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Maulana Fazlullah

Mullah Radio

TNSM

India-Pakistan

Pakistani

At Large

20071113

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India-Pakistan

Death of a terrorist leader

2018-06-21

[AspiStrategist] Late last week a US drone killed Maulana Fazlullah, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban—known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province. This is a serious body blow to the TTP, which had already been significantly weakened by several counter-insurgency and counterterrorism operations in recent years. Fazlullah, who was 44 years old, was a particularly nasty individual. He took over as the TPP’s leader after another US drone strike killed his predecessor, Hakimullah Mehsud, in November 2013. Fazlullah sought the imposition of Sharia law throughout Pakistan. He led the insurgency in the Swat valley in 2007–2009 during which music and barber shops were banned and girls were discouraged from going to school. It took some 35,000 troops to dislodge him and his fighters from that area. But Fazlullah will be especially remembered for two notoriously vicious terrorist acts. First he ordered the assassination in 2012 of 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai because of her advocacy of education for girls. She was badly injured in the terrorist attack but recovered, and was eventually awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

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India-Pakistan

2 kids die in grenade mishap in Swat Valley

2017-02-13

Two children were killed and another critically wounded in an accidental grenade explosion near Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Swat Valley on Sunday, officials said. The children of a shepherd family were playing in a mountainous village in Buner district when they found the hand grenade and accidentally set it off, local government official Zariful Maani told AFP. The two brothers, aged nine and 10, died, while their seven-year-old female cousin is in critical condition, Maani said. Read more: Weapon-shaped pens becoming popular among Swat children Another local government official, Aizaz Ahmad, confirmed the details. School-going children remain caught up in the years-long conflict between security forces and militants in the region following a Taliban insurgency in the area since 2007. In the beginning of 2007, Taliban militants led by Maulana Fazlullah, now central chief of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took control of the Swat district and waged a campaign of attacking schools, killing policemen, and beheading opponents. However, Pakistani officials say that Fazlullah fled to Afghanistan during an offensive the military launched in 2009. Despite the operation, the Taliban targeted schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in 2012.

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India-Pakistan

Two militants affiliated with Fazlullah group arrested

2016-03-18

DAGGAR: Police claimed to have arrested two suspected militants having affiliation with Maulana Fazlullah group. Both the arrested men carried head money. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, District Police Officer Syed Khalid Hamdani said that one of the arrested militants, Badsha Hussain, carried a bounty of Rs1 million and the other, Farman, Rs500,000 million. The DPO flanked by SP Investigation Mohammad Arif Khan and DSP Pir Baba Farman Khan produced the veiled militants before journalists. The DPO said the arrested men were wanted to law-enforcement agencies for attacks on Gandigar police station in 2009. He said as per record Badsha Hussain was trained at a Taliban centre in Bajaur Agency and Farman at Sadiqa Banda and Jabbar training centre in Upper Dir. Our correspondent in Mardan adds: The counter-terrorism department (CTD) of police claimed to have arrested three suspected militants in Mardan on Tuesday. According to CTD’s DSP Sanober Khan, acting on a tip-off about the presence of militants personnel of the department raided a house in Saroshah village. He said after a brief exchange of fire with the militants the personnel arrested them. The DSP claimed that the arrested militants were planning to carry out terrorist activities in the area. He said the personnel seized arms and ammunitions from their possession. The seized items included one Kalashnikov, two pistols with cartridges, three hand-grenades and some other explosive materials. The arrested men were identified as Sulaiman alias Saifullah, Hayat Alam and Kashifur Rahman. The DSP said they belonged to Mohmand Agency chapter of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2016

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India-Pakistan

Peshawar School Massacre Splits Afghan, Pakistani Militant Groups

2014-12-20

[NBCNEWS] The massacre of innocent schoolchildren at a military-run school in Pakistan this week didn't just shock the nation and the world — it divided even the militant groups who had seemed hardened to indiscriminate violence. "The intentional killing of innocent people, children and women are against the basics of Islam and this criteria has to be considered by every Islamic party and government," Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement soon after the horrific siege, which left 148 people dead, most of them children. The Afghan Taliban are allied to the Pakistani Taliban across the border, and both are fighting to overthrow their own governments and establish an Islamic state. The two groups are so closely linked that the Pakistanis pledge allegiance to the Afghan group's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. The Pakistani Taliban — headed by Maulana Fazlullah, the man who ordered the assassination of schoolgirl Mala‎la Yousafzai — claimed responsibility for the Peshawar school attack. He said it was revenge for Pakistan's military campaign against the Taliban in the country's northwest. After the Afghan Taliban, a major splinter group of the ‎Pakistani Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan- Jamaatul Ahrar (TTP-JA) also publicly condemned the attack, calling it "un-Islamic, inhuman and unethical." "We consider Mullah Mohammad Omar our supreme leader. When he and his Taliban condemned the attack on school, there is no other way for us except to strongly condemn the attack on the school and the ruthless killing of innocent children there," said Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman of the TTP-JA. He said they had expressed their sympathies and condolences to the families of the children who died in the siege at the Army Public School in Peshawar, where many students are the children of Pakistani military personnel. Privately, commanders agreed that the TTP's actions were a step too far. "No religion allows this what these people had done in Peshawar," a senior Pakistani commander who spoke on the condition of anonymity told NBC News. "Attacking a school and killing innocent children is not bravery." Tell that to Boko Haram. Attacking schools and killing or kidnapping innocent children is their specialty. Another member of the TTP-JA said the massacre had saddened them — and hurt their standing. "It damaged the image of jihadi organizations in eyes of the fellow Muslims, which Maulana Fazlullah and his men don't understand," said the commander, speaking on condition of anonymity. The strike also looked certain to deepen existing divisions. "These were the reasons we left Maulana Fazlullah and his men. They don't have principles for running a jihadi organization," said the commander. "Fazlullah and his men have no vision and mission except to kill innocent people." He said before separation, they had tried several times to convince Fazlullah and his senior commanders to develop a proper strategy ‎and have policies regarding women's healthcare and education — but he didn't listen. "Maulana Fazlullah has become controversial in jihadi circles and it was a huge embarrassment for him and his organization when the Afghan Taliban condemned their act publicly," the commander said. A senior member of the Afghan Taliban said Fazlullah and his commanders complained to them after the group denounced the massacre. "We told them that attacking schools and killing children, even non-Muslims, has never been our policy," he added.

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India-Pakistan

The Mullah behind the children's massacre

2014-12-17

From the WaPo ...Maulana Fazlullah was riding high. Tens of thousands of people in the Swat Valley were tuning in to his illegal FM radio station, from which he excoriated the evils of female education and urged jihad. His influence was growing at such a rapid clip village women donated earrings and bangle bracelets to the cause. A cult figure was born. “He is totally out of control,” one local leader told Schmidle, who found Fazlullah particularly dangerous. “His ambitions exceeded the mere creation of an Islamic emirate in Swat,” Schmidle wrote in the New York Times....By Fazlullah’s twisted logi, here the WaPo is flat out wrong, Fazlullah's logic is flawless, its the premise 'girls should not have education, boys should not have secular education' that are the problem' the attacks made sense. The killings were a response to a recent military crackdown on Taliban activities following years of ambivalent policies toward homegrown Islamic militants. They reasserted the Taliban’s presence and power to cause mayhem. But the killings also reflected Fazlullah’s desire to obliterate women’s chances to secure an education. Since 2009, Buzzfeed noted, militants have targeted more than 1,000 schools — a time frame that closely traces the rise of Fazlullah.

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India-Pakistan

Taliban bringing their war to streets of Karachi

2012-08-11

Militants from Swat, South Wazoo and Mohmand have organized in Bloody Karachi, threatening and killing ANP leaders and raising funds through extortion and abductions for ransom Talibs have brought their war to the streets of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... threatening key leaders of the Pashtun-dominated secular-leaning Awami National Party (ANP) and raising funds through extortions, killing those who refuse to pay. Leaders of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) have recently threatened to kill Pashtuns from the Mehsud tribe living in Bloody Karachi if they do not leave the ANP. The threats came from people linked with Waliur Rehman Mehsud, chief of TTP's South Waziristan chapter, party sources said. Bloody Karachi is Pakistain's largest city, and about 5 million of its estimated 18 million residents are Pashtuns from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , FATA and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... . A large number of Pashtuns migrated to the city after unrest and violence in northern Pakistain since the war on terror began in 2001. After the killing of key Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in drone attacks and military operations, a number of snuffies have also fled to Bloody Karachi in recent years, security experts and police officials say.   Although there are several Bloody Karachi-based bad boy outfits associated with Al Qaeda and Taliban consisting mainly of non-Pashtun members, snuffies from FATA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have recently been found involved in extortion and seeking protection money from Pashtun traders and transporters, and are believed to have killed a number of rival political figures. "In the beginning, the snuffies from the tribal areas did not get involved in subversive activities. This was in line with a TTP policy to use Bloody Karachi only for fundraising and rest and recuperation," said a tribal elder based in Sohrab Goth. "But now they seem to have changed their strategy." Taking advantage of the ongoing ethnic violence in the city, snuffies belonging to TTP's Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... chapter killed dozens of elders and political figures of Swat who were travelling to or living in Bloody Karachi. On June 18, Sher Ali Khan, head of the Swat Qaumi Ittehad and chairman of the Pakistain Seamen's Union, was killed in the Frontier Colony area. His relatives blamed his death on Swati snuffies hiding in the city. Some of his family members, especially his nephew, former councilor Malik Riaz, were killed by the Taliban when they controlled Swat. Taking advantage of the ongoing ethnic violence in the city, snuffies loyal to Maulana Fazlullah killed dozens of elders and political figures of Swat in Bloody Karachi On January 5, Saeed Ahmed Khan, district president of ANP, was killed in an attack on his house in the Metroville area of SITE Town. Belonging to Manja village of Swat's Kabal tehsil, he was an influential political figure in both Swat and Bloody Karachi. One of the attackers rubbed out by a police constable assigned to Saeed Khan's security was identified as Aminullah, a runaway TTP Swat bad boy. "A number of other Swati political and social figures have also been killed in the streets of Bloody Karachi by snuffies loyal to TTP Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah," said Sher Shah Khan, a parliamentarian elected from Swat. The bad boy group involved in the killings of pro-government elders of Swat in Bloody Karachi is mainly led by Ibn-e-Aqeel alias Khog, and Sher Muhammad alias Yaseen. Both are among the most wanted people in Swat. The task of these liquidations was assigned to them two and half years ago by TTP commander Ibn-e-Amin, of the lower Shawar area of Swat. Ibn-e-Amin - among the most dangerous bad boy commanders in Swat and linked with Al Qaeda - was killed in a drone attack in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency in December 2010. Another bad boy group active in Bloody Karachi is loyal to TTP South Waziristan chief Waliur Rehman Mehsud, led in the city by Khan Zaman. In the beginning, they were believed to be involved in extortion from Mehsud rustics from South Waziristan who run transport and heavy machinery businesses in Bloody Karachi. The sum they asked for ranged from Rs1 million to Rs5 million. But recently, they have started threatening the people from the Mehsud tribe to leave the ANP. "Most of the party's offices in Sohrab Goth, Mingopir, Kunwari Colony, Pashtunabad and New Sultanabad have been closed down after the threats, and party members belonging to the Mehsud clan have gone underground," a provincial leader of the ANP said. He requested anonymity for security reasons. Mehsud rustics living in Bloody Karachi are seen as supporters of the ANP. Two of the party's elected members of Sindh Assembly also belong to the Mehsud tribe. Although the ANP was the main target of terrorism in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and had lost scores of party workers and politicians in attacks carried out by TTP because of their opposition to militancy and extremism, their Bloody Karachi leaders have never been threatened by Taliban groups before. The Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... chapter of TTP has also formed a cell in Bloody Karachi for collecting protection money from the people belonging to Mohmand Agency. The network was developed by TTP Mohmand chief Omar Khalid and front man Ikramullah Mohmand to raise funds, said an elder from the Mohmand agency. Qari Shakeel, deputy to Omar Khalid, calls the traders himself, demanding money, he added. The network, led by TTP commander Yousaf Khan Mian in Bloody Karachi, has killed several traders who refused to pay, the elder said. Mohmand rustics based in Bloody Karachi usually sell timber and construction material. Talibs are also involved in the July 17 attack on a WHO doctor and a July 20 slaying of a local community activist working with Polio eradication campaign in Sohrab Goth area, police say. Mehsud rustics living in Bloody Karachi are seen as supporters of the ANP. Two of the party's elected members of Sindh Assembly belong to the tribe Mazshar Mashwani, a bigwig at the Crime Investigation Department (CID), said Talibs hiding in Bloody Karachi had been killing ANP leaders and CID personnel for the last few months. "A group of TTP consisting of 9 or 10 snuffies has become active in the remits of SITE, Pirabad and Mingophir cop shoppes, and killed several ANP and CID men," he said. The bad boys, he said, were also carrying out fundraising through kidnapping for ransom, extortion and other means. Several CID and Rangers personnel involved in a crackdown against Talibs were killed in Pashtun dominated areas of Bloody Karachi in the last few weeks. Experts and tribal elders say law-enforcement agencies should launch a "selective and surgical" operation in Bloody Karachi against snuffies who are hiding in the city. A number of Taliban suspects have been tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! for murder, extortion and abduction in the last three months, according to news reports. They include Nazeerullah Mehsud (July 25), Faisal Mehsud and Khan Mohammad alias Sajid (July 2), Jahangir Khan Akakhel (June 9) and Muhammad Yaseen Mehsud alias Naib-Commander (May 28). Police have also killed Omar Khitab, a key TTP leader, in a July 27 encounter. Khitab, belonging to South Waziristan, used to collect forced donations from Pashtun traders in Bloody Karachi, said Chaudhry Bashir, in charge of Mingophir cop shoppe.

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India-Pakistan

Roadside bomb kills three in Upper Dir

2012-07-22

[Dawn] A roadside kaboom destroyed a pick-up truck in a northwestern Pak town near the Afghan border on Saturday killing three people inside, officials said. The improvised bomb "exploded using a remote controlled device" near the town of Dhog Darra in Upper Dir district, regional police chief Ehsanullah Khan said. Khan added that three people were killed and eight maimed in the attack, two of whom were at death's door. The dead included the driver of the vehicle and two young men. "It was a bad turban act aimed at creating fear among the people in the area," Khan said. Dhog Darra is considered the stronghold of an anti-Taliban militia set up by local people in Upper Dir district. The district lies close to Pakistain's lawless tribal region and eastern Afghanistan's troubled provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack, but an intelligence official in Upper Dir told AFP the attackers were followers of Maulana Fazlullah, a radical holy man from the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... valley, who fled into Afghanistan following a military offensive.

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India-Pakistan

Militants take villagers hostage in Bajaur

2012-07-13

[Dawn] Dozens of snuffies coming from Afghanistan took scores of villagers hostage in Pakistain's northwest Thursday, sparking fighting that killed at least 10 people, Pak officials said. The snuffies who staged the cross-border attack appeared to be targeting members of an anti-Taliban militia in Katkot village near Pakistain's Bajaur tribal area, said Tariq Khan, a local government official. Pakistain has railed against Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... forces for not doing enough to stop Afghanistan-based snuffies from launching cross-border attacks, but has received little sympathy. The US and Afghan governments, on the other hand, have long complained that Pakistain allows sanctuary to snuffies fighting in Afghanistan. The snuffies who attacked Thursday came from Afghanistan's Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... and took hundreds of villagers hostage, including anti-Taliban militiamen, said Khan. The Mighty Pak Army surrounded the village and killed eight krazed killers, prompting the faceless myrmidons to retaliate by shooting to death two militiamen, he added. Soldiers have retrieved scores of villagers, but dozens more are still held by the snuffies or trapped in their homes by the fighting, said Khan and two security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The army called in gunship helicopters for support but have not used them yet for fear of civilian casualties, said Khan. The information could not be independently verified because the area is largely off-limits to news hounds. The Pak military launched a massive offensive against the Taliban in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... 's Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Valley in 2009, and many snuffies were captured and imprisoned. The leader of the Taliban in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, escaped and is believed to be based in eastern Afghanistan, where he has been sending fighters back across the border to attack northwest Pakistain. The Pak Taliban have killed thousands of soldiers, police and civilians over the past few years, declaring war on the government to get it to break ties with the United States and establish Islamic law throughout the country.

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India-Pakistan

Fazlullah's aide among two held in Mansehra

2012-07-11

[Dawn] Battagram police on Monday jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! two hard boyz linked with Maulana Fazlullah-led Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Taliban group and seized a cache of arms and ammunition along with maps and other documents. Battagram DPO Ghulam Hussain told a news conference here that Mohammad Iqbal alias Qari Basit and Ijazul Haq were jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in Ghagbori area when they were shifting weapons and explosives from Battagram to Torghar. He said the arms and ammunition, including an antiaircraft gun, three rifles, seven Kalashnikovs, 12 pistols, 22 hand grenades, 42 detonators, suicide jackets and 115kg high-quality explosive, was buried outside a mosque. The DPO said Qari Basit was the in charge of the Swat Taliban cut-thoat group for Hazara and Shangla and that he criminal masterminded suicide kaboom on MNA Amir Muqam in Battagram and the bombing of a police convoy in Torghar that left 12 coppers dead. He said during preliminary investigation, Qari Basit had revealed that he and his brother had shifted Tehrik-e-Taliban Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah to Afghanistan after he was injured in an army attack and that he was holed up in Afghan province of Kunar coordinating cut-thoat activities on both sides of the border. Mr Ghulam Hussain said Qari Basit and his accomplices had planned attacks on police headquarters in Torghar and army headquarters in Kabulgram area of Swat on the orders of Maulana Fazlullah. He said one of Qari Basit's brothers was Maulana Fazlullah's bodyguard. Later, police produced the jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! hard boyz before news hounds blindfolded. The news hounds were also showed arms and ammunition. Also in the day, 17 members of a family, including four women and three children, were maimed after their vehicle hit a roadside wall due to brake failure near Balakot. The vehicle was bound for Charsadda from Naran. Locals shifted the injured to the Civil Hospital in Balakot from where they were referred to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital in Mansehra ...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south... Balakot police started the paperwork but haven't done much else and began investigation.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan Kills 6 Militants from Afghanistan

2012-07-03

[An Nahar] Pak security officials on Monday said dozens of cut-throats infiltrated the Afghan border to attack a check post in a restive northwestern district for the second time in eight days. Officials said six cut-throats were killed in the incident on Sunday, the latest attack to raise questions about whether Pak Taliban have regrouped in Afghanistan since escaping an army offensive three years ago. The cut-throats were killed after crossing into Sabir Killey village in the Soni Darr area of Upper Dir district and one of the officials told Agence La Belle France Presse that the "firefight continued late into the night". Another official said there were reports that "hundreds of orcs" were gathering in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar and might try to infiltrate again. "Authorities have alerted local lashkars (tribal militia) amid fears of a bigger clash," he told AFP on condition of anonymity. Intelligence officials say the attackers are loyalists of Pak holy man Maulana Fazlullah, who fled into Afghanistan when the army recaptured the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... valley after a two-year Taliban insurgency ended in 2009. Swat neighbors Upper Dir, which is a key transit route between Afghanistan and Pakistain. The valley was once a popular tourism destination and unlike the semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, lies just 100 kilometers from the capital Islamabad. The Taliban released a video showing severed heads of 17 Pak soldiers who they said were killed in a similar cross-border attack on a check post in Soni Darr on June 24. A bigwig confirmed that all 17 in the video were security personnel. Afghanistan and Pakistain trade blame for Taliban violence plaguing both sides of their porous, mountainous border. Islamabad lodged a strong protest with Kabul over the June 24 attack. Both the Afghans and the Americans repeatedly blame Pakistain for not doing more to eliminate havens on its soil, which are used as launch pads for attacks across the border. Last month, the U.S. commander of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... in Afghanistan blamed the Pakistain-based Haqqani network for a siege on a lakeside hotel in Kabul that killed 18 people. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... warned last month that Washington was running out of patience with Pakistain over orc havens.

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India-Pakistan

Kabul Threatens Pakistan with Security Council

2012-07-03

[An Nahar] Pak officials accused up to 60 Afghan soldiers on Monday of crossing into Pak territory and sparking festivities that killed two primitive. It was the latest in a series of escalating cross-border attacks reported in Afghanistan and Pakistain that are inflaming tensions along the mostly non-existent border as NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... prepares to end its combat mission against the Taliban in 2014. Both countries blame each other for harboring Taliban fighters active on both sides of their 2,400 kilometer (1,500 mile) border, fanning distrust between Kabul and Islamabad, and complicating a grinding of the peace processor in Afghanistan. Kabul threatened to report Islamabad to the U.N. Security Council over what it alleges is the shelling of villages, Betcha they're quaking in their curly-toed slippers at the thought of that... while Islamabad said it would protest formally to Kabul against the latest incursion. "If our bilateral discussions regarding this issue brings no result, we will refer this issue to the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Security Council," Afghan foreign ministry front man Faramarz Tamana told Agence La Belle France Presse. In Pakistain's semi-autonomous tribal belt, security officials said two rustics were killed in Upper Kurram district in festivities with 60 Afghan army soldiers. Another primitive was also maimed "after they shot it out with Afghan army soldiers on seeing them inside Pak territory," a bigwig told AFP on condition of anonymity. The festivities lasted for more than 90 minutes after which security forces were sent to the area on the Afghan border, he said. Local residents said the Afghans were pursuing attackers fleeing Shehar-e-Nau village in Paktia province. Afghan defense officials denied the alleged incursion. "We are not aware of such an operation by ANA (Afghan National Army) in that area," Daulat Wazir front man for the Ministry of Defense said. Colonel Ahmad Jan, front man for army corps 203 in southeastern Afghanistan said: "It is not true, our forces have not entered Pakistain. We have not had any operations near the border recently." A front man for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security intelligence agency said cross-border fire had killed four people, including a woman and a child, and maimed six others, in the last week. Afghans and Americans blame Pakistain for not doing more to eliminate havens on its soil, which are used as launch pads for attacks across the border. Last month, the U.S. commander of NATO in Afghanistan blamed the Pakistain-based Haqqani network for a siege on a lakeside hotel in Kabul that killed 18 people. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... also warned last month that Washington was running out of patience with Pakistain over myrmidon havens. But in Pakistain, border attacks have raised fresh concerns that Pak Taliban, who fled a 2009 army offensive, have regrouped and again pose a threat. Officials said dozens of Orcs and similar vermin based in Afghanistan on Sunday attacked a checkpost in Upper Dir, a district in the government-controlled part of Pakistain, for the second time in eight days. They said six Orcs and similar vermin were killed after crossing into Sabir Killey village in the Soni Darr area of Upper Dir. One official told AFP the "firefight continued late into the night". Another official said there were reports "hundreds of myrmidons" were gathering in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar. "Authorities have alerted local lashkars (tribal militia) amid fears of a bigger clash," he told AFP on condition of anonymity. Intelligence officials say the attackers are loyalists of Pak holy man Maulana Fazlullah, who fled into Afghanistan when the army recaptured the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... valley after a two-year Taliban insurgency ended in 2009. Swat neighbors Upper Dir, which is a key transit route between Afghanistan and Pakistain. The valley was once a popular tourism destination and unlike the semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, lies just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital Islamabad. The Taliban released a video showing severed heads of 17 Pak soldiers who they said were killed in a similar cross-border attack on a check post in Soni Darr on June 24. A bigwig confirmed that all 17 in the video were security personnel. Islamabad lodged a strong protest with Kabul over the June 24 attack.

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India-Pakistan

Taliban danger

2012-07-01

[Dawn] ANOTHER day, another attack from across the Pak-Afghan border inside Pakistain. On Wednesday night, the attack in Upper Dir was not as damaging as the one launched Sunday -- security officials claimed that the only deaths were of cut-throats involved -- but it underscored the deteriorating security conditions in the area. The savagery of the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Taliban led by Maulana Fazlullah is well-known. At the height of their power in the Malakand region they committed atrocities that made them stand out even in the world of myrmidon violence. Having lost their fiefdom in 2009 but with their leadership on the run, there was always the likelihood they would creep back in and use tactics like beheadings and overrunning security check posts to sow fear in the region again. That is precisely what seems to be happening, notwithstanding the fact that the military does physically dominate the area in which Fazlullah and his band of violent Islamists ruled for several years. Two points need to be made. One, pushing out cut-throats from one area -- whether into an adjoining tribal area or across the Pak-Afghan border -- is not a long-term solution. Only a concerted effort on both sides of the border to clamp down on militancy will stabilise the region. However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... that process cannot be selective. There is a suspicion in Pak security circles that Afghan and foreign forces in Afghanistan are, at the very least, looking the other way while Pakistain-centric cut-throats pour across the border -- a tit-for-tat response to the Pak security establishment which refuses to squeeze the Haqqanis in particular on this side of the border. But that is a dangerous game in which only so-called non-state actors win. Better, then, for the Afghan, Pak and American governments to cooperate instead of engaging in what amounts to proxy warfare that could spiral out of control. The other point is that the Malakand operation was a success story that gave the inhabitants of the area a chance to rebuild their lives without the Taliban menace. Unless security is strengthened there, the perception that the Taliban are returning will only grow and may well prove a reality.

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