Nadra has no record of PNS Mehran militants

KARACHI: No record of militants who attacked the PNS Mehran, the naval base of Pakistan Navy, was found at the Nadra and its report had been sent to the team investigating the incident, Geo News reported on Monday.

According to sources, the samples for the DNA tests have not yet been sent to the federal government’s forensic lab despite orders issued in this regard to the investigating experts eight days ago.

The forensic experts believe that crucial details about the terrorists could be obtained through the DNA tests. Well-placed sources told Geo News correspondent Asif Ali Bhatti that fingerprints of the terrorists who stormed the PNS Mehran on May 22 and other information relating to them had been dispatched to a special cell at the Nadra headquarters for finding matches. However, no matches were found. A senior official said that the shapes of the hands of the terrorists were similar to those of the men from Central Asia.

Zuma: Gadhafi Not Ready to Leave

South African President Jacob Zuma says Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is not ready to leave his country.

Zuma made the comment Tuesday after returning home from meeting with Gadhafi in Tripoli Monday.  Zuma was trying to broker a peace deal between the Libyan government and rebel fighters.

Zuma told Libyan media Monday that Gadhafi wants a cease-fire to include an end to NATO bombing, terms the rebels rejected last month after an earlier mediation mission by the South African president. The rebels, whose central demand is Gadhafi's resignation, quickly rejected this latest offer.

Meanwhile, the U.N. humanitarian aid coordinator for Libya told Reuters news agency that it is just a matter of weeks before dwindling food supplies result in a "critical situation."

On Monday, eight Libyan army officers held a press conference in Rome, claiming they are among about 120 soldiers who recently defected from Libya.

The men read an appeal to fellow army officers and top police and security officials, urging them to abandon Gadhafi's government.

Earlier Monday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Gadhafi is "increasingly isolated" at home and abroad with close allies "departing, defecting or deserting" the Libyan leader.

NATO forces have been operating under a U.N. Security Council mandate to protect civilians from Gadhafi's attempts to crush the uprising.

Five type of militant groups operating from Pakistan: Report

WASHINGTON: A US Congressional report has said that Pakistan is home to a large number of militant outfits, which can be broadly divided into five groups, one of which is specifically targeted against India and Kashmir that gets the maximum support from the establishment.

Islamist militant groups operating in and from Pakistani territory are of five broad types, Globally oriented militants, Afghanistan-oriented militants, India- and Kashmir-oriented militants, Sectarian militants, and domestically oriented, the independent Congressional Research Service said in its latest report to US lawmakers.

Globally oriented militants are especially al-Qaeda and its primarily Uzbek affiliates, operating out of the FATA and in the megacity of Karachi , it said.

The Afghanistan-oriented militants, including the 'Quetta shura' of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar , believed to operate from the Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta, as well as Karachi; the organization run by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, in the North Waziristan tribal agency; and the Hizb-I Islami party led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (HiG), operating further north from the Bajaur tribal agency and Dir district, it said.

CRS said India- and Kashmir-oriented militants, especially the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Harakat ul-Mujahadeen (HuM), are based in both the Punjab province and in Pakistan-held Kashmir.

The Sectarian militants, in particular the anti-Shia Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its offshoot, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the latter closely associated with al-Qaeda, operating mainly in Punjab, the report said.

It said domestically oriented groups are largely Pashtun militants that in 2007 unified under the leadership of now-deceased Baitullah Mehsud as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, with representatives from each of Pakistan's seven FATA agencies, later to incorporate the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e- Shariat-e-Mohammadi led by Maulana Sufi Mohammed in the northwestern Malakand and Swat districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"By many accounts the North Waziristan tribal agency, home to the al-Qaeda - and Taliban-allied Haqqani network and the TTP forces of Hafiz Gul Bahadar, among others, is currently the most important haven for both Afghan- and Pakistan-oriented militants," it said.

Pakistani officials have continued to demur on urgent US requests that their military move into what many consider the "final" militant haven of North Waziristan, saying they need to consolidate the areas newly under their control, it said.

"In other areas where Pakistani military offensives have taken place, the clearing phase of operations has been largely successful, but the holding phase has proven more difficult, and building is considered impossible to initiate so long as the civilian administration's capacity is severely limited. Moreover, Pakistan's military forces are new to counterinsurgency and demonstrate only limited capacity to undertake effective nonconventional warfare," the report said.

The report said Pakistan's densely populated Punjab province is home to numerous Islamist militant groups with global and regional jihadist aspirations. Perhaps most notable among these is the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a US-designated terrorist group with longstanding ties to the ISI .

PNS Mehran investigation: Former navy commando detained in Lahore

LAHORE: A former Pakistan Navy commando and his brother were detained in Lahore in connection with the PNS Mehran base attack.

The naval intelligence agency detained former navy commando Kamran Malik along with his brother Zaman from their residence in Gulberg. Malik was detained on the basis of a lead provided by one of the suspects that were arrested earlier from Karachi and Faislabad.

“They have been detained in connection with the naval base attack and are under interrogation,” one intelligence official said, without giving details.

Sources say Malik provided maps of the PNS Mehran base and other information to the terrorists.

The Express Tribune’s correspondent Asad Kharal reports that Malik was court martialled 10 years ago due to evidence that he tortured his colleague. He was subsequently admitted to the Combined Military Hospital and declared mentally unfit to serve as a navy commando. He went on to work as a seller of prize bonds.

During his service, Malik worked at PNS Mehran and PNS Iqbal naval base.

Eyewitnesses say that Malik and his brother were taken into custody on Friday morning at 10 am. 10 police officials, including a sub-inspector and other policemen in plain clothes, raided the house and took the men away.

Malik’s family claims that Malik has had no links with the navy since then. His father Sadruddin says that the accusations against Kamran are false, and that a judicial investigation should be conducted into the matter.

Tribune reporter Abdul Mannan reports that Malik’s phone was tapped by navy intelligence in 2008 when they suspected his involvement in an attack on a navy academy in Lahore. The attack left eight people dead and more than 20 injured. Malik’s name was on the list of suspects who were amongst a faction of radicalised, hardline members of the navy who may have corresponded with the terrorists that carried out the attack.

The list was re-investigated when the attack on the PNS Mehran base took place.

Suspects arrested from Karachi and Faislabad also claim that Malik provided them with information.

Terrorists attacked the PNS Mehran base on May 23, killing 10 navy personnel dead and destroying two PC3-Orion aircrafts. The monetary losses of the attack are estimated to be around $100 million.

Deadly bomb hits Miranshah: Officials

MIRANSHAH: A deadly bomb attack on Monday struck a hotel in North Waziristan, where Pakistan is under US pressure to launch a major operation against militants, officials said.

One person was killed and eight wounded in the blast at the 12-room Super Waziristan hotel in Miranshah, the main town of the tribal region.

“An improvised explosive device (IED) that was planted in one of the rooms went off, initially wounding nine people,” an intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Another official confirmed the incident and said a girl died of her wounds after reaching hospital.

Last Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the most senior US official to visit Pakistan since Osama bin Laden was found and killed in the country on May 2, urging Islamabad to take decisive steps to defeat al Qaeda.

The United States has long put pressure on Pakistan to mount a major air and ground offensive in North Waziristan, from where Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents launch attacks across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be of its own time and choosing, arguing that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are already too overstretched fighting militants posing a domestic threat.

North Waziristan has been the primary focus of a CIA drone war significantly stepped up in the last year to kill Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who pose a threat to US forces fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.

More than 4,410 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other extremist networks based in the tribal belt.

www.gvt24.com

azharniaz - Dhmaka

Clinton exonerates Pakistan over Osama Bin Laden

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said there is no evidence senior people in Pakistan knew that Osama Bin Laden lived so close to Islamabad.

But she said that the US and Pakistan needed to do more to battle Islamist militancy and that bilateral relations had reached a turning point.
Mrs Clinton said any peace deal in Afghanistan would not succeed unless Pakistan was part of the process.
She expressed Washington's "strong commitment" to relations with Pakistan.
She was speaking after meeting Pakistani leaders on a seven-hour previously unannounced trip aimed at repairing ties badly damaged by the 2 May US raid that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
MomentumMrs Clinton said that the US had "absolutely no evidence that anyone at the highest level of the Pakistani government" knew where Bin Laden was and said she would return to Washington "ever more committed" to the relationship.
"This was an especially important visit because we have reached a turning point. Osama Bin Laden is dead but al-Qaeda and his syndicate of terror remain a serious threat to us both," she said.

"There is a momentum toward political reconciliation in Afghanistan but the insurgency continues to operate from safe havens here in Pakistan," she added, saying she believed that Pakistan and the US had the same goals.

It is the first such high-level visit to Pakistan since the killing of Bin Laden on 2 May.
The American special forces raid on Bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad prompted protests from Islamabad.
Mrs Clinton was accompanied on her visit by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm Mike Mullen.
The pair held meetings with senior Pakistani politicians and army officers to plead for greater co-operation in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
She called on Islamabad to take "decisive steps" in the days ahead to fight terrorism.
Mrs Clinton denied that the meetings, held under tight security, were tense and said she had heard Pakistan commit to "some very specific action" against militants for which the country "deserved more credit".

Her visit comes a day after the US announced it was withdrawing some of its troops from Pakistan, at Islamabad's request.
In what correspondents say was perhaps an attempt to smooth ruffled Pakistani feathers over the killing, Mrs Clinton acknowledged the ''sacrifices made every single day by the men and women Pakistan's military and its citizens".
The ground was prepared by Senator John Kerry and the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman. The decision to visit was taken on Wednesday but kept under wraps for security reasons.
The BBC's Kim Ghattas - who is travelling with Mrs Clinton - says that she arrived in Pakistan surrounded by intense security, her 20-car armoured motorcade racing through the city to the presidential palace with helicopters flying overhead.
Stone-faced
Relations between US and Pakistan are always complex and fragile but they are particularly volatile at the moment.
Our correspondent says that Mrs Clinton has met all of Pakistan's top officials several times before and is usually adept at smiley conversation for the cameras.
But this time she sat fairly stone-faced at the start of her meeting with Pakistan's president, prime minister, foreign secretary and army chief.
Some in Washington believe that Pakistani intelligence works closely with violent extremist groups. Suspicion is rife that some in Pakistan knew of Osama Bin Laden's hiding place all along.
Meanwhile, US media reports say that Pakistan will allow the CIA to examine Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad.

Nato air strike 'kills 14 civilians' in Afghanistan

A Nato air strike has killed 14 people, all said to be civilians, in Helmand province, south-west Afghanistan, Afghan officials say.

The strike took place in Nawzad district after a US Marines base came under attack on Saturday.
The air strike, which was targeted at insurgents, instead struck two civilian homes, killing two women and 12 children, reports say.
Nato and Afghan troops are looking into the incident.
A group from the Serakala village travelled to Helmand's capital, Lashkagar, bringing with them the bodies of eight dead children, some as young as two-years-old, says the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul.
Earlier, a coalition soldier was killed in a gun battle with insurgents in the area and an air strike was called in, said a spokesman for the international mission.
While insurgents are responsible for most civilian deaths in Afghanistan, the killings of Afghans by foreign soldiers is a source of deepening anger, our correspondent adds.
Separately, 20 Afghan police and 18 civilians were killed on Wednesday in a Nato air strike in north-eastern Afghanistan, in which some 30 Taliban fighters were also killed, the governor of the province of Nuristan has told the AFP news agency.

Police, FC men involved in Chechens’ shooting suspended

QUETTA:  A judicial tribunal has ordered the inspectors-general of the Frontier Corps and Balochistan police to suspend all personnel involved in the killing of five Chechens from active duty.

In a session on Saturday, the tribunal, headed by Justice Mohammad Hashim Kakar of the Balochistan High Court (BHC), also barred them from transferring any official involved in the incident until the conclusion of the inquiry.
The orders were issued following growing questions regarding the uninterrupted service of the FC and police personnel involved in the incident, which many are terming an extrajudicial killing.
Five Chechens, who law-enforcers say they suspected of being terrorists, were gunned down by FC and police personnel in broad daylight.
It later transpired that not only were the five suspects unarmed, but, according to eyewitnesses, they were also willing to surrender.
A judicial probe was later ordered into the incident.
Interestingly, the Superintendent of Police, Naveed Atif, who was SP Airport Circle at the time of the Kharotabad incident, and in whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, was promoted to BPS-18. The police also intended to “transfer” DSP Airport police station Arbab Asif, but the police were stopped just in time by the authorities concerned.
There is also no report regarding the transfer of the SP after the tribunal directive.
Other issues
After reports appeared in the local media that corpses of the Chechen victims, which are being kept in the Bolan Medical Complex’s morgue, were fast decomposing because of “poor cooling system”, the tribunal asked the hospital’s medical superintendent to ensure proper air-conditioning units immediately to prevent the bodies from becoming decomposed.
However, BMC superintendent Dr Baqar Shah said that there was nothing wrong with the cooling units.
“Prolonged power outages are affecting their performance. There are power cuts lasting between four and six hours, which raises the temperature inside the morgue,” he told The Express Tribune.
Quetta is currently experiencing eight to 10-hour-long power cuts and hospitals are not immune from “scheduled loadshedding”. Officials said that no one had so far come forward to claim the bodies.
Sources in the provincial government said that the Russian government had sought access to passports and the inquiry report via the Foreign Office.
They said that copies of the deceased’s passports had been dispatched a few days ago and the government will send the inquiry report after the judicial tribunal finalises its findings. The tribunal will start formal hearing from May 31.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2011.

Pakistan Navy braces for a ‘wave of attacks’

KARACHI:  Six days after the deadly PNS Mehran gun and bomb attack, investigators have made headway by determining the group behind the attack as a result of which the security agencies are cracking down on suspects throughout the country.

Forensic reports about the nature of explosives and weapons have been submitted to the investigation committee headed by Rear Admiral Tehseenullah Khan.
But amid these developments, the Pakistan Navy remains in a state of high alert as the threat of a new “wave of attacks” looms large, senior officials within the force tell The Express Tribune.
Al Qaeda involved
A senior navy official said it was true that al Qaeda’s Ilyas Kashmiri group was involved in the attacks. Security agencies have arrested a number of people throughout the country, including some in Karachi and Faisalabad from this international terrorist organisation.
One of them, Qari Qaiser, is said to have taken orders directly from Kashmiri. The official says that the truth is that there are many cells within the Ilyas Kashmiri group. Those who were arrested formed just the tip of the iceberg.
He said that the investigations have determined that al Qaeda militants had indeed managed to infiltrate the ranks of the navy and not only gained sympathisers, but also recruits. “We are still figuring out how many of these militants were in contact with our [navy] people,” he said.
The official said that although it was an unfortunate fact that people within their ranks have been found to be linked with extremists, “the navy too is a part of Pakistani society where extremism is breeding so it was just a matter of time when something like this would happen.”
This is not the first time that the navy has arrested extremists within its ranks. Last year, in March, around five people from the Pakistan Navy were nabbed and found to be associated with anti-state militant groups. They were caught before they could stage an attack and remain incarcerated, reportedly in Adiala jail, to this day.
The navy official confirmed last year’s arrest, which included junior commissioned officers and sons of officers of navy personnel. He insisted, however, that it remains to be seen whether last year’s arrest played a hand in the PNS Mehran case. “We’re also looking into possible collusion of these militants with a foreign intelligence agency,” he added. The senior navy official said that since the attacks and arrests, the threat to the force had in fact increased manifold. A “wave of attacks” could hit not only the navy but also the airforce, army and security installations in the coming days.
Police access
When DIG East Tahir Naveed was asked whether police has been given access to the suspects caught by the agencies, he declined to comment specifically on the issue, saying that the investigation was still on-going. However, he said there was no truth in the reports that police was having a hard time gaining access to not only the suspects caught but also navy personnel who were present at the base at the time of attack. “We are gathering witness accounts from those present at the base and the people who suffered injuries in the attack unhindered,” he said.
Forensics
The Federal Investigation Agency’s mandate has been limited to establishing the forensics aspects of the case, which includes ballistics. When FIA Director Sindh Moazzam Jah was asked whether it was true that the attackers had used M16 rifles, Uzi submachine guns, Russian grenades and rocket launchers, he said, “This is privileged information and can only be disclosed to the chairman of the probe committee since it can help with tracking down other terrorists connected to the attackers”.  Sources say that the FIA has already submitted its report to the committee.
Bodies in the morgue
The remains of the four PNS Mehran terrorists are still being kept at the Edhi centre’s morgue. Edhi’s Anwar Kazmi says that usually they kept unclaimed bodies for three days and buried them in an unmarked grave if no relatives come forward. “But in this case, we will keep the remains until the authorities tell us to and will dispose them only when we get a letter from the navy and police that we can go ahead and bury them,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2011.

Afghanistan: Suicide blast kills top police commander

The police commander for northern Afghanistan has been killed in a suicide bomb attack on Takhar province governor's office.

Gen Mohammad Daud Daud is one of at least seven people killed in the attack, claimed by the Taliban.
Western and Afghan troops are among "a significant number of casualties", a Nato spokesman said.
Gen Daud was former military commander of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan forces who fought the Taliban.
Afghanistan has seen a series of attacks in recent months by militants on police and military targets.
High-level meeting
The latest attack will be seen as significant because it has struck an area of the country's north which has been seen as relatively secure.
The BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul says the attack is a propaganda victory for the Taliban and a blow to wider, counter-insurgency efforts.
Gen Daud was in charge of all interior ministry forces in northern Afghanistan and is the most senior figure to be killed so far in a Taliban "spring offensive".

He was highly thought of by Nato because he got the job done, our correspondent adds.

Gen Daud was a former deputy interior minister for narcotics.
He also served as the bodyguard to Ahmad Shah Massoud, who commanded the Northern Alliance.
The attack occurred at the compound of Takhar provincial governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa, in Taloqan, where officials were having a meeting.
The bomber, wearing a police uniform, was waiting in the corridor when the officials came out, our correspondent says.
Seven people were killed in the explosion, including Gen Daud and the provincial police chief Shah Jahan Nuri, a spokesman for the governor's office said.
At least 10 Afghans were injured, including the provincial governor, he added.
The Taliban has claimed it carried out the attack.
The governor's spokesman said three German troops were killed in the bombing, but this has not been confirmed by Nato.
A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said there were reports of "a number of casualties" but did not give details.
Among those who survived the blast was General Markus Kneip, the top commander of foreign troops in north Afghanistan.
An Isaf spokesman confirmed that Gen Kneip was in the compound at the time but "was not killed".
German media reported that the general was wounded, along with three of his soldiers, while two German troops were killed.
German troops are based in neighbouring Kunduz province, and have oversight of Takhar.

The province was until recently a relatively quiet area of Afghanistan, but tensions rose in May after a Nato-led night raid in Taloqan which killed four people.

A crowd of 2,000 people took to the streets to protest against the attack, claiming the victims were civilians.
Nato said the group were insurgents.
Police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 12 people and wounding 80.
A smaller protest the following day saw the provincial police chief's compound attacked.

Egypt eases blockade at Gaza's Rafah border

Egypt has relaxed restrictions at its border with the Gaza Strip, allowing many Palestinians to cross freely for the first time in four years.

Women, children and men over 40 are now allowed to pass freely. Men aged between 18 and 40 will still require a permit, and trade is prohibited.
The move - strongly opposed by Israel - comes some three months after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak lost power.
Egypt and Israel closed borders with Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007.
Israel retains concerns that weapons will be imported into Gaza through the Egyptian frontier, but Egypt insists it will conduct thorough searches of all those crossing. People leaving Gaza will also need to be carrying Palestinian ID cards, which are issued by Israel.
The BBC's Jon Donnison, in Gaza, says the decision to ease the border controls is symbolically important.
It is another sign that the new leadership in Egypt is shifting the dynamics of the Middle East.
Israel has criticised the border move, saying it raised security concerns.
But with elections coming up in Egypt, our correspondent says the change in policy is likely to be popular with a public sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
New hopes Egypt says the crossing will now be open from 0900 to 2100 every day except Fridays and holidays.
Although the border will still be closed for trade, the opening of the Rafah crossing is expected to provide a major economic boost to Gaza.

Up to 400 Palestinians were estimated to have gathered at the crossing as it opened on Saturday. By contrast, only about 300 Palestinians were previously allowed out of Gaza every day.

One of the first people to cross was Ward Labaa, a 27-year-old woman leaving Gaza for the first time to seek medical treatment in Cairo, the Associated Press reported.
Gaza resident Ali Nahallah, who has not left the Strip for four years, told the BBC the changes would be welcome.
"Of course this is our only entry point from Gaza to the external world," he said.
"We feel that we live in a big jail in Gaza so now we feel a little bit more comfortable and life is easier now. My kids are willing to travel to see other places other than Gaza."
The latest move comes a month after Egypt pushed through a unity deal between the two main Palestinian factions - Fatah and Hamas - something Israel also opposed.
Fatah runs the West Bank, while Hamas governs Gaza.
Analysts say that with elections looming in Egypt the new policy is likely be popular with a public largely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
Egypt's co-operation in blockading Gaza was one of President Mubarak's most unpopular policies.
Last year, Israel eased restrictions on goods entering Gaza, but severe shortages in the territory remain.
In 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the blockade was a clear violation of international humanitarian law. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels run under the Egyptian border with Gaza.

Local ANP President among 2 killed in Swat attack

Local President of ANP, Muzaffar Ali Khan, his guard and another companion were killed while two persons sustained injuries when armed men attacked Muzaffar’s house situated in Swat, Matta on night between Friday and Saturday.
Police Officer Muhammad Ghaus told media men that some unknown armed men attacked at Muzaffar’s house in Shaker Darai, Tehsil Matta during night between Friday and Saturday killing three persons including President Muzaffar Ali, his guard Cop Abdullah Khan and Sher Zaman while injuring the other two persons.
Soon after the incident the heavy contingent of police and the security forces rushed at the site, cordoned off the area and started search operation but no arrest has yet been made till the filling of the report.
The injured have been shifted to the hospital. The police personnel said that the militants had targeted Muzaffar Ali Khan’s house by setting the house on fire in 2008.
The police further reported that the government arranged tight security measures in Muzaffar’s house while one policeman has lost life in the attack.

Pakistan's Military Concerned About Infiltration

A major U.S. newspaper says top Pakistani military officials are increasingly concerned their ranks have been infiltrated by Islamists who are aiding militants in a campaign against the state.

The Washington Post reported late Friday those concerns have grown "especially acute" since U.S. commandos killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a secret raid earlier this month in Pakistan.

The newspaper says the top Pakistani military commander, General Ashfaq Kayani, was "shaken" by the discovery of bin Laden near a prestigious military academy. 

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unannounced visit to Islamabad where she met with Pakistan's president, prime minister and other top officials. 

She said the U.S. has "absolutely" no reason to believe that anyone in the highest level of Pakistan's government knew were bin Laden was.  However, Clinton said Pakistani leaders were forthcoming in saying "somebody, somewhere " was providing support to bin Laden and that Pakistan was conducting a probe.

The Washington Post reports the Pakistani military's infiltration concerns were also fueled by an attack this week on a Karachi naval base by heavily armed insurgents. The newspaper says the attack is "widely believed to have required inside help."

US-Pakistan relations 'at turning point' after killing of Bin Laden, warns Clinton

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has said that relations between the US and Pakistan have reached a turning point after the killing of Osama bin Laden and that Pakistan must make "decisive steps" to fight terrorism.
Clinton made the remarks on Friday after meeting Pakistan's civilian and military leaders on a brief trip to Islamabad to repair relations, which have been badly frayed by the US raid on 2 May that killed the al-Qaida leader.
The Pakistanis were angry that they had not been told of the raid in advance, while the location of Bin Laden's hideout, in an army town not far from the capital, raised US suspicions that members of the security services must have known his whereabouts.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, who was also in Pakistan, was blunt. "I think we all realise the challenges under which this relationship now labours," he told reporters. "We had very candid discussions, the kind of discussion two friends should be able to have at times like this."
Clinton and Mullen are the highest-ranking US representatives to confer with Pakistan's leaders since the raid, which splintered already fragile support in both countries for the agenda of co-operation that officials of both countries say they want.
Part of the meeting between Clinton and President Asif Ali Zardari briefly witnessed by reporters was stiff and awkward, with no smiles among the US delegation.Clinton said relations "had reached a turning point" but she thought Pakistan knew the stakes involved. She said it was "up to the government of Pakistan to take decisive steps in the days ahead" against militants, but did not give any details.
Clinton also pointed to the reality facing the United States as it contemplates how to deal with Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nexus for extremism and terrorism in a strategically vital region.
The US relies on Pakistan for transit and supply routes for the war in Afghanistan and will need its help if Afghanistan is to broker a peace deal with Taliban militants that can end the war. The country is believed to have influence over several Afghan insurgent commanders. Clinton acknowledged this, saying that "for reconciliation to succeed Pakistan must be part of this process".
The US visit comes a day after a Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber detonated a pickup truck loaded with explosives near several government offices in north-west Pakistan, killing at least 32 people. Thursday's blast was the latest in a series of attacks to hit the country since the Bin Laden raid.

PNS Mehran attack

The terrorists struck again, this time at a navy airbase in Karachi in which two aircraft were destroyed. This attack was a well-planned and fully equipped exercise by terrorists who used the latest weapons and even rocket launchers. The reports also indicate that it was a synchronised action as the terrorists carried out simultaneous attacks in three directions. Again, the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

The terrorists who attacked the naval base must have prepared themselves perhaps for weeks for this mission. They must be residing not far from the naval base and must have collected a cache of weapons before launching the attack. Strangely, neither the intelligence agencies nor the police of the locality observed any suspicious activity going on. People question their ruling elite and security agencies whether they are serious to counter the terrorist activities.

Extremism, we know, is deep-rooted in Pakistan and many elements among us still support this kind of violence for one reason or another. The attackers must have got some logistical information about the naval base from some insider. It is the need of the time that we wipe out these extremist elements and spread quality education.

This wave of violence also exposed the mindset of the terrorists. They are determined to sabotage anything that looks wrong to them. They are against the all forms of modernity and moderation. They are blowing up educational institutions, attacking defence installations, killing innocent people, and have no respect even for mosques and shrines. What kind of service are they offering to Islam and Pakistan? We must think over it.

NASEER AHMAD ABBASI

Pak-Afghan-US trilateral talks due today

KABUL: Senior officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States will be holding a trilateral dialogue in the Afghan capital today (Tuesday).
Foreign Secretarty Salman Bashir, who is in Kabul on the invitation of the Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister, will attend the meeting.
Earlier, after arriving in the Afghan capital, the foreign secretary met with President Hamid Karzai. In the meeting, Karzai stressed that close collaboration between Pakistan and Afghanistan is essential for regional peace and development.
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir underscored Pakistan’s commitment to facilitate an “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned” process for reconciliation and peace.
The Foreign Secretary also gave an invitation from Prime Minister Gilani to President Karzai to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience which he accepted.
Salman Bashir also met with the Chairman of High Peace Council, Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are working to set in motion a high-level joint commission tasked with managing direct negotiations with the Afghan Taliban as part of the effort by both countries to end the decade-old war.

Security of the security people

Terrorists attacked Pakistan Navy`s airbase PNS Mehran in Karachi late on Sunday, setting off seven high intensity explosions. The terrorists also managed to penetrate into hangars in the base and managed to destroy two naval aircraft. They later regrouped inside a building and engaged in heavy exchange of gunfire with naval commandos and rangers who managed to make their way inside the base. This battle has so far resulted in a heavy toll of about 11 naval personnel and two rangers personnel, whereas only four terrorists have been killed.

It is speculated that there were 16 highly trained well-equipped terrorists who penetrated the base. They had full information about the inside of the base and followed a well-organised assault plan. According to some reports, the terrorists made their way inside the base from three sides away from the main entrance gates, which were closely guarded. This is quite surprising as, apart from the main gates, all other areas and boundaries usually have watchtowers located at every corner. How can 16 men carrying heavy equipment bags escape from the watchful eyes of guards on these watchtowers?

This attack is quite alarming as far as the security and safety of strategic defence installations is concerned. One can recall earlier attacks on GHQ, Naval College in Lahore, armed forces vehicles convoys in Karachi and Rawalpindi in which armed terrorists carried out their operation and got away. In addition to these, facilities belonging to police and other law enforcement agencies have been targeted in the past with ease by these terrorists. In all cases they managed to penetrate inside these facilities and carried out their plans swiftly and got out.

After looking at all these cases, one cannot help but think if this is the state of security of the institutions that are responsible for the security of ordinary people, then where is the security of the common people? That is the main reason that civilians have become sitting ducks for terrorists and now the armed forces` personnel have also been included in this list.

There is something missing in this link and I believe there is a big problem of security lapse in each of these cases. It is no secret that our security system has been penetrated at some level and information is leaking out, be it the case of Osama bin Laden hiding near the military academy or terrorist attacks like these. They cannot be planned without strategic information about details of the location or target area. In my opinion, the government has to revamp and clean its security and intelligence systems. It has to redesign its surveillance, intelligence and information gathering systems.

However, whatever the case may be, it is quite depressing to see this state of affairs which is getting worse with every passing day and no one seems to have any clue on how to tackle this issue of security of our defence installations. 

nasir riaz

US 'would repeat Bin Laden raid'

US President Barack Obama has said he would order a similar operation to that which killed Osama Bin Laden if another militant leader was found in Pakistan.

He said the US was mindful of Pakistani sovereignty but said the US could not allow "active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action".
The killing of Bin Laden by US forces in a Pakistani garrison town on 2 May strained ties between the two allies.
President Obama was speaking to the BBC ahead of a European visit.
Asked what he would do if one of al-Qaeda's top leaders, or the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was tracked down to a location in Pakistan or another sovereign territory, he said the US would take unilateral action if required.
"Our job is to secure the United States," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr during a wide-ranging interview.
"We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our allies' people.

"We can't allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action."

Tense partnership Bin Laden, the Saudi-born leader of al-Qaeda, was killed in a raid by US Navy Seal commandos. They stormed the compound where he was living in Abbottabad, a town that is home to Pakistan's main military academy.
The discovery that Bin Laden had been living there embarrassed the Pakistani military, and led to renewed suspicions that he had enjoyed protection from some members of the Pakistani security forces.
The Islamabad government strongly denied such suggestions and said the US raid had undermined the country's sovereignty.
A resolution approved by Pakistani MPs earlier this month said the country would "no longer tolerate such actions and a repeat of unilateral measures could have dire consequences for peace and security in the region and the world".
Pakistan has been a major ally in the war against militants in neighbouring Afghanistan.
But US-Pakistani relations have also been strained by drone strikes targeting militants in the border area in recent years.
Reflecting on the raid - which he and his aides followed from the White House - Mr Obama said "that was as long a 40 minutes as I care to experience during my presidency".
He added that the killing of Bin Laden could be a "wake-up call where we start seeing a more effective co-operative relationship" with Pakistan.
alking to the Taliban On Afghanistan, Mr Obama said that while the conflict could not be solved militarily, raising troop levels had put the Taliban "back on its heels" in a way that could facilitate the brokering of a political reconciliation.
"Ultimately it means talking to the Taliban," he said, adding that the "Taliban would have to cut all ties to al-Qaeda, renounce violence and they would have to respect the Afghan constitution".
Afghan presidential spokesman Waheed Omar welcomed this suggestion, saying it reflected Kabul's long-held view. "We're glad that we now have clear words from the president of the United States about it," Mr Omar told the BBC.
In a discussion that ranged from the US economy to Middle East peace talks and his family's fondness for the British monarch, Mr Obama:

• Restated that the 1967 border between Israel and the Palestinian territories must be the basis for negotiations to set up a future Palestinian state
• Praised the popular uprisings across the Middle East, saying that as long as people struggled for democracy non-violently the US would be "strongly supportive of their efforts"
• Described America's economy as his "number-one focus" in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election; "My main concern day to day is how do we make sure the American economy is growing," he said
• Praised domestic successes on health care, education and clean energy
• Acknowledged that the US had unfinished business over immigration and the energy bill.

President Obama is due to leave for Europe later on Sunday. He will first visit the Irish Republic, then the UK, France, and Poland.
He is expected to discuss a range of issues, including the upheavals in the Middle east and North Africa, the war in Afghanistan, and the downturn that has forced European governments to adopt austerity measures.

China’s firm assurance

At a time when Pakistan has suffered the indignity of violation of its sovereignty at the hands of the superpower and continues to receive open threats of further such violations, China alone has dared to stand by it like a true friend, guaranteeing respect for its sovereignty, integrity and independence. It has vowed to take Pak-China strategic relations to an all-time high. It would do well to recall here that since Operation Geronimo on May 2 particularly, Islamabad is being constantly subjected to various forms of pressure tactics. The Obama Administration, the US lawmakers, think-tanks, media and its allies have all joined hands to orchestrate uncalled-for, harassing criticism against it, accusing it either of deliberately harbouring terrorists or rank incompetence in detecting their hideouts. Projecting Pakistan as aiding those who kill the US troops in Afghanistan, it is being threatened with suspension of aid that, in reality, is more in rhetoric than delivery.
The joint statement issued at the conclusion of Prime Minister Gilani’s four-day visit to China on Friday underscores the Chinese appreciation of the key role Pakistan has played in curbing the forces of militancy and promoting peace in the region and, at the same time, shows an understanding of the limits and compulsions of our core national interests in fighting the menace. As a right response to the situation, both countries pledged to jointly fight these forces under bilateral and multilateral framework.

Blasts in NATO trucks kill 16

Peshawar—A couple of explosions in NATO trucks in Khyber Agency killed up to sixteen people while equal number of twenty wheelers ensuring oil supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan were also burnt to ashes.

There were conflicting reports about the nature of the explosion. Some reports say the vehicle was blasted with the help of explosive material.

Officials say a NATO oil tanker caught fire in Landi Kotal Khyber agency on the night between Friday and Saturday and while rescue activities were in progress huge explosion took place in a near by tanker which killed around six people on the spot while more than dozens received serious wounds and were rushed to hospital where 10 more succumbed to their injuries raising the number of deaths to 16.

Independent sources said the militants torched a NATO oil tanker in Khugiakhel area on the Landi Kotal bypass. “The tanker was parked on the roadside when it was dynamited with a time device adding six people died immediately after the incident while injured were taken to hospitals where 10 more succumbed to their injuries”, they said.

It was also said that a number of people had gathered around a damaged tanker to retrieve the leaking oil when a blast took place in the vehicle killing and seriously wounding many people.

Locals say all those killed and injured were relatives. Eight of the dead were of a single family and belonged to Khugiakhel clan of Shinwari tribe.

Earlier, moments before this incident another NATO twenty wheeler was torched in Torkham in Khyber agency and the huge fire immediately engulfed a dozen more oil tankers parked closed by and were reduced to aches.

The administration had, immediately halted NATO supplies through Torkham and the traffic remained suspended for many hours. The suspended NATO supplies to Afghanistan were, however, restored Saturday.

Pakistan fighting US war on terror: Imran

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan said on Saturday that Pakistan was fighting America�s war on terror which had not only claimed the lives of thousands of Pakistanis but also badly affected the country�s economy.

The war on terror is the war of the United States but our rulers have made it a war of Pakistan,� he said while addressing a large sit-in staged at the Native Jetty bridge against drone strikes in the tribal areas.

Imran said that before 9/11 there was not a single Taliban militant in Pakistan but ever since the country joined the war, it had been facing acts of terrorism adding that the rulers have already �fixed the match� with the United States on drone strikes. �Stop drone strikes, or we will block Nato supplies to Afghanistan,� the emotionally charged cricketer-turned politician declared from the stage.

He said that the PTI would announce its future line of action on Sunday (today), the last day of the protest. The PTI is against all types of terrorism and it has continuously raised its voice against the military operation in the tribal areas. This was not the way to fight terrorism as it had given birth to more terrorists in the country.

Due to the war on terror, he said, the country faced losses of up to $ 80 billion to the economy whereas it got only $ 20 billion from the US while President Asif Zardari himself admitted that due to the war on terror Pakistan suffered losses of up to $ 68 billions.

About 34,000 citizens have been killed and as many as 5,000 armed forces personnel have died in the war against terrorism.

He urged the government to say no to foreign donations/loans that were offered with serious strings attached to them. He said that about 0.4 million people have migrated from Waziristan due to fear and insecurity.

He said that heads must roll after the military and civilian leadership failed to perform their duties, adding that the Abbotabad incident has brought shame to the nation and the country. He claimed that the country would be purged of terrorism in just 90 days if the PTI comes to power.

Registered Donkey Cart of Islamabad

the donkey cart on kashmir highway with Islamabad number plate

Pakistani opposition party to block NATO supplies

KARACHI — Pakistani opposition leader and former cricketer Imran Khan said Friday his party workers would block the port in Karachi to protest against US drone strikes in the country's tribal badlands.
Karachi is Pakistan's economic hub, home to its stock exchange and a lifeline for a depressed economy wilting under inflation and stagnating foreign investment.
The southern port city is important to logistical support for the NATO forces fighting against Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
"We'll sit outside the port's gate from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening continuously to block the trucks carrying NATO supplies," said cricket-hero-turned politician Khan, who leads Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice).
"It will be our symbolic protest against the US atrocities towards our innocent citizens."
He had equally harsh words for President Asif Zardari's government and the main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif but refrained from passing similar comments about army chief Ashfaq Kayani.
Khan's party staged a two-day sit-in outside the northwestern city of Peshawar last month, which was called to urge the US to end a covert missile campaign against Islamist militants in Pakistan's tribal belt.
Khan said the government had given full liberty to its "American masters to kill Pakistanis at will."
"We'll be protesting against the drone strikes till our people are truly liberated from the clutches of monsters," he said.
NATO supply trucks and oil tankers are the targets of frequent attacks blamed on insurgents attempting to disrupt supplies for the more than 130,000 international troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Most supplies and equipment required by coalition troops in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through central Asia.

Sixteen killed in NATO fuel truck blast in Pakistan

(Reuters) - At least 16 people were killed in northwest Pakistan on Saturday after a bomb attack claimed by a militant group hit a truck carrying fuel supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, the latest attack in an upsurge in violence since Osama bin Laden was killed.
It took place near the Torkham border crossing in the Khyber region, the main route for moving supplies to NATO and American forces in Afghanistan.
"The tanker was on fire because of a blast late in the night. There was another blast early in the morning in the same tanker and 16 people who gathered near it to collect oil were killed," a senior local administration official in Khyber told Reuters.
Police officials said the first blast was hurt.

Militants have stepped up attacks in Pakistan, an unstable U.S. ally, since U.S. special forces killed al Qaeda leader bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad this month.
Abdullah Azzam Brigade, a militant group affiliated with Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for both attacks on the NATO trucks.
"It is our jihad against Americans. We want to stop supplies for NATO from our territory," Abu Musa'ab, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The attacks on the NATO trucks in Khyber came hours after the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a U.S. consulate convoy in the city of Peshawar.
One Pakistani was killed and 12 people were injured, including two lightly wounded U.S. nationals.
Routes through Pakistan bring in 40 percent of supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, according to the United States Transportation Command. Of the remainder, 40 percent come through Afghanistan's neighbors in the north and 20 percent by air.
The Pakistani Taliban are pressing ahead with their campaign of suicide bombings designed to de-stabilize the unpopular government, despite several army offensives against their strongholds along the lawless border region with Afghanistan.
Eight suspected militants were killed on Saturday when army gunship helicopters attacked their hideouts in Orakzai region, adjoining Khyber, local officials said.
(Additional reporting by Izaz Mohmand; Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Michael Georgy and Alex Richardson)

US consulate vehicles targeted

Peshawar—A roadside explosion targeting the vehicles of American consulate here Friday morning left at least one person dead and seriously wounded thirteen others. Two Americans are included among the injured who according to American embassy officials sustained minor wounds.

The capital city police chief said fifty kg explosive material was used in the blast that besides destroying few vehicles also damaged a number of near by buildings. Eye witness and the independent sources said a land cruiser of the American consulate bearing Islamabad number was targeted through a car bomb at main Jamrod road near Customs House Peshawar at 8.25 in the morning creating panic in the area as the bang was heard at distant area.

The US consulate land cruiser escorted by another vehicle, credible sources said, was bullet and bomb proof and remained safe in the explosion yet the panic ridden driver lost control and dashed the land cruiser with an electric pole which caused injuries to two people on board.

The area falling in the red zone was immediately cordoned off by the police and other law enforcing agencies that were not allowing any body get closer to the site of the explosion and even denied to share information with the media.

As many as eleven passerby sustained serious injuries and were rushed to the nearby Khyber teaching hospital (KTH) where one person was pronounced dead. The doctors at KTH described the condition of one person as precarious who received head injury and underwent surgery. The police said the person killed in the blast was ridding on a motorbike. Intriguingly both the injured Americans were whisked away quietly and were not taken to any of the city’s major hospitals. “There was an attack on a two-car convoy from the consulate in Peshawar. One car was hit and we are still investigating what actually happened,” said US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez.

The CCPO Peshawar Liaqat Ali while talking to media men said 50 kilograms of explosive material was used in the explosion admitting the target was the US consulate vehicles.

However, the Peshawar police changed its stance about the nature of the blast thrice as first it said the explosion was caused by an explosive device planted at roadside. Then it came up with the version that blast was caused by the car carrying huge quantity of explosives.

It again came back to its earlier version that blast was caused by the road side device. It was perhaps after the official statement issued by the US embassy, when the police accepted that the explosion was caused through an Alto Suzuki car and the target was the US consulate vehicle.

An eye witness told Pakistan Observer the American’s strong vehicle was being chased by the bomber car and firing was also heard after the blast adding two foreigners were seen running away from the site immediately after the blast.

A statement issued by the US embassy said a car bomb in Peshawar on Friday targeted a US consulate convoy but caused no American deaths or serious injuries.

The US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez the two consulate vehicles were heading to the consulate when one of the vehicles was hit by the blast adding there was an attack on a two-car convoy from the consulate in Peshawar.

“One car was hit. We are still investigating what actually happened”. The spokesman said.

US consulate vehicles targeted

Ex-IMF chief released to home detention

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, was discharged from jail after a New York judge ordered his release to temporary housing in downtown Manhattan, where he will be under 24-hour armed guard.
He posted $1 million cash bail plus a $5-million bond Friday.
Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexual assault and attempted rape of a hotel housekeeper, will be housed for a few days near the former site of the World Trade Center after an earlier plan for an Upper East Side apartment fell through.

Pakistan hopeful of JF-17 delivery within 6 months: Mukhtar

BEIJING: Pakistan hopes to take delivery within the next six months of 50 JF-17 fighter jets manufactured jointly with China, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said Friday during a visit to Beijing.
Mukhtar made the comments on the sidelines of a meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who was wrapping up a four-day visit to China.
“We think there is a good deal,” said Mukhtar, who put the price of each JF-17, or Thunder, aircraft at $20-25 million “as compared to $80 million for the F16″, a US-built jet also used by Pakistan’s air force.
Mukhtar did not explicitly say whether the deal had been finalised, but it appeared that the agreement was nearing completion.
Further details of the deal were not made public but the agreement was apparently discussed during the visit by Gilani, who met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier in the week.
China is Pakistan’s main arms supplier and a close ally of Islamabad. Pakistan’s air force has a fleet of Chinese aircraft, including F-7PGs and A-5s, but also F-16s and French Mirages.
The neighbours began developing the JF-17 together in 1999 and has said it wants 250 of the jets. In November last year, Islamabad said it would buy Chinese missiles and flight systems for the jets, Chinese state media reported.

Another embarrassment for Indian govt

ISLAMABAD, May 20 (APP): The Indian government had to face yet another embarrassing moment when another accused, in the list of 50 fugitives given to Pakistan, was traced in a Mumbai jail. The list consists of fugitives accused in the Mumbai attacks.

According to media reports, Feroz Abdul Rashid Khan was accused in the 1993 Mumbai bombing. On suspicion of his presence in Pakistan, he was included in the 50 most wanted fugitives list. On the contrary, Feroz Abdul Rashid had been serving his sentence in the Arthur Jail in Mumbai.
Feroz Abdul Rashid was on number 24 in the fugitive list. His presence in a Mumbai jail has been a source of embarrassment for India. In the first instance, Wazhul Kamar Khan who was accused in the 2003 Mulund bombing was found residing in India. The Indian Home minister recognized and admitted to his mistake.

The world's most dangerous border

THE late Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, had many virtues as a diplomat, but tact was not among them. His description of his theatre of operations as “AfPak” infuriated the Pakistanis, who wanted the Americans to regard their country as a sophisticated, powerful ally worthy of attention in itself, not just as a suffix to the feuding tribesmen next door. But that was not the only reason the coinage was unwise. It encouraged the understandable American tendency—shaped by the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the war against the Taliban and now the death of Osama bin Laden—to see Pakistan in the context of the fighting on its north-west frontier, and thus to ignore the source of most of the country’s problems, including terrorism: the troubled state of relations to its east.

The border between India and Pakistan has seen a bloody partition in 1947 that killed hundreds of thousands; more than 15,000 dead in three wars and 25 years spent fighting over a glacier; 40,000-100,000 dead (depending on whom you believe) in the insurgency in the disputed province of Kashmir. And now both countries are armed with nuclear weapons.

Bloodshed over the border is not the only measure of the damage this poisoned relationship does. In India it exacerbates feuds between Muslims and Hindus. But Pakistan has been worse affected. Fear and hatred of India have distorted its world view and politics (see article). Ignoring this—as the West seems to be doing again
—is a terrible mistake, especially because a settlement is not beyond reach.
Death and distortion

Pakistan’s obsession with India has damaged it in three ways. First, it has given its generals too much power. Pakistan’s army, at 550,000 men, is too small to match India’s 1.1m, but too big for Pakistan. The armed forces eat up 16% of the government’s budget, whereas education gets 1.2%. Because the armed forces are powerful, the government is weak; and the soldiers’ frequent interventions in Pakistani politics exacerbate this imbalance and undermine democracy.

Second, it has shaped Pakistan’s dealings in Afghanistan. In the 1990s Pakistan helped create the Taliban partly in order to undermine India’s allies in northern Afghanistan. Although it signed up to fight the Taliban after September 11th 2001, Pakistan has continued to protect some of the Taliban in order to counter India’s influence in Afghanistan.

Third, it has led Pakistan to foster Islamist terrorism—especially the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Punjab-based outfit whose purpose is to attack India. After the LeT attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001 Pakistan banned it, but it has survived—either (as the Pakistanis claim) because it has grown too successful to crush or (as the Indians suspect) because the Pakistani armed forces continue to help it covertly. Either way, India is not the only victim of this murderously stupid policy: terrorism within Pakistan is being fuelled by splinter groups from the LeT—and is going global.

As India grows in wealth and power, so do fear and obsession in Pakistan. Yet India, too, would benefit from a solution. The tension with the minnow to its west distracts it from the rise of the giant to its north, and China will surely dominate its security horizon in the 21st century. America also has much to gain from a saner subcontinent. If Pakistan’s world view were not distorted by India, it might be able to see straight on terror.

The soldiers growl

Six and a half decades of bloodshed suggest that the problem may be intractable. The hostility springs from a potent mix of religion, history and territory. Although the fighting has subsided in Kashmir, the issue remains hypersensitive: the Indian government censors publications, including The Economist, that print maps showing the current effective border. Politicians in both countries find it hard to be sensible: even those who would like a resolution are susceptible to domestic pressure—the Indians from Hindu nationalists, and the Pakistanis not just from Muslim militants but also from the generals, who regard India as a military, not a political, problem.

Nervous subcontinentals used to reassure themselves that neither side could use a nuclear weapon because the aggressor would suffer from the fallout. That may no longer hold. Since America destabilised things in 2008 by agreeing to give India civil nuclear technology, Pakistan’s determination to build up its nuclear arsenal has increased. Last month it announced that it had tested a new mobile missile with a miniaturised nuclear warhead designed to destroy invading tanks with little radiation beyond the battlefield, thus increasing the risk that a border incursion could escalate into something much more dangerous. On May 13th the head of Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence told parliament that he had already picked targets in India, and rehearsed attacks. He did not specify nuclear attacks, but did not exclude them. This is a dangerous time: Pakistan’s militants are evidently keen to show that Islamist terror will survive bin Laden’s death, and—unlike the cold war—there is scope for terrorists either to provoke a nuclear conflict or to explode a dirty nuclear device.

But while the soldiers growl, the politicians have made progress. In 2004-07 quiet talks established the framework for a settlement over Kashmir, under which Pakistan would in effect give up its claim to Indian Kashmir and India would agree to a “soft” border (one allowing a lot of freedom of movement). That deal was scuppered by the attack on Mumbai by the LeT in 2008 that killed 170 people. But both governments have shown they are willing to get back to the table, and talks are now resuming. India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, met Pakistan’s, Yusuf Raza Gilani, at a cricket match in March; and their foreign ministers are due to meet in July.
Our interactive map demonstrates how the territorial claims of India, Pakistan and China would change the shape of South Asia

The ingredients needed for progress are clear. Pakistan has to make more effort to stop a terror group scuppering talks for a second time; India, to help Pakistan give up its claim to Indian-held Kashmir, needs to pull its army out, grant plenty of autonomy and stop shooting schoolboys who lob stones at its soldiers. (Last summer 120 died in this way.) Yet the risks—for instance from another terrorist attack—are immense. After Mumbai, India’s politicians showed great restraint. It would be difficult for them to do so again.
America can help. The nuclear deal gives it extra clout with India, which it should lean on to show restraint in and flexibility on Kashmir. It should also change its approach to Pakistan. America plies Pakistan’s soldiers with military aid, and tends to talk to them rather than the politicians. Last year it pressed the government to give General Ashfaq Kayani an extension of his term as chief of army staff; and it informed Pakistan’s generals of the death of bin Laden before President Obama called President Zardari. Boosting the soldiers’ clout diminishes the chances of a political settlement with India.

By itself, a settlement with India will not make Pakistan a safe place. But it would encourage a series of changes—reining in the generals, building up democratic institutions, spending more on health and education, rejecting Islamist terrorism, rethinking its approach to Afghanistan—which could start to transform the country. Until that happens, Pakistan will remain a disappointment to itself and a danger to the world.

US, Pakistan try to repair ties after bin Laden

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The deputy head of the CIA and a top U.S. envoy launched a push to repair relations with Pakistan on Thursday following the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in an army town, officials said.

Patching up ties could be difficult because Pakistanis are still seething that the U.S. didn't tell them in advance about the May 2 raid near Islamabad, and U.S. Congressmen are threatening to cut off billions of dollars amid suspicions that elements of Pakistan's security forces may have harbored bin Laden.

Also, a new survey taken before the raid by the Washington-based Pew Research Center showed U.S. popularity in Pakistan has fallen to an all-time low, with just 11 percent of Pakistanis holding a favorable view of the country and President Barack Obama. The survey, which was released Tuesday, polled 1,970 people in Pakistan in April and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.

Still, the U.S. and Pakistan have a strong mutual dependency that is difficult to break. The U.S. needs Pakistan to help resolve the war in Afghanistan, and American funds are critical to propping up Pakistan's economy and bankrolling its powerful military.

Marc Grossman, the Obama administration's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and several other senior officials on Thursday to discuss relations in the wake of the bin Laden raid, the president's office said.

Grossman's counterpart on the trip, Michael Morell, deputy director of the CIA, is slated to meet with Pakistani intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, said Pakistani officials briefed on the visit. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The officials said that while they considered it a positive sign that a high-ranking U.S. intelligence official was making the trip, they expected little concrete to come out of the meeting.

The relationship between the CIA and Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency is key to the U.S. fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. But the relationship was strained even before U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, an army town just 35 miles (56 kilometers) from Islamabad, and has reached a new low since.

Pakistani intelligence has conducted no joint operations and all but cut off contact with their CIA counterparts since the bin Laden raid, said the Pakistani officials.

The CIA would not comment on the reported trip. A U.S. official would only say the goal for the "ongoing discussions" with Pakistan's intelligence service is "to cement a productive relationship, rooted in mutual interests." The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategic discussions.

The relationship between the CIA and the ISI was buffeted in January by the arrest and detention of CIA security contractor Raymond Davis for shooting dead two Pakistani men who Davis said were trying to rob him.

Davis was eventually released in March after the dead men's relatives agreed to accept blood money under Islamic tradition. But only a day after his release, a covert CIA drone strike killed at least two dozen people in the Pakistani tribal areas — people the CIA said were militants and the Pakistanis said were civilians. That dispute so soured the relationship that both sides agreed that CIA chief Leon Panetta and his Pakistani counterpart, Pasha, should meet face to face.

The two met at CIA headquarters in Langley less than two weeks before the bin Laden raid. Pasha thought he secured an agreement in that meeting that the two sides would together come up with a new high-value target list, and that CIA drones would only be used to hunt those targets, Pakistani officials said. But before he had returned to Pakistani soil, there was another drone strike in the tribal areas, so Pasha shut down communications, the officials said.

This tension shows how difficult it will be for the U.S. to win greater Pakistani cooperation in fighting militants. The main U.S. demand is for Pakistan to go after Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar and senior members of the Haqqani militant network who are believed to be living along the Afghan border and leading the fight against foreign forces in Afghanistan.

But many analysts believe Pakistani security officials are reluctant to target these figures because they have historical ties with them and view them as key allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

t's Time to Re-Evaluate Our Pakistan Funding Strategy

This was a first for me to not agree with my favorite journalist, Fareed Zakaria. It was the "Fareed's Take" segment on his 5/15 GPS show that was of real interest to me. I wrote a book about India, Afghanistan and, in particular, Pakistan. I had even traveled through Abbottabad, where the notorious and elusive Osama bin Laden had been tracked and killed less than two weeks before Fareed's show. In the town where Osama had been residing comfortably, I only had to be partially veiled as my two Pakistani escorts, two former military gentlemen, and I made our way north. Abbottabad had a golf course; it was considered a bit affluent by Pakistani standards, where the residents felt safe. After all, the Pakistani Military Academy was located in Abbottabad. So when I made my way through that that quiet town, grateful to no longer be traveling through the more volatile and fundamentalist tribal lands of the North West Frontier, little did I know that the most infamous terrorist, less than a mile from the Academy, would finally meet his end there years later. My trip was in 1996 and 1997, before Osama bin Laden and 2001. And now, a decade later Osama is finally dead, but the game that Pakistan plays to this day is alive and well.

Like most Arab/Asian countries with ties to terrorism, I believe, as they say, they all "play both ends against the middle," "talk out of both sides of their mouth" and yes, can quite simply be "two-faced." With some, it is survival that motivates this duplicity. For others, it is profit. Even the Saud family, the leadership that we tout most as an ally, quietly pays these extremists, in the hopes that they don't become targets themselves. Our leaders know this as do our intelligence agencies. The U.S. alone has pumped more than $15 billion into Pakistan since 9/11 and in 2009 Obama committed to another $7.5 billion for the next five years. This funding was intended to support the U.S. against the threat of militant Islamists and al-Qaeda. However, there has been little accountability by the Pakistan government for much of it.

That the Pakistani leadership, its senior generals and its military were complicit in harboring bin Laden is a given. Who knew and how high up it went, I doubt that we'll ever know. With the discovery of the world's most notorious terrorist, but more importantly, America's most wanted man found and slain right in the hub of a Pakistani military community, and not in the tribal lands where Pakistan had a legitimate argument (and used it often, I'm sure) for not being able to get to Osama before us, clearly revealed not just an incompetency, or a greed for money, but a rising arrogance and even disdain for us as a legitimate partner in any counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism efforts.

Fareed Zakaria had three suggestions for Washington, the first of which was the formation of a major national commission in Pakistan, headed by a Supreme Court justice, to investigate whether bin Laden and other al-Qaeda elders have been supported and sustained by elements of the Pakistani state. The second would be a demand that the provision of the Kerry-Lugar Bill on civilian control of the military be strictly followed. And the third would be to ask to see a plan for the Pakistani military to go after the major untouched terror networks in Pakistan.

If there was ever a time that these three demands could work, it should be now. In the spirit of the "Arab Spring" it would make sense that the Pakistanis, long oppressed by their own rulers and military, should be ready to reform. But like Afghanistan, the U.S. has been there too long, enabled and empowered too much, and now we're caught in our own need to control, and the Pakistanis are onto us. I believe with all my heart that the Pakistanis will want to be true partners someday, but not now. Not yet.

Sadly, I have no confidence that there is any Supreme Court justice that would have enough power or even the will to go against the leadership, the generals and their armies. And I can't imagine that the Pakistanis response to the Kerry-Lugar Bill for stronger civilian controls would be met with any less rancor than it had when it was initially challenged in 2009. And as for demanding a plan to go after the major untouched terror networks in Pakistan... well, sounds like the failed "Road Map" between the Israelis and the Palestinians. With all the monies we have funded into the Pakistan state through the years, the fact that there are "untouched" major terrorist networks anywhere in Pakistan tells it all.

If this startling betrayal was of any benefit beyond the obvious riddance of Osama bin Laden, it should make it clear that it's also time to change the rules of this game.

The arrogance of allowing Osama to reside anywhere in Pakistan makes it evident that we might have to reconsider the use of our very precious funds these days. That we need, and should continue, ties to Pakistan is not in question. We must, but how much?

I feel the only hope we have of breaking a habit of paying a lot for too little, basically enabling an existence that the Pakistanis will not give up easily, is to pay outright for a job well done. Instead of paying Pakistan for the intelligence we have not yet received or of the captured militant who they have yet to catch or even hold (they have quite a revolving door policy when it comes to their favorite "freedom fighters/terrorists) I wonder if some of the monies given should be withheld to pay... do I dare say, once they show us the body?

No doubt there would be a backlash for withholding funds. Much like an entitled, empowered teenager of a rich parent, we should expect to face a time of "acting out" I'm sure. I don't mean this lightly, and I would be false in not saying that the unknown of that particular tantrum is daunting. But what choice do we have? We have already set a pattern that is dangerously open-ended. We should expect, at the very least, a rash of suicide bombers on our very own soil, or pipe bombs, or even kidnappings, or worse. All are possible, but to continue in this spin, to let our fears keep us from acting with strength, will only keep us and those we enable from moving forward.

Our funding strategy needs to be re-evaluated. The idea of putting some of that money into our own home security may have merit, so at the very least we can brace for what may be inevitable, while we wait and hope that the "Arab Spring" for Central Asia is not far behind.

China supports Pakistan’s cause at int’l level, tells US to avoid harming Pakistan’s sovereignty: PM

BEIJING, China, May 18 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday said China has supported Pakistan’s cause at international level by telling the United States to appreciate sacrifices of Pakistan in war on terror and avoid harming its sovereignty. “China supported Pakistan’s cause on its own,” Gilani said while referring to the recent Sino-US strategic and economic dialogue in Washington, where the Chinese leadership conveyed to the US that Pakistan should be helped and its honour should be upheld keeping in view its sacrifices in war on terror. 

Prime Minister Gilani after holding talks with the Chinese Premier told the Pakistani media here that Pakistan faced challenges in the wake of killing of Osama Bin Laden and Premier Wen was categorical in supporting Pakistan’s stance as well as its concerns over national honour and sovereignty.
He said the Chinese conveyed a clear message to the US that “there should be no harm to the Pakistani sovereignty and the US should understand and appreciate concerns of Pakistan”.
The Prime Minister said that China asked the US to work with Pakistan in improving their bilateral relations in view of the present scenario.
Gilani said that Pakistan reassured its position on its policy of One China and said Pakistan fully supports China on the issues of Taiwan and Tibet. He said both sides agreed to continue their consultations on the UN reforms.
He said both the sides were in agreement to further enhance economic and trade relations and complete all ongoing development projects in Pakistan under five-year development programme.
The Prime Minister said that it was also decided to work on fast track on the second five-year programme beginning next year.  It was also agreed that the dialogue on the second phase of Free Trade Agreement will be launched soon, he added.
The Prime Minister said that it was also agreed that both the countries will form a long-term joint energy mechanism to address the energy crisis in Pakistan for electricity generation through various means including nuclear.
To a question, he said that both the sides also agreed to further increase defence cooperation and China assured to help Pakistan in enhancing capacity of all its forces.
Regarding relation with other countries, the Prime Minister said Pakistan desires good relations with all neighbours including India, Afghanistan and Iran.
He said despite the security situation in Pakistan, its bilateral trade with China has registered significant increase during the last two years and the efforts are being made to take the trade level to $ 15 billion.
Gilani said Pakistani exports to China increased by 37 percent during the last year while Chinese exports increased by 28 percent.
To a question about Pak-US relations after the Abbottabad operation, the Prime Minister referred to a resolution adopted by the joint sitting of parliament, and said Pakistan will revisit it relations vis-a-vis counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States.
He, however, also mentioned the recent visit of Senator John Kerry to Pakistan as well as the joint statement issued after the meetings with Pakistan leadership and said that it has been decided that in future, if any information comes about High Value Target, Pakistan and the United States will conduct a joint operation.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan has the capability and capacity to defend its frontiers, adding, Pakistan’s Armed Forces are fully vigilant and no such incident will happen in future.
He said during the recent visit of Senator John Kerry, the issue of drone attacks was also raised and Pakistan will continue its efforts to stop these attacks which have proved to be counter-productive.
To a question Gilani said that any decision about operation in North Waziristan will be taken by the political and military leadership.
Pakistani Ambassador to China Masood Khan told the mediapersons that China will help Pakistan to check its trade deficit and will send a special purchase mission for procurement of Pakistani goods to enhance its exports to China.
He said China will provide Pakistan over $ 400 million including $100 million soft credit and a grant of 70 million RMB for the post-flood reconstruction and development projects.
He said that ICBC (Bank of China) will open its two branches in Pakistan and National Bank of Pakistan will also open its branch in China.
Ambassador Masood Khan said that China has agreed to provide 500 scholarships to Pakistani students. Both the countries also decided to set up cultural centers on both sides to promote cultural cooperation.
He said that China will treat 1000 cataract (eye disease) patients from Pakistan and conduct their surgery in China.

 

Pakistan sets Mullah Omar deathtrap to disrupt U.S.-Taliban talks

An Afghan security official told TOLOnews on Tuesday that Pakistan’s spy agency is scheming to move Taliban leader Mullah Omar from Pakistan to Helmand province and then report his whereabouts to U.S. forces.
The Pakistanis hope Omar is killed on Afghan soil because it will prove terrorist leaders are also hiding in Afghanistan, the source claimed. The same Afghan official said Omar received the ISI order to leave Quetta from former Pakistani spy chief Hamid Gul.
Such a development would disrupt the negotiations reportedly underway between the U.S. and the Taliban. According to the Washington Post, a U.S. representative attended at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany within the last eight or nine days with a Taliban official who is close to Mullah Omar.
U.S. officials claim “exploratory” conversations which began in February have advanced significantly in terms of substance and willingness to engage. The commencement of dialogue predated the Osama bin Laden assassination, but the death of the Al Qaeda leader has put more pressure on insurgent leaders to compromise, experts say.
Rumors of the talks have been chastised by critics who believe that such negotiations will compromise Afghan democracy because it appears Kabul and Washington are seriously considering bestowing the Taliban with whatever the insurgents consider an “acceptable share of political power.” This would undermine Afghan self-determination by handing over partial control of Afghanistan to the Taliban without the consent of the governed.
Afghan native Khalil Nouri, co-founder of the New World Strategies Coalition (NWSC) commented today in The Huffington Post that “there can only be one legitimate way to obtain stability in Afghanistan; through an all Afghan national ratification of a reconciliation process”. Afghans like Nouri believe neither the U.S. nor the Karzai administration has the legitimacy or the proper mandate to negotiate a settlement on behalf of the Afghan people.
An American official reported that “the Afghans have been fully briefed” on U.S.-Taliban contacts and “the Pakistanis only partially so” because the Obama administration is now of the mind that negotiation with the Quetta Shura does not require Pakistan’s cooperation. One senior administration official was even quoted as saying:

PCO judges are no more judges after passage of 18th Amendment: SC

ISLAMABAD, May 18 (APP): All serving PCO judges will not be judges of the High Courts under the Constitution since April 20, 2010, the day when 18th Amendment was approved, said Supreme Court of Pakistan in its verdict, announced on Wednesday, over PCO judges’ intra-court appeals.The six-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry announced this verdict while dismissing the intra-court appeals (ICAs) filed by six PCO judges, including Justice Yasmin Abbasi of Sindh High Court, Justice Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Justice Hasnat Ahmad Khan, Justice Hamid Ali Shah, Justice Sajjad Hussain Shah of Lahore High Court and Justice Jahanzeb Rahim of Peshawar High Court.

According to the judgment, the PCO judges had committed contempt of court by taking oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) initiated by former president Pervez Musharraf on Novermeber 3,2007.
The apex court said,”the appellants are no more judges and there will be contempt proceedings against them under Article 204 of the Constitution,if ultimately they are found to be guilty for the contempt of court by this court,” adding that all the perks and privileges received by the judges during the last one year had to be returned.
They will not remain on their posts with effect from April 20, 2010 as parliament has not ratified PCO judges in 18th Amendment, the court further adjudged.
The court also asked the Federal Government to notify PCO judges about their termination in this regard.  
It is pertinent to mention here that these PCO judges filed intra-court appeals in the Supreme Court against February 2, 2011 ruling of the court against them and the SC reserved its judgment on April 4.                                                     
Earlier, a four-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, on February 2 had announced its verdict on law points as to whether it could initiate contempt proceedings against the judges who had taken oath under the PCO in defiance of a restraining order by a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court on November 3, 2007.
The Supreme Court declared Musharraf’s Nov 3, 2007 steps in its July 31, 2009 verdict as unconstitutional.