighters even after months of heavy fighting? Why have the top leaders of these outfits not been arrested? Is it really possible that intelligence agencies have no idea as to their location or their movements? If the Taliban have truly gained such strength as a guerrilla fighting force that it is impossible to knock them out despite the use of all our military might, the state of affairs now prevailing is truly frightening. But then just as grim is the other possibility: that there is still no real will to defeat them despite all that has happened in recent years in terms of bombings, suicide attacks and assassinations. A full assessment of the situation needs to be urgently made. Our leaders, military and civilian, need to sit down together and contemplate the true position. There have lately been a number of insinuations emanating from regions of fighting that allege an all-out effort is still not being made. These may be nothing more than fiction, but there should be a review of what is happening, how the operation is going and how far it is succeeding in defeating militants. Quite evidently, the militant elements that remain entrenched in the tribal areas are still able to organize themselves into large bands and take on security forces at fortified positions. It is also clear that a large number of non-Pakistani nationals remain a part of the Taliban armies. It is quite obvious that for the sake of the security of our country, the militants need to be vanquished. What needs to be determined is how best this can be achieved. (The News) ..... Rampaging militants ONE look at the weekend’s headlines from Fata and northern Pakistan is enough to dissolve any lingering new year cheer. In Mohmand Agency, several check posts and a fort were attacked; in Hangu, sectarian warfare in the wake of Ashura claimed the lives of dozens; in South Waziristan, an additional political agent was kidnapped; in Bajaur Agency, militants severed the ears of five members of the Khar peace committee; and in Swat, an ANP leader’s home was attacked, yet another girls’ school was torched and a Sharia court ordered the lashing of two alleged drug addicts. While the signs of the state’s disappearing sovereignty are ubiquitous, those of a concerted state fight-back are harder to discern. In fact, at every level of the state’s response there is cause for concern. Zoom out to the macro level: eight months since civilian dispensations assumed power in Islamabad and the NWFP their anti-militancy policy is still unclear. The ANP-led government in the NWFP has flip-flopped, first calling for a peace dialogue, then calling in the armed forces, and then calling for a dialogue again. In Islamabad, the PPP-led government chalked out a three-pronged approach that emphasised development and peace talks with reconcilable militants and military action against irreconcilable elements. However, the government has yet to clarify which militants fall in which category and where the policy has been implemented. For its part, the Pakistan Army has thus far escaped serious scrutiny of its tactics in Fata and northern Pakistan. Media centres set up by PR departments paint a picture of slow and steady progress but independent reports suggest otherwise. For example, in Swat the lack of a tribal structure and the sheer brutality of the militants has terrorised the local population and denied the state a local partner in its counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism actions, whereas in Bajaur local help has been more forthcoming. Such differences on the ground, and the different origins of the fighting in places like Hangu (sectarian), require different anti-militancy strategies. Worse, the Pakistan Army’s whack-a-mole strategy of fighting the militants in only certain areas at any given time may actually be playing into the enemy’s hands. While the militants have access to an array of weapons and communication systems, their resources cannot match the Pakistan state’s. Were the militants to be engaged across the region simultaneously, they could quickly find themselves stretched thin and unable to mount a serious response. The militancy problem is undoubtedly complex, but without fresh political and military thinking it will only grow worse. (Dawn) .... And now the ‘reverse’ jihad On Sunday, the Pakistan army killed 40 Taliban and wounded scores of them in Mohmand Agency when it repulsed an attack mounted by about 600 fighters from across the Afghan border. The attackers, called “foreigners” by the official spokesman, targeted the Frontier Constabulary positions inside the Agency. The “foreigners” were supported by the local Taliban. In the fight that continued through the early hours, six Pakistani soldiers were martyred. In the neighbouring Bajaur Agency, the local Taliban known to be supported from outside Pakistan cut off the ears of four private guards. The Pakistan army is deployed in Bajaur, the most dangerous stronghold of the militants who pretend to wage jihad against the state of Pakistan. There too, Pakistan has suffered incursions of “foreigners” from the neighbouring Afghan province of Kunar. Next to Bajaur, in South Waziristan Agency, the Taliban carried out the abduction of a government official obviously with the intent of demanding ransom or release of their cohorts from state captivity. Our misfortune is that that all sides fighting on Pakistani soil claim the obligation of jihad as their motive for violence. Those who attack and those who defend also claim the status of martyr for their dead. In Swat, the “piety” of the militants is being demonstrated through the courts set up by them, doling out punitive verdicts without much examination of evidence. It is said that there are three types of Taliban operating in Pakistan: the Afghan plus non-Afghan “foreigners” attached to Al Qaeda; the Pakistani Taliban who are demanding a change in Pakistan’s foreign policy and enforcement of their tough sharia; and criminals who enrich themselves through jihad. The Americans complain that the Taliban cross over into Afghanistan from the Pakistani side to attack the NATO-ISAF forces. The CIA uses drones and missiles to target and kill them in our Tribal Areas. This movement of the militants is supposed to be a hangover from the jihad that went into Afghanistan to support the government of the Taliban against the multinational “invasion” of Afghanistan in 2001. When the rout occurred, many of the Taliban escaped into Pakistan’s tribal belt and Balochistan. Now the movement of militants is from Afghanistan to Pakistan, a kind of “reverse” jihad. In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, our ISI chief General Ahmad Shuja Pasha was asked a question about the presence of the Taliban in Quetta. If the report is correct, and we hope it isn’t, he is supposed to have expressed an opinion of jihad that indirectly denies the presence of the state: “Shouldn’t they be allowed to think and say what they please? They believe that jihad is their obligation. Isn’t that freedom of opinion?” It is quite surprising to see a concept which is not even consensual among the clergy being given a constitutional status like freedom of expression. Saying that jihad is permissible without the authority of the state is one thing; actually waging jihad when the state is at peace is quite another. An editorial on Balochistan appearing in a national daily on Monday stated: “Challenging the writ of the Taliban is tricky as it is both difficult and dangerous to confront a grouping that says it is working within the religious constitution of the state — the constitution which has the sharia at its very heart. Few of us would wish to risk the wrath of the extremists by challenging them as they will always counter with the cry of ‘Are you not a Muslim?’” The truth of the matter is that the militant clerics — and most others go along for the sake of their empowerment — claim jihad only by negating the fundamental article of the Constitution: the state itself. Jurisprudence says jihad is for the state or the “ul-al amr” (ruler) to declare, therefore any jihad declared in a vigilante form is not jihad but “fitna”, a most undesirable state of affairs in an Islamic state. The argument of the clergy in favour of jihad quite clearly rejects the state “because it is derelict in its duty to declare jihad when it has become incumbent on the state to do so”. The inspiration behind the thinking of the clergy comes from Revelation; for the state, the mechanics of waging war depend on the calculus of power. Jihad is an aspiration to martyrdom; war is an expression of a state’s economic and military strength. When the state gets into the business of waging “deniable” jihad with the help of “non-state actors”, it creates multiple centres of power at the cost of its internal sovereignty. These days, an unhinged war in the form of a “reverse” jihad has engulfed Pakistan. And the only reason why it is raging is the waning of the writ of the state and the empowerment of groups who wish to usurp it. (Daily Times)

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Declare FATA part of Afghan war theatre: CSIS

LAHORE: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan have been ranked among the ‘most dangerous’ places in the world, according to the Press Trust of India that cited a report by a US think-tank – which has called on the incoming Obama administration to declare the area part of the ‘Afghan war theatre’.

Observing that a “nuclear Pakistan as a base for international terrorism is a prospect that the world cannot afford”, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) asked the US government to redefine the territory of war in the region to include FATA.

It said this would help the US Central Command (CENTCOM) cooperate with the Pakistan Army in both military and economic development efforts as needed and agreed on by both the countries.

The observations were part of a report titled ‘FATA: A Most Dangerous Place’, authored by Shuja Nawaz – a Pakistani journalist who has just been appointed the first director of the South Asia Centre at the Atlantic Council of the US.

“FATA remains a most dangerous place, with the failure of governance and the rise of militancy affecting Afghanistan and Pakistan not only individually and separately but also jointly,” Nawaz was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India in his concluding observations. daily times monitor

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Two Qaeda Leaders including the mastermind of the Marriott Hotel Bombing Killed in U.S. Strike in Pakistan

By ERIC SCHMITT
January 8, 2009

WASHINGTON — An American missile strike on Jan. 1 in Pakistan’s tribal areas killed two senior leaders of Al Qaeda, including one militant suspected of overseeing last September’s deadly suicide bombing at a Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital, an American counterterrorism official said Thursday.

In the past week, American officials have concluded that Hellfire missiles fired from a remotely piloted Predator aircraft operated by the C.I.A. killed a Kenyan citizen who used the name Usama al-Kini and who was described as Al Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan, as well as his Kenyan lieutenant, identified as Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan, the official said.

Both militants have been linked to suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent months, and were also on the F.B.I.’s most-wanted list for ties to the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Mr. Kini, whose death was first reported on The Washington Post’s Web site on Thursday, was at least the eighth senior Qaeda leader killed in an increasingly aggressive C.I.A. air campaign to attack top militants who have carved out a sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the Afghanistan border.

The C.I.A. declined to comment on the reported deaths of the top Qaeda operatives, reflecting the secrecy surrounding the Predator strikes along the border that have stirred anger among Pakistan’s political and military leaders, and the residents of the mountainous region.

But an American counterterrorism official confirmed that the airstrikes in South Waziristan on Jan. 1 were successful. “There is every reason to believe that these two individuals have met their end,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the missile strikes.

“Al-Kini was a rising and lethal operations figure within Al Qaeda,” the official added. “The demise of a succession of senior Al Qaeda figures is certain to have at least a near-term debilitating effect on the group.”

As part of the intensified attacks in recent months, the C.I.A. has expanded its list of targets in Pakistan and has received approval from the government there to bolster eavesdropping operations in the border region, according to American officials.

Once largely reserved for missions to kill senior Arab Qaeda operatives, the Predator has since last summer been increasingly used to strike Pakistani militants and even trucks carrying rockets to resupply fighters in Afghanistan. Many of the Predator strikes are taking place as deep as 25 miles into Pakistani territory, not just along the border.

Mr. Kini, whose given name was Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam and who was believed to be 32 years old, was active in training terrorists in Africa in the 1990s, the American official said. He was indicted by a federal grand jury for his role as a central planner in the attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Kini became head of Al Qaeda’s operations in Zabul Province in Afghanistan. At the same time, he oversaw operations to recruit and train operatives and raise money in the Horn of Africa, the American official said.

By 2007, Mr. Kini had been tapped as Al Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan, and was a mastermind of a string of suicide attacks against the Pakistani police, military personnel and political figures, the American official said. He was behind the failed attempt to assassinate Benazir Bhutto, a former Pakistani prime minister, in Karachi in October of that year, as well the truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad last September that killed more than 50 people. Ms. Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007.

Senior military and counterterrorism officials say the increased Predator strikes have disrupted planning, pushed some insurgents deeper into Pakistan, prompted some militant commanders to post additional sentries and forced the militants to use their cellphones and satellite phones, which American eavesdropping operations can monitor.

But American officials also acknowledge that Al Qaeda has shown surprising resilience and a knack for regrouping quickly under new operational commanders.

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/asia/09pstan.html?_r=1&hp

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Read report on BBC Urdu

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2009/01/090109_alqaeda_killed.shtml
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Objectifying the Pakhtun: The false fantasy of "Operation Lion Heart"; the Taliban and the dubious role of Pakistan Army....

Objectifying the Pakhtun
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Farhat Taj

Some people on the editorial pages of The News have have fantasies in which they objectify the Pakhtun. It is as if the Pakhtuns do not human needs, constraints and concerns but are objects programmed to behave in line with the fantasies of these people. Two of the people are Admiral (retired) Fasih Bukhari (Dec 15) and Zeenia Satti's article "Dangerous vacuum" (Dec 16).

in "Let's get our act together in South Asia," Mr Bukhari writes that in Afghanistan the coalition forces' "Operation Lion Heart" against Pathan supporters of the Afghan Taliban in NWFP "is an obvious reference to the third Christian Crusade of Richard II of England against Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi: obviously calculated to arouse anger in the highly religious tribesmen."

It is a fantasy that "Operation Lion Heart" will arouse Pakhtun tribesmen's anger. The connotation has nothing to do with the current realities of the Pakhtuns and their history, because the Crusades are not an episode in Pakhtun history. With a literacy rate of 17 percent among men and 3 percent among women in the tribal areas, most tribesmen and -women have little knowledge of the history of far away lands. However, the tribal people do have knowledge of Pakhtun history. For example, many tribal people would know something about the Pakhtun history of resistance to the Muslim Mughal Empire and the British Empire. I asked 411 tribesmen and -women in different places in the tribal areas to tell me how much they know about Richard II. Not a single man or woman knew who he was--including some individuals educated up to the level of MA. Only five people had heard about the Crusades (Salibi Jangey). Three of them had no idea about the geographic and ethnic identity of the peoples who participated in the Crusades. They just said that the Crusades were wars between Muslims and Christian somewhere in the world.

So how can the Americans provoke the "highly religious tribesmen" by naming their operation "Lion Heart"? Rather, the Americans were provoking, if indeed they were, the Arab militants holed up in the tribal areas.

Secondly, not all tribesmen are "highly religious." Pakhtun tribal society is like any other human society. Some individuals are highly religious but others are moderately so. Mostly, Pakhtun men and women live according to their Rewaj (Custom) not religion; religion is an important part of the Rewaj, but not the entire Rewaj.

Ms Satti writes that the Pakistani Taliban "have already benefited from the CIA's drone attacks. After each attack, the incumbents, entrusted with guarding the territorial sovereignty of Pakistan, are seen sitting on their plush sofas, doing effete 'muzammat'--while the Taliban are seen destroying NATO vehicles and firing at the drones. This has endeared them to NWFP residents, despite the Taliban's having caused the attacks, in the first place."

This statement is a wild fantasy when seen through the realities of the people of the NWFP. They are sick and tired of the Taliban. The Taliban have killed innocent people--men, women, children--they have destroyed the educational institutions in the area, devastated businesses and shattered the peace there. The Taliban even exhume and humiliate the dead bodies. The Army, an institution always respected by the people of the NWFP, is losing its prestige in the eyes of the people of the area for being seen as unable or unwilling to crush the Taliban. Despite all this, Ms Satti believes that the Taliban have become the darling of the NWFP people. Which NWFP is the writer talking about? The real NWFP, the federating unit of Pakistan, or some imaginary NWFP in the fantasies of the writer? What is the writer's source of information?

I sent the writer an email on Dec 17 and asked the following questions:

1. For whom does the Taliban's behaviour have an emotive appeal?

2) Could you explain a bit what you mean by "while the Taliban are seen destroying NATO vehicles and firing at the drones. This has endeared them to NWFP residents"?

3) When was the last time you were in the NWFP?

4) Are you from the NWFP or FATA?

The writer never replied to the email. One of my friends also sent her an email asking more or less the same questions. The writer never replied to this friend either. Perhaps the writer did not receive our emails, or perhaps she deliberately chose to ignore them. If we had received a response, we would have had a better idea of the logic behind her statement. Several people of the NWFP with whom I discussed her article expressed strong disagreement. One described it as "bizarre, naive and irresponsible."

I would request both Mr Bukhari and Zeenia Satti to check the bases of their assumptions about the Pakhtun areas against the concrete realities of the area, its people and their history before writing about them. (The News)

The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo. Email: bergen34@yahoo.com

Some Comments:

Utmankhel1 Says:
January 1st, 2009 at 5:06 pm
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Everyone here from Swat and Peshawar should take up the issue with leadership of ANP at whatever level is possible, to force them ask for UN or NATO help in countering the elements. The residents of these areas will have at least a sense of justice done if some of these bastards are killed so long as their brutalities continue.

Furthermore, in presence of our army we are never gonna see the bastards like Qazi being tried for their role is a pimp of army, unless some powerful force from outside does anything. NATO seems to have the capability.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2009/01/090101_drone_waziristan.shtml

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Utmankhel1 Says:
January 1st, 2009 at 6:44 pm

though what i m writing here seems not more than a mere propaganda, but i have to write them, as sadly thats the reality.

i remember Qazi shouting in a jalsa once,” we pukhtuns are always fighting each other, aint it better we fight hindus in kashmir”, a huge clapping followed with narae-takbeer. i remember a friend of mine in first year FSc joined jihadi training thanks to this pimp.

In school days, we were once invited to watch a movie of brutalities committed against muslims in kashmir and bosnia. This thing was arranged by the fuc..g jamaatees. A number of footages were shown, but the one that stuck in my mind was a BLACK AND WHITE footage of the massacre of Bonsnian muslims in the 90s by serbs, in which the corpses of dead were rolled over by road rollers. Now i have found out that the Black and White footage basically was the 1940s massacre of jews by nazis. I know things have been done to muslims but am trying to keep the character of these criminals in proper perspective as they used trues and lies to fuel anti hindu/christian/jews sentiments for their jihads. In short using truths and lies, these JI criminals kept on recruiting who ever they found for their jihads and now we are faced with those jihadists bent on destroying our villages and cities. All these things happened with full support of the (state of pakistan)=army through the pimps of JI and others.

These jihadists are now operating all over the puktunkhwa and FATA and we cannot do anything as the JI/PTI other religious groups and state of pakistan=army won’t let us do anything.

When our own state of pakistan=army is in love affair with the jihadists we have to look around for help somewhereelse, NATO UN comes into mind suddenly.

So Its a simple thing why dont you understand this ?

and for God sake when our own backyard is burning how are we going to look across the seas for smoke rising from another brotherly country called palestine.
similary you being my countrymen; i expect you to first help me in putting out the fire here and then we will together talk about palestine, but if after years of my cries of help are unheared and i become sure of your indifference then i damn care about anything which binds you and me together, whether it’s religion or being units of the same federation.

——-Example of rubbing salt over wounds is the statements of JI about the blasts in Pukhtunkhwa and protests against israel in pukhtunkhwa.

simple, aint it, i can’t write complex, even if i try to !
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India not the real enemy; militancy is - By Ayaz Amir

Will hypocrites such as Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmed listen to this sane voice?

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India not the real enemy; militancy is
Islamabad diary

Friday, December 26, 2008
by Ayaz Amir

Militancy and extremism on the march. Three schools in Peshawar attacked with rockets. The Fazlullah-led Taliban in Swat ordering the closure of girls’ schools from January 15. Scores of schools already torched in Swat, one of the most beautiful places on earth. Swat’s prestigious Sangota Public School blown up on Oct 7. These events are far more important, of deeper impact, than the bluster and threats coming our way from India.

India will have to take leave of its senses to attack Pakistan, even to carry out a limited attack, what armchair idiots like to call a “precision strike”. Any Indian attack, precision or otherwise, will elicit a Pakistani response. Where that might lead to falls in the realm of the incalculable. It needs no Clausewitz to vouchsafe that it is easier to start wars; much harder, as the Americans from their Iraq and Afghanistan experience can testify, to end them.

India is piling up the pressure on Pakistan, exploiting the opportunity provided by the Mumbai attacks. We should take cognisance of the pressure and resist it. But there is no need to go into panic mode. India is not attacking us. Or, rather, it has no need to attack us because we are attacking ourselves from within. Militancy is on the march and the state (I can think of no better word) is in retreat, helpless before the militant onslaught, now confined not just to FATA and Swat but spreading, and indeed clueless about how to combat it.

We know how to meet any threat from India. This is travelled territory, a script we know by heart. But India is not the problem. We are being slowly devoured and destroyed from within and there is no agreed script about how this challenge, now turning into a grave threat, is to be met.

India says we are in denial about Mumbai. This is not true. Evidence of any smoking gun, clinching evidence rather than rhetorical flourishes, has yet to be shown to Pakistan. But this is beside the point. We, the Pakistani people and our state, are in denial about the tramp of what could easily pass for the 21st century equivalent of the Huns in the northwest and the north.

The problem before us has its roots in the past but it won’t do to make the past an alibi or excuse for twiddling our thumbs in the present. Gen Zia all those years ago helped create this Frankenstein monster and Gen Musharraf through ill-judged cunning, and equally ill-judged military actions, allowed militancy and extremism to become the fast-growing viruses which they presently are. But berating Zia and Musharraf won’t do us any good. The monster is a monster, regardless of the laboratory or the geniuses who created him.

What defies understanding, and the army has yet to come up with a convincing explanation, is why the army operation in Swat has come to a standstill, without being able to dent the power of the Fazlullah-led militants? It has been trying to clear Swat for over a year now but Fazlullah’s forces are stronger than ever. What is happening? There may be an American angle to the situation in FATA but there is none in Swat.

Turmoil in Swat makes nonsense of the concept of sovereignty. If we are not internally fully sovereign, of what worth our claims to external sovereignty? The threat in Swat, because it undermines the nation from within, is more serious than any notional threat from India. The army high command should be concentrating on this and senior generals would do the nation greater service by stationing themselves in Swat rather than lolling about in Rawalpindi. Indeed, it would be no bad idea for the Rawalpindi Golf Club, where senior generals take their leisure, to close down while the troubles in FATA and Swat last. This is no time to play golf.

Afghanistan and Iraq may be stupid wars but American and British leaders make it a point of visiting their troops in both countries. Musharraf never, not once, visited FATA. He never visited Swat. Gen Kayani has gone to both places but he needs to go there more. What about President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani? At the drop of a hat they set off on foreign tours. But they can’t bring themselves to visit troops in FATA and Swat. There can be no greater shame than this.

The world has changed and so has our regional environment. War with India—-or from India’s point of view, war with Pakistan——should no longer be a possibility or an option. The nature of the threat has changed. The armed forces therefore need to revamp and restyle both their thinking and their posture. F-16s and more inter sub-continental missiles will do us little good. How many atom bombs do we have? Fifty? That should be enough for any sane notion of defence against India. If 50 atom bombs are insufficient all the world’s arms will not give us a sense of security.

We need a leaner force, more attuned to covert operations and warfare in the rugged north and northwest. The eastern frontier must become a frontier of peace if we are to devote what energies we have to the threat from within. Which doesn’t mean we lower our guard, only that we give up on meaningless warmongering. It is time to bury the notion, so beloved of the Nazria-e-Pakistan school of thought, that India is our eternal enemy. It isn’t. India is not torching our schools. It is not proscribing female education. Someone else is.

To Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, whom I once heard lecturing at a Jamaat-ud-Daawa mosque in Chakwal, I would respectfully say that the time for the kind of ‘jihad’ as promoted in the 1980s and 1990s is over. What was possible then is no longer possible now. That kind of ‘jihad’ far from serving any useful purpose or advancing any Pakistani interests now endangers the country. A farewell to ‘jihad’, turning Kalashnikovs into ploughshares, that is what Pakistan needs.

When the Bolsheviks under Lenin seized power in Russia in 1917, the First World War still raging, large parts of western Russia were under German occupation. Most of the members of the Bolshevik central committee were for continuing the war. But Lenin insisted that saving the Revolution was more important. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concluded with Germany imposed humiliating terms on Russia, including the loss of the Ukraine, but Lenin accepted them in the hope that if the Revolution triumphed temporary setbacks would be of no account. Events proved him right. Germany lost the war and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk came to nothing.

Saving Pakistan from within must take priority over everything else. Notions of strategic depth and the like, of ‘jihad’ as an instrument of national policy, must finally be discarded. Folly sowed over 30 years of benighted effort has come to haunt us. High time we gave up on these ghosts from the past.

The army is pitted against the Taliban in FATA but there are persistent accusations, never persuasively denied, that it turns a blind eye to the presence of Taliban elements in and around Quetta. How long can we sustain such dichotomies?

Should the ISI be brought under ISI control? Even if it is, that would still be but a half-step. What gives the ISI a distinct imprint is its umbilical link with the army. Army officers rotate to and from it, making the ISI an extension of the army. The time may have come to consider ways of turning the ISI into a professional spy organisation like the CIA and KGB, or even RAW for that matter. These organisations are not staffed by army officers.

Immediately after the Mumbai attacks our government’s stand could have been more coherent. But as consultations with various branches of government and other political leaders got underway, some of the earlier fumbling disappeared.

This is not a Churchillian government. I think we are all agreed on this score. Even so, with all the confusion on display, Pakistan’s response to combined American and Indian pressure in 2008 has been a whole lot more steady and sensible than Gen Musharraf’s response to American pressure in 2001. Which serves to underline the distinction that the most fumbling democracy is preferable to any kind of military dictatorship.

Email: winlust@yahoo.com
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