Forty militants killed as Lower Dir offensive continues By Haleem Asad Sunday, 26 Apr, 2009 | 06:51 PM PST |

TIMERGARA: Security forces have claimed inflicting heavy casualties on militants in the ensuing gun battle in Maidan area of Lower Dir district triggering massive displacement from the conflict hit areas.

Frontier Corps said in a statement on Monday that more than 40 militants including two commanders had been killed in operation 'Black Lightening' since Sunday. It said that troops regained control of Lal Qila and flushed out militants from Maidan valley, hometown of Maulana Sufi Muhammad.

Displaced people and witnesses said that noncombatants were also among the dead. They said that eight security personnel were killed in the exchange of fire.

Gunship helicopters and ground forces pounded militants’ hideouts in different parts of Maidan including Dokrai, Kalpani, Odigaram and Akakhel Darra. FC claimed that three militant commanders identified as Maulvi Shahid, Sajjad and Shabar had been killed so far.

Official sources also confirmed killing of eight security personnel.

Residents of Maidan fleeing the area said that they had seen bodies of Taliban and other noncombatants lying on roadside in different villages.

Sources said that security forces were in control of Lal Qilla, Kumbar, Katpatai, Parpetai, Khanabad, Galgot, Hayaserai and Kaladag. The militants, they said, were still in control of most parts of the Upper Maidan Shadas area and were showing stiff resistance to security forces.

It is learnt that militants were vacating the area. Heavy shelling had damaged several homes. Troops were firing heavy artillery from their bases in Timergara, Islam Darra and Samar Bagh.

A Mass exodus continued on Monday and according to the Al-Khidmat Foundation nearly 55,000 people most of them women and children had so far left their homes.

Provincial president of the Awami National Party Afrasiab Khattak along with minister for information Mian Iftikhar Hussain visited district headquarters Timergara and held meetings with elders.

Later speaking at a news conference at the DCO office, Khattak termed the FC operation as 'very limited' and said it was not a full pledge military operation. He said the FC personnel were only targeting militants’ positions in the area and soon it would be ended.

He said it would have no effects on the Nizam-I-Adl regulation signed by the president of Pakistan and determined that the ANP led provincial government would implement it at any cost.

'We have made a promise with the people of Malakand and will keep our words to enforce Sharia law in the region,' Afrasiab said. He further stated that the operation would not be extended to other parts of the district if the people did not take arms.

Afrasiab also said the Taliban should lay down their weapons and that the government would not let any force establish a parallel government in the area.

Mian Iftikhar said that the government had contacts with Maulana Sufi Muhammad, asking him to enact the Swat peace deal.

He said peace had been restored to Swat but some miscreants within the ranks of Taliban were not willing to abide by the peace there.

'The government is adament to set up Qazi courts in all districts of Malakand division and it will also establish Darul Qaza according to the wishes of the people,' Iftikhar said.

Swat Taliban are threat to democracy, Pakistan: Nawaz Tuesday, 21 Apr, 2009 | 12:34 PM PST |

LAHORE: Former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif has expressed concern over the controversial Swat peace deal saying that militants in Swat were trying to export their particularly harsh version of Sharia to other regions.

In an interview with USA Today, the PML-N chief said that those militants were now threatening to spread their reach beyond Swat to other regions of the country, adding that such a situation needs to be avoided.

However, Nawaz Sharif once again opposed US drone attacks in the tribal areas as ‘counterproductive,’ saying that he wanted dialogue with some moderate groups.

Sharif also rubbished international doubts that the nuclear assets of the country could fall into the hands of the Taliban militants.

Sharif said that, with sufficient economic development, the insurgency in Swat and the adjoining tribal areas could be defused in just two years.

The PML-N chief stressed that any deal with militants should include commitments that ‘democracy would not be allowed to deteriorate and the writ of the government would be honored.’

Nawaz Sharif also told the US media that women’s schools and universities must be allowed to stay open.

Sharif avoided criticizing Zardari directly during the interview, insisting that he wanted to work with the PPP but wanted the president to give up some of his presidential powers, and this matter should be resolved in Parliament, not on the streets.

He said that his party wanted to get the country back on the rails of democracy, strengthen institutions like the judiciary and the media and take necessary steps to prevent anyone from abrogating or suspending the constitution.

On his ties with the US, Sharif said that he was a fan of President Obama and added that US diplomats had been reaching out to him since Obama took office.

Sharif said politicians must set aside their differences and work together to find solutions to the Taliban insurgency plaguing the country and focus on other pressing needs.

LAHORE: Former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif has expressed concern over the controversial Swat peace deal saying that militants in Swat were trying to export their particularly harsh version of Sharia to other regions.

In an interview with USA Today, the PML-N chief said that those militants were now threatening to spread their reach beyond Swat to other regions of the country, adding that such a situation needs to be avoided.

However, Nawaz Sharif once again opposed US drone attacks in the tribal areas as ‘counterproductive,’ saying that he wanted dialogue with some moderate groups.

Sharif also rubbished international doubts that the nuclear assets of the country could fall into the hands of the Taliban militants.

Sharif said that, with sufficient economic development, the insurgency in Swat and the adjoining tribal areas could be defused in just two years.

The PML-N chief stressed that any deal with militants should include commitments that ‘democracy would not be allowed to deteriorate and the writ of the government would be honored.’

Nawaz Sharif also told the US media that women’s schools and universities must be allowed to stay open.

Sharif avoided criticizing Zardari directly during the interview, insisting that he wanted to work with the PPP but wanted the president to give up some of his presidential powers, and this matter should be resolved in Parliament, not on the streets.

He said that his party wanted to get the country back on the rails of democracy, strengthen institutions like the judiciary and the media and take necessary steps to prevent anyone from abrogating or suspending the constitution.

On his ties with the US, Sharif said that he was a fan of President Obama and added that US diplomats had been reaching out to him since Obama took office.

Sharif said politicians must set aside their differences and work together to find solutions to the Taliban insurgency plaguing the country and focus on other pressing needs.

Suicide bomber kills 16 in Charsadda Wednesday, 15 Apr, 2009 | 08:16 PM PST |

CHARSADDA: A suicide bomber smashed his explosives-filled car into a police check post in northwestern Pakistan Wednesday, killing 16 people, police and hospital officials said.

Nine police officers and seven civilians died in the bombing in Charsadda, just north of Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, they said.

The blast left a crater about three metres (yards) wide, shattered windows in nearby buildings and severed power cables, plunging the area into darkness, an AFP reporter at the site said.

‘Eight policemen and seven civilians were killed after a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-filled car into a police checkpost,’ district police chief Riaz Khan told AFP.

Hospital official Muhammad Ali said 15 people were killed in the blast.

Another police official, Nasrullah Khan, later told AFP that one injured senior police official died on his way to hospital.

‘The death toll has risen to 16 and six people, including three policemen, are injured,’ Khan said.

Provincial police chief Malik Naveed said an investigation team, forensic experts and bomb disposal officials had been sent to the area and were collecting evidence from the blast site.

He said the police was on high alert ahead of the attack.

‘We had intelligence reports that a car bombing could take place in any of three districts of the province,’ Naveed said.

The bombing drew immediate condemnation from President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
‘The president said that the perpetrators of such a heinous crime would be brought to justice,’ said a statement from Zardari's office.

Nearly 1,800 people have been killed in a wave of bomb attacks since government forces fought gunmen holed up in a radical Islamabad mosque in July 2007.

Much of the violence has been concentrated in the northwest, where Taliban hardliners and Al-Qaeda extremists fled after the 2001 US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan.

Charsadda borders Malakand, which includes the scenic Swat valley and is the subject of a regulation signed this week by Zardari to enforce sharia law as part of efforts to end an insurgency.

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 provincial government.

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.

Militants beheaded opponents, bombed schools and fought government forces, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee.

Charsadda has seen several suicide bombings and is home to the chief of the ruling Awami National Party, Asfandyar Wali Khan, who himself narrowly escaped a suicide attack last year.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to Maulana Abdul Aziz, the deposed chief cleric radical Red Mosque, who was captured during the bloody siege, his lawyer said.

Militants said to be loyal to the Red Mosque have been blamed for several attacks, especially a number of blasts in Islamabad, although most have been attributed to Pakistani Taliban rebels

Zardari’s grip on power uncertain By Anwar Iqbal Saturday, 11 Apr, 2009 | 10:56 PM PST |

WASHINGTON: Asif Ali Zardari gives the overall impression of an accidental president who still has an uncertain grasp on power, writes a senior Washington Post writer David Ignatius who met the president in Islamabad last week along with a group of other senior American journalists.

‘He is politically weak, and sounds disinclined to push the military to wage war against the Pashtun tribes in the mountains,’ writes Matthew Kaminski, a member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board who also met the president with this group that accompanied US special envoy Richard Holbrooke and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.

‘The fragile democratic government of Asif Ali Zardari … seems unwilling to admit the extent of the problem’ confronting Pakistan, writes Joe Klein of the Time magazine who was part of this group.

All three writers, however, also note that Mr Zardari appears ‘sincere’ and ‘convincing’ while talking about ‘the cancer of extremism,’ which caused the death of his wife, Benazir Bhutto.

‘But on some major security and intelligence issues, he claimed no knowledge or sought to shift blame to others, and the overall impression was of an accidental president who still has an uncertain grasp on power,’ writes Mr Ignatius.

The Washington Post writer points out that part of the problem in Pakistan is the gap between what officials say in private and what they can admit openly. ‘Pakistani leaders know the Predator attacks help combat the Taliban in remote Waziristan, but they don't want to seem like American lackeys. So they protest in public the very strategy they have privately endorsed. One way or another, that gap has to be closed.’

Mr Kaminski quotes Ambassador Holbrooke as saying that the Pakistani president ‘deserves credit for his personal courage’ in holding the job. Mr Holbrooke also welcomed the ‘statesmanlike’ resolution of a recent political feud with rival Nawaz Sharif over the reinstatement of a Supreme Court judge.

The fight could have resulted in ‘civil war on the one hand or assassinations on the other,’ Mr Holbrooke told the journalist.

Mr Klein of the Time magazine quotes Mr Zardari as telling the journalists that ‘the germ (of terrorism) was created by the CIA.’

‘True enough, but somewhat dated,’ the journalist comments. ‘Your government called them the ‘moral equivalent of George Washington,’ Mr Zardari says, referring to the mujahedin who defeated the Soviets.

‘True again — and US complicity in the creation of al Qaeda shouldn't be forgotten — but the game changed after the Russians were kicked out of Afghanistan and the terrorists focused their attention on both the US and Pakistan, where they now reside,’ the journalist observes.

In the interview Mr Zardari insists that the presence of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar on Pakistani soil is not his fault. ‘They were pushed [into Pakistan] by your great military offensive [in Afghanistan],’ he says sarcastically. ‘For seven years nothing has happened, and now we are weak and you are unable to do anything about it ... I've lost my wife, my friends, the support of my countrymen ... and in eight years you haven't been able to eliminate the cancer.’

WSJ’s Mr Kaminski notes that ‘among Pakistani politicians, Mr. Zardari speaks most clearly about the threat emanating from the country's west’ but is unwilling to allow US military incursions into Pakistan.

The journalist then quotes Mr Holbrooke as saying that America too is unwilling to cross this ‘Red Line.’

‘Some people say to me, particularly after a few drinks, ‘Why don't we go in there with our troops and just clean it up?’ Ambassador Holbrooke tells the journalist. ‘First of all we can't without their permission, and that would not be a good idea. Secondly, cleaning them up in the mountains of Pakistan's tribal areas, as anyone can see from the search for al Qaeda in Afghanistan, is a daunting mission. It's the same kind of mountains. A few weeks ago I flew up through the deepest and remotest valleys imaginable. You could see tiny villages in the crevices in the mountains. You don't want American troops in there. So that option is gone.’

The Post’s writer ends his piece on a positive note: ‘If there's a positive sign in all this chaos, it's that the Pakistani army isn't intervening to clean up the mess,’ he writes. ‘Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, the army chief of staff, has been telling the feuding politicians to get their act together. But he seems to understand that the route to stability isn't through another army coup, but by making this unruly democracy work before it's too late.’

Give us the drones; we’ll take out the militants: Zardari Wednesday, 08 Apr, 2009 | 02:57 PM PST |

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari in an interview with The Independent has called on the United States to provide Pakistan with missiles and drone technology to target militants as opposed to conducting independent operations that violate the country’s sovereignty.

Pakistan had made it clear that it was willing to ‘take out high-value targets on our own, and we welcome the technology and intelligence assistance that will give us the ability to succeed.’ Zardari said, adding that ‘I cannot condone violations of our sovereignty even when they are done by allies and friends. We would much prefer that the US share its intelligence and give us the drones and missiles that will allow us to take care of this problem on our own.’

During the interview, President Zardari for the first time conceded that more than one of the 10 militants who carried out the Mumbai attacks may be Pakistani.

It is generally believed that despite public denials Pakistan co-operates with the US drone strikes. However, such tactics are increasingly unpopular among the Pakistani people.

‘President Obama once said that he would act if we weren’t willing and able. We certainly are willing and with international support we will become even more able,’ The Independent quoted Zardari as saying.

He also acknowledged that more than a year after elections, many Pakistanis are growing frustrated with an apparent lack of progress. ‘After a decade of dictatorship the people had enormous expectations of rapid improvement in their lives. That is still very much our priority but the enormity of the economic crisis both within Pakistan and internationally, compounded by the war that we fight within and along our borders, has made progress much slower than we hoped.’

Regarding disputes between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), he said: ‘The ups and downs of democracy should not be interpreted as a lack of stability...there is the usual tug of power politics and the tendency of some observers to paint Doomsday scenarios. But I think the people appreciate that our democratic government is functioning.’

Regarding the attacks in Mumbai, Zardari said Pakistan is co-operating with India’s investigation into the Mumbai attacks and a ‘substantial’ number of arrests had been made. He further said that elements that carried out the attacks in Mumbai are also threatening Pakistan’s ‘very existence.’ Regarding the nine dead militants from the 26/11 attacks, he said: ‘Our investigation...is continuing. Some of these terrorists may in fact have been born in Pakistan. But we believe that this operation was international, with significant support from within India itself.’

Regarding the recent talk of the imposition of sharia in Swat, he said the country’s leadership and its allies were looking at ground realities.

‘I think it would be premature to call it a bad deal. It’s an evolving situation,’ The Independent quoted Zardari as saying.