Pakistan Rehearses Its Two-Step on Airstrikes

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — With two senior American officials at his side, the Pakistani foreign minister unleashed a strong rebuke last week, saying that American drone strikes against militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas were eroding trust between the allies.

The Americans, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, and the special envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, defended their strategy for Pakistan. Later, Mr. Holbrooke dismissed the salvo by the foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, saying it was to be expected.

In fact, both sides have grown accustomed to an unusual diplomatic dance around the drones. For all their public protests, behind the scenes, Pakistani officials may countenance the drones more than Mr. Qureshi’s reprimand would suggest, Pakistan and American analysts and officials say.

Why else would Pakistani military officials be requesting that the United States give them the drones to operate, asked Prof. Riffat Hussain, of the defense studies department at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

His answer is that senior Pakistani officials consider the drones one of their only effective tools against the militants. Moreover, using the drones takes pressure off the Pakistani Army, which has proved reluctant to fight the militants, or incapable of doing so, in the rugged mountains along the Afghan border.

“If the government of Pakistan was not convinced of the efficacy of the drone attacks, why would they be asking for the technology?” asked Professor Hussain, who also lectures at the National Defense University, the main scholarly institution for the military.

Most of the aircraft, about the size of a Cessna, take off with Pakistani assent from a base inside Pakistan, American and Pakistani officials acknowledge. A small group of Pakistani intelligence operatives assigned to the tribal areas help choose targets, while the drones, armed with Hellfire missiles, are remotely piloted from the United States, they said.

Permission for the aircraft to strike in the tribal areas was negotiated by the Bush administration with the former president, Pervez Musharraf, and then with the current leader, Asif Ali Zardari. The Obama administration has renewed those understandings, American and Pakistani officials say.

The cooperation has been successful. Nine out of 20 senior operatives from Al Qaeda on a list compiled last year have been killed, according to American military commanders, a fact the Pakistanis do not dispute.

But as effective as the attacks have proved, the Pakistanis’ discomfort with the drones is real. The larger issue surrounding the drone strikes is the trade-off between decapitating the militant hierarchy and the risk of further destabilizing Pakistan — by undercutting the military and civilian government, by provoking retaliatory attacks from the militants, and by driving the Taliban and Al Qaeda deeper into Pakistan in search of new havens.

Then there is the matter of public perception, particularly over the civilian casualties caused by the drone strikes, which infuriate Pakistani politicians and the media.

The deaths make it difficult for any Pakistani leader to support the drones publicly. At the same time, the Pakistani disavowals only reinforce the popular notion that the war against the militants merely furthers America’s interests, not Pakistan’s own.

In public, President Zardari, who is portrayed in much of the Pakistani media as slavishly pro-American, chooses to deny Pakistani participation in the strikes. Despite having agreed to their use, he says the drones represent an infringement of Pakistani sovereignty that the government cannot tolerate.

About 500 civilians have been killed in the drone attacks, Talat Masood, a former Pakistani general, estimates. But, he said, the government fails to point out that many of those killed are most likely hosting Qaeda militants and cannot be deemed entirely innocent.

Last week, Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud, the two senior leaders of Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban umbrella group, said the increasing tempo of drone attacks would drive them to respond with more serious terrorist attacks, even as many as two a week.

Another militant boss, Maulvi Nazir, threatened that the retaliation would include the capture of Islamabad, the capital. Last Thursday, in an interview with Al Sahab, the media arm of Al Qaeda, he said the drone attacks were the work of both the United States and the Pakistani Army.

As proof of his claims, Mr. Nazir’s group distributed a video showing young Pakistani tribesmen confessing to having been hired by the Pakistani military to pick targets for the drones.

The video was distributed and apparently shot in Wana, the main city of South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold. As a finale, the video shows those who had confessed, including some from Mr. Nazir’s own group, executed for spying.

One intriguing aspect of the drone attacks is that people living in the tribal region under the militants’ grip may be more accepting of them than other Pakistanis, according to a recent but limited survey.

The survey, described as unscientific, was conducted in four urban centers in North and South Waziristan and Kurram, all in the tribal region, by a group of academics belonging to the Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy, a small Pakistani research group.

Its organizer, Khadim Hussain, a professor of linguistics and communication at Bahria University in Islamabad, an institution backed by the Pakistani Navy, stressed that the survey was only “exploratory.”

Of 650 people approached for the survey, 550 answered, according to the institute, which is financed by 10 academics and human rights workers, most of whom come from the tribal areas.

The survey was conducted by 25 graduate students from Islamabad who visited the tribal areas from November to January, Professor Hussain said. The margin of error was three to five percentage points, he said.

Asked whether militant groups were hurt by the drone attacks, 60 percent of the respondents said yes, and 40 percent no.

Asked whether anti-Americanism in the area had increased because of the drone attacks, 58 percent said it had not; 42 percent said it had.

To the question of whether the drone attacks were accurate, 52 percent said they were; 48 percent said they were not.

The results first stirred debate last month when they were published in a daily newspaper, The News. They were publicized again last week by The Daily Times, a pro-government newspaper.

In an editorial in support of the survey, The Daily Times said local reporters from Orakzai, a tribal area recently hit by a drone strike, found that the people “would actually want the drone attacks to continue to lessen the severity of the Tehrik-e-Taliban control over them.”

One reason the drone attacks received support in the tribal region is that they mostly single out Qaeda leaders who are of Arab descent, Professor Hussain said.

The Arabs are widely disliked by the Pashtun tribes that dominate the area because they try to enforce their strict Wahhabi version of Islam, Professor Hussain said.

The missile strikes do feed the militants’ propaganda machine, he said. “But if the drone attacks stopped,” he added, “I wouldn’t be sure that they would refrain from the terror attacks they have been doing all along.”

Third-World Stove Soot Is Target in Climate Fight

KOHLUA, India — “It’s hard to believe that this is what’s melting the glaciers,” said Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, as he weaved through a warren of mud brick huts, each containing a mud cookstove pouring soot into the atmosphere.

As women in ragged saris of a thousand hues bake bread and stew lentils in the early evening over fires fueled by twigs and dung, children cough from the dense smoke that fills their homes. Black grime coats the undersides of thatched roofs. At dawn, a brown cloud stretches over the landscape like a diaphanous dirty blanket.

In Kohlua, in central India, with no cars and little electricity, emissions of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas linked to global warming, are near zero. But soot — also known as black carbon — from tens of thousands of villages like this one in developing countries is emerging as a major and previously unappreciated source of global climate change.

While carbon dioxide may be the No. 1 contributor to rising global temperatures, scientists say, black carbon has emerged as an important No. 2, with recent studies estimating that it is responsible for 18 percent of the planet’s warming, compared with 40 percent for carbon dioxide. Decreasing black carbon emissions would be a relatively cheap way to significantly rein in global warming — especially in the short term, climate experts say. Replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could provide a much-needed stopgap, while nations struggle with the more difficult task of enacting programs and developing technologies to curb carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

In fact, reducing black carbon is one of a number of relatively quick and simple climate fixes using existing technologies — often called “low hanging fruit” — that scientists say should be plucked immediately to avert the worst projected consequences of global warming. “It is clear to any person who cares about climate change that this will have a huge impact on the global environment,” said Dr. Ramanathan, a professor of climate science at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, who is working with the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi on a project to help poor families acquire new stoves.

“In terms of climate change we’re driving fast toward a cliff, and this could buy us time,” said Dr. Ramanathan, who left India 40 years ago but returned to his native land for the project.

Better still, decreasing soot could have a rapid effect. Unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers in the atmosphere for years, soot stays there for a few weeks. Converting to low-soot cookstoves would remove the warming effects of black carbon quickly, while shutting a coal plant takes years to substantially reduce global CO2 concentrations.

But the awareness of black carbon’s role in climate change has come so recently that it was not even mentioned as a warming agent in the 2007 summary report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that pronounced the evidence for global warming to be “unequivocal.” Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of environmental engineering at Stanford, said that the fact that black carbon was not included in international climate efforts was “bizarre,” but “partly reflects how new the idea is.” The United Nations is trying to figure out how to include black carbon in climate change programs, as is the federal government.

In Asia and Africa, cookstoves produce the bulk of black carbon, although it also emanates from diesel engines and coal plants there. In the United States and Europe, black carbon emissions have already been reduced significantly by filters and scrubbers.

Like tiny heat-absorbing black sweaters, soot particles warm the air and melt the ice by absorbing the sun’s heat when they settle on glaciers. One recent study estimated that black carbon might account for as much as half of Arctic warming. While the particles tend to settle over time and do not have the global reach of greenhouse gases, they do travel, scientists now realize. Soot from India has been found in the Maldive Islands and on the Tibetan Plateau; from the United States, it travels to the Arctic. The environmental and geopolitical implications of soot emissions are enormous. Himalayan glaciers are expected to lose 75 percent of their ice by 2020, according to Prof. Syed Iqbal Hasnain, a glacier specialist from the Indian state of Sikkim.

These glaciers are the source of most of the major rivers in Asia. The short-term result of glacial melt is severe flooding in mountain communities. The number of floods from glacial lakes is already rising sharply, Professor Hasnain said. Once the glaciers shrink, Asia’s big rivers will run low or dry for part of the year, and desperate battles over water are certain to ensue in a region already rife with conflict.

Doctors have long railed against black carbon for its devastating health effects in poor countries. The combination of health and environmental benefits means that reducing soot provides a “very big bang for your buck,” said Erika Rosenthal, a senior lawyer at Earth Justice, a Washington organization. “Now it’s in everybody’s self-interest to deal with things like cookstoves — not just because hundreds of thousands of women and children far away are dying prematurely.”

In the United States, black carbon emissions are indirectly monitored and minimized through federal and state programs that limit small particulate emissions, a category of particles damaging to human health that includes black carbon. But in March, a bill was introduced in Congress that would require the Environmental Protection Agency to specifically regulate black carbon and direct aid to black carbon reduction projects abroad, including introducing cookstoves in 20 million homes. The new stoves cost about $20 and use solar power or are more efficient. Soot is reduced by more than 90 percent. The solar stoves do not use wood or dung. Other new stoves simply burn fuel more cleanly, generally by pulverizing the fuel first and adding a small fan that improves combustion.

That remote rural villages like Kohlua could play an integral role in tackling the warming crisis is hard to imagine. There are no cars — the village chief’s ancient white Jeep sits highly polished but unused in front of his house, a museum piece. There is no running water and only intermittent electricity, which powers a few light bulbs.

The 1,500 residents here grow wheat, mustard and potatoes and work as day laborers in Agra, home of the Taj Majal, about two hours away by bus.

They earn about $2 a day and, for the most part, have not heard about climate change. But they have noticed frequent droughts in recent years that scientists say may be linked to global warming. Crops ripen earlier and rot more frequently than they did 10 years ago. The villagers are aware, too, that black carbon can corrode. In Agra, cookstoves and diesel engines are forbidden in the area around the Taj Majal, because soot damages the precious facade.

Still, replacing hundreds of millions of cookstoves — the source of heat, food and sterile water — is not a simple matter. “I’m sure they’d look nice, but I’d have to see them, to try them,” said Chetram Jatrav, as she squatted by her cookstove making tea and a flatbread called roti. Her three children were coughing.

She would like a stove that “made less smoke and used less fuel” but cannot afford one, she said, pushing a dung cake bought for one rupee into the fire. She had just bought her first rolling pin so her flatbread could come out “nice and round,” as her children had seen in elementary school. Equally important, the open fires of cookstoves give some of the traditional foods their taste. Urging these villagers to make roti in a solar cooker meets the same mix of rational and irrational resistance as telling an Italian that risotto tastes just fine if cooked in the microwave.

In March, the cookstove project, called Surya, began “market testing” six alternative cookers in villages, in part to quantify their benefits. Already, the researchers fret that the new stoves look like scientific instruments and are fragile; one broke when a villager pushed twigs in too hard.

But if black carbon is ever to be addressed on a large scale, acceptance of the new stoves is crucial. “I’m not going to go to the villagers and say CO2 is rising, and in 50 years you might have floods,” said Dr. Ibrahim Rehman, Dr. Ramanathan’s collaborator at the Energy and Resources Institute. “I’ll tell her about the lungs and her kids and I know it will help with climate change as well.”

U.S. to go after pirate funds

MOMBASA, Kenya — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced new efforts Wednesday to freeze pirate booty, part of a series of diplomatic steps by the Obama administration to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia.
Clinton said the administration would call for immediate meetings of an international counter-piracy task force to expand current naval coordination against pirates. The administration also will send an envoy to a Somali donors conference scheduled for next week in Brussels, and will attempt to organize meetings with officials of Somali's transitional government as well as regional leaders in Somali's semiautonomous Puntland.Clinton acknowledged that the diplomatic steps she outlined will not necessarily address piracy's root causes — endemic instability and insecurity on the ground in Somalia. But she said the moves were critical given the rising number of ship hijackings."You've got to put out the fire before you can rebuild the house," she told reporters at the State Department. "And, right now, we have a fire raging."The steps come as French forces raided a pirate supply ship and detained 11 brigands off the coast of Kenya on Wednesday and as pirate attacks and counterattacks racheted up tensions in one of the world's most important shipping lanes.The French forces launched their early morning attack after observing the pirates overnight. A French surveillance helicopter spotted the pirates' vessel Tuesday, the French Defense Ministry said in a statement.The raid thwarted the sea bandits' planned attack on a Liberian-registered vessel, the ministry said. The ship was intercepted 550 miles east of the Kenyan city of Mombasa.

Sharia law rules as Pakistan divides Swat Valley

PAKISTAN entered a potentially dangerous new era yesterday after its parliament ratified a bill establishing a separate Islamic legal code for the Swat Valley, dividing the country into areas ruled by the state and those by sharia law.

The bill, passed unanimously by parliament and signed off late on Monday night by pro-US President Asif Ali Zardari, is the culmination of a controversial peace deal signed in February with Taliban militants who have waged a bloody 18-month campaign for control of the former tourist region.

The Nizam-a-Adl regulation effectively cedes control of the entire Malakand province, less than 200km north of the capital Islamabad, to Islamic extremists in exchange for a ceasefire between the security forces and local Taliban militants who have terrorised the community.

Mr Zardari had delayed signing the bill, saying he wanted to see peace restored to the valley first, but relented under pressure from his own party and the hard-line Muslim clerics who brokered the deal but accused the Government last week of reneging on it.

The legislation has been greeted with alarm by analysts and human rights groups, who warn it will further diminish the authority of the weak civilian Government and embolden the militants to move their writ beyond the Swat.

Retired general Talat Masood said the Government had chosen "the path of least resistance, which has dire consequences for the future of Pakistan".

"It will change the entire complexion of the country," General Masood said, warning that the issue would not be confined to Malakand. "My view is (Islamic extremism) will probably spread over all the country west of the Indus. No one is defining what Pakistan should be - there's no ideological or intellectual clarity."

Pakistan was probebly headed into a violent Islamic cycle in which the country would be ruled once again by right-wing forces with religious links, he said.

Even before parliamentary approval, judges trained in Islamic law had begun hearing cases in Swat, and Taliban fighters are said to be in control of much of the region. A video smuggled out of the area last month showed a young woman being publicly flogged for allegedly leaving her house in the company of a man who was not her blood relative.

Since the February deal, Taliban militants have reportedly been pouring into the Swat Valley. US officials say the deal has given the Taliban and its al-Qa'ida allies an advantage in their long-running battle against Pakistan's military.

"This is a rest stop for the Taliban, it's nothing more," one Washington official told The Wall Street Journal.

Pakistani and US officials estimate as many as 8000 militants are now based in Swat, nearly double the number in the area at the end of last year.

The militants have begun to spread - at least 13 were killed in clashes with security forces and local militiamen in neighbouring Buner last week after tribal elders there failed to convince Taliban infiltrators to leave.

Pakistan's English-language newspaper The Dawn reported yesterday that 120 Taliban, including a group of militants who had taken over the local police station and an important Sufi shrine, left Buner at the weekend.

Taliban militants warned before the parliamentary vote that MPs who opposed the pact were guilty of apostasy - a crime punishable by death in parts of the Muslim world.

Talking to the local media after the bill was passed, Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said Pakistan's parliament had proved it was brave and Islam-friendly.

China launches second "Compass" satellite for global navigation system

BEIJING -- China successfully launched its second navigation satellite early Wednesday, as part of the country's independent global satellite navigation system.

The carrier rocket, Long March 3C, blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 0:16 a.m..

An official with the National Engineering Center of Satellite Navigation told Xinhua, the successful launch of the geostationary Earth orbit satellite was of great importance as it was the second one of the country's satellite navigation system independent from foreign technology.

The system, code named "COMPASS", is a crucial part of the country's space infrastructure for providing navigation and positioning services in transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecast, telecommunications and public security among others. It can bring significant social and economic benefits, the official said.

The system can help clients know their location at any time and place with accurate longitude, latitude and altitude data, and will offer "safer" positioning, velocity, timing communications for authorized users.

Previous reports said China planed to complete its independent global satellite navigation system by launching about 30 more orbiters before 2015, with 10 navigation satellites into the space in 2009 and 2010. The current Compass system only provides regional navigation service within China and neighboring regions.

The second "Compass" satellite and its carrier rocket were respectively developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology which are under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

It is the 116th flight for the country's Long March series of rockets.

China launched the first "Compass" navigation satellite into geostationary orbit in April 2007 to build up its own positioning system following the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), the Galileo Positioning System of Europe and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).

Iran says has new plan to end nuclear standoff

TEHRAN/WASHINGTON - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Iran had ready proposals to end a standoff with six world powers as Washington insisted it would not drop a demand that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment work.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said major powers had not had a response yet from Tehran for talks over its nuclear program and she had not seen "any kind of proposal" from Iran to resolve the stalemate over its nuclear plans.

"We have prepared a package that can be the basis to resolve Iran's nuclear problem. It will be offered to the West soon," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in Iran's southeastern province of Kerman.

The United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain said last week they would ask European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to invite Iran to a meeting to find "a diplomatic solution to this critical issue."

It marked a significant shift in U.S. policy under President Barack Obama, whose predecessor, George W. Bush, shunned direct talks with Tehran as long as it pressed ahead with uranium enrichment that the West believes is aimed at building a bomb but Iran says is for peaceful purposes.

The Obama administration has said it will meet Iran "without preconditions" but Clinton, who met Solana in Washington on Wednesday, made clear the United States had not given up pushing for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

"We have not dropped or added any conditions," she said, without elaborating.

SANCTIONS TALK

While seeking to engage Iran, the Obama administration has also warned of moves to impose tougher sanctions if Tehran keeps defying U.N. demands to halt sensitive nuclear work.

"We will stand behind the sanctions that have already been implemented and we will look for new ways to extend collective action vis a vis Iran's nuclear program," said Clinton.

"We will continue to work with our allies to make it clear that Iran cannot continue to pursue nuclear weapons."

On Monday, Iran welcomed a "constructive" dialogue with the six world powers, in its clearest signal that yet it would accept an invitation for talks on its nuclear activity.

It was unclear whether Iran's counter-offer would be essentially different from previous ill-fated exchanges. Ahmadinejad did not give details of the new package, but said the world could not be ruled by "using force."

"This new package will ensure peace and justice for the world. It respects rights of all nations," he said.

The six world powers originally offered Iran economic and political incentives in 2006 to suspend enrichment. Iran's response hinted at some flexibility but ruled out suspension as a precondition for talks as stipulated by the powers.

Last June the six improved the offer while retaining the precondition. In reply, Iran said it wanted to negotiate a broader peace and security deal and rejected any "condescending" formula to shelve its nuclear program.

Western officials said Iran's second response endorsed talks for talks' sake and was useless because it again sidestepped the suspension issue.

"OUT OF THE QUESTION"

They felt Iran was trying to buy time to expand and make irreversible its nuclear program.

An Iranian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that "suspension is out of the question" but that Iran did want to get talks rolling with major powers.

"Eventually Iran may agree to accept the (U.N. nuclear watchdog's) Additional Protocol," the official said.

The protocol, which expands on the basic nuclear safeguards accords many countries have with the International Atomic Energy Agency, permits short-notice IAEA inspections beyond declared nuclear sites, to help verify no covert activity is going on.

Iran stopped voluntarily implementing the Additional Protocol in 2006 in retaliation for initial U.N. sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic.

Underlining Iran's intention to continue with its nuclear drive despite Western pressure, Ahmadinejad on April 9 inaugurated its first nuclear fuel fabrication plant and said the country had now mastered the entire fuel cycle.

Obamas release 2008 tax return

The first family's income dropped to $2.7 million from $4.2 million the previous year. The president and first lady paid $855, 323 in federal taxes.
The first family released its 2008 federal tax return today, showing household income dropping to $2.7 million, from $4.2 million the previous year.But while many Americans had a bad financial year, President Obama recorded a net profit from book sales of $2.5 million, according to a copy of the tax return released this afternoon by the White House.He and First Lady Michelle Obama paid $855,323 in federal taxes, while making $172,050 in charitable contributions to 37 different charities. The largest reported gifts were $25,000 to both the United Negro College Fund and the relief organization CARE."The president sold a lot of books last year, no doubt, and paid a hefty amount in federal income tax," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.As president, Obama now is paid $400,000 a year.Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill reported adjusted gross income of $269,256 from salaries from the U.S. Senate, Widener University and Delaware Technical & Community College and royalties from the audio rights to the vice president's book. They paid $46,952 in federal income taxes.A year ago, then- President George W. Bush reported taxable income of $719,274 for the 2007 tax year. He and Laura Bush paid $221,635 in federal income taxes that year.The Obamas contributed $6 in 2008 to the federal fund that provides public financing of presidential campaigns, a program the Democratic nominee bypassed himself.The first family's personal wealth has soared over the last few years, following the same trajectory of Obama's rapid political rise.Their annual household income fluctuated around the $250,000 mark during the first half of this decade, before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004. Millions in book royalties and advances started rolling in during 2005.Before entering the Senate, Obama signed two book deals worth nearly $2.3 million. He received about $1.2 million of the advance money in 2005, helping the couple afford their purchase that year of a $1.65-million house in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood.From 1997 through 2004, Obama earned dual paychecks for his work as a state lawmaker and as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.Over the same period, Michelle Obama worked first for the University of Chicago and then for the University of Chicago Hospitals. Their household income was also augmented in most years by thousands of dollars that her husband earned from practicing law, giving speeches and serving as a director of charitable foundations.The Obamas have only recently dug deeply into their own pockets to support charitable causes. In 2002, the year before Obama launched his U.S. Senate campaign, the couple reported income of $259,394 and $1,050 in deductions for gifts to charity, below the national average of $1,872.

Bomber sows terror in Charsadda; 16 killed

CHRASADDA: Nine police personnel, including a DSP and an SHO, and seven passers-by were killed while 10 others were injured after a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police checkpost on Wednesday evening.The incident took place at a checkpost where police had erected barricades after the Charsadda DPO alerted the police to presence of two explosive-laden vehicles in the district.The dead police personnel were identified as Tangi DSP Bahadar Khan, Mandani SHO Jehangir Khan, ASIs Qayyum Khan and Sher Mohammad, constables Mukhtiar, Amin Jan, Izzat Khan Shouab, and Sardar Ali.The injured were taken to the Charsadda DHQ hospital, Tangi hospital and Jamalabad hospital. The seriously injured were referred to Peshawar.Charsadda DPO Mohammad Riaz and Peshawar CCPO Safwat Ghayur oversaw the rescue operation. The heavy rains accompanied with hailstorm and power disruption, hindered the rescue work.Police and FC were called out in the area. Rumours began circulating late in the night that another suicide bomber might strike ‘any time and any where’, setting off panic throughout the area.According to unconfirmed reports, two explosive-laden vehicles were used in the attack. Another suspected vehicle (AKA-1041) was found near the scene of the explosion. A movie camera and a hand-grenade were recovered from the vehicle.The CCPO said that about 100 kilograms of explosives were used in the explosion. An eyewitness said that the explosion was so powerful that a number of houses were partially damaged.

Afghan women attacked for protesting marriage law

Dozens of young women braved crowds of bearded men screaming "dogs!" on Wednesday to protest an Afghan law that lets husbands demand sex from their wives. Some of the men picked up small stones and pelted the women. "Slaves of the Christians!" chanted the 800 or so counter-demonstrators, a mix of men and women. A line of female police officers locked hands to keep the groups apart.

The warring protests highlight the explosive nature of the women's rights debate in Afghanistan. Both sides are girding for battle over the legislation, which has sparked an international uproar since being quietly signed into law last month.

The law says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days, unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home without a male escort.

Though the law would apply only to the country's Shiites, who make up less than 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people, many fear its passage marks a return to Taliban-style oppression of women. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, required women to wear all-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home unless accompanied by a male relative.

Governments and rights groups around the world have condemned the legislation, and President Barack Obama has labeled it "abhorrent." Afghan President Hamid Karzai has remanded the law to the Justice Department for review and put enforcement on hold.

A host of Afghan intellectuals, politicians and even a number of Cabinet ministers have come out against the law. But those who decry the legislation face quick criticism from conservative Muslim clerics and their followers, as Wednesday's protests showed.

"You are a dog! You are not a Shiite woman!" one man shouted to a young woman in a head scarf.

The woman, who held a banner reading "We don't want Taliban law," replied quietly: "This is my land and my people."

The demonstrators chose a risky spot to hold their protest — in front of the mosque of the legislation's main backer — and were easily outnumbered by supporters of the law. They said many women had been stopped on their way to the protest.

In the end, more women demonstrated in favor of the law than against it: A few hundred Shiite women marched with banners to join the angry men. They blamed foreigners for inciting the protests.

"We don't want foreigners interfering in our lives. They are the enemy of Afghanistan," said 24-year-old Mariam Sajadi.

Sajadi is engaged to be married, and said she plans to ask her husband's permission to leave the house as put forth in the law. She said other articles — such as the one allowing husbands to demand sex — have been misinterpreted by Westerners prejudiced against Islam. She did not elaborate.

On the other side of the shouting, Mehri Rezai, 32, urged her countrymen to reject the law.

"This law treats women as if we were sheep," she said.

Both sides say they're defending their constitutional rights — but Afghanistan's constitution is unclear. It defers to Islamic law as the highest authority, but also guarantees equal rights for women.

Abbas Noyan, a Shiite lawmaker who opposes the law, said he is hopeful it will be changed. But others are less sure, and even the country's minister of women's affairs, who is female, has declined to comment on the law.

New York-based Human Rights Watch maintains that the judicial review ordered by Karzai is unlikely to be truly independent because those leading the process come from a conservative Shiite background.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Taliban execute eloping young lovers in Afghanistan

A young couple who tried to elope in one of the most lawless and conservative parts of Afghanistan have been publicly executed by Taliban gunmen after their parents handed them over to be tried by insurgents.

Officials from the south-western province of Nimroz say Gul Pecha, in her late teens, and her boyfriend Abdul Aziz, 21, were shot by a firing squad outside a mosque in their home village of Lokhi on Monday.

The couple had fled to a nearby village and were planning to start a life together without the permission of their parents, according to the province's police chief Abdul Jabar Pardeli.

But they were found by their parents and turned over to the Taliban, who held them for four days in Lokhi's mosque before putting them on trial.

Ghulam Dastageer Azad, the governor of Nimroz, said the couple's execution was "against Islam, against the law and against the constitution".

An unofficial justice system, often dispensing brutal punishment to people found guilty of petty crimes or breaking the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic values, has become the hallmark of areas where insurgents enjoy a high degree of influence.

A recent report by a human rights group said the Taliban systematically terrorise civilians with threatening "night letters", executions and limb amputations in order to force communities not to support the government.

Taliban commanders are even issued with manuals telling them what techniques to use and who to target.

Officials say the couple's home district of Khash Rod is under almost complete Taliban control.

Sadiq Chakhansor, the head of the provincial council, said he thought the couple were intending to flee to Iran, where many young people from the region grew up as refugees, enjoying a relatively liberal environment before returning to their much more restrictive homeland.

Although the provincial governor, chief of police and leader of the local council all claimed Taliban gunmen were responsible for the murders, a spokesman for the movement denied Taliban involvement.

"I have contacted our fighters in the area and I can say that none of them were involved," said Qari Yousuf Ahmadi. "But it was a very bad thing for these people to escape from their homes without permission and it is right that they should be punished according to Sharia law."

There are almost no Afghan or foreign troops in Khash Rod, which is seen as a resting area and a passageway for militants moving through into neighbouring Helmand province where most of Britain's effort in the country is directed.

PAKISTAN SURRENDERS TO TALIBAN

Collective wisdom?
The Nizam-e-Adl, establishing Qazi courts and enforcing Sharia, is now the law in Malakand Division. A region making up the state of Pakistan has moved beyond the established law of the land, as laid down in the Constitution. The extremist militants who threaten every aspect of our way of life have succeeded in having their demands fully met. The tactics of blackmail and coercion, and the open threat to MNAs who opposed the regulation from the Taliban, have paid off. There was almost no opposition; the 'liberals' voted with the right-wing representatives of religious parties. Who knows what impact this precedent will have in the future and how it will shape our destiny. In what seems to have been a savvy political move on the part of the president to parry pressure from the ANP to sign the resolution and from the US not to do so, the issue was placed before parliament. The ANP's objection to this seeking of collective wisdom seems illogical. On major issues the representatives of people should decide. As it were, the fears of the party from NWFP that the PPP may block the move proved unfounded. In a clear cut verdict, all major parties voted for the resolution; the PPP and the PML-N vocally supported it. Only the MQM made its opposition to the resolution known as a party, walking out of the NA proceeding. One brave MNA from Chakwal alone placed conscience over party loyalty or personal safety and opposed an accord signed under the shadow of guns. So, we have the majority verdict. The NA indeed went so far as to recommend the president sign the resolution. This he has done, glad no doubt that the sole responsibility for so controversial a piece of legislature was taken out of his hands.But is the majority always right? Has it in this case acted wisely? Or has the herd instinct and fear overtaken the capacity to think rationally and sensibly. Much like the fable involving the emperor and his invisible 'new clothes', it seems no one is ready to call a spade a spade and remove the veneer of religion from the accord which has been cleverly used by the Taliban to render it apparently sacrosanct. This is a familiar tactic used on many occasions particularly since the time of the late General Ziaul Haq. We need to ask questions as to what the Shariah law will achieve. Will it in any way help to tackle militancy or will it encourage the elements who promote it? In Swat recruitment by the militants has been stepped up. Boys who no longer have schools to go to, and are not permitted to play cricket or hear music, are being brought in to madressahs run by the men of Maulana Fazalullah to wage 'jihad'. The reign of the extremists continues. Whose ends will this process serve? Where will it take us? It also seems likely that the overwhelming success of the Swat militants will encourage others to follow their lead. In the past the militants have extracted the maximum possible advantage from any concession granted to them. It seems likely they will do so again. Already, calls to impose Shariah have been heard from Bajaur. The same demand will, no doubt, come in from other places too – and one day our parliament, as it attempts to legislate for a state spinning out of central control, may have to face up to the consequences of what their action has led to.

Pakistan Is Partitioned By Its National Assembly

chowk.com
Syed Hussaini
A new Afghanistan is created
People of Pakistan! As reported by the Geo TV website, your “National Assembly has passed the resolution in support of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 for Malakand Division.” The President of Pakistan has signed it.

That means that the Malakand Division would now be governed by Taliban law, not by the Law of Pakistan.

It is the first time in the history of mankind that a national legislature has conceded, without being under coercion, the state's writ over a part of the country.

Practically, Pakistan had already surrendered its writ over Swat, the NWFP and the FATA. Balochistan has exploded over the killing of three political leaders near Turbat. If we look at the map, the entire western part of Pakistan, from the north to the south, is effectively a separate entity. A vertical de facto partition of Pakistan had already taken place.

With the National Assembly of Pakistan passing this resolution, the de facto partition is now de jure, legal. It appears to be limited to the Malakand Division. However, it is a legal precedent to include other divisions at later dates. Bit by bit, the whole de facto partition of Pakistan would be de jure.

It is more than a Greek tragedy. The elected representatives of the people of Pakistan partitioning the country without a referendum to know if their constituents had really wanted to partition their homeland. It is the ultimate treachery. The betrayal of the nation by its elected representatives.

The National Assembly of Pakistan did not even bother to debate over this monumental issue.

Starting from the south, we now have Sindh, Punjab and Islamabad as the east wing of Pakistan. In the west, we have Balochistan, the FATA, the NWFP and the Northern Areas forming the west wing of Pakistan.

Effectively, we have two countries, now. Before we know it, two different names would be popping up in the press to distinguish them from each other.

Monday, April 13, 2009, is a black day in the history of Pakistan. What makes it worse is that the people of Pakistan do not appear to know it.

It appears, awareness comes to those only, who seek it.

The Taliban once ruled Afghanistan. They ruled it in a way that it brought in the wrath of the United States. The Taliban were defeated and ran for their lives. They sought refuge in Pakistan and made themselves the rulers of a substantial part of their refuge.

The Americans had been telling Islamabad to take out the Taliban in Pakistan. Instead, Islamabad has carved out a separate domain for the Taliban. Islamabad has created a new Afghanistan for the Taliban.

If it comes to that, the U.S. would not be opening a third front, either. For the Americans, it would just be an extension of an existing front to deal militarily with the Taliban on their new turf; rolling in from one Afghanistan to another.

The danger looms larger than ever because the Pakistanis are being self-destructive.

Lawmakers shed crocodile tears on Pakhtuns’ arrests

ISLAMABAD: The lawmakers belonging to North West Frontier province on Tuesday raised serious concern in the National Assembly over the continued crackdown against Pakhtuns and their arrests in various cities of Punjab and Federal Capital in the name of security measures urging the government to stop the practice forthwith. Various members from the province while speaking on points of order raised the issue of crackdown and arrests of Pakhtuns in various cities of Punjab and Islamabad urging the Ministry of Interior to stop such action as it was promoting resentment among the Pakhtuns. Responding to the members concern and pointing out by Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi who was chairing the House at the time that he had also received various complaints of harassment and arrests of the innocent people belonging to Pakhtun community, the Minister of State for Interior Tasleem Qureshi assured the House that he would take up the matter with the high ups of the ministry and present a report in the House in a day or two. He further said that the law enforcement agencies have been instructed only to book those who are suspected. Qureshi also assured the House that those involved in the killing of Baloch political leaders would be brought to justice adding that a report in this regard would be presented in the House within two or three days. Earlier, MNA from Bajaur, Eng. Shaukatullah raised the issue of arrest and harassing people from his constituency saying that those victims of the Bajaur military operation who are residing and working in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were being booked and victimized by the law enforcement agencies and urged the government to stop the practice.

Afghanistan warns against deal

KABUL: Afghanistan on Tuesday warned that the peace deal with Swat Taliban for imposing Islamic law might have “dire consequences” for the region and could harm Pak-Afghan ties. The criticism came after President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation to put Malakand under sharia law. The move is part of efforts to end the insurgency, despite fears that it could encourage extremism. “We do not interfere in Pakistan’s internal affairs,” President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said. However, there were concerns that “dealing with terrorists and handing over parts of one country to terrorists could have dire consequences in the long term”, he said.

Altaf criticises NA for endorsing ‘Talibanisation Bill’

Extending support to the Nizam-e Adal regulation by the National Assembly is in fact tantamount to accepting the “Talibanisation Bill,” Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has said.“The Muttahida Qaumi Movement will never accept or support this regulation at any cost because this law has been put up by a certain group in the name of so-called Nizam-e-Adal regulation,” he said on Tuesday while delivering a telephonic address from London at a meeting held at the Muttahida Qaumi Movement headquarters, Nine-Zero. “Two types of judicial systems cannot be run in the country and by supporting such a regulation, the National Assembly has paved the way for running parallel judicial systems in the country.”The situation will have serious repercussions and from now every sect will try to bring its own judicial system in the country, Hussain said. “We have serious reservations over the Niazm-e-Adal regulation and we regret that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was not allowed to discuss or debate the matter in the House, which is against parliamentary rules and regulations,” he said.The Nizam-e-Adal regulation is also against the provisions of the 1973 Constitution and various political and religious parties have their reservations in this regard, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief maintaned.He said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement will soon hold a convention of Ulema of all sects to discuss the Nizam-e-Adl Bill at length. “The Muttahida Qaumi Movement is not against Shariat, but against Talibanisation,” he said.Hussain declared that Muttahida Qaumi Movement had been opposing Talibanisation and will continue doing so, and this is “the final decision of the party.”Hussain also appealed to people to speak out against Talibanisation. He paid tributes to Muttahida Qaumi Movement legislators for opposing this regulation.

Kerry expresses concerns over Nizam-i-Adl

PESHAWAR: US Senator John Kerry has expressed his concerns over the Nizam-i-Adl regulation.

Kerry raised his doubts while discussing the regulation with NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti in Peshawar.

During the meeting between the two, the situation in Swat also came under discussion.

Chief Minister Hoti urged the US Senator for an immediate halt in Drone attacks on Pakistani soil as it is creating hatred among the masses for the US.

Hoti also appealed to Senator Kerry for help in rebuilding Educational institutions in the Swat Valley.

US Ambassador Anne Patterson was also present at the meeting.

Pakistan sharia law infringes rights, democracy: US

WASHINGTON: The White House said Tuesday that an accord signed by Pakistan's president putting part of the country under Islamic law in a bid to combat the Taliban went against human rights and democracy.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the Obama administration believed that ‘solutions involving security in Pakistan don't include less democracy and less human-rights.‘The signing of that denoting strict Islamic law in the Swat valley goes against both of those principles.’We are disappointed the parliament did not take into account legitimate concerns around civil and human rights.’President Asif Ali Zardari's move formalised a controversial deal between a pro-Taliban cleric, who led thousands of supporters to fight against US troops in Afghanistan, and the government in North West Frontier Province.The deal applies to Malakand, a district of around three million people in the province that includes the Swat valley.The central government lost control in Swat, a former ski resort and jewel in the crown of Pakistani tourism, after cleric Maulana Fazlullah launched a campaign to enforce Taliban-style sharia.

The war on opium

Attention increasingly is being focused on Afghanistan and illicit drugs, two of the world's apparently insoluble, yet related problems. War-torn Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, which provides money for the Taliban insurgency. In which of the following countries does the largest share of the population use opiates?
A. Afghanistan
B. United States
C. Russia
D. Iran
In which of the following countries does the largest share of the population use opiates?
A. Afghanistan is not correct.
While Afghanistan is the largest producer of opiates, the country has only an estimated 200,000 opiate users, or 1.4 percent of the population ages 15-64, as of 2005, the latest year for which data are available. While opium historically has been a vice indulged in primarily by the elderly, the current lack of economic and physical security, a war-traumatized population in search of relief, and the ready availability of opiates all mean that Afghanistan is at great risk of developing an endemic domestic drug problem.
B. United States is not correct.
In the United States, 1.2 million people — or 0.6 percent of those in the 15-64 age group — use opiates. This is slightly more than the global average of 0.4 percent. Worldwide, an estimated 16.5 million people use opiates. Of these, 9.3 million, or 57 percent, live in Asia. Europe ranks second, with 22 percent of opiate users, or 0.7 percent of the continent's 15-64 population.
C. Russia is not correct.
Although the Russian Federation does not have the highest rate of opiate use, it has a significant problem with the drug. About 1.6 percent of those ages 15-64 uses the substance. Russia's drug problem has been compounded by the implosion of its public-health system after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
D. Iran is correct.
As a percentage of the population, Iran has the largest problem with opiates, with an estimated 2.8 percent of the population ages 15-64 using them, according to the United Nations. There is no doubt Iran's proximity to Afghanistan contributes to the problem.

Obama lifts restrictions on travel, money transfers to Cuba

WASHINGTON, -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday lifted restrictions on travel and money transfers by Cuban-Americans to Cuba, said the White House in a statement. "Supporting the Cuban people's desire to freely determine their future and that of their country is in the national interest of the United States," said the statement. "The Obama administration is taking steps to promote greater contact between separated family members in the United States and Cuba and increase the flow of remittances and information to the Cuban people," said the statement.According to the statement, President Obama has directed the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Commerce to take the needed steps to lift all restrictions on transactions related to the travel of family members to Cuba and to remove restrictions on remittances to family members in Cuba.The administration has been asked to authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States and Cuba.The administration has also been asked to license U.S. telecommunications service providers to enter into roaming service agreements with Cuba's telecommunications service providers, and to license U.S. satellite radio and satellite television service providers to engage in transactions necessary to provide services to customers in the country.Although the easing of restriction, which would affect some 1.5million Americans with family members in Cuba, has not eliminated U.S. trade embargo against Cuba imposed 47 years ago, it has been seen as a major policy shift from the Bush administration's hawkish approach.Since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the U.S.-Cuba relations have deteriorated with sustaining tension and confrontation. The previous U.S. administration under President George W. Bush imposed restrictions on travel and money transfers to Cuba for Cuban-Americans.In his campaign speech last May, Obama said he wanted to remove the restrictions so that Americans could visit relatives and transfer money to their families in Cuba, and that he would be willing to speak with Cuban leaders "without preconditions."On Friday, Obama will participate in the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago and discuss topics ranging from the global economic crisis to regional security with other 33 national leaders in the hemisphere.The issue of Cuba will likely become a topic of discussion.

China pledges to improve human rights - with Chinese characteristics

Launching its lengthy "Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010)", China's ruling Communist Party said it would "give priority" to people's rights to participate fully in China's rapidly developing economy.While claiming to "cherish" the role played by international human rights conventions, and promising to hold constructive dialogue, China said it would adopt only those suggestions that were "rational and feasible...in the light of China's actual conditions".
China announces plans for national health service
The plan was published as China's state security apparatus continued to stifle dissenting voices ahead of a raft of sensitive anniversaries this year, including the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killings in June 1989.In February, China dismissed Western criticism of its poor human rights record during its review at the UN's Human Rights Commission in Geneva, accusing other nations of "politicising" the issue.Introducing the plan, China said that the universal principles of human rights needed to be combined with the "concrete realities of China", advancing an interpretation of human rights appropriate to China's level of development.
"Having just entered the stage of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and accelerating socialist modernisation, China is faced with the arduous tasks of reform, development and stabilisation," the report said."Due to the influences and limitations of nature, history, culture, economic and social development level, and other factors, China still confronts many challenges and has a long road ahead in its efforts to improve its human rights situation." Human Rights activists continue to criticise China for the widespread use of detention without trial, heavy use of the death penalty and what the UN Committee against Torture described in November as the "systemic" use of torture by police.Last Summer's Olympic Games disappointed many observers who had hoped that the global spotlight would force China to relax its controls on society, including heavy internet censorship and denying all right of protests against the ruling Party.However, China gave little ground, refusing to allow anyone to use pre-designated "protest pens" and arresting and imprisoning eight American activists for their parts in a pro-Tibet protest, a move which the US government officially condemned.At the end of the Games, the US said it was "disappointed" that China has not used the Olympics to demonstrate "greater tolerance and openness", calling on China to respect human rights, including "freedom of expression and freedom of religion".Despite the emphasis on economic and social rights, the report did promise to do more to prevent prisoner abuses, following a wave public outcry over several recent "accidents" in Chinese jails, including one prisoner who died "playing hide and seek". In an apparent nod to that public concern, the plan calls for a physical barrier between detainees and interrogators and mandatory physical examinations for detainees before and after they are questioned.Human rights groups said the report, while falling far short of what was required to bring China up to international standards, represented a small positive development in the attitude of China's government to such issues.
Joshua Rosenzweig, research manager for the Dui Hua Foundation, a US-based human rights group, said the plan did contain more input from academics, activists and other elements of civil society than previous human rights reports, but criticised the government for setting 'soft targets' for itself.The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that the document could go some way to giving ordinary Chinese a better understanding of their rights, but added that too many of the major issues had simply been ignored."Our concern is that many of the key abuses ... really aren't addressed in this document," said Phelim Kine, a researcher with the organisation.

US creates local militias to fight Taliban

At first sight, Muhammad Nasim Gul and his men – in drab, olive-colored fatigues and baseball caps to match – look like Cuban guerrillas. They slowly patrol the muddy streets of Wardak Province, weapons drawn in a constant state of alert.

They stand sentry, night and day, on the watch for intruders and other enemies. At times they stop to talk to the townsfolk, to see if anyone has had any trouble recently.

Mr. Gul and his fellow tribesmen are part of an ambitious new American-backed program that started here two weeks ago to train, uniform, and arm locals against the Taliban. Officials turned to the idea following the success of a similar plan in Iraq, known as the Anbar Awakening, in which Sunni tribes were armed to fight Al Qaeda. They hope the program, dubbed the "Afghan Public Protection Force," can help stem the worsening violence here.

"My tribesmen joined this force to protect our village," says Mr. Gul, a former policeman who is now a commander in the protection force of the Jalrez district of Wardak, a 30-minute drive from Kabul.

Under the plan, members of each district shura (council) in Wardak nominate locals for the force who are then trained for three weeks by Afghans (with the involvement of American advisers). They then return to their home districts, receiving nearly $125 dollars a month in salary – more than the typical police income, which is usually less than $100 a month. If successful in Wardak, officials plan to expand the program to more than 40 other districts across the south and east.

Afghan and American officials stress that the force is not a tribal militia. "The shuras [which nominate the force] are not from one or two tribes, so they will bring people from all the villages," says Barna Karimi, director-general of the Independent Directorate of Local Governance, a government body that works with the local shuras.

PITTING ONE ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ANOTHER?

But in practice, the force is shaping up along tribal and ethnic lines. In Jalrez, one of two districts where the program has started, only 38 of the 128 members of the force are Pashtuns. The rest belong to other ethnic minority groups. But the Taliban and its supporters are almost entirely Pashtun, as is the majority of Jalrez district.

"It is not wise to use members of one ethnicity to combat members of another ethnicity," says Waliullah Rahmani, a policy analyst with the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies.

Of the 38 Pashtuns in the Jalrez force, all belong to a single tribe, the Kharoti. Several locals say that other tribes in the area refused to join. "We are the only tribe that joined this program," says commander Gul. "All of the rest of the tribes are angry at us and think we are helping the infidels."

"Unfortunately, most of the tribes living in these areas are not supportive of the current government," says Mr. Rahmani, "and they are not likely to fight against the insurgents."

Critics of the program contend that arming specific tribes is dangerous in a country with a recent history of civil war.

But government officials defend the composition of the force, saying it can fight the insurgency only with those who are most willing, regardless of ethnicity or tribe.

RECRUITS DON'T WANT TO FIGHT TALIBAN

While in Iraq the Sunni tribes were asked to fight against outsiders – Al Qaeda – in Wardak the majority of insurgents are locals. "People in my district are pessimistic about the effectiveness of these forces," says Roshanak Wardak, a parliamentarian from Saydabad district. "They say that if they joined, they would end up fighting their own brothers, because the Taliban in my district are locals; they are not from Pakistan or Kandahar."

Even those who neither have ties to insurgents nor support them say they fear reprisals if they join. "The Taliban in Wardak are very powerful," says one local from Jaghatu district, who asked not to be named for security reasons. "Even those against the Taliban are scared to join."

Some say that even if they do join, it might not be for the reasons that officials envisaged. "I would like to join and defend my community," says one local from Saydabad district, who also asked not to be identified, "but only against criminals. I don't want to fight against the Taliban."

Fazel Qazizai, from Chak district, says, "Most of us just want money for food and a weapon for security. Just think about it – one Kalashnikov is $600. Where could I ever get that kind of money? But in the protection force, we'll get one for free. And we'll get an ID card so that the police can no longer harass us."

But he adds, "We have no interest in going to war with the Taliban."

Moreover, some critics say the influx of weapons can exacerbate longstanding tribal and political rivalries. In Chak district, for example, residents say the main group promoting the protection force is Ittehad-e-Islami, a pro-government fundamentalist group accused of human rights violations in the 1990s. (No one from the party was available for comment.)

The potential for groups or individuals to take advantage of the protection force worries tribal elders, says Muhammad Hazrat Janaan, a member of the Wardak provincial government. "They are worried that the force can actually decrease security unless it's done very, very carefully."

A HISTORY OF TRIBAL MILITIAS

Although they are controversial, tribal militias and community guards have a long history in Afghanistan. In parts of some eastern provinces, a certain type of tribal militia, the arbakai, acts as a community guard. These arbakai act independently of the government and is formed fully on the initiative of the tribal members. The Afghan Public Protection Force is not an arbakai, since the latter is an indigenous volunteer force under the command of tribal leaders, while the protection force is created, paid for and controlled by the US and the Afghan Ministry of Interior.

In some cases, arbakai have successfully kept insurgents out of their territory. But it might be difficult to replicate such successes. "The arbakai are limited to the southeastern provinces," says Muhammad Osman Tariq, with the London-based Crisis States Research Center, who wrote a recent report on the subject. "The arbakai have existed there for hundreds of years, independent of the government, and will continue to exist for years more."

Conditions in provinces like Wardak, which do not have such a strong tradition of tribal militias, differ greatly from those in the eastern provinces, Mr. Tariq continues. The arbakai in the east are more motivated to defend their tribes, since they are created and organized by the tribes themselves.

NEEDED: GUNS, FOOD, MOTIVATION

Analysts say that if the Afghan Public Protection Force is to work, officials will have to learn from past failed attempts at locally based security initiatives. For example, a previous NATO-backed initiative to arm locals in the southern provinces, dubbed the Afghan Auxiliary Police Force, ended in failure after Western countries deemed the force to be ineffective. Officials at the time said it was poorly trained and motivated. In some cases, they accused the force of favoring specific tribes or of engaging in criminal activity. In other cases, recruits simply absconded with their weapons, never to be seen again.

Gul, the commander of the Jalrez Public Protection Force, is convinced that the current plan will work – if his forces are well enough equipped. "We need more weapons, more clothes, more food. We lack everything," he says. "We lack everything."

"We are the only tribe that joined the force, so we need to protect ourselves," he adds. "If the other tribes get their hands on me, they will kill me."

Insurgents Make Inroads in Key Pakistan Province

Insurgents Make Inroads in Key Pakistan Province

By SABRINA TAVERNISE, RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ERIC SCHMITT
This article was reported by Sabrina Tavernise, Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Eric Schmitt and written by Ms. Tavernise.(NYT.COM)

DERA GHAZI KHAN, Pakistan — Taliban insurgents are teaming up with local militant groups to make inroads in Punjab, the province that is home to more than half of Pakistanis, reinvigorating an alliance that Pakistani and American authorities say poses a serious risk to the stability of the country.

The deadly assault in March in Lahore, Punjab’s capital, against the Sri Lankan cricket team, and the bombing last fall of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, the national capital, were only the most spectacular examples of the joint campaign, they said.

Now police officials, local residents and analysts warn that if the government does not take decisive action, these dusty, impoverished fringes of Punjab could be the next areas facing the insurgency. American intelligence and counterterrorism officials also said they viewed the developments with alarm.

“I don’t think a lot of people understand the gravity of the issue,” said a senior police official in Punjab, who declined to be named because he was discussing threats to the state. “If you want to destabilize Pakistan, you have to destabilize Punjab.”

As American drone attacks disrupt Taliban and Qaeda strongholds in the tribal areas, the insurgents are striking deeper into Pakistan — both in retaliation and in search of new havens.

Tell-tale signs of creeping militancy abound in a belt of towns and villages near here that a reporter visited last week. Militants have gained strength considerably in the district of Dera Ghazi Khan, which is a gateway both to Taliban-controlled areas and the heart of Punjab, police and local residents say. Many were terrified.

Some villages, just north of here, are so deeply infiltrated by militants that they are already considered no-go zones by their neighbors.

In at least five towns in southern and western Punjab, including the mid-sized hub of Multan, barber shops, CD shops and Internet cafes offensive to the militants’ strict interpretation of Islam have received threats. Folk ceremonies have been halted in some areas. Hard-line ideologues have addressed large crowds to push their idea of Islamic revolution. Sectarian attacks, dormant here since the 1990s, have erupted once again.

“It’s going from bad to worse,” said a senior police official in Dera Ghazi Khan. “They are now more active. These are the facts.”

American officials agreed. Bruce Riedel, who led the Obama administration’s recently completed strategy review of Pakistan and Afghanistan, said that the Taliban now has “extensive links into the Punjab.”

“You are seeing more of a coalescence of these militant groups,” said Mr. Riedel, a former C.I.A. official. “Connections that have always existed are becoming tighter and more public than they have in the past.”

The Punjabi militant groups have had links with the Taliban, who are mostly Pashtun tribesmen, since the 1980s. Some of the Punjabi groups are veterans of Pakistan’s state-sponsored insurgency against Indian forces in Kashmir. Others target Shiites.

Under pressure from the United States, former President Pervez Musharraf cut back state support for the Punjabi groups. They either went underground or migrated to the tribal areas, where they deepened their ties with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

At least 20 militants killed in American drone strikes in the tribal areas since last summer were Punjabi, according to people from the tribal areas and Pakistani officials. One Pakistani security official estimated that between 5 to 10 percent of militants in the tribal regions could be Punjabi.

The alliance is based on more than shared ideology. “These are tactical alliances,” said a senior American counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss intelligence matters.

The Pashtun Taliban and Arab militants, who are part of Al Qaeda, have money, sanctuary, training sites and suicide bombers. The Punjabi militants can provide logistical help in Punjabi cities, like Lahore, including handling bombers and target reconnaissance.

The cooperation between the groups intensified greatly after the Pakistani government’s siege of Islamic hard-liners at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, in mid-2007, Pakistani and American security officials say. The siege has since become a rallying cry.

One such joint operation, an American security official said, was the Marriott bombing in Islamabad in September, which killed more than 50 people.

As this cooperation intensifies, places like Dera Ghazi Khan are particularly vulnerable. This frontier town is home to a combustible mix of worries: deep poverty, a growing phalanx of hard-line religious schools and a uranium processing plant that is a part of Pakisitan’s nuclear program.

It is also strategically situated at the intersection of two main roads. One is a main artery into Pakistan’s heartland, in southern Punjab. The other connects Baluchistan Province in the west to the North-West Frontier Province, both Taliban strongholds.

“We are being cornered in a blind alley,” said Mohammed Ali, a small local landlord. “We can’t breathe easily.”

Attacks intended to intimidate and sow sectarian strife are becoming more common. Police point to a suicide bombing in Dera Ghazi Khan on Feb. 5. Two local Punjabis, with the help of Taliban backers, orchestrated the attack, which killed 29 people at a Shiite ceremony, local police said.

The police arrested two men as masterminds on April 6: Qari Muhammad Ismail Gul, the leader of a local madrassa; and Ghulam Mustafa Kaisrani, a jihadi who posed as a salesman for a medical company.

They belonged to a banned Punjabi militant group called Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, but were tied through phone calls to two deputies of the Pakistani Taliban leader,Baitullah Mehsud, the police said.

“The phone numbers they call are in Waziristan,” said a police official, referring to the Taliban base in the tribal areas. “They are working together hand in glove.”

One of the men had gone for training in Waziristan last summer, the police said. The operations are well-supported. Mr. Kaisrani had several transfers worth about $11 million from his Pakistani bank account, the authorities said.

Local crimes, including at least two recent bank robberies in Dera Ghazi Khan, were also traced to networks of Islamic militants, officials said.

“The money that’s coming in is huge,” said Zulfiqar Hameed, head of investigations for the Lahore Police Department. “When you go back through the chain of the transaction, you invariably find it’s been done for money.”

After the suicide attack here, the police confiscated a 20-minute inspirational video, titled “Revenge,” for the Red Mosque, which gave testimonials from suicide bombers in different cities and post-attack footage.

Umme Hassan, the wife of the fiery preacher who was killed during the siege, now frequently travels to south Punjab, to rally the faithful. She has made 12 visits in the past several months before cheering crowds and showing emotional clips of the siege, said a Punjabi official who has been monitoring her visits.

“She claimed that they would bring Islamic revolution in three months,” said Umar Draz, who attended in Muzzafargarh.

The situation in south and west Punjab is still far from that in the Swat valley, a part of the North West Frontier Province that is now fully under Taliban control after the military agreed to a truce in February. But there are strong parallels.

The Taliban here exploit many of the same weaknesses that have allowed them to expand in other areas: an absent or intimidated police force; a lack of attention from national and provincial leaders; a population steadily cowed by threats, or won over by hard-line mullahs who usurp authority by playing on government neglect and poverty.

In Shadan Lund, a village just north of here, militants are openly demanding Islamic law, or Sharia, said Jan Sher, whose brother is a teacher there. “The situation is sharply going towards Swat,” Mr. Sher said.

He and others said the single biggest obstacle to stopping the advance of militancy was the attitudes of Pakistanis themselves, whose fury at the United States has to blind support for everyone that goes against it.

Shabaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, said he was painfully aware of the problems of insurgent infiltration and was taking steps to restore people’s faith in government, including plans for new schools and hospitals. “Hearts and minds must be won,” he said in an interview Monday. “If this struggle fails, this country has no future.”

But people complain that landowners and local politicians have done nothing to stop the advance, and in some cases, even assist them by giving money to some of the religious schools, or madrassas.

“The government is useless,” said Mr. Ali, the resident. “They live happy, secure lives in Lahore. Their children study abroad. They only come here to contest elections.”

The police are left alone to stop the advance. But in Punjab, as in much of the rest of Pakistan, they are spread unevenly, with little presence in rural areas. Out of 160,000 police in Punjab, fewer than 60,000 are posted in rural areas, leaving frontier stations in districts like this one virtually unprotected, police officials said.

Local people feel helpless. When a 15-year-old boy vanished from a madrassa in a village near here recently — his classmates said to go on jihad — his uncle, a grocery shop owner, could not afford to take time away from his shop to go look for him, let alone confront the powerful men who run the madrassa.

“We are simple people,” the man said. “What can we do?”

ZARDARI SURRENDERS TO TALIBAN, signs Nizam-e-Adl regulation

ZARDARI SURRENDERS TO CRIMINALS,THUGS,RELIGIOUS FANATICS AND MURDERERS OF PUKHTUNS.


ISLAMABAD :President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation-2009 after its approval from the National Assembly with thumping majority. According to presidency sources, the document was duly signed by President Zardari after getting approval from the Parliament, which was widely appreciated in the restive parts of NWFP including Swat.Earlier, the document was presented and passed in the National Assembly with thumping majority. Lawmakers belonging to Muttahida Qaumi Movement abstained from voting in favour of the Regulation while ANP protested against tabling of the document in the National Assembly.

Violence subsides in Balochistan

QUETTA: Protest against the killing of three Baloch leaders subsided to some extent on Monday, although four people were killed in incidents of violence in different areas of the province.Gunmen killed a policeman, Niaz Muhammad, in Quetta suburbs and took away his weapon and motorcycle. Six people were injured in a grenade attack in the Killi Baramzai area. A truck driver and a cleaner were killed when their truck was ambushed in the Rarkan area of Barkhan. Another truck also came under attack but escaped.In Mastung, an employee of the Quetta Electric Supply Corporation was killed in a shootout in the main market. The situation remained calm in the troubled Makran belt after three days of violent incidents which followed the killing of Baloch National Movement’s Ghulam Muhammad Baloch and Lala Munir and Sher Muhammad Baloch of the Baloch Republican Party.Shops and markets opened in main cities and towns, including Quetta, Gwadar, Khuzdar, Kalat and Mastung. Meanwhile, activists of Baloch nationalist parties held a protest rally in Nushki.

550,000 displaced in NWFP(PUKHTUNKHWA), tribal belt: USAID

PUKHTUNS ARE BEING FORCED TO LIVE IN REFUGEE'S CAMPS ON THEIR OWN SOIL BY RELIGIOUS FANATICS, BOURGEOIS AND IMPERIALISTS.

PESHAWAR: A recent report of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has estimated the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in conflict zones of the North West Frontier Province and tribal belt at 550,000.Quoting UNHCR data, it says among them 74,884 persons were registered IDPs residing in government established camps while 300,737 IDPs were forced to take shelter outside government-run camps in NWFP.The report came after visit of high-level joint mission of World Food Programme (NWFP) and office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to Peshawar & Islamabad from February 20 to 28, 2009. The mission met officials, donors, humanitarian agencies and implementing partners providing assistance to IDPs in NWFP, according to PPI.It says total USAID and US assistance for conflict-affected people of Pakistan for year 2008-2009 is $14.6 million. It states according to UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) effect of recent ceasefire between militant groups and government in Swat and Bajaur Agency remains unknown, adding that to date, relief agencies have not reported significant IDPs return to their hometowns.UNHCR says security situation in recent weeks has remained challenging and unpredictable in Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber agencies. Insecurity also continues to impede service delivery at IDP camps due to concerns for safety of humanitarian agencies staff.

Pakistan to US Senator: No Conditions on Aid

Pakistan has told an influential visiting U.S. senator that Washington should not put conditions on a massive aid package expected for Pakistan.
US Sen. John Kerry, right, shakes hands with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi prior to their meeting in Islamabad, 13 Apr 2009
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's office Monday said he told U.S. Senator John Kerry that "aid with strings attached would fail to generate the desired goodwill and results in Pakistan."Kerry, who heads the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has backed legislation that would triple U.S. non-military aid to Pakistan, to $1.5 billion a year for five years. The measure would also require Pakistan to make measurable progress in fighting terrorism and militancy.Kerry met with Mr. Gilani and with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad Monday.
The United States and Pakistan have expressed sharp differences over some key issues in the battle against extremism in the region.U.S. officials say Pakistan needs to crack down on militant groups in its northwestern tribal regions, near the Afghan border, and do more to stop cross-border militant attacks.U.S. officials have also expressed concern about Pakistan's intelligence services, which have a history of backing Islamist militant groups operating in Afghanistan and the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan has denied allegations that its intelligence services are continuing that support.Pakistan has publicly objected to missile strikes by U.S. drones on militant targets in Pakistan, saying the attacks undermine the country's sovereignty and outrage the Pakistani people.