Pakistan's Christians receive text messages warning of a "special Christmas present"

Islamic Tolerance Alert: Already left homeless by a Muslim rampage in August that saw eight Christians burned alive, the remaining Christians of Gojra cannot celebrate Christmas without looking over their shoulders.

"Pakistan Christians celebrate Christmas in fear," by Elena Becatoros for the Associated Press, December 24:

GOJRA, Pakistan - No Christmas decorations brighten the tent camp sheltering Christians left homeless by the worst violence against minorities in Pakistan this year. Instead, there is a pervasive sense of fear.

The Christians have received cell phone text messages warning them to expect a "special Christmas present," they say, and are terrified of their tents being torched or their church services being bombed.

"Last year I celebrated Christmas full of joy," said Irfan Masih, cradling his young son among the canvas shelters and open ditches of the camp. But now "the fear that we may again be attacked is in our hearts.

"They are threatening us, (saying) 'We will again attack you and will not let you out of homes, we will burn you inside this time,'" he said.

It was the fires that most traumatized Gojra's Christian Colony, a neighborhood in the heart of this Punjabi city about 220 miles (354 kilometers) southwest of Islamabad. In early August, hundreds of Muslims rampaged through the dirt streets, looting and torching homes as panicked residents tried to flee and thick black smoke rose into the air.

Eight Christians died -- seven of them from one family trapped in a burning home.

"We are going to celebrate Christmas in sorrow because the whole family is hurt by this," said Almas Hameed, whose father was shot dead during the riots. His wife, two of his children and members of his brother's family all burned to death.

The attack, which officials said was incited by a banned radical Islamist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, followed rumors that Christians had torn pages of a Quran, an act considered sacrilegious by Muslims. The ensuing carnage drew condemnation from the Pope and Pakistan's prime minister, and highlighted how religious extremism has left the country's minority groups increasingly vulnerable.

Christians -- Protestants and Catholics among them -- make up less than 5 percent of Muslim-majority Pakistan's 175 million people.

Christians say more than 100 homes were burned and looted in Gojra and the nearby village of Korian. While many homes have been rebuilt using state money, dozens of families are still living in tents, waiting for construction on their houses to finish.

Both those who have moved back into their homes and the ones still in the camp say they are still regularly threatened -- phone calls telling them to stop pressing for those responsible to be convicted, or else; armed men turning up at their homes; text messages on their cell phones promising a "special Christmas present;" rocks thrown at the tents in the night.

"When we sleep at night the fear never leaves our heart," said Safia Riaz, a 30-year-old whose father died of a heart attack during the riots. The violence "has stuck in our minds. Tension remains -- God forbid that it will happen again."

Strict security was being put into place during Christmas, said police officer Mohammed Tahir of the Faisalabad regional police headquarters, who rejected claims that authorities were unable to protect the minority.

Security has been ramped up across the country anyway, as this year Christmas falls during the Islamic month of Muharram, which is often marred by bombings and fighting between Pakistan's Sunni Muslims and its Shiite minority.

But Gojra's Christians have little faith in the police, who were accused of standing by during the worst of August's violence.

"The police already didn't save us before," said Ashar Faras, a 33-year-old who works as a chef in an Islamabad guesthouse....

With thanks to JihadWatch

Pakistan had warning of army headquarters raid

Jeremy Page and Zahid Hussain

PAKISTAN'S army and intelligence services had known about the plot to attack the military's headquarters in Rawalpindi - and even the names of those involved - since last month.

Commandos freed 39 hostages yesterday after one of the most audacious militant attacks yet on the country's powerful military.

They also captured the gunmen's alleged leader - identified as Mohammed Aqeel - who military sources said used to be in the army medical corps and had also been involved in an attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore in March.

Aqeel and four other militants had holed up in the office building after storming the army compound with five other gunmen - all in army uniforms and carrying grenades and automatic weapons - at about midday on Saturday.

Analysts described the attack as a significant embarrassment for the army and intelligence services.

They also said the attack showed that the Taliban and al-Qaeda were increasingly working together with militant groups based in Punjab province, allowing them to hit targets across the country.

"If there is a message in this then it is that they can hit hard targets as well as soft targets," said retired General Assad Durrani, a former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Aqeel, who used the alias Dr Usman, belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Punjab-based militant group that has close links with al-Qa'ida and was blamed for the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team.

Aqeel escaped arrest in April this year when police raided his house in Kahuta, near Islamabad, according to General Abbas.

Security officials told The Times that the militants were all thought to be members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and another Punjab-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed.

They also said that intelligence agencies had obtained the entire plan of the attack, and the names of those involved, from a computer disk recovered from a militant killed by police in southern Punjab last month. They appear, however, to have done little to prevent the attack.

"The militants have humiliated the army," said a retired brigadier, Javed Hussain.

This is the third militant attack in a week and comes as the army prepares to a launch an important attack on the northwestern tribal region of South Waziristan, the main al-Qai'da and Taliban stronghold in Pakistan.

It follows a suicide car bombing that killed 49 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday and a suicide bombing at a UN office in Islamabad that killed five people on last Monday.

Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, has blamed all three attacks on the Taliban and suggested that the army might bring forward the attack on South Waziristan, which the military has been preparing for since June.

"It has been decided, the civilian leadership has decided, the operation is imminent," Mr Malik said yesterday.

Hakimullah Mehsud, the new Pakistani Taliban leader, has warned that the Taliban planned to launch more attacks on military, government and other targets. He said that they would be revenge attacks for US drone strikes on the tribal areas, one of which killed his brother and predecessor as head of the Pakistani Taleban, Baitullah Mehsud, in August.

Six army personnel - including a brigadier in military intelligence and a lieutenant-colonel - and five militants were killed as the gunmen breached the compound's first gate and tried to storm the second gate.

Three hostages, two commandos and four more militants were killed in the rescue operation, during which Aqeel was also wounded and arrested, according to the army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas.

"They were in a room with a terrorist who was wearing a suicide jacket but the commandos gunned him down before he could pull the trigger," he said, adding that five more security personnel were injured.

"Now there is no terrorist left there. The operation is over."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, said in London the attack showed that militants represented a grave threat to the Pakistani state.

They also said there was no sign that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, which is controlled from another complex not far from the army headquarters, was at risk. "It is very important that alarmist talk is not allowed to gather pace," said Mr Miliband.

Source: The Australian

Ban on Sharif sparks Pakistan riots

Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent February 27

PAKISTAN plunged into a fresh political crisis amid nationwide demonstrations yesterday at a Supreme Court decision barring popular opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother from holding elected office.

President and political rival Asif Ali Zardari suspended the provincial parliament and imposed executive rule in the Sharif brothers' home state of Punjab -- Pakistan's most populous state and its traditional power centre -- in an attempt to contain anticipated large-scale protests by the country's legal fraternity.

But the move failed to suppress widespread anger at the court decision, which was criticised in many quarters as politically motivated.
e an already vulnerable civilian Government struggling to maintain control of the country in the face of a rising militant insurgency within its borders and a near-bankrupt economy.

Pakistan's share market fell 5 per cent at the close of trade and showed no sign of recovery.

The unrest will trigger concern in Washington, which needs stable government in Pakistan to help combat al-Qa'ida and Taliban militants using its territory as a base from which to launch attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Many analysts and foreign diplomats are warning that the country faces a calamitous slide into the sort of political infighting and instability that led to a military takeover by former general Pervez Musharraf in 1999.

"The Sharifs have been thrown out of politics, and they are going to react," prominent political commentator Shafqat Mahmood said.

"In the next three to six months, the political order will become very shaky."

The long-awaited Supreme Court decision was the result of an appeal against a ruling barring two-time prime minister Mr Sharif from contesting elections over his conviction on charges of hijacking Mr Musharraf's aircraft to try and forestall the coup.

It was also considering allegations of irregularities in his brother's election to provincial parliament.

Punjab is controlled by Mr Sharif's PML (N) party, and until yesterday Shahbaz Sharif was Punjab's chief minister.

Analysts said the Government's actions against the Sharifs were aimed at weakening their hold on Punjab -- a theory bolstered by recent talks aimed at an alliance between Mr Zadari's ruling Pakistan People's Party and another Punjab-based opposition party, PML (Q).

Mr Sharif reacted angrily to the decision, calling for Pakistanis to "rise against this unconstitutional decision and this nefarious act of Zardari". He said he opposed violence but added: "If the people want to show their anger, who can stop them?"

While the Government urged PML (N) to "control its supporters for the sake of democracy", thousands of protestors yesterday answered the Sharifs' call, staging fiery demonstrations.

Mr Sharif also called for people to join a massive lawyers' march planned for early next month to demand the reinstatement of more than 70 judges sacked by Mr Musharraf in 2007 for alleged misconduct.

The move sparked widespread protests that led to Mr Musharraf imposing a state of emergency in late 2007 and, eventually, to his downfall in August last year.

While the Sharifs command popular support in Punjab, the degree of instability in coming weeks will depend on how much support they can muster in Pakistan's three other states.

Source: The Australian