The Agonist - Pakistan

Militants change tack in Pakistan

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:33:23 -0800

Syed Saleem Shahzad | Islamabad | Nov 17

Asia Times - After a month of operations against militants in the South Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan's military establishment realizes it is chasing shadows; the adversary has simply melted into the vastness of the inhospitable surrounding territory.

Unlike in previous operations in other troubled tribal areas, though, there is unlikely to be any peace agreement. The militants, headed by the Pakistani Taliban - the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - are bent on a long-term insurgency against the security apparatus, which they now see as heretic as the United States forces in Afghanistan.

In the past, the militants viewed the military as "firing friendly fire" under duress, mostly from the United States. In a fundamental shift, this is no longer the case and the militants will step up their activities.

The implications for Pakistan are profound. The civilian government headed by President Asif Ali Zardari is under relentless pressure from the US to crack down on militants, which includes al-Qaeda. If the militants carry through with their new attitude towards the military, and if the government steps up its efforts, ever-bloodier and broadening clashes are inevitable.

A nuclear power's act of proliferation

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:20:07 -0800

R. Jeffrey Smith & Joby Warrick | Urumqi, China | November 13

WaPo - In 1982, a Pakistani military C-130 left the western Chinese city of Urumqi with a highly unusual cargo: enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs, according to accounts written by the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and provided to The Washington Post.

The uranium transfer in five stainless-steel boxes was part of a broad-ranging, secret nuclear deal approved years earlier by Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto that culminated in an exceptional, deliberate act of proliferation by a nuclear power, according to the accounts by Khan, who is under house arrest in Pakistan.

U.S. officials say they have known about the transfer for decades and once privately confronted the Chinese -- who denied it -- but have never raised the issue in public or sought to impose direct sanctions on China for it. President Obama, who said in April that "the world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons," plans to discuss nuclear proliferation issues while visiting Beijing on Tuesday.

According to Khan, the uranium cargo came with a blueprint for a simple weapon that China had already tested, supplying a virtual do-it-yourself kit that significantly speeded Pakistan's bomb effort. The transfer also started a chain of proliferation: U.S. officials worry that Khan later shared related Chinese design information with Iran; in 2003, Libya confirmed obtaining it from Khan's clandestine network.

Report: Pakistani president suspected of graft in submarine sale

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:57:33 -0800

Paris | Nov 10

DPA - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is suspected of having received millions of dollars in kickbacks from the 1994 sale of three French submarines to the Pakistani Navy, the daily Liberation reported Tuesday.

In addition, investigators believe that the non-payment of the full amount of the agreed kickbacks may have led to the deaths of 11 French nationals in a 2002 terror attack in the city of Karachi.

In the report, Liberation says it acquired documents that allegedly show that Zardari received 4.3 million dollars in kickbacks from the sale of three Agosta 90 submarines for 825 million euros (currently 1.237 billion dollars).

The documents were sent to the Pakistani National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by British authorities in April 2001 and indicate that Zardari received several large payments into his Swiss bank accounts from a Lebanese businessman, Abdulrahman el-Assir, in 1994 and 1995.

According to a former executive of the French naval defence company DCN, French authorities chose el-Assir to act as intermediary in the deal.

He allegedly deposited a total of 1.3 million dollars in Zardari's bank accounts between August 15 and 30, 1994, one month before the submarine contract was signed, and then 1.2 million dollars and 1.8 million dollars one year later.

According to DCN employees who testified in the terror attack investigation, the kickbacks to Pakistan in the deal totalled 10 per cent of the purchase amount, with 6 per cent, or 49.5 million dollars, going to the military and 4 per cent, or 33 million euros, being funneled to political circles.

In 2001, former Pakistani Navy chief-of-staff Mansour Ul-Haq was arrested for his part in the deal and forced to repay 7 million dollars, the daily says.

Legal proceedings against Zardari were dropped in April 2008, several months before he was elected president. However, the husband of the assassinated former Pakistani president Benazir Bhutto was imprisoned from 1997 to 2004 on corruption charges unrelated to this affair.

The Pakistani president is one of his country's richest men, with a net worth estimated at 1.8 billion dollars.

The ongoing investigation in Paris into the May 8, 2002, terrorist attack that killed 11 DCN employees in Karachi may shed new light on the submarine purchase and his part in it.

The victims were in Karachi to complete work on the three submarines. According to French media, the magistrate looking into the bombing has rejected the theory that it was the work of al-Qaeda.

He is now considering the possibility that it was carried out by Pakistanis, either because only 85 per cent of the agreed kickbacks to politicians had been paid or because of negotiations carried out by French authorities to sell submarines to India, Pakistan's enemy.

In any case, some French parliamentarians are now demanding to be allowed to look into how the submarine contract with Pakistan was negotiated and executed.

Hersh: In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe?

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:18:54 -0800

Seymour Hersh | Nov 16 Issue | New Yorker

Obama did not say so, but current and former officials said in interviews in Washington and Pakistan that his Administration has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military. These would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis. At the same time, the Pakistani military would be given money to equip and train Pakistani soldiers and to improve their housing and facilities—goals that General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of the Pakistan Army, has long desired. In June, Congress approved a four-hundred-million-dollar request for what the Administration called the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund, providing immediate assistance to the Pakistan Army for equipment, training, and “renovation and construction.”

The secrecy surrounding the understandings was important because there is growing antipathy toward America in Pakistan, as well as a history of distrust. Many Pakistanis believe that America’s true goal is not to keep their weapons safe but to diminish or destroy the Pakistani nuclear complex. The arsenal is a source of great pride among Pakistanis, who view the weapons as symbols of their nation’s status and as an essential deterrent against an attack by India. (India’s first nuclear test took place in 1974, Pakistan’s in 1998.)

Seymour Hersh | Nov 16 Issue | New Yorker

In the tumultuous days leading up to the Pakistan Army’s ground offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan, which began on October 17th, the Pakistani Taliban attacked what should have been some of the country’s best-guarded targets. In the most brazen strike, ten gunmen penetrated the Army’s main headquarters, in Rawalpindi, instigating a twenty-two-hour standoff that left twenty-three dead and the military thoroughly embarrassed. The terrorists had been dressed in Army uniforms. There were also attacks on police installations in Peshawar and Lahore, and, once the offensive began, an Army general was shot dead by gunmen on motorcycles on the streets of Islamabad, the capital. The assassins clearly had advance knowledge of the general’s route, indicating that they had contacts and allies inside the security forces.

Pakistan has been a nuclear power for two decades, and has an estimated eighty to a hundred warheads, scattered in facilities around the country. The success of the latest attacks raised an obvious question: Are the bombs safe? Asked this question the day after the Rawalpindi raid, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We have confidence in the Pakistani government and the military’s control over nuclear weapons.” Clinton—whose own visit to Pakistan, two weeks later, would be disrupted by more terrorist bombs—added that, despite the attacks by the Taliban, “we see no evidence that they are going to take over the state.”

Clinton’s words sounded reassuring, and several current and former officials also said in interviews that the Pakistan Army was in full control of the nuclear arsenal. But the Taliban overrunning Islamabad is not the only, or even the greatest, concern. The principal fear is mutiny—that extremists inside the Pakistani military might stage a coup, take control of some nuclear assets, or even divert a warhead.

On April 29th, President Obama was asked at a news conference whether he could reassure the American people that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal could be kept away from terrorists. Obama’s answer remains the clearest delineation of the Administration’s public posture. He was, he said, “gravely concerned” about the fragility of the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari. “Their biggest threat right now comes internally,” Obama said. “We have huge . . . national-security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don’t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state.” The United States, he said, could “make sure that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure—primarily, initially, because the Pakistan Army, I think, recognizes the hazards of those weapons’ falling into the wrong hands.”

The questioner, Chuck Todd, of NBC, began asking whether the American military could, if necessary, move in and secure Pakistan’s bombs. Obama did not let Todd finish. “I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals of that sort,” he said. “I feel confident that the nuclear arsenal will remain out of militant hands. O.K.?”

Obama did not say so, but current and former officials said in interviews in Washington and Pakistan that his Administration has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military. These would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis. At the same time, the Pakistani military would be given money to equip and train Pakistani soldiers and to improve their housing and facilities—goals that General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of the Pakistan Army, has long desired. In June, Congress approved a four-hundred-million-dollar request for what the Administration called the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund, providing immediate assistance to the Pakistan Army for equipment, training, and “renovation and construction.”

The secrecy surrounding the understandings was important because there is growing antipathy toward America in Pakistan, as well as a history of distrust. Many Pakistanis believe that America’s true goal is not to keep their weapons safe but to diminish or destroy the Pakistani nuclear complex. The arsenal is a source of great pride among Pakistanis, who view the weapons as symbols of their nation’s status and as an essential deterrent against an attack by India. (India’s first nuclear test took place in 1974, Pakistan’s in 1998.)

A senior Pakistani official who has close ties to Zardari exploded with anger during an interview when the subject turned to the American demands for more information about the arsenal. After the September 11th attacks, he said, there had been an understanding between the Bush Administration and then President Pervez Musharraf “over what Pakistan had and did not have.” Today, he said, “you’d like control of our day-to-day deployment. But why should we give it to you? Even if there was a military coup d’état in Pakistan, no one is going to give up total control of our nuclear weapons. Never. Why are you not afraid of India’s nuclear weapons?” the official asked. “Because India is your friend, and the longtime policies of America and India converge. Between you and the Indians, you will fuck us in every way. The truth is that our weapons are less of a problem for the Obama Administration than finding a respectable way out of Afghanistan.”

Pakistan strikes deep into al-Qa'ida territory

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:26:54 -0700

Omar Waraich | Sherwangai | Oct 30

The Independent - In the mountains of Waziristan, the army claims to have recovered passports of extremists with links to the September 11 and Madrid attackers. Does this mean they are finally closing in on Osama bin Laden himself?

After a sweep of a militant stronghold in the lawless tribal region of South Waziristan, the Pakistani army has recovered passports purportedly belonging to two leading al-Qa'ida figures, including a member of the notorious Hamburg cell that orchestrated September 11.

Among a pile of documents, photographs, weapons and computers seen by The Independent yesterday in Waziristan, is a German passport belonging to Said Bahaji, the logistical expert of the notorious German terror cell that orchestrated the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Bahaji, 34, who is of Moroccan descent, obtained the passport just days before September 11 and used it to travel to Pakistan according to the information stamped in the document.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the passports, nor to establish the fate of their apparent holders. If they are authentic, the documents would prove that South Waziristan, a bastion of the Pakistani Taliban, has also been a sanctuary for foreign Jihadists and key al-Qa'ida figures in Pakistan. Major General Athar Abbas, the military's chief spokesman said the documents were being made public to demonstrate the presence of foreign militants in South Waziristan which borders Afghanistan.

A Spanish passport, also recovered, purportedly belonged to Raquel Burgos Garcia. According to a student card, she is the wife of Amir Azizi, a Moroccan terrorist suspect who has been linked to both the September 11 attacks and the Madrid bombings.

The documents were apparently found after the capture of the village of Sherwangai on 20 October. The take- over came after three days of intense fighting in the dusty, barren and expansive Waziristan wilderness, at the start of an anti-Taliban offensive launched under intense political pressure from the United States. "We moved in as a battalion at night to take the terrorists by surprise," Lieutenant Colonel Inam Tarar said yesterday. As he spoke, mortar shells were being blasted into a village across a gorge nearby.

The Pakistan army would not say whether the apparent holders of the passports had been killed in the current offensive, had died earlier, or escaped. The German passport, number L 8642163, was issued in Hamburg on 2 August 2001. It matches that on an Interpol-United Nations Security Council Special notice with the exception of the first digit. The photograph in the passport matches that on the notice as well, but was not laminated.

Hillary Clinton tells Pakistan it's doing too little against Al Qaeda

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:36:09 -0700

Paul Richter | Washington DC | October 30

LA Times - On a fence-mending visit, the secretary of State turns blunt, saying she finds it 'hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to.'

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, visiting Pakistan on a fence-mending tour, turned unusually blunt Thursday, accusing the government of failing to do all it could to track down Al Qaeda.

Clinton told a group of journalists in Lahore that she found it "hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to." Al Qaeda, she said, "has had a safe haven in Pakistan since 2002."

Clinton's three-day visit is her first to Pakistan since she became secretary of State, and its principal goal is to improve strained relations. On the first day of her visit, in Islamabad, she declared that she wanted to "turn a page" in the U.S.-Pakistani relationship.

But on the second day, frustration seemed to surface as Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York, confronted the long-standing strains between the countries.

Discussing Al Qaeda, she raised the issue of Pakistan's powerful military intelligence arm, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which has been accused of secretly supporting militant groups in Afghanistan.

"There are issues that, not just the U.S., but others have with your government and with your military security establishment," she said.

Her comments came on a day when she took questions from students at Government College University in Lahore who made it clear that they are deeply suspicious of the United States' intentions in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Speaking to a group of business executives, Clinton also criticized Pakistan for its low rate of tax collection, which reflects rampant tax evasion and, critics say, undermines the country's efforts to address poverty.

"At the risk of sounding undiplomatic, Pakistan has to have internal investment in your public services and your business opportunities," she told the executives. The U.S. government taxes "everything that moves and everything that doesn't, and that's not what we see in Pakistan."

The U.S.-Pakistani relationship has recently been under strain. Many Pakistanis believe U.S. strikes by drone aircraft in the western tribal areas are an infringement of Pakistani sovereignty, and there has been an outcry over U.S. legislation providing $7.5 billion in new aid, which many Pakistanis see as American meddling in their government.

A U.S. official said Clinton's comments about Al Qaeda were not part of a prepared message she had intended to deliver, but reflected her own heartfelt views.

"She has very deeply held views about Al Qaeda," said the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject. "You've got to remember, she was a senator from New York on 9/11."

Daniel Markey of the Council on Foreign Relations said he was surprised that Clinton would raise the issue of Pakistan's efforts on Al Qaeda, given the current fragility of the civilian government.

"It seems like an odd time to come in and send this one across the bow," said Markey, a former State Department official just returned from a trip to Pakistan. "It's a little bit surprising."

Clinton's comments on Al Qaeda could ruffle feathers in Pakistan, where the army is engaged in a ground offensive in the militant haven of South Waziristan, begun at the strong urging of the United States.

A Pakistani official predicted that Clinton's comments would make some people in Pakistan angry, "some perhaps violently so." But he said that in his view, Clinton's candor was a sign that the relationship was maturing.

Clinton has earned a reputation for sometimes speaking with candor more closely associated with senators than chief diplomats.

On her first trip to Asia, early this year, she upset human rights advocates by saying China's intransigence on human rights should not affect the Washington-Beijing relationship on other issues.

Last spring, when insurgents invaded Pakistan's Swat Valley and appeared headed for the capital, Islamabad, she bluntly warned leaders that they might be risking the country's existence by failing to act against the insurgents.

Pakistani media have been skeptical about the earnestness of Clinton's trip. This morning, an editorial in the Nation newspaper called the visit "a PR exercise aimed at winning over hearts and minds. But with what? A few sanitized meetings with selected media people, students and the 'right' civil society members?"

Patterns of Violence

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:03:28 -0700

Steve Hynd writes on the growing violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, here.

More than 95 dead in Peshawar blast

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:29:16 -0700

Zahid Hussain/ Islamabad & Nico Hines | Oct 28

Times online - More than 95 people were killed by a car bomb in Pakistan today as Hillary Clinton arrived to offer US support for the Government’s crackdown on militants.

A series of terrorist attacks have shaken the country since Pakistani troops launched an assault against Islamist extremists in the tribal borderlands near Afghanistan.

Eyewitness and police in the north-western city of Peshawar said the bomb struck the area of the Meena market, which is generally visited by woman shoppers. Witnesses said many of the victims were women and children.

The blast set many shops on fire and people were trapped inside a multi-storey building, which collapsed after becoming engulfed by flames. As the wounded tried to flee, they were engulfed in flames and buried alive by falling masonry.

“Most of the bodies are charred beyond recognition,” a doctor told The Times.

”My entire shop fell on me. Smoke filled my face,” said Raza Ali, 30, a grocery store owner whose face was badly burnt.

Shakil Ahmed, another shopkeeper, said: “There was a huge explosion and black smoke covered the area.”

The explosives-packed car was apparently parked outside a shop and was denoted by remote control, police said.

Relief workers said the number of casualties could rise as most of the 200 wounded were in a critical state. Others may still be trapped inside buildings.

Pakistan: Security forces capture Taliban chief’s hometown

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:05:37 -0700

DAWN.Com | Islamabad | Oct 24

DAWN.Com Dawn Media Group -

The figures given by official quarters are impossible to verify, but the army says more than 160 militants and 23 troops have been killed in the week-long South Waziristan offensive. — Photo by AFP

PESHAWAR: Pakistan said Saturday it had captured Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud’s hometown as the US demonstrated its support for the war on the militants with an air strike that killed more than 14 people.

Security officials said the army overran Mehsud’s town of Kotkai overnight after three days of aerial bombardments which had underlined the huge challenge facing the military in taking on the Taliban in their tribal heartland.

And in another part of the northwest tribal belt, a missile fired by an unmanned US drone spy plane killed more than 14 people including three foreign militants, local officials said.

Although figures are impossible to verify, the army says more than 160 militants and 23 troops have been killed in the week-long South Waziristan offensive. Twelve militants and three soldiers died in the final stages of the battle for Kotkai, it added. Snip

The army launched the drive last Saturday, pitting 30,000 troops against estimated 10,000-12,000 Taliban fighters where Al-Qaeda-linked militants are believed to have plotted attacks against the West as well as in Pakistan.

The army had promised to make the Taliban leadership a particular target of their offensive and sealed off the main road into Kotkai last weekend.

Media Gallery

Waziristan’s displaced children

After weeklong battle, Pakistani Army seizes Taliban Stronghold (Miami Herald, McClatchy Newspapers, 15 min ago)

Pak soldiers capture stronghold in S. Waziristan, Arab News, Sun, Oct 25

Pakistan Coming Unglued

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:28:54 -0700

While the Pakistani army is fighting the Taliban in Swat the assault on normal life in the larger cities in the country continues:

The provincial governments on Tuesday ordered the closure of government and private educational institutions across the country following an attack on the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) in which six people, including three female students, were killed and 29 others injured.

Earlier this year while I was in India trying to get a Pak visa I remember thinking that there was a tremendous amount of violence in the country, an almost daily drumbeat of bad news was reported in India about Pakistan. I chalked part of it up to their mutual animosity. But now?

Pakistan Closes All Schools

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:26:59 -0700

Lahore | October 21

Daily Times - All schools, colleges closed nationwide

* Three women among six killed in first-ever attack on students as twin suicide bombers hit Islamic University Islamabad
* 25 female students among 29 injured
* Punjab closes educational institutions indefinitely while NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh closed till Sunday

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The provincial governments on Tuesday ordered the closure of government and private educational institutions across the country following an attack on the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) in which six people, including three female students, were killed and 29 others injured.

The Sindh Education Department announced the closure of all government and private schools in the province until October 25 (Sunday), adding universities would remain closed on October 21 (Wednesday) only. The NWFP and Balochistan governments have also announced the closure of all education institutions until Sunday. Educational institutions in the federal capital had already been shut down until October 25.

Unwanted break: In Punjab, a private TV channel reported all government and private education institutions would remain closed until further orders. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told the channel all education institutions would reopen once the security situation improved.

The decision to shut down schools and colleges nationwide was prompted by the twin suicide bombings at the IIUI on Tuesday. The first blast targeted the cafeteria adjacent to a girls’ hostel around 2:10pm, while the second one targeted the Sharia and Law Department building.

Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Aamir Ali Ahmad told Daily Times a general notice of caution had earlier been issued to the university administration in light of the security situation.

Condemning the blasts, the US embassy in Islamabad said the “vicious attack ... reveals yet again the cruel and inhuman nature of the terrorists operating against Pakistan and its people”, AFP reported. In separate statements, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also condemned the blast and expressed their grief over the death of students, APP reported. staff report/daily times monitor

From the Pakistani Media and Bloggers

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:47:02 -0700

The battle for Waziristan

By Sayed Bokhari
DAWN.Com Sunday, 18 Oct, 2009

The army has spent weeks cutting off militans’ escape routes and softening up targets in the region, using limited intelligence-led ground and air strikes.
— Photo by AP

Though military operations are launched unannounced to catch the enemy off guard, the case of Operation Rah-i-Nijaat has been altogether different.

While at the time of writing troop movement and reports emanating from Peshawar indicated that the operation had begun in South Waziristan, since June there have been regular indications that the army was ready to start hostilities against the Taliban in the area.

This strategy may have been initiated to give ample time to the civilian population of Waziristan to leave for safer places and convert the area into a battlefield where the security forces could unleash their arsenal without causing too much collateral damage. Snip

Figures vary, but it is estimated that Waziristan is home to more than 5,000 hardened militants besides some 2,000 Uzbek fighters. The total strength of the enemy in the area is said to be 10,000. Snip

In view of the operation that appears to have begun, the army placed two divisions consisting of 27,000 soldiers to take on an estimated 10,000 hard-core Taliban militants. The army has spent weeks cutting off militants’ escape routes and softening up targets in the region, using limited intelligence-led ground and air strikes.

It is believed that over the past three months the army has been drawing up plans, holding in-depth deliberations and carrying out critical analyses of past actions in the area. One issue that the army would have deliberated on is that of the peace accords drawn up in the past that only helped the militants gain respite from hostilities and a chance to reorganise. Another measure that has been taken to paralyse the militants in the area is the placement of an economic blockade since last June. This measure is said to have restricted supplies to the Taliban. It is hoped that it would further squeeze the fighting ability of the militants.

Security forces patrol streets in a vicinity of Waziristan,
Sat, Oct. 17, 2009

South Waziristan:
Operation against Terrorists Launched
'Pakistan Times' Federal Bureau Oct. 18

ISLAMABAD: The security forces of the country have launched an operation against the terrorist elements in South Waziristan. Snip

Director General (DG) Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Ather Abbas said Pak Army operation has been started against the extremists in South Waziristan Agency (SWA) last night, a report said Saturday.

Talking to media here, he said Pak Army is engaged in gunbattle at various points in the SWA.

According to military sources, there are 1000 to 1500 militants present in the SWA and the operation is being launched after three-month siege of the extremists.

Meanwhile, a report from Wana says that fighter jets of security forces pounded militants’ positions in South Wazirisitan, killing 11 terrorists and destroying 2 hideouts during the ongoing military operation on Saturday. Snip

According to details, a security man was martyred and three others injured in an remote detonated bomb attack on a vehicle of security forces in Karkunray area near Jandola in SWA. The military forces repulsed and pounded militants’ positions in Karkunray with the help of fighter jets. Snip

Political administration has said that the military’s infantry have begun operation against terrorists from three sides. It said over 4000 to 5000 terrorists are present in the area, most of them are hiding in Mehsud area. Snip

After launch of security forces operation against militants, massive migration from Shakoi and Zangra areas of South Waziristan is going on.

Security forces battle militants in South Waziristan
DAWN.Com Oct 18

Pakistan has mounted numerous offensives against militants in its northwest since 2002, meeting with limited success and costing the lives of 2,000 troops.
— Photo by AP

PESHAWAR: Security forces pounded Taliban positions with heavy artillery on Sunday, pressing a major operation in South Waziristan for a second day and reportedly killing up to 20 militants.

Meanwhile, DawnNews reported that 10 militants and two security officials had been killed in clashes as troops moved deeper into South Waziristan and a curfew remained imposed in Wana, Mirali and Miramshah. Snip

The rugged district is part of a tribal belt on the Afghan border that US officials call the most dangerous place in the world, home to thousands of Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked fighters branded a major threat to the west. Snip

‘We estimate that around 100,000 more people can be displaced (beyond the 90,000 who have already flet), say a total of around 150,000 to 200,000 people can be displaced,’ Colonel Waseem Shahid, from an army support group, told AFP.

There were heavy clashes in mountainous forest at Sharwangi and near Spinkai Raghzai, which the army said it captured after nightfall.

Troops established a checkpoint en route to Kotkai, the home town of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

Pakistan 'starts Taliban assault'

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:45:39 -0700

Oct 17

BBC -

Fierce fighting has broken out as the Pakistan army battles Taliban militants in their remote strongholds in the South Waziristan province.

Local officials said 30,000 troops, backed by artillery, had moved into the region where Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is based.

Officials said the Taliban were resisting as troops mobilised from the north, east, and west.

** Bloodshed feared as Pakistan moves into Taliban heartland
** Pakistan offensive: troops meet heavy Taliban resistance
** Pakistan targets Taliban in major ground operation
** Pakistan begins offensive against Taliban, al-Qaeda
** Pakistan finally takes on the monster it created

Gunmen, Bombers Hit 5 Sites in Pakistan; 38 Die

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:17:10 -0700

Karin Brulliard | Islamabad | Oct 15

WaPo - Pakistan came under a deadly, staccato series of attacks Thursday that left at least 38 people dead and raised questions about the ability of the nation's security and intelligence agencies to thwart a rising Islamist insurgency.

The attacks began about 9 a.m. in Lahore, the bustling capital of the Punjabi heartland, with what appeared to be coordinated attacks on police installations. The attacks paralyzed the city, Pakistan's cultural hub, and riveted a nation that has been engulfed in deadly attacks over the past 11 days.

The first target was the Federal Investigation Agency, a law enforcement branch. Next, gunmen -- some strapped with explosives -- attacked a police training school. A third group stormed a police commando training center, where some militants fired shots and tossed grenades from a roof and others took trainees' families hostage in a residential area of the vast campus.

The attacks killed 28 people, about half of them security officers, authorities said. Ten were militants involved in staging the attacks. They were followed by a suicide car bombing that killed three police officers and seven civilians at a police station in Kohat, a northwestern city surrounded by insurgent-heavy areas. As dusk fell, a fifth blast rocked government workers' residences in Peshawar, the Northwest's main city.

Two of the Lahore targets, the FIA and the police training school, were previously attacked over the past two years. That fact, combined with last weekend's bold militant siege of the army headquarters in Rawalpindi -- known here as "Pakistan's Pentagon" -- prompted a public flood of doubts about security agencies' preparedness and cooperation with one another.

"One was expecting that there would be better planning and more fortifications," said Faisal Saleh Hayad, a lawmaker with the Pakistan Muslim League-Q. "Unfortunately it has transpired today that none of them are in place."

Al-Qaeda's guerrilla chief lays out strategy

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:36:23 -0700

The top field commander of al-Qaeda, in an exclusive interview with Asia Times Online, proves he is alive and well after repeated drone attacks and delineates in broad strokes al-Qaeda's strategy. The Afghanistan trap, baited on September 11, 2001, has been sprung, says formidable guerrilla leader Ilyas Kashmiri, and events from Gaza to Mumbai should not be seen in isolation but as part of the master plan to bloody the United States and its proxies. - Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Exclusive

ANGORADA, South Waziristan, at the crossroads with Afghanistan - A high-level meeting on October 9 at the presidential palace between Pakistan's civil and military leaders endorsed a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda in the South Waziristan tribal area - termed by analysts as the mother of all regional conflicts.

At the same time, al-Qaeda is implementing its game plan in the South Asian war theater as a part of its broader campaign against American global hegemony that began with the attacks in the United States of September 11, 2001.

Al-Qaeda's target remains the United States and its allies, such as Europe, Israel and India, and it does not envisage diluting this
strategy by embracing Muslim resistances on narrow parameters. In this context, militant activity in Pakistan is seen as a complexity rather than as a part of al-Qaeda's strategy.

Militants have been particularly active over the past few days. Last Thursday, a car loaded with explosives rammed into the compound wall of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, killing at least 17 people. Then on Saturday, militants staged an audacious attack on the the Pakistani military headquarters in Rawalpindi, the twin city of the capital, Islamabad. On Monday, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in market town in the Swat Valley region, killing 41 people and injuring 45 others.

Pakistan is at critical juncture, with the armed forces gathered in their largest-ever numbers (almost a corps, as many as 60,000 troops) around South Waziristan to flush out the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Taliban (PTT), al-Qaeda and their allies from the Pakistani tribal areas.

In these tense times, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, an al-Qaeda leader who, according to American intelligence is al-Qaeda's head of military operations and whose death they wrongly confirmed in a recent US Predator drone attack in North Waziristan, spoke to Asia Times Online.

He invited this correspondent to a secret hideout in the South Waziristan-Afghanistan border area, where drones regularly fly overhead.

This is Ilyas' first-ever media interaction since he joined al-Qaeda in 2005. He is a veteran commander from the struggle with India over divided Kashmir.