India-Pakistan |
Pak militant leader says India to be major terror target |
2013-03-07 |
A top Pakistani militant commander linked to al-Qaeda has praised terrorists behind attacks in India and said the country will become a major target of terrorist assaults once the US withdraws from Afghanistan. Asmatullah Muawiya, a former Jaish-e-Mohammed leader who serves as one of al-Qaeda's 'company' commanders, released a statement praising Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and Afzal Guru, who was convicted of involvement in the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001. He threatened that attacks in India will increase as jihadi groups would shift their focus from Afghanistan to Kashmir once the US withdraws its forces from the region. Muawiya's remarks hinted at the Inter-Services Intelligence agency's ties to jihadist groups, The Long War Journal reported. He claimed the ISI would not be able to control the groups it has supported and directed in the past. Muawiya's statement was published on the jihadist Jamia Hafsa Urdu Forum on February 24 and was obtained and translated by the privately-run SITE Intelligence Group. |
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India-Pakistan |
Mumbai attacks case: India 'disappointed' at US immunity for ISI |
2012-12-20 |
![]() The Indian government has long alleged that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was behind the Islamist attacks which left 166 people dead an accusation denied by Islamabad. The Indian statement was in response to an affidavit filed in a US court earlier in the week in which the US government said Pakistains ISI and its former chiefs, Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Nadeem Taj, enjoy immunity in the Mumbai attacks. The US affidavit is a matter of deep and abiding concern, the Indian government statement said, noting Washington has publicly said it is committed to bringing those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks to justice. The decision of the US authorities in this case is a cause of serious disappointment, said the Indian statement. The New York federal court is hearing a case filed by US survivors of the Mumbai attacks and family members of the victims against Pasha, Taj and other ISI officials. Leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure,an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... (LeT) orc group, including its founder Mohammed Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ![]() ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... , are also named in the suit. India has accused Pakistains ISI of collaborating with the LeT to mount the attacks. The US government insisted in its affidavit that Pakistain must take steps to dismantle the LeT and support Indias efforts to counter orc threats, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI). But at the same time the affidavit said, the ISI is entitled to immunity because it is part of a foreign state, the PTI report stated. India last month hanged Pak national Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman of 10 attackers who raided targets including top hotels and a Mumbai railway station while holding elite Indian Special Forces at bay. |
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India-Pakistan |
Pakistan negotiates with militants over Shahbaz Taseer |
2012-07-24 |
[Dawn] A senior Pak official says the country's intelligence agency has been negotiating with Islamic fascisti over the release of the kidnapped son of an assassinated liberal politician. It is the first official confirmation that the government is in talks with the men holding Shahbaz Taseer, whose father was killed by his bodyguard last year for criticizing laws that call for the death penalty for insulting Islam. Taseer was kidnapped last August in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said during a Geo News TV program broadcast Monday that Taseer's kidnappers are demanding a large ransom and the release of some of their colleagues. Sanaullah said the Inter-Services Intelligence agency previously secured the release of the son-in-law of a former Mighty Pak Army general in similar negotiations. |
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India-Pakistan | |
Osama lived in a divided house? | |
2012-03-09 | |
![]() ... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing... spent his last weeks in a house divided, amid wives riven by suspicions. On the top floor, sharing his bedroom, was his youngest wife. The trouble came when his eldest wife moved into the bedroom on the floor below. Others in the family, crammed into the three-storey villa compound where Bin Laden would eventually be killed in a May 2 US raid, were convinced that the eldest wife intended to betray the Al Qaeda leader. The picture of Bin Laden's life in the Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... compound comes from Brig Shaukat Qadir, a retired army officer who spent months researching the events and says he was given rare access to transcripts of Pak intelligence's interrogation of Bin Laden's youngest wife, who was jugged in the raid. Brig Qadir was also given rare entry into the villa, which was sealed after the raid and demolished last month. Pictures he took, which he allowed The News Agency that Dare Not be Named to see, showed the villa's main staircase, splattered with blood. Other pictures show windows protected by iron grills and the 20-foot high walls around the villa. Brig Qadir's research gives one of the most extensive descriptions of the arrangements in Bin Laden's hideout when US SEAL commandos stormed in, killing him and four others. His account is based on accounts by an official of Inter-Services Intelligence agency who escorted him on a tour of the villa, the interrogation transcription he was allowed to read, and interviews with other ISI officials and Al Qaeda-linked Death Eaters and rustics in the Afghan-Pakistain border region. The compound where Bin Laden lived since mid-2005 was a crowded place, with 28 residents, including Bin Laden, his three wives, eight of his children and five of his grandchildren. Bin Laden lived and died on the third floor. One room he shared with his youngest wife, Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, a Yemeni who was 19 when she married the Al Qaeda leader in 1999. Another wife, Siham Saber, lived in another room on the same floor that also served as a computer room, Brig Qadir said. The arrival of his eldest wife, Saudi-born Khairiah Saber, in early 2011 stirred up the household, Amal said in her ISI interrogation, according to Brig Qadir.
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India-Pakistan |
SC directs ISI, MI to produce seven detainees |
2012-01-31 |
![]() An apex court bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez heard a petition filed by a woman whose three sons had been picked up by intelligence personnel for their alleged role in the Oct 2009 attacks on the army GHQ and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency's Hamza Camp in Rawalpindi. The woman had alleged that her sons and eight other people had been kept in illegal confinement since May 29, 2010, and four of them, including one of her sons, Abdus Saboor, had died in mysterious circumstances. Raja Arshad, the lawyer of Judge Advocate General (JAG) Branch and chiefs of the ISI and MI told the bench that the four had died due to illness. Arshad further said that he was not aware of the nature of the illness but that his clients were ready to conduct port mortems of the bodies. The chief justice mentioned that the prime minister had appeared before the court and told the lawyer that no one was above the law and the Constitution. The Constitution provides people protection and guarantees their independence, he added. |
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India-Pakistan |
Gilani reacts to military bullying |
2012-01-16 |
[Dawn] ![]() "The prime minister ... is answerable to parliament," Yusuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... told news hounds in the central city of Vehari. "I will not answer to a person. I am answerable to parliament." Gilani last week criticized Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha for filing court papers in a case involving a mysterious memo that has pitted the military against the civilian government. In an interview with Chinese media, Gilani said the filings were "unconstitutional", infuriating the military's high command, who issued a stern blurb on Wednesday. "There can be no allegation more serious than what the honourable prime minister has levelled," it said. "This has very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country." Gilani's comments were in response to a journalist's question about media reports Saturday night that Kayani was infuriated by Gilani's criticisms. The army chief complained to Zardari and demanded that Gilani's comments be clarified or withdrawn, a military source told Rooters on Saturday. Gilani, however, showed no signs of backing down. "What I said was not an accusation," he told news hounds. "We want there to be respect for the constitution, rule of law, and all institutions to work within their limits. I said just one thing, that rules and procedures were not followed. And that was the defence secretary's fault, for which we removed him from his post." |
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India-Pakistan |
Kayani says Gilani's criticisms 'divisive' |
2012-01-16 |
![]() "The army chief complained to the president about the prime minister's statements, and said they needed to be either clarified or withdrawn," the source told Rooters. "He said such statements were divisive ...politicians call things divisivewhen when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never "divisive," they're "principled".. and made the country more vulnerable." That tension has raised fears for the stability of the nuclear-armed country and exposed a struggle between the government and the military, which has ousted three civilian governments in coups since independence in 1947 and has ruled the nation for more than half of its history. There are no signs yet that a coup is being seriously considered, however, reflecting the changed political calculations in Pakistain since civilans took power in 2008. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... this week criticized Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha for filing court papers in a case involving a mysterious memo that has pitted the military against the civilian government. In an interview with Chinese media, Gilani said the filings were "unconstitutional," infuriating the military's high command, who issued a stern blurb. "There can be no allegation more serious than what the honorable prime minister has levelled," it said. "This has very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country." Gilani further infuriated the army on Wednesday by sacking the defence secretary, retired Lieutenant General Naeem Khalid Lodhi, for "gross misconduct and illegal action which created misunderstanding" between institutions. Lodhi was the most senior civil servant responsible for military affairs, a post usually seen as the military's main advocate in the civilian bureaucracy. As angry as Kayani is, the source said, the council of senior military commanders is even more angry, the source said. "There is a lot of pressure by the main corps commanders on the army chief regarding the statements of the prime minister." the source said. The military, which sets foreign and security policies, drew rare public criticism after US special forces killed al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who now dances with worms... on Pak soil in a raid in May 2011, an act seen by many Paks as a violation of illusory sovereignty. Paks rallied behind the military after a November 26 cross-border NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... air attack killed 24 Pak soldiers on the frontier with Afghanistan, driving ties with Washington to their lowest point in years. The army's fury is cause for serious concern for the civilian government, and Gilani and President ![]() President Ten PercentZardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... went on a charm offensive on Saturday. "Our government and parliament, and above all our patriotic people, have stood fully behind our brave armed forces and security personnel," Gilani said at a cabinet defence committee meeting also attended by Kayani. "It has been my government's policy to allow and enable all state institutions to play their role in their respective domains," he added. Earlier, Zardari met Kayani in a similar attempt to mend fences. "The current security situation was discussed," a presidential front man said, without giving any details. Pakistain's politicians and media pundits have been abuzz with rumours of a possible coup since the memo controversy erupted in October. The disputed memo -- allegedly from Zardari's government, seeking US help in reining in the generals -- has pushed relations between the civilian leadership and the military, to their lowest point since the last military coup in 1999. The latest crisis also troubles Washington, which wants smooth ties between civilian and military leaders so that Pakistain can help efforts to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan, a top priority for President Barack Obama. Ready to Rule from Day One... Gilani's office denied a report No, no! Certainly not! on Friday that the prime minister this week called the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, expressing concerns that the army might be about to mount a coup, and asking for London to support the government. An official at the high commission also denied the report. |
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Afghanistan |
Afghanistan Bombings Linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi |
2011-12-08 |
![]() Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... pointed to a Pak bully boy group as responsible for the deadly bombing of worshipers at a Shiite Mohammedan shrine in Kabul, escalating tensions with the nation's eastern neighbor. I think we'd already guessed that. When I think "bombed a Shia shrine" the first thing I think of is either "Lashkar-e-Jhangvi" or "Sipah-e-Sahabah Pakistain," which is kind of redundant, since both are the same organization. A jacket wallah detonated an explosive vest at the gate of the Abul Fazl shrine in Kabul yesterday, killing 56 people and wounding almost 150, Ghulam Sakhi Kargar, front man for public health ministry, said by phone today. Since the Paks regard Afghanistan as their territory they feel perfectly free to waltz in and detonate just like they were back home in Derra Adam Khel or Miranshah. It's not a violation of sovereignty, y'see, if they're not officially affiliated with the government. ![]() ... 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 ... based in Pakistain," Karzai said in a e-mailed statement. "Afghanistan takes this very seriously" and "we will fully follow up with Pakistain." ... who will tut-tut, deny any involvement, and blow the whole thing off... Lashkar is an organization of Islam's Sunni Deobandi sect and has conducted scores of bombings and shootings against minority Shiites in Pakistain. The U.S. State Department in 2003 listed it as a terrorist group, saying it had links to al-Qaeda and was involved with the 2002 kidnapping-murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in Pakistain. Even that far back it was a wholly owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda. The 300-strong, violent anti-Shiite group was formed in 1996 by veterans of the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, with support from Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, said a senior U.S. intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak publicly. It has never before launched an attack outside Pakistain, the official added. The organization is strictly sectarian: they kill Shiites, they kill Christians, they kill Jews, Hindoos, and what have you if they can find them. When they run out of those they'll settle for bumping off Brelvis. Pakistain Support "The group officially is banned in Pakistain The word "banned," of course, has an entirely different meaning in the alternate universe that is Pakistain. but it has a long history of receiving support from Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate," wrote retired Defense Intelligence Agency analyst John F. McCreary in his Dec. 6 NightWatch newsletter. "LeJ has never had a presence in Afghanistan, but it obviously has sympathetic organized groups of Afghans willing to work as its agents." Since Afghanistan is 40 percent Pashtun, and since hating Shiites is part of being a Pashtun unless one is a Shiite, it makes sense. Karzai canceled plans to visit the U.K. today, returning home following three bombings that targeted worshipers observing a Shiite Mohammedan holiday and sparked fears of sectarian violence. Bombs also went kaboom!at Shiite observances of the Ashura holiday in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, killing four, and the southern city of Kandahar, which claimed no lives. 'Declaration of Enmity' Karzai today visited some of the maimed at the Emergency Hospital for Victim of War in Kabul. He called the attacks a "declaration of enmity against the people of Afghanistan and Islam," according to the e-mail from his office. The attacks, which were condemned by the Taliban, raise the risk that sectarian bloodshed may be exported to Afghanistan by Pakistain-based groups, the Austin, Texas risk analysis company Stratfor said, as the U.S.-led coalition plans for a 2014 pullout. The Kabul attack targeted worshipers who had gathered for Ashura, which marks the death 14 centuries ago of a Mohammedan leader, Imam Hussein, the prophet Muhammad's grandson. In Washington, State Department front man Mark Toner said one private American citizen, whose name was not made public, was among the dead. Afghan Islamic Press, a news agency in the Pak thriving provincial capital of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, said it received a phone call claiming responsibility for the Kabul attack from Lashkar-e- Jhangvi. 'Screaming and Crying' "Before I arrived at the gate, there was a huge kaboom and I fell down," said Shuja Ahmad, 35, a government employee who had come to the mosque for Ashura prayers. "I saw people running, screaming and crying and saw bodies everywhere." Afghanistan's main bully boy movement, the Taliban, tossed in the slammer or killed thousands of Shiites in Mazar-e-Sharif and other cities during the Taliban regime in the 1990s. Still, those attacks didn't include bombings of religious ceremonies, and inciting a Shiite backlash now, amid the Taliban's fight against U.S.-led forces, "does not fit into their strategy," Stratfor said in an e-mailed analysis. Zabihullah Mujahed, a Taliban front man, denied in an e- mail that his group was responsible for the attacks, saying that "the brutal incidents that happened in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif are against Islamic law and humanity." His e-mail said that "the foreigners want civilians to hate the Taliban more and more." Civil War The attacks increase concerns of a more complex civil war in Afghanistan as the U.S.-led coalition hands over security to the Afghan army and police. A second round of formal transfers of security responsibility is under way in provinces and districts throughout the country. Those transfers are due to be completed by the end of 2014, when a limited U.S. force is to remain to support Afghan government security. The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, has privately recommended delaying new American troop withdrawals planned by the B.O. regime until 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, a bomb attached to a bicycle went kaboom!as people walked across a street to attend an Ashura ceremony, said Sherjan Durani, a front man for the Balkh province government. Four people were killed and 21 maimed, Durani said. A bomb that was placed on a parked cycle of violence in the southern city of Kandahar went kaboom!without killing anyone, said Zalmai Ayoubi, a front man for the province. |
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India-Pakistan |
Civil-military divide in Pakistan deepening over Osama killing linked memo |
2011-11-19 |
![]() According to a Washington Post report, at issue are allegations that the Pakistain Government asked for U.S. help to prevent a military coup after the Navy SEAL raid in May that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing... in Pakistain. The claim is thought to have enraged Pakistain's army, and the resulting controversy prompted Pakistain's ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, to offer his resignation this week. Zardari's government has nominally been leading Pakistain since 2008. But real power remains in the hands of the military, which has ruled the South Asian nation for half its 64-year existence and was livid after the U.S. operation against bin Laden. Though both the army and the civilian government receive billions of dollars in American assistance, the military views the United States, and its support for Zardari's unpopular administration, with deep distrust. That attitude is widespread in Pakistain, where patriotism is equated with support for the military and the United States is often seen more as bully than friend. Against that backdrop, a column published last month in the Financial Times has proved explosive. In it, Pak American businessman Mansoor Ijaz asserted that a senior Pak diplomat -- whom he identified Thursday as Haqqani -- asked him to help relay a request to the then-chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, to stop the military from staging a coup. The memo, a copy of which was provided by Ijaz to The Washington Post, warns that a military takeover would result in "potentially the platform for far more rapid spread of al Qaeda's brand of fanaticism and terror." The upheaval in the wake of the bin Laden killing, it said, provided "a unique window of opportunity" for "civilians to gain the upper hand over army and intelligence directorates." It said that in exchange for U.S. "direct intervention" to convey a strong no-coup message to Gen. Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... , leader of Pakistain's military, a newly appointed civilian national security team would shepherd an independent investigation of the bin Laden matter and terminate any "active service officers" found to have been complicit in concealing the al-Qaeda leader. Pakistain, it said, would also move to hand over all remaining al-Qaeda leaders on its soil, as well as Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and Sirajuddin Haqqani of the Haqqani hard boy network. Alternatively, it could give "U.S. military forces a 'green light' to conduct the necessary operations to capture or kill them on Pak soil," the memo said. It said the civilian government would eliminate "Section S" of Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, a unit that handles relations with hard boy groups; bring to justice the perpetrators of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai; and implement new measures to secure Pakistain's nuclear arsenal. |
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India-Pakistan |
U.S. Seeks Aid From Pakistan in Peace Effort |
2011-10-31 |
Just a month after accusing Pakistans spy agency of secretly supporting the Haqqani terrorist network, which has mounted attacks on Americans, the Obama administration is now relying on the same intelligence service to help organize and kick-start reconciliation talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan. The revamped approach, which Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Fight, Talk, Build during a high-level United States delegations visit to Kabul and Islamabad this month, combines continued American air and ground strikes against the Haqqani network and the Taliban with an insistence that Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency get them to the negotiating table. But some elements of the ISI see little advantage in forcing those negotiations, because they see the insurgents as perhaps their best bet for maintaining influence in Afghanistan as the United States reduces its presence there. |
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Home Front: WoT |
Taliban commanders say Pakistan intelligence helps them |
2011-10-27 |
Pakistan's security service provides weapons and training to Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan, despite official denials, Taliban commanders say, in allegations that could worsen tensions between Pakistan and the United States. We know it. The Afghans know it. The Talibs know it and brag about it. The Paks continue denying it, despite the evidence, despite the Quetta shura, despite bin Laden's corpse, and despite the fact that the Haqqanis own North Wazoo. If it was really "rogue elements" they'd be rooting them out and shooting them because the last thing any kind of effective government wants is parts of its intelligence establishment operating on its own. A number of middle-ranking Taliban commanders revealed the extent of Pakistani support in interviews for a BBC Two documentary series, "Secret Pakistan," the first part of which was being broadcast on Wednesday. As usual, any reporter other than Daniel Pearl can waltz into Pakistain and find Talibs strutting around Peshawar or Quetta or Dera Ismail Khan and get interviews. Pakistain's intel network is incapable of doing the same thing. A former head of Afghan intelligence also told the program that Afghanistan gave Pakistan's former president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, information in 2006 that Osama bin Laden was hiding in northern Pakistan close to where the former al Qaeda leader was eventually killed by U.S. special forces in May. Perv, recall, used to say periodically that Binny was either dead or not in Pakistain. When given his address and phone number he still couldn't find him - probably because he was down the road at the Pak army PX that day buying a new stereo... Admiral Mike Mullen, then the top U.S. military officer, accused Pakistani intelligence last month of backing violence against U.S. targets including the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. At which the entire country became indignant, with demonstrations in the streets against us Great Satans. He said the Haqqani network, an Afghan militant group blamed for the September 13 embassy attack, was a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI). Pakistan denies the U.S. allegations. "No, no! Certainly not!" One Taliban commander, Mullah Qaseem, told the BBC the important things for a fighter were supplies and a hiding place. "Pakistan plays a significant role. First they support us by providing a place to hide which is really important. The place to hide being a significant portion of their country... Secondly they provide us with weapons," he said, according to excerpts provided by the BBC. Y'know, that doesn't sound like the sort of thing allies do. But I'm an old crank. Who listens to me? Other Taliban commanders described how they and their fighters were, and are, trained in a network of camps on Pakistani soil. According to a commander using the name Mullah Azizullah, the experts running the training are either members of the ISI or have close links to it. "They are all the ISI's men. They are the ones who run the training. First they train us about bombs; then they give us practical guidance," he said. AL QAEDA TALENT SPOTTING Another Taliban fighter, known as Commander Najib, said al Qaeda trainers also operated in the camps, talent spotting possible suicide bombers. "I was in the camp for a month ... They were giving us practical training in whatever weapons we specialized in ... Suicide bombers were taken to a different section and were kept apart from us. Those who were taught to be suicide bombers were there," he said. A former head of Afghan intelligence told the BBC Afghan officials gave Musharraf information in 2006 suggesting bin Laden was hiding in Mansehra, a town just 12 miles from Abbottabad, where bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in May, but that the information was not acted upon. Amrullah Saleh, head of Afghan intelligence from 2004 to 2010, said Syed Akbar, a Pakistani believed to be smuggling guns to the Taliban, told Afghan intelligence he had escorted bin Laden from one location to another. "The information we had was suggesting Mansehra was the town where bin Laden was hiding ... It happens after so many years that bin Laden was about 12 miles from that location," he said. Saleh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the evidence to Musharraf who, according to Saleh, reacted angrily. "Oh, that just makes me so angry!" "He (Musharraf) banged the table and looked at President Karzai and said, 'Am I president of a banana republic? If not, then how can you tell me bin Laden is hiding in a settled area of Pakistan'. Guess that question's answered beyond doubt. I said 'Well, this is the information so you can go and check it.'," said Saleh, who quit last year after disagreeing with Karzai over plans to talk to the Taliban. So they asked around and then they went away, back to garrison in Abbotabad, where they said a polite hello to the tall guy shopping for new shoes at the PX. The BBC said Pakistan strongly denied the allegations made in the program. "Tut tut. Pish and bosh. No way, man!" Major General Athar Abbas ... who is The Very Model of a Modern Major General... , director general of the Inter Services Public Relations and official spokesman for the Pakistan military, told the BBC: "To say that these militant groups were being supported by the state with the organized camps in these areas ... I think nothing could be further from the truth." Then his lips fell off. |
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India-Pakistan |
Pakistan 'still running Taliban training camps' |
2011-10-26 |
![]() One commander, Mullah Azizullah, told a BBC documentary: "They are all the ISI's men. They are the ones who run the training. "First they train us about bombs, then they give us practical guidance. Their generals are everywhere. They are present during the training." |
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