tagged w/ Swat Valley
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Human Rights Watch is urging the Pakistani government to immediately investigate reports of summary executions, torture, and mistreatment perpetrated during counterterrorism operations in the Swat valley.Human Rights Watch is urging the Pakistani government to immediately investigate... more
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The campaign of CIA drone strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan has made the United States "the most prolific user of targeted killings" in the world, according to a United Nations official, who is urging that responsibility for the program be taken from the spy agency.The campaign of CIA drone strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan has made the... more
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According to senior military officials, the U.S. military has “reinvigorated planning” for a unilateral strike in Pakistan should a successful attack on American soil be traced to the country's tribal areas.According to senior military officials, the U.S. military has “reinvigorated... more
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Between April and June last year, millions of panic-stricken people fled their homes in Pakistan's northwest Malakand division to escape fighting between the military and Taliban militants after the government came under strong pressure by the Obama administration to launch a crackdown.
The unprecedented exodus triggered a major national and international humanitarian response at the time, but nearly a year later, aid agencies say the crisis is far from over although funding has virtually dried up.Between April and June last year, millions of panic-stricken people fled their homes... more
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U.S. and Pakistani officials say that the Pakistani military is holding thousands of suspected militants in indefinite detention. Pakistani officials and human rights advocates say that the majority of the detainees have been held for nearly a year and have been allowed no contact with family members, lawyers or humanitarian groups.U.S. and Pakistani officials say that the Pakistani military is holding thousands of... more
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U.S. Special Operations Forces on a training mission in Pakistan are playing an expanded but largely unseen role in the country's counterinsurgency campaign. U.S. defense and administration officials say the elite trainers, who currently number more than 100, have not and are not authorized to take part in Pakistani military offensives. But Special Ops trainers play a bigger role than has been widely disclosed in helping Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps.U.S. Special Operations Forces on a training mission in Pakistan are playing an... more
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U.S. officials believe that even as Pakistan's security forces worked with their American counterparts to detain Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and other insurgents, the country's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, quietly freed at least two senior Afghan Taliban figures it had captured on its own.
U.S. military and intelligence officials say the releases, detected by American spy agencies but not publicly disclosed, are evidence that parts of Pakistan's security establishment continue to support the Afghan Taliban.U.S. officials believe that even as Pakistan's security forces worked with their... more
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Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told an American envoy last week the U.S. regional campaign against militancy and the violence it has provoked have almost crippled Pakistan’s economy.Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told an American envoy last week the U.S.... more
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By PIR ZUBAIR SHAH and MARK McDONALD
Published: October 12, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide car bomber attacked a military vehicle in a crowded market in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 41 people and wounding dozens more, police and hospital officials said.
The explosion occurred at the Alpuri market, whose shops are adjacent to a police station and a mosque, in the Shangla District within the restive Swat Valley. Among the dead, according to a local police official, were six soldiers and four newly recruited members of a community police force.
No one took immediate responsibility for the blast, although the blame is likely to fall on Taliban insurgents who have been active in the area. The Pakistani military had declared Swat cleared of militants after an offensive this summer, and this was the most deadly militant attack in the region since the end of that campaign.By PIR ZUBAIR SHAH and MARK McDONALD
Published: October 12, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan... more
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The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that two months after the Pakistani army took back the Swat Valley from Taliban militants, a new campaign of fear has taken hold, with scores, perhaps hundreds, of bodies dumped on the streets in what human rights advocates and local residents are saying is the work of the military.The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that two months after the Pakistani army took back... more
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Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of vehicles carrying at least 400 students, staff and relatives from a boys' school Monday, taking dozens _ possibly hundreds _ captive in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.
Police were negotiating for the captives' release following the brazen abduction _ part of a string of militant actions in Pakistan's tribal belt that the army believes is partly aimed at distracting the military from its offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley. The militants were said to be armed with rockets, grenades and automatic weapons.
Details were still emerging early Tuesday about what exactly happened in North Waziristan. Originally as many as 500 people were believed to have been abducted, but about 200 students were later found to be safe.
Police official Meer Sardar said the abduction occurred about 20 miles from Razmak Cadet College. The victims were leaving the school area after they were warned to get out in a phone call from a man they believed to be a political official, Sardar said, citing accounts from a group of 17 who managed to escape.
Local media, however, reported that the group was leaving because their school vacation had started.
About 30 buses, cars and other vehicles were carrying the students, staff and others when they were stopped along the road by a large group of gunmen in their own vehicles, according to a school employee who was among those who escaped. He said the vehicle he was riding in happened to be behind a truck on the road and thus it was less visible and able to slip away unnoticed.Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of vehicles carrying at least 400 students, staff... more
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Kepano
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added this
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2 years ago
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Wonder who's gonna cough this shitload of money. America?
The United Nations launched an appeal on Friday for $543 million for more than 2 million people displaced by fighting in northwest Pakistan who are enduring "incredible suffering."
The military launched an offensive this month in the picturesque Swat Valley and neighboring districts to stop the spread of a Taliban insurgency that had raised fears for nuclear-armed Pakistan's future.
The United Nations has warned of a long-term humanitarian crisis and called for massive aid for nearly 1.7 million people displaced by the offensive and about 555,000 people forced from their homes by earlier fighting in the region.
"The scale of this displacement is extraordinary in terms of size and speed and has caused incredible suffering," said Martin Mogwanja, the acting U.N. humanitarian coordinator, in launching the "flash appeal."
We require a total $543 million assistance until the end of December this year," Mogwanja told diplomats and reporters at the launch.
The U.N. appeal came a day after Pakistan's allies promised $224 million in aid for the displaced, including $110 million from the United States, after the government warned that the militants could exploit a failure to help.
The United States, which sees Pakistan as vital to its plan to defeat al Qaeda and bring stability in Afghanistan, has applauded Pakistani resolve to fight what some U.S. leaders have called an "existential threat" to the country.
But Pakistan could face even greater turmoil in the months ahead.
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said on Thursday a U.S. military offensive in southern Afghanistan could push Taliban fighters into Pakistan.Wonder who's gonna cough this shitload of money. America?
The United Nations... more
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Kepano
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added this
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3 years ago
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Aijaz Ahmad: US must work with regional states and pull out of Afghanistan to find Pakistan solution. Part 2
Based in New Delhi, Aijaz Ahmad has appeared many times on The Real News Network; he is Senior Editorial Consultant, and political commentator for the Indian newsmagazine, Frontline. He has taught Political Science, and has written widely on South Asia and the Middle East.
See Part 1 at:
http://current.com/items/90043779_us-policy-makes-things-worse-in-pakistan.htmAijaz Ahmad: US must work with regional states and pull out of Afghanistan to find... more
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Aijaz Ahmad: US policy will lead to thousands of new recruits for Al Qaeda. Part 1
Based in New Delhi, Aijaz Ahmad has appeared many times on The Real News Network; he is Senior Editorial Consultant, and political commentator for the Indian newsmagazine, Frontline. He has taught Political Science, and has written widely on South Asia and the Middle East.
See Part 2 at:
http://current.com/items/90043810_us-pakistan-policy-is-floundering.htmAijaz Ahmad: US policy will lead to thousands of new recruits for Al Qaeda. Part 1... more
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Pakistan's restive Swat Valley is set to become a war zone – again. The Taliban have been busy mining the main streets of the valley's main city, Mingora, taking over government buildings, and seizing police stations. Civilians, meanwhile, can't get out. The Taliban have blocked the roads with trees. Black-turbaned fighters are now poised with their fingers on the trigger, waiting for the Army to come back in.
That could happen any day. So far the Army has preferred to bomb the militants from above, using helicopters and artillery. But ground troops may become necessary as the Taliban dig in. And not just in Swat – after months of inaction, the Pakistani military has begun pounding Taliban enclaves in a 50-mile arc along the Northwest Frontier Province.
This is exactly the sort of violence that the government's peace deal with the Swat Taliban, signed in February, was supposed to avoid. Instead, it only emboldened the Taliban to seize larger swaths of land closer to Islamabad, the capital. As fighting threatens to ignite the region, Pakistan's president, now in Washington, is scrambling to convince the Obama administration that Pakistan can prevail.
As fighting heats up in districts of Swat, Dir, and Buner, the Pakistani government is expecting a staggering new wave of refugees, according to Dawn, one of Pakistan's leading English-language newspapers.
The government in North West Frontier Province has said up to half a million could flee the Taliban flashpoint district of Swat and local officials said Wednesday that more than 40,000 left the main town of Mingora in 24 hours....
'We can no longer reach the areas most affected by the fighting on account of the volatile situation,' Benno Kochner, who runs ICRC operations in NWFP from the provincial capital Peshawar, said in the statement.
Refugees are fleeing what is already shaping up to be a bloodbath, reports the Daily Times, a Lahore-based newspaper.
At least 69 Taliban were killed as the army pounded Taliban positions in Mingora and Buner and seized control of an emerald mine in Swat on Wednesday, in the first 'planned operation' since the collapse of a peace deal between the Taliban and the NWFP government, military sources said.
According to [the military], four troops were killed and six injured in the fighting. Five security officials were killed and four others injured in a remote-controlled bomb blast near Pull Chowki in Chakkadra area of Malakand, a private TV channel reported.
The Daily Times adds that, as the military touts its gains over the Taliban, the Taliban claim to be firmly in control of Swat.
The Taliban are in control of "90 percent" of the Swat valley, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Muslim Khan told Al Jazeera on Wednesday. Blaming the breakdown of the Swat peace deal on the Pakistani military, Khan said the peace accord with the government in the Swat valley was over. Khan alleged the security forces had killed civilians in the area. "How can we follow the agreement with them?" Khan said.
What becomes of Swat has profound repercussions for Washington and Islamabad's joint effort to eradicate the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies, as the Associated Press highlights.
Swat is seen as an especially significant battleground. Rather than a remote badlands along the Afghan border, it is only 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad, and is a relatively wealthy former tourist resort famed for its striking mountain views.
[article continued at link]
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Very informative article.
What do you think about the situation in the Swat Valley?Pakistan's restive Swat Valley is set to become a war zone – again. The... more
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