Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

India-Pakistan

Pakistan: At least 10 killed in attack on police station

2024-02-05

[BBC] At least 10 officers have been killed in an hours-long assault on a police station in Pakistan.

The officers lost their lives after more than 30 militants launched the attack in the early hours of Monday.

Four others were injured in the two-and-a-half hour battle, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's provincial police chief told news agency AFP.

It is not clear who was behind the attack, or if it is related to the election being held on Thursday.

There has been a rise in violence over the last few weeks, including a candidate for the National Assembly being shot dead in another part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last Wednesday.

However, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also has a long history of strikes on government and security targets, as well as civilians, by the Pakistan Taliban, Islamic State and other militant groups.

According to Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, the regional police chief, the attacks were launched at about 03:00 local time Monday (22:00 GMT Sunday), first with sniper fire, followed by grenades.

The militants attacked from three different directions, and briefly had control of the police station, he added.

The spectre of violence is already hanging over Pakistan's voters on Thursday, with the Election Commission of Pakistan categorising half of the country's 90,675 polling stations as either "sensitive", meaning there is a risk of violence, or "most sensitive", indicating a higher risk. The classifications are based on the region's security situation and history of electoral violence.

However, the issue is also at the forefront of voters' minds amid recent rises in attacks and counter-attacks.

According to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), 2023 saw the number of violent incidents across the country increase for the third year in a row, with the most recorded fatalities - including security forces, militants and civilians - since 2017.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the highest number overall, with some 458 attacks and counter-terrorism operations during the course of the year, leading to almost 1,000 deaths.

One senior government official told AFP the province's southern region was facing a "severe threat", as militants were beginning "to blend in with civilian populations in urban areas, making it difficult to conduct operations against them".

Meanwhile, last week in Balochistan, a province in Pakistan's south-west with the second highest number of attacks and fatalities last year, a political leader was also shot and killed in his party's election office and a bomb attack following a political rally killed at least four people. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

The military also killed 24 militants in an anti-terror operation in Balochistan last week.

Link

India-Pakistan

Bombing in Pakistan kills dozens at Muslim celebration

2023-09-29

[FoxNews] At least 52 people were killed in a suicide bombing attack in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, authorities said.

Authorities say a bombing attack in Pakistan killed at least 52 people and injured nearly 70 others near a mosque at a rally celebrating the birth of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

A powerful bomb detonated near a mosque at an event celebrating the birthday of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 52 people and injuring nearly 70 others, authorities say.

The blast, which authorities said was a suicide bombing, occurred in Mastung, a district in Baluchistan province, where around 500 people had gathered for a procession to celebrate the birth anniversary of Muhammad. Muslims hold rallies and distribute free meals to people on the occasion, which is known as Mawlid an-Nabi.

TV footage and social media videos showed the aftermath of the bombing. An open area near the mosque was strewn with the shoes of the dead and wounded. People were seen rushing the injured to receive medical care, and a state of emergency has been declared at local hospitals, which have issued calls for blood donations, the Associated Press reported.

Several of those injured in the blast were taken to the hospital in critical condition, government administrator Atta Ullah said. Abdul Rasheed, the District Health Officer in Mastung, said 30 bodies were taken to one hospital and 22 others were counted at a second hospital.

"The bomber detonated himself near the vehicle of the Deputy Superintendent of Police," Munir Ahmed, the deputy inspector general of police, told Reuters.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes amid a surge in activity by militant groups in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Taliban is known to target security forces, but it distanced itself from the attack.

“Wudn’t us!”

The group, which has carried out some of the bloodiest attacks inside Pakistan since its founding in 2007, claims it does not target places of worship or civilians.

A lie, of course, but of course they would say so.

Another blast Friday hit a mosque located on the premises of a police station in Hangu, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, injuring seven people, a local police officer told the Associated Press.

He said the mud-brick mosque collapsed due to the impact and rescuers were attempting to remove debris and pull worshipers out of the rubble. Police have not yet determined the cause of that blast.

There were around 40 people worshiping inside the mosque, mostly police officers, when the blast went off.

Link

Afghanistan

After over a week of closure, Torkham border 'reopens today'

2023-09-15

Ah, but will it stay open? The Afghan Taliban are still providing shelter and support to their Pakistan Taliban brothers.

[GEO.TV] After a more than week’s closure since cross-border attacks in Chitral, the Torkham border between Afghanistan and Pakistain is likely to reopen today (Friday), Geo News has learnt.

"The Torkham border will be opened for trade from tomorrow," customs officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Geo News on Thursday. They added that import, and export including the passageway of transit vehicles will be restored from Friday onwards.

The officials also added that "thousands of cargo cars" have been stuck on both sides of the border for nine days.

Yes, and much of their cargo of produce will have gone bad by now, and be unsalable.

They added that the border will also be opened for foot traffic.

The decision came after Acting Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met the Head of the Pakistain Mission in Kabul, Ubaid Ur Rehman Nizamani.

In the meeting, the Afghan authorities assured Pakistain that Afghan soil would not be used against Pakistain.

Sources, privy to the decision, said the decision to reopen the border came after this meeting.

Link

India-Pakistan

Day 2: Pakistan blames 'security lapse' for mosque blast; 100 dead

2023-02-01

NO!! Reeeeeeeealy??

[An Nahar] A suicide kaboom that struck inside a mosque at a police and government compound in northwest Pakistain

...that’s Peshawar’s Police Lines area mosque, where police, army and government types all prayed together...

reflects "security lapses," current and former officials said as the corpse count from the devastating blast climbed to 100 on Tuesday.

The blast, which destroyed a Sunni mosque inside a major police facility in the city of 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...
, was one of the deadliest attacks on Pak security forces in recent years. It left as many as 225 maimed, some still at death's door in hospital, according to Kashif Aftab Abbasi, a senior officer in Peshawar.

More than 300 worshipers were praying in the mosque, with more approaching, when the bomber set off his explosives vest on Monday morning, officials said.

The explosion blew off part of the roof, and what was left soon caved in, injuring many more, according to Zafar Khan, a police officer. Rescuers had to remove mounds of debris to reach worshipers still trapped under the rubble.

More bodies were retrieved overnight and early Tuesday, according to Mohammad Asim, a government hospital front man in Peshawar, and several of those critically injured died. "Most of them were coppers," Asim said of the victims.

Bilal Faizi, the chief rescue official, said rescue teams were still working Tuesday at the site as more people are believed trapped inside. Mourners were burying the victim at different graveyards in the city and elsewhere.

Counter-terrorism police are investigating how the bomber was able to reach the mosque, which is in a walled compound, inside a high security zone with other government buildings.

"Yes, it was a security lapse," said Ghulam Ali, the provincial governor in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.

Abbasi, the official who gave the latest casualty tolls, concurred. "There was a security lapse and the inspector-general of the police has set up an inquiry committee, which will look into all aspects of the bombing," he said. "Action will be taken against those whose negligence" caused the attack.

Talat Masood, a retired army general and senior security analyst said Monday's suicide kaboom showed "negligence."

"When we know that Tehrik-e-Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
Pakistain is active, and when we know that they have threatened to carry out attacks, there should have been more security at the police compound in Peshawar," he told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Tuesday, referring to a bad boy group also known as the Pak Taliban or TTP.

Kamran Bangash, a provincial secretary-general with opposition party Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
called for an investigation and said Pakistain will continue to face political instability so long as the current government is in power.

"The current government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif

...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab...
has failed to improve the economy and law and order situation, and it should resign to pave the way for snap parliamentary elections," he said.

Link

India-Pakistan

UN recognizes threat to Pakistan by Afghan-based TTP, JuA terrorists

2021-02-07

[DailyTimes.pk] A new United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
report has acknowledged the action taken by Pak government against individuals engaged in terrorist activities, adding that terrorist group Tehrik-e-Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
Pakistain (TTP) is responsible for over 100 cross-border attacks within three months last year.

On its part, Pakistain has consistently highlighted the terrorism threat from the TTP.

The 27th report to the United Nations Security Council, under the United Nations (UN) monitoring team that tracks Al Qaeda, Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
and other krazed killer groups, points to the arrests in Pakistain of ’individuals engaging in terrorism financing and the freezing of the assets of designated individuals and entities’.

Diplomats noted that the UN acknowledgment of Pakistain actions comes at a time when India continues to blame Pakistain for inaction against the designated groups.

Reporting on the activities of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), the UN report saw the ’reunification of splinter groups (of TTP) that took place in Afghanistan’. The report records that ’five entities pledged alliance to TTP in July and August (2020), including the Shehryar Mehsud group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Hizb-ul-Ahrar, the Amjad Farooqi group and the Usman Saifullah group (formerly known as Lashkar-e- Jhangvi)’.

The report cautions that the merger of TTP has enhanced the threat of terrorism to Pakistain and the region, as it has ’increased the strength of TTP and resulted in a sharp increase in attacks’. In this regard, the UN reported that ’TTP was responsible for more than 100 cross-border attacks between July and October 2020’. The report said that, based on estimates, the TTP’s fighting strength ranges between 2,500 and 6,000.

Last year, Pakistain handed over a dossier to UN Secretary General António Guterres

...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
on the Indian sponsorship of TTP and JuA. Both terrorist groups have been designated by the 1267 Sanctions Committee of the Security Council.

Link

Afghanistan

Kabul: 8 Killed in Targeted Killings in 10 Days

2020-12-11

[ToloNews] Amid a wave of assassinations in the Afghan capital Kabul, an officer from the 111th Capital Division of the Afghan National Army (ANA) was bumped off on Wednesday near his base in Pul-e-Charkhi area which is located east of Kabul.

The officer was on his way home from the mosque.

Also on Wednesday, unknown gunnies shot and killed a retired colonel in PD5 of Kabul.

Statistics show that at least 8 people have been killed in targeted acts of violence in the capital over the past ten days.

According to the Ministry of Interior, 22 military officers have been killed in the country in targeted acts of killing over the past one month. Of the figure, 8 incidents have occurred in Kabul in the past ten days.

"They were standing here when the mullah reached here, they fired at him three times," said Neknam Gul, a resident in the area.

"The situation is critical, poor people are martyred each day," said Rahmatullah Hamza, a resident in the area.

On Wednesday, retired colonel Toofan Tarakai and Hanifullah Khaksar, the former guard for the Badghis police, were killed by unknown gunnies in Kabul.

"There is no security," said Ahmad Sahil Noori, a resident in Kabul.

"The security situation gets worse each day; they kill the people in front of the cop shoppe," said Mohammad Aqa, a resident of Kabul.

This comes two months after the First Vice President Amrullah Saleh announced he is taking responsibility for the security of Kabul for the near future. But residents in the capital city have said that fatal attacks continue.

Gov’t Arrests Hitmen over Ex-Colonel Assassination

[KhaamaPress] Amrullah Saleh, the first vice president, said during the 6 a.m. meeting that the convicted killer of Colonel Abdul Wali Toofan

...there was a deputy police chief of Logar by that name...

had been arrested by the local police.

Saleh indicated, two perpetrators were involved in Wali’s liquidation: one a shooter and the other was a person filming the atrocity.

Among the offenders, the person who was filming the murder being happening was caught and different types of similar files were obtained from his cell phone, Saleh added.

Regarding the group’s targeted liquidations, Saleh said, "With these liquidations, the Taliban
Taliban

...mindless ferocity in a turban...
wants to make access to information deceivable and want to turn dark the life to the public, they have failed to this day and will continue to fail".

The first vice president added that at the same time, one of the officer to 111th corps was assassinated in the area of PD21.

Link

Afghanistan

US claim drone strike kills Mullah Fazlullah

2018-06-15

(CNN) A US drone strike in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province has killed the leader of the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), according to a Afghan government official.

Ministry of Defense spokesman Mohammad Radmanish confirmed to CNN that Mullah Fazlullah, who led the terror group from 2013, was killed in the strike Wednesday.

US forces had conducted the strike close to the border of Pakistan, targeting the "Emir" of the group, according US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell.
Fazlullah had been a major figure in the TTP even before he became emir in late 2013, and once led a Pakistan Taliban militia in the country's Swat Valley.

The administrative district, in northwestern Pakistan, was where militants shot and wounded teen activist Malala Yousafzai in October 2012 as she was riding home from school in a van; the Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility.

A statement from US Forces-Afghanistan claimed that the strike did not put an ongoing, unilateral ceasefire initiated by the Afghan government at risk.

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India-Pakistan

Police killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud angers Pakistanis

2018-01-20

[Al Jazeera] The police killing of a man in Karachi has sparked a social media outcry, as his family members reject claims by authorities that he was a member of the Pakistan Taliban, saying he was an innocent aspiring male model.

Police fatally shot Naqeebullah Mehsud, 27, during a raid on what they described as a "terrorist hideout" in eastern Karachi last week, according to a police statement.

He was buried in his native town of Makin, in the South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan, on Friday, family members told Al Jazeera.

So-called "encounter killings" are common in Pakistan. Rights groups say when police lack enough evidence for a court conviction, they extrajudicially kill suspects.

In 2016, police said they had killed at least 318 suspects during raids and shootouts in Karachi, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HCRP), an independent rights organisation.

"Some men in plainclothes came and abducted him from a restaurant in Karachi on January 3 [10 days before police said he was killed]," said Alamgir Mehsud, Naqeebullah's cousin. "Then on January 16, we were told that he had been killed by police. We got his body back the next day."

Naqeebullah, also known as Naseemullah, ran a popular Facebook page where he posted pictures of himself modelling clothes and hairstyles.

"He used to work in a garment mill in Karachi, and he used that money to fund his modelling," said Alamgir. "He was a sort of idol to young people from the Mehsud tribe in Karachi."

By late December, Naqeebullah's page had more than 14,000 followers, and he often posted light-hearted messages.

On September 16, he posted a warning to young people not to engage in the "Blue Whale Challenge", a reported social media campaign that encouraged self-harm.

Link

India-Pakistan

Israel Offers Humanitarian Aid

2014-12-17

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem — December 16, 2014 … As Jewish children light candles, celebrating the first night of Hanukkah in Israel, the world turns it’s attention to a bloody massacre in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Over 130 children aged 10 to 18 were murdered by Islamic terrorists in an attack by the Taliban (formally known as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP) on a Pakistan military-run school. Some seven suicide bombers charged the school with automatic weapons and explosives.

Israel and Pakistan, which do not share diplomatic relations, do communicate. Most of the communication takes places through their embassies in Turkey. In the past they have assisted one another with INTEL on terror groups which threaten both nations. But now the time has come for both nations to normalize relations.

If not for trade, then for their children.

Both nations are respected for their moderate values in a very tough Middle Eastern neighborhood. The people of both nations share much in common with an accent on agriculture, high-tech, education and love for family.

The days of Israel labeling Pakistan “an antisemitic state” and Pakistan counter-labeling Israel “a Zionist and racist state” must be replaced with the sharing of intelligence that will save lives and create bridges between the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities.

Islamic terror groups, ISIS, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Taliban, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda target Jews and Christians as “infidels” which they state need to be destroyed in a Jihad or Holy War. But the hatred shared by these terror groups is far greater for Muslims who embrace Western values. Democracy, equal rights for women and free speech is not tolerated by the Taliban in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Taliban are against Western-style education for children and the employment of women. Most famously, their terrorists shot schoolgirl education activist Malala Yousafzai in the head in 2012 as she traveled on a school bus. She survived to receive a Nobel Peace Prize last week.

As Israel quietly extends condolences and humanitarian aid to the families who lost loved ones in Peshawar, Pakistan must realize one thing.

The blood of Jewish and Muslim children is the same.

There is no reason on this good earth that these children should not be protected with any and all security assets available. Respect, understanding and tolerance must now transcend hate, propaganda and mistrust.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the assault in Peshawar and rushed to the area to show his support for the victims.

The prime minister vowed that Pakistan would not be cowed by the violence and that the military would continue with an aggressive operation to neutralize terrorism.

“The fight will continue. No one should have any doubt about it,” Sharif said.

Sharif and his government should, without delay, include democratic Israel in this fight.

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India-Pakistan

Waiting to be Killed: Chickens/Roost

2014-02-15

[WashingtonPost] Armored car sales have soared, and some new luxury apartments feature bulletproof glass. Local police officers, slain this year at an average rate of one per day, are demoralized. And now even the journalists are trying to arm themselves.
Detroit? L.A.?
Pakistan's biggest city has been plagued by crime and political violence for decades, with Urdu- and Pashto-speaking groups battling for influence. But the bloodshed is worsening as the domestic Taliban insurgency expands.
The monster is going to devour its' creator.
The militant group was largely responsible for a 90 percent spike in terrorist attacks in Karachi last year, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, which monitors violence. In the latest such attack, an explosion tore through a bus carrying police Thursday morning, killing a dozen officers. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

"Everyone is just waiting their turn to be killed," said Zamin Ali, son of a prominent Shiite attorney who was fatally shot outside a Karachi courthouse in July.

The bloodshed in this city reflects the Pakistani Taliban's growing national offensive against the government and religious minorities. But the insurgents are also using violence to take control of some city neighborhoods, where ordinary residents are forced to contribute to their cause, analysts said.

The mayhem is raising concerns that one of the world's most populous cities is teetering on the brink of lawlessness.
Concerns? Who's concerned? The U.N., perhaps?
"Something must be done soon, if Pakistan is to be saved," said Nasir Jamal, a deputy director of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a major political party.
Hmmmmm.... saved.... maybe not....
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif insists that Karachi can be tamed through targeted security operations and peace talks launched last month with the Pak Taliban. But residents are deeply worried.

For all the unrest, Karachi hardly resembles Baghdad or Mogadishu. It is home to dozens of international corporations, the Pakistan stock exchange and two major ports. Streets remain busy well into the night as residents flock to upscale shopping malls and events such as a new dolphin show at the aquarium and Pakistan's first performance of the Broadway musical "Grease."

Yet, that semblance of normality is increasingly being tested by Islamist militants surging into the city from northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan, part of a larger migration that has caused the city's population to nearly double in just over a decade, to about 22 million.

The city has long suffered from violence linked to gangs, drug traffickers and political mobsters. But now, some areas of the city look increasingly militarized. In the Kati Pahari neighborhood, heavily armed officers man checkpoints, stopping cars in search of militants traveling from police no-go zones in the vast slums on the outskirts of town.

The influx began after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 caused al-Qaeda fighters and Afghan Taliban to flee that country. More recently, Karachi has become a haven for militants escaping U.S. drone strikes and Pakistani military operations in northwest Pakistan.
No wonder the locals don't like the drones.
The Pakistan Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), formed when various Pakistani militant groups coalesced in 2007 and early 2008. It claims to be independent of the Afghan Taliban. But the groups are believed to coordinate activities. Both are dominated by Pashtuns, the biggest ethnic group in southern and eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan.

For years, Karachi had been plagued by clashes between Mohajirs, Urdu speakers who long dominated this economic hub, and Pashtuns, who were newer arrivals. But now, even Pashtuns say they feel threatened.
Somebody bring me my Femtoviolin.

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India-Pakistan

Hakimullah Mehsud drone strike: 'Death of peace efforts'

2013-11-02

[BBC.CO.UK] Pakistan's interior minister has said the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has destroyed the country's nascent peace process.
Somehow my caremeter just isn't sparkin'...
The official Rantburg Sympathy Meter didn't budge so much as 0.1 givashits...
"This is not just the killing of one person, it's the death of all peace efforts," Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said.
it's the size of the poop we give about your peace process.
Pakistan's security forces have been put on high alert following the US drone strike on Friday.
Insert horse, barn door analogy...
It came a day before a government delegation had been due to fly to North Waziristan to meet Mehsud.
That meeting's cancelled...
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had pledged to talk with the Taliban to try to end its campaign of violence, which has left thousands dead in bombings and shootings across the country.
Hakimullah's campaign of violence has ceased. Somebody else's campaign will now commence. Talk to him.
Militants have in the past carried out retaliatory attacks after the killings of other Taliban commanders.
They keep carrying out "retaliatory attacks" whether we've whacked anybody or not. It's their nature.

Mehsud was killed along with four other people - including two of his bodyguards - when four missiles struck their vehicle in the north-western region of North Waziristan, a senior Taliban official told the BBC.
Such is the destiny of all Pak Taliban leaders, though not, so far, of Afghan Taliban leaders. That fact raises a few interesting questions.
Pakistani media say Mehsud's funeral has taken place at an unknown location in the tribal area of North Waziristan.
"Is that his thumb?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Toss it in."
The Taliban's ruling council met on Saturday to choose a new leader. Unconfirmed reports say regional commander Khan Said Sajna has been elected to the top job.
The premium on his life insurance policy just jumped dramatically.
As well as Mehsud, the previous Pakistan Taliban leader was killed in a drone strike, in 2009.
And the one before him.
Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the US president's National Security Council, would not comment on any US government involvement or confirm the death but said it would be a serious loss for the group.
"Coulda been anybody, y'know. We ain't the only ones that didn't like him..."

The Pakistan government has strongly condemned the drone attack as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.
They always do, don't they? Like clockwork.
Mehsud's death is seen as another setback for the militant group after the recent capture of a senior commander by US forces in Afghanistan.
We concentrate on Wazoo because that's where the al-Qaeda leadership lives, and where the Haqqanis rule.
Mehsud, who led the insurgency from North Waziristan, had a $5m (£3.1m) FBI bounty on his head and was thought to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.
I'm sure he only shot a few of them personally.
He came to prominence in 2007 as a commander under the militant group's founder Baitullah Mehsud, with the capture of 300 Pakistani soldiers adding to his prestige among the militants.
"Ugh! Hakimullah count many coup!"
His second-in-command, Waliur Rehman, was killed in a similar drone strike in May.
That was a violation of Pak sovereignty, too.
But BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says that however weakened the Taliban may be by this loss, they will fight on under a new leader.
Unless they don't, of course. Predicting the likely is easy money.
In a rare interview two weeks ago, Mehsud told the BBC he was open to "serious talks" with the government but said he had not yet been approached.
That's because the govt hadn't capitulated to all his demands yet...
Mehsud denied carrying out recent deadly attacks in public places, saying his targets were "America and its friends".
"Yeah. We're only after them danged infidels. And girls that go to school. And people who ain't devout enough..."
He had loose control over more than 30 militant groups in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Rather than maintaining lunatic asylums, Pakistain has militant groups. They have thirty of them to cater to various types of psychosis.

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India-Pakistan

In Pakistan, army adamant on fighting the other Taliban

2013-07-11

ALAM: In the past few years, Swat valley has been occupied by insurgents, undergone a bruising counter-offensive by the army and then flooded by waters that washed away acres of fruit orchards and steeply terraced fields.

In October last year, the valley which lies about 250 km north of Islamabad was again in the global spotlight when gunmen shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai. Now, as villagers try to piece together shattered lives, the military is coming under pressure to talk peace with the Taliban, a ruthless Pakistani offshoot of the radical movement of the same name in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Civilian Pakistani leaders elected in May want to open a dialogue with the homegrown militants set on overthrowing the nuclear-armed state. They say the local people are fed up with the violence and that any talks will be legitimised by US efforts to promote peace with the Afghan Taliban. But the powerful military, which has spent years chasing the Pakistan Taliban into ever-more remote hideouts, is in no mood to negotiate with militants who have killed thousands of soldiers and who they say cannot be trusted. Some villagers back that stand.

(The Taliban) doesnt accept the governments writ, they are not faithful to the constitution, how can a political party talk to them? said Abdul Rehman, an elder in the village of Kalam, a former tourist hotspot high in the Swat valley and ringed by snow-capped peaks of the Hindu Kush. The village is famous for repelling Taliban attacks. We forced them away, first on our own, then with the help of the army, Rehman told Reuters during a visit organised by a UN organisation funding flood relief work in his village, which is set among pine forests and walnut orchards.

The debate over whether to open peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban has taken centrestage in the country as US troops withdraw from Afghanistan after a 12-year war against the Afghan Taliban. Pakistans military leaders are at pains to distinguish between the Afghan Taliban, to which Pakistan maintains ties and which they argue can be seen as fighting against occupation, and its local imitators who they see as domestic terrorists.

The Pakistani Taliban pledges allegiance to Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive leader of the Afghan Taliban but Omar is careful not to be seen to attack the Pakistani state. The Pakistani Talibans suddenly sacked its spokesman on Tuesday amid signs of strained ties between the groups. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his prominent rival Imran Khan both offered to talk to the Pakistani militants while campaigning for Mays federal and provincial elections. While Nawaz won the federal elections, Imrans party emerged victorious in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province that includes Swat Valley and remains a hotbed of Pakistani Taliban activity.

The information minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told Reuters that the provincial government had called a meeting of other political parties and stakeholders to prepare for peace talks. The United States has opened up a Taliban office in Qatar and is holding negotiations with them, and we are being told to continue to fight and die, Khan said last month during a visit to Peshawar, the provinces violence-blighted capital. For the last nine years we have relied on the army to bring peace, but instead the situation got worse, he said. Its now time for politicians to resolve the issue.

Imrans party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), says the violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a reaction to US drone strikes and pro-Washington policies by the army, and that talks are the only answer. But there is no easy solution. Most of the militants seek refuge in the neighbouring Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) - districts strung along Pakistans border with Afghanistan and run by central writ - and the provincial government cannot control the process.

FATA is used as a base by the Pakistani Taliban, members of the Afghan Taliban and groups linked to al Qaeda. Nawazs federal government can only do so much. Pakistans military largely has a free hand regarding internal security, and influences foreign policy, especially relations with neighbours. It is the army, its intelligence agencies and the Taliban itself who will decide whether to talk or fight.

The Pakistani Taliban has shown interest in talks, but has stepped up attacks after a series of drone strikes on its leaders and also because it doubts the ability of the civilian leadership to convince the military to allow negotiations. If we felt that the PTI government or the Nawaz Sharif government were in a position to take a serious step towards peace talks and can oppose the intelligence agencies, then we can seriously think about peace talks, the groups then spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in a video released in June.

So far, the military has shown no inclination to relax an offensive many officers feel they can win. We have to take the fight to them, said a regional commander flying a helicopter over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Just before the elections, army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani made it clear he would not talk to the militants unless they lay down arms and accept Pakistans laws. There is no room for doubts when it comes to dealing with rebellion against the state, he said in an April 30 speech.

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