Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

India-Pakistan

CTD arrests terrorist in Bajaur raid

2023-05-11

Bajaur is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal districts along Pakistain's mountainous western border. They became a hotbed of Islamist hard boyz following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. They have their own branch of the TTP — cleverly named TTP Bajaur — and play host to Al Qaeda as well. The Mighty Paks have been quietly ineffective against them for decades.

[Dawn] The Counter-Terrorism Department claimed on Tuesday to have arrested a terrorist while making a bomb in Bajaur tribal district.

CTD Malakand-II superintendent of police Amjad Ali Khan told a presser that the terrorist was held during a joint operation conducted by the CTD and the security forces.

He said the terrorist was tasked to prepare jacket wallahs for sabotage acts in the region. He said the CTD and security forces carried out an intelligence-based search and strike operation in Damadola Narai Kandao area of Bajaur on Monday night and arrested the bully boy identified as Ikramullah, while making a bomb.

The official said a hand grenade, prima cord, safety fuses and 550 grams of explosives were also recovered from his possession. He said two other accomplices of the terrorist, identified as Adnan and Mushtaq of Khar, Bajaur, took advantage of the darkness and fled from the scene.

...as if they had never been.

The SP said preliminary interrogation suggested the bully boy had been tasked with preparing suicide bombers.

Link

Afghanistan

ISIS claims attack on Pakistani check post along Durand Line

2015-09-14

[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The affiliates of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have claimed an attack on Pak security forces check post along the Durand Line.

It is the first such assault claimed by the ISIS affiliates who are believed to be the former members of the Pak Taliban group -- Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP).

An ISIS affiliate told Rooters that the attack was carried out late on Saturday in Damadola district of the Bajaur tribal area in Pakistain's northwest, where the military has been battling a murderous Moslem insurgency since 2007.

He said "Our men destroyed the post, set it on fire and left it after our operation was complete."

The attack was also reportedly confirmed by two Pak intelligence officials but they said no casualties were incurred.

This comes as the terror group's self proclaimed Khurasan province chief Sheikh Jalaluddin issued a video statement on Saturday calling Pakistain's military intelligence -- Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) as infidels.

Sheikh Jalaluddin vowed to continue attacks both in Afghanistan and Pakistain in a bid to enforce a Sharia law.

This comes as the Afghan ambassador to Pakistain Mosazai warned earlier that that the ISIS terror group was spreading "its propaganda and obscurantist worldview" also in Pakistain, similar as other parts of the world.

Speaking during a seminar on Countering Violence Extremism, Mosazai said the former the gunnies of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) are shifting over to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

He said TTP gunnies have infiltrated into Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province and switched over to the black flag or Daesh, which we have been containing," Mosazai quoted by local media reports said.

Link

India-Pakistan

Top Uzbek commander among 17 terrorists killed in Khyber air strikes

2014-12-19

[Dawn] PESHAWAR: A top Uzbek murderous Moslem commander and 17 other bad boyz were potted in fresh air strikes in Khyber Agency

while 10 Death Eaters were bumped off in a ground action at Malak Shaga Nullah on Thursday, military officials said.

According to a front man of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), 17 holy warriors including an Uzbel commander, Islamud Din were killed in the evening?s air strikes in Khyber Agency.

Separately, security forces killed 10 Death Eaters in a ground offensive in Bajaur district (around 125 miles northwest of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
).

?In a ground action by security forces at Malak Shaga Nullah near Warwandu Mella and Hossai Nullah 10 bad boyz were potted, two were seriously injured while 6-8 managed to escape,? a security bigshot told AFP.

He said two security personnel were maimed and others were chasing the fleeing murderous Moslems.

The details, however, could not be independently verified due to restricted access for journalists in the area.

Earlier in the day, a road-side bomb killed three Frontier Corps soldiers near in Damadola area of the tribal district.

On Tuesday, a team of Taliban gunnies stormed the Army Public School in Peshawar, slaughtering 148 people, including 132 children, in the country's deadliest ever terror attack.

The Pak Taliban said the assault was Dire Revenge for the killing of its fighters and their families in ongoing military operation Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
against its hideouts in the North

Wazoo tribal area, and warned more attacks would follow.

Pakistain has been battling Death Eaters in its semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004, after its army entered the region to search for Al Qaeda gunnies who had fled across the border following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Link

India-Pakistan

5 security men hurt in Bajaur, Dir blasts

2014-08-22

[DAWN] Three coppers were maimed in a roadside blast in Salarazai tehsil of Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central

...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
on Tuesday evening, officials said.

They said that paramilitary troops were on a routine patrol in the mountainous area of Mulla Said when their vehicle was hit by a remote-controlled bomb planted by suspected Lion of Islams.

The officials said that three security personnel received injuries in the blast. The injured coppers were taken to agency headquarters hospital where their condition was stated to be stable.

After the blast, security forces and volunteers of village defence committee rushed to the site and launched a search operation. According to officials, about 12 rustics were nabbed
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
under the collective territorial responsibility clause of Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

Alqaeda Taliban, a Lion of Islam group in Mohmand and Bajaur agencies, grabbed credit for the attack.

Yousaf Raza, a front man for the group, told journalists by telephone from ~~some holy man's guesthouse~~ an undisclosed location that the attack was a reaction to the military operation in North

Wazoo Agency. He said that they would continue such activities in the entire tribal areas till the end of the operation.

Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy's udder had begun to ache...
security forces recovered two remote-controlled bombs in Inam Khoro Chinagi and Damadola areas of Mamond tehsil.

Sources said that the security forces with the help of Bajaur Levies and volunteers of local peace committees conducted search operation in the areas and recovered two remote-controlled bombs. The bombs were safely defused.

Also, political administration on Wednesday arrested 16 rustics under the collective responsibility clause of FCR in connection with an attack on a van in Thangi area of Salarzai tehsil.

Six people including three women teachers were killed in the attack on Tuesday.

In Upper Dir, three people including two FC men sustained injuries in two separate landmine blasts in Sundrawal area on Wednesday.

Police said a local resident identified as Shafiullah was injured when he stepped on a landmine in field. After the blast, police and FC personnel rushed to the spot and launched a joint search operation there.

In the meantime, another landmine went off at the same site and injured two FC men, they added.

In Swat, unidentified persons rubbed out a local peace volunteer in Mingora city on Tuesday night.

According to police, member of local village defence committee Rasheed Ahmad alias Sahibhaq was present outside his shop in Nawai Kallay area of Mingora city on Tuesday night when person or persons unknown opened firing on him. He received four bullets and died instantly.

Link

India-Pakistan

NATO Says Pakistani Militant Commander Killed in Afghanistan

2012-08-25

[NY Times] NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
forces said on Saturday that they had killed a senior Pak Taliban capo in an ~~Arclight~~ airstrike in Afghanistan, highlighting the increasingly complicated nature of the fight against Islamist cut-throats along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistain.

Mullah Dadullah, who led the Pak Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency, was killed late Friday in a strike on a compound across the border in the Afghan province of Kunar, NATO and Pak intelligence officials said.

The Kunar police chief, Gen. Elwaz Mohammad Naziri, said 12 other myrmidons, including Dadullah's deputy, were also killed.

The death of Mullah Dadullah, a former prayer leader who rose through the Taliban ranks to become a commander, will have an impact on the fighting in Bajaur, where the Pak Army has been battling the Pak Taliban since 2008.

But it may also offer an opportunity for a fresh turn in the relations among NATO, Pak and Afghan forces along the mostly non-existent border, which have been marred by acrid recriminations in recent months.

Pak officials have publicly accused NATO of failing to stop Taliban fighters sheltering in the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan, from which American forces have largely withdrawn, from carrying out attacks inside Pakistain.

The officials' protests reached a crescendo in June after a Taliban ambush on a Pak border patrol killed 13 troops, 7 of whom had their heads chopped off. Some Pak officials have gone as far as to accuse NATO and Afghan forces of secretly supporting the bad turbans.

The Afghan government has replied by saying that Pakistain's military regularly fires artillery salvos across the border into remote Afghan villages, killing scores of civilians. Tensions between border police on both sides have flared into gunfire exchanges several times in the last month.

NATO officials, meanwhile, note that Pakistain has failed to crack down on much larger Afghan Taliban sanctuaries inside its own territory -- particularly in North

Wazoo, further west along the border, where the notorious Haqqani network holds sway.

There, the campaign against the Taliban is being led by Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes, which have attacked targets in North Waziristan on four of the last eight days. Senior American officials in Washington say one of the strikes may have killed Badruddin Haqqani, the operational leader of the Haqqani network.

Now, Mullah Dadullah has become the most senior Pak Taliban capo to be killed by NATO in Afghanistan. In Kabul, the Afghan capital, a NATO official said the killing signaled a desire for greater cross-border cooperation with Pakistain. "This is an example of that," he said.

NATO said Mullah Dadullah was important on the Afghan battlefield, too. In a statement, the military alliance said he "was responsible for the movement of fighters and weapons, as well as attacks on Afghan and coalition forces."

A front man for Pakistain's military was not immediately available for comment.
"I can say no more!"
But Asad Munir, a retired Pakistain military brigadier and former intelligence chief in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, said Mullah Dadullah's killing was a "very calculated move that is likely to be appreciated by our army."

"Their complaint has been that American and Afghan forces are not targeting the Pak Taliban. This is a good sign," he said.

Mullah Dadullah, also the name of an Afghan commander of the Taliban who was killed in 2007, was the nom de guerre of Jamal Said, a prayer leader from the village of Damadola, in Bajaur. He rose through the ranks of the Pakistain Taliban and in 2008, he headed its vice and virtue department, which enforces strict moral edicts based on a narrow interpretation of Islamic texts, and later ran its charity.

He became a Taliban capo in Bajaur after the group's leadership fired his predecessor, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, for engaging in unauthorized peace talks with the Islamabad government.

Mr. Muhammad now leads a rival Taliban faction, which is also based in Afghanistan and has been attacking Pak border posts. His troops have clashed with those of Mullah Dadullah in the past month, a local news hound from Bajaur said by telephone.

Link

India-Pakistan

Budget in a season of terror

2012-05-26

The economists are either incapable of computing Pakistain's economy with terror as the curve input or they have joined the politicians in hoping for the impossible. All they know is that Pakistain's economy is in dire straits with the following symptoms: faltering growth, record-low investment and historically high inflation. Presiding over this wasteland is debt of three kinds: external, internal and circular.

The internal debt is touching Rs 12.83 trillion at the end of December 2011 - over 65 per cent of GDP. It was only Rs 6.5 trillion in 2008, which means the PPP government has notched it up by twice as much, an index of its abysmal economic governance of four years. (It would be dishonest not to mention that the opposition and the allies alike refused to implement IMF-guided policies that would have rescued the economy somewhat.)

The same can be said about external debt which stands at over $60 billion with interest payment liabilities that Pakistain can hardly service, eroding further the spendable section of the revenues. Pakistain Army and the rapidly accumulating public support behind its honour-based edicts have hamstrung the economy, scaring away foreign investors while attracting only the quick-fix speculative funds in the stock market. Honour has satisfied the warrior while undermining the economy.

Forcing the US and its NATO partners through insults and threats to cough up money for the cure of Pakistan's terminal internal sickness is not going to work for very long

When you don't have the money and have to buy things you need you develop deficit. This gap between income and spending forces the government to attack the State Bank and cripple its stabilising functions by forcing it to print money to make the payments with. Imports need foreign exchange and that comes from exports and remittances from Pakistain's 7 million strong expatriate community plus the IMF. But here too the payable is double the amount of dollars that come in. But the PPP inherited an economy that General Musharraf had scuppered before committing his political blunders and leaving the country.

His gift to Pakistain was the disease of circular debt that the PPP could not cure, haunted by the crises emanating from domestic and Pakistain-inspired regional terrorism. This 300 billion rupees mountain stood athwart all efforts to remove the energy deficit the general had left behind in the shape of deferred payments and subsidies. Add to that the third world reflex of gouging money from the carcass of the economy and you have the terminal crisis that stares the PPP in the face months before the next election. The PPP is all set to pass on the legacy of Musharraf to whoever comes next - through the device of printing more money.

The political parties are 'same play', trying to kill each other with verbal abuse, a kind of background noise to the terrorism inflicted on the victim population by Al Qaeda and its slaves the Taliban and an entire Madrassa network eying the country as potential caliphate because the people don't vote for them under normal democracy. There is however a secret consensus in Pakistain that envelops the entire humanity living in Pakistain: denial of terrorism based on the misinterpretation of the following phenomena:

1) Bajaur-Damadola attack of 2006 which humbled the Army under Musharraf with popular blacklash;

2) Lal Masjid attack of 2007 which developed tacit pro-Taliban-Al Qaeda national consensus triggering an internal transformation of thinking in the Army;

3) Afiya Siddiqi affair which united the nation against the Army as an ally of rascally America;

4) the Haqqani network which the entire population ignores for mysterious reasons while attacking mythical entities like Black Water;

5) the Supreme Court which is responsible - together with terrorism - of scaring away foreign investments;

6) Raymond Davis incident which transformed the people of Pakistain into a phalanx against the national economy;

7) the late Osama bin Laden's
... who can now be reached at RFD Boneyard...
death which further aroused the anti-economy sense of Army-led national honour;

8) All political parties that will get to handle the national economy in 2013 developed a hidden consensus in favour of isolationism expressed through the parliament.

No matter who comes to power after the PPP, the economy is doomed because of the shocking sameness in the stance of the homo pakistanicus against the entire world. The PPP is still partly unreconstructed but the PMLN will not be able to suppress the 'aghyar' rhetoric unleashed by the Sharif brothers on a country where the economy is gradually shutting down. The dark horse Tehrik Insaf will have the hardest time with the economy if it comes to power. It will try to correct the economy while basking in the charisma of isolationist pride and waiting for Al Qaeda and Taliban to transform themselves back into normal human beings after the exit of the Americans from the region.

The problem for Pakistain is posed like this: the usual wisdom is that if you have to run a normal economy you have to put an end to terrorism which actually saps the writ of the state by killing the will of the executive to practise normal governance. If you invert this wisdom you can say: create post-terrorism conditions without ending terrorism. The truth is that terrorism will not go away like that. Pakistain will have to confront and it will need global support for it. But can you tame terrorism emanating from an Afghan policy targeting India?

Forcing the US and its NATO partners through insults and threats to cough up money for the cure of Pakistain's terminal internal sickness is not going to work for very long. The proud groundwork of foreign policy laid by parliament as if Pakistain were a superpower will be quickly demolished. It will arouse rage in the capitals being asked to send dollars to persuade Pakistain to stop threatening the world. The inverted wisdom of creating post-terrorism conditions without ending terrorism will be exploded soon after NATO is gone and the supply route is not needed. The countries who leave Afghanistan will not love Pakistain for the gesture of the route. The economy will suffer in consequence.

Which economist will tell the Army that if you don't do something about Hafiz Muhammad Saeed

...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain...
and his hostile maunderings to cringing TV anchors, the economy will not start flourishing and providing jobs to Pakistain's youth bulge? Pakistain's economy will hardly coexist for long with the likes of Hakimullah Mehsud and Al

Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
who are waiting to step up bank-looting and kidnapping of the captains of Pakistain's industry once the latter start returning to Pakistain from markets in Bangladesh and Malaysia, thinking a change of government was all Pakistain needed.

The economy is not with the Army. Nor is it with Al Qaeda and its minions in the Madrassa network and jihadi leaders like Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. It would have responded to the political parties but they are shunning it for being non-honourable and opportunist. It will abandon them as they square off to fight among themselves with their backs to the global economy where ultimately the solution is to be found.

Link

India-Pakistan

Attacks in Dir, Bajaur: ANP leader, tribal elder killed

2011-09-15

[Dawn] The district president of Awami National Party was killed and his four companions were maimed when an improvised bomb went off near his vehicle at Bandai village of Maidan tehsil in Dir Lower on Tuesday.

Also, a pro-government tribal elder was killed and his three relatives were maimed when forces of Evil attacked his house in Mamond area of Bajaur tribal region on Tuesday.

Sources said that ANP leader Sher Khan, who was also chairman of district Zakat committee, was targeted by the bomb when he was going to Timergara in his official vehicle along with his two friends and as many police guards.

Sher Khan and all of his four companions were maimed in the blast. They were taken to a local hospital where Sher Khan pegged out. The other injured were shifted to district headquarters hospital in Timergara, where doctors said that they were in stable, pH balanced condition.

The injured were identified as coppers Nisar and Shahid and the two other companions of the ANP leader Matiullah and Saeedur Rehman.

The security forces and police cordoned off the area and started search operation soon after the blast.

District Police Officer Saleem Marwat told journalists that they had taken into custody
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
40 suspected people in Maidan, including the chief of a seminary and his aide. The seminary chief is stated to have affiliation with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl.

Mr Marwat said that 10 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast. The device was a remote controlled bomb, he added.

According to sources the dear departed was staunch opponent of Taliban and he was facing life threat therefore government had deputed two coppers for his security. Both the coppers were maimed with him in the blast.

Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features.
If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!...
a pro-government tribal elder and member of a peace committee was killed and three of his relatives were maimed when forces of Evil attacked his house in Mamond area of Bajaur tribal region.

According to officials and local residents, forces of Evil attacked the house of Mlaka Gul Noor early in the morning in Landi Shah area of Damadola with heavy weapons.

They scaled the walls of the fort-like house of the pro-government tribal elder with ladders and opened indiscriminate firing on the sleeping inmates. As a result 48-year-old Malak Gul Noor was killed on the spot while three others including his wife and son sustained wounds.

The injured were taken to agency headquarter hospital Khar at death's door.

Malak Gul Noor had supported government against forces of Evil in the region. He also played leading role in formation of peace committee and flushing out forces of Evil from the region.

The political administration soon after the incident started search operation and placed in durance vile 10 suspected persons. The placed in durance vile suspects were shifted to Khar jail for interrogation.

Link

India-Pakistan

Now it's Pakistan blaming the US for letting the Taliban slip away

2010-04-16

The young, immaculately turned out Pakistani soldiers responsible for guarding the world's most inhospitable terrain were finding it hard to conceal their frustration. For the past 18 months, they had been fighting to drive thousands of Taliban militants from their strongholds in the remote tribal regions that straddle Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The campaign reached its climax last month, when Pakistani forces finally dislodged the Taliban from heavily fortified positions in Bajaur, just a few miles from the forbidding mountain passes that lead to Afghanistan.

This week, when I became one of the first Western journalists to reach Bajaur following the Taliban's defeat, the detritus of battle lay everywhere. Along the roads to the border villages stood semi-demolished houses riddled with bullet holes, where Taliban fighters had made their last, desperate stands. Occasionally, frightened children would peer from dilapidated alleyways and wave nervously at our passing convoy of military lorries. At the border village of Damadola, where the insurgents lost their final battle, all that remained from their reign of terror was the network of caves they had carved into the surrounding mountains, which were filled with the dusty sleeping bags and clothes abandoned in their haste to escape the military's advance.

But even though Pakistani forces have inflicted a crushing defeat on the Taliban in the semi-autonomous tribal region of northern Pakistan, their senior officers are furious that hundreds of fighters escaped across the border into Afghanistan, where they are being housed and protected in camps set up by Afghan supporters. Pakistani commanders insist that they informed their American opposite numbers that large numbers of Taliban were fleeing into territory that is supposed to be under US control, but they failed to intervene.

*sigh* It's so difficult with limited resources to guard every mountain pass when one's forces are tied up dealing with the Taliban the ISI sent through previously. But if there truly are new Taliban camps in Afghanistan, no doubt the satellites will reveal new targets for Western Air Force bombing runs.

Now the Pakistanis fear the Taliban will regroup in Afghanistan and launch a fresh offensive to re-establish its presence in northern Pakistan. "We have done everything the West asked us to do," Col Nauman Saeed told me when we met at the headquarters of the Bajaur Scouts, who spearheaded the campaign against the Taliban. "We feel badly let down."

Or at least talked loudly about doing so, while aiming groups of Afghan Taliban toward the ISI's chosen target du jour.

Previously, Nato commanders had accused the Pakistani authorities of not taking effective action against Taliban bases on their soil, which have been used to plan terrorist attacks against Western targets in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now the Pakistanis are turning the tables on Nato. The irony of these claims will not be lost on the Americans, who faced similar accusations in late 2001, after they led the coalition that overthrew the Taliban government in Afghanistan. On that occasion, US forces failed to prevent the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies from escaping across the border to Pakistan, undermining attempts to capture Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taliban's leader.

Since then, the insurgents have exploited the goodwill of Pashtun leaders in Pakistan's remote tribal areas to build a new administrative structure. They used this to terrorise the population through the strict application of sharia law, and also provided a haven for al-Qaeda terrorists. Pakistani intelligence sources believe that Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of bin Laden's key lieutenants, was given shelter in Bajaur itself. The Pakistani military was finally forced to intervene after al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, and the Taliban moved south and seized control of the Swat Valley, close to the capital of Islamabad.

But the fact that, nine years after Western forces first deployed to the region, there appears to be no proper co-ordination between Nato commanders in Afghanistan and their Pakistani counterparts does not bode well for the future success of this campaign. After all, the whole point of the new strategy devised by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of Nato forces, is that it involves those on both sides of the border working together to defeat their common enemy.

What I found particularly disconcerting during my visit this week to the war zone in Pakistan was that the complaints I heard from Pakistani officers were not dissimilar to those I heard from their British counterparts when I visited Helmand this year. While both sides have made significant military gains against the Taliban, they are critical of the lack of support they are receiving from their allies. The British and Americans accuse the Pakistanis of not doing enough to stop Taliban fighters fleeing across the border, while the Pakistanis complain about the ease with which the Taliban can move in the opposite direction.

It is clearly in the interests of everyone that this impasse is resolved quickly, as the glaring disconnect between Nato and Pakistan threatens to undermine the entire international effort to prevent this region from being a haven for Islamist terrorists. And with President Obama sticking to his pledge to start withdrawing American troops from the region in July next year, time is of the essence.

Link

India-Pakistan

Paramilitary troops deployed in Damadola

2010-03-04

[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Security forces on Wednesday started deployment of the Bajaur Levies and the Frontier Corps (FC) on various positions in Damadola, the former stronghold of militants, in Mamond Tehsil, Bajaur Agency, official sources said.

The sources said security forces strengthened their positions in the area after one month of intense fighting. The militants were entrenched in Damadola for the last several years. Security forces destroyed hideouts of the militants, including tunnels and caves, the sources said.

The paramilitary Bajaur Levies and the the FC have started replacing the Army troops that were handing over responsibility after completing the job. The sources added that Assistant Political Agent Iqbal Khattak was supervising the new deployment and in the first phase, 240 Levies personnel were deputed to the area.

The sources said the Levies personnel deployed in Inam Khwar, Cheenagai and Shinkot had received training and would be able to maintain law and order in the area. Though the militants have been dislodged from Damadola, the Army would stay for some time in Mamond Tehsil. Damadola is part of Mamond and was known as the nerve-centre of the militants in Bajaur. Meanwhile, six militants surrendered to security forces in the Malangi area on Wednesday.

Link

India-Pakistan

Pakistan reveals the Taliban's secret underground cave network

2010-03-03

Pakistan's army on Tuesday revealed a vast Taliban and al-Qaeda hideout dug into mountains near the Afghan border.

Commanders gave journalists a guided tour of the bastion, carved into sheer rock within clear view of the snow-capped mountains of eastern Afghanistan and said by one general to comprise 156 caves developed over five to seven years.

Pakistan seized the complex in its latest offensive against terrorists in its semi-autonomous tribal belt, following U.S. pressure on the country to eliminate Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked groups who attack Western troops in Afghanistan.

Major-General Tariq Khan told journalists on the visit that the warren of caves in the Damadola area had served as a terrorist headquarters until it was overrun by troops in an offensive launched in January.

"It was the main hub of militancy where al-Qaeda operatives had moved freely," he said.

Journalists saw bedding such as pillows and mattresses that suggested the inhabitants had camped out for significant periods.

"Al-Qaeda was there. They had occupied the ridges. There were 156 caves designed as a defensive complex," Maj.-Gen. Khan said.

It is believed the caves at one point sheltered Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command to Osama bin Laden, and Damadola was the scene of a 2006 U.S. drone strike that unsuccessfully targeted him.

Bobby Wilkes, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Central Asia, said the caves would have housed the terrorists permanently.

"They could winter there," he said. "They're huge complexes that are just dug into the mountains. There's nothing extravagant to them, they're just big open holes that would provide shelter from weather and from anybody attacking.

"The entrances are hidden and typically on the steep side of a mountain so they'd be very difficult to spot from overhead. They just climb up the hills, it's like going up into the Rockies in Colorado."

Damadola covers about five square kilometres and is about 20 km from the Afghan border. The village lies in the Bajaur tribal region and has been fought over for 16 months.

The latest fighting saw 75 local and foreign terrorists killed.

"The first Pakistan army uniformed soldiers have arrived in Damadola after a recent operation and the Pakistan flag has been raised for the first time since [independence in] 1947," Maj.-Gen. Khan said.

Damadola is strategically important as a link to Afghanistan, Pakistan's northern district of Chitral, the main highway to China and the northwestern valley of Swat, which has been troubled by the Taliban.

Until 2008 the area was tantamount to an independent state run by an Afghan warrior, Qazi Ziaur Rehman, who was its administrative controller, collecting taxes from local people.

As the journalists visited, hundreds of tribesmen celebrated in front of the television cameras, waving guns in the air and hailing the army and vowed to form pro-government militias -- known locally as lashkars --to prevent the Taliban's return.

Link

India-Pakistan

'74 killed in Bajaur operation'

2010-02-11

[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Security forces claimed to have killed 74 militants and injured 54 others and wrested the strategically important hilltops and areas from the insurgents during the weeklong military operation in the Mamond subdivision of restive Bajaur Agency.

Briefing reporters on Tuesday, the in-charge of Bajaur military operation, Brig Abid Mumtaz, and Commandant of Bajaur Scouts Col Nauman Saeed said security forces had launched a decisive action against the militants in the troubled Mamond area on January 29.

They said the operation was still going on. "Security forces have captured Sewai and Damadola, the strongholds of militants, and smashed their command and control system. "The forces have also cleared many areas of militants in Bajaur Agency and established the writ of the government," Brig Mumtaz stressed.

He said the contingents of Army and the Frontier Corps, (FC) backed by jet fighters of Pakistan Air Force and gunship helicopters, launched operation from three directions against the militants hiding in Mamond subdivision, which yield positive results.

Brig Abid Mumtaz said a total of 74 militants were killed and 54 others injured while a number of their hideouts and bunkers had been destroyed in the weeklong operation. He added 10 soldiers had embraced martyrdom and 22 sustained injuries in the action.He lauded the role of tribesmen and their support to the security forces.

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India-Pakistan

Troops wrest Damadola from Taliban

2010-02-07

[Dawn] Security forces captured Damadola, Taliban's stronghold 15 kilometres north of Bajaur Agency headquarters Khar, on Saturday, military sources said.

According to the sources, the capture was one of the 'major successes' achieved by troops since the launch of operation Sherdil on Aug 6, 2008, in Bajaur.

Damadola town, in Mamond tehsil, is the native town of Maulana Faqir Mohammad, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's deputy chief. Until four years ago, it had been a stronghold of Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi.

According to security forces and the political administration, militants had established a number of training centres and underground bankers in the town. Maulana Faqir and his close associates used to issue directives to their men from the area.

The place came into limelight after US drones carried out four attacks over the past four years. A number of local and foreign militants, including Maulana Liaquat, a close aide of Maulana Faqir, were killed in the strikes.

According to sources, troops captured Damadola on Saturday morning after overcoming stiff resistance by militants. They said that although troops had cleared key points of the town, a few pockets were still under Taliban control.

The sources said that most of the militants had been killed in the operation and a number of them might have been buried alive in underground bunkers and hideouts.

APP adds: An operation was launched by security forces and volunteers of Qaumi Lashkar on Jan 27 to clear Damadola of terrorists.

An FC spokesman said that during the operation a number of hideouts and bunkers had been destroyed and 60 terrorists killed. Seven soldiers lost their lives.

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