Pakistani internal security (catch all)

[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

[George L. Singleton]

www.asinstitute.org/newsletter99

This comes out monthly to me from the Alternate Solutions Institute in Lahore, Paksitan. I think this think tank is on the campus of the University of Punjab.

May be of general readership interest.

[Piranha]

I've nothing public to add to all this.

Thanks again anyway.

[George L. Singleton]

The Saturday, March 28 Peshawar FRONTIER POST carried a lead story of a terrorist suicide bomber blowing himself and up to 300 innocent Pukhtun Muslim Pakistanis up in a two story mosque on the edge of Peshawar this weekend.

The idiot local Pakistani/Pukhtun police official had this stupid remark to make about the murderer, which really makes me furious:

"He said that foreign hand could not be ruled out in this tragic incident because a Muslim could not dare to kill the worshippers inside the mosque."

This is the sort to dishonest, lying, terrorist coddling I have seen over and over again from those Pukhtuns in government positions who will not condemn and damn those Pukhtuns who are Taliban terrorists. It clearly paints them a likely supporters of the terrorists themselves.

Damned shame all around.

[George L. Singleton]

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...4821#post64821

See posting #18 which is taken from a French news agency and posted on this Hujra Online site, and also see posting #8, which is the first one I saw earlier this morning on this website.

The Lahore National Policy Academy, which routinely has over 1,000 cadets enrolled at any one time of late, was attacked early this morning, Monday, March 30, per the Global Hujra Online comments contained in the above Internet reference. The number of Pak police cadets killed and wounded is not yet clear to me from these reports.

In part this posting says:

LAHORE: Security forces have secured one portion of Manawan Police Academy, Geo news reported on Monday.

According to Tv news correspondents who are inside premises of the Academy, commandos of elite force and army have captured the terrorists alive. After clearing the compound and arresting the terrorists, the commandos fired in jubilation and said “Allah Akber”.

According to sources, the operation has been successfully completed after eight hours of intense gun battle.

[George L. Singleton]

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6466

This article dateline 4/20/09 from the blog site Global Hujra Online (a part of the KhyberWatch.com site) gives a chilling, blunt, and factual picture of how the Taliban terrorists have been setting up in norhtern Pakistan ever since the 1990s with the aide and assistance of the national government and even provincial governments of this troubled now lawless area of Pakistan.

The article moves to the conclusion that the Taliban are now organized in brigade strength and are soon, within a matter of weeks, to attempt an invasion of the City of Islamabad.

Over the weekend I noticed some commentary/letters to the editor of DAWN in Karachi suggesting that the Government of Pakistan withdraw to and again have the capital of Pakistan in Karachi, where it was when I was stationed at the old US Embassy in 1963-1965.

My summary comment: Religious civil war is happening inside Pakistan which even in SWAT and other Northern Pakistan areas the locals and their leaders, the tribal elders, are unable to stop even with force of their own arms. The Taliban are being equipped/supplied with heavy weaponry by the ISI and are capturing NATO destined heavy weaponry enroute to Afghanistan via Pakistan ground routes as well.

Expensive though it may be, airlifting weaponry and ammunition into Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan, is an immediate necessity in my opinion.

[jmm99]

Extremist Tide Rises in Pakistan

After Reaching Deal in North, Islamists Aim to Install Religious Law Nationwide
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 20, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 19 -- A potentially troubling era dawned Sunday in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where a top Islamist militant leader, emboldened by a peace agreement with the federal government, laid out an ambitious plan to bring a "complete Islamic system" to the surrounding northwest region and the entire country.

Speaking to thousands of followers in an address aired live from Swat on national news channels, cleric Sufi Mohammed bluntly defied the constitution and federal judiciary, saying he would not allow any appeals to state courts under the system of sharia, or Islamic law, that will prevail there as a result of the peace accord signed by the president Tuesday.

"The Koran says that supporting an infidel system is a great sin," Mohammed said, referring to Pakistan's modern democratic institutions. He declared that in Swat, home to 1.5 million people, all "un-Islamic laws and customs will be abolished," and he suggested that the official imprimatur on the agreement would pave the way for sharia to be installed in other areas.

Mohammed's dramatic speech echoed a rousing sermon in Islamabad on Friday by another radical cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who appeared at the Red Mosque in the capital after nearly two years in detention and urged several thousand chanting followers to launch a crusade for sharia nationwide. ....

[George L. Singleton]

The actual article my internet reference was linked to this morning has somehow "changed" so I am going to post parts of the article directly, but not the whole article, parts that describe how now they next Taliban step within a few weeks is to invade Islamabad.

George Singleton

[George L. Singleton]

As found 4/18/09

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/...ureaucracy--za

This story was copied/repeated 4/20/09 on Global Hujra Online website but the refernce to that site which I posted earlier today, 4/20/09 does not now connect to this original DAWN story as repeated in Hujra Online.

Taliban influence in bureaucracy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taliban influence in bureaucracy
By A. Ameer

Many who saw the 1994 uprising of Malakand Division bear testimony to the fact that the present commissioner of the division provided all-out help to the insurgents (Taliban) coming from Dir to Swat.

THE growing threat of violent extremism in different parts of Pakistan including Fata and Malakand Division is a matter of serious concern.

The harrowing factor is that the writ of the Taliban is solidifying both in the north and the south not only in the Pashtun belt but also in the heartland of Pakistan.

That a high-level provincial official posted in Swat should write a letter to the NWFP home department implying the complicity of the commissioner of Malakand Division in the ever-expanding influence of the Taliban in the region is an illustration of what is happening and how.

An alliance of extremist forces in Kashmir, Punjab, Fata and the NWFP and their strategy for Pakistan’s disintegration in the near future have virtually paralysed the administrations in the different settled districts of the NWFP — not to mention the threats made by extremists to invade Islamabad very soon.

After the February peace deal between the NWFP government and the banned Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) chapter of Swat started a three-pronged assault on the state.

Firstly, the Swat chapter of the TTP started recruitment and the construction of bunkers on a large scale in different parts of Swat while the military and security establishment and the government maintained control in different ways. The security establishment and the Pakistani government seem to be oblivious of the fact that the Taliban movement is far more agile than the security establishment’s response to their onslaught from different directions.

Secondly, the Swat chapter of the TTP, in line with the Taliban alliances in Fata and the rest of Pakistan, were readjusting and relocating therein and have started expanding their assaults from the north to the south of the NWFP. The present onslaught by the Taliban on Buner and Dir is part of this strategy.

Thirdly, the Taliban have started consolidating their positions vis-à-vis the security establishment by controlling strategic passes and side valleys of Swat, Buner, Shangla and Dir. In this scenario, reports that a part of the civil bureaucracy in the NWFP, Fata and elsewhere in Pakistan facilitates the process of Talibanisation is likely to be a worrisome factor for elements within and outside the country.

The present commissioner of Malakand Division is said to have been posted in lower Dir in the early 1990s when the TNSM was in the process of becoming a formidable extremist organisation with a jihadi ideology. The commissioner was said to have been a frequent visitor of Maulana Sufi Mohammad’s madressah and allegedly worked behind the scenes with the initial support of the local khans for the TNSM in 1994 when it brought the whole administration of Malakand Division to a standstill. Many who saw the 1994 uprising of Malakand Division bear testimony to the fact that the present commissioner of the latter provided all-out help to the insurgents coming from Dir to Swat.

In the early era of Fazlullah’s rise in Swat, again the present commissioner of Malakand Division was posted as the district coordination officer. He was the one, according to local residents, who facilitated the establishment of Fazlullah’s FM radio. He was the one who convinced the local jirga of Mamdherai and Mingora to allow the FM radio to function. It was reported in 2006-07 in the local press that when the Taliban in Swat started destroying CD shops and barber shops and the owners would go to the DCO office for complaints, the DCO would tell them to close the shops because, according to him, running the business was un-Islamic. The present commissioner was also seen by the locals visiting Mamdherai markaz (centre) for Friday prayers frequently.

On April 5, 2009 a battalion of the Taliban militia with heavy weaponry crossed over the hills from Swat to Buner to avowedly supervise the implementation of the Nizam-i-Adl. The local residents of Buner had been resisting the inflow of the Taliban for a long time. The local elders intervened and tried to convince the Taliban to return but the latter opened fire at them, leaving several injured. Later the Taliban captured three policemen and two civilians, and killed them.

The local residents, the people of lower Buner and Sultanwas, gathered to move upward to face the Taliban while the people of upper Buner provided reinforcements. Fighting began and in the ensuing gun-battle some 17 members of the Taliban are said to have been killed. The questions on the minds of the local people were: why would the Taliban come with heavy weapons if they did not want to control Buner? And why were the Taliban allowed by the commissioner to move from Swat to Buner with heavy weapons?

On April 6, a delegation of the TNSM along with the commissioner Malakand Division went to Buner to negotiate with the local elders. They tried to convince the local elders to allow the Taliban to enter the valley. While the delegation engaged the local administration and the elders of Buner, the Taliban started getting reinforcements. In the context of the Taliban expansion to Buner, it is interesting to note the ideological role played by the relatively less known Jamaati Ashaatutoheed WaSunna, the creation of Maulana Tahir Panjpiri, the father of the infamous Major Amir, a well-known IB and ISI operative in the past and allegedly behind the notorious Operation Midnight Jackal. Major Amir, Syed Mohammad Javed (the present commissioner Malakand Division) and Maulana Sufi Mohammad are said to have been quite close since a long time.

According to eyewitnesses, during the recent stand-off between the Taliban and the people of Buner, the commissioner of Malakand Division made efforts to convince the people to allow the Taliban to enter Buner. The commissioner is said to have become annoyed with the superintendent of police in Buner for informing the people about the impending onslaught by the Taliban on the former...

Other specifics omitted...The writer/author works with a research organization. SEE DAWN WEBSITE ABOVE FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE.

Sorry for the lousy website I referenced earlier today which does not now connect to this article for unknown reasons.

George Singleton

[George L. Singleton]

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6655

Please take time to read all the postings by various Pakhtuns on GLOBAL HUJRA ONLINE blog site as their statements are grim, estimating the whole Pakistan ball of was could collapse within 6 months.

I have noticed via media renewed helictoper and tactical aircraft attacks against advancing Taliban, but I keep getting private e-mails from those still there saying what is most needed now are Pakistani Army and Frontier Corp troops, on the ground, attacking and defeating directly the Taliban. This as we all know is not happening.

My two cents as a very old Pakistan hand (1963-1965) is that the idiots who are treating this whole collapse inside Pakistan as happened in 1938 in Munich with the Nazis is that the Pak military will try to stir up a new fight with India to distract everyone, and in the process get themselves stomped on by the Indian Army and then Pakistan will be wide open for Taliban/al Qaida completion of an internally violent take over.

BIGGEST cultural issue is unwillingness of Pakhtuns to fight the Taliban who are also ethnic Pakhtuns. Hidden in this dicotomy is the long standing, simmering interest of some but not all by any means Pakhtuns to revolt against both Pakistan and Afghanistan and form a new nation, Pakhtuwana, or some such title.

Pakhtuns nationalism is contributing to the problem and in my opinion is a 100% direct enabler of the advance of the Taliban.

Big damn mess.

[Piranha]

I share George L. Singleton's impression that this situation seems to be ‘another Munich 1938’: somebody allowed ‘them’ to take Sudeten-Germany, and now they are invading Czechoslovakia … and what happens? Not too much, it seems. Though knowing quite a lot on Islam, something about Pakistan, something on Afghanistan, I don’t know what to do, i.e. where to start, except groaning silently behind my civilian desk.

Best regards,

Piranha

- no rank, no PhD
-- but neither incompetent nor ignorant on this kind of things.

[goesh]

Here on the home front, we seem fully engaged with torture memos at the moment and this most serious problem is getting little attention.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517555,00.html

"The six Frontier Constabulary platoons arrived in Buner on Wednesday, days after militants from the neighboring Swat Valley began infiltrating the area in large numbers, establishing checkpoints, patrolling roads and spreading fear."

I can't help but be skeptical and wonder if they are armed with Brit .303s ?
I suppose the average reader of FOX News will assume all will be well with Constables on hand.

"Also Thursday, dozens of militants armed with guns and gasoline bombs attacked a truck terminal elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, burning five tanker trucks carrying fuel to NATO troops in Afghanistan, police said."

[George L. Singleton]

It is the BBC, as usual, which is badly under reporting the news from SWAT, FATA, the NWFP, and the North and South parts of Waziristan.

[davidbfpo]

More "stop & start" in Pakistan, if this is true: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-district.html

davidbfpo

[George L. Singleton]

Folks:

The longer discussions below are Internet reference only cited for your in depth reading/study.

These guys are breakaway nationalist Pakhtuns fantasizinga about how "their" new nation of Pakhtuwana, made up of most of Afghanistan and the Northern parts of Pakistan would subdue religious extremism in order to have a more open, tolerant society.

A pipe dream but maybe some good ideas exist here to be constructively used/applied if we can figure out how to get down to the uneducated masses of Pakhtuns level of understanding, where concepts and big picture thinking are "unimaginable" when the lack of proper basics of life are staring them in the face at the moment.

But, I pulled out a couple of pieces of this Pakhtun ideological discussion, which I would suggest belong under the topic/concept of Civil Affairs, to show that some, far too few is my best guess, of today’s worldwide dispora of Pahtuns think at a higher on occasion.

How does all this fit into COIN and ”Surge” discussion?

Looks to me like hand in glove but the problem is and will be that only a local/Pashtun or cadres of same can effectively talk with and reason with the less educated local Pashtuns to address how to delimit “religion” into a self or individual process from a one size fits all bloody oppressive process which includes and involves the worst versions of Sharia, where much is made up as they go by Mullahs whose goals and purposes are in my view all to often self serving and created to achieve their delineated goals of what radical Islam is or is not and how it should be “the” only version of Islam.

Tribalism in it’s most basic form sees the world through brainwashed, largely uneducated but religion tainted/driven eyes as Islam or death, simply put.

We delt with versions of such a mindset with the Japanese in WWII and to some extent with the Nazi bastardization of “religion” in the European Theater. But never were we up against such a totally backward, technologically speaking, culture(s) as we face in SW Asia today in such a disjointed fashion.

George.

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...9136#post69136
Posted by: Spogmai
On: 05-06-2009 12:38 PM

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...9150#post69150
Posted by: dardmand
On: 05-06-2009 02:35 PM


http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...9161#post69161
Posted by: Baygham
On: 05-06-2009 03:12 PM


---Quote (Originally by Spogmai)---
.................
A world in upheaval and convulsion, that is our World. Bloodshed, destruction, violence on an unprecedented scale; the breakdown of so many social conventions, a clash of ideologies, an embittered, all-round fight for new ways of life, these are the signs of our time. ......................
---End Quote---
Actually the world has been the most stable over the last 10-20 years than in any time in its history. No major famines, no major pandemics, no mass killing of peaple. Unfortunately we the pashtoon have not been part of that good fortune thanks to our mentality of looking back to a time when the average age was 27, (the average age in roman times in rome and in no way less than in ancient arabia), where plague and malaria killed more than all the wars of all humanity of all times. Where war and killing was a norm.

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...9162#post69162
Posted by: Dirojae
On: 05-06-2009 03:13 PM


---Quote (Originally by dardmand)---
There is no such thing as* absolute values*.
---End Quote---
How do 'values' evolve? Since we want to reduce Islam and other religions to the private sphere in out future territorial entity, what then shall govern our morality and social mores? Shall we go down the path of Europe, as it has after the Middle and Papal Ages?
************

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...9170#post69170
Posted by: Baygham
On: 05-06-2009 04:42 PM


---Quote (Originally by Dirojae)---
How do 'values' evolve? Since we want to reduce Islam and other religions to the private sphere in out future territorial entity, what then shall govern our morality and social mores? Shall we go down the path of Europe, as it has after the Middle and Papal Ages?
---End Quote---
The issue of morality, public law, laws governing commerce, trade, private property and resource distribution will all come about. The biggest reason for the appeal of taliban is the absolute decay of our morality and justice and a strong yearning to correct that. In the absence of any viable vision all eyes then fall on 'imaginary glorious early islam'. This is essentially an escape mechanism to lesson the torment we are in by imagining an imaginary solution.

So if not 'early islam' than what? Since one is usually killed before one can calculate an answer on charges of blasphemy this has never been openly discussed in our society. But the time is right for it to be discussed. I being under no illusion of islams capacity to deliver a better life on earth and far away from the clutches of taliban and hence away from a 'horrible death of a murtad' can share my two cents.

Religion in my opinion should be personal. You can call it the 'Dairiy islam'. meaning take a small stick and mark a circle around yourself with that stick. You will find yourself in a circle. The dairiy (circle) islam is your islam inside that circle. Do as you may please. Wash your behind or dont wash it, its all yours. The mullahs are limited to quide you for the 'proper way' inside the circle. Under no circumstance can that #### be allowed to come out of the circle (outside in the public domain). Religion becomes a personal excercise of spiritual journey and calmness for personal satisfaction.

In the public space (civic and criminal law) is based on common law derived from our heritage that is changed according to our needs (commercial and private) in norms with global trends, always with the mindset to enhance collective well beings of pashtoons. This is a changing law that is changed if the objectives are not met. The purpose of the law is not to make a God happy but to limit the expression of harmful behaviours and enhance the expression of fruitful behaviours, measured by its utility in enhancing happiness and safety versus sadness and exploitation.

[George L. Singleton]

This is taken from KhyberWatch.com, sub blog page: Global Hujra Online and interestingly suggests anti-Americanism is not as rampant as the Pakistani and other world media might have us believe.

Your thoughtful opinions invited on this topic, in conjunctin with how this very different suggested theme of more pro than anti Americanism seems in context of Admiral Olsen's article of goals and objectives.

George.

Today, 05:16 AM
dardmand
Salaar Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 2,205




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirojae
Here goes:
Anti-Americanism runs very deep among the Pashtun populace as opposed to Anti-Pakistanism or even anti-Talibanism which is unfortunate and hypocritical considering the fact that Muslim Pakistan has failed to provide security to Pashtuns, has looted our resources and oppressed our Nationhood and culture more than any non-Muslim force ever has. Consider this: Pashtuns in Eastern Pashtun Watan can still be seen having a soft corner for the Taliban regime of Mullah Omar. It is still considered a legitimate resistance movement waging 'Jihad' against the infidel US. I have been bashed quite a few times for preferring the Infidel US over the Muslim Punjabi. So, as things stand at the moment, US is not welcome in Pashtun Watan.

The Anti-Americanism you are talking about is the hype of the Pakistani media and and the right-wing security apparatus of the state. This apparently got acceptance mainly because the indoctrination process all at level is unchallenged. This is the superficial judgment of the situation. Even this superfluous conclusion can easily be reputed with one example that it was the US which supported the Afghan Fasad and the Mullahs, Militants and the Military received huge amount of money from the US for their so-called Jehad. The ordinary people loved to get US Green Card.

In the recent few years it seems Anti-Americanism is one rise. It is true about Pakistan in general but it is totally false as far as Pukhtoons are concerned. If people could relate Anti-Americanism with the victory of MMA in 2002 Elections I can as well relate Pro-Americanism with the victory of ANP in 2008 Elections. But this is also not my point.

There is no such thing as Anti-Americanism in Pukhtoonkhwa though the Pakistani media is quite successful to perpetuate it in Punjab. They have their own reasons for that because they can easily predict their near future and the collapse of the state which they have been dominating so far. Inside Pukhtoonkhwa Pukhtoon intelligentsia and the secular and moderate political forces are openly in favor of America, Fazlu Rahman supports America behind the screen and only Jumat-e-Islami is against it. The rest of the population don’t care whether they are government by the Pakis or American as long as their life is secured and they receive cheap food, low utility bills and low inflation rate. Quite recently the situation has drastically changed because the people have lost all hopes in state institutions. Initially Taliban exploited the situations but when they saw the real face of Taliban they are praying for the devil to free them from the Taliban on the one hand and the brutal state institution on the other hand. In such case people have all eyes on the Americans. In Orakazai people have already welcomed drone attacks and in Swat the situation will be no more different. Let’s see what reports come from other part of Pukhtoonkhwa but I am dead sure they will be no different from the one we receive from Waziristan and Orakzai.

There is another psychological aspect of the so-called Anti-Americanism in Pukhtoonkhwa. The people are jealous with the Americans and their massive development; at the same time the people expect the Americans to help them. When they see no ray of hope they start barging against the American but in their heart they knew the old British Masters and their infrastructure was more people friendly than the one they experienced in Pakistan. This nostaligia for the colonialism is testimony to the fact that the people will welcome the American if they come to help and rescue Pukhtoons.

[George L. Singleton]

http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...9203#post69203

Swat refugees status report as of Thursday, May 7, 2009.

Should be of general interest.

[George L. Singleton]

Several good articles in the May, 2009 NEWSLETTER of the Alternate Solutions Institute in Lahore, Pakistan.

http://asinstitute.org/newsletter101

[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