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India-Pakistan
Pakistan kills wanted senior rebel commander
2018-05-18
More on yesterday's story.
[Al Jazeera] The Mighty Pak Army announced it killed a senior member of the rebel group Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in a raid in the province of 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 senior military intelligence officer was killed and four soldiers were maimed on Thursday during the operation targeting Salman Baldeni, Balochistan regional chief of LeJ in the thriving provincial capital, Quetta.

According to the army, Baldeni was "involved in the killing of over 100 innocent personnel of the Hazara
...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets...
community".

A front man for the group said Baldeni was no longer involved with LeJ. "He wasn't our member," Ali bin Sufyan said, adding Baldeni had joined Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

ISIS did not immediately issue any statement about Badeni.

Revenge attack
The military said two would-be jacket wallahs were also killed in the raid, but gave no details.

Hours later, five suicide bombers tried to drive a vehicle laden with ammunition and explosives into a military facility in Quetta city, the army said in a statement.

Troops responded when one of the attackers detonated his explosive at the entrance, Khan Wasey, a local paramilitary front man said, and gunfire ensued.

All five attackers were killed, it said, adding the failed attempt
Curses! Foiled again!
was in Dire Revenge for the earlier operation.

Earlier this month, members of the Hazara community went on a hunger strike in Quetta to protest a spate of killings targeting them, and to demand greater protection in the resource-rich province that has been plagued by violence and insurgency.

A group that subscribes to the hardline Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
Deobandi school of thought, LeJ considers Shia Moslems apostates and has carried out a number of attacks against the religious minority, notably in the southwestern province.
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India-Pakistan
Rehman Malik announces reward, protection for Taliban info
2010-11-28
Pakistain on Saturday announced a reward of 10 million rupees (around 120,000 dollars) to anyone providing information about the Taliban.

"The government will make arrangements to settle the informers and their families anywhere in the country, even abroad, if they fear that Taliban might hurt them," interior minister Rehman Malik told news hounds.

Malik said that most Taliban belonged to the banned Sunni bad turban outfits of Laskhar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba.

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 ...
has been accused of killing hundreds of Shia Mohammedans after its emergence in the early 1990s. It was banned by then president Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
in 1999.

The group played a key role in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl from Bloody Karachi and in twin failed liquidation bids on key US ally Musharraf in December 2003.

Sipah-e-Sahaba is also a banned outfit behind attacks on Shias.
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India-Pakistan
Pakistan: Taliban leader builds new links with Al-Qaeda
2009-09-11
[ADN Kronos] By Syed Saleem Shahzad - On the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Washington and London have signalled a shift in strategy in the South Asian war theatre stressing the need to talk to moderate Taliban leaders. They have also announced a major boost in military hardware to eliminate extremists, particularly in the Pakistani tribal areas, the strategic backyard of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Now Al-Qaeda has revealed a new strategy in Pakistan's tribal areas to confront the new western plans.

After the demise of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, killed in an alleged US drone attack in August, veteran Mufti Waliur Rahman Mehsud was brushed aside and cowboy styled Hakimullah Mehsud was installed as leader of the umbrella Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The TTP, considered an Al-Qaeda franchise in South Asia, is conducting a new offensive in Pakistan to pre-empt the latest action by western powers in the region.
The TTP, considered an Al-Qaeda franchise in South Asia, is conducting a new offensive in Pakistan to pre-empt the latest action by western powers in the region.

A month has passed since 5 August, the most fateful day in the US-led anti-terror campaign when a drone missile attack eliminated Baitullah Mehsud. Finally the hot blooded, young warlord Hakimullah Mehsud was installed as the figurehead of the Pakistani Taliban and Mufti Waliur Rahman was appointed as the commander of the Taliban in Mehsud's stronghold of South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

Emissaries of the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's in the tribal areas initially put their support behind Mufti Waliur Rahman, a more sensible and senior candidate, as chief of the Pakistani Taliban but other forces in the tribal areas namely Al-Qaeda were very uncomfortable with that choice. The reason was clear. Mufti Waliur Rahman's affinity with radical Arab camps in the region and with their ideology was ambiguous.

Mufti Waliur Rahman was previously a religious scholar and linked to a faculty in a local Islamic school. He was also a member of the Islamist political party, Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) led by Fazlur Rahman. The JUI is part of the incumbent coalition government in Islamabad. Mufti was still in contact with several top JUI leaders including Maulana Fazlur Rahman.

Since Baitullah Mehsud's death the biggest threat for Al-Qaeda were the 'gimmicks' proposed by the Pakistani army, including monetary compensation and bargaining for limited peace deals to buy time so their intelligence networks could infiltrate the tribal areas and coordinate drone attacks against Al-Qaeda members. Mufti Waliur Rahman was an unacceptable face for Al-Qaeda as militants considered him unreliable and there were fears that if he was appointed chief of the Taliban he might agree to a ceasefire deal with Pakistani security forces, if his former political allies from JUI approach him as guarantors.

There was also a risk that Mufti Waliur Rahman would also abandon TTP's ties with Pakistani terror networks like the Islamist Laskhar-e-Jhangvi>Laskhar-e-Jhangvi and restrict the Taliban's role to the tribal area, supporting the insurgency in Afghanistan rather than taking up the arms against the Pakistan army.

At a time when the Pakistani tribal areas are a vital link on the strategic front for both the insurgents as well as NATO forces, Al-Qaeda wanted a local partner who would completely support its plans and resources and carry the war to its conclusion. So for Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban the developments which arose after September 11 in Afghanistan would take a decisive turn in 2009. NATO forces in Afghanistan have come under siege as the conflict with militants expanded in northern Afghanistan and forced Washington and London to seek peace talks with the Taliban, without Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists.

Recently the Afghan insurgency received a boost when insurgents operating out of Afghanistan's Baghlan district on the highway from Tajikistan launched coordinated attacks threatening to disrupt NATO's new supply route from Central Asia. NATO's supply lines from Pakistan to southern Afghanistan have already come under attack and late last year seriously squeezed NATO resources inside Afghanistan. A substitute route was finalised through the central Asian republics but that is now under attack.

The Taliban have also intensified its attacks against NATO and the number of foreign troop casualties has risen to an all-time high this year. In this phase of the Afghan conflict which Al-Qaeda considers decisive, its leaders regard any pause in the violence through a ceasefire or potential peace talks as a trap and its top ideologues understand that welcoming such moves as a clear retreat before a near victory.

Shiekh Saeed Al-Misri, emissary of Al-Qaeda's second-in- command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, put Al-Qaeda's weight behind 29 year-old Hakimullah Mehsud, who finally won the backing of all stakeholders as the Pakistani Taliban's new chief. He is the new generation of the Taliban which completely reared under Al-Qaeda's influence and has never communicated with the Pakistani establishment. This is a significant development which makes peace and reconciliation in Pakistan a far more remote possibility.

Earlier, 2500 Uzbek fighters loyal to Qari Tahir Yaldeshiv of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who were living in exile in the Pakistani tribal areas became the backbone of slain Baitullah Mehsud, who became the biggest Taliban commander in the region with Al-Qaeda support. Al-Qaeda foresees an identical role for Hakimullah Mehsud through similar support.

It is very much apparent that unlike slain Baitullah Mehsud's vertical command structure, the command structure of TTP under Hakimullah Mehsud will be more fragmented. Hakimullah Mehsud will only coordinate activities between pro-Taliban warlords in Pakistani tribal areas like Mullah Fazlullah in Malakand, Maulvi Faqir in Bajaur, Waliur Rahman in South Waziristan, and his own group operating in Derra Adam Khel, Kurram agency, Khyber agency and Orakzai agency.

Unlike Baitullah Mehsud, Hakimullah's control will be limited to these commanders but Al-Qaeda envisions Hakimullah's role extending beyond the tribal areas. It aims to establish a nexus with Hakimullah, like the one they had with slain Baitullah Mehsud, through which they would carry out a few big operations in the region of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and possibly outside the region which gives a new twist to the war on terror.

Immediately after Hakimullah Mehsud was installed as the chief of Pakistani Taliban, Zawahiri released a powerful video message. "The war in the tribal areas and Swat is an inseparable part of the Crusaders' assault on Muslims the length and breadth of the Islamic world," he said. "The Pakistan army is acting as a fundamental element of the Crusade against Islam and Muslims, and has become a tool in the hands of the global Crusade." Al-Zawahiri said that there was only one means available "to get out of this predicament which Pakistan had found itself: it is through Jihad, and there is no way other than Jihad."

This clearly signals that the new nexus between Al-Qaeda and Hakimullah Mehsud will have a special focus on Pakistani cities and involve launching joint high-profile terror operations aimed to outmaneouvre the new regional plans devised by the United States and the United Kingdom.

Hakimullah Mehsud fired his first shot on last Wednesday when two gunmen, associated with the Taliban, ambushed the motorcade of Pakistan's minister for the religious affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi. Hamid, a fiercely anti-Taliban cleric, was injured but his driver was killed in the attack. More attacks are being planned and are aimed at keeping Pakistan on the defensive.

Al-Qaeda has previously carried out identical plots to counter the western coalition in the region. The murder of former Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007 was one example through which Al-Qaeda created chaos and put Pakistan on defensive against the Taliban despite US pressure.

The Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 was another example of Al-Qaeda's plot to undermine the western coalition. It caused so much hostility between India and Pakistan that international attention was diverted from Afghanistan and despite mediation by Washington, relations between Pakistan and India remained tense for months. The Madrid train bombings of 2004 and the London bombings of 2005 were two other examples in which Al-Qaeda sought to exert its power.

Pakistan is likely to be the new focus of American and British attempts to quell the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan. Both allies agree on an early exit strategy from Afghanistan and aim to train the Afghan army and police, as fast as possible, to take over the burden of battling the insurgents and in the meantime, western coalition forces aim to strike as many deals as possible with the moderate Taliban.

There is speculation that there will be an exodus of top Taliban commanders from Afghanistan who will head to the Pakistani tribal areas to regroup and there is immense pressure from Washington on the Pakistani army to start ground operations in South Waziristan to deprive Al-Qaeda and the Taliban of consolidating its base. However, before that happens, Al-Qaeda's endorsement of Hakimullah Mehsud puts him at the top of the hierarchy to carry out the next phase of the organisation's plans in South Asia.
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India-Pakistan
Karachi 'suicide bombers' identified
2008-09-29
Two of the three suspected would-be bombers killed in the Baldia Town police encounter have been identified by their families. The suspected bombers, who were believed to be linked to the banned religious organisation Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, were identified as 17-year-old Noor Muhammad and 24-year-old Syed Masroor Shah. Noor was a resident of Ashraf Nagar, Nazimabad, whereas Shah lived in Qasba Colony, Orangi Town.
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India-Pakistan
Qaeda-LJ link in terror attacks
2007-01-01
After investigating the three bomb blasts that took place in Karachi in 2006, the police have come to the conclusion that terrorist groups with different priorities have ganged up. They are specifically worried about the Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, Al Qaeda and the Abdullah Mehsud-led group of Afghanistan.
That'd be the Wazoo branch of the Taliban.
The first suicide bombing took place on March 3 behind the US Consulate, killing diplomat David Foy and three others. Two men, Anwarul Haq and Usman Ghani, are being tried in an anti-terrorism court for the attack. The alleged suicide bomber was identified as Raja Mohammad Tahir, a resident of Karachi, who had spent time in Afghanistan and Wana and had alleged links with Al Qaeda. The car that was used in the attack had been fitted with the explosives in Wana, the police claim.

The second suicide bombing took place about a month later, on April 11, at Nishtar Park at an Eid Miladun Nabi prayer congregation. More than 60 people died, including the entire top hierarchy of the Sunni Tehreek (of the Barelvi school of thought). During investigations, the police, who termed it the biggest terrorist attack of the year, began to suspect that it was sectarian. “Up till now this case could not be solved completely,” said a senior CID investigator, who did not wish to be named. “But what has surfaced is that the Nishtar Park bombing was about a sectarian clash.”
Not sectarian in the Sunni versus Shia sense, but sectarian in the Deobandi versus Brelvi sense.
The third suicide attack was on July 14 in which Allama Hasan Turabi was killed along with his nephew outside his house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. During investigations, the police caught a group from Karachi and identified the suicide attacker as a 16-year-old of Bengali origin named Abdul Karim from Karachi. The police followed clues that took them to Wana in this case, leading them to conclude that the LJ, Al Qaeda and the Abdullah Mehsud-led group of Afghanistan were behind the job.
I think of the three as a single entity, which we could define as al-Qaeda in Pakistan. The Qaeda boyz are the Arab master race overlords, the Jhangvi thugs the Punjabi muscle, and the Mehsud hard boyz the Pashtun local police force.
Investigators told Daily Times that some LJ men with links to Karachi went to Wana where they got in touch with the Abdullah Mehsud-led group. They then befriended Abdullah Mehsud’s cousin, Abid Mehsud. Through Abid they developed more links with Al Qaeda in Karachi and upon Abid’s advice roped in some young men from Orangi Town.
The Orangi fellows are probably free-lancers used as throw-aways, a dime a dozen in any Deobandi madrassah.
The jacket that was used in the Turabi suicide attack had been prepared in Darra Adam Khel by a man the investigators called Hazrat Ali, who was found dead after an explosion in a house in the area. CID investigators said that for the first time it has been proved that LJ and Al Qaeda worked together in the sectarian case. Karim, who allegedly killed Turabi, was, however, neither linked to the LJ nor Al Qaeda, investigators pointed out, saying that they believed he was brainwashed into doing the job.
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