E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Pakistan to launch paramilitary crackdown on Islamist militants. You betcha.
[Dhaka Tribune] Pakistain will launch a paramilitary crackdown on Islamist faceless myrmidons in Punjab, the country’s richest and most populous province, after an Easter Day bombing killed 70 people in the historic provincial capital Lahore, officials said yesterday.

Sunday’s suicide kaboom on a public park was claimed by the Pak Taliban’s Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction, which once declared loyalty to Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
. The group said it was targeting Christians.

The brutality of the attack, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar’s fifth bombing since December, reflects the movement’s attempts to raise its profile among Pakistain’s increasingly fractured Islamist Lion of Islams.

At least 29 children enjoying an Easter weekend outing were among those killed when the jacket wallah struck in a busy park in the eastern city of Lahore, the power base of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
. Pakistain is a majority-Muslim state but has a Christian population of more than two million.

At the Vatican in Rome, Pope Francis condemned the attack as "hideous" and demanded that Pak authorities protect religious minorities. It was Pakistain’s deadliest attack since the December 2014 massacre of 134 school children at a military-run academy in the city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
 that prompted a government crackdown on Islamist militancy.

Security and government officials told Rooters that the decision had been made to launch a full-scale paramilitary Rangers operation, giving them powers to conduct raids and interrogate suspects in the same way as they have been in the southern city of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
 for more than two years.

The move, which has not yet been formally announced, represents the civilian government once again granting special powers to the military in order to fight Islamist Lion of Islams.

"The technicalities are yet to be worked out. There are some legal issues also with bringing in Rangers, but the military and government are on the same page," said one security bigshot, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
 as he was not authorised to share details of the plan.

One other military official and two government officials confirmed the decision on condition of anonymity.

Soft Targets

Military front man Gen Asim Bajwa said intelligence agencies, the army and Rangers had already launched several raids around Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
following the attack, arresting an unspecified number of suspects and recovering arms caches.

Prime Minister Sharif toured hospitals full of victims, promising to bring justice.

"Our resolve as a nation and as a government is getting stronger and (the) coward enemy is trying for soft targets," Sharif said, according to a statement from his office.

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar grabbed credit for the attack late on Sunday night and issued a direct challenge to the government.

"The target was Christians," a faction front man, Ehsanullah Ehsan
...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, now the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency...
, said. "We want to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore."

Rescue services spokeswoman Deeba Shahnaz said at least 29 children, seven women and 34 men were killed and about 340 were maimed, with 25 at death's door.

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar has grabbed credit for several big attacks since it split from the main Pak Taliban in 2014.
Posted by: Fred 2016-03-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=450587