Ex-Raw chips in with his angle on the Swat scene.

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Pak Taliban: From A Bunch Of Suicide Bombers To A Conventional Army

By B. Raman at SAAG.

1.Like the Neo Taliban of Afghanistan, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has evolved in less than a year from a bunch of suicide bombers to a conventional army capable of set-piece, stand and fight battles with the Pakistani Army and para-military forces. This conversion has been facilitated by the recruitment of a large number of retired Pashtun ex-servicemen living in the Pashtun tribal belt in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and in the Malakand Division of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Swat Valley and the Buner District, less than a hundred kms from Islamabad, which was occupied by the TTP earlier this week without any resistance from the local security forces, form part of the Malakand Division.

(Much of the Taliban in Afghanistan Pakistan is controlled by the Pakistan army, as proxies. If the TTP can fight set piece battles its because of the logistical and personnel support of the Pakistan military using it as a "Controlled Opposition" proxy for the Pakistan military's agenda.......to destabilize the Civilian government in Islamabad, and get back into power as national saviors of the day )

2. The agreement signed earlier this year by the coalition Government in the NWFP headed by the Awami National Party (ANP) with Sufi Mohammad of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-a-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), which is a constituent unit of the TTP, for the introduction of Sharia courts covers the entire Division, consisting of seven districts and not just Swat. Now that the agreement, despite strong criticism from abroad, has been got approved by Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani by the National Assembly and signed by President Asif Ali Zardari, the TNSM has lost no time in expanding its control to areas of the Malakand Division outside Swat. The occupation of the Buner district is the beginning. The occupation of the other districts will follow.

(Very foolish of the civilian government to negotiate and sign agreements with these types of people. It makes them look ineffective afterwards)

3. What should be of great concern to both India and the US is that the TTP, which was seen till recently as merely a collection of young suicide bombers with limited capability for territorial control and dominance through conventional forces, has started demonstrating that it has evolved into a conventional army, which can fight, occupy and administer territory. Thus, the TTP has evolved into a mirror image of the Neo Taliban. It shares with the Neo Taliban its objective of fighting for the defeat of the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. At the same time, it has its own independent agenda of expanding its territorial and ideological dominance to other areas of the Pashtun belt in the NWFP initially and then to non-Pashtun areas. The Neo Taliban does not approve of this independent agenda, but does not oppose it actively.

(I would hesitate to call a bunch of irregular insurgents numbering 3,000 with AK-47 an "army", that is on the thresh hold of taking over Pakistan, hardly!!!.........the Swat Taliban are "Controlled Opposition" proxies of the Pakistan military, and unless the Pakistan military have a serious need to reinvent themselves as bearded fundies who only fight as irregular soldiers against their own country and people, all of it from Lahore to Karachi, and abandon the entire basis of their present organization and professional ethos, then its very unlikely that the Swat Taliban will morph into occuppying the whole of Pakistan....which is hardly the case....what we are seeing with the Swat Taliban is a tactical move by the Pakistan military to destabilize the civilian government.........Thus the Swat Taliban can be activated or dismantled as and when the Pakistani military wish it to be the case.....From a rational civilian perspective this type of behavior is dangerous brinkmanship, but from the Pakistan's military perspectives it is business as usual........the Swat TTP is doing what it is doing because of orders from the Pakistan military)

4. The Pakistan Army headed by Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, its Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), has shown neither the will nor the inclination to counter the advance of the TTP and then roll it back. It is not Kayani’s worries about what could happen on the Indian border, which have come in the way of a vigorous response to the TTP’s military advance. It is his worries over the continuing loyalty of the Pashtun soldiers, who constitute about 20 per cent of the Army, and of the Frontier Corps and the Frontier Constabulary, which are responsible for his anxiety and keenness to make peace with the TTP. The Frontier Corps and the Frontier Constabulary consist predominantly of Pashtun soldiers recruited in the FATA and the NWFP, officered by deputationists from the Army. These units have been showing less and less inclination to fight the TTP. They have been either avoiding a confrontation with the TNSM and the TTP or in some cases just deserting and surrendering to the TTP units.

(So 80% of the Pakistani military is not Pashtun.........enough available personnel from the outside of the Frontier Province to quell the Swat Taliban, but why should they any way, if these groups are created controlled proxies by the Pakistan military and manned and often guided by Pakistani military personnel? It is true Pakistan has lost some men fighting the Taliban in FATA at the behest of American urgings and military assistance, but we do not know what are the true losses of the Pakistani military there? It is also very true that many of the Pashtun personnel of the Pakistan military are obviously not happy fighting their own kith and kin, whilst at the same time observing the Americans attack the same with drone attacks...........they can't be too happy with that, as wouldn't any self respecting people.

It is not fear which led to Kiyani seeking peace with the Swat Taliban, but because the Swat Taliban as Pakistani military proxies had achieved for the Pakistan army exactly what Kiyani wanted. The Pakistani military has never shown any disinclination to side with America and fight the Pashtuns with their ethnic sensibilities-------The Pakistan military is not as sophisticated, sensitive and nuanced as that....1971 East Pakistan, Baluchistan 1973--1977, and now NWFP FATA since 2004. The Pakistan military has never been shy of fighting its own people......this "great tradition" has not changed, even under Kiyani....It has killed more of its own people than any other military in the world.)

5. According to reliable sources in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), it is pressure from an alarmed Kayani to reach an accommodation with the TNSM and the TTP, which set in motion the negotiations with Sufi Mohammad and the developments that have followed. The Army and the para-military forces have already conceded territorial control to the TTP in the FATA and in the Malakand Division of the NWFP. By re-locating his forces and by reducing the Army’s presence in these areas already under the domination of the TNSM and the TTP, Kayani is reportedly hoping to prevent an ingress of the Pakistani Taliban into other parts of the NWFP and beyond.

(So here is the indication that the Swat Taliban is "Controlled Opposition" proxies of the Pakistan military......it never made sense why the 800,000 Pakistan military, "The best in the world" backed by 300,000 paramilitary would surrender to 3,000 poorly armed irregular insurgents, unless.....)

6. The objectives of the TTP are presently limited to ideological unity of all Muslims in Pakistan based on the Sharia and the ethnic unity of all the Pashtuns in the Af-Pak region to wage a relentless jihad against the US-led NATO forces till they vacate Afghanistan. It has the motivation and intention to extend its ideological influence to non-Pashtun areas too, but is not yet in a position to establish territorial dominance in those areas. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) of Altaf Hussain apprehends that the TTP wants to set up a strong presence in Karachi, which has the largest Pashtun community in Pakistan after Peshawar.

(To quell Pashtun nationalism, and reinforce the state from the Pakistan military perspectives)

7. Confronted with the worsening ground situation in the NWFP and with the danger of a possible collapse of the strategy of President Barack Obama even before it was taken up for implementation, the US is acting like a cat on a hot tin roof. There have been understandable cries of alarm not only from Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, and Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, but also from White House spokesmen. Cries of alarm and the preparation of yet another national intelligence estimate on Pakistan alone will not help. What is urgently required is a national intelligence estimate on US policy-making towards Pakistan, which has been leading it from one critical situation to another.

8. A study of the course of US policy-making would show how those Pakistani leaders who are toasted one day as frontline allies against extremism and terrorism turn out to be either accomplices of terrorism or capitulators to terrorists and extremists the next day. Pervez Musharraf belonged to the first category. Zardari belongs to the second. Despite nearly 60 years of close US interactions with the political and military leaderships in Pakistan, the US has not been able to acquire any enduring influence over policy-making circles in Islamabad.(!!!!!!!!!!!.......this is just basic shoddy analysis for a former senior intelligence officer, it misses the fundamental power play in Pakistan, but at least he is retired and no longer advising the Indian government..........The two most important players in Pakistani political life are the 2 A's... the Army and America. The USA is not some kind of innocent Pollyanna figure who is completely clueless about Pakistan,hardly) The US has very little to show in terms of changed policies in Islamabad in return for its unending pampering of successive regimes in Islamabad with the injection of more and more money and military equipment. The time has come to stop pampering, but there is a reluctance in the Obama Administration---as there was in the preceding Bush Administration--- to do so due to fears that a stoppage of US assistance and pampering may result in a failed state with the control of its nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of the jihadis.

(American interference in Pakistan as with its interference in many other Third World countries has been negative, since the 1950's:

The Americans weren't pampering Pakistan when they destabilized the Ayub Khan regime 1965-69. The Americans weren't pampering Pakistan when they toppled the Bhutto regime in 1977 using the military. The Americans weren't pampering Pakistan when they wiped out the entire top brass of the Pakistan military for pursuing the nuclear program against America's and Israel's wishes. The American's weren't pampering Pakistan when in 1990 they basically abandoned Pakistan with the Pressler Amendment.......and so on, the sheer amount of political interference, where prospective political figures have to have private one to one meetings with the American ambassador in Islamabad.)

9. Unfortunately, the situation in Pakistan has reached a stage where the outcome---ultimate jihadi control of the State and its nuclear arsenal--- may be the same whatever the US does----whether it continues pampering or stops doing so. It is a thankless dilemma. It is easy to criticize the US strategy or the lack of it, but difficult to suggest a viable alternative. The starting point of an alternative strategy has to be a cordon sanitaire around the areas already under the control of the TTP and a crash programme for the economic development of the Pashtun areas not yet controlled by the Taliban. Obama’s plans to spend billions of dollars in the areas of the FATA already under the control of Al Qaeda and the Taliban would produce no enduring results except to waste the US taxpayers’ money. This money should be better spent on immunizing those areas where the influence of the Taliban has not yet spread.

(Better still instead of giving money to the Pakistan central government, why not give a greater % of the money to state governments in all of Pakistan for development and to fight terrorism...that might be more effective)

10. An equally important point of the strategy should be to step up the US Predator strikes in the FATA and to extend them to Swat in order to keep the Al Qaeda and Taliban elements running for cover all the time and make it difficult for them to plan new strikes and get them executed.

( That would do great wonders for the fragile civilian government in Islamabad......The Obama administration did talk about attacking Baluchistan with drones but the idea was shelved, because of the implications on the weak civilian government.

If the Swat Taliban are proxies of the military, staffed by ex-Pakistan military and regulars, and directed by the Pakistan military against Pakistan, to regain power, operating inside Pakistan against Pakistan as a pose to American soldiers in Afghanistan, than an attack on such an entity would be severely received by the regular Pakistan military, America's main buddy in Pakistan. Drone attacks in FATA are carried out with the aid of the Pakistani army in FATA, and the facilitation of Pakistani military bases in Baluchistan for such a purpose)

11. The third point of the strategy should be to restore to the Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan its original role of primacy as the internal intelligence and internal security agency of Pakistan. Over the years, the IB has been reduced to the position of a powerless appendage of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and its top ranks militarized through the induction of serving and retired military officers. This has to be reversed.

(This sounds like a good idea. Have a domestic intelligence agency that is run by the Ministry of the Interior which is wholly civilian, non-military, and in addition have the ISI attached to the FM, and again shorn of its military component. The Core problem for Pakistan is the ISI, and its numerous misadventures to secure Pakistan's interests........usually ends up the other way. The ISI was created by the British in 1948, and operates as an annex of British and American intelligence, it certainly is not some free wheeling Third World agency with its own set of "great ideas". By doing such things, Pakistan's civilian governments can be strengthened against the schemes of the ISI and their foreign masters)

12. These are medium and long-term measures, which would take time to produce results. The questions requiring an immediate response is how to protect Pakistan from itself. How to stop the advance of the Taliban? How to confront it ideologically? For this purpose, the US needs objective allies in Pakistan. It has none so far. It has been working through opportunistic allies in the army and the political parties. They will accept all the money from the US, but will not produce results.

(To deal with the Taliban problem involves first and foremost dealing with the Pakistan military and its fundamental culture of political interference inside Pakistan since the creation of Pakistan, and its various misadventures abroad which have negative blow back effects there after without fail)

13. The objective allies have to be found in the Pashtun community. All the talk in Washington DC about their being good Taliban and bad Taliban is ridiculous. But there are good Pashtuns and bad Pashtuns. The US should urgently identify the good Pashtuns and encourage and help them to take up the fight against the Taliban ideologically. After the elections in Pakistan in March last year, I had pointed out that the ANP, which came to power in Peshawar, was a party of good Pashtuns and that the US should work through it, forgetting its past links with the Communists in Afghanistan and the erstwhile USSR. I was given to understand that a couple of ANP leaders did visit Washingtin DC, but beyond that nothing further was done. Now the ANP-led Government in Peshawar has conceded ideological victory to the TNSM in Swat. Despite this, the US should persist with cultivating it and other good Pashtun elements in parties such as the Pakhtoonkwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) of Mehmood Khan Achakzai. They constitute the progressive component of the Pashtun community and they need to be strengthened and encouraged to counter the Taliban. The present US policy of depending on repeatedly failed elements in the Army and in the mainstream political parties is not working. The regional Pashtun forces have to be encouraged to take up the fight against the Taliban.

(I would certainly welcome greater USA emphasis on local state civilian politicians who are effective, rather than corrupt Pakistani politicians in the Central government, with the generals. However I would question whether American officials inherently prefer dealing with clean effective leaders in Pakistan, or the greasy corrupt ones with the military.........This is the main issue here between Pakistan and America, and fundamental American foreign policy in the region.

Since the Munro doctrine, and into the 1980's in the Reagan era America has always preferred their South American client state leaders as some what "Colorful"...........this is related to issues of racism, and domination......the "greasy diego" is corrupt and of a lower order, and as such deserves leaders of that caliber. In addition it was deemed that some how corrupt leaders are therefore due to their character more easily "managed' for American interests. All that changed in the 1990's, when increased South American emigration to the USA illegally, and South American narcotics flooding into the country necessitated a policy change. Since that time the USA has backed, or recognised ''cleaner" and more effective South American leaders who deliver for the common people, without feeling insecure or developing neurosis about them (Hugo Chavez not withstanding). The USA finally understood, after 170 years of the Munro Doctrine that what was good for South America could also be good for America. Since that time in the 1990's there has been a marked decline in negative American intervention in America's back yard.

However this change of policy by America should not be defined purely by American terms.............aggressive clean local nationalists leaders who were not corrupt, within South America, conscious of negative American involvement have also contributed to this change in relationship between the USA and the rest of Central and South America.

This is where we need a real change with Pakistan/America relations. Zardari backed into power by the USA/UK is proving to be an embarassment purely because of Zardari himself a small time crook who married big, and a few other lucky breaks, never the less a small time gangster when all is said and done................First and foremost America needs to ditch him immediately, and than coopt, better local Pakistani leaders from Pakistan.....its a nation of 180 million, with 20% from the population being Middle class, if they can bypass the traditional colonial era elite that most certainly will be helpful for Pakistan as a nation. Its a win win situation if America has the will to grasp it.)

14. The survival of Al Qaeda in the FATA and the rise and spread of the TTP are due to support from large sections of the Pashtun community. The resistance to them has to come from the Pashtun community. It cannot come from the likes of Zardari, Gilani and Kayani.

(Wrong again B Raman!!!!!!!! "al-Qaeda" does not exist, and the Taliban exist ONLY because of the good grace of the Pakistani military who think they can use it for certain objectives of theirs in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Some what romantic and naive to think that Third World insurgency movements are created purely through class oppression and peoples will to struggle. Somewhere along that romantic narrative state intervention and support, covert or overt turns such movements into a reality......the backing of the Pakistan military, in the case of the Taliban, without their backing they simply could not exist)

Does the Supreme Court have their eye on the ball?

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Does the Pakistan Supreme Court have their eye on the ball? Are they really doing their job? A major plank of their work, as is the case with most Supreme Courts around the world is to act as the Guardians and Custodians of the Pakistani constitution.



The Swat Taliban deal with the Pakistani central government is unconstitutional:

• Under the 1973 Constitution, Fundamental Rights include security of person, safeguards as to arrest and detention, prohibition of slavery and forced labour, freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom to profess religion and safeguards to religious institutions, non-discrimination in respect of access to public places and in service, preservation of languages, script and culture.


• The judiciary enjoys full supermacy over the other organs of the state.


• Preamble: "Therein shall be guaranteed fundamental rights, including equality of status, of opportunity and before law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association, subject to law and public morality".


• Wherein the integrity of the territories of the Federation, its independence and all its rights, including its sovereign rights on land, sea and air, shall be safeguarded;So that the people of Pakistan may prosper and attain their rightful and honoured place amongst the nations of the World and make their full contribution towards international peace and progress and happiness of humanity.


• Dedicated to the preservation of democracy achieved by the unremitting struggle of the people against oppression and tyranny;


• Inspired by the resolve to protect our national and political unity and solidarity by creating an egalitarian society through a new order;


• Do hereby, through our representatives in the National Assembly, adopt, enact and give to ourselves, this Constitution."

• The Nizam-i-Adle agreement surely goes against the fundamental concepts of the Pakistani constitution.......or do I not know what I am talking about constitutionally, legally or morally.
  

The situation around the deal, after the deal is agreed is rapidly becoming unconstitutional:

• The armed invasion of neighboring areas, is unconstitutional.


• The expulsion of other political groups from their area of control is unconstitutional.


• The confiscation of private property from lawful owners, and its redistribution without following proper sale of property procedures, is unconstitutional.


• The mobilisation of additional private militia fighters of all backgrounds without the approval of the state security apparatus, is unconstitutional.


• The imposition of a specific type of religious ideology, to the detriment of other sects of the Muslim faith, is unconstitutional........and even against the basic tenets of the Koran.


• The open arms offered to OBL, and Mullah Omer with their armed cohorts to come into the area of Swat Taliban control is unconstitutional.


• The complete obstruction and standing of the existing security forces, and especially the local Police, is unconstitutional.


• The vandalism and destruction of private property without offering any type of compensation, is unconstitutional.


• Creating fear and anarchy so that large number of people flee from the area under their control, is unconstitutional.


• Exhorting others in the rest of Pakistan to follow their example, through an unlicensed medium, is unconstitutional.


• Making the Pakistani military seem totally irrelevant and impotent.


• Denying women and girls their full rights, as guaranteed under the 1973 constitution.


• Protection of minorities, both religious and sectarian.

What does the Supreme Court have to say about this whole unconstitutional mess? Will they wait until the Taliban arrive at the gates of the Supreme Court and kick them out of their irrelevant positions? Will they release more fundie hardliners in time for the Taliban's coronation in Islamabad?

But surely the Pakistan parliament, the noble representatives of the people voted unanimously in favor of the deal, so how can the Supreme Court go against such a decision? Well Parliaments in the majority have been known to make mistakes, for example the House of Senate and representatives in the USA, and their support for Bush II and the wholly illegal Iraq war and ditto Westminster with Blair.

In such serious situations whether through the application of its writ and law, or through the formulation of opinion it is the duty of the Pakistani Supreme Court to point out the obvious unconstitutional implications of the recent Swat deal, and the even more obvious unconstitutional implications of what is unfolding in and around Swat. If they are not sure, they could hire first year law students from Peshawar University to guide them.

The Pakistan army backed Swat Taliban take over more areas.

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So much for the "Peace deal" between the Swat Taliban and the Islamabad government. If this is peace, what good is it to the central government and the people of Pakistan?

All Islamic fundamentalist states have been attacked viciously and consequently invaded.........by the USA and UK.......Taliban Afghanistan 2001, after being blamed for 9/11, and Somalia 2006......by neighbor Ethiopia with USA assistance. Iran is being threatened with attack and invasion 2003----2009, CONSTANTLY. Hamas controlled Gaza has been savagely attacked by Israel just a few months ago IN 2009. Hezbollah run Lebanon got the same treatment in 2006.

These are the hard facts that, and unless ordinary Pakistanis, and their pitiful "political leaders" and "military officers" have a serious craving and need to be attacked by the like of the USA, UK and Israel, with carpet bombing, drone attacks, cluster bombs, phosphorous bombs, daisy cutters, they had better organize themselves quickly to prevent the Taliban taking control of more Pakistan territory................................deal with the military leaders who are aiding the Swat Taliban.

Busharaf, Kiyani, Suja Pasha, Hamid Gul ALL after all have secured second homes provided secretly in London and Washington, but the rest of Pakistan's 180 million population must face this threat from the Taliban, and there after behind them, the "Liberation" forces of the USA and UK, waiting in Afghanistan. 100,000 Occupation Forces this year in Afghanistan, and the Afghan security forces will be boosted to 400,000 in the near future, and additional USA trainers are being sent for this task.

10-20 million Pakistani refugees in India, and many millions killed in a vicious civil war inside Pakistan, under foreign occupation.


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Buner falls into the hands of Swat Taliban

By Dawn Newspaper.

BUNER: Taliban militants from Swat took control of Buner on Tuesday and started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in the district. The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past five days.

They have robbed government and NGO offices of vehicles, computers, printers, generators, edible oil containers, and food and nutrition packets.Sources said that leading political figures, businessmen, NGO officials and Khawaneen, who had played a role in setting up a Lashkar to stop the Taliban from entering Buner, had been forced to move to other areas.

The Taliban have extended their control to almost all tehsils of the district and law-enforcement personnel remained confined to police stations and camps.

The Taliban, equipped with advanced weapons, were reported to be advancing towards border areas of Swabi,Malakand and Mardan, the hometown of NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti.

According to reports reaching here, the militants have set up checkposts and camp bases in Kangar Gali village, along the Malakand border; Naway Dhand village, along the Mardan border; and Tootalai village, along the Swabi border.

The sources said officials of the FC camp in Jorh had asked people to vacate their homes in view of threats of an attack.

The militants have started digging trenches and setting up bunkers on heights in strategic towns of Gadezi, Salarzai, Osherai and other tehsils.After occupying the Buner district and setting up their headquarters in the bungalow of businessman Syed Ahmed Khan (alias Fateh Khan) in Sultanwas, the militants started patrolling the streets and roads with no signs of law-enforcement personnel.

Led by Fateh Mohammad, the militants were asking local people, particularly youngsters, to join them in their campaign to enforce Sharia.

They have established checkposts on roads and are searching all passing vehicles. They have virtually established their writ in Buner region, once a stronghold of the Awami National Party.

A Taliban commander said they would set up strict Islamic sharia courts in Buner as they have already done in Swat, but would not interfere with police work.

‘The Taliban who have arrived from Swat have increased patrolling, banned music in public transport and rampaged (through the) offices of NGOs and taken their vehicles,’ local government official Rashid Khan said.

‘Taliban militants armed with rocket launchers were manning the checkpoints and operating from local mosques,’ he said, adding that a report had been filed at the local police station against ‘unknown militants.’

‘We will soon establish our radio station. Our Qazis (Islamic judges) will also start holding courts in Buner soon,’ Taliban commander Mohammad Khalil told AFP.

‘We will not interfere in the police work, they can continue their job,’ he said, adding their purpose was to end a ‘sense of deprivation’ and to provide speedy justice.

‘People in their dozens have come to invite us’ to extend sharia.

Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman, told AFP from Swat that ‘the government writ is not being challenged in Buner and Taliban are not creating any hurdle in the administration's work.’

‘The Taliban will leave Buner after enforcement of Islamic justice system,’ he said.

However, several residents said they felt ‘scared’ and planned to leave the Buner area, fearing similar violence to that in Swat.On Tuesday, armed groups entered the Rural Health Centre at Jure in Salarzai area and took away a Land-Cruiser being used by the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), Buner.

On April 17, they raided a basic health unit in tehsil Chamla and looted 480 cans of edible oil. They took away from the house of a lady health visitor a large number of food and nutrition packets supplied by USAID and sewing machines from an Action Aid-sponsored vocational centre in the Korea village of tehsil Chamla.

On April 18, they looted a huge quantity of medicine from a health facility at the Afghan refugee camp in Koga in the same tehsil and 640 cans of edible oil from a godown of the World Food Programme in Nawagai.On April 19, armed men took away a Suzuki Potohar Jeep from a rural health centre in Nagrai. A group of 20 militants took away a Suzuki Ravi car and 400 cans of edible oil from a basic health unit in Garga.

Another armed group snatched an ambulance, a pick-up provided by Gavi for EPI cell, a Suzuki Ravi from a health centre in Swari.They also broke into the offices of Paiman (Save the Children) EPI, Jica offices and took away several computers, printers, two generators, fax machines, UPS and other appliances.The armed men stopped near Ambela a double-cabin vehicle of Paiman going to Buner from Peshawar and took it along with the driver to a nearby camp. Later, they released the driver and escaped with the vehicle.

They have also occupied the main office of Rahbar in Swari.

So sad, but no great surprise.

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The Taliban and Pakistan military.


The Swat Emirate enclave created by the Pakistan Taliban Islamic fundamentalists was never going to work, despite the backing of sections of the Pakistan military.

It was a peculiar proposition in the first place where the mighty Pakistan military machine, 800,000 men and backed by 300,000 paramilitary, mostly otherwise unengaged, mysteriously surrendered to the 3,000 lightly armed "Pakistan Taliban" in Swat, gave in to ALL their terms, and gave them government money just to make sure.

Message to all fundies in Pakistan: "Resistance to the writ and law of the Islamabad government PAYS".

If that's the sum total performance of the Pakistan military in defending Pakistan's sovereignty from anti-state actors both within and without, heaven help Pakistan........then why do we have the Pakistan military in the first place?

Whats it for?






Does the Pakistan military exist to carry out gay parades?

For disaster relief in Pakistan?

To kill as many Pakistani civilians as possible? it holds this record for all the military's around the world.

To participate in politics?

For narcotics running?

As a servant of the USA?

To destabilize Pakistan civil society?


To Islamise Pakistan so that Pakistan never becomes a modern country?


To turn Pakistan into a failed state?





Its not very good at fighting conventional wars against professional foes such as India.............and it can't even manage to deal with rag tag anti state forces, such as the 3,000 Swat Taliban. Worst still, if one thinks and believes that these Swat Valley fundies were aided by elements of the Pakistan military.

So why is the Pakistan NATION, poor and struggling, maintaining 800,000 men under arms and 300,000 paramilitaries?

What purpose do they serve?

What utility do they serve?

What benefit do they give to Pakistani society?

Why does the Pakistan military exist if it can't carry out its most basic functions?............................ Defending Pakistani soil from anti-state actors both from within and without.

Its bad enough if Pakistan's military participate in USA/UK geostrategy in the region under the guise of pan-Islamic nationalism ("Operation Cyclone") its worse if the idiots in the military actually start believing in such utter baloney and think its good for their society. Implementing such policy through criminal fundamentalist front military backed organizations such as the Swat Taliban.........legitimating them, supporting them.

And so we had this grossly ugly medieval spectacle of the flogging of an wholly innocent girl for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.........or maybe something else (In the words of minorities minister Antulay).....its public so the world will view it, laugh at Pakistan, sermonize at Pakistan, and for sure ridicule Pakistan. The law of the jungle...........where any female seen for any amount of time with the "wrong man" can be publicly flogged.......a society where 50% of the population must not communicate or look at the other 50% of the population.......which GAY ISLAMIC fucker came up with such laws?

Peace with the FATA anti-state insurgents make sense for Pakistan because, FATA was always semi-autonomous historically, and if some of the tribes in FATA supported their kith and kin across the artificial Durrand line in Afghanistan against the benevolent charitable Foreign Occupation Forces, well what could the Pakistan government do about that? Northern Ireland/Southern Ireland...... IRA. Spain/France...Basque separatists. That the Pakistan military should provide their military bases for the Americans to attack sovereign Pakistan territory takes it to another levels of stupidity on the part of the Pakistan military. That the Pakistan military should hide this fact from ordinary Pakistanis underlines their stupidity levels and the illegality of their action in the first place.

Swat is a different matter. Swat is inside Pakistan proper, not too far away from Peshawar, Wah, Taxila and Islamabad/Pindi. The Central governments writ needs to be clearly enforced and identified here for the sake of Pakistan's integrity.

Here there are no deals or compromises. And so the Swat Valley Emirate created by elements of the ISI and Pakistan military must be faced down, by everybody in Pakistan. Though normally it would be the job of the Pakistan military.

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Pak girl flogged for being seen with 'another' man

NDTV Correspondent

Friday, April 03, 2009,

Disturbing pictures have emerged of a young girl being brutally beaten by the Taliban in Pakistan's Swat valley. The 17-year-old girl was flogged because she was seen with a man who was not her husband.

She was punished just on the suspicion of a neighbour.

Her own brother was among the three men who pinned her down, while she took 34 lashes, crying out in pain.

A Taliban spokesperson said:

"She came out of her house with another guy who was not her husband, so we must punish her. There are boundaries you cannot cross."

An embarrassed Zardari administration has now ordered an inquiry.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani says: "We have ordered an enquiry into the incident. We condemn what has happened. We will investige girl flogging incident in Swat."

But there is growing anger against Zardari's peace pact with the Taliban. A deal which was backed by the US. Human rights activist Asma Jehangir says: "Under the peace deal, the government has put the lives of the people in Swat in the hands of the Taliban. The administration says there is peace there. I challenge them to take their family there for a picnic."

Protests are getting louder, but activists fear the Taliban is only tightening its grip over the Swat valley.

The Pakistan army "deal" with the Taliban in Swat Valley.

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NO, a single state religion be it the Church of England or Eastern Orthodox, or Wahabi Islam or Shintoism does not automatically lead to extremist elements taking over a country...............there are other sometimes more complex factors which allow extremist religious elements taking over a country, and they are usually always to do with politics, and the lust for power, and not so much to do with religious fervor.

Single-faith nation is an open invitation to Taliban.

By MJ Akbar, Columnist for the Times of India.



Breast-beating has its dangers. You could lacerate yourself while the assassin laughs all the way to the graveyard. The international lamentation over the negotiated surrender of Swat in Pakistan to what might broadly be called the Taliban is high on moaning and low on illumination.

(Blogger---Yes the news from that area is highly managed by Pak authorities, so we really don't know what is going on, except that one Geo journalist, not liberal by any means was killed presumably by the Taliban to warn off other journo's from Pakistan venturing into that area and asking too many questions.............but yes, on the whole the "peace deal' has been correctly condemned for differing reasons around the world. It does not make sense why the Pakistan authorities should make peace with the Taliban, on their terms {establishing Sharia law} in Pakistan proper, so close to Peshawar, Taxila/Wah (where strategic munition works are located) and Islamabad. FATA is a different matter.

One hears from the media that the Pakistan central govenment gave the Swat Taliban money to buy peace....which sounds ridiclous; I mean is the Pakistan government proposing throwing scarce central funds at the Taliban each time they press the Pakistan government militarily----sets a bad precedent doesn't it?

Why do so many TTP hide their faces when the media is around. I mean if you are TTP, willing to die for your cause, surely you would be proud to show your young manly face to the Pakistani and international public, ................unless a lot of them happen to be regular Pakistani military personnel as well.

The Pakistan Foreign Secretary made a Freudian slip when he said no al-Qaeda would be allowed into Swat..........so I suppose the news item from Swat will be in about a month that the al-Qaeda have started concentrating in the "Safe Haven" of Swat.........Mashallah! Will the "Pakistan government" allow the Americans to attack Swat with drone attacks from the Pakistani bases in Baluchistan......maybe the Americans mistake Peshawar for Swat, or how about Taxila or Wah or even Islamabad..........why not Yaar? The Americans attack Islamabad thinking it was Swat......)

There is a symmetrical irony. Benazir Bhutto handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban. Her husband Asif Zardari might have laid the foundation stone of Talibanistan inside Pakistan by accepting Sufi Mohammad's Tehrik-e-Nifz-e-Shariat Mohammadi as the law for the former princely state of Swat. This demand was first heard in November 1994, the month in which Kandahar fell to the Taliban.

( There is no irony, only stupidity and a general desire to please the Americans that led "liberal" Benazir Bhutto, brought up in the exclusive champagne circuit of Oxbridge and later Harvard?, who should openly back the medieval Taliban from 1994. The Clinton administration initiated the idea; the Arab Gulf funded it; the Pak military made it into a reality...........so your assertion, "Benazir Bhutto handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban" is short on detail and does not explain why she officially as PM OK'ed the idea in the first place. As to her husband, one should have limited expectations from Mr. 10%, or possibly Mr. 100% by now....as he gets richer the Pakistan economy must naturally falter........he is an out and out criminal who has done prison time, with a gangster mentality......does the guy have any education, or any sense of public duty? In all events was the Swat Peace deal the work of Zardari (unlikely), or the outcome of the army, and Zardari merely nodded to the idea?)

Many questions demand answers. The Pakistani army has an estimated strength of 12,000 in the region of Swat. Why was it unable, or unwilling, to subdue an insurgent force of some 3,000? The Pakistani army is not a pushover. Why was it pushed over in Swat? Is the Pakistani soldier increasingly unwilling to confront an ideology it implicitly sympathises with? How much of such sympathy is shared by the middle-ranking officer, who entered the force during the seminal leadership of General Zia ul Haq? To what extent has Ziaism become the secret doctrine of sections of the Pakistani forces?

(unofficially the Pakistan military number closer to 800,000, and paramilitary forces of 300,000.......so why should such a huge military machine have any problems dealing with 3,000 AK-47 armed Taliban who are very poorly trained by modern military standards, poorly led, poorly organized, poor tactics, poor logistics; they can simply be surrounded and squeezed with just 30,000 men...and so on?

The Taliban in Swat could have been easily dealt with, using heavy artillery, mortar, helicopters and jet fighters, backed by more troops. MJ Akbar says a lack of will by the rank and file........I think that's a misrepresentation of the Pakistan military, simply because of the culture of the Pakistan military is rooted in the British Raj {I derisively refer to it as the RAJ PUNJAB POLICE FORCE......in terms of how it fights, and against whom it engages against in its bloodiest wars},

In 1971 the Pak military had no problems killing 3,000,000 East Pakistanis backed by mass rape; there were no Islamic sense of justice present back then which might have created mass mutiny in the ranks of the Pakistan army, and the specter of killing essentially fellow Muslims. There was no Mutiny in the ranks when the Pakistan military engaged in a bitter counter insurgency operation in Baluchistan 1973---1977, that possibly killed 100,000 people. There was no Mutiny in the ranks when the then Brigadier Zia Ul Haq organized the military campaign to squash the Palestinian uprising in Jordan in 1970. Ditto anti-insurgency ops in Oman, and the reason why Saudi Arabia keeps a good number of Pakistani troops in sacred Saudi soil to ostensibly protect the Saudi Royal family.........So MJ Akbar the Pak military generally obeys its officers, and do not have any record of mutinying against the officers, senior top brass or junior.

Clearly something else must explain the peculiar peace deal in such a sensitive area, so close to Islamabad. And we can speculate. That's what blogs are for!

Either:

1. The Pakistan Taliban (TTP) is a tool of the Pakistan military, who originally created the Taliban, and the current Taliban "upsurge" in inverted commas is an initiative by the Pak military to get back into power, by threatening the civilian government of Asif Zardari, by stationing the Taliban so close to Islamabad..........OR put it another way, the country is in chaos, and what we need is another strong military government to bring order.

OR

2. The Pakistan Taliban is there mainly to destabilize Pakistan for America, so that America can say that Pakistan is a HAVEN for terrorists, and that the country will soon be run by Islamic fundamentalists who will one day control the country's nuclear bombs.......so be very scared children cus Uncle Sam might have to save the world again, and invade the country in the future. This scenario would mean that Kiyani Chief of Armed Forces and Suja Pasha head of ISI are working for America against Pakistan's interests, because to maneuver the Taliban into the present situation which the Taliban enjoys within Pakistan---legitimacy and status where they have negotiated and won on equal terms with the Pakistan military, ........would require extensive Pakistan military backing, especially from the top brass for such an occurrence/nonsense.)

What price will Pakistan's polity pay as the last civilian hope degenerates into a national heartbreak? The legacy of Benazir, the charismatic romantic, has been usurped by a semi-literate authoritarian who has seized executive power through a virtual coup against his own government. Zardari was elected to a ceremonial office, not an executive one. His principal achievement so far has been to make the era of Pervez Musharraf seem like a golden age. If she had been in charge, Benazir may have been able to mobilise her country's youth by lifting the economy and offering a liberal horizon. Zardari's ineffectual rule, wafting along compromise and mismanagement, can only create the space for a theocratic impulse that has been waiting to find its moment ever since Pakistan was born. Musharraf doubled the GDP of an insecure economy. Under Zardari, Pakistan is dwindling into a "basket case", a term Henry Kissinger coined for the eastern half of united Pakistan. While Bangladesh is leaving that stigma behind, Pakistan is entering the vortex of the begging bowl.

( Zardari is incompetent and that is universally excepted, in fact the talk in Islamabad is the sheer indecision and lack of government/governance in Islamabad.........the man is corrupt, incompetent, but he lusts after power because that is an easy avenue to make himself rich. That is why the Pakistan military like him.....to them it does not matter that Zardari is destroying the country, at a critical time in history; what matters to them is that ordinary Pakistanis have yet another poor civilian government under their experience viz the Pakistan military)

Military chaos opened the door for the Taliban in Kabul. Could economic chaos open the door in Islamabad? Has Pakistan begun to realise that faith-based nationalism is not synonymous with peace?

(Pakistan's military backing and personnel guidance helped the Taliban gain ascendancy in Afghanistan, with covert backing from America. Then ask yourself why would that would be? Who gains? The Taliban is essentially a Pashtun organization, and since they represent only 15% of the overall Pakistani population ethnically, normally and logically it will be difficult for the Taliban to appeal to the rest of the Pakistani population. Pashtuns are generally more puritanically Islam wise due to their socio-economic background and levels of literacy. On the other hand the rest of Pakistan is more mystical in terms of relating to Islam.....Sufis, Pirs etc....so again hard to see how economic hardship simply flips a whole complex society with their Millennial old beliefs so quickly, unless hostile external entities such as the USA, working with the Pakistan military create such a situation...........IRAN 1979)

The Frontier and North Punjab (I disagree that the Punjab, Kasab not withstanding, is a hotbed of Talibanism, any part of it....but obviously you have got your individual fruit cakes....for me the Taliban is an ethnic phenomenon, NOT a religious phenomenon that cuts across and appeals to a wide section of Pakistani society), the principal catchment areas of the Taliban, have had a Muslim majority for perhaps a thousand years. (The Pashtuns were ardent Hindus once, a mere 1000 years ago-----they are directly related to fair skinned Brahmins, Jats, Rajputs, Gujjars..........and so on) It is not widely known that Mahmud of Ghazni's territories extended to what is roughly the line of the Indo-Pak border today. (This fact is not lost on terrorists who want to use Pakistan as a base from which to launch assaults on the heart of India..........................rather a general comment that justifies all so called Islamic terrorism in India? I doubt Kasab imagined himself as Mahmud of Ghazni...a Turk from Central Asia) But this area was never a single-faith entity. Hindus and later Sikhs created, along with Muslims, a dynamic shared culture that blossomed through partnership. The presence of the other also became an antidote to puritanism of any hue.

(FULLY on board and agreed that "we" are stronger and better together as a people living in South Asia with our differences.....that is what makes South Asia GREAT........I therefore deplore the politics of the Taliban, even if its a tool of USA imperialism...those who participate in it should know better. I Fully applaud the secular nature of India, and hope MF Hussian can come back to India and live peacefully there again, soon)

The region was ruled successively by Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. No ruler, not even Ghazni, drove Hindus and Sikhs out. It was only after 1947 that the region became a single-faith hegemony, and from that point a breeding ground for theocratic militancy.

(1947 and the sad occurrences of that event was unique. To be sure Muslim armies fought Hindu armies led by their respective Rajas, but the full extent of the demographic shift, isolation from Partition for ordinary civilians, and the ensuing dogma in Pakistan especially after 1965, and later under Zia ul Haq never existed between ordinary people in South Asia before.

Pakistan was the megalomaniac creation of Mohammed Jinnah, who knew he would not last very long to fully see his dream being created, but through his egotism he persisted in creating the moth eaten failed state, with the active backing of the British..........It started in 1940 when the Muslim league drafted a constitution, and from there developed a grass roots organisation for the first time (before that specific date it was a talking shop for privileged Muslim nobility and notables wholly disconnected with the Muslim masses) As the Muslim League developed, the majority of the top echelon of the Congress were locked up from 1942, with the "Quit India" Movement. The Muslim League thus with covert British Raj guidance became a legitimate force in Indian politics, which could articulate its position with mass appeal............for me all this could not have been done by Jinnah himself or his close cadres like Laiqat Ali Khan, in such a short time (1940--1946). That there must have been some sort of institutional backing from Britain to translate the Muslim League into a reasoably cohesive force by 1946, to the point where Jinnah was negotiating quite confidently with Gandhi and Nehru.

Jinnah was an excellent Barrister, and thus a good speaker, but a political genius like Gandhi, with his vision? I never thought so. He was a stiff starched plodder, not given to inspiration, as most natural freedom leaders of that era. Thus to me he was a functionary for the British Raj, who played out his role to the end.

The British official files related to independence and Partition, and the creation of Pakistan will be released in the year 2022, the longest release date for British state papers. Normally they are released within 30 years. They must contain controversial information for them to be released at such a late date. Obviously when they are released they will be sanitized for public consumption, but one speculates whether Jinnah was a British agent. All those long years in Billaat, London, during the critical years of the independence movement; His penchant for ham sandwiches, and alcohol; his speeches to his Muslim audiences in immaculate Oxbridge English mostly; his deference to British Raj law, and the need to avoid any sanction, in contrast to the many occasions when Congress leaders were imprisoned by the Raj, in the course of serving the greater cause.

His general demeanor of a man who was quite cold and reserved, who showed no overt fondness for Muslims. ....Do we have any pictures of him mixing with the illiterate Garib Muslim masses from the 1920's through to the 1940's, smiling and relishing the moment and opportunity to fulfil his mission for his people? We have plenty of those for Gandhi and Nehru, and they are genuine. Do we have any pictures of him praying at a Mosque with his fellow Muslim congregation?

This is the man who founded the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ......descendants of Brahmin Hindus from Gujarat. )

The power of a minority is rarely acknowledged by those who seek to turn it into an enemy. A minority is the yeast that enables the national flour to rise. Hindus and Sikhs were the yeast of the North West Frontier and Pakistani Punjab just as much as Indian Muslims are the yeast of Hindu-majority India. Their existence was a daily lesson in co-existence. Their absence has shifted the gears of social evolution and driven the people into rancid and arid territory.

(Rather a convoluted way of arguing the truism that an open plural society, which is democratic, with free speech and liberal in outlook has a better chance of improving the lives of ALL its people, rather than a closed dictatorial authoritarian society ruled by people who think they know everything and have the answers for everything, under one predominating dogmatic guiding state religion)

Will the answers be more optimistic than the questions? That too remains a question.