Here's the inside story that New Delhi and Islamabad will never reveal. Spymasters in both India and Pakistan appear to have decided the campaign to free Sarabjit Singh is the perfect cover for a swap of a few real spies who had been caught on the wrong side of the border.
Off the record, intelligence sources maintain that Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in Pakistan after having been convicted for espionage, is not an agent. "Not even a recruit," they say.
This trade-off won't be done with much fanfare. Neither side is certain yet, whether to pass it off as a Track II exercise or just do it quietly. The swap might be hidden in some future list of "civilians who erroneously strayed across the border" since better bilateral relations have made the release of "innocents" much easier.
Details, modalities and a time-frame are being worked out. There are about 12-18 real operatives in ISI custody who New Delhi wants back. Though none of them are likely to ever be used for active duty, the top brass believe that many have contributed enough to deserve to be bailed out.
It's the same in Islamabad. "We have some people they want back. The numbers are broadly the same if you don't count those who have come in for militancy," officials here say, adding that Sarabjit is a perfect human face to the exercise as "he is genuinely a civilian". This makes it easy for New Delhi to plead his case, and for Islamabad to be "generous". It also sets a precedent for "a few more" similar cases to be pursued later, though on a much lower key.
Officially, India has offered to release all Pakistani prisoners whose nationality has been verified by Islamabad. Out of a total 611 suspected Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails, the nationalities of 177 have been verified by the Pakistan foreign office. This, however, was a process that began long before Sarabjit made headlines, and, assert officials, has no connection to the Sarabjit case.
Sarabjit was drunk when he strayed into Pakistan in 1990.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2005 07:19 ||
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A bomb killed an American soldier and wounded four others when it exploded near their armored vehicle in Paktika Province, near the Pakistan border, the United States military said Saturday.
The wounded soldiers were taken to nearby bases for treatment. One was in critical condition, one was in stable condition and two returned to duty, the military said.
It said the soldiers were providing security in anticipation of landmark legislative elections next month, which Taliban rebels have vowed to subvert. Paktika Province has been an active combat zone since American-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. Since then, American and Afghan forces have conducted many sweeps in the region to try to root out fighters for the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
"Our forces have gained a great deal against the enemy, and our actions will ensure a safe and secure election next month," said Brig. Gen. James G. Champion, deputy commander of coalition forces in the country. "We will honor our fallen comrade by taking the fight to these cowards who are responsible for this attack."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:20 ||
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Quagmire! Withdraw now! Cindy says blah, blah, blah, blah ... oh wait a minute, these are Iraq War talking points!
Is the sky blue? The Pope Catholic?
Mujahid Mohiyuddin insists that he and his district are innocent.
Speaking in his religious seminary, or madrassa, in the Mansehra district of northern Pakistan, the young cleric admitted receiving military training in 1996 from Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, or Movement for Holy Warriors, a Pakistani group linked to Al Qaeda and the killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl.
But he insisted that the group had disbanded and that training camps no longer operated in the district. "The government has imposed restrictions on the holy war," he said. "There are not any training camps in the country, especially Mansehra."
This picturesque area of rolling Himalayan foothills, thick forests and isolated farms is the focus of bitter charges that Pakistan continues to allow terrorist training camps to operate on its soil.
During the past year, Taliban prisoners captured in Afghanistan, opposition politicians in Pakistan and Afghan and Indian government officials have said repeatedly that training camps are active in the Mansehra district and other parts of Pakistan, while Pakistani officials vehemently deny they exist.
Last summer, a young Pakistani captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan said in an interview with The New York Times that he was trained in the Mansehra district by the group Mr. Mohiyuddin said had been disbanded. An armed Pakistani captured in Afghanistan told a private Afghan television channel in June that he had been trained there.
In July, two militants told a Pakistani journalist working on contract for The New York Times that they met one of the July 7 London bombing suspects, Shehzad Tanweer, on a trip to a militant training camp in the Mansehra district last winter. Three Pakistanis recently sentenced to prison terms in Afghanistan for trying to assassinate the American ambassador said they had been trained in the district, an Afghan intelligence official said.
Another Pakistani captured in Afghanistan this month said he had been trained in the Mansehra district.
Sher Ali, a 28-year-old night watchman from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province who was caught in July on his way to join the mujahedeen, described his training in an interview in a Kabul jail.
The interview took place in an office at the prison on Aug. 14, with no guards present. Mr. Ali described a seemingly underground system in Pakistan that trains fighters and sends them into Afghanistan. He said he met an Afghan at a friend's house in Miranshah, in Pakistan's tribal areas of North Waziristan, a lawless mountain region in which Pakistan says it has deployed 70,000 troops to hunt for militants.
After receiving directions from the Afghan, he journeyed alone to a camp hidden in the mountains above the Mansehra district. "Nowadays they don't have legal camps," he said. "I got the feeling it was a very secret place."
He was given directions and walked for three hours until he came to a small white tent pitched in a clearing. From there, two men took him on foot for another hour or two and he joined a group of 20 Pakistanis. Some, he said, were being trained to fight Indian forces in the disputed region of Kashmir and some were to go to Afghanistan.
There were no buildings, he said, and the men slept on the ground. Their trainer, whom they knew as Maksud, spoke Urdu, he said. "He taught us to use a Kalashnikov and a rocket-propelled grenade," he said. After just three weeks there, he set off for Afghanistan, he said.
But the Afghan police identified him as a Pakistani and detained him.
In southern Afghanistan, a Taliban commander who recently defected to the Afghan government, Mullah Sayed Mir, said a training program for new recruits was also being conducted in and around the southwestern Pakistani town of Quetta.
"The Taliban have rented houses in Pakistan, they live there and also get training there," he said in a recent interview in Zabul Province. "Then, they are sent to Afghanistan."
He said Pakistanis, including local policemen, aided the Taliban. "The Pakistanis would give us some equipment and money if we needed it," he said. "Also they were helping with renting houses in Pakistan for the Taliban." Once, he said, he and a group of 20 fighters had a Pakistani police escort to the border.
Pakistani officials deny aiding the Taliban and say they are aggressively cracking down on all militants. In an interview on July 29, Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, said there were no training camps operating in Pakistan with government support.
This spring, some militant groups began using abandoned camps in the Pakistan-controlled portion of the disputed Kashmir region, he said, but government forces intervened.
"There were some vacant camps, and we got information they were being used," said General Musharraf. "We are now going to occupy them."
American officials have credited Pakistan with aggressively cracking down on foreign militants, particularly Al Qaeda.
At the same time, some Afghan and American officials say Pakistan is making little effort to fight the Taliban. Those officials say Pakistan is effectively holding that group in reserve, intending to use it to dominate Afghanistan once the United States withdraws its troops.
Independent and reliable confirmation of any claims about the camps is difficult, if not impossible, to verify.
Foreign journalists are not allowed access to the lawless tribal regions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the Pakistani controlled portion of Kashmir, two areas where many of the camps are reported to be operating.
Pakistani officials also have begun issuing restricted visas that bar foreign journalists from traveling to Quetta and Peshawar, another place where there are said to be training camps. Pakistani officials say the restrictions are for their safety.
But foreign journalists are allowed to travel to the Mansehra district, an area only 60 miles north of Islamabad.
A one-day visit in early August produced ample evidence that militant training camps had operated in the area for years, but no proof that they are still active today.
Local politicians proudly declared that the area supported several training camps in the past 15 years, but those trained only young men fighting Indian forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
The government closed the camps, they said, when the India-Pakistan peace talks resumed in early 2004.
"There were camps," said Mohammed Yunus Khattack, the deputy chief of the hard-line Jamaat Islami religious party in the Mansehra district. "But now this is finished."
During the past two months, other reports of training camps in Pakistan have emerged.
In July, a reporter for one of Pakistan's leading news magazines wrote that he had recently visited a reopened training camp in the Mansehra district. The article in the magazine, The Herald, said 13 camps reopened in the Mansehra area in May, including one near the home village of Mr. Mohiyuddin, the cleric who said the camps had closed.
A Pakistani opposition leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, then accused the Pakistani Army of helping and training militants to fight in Afghanistan and of deceiving the West about its commitment to the campaign against terrorism, comments he retracted the next day. Mr. Rehman is the head of a coalition of six Islamist parties in Pakistan and the leader of an opposition bloc in the Pakistani Parliament.
On the road to Mr. Mohiyuddin's village, the seal of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen was visible on several buildings, but district residents insisted the signs were old.
During a lengthy interview in his madrassa, Mr. Mohiyuddin again denied that training is occurring in the area and repeated the canard that American and Israeli intelligence operatives had staged the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to create a pretense to invade Muslim countries.
Mr. Mohiyuddin, a small, charismatic man with a boyish face who said he was "about 30," also appeared to be very popular. Residents said that crime, which had flourished under corrupt local police and government officials, virtually disappeared after Mr. Mohiyuddin returned from Afghanistan.
Relaxed and confident, Mr. Mohiyuddin described himself as a pious schoolteacher and courageous local crime fighter. He said local politicians jealous of his popularity had unfairly placed him on a list of wanted criminals.
Asked about repeated reports that Harkat is still training militants here, he insisted that the group was no longer active.
"The government disbanded that organization," he said. "We people are now struggling for our living."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:10 ||
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"On the road to Mr. Mohiyuddin's village, the seal of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen was visible on several buildings, but district residents insisted the signs were old."
Oh yeah, that's just some old, faded artwork we have not quite scrubbed off the walls.
#2
A Pakistani opposition leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, then accused the Pakistani Army of helping and training militants to fight in Afghanistan and of deceiving the West about its commitment to the campaign against terrorism, comments he retracted the next day. Mr. Rehman is the head of a coalition of six Islamist parties in Pakistan and the leader of an opposition bloc in the Pakistani Parliament.
Where are the Martin Luther King types, or better yet the Malcolm X types? Rehman tried to do the right thing, but must be scared of being eliminated. Not much backbone.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh begins a rare visit to Afghanistan on Sunday, the first by an Indian premier in nearly 30 years, as New Delhi steps up efforts to deepen historic links hit by years of conflict. The two-day visit is aimed at reaffirming New Delhi's strong commitment to help rebuild the war-torn nation and wrest back influence over the central Asian country which India lost to rival Pakistan during the 1990s. India is among Afghanistan's top donor nations -- it has pledged aid of about $500 million so far -- and holds sway over Northern Alliance groups that helped U.S.-led forces overthrow the Taliban regime.
``Afghanistan is an extremely important country for India,'' Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said ahead of the visit. ''We want Afghanistan to emerge as a democratic, independent, sovereign country fully in mastery of its own destiny. We believe that the relationship with India would contribute to that end.'' Saran said Singh would announce new aid of about $50 million during his visit and launch projects to help local communities, moving forward from India's involvement so far in mostly infrastructure building.
India is involved in training Afghan armed forces, police and diplomats, building roads, schools, hospitals and power lines, digging wells and supporting trade and services as Afghanistan makes slow progress in recover from two decades of conflict. Singh is scheduled to hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. He is also due to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Afghan parliament building, being built with Indian assistance.
Pakistan, the Taliban's main backer until Islamabad sided with Washington after the September 11, 2001, attacks, has been uneasy about increased Indian influence in Afghanistan since. Islamabad has refused overland transit for Indian goods bound for Afghanistan and further on to Central Asia, hampering trade. This has forced India to route trade by sea via Iran. India has also been disturbed by rising violence on the Afghan-Pakistan border as Taliban insurgents and their Islamist militant allies step up attacks in the run-up to next month's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan. Saran said New Delhi was keen that Afghanistan did not slide back into being a center for extremism and could help further strengthen the capability of Afghan security forces.
Analysts said the success of India's efforts to recoup influence it lost in Afghanistan would depend on the character the Afghan state takes in the coming years. ``If Afghanistan goes back to moderation then we have a strong opportunity,'' said Sukh Deo Muni, who teaches international relations at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. ``But if it slides back to extremism, India will have very little room there.''
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 00:00 ||
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High brown off factor for Musharraf and the ISS.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/28/2005 4:40 Comments ||
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Ah here's some more surplus aircraft we could sell India for 100 lbs of saffron.
Kashmiris vowed on Saturday to fight âtooth and nailâ a ban by Indian Kashmirâs government on political speeches in most of the regionâs main mosques and shrines. Iftikhar Andrabi, chief executive officer of the government-regulated Waqaf Board, said the decision to enforce the ban aimed to prevent separatists and pro-India politicians from using religious sites to spread political beliefs. âNo one will be allowed to make such speeches,â he said in Srinagar.
The decision by the Waqaf Board, made public late last week, has infuriated separatists who say that according to Islamic tradition religion and politics are intertwined. âIslam allows us to discuss politics in mosques. How can the government dictate otherwise?â said Mirwaz Umar Farooq. âItâs a clear interference in our religious affairs, and we will fight it tooth and nail.â Syed Ali Geelani also denounced the move. âThe government has no power to stop people making speeches in favour of freedom for Kashmir and the institution of Islamic law in shrines and mosques,â Geelani said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2005 00:00 ||
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The political administration of North Waziristan on Saturday raided a madrassa and two houses on intelligence that foreign terrorists were hiding there, BBC radio reported. A search operation was launched by the administration in Humzon village, in which two houses belonging to Maulvi Sadiq Noor and Maulvi Sadiq Khan along with a madrassa were raided. The administration was assisted by 200 members of the Khasadar force in the operation, which lasted two hours. However, it was not clear if any arrests had been made during the operation, BBC radio reported. The tribal elders of the area were also present during the operation, the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2005 00:00 ||
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The Sunni Tehrik (ST) announced here on Saturday that it was suspending its political and organisational activities in protest against the governmentâs failure to redress its complaints. Speaking at a press conference here at the party headquarters, ST leader Iftikhar Bhatti claimed that a particular political party in the government was creating obstacles in the way of its functioning as a political organisation.
He claimed that in the past three months the ST head office in Karachi was besieged five times, six party leaders had been killed and more than 600 party activists had been implicated in false cases. He claimed that the ST drew the attention of the government towards all this several times and urged it to take action against those involved in violence and high-handedness against the ST, but the government remained unmoved. He claimed that party leaders also met Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui and the IG police also in this connection, but nothing came out of these meetings. âSo in view of the inaction on the part of the government the ST has decided to suspend its organisational and political activities in Karachi till removal of its complaints,â Mr Bhatti said. He said party activists had been told to keep in contact with the party head office.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Sunni Tehrik got into a turf war with the MQM and came off the worse for wear.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/28/2005 0:22 Comments ||
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My heart's cockles are all warm and toasty. Brownshirts thumping brownshirts does that for me....
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2005 12:05 Comments ||
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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 bomb killed an American soldier and wounded four others when it exploded near their armored vehicle in Paktika Province, near the Pakistan border, the United States military said Saturday.
Indian Prime Minister 
The political administration of North Waziristan on Saturday raided a madrassa and two houses on intelligence that foreign terrorists were hiding there, BBC radio reported. A search operation was launched by the administration in Humzon village, in which two houses belonging to Maulvi Sadiq Noor and Maulvi Sadiq Khan along with a madrassa were raided. The administration was assisted by 200 members of the Khasadar force in the operation, which lasted two hours. However, it was not clear if any arrests had been made during the operation, BBC radio reported. The tribal elders of the area were also present during the operation, the report said.
