Monday, July 13, 2009

Kurram PPP backs military operation

 Kurram PPP backs military operation
Monday, July 06, 2009
By Bureau report
PESHAWAR: The Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Kurram Agency chapter, has called for military operation in the agency to flush out militants and outsiders from the area.

Kurram chapter PPP President Dr Syed Riaz Hussein demanded of the government to extend military operation to Kurram Lower in a bid to flush out the militants, getting stronger with each passing day.

Talking to newsmen here, the PPP leader said it was the need of the hour to launch a military offensive against the militants, based in Kurram Lower, for ensuring peace in the agency. He termed the use of force against the armed militants as the only solution to uproot the menace that has hit the entire country.

"Dozens have been killed from each side while over 100 were seriously injured in the last 10-day clashes. The unfortunate thing is that each group wants to subdue the rival with the support of the anti-state elements," said Riaz, who escaped a bomb attack and a suicide blast, which killed 61 people during an election rally, last year.

Dr Riaz accused the foreign elements of fueling the sectarian violence in the Kurran Agency, leading to loss of life and property. He ruled out any dispute between the Sunni and Shia communities, saying that impression about the divide was a conspiracy hatched by the anti-state elements.

"There is no writ of the government's in the entire agency, particularly in Kurram Lower. If the government wants to launch military operation in the agency, the people of Kuram Upper would fully support it", he remarked.

The PPP leader said that due to the blockade of the main road linking Kohat and Parachinar, the masses were facing shortage of food and medicines. Keeping in view the insecurity and obstruction on Kohat-Parachinar Road, he said, the masses were forced to come to Peshawar via Afghanistan traveling for 28 hours.
 

 

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26 killed in military chopper crash

Daily Times

 

26 killed in military chopper crash

By Saboor Khan

HANGU: At least 26 security personnel were killed on Friday when an army helicopter crashed in Orakzai Agency because of a technical fault, according to military sources.

The sources told Daily times that the helicopter was en route to Peshawar from Parachinar when it crashed at the border of Khyber and Orakzai agencies, some 30 kilometres from Peshawar. They said an investigation into the crash had already begun, but insisted that the chopper went down because of a technical fault.

Local sources told Daily Times that a Pakistan Army MI-17 helicopter crashed at around 4pm in Barki Feroz Khel area in Lower Orakzai. Witnesses said Frontier Corps (FC) and army personnel were on board. Witnesses said the chopper caught fire after it crashed. They also said that security forces started shelling the area after the "accident". The Reuters news agency said all those on board had been killed.

Earlier, Pakistan Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said a helicopter had crashed in the northwest, but gave no details on casualties. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has expressed grief over the accident in Orakzai Agency. In a message, the prime minister prayed for those killed and sympathised with their families.

 

SOURCE ; http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C07%5C04%5Cstory_4-7-2009_pg1_3
 

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Action at last

Friday, July 03, 2009
After a long wait, troops finally moved into the Kurram Agency, forcing a truce between warring tribes which have been locked in battle for over a fortnight. The battles, set against a backdrop of fierce sectarian animosity, feature the Toori tribe against Bangash tribe clansmen. There is however an additional complication: the Shia Toori tribe has set up a 'Lashkar' to battle militants linked to the Taliban. With the fighting now continuing for days, the Tooris called on authorities to move in and assist them.

This has eventually happened. But what is a mystery is why authorities waited so long to act, doing nothing at all to stop the violence that has wreaked havoc on the lives of people. Anti-Taliban 'lashkars' in Kurram have stated they had been desperate for help for many days. The delay in action is hardly likely to encourage people in other places to rise against the Taliban. Indeed the fact that the government seemed content to stand by and watch for so prolonged a period is likely to have just the opposite effect. The closure of the main road leading into Parachinar, the principal town of Kurram, is another reason why action should have come. For long durations over the past two years, the highway has remained shut, resulting in acute shortages of food and other supplies. This has resulted also in a spiraling in the prices of basic commodities. It seems like criminal neglect that this situation was allowed to continue for so long. The government owes an explanation to the people of Kurram, and indeed to all of us.

So far, 150 or so people, most of them militants, are said to have been killed in the fighting that has taken place with troops. Soldiers are now deployed in the area, hoping to maintain the peace. But is this enough? The Kurram area has key links into Afghanistan. Routes through it are used regularly by militants, according to the information available on their movements. It is therefore important to conduct an operation in it against the militants, and to make sure they are driven out of the area. It is also true that the people of Kurram have suffered far too many years of bloodshed. They need to be rescued from still further misery and mayhem. It is the duty of the government to ensure this happens, as part of a strategy against militants and as part of their responsibility to the people of Kurram.
http://thenews..jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=186118
 

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Efforts under way for permanent ceasefire in Kurram

 Efforts under way for permanent ceasefire in Kurram

Friday, July 03, 2009

By our correspondent

PARACHINAR: After truce between the warring tribes in Kurram Agency on Wednesday, the political administration on Thursday deliberated measures with the elders in a Jirga to defuse tension and maintain durable peace in the area.

Sources said the administration discussed at length a permanent cessation of hostilities and the establishment of peace in Kurram Agency in the jirga. The elders, while pledging cooperation to the political administration, urged the government to make concrete and precise efforts as the agency had suffered sectarian violence for a long time. They said all and sundry were affected due to the closure of the roads and the blood shedding.

Addressing the Jirga, political agent Arshad Majeed Momand said the security forces had been deployed in the Balishkhel, Khwar Killay and Laki Ser to ensure ceasefire between the rival tribes. He added that the deployment of the security forces in Parachamkani and Karman area was underway.

Meanwhile, shops and were opened as the ceasefire was announced after 16-days of fighting in Sadda areas of Lower Kurram. However, the supply of electricity to the area was yet to be restored.
source; http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=23074
 

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Tribesmen kill 42 militants in NW Pakistan

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:49:26 GMT
Tribesmen in NW Pakistan have taken arms against pro-Taliban militants.
Pakistani tribesmen have launched a massive attack on Taliban-linked militants in the violent northwest, killing more than 42 insurgents.

Tori Lashkar (Tori militia) confronted the terrorists with "full force" and destroyed their hideouts in various parts of Kurram agency, Azmat Ali Khan, a local Shia tribal leader, told Press TV correspondent late Wednesday.

Khan said they killed at least 42 Taliban-inspired militants in the two-day clashes, acknowledging 18 tribal fighters also lost their lives in the skirmishes.

He said insurgents increasingly turned to Kurram -- a key route for crossing the border with Afghanistan -- as they fled Swat and Malkand regions where the military has stepped up its anti-militant campaign which began in late April.

In the past two weeks, fighting between tribesmen and pro-Taliban forces has claimed the lives of more than 141 people, mostly militants.

The conflicts broke out after fleeing Wahabi militia infiltrated Kurram tribal district and launched attacks against the Shia population in the area.

Separately, security forces in the troubled northwest Khyber agency killed 28 militants on Wednesday night.

Local officials said a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Islam militant group was also killed during an operation by the Frontier Constabulary federal paramilitary forces on insurgents' strongholds in Teerah valley.

MRS/AKM

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35 die as Lashkar attacks Taliban in Kurram

 28 militants killed in Khyber

Thursday, July 02, 2009
35 die as Lashkar attacks Taliban in Kurram; 14 dead in tribal fighting; Turi, Bangash tribesmen make peace; Lashkar seeks Army's help

By Nasrullah Afridi & Javed Aziz Khan

BARA/PESHAWAR: At least 28 militants, including an unidentified commander, were killed when gunship helicopters pounded the hideouts of a banned militant organisation in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Wednesday.

Sources said that three gunship helicopters pounded the hideouts of Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) in Sandapal and Akakhel areas of Tirah Valley.An official of Frontier Corps (FC) Major Fazal claimed that 28 militants were killed in the action and among them was a commander.

However, talking to The News by phone from an undisclosed location, Laskhar-e-Islam spokesman Zar Khan denied any losses to his group.Khyber Agency's Political Agent Tariq Hayat said the action was successful but details were awaited.

Tribal sources said the murder of Malik Guli Shah, a pro-government tribal elder in Jamrud, Khyber Agency, on Wednesday was the immediate reason for the military action. He added that the political authorities also arrested five militants allegedly involved in the killing of Guli Shah.

Three of the arrested militants belonged to the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan and the remaining two hailed from the Kukikhel tribe, Khyber Agency, the sources added.It was learnt that the arrested militants were shifted to the Khyber House, Peshawar for further interrogation.

Earlier, a schoolboy was killed and 15 others sustained injuries when the boundary wall of a private public school collapsed in Tirah Valley.The deceased student was identified as Naik Marjan while some of the injured included Taif Khan, Samin Khan, Zahoor Khan, Shakeel Khan, Khilwat Khan and Hidayat Khan.

Meanwhile, a suspected miscreant blew himself up following an encounter between the police and occupants of a car in Mashogagar village in Peshawar.. The police force was attacked for fourth time during the last three days in the area.

The cops were tipped off about a suicide bomber being tasked to carry out attack in Peshawar, along with his four accomplices in a white, explosives-laden car on Wednesday. "A patrolling party of Badaber police station signalled a suspicious car on the Frontier Road in Mashogagar village. Five occupants of the car, however, opened fire on the cops and hurled a hand-grenade at them that luckily did not explode," Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Coordination Peshawar Qazi Jamilur Rahman told The News.

He said the cops managed to stop the car by firing at its tyres. Its four or five occupants managed to escape but the policemen encircled one person, who blew himself instead of surrendering.

The explosives filled in the car were then defused. "The explosives filled in the car were connected with three types of chargers and detonators — manual, automatic and electrical. We will now determine the quantity of the explosives stuffed in the vehicle," the deputy city police chief said.

An official at the Badaber police station said the hunt was continuing to nab the four fleeing criminals, who attacked the police party. It wasn't immediately known whether the criminal killed in the incident was a suicide bomber or he was killed by his own hand-grenade..

Matani and Badaber, the two police stations located on both sides of the vulnerable Kohat Road between the Peshawar city and Darra Adamkhel town, are facing the worst law and order situation for the past many months.

AP adds: A tribal Lashkar attacked Taliban hideouts in Kurram Agency on Wednesday, killing 28 militants and suffering seven fatalities themselves, and the intensifying battles prompted them to ask for Army troops to help, a local lawmaker said.

The fighting in the remote Kurram region was the latest in two weeks of battles between militants and tribesmen there that have killed 141 people, including more than 100 insurgents, two government officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. Their accounts could not be independently verified.

Sajid Hussain Turi, a lawmaker from Kurram, said the militants were moving into Kurram from the Swat Valley, where the military is undertaking an offensive to root them out. He said hundreds of tribesmen took part in the attack early Wednesday, triggering a gun battle that killed 28 militants and seven tribal fighters.

"Kurram is an important place because the Taliban can cross the Afghan border from here easily," Turi said. "The Lashkar is facing these armed Taliban, but we request that the government send troops to Kurram to fight the Taliban as quickly as possible."

Our correspondents from Sadda & Parachinar add: Fourteen persons were killed and 26 others injured in clashes between rival groups here on Wednesday night. Later, the elders of Upper and Lower Kurram succeeded in brokering a ceasefire after hectic efforts, sources said.

Similarly, the rival tribes — Mastokhel, Hamzakhel, Ghundikhel, Alizai, and Shia Bangash of the Turi tribe and Parachamkani Masozai, Ali Sherzai, Zehmasht, Mangal and Sunni Bangash — were still at war with one another in Balishkhel, Sangeena, Khar Killay, Sadda city, Mingak, Makhzai and Tangai areas of Lower Kurram.

Sources said two Jirgas were held simultaneously in Parachinar in Upper Kurram and in Sadda Tehsil in Lower Kurram, chaired by Political Agent Arshad Majeed and Assistant Political Agent Ayaz Mandokhel, respectively.

The political agent said tribal elders of the Turi and Bangash tribes played a key role in defusing tensions. Talking to The News, Arshad Majeed said after successful talks among the tribal elders of both the tribes, the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) contingents were sent to Baleshtkhel, Khwar Killay and other villages in Lower Kurram where the tribal fighters vacated and handed over 13 posts to security forces..

The political agent said security forces would be sent to Parachamkani and Kirman areas of Upper Kurram to take control of the posts set up by the local tribal fighters. Earlier, sources said, fierce fighting took place in Mingak, Makhzai and Tangai areas of Lower Kurram and armed men of the warring tribes targeted each other's positions with small and heavy weapons.
 

 

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Kurram: who's responsible?

Kurram: who's responsible?

Thursday, July 02, 2009
This is with reference to a report (June 26) titled "Turi tribe accused of insurgency in Kurram Agency." The Turi tribe is not involved in the insurgency in Kurram agency and has never challenged the writ of the government. The six tribes of Kurram backed by the Taliban have been involved in creating unrest in the area. They have been continuously violating the peace agreements made with great efforts. They kidnapped travellers on Thall-Parachinar highway and let them off after payment of heavy ransom. Those who failed to pay the ransom were mercilessly butchered. The Thall-Parachinar highway is closed due to these acts since February, creating acute shortage of food and medicines which has resulted in the deaths of dozens of children.

Moreover they have also been attacking the villages of the Turi tribe. This silence of the government over the situation has forced the Turi tribe to pick up arms against the six tribes and the Taliban. The Taliban have also set up training camps at different areas of Lower Kurram and are recruiting tribesmen from the six tribes. The existence of Taliban training camps in Lower Kurram can be proved from the two separate US drone attacks on these camps.

The government is fully aware as to who is responsible for the insurgency in Kurram agency but is silent. I urge the Pakistani nation to raise there voice and the government to soon launch a military operation against the Taliban and their supporters.

Muzamil Turi

Parachinar

 

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=185929
 

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