Pakistani internal security (catch all)

[George L. Singleton]

Slain Pak TV reporter had 32 bullet wounds


Thursday, 19 February , 2009, 12:19

Islamabad: Thirty two bullets were pumped into TV reporter Musa Khan Khel in Pakistan's Swat Valley two days after Islamabad allowed the Taliban to impose Shariat (Islamic law) in the area, said Geo News executive editor Hamid Mir, adding a lot of radicals were unhappy with his coverage but "truth has to be reported".

Complete story ate below Internet site of murder of Pakistani local news reporter at site of so-called "Peace March" in Swat yesterday. Some way the Taliban observe "peace" there.

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/

[Piranha]

Thanks for the well-informed supportive messages, as well as for the compliments to our Special Forces men. Perhaps I shouldn't be having nightmares, being angry is the better response ... 'shoulder-to-shoulder' ...

[George L. Singleton]

You are most welcome for acknowledging our replies to you.

Today you might be interested to know that:

1. The Presdident of Pakistan has yet to sign the treaty with the Taliban in Swat, and

2. likewise, the leadership of the Taliban also have not signed, either.

Pak President says (if this is dependable, who knows?) he will not sign until or unless all hostilites in Swat cease on the part of the Taliban. This, if a true statement by the Pak President, then means a signed treaty of peace is not, repeat not, likely with the Taliban, as these terrorist Pukhtuns are violent by daily nature and cannot control each other, ever. Discipline is not their "strong suit."

Have a good weekend.

George L. Singleton, Colonel, USAF, Ret.
Formerly of US Air Base at Badaber, nearby Peshawar,
Pakistan, and old US Embassy then in Karachi, Paksitan.

[Piranha]

US ‘troubled and confused’ about sharia deal: Holbrooke

Anwar Iqbal

Friday, 20 Feb, 2009 | 12:22 AM PST |

WASHINGTON: The United States was not sure if the Pakistani military and ISI backed President Asif Ali Zardari’s commitment to eradicate terrorist sanctuaries from the NWFP, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan said on Thursday.

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, in his first media interview since he returned from a fact-finding mission to South Asia earlier this week, said this issue ‘will be pursued at very high levels’ in US-Pakistan talks scheduled in Washington next week.

Ambassador Holbrooke also linked this week’s peace agreement in Swat to the military’s reluctance to support President Zardari’s anti-terrorism policies and said the US was ‘troubled and confused’ about this deal.

Unlike her special envoy, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared more willing to give Pakistan a chance to explain how and why it concluded a deal with the militants in Swat.....

http://dawn.net/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn...-holbrooke--bi


Copyright © 2009 - Dawn Media Group

[davidbfpo]

A first-hand report by The (London) Times to the valley: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5780438.ece

Grim reading.

davidbfpo

[Piranha]

Sigh.

Thanks for sharing this Davidbfpo, grim reading indeed.

[George L. Singleton]

A first-hand report by The (London) Times to the valley: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5780438.ece

Grim reading.

davidbfpo

David et al:

This article epitomizes in part the desperate interpersonal e-mails I have been getting for over two years out of Swat now. The anti-Taliban/anti-al Qaida good people get my e-mail address from often printed letters to the editor from and by me in the Peshawar FRONTIER POST and I am of course careful/they ask me to be so, not to disclose their e-mail addresses as they say for sure it would lead to their murder by the Taliban/al Qaida.

Driving wedges among and between the Taliban and al Qaida, who are all Sunnis, should not be so hard, as the Taliban who write and have "their" letters published in the FRONTIER POST or who allow the FP to do telephone interviews with them...and those Taliban who write, in English and in Pushto, on Global Hujra Online...in general do not, repeat don't like "Arabs" who many Pukhtuns, both Taliban and non-Taliban alike, view as much as "invaders" as we are allegedly so viewed.

Up until now al Qaida has relied on and used the fact of in common Muslim Sunni belief and customs to seek and claim shelter and safe harbor. This is a topic that needs hard work to crack that "fellow Muslim" hospiality nut. It won't be easy as he damned Taliban tolerated al Qaida to the point to being tossed out of power by force by us!

[George L. Singleton]

There is more than a little intereting reading here...Darmand is an Afghan Pukhtun, but most of the other comments come from Pakistani Pukhtuns inside Swat, in the Peshwar area, and from Pukhtuns living in Europe.

SIDE NOTE BY GEORGE: Many of the Pukhtuns in Afdghanistan and in Pakistan are of the same families and tribes, as most of you already know.

There are some interestisng topical cross links, too.

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...60874post60874

On balance, IF one used these postings you have to conclude that the majority of Pukhtuns from and in Swat hate the Taliban and are desperate as in they don't know what to do?

FYI.

[George L. Singleton]

It is amazing how different folks have different views on the subject of Swat.

My years (2) serving in Pakistan, with my higher HQ being at Badabar (suburb of Peshawar) found today's Swat under a Raj-era and style prince/family line. They (hte Prince and his then ruling family) worked well with the Pakistani Army, Frontier Corp, and local police to have and enforce the writ of law, the civil code, not the "religious" extremist Sharia Law.

Then came the 1980s and the USSR invasion, which spilled over into Paksitan. But even then Swat was isolated from most of that to the extent that the Austrians in the mid-1990s invested millions to develop ski resorts and slopes upon which to build a tourism industry in Swat.

Then came today's Taliban and al Qaida, looking for a haven (my view) away from the border areas...to start new terrorst training camps and impose their view of Sharia Law on the innocent population...which indigenous Swat folks are of different tribes than the invading Taliban...and who (natives to Swat population) had just voted in 2008 for a more secular local and national style of government by voting in locally an ANP provincial assembly and nationally having voted in the PPP and the new President Asif Ali Zardari.

To have and maintain the writ of civil law you have to have law and order. This historically was achieved by having permanent military garrisons who joined together with local police maintained, actively, every single day, not on again, off again, civil law and order and prevented "honor killings and beheadings."

See the Friday, Feb. 27 letter to editor of the Peshawar FRONTIER POST and then if interested, post what you think of the retired Pakistani Brigadier's views and opinions entitled:

Terms of surrender
Brig (R) Tariq Zubair Toor Lahore tariq.zubairtoor@yahoo.com

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=le&nid=1109

[George L. Singleton]

The Pakistani Brigadier fails to note that formerly the Paksitan Army maintained large numbers of peacekeeping troops throughout Swat who backed up the local police before today's Taliban take over due to the Gov't of Pakistan "caving" defacto surrendering to the terrorists.

This failure to permanently garrison and help keep daily law and order is the crux of the problem. Some of the very troops formerly inside Swat were moved, under the excuse of troop needs elsewhere, to the border with India after the recent Bombay (Mumbai) hotel terrorist attacks by Taliban from inside Pakistan who went to Mumbai by boat from Paksitan, etc. This is absurd on it's face. Pakistani troops are needed where the were, inside Swat, not on some phoney front with India.

I often receive e-mails from grassroots Pakistani citizens still inside Swat as well as from former Swat residents who in general have fled to Peshawar for personal safety...Peshawar at the moment is still permanently garrisoned by the Pak Army which Pak troops currently still do help maintain civil law and order and peace daily throuout most of Peshawar...but even there in Peshawar the terrorsts can do suicide bombings and such, and there is frankly little militarily anyone can do to stop that sort of terrorist suicide destruction, murdering, and mayhem.

The Brigadier is "off his nut" in my opinion when he panders to public opinion as his/the Pak Army's excuse. Does he really think the average Swat citizne on the street can influence or stop Taliban organized maruding actions and murdering?

Those still inside Swat do not, repeat not, tell me they want "peace at any price" but rather they tell me they STILL want the Pak Army to get out and fight, one on one. The people inside Swat say the Pak Army has only been doing helicopter gunship attacks, artillery fire, and tank fire, and have not been putting footsolders on the ground, one on one, to stop the terrorists. I think we have to accept these statements from inside Swat as true and the statements from current and retired Pak Generals and field grade officers are flat lies to cover up the fact that the reputation of the Pak Army is going down the tubes!

I've noted before and note again here, now, that the Pak Army and Frontier Corp have also been plagued by Pukhtun mutinies within the ranks.

There was a news story worldwide yesterday, 2/27/09 of ethnic Bangladesh troops (army) mutinying, murdering over 120 officers, now being negotiated with to "return" to the Bangladesh army. To me, as least, as an old guard style trooper, this is totally unacceptable and the mutineers should be summarily general court martialed when caught and shot.

But the militants, due to the space and opportunities available to them, reorganized, regrouped and reasserted in the populated areas and used terror as a weapon and civilians as human shields. This posed problems for the military to separate militants from civilians. The military cannot use terror as a weapon, but terrorists do.

This is a partial quote from the Brigadier's letter to the editor of the Peshawar FRONTIER POST of Friday, Feb. 27, 2009.

Whenever I/anyone posts a link to the FP you have to remember that when the "next day" occurs date wise, you then click on the now out of date link, go to ARCHIEVES, find and click on the exact date of the referred to letter to editor, then click on the entire LETTERS menu to find the exact letter which when first posted came up directly.

Messy process but in the case of the FRONTIER POST that is how it works. In the case of DAWN, you never loose the exact letter as originally posted. FP for defensive/security reasons stopped the process exactly as DAWN still has, to hold down likehood of riots and attempts to blow up/burn out their newspaper building. THE FRONTIER POST was burned to the ground circa 1999 for daring to post a letter to the editor inside Pakistan from an Israeli Jewish letter writer.

The following line to the Friday, Feb. 27, 2009 letter works today 2/28/09, but will likely again be blank tomorrow, Sunday, March 1, so the use of the ARCHIVES tomorrow would be necessary to again bring it up to read or study it.

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News....at=le&nid=1109

[Piranha]

I've nothing public to add to all this.

Thanks again anyway.

[Piranha]

PESHAWAR Pakistan
- published already some time ago, but imho still deserving attention

Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore has written to the country's president and prime minister expressing concern over the government's allowing of Islamic law to be implemented in the northwest.
"We note with sorrow that your government has failed to take stock of the concerns of civil society in Pakistan in your decision," says the April 16 letter by the head of the Catholic Church in Pakistan. On April 13, President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 after it was approved by parliament.
In February, the government of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) reached a peace deal with local Taliban militants, who had been fighting for 18 months to impose Shari'a or Islamic law. The new regulation brings six districts, including the restive Swat Valley, under the Pakistani Taliban's strict interpretation of Shari'a.
Archbishop Saldanha's letter states that "besides jeopardizing the socio-economic and cultural growth in Swat and Malakand (division)," the decision has also given legal sanction to the "dictates of the trigger-happy Taliban." The letter adds that the resolution "erodes constitutional protections for minorities and women." The prelate adds that now minority communities in the province "are forced to end ure unemployment, intimidation and migration." He notes that St. Mary's school, convent and chapel in Sangota, Swat, as well as the Don Bosco School in Bannu, have been bombed. He also points out that Christian, Hindu and Sikh families have been forced to flee because the Taliban imposed on them jizia, a tax levied on non-Muslims living under Islamic rule.
Archbishop Saldanha concluded his letter by insisting that "religion has to be regarded as a personal matter and should have nothing to do with the affairs of state." The archbishop, who is president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops' Conference, and Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace, signed the letter titled "Protection of Minorities, Militancy and Nizam-e-Adl." Other Christian leaders have also criticized the government for approving Shari'a in Taliban-controlled areas. Prince Javed, a Christian member of the NWFP assembly, told UCA News: "We are still unclear how qazi courts would affect the Christians of these regions." Qazi are judges under the Shari'a system. Javed, also president of the NWFP chapter of the minority AII Pakistan Minority Alliance, asserted that "only the constitution" can safeguard minorities.
A catechist in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, disagreed with having two different sets of laws in the country. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that the only Catholic church in the city cancelled both its Easter and Christmas celebrations amidst the Taliban threat. Media reports have quoted Muslim Khan, a local Taliban spokesman, as saying it is not subservient to the country's constitution but is committed to Shari'a.

source info: Union of Catholic Asian News