A Letter To President Musharraf

With the latest killing of Pakistani troops in NWFP, do we see the beginning of secessionist activity in that part of Pakistan, leading the Pakhtoons to join Afghanistan?

pakistan seems to be inching towards the begining stages of an iraq type scenario........still far far away, but pointed in that direction, if current policies are not changed......

1. pakistan needs to get out of the habit of being a frontline state for usa.....the usa will always want pakistan to do its killings....this maybe good for expats in usa, but not for pakistanis........bombing waziristan, under us pressure is causing problems in pakistan.....

2. the liberal brigade which feels madrassah-students, mullahs and religious militants should be killed and attacked need to be put in their place......the worst thing for a country is for its govt. to attack its own citizens.....

.....ideas and ideologies cannot be changed or controlled through violence......they can only be changed and controlled through more powerful ideas and ideologies......in addition, when one attacks a certain groiup, it will, no doubt, attack back......

3. the lal masjid episode may have made some expats and liberals very happy, however, it could be disastrous for pakistan.....it was mishandled by the govt......

.......the govt. could have easily claimed a moral victory and discredited the militants and mullahs inside the mosque.....in my opinion, once the first of the ghazi brothers had been caught in a burqa, the govt. should be ended the whole affair.......by that time, most of the students were out, many had been captured.....and most of all the lal masjid leadership was totally discredited....even the religious parties were not ready to support.....even urstruly was embarassed and short of words.....

in a nutshell, the govt. had won a moral victory with the whole population behind it.......an idea and ideology had been defeated by a more powerful idea.....

at that point, the govt. should have negotiated with the remaining individuals inside the mosque and should have let them go....it should have, then, filed a court case against them and they would have become criminals......

at that point, the govt. would have emptied the masjid, gotten rid of the students and militants, and, most of all would have exposed the mullah leadership as cowardly opportunists......without a single shot having been fired....

......and eventually, most of those it would have given a safe passage to, would have been arrested or on the run......

.....instead the govt. went gung-ho and raided.....resulting in numerous deaths.....the mullah leadership, this time, fought bravely and eventually recovered from the burqa embarrasment, amongst its followers.....in addition, the govt. lost support of the general public as the number of deaths increased.....

.......in essence, to get a 100% victory, militarily, the govt. lost the moral upper ground it had gained......now there will be reprecussions and blowbacks, which will cause a lot of damage to pakistan.......

all of the above could have been avoided, had the govt. handled the affair, as a social issue, and a battle of ideas, rather than a military affair.....

pakistan needs to take some lessons from what the usa has faced in iraq and afghanistan......the last country, whose directions pakistan should be following in dealing with these issues, is the usa.......the usa cannot control its own affairs in dealing with the religious right, how in the world can it instruct others.......

musharraf's days are numbered.......however, his overly pro-us policies, egged on by expats and local liberals is going to do a lot of damage.......

these militantly inclined religious forces, with their brainwashed cadres are undefeatable through military force......and if such force is used, it then gives them a just cause to counterattack......

This new change of face of chowk is another dispicable attempt by Chowk editors to censor. Have you noticed that they have removed the listings of ilogs on the front page. Now not only will they censor articles (like they have done with mine), they will effectively, using this distraction- i.e. a change of design- remove any of their criticism by making the ilog listing disappear. It is also more difficult to follow the relevant interacts when the side listing of interacts is removed. Thus this censorship is expertly achieved by Chowk editors by making the interactors work much harder to locate non-mainstream information. As usual Gill the AH will dominate the articles followed by the rat fart Dr. Sohial, and the terrorist Pervez Hoodbhoy. It is time for me to slowly detach myself from this miserable joke of a site, Chowk...

This new change of face of chowk is another dispicable attempt by Chowk editors to censor. Have you noticed that they have removed the listings of ilogs on the front page. Now not only will they censor articles (like they have done with mine), they will effectively, using this distraction- i.e. a change of design- remove any of their criticism by making the ilog listing disappear. It is also more difficult to follow the relevant interacts when the side listing of interacts is removed. Thus this censorship is expertly achieved by Chowk editors by making the interactors work much harder to locate non-mainstream information. As usual Gill the AH will dominate the articles followed by the rat fart Dr. Sohial, and the terrorist Pervez Hoodbhoy. It is time for me to slowly detach myself from this miserable joke of a site, Chowk...

This new change of face of chowk is another dispicable attempt by Chowk editors to censor. Have you noticed that they have removed the listings of ilogs on the front page. Now not only will they censor articles (like they have done with mine), they will effectively, using this distraction- i.e. a change of design- remove any of their criticism by making the ilog listing disappear. It is also more difficult to follow the relevant interacts when the side listing of interacts is removed. Thus this censorship is expertly achieved by Chowk editors by making the interactors work much harder to locate non-mainstream information. As usual Gill the AH will dominate the articles followed by the rat fart Dr. Sohial, and the terrorist Pervez Hoodbhoy. It is time for me to slowly detach myself from this miserable joke of a site, Chowk...

bulleya writes

Easier said than done, it will require a total restructuring of the military in Pakistan, and the nourishment of the political and other civil institutions. How easy it is for US agencies to sabotage any of these attempts, compared to how near-impossible it is to restructure the Pak Army, makes this statement more of a utopian dream than anything else, even though you have pinpointed the problem 100%- it is the correct way to go, and the only way to achieve it is to take direction from the Iraqi resistance...

bulleya writes

Easier said than done, it will require a total restructuring of the military in Pakistan, and the nourishment of the political and other civil institutions. How easy it is for US agencies to sabotage any of these attempts, compared to how near-impossible it is to restructure the Pak Army, makes this statement more of a utopian dream than anything else, even though you have pinpointed the problem 100%- it is the correct way to go, and the only way to achieve it is to take direction from the Iraqi resistance... while leaving the mullah out of it entirely, the mullah can only help the perverse desires of the US elite...

bulleya writes "Pakistan needs to get out of the habit of being a frontline state for usa....."

Easier said than done, it will require a total restructuring of the military in Pakistan, and the nourishment of the political and other civil institutions. How easy it is for US agencies to sabotage any of these attempts, compared to how near-impossible it is to restructure the Pak Army, makes this statement more of a utopian dream than anything else, even though you have pinpointed the problem 100%- it is the correct way to go, and the only way to achieve it is to take direction from the Iraqi resistance... while leaving the mullah out of it entirely, the mullah can only help the perverse desires of the US elite...

Attacks kill 70 in Pakistan

Militants target police, military following Red Mosque siege in capital

The Associated Press
Updated: 2:58 p.m. ET July 15, 2007

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Militants in northwest Pakistan disavowed a peace pact with the government and launched two days of suicide attacks and bombings that killed at least 70 people, dramatically escalating the violence in the al-Qaida infiltrated region.

The attacks Sunday and Saturday followed strident calls by extremists to avenge the government’s bloody storming of Islamabad’s Red Mosque and a declaration of jihad, or holy war, by at least one pro-Taliban cleric.

Termination of the peace treaty, the hopeful handiwork of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, puts even greater pressure on the military leader as he struggles with both Islamic extremists and a gathering pro-democracy movement.

There is concern in Pakistan that the gathering sense of crisis could prompt Musharraf to cancel elections later this year and declare a state of emergency — despite his repeated denials.

However, Musharraf can also use the turbulence to convince Washington, his key backer, that he remains a vital bulwark against extremists in the Islamic world’s only declared nuclear state.

U.S. expresses concern
The U.S. national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, expressed concern Sunday about the threat from militants in Pakistan, but supported Musharraf’s recent responses.

“He has a safe haven problem in an area of his country where Pakistan’s central government has really not been present for decades or even generations. It is a problem for him,” Hadley told CNN’s “Late Edition.”


But in a separate interview on Fox News Sunday, Hadley acknowledged that the United States was dissatisfied with Musharraf’s policies.

“The action has at this point not been adequate, not effective,” Hadley said. “He’s doing more. We are urging him to do more, and we’re providing our full support to what he’s contemplating.”

Abdullah Farhad, a militant spokesman, said the 10-month-old cease-fire was being terminated in North Waziristan, a remote area on the Afghan border where the U.S. worries that al-Qaida has regrouped.

He said Taliban leaders made the decision after the government failed to abide by their demand to withdraw troops from checkpoints by Sunday afternoon. He also accused authorities of launching attacks and failing to compensate those harmed.

“The peace agreement has ended,” Farhad told reporters in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

The government deployed thousands of troops to restive areas of the province in recent days in hopes of stemming a backlash to the storming of the radical Red Mosque.

But they failed to protect themselves Sunday against suicide attacks and a roadside bomb which together killed 44 people and wounded more than 100.


Attack on military convoy
Two suicide bombers and a roadside bomb struck a military convoy in Swat, a mountainous area northeast of Peshawar, killing 18 people and wounding 47, a government official said, citing an official report being sent to Islamabad.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said two explosive-laden vans driven rammed the convoy near the town of Matta. He said seven civilians also died.

Bodies and the wounded were pulled from the shattered military vehicles. Helmets, an engine, and pieces of twisted metal were strewn over a wide area, some of it stained with blood.

Television footage showed about half a dozen roadside houses also destroyed by the blasts. People dug four corpses out of the rubble, among them a young girl.

In the day’s second attack, a suicide bomber targeted scores of people taking medical and written exams for recruitment to the police force in the city of Dera Ismail Khan. The blast killed 26 people and wounded 35, said police officer Habibur Rahman.

More than 150 people were on the grounds of the police headquarters when the bomber struck. Police said the bomber’s head and suicide vest were found.

On Saturday, at least 26 soldiers were killed and 54 wounded in a suicide car bombing north of Miran Shah, North Waziristan’s main town, the army said.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the government was investigating whether the attacks were related to the Red Mosque operation.

Tensions high
Speaking on Pakistan’s Geo television, he said militants had violated the Waziristan deal by attacking government targets. Authorities would hold tribal leaders responsible, he said.

Tensions are high in Pakistan after the mosque raid, which ended an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the standoff.

The region along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan has seen increased activity by local militants, the Taliban, and — according to a recent U.S. assessment — al-Qaida.

One of the army’s apparent targets is Maulana Fazlullah, a radical cleric who has pressed for Taliban-style rule in Pakistan — much like the leaders of the Red Mosque. Fazlullah was accused of telling supporters to prepare for jihad, or holy war, to avenge the mosque assault.

Intelligence officials in Swat say Fazlullah announced on an FM radio station Saturday night that he was fleeing to avoid arrest.

A document announcing the end of the peace pact in North Waziristan was passed around in the bazaar in Miran Shah. The signatories referred to themselves as the Taliban, a term commonly used by militants in northwest Pakistan, though their links with the Taliban fighting in neighboring Afghanistan are murky.

Under the Sept. 5, 2006, truce, the Pakistan army pulled back to barracks tens of thousands of troops that had been involved in bloody operations against suspected Taliban and al-Qaida hideouts, and militants agreed to halt attacks in Pakistan and over the border against foreign troops in Afghanistan. Tribal elders were supposed to police the deal.

Musharraf had clung to the agreement and similar pacts in neighboring areas, arguing that, by empowering tribal leaders to police their own fiefdoms in return for development aid, they offered the only chance of bringing long-term stability.

However, critics have argued that Musharraf’s decision to cut a deal effectively handed the Taliban and al-Qaida a safe haven from which to plot attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in the West.


© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19757176/

Attacks kill 70 in Pakistan

Militants target police, military following Red Mosque siege in capital

The Associated Press
Updated: 2:58 p.m. ET July 15, 2007

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Militants in northwest Pakistan disavowed a peace pact with the government and launched two days of suicide attacks and bombings that killed at least 70 people, dramatically escalating the violence in the al-Qaida infiltrated region.

The attacks Sunday and Saturday followed strident calls by extremists to avenge the government’s bloody storming of Islamabad’s Red Mosque and a declaration of jihad, or holy war, by at least one pro-Taliban cleric.

Termination of the peace treaty, the hopeful handiwork of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, puts even greater pressure on the military leader as he struggles with both Islamic extremists and a gathering pro-democracy movement.

There is concern in Pakistan that the gathering sense of crisis could prompt Musharraf to cancel elections later this year and declare a state of emergency — despite his repeated denials.

However, Musharraf can also use the turbulence to convince Washington, his key backer, that he remains a vital bulwark against extremists in the Islamic world’s only declared nuclear state.

U.S. expresses concern
The U.S. national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, expressed concern Sunday about the threat from militants in Pakistan, but supported Musharraf’s recent responses.

“He has a safe haven problem in an area of his country where Pakistan’s central government has really not been present for decades or even generations. It is a problem for him,” Hadley told CNN’s “Late Edition.”


But in a separate interview on Fox News Sunday, Hadley acknowledged that the United States was dissatisfied with Musharraf’s policies.

“The action has at this point not been adequate, not effective,” Hadley said. “He’s doing more. We are urging him to do more, and we’re providing our full support to what he’s contemplating.”

Abdullah Farhad, a militant spokesman, said the 10-month-old cease-fire was being terminated in North Waziristan, a remote area on the Afghan border where the U.S. worries that al-Qaida has regrouped.

He said Taliban leaders made the decision after the government failed to abide by their demand to withdraw troops from checkpoints by Sunday afternoon. He also accused authorities of launching attacks and failing to compensate those harmed.

“The peace agreement has ended,” Farhad told reporters in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

The government deployed thousands of troops to restive areas of the province in recent days in hopes of stemming a backlash to the storming of the radical Red Mosque.

But they failed to protect themselves Sunday against suicide attacks and a roadside bomb which together killed 44 people and wounded more than 100.


Attack on military convoy
Two suicide bombers and a roadside bomb struck a military convoy in Swat, a mountainous area northeast of Peshawar, killing 18 people and wounding 47, a government official said, citing an official report being sent to Islamabad.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said two explosive-laden vans driven rammed the convoy near the town of Matta. He said seven civilians also died.

Bodies and the wounded were pulled from the shattered military vehicles. Helmets, an engine, and pieces of twisted metal were strewn over a wide area, some of it stained with blood.

Television footage showed about half a dozen roadside houses also destroyed by the blasts. People dug four corpses out of the rubble, among them a young girl.

In the day’s second attack, a suicide bomber targeted scores of people taking medical and written exams for recruitment to the police force in the city of Dera Ismail Khan. The blast killed 26 people and wounded 35, said police officer Habibur Rahman.

More than 150 people were on the grounds of the police headquarters when the bomber struck. Police said the bomber’s head and suicide vest were found.

On Saturday, at least 26 soldiers were killed and 54 wounded in a suicide car bombing north of Miran Shah, North Waziristan’s main town, the army said.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the government was investigating whether the attacks were related to the Red Mosque operation.

Tensions high
Speaking on Pakistan’s Geo television, he said militants had violated the Waziristan deal by attacking government targets. Authorities would hold tribal leaders responsible, he said.

Tensions are high in Pakistan after the mosque raid, which ended an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the standoff.

The region along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan has seen increased activity by local militants, the Taliban, and — according to a recent U.S. assessment — al-Qaida.

One of the army’s apparent targets is Maulana Fazlullah, a radical cleric who has pressed for Taliban-style rule in Pakistan — much like the leaders of the Red Mosque. Fazlullah was accused of telling supporters to prepare for jihad, or holy war, to avenge the mosque assault.

Intelligence officials in Swat say Fazlullah announced on an FM radio station Saturday night that he was fleeing to avoid arrest.

A document announcing the end of the peace pact in North Waziristan was passed around in the bazaar in Miran Shah. The signatories referred to themselves as the Taliban, a term commonly used by militants in northwest Pakistan, though their links with the Taliban fighting in neighboring Afghanistan are murky.

Under the Sept. 5, 2006, truce, the Pakistan army pulled back to barracks tens of thousands of troops that had been involved in bloody operations against suspected Taliban and al-Qaida hideouts, and militants agreed to halt attacks in Pakistan and over the border against foreign troops in Afghanistan. Tribal elders were supposed to police the deal.

Musharraf had clung to the agreement and similar pacts in neighboring areas, arguing that, by empowering tribal leaders to police their own fiefdoms in return for development aid, they offered the only chance of bringing long-term stability.

However, critics have argued that Musharraf’s decision to cut a deal effectively handed the Taliban and al-Qaida a safe haven from which to plot attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in the West.


© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19757176/

Chowk editors have CENSORED all my ilogs except the current 8, thereby effectively erasing the history of my thought process on CHOWK. This is a dispicable attempt at censorship. CHOWK EDITORS restore all my ilogs immediately. When you click on next page, it brings up other people's ilogs, this is BS

IS PAKISTAN BURNING

No, not yet. The ilks of YLH and tahmed, who always made the distinction between jihadis, the sectarian jihadis, kashmir jihadis and the afghan ones are the root cause of the pak problem.

I have posted here a long time ago that jihadis are general purpose killers, they kill any one whom the mullah identifies as the kafir.

Eviction of a few mullahs in a mosque in isklamabad and nearly a hundred pak soldiers are killed in waziristan.

Reason is simple, there is no distinction between jihadis, they seek death, so that they can go to heaven, and for that purpose alone they will become suicide bombers at the drop of a word from the mullah.

Re: # 181

Salim Mian,

Moderation is one of the main pillars as taught by the Quran, I totally agree with your thesis and understand the outrage. But my dear soul, how do we deal with this scourge that is willing to kill and be killed? Kharajis, Nazis, Al Qaeda all these groups are fanatical ideologues with very little humanness, its their way or the highway and that is applied for the entire family/community.

Maybe sometimes violence does create that momentum which acts as the catalyst for change, maybe Iam wrong but what if this was the correct path and the Govt waivered because of political pressure and this country slides into a taliban dominated regime? WHat then dear Salim?

States like any corporation have to adapt to the changed competitve environemnt, those that fail to adapt become obsolete, inefficient and eventually apply for bankruptcy or if lucky taken over by another bigger fish that leads to further restructuring. Its about time we restructured b4 someone else does that for us.

Could someone PLEASE tell me how to limit the number of posts displayed per page? This is insane! I click on the 'interact' link and get the each and every post, which takes an hour on my slow connection.

Chowkstaff, khairyat!?

bulleya writes ".....the mullah leadership, this time, fought bravely and eventually recovered from the burqa embarrasment"

Did the mullah leadership "fight bravely" or is it that those they were fighting (the US occupation force) were grossly incompetent as a fighting force and the mullah were "grossly stupid" in once again becomming fodder for the US elite- the answer is the latter

Chowk editors will not let me post any new ilogs, effectively controlled through "error messages"...This is BS