US in Afghanistan: 10 years of massacre

 The US-led alliance has failed and in the last 10 years they could not achieve any considerable success in casualties have soared in the recent past, and there has been a rise in attacks on US led alliance that has deteriorated security situation in Afghanistan. Now the question arises whether the US-led alliance can achieve what they claim in next four years? Can America and its NATO allies clear10 years of mess in next four years, such claims are beyond reality.
___________________________________________________________

10 years ago, the then US President George W. Bush announced a war operation against Taliban in Afghanistan.

The reason for the operation was Taliban’s refusal to extradite Osama bin Laden, the leader of the international terrorist network “Al Qaeda” and the main organizer of the 9/11 attack – probably the most large-scale terror act in history.

At first, the US role in Afghanistan was limited to supporting the so-called “Northern Alliance”, the main Afghan force which stood against Taliban, with airpower and missile shots. However, when the main part of Afghanistan was freed from Talibs, international forces were introduced there. At present, Taliban doesn’t rule Afghanistan any more, but the remaining terrorists are still leading a guerilla war against their both local and Western opponents.

The killing of Osama bin Laden, which took place on May 2 this year, can be called a serious success of anti-Taliban forces. However, recently, General John Allen, who commands international forces in Afghanistan, said that these forces would stay in the country even after 2014, though, earlier, President Obama has said that they would be withdrawn before 2013.

The Afghan war has already cost the US many human lives – and a lot of money. At a recent meeting in Brussels, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that the US cannot support NATO’s budget any more, because EU countries are cutting their expenditures on defense, and the US itself has cut its defense expenditures by $ 450 bln in the last 10 years.

By October 1, 2011, the international coalition has lost 2,747 servicemen in the war against Taliban.

According to the UK newspaper “Independent”, 14 to 34 thousand Afghan civilians were killed in this war.

The exact number of the killed Taliban militants is unknown. Western sources speak of “tens of thousands”.

In an interview to the “Rossiya 24” TV channel, the head of the Russian anti-drug service Victor Ivanov said that the volume of heroine production in Afghanistan has considerably grown since 2001.

“This war has three results, all very sad,” Mr. Ivanov said. “First, the production of drugs in Afghanistan grew by as many as 40 times. That’s an unprecedented figure. Second, the region is now stuffed with military bases and foreign troops – over 150 thousand servicemen, which makes the situation highly explosive. Third, Afghanistan is still very politically unstable, and the number of militants is constantly multiplying there.”

(Voice of Russia)

Indo-Afghan agreement

Pakistan should take this agreement as one more sign of the change that has taken place, and should point out to the USA that if it continued to patronize India, it would be backing a power that posed an existential threat to Pakistan, as India wished to undo the partition. Pakistan must use this agreement as one more reason to end its own unequal alliance with the USA, which is not just backing, India, but permiting Afghanistan to pursue policies unfriendly to Pakistan.
________________________________________________________________

The strategic partnership agreement signed up by Afghanistan and India was not all that unexpected. It was for long in coming. All the portents were there ever since the US led the invasion of Afghanistan, ousted the Taliban and installed its proxies in office. The CIA, which president George Bush had tasked to conduct the invasion campaign and thereafter administer the occupied state, had established a close rapport with Taliban’s adversary Northern Alliance when the two were pitted in a civil strife. The Indians also had actively sided with the alliance in its fight against the Taliban, providing the technicians and air force personnel to maintain its planes, and even establishing a base hospital for its injured in Farkhor in Tajikistan, where commander Ahmed Shah Massoud too was reportedly rushed after the fatal suicide attack on him. Once the Taliban were driven out of power, the CIA brought up its Northern Alliance allies to cobble up a deep state of Afghanistan, throwing the inevitably necessary element of inclusiveness out of the window to induct exclusiveness in the power system decisively. Irrationally, it packed up the deep state with Afghan minorities, principally the Tajiks, and kept shunted out the Pakhtuns, alienating irreversibly this majority community traditionally occupying the pedestal of kings and kingmakers. And the Northern Alliance, on its part, set out to pay back the gratitude to the Indians by putting the deep state of Afghanistan at its service. It provided all the space to the Indians to embed and entrench in the post-Taliban Afghanistan. The deep state enabled India to build infrastructure of New Delhi’s special strategic interest, including an expressway linking Afghanistan with the Iranian seaport of Chabahar to render redundant Kabul’s dependence on Pakistan as a transit route for trade and commerce with the outside world. With its powerful position in the post-Taliban Afghanistan, the alliance inducted a number of Indians in key posts in the state’s bureaucratic leviathan, including the president’s own office where sat one Indian advisor even to advise on cabinet affairs. For reasons so obvious, the alliance was out to hurt Pakistan’s interest in Afghanistan in every manner. It ganged up with the Indians to subvert and destabilise the Pakistani polity and the Pakistani state. In a joint venture with India’s spy agency RAW, believably at the behest of its godfather CIA, the Tajik-dominated Afghan intelligence service, National Directorate of Security, a CIA subsidiary in reality, infested Pakistan’s bordering sensitive tribal areas. This has been admitted in so many words by none else but the sacked Afghan spymaster Amrullah Saleh in public outburst recently. And while leaving the Indian consulates to fan subversion and insurgency in its Balochistan province, it berthed undercover RAW agents in the offices of Afghan governors in bordering provinces of Afghanistan for subversive activities in the Pakistani territory.The deep state of Afghanistan seemingly received a bit of shock when the Americans’ forays for peace negotiations with the Taliban surfaced to the public limelight. The Northern Alliance was visibly miffed, and so were the Indians. The alliance cried foul and betrayal. It left no doubt about it that neither was it happy over the planned pullout of the American and NATO forces, which it wanted to stay on for years longer; nor was pleased at efforts for peace with the Taliban that potentially threatened its existing position of primacy in the post-occupied Afghanistan. The Indians too were opposed to peace with the Taliban; and only belatedly expressed a half-hearted support conditioned on many stipulations, none of which could be acceptable to the Taliban, palpably now in surge. With the frustration of failed peace attempts of the Americans and President Hamid Karzai, who the Taliban in any case view as mere puppet and no authority competent enough to talk peace with, their interests now seem to converge with the alliance. They all the three now appear on the same wavelength. It is unclear if the strategic partnership deals of India and Afghanistan carries the support of the United States, which itself is hankering for a strategic deal with Afghanistan, though as yet failingly. But it should not be forgotten that the outgoing US top military commander Mike Mullen had once famously stated in a Kabul press meet that India “has a military role in Afghanistan”. And lately US Congressmen, belonging to India caucus, have been calling for India’s prominent role in Afghanistan.Indeed, sometimes ago when the Americans were debating hotly the question of troops surge in Afghanistan, the Indian media was afloat with reports that the Indian military establishment was pressing the government to deploy two divisions of the Indian army, as a force independent of  the coalition armies. But some independent defence experts and farsighted political observers warned the Indian government that with this deployment it would surely get entangled in the internal strife of Afghanistan and its troops may return home with greater humiliation than had its expeditionary force met in Sri Lanka in fighting the Tamil Tiger insurgents. The sane counsel apparently prevailed. Yet India has deployed in strength its Indian-Tibetan border paramilitary specialising in espionage and subversion. This strategic agreement is thus sure to ratchet up the security concerns in Pakistan, and not unreasonably but quite legitimately.

Defence of Pakistan Day

 September 6, the Defence Day, falls at a time in the history of Pakistan this year when the country is facing extremely grave challenges, both internal and external. These challenges are in a sence unprecedented. Undoubtedly, the bifurcation of Pakistan in 1971was the greatest shock and the sddest event that has ever occurred. But we must keep in mind that in the late 60s it was a neighbouring country like India that was arraigned against Pakistan to slice its eastern wing off, today it is the combined forces of the sole superpower US and India, which are out to destablise it.
________________________________________________________

By Mohammad Jamil:

The Defence of Pakistan Day has significance in many ways, but national unity and trust between the people and the army is the spirit of 6th September. It is also manifestation of what Sallust (86-34 BC) a well-known historian, friend of Julius Caesar, politician and one of great Latin literary stylists had said: “By union (harmony) smallest states thrive, by discord the greatest are destroyed”. He was witness to the waning Roman Empire. On the other hand, Enver Hoxha an Albanian leader, head of communist party, former prime minister and head of state, a country with 3 million population only had written in his book: “No matter how small a country was it could not be subdued even by the great powers, if the people remained united”. As ardent a nationalist he was as he was a Communist, Hoxha excoriated any communist state that threatened the sovereignty of Albania. During 1965 war between Pakistan and India, entire Pakistani nation was cast into the mould of a cohesive unit that frustrated sinister designs of India to decimate the citadel of Islam.Every year, on sixth September the nation pays homage to the martyrs who laid down their lives while defending their country during 1965-war between Pakistan and India – six-time bigger in population and size. This is one of the most important events in the annals of Pakistan’s history when our military officers and soldiers heroically foiled India’s attempt to destroy Pakistan. During 1965 war, people of Pakistan were united and as a result Pakistan was not only able to repel the attack but also made advances in Kashmir sector. Political parties and people of Pakistan stood by the armed forces. Though efforts are being made to denigrate military by some pseudo-intellectuals, political analysts and some politicians, yet the people of Pakistan hold the military in very high esteem because they had given supreme sacrifice in the defence of the motherland, and always helped them whenever natural calamity hit the nation. It was in this backdrop that dring 1965 war, people irrespective of sect, language, region or province had demonstrated what Quaid-i-Azam had exhorted —- Unity, Faith and Discipline. It is relevant to recount the achievements so that the present generation is also aware of the past events. From Khyber to Coxes bazaar in former East Pakistan, people paid tributes and lauded the jawans and officers of Pakistan army, navy and air force for having displayed the valour when India attacked our motherland. The coordinated action of the army, navy and air force from Lahore, Karachi, Runn of Kacch to Chamb Jorian, had made all sectors the graveyard of ruined dreams of Indian leadership and army commanders who had dreamt of celebrating victory in Lahore. Pakistan with a relatively small army and limited resources had, indeed, given adequate response to the enemy on two thousand miles long border. India’s invincibility as a regional power was shredded into bits when Pakistan army in various sectors including Chwinda frustrated India’s pernicious designs. Pakistan navy had played its part by launching a successful attack on Dawarka, when fear from submarine Ghazi kept the enemy at bay and away from Pakistani coasts. Pak Navy’s complete control over the waters was indeed a miracle. Pakistan Air Force had proved its mettle by continuous air attacks from Pathankot to Agra; and Pakistan Army’s resistance for every inch of land would go down in the annals of history as a remarkable and memorable performance. But successive governments became complacent and did not focus on enhancing defence capabilities. They also failed to maintain the national unity achieved during 1965 war. On the other hand, India started preparing for the second round and was looking for Pakistan’s soft belly and an opportunity to attack Pakistan. In Pakistan, internecine conflicts between political parties and contradictions between the Centre and the provinces had provided India an opportunity to incite nationalists in former East Pakistan. During the last few years of united Pakistan, opulent Hindu minority worked on those misguided elements who had not weaned off the poison of sham nationalism. India had also trained Mukti Bahini to create chaos and unrest in former East Pakistan. It was a tremendous shock for Pakistan when Pakistan’s allies did not ask India to refrain from interfering in internal affairs of Pakistan. They rather stopped military as well as economic aid, with the result that Pakistan could neither get spare parts for the planes and other military hardware nor could it replenish the outdated fighter planes and other equipment. Since then, Pakistan army, navy and air force have been striving to enhance combat capability, and have also succeeded in developing tanks, missiles and other military hardware. By the grace of God, Pakistan today is an atomic power and has also developed surface-to-surface; surface to air, and air-to-air missiles. Pakistan possesses Medium Range and Short Range Ballistic Missiles; the 500-km-range Ground Launched Cruise Missile Hatf VII is capable of carrying conventional and nuclear payloads and hit the enemy with a pinpoint accuracy. But above all, we have Jawans and officers of the armed forces who are committed to defend the country. They always helped the civil government to rescue the people whenever a catastrophe hit the country like 2005 tragic earthquake or flash floods of 2008. During the last few years, our armed forces have fought terrorists, enemy agents and misguided elements in Swat, Malakand Division and South Waziristan. And they have successfully demolished terrorists’ infrastructure. However, there are some remnants of the militants, and the military is resolved to destroy them hook, line and sinker.Historical evidence suggests that even the strongest army cannot succeed unless it has the backing of the people. In 1965, armed forces had the support of people of Pakistan and could frustrate the vicious designs of the hostile neighbour. In 1971, however, the nation stood divided because of the ineptness of the rulers, who could not resolve the contradictions between the provinces and as a result Pakistan was disintegrated. Of course, there was international conspiracy with India on the frontline, which had trained Mukti Bahini, and Indian army physically supported the rebels by crossing international borders. The hearts of die-hard Pakistanis sink to find that due to odious notions of some elements in the garb of religion and nationalism, even today the nation finds itself divided on various planes and into various segments destroying the roots of cohesion and solidarity among its components. Our politicians and people of all strata of society should reinvent the spirit of September 1965, display unity in their ranks to frustrate the designs of the hostile enemy and so-called friends of Pakistan.

mjamil1938@hotmail.com
Frontier Post

Mirza goes dabang!

The timing of KPC Press Conference too was particularly significant. The very next day Chief Justice was scheduled to open the hearing of suo motu case vis-à-vis Karachi carnage and to expose those who are behind these killers, kidnappers, extortionists and land grabbers. It may further be recalled that, while in Islamabad, CJ had termed the government as ineffective. It is hypothesized that PPP was afraid of some severe ruling. Hence KPC Press Conference is perceived by many as an attempt to divert the focus only on MQM
_______________________________________________________

 
 By Tallat Azim

There we were, chugging along at our usual pace and concentrating on nothing more than seeing the holy month through. The only thought on our collective brains was how to cope with the onslaught of Eid expenses. We had very little time to think or worry about ‘Irene’, the hurricane that was creating havoc in another, far removed, corner of the world at that particular time. Little did we guess or know that there was a ferocious hurricane called ‘Mirzene’, which was hurtling towards us at breakneck speed and which would give us no preparation time!
Dr Zulfiqar Mirza has been in the public limelight ever since this government came to power. The primary reason of his importance stemmed from the fact that he was a childhood buddy of the all-powerful President and considered his right-hand man in the province of Sindh. That he was outspoken and dabang, ala Salman Khan, was no secret but he had, hithertofore, remained more or less within party discipline.
On August 28, only three days before Eid and within the last 10 days of Ramazan, Mirza went public on several issues that have been major stumbling blocks in the way of good governance. As a dumbfounded country listened on Dr Mirza, who disclosed important national secrets, named names and called the Federal Interior Minister the biggest liar on earth and went on to explain why he did so, he did not stumble or falter anywhere in his lengthy press conference, had files and documents to support his claims and, the icing on the cake, he did it all with one hand either on the Holy Quran or while holding the Quran with both hands over his head.
The brunt of his frontal attack was the person of Altaf Hussain and his party the MQM, as well as Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Like a ball of wool, he unravelled their alleged modus operandi and made some direct accusations, including the most serious one on MQM of being hand in glove to undo the federation of Pakistan. All these accusations have been made previously too, but only in the privacy of closed doors and that also in roundabout phrases. Primarily, because people are scared of the MQM and its silencing abilities. Thus, Mirza’s diatribe had a freeing feel for everyone. There were no saving graces. We have reached a point in our political life where all parties will have to clean their acts to survive, if we are to survive that is.
Many political analysts have described this as a master stroke by the President and they do not believe that Mirza has acted without his permission. That train of thought does not appeal to me. I, somehow, think that this is a real life example of a verse from the Holy Book that says: “On the Day of Judgment your mouths will be sealed and your hands and feet will bear witness against your deeds.” Best friends can be compared to one’s hands and feet, would you not agree?
More than what Mirza said, and the way he said it was also a real presentation of the values that we, rightly or wrongly, hold dear. We tend not to doubt anyone swearing on the Holy Quran in the manner that he did and that too in Ramazan. We think it is a sign of being well bred, if you are called a yaaron ka yaar and Mirza repeated umpteenth times how he holds the President in the highest esteem, as his childhood friend. He also disclosed his lineage and his family tree as well as his sectarian leanings, all of which could have been left unsaid. But by stating them he reveals a mindset and the importance we store by such facts.
The Eid holidays have been spent in absorbing and assimilating all that we heard. The Supreme Court has its tasks all laid out before it, as it resumes its hearings on the breakdown of the law and order situation in Karachi. The holidays have in all probability given time to the political parties too, affected or otherwise, to meditate, take deep breaths and plan their strategies in the light of the reveal - all, particularly if proof can be found to substantiate Dr Mirza’s serious allegations. These are interesting times indeed!
Postscript: After the thumping success of Shoaib Mansoor’s Bol more Pakistani films have been released on Eid. The industry seems to be struggling to survive and we must encourage its efforts. Reema has given us Luv main gum and Faisal Bukhari has given us Bhai log. We cannot continue to bask in the glory of a bygone cinema era, which is all that we have as reference. If we could do well previously, I am sure we can do well again. This is a country that likes its good times and remains resilient, despite best efforts to bring it down. As was visible in the holidays, the nation, particularly the cities, displayed an almost unbelievable zeal towards finding moments of joy and relaxation. The throngs of people and maddening traffic jams leading to parks, food streets and so on was a telling display of what people really want. They only want a very small part of the pie and a chance to be happy too.

The writer is a public relations and event management professional based in Islamabad.
Email: tallatazim@yahoo.com

The Nation

Zulfiqar Mirza Hits Hard, blasts MQM, Malik

Mirza said that he and Pir Mazharul Haq held a meeting with Altaf in London, during which "Altaf Hussain said that the United States wanted to disintegrate Pakistan and he(Altaf) and his party (MQM) would side with the US in their goal "He added, "Altaf Hussain also said that he would kill Pathans.
__________________________________________________________________

Senior Sindh Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza Addressing an emergency press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) and swearing on the holy Quran to tell the truth and nothing but the truth

Senior leader of Pakistan People’s Party and Senior Provincial Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza on Sunday announced to resign from all party, government posts. Addressing a packed press at Karachi Press Club he blamed Interior Minister Rehman Malik for siding with the killers.He said Rehman Malik is a compulsive liar and responsible for all killings in Karachi. He said Muttahida Qaumi Movement does not has real mandate of Karachi and Hyderabad and it is manipulated.He said that his ministry had been changed due to blackmail and said that there existed a manipulated mandate in Karachi.Senior provincial minister Dr Zulfiqar is Vice President of PPP Sindh and also a Central Executive Committee member besides a close confidant of President Asif Zardari. He said that he always tried to give advice to the leadership for improvement of the situation in Karachi but all of his proposals had been ignored. He opposed operation by security forces in Lyari area of Karachi, the stronghold of the ruling party.After recalling his personal affiliation with the Bhutto family and Asif Ali Zardari, placing hand on the holy Quran, Mirza said Rehman Malik is in connivance with killers. He claimed he has proofs to support his claim, and intended to hand over the evidence to COAS Gen Parvez Ashraf Kayani, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani.Mirza recalled one of the MQM leaders had said about him that a pimp would be acting as flamboyant as Mirza in the company of so many policemen. The ex-home minister said “now I have resigned as minister. I came here in official vehicle. Now I will go back in my private car. I will only keep the PPP flag. Now all such people see I, Mirza, is still as flamboyant”.He said Karachi doesn’t belong to MQM. “The MQM only has partial mandate given by peoples free will. The rest is taken from voters through coercion. The poor people who sit in front of a telephone set and listen to speech from London, do that under pressure, to save trouble to the families who are usually threatened of consequences.” The former home minister expressed regret for his once remarks derogatory to the Mohajir community. He said he passed those remarks under rush of blood, being angry. He said he didn’t mean to say all that for the community, as “I know there are good and bad in every community, every society. Neither are all Indians bad nor all Pakistanis. The same is true for every community. Only a handful of bad people are responsible for turmoil.”Mirza said Pakistan has the biggest threat from no one else, but Interior Minister Rehman Malik. He said Rehman Malik connived with MQM’s Governor and freed murderers and killers to oblige them so that they carry on killing spree for vested interests. He said Rehman Malik had been befooling the party leadership by distorting facts and creating imaginary fear scenarios by invoking non-existing threats to the government. To back his point, Mirza said: “Lets suppose, if I free a murderer who had killed 36 people, wouldn’t the obliged killer kill 360 for me.”He said Rehman Malik is a flat-faced, 100% liar. “I have asked him many a time to cut lying intensity by at least 50%,” Mirza said in a lighter tone far between his otherwise tense talk. “I am not a qualified actor. Rehman Malik is the vice chancellor of ‘liar’ university,” he added.He said: “I risked life, property, family, children, everything by calling spade a spade because I love Pakistan, because I see my own children s faces in every dead body of the innocent killed in the city.” Mirza said once MQM chief Altaf Hussain wrote a letter to then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, urging him to play a role to disband the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). He claimed Altaf had written in the letter that the ISI would create many a Osama bin Laden if it were not disbanded. He said it is lamentable that the protector of the country’s interests was conspired against in this manner. The former home minister said MQM Kidmat-e-Khalq Foundation’s ambulances were used in transporting arms and ammunitions and for throwing dead bodies in gunny bags in various localities to spread terror.Mirza said journalist Wali Babar was also killed by MQM members. “Five murderers killed him. One of them is named Liaquat.” Pledging at the beginning he requested reporters to take him seriously for the first and the last time. He arrived at the Karachi Press Club at 4:20pm. The best decision of my life is to marry Dr Fehmeda Mirza, he said.Mirza noted that he has never bend the laws and he follows the principles of Shaheed Zulfiar Ali Bhutto. Allah Almighty through Mohrarma Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari blessed me with all that I own.He added that I see eye to eye with my party. I’m a party worker and will always be that way. I am a Sindhi and proud of it, he added.He vowed never to bow down to cruelty.

Tasting the Chinese warmth

On Wednesday Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar held talks with the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi during which China signalled its intention to play a significant role for lasting peace in Afghanistan and NATO draw down of troops in Afghanistan scheduled to be completed in 2014, it is for certain that the neighbouring countries have a stake in peace after that Pakistan is the immediat neighbour of Afghanistan and China and still hosting more than million Afghan refugees and it would like to have the views and assessment of Beijing on the emerging situation.
_____________________________________________________________

As foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar landed in Beijing on her maiden visit, she tasted the Chinese affection for Pakistan richly. She was received warmly by her hosts. And her Chinese interlocutors gave vent to voluble reiteration for Pakistan’s wellbeing, stability, progress and prosperity and struck enlivening notes for strengthening and augmenting the decades-long multifaceted cooperation between the two countries to the good of their peoples. Furthermore, they were all praise for Pakistan’s role in the fight against terrorism, at this point in time when certain world powers are out to decry this country in spite of its tremendous sacrifices in lives and materials in fighting this battle. Just recently, when after the Abbottabad raid episode the western detractors of all hues and stripes ganged up to demonise Pakistan, its military and its ISI intelligence agency, Beijing came out with a forceful defence of Pakistan’s anti-terrorism efforts. It said this country had had made tremendous contributions to the global fight against terrorism at great costs to itself and urged the world community to recognise those contributions fully. Even when the Kashgar authorities asserted that some militants involved in the recent violence in this city of the Chinese Xinjiang province were trained in an Ughur terrorists’ camp in Pakistan, Beijing reaffirmed it publicly that the Chinese government firmly believed no official Pakistani agency was involved in terrorism in China. Indeed, the Chinese who over the time have been going the whole hog to help Pakistan in its economic development works have at times suffered terrorist strikes in very suspicious circumstances. A bus carrying a group of Chinese engineers and technicians working on the key Gwadar port was attacked fatally when the Balochistan province was humming with reports of dollars flying freely to recruit its raw youth at the price of $10,000 per head by some mysterious forces. Earlier, two Chinese engineers working on the construction of Gomal Dam were kidnapped by Abdullah Mehsud, a militant who despite being a Pakistani national was inexplicably released from the US Guantanamo prison in Afghanistan, from where after quite a time he surfaced in Pakistan. This kidnapping was his first act after return to the country. One Chinese engineer was killed in the escape attempt while the other luckily made his escape good. Yet, the Chinese did not put Pakistan on the mat. Unhappy they certainly were; but vindictive or confrontationist they were not. Not even were they so when quite unethically and immorally the Pakistani authorities leased out virtually at throwaway terms the Gwadar port that the Chinese had built to the Singapore port authority, believably at their American masters’ behest. Neither the Chinese strategic cartographers sat down in some defence academy, as have the Americans, to re-chart Pakistan, deleting Balochistan from its map as its part. Nor did they organise any suspect seminar on Balochistan in Beijing or elsewhere, as have the Americans only a short while ago in Washington, where separatist voices were heard loudly. They let no grouse or grudge enter their hearts or minds. Instead, they have remained as enthusiastically engaged in the development works in this country as before, never loath to accept even jobs that were once stupidly taken away from them. They undertook and completed the famous Saindak gold and copper mining project in Balochistan. The completed project was then taken over from them but the rulers who had all the money to build an unnecessary motorway in Punjab speciously pleaded penury to provide just Rs.1 billion to commission the completed project into service. The Chinese were asked if they could take over; they did and made it a flourishingly running undertaking as is it now. And had the finance ministry’s mandarins not sat on the file over a petty issue, the Chinese would have long ago made the Thar coal a fabulous treasure of energy for the country. It was to be a wholly Chinese-funded enterprise.Yes, Chinese interest in Pakistan is driven by their national interests. But unlike others, as for one our much touted American friends, the Chinese do not expect or insists on Pakistan to surrender or subjugate its own national interests to theirs. Nor do they interfere in Pakistan’s internal affairs, as do the Americans, so much so that their two high-ranking officials had flown in from Washington after the 2008 election and knocked at various political doors to cobble up a government in total contravention of all diplomatic norms. The Chinese accept whoever are Pakistan’s leaders, as their ties with this country essentially go down to the masses’ level. Little wonder then, China lives in the hearts of this country’s people so affectionately, cutting across every segment of its polity.

Although we never miss an opportunity to emphasise the importance of our relations with China, terming them “the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy”, as Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar did in Beijing on Wednesday at a press conference called after she had held talks with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, the question is: Do we live up to the expectations of that policy? Have we, for instance, tried to maintain and strengthen these relations in consonance with the demands of “higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the oceans” – other common expressions used both by the Chinese and Pakistani leadership, political analysts and the media? The simple and short answer is: Hardly! For certain periods in the past, though, the deepening of ties with Beijing appeared to have been the most coveted foreign policy of the then Pakistan government on account of the genuine appreciation it had of the assistance the Chinese were giving to us without attaching any strings at all. The Chinese, on their part, have not changed; they keep reminding us that they are ready to keep continuing with their efforts they had made in raising the infrastructure required for progress and prosperity of the country. Indeed, the projects they have executed are not only numerous, but also of crucial relevance to our industry, economy as a whole and the defence of the country. Recounting them would need much larger space.
According to a statement issued at the end of the Khar-Yang meeting, Mr Yang reiterated that China would continue to stand by Pakistan in safeguarding its stability and economic development, hailing the bilateral relations as a “high-quality strategic cooperation” and appreciating Islamabad’s consistent support of Beijing’s core interests: Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. As Ms Khar denied Pakistan’s official involvement in the recent terrorist attack in China’s ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, the authorities in Beijing accused East Turkestan Islamic Movement of this act.
Post-9/11 situation in the country calls for a serious review of policies. The multiple crises that our leaders’ fascination for the West, in particular for the US, has dragged Pakistan into must now compel them to reflect on the ways to pull it out of this morass. There is little doubt that if they were to do so, a deep and unqualified disillusionment of the Western treatment of Pakistan would start taking hold of their minds. A deeper reflection would tell them that exploitation of weaker powers is the US standard policy plank, which helps keep them underdeveloped even though they might be endowed with plentiful resources, natural as well as human. That turns these countries into tools for the advancement of its strategic goals. In our case, the American objectives in the region are in direct clash with our national interests, and because of that the contours of US attitude towards us after its troops have left Afghanistan are visible. It is time to read the unmistakable signs and turn towards our all-weather friend China.

Karachi needs political solution

Accordining to reports, Pakistan People's Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has voiced dispaproval of statement given by Sindh's Senior Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza regarding Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during a recent meeting in Karachi. Mirza has reportedly assured the President that he respected the Interior Minister and that his statement has been twisted.
_____________________________________________________________

Rangers personnel arrest suspects during a search operation, on Wednesday.

Karachi has turned fast from economic capital into murder capital of Pakistan and from mother of the poor to murderer of the poor. To put the argument in perspective, let us first see the case of Ciudad Juárez, a city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez is known as murder capital of the world due to the magnitude of violence and killings. It has remained gripped in drug cartel war over the years with some 1,600 murders in 2008, 2,600 in 2009 and 3,100 in 2010. The city has a population of over 1.5 million people. By 2009, annual murder rate had reached 133 per 100,000 inhabitants. More than 50,000 troops and federal police are actively involved in the fight against the cartels. Yet, there is not let up in transgression by drug mafia in Mexico at large, and Juárez in particular.

Karachi has tremendous economic potential. There are over 15,000 industries in five industrial zones of the city. The city generates the lion’s share of 67% for the national exchequer and 35% of the GDP. While ESP issues in Karachi breeds numerous ills. Processional religiosity and agitational politics too stops the wheel of life in the cosmopolitan. Deteriorating the law and order situation stops the wheels of industry and disturbs the trading circles, incurring loss of Rupees 3 to 5 billion per day and it takes 4 to 7 days for normalizing the situation in the aftermath of routine violence. During the current violence, Karachi has suffered an estimated economic loss of Rupees 60 billion affecting economic activities across the country.

 Karachi is weathering a fresh wave of urban terrorism, hosts of civil offences and street crimes. About 1,500 street crime incidents take place daily. Cold-blooded murders are not speciality of Karachi alone. However, disregard to the holy month of Ramadan, as are being witnessed now, have never been the history of the cosmopolitan. Like Karachi (and even Juárez) crimes and murders do take place in other major metropolitans and cosmopolitans of the world too e.g. Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, New York and Mumbai. A report recently issued by Karachi Chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) noted that a total of 1,138 people were killed in the city during the first six months of the current year and 490 of them fell prey to targeted killings on political, sectarian and ethnic grounds. It is of note that these are the reported-cum-recorded figures. Like other databases in Pakistan, the crime data is also flawed an incomplete. Actually, innumerable innocent Karachiites have breathed their last while fasting during the month of Ramadan. It is a different kind of urban warfare, with no parallel in the world and has surpassed even Juárez in complexities.

 Unlike Juárez, which is a hub of drug crimes in the world, Karachi has numerous causes of crime and conflict. Some consider it to be purely political terrorism, wherein the political parties have nurtured their own militant wings, active in pursing supreme political causes. The others hint at gangs formed by drug, land and crime mafia to be perpetrating the heinous crimes. Yet others point finger towards foreign hand. Actually, it is a complex mix of all these – a product of intertwining and criss-crossing politico-economic and criminal interests of various stakeholders to include numerous gangs, groups, parties, organization, tycoon and entrepreneurs. Key perpetrators are political militias, terrorist organizations, religious extremists, criminal gangs, land mafia, drug cartels and corporate tycoons involved in illegal business. The fifth hand is always there in form of fifth columnists financed, funded and fomented by the foreign espionage agencies. At any rate, the victims are, more often than not, the poor people of Pakistan, who are either permanent residents of Karachi or dwelling therein to earn living for their beloved ones living elsewhere in the country.

Political cheerleaders acknowledge no involvement in killing and terrorism, but often claim the dead to be their workers. Yet the killing sprees in the past have always abated after “peace deals” between the political parties. Political rejoinders are often considered to be climax of conflict resolution round the world. Nonetheless, Karachi is different in this regards too. Political moorings do allow pauses between the tides of violence but never an end to the menace. This denotes that the polity not only projects solution but is also a part of the problem. Imperatives of security in Karachi are reconciliation, digitization, deweaponization, and de-politicization of police and cosmopolitanization of security system.

Firstly, the intermission in existing wave of violence is important. This needs reconciliation process involving all stakeholders. These include political parties, civil society, ethnic communities, media, eminent organization representing the corporate bodies and security agencies. Without accord between the stakeholders, the remaining process would not be more than a wishful exercise on a rough paper. It also looks relevant to suggest that Karachi be handed over to Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) till such time that the situation normalizes. If necessary, the government should not hesitate to employ military forces in the most trouble zones for a limited time. This exercise must conclude at making a permanent conciliatory commission made up of all stakeholders.

 Secondly, even while it may be difficult to digitize the entire country, a comprehensive central database must be prepared for Karachi, which should be available with all security agencies. Key figures should be available even online. The database should have the particulars of each citizen and minutiae of each house, key features and assets. Criminal records of individuals and groups should be an essential part of the database. The data should be prepared by NADRA under the auspices of Ministry of Interior, wherein each resident of Karachi, whether permanent or temporary must be obliged to register. This must also include the record of mobile SIMs used by each individual. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has the capacity to do the job, if backed up by political will. Thirdly, weapons, whether legal or illegal, are made to kill. Hence, it is imperative to cleanse the city of weapons. Yet, legal weapons are lesser evil and are authorized under the law. On the way of de-weaponizaiton, it is considered that not only the illegal weapons be cleansed from Karachi but measures must also be taken to control the flow of legal weapons under the shadow of the powerful ones. All arms licenses should be digitized, as has already been announced by the Federal Government besides linking license and weapon number with NIC of the license-holder so as to guard against possession of more than one weapon on one license. For violation beyond the prescribed date, heavy penalties need to be legislated. Weapons buy-back programme can help minimize the number of illegal weapons to some extent. All said, de-weaponization can come true only through a sustained process rather than an event.

 Fourthly, cosmpolitinic security and policing system needs to be introduced in Karachi. At the present, 105 out of total 440 police stations of Sindh are located in Karachi (32 in West Zone, 36 in East Zone, 31 in South Zone and 6 in other areas) with an authorized strength of 28,000 personnel out of total 70,133 policemen in the province. Against the UN recommended norm of 222 policemen per 100,000 people i.e. one cop per 450 people, Pakistan has average police strength of 186 per 100,000 citizens i.e. one cop per 537 citizens; still a healthy figure. The strength of police in Karachi is less than the national average too. On average, one policeman is employed for 715 citizens. This denotes that the strength of police needs to be at least doubled. Besides, the number of police stations i.e. 105 is not sufficient to police a city spread over 3,527 square kilometers. On the average, each police station is to take care of 33 square kilometers, something grossly opposite to the international cosmopolitanic models. Even with the same strength of police personnel, the number of police stations can be enhanced and equipped better. A police station should not be required to take care of more than 16 square kilometers i.e. 2 kilometers on either side, if centrally located. Each police station must have the database of people, assets and crime in the assigned area.

With better mobility and communication means and linkage with the people and communities, police should be held accountable for each crime taking place in the area of jurisdiction. Police should have relative independence to act and react without need to look towards political bosses. All other departments should be linked with police for the purpose of security. Besides, Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) should be dovetailed with the system of security led by the cosmopolitan police. At least one company of Rangers must be permanently deployed in each of the 18 towns of Karachi to act in collusion with police.

In sum, the security edifice of Karachi lies in a political solution dovetailed with apolitical system of security based on total digitization, complete de-weaponizaiton, de-politicization of security forces especially police, and above all, regular reconciliation by permanent conciliatory commission made up of all stakeholders. Let the people at the helm of affairs rest assured that peace in Karachi denotes peace in Pakistan. If it remains peaceful, all would remain at peace. Alternatively, it would keep serving as murder capital of Pakistan and thus, the peace dream of every Pakistani would simply peter out.


By Ehsan Mehmood Khan: The writer is Masters in Strategic Security Studies from NDU, Washington DC and is pursing M Phil at NDU, Islamabad.

(Pakistan Observer)

Unmarked mass graves in IHK

This ugly reality behind the façade of the so-called "greatest democracy" in the world, an expression mostly popularised by India's friends in the West, especially the US, endorses the soul-rendering pleas of the relatives of the thousands of persons, who either go missing for unknown resons or are simply picked up from their houses, to dampen the spirit of the freedom fighters, for their whereabouts. It also bears out the repeated accusation of Syed Ali Geelani, the intrepid and long-standing leader of the Kashmiri struggle for freedom from the Indian yoke, that a large number of Kashmiri youth are being brutailly killed or mysteriously disappear ever day.
__________________________________________________________

Mohammad Jamil

The Jammu-Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (J&KSHRC) in a report said: “At 38 places visited in north Kashmir, there were 2,156 unidentified dead bodies buried in unmarked graves.” It is highly likely that the state’s commission has downplayed the number of dead and the mass graves, however the report revealed that there were 21 unmarked graves in Baramulla, three each in Bandipore and Handwara and 11 in Kupwara. The report said all these bodies with bullet injuries were handed over by the police to the local population for burial and were classified as unidentified militants. Reportedly, a few bodies were defaced, 20 were charred, five only had skulls remaining and there were at least 18 graves with more than one body each. The report, released on Saturday, comes after a three-year inquiry by an 11-member team led by Bashir Ahmad Yatoo, the senior superintendent of police of the investigative wing of the commission. However, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) estimated that around 10,000 people went missing during the last two decades, and reckoned many missing people may have ended up in these unmarked graves.On 11th May 2011, European Parliament passed a resolution linking Trade relationship with India and Kashmir. Para-33 of the resolution stated that human rights, democracy and security are essential elements of the relationship between EU and India. “Therefore we call on both the sides to ensure that dialogue on open issues is stepped up with particular reference to Kashmir,” the resolution added. But such resolutions are just any eye wash as they have not been able to stop genocide of the Kashmiris. The only way is that international community forces India to implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions giving the people of Kashmir the right to decide about their future. In 2008 also, EU Parliament had asked New Delhi to urgently ensure independent and impartial investigations into all suspected sites of mass graves in Kashmir and as an immediate first step to secure the grave sites in order to preserve the evidence. But such resolutions were of no avail, as most European countries wish to do business with India – being plus one-billion market. Anyhow, the list of India’s crime against humanity is long. In March 2006, the molestation of a 15-year girl by an Indian Major had triggered protest demonstrations at Tanghmarg in Baramulla district of North Kashmir. The CNS, a local news agency had reported that the troops of 52-Rashtriya Rifles in civvies led by a major barged into the house of Abdul Ghani son of Ghulam Rasool and molested his daughter Mehmooda Akhtar, which was one of the many cases in Indian Held Kashmir. In 2008, facts about killing of five innocent Kashmiris by Indian army in a fake encounter at Pathribal village in Occupied Kashmir in 2000 have come to light. The army had justified the killing in an encounter on the plea that five Kashmiris had killed 36 Sikhs at Chhatisinghpura on 20th March 2000. The government of India and its media had drummed up the propaganda that Pakistan was involved in the killings of the Sikhs.

The freedom fighters organization and Pakistan had denied the allegations, but because of the pressure from human rights organizations the case was handed over to India’s Central Bureau of Investigations in February 2003. Since 1989, the Indian army and other law enforcing agencies have martyred around 91000 Kashmiris when the latter took up arms to counter India’s state terrorism, but the Indian forces’ record of killing Kashmiris in fake encounters and molestation of girls and women is ignominious. In the past half a century, there have been negotiations between India and Pakistan but whenever the thorny issue of Kashmir came under discussion, India did find some excuse to derail the process. The stalled composite dialogue was perhaps the longest one but no serious thought had been given to resolve the core issue of Kashmir, and India as usual too the position that until terrorism ends, it would not agree to any solution. After hiatus of about three years, once again secretary and ministerial-level talks have been started, but there is no hope that India would shun its intransigence. In fact, India’s RAW and other agencies have the knack of creating a ‘scene’ and kill innocent Kashmiris in the fake encounters to prove their point that Pakistan has done nothing to stop cross-border terrorism. Kashmiris have faced the longest ordeal and suffered repression, death and destruction even during the undivided subcontinent. The British that claim to be civilized, upholders of democratic values and human rights had played a key role in the subjugation of Kashmiris. However, the plight of the people even in India’s own provinces is deplorable. Repressive laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act have provided Indian forces the powers to kill with impunity any person in Northeast India. Indian forces have shot down several innocent persons in fake encounters and custodial killings, and as such it is involved gross human rights violations in this region. Because of inept policies of Indian government law and order situation in all 13 Naxal affected states such as Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, western Orissa and Bihar is hopeless. Central Reserve Police Force also suffered heavy casualties of its men in Naxal attacks due to poor intelligence reports. International community has all along shown apathy towards atrocities of Indian forces on the people of Kashmir, its minorities and people of other regions in addition to Kashmir. Despite the fact that India faces insurgencies in Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Bodoland, Manipur and Tripura where it is using heavy-handed methods and use of brutal force to quell the unrest, which fact has been censured by human rights organizations including Amnesty International. To force Pakistan to forget about Kashmir and to weaken it, India is involved in ongoing anti-state activities in Balochistan, because India is covertly opposed to mega projects including Gwadar. India has been working on developing the North-South Transportation Corridor, the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Iran highway, a strategic road project linking Tajikistan with Chabahar via Afghanistan to counter Pakistan’s strategic interests. These Indian projects are likely to suffer a setback as soon as Gwadar port is further developed and emerges as a key port in the area that marks the confluence of South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia.

Karachi: A baffling warning

 Though there are several factors responsible for the mayhem that we are witnessing in Karachi but as per growing perception the problem has political contours. There are strong feeling that the trouble has much to do  with the political infighting as different stakeholders are trying to establish their maximum political hold on the city.
___________________________________________________________

So baffling is this warning of the administration to the outlawed outfits. A meeting jointly chaired by the Sindh chief minister and the federal interior minister on the security situation in the province, particularly the port city of Karachi, has statedly warned the banned organisations, including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba, to end all their activities or face action under the Anti-Terrorism Law. What is this? For heaven’s sake, why in the first place are they still in business when they stand outlawed? Should not have the law come heavy on them long time ago to put them out of their vile trade? Why hasn’t it happened so far? If they had coined new names to remerge under new banners, could not a law have been enacted or an existing one suitably amended to act against them? In any case, it is not the names but the characters that really matter in the ultimate analysis. If the leaders and activists of an organisation after it is banned, weave up a new one, that doesn’t mean they turn saints. They remain terrorists as congenitally as were they in the past. Their names and credentials must be on the books of the law-enforcing agencies. The question is why had they not been hauled up when they were operating under the old banners and, more bewilderingly, after they had adopted new names once their old outfits were banned to carry on with their wicked trade of death and mayhem. Why were they let on the loose when in the eye of law they were very much criminals then as now? Doesn’t the law of the land prescribe action against those who commit crimes? Then why are those dark characters still roaming free, slaughtering and maiming our innocent citizens wherever and whenever they will? This indeed is quite a dilemmatic warning, to say the least. The administration just asks the outlawed outfits to end their activities on the fear of the anti-terrorism law. Does it really think they would when they have been still in their trade despite this law? So what is it that tells the administration they would harken its warning now when they have scoffed at the very anti-terrorism law so long with an uninterrupted continuation of their orgy of death dance? When will the administration know that it is not warning but strong action that alone can put paid to the ravaging thuggery of the outlawed outfits, their ring leaders and murder squads once and for all. But that is where really lies the rub.Like it or not, these outfits, banned or newly-sprung, draw their strength mainly from the wellsprings of religiosity of segments of the clerical orders, and, in cases, from the political founts as well. They are in their vile business uninhibitedly either for no peer pressure on them against it or for the patronage they enjoy from one powerful quarter or the other. And they are there as the authorities have spectacularly failed to drive the fear of law in them. They are far lethally equipped than the law-enforcers. They have unending streams of money and arms supplies with the sources though unknown to the public but not so unknown to the officialdom. It is thus law that lives in fear of them, not they in fear of law. And the administration has never ever cared to reverse this horrific equation. Its warnings, even if toughly worded, are thus bound to fall on flat ears. And make no mistake, the banned outfits will keep on with their wicked business as in the past. It is action that is required, indispensably and necessarily. And it has to be a very robust and concerted action. Their leaders and foot soldiers have to be taken on with all the strength at the command of the state and their sources of funding and arms supplies have to be snapped from the very roots. And no interference from any quarter has to be allowed in any event in this task. If this doesn’t happen like this, these merchants of death and destruction will keep prowling as bloodily as are they now and as they have been in the past. The administration is now faced with a moment truth. It has to decide if it has to continue to be a paper tiger or a no-nonsensical administrator absolutely intolerant of criminals and criminality.

The killing fields of Karachi.

Karachi has been a victim of unrest since the last two decades. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, almost 800 people have been killed in Karachi in ethnically and politically motivated violence since the beginning of the year. More than 300 people were killed in the last month alone. We have been repeating in this space that restoring peace in Karachi is imperative for Pakistan's economic growth. The law and order situation in Karachi seems completely out of control. The government had better wake up and take serious steps to overcome the chaos. All parties should be invited to sit together and brainstorm over the issue. Police should be empowered and supported to launch operations without discrimination and nab the culprits regardless of  their political or ethnic affilations.
_____________________________________________________________

For Karachi’s fiddlers, the chickens have come home to roost. But paying the terrible price are its innocent residents. Over the past two days, the beleaguered port city is in the deadly lap of a horrific bloodbath. The carnage has claimed nearly four dozens of lives. And as yet the mayhem has no end in sight. The city law-enforcers have very conveniently dismissed the holocaust as turf war of the criminal gangs, as if such bloodletting is okay as far as they are concerned and may go on. But it is not. It is their bounden duty and inescapable responsibility to the citizens to end this war. The gangs may be killing their adversaries. But mostly being felled in their indiscriminate firing, rocket attacks and grenade strikes are innocent citizens. More culpably, why are the criminal gangs in existence at all in the first place, operating so freely to sink the nation’s key economic hub in bloodshed so brutally? Isn’t it the law-enforces job to cripple, hobble and dismantle the criminal gangs to keep the city peaceful and calm? Nonetheless, the real truth is more horrible. As criminal gangs nowhere in the world can subsist without powerful connections and patronage, the Karachi gangsters too are thriving likewise. From one to all, they have formidable props to back them up in their criminality. They have the right connections both in the officialdom and the political patronage, notwithstanding the spurious postures of piety being paraded by the administrative echelons and the political formations. More disastrously, for their political expediencies and blind madness to keep a fickle-minded blackmailing political entity on their right side, the ruling clan has not just set afire rabid ethnic sentiments in the interior Sindh but has given a big shot in the arm of the Karachi gangs to occupy a space that no sensible leadership would allow to criminals in any event and at any cost. From protégés they have outgrown into paramount masters. Indeed, for this stupidity of the ruling clan Karachi has slipped deep into a bottomless black hole like the one an intensely distressed Mexico of today finds itself in.

 Over the time, the country’s political class let the drug mafias to infest it and use these criminal elements as their fundraisers as well as hit-men to eliminate their political foes. These mafias, in time, laid deep inroads in the administration, too, to play their illicit trades on corrupted official backs. But gradually the drugs dons took the driving seat and instead of supplicants turned into power wielders. President Felipe Calderon soon after assuming office in 2006 mounted a powerful campaign to dismantle the drug mafias and rid his troubled citizens of their violence, bloodletting and criminality. But so entrenched are they that Calderon’s campaign has run into troubles. The mafias have ganged up to put up such a combined bloody fight against the state security forces that the Mexicans have burst out into a public outcry to end the campaign. Although they are very incensed with the administration of the neighbouring America for not denying the havens to the Mexican drugs mafias and not preventing arms supplies to them from across the border, they are deeply frustrated and frightened by the large-scale slaughter, mostly civilians’, that this campaign has resulted in so far without a victory of the state forces over the drugs gangs.

 Over 700 people have been killed so far and the mafias are still subsisting in strength, with the country’s certain areas under their full sway, so strongly have they embedded themselves over the time.Make no mistake. The way things are going on, Karachi’s residents may find themselves sooner than later reduced to a pathetic predicament like the Mexicans’. Evidently, the criminal mafias in the port city are taking a life of their own, beyond the control of their protectors in the political class and the administration. It is still time that this near-certain catastrophe can be averted. For this, the ruling clan has just to shed off its political expediencies and unveil an iron hand to take on the criminal gangs indiscriminately and ruthlessly. All that jiggery-pokery of reconciliation, all-parties political dialogue and what not must be stubbed out and a strong action be put in place to decimate the gangs. For the campaign’s efficacy, all private armies being harboured by each and every political and confessional entity, including the ruling clan, will necessarily have to be demobilised first. There can be no exception or laxity whatsoever on this count if the port city is to be returned to sanity.

Enter the Femme Fatales

The first female bomber in Israel, representing the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, was Wafa Idris, a paramedic who exploded herself in January 2002, killing an 81-year-old man and injuring over 100. The first female bomber who acted on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jehad was a 19-year-old student, Hiba Daraghmeh, who detonated herself in a shopping mall, killing three people. The first female Hamas bomber was 22-year- old Reema-al-Reyashi, who blew herself up and killed four Israeli soliders at an army checkpoint on January 14, 2004.
_____________________________________________________

A female suicide attacker and a separate handcart bomb targeted the police on August 11 in the Lahori Gate area of Peshawar

 

By Amir Mir

The tactic of the Pakistan Taliban to use veil-clad female suicide bombers to effectively strike their targets without being intercepted has set alarm bells ringing for the security agencies which are already finding it hard to nip al-Qaeda and Taliban-sponsored terrorism in the bud.

A female suicide attacker and a separate handcart bomb targeted the police on August 11 in the Lahori Gate area of Peshawar, killing seven people in the first deadly suicide attack during the holy month of Ramazan.

The target of the female bomber, who was believed to be 17 years old, was a police check post that was completely destroyed in the attack.

The girl first threw a hand grenade on the check post, 20 metres from the site of the first blast, which had already killed seven people including five policemen, and then blew herself up. The bomber's vest failed to explode fully, resulting in one death only, that of an elderly woman.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban - TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, with TTP spokesman Azam Tariq telling the media that the group has a large number of women suicide bombers ready to be used in future attacks against the security forces to avenge the Pakistani military for operations in the tribal belt.

TTP head in Mohmand Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Commander Omar Khalid, threatened further suicide attacks until Pakistani military offensives, which he said were being waged to appease the United States, come to an end.

"The suicide attacks were in reaction to the current military operation in the tribal areas," Khalid told Agence France-Presse by telephone from an undisclosed location. The TTP leader said that the use of female bombers was part of a new strategy.

Khalid has been active in the TTP's propaganda machine since the death of Osama bin Laden, and has been vocal in his support of al-Qaeda. He had vowed revenge on Pakistani and American security forces for the al-Qaeda founder's death, saying: "We will take revenge for Osama's killing from the Pakistan government, its security forces, the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence], the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] and the Americans. They are now on our hit list."

The Peshawar suicide bombing was the third suicide attack carried out by a female in Pakistan since December 2010. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has condemned TTP for using women as human bombs, saying that it is a sign of their desperation in the wake of strict security measures that have made it difficult to strike targets at will. He agreed that the new ploy of using females to create havoc could complicate the government agencies' efforts to stem a growing insurgency by extremists given the fact that women in Pakistani culture, especially in a conservative society like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, are rarely frisked or searched in security checks.

According to the security agencies responsible for dealing with suicide bombings, the emerging phenomenon of female bombers poses a bigger challenge to the law enforcement agencies in Pakistan since women in their all-enveloping burqas (veils) can easily breach security. They added that a veil is perfect for the concealment of explosive devices as well as suicide jackets.

Well-informed circles in the security agencies say both the TTP and al-Qaeda have established female suicide bombing cells in remote areas of north western Pakistan and north eastern Afghanistan. The existence of these cells was confirmed by a 12-year-old Pakistani girl, Meena Gul, who confessed in June 2010 to having been trained to be a human bomb. Meena Gul said she was brainwashed to kill Pakistani troops in one of several such training camps. She was detained by the police in the Munda area in Dir district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to Meena, female suicide bombers from Pakistan and Afghanistan are being trained in small cells on both sides of the border, to be eventually dispatched to their missions. Meena said her cell was led by Zainab, her sister-in-law, who used to dress as a man and fought alongside the Taliban against Pakistani troops. Prior to the two suicide attacks in 2010 by female bombers in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there was no recorded instance of any women bombers engaging in this deadly activity in either country.

Sources in the security agencies say the TTP training cells on both sides of border are working under the command of Qari Zia Rahman, the dual-hatted Taliban and al-Qaeda leader. Qari Zia is not only a top regional commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban but also an al-Qaeda member who operates in the Kunar and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan as well as across the border in the Bajaur Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

Qari Zia's private army has fighters from Pakistan, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and various Arab countries. He commands a brigade in al-Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army, which is called the Lashkar-e-Zil (LeZ), previously led by Ilyas Commander Kashmiri, who was reportedly killed in a US drone strike in July 2011.

The interior minister had claimed in March 2010 that Qari Zia had been killed in an airstrike, but Qari Zia later spoke to the media and mocked Rehman Malik for wrongly reporting his killing. Similarly, the CIA, which offers a $350,000 bounty for information leading to his death or capture, has targeted him in multiple drone attacks in Kunar province since January 2010, but failed to hunt him down despite repeated attempts.

The phenomenon of female bombers

Female suicide bombers are relatively new in South Asia. The first known suicide bombing by a female anywhere in the world came in 1985 when a 16-year- old girl, Khyadali Sana, drove an explosive-laden truck into an Israeli Defense Force convoy and killed two soldiers.

Since then, women have driven bomb-laden vehicles, carried bomber bags, and strapped huge explosives and metal implements on their bodies in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Israel, Turkey, Somalia and last but not least, in Pakistan. Organisations worldwide which have publicised their use of female bombers include the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Syrian Socialist National Party (SSNP), the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Chechen rebels, Al Aqsa Martyrs, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and, most recently, Hamas.

While the SSNP has the distinction of deploying the first ever female suicide bomber, the LTTE became the world's foremost suicide bombers and proved the tactic to be so unnerving and effective that their methods and killing innovations were studied and copied, most notably in the Middle East. The LTTE has committed the most attacks, close to 200, using female bombers in 40 percent of cases. The largest number killed (170) was in Moscow in October 2002 when Chechen rebels, including a high proportion of women, held hostages in a theatre, eventually leading to a futile rescue operation in which 129 captives and 41 rebels were killed. Palestinian suicide bombers have carried out the largest number of attacks in the recent years.

The youngest female bomber so far is 16-year old Khyadali Sana (who detonated herself in 1985), followed by 17-year old Laila Kaplan, (who had blew herself up in 1996). The oldest female suicide bomber was 37-year old Shagir Karima Mahmud in 1987. The first LTTE female suicide bomber was Dhanu, who killed Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991. The only pregnant female suicide bomber was from the Kurdistan Workers Party, killing six Turkish soldiers in June 1996. Her name remains unknown. The first Russian "Black Widow" was Hawa Barayev, who acted on behalf of the Chechen rebels in June 2000 and killed 27 Russian Special Forces soldiers by exploding her suicide vest.

The first female bomber in Israel, representing the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, was Wafa Idris, a paramedic who exploded herself in January 2002, killing an 81-year-old man and injuring over 100. The first female bomber who acted on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jehad was a 19-year-old student, Hiba Daraghmeh, who detonated herself in a shopping mall, killing three people. The first female Hamas bomber was 22-year-old Reem al-Reyashi, who blew herself up and killed four Israeli soldiers at an army checkpoint on January 14, 2004.

Reem was a mother who left behind a husband, a three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter. On June 11, 2011, a veiled female bomber detonated herself at the official residence of the country's Interior Minister Abdi Shakur Sheikh Hassan in Mogadishu, killing him on the spot. It is believed that the suicide attack could have been a retaliatory act by al-Shabaab insurgents in the wake of a sustained government push against them.

The first incident of suicide bombing carried out by a female in Afghanistan happened on June 21, 2010 in Kunar province, killing two American soldiers. The first suicide attack by a female bomber in Pakistan was carried out on December 24, 2010 at an aid distribution center of the United Nations World Food Programme in Khar area of Bajaur Agency, killing 47 people.

The second attack was carried out on June 25, 2011 when a husband and wife team, said to be Uzbeks, attacked a police station in the Dera Ismail Khan City, killing seven policemen and a tea boy. The TTP had claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out to avenge the May 2, 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden.

The use of female suicide bombers by Taliban has prompted the Pakistan media to demand that all suspected veil-clad women should be searched without exception. Daily Times stated in its August 13 editorial:

“The piety of holy warriors has shown its true colors - the sanctity of the holy month of Ramadan seems irrelevant to them as evidenced by the Peshawar suicide hit carried out by a female bomber.

Pakistan has witnessed a string of terror attacks following the May 2, 2011 killing of Bin Laden in Abbottabad. It seems that the very culture that the terrorists claim to uphold - of keeping a woman untouched by male hands and covered in a veil as well - is exactly what these monsters are using against us. If women are the new lethal weapons against the citizens and the state then counter steps must be drawn up to face this threat. Women, especially those in the baggy burqa, should be searched without exception”.