Sunday, March 27, 2011

Six people shot dead in lower Kurram Agency

Six people shot dead in lower Kurram Agency

ISLAMABAD: Six people were killed on Sunday in two different incidents in Lower Kurram Agency, DawnNews reported.
According to sources, unknown armed men fired a rocket on a passenger vehicle in the Shaheedano Dand area close to Pak-Afghan border which killed a woman and four others.
The people killed in this incident belonged to Khost area of Afghanistan and were trying to enter into Pakistan.
Meanwhile, two people were shot dead at Mathoza area of Lower Kurram Agency.
Two days ago,  45 people were abducted from lower Kurram agency by unknown armed men. Fifteen of them have been released while the remaining 30 have not yet been recovered, DawnNews reported.
 

Six killed in Kurram Agency

The Express Tribune

Six killed in Kurram Agency

Published: March 27, 2011
Four people die as rocket fired by unidentified people hits their vehicle in the Shahi Dhand area.
KURRAM AGENCY: Six people were killed in two different incidents of violence in Lower Kurram Agency on Sunday.
Four people were killed when a rocket fired by unidentified people hit their vehicle in the Shahi Dhand area. They were travelling from Parachinar to Peshawar.
In another incident, unidentified men shot dead two pedestrians in Lower Kurram Agency.
No one has claimed responsibility for the killings as yet while the identification of pedestrians is yet to be confirmed.
Security forces launched a search operation the area after the incidents took place.
 

Attack on passengers: Kurram elders refuse to get national identity cards


Attack on passengers: Kurram elders refuse to get national identity cards

By Hussain Afzal | From the Newspaper
PARACHINAR, March 26: The elders of Turi and Bangash tribes in restive Kurram Agency have refused to get national identity cards and passports as a mark of protest against attack on passengers and kidnapping of their people on Thall-Parachinar Road.
The tribal elders said on Saturday that they would refuse to get national identity cards and passports unless the government lay a firm hand on the militants, involved in attack on passenger vehicles and kidnappings.
Three people were killed and two injured in an ambush near Baggan area in lower Kurram while over 45 people had gone missing after masked men attacked four mini-buses on the main road on Friday.
The residents of the area said that most of the people kidnapped by militants were members of Turi tribe.
Protest rallies were also taken out in Parachinar, the administrative headquarters of Kurram Agency, against the incidents of violence. The participants of the rallies chanted slogans against political administration. The protesters blocked roads and burnt tyres. The Thall-Parachinar Road, the only artery linking Kurram with the rest of the country, has been blocked after the incident.
Earlier, the elders refused to meet Inspector General of Frontier Corps Maj-Gen Nadir Zeb, who arrived here to discuss the post attack situation with the senior officials and notables of the area.
Sources said that political authorities arrested 24 people in Baggan under the collective territorial responsibility clause of Frontier Crimes Regulation.
The tribal elders told a joint press conference that their boycott would continue till acceptance of their demands. "The government should immediately recover all kidnapped people and arrest the culprits," said Yousuf Turi while addressing the press conference.
He said that they would neither meet government functionaries nor avail any incentive unless their main demands were accepted.
"We expect that government will take prompt action against militants failing which Turi and Bangash tribes themselves will take steps for their safety," he said, adding that they were being forced to take weapons in selfdefence.
He said that Turi and Bangash tribes would not violate the peace deal and give sufficient time to political administration. He said that 40 people had been kidnapped while five women and six children were set free on Friday evening.
 

Jirga irked by Parachinar kidnappings

Elders say tribes will not allow any supplies for cantonment through their areas. PHOTO: FILE/AFP
PESHAWAR: 
Turi and Bangash tribesmen in Parachinar have decided not to cooperate with the government till tribesmen kidnapped a day ago are recovered, tribal sources said on Saturday.
On Friday, gunmen attacked a convoy of passenger vans going to Parachinar from Peshawar and killed 13 people and injured eight, while kidnapping 33 others.
The sources told The Express Tribune that tribesmen who formed a tribal jirga on the issue also protested against the attack in front of the political agent's office and at the Frontier Corps fort in Parachinar. Meanwhile, the jirga of Turi and Bangash elders decided not to cooperate with the authorities till the recovery of the kidnapped people.
"We will have nothing to do with political authorities, the Frontier Corps or governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa till the kidnapped tribesmen are released from (kidnappers') custody," an elder told The Express Tribune. He said that they would soon seal off the cantonment area.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2011
 

Can the Taliban keep their word?

The Express Tribune

Can the Taliban keep their word?

Published: March 26, 2011

Unless we get the upper hand in our battle with the Taliban, talking peace with them may be of little use.
After the much-publicised and welcomed peace agreement barely a month ago between all parties concerned, Kurram Agency has seen another episode of planned terror. Four minibuses were ambushed there on March 25, one set on fire, and 45 passengers, most of them Shia, were kidnapped. On the Parachinar Road coming from Peshawar via Hangu, nine people were killed. The four-year sectarian conflict — inter-tribal, as well as Taliban-oriented because of the sectarian nature of their religion — is back. The allowances made for the frequent Taliban attacks in Hangu despite the agreement were of no use. The Taliban never really intended to honour the February agreement.
This is not the first time the terrorists have violated an agreement they had committed to. The military's tendency to believe that the Taliban, as true Muslims, would stand by their peace deals, began to be disabused right after 2006 when South Waziristan tribesmen, who had been hosts to Arab warriors and had fought the American-Nato war in Afghanistan, began to go back on their word. Islamist and anti-American generals, who sewed up deals with Nek Muhammad and Baitullah Mehsud were betrayed when the Taliban attacked an army convoy and took a large number of troops and officers hostage.
The latest betrayal may have many causes, one could be the tough stances taken by the Kurram tribes divided by sect, but it is also true that the Sunni factions listen to the Taliban and obey their command. The current leader of the Taliban, Hakimullah, has built his bloody career on his readiness to kill the Shias, allowing his spokesman to rename himself after Azam Tariq, the Punjabi leader of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba, guilty of spreading anti-Shia sentiment in Pakistan. The Kurram setback will give pause to those who recommend 'talks' with the Taliban. When asked which Taliban, one should talk to, the answer is that the Pakistan Army will choose the right Taliban. The quarrel between the Pakistan Army and the Americans, stems from the latter's objection that Pakistan has already had experience with its 'peace deals' and should not talk to elements killing innocent people en masse with suicide bombers and car bombs. Also, it is no use talking to the enemy when he is in the ascendant and betrays no signs of suing for peace. No sensible person can be opposed to talks, but record shows that the peace policy will not be effective before Pakistan is able to push the Taliban back and make them feel like talking.
Even those who support the Pakistan Army stance on talks and oppose America's pressure for attacking North Waziristan, acknowledge the problem of peace deals that keep falling apart. An ex-chief secretary of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and an expert on tribal affairs, wrote against the American policy causing the drone massacre of Datta Khel, but noted the following facts about 'peace deals' with the terrorists: "Hafiz Gul Bahadur has become a prominent militant leader with alleged links to the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda. He is also an influential member of the larger militant local council called Shura Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen (United Council of Mujahideen) that includes Maulvi Nazir of Wana. It also included the late Baitullah Mehsud."
He adds: "However, Gul Bahadur is considered an asset by the Pakistan military for maintaining some semblance of control in the region. Furthermore, Gul Bahadur has a record of cooperation with the Pakistani authorities. In 2006, he brokered the North Waziristan ceasefire that ended attacks on the Pakistan military and he agreed to evict foreigners. The agreement collapsed in July 2007, when a convoy of the Pakistan Army was ambushed and more than 20 soldiers died." Kurram Agency has been closed to Pakistan, more or less like North Waziristan, the only difference being the former's internecine sectarian violence and North Waziristan's status as a launching pad of terrorist attacks inside Afghanistan. Exploitation of the idea of 'talks' by wrangling politicians without regard to the fact that it might further strengthen the terrorists must be abandoned. Unless we get the upper hand in our battle with the Taliban, talking peace with them may be of little use. And for that, we all must possess the will to resist the ideology of terror.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2011.
 

EDITORIAL: Kurram Agency under attack

Daily Times
Sunday, March 27, 2011

EDITORIAL: Kurram Agency under attack

The attack on inhabitants of the Kurram Agency, one of the deadliest so far, is one of the most brutal and bloody even for an Agency with a reputation as a centre of long-drawn-out sectarian violence. On Friday, two minibuses carrying Shia passengers and travelling from Peshawar to Kurram were fired at by suspected militants, killing 13 people and wounding 18. It is also reported that some 16 Shia passengers have been abducted. There are some unconfirmed reports that the number of abductees in this ambush is in fact much more. Most of the passengers belonged to the Toori tribe of Kurram, predominately Shia and unwilling to bend to militant rule in the Agency. It is little wonder then that they are incurring the wrath of villains who, reportedly, have deep connections to Pakistan's establishment. 

The history of Kurram Agency is a sordid one: strife with violence in the name of sectarianism and double games by some of the highest powers in the land. Kurram is a strategic hot zone as it is a part of FATA but also juts into Afghanistan — hence called the Parrot's Beak — providing militants with easy access to Afghanistan in their war against US/NATO troops. It is a strategic staging ground for the militants. It is well known that our intelligence establishment has plenty of 'friends' amongst the Afghan Taliban, who they consider strategic assets in any end deal in Afghanistan after the US/NATO troop withdrawal. It is because of this cushy relationship that the predominant Shia majority in Kurram has been under increasing pressure by the establishment to allow the militants to relocate to the area. Not only would this save them from the spate of drone attacks in North Waziristan (NW), the military establishment would be able to preserve its proxies if it is forced to undertake an operation in NW. Kurram will also provide the militants with a perfect launch pad for any attacks in Afghanistan. The Shia tribes in Kurram, in the past, stood their ground and refused to allow any such militant relocation. However, dual policies and double games by those who are quite well versed in such tactics brought about such a violent situation in Kurram through stoking the fires of Sunni-Shia sectarianism that the area saw bitter rivalries between the two sects with bloody attacks on both sides, attacks that had never occurred before Kurram came onto the radar of the establishment. The situation became so bad that the Parachinar Highway, the main access road between Kurram and the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was blocked, causing immense difficulty for travellers and supplies to the area. Those braving alternate routes, including a circuitous route through Afghanistan and back into Pakistan, ran the risk of being looted, kidnapped for ransom or murdered. Due to such a dire situation, the Shia tribes had no other choice but to entertain the wishes of the establishment and a peace deal was inked (and the Parachinar Highway reopened) in February in which it is rumoured the Haqqani network participated to broker the deal.

Now Kurram is at the mercy of the militants. The dignity of its people, who stood against hosting the militants initially, has been beaten out of them. This latest incident follows a long line of similar attacks on the Shia inhabitants. The Taliban, whether Afghan or Pakistani, have always considered the Shia to be heretics and now it looks like it is payback time for these 'infidels' who dared stand up to the militants. Kurram is convulsing at warp speed due to the dual policies of those who consider the militants friends. This vile game must be stopped; in the end, it is the people of Pakistan who suffer at the hands of these 'strategic assets'. *
 
SOURCE: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C03%5C27%5Cstory_27-3-2011_pg3_1

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