US has now removed all posts along Pakistan - Afghan border to
facilitate TTP terrorists to escape to neighboring countries when
Pakistan Army launch their campaign in South Waziristan. Betrayal at
its best!!! With friends like the US, Pakistan does not need
enemies. Do we? —Peshawar
Novel idea to combat terror
Shumaila Raja
The government is trying to create alternative intelligence and
military system in the country trying to bypass army and ISI. It was
tried the same during their rule in 70’s and they are repeating it
now. A new intelligence agency is also being planned along with FSF,
which was basically a terrorist arm of the then government of PPP at
that time and all its bosses were later hanged for murders. “Federal
government is likely to re-introduce Federal Security Force (FSF),
formerly launched by a former Prime Minister for founder Chairman of
Pakistan’s People’s Party late Mr. Zhulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the early
70s but was dismantled by the martial law regime of Late General
Zia-ul-Haq, according to a report. Sources close to the government,
Minister of State for Interior Mr. Tasneem Qureshi, on special
instructions of President Asif Ali Zardari, and Prime Minister Syed
YouSaf Raza Gilani has been working on different ideas and plans to
create a combat outfit to fight terrorism without engaging the
country’s regular army in such unconventional fights within the
borders.
After working on different plans, the State Minister for Interior
has come up with the final plan of re-launching of the Federal
Security Force, which, in a way, would also be a tribute of the PPP
government to the founder Chairman late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. However
unlike Mr. Bhutto, who used FSF as a police force to control
political activities against him, this time the FSF would be
launched as a Paramilitary combat force to fight terrorism and
militancy and instead of being placed under the Interior Ministry,
it would be placed under Defence ministry and would operate by the
orders of the President and Prime Minister.” —Rawalpindi
Pak-US relations
Sher Khan
Washington’s clumsy attempts to strengthen Pakistan’s Government
only serve to stoke a conflict approaching civil war. As the Obama
administration dithers over what to do for the best in Afghanistan,
neighbouring Pakistan is paying an increasingly heavy price. Like a
spate of previous Taliban attacks in recent days, last week mayhem
in Lahore underscored fears that the principal consequence of
Washington’s Afghan paralysis, albeit unintended, is the further
destabilisation of the Pakistani state.
Pakistanis might be forgiven for wondering whether, with friends
like these in Washington, who needs enemies? The rumbling row over a
$7.5bn, five-year US aid package is a case in point. Imperious
conditions attached to the bill by a Congress reluctant to send more
unaccounted billions “down a rat hole”, as Democrat Howard Berman
charmingly put it, were condemned as insulting and colonialist in
Pakistan. By linking the cash to tighter civilian control of
Pakistan’s military, Washington was trying, clumsily, to strengthen
Asif Ali Zardari’s government. But it achieved the exact opposite.
The president was accused of failing to defend the country’s
sovereignty, much as he has failed to halt escalating American
cross-border air raids, and the occasional covert ground incursion,
on targets inside Pakistan.
After hurried consultations in Washington, Shah Mahmood Qureshi,
Pakistan’s foreign minister, obtained an “explanatory document” from
Congress last week that he said effectively waived some of the
bill’s more objectionable caveats. But this is unlikely to silence
critics who draw on deep anti-American sentiment among the Pakistani
public dating back to the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the
launch of George Bush’s “global war on terror”. “Poll after poll
shows Pakistanis increasingly do fear the threat posed by Islamic
extremists ... but they believe the US is an even bigger danger to
their country,” Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution was quoted
as saying. Many Pakistanis rated the threat posed by the US to their
independence and security above that from historical foe India, he
said. “Any time you out-poll India as the bad guy in Pakistan you
are in deep trouble.” The realisation that Washington is stoking a
conflict approaching all-out civil war is gradually dawning in the
US. New York Post columnist Ralph Peters drew a comparison with
post-invasion Iraq. “Civil war never quite happened [there]. Yet no
one seems to notice that we’re now caught up in two authentic civil
wars – one in Afghanistan, the other in Pakistan,” he said. By
lumping the two together in one “Afpak” policy, the Obama
administration had effectively made both problems worse.
Neither extra US troops, nor extra aid, nor more “hugs-not-slugs
counterinsurgency nonsense” was the answer, Peters argued. “The only
hope for either beleaguered territory (these really are territories,
not authentic states) is a decision by its own population to fight
and defeat the Taliban.” The impulse, fanned by this sort of
imperial hubris, to get out of Afghanistan, or at least to narrow
the fight to a counter-terrorism campaign against al-Qaida, has
gathered US adherents in recent months. But a Washington Post
editorial argued this week that with al-Qaida much reduced, the
Taliban in both countries now constituted the main enemy. Pakistan
was moving towards “full-scale war”, it said. Pulling back in
Afghanistan could have disastrous, possibly fatal consequences
there, too.
By this measure and others, only one conclusion is possible:
Pakistan is already so destabilised by US actions since 9/11 that it
cannot be left to fend for itself. In such tortuous logic is found
the death of empires. US has now removed all posts along Pakistan -
Afghan border to facilitate TTP terrorists when Pakistan Army launch
their campaign in South Waziristan. Betrayal at its best!!! With
friends like the US, Pakistan does not need enemies.—Via email
A glimer of hope
Shahreyar Khan
Pakistan as a country and nation is passing though the defining
moments of its history. The British got their influence felt in
complete India by the middle of 18th century, but till late 19th
century the area comprising Pakistan was out side their physical
control. This is precisely the reason that a Balouchi a Pathan or a
Sindhi and even Punjabi has two nationalities one their ethnic and
other being the Pakistanis. They are, and were never the Indians,
even during the British rule they were Pakistanis by geographical
default . This phenomena later transformed into the Ideological
manifestation of this separateness in the crystallization of idea of
Pakistan . So Pathan or Balouchi can be anything but not an Indian.
People who are trying to apply the chaos theory over here do not
know that some where beneath the surface no such matrix of
disharmony exist, it is only at the veneer level, that too due to
out side interference which give a foggy picture of local
isothermals. Pakistan is not at all a State which is getting weak,
rather for the first time after independence through divine guidance
right decisions at national level are taking place by those who
themselves sometimes could not feel the heat. Giving a go ahead for
operation Rah-a-Nijaat by the government is the one essential thing
which State and its functionaries have to undertake as a matter of
umpteen urgency.
The terrorist networks have started distorting the fabric of the
society. They have created a cheer sense of horror amongst the
populace. All the terrorist events are some how linked with the
sanctuary in the wild wild west. The sanctuary supports all banditry
and thugs, who operate by permeating themselves across social fiber
in the name of Islam. Operation Rah-a-Nijaat became necessary as the
Talibans diabolic banditry was crossing the threshold of tolerance
by any sane measures. Different supposition are being made about the
outcome, timing and scope of this operation, first of all the timing
is just right, not because of some strategic clock work, rather
“Cause” no choice of time is given to Pakistani nation.
The clock when starts ticking with a new terror attack every now and
then, why to wait, secondly the scope of this operation is the
elimination of complete terrorist network. The network is getting
its fuel from some benign looking vectors, so the scope of operation
also extends to those. The search operations in cities, the
demographic counting of aliens, the screening and surveillance of
criminals and the strict quarantine control of Afghanis settlement
of the cities are few of the marsh canes through which this multi-
headed hydra breaths. Thirdly the people of Pakistan are anxious and
worried about the outcome of this operation. They want to know that
whether it will be a leaf from the past or a new sprouting bud of
hope and peace eventually. A common Pakistani while facing this
entire mayhem over these years has become little apocalyptic and
apprehensive. This time the intent of government and army seems to
be different, not that, there was lack of sincerity in the past, it
was actually the holistic realization of menace that geared every
one for an appropriate response in relation to the threat.
The most important thing for success of this operation is the
feeling amongst common Pakistani that this operation is the people’s
war. Everyone is a soldier, not only the good Spartan Bobbies, but
the man in the street as urban soldier. Identify the suspicious
looking persons, point out the sympathizers and identify the
abettors. The urban soldiers are the main stay of this operation
along with Pakistan army. Lastly the operation Rah-a-Nijaat should
also have a diplomatic front. This can work under an information
sharing environment through international media, news agencies and
diplomatic channels. —Via email
Hakimullah’s terror tactics
Danish Fikri
In the last 13 days acts of terror one concludes that Hakimullah’s
terror tactic is different from that of Baitullah who did not resort
to attacking the children, the families, and women – and probably
his death in drone attack was its consequence. Perhaps he had told
his patrons his limits. Unlike him, Hakimullah has accepted to stoop
so low to even targeting children, minor students, innocent people
including women and families of law enforcement agencies’ personnel.
A warning is said to be issued in this regard, according to which
the ruthless Hakimullah is going to target school children and
family apartments in big cities. It is feared that he may hijack
school children’s buses or conduct kidnaps or make hostage school
buildings.
Earlier investigations reveal that the Thursday’s double suicide
bombing in Peshawar was actually aimed to target the 1,500
residential family apartments in Riaz Colony where the family of
JCOs are housed, which the security guard’s timely firing averted.
Secondly, the trend of introducing burqa-wearing male suicide
bombers is another tactic, which is aimed at creating an impression
that their war is so sacred that even the women are out to sacrifice
their life. It was observed that in the Lahore police facilities
attacks, initial reports said three or four women were involved,
which later turned out to be wrong, but this sent the message across
according to the perpetrators’ plan. And the experts say the use of
women and minor children in suicide hits is possible through high
intensity derivative drugs, which the terrorists reportedly call as
“suicide injection”. Besides, the remote controlled explosive
jackets are also being used, which the carrier does not know of the
time of its exploding.
As the operation in Waziristan has probably started, the siege may
contain the outflow of terrorists, but the death squads which the
Hakimullah-led groups might have already dispatched to the big
cities must be followed and intercepted through highly effective
civil administration, police and CID with the help of people’s
support. We as a nation will have to give strong message to
Hakimullah and his accomplices that whatever the cost we pay, we
will pay – but we will not let you and your patrons play with our
lives anymore. At the same time, the government must ask the
Americans if you are the partner in war against terror, provide us
all required assistance for eliminating the terrorists. —Peshawar
