 Equal-opportunity enforced ignorance. "Pakistan: Militants blow up boy's school in northwest," from AdnKronos International, January 18: Landi Kotal, 18 Jan. (AKI) - Militants on Monday blew up a government primary school for boys in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber tribal region, Pakistani media reported. The militants planted two powerful bombs which exploded simultaneously, destroying the school. No casualties were reported. Security forces and political administration officials cordoned off the area after the attack, which local officials blamed on the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam). Lashkar-e-Islam is the main extremist group operating in Khyber, which has some ideological ties to the Pakistani Taliban. So far, militants have destroyed more than 15 schools in Khyber agency. Also on Monday, four militants were killed in an armed clash with Pakistani security forces in the District Char Bagh of North West Frontier Province's troubled Swat district. The Pakistani army says at least 2,150 militants were killed in Swat - a Taliban stronghold - and neighbouring Buner and Lower Dir districts in an offensive there between April and July last year. The army claimed to have wiped out most of the insurgent strongholds during the three-month operation.
 ISLAMABAD – A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives near a mosque inside a police compound in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing 10 people in the latest attack by suspected Taliban militants waging war against the Pakistani government. The Taliban have stepped up their campaign of violence since the military launched a major offensive in mid-October in the militant stronghold of South Waziristan in Pakistan's lawless tribal area near the Afghan border. Friday's attack was the second in two weeks against a mosque used by Pakistan's security forces. Most of the 10 people killed in the attack in the Lower Dir region were police leaving the mosque after Friday prayers, said the area's police chief, Feroze Khan. The blast wounded another 28 people, also mostly police, said a local hospital official, Ghulam Mohammed. Lower Dir is next to the Swat Valley, which Pakistani soldiers wrested from the Taliban earlier this year. But periodic attacks have continued in the area. Militants have also staged attacks in Pakistan's heartland, many of them against the country's security forces. A team of militants armed with guns, grenades and bombs raided a mosque near army headquarters outside of Islamabad on Dec. 4, killing 36 people. WSJ
 PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Taliban militants blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district on Tuesday, the third such attack in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan so far this month, officials said. An intelligence official in the area said Taliban attacked the government-run school overnight when no one was at the property. "The girls' middle school was badly damaged because of the explosion, now the school building is almost out of use. The classrooms, desks and chairs were also damaged," Farooq Khan, a local administrative official told AFP. The incident took place at Yousaf Kely village near Bara town, around 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province which has been hit by five suicide attacks in the last eight days. Islamist militants have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years. Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year Taliban uprising to enforce sharia law in a district once favoured by Western tourists for its ski slopes and mountain air. Following up a similar offensive in Swat this summer, Pakistan has been fighting against homegrown militants in Khyber and pressing a major assault designed to crush Taliban sanctuaries in South Waziristan. Authorities last month shut schools across Pakistan following a suicide attack on a university campus in Islamabad, although most have since reopened. Yahoo News
 As the Pakistan Army turns its guns on Waziristan, Manan Ahmed argues that the dysfunctional state remains its own worst enemy.
On May 11, Rehman Malik, the ubiquitous and consistently enervated Pakistani interior minister, declared the military’s ongoing operation against the Taliban in the Swat Valley a resounding success.
“We haven’t given them a chance,” he boasted. “They are on the run. They were not expecting such an offensive”. He added that the operation, then barely a week old, had already killed 700 Taliban. Over the summer the declarations of victory continued: prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called the conflict “a great success”; the Pakistan Army spokesman, Major Gen Athar Abbas announced that “we have beaten the Taliban decisively in Swat”.
Since the army maintained a media blackout in the region, there were few voices to dissent from these cries of victory. But the extent of the army’s achievement remains unknown: areas of Swat are still under Taliban control, and many militants simply fled the territory for more favourable terrain elsewhere. What is clear, however, is that the army campaign – waged with heavy artillery and aerial strikes – forced some three million civilians to flee. After declaring victory in Swat, and under pressure from the Americans to “take the fight to the Taliban”, the Pakistan army announced that it would soon proceed towards Waziristan, the hunting-ground for the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whose founder and leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was assassinated by a US drone in early August. The targets struck back with a wave of terrorist attacks in October, many directed against the state itself – killing over 250 Pakistanis and injuring hundreds more. The violence of the Taliban reprisal blew away the smokescreen of success that had been proclaimed in Swat: it was clear that the offensive, whatever its other accomplishments, had done nothing to undermine the capacity of the Taliban to organise and execute terrorist attacks anywhere in Pakistan – from Islamabad and Peshawar to Lahore. In fact, the self-appointed Taliban in Swat had always been imports from Waziristan, who established a bulwark in Swat by capitalising on local frustration with the federal state – and they easily slipped back into Waziristan as the army began to bombard the valley. The military has now started to shell South Waziristan with the same fury. The exodus of civilians is under way – more than 250,000 have been displaced.
As before, this human cost does not figure in the army’s calculus. The humanitarian crisis will be left to fester for municipal authorities and the private sector. Already, we have an early declaration of “success” from the Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who says the Taliban are “on the run”. But on the run to where, exactly? Crossing over the border to southern Afghanistan, perhaps – the neighbouring province of Zabul is already a crucial zone of conflict between Nato troops and the Afghan Taliban. But it is more likely that they will head south toward Baluchistan and its border city, Quetta – and that, soon enough, the deadly game will continue, this time with Baluchistan in the crosshairs of a new army offensive. The Taliban are indeed a murderous lot, intent on disrupting and destroying civil society and cowing helpless civilians to their particularly offensive version of piety. But their success in finding a foothold and destabilising Swat relied not on any appeal to a religious cause or tribal brotherhood but on exploiting existing political and judicial imbalances in the region. Pakistan’s federally administered areas have never been integrated into the state apparatus – after 62 years, they lack basic infrastructure, any accountable civil administration, working courts or police, and have very few rights in Islamabad. The inhabitants of these regions have long experienced corrosive resource exploitation at the hands of the centre without receiving any benefit to their own communities. Read more here,,,, Source: The National
 ISLAMIST militants blew up a girls school in Pakistan's lawless Khyber tribal district, destroying the building and wounding four people in neighbouring homes, officials said. Two explosions ripped through the 18-room government high school for girls at Kari Gar village and a boy who watched the premises is missing, possibly kidnapped by the militants, local administration officials said. "The militants have blown up the school with two blasts and all rooms were demolished," said administration official Shafeer Ullah. "Four people in neighbouring houses were also wounded and their homes slightly damaged. We're still trying to find out what happened to the office boy," Ullah told AFP. Another of Khyber's administrators, Farooq Khan, confirmed the incident. Islamist militants, who have carved out a strong presence in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years. Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year Taliban uprising to enforce sharia law in a district once favoured by Western tourists for its ski slopes and bracing mountain air. Following up a similar offensive in Swat this summer, Pakistan has been fighting against homegrown militants in Khyber and pressing a major assault designed to crush Taliban sanctuaries in South Waziristan. Authorities last month shut schools across Pakistan following a suicide attack on a university campus in Islamabad, although most have since reopened. Source: The Australian
 The Los Angeles Times has an article about how local tribes in the Swat Valley, a former stronghold for the Taliban and other terrorists, have begun handling security to keep such militants out of the area. For all the talk that Iraq and Afghanistan are different, this is remarkably similar to what happened in Anbar Province, where a combination of a local uprising and military offensive decisively changed the situation. In the village of Kanju in Swat Valley, the tribal militia has only been working for 40 days, and has captured 250 militants. This reinforces the fact that any counter-insurgency campaign must involve the locals, who know the terrain, culture, and personal relationships in the area far better than soldiers from outside the area. The report notes that such militias are forming in South Waziristan as well. For all the justifiable criticism of Pakistan, it seems they have learned from our success in Iraq better than we have. While the U.S. government is taking a prolonged period of time to decide how to move forward in Afghanistan, Pakistan has already made the decision to apply the counter-insurgency lessons we used successfully. Source: World Threats
 Jeremy Page The bomber, said to be aged about 13, flung himself at one of three military vehicles passing through a busy market in the district of Shangla, near Swat, which the Pakistani Army claimed to have cleared of militants in an offensive this year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which killed six soldiers and thirty-five civilians, and followed two other suicide bombings last week and a daring commando-style raid on the army's headquarters at the weekend.
It bore all the hallmarks of the Pakistani Taleban, which claimed responsibility yesterday for attacking the army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Saturday and taking 42 people hostage inside for 22 hours. A total of twenty-three people were killed in that attack, including nine militants, three hostages and eleven soldiers.
The army said that the Taleban appeared to be trying to intimidate it into calling off an imminent attack on the tribal region of South Waziristan, considered the main militant stronghold in Pakistan.
"It is now a matter of military judgment what is the appropriate timing in the best national interests," Major-General Athar Abbas, the army spokesman, told reporters about the timing of that assault.
"These are the signs of desperation of an organisation that is staring defeat in the face."
 At least 32 people were killed and dozens injured when a Taliban suicide bomber struck near Pakistan's Swat Valley. The attack was reported to have targeted a convoy of military vehicles as it passed close to a crowded market in Alpuri, Shangla district, not far from the town of Mingora. "Thirty-two people have been killed - 28 of them are civilians and four are security personnel," said Major Mushtaq Khan, a spokesman at the army-run Swat Media Centre. "Forty-six people are injured - six of them are troops. Five of the troops are in a serious condition. "It was a suicide blast. The attacker was on foot." The bomber targeted the convoy as it passed through a security checkpost near a crowded bazaar, hitting both a military target and maximising civilian casualties. The attack is just the latest in a string of Taliban blasts in recent weeks that have left dozens of civilians dead. It followed air strikes against Taliban camps in the previous 24 hours which were a response to the storming and siege of the Pakistan army's headquarters in Rawalpindi at the weekend. Source: Telegraph
 Pakistan has vowed to launch a new offensive against Taliban strongholds along the Afghan border after a suicide car bomber killed 49 people in a crowded market in the city of Peshawar. Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, blamed Friday's attack on the Taliban and said that the fighters had left the government "no other option" but to hit back. "We will have to proceed," he told a local television station. Later, Malik told reporters: "They are compelling us to launch the operation in South Waziristan early. We will take a decision on the operation against terrorists over the next few days." Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, "strongly condemned" the bombing, and expressed his government's resolve to continue action against extremists, a statement from his office said. The attack in Peshawar's Khyber Bazaar was the bloodiest to hit the country in the last six months. Zafar Iqbal, the registrar of Peshawar's main Lady Reading Hospital, said: "We have 49 dead bodies brought to the hospital. Three of them are women and seven are children." All of the dead were civilians, he added. Bashir Ahmad Bilour, a senior provincial minister, confirmed the death toll, saying that more than 100 people had been injured in the blast. At least 12 shops were completely destroyed, while passers-by desperately tried to free survivors from the wreckage of a destroyed bus. Shafqat Malik, the bomb disposal squad chief, said that police evidence suggested the suicide bomber had rammed a car with explosives and machine-gun ammunition packed into its side panels into the crowded bus. Despite interior minister Malik's assertion that the Taliban were behind the attack, there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said: "What is surprising everyone is that immediately after the attack, the provincial information minister came out and said that he knew where the attack came from, and started saying that people should be united against the Taliban, even though the Taliban have not claimed responsibility." The US has been pushing Pakistan to take strong action against fighters who it says are using Pakistani soil as a base for attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan. The Pakistani military has launched a number of offensives against the Taliban in the past and its efforts received a boost with the killing of Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban leader, in a US missile attack. But despite what are seen as successful campaigns in the Swat Valley and adjoining Buner district, the army has been beaten back on three previous offensives into the Taliban heartland of South Waziristan. Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 NEW DELHI: In a new shift in tactics, Pakistan is planning to push as many as 60 "surrendered" Taliban into Jammu and Kashmir to become part of the "jihad" against India. The ISI is said to have offered the extremists the option of either going to jail or crossing the Line of Control.
The "jail or jihad" option offered to the Taliban seems a useful diversion for ISI. The Pakistan military establishment has had to fight the Taliban, once its close allies in Afghanistan, but is looking to turn the situation to its advantage.
Apprehensions in Indian security circles that the crackdown by the Pakistan army on Taliban — seen as a last resort after the jihadis turned their guns on the Pakistani state — could mean trouble in Kashmir are being proved correct. Not only have infiltration attempts by regular jihadi outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba gone up, the presence of Taliban poses a new threat.
Highly placed sources said BSF and the Army had been alerted about the developments after intelligence intercepted talk about infiltration bids in the next 15 to 20 days.
"Although the Taliban is yet to successfully infiltrate into India, the coming days will pose a challenge as their attempts to sneak in are expected before the onset of winter," said a senior official. The infiltration is closely controlled and monitored by the ISI and Pakistan army which is often involved in the crossings.
The issue cropped up as a major security concern during the two-day visit to Srinagar by a high-powered central team led by cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekhar and comprising home secretary G K Pillai, defence secretary Pradeep Kumar and other senior officials.
Top security and intelligence officials deliberated over the move by state actors in Pakistan to utilize the Taliban for their objectives in Kashmir. Taking note of the assessment, officials are learnt to have unequivocally noted during the reviews in Srinagar that there was no change in Pakistan's support to terror groups post 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
The Taliban, who recently fought against Pakistan army in Swat Valley and other areas along the Pak-Afghan border, were well trained and battle-hardened. They could put their experience of fighting US troops to use in Kashmir.
Apart from the group of 60, there are nearly 250 to 300 jihadis — armed with sophisticated weapons, Thuraya satellite phones and Indian mobile SIM cards — poised at launch pads along LoC. This feeds into the view that violence could escalate in J&K in the winter months.
The meeting in Srinagar, attended by senior Army and paramilitary personnel, also took note of repeated use of Pakistani Air Force helicopters to evacuate injured infiltrators along the LoC and as many as 42 terror camps in PoK and Pakistan.
"Such incidents (like use of choppers) clearly show the involvement of Pakistani authorities in facilitating infiltration. Though our forces are fully alert to thwart Pakistani designs, the next 15-20 days are quite crucial as this is the period when they will do everything to infiltrate as many terrorists as possible," said a senior official. That is when winter will begin to set in.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Go-to-jail-or-join-jihad-against-India-ISI-tells-surrendered-Taliban/articleshow/5095277.cms
 The Pakistan Taliban's spokesman Muslim Khan is among five Taliban leaders arrested in the country's northwestern Swat Valley by Pakistani security forces. Army officials on Friday said their forces had detained the five, including Mahmood Khan, a senior Taliban commander, in a "successful operation" in the valley. "Muslim Khan and Mahmood Khan with head money of 10 million rupees ($120,500) have been arrested by security forces," Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman, said in a statement. "Along with them, three other terrorist leaders - Fazle Ghaffar, Abdul Rehman and Sartaj - have been also been apprehended," he said. Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, said the Taliban said some of the men had been negotiating with the military when they were arrested. "The Taliban Swat spokesman Salman, who is officiating in the absence of Muslim Khan, said that the Taliban had started peace talks with the Pakistani military eight days ago," Hyder said.
 Zaid is among hundreds of villagers in northwest Pakistan who've volunteered to join private militias, called lashkars. These groups have vowed to help Pakistan's military in fighting the Taliban. "I'm doing it for peace," Zaid said, right before he fired several shots in the air with his rifle. Pakistani military officials credit the lashkars with helping chase the Taliban out of Swat Valley and neighboring districts once infested with the militants. "By nature, they're very tough," Pakistani army Major Hasnain Shah said of the lashkars. "They're sacrificing their lives just to protect their own values and to help us out." One group, called the Soltan Kheil lashkar, is made up of 500 armed men from the district of Lower Dir. Group members say they protect their villages against Taliban fighters in bordering Swat Valley. After a two-hour drive and another 30-minute climb in some of the most magnificent mountains in the world, we reach the lashkar's base. Deafening gunfire greets the CNN team -- this is how Pakistan's ethnic Pashtuns say "welcome". The mountaintop meeting offers a rare look at the militias. The men have rugged faces and chapped hands weathered by scorching summers and arctic winters. Many have rifles strapped across their shoulders. These men are fierce warriors but fiercely loyal too. Reach out your hand and you'll get an embrace in return. This is a rare opportunity to get to know Pakistani tribesman who otherwise live in isolation from the international media. I ask them what they like most about America. "It's a democracy," said one of the lashkar members. "They like peace in their country," said another. Read more here,,,,, Source: CNN
 By Ibrahim Shinwari in Jamrud The Khyber Pass is a main route for supplies trucked from the Pakistani port of Karachi to Western forces battling al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
The airstrikes took place as troops mopped up militant positions in the northwestern Swat valley, where the military says over 2000 fighters have been killed since an offensive was launched in April.
Troops began a new operation in the Khyber this week against militants who included those who had fled the Swat offensive.
"Our forces targeted a headquarters of Lashkar-e-Islam and about 15 militants were killed in the attack," said a Frontier Corps spokesman in Peshawar, referring to a group under the command of Mangal Bagh, an ethnic Pashtun Islamist militant.
A further 28 were killed elsewhere in clashes with insurgents and airstrikes on suspected militant hideouts.
The Khyber is one of seven Pakistani regions with a high degree of autonomy based on tribal laws. On Aug. 27 a suicide bomber killed 22 border guards at the main crossing to Afghanistan.
Helicopter gunships and fighter planes also pounded militant positions in the tribal region of Orakzai that borders Khyber, and intelligence officials said there had been casualties.
In Swat, security forces killed a militant commander and arrested five others, according to a military statement. Seven more militants surrendered to security forces.
Troops also destroyed two hideouts in the neighbouring Dir region, the military said.
 MINGORA, Pakistan — A homicide bomber killed at least 14 police recruits Sunday in Pakistan's Swat Valley in the deadliest attack since the army regained control over the northwestern valley from the Taliban, an official said. The blast in the yard of the main police station in Mingora, Swat's main town, came one day after the army said it had destroyed a major training camp for homicide bombers. It indicated the Taliban is still able to sow destruction and fear even though their hard-line Islamist rule in the valley is over. Members of a new community police force were training to patrol the region when the attacker sneaked up and detonated his explosives, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told local television Geo by telephone. Television footage showed officers gathering up mutilated bodies outside the police station, which had already been bombed twice before in recent months. At least 14 bodies of police volunteers in uniform were brought to the local hospital and eight wounded recruits were being treated, hospital official Ikram Khan told The Associated Press. Local police chief Idrees Khan said at least 20 were wounded and a dozen killed. Khan denied rumors that the attacker was in uniform and might have been one of the police volunteers. "No, we don't have any such report, but yes, a homicide bomber sneaked into the training for recruits," he told reporters at the scene in footage broadcast on local television. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
Murad was studying in class five in Mingora, the main city in northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley, when the Islamists abducted him and took him to their remote mountain base in Chuprial. Looking drained in his smudged clothes and dirty sandals, he gave a glimpse into the short life that awaits boys taken by the Taliban. The next stage of his training included 16 hours a day of physical exercise and psychological indoctrination. "My instructor told me that martyrdom is the biggest reward of Allah," Murad said quietly. Another boy, Abdul Wahab, 15, said the Taliban had lured him to the camp from his studies at a madrassa -- Islamic school -- in Mingora. "I was told that it was a religious duty of every Muslim to get training to fight the enemies of Islam," he said. "I panicked when a few days later I was told that I would be getting training for suicide bombing." The army believes between 1200 and 1500 boys as young as 11 who were trained in Swat to become suicide bombers were recruited after the Pakistani government signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February, handing the militants control of the valley. The agreement broke down after the Taliban started advancing on Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, which led to a military offensive that has all but driven the militants from the region. The boys were rescued after the Taliban were forced to abandon their camps. Many are still missing, however, having been sold to militants in other areas. "We are trying to track them down," said Brigadier Tahir, the commanding officer in Mingora. "We are not sure how many of them are still alive." The Taliban turned to children as potential suicide bombers because they were impressionable, less likely to be detected and better able to reach their targets. "They are told that the Pakistani army has become an enemy of Islam as it is fighting for Christians and Jews," said a senior official involved in interrogation of potential suicide bombers who have surrendered or been captured. On the day of a planned attack, the designated suicide bomber is taken to a mosque to be congratulated for being chosen by God. "Sometimes he is also heavily drugged before the attack," the official said. The children were told that they should not allow anyone, even their parents, to get in the way of jihad. "You must not hesitate even to kill your parents if they are on the wrong side," said Kurshid Khan, 14, who was selected for training that could have taken him to South Waziristan -- the lawless region bordering Afghanistan controlled by Baitullah Mehsud, the head of Pakistan's Taliban. Pakistani intelligence officials said 70 per cent of suicide bombers were trained at camps run by Qari Hussain, Mehsud's most trusted lieutenant. Hussain often boasted that he could convince anyone in 10 minutes to become a suicide bomber. They believe many of the children trained at Hussain's camps have carried out attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. A recent UN report said 80 per cent of bombers involved in attacks in Afghanistan came from camps in Pakistan. The army has set up a rehabilitation centre for the children. Murad is back in Mingora. "We did not have any clue where he went," said Mohammad Salman, his father. "I was horrified when I was told that my son could be a suicide bomber." Source:The Australian
 ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities last night arrested pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad, who brokered a now-failed peace deal between the government and militants in the Swat Valley. Mian Iftikhar, the Information Minister for the North West Frontier Province, said police arrested Mohammad in Peshawar for speaking against the government and encouraging violence and terrorism. "Instead of keeping his promises by taking steps for the sake of peace, and speaking out against terrorism, he did not utter a single word against terrorists," Mr Iftikhar said. He said that the cleric's stance "encouraged terrorism, it encouraged violence". The cleric negotiated a deal with the government in February that imposed shariah, or Islamic, law in Swat in exchange for an end to two years of fighting. But it was widely seen as an acquiescence to Taliban control of the valley. The deal collapsed in April when the Taliban advanced into neighbouring districts, triggering a military offensive that prompted a spree of retaliatory attacks by militants. The military offensive in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas forced two million people to flee their homes and take refuge in camps or with relatives across the country. In the past two weeks hundreds of thousands have been returning home as the offensive winds down, although sporadic fighting persists. The cleric's arrest followed that of a former MP and a suspected Taliban militant in connection with the beheading of Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak, kidnapped near the Afghan border last September. Investigator Malik Tariq Awan said the two were taken into custody a month ago. He named one as Shah Abdul Aziz, a member of a pro-Taliban party who was elected to parliament's lower house in 2002. Mr Awan said Aziz was believed to have plotted the abduction of Stanczak, who was taken while surveying oil and gas fields. A video emerged in February of Stanczak's beheading. His remains were recovered and flown back to Poland in April. Source: The Australian
 A top provincial official said the massive blast at the Pearl Continental Hotel late Tuesday was likely the latest in a string of revenge attacks by Islamist militants over a six-week offensive against them in the northwest. Hunting for the dead, police moved from room-to-room in the five-star hotel, large parts of which were reduced to rubble when at least two attackers shot security guards and then slammed an explosives-laden truck into the building. Four more bodies were pulled from the dust and rubble early Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 15, police said, with more victims feared trapped under the debris. "The blast is a reaction to the army offensive in Swat and Malakand. The possibility of this type of terrorist attack cannot be ruled out in future,'' North West Frontier Province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said. Peshawar police chief Sefwat Ghayur released the new death toll, while senior police official Abdul Ghafoor Afridi told AFP that 57 people were injured, including some foreigners. "The number of casualties could rise as we fear that some people are still trapped under the debris,'' Afridi said. "One portion of the hotel was totally destroyed. Three people including a manager of the hotel are missing and we fear they are under the debris.'' Two foreign United Nations employees - Serbian national Aleksandar Vorkapic who worked for the refugee agency (UNHCR), and Perseveranda So of the Philippines who worked for UNICEF - were killed, the UN announced. Dozens of aid workers were staying at the upmarket hotel before heading out to refugee camps in North West Frontier Province, where Pakistan launched military action in three districts on April 26 to try to crush Taliban rebels. The air and ground assault in Swat, Lower Dir and Buner has sent up to two million people fleeing their homes, cramming into relatives' houses or hastily-set up camps. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the bombing - the seventh deadly bombing in Peshawar in a month - a "heinous terrorist attack which no cause can justify.'' Early reports suggest at least two men dressed as security guards shot their way through a security barrier and into the hotel compound, where they managed to detonate about 500 kilogrammes of explosives packed in a pick-up truck. Pakistan has been hit by a string of deadly bomb blasts in recent weeks in Peshawar, Islamabad and the cultural capital Lahore, with the Taliban claiming responsibility for some of them and warning of more "massive attacks''. No group has yet claimed responsibility for Tuesday's hotel blast, and Hussain said a committee had been set up to investigate. "Police experts are collecting evidence from the spot and debris of the hotel. They have also recorded statements from the hotel employees and those present at the scene,'' he told AFP. "We have already alerted all the security and law enforcement agencies and we have declared a high alert in Peshawar and other cities.'' The current US-backed campaign centred on Swat was launched when Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad, flouting a deal to put three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace. Source: The Australian
It was the first time such forces had been involved in fighting since the military offensive began in the valley more than a week ago. "It signifies a major shift in the fighting," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. Members of the counter-insurgency force landed behind the front line in the Piochar region, about 60km from Mingora, the main city in the Swat Valley. The greater involvement of ground troops could bring higher army casualties - a major concern for Pakistan's military command, which restrained past efforts in Swat in order to avoid that outcome. Government troops have been using heavy artillery, helicopter gunships and fighter jets. Previous military action has tended to peter out without the capture or deaths of leading insurgents. Past stalemates brought criticism, particularly from the country's American allies, that the army was not pursuing the Taliban hard enough. This time, Pakistani leaders say, the army will not rest until it has wiped out all militants. The offensive has won praise even from the US. According to the Pakistani officials, there are about 5000 Taliban militants fighting 15,000 regular government troops in what is being described as the biggest counter-insurgency operation that Pakistan has undertaken since 2001. Piochar, 3050m above sea level, is regarded as the main base for the militants. "The troops have surrounded the terrorist camps and are closing in on the militants' command centre," General Abbas said. Among them, the general said, was Mullah Fazalullah, the leader of the Swat insurgency, and some of his top commanders. "Our main strategy is to block the free movement of the militants and eliminate the entire leadership." The army claims that 751 militants have been killed in Swat and neighbouring districts so far, with29 soldiers dead. But the figures could not be verified independently. Government forces have been using heavy air and ground bombardment to pound Taliban positions but this has forced hundreds of thousands of residents to flee the area. The Government launched a full-scale assault on Swat and the surrounding districts last week after Taliban militants tried to extend their influence to areas only 110km from the capital, Islamabad, on the back of a peace deal that handed them control of the Swat Valley. Read More...... Source: The Australian
PAKISTAN has ordered its military to eliminate "terrorists" as air and ground troops pounded extremists branded by Washington a threat to the nuclear-armed country's very existence.As the US moves forward in Afghanistan and considers reconciliation with some members of the Taliban, the Swat Valley in Pakistan offers some lessons. Attack helicopters and war planes bombarded suspected Taliban hideouts in the Swat Valley during the deadliest fighting to grip the northwest district since the government brokered a February peace agreement with hardliners. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani delivered a televised address urging the nation to unite against extremists, whom he said were threatening the country's sovereignty and who had violated the peace deal with attacks. And Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari vowed that military operations would last until “normalcy” had returned to the troubled Swat Valley. The deeply controversial agreement between the government and a pro-Taliban cleric to put three million people in a wide region of northwest Pakistan under sharia law had been meant to end a nearly two-year violent Taliban uprising. In order to restore honour and dignity of our homeland, and to protect people, the armed forces have been called to eliminate the militants and terrorists,” said Gilani, dressed symbolically in traditional Pakistani dress. “The time has come when the entire nation should side with the government and the armed forces against those who want to make the entire country hostage and darken our future at gunpoint,” the premier added. Thousands of civilians streamed out of the Taliban stronghold and former tourist resort of Swat on foot or crammed into cars in the face of the fighting, as the Red Cross warned that the humanitarian crisis was escalating. Pakistan is under heavy US pressure to crush militants, whom Washington have called the biggest terror threat to the West. US President Barack Obama has put the nuclear-armed Muslim country at the heart of the fight against al-Qa’ida. “(The operation) is going to carry on until life in Swat comes back to normalcy,” Zardari told reporters at the US Capitol after meeting key senators. “It's a regional problem, it's a worldwide problem,” Zardari said. “I think the world is coming to that realisation,” he added. Following talks with Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Senator John Kerry said the US Congress would urgently complete an aid bill to stabilise Pakistan. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, speaking in Kabul, praised Pakistan's action against the Taliban. Read more....
 As intense fighting continued across Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, thousands of civilians fled the Swat Valley and Buner yesterday, taking advantage of a brief relaxation in military-imposed curfews. The former tourist region of Swat has experienced the deadliest fighting between militants and the military since February, when a peace deal was struck to end the Taliban's 18-month campaign for imposition of sharia law. At least 35 militants had died in fighting, as had nine Pakistani soldiers, the military reported. About 36 civilians have been killed in crossfire or by army snipers for breaching curfew. Security officials said Taliban fighters had begun entering houses in Swat's main town, Mingora, and were using residents as human shields. The Government insists no formal army operation has begun in Swat, the stronghold of Taliban in the NWFP, and that all military action was retaliatory. But in Buner district, where the military's Operation Black Thunder is in its second week, the civilian toll is mounting fast. A few kilometres from Buner, a makeshift refugee checkpoint clogs the main highway to Mardan. Mini-buses, trucks and tractors line the road competing with registration tents, soup kitchens and health clinics - all catering to thousands of displaced people who arrive each day. Officials say at least 5000 have registered in recent days. From overcrowded vehicles piled with blankets, bags and livestock, exhausted men, women and children spill out. At a checkpoint on the border with Swabi, an elderly teacher said many of the houses in his upper eastern Buner village of Kalpani, had been destroyed since the "military invasion" began on Monday. On that day four army tanks rolled into town. At least one has since been blown up. The man gave his name but asked that it not be used, fearing Taliban reprisals. While his school was untouched by the Taliban, many of the girls' schools in his village were laid with mines. Thousands have lost homes and livelihoods, some their lives. But as far as he knows, no Taliban. "We are between the militants and the military," he told The Australian. "We're running from both of them." A young farmer from Chamla, at the gateway to Buner, who arrived four days ago with his young family, said at least 10 Taliban fighters entered his village last month, brandishing AK47s, rocket launchers and grenades. "They told us, 'You should defy the Government. In case of non-compliance you will face serious consequences'," he said. "People are afraid of the Taliban. When they came to our village no one dared speak to them." A Swabi college lecturer helping out with registrations said people across the NWFP were scared for their country. "On the one hand, we have a nuclear bomb and on the other we have a begging bowl," he said. "The dictators have made us a nation of beggars." But Bakht Salam, a farmer from the town of Batch Katta, said he did not leave his home for fear of the Taliban. "They don't scare us," he said. "We're scared of the military." His family fled on foot with 12 other families, after the military sent in F16s and helicopter gunships to bomb and strafe his town and the surrounding hills, where Taliban were suspected to be hiding. They left behind their belongings and a wheat harvest. "We brought nothing with us. There was no time because people are stranded in their houses and when they lift the curfew you just have to run," he said. Several people who broke the curfew, including two mentally disabled children, were shot by the army, he said. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Social Welfare Minister Sitara Ayaz appealed for international aid this week to care for the swelling ranks of displaced. Mr Zardari said Pakistan faced "the world's largest internal displacement" and that without aid, the camps and communities that host the more than one million left homeless by the fighting would become militant recruitment grounds. Independent defence analyst Ayesha Siddiqua said the lack of military strategy and human collateral damage could make the NWFP a no-go zone for the rest of Pakistan. Source: The Australian
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Equal-opportunity enforced ignorance. "Pakistan: Militants blow up boy's school in northwest," from AdnKronos International, January 18:
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