Thursday, December 30, 2010

At least 20 suspected militants killed, 25 injured in Kurram Agency

The Nation Newspaper Pakistan

Thursday, December 30, 2010

At least 20 suspected militants killed, 25 injured in Kurram Agency


At least 20 militants have been killed and 25 wounded in recent offensive launched by the security forces against the militants in Kurram Agency.
According to media reports, in gunship helicopters' shelling 20 miscreants were killed and 25 injured, a vehicle full of ammunition was also destroyed in the attack at Chanarak, Kurram Agency. According to authorities the Death toll could rise. Meanwhile six people have been killed and numerous wounded in a clash between two groups in Central Kurram. Reason of conflict is yet to be found.


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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Al Qaida-allied Afghan fighters seek new Pakistan haven

 
Al Qaida-allied Afghan fighters seek new Pakistan haven

PARACHINAR, Pakistan_ The Haqqani network, an extremist group close to Al Qaida that has mounted devastating attacks in Afghanistan, is attempting to move into a new safe haven in Pakistan's tribal region as a base for attacks on U.S.-led forces across the border, according to leaders of a Pakistani tribe based here.

The Haqqanis, who have a history of close ties to the Pakistani military and its Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, have undertaken negotiations with the main tribe here, the Turi, that the Turi say would open the way for the move from their current base at Miramshah, North Waziristan, into the adjacent Kurram Agency, 80 miles to the north.

The Turi say they have repeatedly rebuffed the Haqqanis, most recently in a meeting earlier this month in Islamabad between tribal elders and the brother of the founder of the Haqqani network.

The Turi, who live in and around Parachinar, capital of Kurram, on the western tip of the district, bordering Afghanistan, say they don't want extremists on their lands or for their area to be used against NATO or the government of Pakistan. They complain bitterly that the Pakistani government has given them neither support nor protection in an inter-tribal struggle that has pitted them against the Pakistani Taliban, who seek the overthrow of the state.

"We don't differentiate between (Pakistani) Taliban, Haqqani and Al Qaida. They are all the same to us," Sajid Hussain Turi, a member of the federal parliament for Kurram, told a McClatchy reporter who visited Kurram in late December.

Kurram is one of seven agencies in Pakistan's tribal belt, a lawless buffer zone between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and it's been in a state of internal conflict for at least six years. An old sectarian rivalry between the Turi, who are from the minority Shiite sect of Islam, and their local competitors, the Mangals, who are Sunnis, has turned into a titanic struggle after the Pakistani Taliban entered in 2007 and threw their big guns behind the Mangals. Now the Haqqani network is involved as well.

Both the Pakistani Taliban — the TTP, for Tehrik-I-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) — and Haqqani follow an extreme version of Sunni Islam. The Turi say they're now engaged in an existential struggle against the Pakistani Taliban, who along with the Mangals have cut their lands off from Pakistan proper. The conflict has cost the lives of more than 1,200 Turi over the last four years, Turi elders said.

The Haqqanis' apparent attempt to move into Kurram almost certainly is the result of U.S. drone attacks against the sanctuary they inhabit in North Waziristan and the threat of a future offensive by the Pakistani army. The U.S. government, attempting to disrupt the Afghan insurgency, has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan launch an offensive to clear extremists out of North Waziristan. The Haqqani network fights alongside the Afghan Taliban but has no permanent base inside Afghanistan.

The Haqqanis claim not to be part of the conflict in Kurram and have pursued their quest for a base here by offering to mediate between the Mangals and the Turi. Recent media reports suggest that Siraj, son of Haqqani's group's founder, Jalaluddin, and now the leader of the group, moved to Kurram in the autumn.

While most of the tribal area is a wild, illiterate place, run under tribal custom, Kurram, unusually, is predominantly Shiite Muslim, with the Turi tribe comprising about 300,000 of the 500,000 people of the agency. Almost uniquely in the tribal area, education is widespread, and the area is relatively well developed, with some wide valleys of flat fertile agricultural land and functioning schools. The Turi oasis in the tribal area, around Parachinar, feels more like the rest of Pakistan, rather than the primitive conditions and gun culture of most of the tribal area.

The Turi are blockaded into the westernmost part of Kurram, around Parachinar. Together, the Mangals and the Pakistani Taliban control the main road that connects Parachinar to the east to the "settled" parts of Pakistan under normal rule. Two years ago, assailants, using chainsaws, beheaded and dismembered eight Turi men, while they were still alive, as they attempted to use the road to reach the rest of Pakistan. Their body parts were left in sacks along the main road, Turi elders said, showing gruesome photographic evidence.

The Turi have suffered brutal attacks, been killed by landmines laid by the Taliban, and faced a shortage of food and other supplies, price of which have skyrocketed as a result of the blockade, while education and other services have deteriorated. In September, an attack on Khaiwas village, just outside Parachinar, left 89 Turi dead, according to a tally of victims kept by Haidri Blood Bank, a local non-governmental organization.

Since 2007, the Turi have been forced to take a risky 230-mile trip through Afghanistan, via Gardez, Kabul and Jalalabad, just to enter Pakistan, at Peshawar, but the Pakistani military closed the border in October, citing the risk of Afghan incursions, which further isolated the tribe. They now rely on travelling in a weekly or biweekly convoy guarded by the Pakistani military, to reach the rest of Pakistan, or a tiny air service that runs an expensive six-seat plane from Peshawar to Parachinar.

"Pakistan should be ashamed. We are the most loyal tribe in Pakistan but for four years we've got nothing, while other areas get help with floods and earthquakes," said Hamid Hussain, a Turi elder in Parachinar. "Our only sin is that we are Shia (Shiite)."

The Turi have managed to force the Pakistani Taliban and their Mangal tribal allies out of the upper Kurram area, but the extremists are still present in lower Kurram, which connects to Pakistan, and in the mountains of central Kurram, tribal elders said.

Enter the Haqqani network, which offered this month to guarantee a peace deal between the Turi and Mangal tribes and to open the road from Parachinar to the rest of Pakistan.

In return, the Turi believe that the Haqqanis want use of Kurram in order to attack Afghanistan. Six Turi tribal elders who were party to negotiations with the Mangals and Haqqani, emphatically denied rumors that they had already agreed to give Haqqani safe passage through their area, saying they could never allow it after suffering so many deaths of Turi civilians.

The Turi met Ibrahim Haqqani twice, according to several Turi who attended. The first meeting was in Peshawar in September and the second in Islamabad in the first week of December, at a house in the Barakau suburb of the provincial capital. At the Peshawar meeting, the Turi sought help to free six members of their tribe who had been kidnapped by the TTP, and Haqqani subsequently got them freed.

Turi elders travelled to Islamabad this month for what they thought would be a meeting with their rival Mangal tribe. However, they were shocked to find that the Mangals were apparently being directed by Ibrahim Haqqani from behind the scenes. Ibrahim Haqqani eventually met directly with them, according to Hamid Hussain, Niaz Muhammad and Iqbal Hussain Turi, three Turi elders who were present.

"We told them (Ibrahim Haqqani and associates) that we don't recognize Al Qaida and Taliban. They said they wanted to mediate our dispute (with the Mangal tribe). But who are they to be part of these talks? Our people will never accept them," said Niaz Muhammad, speaking in his village in upper Kurram.

Muhammad said that, had they agreed to Haqqani as a mediator, it would have given the militant group the entry to Kurram they were seeking.

"We won't let our area be used against anyone, not NATO, not Pakistan," said Muhammad.

The government administration in Kurram declined to comment, and Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, did not return calls seeking a comment.

While Pakistan has been widely accused of aligning itself with the Haqqanis, who seek to topple the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan, it is fighting the TTP, which seeks to topple the Pakistani government. But the Haqqanis, while abjuring any attacks on the Pakistani state, seem to be working closely with the TTP, first in North Waziristan and now in Kurram. Pakistan denies supporting any Afghan insurgent groups.

"We don't want to be sacrificed to some strategic ends," said Iqbal Hussain Turi, a tribal elder who attended the meeting with Ibrahim Haqqani. "We have spoilt Pakistan's plans for Haqqani."

The Turi say the Haqqani network wants access to their area because of its strategic position. Kurram juts into Afghanistan, providing access to three eastern provinces, Paktia, Khost and Nangarhar, and its border is just 55 miles from Kabul. Osama bin Laden is said to have escaped Afghanistan in 2001 via Tora Bora, which lies just across the hills from Parachinar, to Pakistan through Kurram.

Jeffrey Dressler, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, an independent research organization based in Washington, said the Haqqanis' previous ability to carry out terror strikes in Kabul, from their base in North Waziristan, had been restricted by NATO's operations across the border, so the group could be looking for another route to the Afghan capital.

"For Haqqani, Kurram could, at least in part, be about finding another way to get to Kabul. It's in Kabul where Haqqani is really serving the interests of his masters in the ISI and the army, which is striking Indian targets," Dressler said.

In September, U.S. helicopters based in Afghanistan crossed the border into Kurram chasing insurgents, including an incident around the village of Teri Mangal village in which the helicopters mistakenly fired on a Pakistani border post, killing two soldiers. Local residents say that the militants, possibly the Haqqani group, have a camp at Teri Mangal. U.S. missile strikes in the tribal area this year have targeted North Waziristan almost exclusively, focused on suspected Haqqani members and their local allies.


 

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Time to rescue the people of Parachinar

Time to rescue the people of Parachinar

The writer is a PPP MNA and a member of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Human Rights

Parachinar used to be called 'a paradise on Earth'. Despite its natural beauty and strategic importance, Parachinar is presently in a dire state due to sectarian violence initially instigated by the negative policies of former president Ziaul Haq. The residents of Parachinar, predominantly Shia, have been the target of jihadi entities and this has been the primary cause of sectarian clashes there. This violence has transformed the once beautiful land into ruins, completely destroying infrastructure. The main road connecting Peshawar to Parachinar has been blocked by sectarian extremists who have been brutally killing travellers to and from Parachinar.

Local people have been forced to travel through dangerous routes via Afghanistan and back into Peshawar just to purchase daily rations and essential items. Today, even that route has been closed, effectively cutting them off from the rest of Pakistan. This has caused local merchants to raise prices of staple foods such as flour, ghee, sugar and rice up to six times. There is also a tremendous shortage of basic medical supplies and essential life-saving drugs in Parachinar, in addition to a scarcity of proper medical facilities and staff in the area. The youth of Parachinar are worse off since the lack of even basic education has meant that most schools in the area have remained closed for a long time. In the past few decades, the Shias of Kurram Agency have suffered greatly. This started when General Zia relocated the local Kurram militia from Parachinar to other agencies, upsetting the century-old tradition of keeping a local officer in the militia's hierarchy or as a political administrator.

When the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, the situation got much worse for Kurram agency. And, after their defeat in 2001, a large number of Taliban, along with al Qaeda members, fled to the bordering tribal areas in Pakistan, settling in regions in upper Kurram dominated by Shia tribes. This resettlement became a flashpoint and the oppression of the locals multiplied when, five years ago, the Taliban blockaded the only road that connects Parachinar with Thal — the first town in the settled area. This affected trade and downgraded the social life of the people, strangulating their livelihood. Consequently, they found it difficult to safeguard their families and find jobs, decent food and sometimes even basic medicines.

The situation of Parachinar is only getting worse. The people of Parachinar still remember, with deep affection, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed as they focused on the betterment of this desperately poor and deprived area in order to strengthen its resources by the rehabilitation of its schools, colleges, hospitals and medical facilities. Shaheed Benazir Bhutto also directed PIA to have a flight connecting Parachinar and Peshawar on a weekly basis at an affordable fare. This stopped during former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's tenure and needs to be reinstated urgently. Currently, only a few wealthy residents of Parachinar are able to afford a flight to Peshawar through a private plane service and it charges a high fare. It is time for us to step forward to rescue the people of Parachinar.

Published in The Express Tribune December 25th, 2010.

 

source: http://tribune.com.pk/story/94391/time-to-rescue-the-people-of-parachinar/


 

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Operation in NWA to be costly for politicians

 
Saturday, December 25, 2010
 
By Mazhar Tufail
ISLAMABAD: If the government goes for a military operation in the volatile North Waziristan Agency, the political leadership of the country will have to face the music as the politicians will be the prime target of retaliatory attacks by militants, it transpired in conversation with a number of tribal elders in the region.

Amid conflicting media reports, particularly those appearing in the US media, about launch of military operation in North Waziristan, the residents of the tribal district are extremely angered and perturbed, this correspondent noted when he travelled this week from Islamabad to NWA via Kurram Agency and Razmak to gather firsthand information about the situation prevailing in the area. The visit was particularly aimed at seeking views of the tribesmen about the situation arising out of a possible military operation. It was noted during the visit that besides the elderly tribesmen, the young people are also seriously worried.

One thing which became crystal clear during this visit was that it does not matter to the residents of the tribal areas whether there is a democratic rule or a dictatorial regime. It was noted that the top priority of the tribesmen is to strengthen the tribal system and to stick to the local customs and traditions.

Interestingly, one thing which was particularly noted during this visit was that people of NWA have positive opinion about and special affection with the Pakistan Army. Although, the tribesmen and tribal elders of North Waziristan have negative views about General (R) Pervez Musharraf, their views about Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani are positive and believe that he is undoubtedly a combatant general.

Perhaps, this perception of General Kayani is because of the extremely brave nature of the tribesmen, as arms are their real life. The people of NWA consider a newborn lucky if the expensive arms are given to him on his birth. Whether the death of a person occurs in a drone strike or one dies a natural death, the women, children and elderly don't shed tears as they accept it as will of God.

The average age of the residents of NWA, having dangerously high mountains and the astonishing mountain passes, is surprisingly much longer than people of any other region of Pakistan. This correspondent met several tribesmen who were 90 or above 90 but they were very active and fit. They strongly believe in Allah and the traditions of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him). Religious schools are established in vast compounds where children are imparted only religious education until they become young guys.

Whereas the tribesmen of NWA are good religious scholars and have the largest representation in Tableeghi Jamaat, they are also very beautiful and proficient horse riders and their horses move very swiftly in mountain passes. The centuries-old communication means are still used there and mules are used for the purpose. The intelligence system in the region is strong to an astonishing extent. The unique feature of the houses of common tribesmen built 50 years or more ago have internal tunnels.

The residents of NWA have relationships across the border in Afghanistan and have very small number of relatives in the settled areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Arms are common and so easy to acquire of which a common Pakistani even can't think. For their livelihood, the people of NWA depend only on trade in the goods smuggled from Afghanistan and their upward transportation to other parts of Pakistan.

These people are completely different from common Pakhtuns. The political administration exists but to a specific level. These tribesmen, who speak Pashto in a pleasing manner, have great respect in their hearts for Lieutenant General (R) Hamid Gul, former chief of Inter-Services Intelligence, and have serious complaints against the political leadership of Pakistan. They have made different companions of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) their role model and they love the Islamic teachings and jihad very much.

The most hated countries of the NWA residents are India and the United States. Majority of foreigners in NWA are Chechen and Uzbek Muslims while a small number of Chinese Muslims are also there. These tribesmen, who do not accept any sort of dictation from others, have positive views about the Pakistan Army but have serious complaints against the political leadership.

According to them, if any operation is launched in North Waziristan to fulfil the desire of the United States, the politicians, who would support in the parliament any such operation, would be real and easy target for the people of NWA because they don't know how to forgive and forget.

The NWA people have serious complaints against the top leadership of the Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) while they have great respect for the former Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and incumbent JI head Syed Munawwar Hassan. According to them, only these two leaders raise voice against the US drone attacks.

When this correspondent asked some elderly tribesmen that what would happen if a military operation is launched in NWA, they quickly said in that case Pakistan would be no more because the youth of NWA would take revenge from the Pakistani elite in such a manner, which cannot be described in words. During conversation with tribesmen about any operation in NWA, this correspondent noted unanimity of views that no military operation can succeed in their area because of difficult terrain. During the visit, this correspondent noted that if an action by fighter jets and helicopters is not impossible, it is certainly extremely difficult for the fighter jets and helicopters to successfully hit their targets. The terrain is so difficult that even a ground operation also seems impossible as the invading force might suffer colossal loss of lives.

The presence of an alien in the area can't be concealed for a long period and on the basis of this fact, it could be judged easily as to why no foreigner has so far tried to forcibly enter the region. The views of the young tribesmen were very strong and clear that if the Pakistani parliament took a decision meant to please the US authorities, the very existence of the parliament would face a serious threat and how much destruction would occur in Pakistan could be judged only by meeting with the residents of NWA.

source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=22151&Cat=2
 

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Tribe trying to keep out al Qaeda allies

  • Saturday, 12.25.10

Tribe trying to keep out al Qaeda allies

An embattled Pakistani tribe hopes to fend off an extremist group that wants to move into its territory.

McClatchy News Service

The Haqqani network, an extremist group close to al Qaeda that has mounted devastating attacks in Afghanistan, is attempting to move into a new safe haven in Pakistan's tribal region as a base for attacks on U.S.-led forces across the border, according to leaders of a Pakistani tribe based here.

The Haqqanis, who have a history of close ties to the Pakistani military and its Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, have undertaken negotiations with the main tribe here, the Turi, that the Turi say would open the move from their current base at Miramshah, North Waziristan, into the adjacent Kurram Agency, 80 miles to the north.

The Turi say they have repeatedly rebuffed the Haqqanis, most recently in a meeting earlier this month in Islamabad between tribal elders and the brother of the founder of the Haqqani network.

The Turi, who live in and around Parachinar, capital of Kurram, on the western tip of the district bordering Afghanistan, say they don't want extremists on their lands or for their area to be used against NATO or the government of Pakistan.

LITTLE SUPPORT

They complain bitterly that the Pakistani government has given them neither support nor protection in an inter-tribal struggle that has pitted them against the Pakistani Taliban, who seek the overthrow of the state.

``We don't differentiate between [Pakistani] Taliban, Haqqani and al Qaeda. They are all the same to us,'' Sajid Hussain Turi, a member of the federal parliament for Kurram, told a McClatchy reporter who visited Kurram in late December.

Kurram is one of seven agencies in Pakistan's tribal belt, a lawless buffer zone between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and it has been in a state of internal conflict for at least six years. An old rivalry between the Turi, who are from the minority Shiite sect of Islam, and their local competitors, the Mangals, who are Sunnis, has turned into a titanic struggle after the Pakistani Taliban entered in 2007 and threw their big guns behind the Mangals. Now the Haqqani network is involved as well.

Both the Pakistani Taliban-- the TTP, for Tehrik-I-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) -- and Haqqani follow an extreme version of Sunni Islam. The Turi say they're now engaged in an existential struggle against the Pakistani Taliban, who along with the Mangals have cut their lands off from Pakistan proper.

MANY DEATHS

The conflict has cost the lives of more than 1,200 Turi over the last four years, Turi elders said.

The Haqqanis' apparent attempt to move into Kurram almost certainly is the result of U.S. drone attacks against the sanctuary they inhabit in North Waziristan and the threat of a future offensive by the Pakistani army.

The U.S. government, attempting to disrupt the Afghan insurgency, has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan launch an offensive to clear extremists out of North Waziristan. The Haqqani network fights alongside the Afghan Taliban but has no permanent base inside Afghanistan.

The Haqqanis claim not to be part of the conflict in Kurram and have pursued their quest for a base here by offering to mediate between the Mangals and the Turi. Recent media reports suggest that Siraj, son of Haqqani's group's founder, Jalaluddin, and now the leader of the group, moved to Kurram in the autumn.

While most of the tribal area is a wild, illiterate place, run under tribal custom, Kurram, unusually, is predominantly Shiite Muslim, with the Turi tribe comprising about 300,000 of the 500,000 people of the agency. Education is widespread, and the area is relatively well developed, with some wide valleys of flat fertile agricultural land and functioning schools. The Turi oasis in the tribal area, around Parachinar, feels more like the rest of Pakistan, rather than the primitive conditions and gun culture of most of the tribal area.

The Turi are blockaded into the westernmost part of Kurram, around Parachinar. Together, the Mangals and the Pakistani Taliban control the main road that connects Parachinar to the east to the ``settled'' parts of Pakistan under normal rule. Two years ago, assailants, using chain saws, beheaded and dismembered eight Turi men, while they were still alive, as they attempted to use the road to reach the rest of Pakistan. Their body parts were left in sacks along the main road, Turi elders said.

The Turi have suffered brutal attacks, been killed by land mines laid by the Taliban and faced a shortage of food and other supplies, prices of which have skyrocketed as a result of the blockade, while education and other services have deteriorated.



http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/25/1988052/tribe-trying-to-keep-out-al-qaeda.html#ixzz197gBrAC6

 

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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Thall-Parachinar road safe for travel: ISPR


Thall-Parachinar road safe for travel: ISPR

Buner ap 543 Thall Parachinar road safe for travel: ISPR

Sajid Hussain Turi, an MNA from Kurram Agency, told Dawn that the road was still unsafe for traffic, adding that passengers could use the road only when travelling in convoys and security personnel escorted them. – Photo by AP (File)

RAWALPINDI: The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has claimed that Thall-Parachinar road has been made safe for all types of traffic.

In a statement it said that security forces would never allow terrorists and their sympathisers to use the road and rejected a perception that it was under the control of local Taliban.

But Sajid Hussain Turi, an MNA from Kurram Agency, told Dawn that the road was still unsafe for traffic, adding that passengers could use the road only when travelling in convoys and security personnel escorted them.

"Our tribal people cannot even dare travel on Thall-Parachinar road. They are being given false assurances about the safety of the road. Recently, six tribesmen were kidnapped by the Taliban while travelling on this road," he said.

Mr Turi said that people were still negotiating with various tribal groups for making the road secure.

The ISPR issued the statement in response to a report that said local commanders of the Haqqani group and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan were negotiating with Kurram elders and that the road would be reopened on the condition that Turi tribes would not hinder the movement of militants on it.



source: http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/05/thall-parachinar-road-safe-for-travel-ispr-2.html



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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Kurram: the forsaken FATA —Dr Mohammad Taqi


Daily Times


 

Thursday, November 04, 2010

COMMENT: Kurram: the forsaken FATA —Dr Mohammad Taqi

The flat out refusal of the Kurramis, who have lost over 1,200 souls since April 2007, to cede their territory and pride to the jihadists and their masters has thrown a wrench in the latter's immediate plans. Having failed to dupe the citizenry, the establishment has elected to bring them to their knees by force

General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited a tribal agency last week but he did not tender an apology to some local families, whose dear ones — including children — were killed by the Pakistan Army gunship helicopters this past September. Not that one was holding one's breath for the general's regrets but it would have presented some semblance of fairness given the Pakistan Army's demands for apology and furore over the NATO choppers killing its troops in the same region during the same month. Well, life is not fair as it is, especially for the people of Kurram — the third largest Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA).

The crime of these civilians, killed by their own army, was that they had been resisting the influx of foreign terrorists into their territory. Despite the claims put forth by the military about the NATO incursion, it is clear now that the latter had attacked the members of the Haqqani terrorist network who were using the village of Mata Sangar in Kurram to attack the ISAF posts in neighbouring Khost, Afghanistan. Reportedly, the de facto leader of the Haqqani network, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was in the region at the time of the NATO attack.

What has also become increasingly clear is that the Pakistani establishment is trying its level best to relocate its Haqqani network assets to the Kurram Agency in anticipation of an operation that it would have to start — under pressure from the US — in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA) sooner rather than later. This is precisely what the establishment had intended to do when it said that the NWA operation would be conducted in its own timeframe. The Taliban onslaught on the Shalozan area of Kurram, northeast of Mata Sangar, in September 2010 was part of this tactical rearrangement. When the local population reversed the Taliban gains in the battle for the village Khaiwas, the army's gunships swooped down on them to protect its jihadist partners.

This is not the first time that the security establishment has attempted to use the Kurram Agency to provide transit or sanctuary to its Afghan Taliban allies. It did so during the so-called jihad of the 1980s and 1990s when the geo-strategic tip of the region called the Parrot's Beak served as a bridgehead for operations against the neighbouring Afghan garrisons, especially Khost. In the fall of 2001, the Pakistan Army moved into Kurram and the Tirah Valley straddling the Khyber and Kurram agencies, ostensibly to block al Qaeda's escape from the Tora Bora region. The Tirah deployment actually served as a diversion, as al Qaeda and key Afghan Taliban were moved through Kurram and in some instances helped to settle there.

The use of diversions and decoys has also become a de facto state policy when it comes to Kurram. The crisis in the region has been described as a sectarian issue since April 2007. However, the fact of the matter is that the Wahabi extremists, sponsored by the state's intelligence apparatus, were used to prepare the ground for a larger Taliban-al Qaeda presence in the area. A local mosque in Parachinar served then as the staging ground for rolling out the Taliban rule in the Kurram Agency like similar operations in other tribal agencies. At the time, the Nasrullah Mansur network — an affiliate of the Afghan Taliban — along with the Pakistani Taliban was part of the alliance that had taken over the mosque. The resistance by the Kurram people was extraordinary and the jihadists were dislodged, albeit at great cost to the life, property and peace of the region. A son of Nasrullah Mansur, Saif-ur-Rahman was reportedly killed in a later round of fighting in December 2007.

From that point on, the Kurram tribesmen have come under increasing pressure from the establishment and its Taliban assets to allow the use of their territory for waging war against Afghanistan. The Parachinar-Thall road was effectively closed to the people from upper Kurram through jihadist attacks right under the establishment's nose. The blockade became so intense that the people had to either use an unreliable and highly expensive small aircraft service operated by the Peshawar Flying Club to reach Peshawar or look for alternative routes.

A land route to Kabul was later opened through the efforts of some Peshawar based tribal and political elders. For about two years, this 230 mile-long arduous journey has literally been upper Kurram's lifeline and its only land route to reach the rest of Pakistan via Peshawar. Given the fact that the Kurram Agency, with its over half a million population and a 3,380 square kilometre area, is the third largest tribal agency, this route has helped avert a massive humanitarian disaster by allowing food, medicine and supplies to reach the locals. The state did not stand just idle; it actively assisted in the blockade of its own citizens.

The establishment's strategy over the last month has been to impose the Haqqani network as the 'mediators' over the Kurram Agency to help resolve the 'sectarian' conflict there. They had coerced and co-opted three leaders from Kurram, Aun Ali, Zamin Hussain and the MNA Sajid Turi, to meet Ibrahim and Khalil Haqqani, sons of the network's ailing chief Jalaluddin. The three Pakistani men, however, did not have the waak — a customary power of attorney or designation — to conduct a jirga or negotiation or seek nanawatai (sanctuary) on behalf of the Kurram people and therefore were not able to guarantee that Kurram would not resist the new Taliban-Haqqani network incursion there.

The flat out refusal of the Kurramis, who have lost over 1,200 souls since April 2007, to cede their territory and pride to the jihadists and their masters has thrown a wrench in the latter's immediate plans. Having failed to dupe the citizenry, the establishment has elected to bring them to their knees by force. It announced last week that it is closing down the Parachinar-Gardez-Kabul route, trapping the people of Kurram in a pincer of twin blockades. Announcing the embargo, Colonel Tausif Akhtar of the Pakistani security forces claimed that they are closing down five border entry points to clamp down on sectarian violence. The people of Kurram, however, see this as the state opening the floodgates of oppression on them. But as long as the rest of Pakistan and the world at large do not take notice of the establishment's tactics in Kurram, this forgotten part of FATA will be completely forsaken.

The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com

 

SOURECE: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C11%5C04%5Cstory_4-11-2010_pg3_2


 

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Taliban negotiates to gain access to key Pakistan area

 

Taliban negotiates to gain access to key Pakistan area

Haji Hashim Ali at the community housing project near Alizai town
The Turi community and the Taliban have been bitter enemies

Talks are taking place between the Taliban and the main tribe controlling a strategically important part of northern Pakistan, tribal sources say.

Correspondents say the negotiations could result in the Taliban having access to the remote north-western Pakistani tribal district of Kurram.

Its western tip is only 90km (56 miles) from the Afghan capital, Kabul.

If a deal is reached it could have major implications for Nato's operations in Afghanistan.

Major battle

Pakistani officials confirmed to the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad that members of the Haqqani network - a branch of the Afghan Taliban based in Pakistan - were holding the talks with representatives of the Turi tribe.

Turi tribesmen building a house of rocks in Parachinar area

The Turis are the main tribe of Kurram tribal region.

Our correspondent said that the specific terms of any proposed deal were not known but the broad outline was simple - the Taliban guarantees the safety of Turis travelling overland from their Kurram heartland to Peshawar.

In return the militants would be allowed access to Kurram to launch operations around Kabul.

The Turi tribe, which belongs to the Shia sect of Islam, has traditionally abhorred the Taliban - who adhere to a hardline Sunni form of the faith. Many consider Shias to be non-Muslims.

Two years ago, the Turis fought a major battle with the Taliban in Kurram and are now consolidating their hold on most of the region.

Revenge

A Taliban-imposed blockade of Kurram in the aftermath of the fighting - which effectively has cut the area off from the rest of Pakistan - has caused immense suffering to Turi people.

Trade worth millions of dollars has been lost and Turi people are able to leave Kurram only in convoys which are regularly attacked.

The Taliban have approached the Turis in the hope of making a deal four times since 2008 - each time upgrading the status of their negotiating team.

But a deal so far has proved elusive.

That is principally because Turi elders - while welcoming the prospect of the blockade being lifted - expressed inability to guarantee the safety of the Taliban if they travelled through Kurram.

Our correspondent say that there are no signs they have eased their views during the latest two rounds of talks in Peshawar and Islamabad.

Even if a deal is made, our correspondent says, elders will find it hard to sell it to Turi tribesmen who want revenge against the Taliban, not concessions.

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Monday, October 18, 2010

Is Islamabad losing Parachinar to Kabul?


Opinion Maker 
 

Posted on 18. Oct, 2010 by Raja Mujtaba in Pakistan

 

"When the leaders are oblivious of their responsibilities, when self projection remains their only concern, the people should act before the countries head towards oblivion." Raja Mujtaba

By Dr Ghayur Ayub

Lord Curzon understood the Pakhtun psyche and separated Pakhtu speaking areas from the domination of Punjab in 1901, creating NWFP. He particularly concentrated on the tribal region and wisely combined the draconian Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) and military objectives with a softer policy of winning the hearts and minds of the tribal people through development projects pertaining to communication, railways, roads, education and health. His knowledge of the Pakhtun mental make-up surfaced in his Darbar speech, at Shahi Bagh, Peshawar on April, 26, 1903, when he said, "Pathan is a curious mixture. He is a man of war but he is also a born trader. I see him conducting business right away in the Bazzars of Bengal. I have come across him in Burma and Asam." He could have added religion as third element in the mixture.

In recent decades, the Shias of Kurrum agency have suffered on all three counts. It all started when Gen. Zia targeted their religious beliefs by; relocating the Shia Kurrum Militia from Parachinar to other agencies; upsetting a century-old tradition of keeping a Shia officer either as head of Kurrum Militia or as political administration; and having a mixture of Shias and Sunnis in appointments of subordinate administrative staff of APA, Tehsildar and Naib Tehsildar. His policy went against the local Shias and when the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, the situation got deplorably worse for them.

After the Taliban defeat in 2001, a large number of them along with Al-Qaeda members fled to the tribal areas settling among other places, in regions around the Shia dominated upper Kurrum. As a result, their defeat in Afghanistan became a flashpoint for Shia miseries. The religious oppression of Shias multiplied manifold when, five years ago, they blocked the only road that connects Parachinar with Tal-the first town in the settled area. It adversely affected Shia trade and commerce downgrading their social life and strangulating their livelihood. As a consequence they found it difficult to safeguard their families, find jobs, decent food and sometimes even medicine.

A glaring example was that of Sarwan Ali from village Malana, who shot himself because he could not get food and medicine for his ailing wife. Or a young mother in her early twenties from village Alamsher, who was fatally wounded in her home, holding her baby in her arms, by a splinter of mortar shell fired by Taliban from a nearby hilltop. Bombing, shelling,shooting, killing and living in a constant state of fear, anguish and disappointment has become routine. Ironically, for their daily essentials they cross the border to Afghanistan; and when they want to visit their relatives and friends in Pakistan they travel through Afghanistan and re-enter their own country at Torkham. Can things be more pathetic than this? For them, the Afghan government is friendlier than Pakistan's; thanks to the failure of political administration to redress their grievances and control the Taliban's brutal onslaught. When an angry local Shia was asked, which country was safer to live in; Pakistan or Afghanistan? He replied in an argumentative query, "Just look around and you tell me?" He had lost two sons, when, one night, the Taliban left their beheaded and mutilated bodies at his doorstep. The valley is full of such grieving Shias.

The unbearably harsh life is reaching an explosive point, leaving them with two options; either to migrate or fight back. They have opted for the second. For that, they need possible support from Iran, Hezbollah, Afghanistan or even the Americans. Material help from the latter two seems logical because of easy access. They can see new venues of hope through Khost, Paktia and Nangarhar after being regularly attacked at Tor Ghar near Tal, Doaba near Hangu and Japanese tunnel near Kohat. In frustration, some have started thinking to react the way certain rebellious Baloch have reacted with one difference; the Shias understand that Kurrum cannot survive independently. So they have looked back at history and have found two incidents they can get guidance from.

  1. First; in the early 20th century, the Sunnis created a deplorable situation for the Shia population identical to the one seen today. The grand Khan of Turi Duperzai, Noor Khan (alias Dur Khan) wrote to the Deputy Commissioner of Kohat on behalf of the Shia elders, inviting the British government to Kurrum agency to safeguard the Shia population. The British accepted the invitation by appointing a political agent at Parachinar. That's how the massacre of Shias was stopped.
  2. Second; a treaty known as Durand Line Agreement was signed on November 12, 1893, between Amir Abdur Rahman Khan and Sir Henry Mortimer Durand creating a buffer zone between British India and Afghanistan. The signed treaty was in English-a language the Amir couldn't read or understand. The translated portions in Dari and Pakhtu were not signed by the Amir. According to historians, the Pakhtun elders close to the Amir were not aware of the written agreement. They thought the treaty was according to an unwritten Jirga practised in those days.

This brings up an important point of the time frame of the pact which remains ambiguous till the present day. Maybe the treaty was actually in two parts; a written part according to the British legal requirement signed by the Amir; and an unwritten part called 'Tiga' according to the requirement of the Jirga System. 'Tiga' in the Jirga system is like a seal between the two participating parties and is time bound. Was a hundred year limit part of 'Tiga'? The Pakhtun elders then and in the following decades believed so. And this could be the reason that successive governments in Afghanistan, including the very friendly Taliban of Mullah Omar, took a firm stand on this issue. They have consistently disregarded certifications by SEATO and SENTO which supported Pakistan's version, by arguing that Afghanistan was not made party during the dialogues, and that those two bodies are dead and buried. They also argue; that how can a treaty of such a nature and magnitude be agreed upon without a time-frame. The issue has not reached the United Nations thus far, and the US and UK both ignore it because it can affect their war strategy in Afghanistan.

Some frustrated Shias share Afghanistan's version and consider the DLA as null and void since 1993, thus making Kurum part of Afghanistan. When asked what if the Taliban got back to power in Afghanistan, they reply they will cross that bridge when they come to it; so strong are their feelings. According to them things have changed since 9/11.They conducted a private survey, amongst 500 Shias aged between 20 and 65, (its authenticity cannot be verified) which gives opposite figures to the one given by another public survey conducted by the New America Foundation and Terror Free Tomorrow, which stated "Nearly nine out every ten people in FATA oppose the U.S. military pursuing al-Qaeda and the Taliban in their region." The local survey showed that 99% are against Taliban and Al-Qaeda; 70% are disappointed by the role played by the Sunni led Pak army in Kurum; 85% are against the existing political set-up in Kurrum; 45% are ready to take up arms against the Pak army.

Irrespective of the survey being authentic or not, a strong lobby is surfacing especially amongst the youth who blame Pakistan for their miseries. They want to safeguard their livelihoods, bring safety to their families, put trade back on track, achieve an atmosphere of peaceful existence, and most importantly have freedom of religious beliefs. They are ready to take up arms in Hezbollah style to achieve those aims.

The American administration must closely be watching the situation in Kurum in the context of their non-productive military actions in FATA and non-implementation of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ) policy in the region. Obama is desperate to show the American people that he can crush Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in FATA and help the locals economically. Upper Kurrum could turn out to be his dream come true if it becomes a launching pad to achieve those aims. Its location bordering Afghanistan from three sides and with direct land-linkage with the three important FATA regions of North Waziristan, Aurakzai and Khyber makes it ideal to fight his worst enemy from within FATA. If the local Shias are willing to participate; why shouldn't he take advantage of the opportunity and offer material help to the trained fighters against Al-Qaeda and Taliban?

Before it turns into a reality, Pakistan should seriously think of taking the following reconciliatory steps;

  • Take the Shia population, especially the youth, in confidence and show them in real terms that the government is willing to help take them out of their miseries.
  • Construct a second road along the south bank of Mar Toi (Kurrum river) bypassing the strongholds of Taliban dominated regions at Sadda and beyond, thus opening communication and trade links with the rest of Pakistan
  • Undo what Gen Zia did, by reintroducing the century-old system of power sharing between Shia and Sunni officers in civil and military bureaucracy in Parachinar.
  • Bring back the HQ of Kurrum Militia to Parachinar and build it afresh by inducting both Sunnis and Shias in its ranks and files.

Otherwise, the Pakistani leadership should open its eyes and read the writing on the wall which says; Islamabad is fast losing Parachinar to Kabul.

 

 

http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/10/is-islamabad-losing-parachinar-to-kabul/

 

 



Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Isolated Pakistani region faces humanitarian crisis

 

Title Officials: Isolated Pakistani region faces humanitarian crisis
Publisher Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Country Pakistan
Publication Date 13 July 2010
Cite as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Officials: Isolated Pakistani region faces humanitarian crisis, 13 July 2010, available at: http://www.unhcr. org/refworld/ docid/4c56d2a0c. html [accessed 3 August 2010]

Officials: Isolated Pakistani region faces humanitarian crisis

July 13, 2010

Children stand in line at a distribution center in Kurram.Children stand in line at a distribution center in Kurram.

The security and humanitarian situation in Pakistan's Kurram region has deteriorated significantly, local leaders and analysts told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.

Kurram Agency, on the Afghan border, is one of Pakistan's seven tribal agencies.

I.A. Rehman, the chairman of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, says that people in Kurram Agency are facing a humanitarian crisis.

Jawad Hussain, a member of the National Assembly from Kurram, says the region has been cut off from the rest of the country for the last three years. He says various Taliban groups dominate the main route between Thal and Parachinar, which in turn connects Kurram with Pakistan's main urban centers.

"Our people are forced to travel through the hard and mountainous regions of Afghanistan to reach the cities of Peshawar and Islamabad of Pakistan," Hussain says. "It takes 24-27 hours instead of six hours' travel between Thal and Parachinar. The local residents [face] really dismal conditions, but no one pays attention to it."

Last week, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying passengers from Parachinar to the provincial capital of Peshawar. The attack, in Afghanistan' s Pakthia Province, left 13 people dead and two injured.

Afghan officials have said those killed were Afghan refugees running small businesses in Kurram.

Zulfiqar Ali, a resident of the area who works as a reporter in Peshawar, says the deadly incident makes it even less likely that Kurram residents will travel the alternative Afghan route.

Ali was among a delegation of journalists who visited Kurram on a trip sponsored by Pakistan's military. He says that he witnessed local residents suffering from lack of food and medicine. "People in [the Kurram town of] Sadda looked like they [were] prisoners," Ali says.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said in a recent report that it has become extremely difficult to provide relief to the sick in Kurram. It noted that medical supplies are becoming increasingly scarce and even hospitals have been attacked.

Pakistan's military sends food and medicines twice a month. However, locals say that is not sufficient for the area's more than half a million inhabitants.

While the situation in Kurram has further deteriorated in recent years, the agency has been riven by militant and religious strife since the "Afghan Jihad" of the 1980s. Kurram lies on the border with Afghanistan and the Taliban bastion of Pakistan's North Waziristan.

In recent years, it has also been the site of clashes between Shi'ite and Sunni sects of Islam. Officials say at least 3,000 people have been killed in such religious violence since 2007.

Recent fighting between Taliban militants and Pakistan security forces in the area has also displaced thousands of Kurram's inhabitants.


Link to original story on RFE/RL website


Topics: Security situation,

Copyright notice: Copyright (c) 2007-2009. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036

sources: 1. http://www.rferl. org/content/ Officials_ Isolated_ Pakistani_ Region_Faces_ Humanitarian_ Crisis/2098366. html
2. http://www.unhcr. org/refworld/ docid/4c56d2a0c. html

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