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India-Pakistan

Pakistan to contact Interpol over Maulvi Faqir: Rehman Malik

2013-02-24

[Dawn] Interior Minister 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. on Saturday said Pakistain would soon be contacting the Interpol for the handing over of Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, a senior commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) recently captured in Afghanistan, DawnNews reported. The Taliban capo was captured on Monday by Afghan intelligence personnel in a border area and the Foreign Office had on Thursday asked the Afghan government to hand him over to Pakistain. On the issue of dialogue with the TTP, Malik said the Pak Taliban had been speaking of holding talks with the government but did not appear serious on the matter. The minister advised the TTP to adopt the path of peace and to constitute a team which could be delegated the task of holding a dialogue with the government. Malik moreover said that the armed forces and intelligence agencies were doing an outstanding job and requested politicians to refrain from suggesting intelligence failures in the wake of terrorist attacks. He said the principal target of the forces of Evil was Islamabad and added that the government would act with full force against those involved in terrorist activities in 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...

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India-Pakistan

Taliban regrouping in Peshawar, Fata, says Iftikhar

2012-03-15

Wonderful things are happening in Pakistan, or so we are here told. [Dawn] Pak Taliban were regrouping in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar and tribal areas to counter the impact of the security forces' crackdown on them, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said here on Tuesday. During the Khyber Union of Journalists and Peshawar Press Club oath-taking ceremony at the Chief Minister's House here, the minister said the talks between US and Afghan Taliban had led to a deep split within the Pak Taliban. "The growing desire among Pak Taliban for holding talks with the government has created serious differences among the terror outfit. Due to these differences, the Taliban leadership recently sacked their front man, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, for openly supporting the idea of dialogue with the government," he said. Mr Iftikhar urged Pakistain, Afghanistan and the US to form a joint team for meaningful dialogue with Taliban leaders to achieve desired goals of peace in the region. "The experience of holding talks with Taliban separately by Pakistain, Afghanistan and the US miserably failed in the past. Even the recent US efforts to gain positive outcome from the Qatar moot is not going to deliver the goods," he said. The minister said the only way out to restore peace in the region lied in holding joint dialogue by Pakistain, Afghanistan and the US with the Taliban and that if it failed, then effective action had to be taken to eliminate them completely. "We have faced them and rooted them out and will continue doing so," he said. Mr Iftikhar said the recent Peshawar kaboom was a reaction of operations in Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... and Darra Adamkhel and Bara Tehsil of Khyber Agency, where security forces cleared many strategic areas. He said sectarianism was another reason of terrorist acts in the thriving provincial capital. He said Orcs and similar vermin wouldn't be unable to continue with acts of terrorism due to the government's effective plan to crack down on them. The minister said there should be no good and bad Taliban and they all should be eliminated without discrimination to save the country. He said no segment of the society had beat feet from the Taliban's actions and therefore, the society should take them head on. He said the government had planned to take action against Death Eaters in tribal and settled areas simultaneously by giving powers of supervision to the relevant commissioners. Mr Iftikhar said in the past whenever political administrations of tribal areas initiated action, Orcs and similar vermin fled to settled areas of the province but they won't be able to escape anymore. He said the government had hit anti-state elements hard and the war against them would continue until their complete elimination. He said the issue needed to be resolved on permanent basis. Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... the information minister told news hounds here that Awami National Party was a coalition partner of Pakistain People's Party and would continue supporting its leader President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... He said ANP would always remember the way in which President Zardari supported ANP over the last four years, especially during difficult times. The minister said his party had supported PPP and Zardari 'honestly and unconditionally' and would continue doing so. He said the ANP-PPP coalition government would complete its five years term in office. He, however, said the next general elections would be held at an appropriate time. Mr Iftikhar said the provincial government always wanted to hold local government elections but security situation didn't let it do it. He said since the law and order situation had improved, local government elections would be held ahead of general elections.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistani Taliban in talks to heal rift: sources

2012-03-09

[Dawn] Pak Taliban capos are locked in talks, trying to heal a damaging rift that has inflamed tensions over whether to pursue peace efforts with the government, insiders say. After months of relative calm, bomb and suicide kabooms are again hitting the country's northwest, raising fears that gun-hung tough guys are again on the offensive despite reports late last year that commanders were exploring peace contacts. "The one-point agenda is how to adopt a uniform policy," a Taliban capo told AFP from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location on condition of anonymity. The umbrella Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) is a loose confederation of rival commanders. Divisions first came to the fore after founder Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in August 2009. The young and radical Hakimullah Mehsud --a clan relation to Baitullah --ultimately won a leadership battle, pushing the TTP closer to al Qaeda and overseeing some of Pakistain's bloodiest gun and suicide attacks yet. Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... , the Afghan Taliban supreme leader, reportedly asked TTP commanders to stop attacks as his movement explores confidence-building talks with the Americans at the start of a nascent grinding of the peace processor in Afghanistan. The only TTP commander who refused to comply was Hakimullah Mehsud, putting him at odds with his arch-rival, the older and more measured Wali-ur Rehman, sources say. Differences appeared to bubble over Sunday with the sacking of Mehsud's deputy, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, who is considered close to Rehman, at a TTP meeting. "Dialogue with Pakistain is a secondary issue. First, we're trying to end our disputes and after that we will decide on holding talks with Pakistain," the Taliban capo told AFP. "There are serious differences between Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur Rehman which everybody wants to end," he added. The TTP leadership has held several meetings with representatives from the Afghan Taliban and Afghanistan's krazed killer Haqqani network to try to unite, but commanders are constantly on the move, worried about US drone missiles. "Several rounds of talks have taken place but commanders can't sit together in one place for long as they fear drone strikes," another source told AFP. Experts are divided over the significance of Mohammad's sacking with the government and former officials convinced that the TTP is now weaker than ever, hit hard by the US drone strikes and by Pak military offensives. "Hakimullah Mehsud has his group with its own weight but TTP commanders are scattered. Some are in Afghanistan, some in the tribal areas. There is a lack of communication," said Mehmud Shah, a former tribal belt security chief. "There are commanders who aren't listening to Mehsud... The shura (meeting) of some of its leaders is just to show their importance. The TTP structure is broken and they are making efforts to rebuild it and remove difference," he added. Mohammad has insisted that he initiated peace contacts in Bajaur, his home district and one of seven in Pakistain's northwestern tribal belt, with the full knowledge of Mehsud's TTP leadership as a "test case". "They told me that first the grinding of the peace processor should take place in Bajaur and then be expanded," he told AFP by telephone. Malik Sultan Zeb, an elder in the Mamund tribe in Bajaur, said rustics were keen to cut a deal with the TTP provided that the gun-hung tough guys were willing to stop attacks. "America is holding peace talks with (Afghanistan's) Taliban and we also want to have peace talks with the krazed killers," he said. A Pak security official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... and saying his information was based on informants, said the message to unite came from Mullah Omar in December. "He sent a message saying, peace in Pakistain is imperative for us," the official said. "Hakimullah Mehsud is still reluctant about various issues, but intermediaries from Afghanistan are trying to solve the rifts," he told AFP.

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India-Pakistan

'Sacked' Pakistan Taliban commander backs peace talks

2012-03-07

A senior commander sacked as deputy to Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud came out publicly to back peace talks with the government and said he was not directly informed of his dismissal. Maulvi Faqir Mohammad is the Taliban commander in Bajaur, one of Pakistan's seven districts in the tribal belt on the Afghan border and one that has seen a recent lull in fighting between the Taliban and Pakistani soldiers. He was sacked on Sunday at a meeting presided over by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud at a secret location in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP. Ehsan gave no reason for the removal. Neither was a successor announced. Speaking to AFP from an undisclosed location on Tuesday, Mohammad said the Taliban did not inform him directly of his sacking or give an explanation. "I came to know through the media. I was not given any notice. I don't know the background of this decision," he said, speaking by telephone. Giving one possible reason, he said: The leadership might be angry with my talks with Pakistani government. If it was so, I talked to them with the permission of my leadership."

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India-Pakistan

Fata militancy

2012-03-07

[Dawn] THE removal of Maulvi Faqir Mohammad from his deputy-commander position in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain may indicate a weakened organization, but by no means a defeated one. Faqir Mohammad was reportedly involved in talks with the state, including on cross-border attacks from Afghanistan when these became a recurring problem last year. The fact that those attacks have now waned and the theory that the TTP has demoted such a senior commander for participating in talks reflect gains for the Pak state. But it's unclear whether he will now create problems for the organization or acquiesce to their demands, and the centre of TTP power does not lie in his stronghold of Bajaur. According to experts the development is unlikely to become a major setback for the organization. The assessment reflects a broader scepticism about claims that the back of Fata-based militancy has been broken. While the operational capability and structure of the TTP and other thug groups have weakened, they remain a threat to the lives of both troops and civilians. Militants are battling security forces in parts of Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram agencies. In the latter two, local pie fights and sectarian rivalries continue to create security problems in which the state has gotten embroiled; a major attack on Shia civilians in Parachinar last month and a fierce clash with troops in Khyber's Tirah Valley last week indicate that they remain capable of carrying out significant attacks. Even in agencies not currently seeing operations, smaller-scale incidents such as roadside kabooms are still taking place and cut-throats retain bases off the main roads in less accessible areas. And while the TTP has weakened due to internal rivalries, splintering remains less of a threat than commonly assumed. Faqir Mohammad's demotion and the defection last year of Fazal Saeed represent differences with important commanders. So far, though, the organization has shown an ability to retain enough cohesion to avoid falling apart completely despite rivalries over the years. Above all, the military is still avoiding going into North Wazoo, where cut-throats of all stripes are living in refuge. It's true that actions against the TTP and other Fata-based cut-throats have caused considerable damage. Military operations in most tribal agencies have driven cut-throats away from their strongholds and drone attacks have helped kill and scatter operatives. Reports show that in Pakistain as a whole suicide kabooms and other instances of terrorism have gone down over the last two years. New attempts at dialogue are reportedly being made, hopefully informed by the failures of earlier attempts. But the process is a slow one, and it is too soon to call victory just yet.

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India-Pakistan

Ousted deputy leader of Pakistan Taliban favors talks with govt

2012-03-07

[Dawn] A deputy leader of the Pakistain Taliban, reportedly ousted at the weekend by a krazed killer council, still favors peace talks with the Pak government, he told Rooters on Tuesday. Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, who commands Islamic fascisti of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), or Pakistain Taliban, in the tribal agency of Bajaur near the Afghan border, has reportedly been in talks with the government in Islamabad over a peace deal. The TTP, allied with the Afghan Taliban movement fighting US-led 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 in Afghanistan, is entrenched in the unruly areas along the porous frontier. It has pledged to overthrow the Pak government after the military started operations against the TTP. Past peace pacts with the TTP have failed to bring stability, and merely gave the umbrella group time and space to consolidate, launch fresh attacks and impose their austere version of Islam on segments of the population. The TTP leadership is split over new talks with the Pak government, with some hardliners rejecting them. Mohammad said, however, that he has never disobeyed the council. "Whenever I've held talks with the government of Pakistain, I've held them with the permission and advice of the central leadership of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain," Mohammad said from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location. "When the Taliban in Afghanistan can talk to America, then why can't we talk to the government of Pakistain?" Pakistain last month urged leaders of the Afghan Taliban movement to enter direct peace negotiations with Kabul, a possible sign that Islamabad is stepping up support for reconciliation in neighbouring Afghanistan. A council which reportedly included TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud, ousted Mohammad, but he said he had "no information on this council, its members, or where its meeting was held." "Except for Ehsanullah Ehsan, who contacted the media, no important Taliban leader has contacted me." Ehsanullah is the front man for the TTP and announced the demotion.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan Taliban number two sacked

2012-03-05

The number two commander in Pakistan's nebulous, umbrella Taliban movement has been sacked as deputy chief but will remain within the organisation, a spokesman said on Monday. Maulvi Faqir Mohammad is the Taliban's commander in Bajaur, one of Pakistan's seven districts in the tribal belt on the Afghan border and one that has seen a recent lull in fighting between the Taliban and Pakistani soldiers. He was sacked on Sunday at a meeting presided over by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud at a secret location in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone. "A shura (council) meeting was held on Sunday and it decided to remove Maulvi Faqir Mohammad from the position of deputy chief of TTP," he said, adding that Mohammad would continue to serve the group as an ordinary member. Ehsan gave no reason for the removal. Neither was a successor announced. The TTP is a loose confederation of militant commanders founded and run by Baitullah Mehsud until his death in a US drone strike in August 2009. His killing sparked a bitter succession battle won by Hakimullah Mehsud.

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India-Pakistan

Taliban leader hopeful of peace accord on Bajaur

2011-12-12

[Dawn] The runaway deputy commander of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, has confirmed he is in peace talks with the government and that an agreement is in sight. He said the government had released 145 members of the group as a "gesture of goodwill" and the gun-hung tough guys had pledged a ceasefire. "Talks with the government are in progress and both sides are likely to sign a peace deal very soon," he told Dawn on phone from an unknown location on Saturday. Fata additional chief secretary Fazal Karim Khattak, however, denied peace talks or contacts between the government and krazed killers. "Faqir Mohammad's claim is baseless and a pack of lies," Mr Khattak said. He said the government would hold talks with only those people who surrendered weapons and gave up militancy. Maulvi Faqir said if an agreement was signed for ceasefire in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central, the TTP would be able to sign a comprehensive peace deal with the government in Swat, 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... , Orakzai and South Wazoo as well. "Bajaur will be a role model for other areas." Maulvi Faqir parried a question about the basis for the negotiations. Maulvi Faqir had signed a peace deal with the government after security forces launched an operation against gun-hung tough guys in Bajaur and dismantled their hideouts. He then reportedly moved to Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... in Afghanistan. The local administration also denied that Maulvi Faqir had returned to Bajaur's Mamond tehsil in Bajaur and said "the administration doesn't have any information about the TTP commander." Agencies add: Maulvi Faqir said the Taliban were negotiating with the help of local tribal elders in Bajaur. "These peace talks are continuing only in Bajaur but certainly we will start such peace talks in other areas after we reach a written agreement," he said. Previous peace deals between Pakistain and gun-hung tough guys have rapidly unraveled, and were criticised by the United States and at home for allowing gun-hung tough guys space to regroup before launching new waves of attacks. In late November, two senior Taliban capos confirmed peace talks with the Pak government in South Waziristan tribal district. "We are satisfied with these talks, and want to initiate such talks in other areas," Maulvi Faqir said. The commander refused to give details of the negotiations. "Talks are going in right direction and soon we will be able to sign a written agreement," he said. At the end of Sept, Pakistain's government pledged to "give peace a chance" and talk with its homegrown krazed killers. Maulvi Faqir said the government had realised that there was no military solution to the conflict in Pakistain. "We have no wish to fight against our own armed forces and destroy our own country," he said. "There has been development in our peace talks, but the government would have to show more flexibility in its stance, and restore the trust of Taliban by releasing their prisoners and stop military operations against them." He said that Pakistain and Afghanistan should unite against what he called foreign occupations by non-Mohammedans.

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India-Pakistan

Maulvi Faqir Mohammad Claims Peace Talks Going On With Pakistan

2011-12-11

[VOA News] A big shot of the Pak Taliban says his group has opened peace talks with the government. The Pak Taliban's Deputy Commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, while speaking to local news hounds by telephone, revealed that his group is negotiating a peace deal with the government and that the talks are progressing well. Giving further details, the cut-thoat leader says he believes any peace deal emerging from the dialogue could be used as a "role model" for the rest of insurgency-hit districts in northwestern Pakistain, most of which are on the border with Afghanistan. The Taliban capo says the government has also released scores of his fighters as a goodwill gesture and in return Death Eaters have halted their attacks. No direct confirmation Without directly confirming reports of alleged peace talks with cut-thoats, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... told a local TV station holding such talks is part of his government's policy, and it is a continuing process. "First is dialogue, the other is development and the third is deterrence. That [peace talks] is a part of our policy," he said. The Pak prime minister did not give further details. Reports of talks between the government and Talibs have been carried by local and foreign media outlets recently, but both sides had denied them. At the time, Pak officials had stated that there would be no talks unless Death Eaters lay down their arms. Pakistain in the past has struck peace deals with Taliban faceless myrmidons but they did not last long and Death Eaters used the lull in fighting to regroup. The Pak Taliban has carried out hundreds of attacks prompting the government to launch major military offensives to root out their bases. Political and public demands for engaging in peace talks with Death Eaters have also intensified in Pakistain. A government-sponsored national conference of Pakistain's political and military leaders in September ended with a resolution to "give peace a chance" with cut-thoats. While U.S officials are pushing for talks to end the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, they are unlikely to support Pakistain's peace initiatives with local Taliban forces because of their close association with al-Qaeda-led cut-thoats. Ties with 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... , U.S. still problematic Reports of peace talks come amid Islamabad's growing tensions with Washington following last month's NATO Arclight airstrikes on Pak border posts that killed 24 soldiers. Pakistain condemned the "unprovoked" attack and responded by closing border crossings used by NATO to supply its forces in Afghanistan. It also told Washington to vacate an airbase in southwestern Pakistain by December 11 and has vowed to review anti-terror cooperation with international forces. Prime Minister Gilani in his Saturday remarks reiterated that, on his instructions, politicians are preparing recommendations for future relationship with the United States. "We want to have maintained excellent relations with the United States but [based] on mutual respect and mutual interest," he said. The United States insists the Arclight airstrikes on Pak border posts were not intentional. U.S. officials say an investigation into what it calls a "terrible tragedy" is expected to be concluded later this month.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan Taliban's deputy Mohammad admits peace talks

2011-12-10

The Pakistan Taliban is in peace talks with the country's government, the group's deputy commander has said. Talking to themselves again? I do that frequently in the shower... Maulvi Faqir Mohammad said the focus was on the Bajaur tribal area bordering Afghanistan, and that if successful, talks could be extended to other areas. He said 145 Taliban prisoners had been freed as a goodwill gesture and the authorities wanted a ceasefire. It is the first time a top Taliban commander has confirmed negotiations. There has been no government comment. "Our talks are going in the right direction," Reuters news agency quotes Mr Mohammad as saying. The BBC's Orla Guerin in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, says that in the past such negotiations have backfired allowing the militants time to re-group. There are also doubts about whether or not any possible peace treaty would be observed by all of the factions in the Pakistan Taliban, which is an increasingly fractured alliance, she says. Most of them will do whatever the ISI tells them to do. The rest will be betrayed by the ISI to the Americans and end up drone-zapped... In October, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said talks would only be held if the group disarmed. The mighty Pakistani army has conducted a series of ineffective offensives against strongholds of the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban, along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistani tribal elders in talks with Taliban to free abductees

2011-09-05

[Dawn] Pak tribal elders are holding talks with Talibs in Afghanistan for the release of scores of young rustics kidnapped during an outing along the border, officials said on Sunday. The teenage rustics from Pakistain's northwestern Bajaur tribal region were kidnapped by the beturbanned goons on Thursday while they were on an outing in Afghanistan's border province of Kunar on the Mohammedan festival of Eid. They were on an outing when a stranger said, "Come bathe in the river with me," so they did? Did their mothers never tell them about stranger danger? Did they never hear the popular Pashtun song about the beautiful boy with a bottom a like peach, but alas he is on the other side of the river and I can't swim? There has to be more to this than is being told. "A tribal jirga (council) from Bajaur is currently holding talks with the terrorists," Pakistain military front man Major-General Athar Abbas said. "The future course of action will be decided by tribal elders from both sides of the border." Pak government officials had initially said around 60 boys from the ethnic Pashtun Mamoun tribe took part in the outing. But about 20 below ten years were allowed to return to Pakistain, while up to 40 others between 12 to 14 years old were held. Abbas said in total 40 young rustics were kidnapped. He said 10 of the boys were released while 30 were still in jug. Under centuries-old tribal customs, rustics living along the frontier can freely move across the border. A front man for Pak Taliban, many of whom have decamped into Afghanistan in the face of Pakistain military offensives in Bajaur, on Saturday grabbed credit for the kidnappings as punishment against the tribe for supporting the military. The Taliban front man Ehsanullah Ehsan said they had a plan of mass-scale kidnappings and expected people in large number to visit the border region on Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramazan. Sultan Zeb, a tribal elder in Bajaur, said beturbanned goons loyal to Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, the top Taliban capo in Bajaur who Pak authorities say has also decamped to Afghanistan, were involved in the kidnapping. "We have established contact with the Taliban through their relatives and friends and we hope they will release the kidnapped people very soon. The kidnappers have not made demand for ransom or any other demand for the release," he told Rooters by telephone from Bajaur. The Mamoun tribe is opposed to al Qaeda and Taliban and has raised militias to fight them, angering beturbanned goons who often hit back with bombings and shooting attacks. Pakistain late last month lodged a protest with the Afghan government after officials said hundreds of beturbanned goons from Afghanistan launched a raid on Pak border posts in northwestern Chitral district, killing up to 36 people, most of them soldiers. Twenty-seven Pak servicemen and 45 beturbanned goons died in festivities in July when some 600 beturbanned goons from Afghanistan attacked Pak border villages.

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India-Pakistan

36 Pakistani troops, cops killed in cross-border raid

2011-08-28

CHITRAL, Pakistan: Several hundred militants from Afghanistan launched a pre-dawn cross-border raid on Pakistani paramilitary posts on Saturday, killing up to 36 people, government and security officials said. Looks like the 'mighty Pak army' took one on the chin... Soldiers of the Chitral Scouts and police were among the dead in the string of attacks that began with an assault on paramilitary check posts in the border village of Arandu in the Chitral district just across from Afghanistan's Nuristan province. "Reportedly, terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajaur organized by Fazullah and Maulvi Faqir Mohammad with local Afghans have attacked the security forces posts," a military statement said, referring to northwestern Pakistani regions and senior Pakistani Taleban commanders. Many Pakistani Taleban fighters fled to Afghanistan in the face of army offensives and have joined allies there to regroup and threaten Pakistani border regions, analysts say. Did they flee or did they just kiss the wimmins goodbye and tell them that they'd be back after vacation and a few training seminars? A senior Chitral Scouts official, Haroon Rasheed, said 26 soldiers and 10 border police were killed. So much better when these attacks occur at the border instead of Swat or Islamambad.. Twenty militants were also reportedly killed when up to 300 insurgents attacked seven military check posts, the military statement said. There was no independent verification of the militant death toll. The military statement put the security forces death toll at least 25. Troops blew up two bridges in the border region to stem the militants' incursion. "Scanty presence" of NATO and Afghan forces along the border has enabled militants to use these areas as safe havens and launch repeated attacks inside Pakistan, the military said.

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