In announcing his new Afghanistan and Pakistan policy, President Barack Obama articulated "a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future."
This is a sound conception of both the threat and U.S. interests in the region. Mr. Obama took a giant step beyond the Bush administration's "Afghanistan policy" when he named the issue "AfPak" -- Afghanistan, Pakistan and their shared, Pashtun-populated border. But this is inverted. We suggest renaming the policy "PakAf," to emphasize that, from the perspective of U.S. interests and regional stability, the heart of the problem lies in Pakistan.
The fundamental question about Afghanistan is this: What vital national interest does the U.S. have there? President George W. Bush offered an ever-expanding answer to this question. As he once put it, America's goal is "a free and peaceful Afghanistan," where "reform and democracy" would serve as "the alternatives to fanaticism, resentment and terror."
In sharp contrast, during the presidential campaign Mr. Obama declared that America has one and only one vital national interest in Afghanistan: to ensure that it "cannot be used as a base to launch attacks against the United States." To which we would add the corollary: that developments in Afghanistan not undermine Pakistan's stability and assistance in eliminating al Qaeda.
Consider a hypothetical. Had the terrorist attacks of 9/11 been planned by al Qaeda from its current headquarters in ungoverned areas of Pakistan, is it conceivable that today the U.S. would find itself with 54,000 troops and $180 billion committed to transforming medieval Afghanistan into a stable, modern nation?
For Afghanistan to become a unitary state ruled from Kabul, and to develop into a modern, prosperous, poppy-free and democratic country would be a worthy and desirable outcome. But it is not vital for American interests.
After the U.S. and NATO exit Afghanistan and reduce their presence and financial assistance to levels comparable to current efforts in the Sudan, Somalia or Bangladesh, one should expect Afghanistan to return to conditions similar to those regions. Such conditions are miserable. They are deserving of American and international development and security assistance. But, as in those countries, it is unrealistic to expect anything more than a slow, difficult evolution towards modernity.
The problem in Pakistan is more pressing and direct. There, the U.S. does have larger vital national interests. Top among these is preventing Pakistan's arsenal of nuclear weapons and materials from falling into the hands of terrorists such as Osama bin Laden. This danger is not hypothetical -- the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, A.Q. Khan, is now known to have been the world's first nuclear black marketer, providing nuclear weapons technology and materials to Libya, North Korea and Iran.
Protecting Pakistan's nuclear arsenal requires preventing radical Islamic extremists from taking control of the country.
Furthermore, the U.S. rightly remains committed to preventing the next 9/11 attack by eliminating global terrorist threats such as al Qaeda. This means destroying their operating headquarters and training camps, from which they can plan more deadly 9/11s.
The counterterrorism strategy in Pakistan that has emerged since last summer offers our best hope for regional stability and success in dealing a decisive blow against al Qaeda and what Vice President Joe Biden calls "incorrigible" Taliban adherents. But implementing these operations requires light U.S. footprints backed by drones and other technology that allows missile attacks on identified targets. The problem is that the U.S. government no longer seems to be capable of conducting covert operations without having them reported in the press.
This will only turn Pakistani public opinion against the U.S. Many Pakistanis see covert actions carried out inside their country as America "invading an ally." This makes it difficult for Pakistani officials to support U.S. operations while sustaining widespread popular support.
As Mr. Biden has warned: "It is hard to imagine a greater nightmare for America than the world's second-largest Muslim nation becoming a failed state in fundamentalists' hands, with an arsenal of nuclear weapons and a population larger than Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea combined."
Avoiding this nightmare will require concentration on the essence of the challenge: Pakistan. On the peripheries, specifically Afghanistan, Mr. Obama should borrow a line from Andrew Jackson from the battle of New Orleans and order his administration to "elevate them guns a little lower."
Monday, March 30, 2009
Terrorists risk Pakistan's future
Article from: The Australian
KARACHI: The assault yesterday on a police school and a wave of spectacular attacks underline Pakistan's weakness and the danger posed by Islamist militants to the future of the nuclear-armed nation.The commando-style assault on the training ground transformed a normally peaceful commuter belt near Pakistan's cultural capital of Lahore into a war zone, leaving as many as 35 people dead in pitched battles with the security forces.Analysts said the attack was a defiant message to US President Barack Obama, who has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against al-Qa'ida, tripling US aid in a strategy that is aimed at reversing the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.Such is the scale of violence in the Muslim nation that Mr Obama called al-Qa'ida and its allies "a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within", and he urged Islamabad to demonstrate its commitment to eradicating the extremists.Mutahir Shaikh, an international relations expert at the University of Karachi, said the wave of attacks were a response to the US stand."The terrorists want to tell Obama and his Western allies they cannot be contained as Obama desired, and are still as powerful and strong as they have been for years now," Professor Shaikh said. "The attack proves the weakness of the state institutions and shows that a mere half-a-dozen professionally trained terrorists can take anyone hostage and occupy any establishment they like."Urban terrorism is now in vogue in our major cities."
Yesterday's attack mimicked the March 3 assault on Sri Lanka's cricket team in Lahore, where assailants on foot carrying backpacks of high-energy food and hand weapons killed eight Pakistanis and wounded seven members of the cricket squad.
Extremists opposed to the Pakistan Government's decision to side with the US in the war on terror have carried out a spate of bombings and other attacks that have killed nearly 1700 people in less than two years."This is further evidence of the growing threat of terrorism to Pakistan's state and society," security analyst Hasan Askari said after yesterday's assault."These groups want to paralyse the system of state in order to have greater freedom to pursue their ideological and political agenda inside and outside Pakistan," he said."An isolated Pakistan will be easily overwhelmed by terrorists, which the world should not allow them to do."Much of the unrest has been concentrated in the northwest, where the Pakistani army has been fighting the Taliban and al-Qa'ida. On Friday, a suicide bomber ripped through a packed mosque near the Afghan border, killing nearly 50 people.But the second attack in the Lahore area this month will fan fears that the net of violence is spreading."Such attacks again prove that all the outside world's security fears about Pakistan's lack of governance are true," said Tauseef Ahmed Khan, an academic at Karachi's Urdu University."These repeated attacks show total failure on the part of the Government's law-enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies. Pakistan's future is at massive risk."Pakistan shelters a number of extremist groups, spanning banned Islamist organisations fighting for independence from Indian rule in Kashmir in the east, to the Taliban and al-Qa'ida in the west.Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik hinted that home-grown militant groups were behind yesterday's raid."Who is supporting them? Who is giving them weapons? Everyone knows these banned organisations, namely Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad," Mr Malik told the private-sector Geo television channel.Top officials in the US, Pakistan's key ally, have openly accused elements in the country's powerful intelligence agency of abetting al-Qa'ida.
"What we need to do is try to help the Pakistanis understand these groups are now an existential threat to them and we will be there as a steadfast ally for Pakistan," US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.
Petraeus: Military Reserves 'Right of Last Resort' for Threats Inside Pakistan
The U.S. military will reserve the "right of last resort" to take out threats inside Pakistan, but it would prefer to enable the Pakistani military to do the job itself, Gen. David Petraeus said Monday in an exclusive interview with FOX News.
The commander of U.S. Central Command was interviewed as the Obama administration prepares to step up the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Asked about lingering concerns that Pakistan is not fully on board, Petraeus told FOX News' Bret Baier that the U.S. military is putting "additional focus" on rooting out ties between Pakistan's intelligence service and the Taliban.
One incident of obvious cooperation between the Pakistani intelligence community and extremists has already been uncovered, he said. "There is a case in the past year or so that we think was unambiguous. There appears to have been a warning prior to a Pakistani operation," Petraeus said.
But he said trust between the two countries will be key as President Obama seeks more Pakistani cooperation and calls for billions in aid to the country.
"I think we are building that kind of trust. And that's the way I think is the best description for that. And it's hugely important that that trust be built," Petraeus said, pointing to "gradually increasing intelligence sharing" among Afghan, Pakistani and U.S. forces along the border.
Obama, in unveiling his regional plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan on Friday, said the U.S. will "insist that action be taken, one way or another, when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets."
He added on Sunday that "we're going after" such targets, though the U.S. will need to work with Pakistan's government to do so. He did not specifically say U.S. troops could be sent into the country.
Asked about the president's comments, Petraeus signaled that all options would be on the table.
"I think we would never give up, if you will, the right of last resort if we assess something as a threat to us, noting that what we want to do is enable the Pakistanis, help them, assist them to deal with the problem that we now think, and their leaders certainly now think, represents the most important existential threat to their country, not just to the rest of the world," he said.
The Pakistanis have expressed frustration over unmanned U.S. drone strikes to take out terrorist targets inside their border.
But Petraeus said the U.S. is mindful of perceptions in the region.
"It's hugely important that we be seen as good neighbors, as friends, certainly fierce warriors who will go after the enemy and stay after them -- but also as individuals who try to avoid civilian casualties whenever possible and are seen again as supporting the people and trying to help them achieve a better life," Petraeus said, specifically referring to the fight on the Afghan side of the border.
On the Pakistani side, Petraeus acknowledged an effort to put a halt to any collaboration between Taliban members and individuals in Pakistani intelligence.
"There are some relationships that continue. It is not as clear as one would like. There's certainly additional focus on that," Petraeus said. "Obviously, we've had these conversations with our counterparts (in Pakistan)."
Obama has announced that he's sending 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan and is requesting $1.5 billion a year for the next five years in aid for Pakistan -- he is also planning to call for $2.8 billion just for Pakistan's military.
As to threats elsewhere in the region, Petraeus said Iran is still "some years away" from a nuclear weapon.
"They have low-enriched uranium that is about the amount that would be required perhaps to make a weapon, but there are many, many more steps that are required.
You have to highly enrich it," he said. "But are they a threat? Certainly."
Petraeus also dismissed online speculation that he is considering a run for office (the speculation was fueled by a posting, later revealed to be a joke, that he is planning a 2010 speaking engagement at the University of Iowa).
"I do not (have interest in running for office)," Petraeus said. "Not at all. And I've tried to say that on numerous occasions."
He said he's not heading to Iowa.
TIMELINE-Attacks destabilise strife-torn Pakistan
Militants holed up in a police training centre in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday after storming the complex and killing cadets, with estimates of the dead ranging up to 20.Militant violence has surged in nuclear-armed Pakistan since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on security forces and government and Western targets. Following is a timeline of major attacks in Pakistan since late 2007:
Oct. 19, 2007 - At least 139 people are killed in a suicide bomb attack on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's motorcade as she is driven through the financial capital of Karachi at the end of eight years of exile. She was unhurt.
Dec. 21 - A suicide bomber kills at least 41 people in a mosque in Charsadda district, in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), during the Muslim Eid festival prayers.
Dec. 27 - Bhutto is killed in a gun and bomb attack after a rally in northern garrison town of Rawalpindi. At least 16 others are killed.
Feb. 29, 2008 - A suicide attack on a police funeral kills 40 people in the turbulent northwestern district of Swat, 160 km (100 miles) from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
March 2 - At least 40 people are killed as suicide bomber attacks gathering of tribal elders in Darra Adam Khel, a northwestern tribal region.
March 11 - Two suicide car bombers kill 24, most of them in an attack on a government security office in the country's second largest city, Lahore, near the Pakistan-India border.
March 15 - A bomb attack at an Italian restaurant in Islamabad, a favourite hangout for foreigners, kills a Turkish woman and wounds several others, including four FBI agents.
Aug. 19 - Suspected suicide bomber kills 23 in compound of hospital in Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP, southwest of Islamabad, as Shi'ite Muslims protest a leader's killing.
Aug. 21 - Two suicide bombers blow themselves up outside the main defence industry complex in Wah, 30 km (18 miles) northwest of Islamabad. Nearly 50 people are killed and about 70 wounded.
Sept. 20 - Suicide truck bomb attack blamed on Islamist militants kills 55 people, destroys Marriott hotel in Islamabad.
Dec. 5 - A car bomb kills at least 20 people and wounds scores in Peshawar, capital of NWFP.
Dec. 28 - At least 30 people are killed in a suicide car bomb blast at a polling station near Buner, in the NWFP, during a by-election for a provincial assembly.
Feb. 5, 2009 - At least 24 people are killed in a suspected suicide bombing near Shi'ite mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan, central Pakistan.
Feb. 20 - Suicide bomber kills 27 people and wounds 65 in an attack on a funeral procession for a Shi'ite Muslim killed a day earlier in Dera Ismail Khan.
March 3 - Gunmen attack a bus carrying Sri Lanka's cricket team outside a Lahore stadium, killing seven people, including six policemen, and wounding six of the cricketers and a British coach.
March 7 - Eight Pakistani police and soldiers are killed in a booby-trapped car bomb attack on a police van on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar.
March 16 - A bomb explodes near a bus stop in Rawalpindi, killing seven people.
March 27 - A suicide bomber kills 37 people when he blows himself up in a crowded Pakistani mosque near the Afghan border. Among the dead are 14 policemen and paramilitary soldiers.
March 30 - Militants armed with guns and grenades storm a police training centre in Lahore.
Lahore terrorist strike
The lethal terrorist strike on the Lahore police training school manifests chillingly the damning unpreparedness of the state to face up to a vicious monstrosity threatening its very existence. Not just that the strike came within days of a deadly attack on Sri Lankan cricketers not far off from this police academy in the city, whose perpetrators escaped scot-free and remain still at large. It was yet another security establishment to bear a daring terrorist assault. Over the time, terrorists have been systematically attacking security targets, supposed to be highly protected. They have struck military cantonments, training centres and various other establishments. Spared they have not even state intelligence apparatus’ key facilities. The ISI has been so attacked. Even the GHQ in Rawalpindi bore their wickedness in close vicinity. In Lahore itself, a naval college and the FIA complex were attacked. Doesn’t this reflect a method to their madness? Isn’t the intent more than evident that they want to degrade the state security apparatus in the people’s eye, erode their trust in it, demoralise the apparatus itself, and emasculate the state from inside so destructively as to survive? Then, why is the state top hierarchy acting so lackadaisically, showing itself to be out of its depth, just vacillating between certainty and uncertainty without conviction? Internal security czar Rehman Malik is routinely given to ascribing instantly every terrorist assault to Baitullah Mehsud’s brigands, without ever substantiating his charge. And since the Mumbai strike, his usual suspect is Lashkar-e-Taiba. At times, he alludes to a “foreign hand”. But with certainty he speaks not even long after a terrorist act. But even if he is right on his assertion of local militants’ involvement, the question he never answers is as to who is training, arming and bankrolling these thugs, without which they cannot attack and kill a lamb, what to talk of taking on a security establishment? Nor do those intellectual lights, gracing nightly media’s talk shows. They think big, they talk big, and such a “petty thing” registers not on their high minds. What agitates them troublingly is what they euphemistically call our military establishment’s “strategic depth” in Afghanistan and its “extraterritorial interest” in the Indian-occupied Kashmir. Their argumentation’s upshot is that this establishment is harbouring its proxies in its obscure havens for its ventures in Afghanistan and Kashmir; and it is these touted proxies of theirs they point their finger at for every terrorist act in the country. But is it really plausible that the military establishment trains, arms and bankrolls these proxies and unleashes on its own people to kill and maim them? This bunk has gone too long; it must now cease. Too much is at stake. This country’s very existence is at great risk, presently enmeshed as it is precariously in the throes of an international conspiracy. The fountainhead of this diabolical conspiracy lays in Afghanistan where it is being spearheaded by America’s CIA in league with India’s RAW, Israel’s Mossad and Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance-dominated intelligence agency, Central Directorate of Security. And Islamabad’s top hierarchy too must come out of its sweet delusion about Obama administration’s benign hand on its back. The mere carrot of $7.5 billion in aid that this administration has dangled before it has transported this hierarchy in a binge of song and dance. But it has just to listen to President Barack Obama’s imperial tone about Pakistan in his latest American television channel, talking of us as if we are no self-respecting people but another Puerto Rico, an American protectorate. In the American lexicon, this hierarchy must know, there is no free lunch. And for this aid, we have to barter away our independence, living in subjugation of America’s will and diktats, giving our army and the ISI to the subordination of Pentagon and the CIA. And if with an orchestrated vociferous vilification campaign they have discredited the Pakistan army and the ISI to be their credible partners in Afghanistan, worse is to come. While they have already embraced India warmly as their real partner in Afghanistan and helped it massively to embed there menacingly to us, they are now toying with the Indian army’s induction there as well. Their top soldier Admiral Mike Mullen has publicly stated India has a military role in Afghanistan. The Indian army chief too has spoken of it. So the Islamabad establishment must come out of its delusions, see what the country is up against, and think out how to cope with surging terrorism having its roots across our borders, and act to counter it bravely.
Saved from: http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ed&nid=286&ad=31-03-200
Dated: Tuesday,March 31, 2009, Rabi-us-Sani 03, 1430 A.H.
Saved from: http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ed&nid=286&ad=31-03-200
Dated: Tuesday,March 31, 2009, Rabi-us-Sani 03, 1430 A.H.
Wave of attacks in Pakistan imperils state’s future
KARACHI: Monday's assault on a police school and a wave of spectacular attacks underlines Pakistan's weakness and the danger posed by militants to the future of the nuclear-armed nation, analysts said.The commando-style assault on the training ground transformed a normally peaceful commuter belt near Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore into a war zone, leaving at least 20 people dead in pitched battles with security forces.Analysts said the attack was a firm message to US President Barack Obama, who has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against al-Qaeda, tripling US aid in a strategy aimed at reversing the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.Such is the scale of violence in the Muslim nation that Obama called al-Qaeda and its allies 'a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within' and urged Islamabad to demonstrate its commitment to eradicating extremists.'Terrorists want to tell Obama and his western allies that they cannot be contained as Obama desired and are still as powerful and strong as they have been for years now,' said Mutahir Shaikh, an international relations expert.'The attack also proves the weakness of state institutions and shows that a mere half a dozen professionally trained terrorists can take anyone hostage and occupy any establishment they like,' he added.Monday's attack mimicked the March 3 assault on Sri Lanka's cricket team in Lahore, where assailants on foot carrying back packs of high-energy food and hand weapons killed eight Pakistanis and wounded seven members of the squad.'Urban terrorism is now in vogue in our major cities,' said Shaikh, a professor at the University of Karachi.Extremists opposed to the Pakistan government's decision to side with the United States in its 'war on terror' have carried out a spate of bombings and other attacks that have killed nearly 1,700 people in less than two years.'This is further evidence of the growing threat of terrorism to Pakistan's state and society,' security analyst Hasan Askari told AFP after Monday's assault.'These groups want to paralyse the system of state in order to have greater freedom to pursue their ideological and political agenda inside and outside Pakistan,' he said.'An isolated Pakistan will be easily overwhelmed by terrorists, which the world should not allow them to do.'Much of the unrest has been concentrated in the northwest, where the army has been fighting Taliban and al-Qaeda. On Friday, a suicide bomber ripped through a packed mosque near the Afghan border, killing around 50 people.But the second attack in the Lahore area this month will fan fears that the net of violence is spreading.'Such attacks again prove that all the outside world's security fears about Pakistan's lack of governance are true,' said Tauseef Ahmed Khan, an academic at Karachi's Urdu University.'These repeated attacks show total failure on the part of the government's law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies. Pakistan's future is at massive risk,' he said.Pakistan shelters a litany of extremist groups, spanning banned outfits fighting for independence from Indian rule in Kashmir in the east, to Taliban and al-Qaeda in the west.Interior ministry chief Rehman Malik hinted that home-grown militant groups were behind Monday's raid.'Who is supporting them? Who is giving them weapons? Everyone knows these banned organisations, namely Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-i-Mohammad,' he told a private television channel.Top officials in Pakistan's key US ally have openly accused elements in the country's powerful intelligence agency of abetting al-Qaeda.'What we need to do is try and help the Pakistanis understand these groups are now an existential threat to them and we will be there as a steadfast ally for Pakistan,' US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.
Mission accomplished; forces overpower Manawan attackers
Security forces on Monday overpowered attackers who besieged a police academy and declared victory as scores of policemen took up position on the rooftop of the centre.Ambulances raced in and out of the compound at top-speed ferrying casualties to hospital. The road outside the academy, just outside the city of Lahore, was clogged with ambulances, onlookers and army vehicles.The army cordoned off the entire area and prevented reporters from going inside the compound, as a military helicopter flew overhead at low altitude.At least three bearded men in vests put their hands in the air and surrendered to the small group of armed security forces and commandos on the rooftop of the main academy building just outside the city of Lahore.The forces shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater), flashed V for victory signs and pumped bullets into the air, a traditional sign of celebration, nearly eight hours after attackers stormed the compound.A crowd of several hundred people gathered near the training centre at the conclusion of the operation shouting "long live the Pakistan army".A five-minute walk away, a horse lay motionless on the road, apparently dead, an AFP reporter said.Police officer Babar Baluch told AFP that he had been inside the training camp during the operation."I saw eight to 10 bodies," he said but there was no top-level confirmation of the overall death toll.Two isolated gunshots rang out in the vicinity of the centre in the first 30 minutes after the security forces declared victory, said an AFP reporter.
Pakistan blames Taliban-allied militants in Lahore attack
Elite army and paramilitary troops battle for eight hours with gunmen who overran a police academy outside Lahore. About 20 people are dead, including at least four of the assailants.
Pakistani authorities Monday blamed Taliban-linked militants for a daylong assault on a police academy outside the eastern city of Lahore that left about 20 people dead, including at least four of the assailants.In a chillingly methodical strike, heavily armed gunmen stormed the training center as recruits gathered for morning drills. The assailants held off elite army and paramilitary troops for nearly eight hours before finally being overpowered. At least three of the attackers blew themselves up as troops overran their last stronghold, an upper floor in the compound's main building. Afterward, black-clad Pakistani commandos chanted "God is great!" and fired off rounds of celebratory gunfire.The audacious attack was yet another sign of the intensifying turmoil in Pakistan, considered a crucial U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic militants even though the year-old civilian government has been struggling to stay in control. President Obama declared last week that quelling the insurgency in Pakistan was key to success in the war in neighboring Afghanistan. He tied the continuation of U.S. aid to progress in confronting the militants. The assault on the police compound, which began about 8 a.m., was swift and sudden. Pakistani news reports cited witnesses as saying that the gunmen, some in civilian dress and some in what appeared to be police uniforms, hit the lightly guarded compound from several directions at once, hurling grenades and gunning down police cadets on the compound's parade ground. After initial confusion, hundreds of army and paramilitary troops, including elite Rangers, were rushed to the scene. The Dawn news television channel reported that a helicopter was hit by assailants' gunfire as it flew in troops, but managed to land safely.Shortly before 4 p.m., acting Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that authorities had regained control of the compound. He told reporters later that the attackers were linked to Baitullah Mahsud, commander of Pakistan's Taliban movement.About 90 people were reported hurt, with many of the wounded trapped inside for hours as the battle raged around them. Some police trainees said they leaped from windows to escape, or scaled the compound's high walls to get away.At one point, the assailants appeared to repel an armored personnel carrier that tried to enter the compound. The provincial governor, Salman Taseer, described the chaotic events as a "total siege."It was the second major attack within a month in Lahore, the cosmopolitan capital of Punjab province and once considered a relatively peaceful corner of the country. On March 3, six police guards and a bus driver were killed when gunmen attacked the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team.Monday's attack was also reminiscent of the November onslaught in Mumbai, when teams of gunmen hit luxury hotels and other sites around India's commercial capital in a series of coordinated strikes, leaving nearly 170 people dead.In Lahore, the police trainees who were in the compound as the attack unfolded described an operation almost military in its precision."They kept on spraying bullets at us without stopping, and I saw many of my colleagues getting hit, crying out and falling to the ground," said a 23-year-old recruit, Mohammed Atif, who suffered minor injuries.Throughout the day, Pakistanis were transfixed by live television coverage of the assault, which included images of dead police recruits lying inside the compound. Footage also showed a captured assailant prone on the ground, being kicked by police before they hauled him to his feet and led him away.Analysts said the attackers may have been seeking to demoralize the government by humiliating the security forces. Many recruits could be seen sobbing as they emerged from the compound. Some quit the force on the spot."It's very likely this group had perfect knowledge of the targets and knew the operational environment well," said Rohan Gunaratna, director of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore. "They had familiarity with law enforcement operations and their targets, and studied them very carefully over a period of time."
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Madonna's adopted son reunited with father in Malawi
Madonna’s adopted son, David, was reunited with his biological father yesterday amid emotional scenes at an upmarket safari lodge hours after the pop star arrived in Malawi to adopt a second child.Workers at the Kumbali lodge outside the capital Lilongwe said that David’s father Yohane Banda, who checked in at noon on Saturday, was clearly delighted to see his son again.“He was hopping from foot to foot, you could see he was very happy,” one employee said. “He had been waiting here all morning, you could see he was over the moon when Madonna arrived with David, but the reunion itself was private,” said the employee – who asked not to be named – in a telephone call to The Times shortly after the reunion.Security at the lodge was tight with all staff asked to hand over mobile phones while at work and roadblocks manned by private security guards across the main approach road.“I have waited for two years, it is a dream come true,” Mr Banda, a peasant farmer, told The Times in an interview last week when it was announced that Madonna was coming to the impoverished Southern African country and he would see his son for the first time in nearly three years.“I just wish I could see him more often, but I know one day my prayers will be answered and he will come back and live here,” he said.He added that he had been worried about his son’s future when he heard stories about her divorce from Guy Ritchie, the film director, but that he had been assured by staff at Madonna’s charity Raising Malawi that all was well.Under the deal which allowed Madonna, 50, to take the 13-month-old David out of Malawi in 2006, she has to bring him back regularly to see his natural father. The adoption was declared legal last year.The American pop singer arrived in Malawi at around noon yesterday in a private jet at a part of the airport normally reserved for cargo flights.Reporters were kept at a distance and she was driven away in a convoy of four 4x4 vehicles that sped off to the lodge where Mr Banda was waiting. Madonna was also accompanied by her other children, Rocco and Lourdes.A little while later she reemerged with Lourdes, whose father is Carlos Leon, a personal trainer. Wearing a white fedora hat, Madonna and her daughter toured the nearby village of Chinkhota.Dozens of reporters looked on, but she refused to answer shouted questions about reports that she was in Malawi to adopt a four-year-old girl, Mercy James. Officials say that Madonna is scheduled to appear in the High Court today to finalise the adoption of Mercy, whom she first saw at the same Mchinji orphanage where she found David.One court official said that her Malawian lawyer, Alan Chinula, would file adoption papers at a procedural hearing for Mercy.It is not clear if Madonna, who has to satisfy the authorities that as a single parent she is capable of caring for an adopted child, has to be present in court.The pop star faced harsh criticism from some quarters over David’s adoption. Children’s advocacy groups accused her of using her wealth and influence to circumvent Malawian law requiring an 18 to 24-month assessment period before adoption.The Raising Malawi project is preparing to start work on a multi-million-pound secondary school for girls. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa where only a small minority of people live above the internationally accepted poverty line of 50 pence a day.Speaking about her latest adoption move, Save the Children UK said that the singer risked sending the wrong message.“International adoption can actually exacerbate the problem it hopes to solve,” a spokesman, Dominic Nutt, said.“The very existence of orphanages encourages poor parents to abandon children in the hope that they will have a better life.”However, Austin Msowoya, legal researcher with the Malawian Law Commission, played down concerns that a second adoption by Madonna would violate any laws. He said that the best interests of the child needed to be taken into account – whether that was staying in an orphanage in Malawi or getting an education with Madonna.“When you look at these two options, then perhaps it becomes in the best interests of the child to allow the adoption if the parents and the guardians consent to it,” he told the Associated Press news agency.Madonna’s spokeswoman in New York said that she would not be responding to comments from Save the Children.
Students forced to take exam under umbrellas
DIR UPPER: Students of a girls’ middle school in Bibyawar Town are taking their annual examinations under umbrellas due to torrential rain in the area as the school building was blown up by militants in June last year which could not be repaired so far.
The school is situated the fields and most of its rooms are destroyed completely while some were partially damaged.
However, the process of education was not stopped despite threats and unfavourable atmosphere. The girl students continued their studies in the courtyard of the school for about nine months.
However, after a period of nine-month classes being conducted under the open sky, the government and education department failed to make arrangements for the annual examinations and now the students are forced to take their papers under umbrellas.
The Child Rights Committee (CRC) Upper Dir demanded of the government to provide a suitable atmosphere to the students to for their annual examinations.
It asked the education department and district government to instantly provide tents to the school so that the students had a shelter.
Death sentence awarded
The district and sessions judge Upper Dir awarded death sentence to a cop in a murder case and fined him Rs1 million.
The constable, Yaqoob Khan, resident of Talash Lower Dir, was accused of firing on a van in which a close relative of union council nazim, Noor Muhammad, was killed.
The court of Asim Imam found Yaqoob Khan guilty of committing the crime.
Announcing the verdict in the case, he awarded death sentence to the police official.
In addition, the murderer would also pay a fine of Rs1 million besides facing a two-year rigorous imprisonment in case he failed to pay the fine.
Meanwhile, a man was killed in a clash between two rival groups in Belanzai area of Upper Dir.
The reason behind the clash was stated to be land disputes.
Police registered a case against the culprits and started further investigation.
The school is situated the fields and most of its rooms are destroyed completely while some were partially damaged.
However, the process of education was not stopped despite threats and unfavourable atmosphere. The girl students continued their studies in the courtyard of the school for about nine months.
However, after a period of nine-month classes being conducted under the open sky, the government and education department failed to make arrangements for the annual examinations and now the students are forced to take their papers under umbrellas.
The Child Rights Committee (CRC) Upper Dir demanded of the government to provide a suitable atmosphere to the students to for their annual examinations.
It asked the education department and district government to instantly provide tents to the school so that the students had a shelter.
Death sentence awarded
The district and sessions judge Upper Dir awarded death sentence to a cop in a murder case and fined him Rs1 million.
The constable, Yaqoob Khan, resident of Talash Lower Dir, was accused of firing on a van in which a close relative of union council nazim, Noor Muhammad, was killed.
The court of Asim Imam found Yaqoob Khan guilty of committing the crime.
Announcing the verdict in the case, he awarded death sentence to the police official.
In addition, the murderer would also pay a fine of Rs1 million besides facing a two-year rigorous imprisonment in case he failed to pay the fine.
Meanwhile, a man was killed in a clash between two rival groups in Belanzai area of Upper Dir.
The reason behind the clash was stated to be land disputes.
Police registered a case against the culprits and started further investigation.
Death by bombing
Monday, March 30, 2009
THE NEWS EDITORIAL
Once again the image of us, our faith and our country that goes around the world is one of violence and intolerance. Between 48 and over 70 people were killed on Friday as they prayed at a mosque – and more than 170 injured according to most reports. The explosion was probably caused by a suicide bomber and he struck just as the Imam began to recite the opening prayer. The mosque was a popular stopping point for people travelling between Afghanistan and Pakistan and was always crowded on a Friday – the softest of soft targets. Tariq Hayat Khan the administrator of Khyber Agency opined that the blast was the work of the supposedly-defunct Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Who knows? There are very rarely arrests subsequent to the bombing of a mosque or imambargah and it is almost as if the agencies of law enforcement have given up even trying to prevent them, never mind catching those responsible for the planning and logistics of such an attack. This is unlikely to be something which can have the label ‘hidden hand’ attached to it. This butchery is entirely home-grown and springs from either the internal denominational conflicts or a local dispute, a struggle for power, by one group or another in the area where the blast happened.
Almost inevitably, given the culture of eye-for-an-eye that prevails here somebody will already be plotting a reprisal. It may not come tomorrow or next week or next year, but come it will. The cycle will continue and breaking the circle becomes ever more difficult as the numbers of dead rise and with them the numbers of fathers and brothers and cousins seeking revenge for the death of their relative. The world watches this. We live in a time of globalized instant communication to the most remote places on the surface of the earth. The world watches and judges, it sees things in black-and-white and is mostly unaware of the inflections and nuances that lie behind even this most barbarous of acts. We should not be surprised when our northwest borderlands are talked of by President Obama as ‘the most dangerous place on earth’ – because on the evidence of this blast and many other incidents, it is. We have only ourselves to blame if others see us a nation of barbarians and should not be surprised if, as a consequence, they sometimes treat us accordingly.
TTP bans women shopping in Batkhela
BATKHELA: The Malakand chapter of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) banned the movement and shopping by the womenfolk in the main bazaars of Dargai and Batkhela on Sunday.
Sources said that the shopkeepers in the markets had received threatening letters from the TTP, warning them to stop the women from visiting their shops. “Those who don’t comply with the TTP directives should be prepared to face consequences,” letters warned.
It was learnt that those women, who were going out alone without their male family members to the markets for shopping, had also been warned. However, some of the shopkeepers in Super Market, Bara Market, Sitara Market, Abaseen Market, Waqar Market, Waqas Market and other shopping markets have already notified womenfolk not to visit the shop without their male family members.
The letters also warned the CD and music shops owners to stop their business immediately, adding that they were spreading obscenity among the youth of the area.
Sources said that TTP also warned the medical superintendent headquarters hospital Batkhela to appoint male and lady medical technicians in emergency and Ultrasound wards forthwith which had been longstanding demand of the patients.
The letters also warned Family Planning centres to close up their office in the area. It may be added that a market in Thana bazaar was blown up few days back where women used to go shopping.
Sources said that the shopkeepers in the markets had received threatening letters from the TTP, warning them to stop the women from visiting their shops. “Those who don’t comply with the TTP directives should be prepared to face consequences,” letters warned.
It was learnt that those women, who were going out alone without their male family members to the markets for shopping, had also been warned. However, some of the shopkeepers in Super Market, Bara Market, Sitara Market, Abaseen Market, Waqar Market, Waqas Market and other shopping markets have already notified womenfolk not to visit the shop without their male family members.
The letters also warned the CD and music shops owners to stop their business immediately, adding that they were spreading obscenity among the youth of the area.
Sources said that TTP also warned the medical superintendent headquarters hospital Batkhela to appoint male and lady medical technicians in emergency and Ultrasound wards forthwith which had been longstanding demand of the patients.
The letters also warned Family Planning centres to close up their office in the area. It may be added that a market in Thana bazaar was blown up few days back where women used to go shopping.
Militancy, military operations turn young females into beggars
PESHAWAR: Militancy and military operations in parts of NWFP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas have not only displaced hundreds of thousands of people but have also forced young females into beggary.
“Military operation and everyday curfew forced us to leave our house in Michni. As there is no elder to feed our family, I beg on city streets for having no alternative arrangement to feed our family,” disclosed 9-year-old Gulnaz. The young girl is usually accompanied by her brother Nasrullah, 7, and sister, Hadia, 4, while seeking alms in Kamboh village near GT Road.
Their father, according to Gulnaz, was killed in clashes after which her mother decided to move out of Michni. “There is no adult male member left in our family,” the girl remarked. Samreen, an 8-year-old girl belonging to Ganj Gate in old city, also claims to be the lone source of income for her five-member family. “I am not allowed to enter the house until I handover Rs300 to my mother. On occasions I have to work till late to get the target because my mother does not compromise,” opined Samreen while on her routine visit to the medicine market in Namakmandi.
Her 4-year-old sister Kashmala has been given the target to collect at least Rs150 per day. “My father is paralyzed while my elder brother is to go through a surgery,” the young girl claimed in a stereotype reply to a question from this correspondent.
Till the time when there were no IDPs in the city, one could see only professional female beggars asking for alms on the city streets, in public transport or while roaming the markets. Many of these children do not demand money directly but insist on selling cheap items like festoons, tissue papers, chewing gums, candies etc.
The number of young female beggars has now increased considerably after thousands of families shifted to the provincial capital from Swat, Bajaur, Mohmand, Shabqadar, Darra Adamkhel and many other parts of the NWFP and Fata due to the law and order situation there.
Female beggars are considered to be more vulnerable to prostitution as they can be trapped easily than other girls. “On occasions, I have observed people in the latest model cars luring a pretty teenage girl who use to beg on the pretext of selling garlands or petty items in Saddar Bazaar. The innocence and fear can be observed easily from her face whenever somebody attempts to get her attention,” a traffic police sergeant, requesting anonymity, told this scribe.
The official disclosed that many other young beggars are facing the same attitude in buses, shops and even houses. “Neither the regular police nor we can take action until these beggars file a proper complaint against an individual if insulted,” he opined.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government in NWFP had established a special home “Darul Kifala” for rehabilitation of female beggars where they had planned to impart them skills to live a respectable life. The single facility, which also lacks even basic facilities, is not enough to rehabilitate hundreds of female beggars, more vulnerable to the flesh business. Non-governmental organizations are also doing nothing in this sector.
Many women trafficking gangs are already active in the city and nearby towns to pick up young girls and sell them at the hand of others in Lahore and parts of Punjab. They have kidnapped many schoolgirls from parts of Nowshera, many of whom are yet to return home. A few have been recovered either from brothels or houses of individuals at the hands of whom they were sold.
Obama rules out US troops in Pakistan
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama says he will consult with Pakistan's leaders before going after terrorist hideouts in their country.He also wants Pakistan to be more accountable, but is ruling out deploying U.S. troops there.In Obama's words, his Afghanistan strategy “does not change the recognition of Pakistan as a sovereign government.''In an interview with American TV channel, Obama discusses the tenuous security situation in that region. He says, “Unless we get a handle on it now, we're gonna be in trouble.''Obama adds that his new strategy is "not going to be an open-ended commitment of infinite resources'' from the United States.
Obama: America Expects Accountability From Pakistan
U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States will give Pakistan the tools it needs to help defeat al-Qaida, but expects accountability in return.
President Obama has made defeating al-Qaida the focus of his new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He says, as he did during his campaign for the White House, that he will take action against terror targets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
"If we have a high-value target within our sights, after consulting with Pakistan, we are going after them," said President Obama.
But Mr. Obama says no American ground forces will be deployed in Pakistan.
"Our main thrust has to be to help Pakistan defeat these extremists," he said.
The president spoke in an interview with the CBS television program Face the Nation - recorded Friday just hours after the announcement of his new Afghan-Pakistan strategy.
He said there is concern in Washington about a growing notion among the Pakistani people that somehow, this is just America's war.
"And that attitude has led to a steady creep of extremism in Pakistan that is the greatest threat to the stability of the Pakistan government, and ultimately the greatest threat to the Pakistani people," said Mr. Obama.
The White House consulted with Pakistani leaders leading up to the announcement of its new strategy, and the initial response has been positive.
Mr. Obama promised a more regional approach to the fight against terrorists and extremists.
He said he would send more military trainers and U.S. civilian personnel to Afghanistan. He voiced support for an increase in aid to Pakistan, but he made clear he is looking for something in return.
"Our plan does not change recognition of Pakistan as a sovereign government," he said. "We need to work with them and through them to deal with al-Qaida. But we have to hold them much more accountable."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has served in the Obama and Bush administrations. He told the Fox News Sunday program the U.S. objective has narrowed.
"Our long-term objective still would be to see a flourishing democracy in Afghanistan," said Gates. "But I think what we need to focus on, and focus our efforts [on], [is] in making headway in reversing the Taliban's momentum and strengthening the Afghan army and police and really going after al-Qaida."
Gates said al-Qaida is not as centralized and strong as it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. But he said it is still providing training and guidance to extremist elements in various countries and remains a serious threat.
President Obama has made defeating al-Qaida the focus of his new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He says, as he did during his campaign for the White House, that he will take action against terror targets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
"If we have a high-value target within our sights, after consulting with Pakistan, we are going after them," said President Obama.
But Mr. Obama says no American ground forces will be deployed in Pakistan.
"Our main thrust has to be to help Pakistan defeat these extremists," he said.
The president spoke in an interview with the CBS television program Face the Nation - recorded Friday just hours after the announcement of his new Afghan-Pakistan strategy.
He said there is concern in Washington about a growing notion among the Pakistani people that somehow, this is just America's war.
"And that attitude has led to a steady creep of extremism in Pakistan that is the greatest threat to the stability of the Pakistan government, and ultimately the greatest threat to the Pakistani people," said Mr. Obama.
The White House consulted with Pakistani leaders leading up to the announcement of its new strategy, and the initial response has been positive.
Mr. Obama promised a more regional approach to the fight against terrorists and extremists.
He said he would send more military trainers and U.S. civilian personnel to Afghanistan. He voiced support for an increase in aid to Pakistan, but he made clear he is looking for something in return.
"Our plan does not change recognition of Pakistan as a sovereign government," he said. "We need to work with them and through them to deal with al-Qaida. But we have to hold them much more accountable."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has served in the Obama and Bush administrations. He told the Fox News Sunday program the U.S. objective has narrowed.
"Our long-term objective still would be to see a flourishing democracy in Afghanistan," said Gates. "But I think what we need to focus on, and focus our efforts [on], [is] in making headway in reversing the Taliban's momentum and strengthening the Afghan army and police and really going after al-Qaida."
Gates said al-Qaida is not as centralized and strong as it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. But he said it is still providing training and guidance to extremist elements in various countries and remains a serious threat.
Taliban militants abduct 12 Pakistan police
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Taliban militants abducted 12 police officers in a pre-dawn attack Sunday in a tribal region where a suicide attack on a mosque this week killed around 50 worshippers, officials said.
The insurgents surrounded a tribal police check post 35 kilometres southeast of Peshawar city in the lawless Khyber region before driving the captured officers away, local government official Rahat Gul said.
No one has claimed responsibility, but another official blamed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the abduction.
The kidnapping came after Pakistani security forces on Saturday arrested four Taliban insurgents and destroyed two suspected compounds in the nearby town of Bara after Friday's bombing, one of the bloodiest recent attacks in Pakistan.
US officials say Pakistan's lawless tribal areas have become a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and have regrouped to launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.
Extremists opposed to the Pakistan government's decision to side with the United States in its "war on terror" have carried out a series of bombings and other attacks that have killed nearly 1,700 people in less than two years.
Much of the violence has been concentrated in northwest Pakistan, where the army has been bogged down fighting Taliban hardliners and Al-Qaeda extremists.
US President Barack Obama in a new strategy unveiled on Friday put Pakistan at the centre of the fight against Al-Qaeda.
Obama said Al-Qaeda and its allies were "a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within" and warned Pakistan must "demonstrate its commitment" to eliminating extremists on its soil.
The insurgents surrounded a tribal police check post 35 kilometres southeast of Peshawar city in the lawless Khyber region before driving the captured officers away, local government official Rahat Gul said.
No one has claimed responsibility, but another official blamed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the abduction.
The kidnapping came after Pakistani security forces on Saturday arrested four Taliban insurgents and destroyed two suspected compounds in the nearby town of Bara after Friday's bombing, one of the bloodiest recent attacks in Pakistan.
US officials say Pakistan's lawless tribal areas have become a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and have regrouped to launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.
Extremists opposed to the Pakistan government's decision to side with the United States in its "war on terror" have carried out a series of bombings and other attacks that have killed nearly 1,700 people in less than two years.
Much of the violence has been concentrated in northwest Pakistan, where the army has been bogged down fighting Taliban hardliners and Al-Qaeda extremists.
US President Barack Obama in a new strategy unveiled on Friday put Pakistan at the centre of the fight against Al-Qaeda.
Obama said Al-Qaeda and its allies were "a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within" and warned Pakistan must "demonstrate its commitment" to eliminating extremists on its soil.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Americans wary about war in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- How does the American public feel about the war in Afghanistan? In a word, wary.President Obama on Friday announced his strategy to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a plan that includes more troops, new legislation, improved troop training and added civilian expertise."The United States of American did not choose to fight a war in Afghanistan. Nearly 3,000 of our people were killed on September 11, 2001," Obama said Friday."We have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said.Stressing that "the safety of people around the world is at stake," Obama said the "situation is increasingly perilous" in the region in and around Afghanistan, where the United States has been fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban for more than 7½ years after attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.Nevertheless, the American public has been wary about the war in Afghanistan, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted in February. Last month, Americans were almost evenly divided between those who support the war and those who oppose it, the poll showed, with 47 percent in favor and 51 percent opposed.Opposition to the war in Afghanistan is more muted than opposition to the war in Iraq, but it's not so muted among Democrats. Two-thirds of Americans overall oppose the war in Iraq, but 64 percent of Democrats oppose the war in Afghanistan.The anti-war movements in Vietnam and Iraq helped define what the Democratic Party stands for. "If we don't learn from our Iraq experience, we are doomed to repeat it," Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-California, said on the House floor Thursday.Why are Americans wary about Afghanistan? The recession. Iraq War fatigue. And frustration.Only 31 percent of Americans believe the United States is winning the war in Afghanistan. Fifty percent believe the United States is winning in Iraq -- the highest number in at least five years. But Americans still want to get out of Iraq.Last month, when President Obama said he would send 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the public was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.Democrats were willing to go along with the president, but they were less enthusiastic than Republicans.A solid majority of Americans believe the United States can win a military victory in Afghanistan, but Afghanistan has become a political war. Winning depends, not just on what the United States can do, but also what Afghanistan and Pakistan can do.Americans have far less confidence in them.The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll surveyed 1,046 adult Americans by telephone on February 18-19, 2009. The sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
Pakistan’s President Praises Obama and Offers New Concession to the Opposition
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In an address to a joint session of Parliament, President Asif Ali Zardari promised Saturday to ease domestic political turmoil and praised the Obama administration’s new policy to Pakistan as “positive change.”
In a conciliatory gesture to the opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-N, Mr. Zardari said that he would lift the executive rule he had imposed on Punjab Province, the most populous province in Pakistan and one where the opposition party holds the most seats in the legislature.
The announcement by Mr. Zardari was seen as another major concession after the opposition party led huge street demonstrations, forcing the president to agree to the restoration of the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who had been removed from the bench in 2007.
In phrases that were most likely intended to please Washington, Mr. Zardari said that Pakistan needed to “root out extremism and militancy.” He welcomed the new package of $7.5 billion for civilian assistance over five years formally announced by President Obama on Friday.
The increased American aid showed that Washington agreed with Pakistan that the best way to fight extremism was through alleviating poverty, Mr. Zardari said.
“It is an endorsement of our call for economic and social uplift as a means to fight extremism,” he said.
This was in implicit contrast to the eight years of rule by Pervez Musharraf, a former general, when almost all of the $10 billion in American assistance to Pakistan went to the army.
As he has in the past, Mr. Zardari stressed that Pakistan needed to fight the escalating extremism for its own good, a way of deflecting vocal Pakistani critics of the alliance with the United States. Mr. Zardari as much as said the fight against the militants was Pakistan’s fight, not America’s fight. “We are fighting militancy and extremism for our own sake,” he said.
Separately on Saturday, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan commended the Obama administration’s strategic review, saying it matched the aspirations of the Afghan people and the views of his own government.
“It is exactly what the Afghan people were hoping for,” Mr. Karzai told reporters at a news briefing in the presidential palace in Kabul. “It has our full support and backing.”
In particular, Mr. Karzai said he was happy to see Mr. Obama’s recognition that Al Qaeda and its allies were still in the region and had their bases and sanctuaries in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The Afghan president has been protesting for several years that the battle is fought in Afghan villages while the insurgents’ headquarters, bases and training camps in Pakistan are left untouched.
“The sanctuaries of the terrorists, the nest of the terrorists and the training places of the terrorists are not in Afghanistan; it has a regional dimension,” he said.
A major point of Mr. Obama’s new policy toward Pakistan was his declaration that the United States wanted to ensure that the havens established by Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the tribal areas were eliminated. It was from these havens, he said, that Al Qaeda was plotting attacks on the United States.
Mr. Zardari did not mention the Taliban or Al Qaeda by name and did not address the power of the militants in the tribal areas or in other areas of Pakistan. Rather, he chose to make a stand about the territorial integrity of Pakistan and reinforced the notion that the government would not tolerate a breach of that sovereignty.
“The sovereignty of Pakistan must be protected at all costs,” he said. “It will be.”
The insistence of Pakistan that no American or other foreign troops can operate from its territory is one of the basic challenges facing the Obama administration as it tries to find a way to eliminate the militant threat.
On Friday, the United States’ special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, said “the red line is unambiguous and stated publicly by the Pakistani government: No foreign troops on our soil.”
Because of that prohibition and the unsteady effort by the Pakistani Army against the militants, Washington has been deploying remotely piloted aircraft, known as drones, armed with missiles against Al Qaeda in the tribal areas. The missile attacks are extremely unpopular in Pakistan and have served to strengthen the anti-American sentiment.
Mr. Zardari, whose popularity has plummeted in recent months, in part because he is linked by many Pakistanis to American policy, did not mention the missile attacks in his speech.
But President Obama hinted strongly Friday that they would continue.
“Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out Al Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders,” he said. “And we will insist that action be taken — one way or the other — when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets.”
In his announcement that he would withdraw the executive rule in Punjab that he imposed last month, Mr. Zardari was effectively handing the province back to rule of the Pakistan Muslim League-N. Mr. Zardari is co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, a mantle he inherited from his wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007.
In his speech, he said his party would support the candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-N as chief minister, a job held by Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of the leader of the league, Nawaz Sharif, before executive rule was imposed.
Elsewhere, dozens of suspected militants fired rockets early Saturday at a transport terminal in northwest Pakistan near Peshawar, the police told The Associated Press. The terminal is used to ship supplies to NATO troops.
The strike followed by a day a suicide bomber’s attack, which killed about 40 people, at a crowded mosque about 12 miles from Peshawar on the main highway to Afghanistan.
Australia turns the lights out for Earth Hour
.jpg)
SYDNEY -- Lights went out at Sydney's famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event in which landmarks and homes go dark for an hour to highlight the threat from climate change.
Australia first held Earth Hour in 2007 and it went global in 2008, attracting the involvement of 50 million people, organisers say. Environmental group WWF, which started the event, is hoping one billion people will take part this year.
"The primary reason we do it is because we want people to think, even if it is for an hour, what they can do to lower their carbon footprint, and ideally take that beyond the hour," Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley told reporters at Sydney's Bondi Beach.
Among the more than 80 countries taking part this year are newcomers like industrial powerhouse China and Asian industrial hub Singapore.
Organisers said several new countries signed up in the hours before the event, which aims to encourage people to cut their energy use and curb greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels.
In the Vatican, the dome of St Peter's Basilica will go dark, as will Egypt's Great Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and New York's Empire State Building. Other global landmarks that will switch off the lights include the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the London Eye and the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing.
Organisers said the remote Chatham Islands was the first place where supporters turned the lights off for an hour at 8.30 p.m., followed by New Zealand and Fiji.
Lights at Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge were switched off at 8.30 p.m. (0930 GMT) to the sound of horns on the harbour, with supporters holding candlelit dinners to watch the event.
"We are sitting here near the harbour. There are about 60 or 70 people here having a picnic - got the candles out," an Earth Hour spokesman told Reuters.
In Melbourne, supporters organised a bicycle-powered concert.
"GLOBAL ELECTION"
Organisers are calling Earth Hour a 'global election', with switching off the lights a vote for the Earth and failure to do so a vote for global warming.
In the Thai capital, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will push a button to switch off the lights at Khao San Road, Bangkok's bustling, "backpackers' ghetto". Lights will also go out at Bangkok landmarks such as the Grand Palace and Temple of the Dawn from 1300 GMT to 1400 GMT.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration expects electricity usage in the city of 8 million people to drop by 30 percent during that hour, or 1,384 megawatts.
Luxury hotels and restaurants plan to serve candle-lit dinners with guests being asked to turn off room lights.
In Singapore, one hotel chain is encouraging guests to sleep naked, or without air conditioning. Some hotels are also offering candle-lit dinners, while bars have cut the price of drinks during the event.
Lights will also be dimmed at landmarks in India, including the Reserve Bank in Mumbai and scores of other buildings in the city.
In Kuala Lumpur, a Malaysian mall is marking the global Earth Hour climate change initiative by dimming its lights - and offering tickets to one of the world's most polluting sports to well-heeled shoppers.
WWF says it will present the results at a conference on climate change in Copenhagen later this year, where governments will try to seal a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
President Zardari addresses Parliament
ISLAMABAD :The joint session of parliament has begun here on Saturday, President Asif Ali Zardari, is addressing the session. This is President Zardari’s second address to the joint sitting in seven months.At the end of every parliamentary year, president’s address is mandatory under the Constitution.According to the article 56 (3) of the Constitution, at the commencement of the first session after each general election to the National Assembly and at the commencement of the first session of each year, the President shall address both houses of the parliament. President Zardari’s first address was on September 20 last year.
Russia to build 6 nuclear subs with cruise missiles
MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia will build at least six nuclear-powered submarines with long-range cruise missiles for its navy, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry told the Itar-Tass news agency.
The missiles can potentially carry low-capacity tactical warheads, the news agency reported Friday.
"These supersonic, highly maneuvering missiles are designed for strikes on aircraft carriers of the enemy if the latter poses a direct threat to Russia's security," the unnamed source told Itar-Tass. "The missiles can be launched at the most important coastal facilities."
The source added, "Despite the construction of a new nuclear submarine with new missiles, Russia intends to observe firmly international arms control agreements on equal terms with other countries."
The Severodvinsk-class submarines are being built at the Sevmash shipyard, the center of Russian nuclear submarine production, according to Global Security's Web site.
The new subs will be put into service for the Russian navy in 2011, the source told Itar-Tass.
Russia will finance the construction of the new submarine with long-range cruise missiles, First Deputy Chief of the Navy's General Staff, Vice-Admiral Oleg Burtsev told Itar-Tass.
The missiles can potentially carry low-capacity tactical warheads, the news agency reported Friday.
"These supersonic, highly maneuvering missiles are designed for strikes on aircraft carriers of the enemy if the latter poses a direct threat to Russia's security," the unnamed source told Itar-Tass. "The missiles can be launched at the most important coastal facilities."
The source added, "Despite the construction of a new nuclear submarine with new missiles, Russia intends to observe firmly international arms control agreements on equal terms with other countries."
The Severodvinsk-class submarines are being built at the Sevmash shipyard, the center of Russian nuclear submarine production, according to Global Security's Web site.
The new subs will be put into service for the Russian navy in 2011, the source told Itar-Tass.
Russia will finance the construction of the new submarine with long-range cruise missiles, First Deputy Chief of the Navy's General Staff, Vice-Admiral Oleg Burtsev told Itar-Tass.
Militants destroy 12 NATO trucks in Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Taliban militants in Pakistan on Saturday destroyed 12 parked trucks laden with supplies for NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan during a heavy battle with police, an official said.
Fighters armed with rockets and petrol bombs besieged the Farhad terminal on the edge of the northwest city Peshawar, police said, the latest in a series of strikes targeting goods bound for foreign forces across the border.
"There were no casualties in the attack, but the fire gutted 12 trucks loaded with NATO supplies," local police station chief Fazal Wahid told AFP.
"We had to call reinforcements from other police stations as Taliban outnumbered the local force and were heavily armed," Wahid said.
The bulk of supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces battling a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, and the fabled Khyber pass through the northwest is the principal land route.
The attack came one day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a packed mosque during prayers in Jamrud, near Peshawar, leaving around 50 dead and scores wounded in one of the bloodiest recent attacks in the nation.
US President Barack Obama put Pakistan at the centre of the fight against Al-Qaeda on Friday.
Obama said Al-Qaeda and extremist allies were "a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within" and warned Pakistan must "demonstrate its commitment" to eliminating extremists on its soil.
In Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, security forces launched a search operation against Taliban militants in Mohmand district and pounded militant positions at several places, a security official told AFP.
Local administration official Syed Ahmed Jan said a night curfew was imposed in Mohmand before the launch of the ground operation, in which no casualties have yet been reported.
US officials say northwest Pakistan has degenerated into a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and have regrouped to launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.
Extremists opposed to the Pakistani government's decision to side with the United States in its "war on terror" have carried out a series of bombings and other attacks that have killed nearly 1,700 people in less than two years.
Fighters armed with rockets and petrol bombs besieged the Farhad terminal on the edge of the northwest city Peshawar, police said, the latest in a series of strikes targeting goods bound for foreign forces across the border.
"There were no casualties in the attack, but the fire gutted 12 trucks loaded with NATO supplies," local police station chief Fazal Wahid told AFP.
"We had to call reinforcements from other police stations as Taliban outnumbered the local force and were heavily armed," Wahid said.
The bulk of supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces battling a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, and the fabled Khyber pass through the northwest is the principal land route.
The attack came one day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a packed mosque during prayers in Jamrud, near Peshawar, leaving around 50 dead and scores wounded in one of the bloodiest recent attacks in the nation.
US President Barack Obama put Pakistan at the centre of the fight against Al-Qaeda on Friday.
Obama said Al-Qaeda and extremist allies were "a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within" and warned Pakistan must "demonstrate its commitment" to eliminating extremists on its soil.
In Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, security forces launched a search operation against Taliban militants in Mohmand district and pounded militant positions at several places, a security official told AFP.
Local administration official Syed Ahmed Jan said a night curfew was imposed in Mohmand before the launch of the ground operation, in which no casualties have yet been reported.
US officials say northwest Pakistan has degenerated into a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and have regrouped to launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.
Extremists opposed to the Pakistani government's decision to side with the United States in its "war on terror" have carried out a series of bombings and other attacks that have killed nearly 1,700 people in less than two years.
US warns Pakistan on Taleban link
The US military says it has evidence elements within Pakistan's military intelligence, the ISI, continue to provide support for the Taleban.
Officials said that this support for militants had to end.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said the ISI had links with militants on both Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan and India.
US President Barack Obama has announced a new strategy for the "increasingly perilous" situation in Afghanistan.
He said an extra 4,000 US personnel would train and bolster the Afghan army and police, and he would also provide support for civilian development.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was "in full agreement" with the US review.
'Very damaging'
Two senior figures in the US military have spoken about the links they believe exist between elements in Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Taleban and al-Qaeda militants.
"There are certainly indications that's the case," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a CNN interview.
"Fundamentally that's one of the things that has to change."
In another interview, the head of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, said some of the militant groups had been established by the ISI and that their links continued.
He said there was evidence that "in the fairly recent past" the ISI had tipped off militants when their positions were in danger.
"It's a topic that is of enormous importance, because if there are links and if those continue and if it undermines the operations [against militants], obviously that would be very damaging to the kind of trust that we need to build," said Gen Petraeus in a PBS interview.
Wearing thin
American officials, speaking anonymously to the New York Times, have given more detail.
“ So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan ”
Barack Obama
They said the strengthening Taleban campaign in southern Afghanistan was being made possible by military supplies from Pakistan.
The newspaper said electronic surveillance and informants had shown that the level of co-operation was deeper and more extensive than earlier thought.
Pakistani leaders have publically denied any links with the militants.
The BBC's Charles Scanlon says patience in Washington appears to be wearing thin.
'New strategy'
On Friday US President Barack Obama said growing radical forces in Afghanistan and the border area in Pakistan posed the greatest threat to the American people and the world.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said it would strengthen democracy in his country, while the Afghan government said Mr Obama had recognised that the al-Qaeda threat came mainly from Pakistan, and that it was a regional problem.
President Obama said his "comprehensive new strategy" was an outcome of a "careful policy review" in which military commanders and diplomats, regional governments, partners, Nato allies, NGOs and aid organisations were consulted.
He painted a bleak picture of the situation, with insurgents increasing their control of territory in the region around the Afghan-Pakistan border - which he termed "the most dangerous place in the world" for the American people - and attacks rising.
He said American strategy must relate directly to the threat posed to the Americans by al-Qaeda and its allies - who, he reminded his listeners, were behind the 9/11 attacks on American soil eight years ago.
But he said targeting al-Qaeda was not only in the interests of American people, but populations around the world and Afghans themselves.
"This is not simply an American problem. Far from it," Mr Obama said.
"It is instead an international security challenge of the highest order."
In Pakistan, Mr Obama said American help would be needed to go after al-Qaeda, which Mr Obama admitted was "no simple task".
Officials said that this support for militants had to end.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said the ISI had links with militants on both Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan and India.
US President Barack Obama has announced a new strategy for the "increasingly perilous" situation in Afghanistan.
He said an extra 4,000 US personnel would train and bolster the Afghan army and police, and he would also provide support for civilian development.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was "in full agreement" with the US review.
'Very damaging'
Two senior figures in the US military have spoken about the links they believe exist between elements in Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Taleban and al-Qaeda militants.
"There are certainly indications that's the case," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a CNN interview.
"Fundamentally that's one of the things that has to change."
In another interview, the head of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, said some of the militant groups had been established by the ISI and that their links continued.
He said there was evidence that "in the fairly recent past" the ISI had tipped off militants when their positions were in danger.
"It's a topic that is of enormous importance, because if there are links and if those continue and if it undermines the operations [against militants], obviously that would be very damaging to the kind of trust that we need to build," said Gen Petraeus in a PBS interview.
Wearing thin
American officials, speaking anonymously to the New York Times, have given more detail.
“ So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan ”
Barack Obama
They said the strengthening Taleban campaign in southern Afghanistan was being made possible by military supplies from Pakistan.
The newspaper said electronic surveillance and informants had shown that the level of co-operation was deeper and more extensive than earlier thought.
Pakistani leaders have publically denied any links with the militants.
The BBC's Charles Scanlon says patience in Washington appears to be wearing thin.
'New strategy'
On Friday US President Barack Obama said growing radical forces in Afghanistan and the border area in Pakistan posed the greatest threat to the American people and the world.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said it would strengthen democracy in his country, while the Afghan government said Mr Obama had recognised that the al-Qaeda threat came mainly from Pakistan, and that it was a regional problem.
President Obama said his "comprehensive new strategy" was an outcome of a "careful policy review" in which military commanders and diplomats, regional governments, partners, Nato allies, NGOs and aid organisations were consulted.
He painted a bleak picture of the situation, with insurgents increasing their control of territory in the region around the Afghan-Pakistan border - which he termed "the most dangerous place in the world" for the American people - and attacks rising.
He said American strategy must relate directly to the threat posed to the Americans by al-Qaeda and its allies - who, he reminded his listeners, were behind the 9/11 attacks on American soil eight years ago.
But he said targeting al-Qaeda was not only in the interests of American people, but populations around the world and Afghans themselves.
"This is not simply an American problem. Far from it," Mr Obama said.
"It is instead an international security challenge of the highest order."
In Pakistan, Mr Obama said American help would be needed to go after al-Qaeda, which Mr Obama admitted was "no simple task".
Friday, March 27, 2009
Four bomb explosions in NWFP(Pukhtunkhwa) mosques thus far
CRUEL TALIBAN AND ALQUIDA ARE COMMITTING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY,THEY SHOULD BE CRUSHED WITH IRON HAND,NATO SHOULD ATTACK THEIR LEADERS WHO ARE HIDDING IN RAT HOLES.WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW THESE IGNORANT TALIBAN ARE GETTING WEAPONS AND BECOMING STRONGER.
Mwaqar
PESHAWAR: The devastating explosion at Bagyari near Jamrud in Khyber Agency on Friday was the fourth time in NWFP that a mosque was targeted by terrorists.
In both the Bagyari blast and the one at a mosque in Sherpao village in Charsadda district on December 20, 2007, the officially certified death toll was over 50. The number of injured was also around 200 in both cases.
There was apparently no high-profile target at the Bagyari mosque as those offering Friday prayers at the roadside place of worship were common tribesmen, travellers and low-ranked officials of the Frontier Corps and Khassadar force.
The target of the suicide bombing at the mosque in Sherpao village was the then federal interior minister Aftab Sherpao. It was Eid day, or Eidul Azha to be precise, and Sherpao, his sons Sikandar and Mustafa, and relatives and guards were praying at the village mosque. Sherpao survived and so did his sons, with Mustafa receiving some injuries, but more than 50 people were killed.
On that fateful day, it became obvious that for some people calling themselves to be Islamic fighters the mosques were no longer sacrosanct.
Incidentally, Sherpao had survived an earlier suicide bombing as well in his native Charsadda but that attack had taken place during a public meeting in an open place and not in a mosque. More than 30 people were killed in that blast.
Two other mosques were also attacked by the terrorists. One was actually a Shia place of worship, the Imambargah Qasim Beg, in Jhangi Mohalla in Peshawar where a suicide bomber blew himself up on January 18, 2008. The explosion in the congested Imambargah killed 12 worshippers and caused injuries to 20 others.
The other mosque that suffered a bomb explosion was located in the remote Miskeeni Darra area in Dir Lower district. The incident took place during the month of Ramazan last year when seven faithful offering prayers were killed and several other were injured.
Two other attempts by suicide bombers to attack worshippers during congregations were foiled. In one case, the bomber wearing suicide jacket was overpowered by policemen before he could enter an Imambargah in Dera Ismail Khan. If the young suicide bomber had succeeded in his misguided mission, the human losses at the crowded Imambargah would have been enormous.
In the second incident, the suicide bomber due to nervousness or inadequate training blew himself up before he could reach and target an Eidgah where Eidul Fitr prayers were being offered in Daggar in Buner district. Two children who happened to be in the vicinity were injured by the force of the explosion.
It was unimaginable until a few years ago that mosques, referred to as the House of Allah, would be attacked and that too in the NWFP where Islam plays a dominant role in life. In fact, attacking any place of worship was something unthinkable. But the terrorists have no qualms exploding bombs in mosques and sending suicide bombers to kill and maim the innocent Muslims who come to offer prayers.
Jamrud attack victims tell horrible tales
PESHAWAR: More than a hundred tribesmen injured in a suicide attack inside a mosque in Bhigiari area of Khyber tribal agency on Friday noon were shifted to three major hospitals of the provincial metropolis.
The hospitals wore a gloomy look as agony-stricken attendants were in tears to see their relatives writhing in pain. The worried relatives of the wounded persons rushed to the hospitals to inquire after the injured, but police deployed at wards’ gates allowed only one person to stay with the wounded.
The injured were first rushed to Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), the nearest tertiary-care hospital, but due to lack of facilities to address causalities in such a large number, most of the wounded were referred to Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).
Twenty-eight victims, including three bodies were brought, to HMC, while 71 injured and seven bodies were shifted to the KTH. About 10 patients were referred to cardio-thoracic and cardio vascular wards of the LRH.
Lying on a bed in surgical ward of the KTH, Khalid Mir had received abdominal injuries. Student of first-year at Higher Secondary School Jamrud, Mir still in his blood-soaked clothes, told The News he was standing in the third row inside the hall of the mosque.
“The moment imam (prayer leader) said Allah-o-Akbar I heard a deafening sound and saw a raging flame of fire and then smoke everywhere,” he said. “Everything was falling and the entire roof caved in and I was hit by a wooden beam,” he added.
Mir said that he was a player of volleyball and he along with his friends used to play game near the mosque. “We decided to offer Friday prayer before the game, but the fate has decided something else,” Khalid Mir said. Waqif, 17, from Jamrud was lying on the next bed. He received head injuries as well as shrapnel’s bruises on his face and right foot.
Talking to The News, he said that he was standing in the first row when a loud blast occurred. “A piece of slab fell on my foot. However, I managed to remove that and take out two of my cousins injured in the attack,” he said.
“Smoke was all around and bodies as well as the injured were scattered at the scene and the children were crying for help,” he said. Bakhat Zameen, 25, a driver by profession, sustained head injuries and also shrapnel’s mark on his left cheek. He said the moment he entered the mosque the blast occurred and people fell on one another. “Soon after the blast firing was also started by locals as well as by Khassadars,” he said.
The bodies and the injured were lying on the spot for more than 20 minutes as people were panicked and shocked, he said. Asim, a Khassadar force personnel hailing from Jamrud, admitted to the emergency ward of the HMC told The News that he discharging duty at the nearby checkpoint. “My duty starts at 3pm, but I left home to reach in time to offer my ‘juma’ (Friday) prayer in the mosque and then join the duty,” he said. Asim was standing in the veranda of the mosque when the suicide bomber blew himself up, injuring his (Asim) right leg and hands.
Suicide hits on public places register increase
14 attacks in first quarter of 2009 left 201 dead
PESHAWAR: Suicide attacks have once again registered an increase in Pakistan, mostly targeting public places this time, as 14 assaults in the ongoing quarter of 2009 have so far killed 201 people.The last of the suicide attacks took place at public places where innocent civilians were targeted and not security forces. Previously, security forces were the main targets of the suicide bombers. Eleven out of the total 14 suicide blasts occurred either in NWFP or Fata.The latest incident was that in Jamrud, Khyber Agency, where over 80 people were reported killed and over 150 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated explosives around his vest exactly when Friday prayer was being offered inside a mosque.Twelve others were killed and 22 wounded a day earlier in Jandola town of Frontier Region Tank, when a teenage bomber blew him up outside a restaurant. The Friday attack was 5th of its kind during the month of March. In earlier three attacks, 25 people were killed and around 40 wounded. The first incident occurred on March 2 in Pishin district of Balochistan where six seminary students were killed and scores other injured. As many as 15 people were killed and 25 others wounded in another suicide hit in Pir Wadhai area of Rawalpindi district on March 16.NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour escaped second suicide attempt on his life on March 11 in Namakmandi here. He was lucky enough as explosives did not go off when the suicide bomber intended to attack the senior nationalist leader. The bomber later blew him up inside a house after taking shelter to escape police chase. A newly married girl, her elder sister, a brother and their mother were killed in the blast.Six suicide hits were reported during the last month wherein 65 people were killed. Two of these attacks occurred in Bannu while one each happened in Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, Swat and Jamrud.The first suicide attack of 2009 in the country came on January 4 in Dera Ismail Khan where 10 people, including four policemen, were killed and 27 wounded. The same day another suicide bombing took place in Bannu where two security personnel sustained injuries. Two security forces personnel were killed in another suicide attack on January 23 in Mingora, Swat.As many as 61 suicide attacks have been reported in 2008 killing at least 889 people and injuring 2,072 others. The total number of suicide blasts in Pakistan since 2002 has risen to 154, to date. As many as 56 bombers struck in year 2007 wherein former premier Benazir Bhutto was also a victim.Authorities disclosed that 290 people were killed and 711 other wounded in 30 suicide bombings in the NWFP during the previous year. At least 337 people were killed and 585 wounded in 28 suicide bombings in the province, last year.Swat topped the list of districts where 11 suicide bombers hit targets, killing 101 people and injuring 294 others. Four suicide bombers struck in Peshawar in 2008, killing 99 and wounding 226 others.
Obama's Afghan plan
As a candidate, Barack Obama called Afghanistan "the war we must win."
On Friday, however, President Obama laid out a new US strategy that sees Afghanistan and Pakistan as one problem and provides more resources for both countries, but also with the goal that they eventually defeat Islamic terrorists largely on their own.
He no longer seeks a US victory over Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Rather, he now defines the US interest as merely preventing the Taliban from returning to power in Afghanistan and will do so by turning over much of that task to others.
He calls such a handover a "new sense of shared responsibility."
His plan appears designed to have a US surge in troops, money, and civilian workers merely contain and deter Taliban and Al Qaeda for about two more years and then slowly reduce America's role. He will set out benchmarks for Afghan and Pakistani leaders to meet by 2011, such as beefing up their capabilities against terrorists.
The implied threat is that the US will withdraw its forces if those benchmarks are not achieved.
"We will not blindly stay the course," Obama says.
His administration is even trying to lower American expectations of ever defeating Al Qaeda, even though that officially remains a goal. His officials now refer to the campaign against Osama bin Laden and his followers as simply an "overseas contingency operation," not a war on violent Islamists.
And he doesn't call for democracy in Afghanistan as way to keep the Taliban at bay, saying only that the US "can't dictate" that country's future.
The president's strategy may reflect his concern about the high cost of the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq at a time of recession and when Democrats want to spend hundreds of billions more on healthcare, clean energy, and education.
He's taking a big risk by trying to push more responsibility for Afghanistan onto Europe, the UN, China, Russia, and Iran as well as the governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His threat assessment of Al Qaeda's capability to conduct another 9/11-style attack must be quite low. Or else he has simply weighed the price of such an attack against his domestic priorities and decided the latter is more important to America's future.
In the seven years since 9/11, Americans have become more complacent about terrorist threats. Barely half of them support the US role in Afghanistan. Last year, US soldiers suffered the highest death toll in that country since the 2001 invasion. Obama may sense a low political risk by reducing the US role after a temporary surge in forces and aid.
It took President Nixon four years and thousands of American casualties to extract the US from Vietnam. The result was a communist victory and the loss of thousands of Vietnamese lives. But the cold-war strategy of containing communism globally did eventually win out.
Can Obama likewise win the "overseas contingency operation" (formerly known as the war on terror) by withdrawing from Afghanistan in a few years?
His combination of a resource surge and a delegation of duties to others may prove effective. But like any commander in chief, he should have a back-up plan. Events on the ground, rather than politics at home, should drive his decisions.
CSMonitor.com
EU warns Netanyahu over stalled peace process
The European Union warned Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday that EU ties with his country would suffer if he did not accept Palestinian calls for statehood.
Netanyahu this week said his future right-leaning Israeli government would negotiate peace with the Palestinians, but made no mention of a policy aim long backed by both the United States and Europe.
Asked how a failure to commit to the goal would affect EU-Israel ties, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said: "Relations would become very difficult indeed. At one of our next ministerial meetings we would have to discuss what consequences the EU would draw from that."
Speaking after EU talks, Schwarzenberg did not elaborate but Luxembourg's Jean Asselborn said a long-mooted upgrading of EU-Israeli trade and political ties depended on Israel achieving a peace deal with the Palestinians.
"We must tell the Israelis that it is not allowed to walk away from the peace process... The upgrading process was always to be viewed from the perspective of the peace process having been completed," Asselborn told reporters.
The EU already put talks on an upgrade of ties with Israel on hold in January after its assault on the Gaza Strip, in which Palestinian researchers said some 1,300 inhabitants were killed. The assault followed rocket attacks by Hamas militants.
Netanyahu plans to present his new coalition government for parliamentary approval next week.
While he has shied away from backing the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, his Likud party agreed in a coalition deal with the Labour party to respect all of Israel's international agreements - a formula that includes accords envisaging Palestinian statehood.
"We Europeans are insisting that whatever the weighting is in the two governments (Israeli and Palestinian), the creation of a two-state solution must stand first and foremost," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
"We should not always have to start from the beginning again - that is my urgent appeal," he told reporters at talks with EU counterparts in the Czech Republic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)