One thinks of the Lal Masjid incident which reflects the prevalent state tactics pertaining to all matters security. A good state should have a mixed bag of tactics, not just one. There were women and children in the Mosque, and greater mercy and care should have been shown as good Muslims and as fellow Pakistanis, other wise it looks like the elite are taking insensitive orders from Washington saab. Ordinary people read into such traumatic things the wrong way.
The standard procedure is you cut the water, electricity and gas supply to a building occupied by such types. You keep talking to the insurgents, and you try and get the insurgents into one particular part of the building. You supply them food which makes them sleepy, and then with tear gas, tazers and rubber bullets you storm the place.
Obviously the fundies were staging an epoch making rallying campaign for their supporters, with arms that may have been supplied by state agencies, with sophisticated communication systems, and the government fell into that trap of giving them free air time, day after day, after day. Now every ‘Fundie pagal bacha’ Israeli/UK/American/ISI trained in Pakistan will try it out for Shaheed. Instead the government should have ordered a media blackout, incrementally dealt with the ‘Pagal bacha’, whilst using the incident to find out which personnel in state agencies were compromising state policies. But still it is easy to be wiser after the event, and especially if one is not burdened with the pressure and responsibility of actually dealing with it in the ‘heat of the moment’ hey?
My overall view point is let the insurgents be in FATA, and not try and pursue them at this juncture. Priority should be given to controlling and managing the medium and big sized towns and these should not fall into insurgency hands.
Other than that, the army must stop using heavy handed tactics against them, with equipment such as jet fighters, artillery, and helicopter gunships, as these are war making expensive equipment that should be preserved for real external threats in the eventually of an actual conventional war. There is also the psychological dimension in using such equipment, by a government which seems out of control and at war with its own people, or that the insurgents are important and serious enough a threat for the state to use such equipment to that extent. The insurgency plays it up, and the government should be playing it down.
Imagine if the UK used Tornado FGA planes and challenger tanks against a Catholic hamlet in Northern Ireland, because suspected IRA members were holed up there according to local intelligence. Just not possible is it? So why do we have such hardware being used against Pakistanis?
The writer fully understands where all this is coming from, and the history and heritage of the Pakistani armed forces rooted in British colonialism, trained up to put down rebellion in the Subcontinent. Bilaat saab has gone, at least physically, and such tactics cannot be used against Muslim Pakistanis, least of all Pashtuns, who are duty bound under ‘Paktunwali law’ to take vengeance. We are not talking about unarmed soft spot Bengali villagers here. We are not talking about East Pakistanis, who made up about 5% of the army in 1971; we are talking about Pashtuns who are an important element of the army, intelligence, police and paramilitary forces. Such careless witless knee jerk action can have dire consequences. You get one East Pakistan rifle battalion mutinying under major Zia ul Rahman, and the rest follow the call. Learn your history gentlemen, learn your history. Didn’t the Bengalis win at the end with a little help from India, and several million dead later? You loose the frontier you loose Pakistan.
Pakistan has $15 billion in FCR, and is doing well financially under the tutelage of the present PM. What needs to be done is to get that windfall and invest it into real tangible projects that improve the daily lives of the people in FATA---Schools, hospitals, houses with electricity, water and gas, shops, roads, irrigation canals, and of course factories and so forth.
It really is that simple. The North West Frontier is among the most backward states in Pakistan, along with Baluchistan, and surprise surprise, lo they are also the most rebellious.
I am looking at investments of about $5-10 billion within the next few years effectively into FATA, and the $750 million promised by the USA is too little and too late. It almost looks like bribery. Greater transparency making sure all the funds are properly utilized, and not misappropriated by corrupt state officials---we are in a make or break situation.
Investing in FATA is investing in Pakistan. The Pashtun’s are a hardy good quality people that are an asset for Pakistan, beyond and above any other ethnic group in Pakistan. Sadly, and indeed it is very sad that such quality people have had to resort to migrating to the Punjab, Karachi and other places in order to seek a subsistent existence.
The CIA has closed its OBL search party, a few years back. This could be because he is actually dead, and the Pakistanis are in a better position to know this fact than I as he moved around Pakistan as a celebrity within the top ranks of their security apparatus. For that reason one of the major factors for the aggressive ops in FATA has disappeared, though of course his deputy is still there, along with some of his supporters.
“Bhutto was asked directly about the so-called Miranshah agreement which Musharraf worked out so that he could withdraw Pakistani troops from North Waziristan where his army was sustaining heavy losses. Musharraf had only won minor concessions from the tribal leaders who were supposed to limit their support for the Taliban. The treaty was a complete hoax designed to extricate Musharraf from an "unwinnable" war that was universally unpopular with Pakistanis (extremely strongly advised by especially senior Pashtun officers from the NWFP, men with direct experience and understanding of the vicinity---Lt. Gen. (r) Ali Jan Muhammad Orakzai) Unfortunately, the treaty turned out to be Musharraf’s death sentence. When it became clear to Bush and his neocon colleagues that Musharraf would not carry out their war agenda; they began to sharpen their daggers and plan for his removal. That is why Bhutto was exhumed from her Dubai mausoleum long enough to play a part in this latest Bush comic operetta. This has nothing to do with "democracy promotion". It’s just another grim chapter in the "color-coded revolution" digest. The whole performance is being staged courtesy of the US intelligence agencies and the compliant establishment media. Bush doesn’t care about democracy any more than Bhutto. What he’s looking for is someone who’ll take on the Taliban in Waziristan. That's it. And that's why Musarraf's day's are numbered.”
Bhutto, addressing the CFR crowd:
"I rejected that ceasefire of September 2006 -- the peace treaty -- and we rejected the ceasefires before that. In fact, we were appalled that the tribal region of our country was handed over to foreigners, because Afghan Taliban, Afghans and al Qaeda are added to the Chechens and the Uzbeks. And this is Pakistani territory, and Pakistan has to protect its own territory. So we've been absolutely appalled by that. And we think the first thing the government of Pakistan has to do is to take the territory back. We've ceded authority of our own territory, and it's not enough to satisfy the agenda of the Afghan Taliban or the Arab al Qaeda or the Central Asian Uzbek-Chechen. They're now knocking on the doors of our frontier province. "
Acha Saab, Jee saab; You know better about my country than I do. Can I polish your boots saab? Can I send my children to Amerikka to be educated saab? Can I open a secret bank account saab?
Yes Benazir bhen but who started the ball rolling? It was the Ulloo ISI guided by Bilaat saab, and it was YOU in 1994 guided by Clinton saab, or have you forgotten.
