[Pak Daily Times] Fazlullah has been chosen to
lead the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), possibly because of his staunch anti-peace talks stance. After his election, the TTP front man categorically refused to hold talks, calling the government of Pakistain "a US puppet". The backing of the Afghan Taliban -- possibly of Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... -- also played a role in his selection by the Taliban shura (council). It was reported earlier this month that a deadlock in selecting the TTP head was broken by Mullah Omar, considered 'Ameerul Momineen' by the TTP; he stepped in and named Fazlullah as the man for the job. Mullah Omar's support for Fazlullah is not a surprise move as Swati snuffies fought alongside the Afghan Taliban in the first Afghan war and, later, as civil war raged in Afghanistan in the 1990s, they provided their Afghan counterparts recruits and eventually became their junior partners in Pakistain. They are the other side of the same coin.
Fazlullah's rise has many implications. His rise in the ranks of the Taliban can have ominous consequences for Pakistain. Most importantly, by giving the mantle of the TTP's leadership to Fazlullah, Talibs are projecting the image that the TTP is not FATA-centric and has support in the urban areas of Pakistain too. Perhaps it is flexing its muscles to expand its violent campaign to populous and economically prosperous Punjab to cause maximum casualties and inflict financial losses. The statement of the Taliban spokesperson that "We will target security forces, government installations, politicians and police," speaks volumes about this strategy. According to some observers, the TTP might enter into strategic alliances with snuffies in Punjab to carry out a spate of bombings and Death Eater activities.
Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... is against the negotiated settlement of the conflict, so he might begin a long war of attrition with the security forces of Pakistain. Nicholas Schmidle, a staff member of The New Yorker, writes in an article: The ambitions of the Pak Taliban's new chief mean that the "Pak Taliban's centre of power may well shift from Wazoo to the so-called settled areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , raising the prospect, once again, of pitched battles between the army and the Death Eaters."
Arguably, the snuffies are calculating that the increase in Death Eater activities might push democratically elected governments, both in the Centre and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, to either negotiate favourable terms for a peace agreement, if it is reached in the future, or cause maximum casualties of security personnel to dampen their morale in counter-terrorism operations and to cause war fatigue.
Finally, the backing of Mullah Omar shows a bigger game plan. As the US forces are withdrawing in 2014, the Afghan Talibs are forging stronger bonds with the TTP and sectarian outfits in Pakistain to have better bargaining chips for negotiation in Afghanistan. In this context, what should be the counter-terrorism strategy of the government of Pakistain? Rather than sounding apologetic about the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud in a drone attack, the need of the hour is to formulate a counter-terrorism strategy that maximises both civilian and military resources. The focus should be on strengthening the capacity and morale of the law enforcement agencies that are going to face the major brunt of Taliban attacks, especially in the urban centres.
To face the Taliban onslaught, civilian law enforcement agencies need to be trained to fight urban insurgency, especially to save the lives of innocent civilians who can get caught in the crossfire. Instead of solely relying on the police force, which is not even properly equipped to carry out routine policing duties and is utterly unprepared to face better equipped and ideologically motivated Taliban fighters, a well-trained, better equipped, and politically neutral anti-terrorism task force must handle counter-terrorism operations in the urban areas. Fortunately, a small step has been taken in this regard: the Punjab government has set up an Anti-Terrorism Force (ATF) as a special wing of the Punjab police to fight militancy. However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... this is a small force, consisting of only 500 coppers -- it must be enlarged.
Our military intelligence and civilian intelligence agencies are poor at gathering actionable human intelligence. The farmhouse in South Waziristan where Hakeemullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike was reportedly only one kilometre from an army check post. After the death of Hakeemullah, eyewitnesses reported that a convoy of jeeps, with black tinted glasses, went in and out of the farmhouse routinely. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... the whereabouts of the enemy number one of Pakistain were apparently not known to the intelligence agencies. As there are reports of rifts in the ranks of the TTP on the selection of Mullah Fazlullah, the intelligence agencies can exploit their differences to permeate the outfits and obtain actionable intelligence to know about their funding sources, targets and hideouts. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... to infiltrate snuffies and obtain human intelligence, the capacity of civilian agencies must be increased and their coordination improved with the military intelligence agencies.
Most important of all, a counter-terrorism strategy must be underpinned by the reality that the Swati Taliban, the Mehsuds of Waziristan, Asmatullah Muawiya of Punjab and the Afghan Taliban are interconnected in their objectives and goals: they want to carve out a territory in Pakistain and Afghanistan where they can practice their version of Islam. To guard against the ideological onslaught of the Taliban, who can misguide religiously inclined soldiers and coppers by issuing proclamations that security personnel are not fighting a just war against the Death Eaters, civilian law enforcement agencies as well as military forces must also be trained about the deceptive narrative of the Taliban who intend to seek power, resources and territory by retaining their monopoly over the interpretation of the Koran. They must also be taught why the war against Talibs is a legitimate war, essential for the existence of Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Pakistain seems to be facing a resurgence of sectarian violence, which seems in no way ready to abate. After the alarming situation in Rawalpindi in which a bloody clash between Sunni students from a seminary and Shia participants of an Ashura procession resulted in a curfew being imposed in the city, the rage and terror has spread to other parts of the country. We are now hearing reports of sectarian festivities occurring in the Kohat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... where firing in front of a holy manbargah resulted in the death of two people, a policeman being one of them. A curfew has also been imposed in Kohat because of protest demonstrations taken out against the violence in Rawalpindi. The situation in nearby Hangu district ... Hangu is famous for its greenery, hills, beauty and water. Most of the people of this area are Bangash & Orakzai Pashtuns. Part of the Bangash are Shia. The Orakzai and the Sunni Bangash are determined to kill them... was also tense and called for a temporary curfew. The ongoing conditions tell only one truth: Pakistain is a powder keg and the slightest spark can set it off.
The whole country was breathing a sigh of relief this Moharram because the sensitive religious event went by without too much incident. However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... on the 10th of Moharram things got out of hand when provocations by Sunnis during a Friday khutba (sermon) provoked Shia mourners to attack, which resulted in the whole of Rawalpindi coming to a halt, with the army called in to handle the situation. The reaction has spread, even reaching Multan where as many as 40 people have been injured in festivities between Sunnis and Shias. What happened in Rawalpindi has sent almost all of the country into the downward spiral that is sectarian strife, an issue so volatile that once it is provoked, it only gets worse. It seems that Sunnis are now retaliating after the deaths in Rawalpindi, and the Shia minority is not taking things lying down anymore. History has proved that the Shias have had to deal with much brutality in Pakistain, particularly of late. Wherever there has been a concentration of the Shia population in the country, e.g. the Shia Hazara community in Quetta, it has been targeted so extensively that it would not be far-fetched to call the attacks against them a slow but sure genocide. Shias have usually been on the receiving end of fundamentalist ire, faring only slightly better than the officially declared 'non-Moslem' Ahmedi sect. Comprising 20 percent of the population, the Shias have felt their anger boiling and frustration mounting at the injustices against them and the state's inability to do anything to protect them. While the violence that was unleashed in Rawalpindi cannot be condoned, it is understandable why the Shia mourners reacted the way they did, after decades of murder and abuse.
That is the enemy we are facing today -- the strife and bloodshed that accompanies religious extremism. Jihadi terrorism and deep-rooted fundamentalism have given birth to a fratricidal conflict. We are suffering from failure of the state and successive governments in curbing this religious hatred and not allowing it to flourish and become such a nuisance and threat. It is impossible to blame any side in this sectarian game of action and reaction but the focus now must be on preventing any full-scale sectarian mishap. The Punjab government has taken an excellent initiative in which it has urged the Learned Elders of Islam (religious scholars) from both sides to come together; this step should be replicated across the country, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a province that is mired in a view of religion coloured by tribal culture. A dialogue process must begin to bring all communities together so as to ensure that ancient chasms do not swallow up the country whole.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2013 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Pak Daily Times] Pakistain seems to be facing a resurgence of sectarian violence, which seems in no way ready to abate. After the alarming situation in Rawalpindi in which a bloody clash between Sunni students from a seminary and Shia participants of an Ashura procession resulted in a curfew being imposed in the city, the rage and terror has spread to other parts of the country. We are now hearing reports of sectarian 
