ISI : Taliban in complete control of Swat

Image via Wikipedia

ISI tells Pak political leadership Taliban in complete control of Swat Islamabad , Oct 9 (ANI):

 In the in-camera joint sitting of both the Houses of the parliament yesterday, Pakistan s political leadership was told by the countrys military and sleuths of intelligence agency ISI that the Taliban was in complete control of some districts in NWFP, like Swat and Shangla.

They apprised the politicians, including MPs, chief ministers and governors of all four provinces, chiefs of all the major political parties, about the methods of the Taliban in indoctrinating the young boys into taking to terrorism, and also about the torture methods used on abducted militarymen.

Gen Pasha said 1368 troops had died in the fight since 2001, and the military had killed 2825 Taliban and terrorists including 581 foreigners. Some of them were crossing into Pakistan from Afghanistan to fight Pakistani troops in Bajaur, Gen Pasha said and added that the US and Afghan authorities had been informed.

Newly-appointed ISI Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha briefed the parliamentarians about the difficulties the Pakistan Army was facing in the operation against the terrorists. The military was capable of dealing with the threat, he added.

EXcerpted from

SOURCE:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pakistan uses gunships to mow downal-Qaeda men

G

Pakistan's Beautiful Valleys - More amazing video clips are a click away

Related articles by Zemanta

• Bomb Hits Police Center in Islamabad
• Spy chief gives Pakistan MPs secret brief on anti-terror policy

Pakistani Taliban quits peace talks with gov't

Image via WikipediaPakistani Taliban quits peace talks with gov't

ISLAMABAD, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Taliban said Monday they had suspended peace talks with the government as "the government has refused to accept their demand of troops withdrawal from the tribal regions."

The News Network International news agency quoted Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar as saying that the dialogue process had been deadlocked as "the government has refused to accept key demands."

The army spokesman did not comment over the Taliban statement.

Maulvi Umar said Taliban representatives who were holding talks with the tribal elders, mediating between the two sides, had quit the talks due to the government's attitude.

Maulvi Umar said that Taliban wanted troops be withdrawn from the tribal regions and the Swat valley before a formal agreement but the government did not agree to the proposal.

He said Taliban had attached expectations to the new government but now "we have realized that the statements of goodwill from the government side were hollow slogans".

Maulvi Umar claimed that the government was not sincere and serious in the talks. He warned that the government would be responsible if the militants took any action. He also said that some government institutions do not want success of Taliban-government dialogue process.

The Pakistani Taliban, led by Baitullah Mehsood, declared a ceasefire with the government and entered into dialogue with the government to end violence.

The new government announced to hold talks with the militants who would lay down arms.

Taliban presented four demands to the government including withdrawal of army from South Waziristan tribal region and Swat valley, exchange of prisoners, compensation to the affected people in Waziristan and Swat and free movement of Taliban activists.

Tribal elders have been mediating between the Taliban and the government to broker a peace deal and to end violence in the tribal regions and the restive Swat valley in the country's northwest.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Pakistan's army in control of the Swat Valley

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's army said it took control of the Swat Valley near Afghanistan after a three-month operation against pro-Taliban Islamic fighters.

``Troops have pushed out the miscreants from the Swat Valley to an adjoining isolated area'' in the mountains, Major General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the director-general of military operations, said at a briefing yesterday, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.

Thirty-six soldiers and nine civilians were killed during the offensives, the general said, without saying how many militants died. More than 615 people were arrested, 100 of whom are still being detained, he added.
SOURCE:MORE.


g

Swat militants take to the woods

Swat militants take to the woods
Vacate all seized govt buildings; troops enter Alpuri; FM stations shut down; Fazlullah �hurt�

By Mushtaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR/MINGORA: After suffering colossal losses, the militants in restive Swat vacated all the seized police stations and other government buildings on Tuesday and decided to go underground while the government closed down all the FM radio channels in the district, including the one run by Maulana Fazlullah.

Also, in the adjoining Shangla district, the security forces retook the main town Alpuri from the militants and forced them to retreat to the nearby mountains. Militants led by rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who earlier Tuesday morning were in control of majority of the areas in the valley, disappeared and abandoned their roadside checkpoints.

Local military officials in Mingora said four militants were killed in clashes with the security force on Tuesday. Maj Amjad Iqbal, an ISPR spokesman in Mingora, told The News that 50 bodies of the militants, killed in fighting so far with the security forces, had been collected from various places. He confirmed the death of senior militant commander, Khan Khitab, near Guli Bagh.

He, however, said Khitab was killed by local villagers when he and his colleagues tried to escape and hide in a village. There were also reports that another prominent commander of the militants Muslim Khan, who was a close aide of Fazlullah, was killed in fighting with the security forces.

Officials said another commander from South Waziristan, Arshad Mujahid, was also killed alongside Muslim Khan and their bodies were still lying near Najia Top, an area between Ningwalai and Bandai in Kabal subdivision.

Some reports suggested that Maulana Fazlullah, who was also on the run with Muslim Khan, was seriously injured in an attack on them by security forces. Maj Amjad Iqbal said he had also received similar reports but could not confirm them.

Sources told The News that Maulana Fazlullah through his widely-listened FM radio channel directed his armed followers at around 11:45 pm Tuesday night to stop fighting and shift to safer places and wait for his other important message regarding the future line of action.

After Fazlullah�s message, militants were seen abandoning their roadside check-posts near the Saidu Sharif airport and other areas under their control in Kabal and Matta subdivisions, where the armed militants used to search vehicles.

Officials in Mingora said the militants had vacated all the major towns, which they used as their strongholds like Mam Dherai, Bara Bandai, Kuza Bandai, Ningwalai, Dherai, Charbagh, Guli Bagh, Matta, Khwazakhela and even Madyan.

The local residents, however, said the security forces did not enter these areas but no firing had been seen during the daytime. Some reports said the militants were still manning the roadside check-posts and patrolling the streets in the Charbagh subdivision. There were also reports that Fazlullah and his close aides went towards Pewchar area in Matta subdivision.

Pewchar, it may be recalled, was considered the safest hideout of the militants of banned Jihadi outfits as well as foreign fighters. Local people said the militants could easily cross into the neighbouring Dir district from Pewchar and then to the Bajaur tribal agency if the security forces chased them.

Before their escape from Matta, the people said the militants set on fire the local police station and an office of DSP and destroyed official record there. Officials said all the FM radio channels, including the controversial one launched by Maulana Fazlullah in Swat, had been closed down.

As many as 36 FM radio stations were recently operational in Swat of which three were airing music programmes while the majority was used by self-styled clerics for propagating their own versions of Islam.

However, residents said a few radio channels were purely transmitting the translation of the holy Quran. Military officials, on the other hand, said the security forces had entered Alpuri, the district headquarters of Shangla district, following the weeklong heavy clashes with the militants after Maulana Fazlullah�s followers escaped to the nearby mountains.

Similarly, the authorities announced relaxation in curfew from 8 am till 2 pm for today (Wednesday). The curfew, which was clamped on the main Malakand Road right from Mardan up to Swat, has badly affected the daily life in the entire Malakand region.

The residents of Dir Upper and Lower, Chitral, Bajaur Agency, Swat district and Malakand Agency were unable to move to downtowns of the Frontier province. Elderly people, women and children were the worst hit. It was hard for the people to shift their patients to Peshawar for treatment due to which numerous people expired. Above all, the intending pilgrims missed their flights due to the prolonged curfew on the long route.
SOURCE:

Sounds like they leave when army is around, then come back when they leave.
This isn't a solution. Note they don't even cll them terrorist...

G

Swat opinion from Swat

What goes wrong in Swat?

Shahzada Alamgir Swati

One wonders what is going on in Swat. Obviously all is not well. All that is appearing in newspaper columns indicates our lack of understanding. We are unable to perceive what is actually going on there. Is it only the issue of demanding Shariah implementation? Is it the government's denial of budging on the demands of the militants? Should the government resort to such an extreme action if it is just a political or religious issue?

In fact, most of the people but also the well-informed media men are not aware that it is neither an issue of Shariah implementation, nor is it sense of deprivation, etc. Shariah was the demand of Sufi Muhammad of Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) about three decades ago. At that time there were neither Taliban nor al Qaeda. He was not receiving backing or funding from any foreign country. This indigenous movement led to an agreement with the then provincial government of Aftab Sherpao. However, the courts' name was changed such as Ilaqa Qazi's adalat, etc, which are still working. During the Taliban move, Sufi Muhammad went to Afghanistan along with 500 minor students. Later in a fierce fight, all his students were killed. He fled back to Pakistan and went into hiding. This put him in a great dilemma as parents and relatives of those innocent students were outraged. Sufi was left with no option but to stage-manage his surrender to the authorities in order to save himself from being killed by the locals.

In his absence, Sufi's son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah, known as 'Molvi Polio' and 'Mullah Radio', took control of his father-in-law's madrassa. The military operation in North and South Waziristan resulted in the expulsion of a number of foreigners including Arabs, Uzbeks and Tajiks, who sneaked into Swat Valley and chose Maulana Fazlullah's area as their hideout. Molvi Polio's background gives us some dubious accounts of his past life, but as locals talk about, he was expelled from a madrassa near Rawalpindi on a charge of unnatural offence. He remained involved in criminal activities and emerged as a gang leader who used to collect bhatta using a den inside a Dir cave. Locals' resentment was evident from the fact that they stayed away from sending their children to his madrassa when suddenly he took over the charge after Sufi Muhammad's 'disappearance'.

Wealth started pouring in along with mysterious movement of unknown faces. Brand new high powered four-wheel vehicles started roaring around. Fazlullah got bodyguards and started moving on a black stallion with a double-edged sword in his hands. Some locals also got attracted towards him, thanks to his generosity and hospitality. As things unfolded, it came to the fore that al Qaeda and Taliban-connected foreigners, most of them Tajiks and Uzbeks, were the source of stuffing his kitty. This is, however, a myth as from where had those men of al Qaeda and Taliban who were supposed to be on the run got money? Those whom we call men of al Qaeda are not supposed to be in the age group between 20 to 30 but 50 to 65. They must be of Osama or al-Zawahiri's age. They are the people who, in their 30s, joined jihad against Russia in the early 1980s and later joined the Taliban in Afghanistan. They never went back, even when the tide turned against them after 9/11. But the people we see around Fazlullah, none of them happens to be in the 50s or 60s. They are all youth and battle-worthy mercenaries. I am sure al Qaeda and Takfiris mostly consist of people from the Middle East and Arabian Africa.

Let us find out who are the men around Fazlullah in Swat and Baitullah Mahsuod in Waziristan. According to AFP, Reuters, AP, Asia Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post and The New York Times reports, these Chechens, Uzbeks and Tajiks are criminalswanted by their respective governments. Many of them sought refuge in Afghanistan after President Islam Karimov launched a crackdown against them. Many of them took part in the Chechens' war against Russia and the bloodshed unleashed by Putin's army led them to seek refuge in areas along the Pak-Afghan border. These people's presence in Swat is no more a mystery. The question is how they got heavy weapons, money and men? The question is why they chose Swat and other areas? It was understood that Pakistan Army's 90,000 troops are deployed at the porous Pak-Afghan border; a few miles of it has also been fenced. NATO forces are vigilant on the other side of the border. When locals in Waziristan, sensing that those foreigners had nothing to do with Islam and were exploiting their hospitality, they took arms against them, killed many of them and forced others to flee. Why they chose Swat as their next hideout is not difficult to answer, but here we will have to see who actually happens to be the mastermind of all that has happened and what is going to happen.

It is everybody's guess that there is someone working from behind the scenes who does not want this unrest to end. The unrest is engineered to go out of proportion, sending a strong message to the world that the strategic assets of Pakistan can go into extremists' hands. Therefore, think-tanks are suggesting to the US administration to shift this arsenal to California lest there is no time left. The game plan is different from what is being seen on the surface. An Indian think-tank's website www.saag.org has claimed that New Delhi has its ground assets placed in Swat Valley and Pakistan army commanders' conversation is being recorded and passed on to Fazlullah and his men. Pakistan's Director General Military Operations had mentioned the hand of enemy countries and the Peshawar Corps Commander endorsed the fact that Fazlullah's men are using highly sophisticated equipment. That is why the government saw a technical difficulty in jamming more than 100 radio channels through which the 'Mullah Radio' delivers secret messages and jihad or Shariah sermons. Peaceful citizens of Swat and surrounding areas are terrified. Fazlullah and his followers are threatening them against moving to safe places and using them as human shields. Ancient archaeological sites, which date back to the Buddhist era, are under threat of extinction. It is time to stop their advance, extirpate them from their roots and clean the Valley of their influence, once and for all. But at the same time there is need to introduce social reforms, development plans and transformation into the mainstream of society. This has to be taken as an opportunity to knock out the unwanted and pave the way for a permanent solution. The government will have to solve problems, it will have to remove the sense of deprivation and injustice and restore the confidence of locals who are peace-loving and equally patriotic.

The writer, a resident of Swat, is an academic, author of a number of books on history and archaeology

http://thepost.com.pk/OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=130581&catid=11

Ray Robison UpDATE, Outlook

G

HAMMAS VS SWAT TEAMS

Before USA attacks Iran they need to plan for Hammas.
Paradigm considerations.
SWATteams are great against a couple of bank robbers.

But we saw what happened in Calf, when two bank robbers with amour
and automatic weapons took on the police force.

How many SWAT Teams have been trained in out right military tactics?

How would the SWAT teams stand up against a Hammas squad with auto weapons?

There are many ex-Military in SWAT, but the teams have not been trained to fight
another Squad with automatic weapons.


Gerald