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Hundreds leave as troops deployed in Kurram Agency

Hundreds leave as troops deployed in Kurram Agency

Friday, May 29, 2009
Bureau report

PESHAWAR: The government for the first time has deployed troops in remote mountainous places of Kurram Agency, scene of bloody sectarian clashes in the past, for a possible military operation against militants.

Also, hundreds of families were seen Thursday fleeing their homes in the troubled remote villages after deployment of the security forces.

Military spokesman and Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Maj Gen Athar Abbas has ruled out any operation in the agency but said the deployment might be part of reinforcement of the forces.

Tribal sources told The News from Parachinar, headquarters of Kurram Agency, that the security forces entered the mountainous villages for the first time and took positions in Warmagai, Brekat and Dagai of Central Kurram.

The troops reportedly entered Kurram from Tora Warai area in the adjoining Hangu district.

There were reports that militants have shifted in large numbers to the mountainous areas of Kurram Agency from the neighbouring Orakzai Agency where the army helicopters and jet fighters recently pounded their positions and inflicted losses on Taliban.

Frightened villagers left their homes in Warmagai, Brekat and Dagai villages and were seen travelling towards Sadda subdivision and other places in Lower Kurram.

In the past two years, Kurram Agency has seen violent clashes between the followers of the two sects in which hundreds of people lost their lives.

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=180172

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Military operation may be launched in Kurram Agency

Friday, May 29, 2009
Troops deployed in remote areas

By our correspondent

PESHAWAR: The government for the first time has deployed troops in remote mountainous places of Kurram Agency, scene of bloody sectarian clashes in the past, for a possible military operation against the militants.

Also, hundreds of families were seen Thursday fleeing their homes in the troubled remote villages after the deployment of security forces.

Military spokesman and Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Athar Abbas has ruled out any operation in the agency but said the deployment might be part of reinforcement of the forces.

Tribal sources told The News from Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram Agency, that security forces entered the mountainous villages for the first time and took positions in Warmagai, Brekat and Dagai of Central Kurram.

The troops reportedly entered Kurram from Tora Warai area in the adjoining Hangu district.

There were reports that militants had shifted in large numbers to the mountainous areas of Kurram Agency from the neighbouring Orakzai Agency where the helicopters and jet fighters recently pounded their positions and inflicted losses on the Taliban.

Frightened villagers left their homes in Warmagai, Brekat and Dagai villages and were seen travelling towards Sadda subdivision and other places in Lower Kurram.

In the past two years, Kurram Agency has seen violent clashes between the followers of the two sects in which hundreds of people lost their lives.

SOURCE: http://thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=22420

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Trapped in Mingora

Thursday, May 28, 2009

The New-York based rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, has once more expressed acute concern over the fate of people still trapped in Mingora and pointed out that a curfew that has been in place for days prevents food, medicines and other vital supplies reaching these people. HRW has once more called on both parties locked in the current conflict to do more to save non-combatants. People in Mingora have meanwhile given a chilling account of life without power or water, of injured people unable to reach hospitals and of children facing death by starvation. Even the lifting of the curfew is likely to bring at best only partial relief to people. There have indeed been reports of convoys taking food up to areas of conflict being hijacked by the Taliban.

HRW and other groups have consistently been pointing to a need to do more for those in war zones. Their fate has largely been forgotten with attention focused on the more visible issue of the IDPs who have been streaming south with over 120,000 according to the UNHCR leaving home each day. Their plight deserves international focus, but the fact also is that those able to come are the relatively better off who have the funds and the means to make the journey out of villages and towns. Those left behind are in many cases the most impoverished, and subsequently the most hapless, with the least ability to save themselves from the perils of a conflict that has already taken a terrible toll on the lives of everyone caught up in it.

These people need help. This is true not only of those in Mingora but people trapped elsewhere as well. Deaths due to shortages of medicine have been reported form places such as the Kurram Agency as well. Our politicians need to sit together with military commanders and determine how best these people can be saved from the worst ravages of war. In some cases at least evacuations need to be considered. We cannot sit back and let people die because they are too poor to escape or because they have been kept by militants as human shields in a tactic aimed to maximize civilian casualties.

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=179883

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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Trapped in Parachinar

Wednesday, May 27, 2009, Jamadi-us-Sani

Trapped in Parachinar

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
This is with reference to a letter by Muhammad Farhan (May 23) where he speaks of the continued blockage of the main road linking Parachinar with Peshawar by the Taliban. I am amazed that despite several pleas published in the national press the government and the military remain indifferent to the plight of thousands of residents trapped in the town. I request President Asif Ali Zardari to take notice of this and order the military to take the necessary measures to remove the blockade on the Sadda-Parachinar road.

Syed Wajahat Hussain

Peshawar

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=179638

http://obama.wsj.com/article/00XS4iy91V6ev?q=Asif+Ali+Zardari

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Monday, May 25, 2009

Afghan govt, Nato mediating between Kurram factions

Afghan govt, Nato mediating between Kurram factions

By Zulfiqar Ali
Sunday, 24 May, 2009 | 07:49 PM PST |

PESHAWAR: Afghan government and Nato officials have started mediations between rival groups of the Kurram tribal region as the government sponsored jirga gave up efforts to resolve the simmering dispute.

Members of a Shia organisation protest the killing of their community members in sectarian violence in Kurram Agency.—AP/File

Sources said that Nato and Afghan officials have invited elders of the rival factions from the Upper Kurram to a military base in Shehr Nau, near the Pakistan border in Paktia province, for negotiations on Saturday last. The talks, according to these sources ended without any agreement or conclusion.

'Both sides have already held first round of talks at the same place some five days ago. A senior military officer of Nato and Afghan officials were present in the meeting,' said a tribal elder who had participated in talks.

After the first round of talks, both factions were invited for the second round on Saturday, but talks remained inconclusive, he said.

Shehr Nau, is a small town just 40 kilometers off the Pakistan border where Nato and Afghan forces have set up joint base.

Kurram Agency, surrounded by Afghanistan from three sides, is the most sensitive part of Fata and located only 200 kilometers away from the Afghan capital Kabul.

Nato did not deny facilitating talks between the rival groups. In information communicated to Dawn through email, the Press Office at the headquarters of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said that ISAF has troops that operated in eastern Afghanistan. However the ISAF mandate remains within Afghanistan's border.

The Press Office said: 'ISAF recognizes that some tribal/factional issues can transcend the border, however we would like to emphasize that Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) are the lead agencies in any talks in this area – and indeed in all issues pertaining to Afghanistan.'

The statement further clarified: 'ISAF is here to support—if required – Afghan government inside the border of Afghanistan. All ISAF troops operate appropriately to help the people of Afghanistan.'

Sources said that Sunni tribal elders hailing from Bushara and other areas in Upper Kurram had complained to the Afghan and Nato forces that rival Turi tribesmen had blocked their movement and blocked transportation of edible items to the stranded families.

They requested the Afghan authorities to force the Turi tribesmenm who are in majority in Upper Kurram, to remove economic blockade or stop supply of food and non-food items to them via Afghanistan.

The inhabitants of the Upper Kurram region have been relying on Afghanistan for food and medicines since 2008. The main highway to the area has been blockaded as a result of sectarian clashes and kidnappings and attacks on Turi tribesmen in Lower Kurram and adjacent settled areas. Residents of Parachinar have been travelling to Peshawar and Islamabad via Kabul and Jalalabad.

Tribal sources said that Nato and Afghan authorities had invited elders of Turi tribe for talks to Shehr Nau base last week. A source said that during meeting a senior NATO officer wearing name badge 'Make or Mike' directed the elders: 'If you don't provide safe access to the residents of Bushara and other hamlets and allow food supply then your movement and food supply via Afghanistan can be suspended.'

Elders of Turi tribe on this occasion demanded safety from Sunnis on Thall-Parachinar road and in settled areas. They denied that residents of Bushara were not getting food and other essential commodities.

They were of the view that unless militants were expelled from certain pockets of Lower Kurram and safe passage provided to the Turis both inside and outside Kurram region nobody can guarantee safety in Upper Kurram.

Turi tribesmen have also demanded release of 15 persons who were kidnapped from Tore Gher near Thall of Hangu district some three months ago.

A jirga led by former federal minister Malik Waris Khan Afridi has returned to Peshawar after spending two months in Kurram to find out an amicable solution of the situation in the area which had witnessed bloody clashes in 2007 and 2008. Over 3000 people from both sides had been killed and thousands of families had displaced from the region.

Elders of both sides signed peace agreements in Murree and Islamabad last year according to which main road would be opened and displaced people would be rehabilitated in their own areas. But the peace deal has not been implemented so far.

Malik Waris Khan when approached told Dawn that safety on Thall-Parachinar road and release of 15 kidnapped people had become the bottle neck in the peace process in Kurram. He said that the jirga had proposed to the government to fulfill its responsibilities and deployed paramilitary forces in Tore Ghar area near Thall to stop kidnapping of passengers.

Not only passengers were kidnapped but the sitting political agent Arshad Majeed Mohmand was also attacked in the same area but he survived. One guard was killed and eight were wounded in the attack.

Malik Waris expressed satisfaction over talks with rival groups and said that elders of Kurram representing all tribes would be brought to Peshawar for a meeting with Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani in next few days in which all demands would be presented. He said that government should compensate displaced families and announce package for the area.

SOURCE: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/09-afghan-govt-nato-mediating-between-kurram-factions-szh--02

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Why ignore Parachinar?

Why ignore Parachinar?

Saturday, May 23, 2009

While the government is operating against extremists in Swat and adjacent areas, many areas in FATA need the same attention also where people have been taken hostage for a long time. One such area is Kurram Agency and specifically Parachinar -- where the population has been held hostage for many months by the Taliban who have blocked the main road that leads to Peshawar. A TV channel just the other day reported that several lives had been lost in the town because of an acute shortage of medicines precipitated by the blockade. The government is requested to also deal with the extremists of Kurram Agency and Parachinar.

Muhammad Farhan

Karachi

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=178974

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Public support growing for military operations

Saturday, May 23, 2009
By Waqar Ahmed

After securing most of the towns, the Pakistan Army has entered in the decisive phase of military operations against the militants in the Malakand Division — intense clashes have erupted on the outskirts of Mingora between the Taliban and military troops, who are now advancing towards the main town in the Swat Valley. In this regard, victory after victory in flushing out the Taliban from the concerned areas has become possible due to the overwhelming public support for the ongoing operations. It is a good sign that on May 18 this year, an all-parties conference (APC) vowed to unite the nation against the insurgency in Swat and Malakand, and to end terror, condemning all violent challenges to the Constitution and the state.

Besides liberal groups, even religious scholars and organisations all over the country have strongly favoured the present military operations, while condemning the activities of the Taliban. In this connection, on May 16, a national-level convention, organised by the Pakistan Mashaikh Council (PMC) at Data Darbar, Lahore, announced full support for the military operation and urged the entire nation to unite against the Talibanisation. In the convention, religious scholars from across the country unanimously declared that they would start a nationwide movement against the Taliban and in support of the military operations, conveying the true message of Islam.

The Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) head, Sahabzada Fazal Karim, said the Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Muhammad was a "fake Sufi" and the people of Pakistan did not need his "forced Shariah," further elaborating that the defeat of the Taliban was the success of Islam and Pakistan. Federal Minister for Zakat and Ushr Noorul Haq Qadri remarked that time had come to push the Taliban out of Pakistan. Qadri asked religious scholars to come forward and contribute to the solidarity and stability of Pakistan as their elders did during the Independence movement. On May 17, hundreds of Sunni scholars at the Convention Centre in Islamabad rejected the Taliban brand of Shariah and fully endorsed the ongoing military operations in Swat and other areas of the country.

The fact of the matter is that the general masses and members of the civil society, belonging to every province of the country, have strongly denounced the Taliban, expressing solidarity with security forces. As regards the criminal activities of the Taliban, people had been full of anger at the perennial wave of suicide attacks, assaults on security forces, hostage-taking, killing of innocent people and torching the government buildings, including girls' schools.

In some regions of Fata and the Malakand Division, Taliban leaders had created states within the state. These militants exploded hundreds of girls' schools, video shops, police stations and security checkposts through hand grenades, car suicide bombers, etc. These miscreants were destroying the infrastructure, paralysing industry and halting daily business of the local Pakhtuns, thus badly affecting their source of income. In this respect, Swat Valley had become particular target where, with the open destruction of infrastructure and more than 200 girls' schools, these culprits discouraged women education, keeping them ignorant and exploitable. However, some other crimes of the Taliban such as kidnappings for ransom and car-snatching also annoyed the peace-loving people of the most affected areas of the NWFP.

Another reason of public support for the ongoing military operations is that most of the Taliban have been destabilising Pakistan with the help of external elements. In this connection, US, India and Israel are in collusion against Pakistan. Their secret agencies, CIA, RAW and Mossad are well-established in Afghanistan from where their secret agents have been regularly supplying arms and money to the militants, including their other Pakistani agents with a view to weakening the federation of Pakistan. They have been using various covert tactics in conducting suicide attacks in our country in general and the NWFP in particular. These plotters have also intensified their anti-Pakistan conspiracy by backing the separatist elements of Balochistan. In this context, recently the Asian Tribune online revealed that CIA and RAW had developed their tentacles in Swat, Bajaur, Kurram Agency and Balochistan. Some of the pro-Pakistan groups had been purchased or neutralised and those not coming to terms were eliminated. As regards the potential of the Pakistan Army in relation to the military operations, the Tribune pointed out that instead of getting pleased, the Americans got disturbed since they never intended to control militancy but to spread its flames into the cities and create anarchic conditions.

Nevertheless, while playing into the hands of foreign elements, the militants have been fuelling sectarian violence. Apart from other regions of Pakistan, more than 1,800 people have died in the last two years in sectarian violence in Kurram Agency, bordering Afghanistan. In these areas, external agents have been inciting Sunni Muslims against the minority Shias.

No doubt, the deteriorating security situation in the country coupled with the panic created by the Taliban had no solution except the military operations, which have been launched not only to establish the writ of the government, but also to protect the people of the concerned areas from the inhuman treatment of the Taliban. It is because of the public support to the military operations at large, that Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who had earlier stated that it was the constitutional duty of Pakistan's armed forces to defend the sovereignty and security of Pakistan, re-stated on April 7: "Present security situation requires that all elements of national power should work in close harmony to fight the menace of extremism." In a recent statement, he made it clear that he had ordered the soldiers that the attacks on the militants must be so precise that collateral damage was kept to the minimum during the operations.

It needs particular attention that besides sacrificing their own lives for the security of the country and its citizens, the armed forces have also been providing relief to thousands of people displaced by the Taliban violence and the present fighting in the troubled areas.

Now, the right hour has come that all political parties must reach a consensus on how to counter the Taliban insurgency once for all and must unite with the general masses in supporting the military operations, which are now advancing towards their logical end.

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=179127

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Monday, May 18, 2009

Sowing the seeds of the harvest of hate

Monday, May 18, 2009, Jamadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1430 A.H

Sowing the seeds of the harvest of hate

In the national interest

Monday, May 18, 2009
Kamal Siddiqi

The writer is editor reporting, The News

History probably will never forgive the Awami National Party for the role it has played to the events leading up to the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (NAR) and also what it has done ever since.

When all stake-holders had abandoned all hope of the implementation of the agreement, NWFP information minister and ANP leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain continued to claim that all was well and that the agreement was in place. It seems the ANP has become representative for both sides.

The party has abandoned its own secular and progressive principles.

One can hope that well meaning people like Afrasiab Khattak jump ship soon. Its national character has all but been blemished. When the NAR was disintegrating, Mian Iftikhar Hussain continued to defend the flawed agreement and mislead the people. Possibly because of him thousands of people wasted time when they should have left the Swat valley.

He even claimed to speak on behalf of the TNSM and the TTP that all was in order. The person that comes to mind when one listens to the NWFP information minister is Saddam Hussain's information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf. But the bigger crime of the ANP government was not the NAR. It was the manner in which the government has allowed extremist elements to hold sway over large swathes of land in the province and worse still, the kind of officers that were posted out to places like Swat to implement the writ of the state. One commissioner, who played a pivotal role in Taliban takeover of towns and villages and who continued to ignore the Taliban FM radio stations, comes to mind. (He was eventually transferred but by then perhaps the damage had been done).

The followers of the Jamaat-e-Islami proudly tell us that it was not them who released Maulvi Sufi Muhammad but the ANP government. And that is a fact that the number of extremists released by the ANP government compared to the previous MMA government is much more. But one cannot entirely blame the ANP here. The MMA sowed the seeds of the harvest of hate that we are now reaping in Swat and Buner.

The ANP is still not rising to the challenge and owing up to its responsibilities. Within days of the influx of refugees from Swat and Buner, information minister Iftikhar Hussain appealed to the international community for aid and assistance. This is the ability of Pakistani politicians and bureaucrats of turning every problem into an opportunity. But what will the ANP government do with that money, one may ask?

A visit to the refugee camps in Mardan revealed who was working and who was joking. A policeman stationed outside the ANP distribution camp at Shah Shehzad Town camp said that only favourites were being obliged. He also said that large amounts of items including blankets, tents, mats, utensils, food items and medicines were being stolen on a daily basis by government employees and ANP workers.

The policeman said that the only reason he was telling this was because "who knows, tomorrow I too will be a refugee if the situation worsens." One look at the "assistance camp" set up by the ANP showed how efficient they were. Men were sitting on chairs and chatting.

There was nothing to offer, not even a patient ear to the thousands of people who wanted to be heard and helped. These men only came into action when some politician or senior government official came to see the refugees. These "visitors" too were part of the official cloak of hypocrisy and indifference. They would spend more time in front of cameras and the media and less with the people they came to visit.

Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, who arrived at the camp on May 9, spent an hour talking to the media and 10 minutes meeting with the refugees. The same was the case with his party leader Mian Nawaz Sharif. And one irony is that despite the fact that around 1.2 million people have moved into the camps, neither our prime minister nor our president have had the time to go and see them.

In contrast, the work being done by religious parties is much more effective. The parties help provide relief and assistance as best they can. They are available to lend an ear when they cannot offer anything else. Organizations like Al-Khidmat and Ummah Welfare Trust are some of the more obvious groups involved. Other banned organizations are also providing relief and help. Who will stop them and why?

The real heroes of the battle against extremism remain unheard and unsung. People like Shams Buneri, who stood up to the Taliban and fought against extremist elements coming into his area. One of the great myths perpetuated by our right-wing media is that the Taliban have support amongst the Pakhtuns because of similarity of culture.

What we are not told is that entire towns and villages fought against the Taliban in places like Ali Khel, Kurram Agency, Salar Zai and Dir.

There was great resistance to the Taliban but in almost all the places the government did not come and support those who took up arms against extremism with the result that they were eventually decimated. In almost all instances of resistance, either the government did not come to the rescue of the people or, in some instances, came and helped the Taliban take control. All this has happened under the ANP rule.

In the case of Shams Buneri for example. He was visited by two senior officials of the NWFP government, one minister and one bureaucrat, who came to see him in the company of a senior Taliban commander. The convoy was escort by several Taliban fighters as well as government security personnel. This curious combination has worked overtime in Swat. Buneri was told to surrender and hand over control to the Taliban. He did not. It is indeed a murky war and we do not know who is supporting whom. Take for example the whole drama of the FM stations which are the main propaganda tool for the extremists.

Students at the nearby GIK Institute claim that given the right equipment and time, they can shut down the transmission from these stations or at distort it beyond comprehension. And yet our officials insist that we need American technology to do the job.

The one notable switch has come in the electronic media. The same "analysts" and "commentators" who were praising the NAR are now criticizing it and praising the army action. These opinion leaders, who host programmes and have immense star value, have yet again lost the plot. First they were apologists for the Taliban, now they are apologists for the establishment. No one seems to be speaking for Pakistan.

Probably for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government and Pakistan Television were speaking on different lines. In the last days of the NAR, the state broadcaster was going overtime with its right-wing agenda. And the minister of information along with the government was trying to get across another message. Only in a PPP government can these things happen. The well meaning information minister needs to sharpen his claws. Someone needs to know what the objectives of the government are and how they should be highlighted — at least on PTV.

As our brave soldiers fight the Taliban extremists, our muddled leftist parties have started to campaign against the action. However, unlike the ANP which has abandoned its principles altogether, one can credit the leftist ideologues with sticking to their anti-war mission.

At the same time, one needs to ask them what alternative is available for Pakistan at this point. More important, where are the leftists where they are needed the most — at the refugee camps in Mardan, Swabi and other parts of NWFP.

Like Imran Khan and his band of clueless party workers, many of them begums who won't step out in the afternoon sun because it would spoil their complexion, our left-wingers also now exist in another world — the cyber-world to be exact. They too have lost touch with the politics of Pakistan.

Email: kamal.siddiqi@thenews.com.pk

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=178102

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