The magic number 30 strikes again, this time in South Waziristan.
Latest Updates: waziristan RSS
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johnpi
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johnpi
The people of Waziristan are suffering a brutal kind of occupation under the Taliban and al Qaeda. It is in this context that they would welcome anyone, Americans, Israelis, Indians or even the devil, to rid them of the Taliban and al Qaeda. Therefore, they welcome the drone attacks.
….What we read and hear in the print and electronic media of Pakistan about drone attacks as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty or resulting in killing innocent civilians is not true so far as the people of Waziristan are concerned. According to them, al Qaeda and the TTP are dead scared of drone attacks and their leadership spends sleepless nights. This is a cause of pleasure for the tormented people of Waziristan.
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johnpi
The Pakistan government has given the Mehsud tribe a seven-point list of surrender conditions that need to be met for the military to end its actions in Waziristan.
1. Unconditional surrender of the wanted persons.
2. A total ban on the display of weapons,
3. A ban on setting up a parallel administrative and judicial system in the agency.
4. Shelter would be provided to only the local Mehsud tribesmen who opted for seeking refuge for settling internal disputes.
5. No foreigner and non-local would be provided any shelter.
6. No person involved in anti-state elements would be given shelter.
7. No person from settled parts of the country would be provided refuge.
Dawn news reports that the elders of the Mehsud tribe have sought time till Jan 20 to thoroughly review the seven point conditions handed over by the political authorities at a grand jirga held at Political Compound Tank, winter headquarters of South Waziristan.
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johnpi
Pakistan suicide attacks spike, but overall attacks are down.
The beginning of the new trend coincides with the start of the first of two major army offensives in that country this year. The first offensive was in Swat. An even more rapid drop began after the second offensive in South Waziristan started.
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johnpi
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johnpi
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johnpi
Interview with a Pakistani suicide bomber trained in Waziristan posted over at Huffpo. English subtitles.
Important takeaway responses to the interviewer:
Those who are not taking part in jihad are not innocent.
and
Our leader has told us that you will not be responsible for the killing of those who are killed other than your target.
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No one in Pakistan is innocent. Whoever is outside Waziristan is not innocent.
Meanwhile, the blackwater rumor-mongering from anonymous sources continues inside Pakistan (from a link over at OL of all places).
Hundreds of Americans are freely roaming in Peshawar and other cities like their own country, a concerned citizen said.
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johnpi
19 killed in courthouse bombing in NW Pakistan.
A suicide bomber killed 19 people Thursday outside a courthouse in northwestern Pakistan, the latest attack in an onslaught by Islamist militants fighting back against an army offensive in the nearby Afghan border region.
The army is being criticized by local officials for the manner in which it launched the campaign.
Pakistan officials flagged the offensive in South Waziristan several months before it actually began, something Bilour claimed allowed the militants to escape and plan the current wave of terror.
“Unfortunately the announcement of the operation in Waziristan prior to the actual operation caused this problem,” he said. “They (the militants) are hiding in villages surrounding Peshawar and make their way in despite security.”
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johnpi
Pakistan rumor mill: Taliban militants are actually a US/Indian proxy army trying to destabilize the country.
The government and military aren’t doing much to squelch the rumors – probably because they have a singularly significant responsibility for the creation and growth of the Taliban.
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johnpi
The Taliban have denied responsibility for the Peshawar blast in a market that killed nearly 100 people, mostly women and children. The government maintains the attack was Taliban retaliation for the South Waziristan offensive.
Today, residents of the city are burying their dead.
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johnpi
One of Pakistan’s responses to the urban terrorist attacks in its borders has been to raid a Hizb ut-Tahrir ’seminar’ that was being held in Islamabad to, as a HuT spokesman described, “mobilize people against the American raj and Waziristan operations.”
…police arrested dozens of suspected members of the outlawed Sunni Islamist Hizb-ut-Tahrir organisation following raids in an upscale neighbourhood of Islamabad.
“Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a peaceful political party which was holding a seminar at a residence to condemn the South Waziristan operation. We will continue to make our protest,” the group’s chief spokesman, Tehrir Naveed Butt, said in a statement.
Over at HuT’s website, the full Youtube statement by the group’s spokesman has been posted in English.
Interestingly, Hut’s website also has an announcement that a nuclear scientist was among those arrested. His name is Rizwan Aleem, and he is a PhD candidate at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI). I’ve blogged a few times about this illustrious learning institution when the Taliban were about to take over the district where it is located in the Northwest Frontier Province, and made some predictions about how campus life would change, the institution’s reputation would be affected, and how donations might drop off.
Given HuT’s approving comments about al Shabaab-style shariah, Aleem must have disapproved of the campus life (gender mixing) that others seemed so proud to have posted pictures of on GIKI’s Facebook page. Anyway, Aleem’s future is in doubt now: “Sources say the Hizbut Tahrir activists were likely to be handed over to intelligence agencies for further interrogation.”
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johnpi
More on events in Pakistan’s South Waziristan region, from Juan Cole. He highlights these points in media reports as “worrisome”:
• South Waziristan’s population is 600,000; the campaign has already displaced 100,000 of them.
• Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Sangin has brought in 1,500 Afghan Pashtun fighters to support the Pakistani Taliban Movement in South Waziristan.
• Azam Tariq, spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban Movement, said that militants’ supporters from Muslim seminaries in Punjab, Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province were in touch with the Taliban and were coming to the battle zone through various routes.
….In other words, this military campaign is not just a matter of troops versus guerrillas. It is becoming a rallying point for Muslim radicals, with volunteers coming in from Afghanistan and others from madrasahs from all over Pakistan– and with Pakistan’s own security hanging in the balance.
Pakistani security forces also arrested some 300 Afghans on Sunday, he says.
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johnpi
Ground offensive begins in South Waziristan.
More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a major ground offensive in the main al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border early Saturday, officials told The Associated Press — the nuclear-armed U.S. ally’s toughest test yet against militants aiming to topple the state.
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johnpi
Battle for Waziristan tribal area looms.
Pakistan’s army is planning in the next few days to launch a major offensive in the northwest tribal area and Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan, according to senior military and security officials. They have described the offensive as “the mother of all battles”.
“We are ready. The environment is ready,’ the senior officer said. But military officials also admit volatile Waziristan will not be an easy battle. “It will not be a walkover. This is going to be casualty-intensive hard fighting. The nation will have to bear the pain,” said another officer.
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johnpi
Pakistan to allow US military ops in North Waziristan and South Waziristan in exchange for aid.
United States President Barack Obama, co-chairing with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown the first summit meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, on Thursday announced that the US Senate had unanimously passed the Kerry-Lugar bill, authorizing $1.5 billion in economic assistance for Pakistan annually over five years.
This amount, which is triple what Pakistan has been receiving, in addition to the several billions of dollars Pakistan receives annually in other military and non-military aid.
In response, it appears that Pakistan’s political leaders have consented to military operations against militants and al-Qaeda in the North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.
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johnpi
A militant commander in northwest Pakistan tore up a peace deal with the Pakistani government Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the government’s campaign against Islamist insurgents in the extremist-controlled Waziristan region.
The commander, Gul Bahadur, who heads the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan, ended his pact with Islamabad, citing missile strikes in his territory by American drone aircraft for turning him against the Pakistani government
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thabet
Pakistan orders a manhunt for Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud as its army prepares to enter Waziristian.
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thabet
A massive bomb blast has destroyed the Pearl Continental in Peshawar:
Gunmen stormed the outer security barrier at the Pearl Continental Hotel before blowing up a vehicle containing, police say, 500kg of explosives.
This comes as the Pakistani army continues to shell Taliban ‘hideouts’, and ‘citizens militia’ take up arms to fight against militants. There is also talk of the army planning ‘operations’ in Waziristan; more people will be caterogised as ‘internally displaced persons’ if that happens.
Earlier two ’senior aides’ to Sufi Mohammed, who were arrested by Pakistani authorities, were killed in an attempted ambush by other militants.
