Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Afghanistan

Second ‘most prominent’ Taliban commander killed in Kandahar: Saraj

2021-04-28

[KhaamaPress] National Directorate Chief, Ahmad Zia Saraj said Afghan national defense and security forces killed Mawlawi Ahmad Kandahari in operation in Kandahar.

Saraj said, that Ahmad Kandahari was the second most prominent figure in the Taliban
Taliban

...Arabic for students...
group following Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Kandahari was reportedly assigned as the group’s military chief in Kandahar.

Saraj said that the Taliban have provided a platform for other terrorist groups to operate in Afghanistan and that the Taliban uses them by any means to attack the Afghan forces.

He also explained that 60 percent of ISIS affiliates in Afghanistan are Paks.

The NDS chief stressed that 407 detained ISIS members belong to 14 different countries, most of them captured on the frontlines.

ISIS in Afghanistan travel to Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and Pakistain through ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
and then reaches the Afghan premises.

In regards to ISIS’s leader Aslam Farooqi, Saraj added "whenever Pakistain hands over Taliban prisoners to us, we will hand over Farooqi to Pakistain".

Moreover, at least 186 bad boys, including a Taliban commander responsible for planning suicide kabooms were killed and 31 others were maimed during the government offensives in Shah-Wali Kot, Maiwand, Panjwai, and Zherai districts of southern Kandahar province over the past week.

Bahir Ahmadi, front man for Kandahar governor told Khaama press that among the killed forces of Evil are the Taliban criminal mastermind and key commander Mullah Mohammad Rahim known as Ahmad, and five other leaders like Sanullah, Qari Hussain, Matiullah, Tor Naqib, and Safiullah.

During the operations, ANDSF also discovered and defused 556 various types of IEDs, and Taliban threats near Delhi dam in Kandahar were also rebuffed.

This comes as an employee of a demining organization was targeted in an unidentified button men attack in Kandahar.

According to security officials, Safiullah known as Kochai, an employee of a private demining organization was murdered by the Taliban in the PD8 Panjwai district of Kandahar province.

Reports indicate the incident happened on Monday afternoon at around 3:00 pm local time.

Taliban have not commented on the incident.

Tolo News adds:

Two ANA soldiers were shot and killed in PD1 of Kandahar city on Tuesday afternoon, a security source said.

Local security officials have not yet commented on the shooting.

Link

Afghanistan

Blast kills another TTP leader in Afghanistan

2020-02-14

[DAWN] A senior Tehrik-e-Taliban
Taliban

...mindless ferocity in a turban...
Pakistain (TTP) commander was killed by a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, turban and intelligence sources told AFP on Thursday, the latest such incident to target the group in recent days.

Not actually targetted as such, if he was kaboomed by one of his own bombs, but a clear sign from Allah that his activities were definitely not approved by the most high.

Sheharyar Mehsud, chief of a turban faction which is part of the umbrella TTP, was the target of the remote controlled blast in Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
, a TTP commander in Pakistain told AFP.

A Pak intelligence official who confirmed the incident said Mehsud had fled to Afghanistan in 2016.

The blast comes nearly two weeks after two other key TTP leaders ‐ Khalid Haqqani and Qari Saifullah Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...
i ‐ were killed in a clash with security forces.

Link

Afghanistan

Two ‘Senior Members’ of ‘Pakistani Taliban’ Killed in Kabul: BBC

2020-02-08

[ToloNews] The BBC reported the liquidation of two senior members of the "Pak Taliban
Taliban

...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
" in Kabul last week.

The killing of the two men, named by the BBC as Sheikh Khalid Haqqani and Qari Saifullah, has raised concerns among Afghan analysts who say that the infiltration of key Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) leaders in Kabul raises a lot of questions.

The Afghan security agencies so far have not commented officially.

However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning...
a security source speaking to TOLOnews on condition of anonymity said that last week "two men" were "mysteriously" killed in an area near the Intercontinental Hotel in PD5 of the Afghan capital Kabul, which is the location also identified by the BBC report.

According to the source, the Afghan security agencies arrested the assailants.

Sami Yousufzai, a co-author of the BBC report, told TOLOnews that the two men "wanted to go to Kunar from Paktika
...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
, they were supposed to meet or attend an invitation in Kabul near the Intercontinental hotel, but they were killed there."

Afghan commentators speculated about the alleged meeting and death of the two men:

"Khalid Haqqani and Younus (Qari Saifullah) perhaps came to Kabul to shine a signal and reach sort of harmony with the officials (Afghan officials), I think those people who do not want the Taliban to surrender or end the war plotted this attack on them," said political analyst Ahmad Saeedi.

Haqqani was one of the close aides to former TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud who was killed in a dronezap in 2013. Haqqani was formerly a deputy head of the TTP, and had currently held a "key position" in the group’s leadership council, said the BBC report.

"This is a major blow to the Pak Taliban, it is a great loss for them, the Pak Taliban are currently under massive pressure, some of their leaders have sought refuge in Afghanistan," said Pak journalist Tahir Khan.

Details of the incident will be shared with the public once the investigations are completed, the security source said.

Khaama Press adds:

Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, the former deputy chief of TTP and member of the group’s central committee, along with another commander Qari Saif Peshawari were killed during a fight with forces in Afghanistan on Jan. 31, Mohammad Khurasani, the outlawed militant group spokesman said in a statement.

Khurasani did not disclose details about the incident but said he was on his way for carrying out an attack when Afghan forces stopped his way and killed him.

Afghan government kept it secret and did not share information with the public in this regard.

The questions are why the TTP leaders were in Kabul, how and who killed them.

Another source from TTP said they believe the murder was done by Pakistan’s intelligence service, ISI.

Link

Afghanistan

Khost Resident Claims NDS Killed Four Members of His Family

2020-01-22

This is why people in war zones can’t have nice things.

[ToloNews] Razo Khan, a resident of Shah Wali Kot district in the eastern province of Khost
...which coincidentally borders North Wazoo and Kurram Agency...
, claims that four members of his family were killed in an operation by a unit of the National Directorate of Security
...the Afghan national intel agency...
(NDS) in Khost while his brother was maimed.

Khan is now in Kabul "to seek justice." He says the operation happened last year at 11 pm. Gunmen shot two of his brothers as well as a woman and a child in the family.

He threatened self-immolation if his case is not addressed.

"The government should respond about why he was arrested--why were my brothers martyred?--and if it does not respond, I will torch myself in my home," Khan said.

"This man was neither a Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
member nor did he have any links with the government. He was working to pay for his family’s needs and he was innocent," Khost resident Sher Mohammad said.

Another family in Kandahar faced a similar incident in October when allegedly the 03 Unit of the NDS killed one of their members, according to Jabbar Pashtun, who is also in Kabul to seek justice. Pashtun said the perpetrators should be punished.

"These forces are not accountable to the government. They are a black stain on the NDS’ name. They are not accountable. No matter how much we raise our voice for justice," Kandahar resident Khwaja Ahmad said.

The NDS said that Razo Khan’s brother had been arrested for activities linked to terrorism, and for links with the Taliban.
Such operations have always been criticized by military analysts.

"The consequence is very big because they are damaging the legitimacy of the government and are causing outrage among the people towards the government," military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhail said.

Local officials in Khost said the incident will be investigated, and declined from providing further details.

"The National Directorate of Security and other institutions are working on the case, and, so far, they do not have precise information," Khost governor's front man Talib Mangal said.

The Independent Human Rights Commission claimed that an ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
earlier this month killed more than 15 civilians--including women and kiddies--during an attack targeting Taliban commander Mullah Nangialai in Shindand, Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
.

Link

Afghanistan

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction Qari Hussain Force spokesman gunned down in Afghanistan

2019-12-30

THREAD:

NEW:

Qari Saifullah aka Gelaman Mehsud has been assassinated in Khost province of Afghanistan when unknown gunmen opened fire on his car. He was the spokesperson of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction Qari Hussain Force.

My sources confirm his death. pic.twitter.com/cGb3ll5G68
— 🏴‍☠️ FJ 🏴‍☠️ (@Natsecjeff) December 29, 2019

Link

India-Pakistan

Mourning a villain

2013-11-06

[Dawn] THE death of a man who waged war against the Pak state and was responsible for the slaughtering of thousands of innocent men, women and kiddies should have come as a great relief to this strife-torn nation.

Instead, our politicians are mourning the death of Hakeemullah Mehsud in a US drone strike describing the incident as an "attack on peace".

From being public enemy No.1, the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) has virtually been turned into a hero after his inglorious death. A mass murderer who ordered the beheading of our soldiers and grabbed credit for killing a Pak general just a few months ago, is now being elevated to the status of a martyr.

Instead of seizing this moment of opportunity to dismantle a fragmented terrorist network, a frightened politicianship has shamelessly prostrated itself before the myrmidons. As a result, the gunnies and their allies are now dominating the public narrative despite their crimes against the people of Pakistain. It is an extremely dangerous situation for a country facing the existential threat of spiralling violent extremism. A narrow self-serving leadership is taking the entire country towards a suicidal path.

With few exceptions, all political parties have joined the chorus that the fatal drone strike on Hakeemullah was a conspiracy to scuttle an illusory grinding of the peace processor. While the interior minister has called for reviewing relations with the US, an agitated Imran Khan

... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
has threatened to block the 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...
supply line in protest. The bravado may just be public posturing, but the irresponsible rhetoric could lead to some unintentional consequences, plunging the country into more dire straits.

It is a pity that even the killing of young women and kiddies in a suicide kaboom in a crowded Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
bazaar or the massacre of Christian worshippers in the church bombing has not shaken the great Khan as much as the death of the leader of the myrmidon outfit that perpetrated those heinous attacks. He even refuses to accept that the Taliban were behind those bombings despite their endorsement of the attack.

Seemingly, all the tumult is about the timing of the US action and the violation of Pakistain's illusory sovereignty once again. According to the interior minister, the attack was carried out hours before a three-member delegation was to meet the TTP leadership and extend to them a formal invitation from the government for talks.

Notwithstanding the questionable legality of America's drone strikes on Pak soil, it is hard to believe that the targeting of the TTP chief was part of a plan to sabotage the talks as alleged by our politicians.

One should not forget that the TTP leader was on the US's most wanted list with a bounty of up to $5m on his head. He came on the US radar after a video showed him talking to Hummam Khalil Abu-Mulal al Balawi, a Jordanian doctor with Al Qaeda connections who went kaboom! inside a CIA operating base in Afghanistan's Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
, killing seven intelligence operatives in 2009. The incident also confirmed his close ties with Al Qaeda.

Soon after, Hakeemullah claimed to have trained Faisal Shehzad, an American of Pak origin who was involved in a failed attempt
Curses! Foiled again!
to detonate a boom-mobile in New York's Times Square.

Hakeemullah had narrowly escaped several drone strikes in the past three years. He was also reportedly injured in one of them that kept him out of action for several months. Significantly, the fatal attack on Friday came a couple of weeks after the US forces had snatched from the Afghan intelligence agencies Latif Mehsud, a close confidant of the TTP leader.

It is quite plausible that the information gleaned from Latif might have led the CIA to Hakeemullah's hideout. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has confirmed that American officials had informed him that the TTP leader would not be spared if tracked down.

For sure, the drone campaign has remained a major irritant in the troubled relations between Islamabad and Washington. Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
also raised the issue during his meeting with President Barack Obama
We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us...
in Washington last month. Indeed, Pakistain's objection to the violation of the country's illusory sovereignty is fully justified on legal and ethical grounds. There are no two views about the negative political impact of the collateral damage caused by the drone attacks.

But it is also a fact, that the drones have eliminated many high-value Pak faceless myrmidons running their terrorist operations from North

Wazoo. Prominent among those killed in the last two years are Waliur Rehman, who was deputy chief of the TTP, Ilyas Kashmiri, Qari Hussain, Qari Zafar and Badar Mansoor. They were all criminal masterminds of attacks on Pak security installations.

Pakistain has also decided to contact the five permanent members of the UN Security Council on the killing of Hakeemullah in the latest drone strike. The move will certainly make Pakistain a laughing stock and only weaken the country's case on the drone issue.

Leave aside other countries, Islamabad cannot even convince its closest ally China on the matter. The myrmidon sanctuaries in North Waziristan are a cause for concern to the entire international community. It is certain that the way Pakistain is dealing with the issue of terrorism will find no takers.

It was questionable from the outset whether the government's peace efforts could succeed given the uncompromising attitude of the TTP. In his last interview to the BBC, Hakeemullah had rejected any dialogue under the Pak Constitution, saying that it envisioned a secular democratic system.

Now with his death that may lead to further fragmentation of the TTP, the possibility of any purposeful negotiations has become even more remote. But the danger is that the current state of policy disarray may provide a conducive environment in which the faceless myrmidons can revitalise their activities. It is perhaps, the most critical point in the country's struggle against the rising myrmidon threat.

Link

India-Pakistan

Epitome of hate

2013-01-14

[Dawn] THE terrorist sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
(LJ), which has been active in Pakistain since the mid-1990s, has become a strategic asset for many including Al Qaeda, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and the so-called non-violent religious sectarian parties.

Lately divided into many factions and small terrorist cells, the LJ is once again coming under a unified command, which could be a major reason for the escalated sectarian violence during the last few weeks.

The outfit has undoubtedly become the second most lethal terrorist group in Pakistain after the TTP. A comparison of the geographical spread of incidents of sectarian violence from 2009 to 2012 suggests that Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, Quetta, Gilgit and

Kurram Agency
...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora...
have become regular hotspots of sectarian violence, the areas where the group is largely operational either alone or in collaboration with the TTP and foreign beturbanned goons.

Although the nexus between the beturbanned goon sectarian Sunni groups and the TTP was already well-established it was for the first time that in 2012 the TTP grabbed credit for several attacks on the Shia community in different parts of Pakistain.

The LJ was believed to be involved in 128 terrorist attacks across the country in 2012, largely in Bloody Karachi and Quetta; these attacks ranged from sectarian assaults to strikes on the security forces. LJ and other such terrorist sectarian groups, which had absorbed Al Qaeda and Taliban ideological tendencies, increasingly returned to their primary sectarian agendas.

Once a breakaway faction of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain
...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts...
(SSP), now known as Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has an ever more violent anti-Shia agenda.
Although it claims to be a separate entity, whatever it does furthers the cause of the SSP in one way or the other. The group solely depends on the SSP for human resources and justifies the killing of Shias in Pakistain. A recent statement circulated by a faction of LJ led by Asif Chotu declared Shia Mohammedans the major obstacle in the way of enforcement of Sharia in Pakistain. The SSP denies any direct link with the terrorist group, but the LJ is the major source of its vigour that it exploits for political gains. Though a faction within the SSP is against sectarian violence its voice is diminutive in the larger discourse of the organization.

The LJ had lost central command when the police launched an extensive operation against the group in the late 1990s and later when it was proscribed in August 2000.
These steps caused the emergence of internal differences and divisions among the group. Thus many splinter groups emerged.

After 9/11, LJ Islamic fascisti had joined the angry Kashmiri jihadists and tribal Taliban, who were not happy with the sudden change in the state's policy that abandoned jihad in the region. The major terrorist attacks between 2001 and 2007 in the country were launched by this emerging alliance. The nexus was further strengthened when these small groups joined Al Qaeda and the tribal Taliban. Such alliances ideologically transformed the sectarian groups injecting in them global jihadist tendencies.

This was the time when the LJ was losing its sectarian identity and the group was become a tag name for small terrorist cells. Qari Hussain, the trainer of jacket wallahs who was killed in a drone strike in 2010, had infused new life into the group while recruiting Punjab- and Bloody Karachi-based youths and re-initiating sectarian terrorist attacks.

Tariq Afridi, head of the TTP's Darra Adam Khel chapter, was the second person who revitalised the violent sectarian agenda of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and launched deadly terrorist attacks in Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
. The release of Malik Ishaq, founding member of the group who was facing trial in the killings of more than 100 Shia scholars and community leaders, further emboldened the group.

Although these facts injected new life into the agenda and operations of the group, on the organizational level it remained splintered and disconnected until recently. Its 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...
chapter, led by Usman Kurd, which targets the Hazara Shia community in Quetta, had little interaction with groups in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Seven other LJ groups are active in Bloody Karachi and Punjab, including the Attaur Rehman alias Naeem Bukhari, Qasim Rasheed, Muhammad Babar, Ghaffar, Muaviya, Akram Lahori and Malik Ishaq groups. These groups have devised their local agendas as well and indulge in local pie fights.

Asif Chotu, once a close aide of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi founder Riaz Basra, is reorganising the group. He had joined the TTP in 2010 and reunited the scattered members of LJ and on behalf of the TTP launched several operations across the country. He has approached other factions as well and now most of the splinter groups have come under one umbrella because of his efforts.

It is a dangerous development, which can lead to an escalation of sectarian violence across the country. The LJ nexus with Al Qaeda and TTP has not only broadened its ideological horizon but also equipped it with lethal operational tactics. It may not be the LJ of the 1990s, which was mostly involved in assassinations, but its new face is extensively lethal in terms of operational capabilities and connections with terrorist groups.

The TTP will not let the group focus only on sectarian killings but could use it to hit other targets as well such as security forces, foreign interests and politicianship.

On the other hand, the state and politicianship seem ignorant of the fact that a new nexus is causing a new, critical threat to loom. A few mainstream parties appeared to have kept links with sectarian organizations for electoral success. Sectarian groups welcome all political parties because they seek political legitimacy through these alliances.

Law-enforcement agencies appear to have no clear countering strategy mainly because of the frail threat perception and lack of inspiration to take action against homegrown terrorist threats.

Link

India-Pakistan

Drone kills TTP's suicide wing chief

2013-01-08

[Dawn] A cousin of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain's chief Hakimullah Mehsud was among nine suspected gunnies killed when US drones attacked compounds in the Bobar area of South

Wazoo on Sunday.

According to sources, the drones fired 10 missiles, destroying three compounds in the area close to the Frontier Regions of Tank and Lakki Marwat.

One of the destroyed compounds belonged to Punjabi Taliban leader Qari Imran
... the Qari Imran training camp is located in South Wazoo. It is named after its commander, Qari Imran alias Hakeem Nasir of the Mehsud group. Dawn describes Qari as an al-Qaeda controller, and the camp specializes in turning out boomers. 10 to 15 bad boyz were dronezapped at the camp on September 11th, 2008...
They said the dead included Wali Mohammad Toofan, a cousin of and close aide to Hakimullah Mehsud. Toofan had been recently elevated to head TTP's 'Fidai wing' after its leader Qari Hussain died in a drone strike in Mirali, North Waziristan.

Another victim of Sunday's drone strike was identified as Sailab.

Most of those killed belonged to the Mehsud tribe.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again...
security forces resorted to intense mortar shelling on suspected hard boy positions in Sheen Nari, near Bobar.
Helicopter gunships also shelled the locality between 9am and 3pm, the sources said.

AFP adds: A security official in Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
, the main town in North Waziristan, said "at least 12 gunnies have been killed and several others were maimed" in the attack that took place near the Afghan border.

Local people said that gunnies had cordoned off the area and were looking for bodies or the injured in the debris.US drone strikes had last week killed Mullah Nazir, the main hard boy 'commander' in South Waziristan.

Link

India-Pakistan

Nuggets from the Urdu press

2012-10-07

Ulema scared of Taliban

Well, sure. The Taliban are infamous for killing those they dislike in more or less nasty ways.

Writing in Jang Saleem Safi noted that a letter written by Taliban for the attention of Pak religious leaders (Learned Elders of Islam) was publicised by him after which people wrote abuse against him. The Learned Elders of Islam who should have answered the letter kept quiet even though the Learned Elders of Islam were sent the letter. Ulema came out aggressively against ordinary people if they challenged them but when it came to Taliban they refused to speak. Taliban defended their acts of killing Paks on the basis of Koran and Hadith but the Pak Learned Elders of Islam keep quiet.

Drones hurt Taliban
Journalist Saleem Safi asked in Jang whether it was wise on the part of the Army to invade North

Wazoo while earlier operations in Swat, Bajaur and Orakzai had produced mixed results. Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
and Lahore and Islamabad had not become safe as a result of these operations. The fact was Taliban and Al Qaeda were not hurt by the Army but by the drones which took heavy toll on them. The fact was that Al Qaeda's commanders were killed by them and Taliban leaders like Baitullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain also fell to drones.

Woo hoo! More drones, Manolo! It has been requested by one who knows.

Mullah Umar & Co in 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...
Quoted in Express American military commander General Allen said that Mullah Umar the chief of Afghan Taliban was hiding in Bloody Karachi along with his ~~lover~~ companions and family. He was sending hundreds of violent warriors into Afghanistan while giving orders from inside Pakistain.

Imran Khan: after Waziristan, Bajaur
Daily Express quoted Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
saying that after he had successfully taken a procession of Tehrik Insaf to Waziristan he would head for Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central

...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
. He said this to a delegation that visited him from Bajaur where the Army has been in operation for the last many years.

Talaq, Talaq, Talaq!
Famous columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan wrote in Express that ex-ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani had stated that Pakistain and the US should admit honestly that their relations have broken down and announce that a talaq (divorce) had occurred between them. Because men are more powerful they usually issue talaq to wives but wives can only give a lesser talaq called khula with the help of a judge. Hence America was the husband who had given talaq to Pakistain which was the obedient wife. Pakistain had spent a lifetime staying in wedlock with America but now America was tired of this wife. Husband America was sleeping in the same bed but facing away from wife Pakistain.

Pakistain's take from America
Daily Express had Abdul Qadir Hasan saying that according to Husain Haqqani Korea took $10 billion and took off; but Pakistain had taken $40 billion and got nowhere. Korea had become a power to reckon with while Pakistain had eaten up all the money without showing any result.

Oh, come now. How many Pakistani bank accounts have grown considerably from American dollars falling off the truck on the way to its destination? No further result is needed.

People less keen on Imran Khan

About bloody time they realized the man is nothing more than an empty cricket uniform.

Daily Jang reported that Tehrik Insaf of Imran Khan was worried that after the grand showing of the party in October 2011 in Lahore fewer people were joining the party. They hoped that this trend was temporary, touched off by the intake of party from among tried and tested leaders from the rival parties.

Media scandal will be fruitless
Daily Express reported TV anchor Talat Hussain as saying that the latest media scandal about TV anchors taking bribes would go nowhere because of lack of proof

"Wudn't me."

but those journalists who were doing a good job would be targeted needlessly by these campaigns. Anchor Javed Chaudhry said that people were trying to sully the honour of anyone working in the profession.

'Hijab' invades Egyptian TV
Reporting on the consequences of the Arab Spring in Egypt daily Express reported that the newscaster ladies on Egyptian TV had taken to wearing hijab or head-cover and that religious programmes were once again in vogue on TV.

No proof of 9/11
Famous columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan wrote in Express that so far no cause was made available as to why the two buildings in New York were destroyed through a stupid (bhonda) plot of colliding two aircraft with them. Later the destruction of the buildings was attributed to Moslems and that was made the pretext of attacking Afghanistan and Iraq. Today it is clear that the old war of extinction of Moslems had been imposed on the world. It was painful that some Moslem rulers had joined hands with America in this evil enterprise.

When physics and chemistry calculations must include the impact of jinns, this kind of thinking naturally follows.

What is obscene?
Famous chief news hound Ansar Abbasi wrote in Jang that it was very easy to decide what was obscene in Pakistain. There were two institutions suitable for this finding: parliament and Federal Shariat Court where enough philosophers and scholars were available to decide what was not morally suitable for Moslems. Some people wrongly said that Pak culture was not Islamic but Pak-Indian in which obscenity was allowed.

Gilani doing contempt again
Veteran journalist Altaf Hasan Qureshi stated in Jang that the Supreme Court was being insulted with impunity in Pakistain and it was going on even after the dismissal of PM Gilani for contempt of court. Real Estate tycoon Malik Riaz had dishonoured the Court by discussing horrible scandals about the son of Chief Justice Chaudhry but when he came on a TV channel to do some more, the discussion misfired and it was discovered that ex-PM Gilani was prompting the whole show from behind the scenes.

Politicians and beauty
Daily Jang reported that Pak politicians were using beauty-enhancing devices to preserve themselves against the onrush of senility.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't work...

A lot of them were consulting beauticians and cutting their eyebrows to size before they became bushy; and were using ample helpings of black paint to prevent white from showing on the heads. Zardari, Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
, Ch Shujaat and Ch Pervaiz Elahi were foremost in this process of self-preservation. The Sharif brothers had already grown a fresh crop of hair on their bald heads through hair transplants.

All of Man's beauty products will not reverse what Allah wills, guys.

Zardari and his guns
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that during the Memogate case against his ambassador Husain Haqqani at the Supreme Court President Zardari was extremely nervous and carried guns in the presidency, just in case. Mir recalled that one evening in December 2011 in his bedroom at the back of presidency Mr Zardari waited all night, gun in hand, for someone to come and arrest him like so many other politicians in power, saying he will not surrender, nor will he resign or offer arrest; but that he will fight to the last.

Ansar Abbasi versus 'chirya'
Famous chief news hound Ansar Abbasi wrote in Jang accusing another journalist of his own group misreporting on him: about Abbasi going to the Supreme Court on the question of obscenity. In fact, Abbasi had not approached the Court. He wanted the said journalist to acquire some more facts in addition to what his spying sparrow (chirya) was doing for him.

Link

India-Pakistan

Punjab's sectarian outfits find new friends in FATA and Kabul

2012-09-03

The surge in violence against Shia Muslims in 2012 may be a result of the increasing influence of Punjab's sectarian militants

On August 16, 22 Shia passengers travelling from Rawalpindi to Gilgit Baltisitan were pulled out of a bus and killed by around 50 assailants wearing army uniforms in the Babusar area of Mansehra. The victims included four Sunnis who protested and asked the terrorists not to kill innocent Shias. On February 28, unidentified gunmen killed 18 Shia Muslim passengers of a bus in a sectarian attack in Kohistan on the same route.

On July 19, 13 passengers belonging to Baba Nawasi Khel, a Shia sub-clan of the Sipah tribe of Orakzai Agency, were killed when a remote-controlled bomb planted on the road exploded near the pick-up van that was en route to Kohat from Lower Orakzai.

The Darra Adamkhel chapter of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility of the attacks. "The people killed (in the attacks) were Shias who are involved in killing Sunnis against the will of Islam," their spokesman Muhammad Afridi told local reporters. "We will target them again in the future."

Sectarian violence has resurged in Pakistan in 2012, after TTP-backed militant outfits intensified their campaign against Shias, security analysts say.

There was a significant decrease in sectarian attacks in 2011, according to a report by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS). But unlike in 2010, the violence was not confined to a few cities. The report said 314 people were killed and 450 injured in 111 sectarian-related terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2011.

In the first four months of 2012, sectarian killings rose 91% compared with the same period in 2011, according to statistics compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a think tank which monitors terrorism and sectarianism in the South Asian countries. From January to April this year, about 164 people were killed in sectarian attacks, compared to 86 last year, the SATP said.

Six new groups have claimed responsibility for various sectarian attacks carried out in 2012, according to Muhammad Amir Rana, director of PIPS. He said it was not clear if that indicated the emergence of new violent sectarian groups, or merely the tactical use of new names by the old groups.

"Rising sectarianism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA is a direct result of the arrival of Punjabi Sunni militants in the area in the recent years"

Security analysts say sectarian violence will continue to be a long-term challenge because there is a strong nexus between sectarian groups, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda.

Because of that nexus, the narrative of the sectarian groups has changed to include regional and international politics. There are two major reasons for that transformation, Rana wrote in his recent article.

First, after the sectarian groups joined the bigger alliance of Al Qaeda, their targets changed, at least for the time being. For example, splinter groups from Kashmir-focused militant organizations cut off ties with their parent organizations calling them puppets of state agencies and developed a relationship with Al Qaeda.

Second, sectarian groups detached themselves from the dominating religious discourse, whose main emphasis was on Islamisation and sectarian supremacy through political means and jihad against external forces (mainly other states) to safeguard Pakistan's ideological and geographical boundaries.

Shia tribal elders of Orakzai and Kurram believe that they are being attacked because they did not offer shelter to Al Qaeda, Afghan Taliban and local militants fleeing Tora Bora in December 2001

Rana thinks that Al Qaeda transformed the operational capacity of sectarian groups and also broadened their sectarian views. "Groups linked with Al Qaeda and Taliban believe that the opponent sects, whether they are in minority or majority, are hurdles in the way of establishing Islam according to their concepts," he said.

Before 2001, sectarian violence affected mostly Punjab and Karachi, although violent incidents erupted in Kurram Agency in the mid-1980s, said Mariam Abou Zahab, a Paris-based security analyst who studies sectarianism in Pakistan.

The Taliban militants in Khyber Agency, Bajaur Agency, Mohmand Agency and Swat are influenced by the Salafi (Panjpiri) school of thought. The groups led by late Baitullah Mehsud, Hafiz Gul Bahadar and Maulvi Nazir Ahmed belong to Deobandi school of thought and influenced by Jamait Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), said a JUI-F leader in North Waziristan.

"JUI-F linked militant commanders didn't allow sectarianism in their ranks and files," he claimed, adding that sectarian groups were carrying out subversive activities in Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat and Peshawar independently.

Security experts say the arrival of Punjab-based militants and the heavy influx of foreign militants - mostly Arab and Central Asian - has also influenced the TTP. "Rising sectarianism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA is a direct result of the growing Talibanisation and of the arrival of Punjabi Sunni militants in the area in the recent years," Abou Zahab said.

After the Laal Masjid episode, many frustrated militants, especially from Southern Punjab, abandoned local anti-Shia sectarian outfits and went to Waziristan to join the TTP and other groups linked to Al Qaeda, said Ahmed Wali Mujeeb, a journalist who monitors Taliban activities in the region.

After the killing of Baituallh Mehsud in a drone strike , Hakimullah Mehsud, Qari Hussain Ahmed and Azam Tariq (real name Raees Khan Mehsud), with clear affiliations to sectarian outfits, became central leaders of the TTP, Mujeeb said. Tariq Afridi, the TTP commander for Darra Adamkhel and Khyber Agency, was also associated with a sectarian outfit in the past.

The TTP killed a large number of Shias and Sunnis since after its inception in December 2007. Also, in December 2007, Baitullah Mehsud sent a group of 400 Mehsud militants under the command of Qari Hussain to burn down several Shia villages and kill dozens of Shias.

Shia tribal elders of Orakzai and Kurram believe that they are being attacked because they did not offer shelter to Al Qaeda, Afghan Taliban and local militants fleeing Tora Bora in December 2001. A gunfight between local Shia tribes and foreign militants in December 2001 left many Arabs dead.

Security analysts and governmental officials in Kabul also say that a large number of militants from Punjab-based sectarian outfits have joined hands with Afghan groups in recent years and inciting sectarianism in Afghanistan.

At least 55 Shia Muslims were killed on December 6, 2011 in a suicide bombing at a crowded Kabul shrine. Another suicide bomber killed four Shias in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. A spokesman for a little known Pakistani militant outfits Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi claimed responsibility in a phone call to Radio Mashaal.

After the fall of the Taliban regime, there have not been any large scale attacks on Shia gatherings, said Afzal Barakzai, a Kandahar-based analyst. "These attacks occurred after Afghan Taliban emir Mullah Omar's Eid statement asking provincial leaders to investigate claims of civilian casualties in Taliban attacks," he said.

Analysts believe it would have been impossible for the Punjab-based militants to have acted alone in Afghanistan. They have run training camps in the country and are involved in the killing of hundreds of Shias in Mazar-e-Sharif and Bamiyan, and may have found the support of splinter groups of Afghan Taliban.

Link

India-Pakistan

Three headless bodies found in Bannu

2011-11-02

[Dawn]

Three headless bodies were found in Bannu district while a school was blown up by suspected bully boyz in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar on Monday.

Police said that the headless bodies of three persons were found on Indus Highway in the limits of Domail cop shoppe. "We bring the bodies to district headquarters hospital for postmortem. The dear departed were identified with the help of national identify cards in their pockets," they added.
Well, that was nice of them...
The dear departed were identified as Maulana Qari Hussain Ahmed, a resident of Sarai Naurang, Sirajud Din of Shabakkhel Lakki Marwat and Noor Rehman, a resident of Serkot area of Miramshah in North

Wazoo Agency.

The Domail police started the paperwork but haven't done much else and started investigation.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics......
suspected bully boyz blew up a primary school in Adezai on the suburbs of Peshawar early on Monday, police said.

An official of Matani cop shoppe told Dawn that cut-throats planted two improvised bombs at the main pillars of the building and detonated them through remote control at about 1:30am.

He said that each of the bombs was about two kilograms that destroyed the school building. Police launched a search operation in the area but so far no one had been nabbed, he added.

Adezai Qaumi Lashkar deputy chief Fazal Malik, when contacted, said that it was the last school in the area to be destroyed. About 12 schools in the area had been blown up so far, he added.

"Basically it was a school for boys but girl students had also been shifted here after destruction of their schools in the locality," he said.

Mr Malik said that bully boyz were still present in the surrounding localities and were capable to attack the pro-government people.

Link

India-Pakistan

'Tomorrow, you will be in paradise'

2011-10-19

[Dawn] IN 2002, there were reportedly only two suicide kabooms in Pakistain, but at the end of 2010, 49 such terror attacks in the year have proven that modern Islamic militancy is a hydra-headed problem.

Intelligence services are in a quandary when it comes to short-term preventive strategies, with bigwigs conceding that stringent public security measures at civilian and government institutions and places of worship including Sufi shrines do not act as deterrents.

The continuous flow of volunteers willing to train at jihad boy camps in Pakistain, Afghanistan and Iraq indicates that those involved are willing to travel continents, driven by a cause that hasn't run dry of recruits and trainers.

In fact, interviews with thwarted bombers, recruiters and family members from Pakistain, Afghanistan, Iraq, Leb and Paleostine have shown how middle-class, devout and aggressive young men, many with a university degree, are drawn for various reasons to the process of indoctrination.

Since 9/11, the surge in suicide kabooms is said to be in reaction to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to poor economic conditions in the Mohammedan world. The effects of these events have catalysed a blend of global jihad boy trends drawing potential jacket wallahs.

The indoctrination of young men, angry and bereft of economic opportunities, is not based solely on religious and sectarian reasoning. And with recruitment, jihad boy activism and venues varying after 9/11, the religious indoctrination package isn't exclusive to a local mosque (no longer prime recruitment ground with private homes, cafés, Islamic centres attracting 'self-starters' searching for Taliban contact and training).

This widely available package includes the insertion of a global narrative infused with strong anti-western or anti-American sentiment.

In Pakistain or in Europe and America, suicide bombers are led to the process of radicalisation, often created by certain
conditions. With many paths to radicalisation, whether it is a wide cultural generation gap that could either lead to radical secularism or extreme religiosity, or humiliation faced by communities when dehumanised by armed security forces, it has
been difficult to determine the psychological portrait of a suicide bomber that fits all regions.

It has been claimed that they are driven by poverty, hopelessness and ignorance.

In fact, interviews with thwarted bombers, recruiters and family members from Pakistain, Afghanistan, Iraq, Leb and Paleostine have shown how middle-class, devout and aggressive young men, many with a university degree, are drawn for various reasons to the process of indoctrination.

This contradicts the stereotype of the fanatic. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
it doesn't hold true for child recruits as young as seven who are easy prey because of economic circumstances, especially in Pakistain's tribal region where buying, (and bartering) children, who can come closer to their target or escape security checks, is not uncommon.

Since 9/11 there have been several hundred suicide attacks in Pakistain in which thousands have been killed.

In April this year, when Qari Hussain's Fedayeen-i-Islam, also part of the Pakistain Taliban, claimed that its North

Wazoo camp had 1,000 suicide bomber 'graduates', it boasted three separate facilities with 350 'students' each. That was the same time when US rhetoric grew angrier about attacks orchestrated by the Haqqani network in North Waziristan.

In the same month, three would-be-suicide bombers were placed in long-term storage in the Spinboldak district in southern Kandahar. Two of them, Pak boys aged 15, trained at camps in Quetta were more likely sent over the border through the Chaman route, a Taliban region that allegedly comes under Mullah Zakir, a former Gitmo detainee in Quetta.

The 2010 Bajaur suicide attack by a veiled woman killing 45 people at a World Food Programme distribution queue raised the question of security and easy access.

In August this year, the burka bomber re-emerged with a 17-year-old veiled girl in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar attacking a police check post.

Similar attacks, many by girls as young as eight (June 2011, Uruzgan province) are examples of how the Taliban are using suicide bombers cleverly, ensuring vulnerability doesn't attract attention. Failed female suicide bombers have alleged that either they were forced to or kidnapped and coerced to attack Pak troops.

Depending on the region, reasons include nurturing a volatile mix of bitterness and despondency at life and political governments (unemployment, or in the case of Paleostinian bombers, the occupation has enraged many young people, most have lost family members).

Motivations differ but appear more political than faith-based. Most global recruits come ill-equipped in jihad boy philosophy and combat training, wanting to act against injustices and make a change.

In The 9/11 Wars Jason Burke meets British-born Pak Hanif Qadir, a successful businessman who leaves London to fight alongside the Taliban, travels to Peshawar and then decides to turn back en route to Afghanistan. Qadir's bus ride across the border makes him realise how international volunteers are treated as 'cannon fodder'.

During the Intifada, reasons included the humiliations caused to Paleostinians (Israeli-controlled check posts, curfews) that motivated many from Gazoo to go to Israel on suicide missions. And with no shortage of recruits to die for the cause there was no typical profile of a suicide bomber: they were aged between 18 to 38 years, came from middle-class families and had jobs.

All were religious, and some gave up their luxurious lifestyles to kill.

Researchers say that typically men from broken homes, and under-achievers are more vulnerable but intelligence services have found that recruits (the 2004 UK Crevice Plotters and the 7/7 attackers) were educated and from stable backgrounds.

There was little that made the 7/7 bombers any different from other young men sharing similar backgrounds.

What has been noted was how jihad boy handlers ensured recruits were isolated, spent time together alone; that taped sermons by beturbanned goons holy mans and television images of Mohammedans suffering globally played an important role in their training.

Young 'self-starters' with profiles like the Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad are most vulnerable to adopting hard-line ideologies, making contact with senior jihad boy figures for logistical aid and direction to carry out large missions.

This 'raw material' waiting to be exploited in the theatre of jihad must compel governments to chalk out strategies for political and economic progress, targeting the youth of their country before the cult of the suicide bomber becomes a celebrated violent alternative.

Link

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