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India-Pakistan

Mighty Pak Army holding thousands in indefinite detention

2010-04-23

LAHORE: The Pakistani military is holding thousands of suspected militants in indefinite detention, arguing that the nation's dysfunctional civilian justice system cannot be trusted to prevent them from walking free, reported an American publication while citing US and Pakistani officials. According to the Washington Post, the majority of the detainees the Pakistani officials and human rights advocates said have been held for nearly a year and have been allowed no contact with family members, lawyers or humanitarian groups. Top US officials have raised concern about the detentions with Pakistani leaders, fearing that the issue could undermine American domestic and congressional support for the US-backed counterinsurgency campaign in Pakistan and jeopardise billions of dollars in US assistance. Pakistani officials say that they are aware of the problem, but there is no clear solution: Pakistan has no applicable military justice system, and even civilian officials concede that their courts are not up to the task of handling such a large volume of complex terrorism cases. The quandary plays directly into the Taliban's strategy. The group has gained a following in Pakistan by capitalising on the weakness of the civilian government, promising the sort of swift justice that is often absent from the slow-moving and overburdened courts. "We don't have a system like Egypt, where you send a man to court and three days later, he's executed," said Malik Naveed Khan, the top police official in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. *snicker* "The judges decide the punishment, and they have to look at the evidence." Pakistani officials say all the current detainees are suspected of crimes against the Pakistani state and would be dealt with domestically. ISPR chief Maj Gen Athar Abbas said the military was "extremely concerned" that the detainees would be allowed to go free if they were turned over to the civilian government. More than 300 suspected Taliban who had been detained in the military's 2007 operation in the Swat valley were later released under a peace deal. Abbas said several returned to the Taliban, making the army's task harder when it again rolled into Swat last spring. The exact number of prisoners is not known. US officials estimate the total at 2,500 -- a figure that roughly corresponds to Pakistani estimates -- although some outside analysts in Pakistan say the number is higher. US officials say they worry that the detentions would further inflame the Pakistani public at a time when the government needs popular support for its offensives. "They're treating the local population with a heavy hand, and they're alienating them," said an Obama administration official. "As a result, it's sort of a classic case going back to Vietnam: it [risks] actually creating more sympathy for the extremists." US officials worry, too, that by holding thousands of people without trial, Pakistan risks running afoul of the Leahy Amendment, which requires recipients of US military assistance to abide by international human rights laws and standards. Malik Naveed said he expected the detainees to be tried in civilian courts, but he does not know when. "I don't see any other option," he said. "But it will take time." It shouldn't surprise anyone that the Pak civilian judicial system, a joke when it isn't itself being assaulted by the ISI, the government and the Taliban, isn't up to the processing and judging of thousands of hard boyz. It's only mildly surprising that the Pak army is willing to hold thousands, but perhaps these boys didn't pay the right people in the ISI. But the Washington Post and similarly minded hand-wringers aren't the ones to complain: just how long have we been planning that terrorist trial in New York City, anyways?

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India-Pakistan

18 Taliban killed in Buner, Swat, Dir

2009-07-26

Security forces on Saturday said they had killed at least 14 Taliban in Buner and Swat in last 24 hours during operations across Malakand. "During last 24 hours, search and clearance operations were conducted in Swat and Malakand division", the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. It said 10 Taliban were killed in Buner, while four were killed in Swat, and the forces also arrested 29 terrorists from various areas of the two districts. "Security forces conducted a search operation at Sappari Kandao, Koto Banda and Shadas and killed nine terrorists at Koto Banda and one at Zohaib post," it said. The ISPR said the forces also killed two terrorists and arrested four during a search operation at Torshe Khan Sar. A terrorist training camp and a cave was also destroyed in the area and forces recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition. The forces also conducted a search operation at Akhun Kalle, killing a terrorist and apprehending another. During a search operation at Utror near Kalam, security personnel killed a terrorist, arrested another and recovered a number of arms and ammunition, the ISPR said. It said the forces also conducted search operations in Bararai area of Khawzakhela, Malakand and Qambar and apprehended 21 suspected terrorists. In neighbouring Dir, fighter jets pounded a suspected Taliban base, killing at least four, AFP quoted local police chief Ejaz Ahmed as saying. "It was a key Taliban stronghold in the area which has been totally destroyed," Ahmed said. Local administration chief Javed Marwat said, "It was heavy bombing and the toll may go up." Bomb: Meanwhile, six personnel of the bomb disposal squad and a civilian were injured while trying to defuse a bomb on the Indus Highway near Godi Banda. Upon receiving information regarding the bomb, the officials rushed to the spot to defuse the device. However, it exploded while being defused, APP reported. The injured include Sub-Inspector Muhammad Akbar, Technician ASI Sadat Habib, constables Javaid Iqbal, Qaisar Khan, Khalid Mehmood and driver Ahmed Ali. A tractor driver, Abdul Munaf, was also injured. A police motorcycle and two vans were also damaged. NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Inspector General Police Malik Naveed Khan have announced financial assistance for the injured.

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India-Pakistan

TTP warns NWFP doctors over dress

2009-05-07

[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has allegedly warned doctors of the public sector hospitals in Peshawar to stop wearing shirts and trousers or face suicide bombing. A senior doctor at the oldest public sector hospital of the NWFP ñ the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) -- told The News on condition of anonymity that they had received a letter from the TTP, asking doctors and all other medical staff to immediately stop wearing shirts and trousers or suicide bombers would target them at their institutions. He said the chief executive of the LRH, after receiving the TTP letter on April 28, circulated the communication to the medical superintendent, deputy medical superintendents and other senior staff members of the hospital and directed them to take precautionary measures. The doctor said the chief executive had mentioned in his circular that the TTP threat should be taken seriously, urging doctors and other staff members to stop wearing shirts and trousers. The staff member said the alleged TTP threat had sent a wave of shock among the doctors' community. Two other senior doctors at the Hayatabad Medical Complex and the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) also confirmed receiving similar threats from the TTP. They said chief executives of all the three teaching hospitals directed their staff members, particularly doctors, to stop wearing shirts and trousers so that they could be saved from suicide bombers. When reached by telephone, NWFP Secretary for Health Dr Sohail Altaf confirmed the threatening letters that were received by the hospital executives from unknown people. He said he too had received a copy of the letter, which he haddispatched to the NWFP police chief, Malik Naveed Khan, for investigation. Sohail Altaf said he did not believe the Taliban would have sent the letter. The secretary said it seemed that certain elements had started terrorising peaceful citizens in view of the situation the people were facing these days. A senior doctor at the LRH said the threatening letter had created extreme panic and many doctors had stopped wearing the dress after the warning from the Taliban. "It shows there is no writ of the government and Pakistan has become a Taliban state. It is a serious issue as the Taliban have practically started interferering into the personal matters of citizens and affairs of the government departments," said a senior doctor at the KTH.

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India-Pakistan

NWFP govt probably won't produce Swat flogging victim in court

2009-04-07

[The News (Pak)] The NWFP chief secretary and the inspector general of police (IGP) may not produce a Swati girl, who was publicly lashed by suspected militants, as the officials appear before the larger bench of the Supreme Court today (Monday). Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken a suo moto notice of the public lashing of the teenaged girl in Swat after a footage of the incident appeared on private television channels. Apart from the federal interior secretary, the NWFP chief secretary, IGP, advocate general and president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) were directed to appear and produce the victim before the larger bench of the Supreme Court. "We are yet to take the girl into our protection and that's why we may not produce her before the court on Monday," Malakand Division Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed told The News on Sunday. IGP Malik Naveed Khan could not be contacted despite repeated attempts on his residence's telephone number. His cellular phone remained switched off all the day. The family of the victim and the local elders, reportedly belonging to the Kala Kelay in Kabal, refused to let the girl go with the authorities due to social pressure and militants' fear. The Malakand commissioner and the acting DIG were directed by CS Javed Iqbal and IGP Naveed to gather details of the event.

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India-Pakistan

Nine turbans banged near Peshawar

2009-02-05

Nine members of a Bara-based militant group were killed in an encounter with the police and the Qaumi Lashkar comprising armed villagers when they allegedly attempted to kidnap the Nazim of Bazidkhel union council near here on Wednesday morning. Three policemen sustained injuries in the first incident of its kind in which the police and villagers joined hands to take on the extremists operating in Peshawar.Police and villagers told The News that members of the Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam entered the Bazidkhel village in two cars and a motorbike in a bid to kidnap Faheem, the Nazim of the local union council. As villagers and cops were already on alert, an encounter took place, which left seven attackers dead.A source said two more militants were killed near Badaber when they were fleeing on a motorcycle. Another source said nine were killed but two others managed to escape. The bodies were later shifted to Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines in Peshawar for identification. The dead were identified as Saif, Jamshed, Wakil, Jehanzeb, Tariq, Sher Gul, Abdul Haq, Zahid and Wilayat. All of them were sporting long beards and hair, the typical style of militants operating in the tribal areas and around Peshawar. "One of the attackers in his dying declaration said that they had been sent by Mangal Bagh to kidnap Faheem," a source told The News. Meanwhile, Lashkar-e-Islam chief Mangal Bagh threatened the Bazidkhel villagers with reprisals if found to be involved in killing nine of his men. Speaking on his illegal FM Radio channel on Wednesday night, he argued that 13 of his men had gone to Bazidkhel to offer Fateha and condolences to someone in the village when they were attacked and nine of them were killed. He demanded that those villagers who weren't part of the Lashkar should hoist black flags on their houses. He said their failure to fly black flags would be evidence that they were part of the Lashkar and, therefore, killers of the nine Lashkar-e-Islam members. Apart from heavy contingents of the police and the Frontier Constabulary that were rushed from across the provincial capital to Bazidkhel, a large number of armed people from the nearby villages also reached the village to tackle the militants and let them know that they would no more be tolerated. Police and the the FC carried out a search operation in Bazidkhel and nearby towns after the incident. The busy Badaber bazaar was deserted when shopkeepers downed their shutters after rumours that militants were planning to attack the Badaber police station. Earlier, a spokesman for the Lashkar-e-Islam denied that the slain men wanted to attack the Badaber police station. However, spokesman Misri Khan conceded that their men were on their way to Bazidkhel to take action against some criminals and elements opposed to their organisation. "Ours is a peaceful organisation that never attacked the security forces and the police. Had they gone there to attack the Badaber police, they would have first attacked Hayatabad and Sarband police stations," he claimed. The spokesman alleged that their men were stopped at the FC check-post, arrested and later killed by the cops and criminals from Bazidkhel. "We are aware of all those who are behind this act," he added. However, the Inspector General of Police, NWFP, Malik Naveed Khan, contended that the attackers were from Lashkar-e-Islam. "Peshawar is safe. We will continue to take action against extremists," pledged the provincial police chief. A series of meetings of the elders of Matani, Badaber, Adezai, Bazidkhel, Sheikh Mohammadi, Mashokhel, Mashogagar, Shahabkhel, Ahcar, Bahadar Killay and several other villages was held recently that decided to raise Lashkars to take on the militants and criminals, patrol the area and prevent kidnappings. "The government should come up with a clear-cut policy on eliminating these elements. This is the issue of our survival and that is why we have stood up," union council Nazim Faheem told reporters.

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India-Pakistan

'Pakistan fears war against Taliban spreading'

2008-11-28

There are growing fears in Pakistan that the war against Taliban is widening, the BBC reported. It said Pakistan's army was opening up new fronts against Taliban, who were responding by spreading the conflict, destabilising even NWFP's Peshawar city. The army is on the offensive, pushing into the Bajaur and Mohmand agencies, fighting a slow, hard battle against Taliban, it said. With tanks, artillery and airstrikes, the army is trying to clear villages, towns and roads of Taliban, attempting to drive Taliban from their sanctuaries. Across the Tribal Areas that border Afghanistan, unmanned US aircraft have also stepped up their activity in recent weeks, launching missile strikes every few days against suspected Al Qaeda targets. The war against Taliban has come to Pakistan's tribal districts and the consequences are being felt across NWFP, it said. Standing among the ruins of the Loyesam town, army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told the BBC last month that its capture had put Taliban "at a great disadvantage and had broken their back". Battered Taliban may be, but they are retaliating, the report said, adding: "Under pressure from the Pakistani offensives and the American missile strikes they are being forced further inland, resulting in the conflict ballooning and spreading to new areas." Deeper: The BBC report said US airstrikes and Pakistan's military operation in the Tribal Areas were pushing Taliban deeper into Pakistan. So Peshawar is now on edge. Westerners have fled from the city. It said almost 75 percent of all supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan came through Pakistan, the majority through Peshawar. That means that NATO's most important supply route is under threat. First Taliban have struck back near the Khyber Pass, hijacking and burning trucks driving towards the Afghan border, it said, adding the vehicles they had been targeting were trucks carrying supplies meant for NATO forces in Afghanistan and the Afghan army. In the most brazen attack a fortnight ago, Humvee armoured cars destined for Afghanistan were seized. Taliban filmed themselves triumphantly driving off with their booty of NATO vehicles. Better equipment: According to the report, the police have stepped up security in Peshawar. There are new checkpoints, more armed patrols but the police say they are outgunned and ill-equipped for the fight on their hands, it added. "The militants I think have far better equipment, they have rocket-propelled guns and we have none," NWFP police chief Malik Naveed Khan told the BBC. "We have no helicopters, no aerial mobility, in transport we are 50 percent down on peacetime requirements and presently we are at war," he said. As for Taliban's tactics, Naveed said they were clear. "They would like to destabilise the city centres so they can put pressure on the government to get concessions in the Tribal Areas," he said. "And they want to open up more fronts for us to dilute the effect of the law enforcement agencies. Their agenda is to cause problems for the government to check its commitment and resolve in the war against terror." Pakistan's army is fighting in Mohmand, closer to Peshawar. The war will probably spread much further too. But just as NATO has found in Afghanistan, the Pakistani security forces are now discovering too that Taliban is a foe that is hard to corner, even harder to defeat.

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India-Pakistan

Forces get 'licence to kill' to protect NATO supplies

2008-11-17

The Peshawar-Torkham road will be reopened today (Monday) for moving NATO supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan, political administration officials said, adding a shoot-to-kill order had been issued for those trying to disrupt the supplies. Hundreds of trailers and containers have been stranded on the route, which was closed last week after Taliban hijacked more than a dozen trucks carrying NATO supplies on the road through the Khyber Pass. The trailers loaded with armoured vehicles, edibles and other logistics were seen parked along Peshawar's Ring Road and in several areas of Jamrud and Landikotal tehsils without any security. A senior official told Daily Times the vehicles, escorted by security officials, would pass through Khyber Agency in a convoy. Political Agent Tariq Hayat said a Quick Response Force had been formed to guard the Afghanistan-bound containers. "It's not the first time this has happened," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told AP about the hold up on Sunday. Although NATO supplies were formally suspended on Saturday, drivers said they had been denied entry into Khyber Agency since November 11 (Tuesday). "We have been made to wait here for the last six days under no security cover," said a driver on condition of anonymity. Sources said the Peshawar-Jamrud road was also closed for the vehicles carrying NATO supplies on the recommendations of the NWFP government. NWFP police chief Malik Naveed Khan told Reuters there were three criminal gangs in Khyber with direct links to terrorist groups. The recent attacks on foreigners in Peshawar were an attempt "to defame Pakistan internationally and give an impression that there's no rule," Khan said. He was confident that an offensive by security forces in Bajaur and pressure in other tribal regions had begun to pay off. Also on Sunday, Hayat said a deadline given to the Koki Khel tribe had lapsed, adding it was now up to the tribe to expel Taliban or face action. Meanwhile, Malik Attaullah Jan, the tribe's leader, told a grand jirga there was no terrorist in the tribe and that the government needed a pretext to launch an offensive. He said the tribe was ready to hand over Taliban to the government provided it identified them.

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India-Pakistan

Bomb hits Pak air force truck: 14 killed

2008-08-13

A roadside bomb hit a Pakistan air force truck in a northwestern city yesterday, killing as many as 14 people including a 5-year-old girl, as the military pounded insurgent positions in a nearby tribal region. The blast hit the vehicle on a bridge on the outskirts of Peshawar, provincial police Chief Malik Naveed Khan said. The truck was travelling between the city and the nearby air force base in Badaber. Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said al-Qaeda-linked militants were likely behind the attack. He said Pakistan had been taking action against Taliban militants, but did not say whether Tuesday's attack could be a response to recent military operations in the region. "It is our firm resolve that we will root out terrorism from Pakistan, and all of our security agencies are working together to achieve this goal," he told The Associated Press. The powerful explosion tore a large hole in the bridge, reducing the Mazda truck to a smouldering wreck. The site was littered with debris, blood and also the mangled wreckage of a motorcycle. A crowd of bystanders gathered at the scene as victims were ferried away in ambulances. Firefighters hosed down the blackened carcass of the truck, and air force investigators gathered evidence. An AP Television News cameraman at the scene said he saw at least 12 dead bodies and about a dozen wounded people. He said the victims included civilians. There were varying accounts of the toll. Provincial government spokesman Mian Iftikhar Hussain said 14 people were killed in all, mostly air force personnel, and more than 12 people were wounded. It came as Pakistani army gunship helicopters shelled suspected militant positions early Tuesday in the Bajur tribal area, which has been wracked by fighting since last week. Pakistani warplanes killed at least six civilians in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan on Monday after fierce clashes in which more than 50 Taliban militants were killed, officials said. Jets pounded suspected Islamist hideouts after rebels attacked two security posts overnight, but some bombs hit civilian houses in the Bajaur tribal zone, a known haunt of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, local security officials said.

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India-Pakistan

Despite deal with militants, Pakistan city lives in fear

2008-07-21

Fear still grips the fabled bazaars and choked streets of Peshawar, despite an offensive against militants who threaten the northwestern Pakistani city, residents say. Video shops keep guns under the counter and heavily-armed police man extra check posts across the city of three million people, some two weeks after tanks rolled into the adjoining tribal belt to tackle hardline groups. ""I am still scared. We are worried these men will come back for us,"" said Patras Masih, who was one of 16 Christians kidnapped from central Peshawar in June by gunmen from the radical outfit Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam). The rebels burst into a Christian prayer ceremony and bundled them into SUVs before taking them to a cave 10 kilometers (six miles) away in the Khyber tribal district, the stronghold of the group's commander Mangal Bagh. The rebels freed them a day later with a warning not to drink alcohol or smoke hashish, 33-year-old Masih said, as one of his four children clung to his leg. The Christian abductions were the final straw for Pakistan's new government, already under pressure from Washington over its negotiations with Taleban guerrillas based in the tribal zone along the rugged Afghan frontier. The advance of the militants sparked fresh fears about the growing ""Talebanization"" of this nuclear-armed nation – while Peshawar also lies on the main supply route for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Peshawar had seen months of incursions by Mangal Bagh's self-styled ""moral brigade"" and other militants seeking to impose their version of Sharia law in the style of Afghanistan's 1996-2001 Taleban regime. Long-haired gunmen in pickup trucks were seen for several months patrolling the outskirts of the city, the capital of North West Frontier Province, warning people to grow beards and close ""un-Islamic"" businesses. Police also accused Lashkar-e-Islam of killing several villagers in a dispute over a shrine. The paramilitary Frontier Corps finally launched the week-long operation in Khyber on June 28. Troops demolished buildings belonging to Bagh and two other hardline organizations. Bagh, a former bus driver, signed a peace deal with the government late last week. But many residents question just how safe Peshawar is now. Most militants melted away into the hills after the operation began, while Bagh is not even a member of Pakistan's main organization of Taleban rebels, Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP). ""This operation was just cosmetic. The government is going against the wrong people because it wants to look tough,"" said Zar Ali Khan, 46, whose video shop was hit by a bomb planted in the city's Nishtarabad market last year. One of his employees was killed in the blast. Whipping out an automatic pistol that he keeps under the counter for protection, Khan said his business had now collapsed. ""There is fear in the hearts of the customers,"" he said. Many shops in the market -- overshadowed by the huge fortress headquarters of the Frontier Corps and close to the centuries-old Storytellers' Bazaar -- have removed their posters of Bollywood starlets. Musafar Khan, another video shop owner, said the Taleban had threatened him by SMS. ""We are sitting in the mouth of death. The government can't stop bombings in Islamabad, so what can this operation do?"" he said. A spokesman for Mangal Bagh said Lashkar-e-Islam was not trying to challenge the government's control of Peshawar. ""Our aim is to finish these criminal people here, the same as the government,"" Commander Haji Abdul Karim told AFP by telephone. ""We want peace here and across the country and will accept the rule of the security forces."" Meanwhile Taleban who are loyal to Baitullah Mehsud -- the chief of the TTP and the man accused by authorities of masterminding the slaying of former premier Benazir Bhutto -- have gone untouched in other areas around Peshawar. Mehsud's men control a huge weapons bazaar at Dara Adam Khel, 25 kilometers south of Peshawar, and dominate the Mohmand tribal district about the same distance to the north. The police chief of North West Frontier Province, Malik Naveed Khan, said the offensive had restored stability to Peshawar. ""We were totally successful,"" Khan told AFP in an interview at his office. He said that, since the operation, ""not a single incidence of incursion or crime by these militant gangs took place in Peshawar."" Khan said claims that Peshawar was about to fall to the militants were ""probably highly exaggerated"" and blamed much of the trouble on criminal gangs claiming to be Taleban in a bid for respectability. But he attributed much of the unrest to insecurity in Afghanistan, saying it had been at the root of Peshawar's problems for decades, most recently in the 1980s when it served as a base for U.S.-backed ""mujahideen"" fighting the Soviets. However defense analyst Talat Masood, a former army general, described the offensive around Peshawar as a ""very limited...psychological operation"". ""It is a very serious business around Peshawar,"" he said. ""The government has to apply itself with greater resolve.""

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India-Pakistan

Goodbye, Peshawar?

2008-06-29

By Dr Farrukh Saleem Peshawar -- literally 'High Fort' in Persian -- now stands encircled. Haji Mangal Bagh Afridi controls most of what is west of Peshawar. Dara Adam Khel, a mere 35 kilometres south of Peshawar, is controlled by Baitullah Mehsud's loyalists. Charsadda and Shabqadar, both less than 30 kilometres north of Peshawar, are controlled by Commander Umar Khalid, TTP's (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) leader in Mohmand agency. Two weeks ago, Javed Aziz Khan of The News reported that Sheikhan, Sarband, Regi and Nasir Bagh were under Mangal Bagh's absolute control while Mathra, Michni, Daudzai and Khazana were under Umar Khalid's control. What is the real plan? Is the 'High Fort' being surrounded with the intent of an assault? After all, Pakistan army's XI Corp -- some 60,000 soldiers -- commanded by the brave Lieutenant-General Masood Aslam is headquartered in Peshawar (in 1971, Masood Aslam was wounded fighting in Chumb-Jaurian sector. He has served in Siachen and has been the recipient of Sitara-i-Jurat for his extraordinary service and bravery). Peshawar also has the Bala Hisar Fort, the Frontier Corps' headquarters, where Major-General Mohammad Alam Khattak (Tamgha-i-Basalat) is the commander. Peshawar has the 7th Infantry Division, the Golden Arrow Division, Pakistan's 'oldest and the most battle-hardened division'. Peshawar also has the Central Police Office. Malik Naveed Khan is in command but has neither human capital nor much else. The Sarband Police Station, which is right next to Khyber agency, according to Javed Aziz Khan, has a total of six bullet-proof jackets and not a single armoured personnel carrier (APC). The Matani Police Station has one APC but that is almost always at the workshop. Is Peshawar under siege? Athar Minallah, my dear friend, insists that there are Taliban in Bradford and in Birmingham. Question: What really prevents Bradford from falling into Taliban's hands? It is not the 10the Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment; it is the civilian administrative apparatus. Cripple that civilian administrative machinery and Bradford Taliban will take over the City Hall, Bradford Cathedral and also the National Media Museum. And, in absence of an effective civilian administrative setup, almost all residents of Bradford will rush towards the Taliban for protection as well as for the dispensation of justice. South Waziristan now belongs to Baitullah Mehsud. Hafiz Gul Bahadur is the Taliban supreme commander in North Waziristan. Maulvi Faqir Mohammad controls Bajaur. Mangal Bagh and Haji Namdar reign over Khyber. Commander Umar Khalid is the boss in Mohmand. That's some 20,000 sq-km of physical Pakistan terrain. Is this terrorism or is it an insurgency? Should the state of Pakistan devise a counter-terrorism or a counter-insurgency strategy? To be certain, violence is the common denominator in terrorism and insurgency. But, rarely will terrorists attempt to actually control physical terrain. In essence, what the state of Pakistan faces is not terrorism but an active insurgency. A retired army brigadier, as knowledgeable in FATA as anyone I know, insists that the roots of this insurgency can actually be traced back to 1997. In 1999, this brigadier, with his FATA insurgency fact-file under his arm, had walked up to the DG-ISI but no one was ready to pay much heed. Then came 9/11 and that pushed the Talibanisation of NWFP some two years behind. How do we get out of it? It is obvious that jirgas are meaningless and so are peace agreements. The best suggestion that I have heard so far is as follows: give the militants every sort of indemnity that they ask for. Forgive each and every one of their past crimes. Accept a hundred other conditions put up by the militants. All in exchange for just one. And, that condition is that no one -- absolutely no one -- will be allowed to run a parallel administration. Where is the government going wrong? Well, the government blinks while the Taliban -- the government's ex-proxies -- freely exhibit their muscle (for instance, they enter Peshawar at will and take from Peshawar whatever they want). Remember, tribal loyalties belong to whoever has the muscle. Act now or sayonara Peshawar. Adiós Peshawar. Au revoir Peshawar. Mach's gut Peshawar. Aloha Peshawar. Arrivederci Peshawar. Zai jian Peshawar. Just what language do our decision makers understand?

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