Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

India-Pakistan

200 militants have surrendered in Swat: Hamid

2008-03-10

Caretaker Interior Minister Lt Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan has claimed that around 200 militants have so far surrendered to the authorities in Swat. He told the state-run PTV channel that 422 people had been arrested in Swat for their involvement in terror activities. “Six tonnes of explosive material has also been recovered from the area,” he added. He praised the law-enforcement agencies for making “foolproof” security arrangements during the February 18 elections and Muharram. “Security agencies have averted 20 to 30 possible incidents of terrorism in the Punjab and Sindh during Muharram and the elections,” the minister said. However, he added that “by just preventing these incidents we are not going to be successful as it is very important to go back and hit the base area of terrorist organisations”. Replying to his recent statement regarding the involvement of foreign elements in terrorist activities in Pakistan, Hamid said he was talking about the growing general perception of this “because such activities cannot not be sustained longer without foreigners’ involvement”. He stressed a joint and coordinated effort in the NWFP to eliminate terrorism and extremism from the country. He said that the new NWFP government would have an important role to play in tackling terrorism. Pakistan released Kashmir Singh, an Indian who served 35 years in prison, last week. Hamid said the release of Singh would help promote a benign image of the country.

Link

India-Pakistan

Sherpao attack accused killed

2008-02-28

Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan on Wednesday said a tribal militant commander and mastermind of two suicide attacks on former interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and killer of a serving Intelligence Bureau (IB) official was killed in an encounter with security agencies on Tuesday. “Abdul Siar, head of Siar group in the Tribal Areas, was killed on Tuesday in an encounter between security agencies and his men between Charsada and Mohmand Agency,” Hamid told reporters after attending a National Public Safety Commission meeting. Nawaz said almost 116 innocent people had died in various terrorist attacks by Siar and his men in various parts of the country. He said security agencies had also arrested two of Siar’s men during the encounter, who divulged important information after which the government had increased security of prominent politicians and important public buildings across Pakistan.

Link

India-Pakistan

'Government has broken terrorist's backbone'

2008-02-21

Interior Minister Lt Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan claimed on Wednesday that India’s top spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan. "Yeah. We can tell it's them from all the turbans and Korans that are involved." The government has broken the back of terrorists and their activities have been confined to the Tribal Areas, Nawaz told a press conference here. If you define the "Tribal Areas" as including Karachi and Rawalpindi and Lahore. And Barcelona... Government forces and militants in the Tribal Areas have been fighting each other after the September 2006 government-Taliban peace pact collapsed in July last year. “A large number of terrorists have been arrested with the help of the army and other law-enforcement agencies. Many other have been either killed or driven out of the country,” Nawaz said, adding that militants were surrendering or fleeing the Tribal Areas. "Many others we've surrendered to." The minister was satisfied with security arrangements made for the month of Muharram and Monday’s parliamentary elections. Unfortunately, he added, 18 people were killed and 186 injured in clashes between rival political parties. “Other than this, no major violence incident took place,” he said. "18 deaders? In Pakistain? Barely to be noticed."

Link

India-Pakistan

Mansoor Dadullah arrested in Balochistan

2008-02-12

Adds maybe 1.5 sentences worth of detail... Security forces on Monday critically wounded and captured a top Taliban leader, along with six of his security guards, during an operation in Balochistan. Five, six, somewhere around there anyway... The FC and the Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) captured Mansoor Dadullah, brother of slain Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, and six of his accomplices when they were discovered to be hiding in the Pak-Afghan border town of Kili Gwal Ilamilzai. Hiding in a madrassah, in fact... Sources said that when the security forces had surrounded the Taliban hideout from all four sides, the militants sent a message requesting they be allowed to escape from the area peacefully. "We don't want no truck widda law! Turn yer backs an' we're outta here!" Upon receiving a negative reply, the Taliban exchanged fire with the security forces, [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!] "Take dat, coppers!" ending the clash only after Dadullah was critically injured. "Aaaargh! My brisket!" "Da boss! Dey got da boss!" The AP, however, quoted army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas as saying that the militants had been captured while they were trying to cross Afghanistan’s border into Pakistan. “We have captured Mansoor Dadullah along with five other people in Balochistan,” Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan told Reuters. "Really. It's not like they lived in Pakistain or something! They just showed up!" A senior military official told AP that Dadullah died of his wounds on the way to hospital, but Abbas denied the claim. "He ain't dead! He's just pinin' for the Khyber Pass!" Sources said Dadullah was out of danger, but one of security guards had died en route to Quetta for further treatment and investigation. So he might live to fight and run away another day. That's rather surprising.

Link

India-Pakistan

'Orakzai removed due to peace deal failure'

2008-01-27

Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said on Saturday that former NWFP governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai was removed from office because of the failure of a peace agreement with militants in the Tribal Areas. He told reporters at the National Police Bureau here that following the change of the provincial governor, the government had changed its policy on the ongoing operation in the Tribal Areas, reported AFP. Hamid said that the military operation in Darra Adam Khel would continue till miscreants were eliminated from the area. “We have achieved some level of success, however, the operation in Darra will continue till the elimination of miscreants there,” Hamid said. About the interrogation of Aitezaz Shah, the 15-year-old arrested in connection with former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Hamid said many arrests had been made on Shah’s information. Hamid said his ministry had already issued an advisory for the protection of key politicians. Worsening situation: He said the law and order situation could worsen in FATA, Swat and Kurram Agency during the elections, reported Online.

Link

India-Pakistan

'Nawaz and Fazl are prime targets'

2008-01-16

Nawaz Sharif and Fazlur Rehman are among the prime targets of terrorists ahead of the February 18 elections, caretaker federal Interior minister Lt Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan told Dawn News television channel on Tuesday. Khan said Ejazul Haq, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and Amir Muqam could also be hit. A report by SANA news agency said the minister told reporters after the inauguration of a police station in Tarnol that terrorists involved in the Karsaz incident had been identified. He declined to name the suspects saying it might jeopardise efforts for their arrest.

Link

India-Pakistan

Around 36 suspects held in Faisalabad

2008-01-15

Faisalabad police held 36 suspected terrorists in a search operation following reports of the presence of suicide bombers in the city. Meanwhile, caretaker Interior minister Lt General (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan told PTV that security agencies arrested eight suspected terrorists from Sargodha and Mianwali, APP reported. Suspects held in Faisalabad include people from tribal areas. Several Afghans were also held, but released after they proved their identity. The five men held in Sargodha were involved in a bomb blast, APP quoted the Interior minister as saying. He said 37 kg explosives had been seized from one group and 30 kg from the other.

Link

India-Pakistan

Benazir murder suspects escape raid in Pindi

2008-01-12

Police on Friday raided a house in Rawalpindi to arrest two men allegedly involved in former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assasination case, reported a private television channel. According to Geo News, police raided the house of Qari Shabbir Rabbani in the Koh-e-noor Mills area to arrest a Pakistani and an Afghan national allegedly involved in Benazir’s murder. The two men, however, managed to flee before the police raid. The channel reported that police later launched a search operation in all of Rawalpindi city for their arrest. Zardari: Meanwhile, caretaker Interior Minister Lt Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan said on Friday the Scotland Yard team wants to meet Benazir’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, News One television channel reported. Khan denied reports that Pakistan had determined the jurisdiction of the British team, and said the British government had done this prior to the team’s arrival in Pakistan. He said Indian intelligence agency RAW’s involvement in the recent suicide bombing could not be ruled out. Meanwhile, British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley said the Scotland Yard team would provide forensic and other technical assistance to the Pakistani investigation teams probing Benazir’s assassination. The British team is also re-viewing video clips and pictures recorded at the time of the incident in Rawalpindi, Online reported. Also on Friday, three new members of the Scotland Yard team visited the crime scene where Benazir was assassinated, police sources said.

Link

India-Pakistan

Soldier killed, three injured in Wana clash

2008-01-09

Clashes between security forces and militants in South Waziristan left one soldier dead and three others injured on Tuesday, Online reported. Unidentified miscreants opened fire on checkposts at Tayyarza Force and Chaghmalai Force. Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed the casualties. Armed men fired rockets and opened fire with automatic weapons at a security forces fort, an official told NNI. Separately, political agents said miscreants also targeted checkposts at Omar Adda, but no loss of life and property had been reported, Online said. Police in nearby Tank city said unidentified men fired several rockets at the city last night, but there was no casualties, NNI added. Kidnapped: Three soldiers were also kidnapped from the Sarokey area of South Waziristan, according to locals. The soldiers from the Waziristan Scouts Force were kidnapped while travelling in a private car, local officials said. Masked armed men stopped the car, forced the soldiers out and took them to an undisclosed location, reported NNI. Authorities blocked all traffic on the road to stop the militants from shifting the soldiers out of the tribal region, locals said. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan says security forces have planned a major operation against Baitullah Mehsud, the linchpin militant commander in South Waziristan. President Pervez Musharraf has blamed Mehsood for Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and accused him of recruiting suicide bombers. One of Baitullah Mehsud’s spokesmen, however, has denied any involvement in Benazir’s assassination.

Link

India-Pakistan

Pak Minister: "That Bhutto-Lever Story? We Lied. Our Bad"

2008-01-01

ht to AOSHQ In a dramatic U-turn, Pakistan government has "apologised" for claiming that former premier Benazir Bhutto died of a skull fracture after hitting the sunroof of her car during a suicide attack. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan has asked the media and people to "forgive and ignore" comments made by his ministry's spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema which were slammed by her Pakistan People's Party as "lies" and led to an uproar at home and abroad. The Interior Minister made the apology during a briefing for Pakistani newspaper editors on Monday. Punjab province on Tuesday issued a front-page advertisement in newspapers that offered a reward of Rs 1 crore for information about a gunman and a suspected suicide bomber seen in the photos and video footage of the assassination. The government's apparent damage control exercise on Cheema's comments made at a news conference a day after Bhutto was assassinated at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on December 27, came after TV channels aired privately shot photos and video footage which showed a gunman shooting at Bhutto. The Pakistan People's Party leader is seen in the footage falling through the sun-roof before the suicide bomber detonated his explosives. The briefing by caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro was also attended by the foreign, interior and information ministers and senior officials. "Editor after editor lambasted the government for its non-serious attitude towards the tragedy, specially the statement that Bhutto had died by hitting the lever and not (due to) a bullet or shrapnel," The News reported.

Link

India-Pakistan

Taliban outfit faces ban

2007-12-21

The government has decided to ban Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant outfit that recently emerged in the insurgency-hit Tribal Areas, Daily Times learnt on Thursday. Sources told Daily Times that the decision had been made on the recommendation of top officials of the country’s security apparatus. The government has banned 18 militant outfits and put two on the watch list since 2001. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan told Daily Times that no decision to ban TTP had been made as yet but the matter was under the government’s serious consideration. “Yes, we’re seriously considering the ban but a decision to this effect will come only after a thorough examination of all the aspects concerned,” he said. On December 14, around 40 local Taliban leaders announced to form the TTP in a bid to centralise their command. On December 14, around 40 local Taliban leaders announced to form the TTP in a bid to centralise their command. Sources said that intelligence agencies had already been tasked to check out the TTP infrastructure including its main leaders, financiers and supporters in the Tribal Areas and elsewhere. Sources said the government had already launched an unannounced crackdown on TTP leaders and activists across the country. Forty Taliban leaders from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and some normally governed districts of the NWFP had set up TTP, a centralised organisation under warlord Baitullah Mehsud of South Waziristan “to enforce Sharia, to unite against the NATO forces in Afghanistan and do defensive jihad against the Pakistan Army”.

Link

Afghanistan/South Asia

Al-Qaeda still active in Pakistan, wotta surprise

2005-02-05

Elements of al Qaeda remain in Pakistan, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday, adding that unless more was done to stop the flow of recruits into militant groups the war on terror would never be won. U.S. Undersecretary for Defense Douglas Feith, in Pakistan for talks on security and defense issues, said disrupting and destroying terrorist networks was not enough. "We also have to address the flow of people into the ranks of the terrorists organizations," he told a news conference after talks with Pakistani defense officials in the garrison city of Rawalpindi adjoining Islamabad. "If we don't stop that flow of people into the ranks of terrorist groups, then we are never going to win the war." But hundreds of al-Qaeda militants are still hiding in Pakistan's mountains bordering Afghanistan and in major cities. Feith said the Pakistani government was focused and quite active in tracking and pursuing the remnants of al Qaeda, including those groups that fled from Afghanistan. But he added: "To win the war, we have to deny terrorists what they need to operate, we have to deny them what they need to survive." Feith said Islamabad's long-running effort to acquire more F-16 fighter aircraft from the United States was being considered. It was one of many issues discussed Thursday. "Pakistan has been developing various ideas about its priorities in defense trade," he said. Pakistan's Defense Secretary Hamid Nawaz Khan earlier told reporters the two sides had made tangible progress on many issues. He did not give any details. "There is a lot of hope in the air," Khan said. The Pentagon notified the U.S. Congress in November of three proposed arms sales to Pakistan worth $1.2 billion, including eight P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft Islamabad says would be used in the hunt for militants on its border with Afghanistan. In June, Washington declared Pakistan to be a major non-NATO ally, making easier for it to acquire U.S. arms.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More