Pakistan's Afghan Policy

ballu...

Akhtar Abdul Rahman was the farthest thing from a mullah....

Americans were not naive... and as for creating the virus... you ought to check with faculty up at University of Nebraska... the Jehad syllabus both for Pakistan and Afghanistan was prepared there in the 1980s..

It was Khilafat movement all over again, if you catch my drift.

Re: # 454

``CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. ``

Again, the same mistake of looking at wrong direction.

The support was indeed in the form of US Dollars, Drug Peddling, Arms Supply......but the ideology of using violent Jehad was a product of Paki Army and its ISI intelligence bosses.
The US thought that the moster of violent Jehadism would only be used to drive out Russians from Afghanistan............they had no idea that violent Jehadism was a virus that had no bounderies and by supporting it only helped in its multiplication............but not its creation..............the creation was a product of the mullah Jernails in the Paki army.............and these Jernail made their ill gotten wealth out of funds for supporting the Afghan Mujahadeen`s violent jehad........... US Did NOT create the virus...........the virus was nurtured by the Jernails.....................

Because ... Islamabad is a city of recent origin... and because a great number of the people who work and live in Islamabad commute from the nearby Rawalpindi.... which has a larger Hindu population... and few temples.

However... it is well known that Punjabis killed each other silly during 1947.... hence there are hardly any Muslims in East Punjab ... and unlike us, you actually claim to be Secular... why is that?

Now if you were to go to Karachi or interior Sindh... you would find that the Hindus are a prosperous community there, consisting doctors, businessmen, fashion designers and influential feudals.

#456 by Mantolives

[Diwali is a rare event in Islamabad as there are only a few Hindus in Islamabad. ]

Out of a population of almost a million in the CAPITAL CITY, there are only 25 Hindu families in ISLAMabad.

One wonders why this is so in this most secular of countries.....

Diwali at the Pakistan Muslim League House



Diwali celebrated at PML House

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: A colourful event was held at the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) House on Monday to celebrate Diwali.

Members of the Hindu community from across the country participated in the event where they performed their religious rituals and traditional dances in candlelight to mark the event. Diwali is a rare event in Islamabad as there are only a few Hindus in Islamabad.

A number of office bearers of the party and ministers, including PML Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Syed, Minister for Religious Affairs Ijaz-ul-Haq, State Minister for Information Tariq Azim, Minister for Minorities Affairs Mushtaq Victor and members of the National Assembly (MNAs) Bindara, Donia Aziz, Akram Masih Gill and others were present on the occasion. Officials of the Indian High Commission also participated in the event.

Hussain said that Quaid-e-Azam had envisioned a Pakistan where all the religious minorities enjoyed equal rights. He underlined the importance of inter-faith harmony for the greater prosperity of the nation and announced that the PML would also celebrate the birthday of Baba Gurunanak next week. He said that the minorities played a vital role in building any nation. He said that the present government was allocating high importance to giving all minorities’ equal. Hindus are playing a leading role in country’s economic development and the present government will leave no stone unturned to ensure their safety and well being, he added.

Haq said that the minorities in Pakistan were enjoying equal rights and that they were given equal status in all spheres of life.

PML Minorities Wing President, Akram Masih Gill said that the Muslim League was a liberal, moderate and enlightened political party working for the betterment of country.

BWAHAHAHA...fired rockets into the hill side!!...I can almost imagine mushy singing ``The hills are alive with the sound of paki army rockets``...

82 die as missiles rain on Bajaur: Pakistan owns up to strike; locals blame US drones

By Anwarullah Khan

KHAAR (Bajaur), Oct 30: Eighty-two people were killed, 12 teenagers among them, in an air strike at a religious seminary in Damadola in the Bajaur tribal region on Monday morning.

Pakistan’s military spokesman, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, said those killed in the dawn attack were all militants and denied that there had been any collateral damage.

The operation, he said, was launched following intelligence reports that the seminary was being used as a training facility for terrorist activities.

But local residents believe the air strike was carried out by fixed-wing US drones which fired hellfire missiles at the compound, killing all those inside the seminary, including its administrator Maulvi Liaqat Ali.

“Pakistani helicopters arrived 20 minutes later and fired rockets at the hillside,” one resident said.

However, the military spokesman denied US involvement in the attack.

“The operation was launched after confirmed intelligence reports that a number of miscreants were getting terrorist training in a madressah,” Maj-Gen Sultan told a news briefing in Islamabad.

He said that the operation was conducted only by the Pakistan Army, after issuing a warning to the militants and keeping the madressah under watch for a few days.

He reiterated that Pakistan would not allow anyone to use its soil for terrorist activity.

No journalist was allowed entry into Bajaur and passengers entering the tribal region were asked to identify themselves.

Surprisingly, the strike on Damadola, the second since January, came the day the government was expected to sign a peace agreement with militants in Bajaur replicating the September 5 truce reached with militants in North Waziristan.

The peace agreement, had it been signed, would have resulted in the grant of a pardon to the two most wanted militants, Maulana Faqir Mohammad and Maulvi Liaqat. Both had been charged with harbouring and providing shelter to Al Qaeda operatives.

Locals in Chenagai, a small hamlet in Damadola, a village some 13km northeast of the regional headquarters, Khaar, said two loud explosions had woken them up at around 5am.

One missile hit the compound while the other landed in a nearby stream, they said. The seminary was completely flattened. That was followed by a third strike from a second drone, they said.

About 15 minutes later, they said, three helicopter gunships of the Pakistan Army arrived and fired a few rockets that slammed into nearby hills.

“Spy planes (drones) have been flying over the area for the last few days,” Akhunzada, a local resident said.

“There were two big explosions. They were so powerful that they shook the earth and rattled our doors and windows,” Sahibzada Haroon Rashid, the Jamaat-i-Islami member in the lower house of parliament, who lives barely a kilometre away from the bombed-out seminary, told Dawn on telephone from Khaar.

He said the helicopters arrived at the scene a good 15 minutes later, firing a few rockets before flying back.

“Those were small thuds — nothing in comparison to the big explosions that preceded them minutes earlier,” he said.

Like many other residents, Sahibzada Haroon is convinced the seminary was bombed by US drones and Pakistan owned the air strikes up to cover up the whole incident and avoid embarrassment.

“Absolutely. I have no doubt in my mind that it was done by the Americans and we are now making a futile attempt to cover it up,” he said.

Local residents rushed to the scene of the bombing and pulled out the dead. Few bodies were found to be unharmed as locals collected mutilated body parts from under the single-storey building that was the headquarters of the defunct Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi.

Locals admitted that it also served as a meeting-point for militants waging ‘jihad’ against the US-led Nato forces in the neighbouring eastern Afghan province of Kunar.

Apparently only three of the 83 struck by the air raid had survived with wounds. Two of them died later at a local hospital, taking the total death toll to 82. However, only 55 of those killed could be accounted for; the remaining victims were said to have perished in the deadly bombing.

Forty of those killed were buried in a nearby graveyard while 15 bodies were sent to their respective villages. While most of those killed were said to be young men in their twenties, 12 of them were said to be children in their early teens.

There was no ‘high-value target’ or any foreign militant among those killed, local residents and government officials said.

Fugitive cleric Maulana Faqir Mohammad and his deputy Maulvi Liaqat Ali had escaped the US missile attack in the Damadola village in January this year that had left 18 civilians, mostly women and children, dead.

The January bombing and the death of innocent civilians had triggered public backlash, forcing the government to lodge a protest with the United States. The US later said the strike had been aimed at killing Al Qaeda No 2, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was expected to turn up there for a dinner meeting.

Shops and markets were closed in the entire Bajaur region as news of the latest bombing spread. Thousands of angry Bajauris turned up at the first funeral of about 20 victims at 9am.

Maulana Faqir Mohammad, in his emotional speech, vowed to continue ‘jihad’ against the US and alleged that the bombing was an attempt to wreck peace in the tribal region. He announced that a black day would be observed on Tuesday and asked his followers to vent their anger in a peaceful manner.

Senior NWFP Minister Sirajul Haq also rushed to Bajaur and announced quitting his office in the MMA government in the NWFP. But, much to his embarrassment, his party chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, and Chief Minister Akram Durrani made it clear later the move had been on the anvil for some time and was not linked to the bombing.

...........following is how the taliban were created........again and again, the usa creates its own enemies, in short-term adventures........from the horse`s mouth, so to speak......i wonder if brzenski would have made these comments after 9/11.........

``Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998

Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [``From the Shadows``], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

Brzezinski: It isn`t quite that. We didn`t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn`t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don`t regret anything today?

Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

remaining at http://www.counterpunch.org/brzezinski.html.............

........pakistan made the big mistake of becoming a front-line state for the usa, at that time.........it is making the same mistake again..........

PewResearch:

Okay, I was not aware of Article 51. But whether or not WTC attack can be considered to be an attack by Afghanistan (because it had sheltered Al Qaida elements) seems to be somewhat debatable. I would have agreed with you if the attack on WTC was debated in the UN and Afghanistan culpability established; the US attack would then have the added strength of the UN support.

Please do not think for a moment that I support the Taliban regime or deny Pakistan`s complete complicity in conceiving, nurturing and ceaselessly supporting the Taleban even when it declared its support for the US-led alliance.

Re: # 446

``HP was right about the Pak/Afghan policy.``

HP is a terror master and he knows it very well that now the battle is going to engulf Pakistan and its testerone high macho jehadis willing to fight their final battle for their ``pureland``.
Infact every PAkistani who thinks that it is his destiny to blow himself to continue the religious war would agree to the analyses offered by the CKP Jehadi master.

mosque bombed in the land of the pure? wonder how HP will spin this into a great victory for the land of the pure..

Tribals vow to avenge killings

Gunship helicopters Monday destroyed a madrassa allegedly used as a training camp in Bajaur agency, killing up to 80 suspected militants as an American TV channel claimed that US drones launched the operation after reports of presence of Ayman Al-Zawahiri in the madrassa.
DG ISPR refused to comment on the TV report in private TV channel. However he said that all the resources were at Pak Army’s disposal. He refuted reports of killing of mastermind of British plane plot in the attack. “I cannot say anything on this as such reports can be fabricated by anyone”, he said talking to a private TV channel.
Eyewitnesses said several gunship helicopters bombed the madrassa at around 5.12 am when people were preparing for Fajr prayers.
The gunships fired three bombs at different portions of the madrassa including mosque killing all the people inside.
The main mosque and two residential portions of madrassa were also razed to ground.
Maulana Liaqat, the deputy leader of banned TNSM, was among those killed in the strike.
Bodies of almost all the victims were reduced to bits and pieces while the mosque and nearby residential compound were destroyed, witnesses said.
According to eyewitnesses around six injured students were shifted to the Agency Headquarter Hospital in Khar. However, the hospital administration said that only three persons were admitted, of which two later succumbed to injuries while the third was in serious condition.
Besides Maulana Liaqat, who was wanted for his alleged links with Al-Qaeda, many other leading religious figures like Maulana Gul Sher and Maulana Amir Zaman were also killed in the strike. Majority of the killed persons were youth enrolled in madrassa.
There were conflicting views about the origin of the killed students as local tribesmen claimed that almost all of them were locals. The government officials were of the view that some of them were from Afghanistan.
The bombed Madrassa is situated one kilometer away from Damadola village, which came under a similar strike on January 12 this year.
NWFP Senior Minister Sirajul Haq, MNA from Bajaur Agency Sahibzada Haroonur Rashid, leader of banned TSNM Maulana Faqir Muhammad and others rushed to the spot.
NWFP Senior Minister Sirajul Haq led the funeral prayers and later bodies of the dead were dispatched to their native villages in all over the area.
Soon after the collective funeral prayer, people from across Bajaur Agency staged demonstrations in Khar.
Sahibzada Haroonur Rashid, Khan Bahadar, Maulana Ahmad Noor, traders and social leaders also addressed the protest rally.
They alleged that present government, particularly the armed forces, had failed in safeguarding the national interests and the geographical borders of the country. (This means it was a CIA drone..)
Sahibzada Haroonur Rashid said that as a mark of protest he had tendered resignation from the National Assembly.
The leaders of Jamiatul Ulema Islam (Fazl) including MNA Maulana Mohammad Sadiq and Senator Rashid Ahmad along with Pakistan People’s Party’s Akhunzada Chattan, at a press conference denounced the air raid and asked for early termination of diplomatic ties with the US.
The political leaders and trade circles have announced complete strike today (Tuesday) against the bombing. They also announced to hold a protest rally in Khar.
Our monitoring desk adds: A US TV channel reported Monday that US helicopters took part in the operation against Al-Qaeda leader Aymen al-Zawahri, on the intelligence reports that he was present in the madrassa.
The channel added that five Al-Qaeda members had died in the attack, however, it could not confirm Aymen Zawahri’s death.
A ‘drone’ fired missiles on the madrassa, the channel reported.
Talking to a private TV channel, DG ISPR, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan denied involvement of US forces in the operation.
“We had information of a militant training camp in madrassa, but there was no information of Aymen al-Zawahri’s presence”, he said.
The raid was conducted by Pakistani forces, he maintained.
RAO KHALID adds from ISLAMABAD: Meanwhile talking to The Nation DG ISPR said that the identity of 80 people killed in Khar had not been ascertained. Sultan said that ongoing investigations would reveal the true identity of the miscreants.
“At the moment, I cannot say whether they were Taliban or Al-Qaeda men but investigations from the injured, taken into custody from there, would help us in determining their true identity,” Shaukat told The Nation.
The DG ISPR said that 80 under training miscreants were killed during the operation that included locals and foreigners aged between 20 to 30 years. He, however, was not sure about the number of foreigners killed during the operation.
DG ISPR said that a terrorist camp was set up under the garb of madrassa by one Maulvi Liaqat at Khar who had been warned to stop the illegal activity forthwith.
“They were under observation for the last two months. They had been warned to end the terrorists training activities but they did not heed the warnings,” Shaukat said.
The camp was targeted Monday morning by the security forces and the reports revealed that Maulvi Liaqat was among those killed.
When asked about the details of the operation, Sultan said, ground troops did not take part in the operation and it was carried out from the air by helicopters.
He dispelled the impression that NATO forces carried out the operation saying, “only Pakistani security forces were involved in the operation.”
Online adds: Director General ISPR said that local people and foreigners were among the dead and no Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants were among the dead.
Addressing a Press conference Sultan further said there were no women and children dead in this operation.
AFP adds: “Most of the compound was destroyed.”
“There was no collateral damage,” he added.
Twenty bodies wrapped in sheets were laid out for funeral prayers and people pulled dozens more from the rubble and put them in sacks, an AFP correspondent said.
Siraj-ul-Haq, the deputy chief minister of North West Frontier Province, which borders the area, said after attending the funeral that he was resigning “to express solidarity with those innocent 80 students who died.”
“This attack has been launched by America and its allies which includes Pakistan,” he told reporters in the provincial capital Peshawar. “Only 45 bodies were in shape. The rest have been reduced to bits and pieces.”
Meanwhile around 200 bearded Islamist students burned a US flag in the southern port city of Karachi.
The attack came two days after thousands of pro-militant tribesmen gathered in Bajaur agency and chanted their support for Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, security sources said.
Sultan said the attack was not linked to the meeting and was based on prior intelligence.
Al-Qaeda’s Egyptian deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was said to have escaped a US missile attack about two kilometres (over a mile) away at Damadola village in Bajaur agency in January.
Protesters and a Pakistani official blamed the United States for the airstrike.
The provincial assembly also condemned the attack.
Expressing resentment over the bombing Maulana Faqir Mohammad said the strike was part of a conspiracy to kill innocent people. He claimed there was no foreigner or terrorist amongst the victims.
Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, flanked by other clerics, who led the rally and who had links with the dead cleric Liaqat, said that the dead were civilians and vowed that their deaths would be “avenged”.
Meanwhile, NWFP Senior Minister Sirajul Haq in a hurriedly called Press Conference at Peshawar Press Club announced to resign from his office as protest over the Bajaur attack where over eighty persons have been killed.
“Now it seems hard for me to remain silent over frequent brutalities against the Muslim Ummah in general and countrymen in particular,” Siraj said after attending the collective funeral prayers of the victims of Bajaur military action, in Chingai on Monday.
Sirajul Haq, who is also Provincial Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, later told the media that now he would concentrate on bringing an Islamic revolution and also serve the party cause.
He alleged that the military action on the madrassa was conducted by the US and its allied forces based in Afghanistan and that there is no truth in the statement of ISPR DG Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan that the Pakistan armed forces carried out the operation. He further claimed that the Pakistan army cannot show such tyranny and brutality to kill its own innocent citizens
Further commenting on ISPR DG Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan’s admittance that armed forces conducted the operation in Bajaur Agency, Siraj said, “The federal government must quit power over this confession.”
He dispelled Gen. Shaukat’s claim that the bombed madrassa was being used for terrorist activities, saying “It was a common madrassa and all of the victims were young students.”
Sirajul Haq disclosed that MMA had decided to observe a Protest Day today against the military action, which killed over 80 precious lives.
He asked for an immediate end to the military action and apprehended similar strikes against Darul Uloom Haqqania, Jamia Banori Town, Jamia Ashrafia and other places.
Although Siraj linked his resignation to the military action in Bajaur, yet party Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad claimed the party Shura had asked Siraj to keep one of the two offices, party or ministry.

#414
So whats ur point? What does this interview with a trailerpark woman prove 2 u?

#448 by mohar11 on October 30, 2006 11:13am PT


fundo group and pro-american group


It`s more like the allah-will-protect-us-from-american-bombs group v/s the we-may-talk-big-but-we-are-scared-shitless-of-american-bombs group..

Re: # 446
looks like paki establishment is split between two groups: fundo group and pro-american group... both groups are pulling and pushing... if one group is setting up ``truce`` with taliban, other group is bombing the hell out of them...

the establishment seems to be divided against itself...

Re: # 444 Zeemax
``Again, did Taliban carry out an armed attack against US?``
Their protectees (The Al Qaeda) did! That is all that is needed under Article 51 for a retaliation against Taliban in self-defense under the law in this case, since you and Dost Mittar were asserting that the US did not have any legal cover to go into Afghanistan.

#445 by arjun2

Details will emerge. It is a bit premature to comment yet. It looks like the peace agreement is finished, obviously not by Pak, but by someone else. Another tribe was supposed to sign-in today. Pak couldn`t have done it particularly with this timing and someone else didn`t like the proceedings. HP was right about the Pak/Afghan policy.

so let me get this straight: the US is whacking pakis on paki soil and the paki army is letting itself take the blame for bombing a madrassah...

and, according to HP, Pakiland`s afghan strategy has somehow resulted in some great victory for the land of the pure?

there`s deluded...and there`s paki-deluded..