There are reports where terrorists have made advancement in their battle against poor people of Pakistan. More than 130 people have been killed in suicide attacks in various parts of the country after the departure of President Musharraf. A report published in The News International warned of more suicide attacks in Pakistan.
In a major breakthrough, the security agencies have a big lead in investigations into the bombings at Wah. The third suicide bomber arrested on the spot is cooperating with the authorities and has provided many details about his network and these details have raised more questions about the role of India in Afghanistan.
The would-be suicide bomber, Hameedullah Khan, belongs to the Khyber Agency. He revealed during the investigation that his network of suicide bombers would try to hit important installations in Peshawar, Kohat and Nowshera in the near future.
Interestingly, Hameedullah Khan is not from Swat or Bajaur where the security forces are conducting operations and there was no question that the bombing was in retaliation to the operations in Swat or Bajaur.
He is sure that other two suicide bombers were also from the Khyber area. Security agencies have doubts over the claim of Maulvi Omer of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, who accepted responsibility for Thursday's bombings. His claim is viewed as an attempt to blackmail the government.
Officials supervising the investigation into Thursday's bombings were not ready to believe that Hameedullah Khan was a part of any group active in South Waziristan, Swat or Bajaur. He spent most of his time in Khyber with some other bombers in total isolation. He was not aware about the details of the operation in Bajaur because he was not allowed to come out of his hideout in Khyber for more than a month. His handlers told him that the Pakistan Army was collaborating with the enemies of Islam and killing their own fellow Muslims and attacking the Pakistan Army would be a Jihad.
Now major newspapers of Pakistan have been accepting that al-Qaeda is present in Pakistan. According to Daily Times editorial comment, Pakistan is being prime target of al-Qaeda.
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside Pakistan's main army munitions factory at Wah on Thursday, killing 70 workers in "the deadliest attack on a military installation in the country's history"-. The Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) owned the attack, its leader Maulvi Umar saying, "Our bombers carried out today's attack. It is in reaction to military operations in Swat and Bajaur. Similar attacks will be carried out in other cities of Pakistan including Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi"-.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's reaction was that Pakistan had to "take the war on terror to extremists' doorsteps because it cannot be won on the defensive"-. Mr Rehman Malik, adviser to the prime minister on security, said, "Some foreign hands might be involved in terror activities in DI Khan, Kurram Agency and Swat". On the other hand, the leader of Jama'at-e Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, asked the government to "pull out troops" from the Tribal Areas and bring "relief" to the displaced persons of Bajaur, Kurram and Waziristan.
Many Urdu newspapers have begun to reverse the incidence of mobilisation in the Tribal Areas. Instead of saying that troops have been sent to the Tribal Areas in response to terrorism, they editorialise that suicide-bombing trouble in the big cities has started after the troops were sent into the Tribal Areas. Thereafter, some have squarely placed the blame on the policy of following the "American diktat" in a negation of Pakistan's sovereignty. Most TV anchors on Thursday night followed the same cue. On Thursday too, protesting lawyers in Lahore were seen holding placards bearing pro-Al Qaeda slogans for the first time since their protests for an "independent judiciary" began.
Clearly, the Pakistani mind is changing under pressure from the Al Qaeda strategy of suicide bombing. In the same week, Al Qaeda struck in Algeria, killing 43. A suicide-bombing attack place in Mersin in Turkey too, followed by one in DI Khan in Pakistan killing 30 shias in a hospital, and 10 French soldiers at Salopi in Afghanistan were killed by a group of suicide-bombers. Thus the world watches the mental landscape being created so easily by Al Qaeda by brainwashing youths to kill themselves in the name of Islam. In Pakistan, the politicians are divided today but could conceivably part ways on how Al Qaeda's plan of setting up a state of its own should be tackled.
The operation in Bajaur has started without complete consensus inside the coalition government. When it began, the PMLN complained that it should have been consulted, as though that would have made an iota of a difference to its obviously opportunist position. Indeed, everyone says the issue should have been brought under discussion in parliament. But if that had happened, surely the cleavages would have come to the fore clearly, immobilising everyone. Another party in the coalition, the JUIF, is openly opposed to sending the army into the Tribal Areas and has an anti-American posture, linking the trouble to "Pakistan's blind obedience of the United States".
Only the prime minister and the ANP think differently. In fact, the ANP goes one step beyond where the interior ministry is standing today. It traces the trouble in the Tribal Areas not to India but to Islamabad's covert support to the Taliban in the past that has recoiled on Pakistan today. And the ANP also implies that Islamabad may have a split mind over the policy of taking on the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Thus, if you examine the mindset of the coalition, two parties are opposed to the operations, one is inclined to buy the establishment line that it is India that is interfering in the Tribal Areas, and one is clearly opposed to the Taliban and suspects Islamabad's hand in the trouble.
The truth is that the Bajaur operation has hurt the TTP. We are not told about it officially but the fact is that Bajaur is more sensitive than even South Waziristan where the TTP emirate's capital is located under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud. Ahmed Rashid in his latest book Descent into Chaos: How the War against Islamic Extremism is being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, tells us why Bajaur may be an important location for Al Qaeda. In January 2006, the US hit Damadola in Bajaur with a missile and killed five senior Al Qaeda members. The attempt was aimed at killing Ayman Al Zawahiri who had his local Pashtun wife living there and visited occasionally to meet her (p.276).
The Pakistani mind is turning pro-Al Qaeda in the same measure as it is turning against the government in Pakistan. The fundamental reason is the inability of the state to protect its citizens and assert its writ on its territory. Past military strategies have caused the state power to decline in relation to those that it allowed to wage jihad. Unless the state fights back with all the means at its disposal and defeats the terrorists, it will be seriously endangered. And the final shock will come, not from Al Qaeda, but from the economy which is slowly giving up the function of sustaining Pakistan's population.
Muhammad Khurshid, a resident of Bajaur Agency, tribal areas situated on Pak-Afghan border is journalist by profession. He contributes articles and news stories to various online and print newspapers. His subject matter is terrorism. He is also heading Voice For Peace working against terrorism in tribal areas. The aim of the Voice For Peace is restoration of peace in Bajaur Agency, tribal areas and whole world.
Thank you very much dear Margaret Bassett for your good wishes. Your good wishes are working for me as I am feeling pleasant change in my life. A lot of thanks
by
Muhammad Khurshid (298 articles, 31 quicklinks, 194 diaries, 158 comments)
on Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 9:01:09 AM
Musharaff stepping down will now give the illusion of a democracy. The terrorists will be unleashed (and we know who controls them) on Pakistan. A destabilized Pakistan will require our intervention to fight the terrorists and protect Democracy and prevent nuclear proloferation (imagine terrorists getting their hands on the nukes). This will be one of "Obamas" wars.
We will be able to get out of Iraq, in part, only to move the troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to then enter the next war against Pakistan.
Biden had been one of those who called for a public debate on the draft. War in Pakistan along with the current conflict in Georgia might trigger a broader war that includes China and Russia, and then there will be no debate about a draft, it will become a reality.
by
pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 499 comments)
on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 12:47:27 AM
any article that tediously repeats Al Qaeda this and Al Qaeda that. And ignores completely the long history of the U.S. (and the real puppet masters') proclivity for instigating terror activities to manipulate public perception and justify military actions. Problem, Reaction, Solution. The U.S. desires justification for invading Pakistan and it Will create it, one way of the other. If any naively believe the U.S. would not manipulate the public or various of the factions in PK through the use of state-sponsored terror to exacerbate tension and conflict they only need go back and read the history of Operation Gladio in Europe. And there are reams of additional examples.
This article is way too much reminiscent of the elites' Main Stream Media in the West to be believable on the face of it. Ignoring the expected covert and destabilizing actions of our Masters and heaping it all upon Al Qaeda is too much of a red flag.
by
richard (0 articles, 5 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 905 comments)
on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 5:58:36 AM
Let me see now.. Mr Khurshid is struggling to stay alive, to protect his family, his extended family and their tribal kin, while bombs and missiles have destroyed his village and have driven a quarter of a million people from the area, into refugee camps elsewhere in Pakistan. He has already lost some members of his family, and the future looks totally bleak. He has tried to comprehend and to present both or all sides of the story, at various times over the last few weeks and months. And you seem to be complaining that he is using a wrong word to describe the indescribable?
If you feel so strongly about it, by all means write about the US role in the creation of Al Quaeda, the US role in incitement to violence, the US role in destabilization towards just such a torturous situation as exists today. And when you have that all clearly written, simply add your link to Mr Khurshid's writings, so that all may learn of the truth.
But to suggest, even indirectly, that Mr Khurshid is some sort of equivalent of a white overfed American rightwing propagandist, whos health care is all paid up, writing from the safety of one of his "I don't know how many I own" McMansions, is as obscene as it is absurd. Sorry, but your "distrust" is seriously misdirected.
by
Aurora (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 381 comments)
on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 1:00:47 PM
“Let me see now.. Mr Khurshid is struggling to stay alive, to protect his family, his extended family and their tribal kin, while bombs and missiles have destroyed his village and have driven a quarter of a million people from the area, into refugee camps elsewhere in Pakistan. He has already lost some members of his family, and the future looks totally bleak. He has tried to comprehend and to present both or all sides of the story, at various times over the last few weeks and months. And you seem to be complaining that he is using a wrong word to describe the indescribable?”
You truly are into hyperbole regarding my heinousness. To use his reported personal history as a justification to accuse me of insensitivity is not only misplaced and irrelevant here, it’s a silly and erroneous ad hominem.
“If you feel so strongly about it, by all means write about the US role in the creation of Al Quaeda, the US role in incitement to violence, the US role in destabilization towards just such a torturous situation as exists today. And when you have that all clearly written, simply add your link to Mr Khurshid's writings, so that all may learn of the truth.”
No. You can read it for yourself. I’m surprised you are not aware of the history of our government’s operations. All you have to do is ‘google’. But if you have trouble with that venue, you might read:
“But to suggest, even indirectly, that Mr Khurshid is some sort of equivalent of a white overfed American rightwing propagandist, whos health care is all paid up, writing from the safety of one of his "I don't know how many I own" McMansions, is as obscene as it is absurd. Sorry, but your "distrust" is seriously misdirected.”
More hyperbole. And more nonsense. I never suggested any such thing, directly or indirectly. That is your fantasy. And, no, my distrust is not misdirected. I have expressed similar views regarding his perceptions and interpretations in the past. I may again depending upon what he writes. Are you saying one may not criticize and distrust his point of view without being accused of equating him with “some sort of equivalent of a white overfed American right wing propagandist”? Please, get real. Your indignation is wearysome.
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richard (0 articles, 5 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 905 comments)
on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 6:29:08 PM
Richard, you're right - I overreacted, not *by* calling you on it, but by going over the top in doing so. I realised that soon after posting, and intended to apologise then, but have been caught off line until today. I feel very strongly about all of this, as I feel that we (westerners who have failed to stop the march of war and violence) are a part of the reason that people such as the Khurshid family find themselves in that situation today.
Thank you for posting the links. That is appreciated. I'll go through them later in the day - may have more of a comment then. I hope to find one or two of them that I can recommend in particular to Mr Khurshid, so that he can understand our dislike of words such as the Al Q one being used in that way. However I think, after reading through a few Pakistani newspapers online, that the concept is set into the National paradigm. They don't have the luxury of an Alternate News media at this time.
by
Aurora (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 381 comments)
on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 4:51:51 PM
I agree with Richard and a few others who have said the same.
We've pointed out how unnatural it is for the native people of this area to promote the US military talking points about a global war on terror. Our questions for Muhammed have never once been answered. Promoting the Pentagon story about Al Quaeda and Bin Laden on duly diligent Opednews is counterintuitive. I'd guess that Muhammed's OPednews supporters have never been to the Pushtun area. Mark, whose opinion I value because he spent time there, thinks Muhammed is merely clueless. That's possible, of course, and we've seen poor people with blinders before. But, Muhammed contacted the CIA to start his career, by his own admission, and puts out a story about Bin Laden in the Tribal Territories with no evidence. He's claimed "terrorists" are readying a nuclear attack, again a neocon talking point. I just can't imagine Mr. M heading straight to the CIA to inform the authorities of his insights, as Muhammed did. I don't think it is very Pushtun. It would only encourage forays and attacks on the Tribal Territories. And, each time someone questioned Muhammed, he fell apart, vanished, and then reappeared pleading he was a dead man walking, but after heartfelt strokings went right back to the same talking points. I guess I base my gut "misdirected suspicion" on travels in the area, on meeting people like Raed Jarrar (native journalist of Iraq) and Miraki (of Afghanistan). That ain't how they talk. That and Muhammed's not answering our questions.
by
io (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 60 comments)
on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 3:23:28 AM
8 comments
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