Hamid Mir Talking About His Exclusive Tape With Tailban
May 27, 2010 Uncategorized
Kehney Mei Kya Harj Hai 25th May 2010.Hamid Mir Anchor Geo News, Mazhar Abbas Anchor ARY News and Masood Sharif Khattak in fresh episode of Kehnay Mein Kia Harj Hai and discusses current issues with Muhammad Malik.
Tags: Hamid Mir, Hamid Mir Tape with Taliban, Hamid Mir with Taliban, taliban, war on terror
On Being Pakistani
May 17, 2010 Pakistan, war on terror
SLAMABAD (May 16) — Pakistanis are becoming the world’s pariahs. Since being implicated in a steady stream of violent attacks — from the London Tube bombings in 2005 to this month’s failed attempt to bomb Times Square — it seems almost inevitable now that when the next act of terrorism happens, a Pakistani will be involved.
As a Canadian of Pakistani descent, I’ve watched this pattern emerge with a rising sense of trepidation. Thirty-five years ago, when my parents decided to move to Canada, things were much different. Pakistanis were different. They were much in demand — an intelligent, hard-working people who integrated and contributed positively to society, wherever they went.
What a terrible journey we’ve made since then.
Today, Pakistanis are objects of fear and suspicion. Wherever we go we must contend with the “terrorist” label and endure the scrutiny that accompanies it. Like many of my compatriots, I’ve been “interviewed” by the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the U.S. border, questioned at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport and scrutinized with extra efficiency by a German border control officer. Every time it happens, a piece of advice a Sufi in Saudi Arabia once gave me cycles through my mind: “When an obstacle is placed in front of you,” he said, “be like water — flow around it.”
Pakistanis are being asked to flow a lot these days, and it will not get better any time soon. Many people in the world must be asking why it is that so many acts of terrorism in the West seem to lead back to Pakistan. Is there something in the Pakistani psyche that makes them susceptible to violence?
What those people might be surprised to hear is that Pakistanis are asking the same questions.
At the forefront is something quite basic: How did this happen? How, in 30 years — a mere generation — have Pakistanis gone from being desirable to becoming undesirables?
The standard narrative goes something like this: During the 1980s, the U.S. promoted violent jihad in Pakistan to create a proxy army to fight against the godless Soviets in Afghanistan. The Americans funded the growth of jihad ideology, encouraged the construction of madrasas — religious seminaries that have now become militant birthing grounds — and are now fighting the jihadists they helped to create, including Osama bin Laden.
But there is another side to the story. After Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan, Pakistan’s military establishment decided to continue using the jihadists as proxies, both in Afghanistan and in Kashmir. That cold-hearted act of realpolitik was inspired by a neo-Cold War mentality in which India was — and still is — viewed as an existential threat to Pakistan.
Most Pakistanis feel that America has brought war on them, a war no one here wanted and which is ultimately killing Pakistanis. But for me, and for a silent minority of Pakistanis as well, there is an alarming lack of recognition of the role played by Pakistan’s own armed forces and intelligence agencies in sending Pakistan down the road to jihad.
There are two reasons for this. First, for decades, Pakistan’s generals have diligently maintained the illusion that the army is the only reason Pakistan has not collapsed. Pakistanis are spoon-fed this false perception from childhood, indoctrinated into believing that the army is the Great Savior, the Protector, the Guardian.
Second, opposing the army can have dire consequences. The execution of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979 is one salient example. The mounting evidence of an army role in the December 2008 assassination of his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, is another.
Just a few days ago my uncle expressed his concern in connection with the work I was doing tracing Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad’s militant connections back to groups linked to Pakistan’s dreaded spy service, the ISI. “You don’t understand these people,” he warned me. “They can make you disappear and you will never be found again. No one can stand up to them.”
But somebody must stand up to them. Pakistan’s image in the world, not to mention its future, depends on it. Is it an accident that Faisal Shahzad was the son of a senior Pakistani military officer? I don’t think so. Military culture in this country is virulently anti-American. Couple it with the rampant spread of jihad ideology — also the product of the army’s failed policies — and you end up with a deadly mix.
The failed attack on Times Square is only the tip of the iceberg. The fear among many Pakistanis is that some similar attempt is likely to succeed. With each attack, fear and suspicion of any Pakistani is bound to rise. And the irony is that as Pakistan spirals into chaos, young people here are increasingly looking to get out.
Two of my cousins are waiting for their immigration papers to be approved in Canada. They are educated, moderate Pakistani Muslims, much like Shahzad appeared to be until recently. They worry now that the environment of fear will hamper their efforts for a better life abroad. My brother, a professor of biochemistry at Trinity College in Dublin, is planning a sabbatical to Harvard, but worries about the treatment he’ll receive there.
Bearded Pakistanis have been under the microscope for years. Now, clean-shaven, Ray-Ban-wearing Pakistanis may be in for the same treatment. My advice to them is to listen to the Sufis. Self-respect lies within the self; no one can take it away from you. Be like water.
Adnan S. Khan covers Pakistan for AOL News.
Tags: ISI, Pakistan, Pakistanis, taliban, terrorists, war on terror
Failed New York bomb puts Pakistan under spotlight
May 4, 2010 World News, war on terror
Tuesday, 04 May, 2010
Dawn
ISLAMABAD: Any links between Pakistan’s Taliban and a failed bombing in New York’s Times Square could put the country under renewed US pressure to open risky new fronts against militants.
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, has claimed responsibility for the failed bombing and its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, appeared in videos on the Internet on Sunday threatening suicide attacks on major US cities.
A US citizen born in Pakistan, Faisal Shahzad, is accused of driving the failed car bomb into Times Square and will appear in Manhattan court on Tuesday, authorities said.
Questions may arise again over Pakistan’s determination to tackle militants as it juggles other problems, from a sluggish economy to power cuts that have made the government unpopular.
“Pakistan may have to prepare to make more sacrifices and wage a much more intense use of force such as search and destroy operations, more systematically,” said Rifaat Hussain, head of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.
Pakistan, heavily dependent on foreign aid, says it is too stretched to expand security offensives to new areas such as North Waziristan, home to a complex web of militant groups that could deepen the threat to the state if antagonised.
“International goodwill is going to sour unless we are seen to be doing more against the groups in North Waziristan which have not been touched, and the groups of Punjab which have not been touched,” said Taliban expert and Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid.
Punjab a militant base
Some of Pakistan’s most dangerous militant groups are based in the country’s heartland Punjab province.
They include Lashkar-i-Taiba (LT), blamed for the 2008 attack on the Indian commercial capital Mumbai which killed 166 people and accused of plotting attacks in the West.
LT — once nurtured by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to fight India in Kashmir — is estimated to have between 2,000-3,000 gunmen and another 20,000 followers, many trained to fight and who could be mobilised against a crackdown.
A major assault could drive the LT and other Punjab groups into an alliance with the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group backed by al-Qaeda that continues to stage suicide bombings despite offensives the army says has killed hundreds of fighters.
Those risks may be put aside by the United States now that the failed Times Square bombing has sounded new alarm bells in a country still haunted by al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attacks.
If the United States pushes Pakistan too hard, it could strain relations that have improved in recent months.
“If Hakimullah is responsible for what happened in Times Square and is launching a campaign against American cities, then this is the kind of thing that shakes everybody up and generates political will to really get in the Pakistani government’s grill,” said Brian Fishman, counterterrorism research fellow with the New American Foundation.
“If Hakimullah is in any way providing direction to attacks on the US homeland, that changes the kind of influence the US is going to want to assert against Pakistan. That raises the stakes of the political game.”
Doubts on TTP ability
Many security experts are sceptical the TTP has the ability to stage attacks outside Pakistan, but worry it may be growing closer to al-Qaeda and could be adopting the global aims of Osama bin Laden instead of limiting itself to fighting the Pakistani state.
The United States has repeatedly called on Pakistan to do more to fight not just home-grown militancy but also al-Qaeda-backed Afghan Taliban based in North Waziristan who cross the border to attack Western forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has said it does not have the resources to go after other groups such as the Haqqani network, described by US forces as one of their biggest enemies in Afghanistan.
There are strategic reasons for Pakistan’s hesitancy to attack the Haqqanis, believed to operate from North Waziristan.
Pakistan sees the group as a strategic asset that will give it influence in any peace settlement in Afghanistan so Islamabad will want those militants on its side.
But it may have few choices if a solid Pakistani connection with the failed Times Square bombing emerges. Other cases already show Pakistani militants have global reach.
David Headley, an American arrested in Chicago last year, has pleaded guilty to working with LT to plotting attacks in India, including surveillance of targets in Mumbai.
Counter-terrorism experts say LT poses a risk to the West in several ways, including lending its network to groups such as al-Qaeda to conduct attacks.
Tags: Af Pak, New York bomb, New York City, Newyork Car Bomb, Pakistan, Pakistani Taliban, taliban, TTP
Ex-ISI official Khalid Khwaja found dead in Fata
May 1, 2010 Pakistan, pakistan politics
Dawn
PESHAWAR: Militants in North Waziristan killed on Friday Khalid Khwaja, a former officer of the Inter-Services Intelligence, who was kidnapped on March 26 along with another ISI officer and Taliban sympathiser Col (retd) Amir Sultan Tarar and British journalist Asad Qureshi. Khalid Khwaja was shot in the head and chest. A little known Asian Tigers group had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
Khwaja’s body was found near a stream in Karam Kot, about 7 kilometres south of Mirali.
Local people said they had seen the body but did not pick it up for fear of militants’ attack. A senior official said a jirga of local notables and clerics deputed by the local administration had retrieved the body.
Officials said the body would be taken to Islamabad and handed over to family. A note found with the body said that Khwaja was working for the Americans and anybody working for them would meet the same fate.
An email sent to media by a spokesman for the Asian Tigers said that Khwaja was executed because the government had not met its demands, including release of senior Afghan Taliban leaders Mullah Baradar and Mansoor Dadullah.
Mr Javed Ibrahim Paracha, who played host to Khwaja and his companions when they had stopped over in Kohat on way to North Waziristan, said the Asian Tigers was an offshoot of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi comprising mostly Punjabi Taliban.
Mr Paracha said that Khwaja had told him they were going to North Waziristan to work on a documentary with a journalist from a British television channel to highlight collateral damage caused by drone attacks.
But Khwaja’s son, Osama Khalid, told a private television channel his father had gone on a peace mission.
He said that a Punjabi militant named Osman had organised the group’s visit to North Waziristan.
According to a journalist who had spoken to Khwaja before his departure for the restive region he had told him that he wanted to persuade the Taliban to stop suicide bombings and attacks inside Pakistan and instead focus their attention on combating the United States and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
Khwaja served in the Inter-Services Intelligence for about a year and was dismissed from Air Force when he was a squadron leader during the days of Gen Ziaul Haq.
He rose to prominence during the Lal Masjid siege in 2007 when he took up the cause of missing people.
The kidnappers believed that he had duped Maulana Abdul Aziz, the radical head of Lal Masjid, into leaving the mosque wearing a burqa and then tipping off security personnel who arrested him. Khwaja’s family strongly denies the allegation and says that the family of Maulana Abdul Aziz stayed with them for over a month after the siege.
But according to some analysts, the main reason for his murder might have been his offer to arrange talks with security agencies in return for militants’ commitment to stop attacks inside Pakistan and focus instead on Afghanistan.
“This might have raised their (militants’) suspicion,” said one analyst. Mr Paracha said that the vehicle of Tehrik-i-Taliban leader Wali-ur Rehman had come under a drone attack soon after he had met Khwaja and his companions. Because of the attack, he said, Waliur Rehman also wanted to get hold of him.
The militant group has not said anything about Col (retd) Amir Tarar and journalist Asad Qureshi. It is reported to have demanded a $10 million ransom for the journalist, but indi- cated to some negotiators they may consider releasing Tarar.
But a sinister line at the end of the email sent to reporters said ‘what next?’ which, according to the analysts, meant that there may be another killing.
Tags: colonel imam, ISI, khalid khwaja, North Waziristan, taliban, war on terror
Over 700 killed in 44 drone strikes in 2009
Apr 28, 2010 Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Of the 44 predator strikes carried out by US drones in the tribal areas of Pakistan over the past 12 months, only five were able to hit their actual targets, killing five key Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, but at the cost of over 700 innocent civilians.
According to the statistics compiled by Pakistani authorities, the Afghanistan-based US drones killed 708 people in 44 predator attacks targeting the tribal areas between January 1 and December 31, 2009.
For each Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorist killed by US drones, 140 innocent Pakistanis also had to die. Over 90 per cent of those killed in the deadly missile strikes were civilians, claim authorities.
The success percentage for the drone hits during 2009 was hardly 11 per cent. On average, 58 civilians were killed in these attacks every month, 12 persons every week and almost two people every day. Most of the attacks were carried out on the basis of human intelligence, reportedly provided by the Pakistani and Afghan tribesmen, who are spying for the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan.
Of the five successful predator attacks carried out in 2009, the first one came on January 1, which reportedly killed two senior al-Qaeda leaders – Usama al-Kin and Sheikh Ahmed Salim – both wanted by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Kin was the chief operational commander of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and had replaced Abu Faraj Al Libi after his arrest in 2004.
The second successful drone attack was conducted on August 5 in South Waziristan that killed the most wanted fugitive chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud along with his wife.
The US State Department had announces a $5million head money for information leading to Baitullah, making him the only Pakistani fugitive with the head money separately announced by Islamabad and Washington. –DawnNews
Tags: afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Baitullah Mehsud, taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban, US drones
The problem with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Apr 27, 2010 Pakistan, pakistan politics
A beast has re-awoken in Pakistan, and it’s not the Taliban. Renaming the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) has been stirring emotions in Pakistan since the creation of the province: many view it as a product of British colonial branding. Last week, the President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari signed into law the 18th amendment, which included a clause to rename the NWFP to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The new name seeks to reflect the majority Pashtun community living in the NWFP. While Pashtuns rejoiced throughout the province, dancing and handing out sweets, minority groups in the NWFP were incensed at a name that they perceive as a stamp of marginalization.
Let’s start with some sweeping history. In 1901 the NWFP was drawn out of neighboring province Punjab. Among the motivations for this was the idea that the creation of their own province would lead to improved relations between local British officials and the independent tribesmen. In the years since, local and provincial leaders have implored the government to amend a name which has no cultural or ethnic significance for their people. Today, in order to improve relations once again with political figures who could be critical to the fight against the Taliban, the national government has decided the time is right to listen to the demands of the people of the NWFP.
But whose voice should be heard? The NWFP is home to a variety of tribes, spiritual and political leaders, and minority groups. The ruling party of Pakistan, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), decided to rally the support of the Awami National Party (ANP), a secular Pashtun nationalist group which leads the provincial government in the NWFP. The ANP lobby decreed that the province be named “Pakhtunkhwa” to reflect the Pashtun ethnicity of 75 percent of its 20 million people. The PPP obliged. The logical argument was that the ethnic association of the name would bring the identity of the people in line with that of the other provinces — Sindh, Balochistan, and the Punjab — which have names that match their majority ethnic groups. But political decisions are not a matter of pure logic. Shortsightedness by those involved in the re-naming may have created more problems than they are resolving.
Most notably, since the renaming of the NWFP re-surfaced in 2008, the Hindko-speaking population of the Hazara division, the Hazarawals, has been fuming. Hazara is the largest division within the NWFP, and is home to big industry, including the NRTC (National Radio Telecommunication Corporation) and the renowned Tarbela Dam. Despite sharing one province, Pashtun nationalists — and their party, the ANP — have never been able to sink roots into Hazara because of historical disputes. In fact, differences are so distinct that in Abbottabad, the central city of Hazara, Pashto (the main language of the NWFP), is spoken by a mere 2.22 percent of the population in Hazara. For some Hazarawals, the name name-change signaled a future of Pashtun rule.
Right on cue, up stepped the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Pakistan’s second-largest party, and part of the current coalition government, which draws most of its support from Punjab province and also has a large support-base in the Hazara division. The party’s leadership openly promised that they would fight for the recognition of the Hazarawals, and against the name “Pakhtunkhwa.”
After weeks filled with violent protests across the Hazara division and discussions between the PML-N and the ANP to find a compromise, the Pakistani Senate ratified the name “Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa” on April 15. The only change from the initial name was the addition of the word “Khyber” before “Pakhtunkhwa.” This did little to appease the Hazarwals, and, according to local workers in Peshawar, even served to antagonize some Pashtun nationalists, who felt that the addition of “Khyber” diminished the importance of Pakhtunkhwa. The Hazarawals, meanwhile, argued that “Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa” failed to recognize their culture and identity: “Khyber,” the name of a mountain pass linking Pakistan to Afghanistan is not near enough to Hazara to encompass it.
Back to the drawing board then … well, not quite. As the 18th amendment becomes law, Hazarawals are now demanding their own province, “Hazara.” However, separating the province could illustrate a domino affect throughout the country. In Balochistan, for example, separatists have long fought for greater autonomy, or even independence, from a national government they see as indifferent to their needs. Elsewhere, in southern Punjab, the minority Seraikis have been calling for their own province, Seraikistan, for some years. And what would happen after a breakaway province? Fighting over water, energy, and land — already difficult enough issues in Pakistan? Creating more provinces would exacerbate pre-existing conflicts across different cultural and linguistic groups in Pakistan, weakening the political and economic fabric of an already fragile nation.
This entire debacle could have been avoided. Among the main culprits of the mess must be the ANP, who are the provincial leaders of the now former-NWFP. The ANP leadership not only discounted other linguistic groups when putting forward initial names, but also rejected a referendum that could have given credibility and authenticity to the new name. Moreover, the PML-N — who attempted to represent the Hazarawals — ended up causing more harm. As a result, the inept handling of the issue by political leadership in both parties caused unrest that went onto rock the province. For the past month violent protests, deaths and casualties have increased. Hazarawals have attacked ANP offices, smashing portraits of the party’s founders and setting equipment alight.
What the entire debate highlights is how much ethnic and cultural divisions still permeate Pakistan. Perhaps the answer to such disputes is in carving out provinces wherever groups see fit, or adding prefixes to the names of current provinces. But to what end?
Immediately, Pakistani political leadership must engage with people on all levels who want representation, and seek to build on negotiations and peaceful compromise. It is clear from conversations with the people of Hazara — and other communities — that separate provinces are not the first demand but the final. The Hazarawals, for instance, find themselves feeling unheard and unrepresented. Pakistani leadership must ensure that the representation that currently exists actually represents the views and sentiments of the people. Referendums and consensus votes must not be rejected, but welcomed.
In the long term, Pakistan must fight the challenges of ethnic nationalism. The founding father of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah once stated that: “If we begin to think of ourselves as Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis etc. first and Muslims and Pakistanis only incidentally, then Pakistan is bound to disintegrate.” Jinnah is hardly known for his prophetic statements, but there is much truth to his assertion. Since the establishment of Pakistan, politics have followed ethnic and linguistic lines. In recent interviews with politicians in Pakistan, village and federal level leaders say they have tried to advance the causes of their ‘own,’ in all areas of policy, be they Pashtun or Punjabi, Shia or Sunni, Seraiki- or Sindhi- speakers. Pakistan’s national leadership should decide what is good for the country and national cohesion, not for those who belong to his or her ethnic background, or those who speak their language (quite literally). Unless this tradition is reversed the beast will continue to grow.
Bilal Baloch is a Research Analyst with the Transnational Crisis Project.
Tags: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, NWFP, PML (N), taliban, war on terror
Former ISI Officials Col-Imam and Sultan Ameer alias abducted by Taliban
Apr 23, 2010 Pakistan, war on terror
The video of former ISI man Sultan Ameer alias Col. Imam, Squadron (rtd) Muhammed Khalid Khawja and a British journalist Asad Qureshi, abducted by Taliban, has come out, Geo News reported Monday.
Taliban extremists released the video of the abductees who they lifted from Wana while on way to Waziristan from Kohat on March 25 on charges of spying.
Col. Imam, introducing himself in the video, said he came to Waziristan on advice from Gen (rtd) Aslam Baig. Khalid Khawja said he came to Waziristan at the bidding of Gen (rtd) Aslam Baig and Gen (rtd) Hameed Gul. The British abductee demanded the government of his release.
The abductees said they have been abducted by an organization Asian Tiger.
Imam has been a close friend of Taliban. Khalid is chief of Defence for Human Rights.
According to sources, Khalid and Imam were in Waziristan in connection with peace negotiations.
Tags: Asad Qureshi, Gen (rtd) Hameed Gul, ISI, Squadron (rtd) Muhammed Khalid Khawja, Sultan Ameer alias, taliban
The making of a suicide bomber
Apr 20, 2010 Pakistan, war on terror
LAHORE: Abdul Baseer sent the grenades and explosive vest ahead, then boarded a bus that would take him to his target, accompanied by the 14-year-old boy he had groomed as his suicide bomber.
But before they could blow up their target, a luxury hotel in Lahore where they believed Americans would be staying, the two were arrested and are now in jail — Baseer unrepentant about having plotted to send a boy to his death, and the boy saying he never knew what was in store for him.
The story that unfolded in an interview with The Associated Press offers a rare insight into the world of a Pakistani militant, from his education at hard-line Islamic schools, through his professed participation in an attack on a US patrol in Afghanistan, up to his arrest by Pakistani police along with the the boy, Mohi-ud-Din.
His tale shares much with that of the thousands of other foot soldiers who make up the Taliban-led insurgency that is ravaging Pakistan, experts say. It also shows how the wars here and in neighboring Afghanistan bleed into each other.
The Associated Press, after several requests, was allowed to interview the two detainees, with police present for most of the meeting at a police interrogation center in Lahore, a political and military power center in eastern Pakistan.
Baseer was born in 1985 close to the Swat Valley, which last year was overrun by Taliban and recaptured by the Pakistanis.
The eldest of seven children, his father was a wheat farmer and earned barely enough to feed the family. Meat was reserved for guests, he recalled.
Like many who cannot afford a regular education, Baseer attended three Islamic boarding schools where children learn the Quran by heart and spend little time on secular subjects. The religious schools provide free board and lodging, but are widely criticized for indoctrinating students with an extreme version of Islam.
At least one of the schools Baseer attended, Jamia Faridia in the capital, Islamabad, has been linked to terror.
“Through my studies, I became aware that this is the time for jihad and fighting the infidels, and I saw that a jihad was going on in Afghanistan,” said Basser, a rail-thin man speaking just louder than whisper. “I looked for a way to get there.”
“A trip to Afghanistan is considered part of the profession for a militant,” said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. “It is almost like you need to do it for graduation.
“The American troops are there, and it’s a cause of resentment.”
Baseer said he spent three summer vacation periods in Kunar, an Afghan province just across the border from northwest Pakistan, which he reached through a network of sympathetic clerics.
On his first trip, in his mid-teens, he cooked for around 30 or 40 other militants, most of them Afghans, who were living in a large cave complex.
On his second stay he had military training and learned to make suicide jackets.
On the final trip he took part in the ambush of a US patrol after he and other fighters had lain in wait in the snow for two days.”I was happy to be in place where I could kill unbelievers,” he said. “I thank God that we all returned safely and had a successful mission.”
He said he was in the rear of the attack, in which automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades were fired. He said the vehicles were left smoldering and that later the assailants were told two US soldiers were killed, but there was no way of confirming that.
Back in Pakistan, Baseer worked as a mosque preacher in the Khyber region, not far from the northwestern capital, Peshawar. He said it was there that he hooked up with a man named Nazir, a commander in the Pakistani Taliban, who was plotting the attack in Lahore. Baseer said he made 10 suicide vests for Nazir.
Lahore, a city of around 9 million, has suffered scores of attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers over the last 1 1/2 years. Last month, two suicide bombers killed 43 people in near-simultaneous blasts.
Baseer boarded a passenger bus along with the boy, Mohi-ud-Din, heading down the smooth highway to Lahore, where they were supposed to pick up the bomb and grenades.
Police officer Waris Bharawan, as well as Baseer, said the plan was to hook up with other militants and storm the PC International, one of Lahore’s grandest hotels. They said the suicide vest for the attack was sent to the city before the strike.
Baseeer gave only a rough outline of the plan: He and others were to hurl the grenades around the lobby or entrance gate of the hotel, and then Mohid-ud-Din was to run in and detonate his explosive belt.
Did he feel any guilt about what lay in store for his traveling companion? No, he said. “I was feeling good because he was going to be used against Americans.”
As he sat in Bharawan’s office, handcuffed and dressed in robe and baggy pants, an officer brought in the vest, dropping it on the floor with a thud. The explosive pads studded with ballbearings looked like slices of honeycomb. Also in the evidence bag were 26 grenades.
Baseer obliged with a demonstration, miming the yanking of a white cable that would detonate the vest.
“My instructors used to say this was the most important weapon in the fight against the enemy,” he said.
In the same lockup, a crumbling building built when Britain ruled the Indian subcontinent, police also briefly presented Mohi-ud-Din to the AP. He seemed nervous and tongue-tied, claiming only that he knew nothing about the alleged attack.
The pair were arrested as they arrived at the house of another suspect, just days before the attack was due to have taken place, said Bharawan, who led the arresting officers. He said they acted on surveillance work in Lahore, but declined to give details.
Torture and beatings are common inside Pakistani jails, according to rights groups. During a short time when no police were present, Baseer was asked how he was treated. He said he was beaten, but by members of Pakistan’s shadowy and powerful intelligence agencies soon after his arrest, not by the police.
Police said Baseer and the boy would be tried for terrorist offenses behind closed doors and without a jury, as is customary in Pakistan.
Tags: Abdul Baseer, afghanistan, taliban, war on terror
Al-Qaeda using new tactic in war
Apr 19, 2010 World News, afghan war
BAGHDAD: Al Qaeda in Iraq is rigging houses and shops with explosives in a new tactic that has killed and maimed civilians in recent weeks and defied the thousands of security forces in Baghdad, officials say.
The renting of residential buildings for targeted bombings has forced police and the army to adapt their operations, in a bid to prevent more of the attacks that have killed dozens since the country’s inconclusive March 7 election.
The US military has even coined a new acronym — HBIED (house-borne improvised explosive device) for the bombings, which have left hundreds wounded in the past month in the Iraqi capital.
The HBIED follows the IED (improvised explosive device — homemade bomb) and VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device — car bomb) into a terrorist lexicon started in Iraq and subsequently transported to Afghanistan.
“Our forces are focussing on the renting of apartments and buildings,” Maj-Gen Qassim Atta, a Baghdad security forces spokesman, said.
Militants were continually looking to exploit gaps in the city’s defences, he said.
“They change their methods periodically because most of their plans and tactics have been discovered. I believe they are already searching for another method of attack, maybe churches or bridges.”
Some 25 people were killed on election day, when explosives destroyed two buildings in northeast Baghdad. The US military, which pointed the finger at Al Qaeda, said the properties had been rented and deliberately blown up.
A further 35 people died on April 6, when explosives were planted in houses and shops in mostly Shia neighbourhoods, leading Atta to say Iraq was in an “open war” with Al Qaeda and loyalists of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
A number of those properties had also been rented days earlier, security officials said.
Counter-terrorism experts say the insurgents are placing bombs in houses and shops despite the methods being frowned upon by much of Al Qaeda.
“These stories are credible,” said Brian Fishman, a counter-terrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington DC, and author of “Dysfunction and Decline: Lessons Learned from Inside Al Qaeda in Iraq”. —AFP
Tags: Al-Qaeda, Baghdad, cia, Nato Forces, taliban, war on terror
Flogging the truth
Apr 13, 2010 Pakistan, pakistan politics
DawnBlog
Much has been said about the report claiming that the infamous video showing a girl being flogged by the Taliban in Swat is fake. I remember being outraged by the incident and the claims of Taliban spokespersons who betrayed their indifference to the outrageous act. Now, however, “a five-member team investigating the flogging by Taliban militants of a teenage girl in Swat has said in its final report that the video footage of the incident shown on TV channels is fake and false.”
The interior secretary [Kamal Shah] said the probe team, headed by the Malakand DIG, had been formed after the Supreme Court chief took suo motu notice of the incident.
‘It has completed its investigation and handed over a report to me,’ he said, adding that the report would be submitted before an eight-member bench of the Supreme Court during the next hearing.
Since the video’s release, the only information regarding who the girl actually was and why she was being punished came from the media, and their only source was the man who claimed to have filmed it. Shaukat was the only eye-witness to come forward and speak to DawnNews about the incident.
At the time of the clip’s release, we were all out on the streets, condemning the horrific incident. Political parties such as the MQM were on the forefront, protesting the heinous crime and calling for more people to join the protests.
Now, months after the incident and the completion of the Swat offensive, a man has claimed that he faked the video. According to Professor Khurshid Ahmed of the Jamaat-i-Islami, a man involved with making the video maintains that an Islamabad-based NGO paid him Rs 500,000 and gave additional amounts of Rs 100,000 to the girl who is shown being flogged and Rs 50,000 each to the children shown in the video.
So was the earlier outcry in vain? Was our collective anger baseless? Why was the video widely distributed without confirming its authenticity? And what are we expecting from the suo moto notice now?
When the video was released, those who questioned its authenticity were cast as Taliban sympathisers. I too had lashed out at a friend when she questioned whether a girl who had just been flogged multiple times could simply get up and walk off at the end (as is shown in the clip). Enraged, I had asked my friend: “What are you suggesting? Even if the video is fake, haven’t the militants done much more that deserves condemnation? And considering that, why should we give them the benefit of the doubt?”
I still stick to the point I made that day. The English newspaper claiming the video is fake provides no further details. Absolutely nothing about the name of the NGO, the girl who acted like a victim, the man who filmed it, and other people who could be seen in the video has been revealed. So why should we give the Taliban, of all organisations, the benefit of the doubt?
Moreover, when a Taliban spokesperson was asked about the details of the incident, he said he wasn’t aware of where the video had been shot, but was certain that justice had been done the Islamic way. Is that not worse than the actual crime? If we stand by injustice, we become equally responsible. And when this video was released, people like Muslim Khan stood by the act without even hinting at the need for an investigation or debate into the nature of the punishment. In my books, then, he’s guilty.
Even though it matters less in the end whether the video was fake or real, we can certainly learn a lot from this incident. Most importantly, we should recognise that we have become too reactionary. Knee-jerk reactions have come to determine both our associations and enmities, and our propensity for believing things without questioning whether they are authentic or credible reveals gullible we have become.
The same people protesting the flogging video about a year ago have now jumped on the bandwagon suggesting that the video was propaganda aimed at ‘defaming Islam’. This is the kind of hogwash we are quick to base our judgements on. But for the sake of reason, we should put our energies to better use and interrogate issues – or ask our authorities to investigate circumstances – before jumping to conclusions.
Ironically, restraint and sound judgement has been outmoded by media platforms – including one that claims to be the country’s most popular – that have made it a ritual to hype, politicize, and sensationalise things before investigating their veracity. That’s well beyond the call of duty of responsible media organisations. As long as it’s the case, though, the masses should take a moment to scrutinise the issue before bursting into outrageous protest.
Sana Saleem is a Features Editor at BEE magazine and blogs at Global Voices, Pro-Pakistan her personal blog Mystified Justice. She tweets at twitter.com/sanasaleem.
Tags: Flogging the truth, Swat, Swat Flogging, taliban, war on terror
