Pakistan's maritime surveillance and strike capability now exceeds India's. This (and the other items of US military aid) will neutralize any Indian military advantage and provide space for continuing the Jihad
Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, said on Wednesday that it had acquired eight P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft from the United States, which would help boost its naval capabilities.
The Pentagon notified the U.S. Congress of the plan to supply the planes to Pakistan in November, raising concerns in Pakistan's rival and neighbour India which has since considered the aircraft for its own military.
The Pentagon said at the time the aircraft would improve Pakistan's border security and its ability to restrict movement of militants.
However, Pakistan Navy spokesman Captain Aamir Naeem Baig said the aircraft were designed for maritime surveillance and could not be used for chasing militants along the land border with Afghanistan, where Islamic guerrillas are most active.
A statement from the Pakistan Navy said the aircraft, worth up to $970 million, were being provided free by the United States and would be fitted with modern avionics and missions systems by the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin Corp.
The Bush administration also approved shipment of two F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan in July after Washington lifted a two-decade ban on the supply of the planes to Pakistan.
The policy charge was in recognition of Pakistan's role in helping the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities in 2001.
Admiral Shahid Karimullah, Pakistan's chief of naval staff, said the Orions would "add a new dimension to the offensive punch of Pakistan Navy fleet".
Pakistan's fleet of P-3Cs now stands at 10 with the induction of eight new planes.
LAHORE â Indian diplomats yesterday met a prisoner held on death row in Pakistan on bombing and spying charges, saying afterwards that they were hopeful of resolving the case. âI am sure both India and Pakistan would reach some sort of understanding on the issue,â Deepak Kaul, visa counsellor at the Indian High Commission (embassy) in Islamabad, said after the two-hour meeting at a jail in Lahore.
Sarabjit Singhâs family says he is a farmer who crossed the border 15 years ago while drunk. His sister says her brother has been confused with a Manjit Singh, whom Pakistan wants for a series of bombings in Lahore in 1990. The case has caused uproar and protests in India, with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assuring the prisonerâs relatives that he would speak to Pakistanâs President Pervez Musharraf about the possibility of clemency.
After 15 years of litigation, the Pakistani Supreme Court upheld the lower court verdicts this month and ordered his hanging but set no date for the execution. The condemned manâs lawyers are to apply for a judicial review and if that is turned down, their only hope would be a presidential pardon from President Musharraf.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2005 00:23 ||
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A hardline Islamic womenâs separatist group said yesterday it had begun raiding brothels in revolt-hit Kashmir to stamp out âadultery and the flesh-trade.â
Aasiya Andrabi, head of the separatist Dukhtaran-e-Milat, or Daughters of Faith, announced over the weekend the formation of all-women squads to raid brothels in the Muslim-majority state. âWe will expose those indulging in immoral activities,â Andrabi, a fiery speaker who has in the past voiced admiration for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, told the Current News Agency. âWe raided several places in Srinagar on Monday after getting calls from people,â she said, issuing an appeal to people to âarrest moral degradation.â
The women, travelling in three-wheel auto-rickshaws and cars, were staging the raids enveloped in head-to-toe veils in line with strict Islamic tradition, a witness said. But they have been staging raids in Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir Valley over the past few weeks on brothels and made several arrests. Andrabi, whose husband is in jail on charges of being a militant, supplied a mobile telephone number for people to call âwhenever you are convinced a man or woman has entered some place to commit adultery.â Adultery is illegal in the state and carries a potential jail term.
âDuring one of the raids, the men immediately fled from the house but the women were caught and questioned,â she said, adding the group was seeking to persuade them to change their ways. Andrabi, 40, and mother of two sons, said the groupâs members were able to free a women from two men who had lured her into becoming a prostitute. Andrabi said members had also swooped on restaurants and Internet cafes where they found teenage boys and girls. The group plans to talk to their parents. The group has earlier smeared black paint on racy Bollywood film posters portraying revealingly clad women. It has also been campaigning for women to veil themselves fully. The drive has been largely unsuccessful in the region which espouses a more liberal form of Islam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/31/2005 00:21 ||
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#2
"Aasiya Andrabi, head of the separatist Dukhtaran-e-Milat, or Daughters of Faith, announced over the weekend the formation of all-women squads"
OBL not only built roads and schools but created a Arabic butch squad who can't even get Deuce Bigalow to sleep with them. If they won't let me play then I'm taking the balls away.
#4
Don't underestimate the value to women of eliminating brothels, liquor stores and bars. It appeals because so many husbands and fathers routinely spend all the families' money there, then get abusive to their family when they come home.
To women, they would support the devil hisself if he would take away the whores and liquor. And they often do.
#6
The women, travelling in three-wheel auto-rickshaws and cars, were staging the raids enveloped in head-to-toe veils in line with strict Islamic tradition
#8
so now tell me again, what is the difference of 70 virgins in the after life being the ultimate (the wives know about this don't they?) compared to getting it early? If partaking in these activities before death is committing adultery and carries a jail term. Boggles the mind.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/31/2005 14:50 Comments ||
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Terrorism has reared its ugly head in the land of Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Satyajit Ray and Pandit Ravi Shankar.
In a single day earlier this month about 200 explosions that hit Bangladesh within a 30-minute period is cause for serious reflection upon the growing terror landscape in South Asia and its regional and global implications. With military precision and cold-blooded efficiency reminiscent of the deadly Mukti Bahini guerillas fighting for independence from Pakistan in 1971, bombs exploded almost simultaneously in 63 of the 64 districts of one of the world's most populous Islamic nations. Given the scale of the operation and the low casualty figures -- two dead and 100 injured -- unleashing death and destruction was obviously not the purpose of the detonations. Government buildings were the primary targets while Western and other institutions were spared.
Even for those who have long focused on the growth of Islamist extremism and terror in Bangladesh, the sheer scale and dispersal of the coordinated bomb blasts have come as a surprise. Indeed, recoveries of a number of unexploded devices, as well as arrests and the discovery of cottage "bomb factories" suggest that the numbers could well have been higher. Intriguingly, in Munshiganj, the single district that escaped the serial blasts, more than a hundred bombs were recovered from Baligaon village indicating that the hamlet could be the geographical headquarters.
To successfully conduct such an operation requires several thousand people using available technology. They also have to be trained, financed, transported, housed and provided with a secure communications network. The entire operation could have been executed using simple code within a given timeframe over cell phones.
What is hard to imagine is that intelligence agencies did not know something was afoot because the huge network required to pull off the bombings could hardly have gone been accomplished without telltale signs of an impending operation of magnitude. The Bangladesh Home Minister initially said that he had prior information. He subsequently changed the story furthering the common perception among most citizens that powerful interests are able to protect radical Islamist movements from arrest or scrutiny.
The dimensions of the operation might not imply technical support from outside Bangladesh, since they have a large enough educated workforce to provide the handful of minds required to master such an operation. Personnel, however, is another matter, notably for a covert operation.
Intelligence sources estimate that at least two persons would have been involved in the planting of each explosive device -- suggesting an operation mobilizing at least one 1,000. Significantly, just two hours after Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left for China on a five-day official visit, a bomb went off on the stairs inside the Airport.
Currently, no other nation has demonstrated a bombing campaign of this magnitude conducted by a domestic movement. None of the revolutionary movements in South Asia have been able to coordinate a similar operation. The exception is the Maoist forces in Nepal, which have taken over two thirds of the country and encircled the capital Katmandu at will. To put it into perspective, no known underground movement in Bangladesh has the capacity to take over state power, unless, of course, these bombs were meant to announce a newcomer, an old player shedding discretion, or the successful merging of different organizations.
However, thirty-five years ago, the professional Pakistan Army was only rarely able to out-think Bangladesh's Mukti Bahini guerillas fighting for independence, and rightly so. Their ranks were made up of Bangladesh's finest intellectual minds trained in commando operations by the Indian Army. These bombs resurrect a tradition that worked in the interest of India. This time round, has a "new" Mukti Bahini been convinced to deploy their talents first to seize domestic power, then let the Indians feel their bite before the rest of the world does?
Over the past years, Islamist extremist activities have been flourishing in Bangladesh's western districts, each sharing a border with the Indian state of West Bengal. States sharing borders with Myanmar have also witnessed significant terror activity attributed to the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-BD) and its international partners, including Al-Qaeda. In addition, Sylhet in east Bangladesh, sharing a border with India's Assam state, has also seen Islamist terrorist violence, including the May 21, 2004 attack in which two persons were killed and the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Anwar Choudhury, was among the70 injured in a powerful bomb blast at the Hazrat Shahjalal Shrine.
The two main political parties, the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party alliance and the opposition Awami League, have publicly accused each other. Neither party can possibly benefit from such instability. The grass roots organizations of both parties are reportedly disorganized and not ready for campaigning in elections set for January 2007. In fact, the prospects of holding elections in such an environment appear dim.
Bangladesh has held three general elections since 1991 in a relatively free and fair manner. The political culture is embedded around the capital city of Dhaka. A growing urban middle class in the capital has benefited from the success of the ready-made-garments industry and the retail and real estate boom in the capital, fueled partly by allegedly illegal diversion of aid money. However the general population has failed to reap the benefits of foreign aid or export earnings.
The usual suspects have been identified -- including the banned Islamic movement, Jamaet-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Political violence, bombings and assassinations are not new to Bangladesh but the sheer audacity, reach and synchronization of the bombings have shaken most citizens out of their complacency. This appears to them to be an omen of more violence. Given the unsettled political situation, which could worsen this winter, more bombings, are likely.
There are other, most disturbing aspects of this coordinated operation.
Was this a final initiation rite to qualify a cadre of elite terrorists? If so, will their military competence be restricted to Bangladesh or shared worldwide, like its precursor in Afghanistan? And who are the inheritors of the Mukti Bahini's highly cerebral tradition of deadly efficiency, what is their agenda, who runs them and for what purpose?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/31/2005 00:17 ||
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WASHINGTON - The United States on Tuesday moved to further nuclear cooperation with India by allowing six Indian entities involved in civil nuclear and satellite work to purchase less sensitive US-made items without special licenses. The new rule, published in the Federal Register, removes some restrictions imposed after New Delhi sparked international condemnation when it conducted nuclear weapons tests in 1998.
Since then, US President George W. Bush has accelerated a diplomatic embrace of the worldâs largest democracy. US officials said the Commerce Department rule change does not clear the way for the transfer of the kind of advanced nuclear power reactors and other technology that New Delhi is keen to obtain to meet its civilian energy needs.
An agreement announced in July after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Bush at the White House promised such broad nuclear cooperation in the future. But that agreement, upending decades-old nonproliferation standards, would require changes in US law and international policy that the administration has yet to propose.
The new rule, however, does constitute a modest advance in a deepening nuclear cooperation between the two major democracies. It is built on a series of reciprocal steps agreed by India and the United States in January 2004.
US officials told Reuters that Tuesdayâs rule change responded to Indiaâs recent enactment of tighter export controls and its formal commitment that US items sold to Indian government facilities would not be used for weapons purposes. The rule change affects three civilian nuclear power reactors as well as three units of the Indian Space Research Organization.
A Commerce Department official said items no longer subject to licensing when purchased by the six entities include equipment outside the reactor that could transfer nuclear power to an electrical grid as well as safety improvements. The rule change also allows US firms to sell India oscilloscopes, an electronic testing device which has nuclear weapons as well as civilian uses.
The three civilian nuclear reactors exempted from the licensing curbs are subject to international monitoring and are judged not to have weapons-related functions, US officials said. The space-related entities are also considered separate from the Indian weapons program because these units work on satellites, not space-launched vehicles, officials said.
After the 1998 nuclear tests, the United States put hundreds of Indian entities under export licensing restrictions. Over the years, the number was whittled down and now a couple of dozen entities remain under the curbs, a Commerce Department official said.
Nonproliferation expert Henry Sokolski said while Tuesdayâs rule change was rather modest, it underscores that US plans for even more sweeping nuclear cooperation with India remain so unclear. He and other experts worry the July deal could undermine long-fought efforts to stem the spread of nuclear arms and say how Washington implements the agreement will be key. âI think the administration would do well to go further than it has already in publicly clearing the air as to what its plan of action is,â he said.
Of all the things GWB is doing with little or no public attention, the reproachment with India is, IMO, the most important. Twenty years from now this is going to be important in ways we can't even imagine.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2005 00:00 ||
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Agreed,Steve.Given China's actions of late,haveing a strong ally in India is like holding a dagger at China's back.
KARACHI: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested four activists of the banned militant organisation Sipah-e-Muhammad (SM) and recovered a cache of weapons from their possession on Tuesday. Sources said that the deputy superintendent of police of the special cell for controlling sectarian terrorism was informed about the presence of four Sipah-e-Muhammad militants â Abid Raza, Asad Raza, Kalim Raza and Faisal Abbasi â in a school in Orangi, Karachi west. The CID team arrested the suspects and later on their information, seized eight AK-47 rifles, 10 hand grenades, two detonators, four TT pistols, two sten guns, four revolvers and several rounds of ammunition from a nearby graveyard. Sources said that the suspects belonged to the Imtiaz Jaafri wing of the Sipah-e-Muhammad, adding that they were involved in attacks on various mosques during Ramazan and had also attacked a Harkatul Ansar camp. They said that the suspects had confessed during interrogation that their responsibility in the militant outfit was to supply and maintain the weapons. Police sources said that the suspects were also allegedly involved in the murder of Mufti Atiqur Rehman and his lover companion.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2005 00:00 ||
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The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Tuesday accused the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) of damaging the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal unity.
"They wanna be in charge! We should get to be in charge!"
The JI charged NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan of trying to influence the outcome of the elections for district nazim in Peshawar. âThe JUI-F should be blamed for the JI-Awami National Party (ANP) alliance in Peshawar,â Shabir Ahmad Khan, the member of the National Assembly from the JI, told Daily Times. âOur first priority was to ally ourselves with the JUI-F, but it gave a cold response,â he said. It is ironic that both parties are coalition partners in the provincial government, but they have locked horns over district nazim elections. The JI pledged support to the ANP and the Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao joined hands with the JUI-F to support its nominee Ghulam Ali for the Peshawar nazim slot. Mr Khan said that the JI-ANP alliance was all set to foil the provincial and federal governmentsâ bid to make Ghulam win elections to district nazim office. âMr Sherpaoâs alliance with the JUI-F aims at denying the majority groupâs right to rule the Peshawar district,â the JI leader alleged.
They've got to rule it. It can't simply be governed.
A pro-federal government political party leader in Peshawar told Daily Times that elections for district nazim in Peshawar would be a âclose call.â
"We expect about the same number of dead on both sides..."
âGhulam Ali will give the JI and the ANP a tough time and the elections will not be as open as many may think,â he said wishing not to be named. The JI leader said that the JUI-F was making wild demands. âWhen we sat prior to the local polls to make a seat-to-seat adjustment, the JUI-F demanded 80 percent seats in Peshawar district which was not possible.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2005 00:00 ||
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OT : this has already been said by JFM, but I wonder if theses goons know that JUIF means "jew" in french?
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has secured a majority in Karachi and Hyderabad in the local government elections, Dr Farooq Sattar, MQM parliamentary leader, said on Tuesday. â105 nazims and naib-nazims and more than 1,400 candidates backed by the MQM were able to win in the local government elections in Karachi,â he said while speaking to reporters in the National Assembly. He maintained that the MQM would not find it difficult to get their candidate elected as the city nazim of Karachi. He also said that the MQM would easily secure the slots of nazim and naib nazim across the 13 towns of Karachi.
Dr Sattar said that the MQM was also enjoying a majority in Hyderabad, winning in 36 out of 52 union councils. He added that MQM, with the support of 800 councillors in Hyderabad, would win the posts of district nazim and three town nazims and naib nazims. Sattar said that the MQM was also in a good position in Sukkar and Mirpurkhas. On the subject of the MQM candidate for city nazim in Karachi, Sattar said that the coordination committee of the party would nominate an appropriate candidate. He added that the party was already consulting on the issue. He rejected the oppositionâs allegations of MQM rigging in Sindh, especially Karachi.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2005 00:00 ||
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Tweed,
the trick for a Paki Nast
would be to keep his head.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/31/2005 2:38 Comments ||
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A âPakistani Talibanâ was killed while two others suffered injuries in an overnight clash with security forces in the southwestern Helmand province, officials said on Tuesday. Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the Helmand province governor, said the body of the Pakistani fighter was still lying at the scene of the clash in Baghny district. He refused to say how armed Pakistanis had entered the troubled province despite improved border security. Helmandâs Deputy Police chief Haji Mohammad Ayub claimed two Kalashnikov assault rifles, as many hand-grenades and a walkie-talkie had been seized from the combatants.
Meanwhile, a Taliban sympathiser was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a government servant. The detainee confessed to complicity in the murder, receiving arms from âPakistan and delivering them to Taliban,â a Helmand military official said.
In the western Logar province, US military said, Afghan and coalition forces killed one combatant, wounded two and captured another. Seven rebels had initiated an attack with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire directed at a coalition patrol travelling from Kabul to Pul-e-Alam, causing minor damage to one vehicle.
In another incident in the southeastern city of Khost, police defused five remote-controlled bombs near a petrol pump. Khost police chief Mohammad Ayub said the bombs were found at the Tanai Bus Station. âIf the devices had exploded, they would have caused widespread damage,â said Ayub, who blamed âenemies of the country for trying to create an atmosphere of insecurity and instability.â A veiled woman had been sighted near the site before police discovered the bombs, Ayub said, warning âFrom now on, policewomen would check suspected females to avert explosions and other disruptive acts.â In the build-up to the September 18 parliamentary elections, violence has sharply escalated in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan where afghan security personnel, coalition troops and pro-government clerics have been the target.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2005 00:00 ||
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Bangladesh has asked neighbours India and Myanmar to hunt down Islamic militants who may have fled there after carrying out serial bombings this month, a Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday. âWe have made the request to our immediate neighbours to look around, arrest and return any Islamic militants who might have crossed over there,â said the official, who asked not to be named. âThese countries surrounding us are most likely safe haven for runaway fugitives,â he added.
India condemned the blasts on Aug. 17 that killed two people and wounded about 100 across Bangladesh, and offered help to track down those responsible. The two countries share a 4,000-km (2,500-mile) river and porous land border and have often accused each other of harbouring hostile rebels. Along the heavily forested 320-km (200-mile) long border with Myanmar, Bangladeshi forces in recent months have launched operations to flush out ethnic Myanmar rebels fighting Yangon.
Bangladeshi police have blamed the Islamist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen for the blasts, detaining dozens of members, but say that they are looking for about 500 more militants believed to be involved in planning and carrying out the attacks. No one claimed responsibility for the explosions but copies of a leaflet found at most bomb sites carried a call by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen for imposition of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, a Muslim democracy. The groupâs supreme leader, Shayek Abdur Rahman, is among those at large.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2005 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.
A hardline Islamic womenâs separatist group said yesterday it had begun raiding brothels in revolt-hit Kashmir to stamp out âadultery and the flesh-trade.â
Terrorism has reared its ugly head in the land of Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Satyajit Ray and Pandit Ravi Shankar.
KARACHI: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested four activists of the banned militant organisation 
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Tuesday accused the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) of damaging the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal unity. 
â105 nazims and naib-nazims and more than 1,400 candidates backed by the MQM were able to win in the local government elections in Karachi,â he said while speaking to reporters in the National Assembly. He maintained that the MQM would not find it difficult to get their candidate elected as the city nazim of Karachi. He also said that the MQM would easily secure the slots of nazim and naib nazim across the 13 towns of Karachi.
A âPakistani Talibanâ was killed while two others suffered injuries in an overnight clash with security forces in the southwestern Helmand province, officials said on Tuesday. Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the Helmand province governor, said the body of the Pakistani fighter was still lying at the scene of the clash in Baghny district. He refused to say how armed Pakistanis had entered the troubled province despite improved border security. Helmandâs Deputy Police chief Haji Mohammad Ayub claimed two Kalashnikov assault rifles, as many hand-grenades and a walkie-talkie had been seized from the combatants.
âWe have made the request to our immediate neighbours to look around, arrest and return any Islamic militants who might have crossed over there,â said the official, who asked not to be named. âThese countries surrounding us are most likely safe haven for runaway fugitives,â he added. 
