NYT

October 23, 2007

By CARLOTTA GALL

KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct. 22 — The explosions aimed at the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last week resembled attacks by Al Qaeda and their allied Pakistani militants and were the work of two suicide bombers, the provincial governor said in an interview.

Ishrat ul Ebad Khan, the governor of Sindh Province, said investigators have found the heads of two men that were not claimed by relatives and almost certainly belong to the bombers.

The explosions, detonated close to Ms. Bhutto’s fortified truck as supporters flocked to welcome her home after eight years of self-imposed exile, were the deadliest of more than 50 suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent years.

The governor said the death toll had risen to 140, and included a couple with their 1-year-old child who had come to see Ms. Bhutto’s procession through town. More than 500 people were wounded, he said.

The Pakistani police have said that a grenade caused the first, smaller explosion on Thursday night, and that a lone suicide bomber caused the second, larger blast.

But Mr. Ebad said the police had found no traces of a grenade, and had now pieced together the head of a second man.

“Certainly these are extremists,” he said. “They are the people who want to sabotage the political process. In their perspective, it would be a lethal combination for all moderate democratic forces to come together so they wanted to sabotage, disrupt and derail this process.”

Ms. Bhutto has also said militants were set on preventing a return to democracy. But an argument is brewing over how her arrival and procession through the city were handled.

Ms. Bhutto has blamed the government for turning off the streetlights, making it difficult for security guards to spot potential attackers, and has suggested that officials in the government did not act on information she had passed on of planned attacks.

Mr. Ebad said that despite being aware of serious threats, Ms. Bhutto had not taken necessary precautions. The governments of Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates had warned her that suicide bombers were intending to attack her cavalcade.

Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had asked her to delay her return until investigators could find those planning the attacks, but she had refused, Mr. Ebad said.

Security officials meanwhile had tried to persuade her to take the standard precautions that they employ for all official and political visits — such as not revealing the route of her procession, the vehicle she was traveling in or the time of her arrival, and moving as fast as possible from one place to another — but Mr. Ebad said she had not accepted their suggestions.

“They wanted a rally, they wanted to announce the time and the vehicle for political reasons,” he said. “They had decided to take 18 hours to travel to the mausoleum. The Home Department constantly asked they reduce the time, but they did not accept this.”

He also denied that the street lights were turned off at the time of the blasts, saying that video showed they were on.

Mr. Ebad, who has overseen investigations into seven suicide bombings in Karachi during his five years as governor, said Ms. Bhutto had made well-publicized statements before her return to Pakistan that would have caused extremists to make her a target.

In particular she had hailed the government’s military action against militants in the Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, and she had said she would allow American forces to conduct operations in Pakistan. “It was quite serious if you look at the forces of the extremists and terrorists,” the governor said. “It was quite threatening to them.”

The carnage of her return procession has already significantly curtailed Ms. Bhutto’s plans for rallying supporters. Since the attacks she has only ventured outside her home in Karachi twice, on brief trips to visit the wounded in a hospital and to offer prayers. Neither visit was publicized and each was conducted rapidly with heavy security.

The government meanwhile has moved to curb political rallies and processions before the two-month parliamentary election campaign that will begin Nov. 15.

The interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, said the government had prepared a code of conduct, which it wanted political parties to adopt. The code would prohibit rallies and processions but would allow gatherings at specific places, he said.

“Elections are just two months away and we would want peaceful and conducive elections,” Mr. Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad. “We do not want to postpone elections but we have made a draft of code of conduct.”

The Pakistan Peoples Party led by Ms. Bhutto has already objected to the restrictions because staging huge rallies has always been the traditional way of campaigning for elections in Pakistan, especially among the illiterate and rural communities.

The bombers have not been identified, but an investigator who was briefing the governor on Monday evening said the men were “100 percent” Pakistani. The investigator asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to comment.

The attack was similar in style to previous suicide bombings in Karachi and elsewhere, he said. The bombers used C4 plastic explosive, the same type used in the bombing of a United States consulate vehicle in Karachi in March 2006, he said.

The police estimated that the first bomber was carrying 17 to 22 pounds of explosives and the second 33 pounds, the investigator said.

Salman Masood contributed reporting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7059504.stm

October 24

The Pakistan army has deployed around 2,500 troops in the remote valley of Swat in the country's north-west, military officials say.

They say that the deployment is necessary to combat a pro-Taleban militant and his followers.

Correspondents say that the valley in North West Frontier Province has become a stronghold of the radical group Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi.

Around 90,000 Pakistani troops are deployed in the north of Pakistan.

'Terrorising civilians'

"The deployment may cause inconvenience to local population, but it is necessary to restore law and order in Swat," the caretaker Chief Minister of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Shamsul Mulk, told the BBC.

The army says that the soldiers deployed on Tuesday were setting up checkpoints across Swat, a valley popular with tourists until an upsurge of violence earlier this year.

It says that it wants to curb the activities of militant leader Maulana Fazlullah, who reportedly has used radio broadcasts to call for jihad, or holy war, against the Pakistani authorities.

Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said that the checkpoints are "to ensure that Fazlullah and his band of criminals stop terrorising innocent civilians".

He denied the deployment was in response to a remote-controlled bomb attack on a military convoy in the Chakdara area of lower Swat valley on Tuesday night.

Troops were initially deployed in Swat, about 50km (30 miles) north of Peshawar in July as part of a crackdown on militancy.

Earlier this week a delegation of local elders called on Mr Mulk and reportedly pleaded with him to withdraw troops from Swat because their presence was "inciting militancy" in the area.

People contacted by BBC in Malakand and Chakdara areas of Swat say troops and police are now monitoring traffic on the main road entering the district from south.

October 27, 2007

By ISMAIL KHAN

NYT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct. 26 — Pakistani security forces exchanged heavy gunfire with militants at the sprawling seminary of a powerful cleric in the troubled North-West Frontier Province on Friday, a day after a suicide bomber killed 20 people, most of them border guards, in the same area.

Armed militants also beheaded four men thought to be security forces in a village 10 miles west of Mingora, a resident said by telephone.

The home secretary of the province, Badshah Gul Wazir, acknowledged at a news briefing late Friday that three men of the armed civil guard known as the Frontier Constabulary and one policeman, who had been kidnapped by militants from a nearby district earlier in the day, had “reportedly” been killed.

The sharp rise in violence in the area, Swat Valley, which is relatively isolated from the lawless tribal areas on the Afghan border, demonstrates the growing strength of Islamists.

Leading the wave of militancy is the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, who is also known as Maulana Radio for his illegal broadcasts calling for Taliban-like Islamic law, and who is thought to have some 4,500 followers.

He is the son-in-law of Sufi Muhammad, the founder of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, the Movement for the Implementation of Muhammad’s Law, who has been in prison since 2001 after sending Pakistanis into Afghanistan to support the Taliban in fighting American forces.

In July the government sent a division of troops into the valley to try to contain the growing violence, but they have met with frequent attacks. The provincial government deployed another 2,500 border guards to the area on Wednesday. Retaliation was swift: the suicide attack on Thursday.

Maulana Fazlullah’s whereabouts are not known.

The fighting on Friday centered around Imam Dheri Village, the headquarters of Maulana Fazlullah in Kabal district. Security forces and militants were holding positions on the opposite sides of the River Swat and exchanged heavy gunfire, punctuated by explosions. Security forces have occupied hilltop positions but avoided shelling the seminary directly, they said.

The home secretary, Mr. Gul Wazir, said that the government had not moved against the seminary but that a government unit had come under fire when moving in the area. Two civilians were killed in cross-fire, he said.

A resident of Shakkardarra described the execution of the four security officers: Masked men armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles brought the four men to their village around 5 p.m., fired a few shots into the air and then beheaded them.

The four men, said to be in their mid-20s, all had their hands tied behind them, the resident said.

The resident quoted one of the militants as declaring shortly before the beheadings: “Let this serve as a warning to all those who spy for the government or extend help. The sons of Bush will meet similar fate.”

People in Shakkardarra said that militants, mostly from a banned outfit called the Jaish-i-Muhammad, or Army of Muhammad, who had set up checkpoints on the main road and occupied hilltop positions, had seized the four men during a road check.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing, but Maulana Naddar, a cleric said to be deputy to Maulana Fazlullah, said in a radio broadcast that the men had been killed to avenge the death of three militants killed earlier Friday.

As evening came, a tense calm returned to the area and the provincial cabinet met in Peshawar to discuss the situation.

A senior government official said the government would like to engage local elders and influential residents to calm the situation and sort out the issue with Maulana Fazlullah through negotiations.

The caretaker chief minister of the province, Shamsul Mulk, said the government would pursue a peaceful resolution, but would not shy away from using force to establish its authority.

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

October 27, 2007
NYT
By ISMAIL KHAN

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct. 26 — Pakistani security forces exchanged heavy gunfire with militants at the sprawling seminary of a powerful cleric in the troubled North-West Frontier Province on Friday, a day after a suicide bomber killed 20 people, most of them border guards, in the same area.

Armed militants also beheaded four men thought to be police officers or members of local security forces in a village 10 miles west of Mingora, a resident said by telephone.

The home secretary of the province, Badshah Gul Wazir, acknowledged at a news briefing late Friday that three men of the armed civil guard known as the Frontier Constabulary and one policeman, who had been kidnapped by militants from a nearby district earlier in the day, had “reportedly” been killed.

The sharp rise in violence in the area, Swat Valley, which is relatively isolated from the lawless tribal areas on the Afghan border, demonstrates the growing strength of Islamists.

Leading the wave of militancy is the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, who is also known as Maulana Radio for his illegal broadcasts calling for Taliban-like Islamic law, and who is thought to have some 4,500 followers.

He is the son-in-law of Sufi Muhammad, the founder of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, the Movement for the Implementation of Muhammad’s Law, who has been in prison since 2001 after sending Pakistanis into Afghanistan to support the Taliban in fighting American forces.

In July the government sent a division of troops into the valley to try to contain the violence, but they have met with frequent attacks. The provincial government deployed 2,500 more border guards to the area on Wednesday. Retaliation was swift: the suicide attack on Thursday.

Maulana Fazlullah’s whereabouts are not known.

The fighting on Friday centered around Imam Dheri Village, the headquarters of Maulana Fazlullah in Kabal district. Security forces and militants were holding positions on the opposite sides of the River Swat and exchanged heavy gunfire, punctuated by explosions. Security forces have occupied hilltop positions but avoided shelling the seminary directly, they said.

The home secretary, Mr. Gul Wazir, said that the government had not moved against the seminary but that a government unit had come under fire when moving in the area. Two civilians were killed in cross-fire, he said.

A resident of Shakkardarra described the execution of the four security officers: Masked men armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles brought the four men to their village around 5 p.m., fired a few shots into the air and then beheaded them.

The four men, said to be in their mid-20s, all had their hands tied behind them, the resident said.

The resident quoted one of the militants as declaring shortly before the beheadings: “Let this serve as a warning to all those who spy for the government or extend help. The sons of Bush will meet similar fate.”

People in Shakkardarra said that militants, mostly from a banned outfit called the Jaish-i-Muhammad, or Army of Muhammad, who had set up checkpoints on the main road and occupied hilltop positions, had seized the four men during a road check.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing, but Maulana Naddar, a cleric said to be deputy to Maulana Fazlullah, said in a radio broadcast that the men had been killed to avenge the death of three militants killed earlier Friday.

As evening came, a tense calm returned to the area and the provincial cabinet met in Peshawar to discuss the situation.

A senior government official said the government would like to engage local elders and influential residents to calm the situation and sort out the issue with Maulana Fazlullah through negotiations.

The caretaker chief minister of the province, Shamsul Mulk, said the government would pursue a peaceful resolution, but would not shy away from using force to establish its authority.

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Militants Guard Domain of Rebel Cleric's Vast Seminary in Volatile Northwest Pakistan

By RIAZ KHAN
The Associated Press

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3784614

SWAT, Pakistan

Long-haired militants with assault rifles and walkie-talkies guard the approach to the stronghold of Maulana Fazlullah, the radical cleric whose mission to spread fundamentalist Islam has provoked a bloody showdown with Pakistan's government.

Beyond the checkpoint, down a narrow track winding through orchards and by the clear blue waters of the Swat River, an Associated Press reporter was granted access to a sprawling seminary beyond state control, behind the new front line in Pakistan's faltering campaign against Islamic extremists.

Inside is a mosque and a maze of dozens of rooms, many still under construction. A shop sells audio cassettes of speeches by Fazlullah, who has earned the nickname "Mullah Radio" for his pirate FM broadcasts urging followers to wage holy war against America and its allies.

Six years after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf joined the U.S.-led war on terror, pro-Taliban militants are gaining sway across a swath of the country's northwest near Afghanistan.

Officials said Saturday that Fazlullah's followers killed 13 captives six security personnel and seven civilians in apparent retaliation for an assault on Fazlullah's stronghold, where security forces backed by helicopters and militants traded fire using rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other weapons.

At least three people died in the clashes.

Jehangir Khan, a local resident, said he saw six beheaded bodies, with notes attached reading: "It is the fate of an American agent. Whoever works for America will face the same fate."

"The civilians were killed to terrorize the people. They say they were either informers or were supporting the government side," Badshah Gul Wazir, the top security official of North West Frontier Province, told the AP by telephone from Peshawar, the provincial capital.

While scores of militants lurked outside the seminary, the concrete complex near the village of Imam Dheri was largely empty Saturday.

Fragments of rockets and shells that had been fired by security forces were displayed outside the complex, which appeared undamaged. Security forces were still posted on overlooking hilltops.

In a back room, Fazlullah's spokesman, Sirajuddin, was cagey about his leader's whereabouts. "He is here and we are in contact," Sirajuddin told an AP reporter and two local journalists. He was constantly interrupted by calls on two cell phones.

After the government deployed 2,500 paramilitary troops in Swat, once famed as a tourist resort, a suicide bomber hit a truck carrying soldiers Thursday in the district's main town, killing 20.

The gray-bearded Sirajuddin, who goes by only one name, denied his movement's involvement in the bombing, and claimed that local villagers sympathetic to the militants had executed the abducted men whose bodies were found Saturday. Still, he threatened that militants could resort to such tactics in response to government action.

"If a military operation starts against us there will be suicide attacks as well as a guerrilla war," he said.

Sirajuddin laid out Fazlullah's demands: hostilities would cease if Shariah, or Islamic law, was adopted and the government released Sufi Muhammad, Fazlullah's father-in-law who was jailed in 2002 for having sent thousands of volunteers to Afghanistan during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Muhammad had been head of the banned pro-Taliban group Tehrik Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammedi or Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law. After his arrest Fazlullah became the new chief. The group has re-emerged this year in Swat and Malakand, another impoverished conservative region near the Afghan border.

The seminary has yet to open for religious studies but often draws thousands of worshippers at Friday prayers, residents say. Sirajuddin claimed some 80,000 devotees had gathered for prayers Fazlullah led during the recent religious holiday of Eid ul-Fitr.

As well as marshaling armed militants and enforcing Islamic law, Fazlullah has used his FM station to urge schoolgirls to wear all-covering burqas and has forced several development organizations to close their offices, accusing them of spreading immorality for using female staff, residents say.

That has irked authorities, but Sirajuddin said tensions in Swat had risen in the wake of the Pakistani army raid on the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad which had launched a freelance, Islamic anti-vice campaign similar to Fazlullah's own efforts to dispense Islamic justice. More than 100 people died in the July assault on the mosque and neighboring girls' seminary.

"The situation in the whole country, particularly here, has changed because of Lal Masjid," Sirajuddin said, referring to the Red Mosque. "This situation is the reaction to Lal Masjid."

After the 30-minute interview, the journalists left the riverside seminary, set against a glorious backdrop of mountains, peach and apple orchards and maize and rice fields.

On the road out, a militant in his early 20s, wearing a camouflage sleeveless jacket, black turban and carrying an AK-47 assault rifle stopped and challenged the AP reporter: "What are you doing here? We don't want spies here. You know what we do to spies."

Suddenly, about 60 or 70 militants appeared. Most were young men in their teens or 20s with long hair and beards with assault rifles. Some older men carried shot guns and single-bore rifles used for hunting. One man in his 50s made a show of cocking his pistol.

The reporter called Fazlullah's spokesman by cell phone, before handing his phone to the young militant.

"Let him go," Sirajuddin said, and the reporter was allowed to pass.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071028/main7.htm

Islamabad, October 27
Militants executed at least 15 people, including six security personnel and dragged their bodies through a market as skirmishes continued after government troops attacked a pro-Taliban cleric's seminary in northwestern Pakistan, officials said today.

Clashes erupted between security forces and militants after paramilitary troops and police backed by helicopter gunships yesterday attacked Maulana Fazlullah's sprawling madrassa at Imamdheri, three kilometres from Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district in North West Frontier Province.

Three rebels and two civilians were killed in the violence. The militants retaliated by killing 15 people and some of the bodies were dragged by through the market in Shakkardarra in Swat valley, home secretary Badshah Gul Wazir of the North West Frontier Province said in Peshawar.

The bodies of three Frontier Corps personnel, three policemen and seven civilians were found in different localities near Matta, a stronghold of Fazlullah.

The militants kidnapped all these people and most of them were later beheaded.

At least four of them were executed in public in Shakkardarra village, 16 km from Mingora.

Notes tied to the bodies described the men as “American agents” and warned that all persons working for the US would meet the same fate.

Thousands of paramilitary troops were deployed in Swat this week to counter the activities of Fazlullah — known as "Mullah Radio" for his sermons broadcast from an illegal radio station — and to restore the writ of the local administration in 59 villages where the cleric's armed followers are running a parallel government. — PTI

IOL

October 28 2007 at 04:14PM

Swat, Pakistan - Army gunship helicopters pounded the hideouts of militants loyal to a radical cleric on Sunday after several days of clashes with troops in troubled northwest Pakistan, officials said.

They were targeting militants holed up near villages in Swat valley, the base of Maulana Fazlullah, who has been driving a fierce campaign to introduce pro-Taliban laws.

The helicopters were backing paramilitary troops and police in their attempts to drive the militants out of villages and other areas in Swat, which used to be one of Pakistan's premier tourist destinations.

"The NWFP has army helicopters at its command and they use these whenever there is a need," top military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad said.

Hundreds of people were reported fleeing the area in the conservative North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where clashes between the troops and the militants loyal to Fazlullah started on Friday.

Militants have seized and beheaded 13 people in recent days in the wake of the clashes although a spokesman for Fazlullah has denied that his loyalists were involved in the gruesome killings.

There was no immediate report of casualties from Sunday's operation but officials said three militants and two civilians have also died, caught in the fighting, since the clashes started.

The violence has hit normal life in the region, bringing markets and other trade to a standstill as people flee the area to safety, officials said.

Security forces have entered Manglor village, 10 kilometres (six miles) northeast of Mingora, the main town in Swat, and forced militants to flee their hideouts, Waheed said.

"They are operating to establish the writ of the government in areas where miscreants have threatened public peace and order. The security forces have extended their positions," he said.

Troops were consolidating their ground in Manglor after the raids by gunship helicopters, an AFP correspondent in the region witnessed.

Violence first erupted in Swat in July, when militants mounted revenge attacks on the army after government troops stormed the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The Swat valley used to attract a large number of foreign guests drawn by its Buddhist heritage and archaeological sites.

But the area in the province bordering Afghanistan has in the past two years become a stronghold of Fazlullah's banned group, Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM).

Security officials say the group is linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.

Fazlullah is also known as "Mullah Radio" for his fiery radio speeches in which he calls for the imposition of Islamic Sharia law and for a holy war on security forces.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22664486-23109,00.html#

From correspondents in Mingora, Pakistan

October 29, 2007 03:29am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

TROOPS backed by gunship helicopters killed 10 militants loyal to a radical pro-Taliban cleric in northwest Pakistan in the third straight day of clashes, officials said.

Troops targeted hideouts of the militants in scenic Swat valley, the stronghold of religious leader Maulana Fazlullah, who has been driving a fierce campaign to introduce Islamic Sharia law.

“We have reports that 10 extremists were killed in the action,” chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.

He accused the militants of terrorising and killing local villagers in the region, which used to be a popular tourist destination in the conservative North West Frontier Province.

”We needed to take tough action against a handful of these extremists who are trying to defy the government's writ and terrorise local people,” he said.

Hundreds of people were reported fleeing towns and some roads were closed in Swat where clashes between the paramilitary troops, backed up by police, and the militants loyal to Fazlullah started on Friday.

October 29, 2007

Reuters

MINGORA, Pakistan — Thousands of Pakistanis are fleeing a northwestern town and outlying villages because they fear a showdown between the security forces and an Islamist militant Taliban-style movement, residents said Sunday.

There was fierce fighting on Friday in the Swat Valley in the North-West Frontier Province between security forces and followers of a radical Muslim cleric, after the authorities sent more than 2,000 soldiers to counter growing militancy.

In clashes on Sunday, 10 militants were killed by troops backed by helicopter gunships, said an army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad.

At least 17 paramilitary soldiers and 4 civilians were killed Thursday in a suspected suicide attack near Mingora, the valley’s main town.

The militants killed seven civilians and decapitated three soldiers and three policemen they had taken hostage on Friday in Matta, a nearby town.

“Troops have their own mortars and have been firing at those militants,” General Arshad said. “Until such time as these people are evicted from the area and peace is restored and innocent people are given full security, I think this is going to continue.”

On Sunday, fighting flared in Charbagh, three miles west of Mingora, when suspected militants fired at paramilitary fighters.

Residents said tension was also rising in another town, Khwazakhela, 15 miles west of Mingora. “People are leaving their homes,” a frightened town resident said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons. “All shops and markets are closed.”

Badshah Gul Wazir, a top official at the provincial home ministry, said that he was unaware of the exodus from Khwazakhela, but that the atmosphere in Swat Valley was tense.

Swat, a scenic area close to Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, has experienced a surge in militant activity since Maulana Fazlullah, a pro-Taliban cleric, started an illegal FM radio station and urged his followers to fight to put Islamic Shariah law into effect.

Maulana Fazlullah is the de facto leader of a pro-Taliban group, Movement for the Implementation of Muhammad’s Shariah Law.

Authorities have blamed his militant followers for attacks on the security forces and bomb blasts in Swat, where they have been forcing residents to follow a strict Islamic code.

“The government should implement Shariah in Swat if it does not want fighting,” Muslim Khan, an aide to Maulana Fazlullah, told reporters on Saturday.

Pakistani tribal areas have been hotbeds of support for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants who have fled Afghanistan.

BBC, October 30

A suicide bomb attack has killed at least seven people and injured 11 near Pakistan's army headquarters, in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Officials said the blast occurred some 2km (1.24 miles) away from a secure compound containing the army HQ and President Pervez Musharraf's office.

General Musharraf was in his office at the time of the attack, but was unhurt.

The attack follows a number of recent bombings in Pakistan, which have been blamed on Islamic militants.

The location of the explosion was a police checkpoint.

A man had approached the checkpoint on foot and detonated his explosives, a government spokesman said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/30/pakistan.bomb/

* Suicide bomber kills six at checkpoint near Pakistani president's office

* President, inside his office at the time of the blast, was not injured

* Attack comes amid increasing violence and bomb attacks in Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suspected suicide bomb attack near Pakistan's army headquarters in Rawalpindi -- which houses President Pervez Musharraf's office -- killed six people and wounded 10 others Tuesday, police have said.

Emergency workers at the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack in Rawalpindi Tuesday.

Musharraf, who also serves as Pakistan's military chief, was inside his office at the time of the blast -- which occurred about a mile away, according to police said. He was not injured.

Police said the explosion ripped through an army residential complex in the sprawling military compound in Rawalpindi which is adjacent to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

The blast happened near the house of Pakistan's newly appointed chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, Gen. Tariq Majid. It is unclear if he was home at the time.

The target of the bombing is not clear. Pakistani security forces cordoned off the area and an investigation is under way.

The Associated Press reported police as saying that passengers on a minibus, passing the checkpoint at the time of the blast, numbered among the fatalities.

The city's police chief, Saud Aziz, said: "When police officers asked him to halt, the attacker got panicked. And as the police tried to capture him, he blew himself up," AP reported. "Our officers died to protect the citizens of Pakistan."

The attack comes amid growing violence in Pakistan, which has been rocked by several bomb blasts in recent weeks.

A suicide attack in Mangora, located in the Swat district, killed at least 24 people on October 25, many of them police officers. And the October 18 attack on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's motorcade in Karachi left at least 140 dead.

The Pakistan army has also been fighting supporters of the pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah in the north-west of the country, with clashes leaving around 100 dead.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/01/asia/militants.php

By Jane Perlez
Thursday, November 1, 2007

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: For much of the past century, the mountainous region of Swat was ruled as a princely kingdom where a benign autocrat, the Wali, bestowed schools for girls, health care for everyone and the chance to get a degree abroad for the talented.

Now the region, Pakistan's scenic jewel, is the newest front line between Islamic militants sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda and Pakistan's nervous security forces, whose fighting for the first time has moved beyond Pakistan's tribal fringe and into more settled areas of the country.

The battles are part of an expanding insurgency within Pakistan aimed directly at the government of General Pervez Musharraf, rather than at the NATO and American forces across the Afghan border.

Many here say it is fueled by anger over the government alliance with the Bush administration and what is seen as a pro-American agenda that has taken on greater prominence with the return of the opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, who accuses the militants of trying to take over the country.

So grave is the threat in the Swat region, too dangerous for foreign journalists to visit, that more than 2,000 Pakistani soldiers were dispatched to quell the fighters in July. For three months they remained mostly inactive, intimidated by the militants. Reinforcements sent last week were hit by a suicide bomber who killed 17 paramilitary soldiers.

On Thursday, government forces retaliated. Helicopters attacked about 500 militants at Khwazakhela, according to the home secretary for the North-West Frontier Province, Badshah Gul Wazir, killing at least 60 men. The militants said they had captured 44 men and were holding them hostage.

In many ways, Swat reflects in microcosm the reasons Pakistan has been transformed into such a dangerous place: The aggressiveness of the Islamic militants; the passivity of the Pakistani government and security forces; the starved civilian apparatus, including schools and hospitals, which could be the backbone of a counterinsurgency.

The intimidation takes many forms. Two days after the suicide attack, the heads of two members of the Frontier Constabulary were paraded through the dusty streets of Matta, a village over 30 kilometers, or about 20 miles, north of Saidu Sharif, the capital of Swat.

Grim messages accompanied the heads, calling the soldiers allies of the United States and threatening beheading for anyone else siding with the Americans, according to residents here who received news from relatives in the area.

Since the clashes began, schools have been closed, a vital polio vaccination campaign for children has been abandoned and police posts have been left empty, residents said. Lawlessness rules, by their accounts.

"The militants control about 10 percent of the territory" of the North-West Frontier Province, where Swat is situated, said Sher Mohammed, a lawyer who lives in the area and also here in Peshawar, where he was interviewed. "But psychologically they have terrorized the entire area. No one feels secure."

The atmosphere of fear and uncertainty pervades not only the larger North-West Frontier Province but also is taking hold in large cities, including the capital, Islamabad, and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi, where suicide attacks are now common compared to their frequency only a year ago.

Such attacks are increasingly deadly. The truck carrying Bhutto was hit by at least one suicide bomber during her arrival motorcade in Karachi two weeks ago, killing 140 of her supporters.

Bhutto left Pakistan on Thursday afternoon for her home in Dubai after lying low for most of the week behind a curtain of security provided by her political party at her family compound in Karachi.

"Pakistan is under siege," said Farook Adam Khan, a prominent lawyer who was educated at Sandhurst, the British military academy, and is a former anticorruption prosecutor appointed by Musharraf.

Khan warned that the militancy embodies the fury over the alliance between Musharraf and the Bush administration in the campaign against terror. "It's the anger at the pro-American policies, particularly the Musharraf-Bush axis."

A briefing earlier this year on law and order by the Home Department of the North-West Frontier Province, which is run by political allies of Musharraf, showed that the government was well aware of the mounting militancy.

The report, obtained by The New York Times, refers, in part, to "free movement of militants, their financial, physical and moral support growing in the presence of large number of law enforcement agents."

Another part of the report states in stark terms: "Morale of law enforcement agents and the people supportive of government on the decline. Talibanization, lawlessness and terrorism on the rise."

The briefing suggested that the government should lend support to moderate imams who would spread messages of tolerance, but that has yet to happen, a senior security official said here.

Another recommendation, to send more soldiers, was carried out in July but saw the army being intimidated by the militants. The extra complement sent last week attracted the suicide bomber that killed 17 soldiers.

Many of the militants around Swat are members of Tehreek Nafaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi - the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws - one of a number of extremist groups allied with the Taliban operating in the area.

The movement, led by an Islamic cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, was banned by the Musharraf government in 2002. But it has steadily gained strength, particularly in the past year, demonstrating what many here say is the weakness of the government in asserting itself not only in the tribal areas but beyond.

Fazlullah, who runs an FM radio station known as Maulana Radio, is the son-in-law of Sufi Mohammad, the pro-Taliban founder of the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws.

Mohammad was imprisoned by the Pakistani authorities at the end of 2001. But while he has remained behind bars, the group has gained adherents including some from among retired army officers, according to Zia ur Rehman, an analyst at the Sustainable Policy Development Institute in Islamabad.

Other supporters of the group included traders angered at the local government's policy of expanding taxes and farmers upset at high interest rates for loans to buy land. They were impressed by the group's insistence that taxes and interest rates were un-Islamic. All the while, civil servants sympathetic to the militants were posted to Swat, a senior government official here said.

Residents said that last year Fazlullah established the FM radio station and began radical sermons calling for the caliphate, the organization of Muslim power that held sway for centuries after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

He specially targeted uneducated women cloistered at home. They readily answered his appeals for donations. They also responded to his appeals to turn off television sets and shut down music. Fazlullah organized burning of television sets in village centers and forced the closure of video shops.

When Fazlullah appealed for help in building a large madrassa, or Islamic school, at Imam Dehri on the banks of the Swat River, it was built in short order by volunteer labor, the residents said.

Then his demands grew tougher, including a call for the banning of polio vaccinations for children, health officials here said. Fazlullah claimed the vaccination made men impotent. The local administration made a deal: Fazlullah could keep his radio station if he allowed the vaccinations to go ahead.

But the government-sponsored polio vaccination, backed by Unicef, which began in most of Pakistan this week, was canceled in Swat because the security situation was considered too risky, the health officials said.

The impact of the militants in Swat has been devastating for women, said Rukhshanda Naz, the director of the Aurat Foundation, which works for women's rights. Nearly a dozen girls' schools have been bombed by the militants in the last year, she said. When Fazlullah demanded that girls' schools be closed, civil servants in Swat agreed to a compromise. The schools would be kept open, but in a government letter, girls over age 8 were instructed to wear burqas, Naz said.

Last month all girls' schools were closed, she said.

Women who had been trained by the Aurat Foundation since 2000 on how to run for local council positions and had succeeded in winning seats are also now being told not to turn up, Naz said.

Like many others here, Naz says the militancy in the North-West Frontier Province is provoked by Musharraf's unpopular alliance with the United States.

A long way from Swat, in a well-appointed house in Islamabad decorated with photographs of Jacqueline Kennedy, the queen of England and Charles de Gaulle, the son of the last Wali of Swat, Miangul Aurangzeb, 79, laments the fall of his beloved kingdom.

"An autocratic state can be a very nice one," Aurangzeb said in an interview in his living room. "My grandfather and father and myself were on the better side."

When the Pakistani government swallowed Swat in 1969, Aurangzeb's father stepped down. Although he is the heir, Aurangzeb has never ruled.

He has his own explanation of why the militants are on the rise, a variation of that given by others in the region.

"Musharraf wants the support of the Americans, so he frightens the Americans and allows these people to come so Bush will give more money and weapons," he said. "This could have been curbed a year ago."

Ismail Khan contributed reporting.

Bloomberg

By Khalid Qayum and Paul Tighe

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan escalated raids against pro- Taliban gunmen in the Swat Valley near Afghanistan, as GEO television said President Pervez Musharraf's Cabinet discussed imposing a state of emergency in the country to end unrest.

Security forces killed as many as 70 militants since a cease-fire collapsed Oct. 31, the military said yesterday.

Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and ministers discussed emergency rule this week, GEO reported on its Web site, citing unidentified officials. The Swat unrest, militancy in the tribal region and court rulings that hamper the administration have created a ``grim law and order situation'' the meeting decided, according to the report.

Musharraf is experiencing the most widespread opposition to his rule since he took power in a 1999 military coup. The Supreme Court is hearing challenges to his re-election for a second five- year term last month, while security forces are facing increased attacks by Islamic militants and terrorist bombings as Pakistan prepares for general elections due by Jan. 15.

A joint session of Parliament may be called for Nov. 5 to endorse a presidential declaration of emergency regulations, GEO reported. The elections would go ahead as planned, individual rights wouldn't be suspended and the measures would be enforced for a limited time, it said, without elaborating.

Election Security

Pakistan's government is asking political parties to endorse a plan to tighten security during the elections after suicide bombers last month targeted former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's homecoming rally, killing at least 136 people. The attack came hours after Bhutto returned from eight years in self- imposed exile in Dubai and London to lead her Pakistan Peoples Party in the ballot.

Bhutto yesterday flew to Dubai to visit her family and plans to return to Pakistan before Nov. 8, according to an aide.

Martial law won't affect the work of the Supreme Court, GEO cited Justice Javed Iqbal as saying yesterday.

Musharraf, 64, won a majority of votes from lawmakers in the Oct. 6 presidential ballot. He wasn't declared the winner because the court barred the Election Commission from making an announcement until it rules on the challenges. Musharraf's present term ends Nov. 15.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim, vice chairman of Bhutto's PPP, and Wajihuddin Ahmed, a retired judge, asked the court to disqualify Musharraf on the grounds that the constitution doesn't allow him to run for president while keeping the post of army chief.

Ruling Delay

The 11-member panel of Supreme Court judges is scheduled to complete hearings today. If the case doesn't end today it will have to be heard on Nov. 12 because one of the judges has other commitments, the British Broadcasting Corp. cited Iqbal as saying.

Protests against Musharraf's rule increased after he removed the country's top judge, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on March 9 for misusing authority. Chaudhry was reinstated by his peers in July.

Demonstrations by Islamic parties against Musharraf escalated when he ordered an army raid at Islamabad's Red Mosque on July 10, ending a challenge by clerics who wanted to impose Islamic law in the capital. More than 100 people, including 75 militants, were killed in the raid.

Since the assault, more than 460 people have been killed in attacks, including suicide bombings, across the country.

The army has battled al-Qaeda and Taliban supporters in the country since 2001 when Musharraf backed the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism.

That U.S. support gained him financial assistance that helped the benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index climb 14- fold since 2001. Pakistan's $146 billion economy expanded at an average annual pace of 7.5 percent in the past four years.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net at
Last Updated: November 1, 2007 22:05 EDT

Thursday, Nov. 01, 2007
By Aryn Baker

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1678832,00.html

The attack on a Pakistani Air Force bus that killed eight military personnel and wounded dozens more south of Islamabad, Thursday, brought this week's death toll in suicide bombings to 15. But the spate of increasingly violent attacks on targets associated with his regime is only one of the many threats confronting the embattled President Pervez Musharraf. Challenges to his authority from the courtrooms of the capital to the rebellious mountains of the northwest have once again raised the specter of a declaration of martial law in Pakistan.

The trigger for such a decision could be a Supreme Court finding against Musharraf in legal action brought two weeks ago against his right to run for president while remaining in command of the military. The court is expected to rule within days on those cases, and also on actions challenging the legitimacy of the amnesty Musharraf offered to Benazir Bhutto on corruption charges, in order to smooth his way to a power-sharing deal with popular former prime minister, whose return to Pakistan from exile last week was greeted by a massive terror attack. And the court appears to be in no mood to submit to Musharraf, despite explicit threats from his government that ruling against him would bring martial law.

The death toll is rising along with the political temperature. A bomber had struck on Tuesday as well, this time a stone's throw away from Musharraf's residence in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, where a police post was attacked, leaving seven dead. And this week's casualties pushed beyond 700 the total number killed since the summer in violence related to extremism. At least two dozen attacks have directly targeted the military, prompting it to issue orders for officers to avoid wearing their uniforms in public or traveling in vehicles bearing military number plates. Though no group has claimed responsibility for the recent attacks, police officials have attributed them — and the attack on Bhutto's motorcade that left 141 dead — to al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists and the Pakistani Taliban currently gaining strength in the lawless tribal areas spanning the border with Afghanistan.

The tribal areas, meanwhile, are in the grip of an escalating war of insurgency and counterinsurgency, with recent clashes between militants and government forces leaving more than 100 dead. The army had been sent in to contend with the supporters of a charismatic pro-Taliban cleric bent on establishing Islamic law in the former tourist enclave of Swat, better known for its Buddha sculptures and ancient monasteries than for any kind of religious fundamentalism.

The rising death toll has many questioning whether Musharraf, deemed by Washington to be a bulwark in the fight against terrorism, is capable of restoring stability. Musharraf, who was elected by the legislature to a second term as president last month, has promised to step down as army chief before taking the oath of office on November 15. But if the court rules against him, he could simply suspend the constitution and continue to govern as head of the military. While such a move would keep Musharraf in charge, it would effectively derail plans to create a more popular, civilian-based government in Pakistan to fight extremism. And so acute has opposition to Musharraf's rule become that declaring martial law raises the danger that the combination of the tribal insurgency and related militancy in the cities, as well as anti-Musharraf agitation by the middle class (such as the recent lawyers' protests that forced Musharraf to back down from firing chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry), will become a perfect storm of opposition that could further weaken the regime. "Martial law at this stage would be a disaster for Pakistan," says Senator Raza Rabbani. "The increase in terrorist activity in the country, the growing extremism, has a direct relationship with the lack of democracy."

The threat of martial law puts the Supreme Court in a quandary. A public fed up with years of judges ruling to please those in power has welcomed recent decisions that have reestablished the primacy of the constitution over the whims of the executive branch. But upholding the constitution in this case risks provoking its suspension by the military man who also serves as president. "It's a tricky situation," admits Rabbani. "Musharraf's disqualifications [to run for president under the constitution] are so patent that to sidestep them would be difficult for the courts. But the risks of ruling against him are also high. It is going to be very difficult for the courts to find a middle course in which the constitution is upheld, yet the apple cart is not upset."

But the Court appears in no mood to retreat from its defense of the rule of law. This week, Chief Justice Chaudhry ruled that the government's deportation of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on September 10 was illegal, raising expectations that it may continue defying the government despite the consequences. Sharif's party, meanwhile, has announced that the former prime minister will make another attempt to return home sometime this month, adding to the mounting challenges to Musharraf's authority.

Musharraf's declining popularity has even begun to impinge on his ability to play the war-on-terror role for which Washington is depending on him. A new poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org shows that just 44% of Pakistanis are in favor of sending troops in to the tribal areas to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban. "The Pakistani people are not enthusiastic about Musharraf," says Steven Kull, director of the polling organization. "[They] do not support his recent crackdown on fundamentalists, and are lukewarm at best about going after al-Qaeda or the Taliban in western Pakistan. It appears that a U.S. strategy that rests on Musharraf being a frontline in the war on terrorism has poor prospects." And that's if Musharraf succeeds in holding on to power in the face of a gathering storm.

Anti-American sentiment propels extremists to gain ground in northwestern Pakistan.

By Jane Perlez
NYT
Friday, November 02, 2007

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — For much of the last century, Pakistan's mountainous region of Swat was ruled as a princely kingdom where a benign autocrat, the wali, bestowed schools for girls, health care for everyone and the chance to get a degree abroad for the talented.

Now the region is the newest front line in the battle between Muslim militants, who are sympathetic to the Taliban and al Qaeda, and Pakistan's nervous security forces. For the first time, heavy fighting has moved beyond Pakistan's tribal fringe and into more settled areas of the country as the extremists expand their control of northern Pakistan.

A growing insurgency is taking hold in northern Pakistan and is challenging the U.S.-backed government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, leading to more violence.

On Thursday, government forces backed by helicopters attacked about 500 militants in the area, killing about 60, said Badshah Gul Wazir, the home secretary for the North West Frontier Province. The militants said they had captured 44 members of the Frontier Corps and were holding them hostage.

The battles are part of what has become an expanding insurgency within Pakistan, aimed directly at President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government rather than at the NATO and U.S. forces across the Afghan border, who have been their target for several years.

Many say the militancy is fueled by anger over Musharraf's alliance with the Bush administration and what is seen as a pro-American agenda that has grown in prominence with the return of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. She has accused the militants of trying to take over the country.

The conflict in Swat reflects many of the reasons Pakistan has become so dangerous in recent years: the aggressiveness of the militants; the passivity of the government and its security forces; the starved civilian apparatus, including schools and hospitals, that has failed to provide the backbone for a counterinsurgency strategy. So grave is the threat that more than 2,000 Pakistani soldiers were dispatched to quell the militants in the Swat area in July. But for three months, they were intimidated and mostly inactive. Reinforcements sent last week were hit by a suicide bomber, who killed 17 paramilitary soldiers. That provoked the government's action Thursday.

Two days after the suicide attack, the heads of two members of the Frontier Constabulary were paraded through the dusty streets of Matta, a village about 20 miles north of Saidu Sharif, the capital of Swat. Grim messages accompanied the heads. They called the soldiers allies of the U.S. and threatened to behead anyone else who sided with the Americans.

Since the clashes began last week, schools have been closed, a polio vaccination campaign for children has been abandoned and police posts have been left empty, residents said. Lawlessness rules, by their accounts.

Pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah has set up a virtual ministate in Swat. Militias following Fazlullah's teachings have bombed girls schools and blown up video and CD shops. They drilled holes into the face of a 20-foot-tall stone Buddha, obliterating the features of the 1,300-year-old sculpture.

"The militants control about 10 percent of the territory" of the North West Frontier Province, where Swat is situated, said Sher Muhammad, a lawyer who has homes close to Swat and in Peshawar, where he was interviewed. "But psychologically they have terrorized the entire area. No one feels secure."

The atmosphere of fear pervades not only the North West Frontier Province but is also taking hold in Pakistan's large cities, including the capital, Islamabad, and the nearby military headquarters city of Rawalpindi, where suicide attacks are common, in contrast to a year ago.

A briefing in March on law and order by the Home Department of the North West Frontier Province, which is run by political allies of Musharraf, showed that the government was well aware of the mounting militancy.

The briefing report refers to the "free movement of militants, their financial, physical and moral support growing."

Another part of the report states: "Morale of law enforcement agents and the people supportive of government on the decline. Talibanization, lawlessness and terrorism on the rise." The briefing suggested that the government should lend support to moderate imams who would spread messages of tolerance, but that has yet to happen, a senior security official in Peshawar said.

A long way from Swat, in a well-appointed house in Islamabad decorated with photographs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the queen of England and Charles de Gaulle, the son of the last wali of Swat, Miangul Aurangzeb, 79, laments the fall of his beloved kingdom.

"An autocratic state can be a very nice one," Aurangzeb said in an interview in his living room. "My grandfather and father and myself were on the better side."

When the Pakistani government swallowed Swat in 1969, Aurangzeb's father stepped down. Although he is the heir, Aurangzeb has never ruled.

He has his own explanation of why religious militants are on the rise, a variation of that given by others in the region.

"Musharraf wants the support of the Americans, so he frightens the Americans and allows these people to come so Bush will give more money and weapons," Aurangzeb said. "This could have been curbed a year ago."

Additional material from The Associated Press.