On December 8, 2011, the Global Islamic Media Front, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated media company, announced the death of one of its senior operatives, 'Abd Al-Moeed bin 'Abd Al-Salam.
Apparently, 'Abd Al-Salam had studied and worked in the U.S., and also held a U.S. citizenship, before joining Al-Qaeda and going to Afghanistan to wage jihad there.
According to the GIMF, he had played a leading role in Al-Qaeda's online media efforts, establishing forums and websites and developing Al-Qaeda's propaganda operations in numerous languages.
While the GIMF did not say when 'Abd Al-Salam died, on November 24, 2011, a member of the Shumoukh Al-Islam forum posted a thread informing members of the death of a senior GIMF operative, presumably referring to 'Abd Al-Salam.
A revisionist state called Pakistan is taking all measures possible to immolate itself. The Army finally ran is rival Husain Haqqani to the ground and was helped in this by internecine party politics with everyone mindlessly baying for each other's blood as the only politics they know. The national economy is gradually crumbling, its infrastructure run down and people willing to attack and burn because the state is unable to run itself. On top of it all, the most fatal hubris of a weak state - ghairat or honour - rules the collective mind.
The Pakistan Army is the only popular institution in the country with processions now carrying portraits of General Kayani because he carries in him the promise of a war of honour, in other words, an honourable death, because living without honour is not living at all. On 26 November 2011, the NATO forces attacked a checkpost on the Pak-Afghan border and killed 24 Pak troops. No one knows what happened except Pakistan that says it was a pre-planned attack. Pakistan significantly got its TV cable operators to ban the BBC for showing its two-hour documentary Secret Pakistan whose facts cannot be denied or at least no one outside Pakistan will reject them. Pakistan should pause and reflect on these facts and then understand the November 26 attack in their light.
BBC said on its website: 'Filmed largely in Pakistan and Afghanistan, this documentary explored how a supposed ally stands accused by top CIA officers and Western diplomats of causing the deaths of thousands of coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. It is a charge denied by Pakistan's military establishment, but the documentary makers meet serving Taliban commanders who describe the support they get from Pakistan in terms of weapons, training and a place to hide'.
Pak Army is not willing to look at the non state actors despoiling the country from the inside. It defies the world asking that they be banned and brought to account and feels itself totally blameless for what happened in Mumbai in 2008 while it focuses on what has happened at Salala in 2011. If you kill others or get them killed by your non state actors, they are prone to make the kind of mistake that was made at Salala. But Pakistan welcomes war even though it has never won one and has been defeated again and again fighting India, the last one being the battle of Kargil. General Kayani has familiarly thrown the gauntlet to the US: do it again and see what happens. The world knows that nothing will happen, except that Pakistan, already in dire economic straits, will be crushed.
Nawaz Sharif has gone to the Supreme Court as the one forum where the PPP government can be pulled down as a corollary to defeating the United States. (Get the traitor for joining enemy America!) He wants to get at the root of the Memogate scandal and is sure that the PPP leader Zardari was trying to double-cross the Pak Army which Nawaz Sharif now wants to stand up for. He wants the PPP government gone in short order before its tenure is up.
It appears that the PMLN, with fresh warpaint on its face, the maximalist Supreme Court, intent on getting Zardari to commit hara-kiri in Switzerland, and a revengeful Army aspiring to defeat the US, are on the same page: Suspend efforts to free-trade with India, defeat the US as an obstacle to Pakistan getting its fair share of leverage in Afghanistan, and stop fighting the war against terrorists because it was never Pakistan's war, slyly hoping that the Taliban will be on Pakistan's side in the war against the US.
Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has pledged a crushing retaliation if the US-ISAF forces attacked inside Pakistani territory again, 'regardless of consequences' (sic!). He told his troops, 'Be assured that we will not let the aggressor walk away easily; I have clearly directed that any act of aggression will be responded to with full force, regardless of the cost and consequences'. He wants the troops on the border with Afghanistan to take their own on-the-spot decision against any future NATO attacks without waiting for orders from the GHQ. Now they will fight the US-ISAF forces instead of the Taliban terrorists.
This is a very rash approach to the situation triggered by the November 26 incident, even if it is directed as a morale-booster at the troops and meant to be interpreted differently as strategy for civil society which is obviously not prepared for war on the western front. The Americans are offering regrets even before their formal inquiry into the Salala incident is completed on 21 December. President Obama too has expressed sorrow at the death of Pakistani troops while a formal apology pends till the inquiry reveals NATO's guilt. There are however statements issuing from Washington saying the attack was unintended and that some fire had come from around the Salala checkpost.
The nation is of one mind, a kind of pre-war symptom that Pakistan experienced in 1965 and 1971 when the Army painted the country into a corner through the hubris of isolationism. It is not natural that the entire nation be of uniform thinking in favour of conflict, especially if this conflict is against an immeasurably stronger adversary. If after the anger felt in the GHQ subsides and more realistic decisions are required to be taken, the disappointment among the public will take the shape of an emotional boomerang of self-disgust. We have seen that happen in the Raymond Davis case after the CIA agent was let off on diyat instead of being publicly hanged. If the common man has succumbed to an attack of 'ghairat' and is spoiling for a fight with the US, the state cannot afford to indulge in the bravado of an unequal war.
If the pro-war mind is presuming that the Taliban will fight the NATO-US forces side by side with the Pak Army, putting an end to the problem of law and order in Pakistan, it is sadly deceived. It will in fact be a two-front war, one front being at the back of the Pakistani troops. The Taliban and their master al Qaeda have an agenda that will be fulfilled only by removing our brave Army Chief from his post and then using the Army to take over the country and its nuclear assets. Wisdom demands that we challenge the US realistically rather than rashly, compelling it to make amends for the Salala incident to the benefit of Pakistan.
A consensus of national self-damage can occur even in democracies and it has recently taken place in the US too but in Pakistan one institution of the state dominates all decision-making functions, and those who should be ruling and not allowing this domination are busy in a lethal war of self-diminution.
The fact is that there are two versions of the truth. Unfortunately the American version is what is credited at the international level while the Pakistani version can only hold if the news channels are prevented from puncturing it. Our asymmetric proxy war against India was rejected by the world while the Pakistanis were force-fed with justifiable jihad by non state actors. Its fallout was experienced by Pakistan's neighbours whose fear of what Pakistan may do next has isolated Pakistan in the region too.
Even big states have to do self-correction after reversals. Weaker nations don't have the capacity to do that without being crippled in sectors where they are weak. By creating just one point of view Pakistan may entrench itself in dangerous isolation and may find it difficult to do course-correction to save its already crippled economy from collapsing. Nawaz Sharif may come to power next but the much weakened state with a broad systemic short-circuiting caused by Al Qaeda may not let him govern normally. It will be time then for the PPP to topple a non-governing Nawaz Sharif and return to power.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/09/2011 16:23 ||
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Headers fixed. AoS.
On 8 December, with the headline "War Inevitable To Tackle Indian Water Aggression," Pakistan's Urdu-language Nawa-e Waqt, issued such a screed. 'Nawa-e Waqt' translates into 'Nuggets', I think... Nawa-e Waqt bluntly commented on India's Kashmiri water polices and Islamabad's failure up to now to stop New Delhi's efforts to construct hydroelectric dams in Kashmir, "India should be forcibly prevented from constructing these dams. If it fails to constrain itself, we should not hesitate in launching nuclear war because there is no solution except this."
Potential nuclear war over water rights -- such sentiments ought to light up switchboards from New Delhi to Washington.
Needless to say, the fact that both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers is cause for concern.
Nawa-e Waqt is a privately owned, widely read conservative Pakistani Islamic daily with a circulation around 125,000 and is heavily critical of the U.S. and India. To put Nawa-e Waqt's circulation in context, consider that the conservative Washington Times has a current estimated circulation of 50,000.
So, what has the editorial board of the Nawa-e Waqt so excited?
Indian dam building in the disputed area of Kashmir. Compared with much of South Asia, Kashmir has many rivers and relatively few people. Bashir Ahmad, a geologist in Srinagar, Kashmir commented grimly about the Indians' future intentions, "They will switch the Indus off to make Pakistan solely dependent on India. It's going to be a water bomb."
A more dispassionate report by America's Senate last February offered still a similar assessment, noting, "The cumulative effect of (the dam) projects could give India the ability to store enough water to limit the supply to Pakistan at crucial moments in the growing season" before concluding that dams are a source of "significant bilateral tension."
How many dams and hydroelectric reports? The Senate report counted 33 hydroelectric projects in the border area, a number that Pakistani analysts nearly double to 60, which according to the state's chief minister, Omar Abdullah, will add an extra 3,000 megawatts to the national power grid by 2019.
Pakistan's vulnerability is underwritten by the fact that, like Egypt it exists around a single great river, although the Indus is nearly twice the Nile's size when it reaches the sea. The Indus provides water to over 80 percent of Pakistan's 54 million acres of irrigated land, via a canal system largely built by the British.
A further potential diplomatic tar-pit is that Afghanistan plans to build 12 dams on the Kabul river with a combined storage capacity of 4.7 million acre-feet, which Pakistan frets will further diminish the Indus water supply, quite aside from the fact that Indian support for these dams will increase India's hydro-influence in the region.
The Kabul River Basin (KRB) is the most important river basin in Afghanistan and contains half the country's urban population, including the city of Kabul. While New Delhi has not directly confirmed its support for the facilities, the proposed hydroelectric projects represent one of India's largest assistance interests, with $1.3 billion invested in infrastructure projects.
So, is there any way out before the missiles fly?
The 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan can not only assist in easing tension, but provide a template for developing an Afghan-Pakistani agreement on the Kabul river. The treaty, which has survived three wars, explicitly outlines how both India and Pakistan can use cross-border rivers and deals in particular with the tributaries flowing from Kashmir to form the Indus.
The IWT is considered one of the world's most successful trans-boundary water treaties, as it addresses specific water allocation issues and provides unique design requirements for run-of-the-river dams, which ensure the steady flow of water and guarantee power generation through hydro-electricity. The IWT also provides a mechanism for consultation and arbitration should questions, disagreements, or disputes arise.
All foreign governments interested in avoiding further military conflict in South Asia should impress upon both New Delhi and Islamabad the ongoing value of their 51 year-old water agreement and urge them to resolve their conflicts within its framework.
#2
B.S. Article
(1) Pakistan cannot win either conventional or nuclear wars with India. It will not obtain water by war.
(2) All India's dams are built under the Indus Water Treaty provisions. This treaty, negotiated by Robert McNamara gives Pakistan four-fifths of the water of the Indus system. India is allowed only run of the river projects. It may not store or divert any of the Indus water. Pakistan gets 80% always.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/09/2011 16:09 Comments ||
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#3
From The Hindu no other water-sharing treaty in modern world history matches this level of generosity on the part of the upper-riparian state for the lower-riparian one. In fact, the volume of waters earmarked for Pakistan from India under the Indus Treaty is more than ninety times greater than what the US is required to release for Mexico under the 1944 US-Mexico Water Treaty, which stipulates a guaranteed minimum transboundary delivery of 1.85 billion cubic m of the Colorado River waters yearly. Nehru personally signed the Indus Treaty that apportioned 80.52 per cent of the Indus system waters to Pakistan a munificent allocation by an upstream country unsurpassed in scale in the annals of international water pacts.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/09/2011 16:11 Comments ||
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#4
Pak would probably use the excuse that the Indians are "contaminating" the Indus with their Hinduism, and it says in the Korn that all water belongs to Muslims.
#6
ION PACIFICNEWSCENTER [Guam K-57 NewsRadio] MEKONG RIVER COMMISSION ANNOUNCES CONSTRUCTION OF XAYABURI DAM IN LAOS HAS BEEN POSTPONED, due to alleged need to complete key environ studies.
I say "alleged" because Beijing = China covertly believes the US is unfairly pressuring Laos + other Regional States to delay or halt collusory riverine dam projects wid China.
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTAN NEEDS INTERNATIONAL DONORS TO ESCAPE C/A [Current Accouts] DEFICIT.
President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is thought to have had a mini stroke with no lasting harm. It has been reported that doctors in Dubai have diagnosed a Transient Ischemic Attack -- caused by a blockage that prevents blood flow to a part of the brain, producing stroke-like symptoms for an hour or two. On Friday he was described as "lucid".
So the stroke actually improved his well-being?
Zardari's health has been closely observed all week amid an excitable atmosphere in Pakistan, leading to speculation that he might use health issues to step aside.
Zardari, who has a history of high blood pressure, was flown to Dubai on Tuesday. He had been complaining of not feeling well and agreed to travel for tests. His spokesman said, "More tests are also likely to be conducted. He was in the intensive care unit but has now been moved out."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2011 12:22 Comments ||
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#4
Mini-strokes are not too bad, Ive had 5 and the only effect is to slightly deaden the left side of my body(Some numbness in my little finger, and a slight limp) otherwise I'm ok.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/09/2011 13:34 Comments ||
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#5
-- One of the interesting problems related to left sided strokes is that sometimes one's personal ability to notice losses of function is also obliterated. I've had a few patients with left sided body (right sided brain) lesions who were blissfully unaware of severe defects.
(Xinhua) -- Pakistain Army has decided to set more military check posts near its border with Afghanistan to enhance coordination with NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces in Afghanistan, military sources said on Thursday.
The decision has been taken after the November 26th NATO strikes on two Pak posts which killed 24 Pak soldiers and injured 13 others.
The military sources who asked to remain anonymous told local media that the number of outposts would be increased up to five from the current four to avert cross border attacks.
The sources said that the army has decided not to be part of NATO probe into its attacks in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... tribal region as such inquires didn't help improve situation in the past. He said that 72 Pak soldiers have been killed in NATO attacks in three years.
They said that Pakistain army has called back its Border Coordination Officers after the strike for consultation.
The military sources said that the impression is wrong that all of the forces along Afghan borders were pulled back as a protest to the NATO strike.
"Some of the forces are still remaining in the posts and others should be back at their posts within the next few days," he added.
American media had quoted military officials as expressing concerns over the potential impact of the withdrawal as NATO can make more mistakes.
Relations between Pakistain and the U.S. plunges into new low after the NATO raid that led to Islamabad's boycott of Bonn conference on Afghanistan's future.
The NATO strike had evoked strong condemnation in Pakistain and the government had ordered the U.S. to vacate Shamsi airbase in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , closed NATO supply line and boycotted the December 5th Bonn Conference on Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Plus install [anti-US-NATO?] AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS.
[Dawn] Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Major General Ashfaq Nadeem on Thursday said November 26 attack on Salala check post was a deliberate act and part of a 'plot,' DawnNews reported.
Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Defence which met here under the chairmanship of Javed Ashraf Qazi, Nadeem said the attack was conducted by US Special Forces as NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... has no control over them in Afghanistan.
He said NATO officials deceived the Pak officer on duty at the coordination centre by giving him wrong information about the location of the operation.
The DGMO further said the attack was pre-planned and was aimed to strengthen the Taliban because the two check posts attacked were built to curb thugs' infiltration and had been serving the purpose effectively.
He said bully boyz never come up on mountain peaks and always hide inside ditches and cracks.
The security forces have been redeployed after rebuilding the Valcano and Bolder check posts, said the Maj. Gen. Pak forces can not afford to leave the area vacant, he added.
Officials of Foreign office and ministry of defence were also present during the briefing.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2011 00:00 ||
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Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief 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... on Thursday said that NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... supplies must remain suspended till apology over NATO attacks on Pakistain military checkposts in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency.
Talking to the media news hounds at his Raiwind residence, he said the government had taken a firm stand and should stick to it.
Nawaz Sharif said NATO air-strike at Mohmmand Agency which claimed the lives of 24 Pak soldiers was an open attack on Pakistain's illusory sovereignty.
He praised the government's decision to boycott Bonn conference.
He said the country was passing through history's most critical phase and there was an urgent need to get united.
The PML-N chief also prayed for early recovery of ailing President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
Meanwhile Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... telephoned the PML-N chief and thanked him on his own as well as on behalf of Chairman PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for his kind words and prayers for the early recovery of President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I bet the US government is stupid enough to keep pumping dollars into Pakistan during this supply embargo.
[Dawn] Up to 20 trucks were destroyed in a rocket attack Thursday on a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... trucking terminal in Quetta supplying troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, police said.
A number of oil tankers and goods trucks were parked in the temporary terminal after Pakistain shut down supply lines for NATO forces in anger at a deadly cross-border air strike which killed 24 Pak soldiers.
Senior police official Malik Arshad told AFP that unknown gunnies fired bullets and a rocket at the NATO oil tankers and the ensuing blaze engulfed 15 to 20 vehicles in Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
"We do not know about any casualties yet because the blaze is so huge," Arshad said.
"First the fire started in two oil tankers and the fuel started leaking which spread the fire to other vehicles," Arshad said.
"Fire brigade and emergency services were called in immediately after the attack," he said.
No group has so far grabbed credit for the attack but the Taliban have in the past said they carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies for the more than 130,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Taliban and al Qaeda-linked Death Eaters frequently launch attacks on NATO supply vehicles in the northwest and southwest regions of Pakistain, which border landlocked Afghanistan.
Most supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are usually shipped through Pakistain, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.
NATO has launched an investigation into the raid last month in which 24 Pak soldiers were killed.
The lethal November 26 air strike has brought the fragile Pak-US alliance to a fresh low.
Pakistain sealed its Afghan border to NATO supply convoys, boycotted this week's Bonn conference on the future of Afghanistan and ordered US personnel to vacate an air base reportedly used by CIA drones.
Pakistain shut its main northwestern border crossing to NATO supply vehicles for 11 days last year after a cross-border NATO helicopter assault killed two Pak soldiers.
Scores of NATO supply vehicles were destroyed in gun and arson attacks while that crossing was shut, as Talibs stepped up efforts to disrupt the route in response to US drone strikes in Pakistain's tribal belt.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUM > RUSSIA STEPS BACK FROM AFGHANISTAN TRANSIT [routes closure] THREAT.
Mama Russia's Ambassador to NATO ROGOZIN a'sezzes he was absolutely positively categorically undeniably ....@etc. MISQUOTED IN THE WILY MEDIA.
#2
Pragmatically, after 2014 any truble(s) in AFPAK becomes the purvue of US-NATO, CIVILAN OR JOINT MILITARY-CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS/VENDORS, includ as adjunct or complement to US-NATO SPECOPS + ADVISORY GROUPS.
OBAMA IN FALL 2012, or REPUBLICAN POTUS SUCCESSOR AFTER JANUARY 2013 = WAR AGZ IRAN???
THIRD-PARTY OR SURROGATE WARFARE VERSUS THE SAME, BE IT GOOD GUYS OR BAD???
"WILD WILD WEST" IN AFPAK, IRAQ = "WILD WILD EAST".
[Dawn] Afghanistan and Pakistain were locked in a war of words on Thursday over a shrine bombing that killed at least 55 people in Kabul and which the Afghan government blamed on a Pak terror group.
Islamabad called for an end to the "blame game" after Kabul demanded action against the group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , whose purported claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attack has not been confirmed independently.
"It is high time to get out of the blame game as such and to move forward in the spirit of cooperation," said foreign office front man Abdul Basit.
"Publicly accusing Pakistain of unfounded events and things do create problems at some stage", he told news hounds.
"We would like to have a relationship that is free of recrimination and blame game," Basit added.
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistain are tense, and frequently spiral into mutual accusations over the violence plaguing both their countries.
Kabul said Thursday that it was up to Pakistain to investigate without waiting any longer after Pakistain called for hard evidence to support claims that Jhangvi was responsible.
"It's up to Pakistain to take action and find out where and how the contact was made by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi from inside Pakistain. They shouldn't wait for us to provide them with evidence," Aimal Faizi, Karzai's front man, told AFP.
Faizi said an Afghan investigation was under way but it is thought officials do not currently have evidence of the group's involvement.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an outlawed orc group which has links to al Qaeda and the Taliban, has been blamed for killing thousands of Shias and whipping up sectarian hatred in Pakistain.
But there has been no confirmation of a purported claim of responsibility for the Kabul attacks from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi splinter group al-Alami.
Officials and experts fear that Tuesday's attack may have been designed to whip up sectarian conflict in Afghanistan, which has not previously suffered the scale of such violence experienced in Iraq and Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , the terror group blamed for deadly attacks on Shias in Afghanistan this week, has forged ties to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in a murderous campaign to wage sectarian warfare.
Since its inception in 1996 by a religious Death Eater, the faction has claimed to have killed thousands of Shias in bombings and shootings across Pakistain.
It takes its name from Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the founder of terror group Sipah-e-Sahaba from which leader Riaz Basra broke, and preaches indiscriminate violence against Shias.
A suicide kaboom tore through a crowd of worshippers in Kabul on Tuesday as they marked the holy day of Ashura, killing 55 people, as a second blast in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif left four more dead.
There has been no confirmation of a purported claim from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) splinter al-Alami, but Kabul blamed the group for Tuesday's massacre, unprecedented in targeting such an important religious holiday in Afghanistan.
LeJ is not thought to have struck in Afghanistan before.
"We will pursue this issue with Pakistain and its government very seriously," said Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... , threatening to ratchet up tensions with Islamabad which are already frayed over accusations of sponsoring violence.
Afghan officials say the motive was to inflame a 10-year Taliban insurgency and drastically increase violence by importing Pakistain and Iraq-style sectarian conflict as NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... combat troops prepare to leave by the end of 2014.
A substantial rise in sectarian unrest could also draw arch US foe Iran deeper into Afghanistan, threatening to whip up proxy wars.
The Taliban denied involvement, but in a cauldron of violence where religious terror groups are interlinked and have overlapping allegiances, experts say it would have been impossible for the LIJ killers to have acted alone.
As with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terror groups the world over, LeJ was born from the ashes of the 1980s Afghan war against the Soviet Union.
The group's leaders were veterans of that conflict and its ranks populated by graduates of madrassas packed off to terror training camps in the mountains on the Afghan-Pak border.
It developed close ties to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, which ruled in Kabul from 1996 until the 2001 US-led invasion.
Pakistain formally banned the group in 2001 and there have been numerous crackdowns with arrests and killings of known Jhangvi operatives over the last 20 years.
Islamabad has asked Afghanistan to provide proof that Jhangvi forces of Evil were responsible for Tuesday's attack, but it is understood that Afghan officials do not have any hard evidence.
One official said the bomber was a Pak from Kurram, part of Pakistain's tribal region with Afghanistan, and a specific flashpoint for sectarian unrest.
But as long as doubts persist over the al-Alami claim, it remains unclear how exactly the group could have carried out the attack.
"The question is, how credible is the claim? Some Taliban groups can do the same as they share school of thought with LeJ," said Pak-based security analyst Hasan Askari.
Militancy expert Rahimullah Yusufzai also doubted the claim, saying that the splinter group's capacity is very limited even in Pakistain, which has seen a recent decline in attacks linked to its own bloody Taliban insurgency.
"There is one possibility that this group may have support of Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistain or some of the rogue elements inside Afghanistan," Yusufzai.
Jhangvi's founder Basra has been dead for a number of years. Reports differ on whether he was killed in an kaboom or a shootout with security forces.
A senior Pak security official said LeJ and other Death Eater groups are "hand in glove with the Taliban".
"But they cannot carry out such an attack on their own. This would have surely been a Taliban-connected operation," he told AFP.
"Al-Alami are basically the Punjabi Taliban, who were involved in the attack on (army) GHQ (general headquarters) two years ago," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Panic and fear gripped people when several rockets were fired at Kohat and Hangu cities on Youm-i-Ashur, injuring three persons including two coppers.
The rockets began to rock residential areas in Kohat around 9am on Tuesday. The attack continued for more than an hour.
The first rocket hit a grocery market in the main bazaar on the route of Ashura procession, damaging a shop and a mosque.
Miraculously, coppers deployed at the roof of the shops remained unhurt in the attack. 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... a man received minor injuries in the attack. He was taken to hospital for treatment.
After a while the second rocket hit Al-Hafiz Public School and College in Garhi Atta Khan locality of the city without causing any loss of life.
The third rocket fell on a house just behind the imambargah of Syed Habib Shah. It caused damage to the house.
After the rocket attack, security forces targeted the mountains near tribal town Darra Adamkhel with artillery shelling. Later, a helicopter gunship was sent to the gun manufacturing town to pound suspected hideouts of myrmidons.
In Hangu, two coppers received injuries when unidentified bully boyz fired six rockets at the main bazaar in the early hours of Ashura.
The Shia elders had accepted the request of administration and Sunnis to abandon their plan of procession on Ashura owing to threat of terrorism.
The Sunni community had been demanding that mourners should not take out procession because the whole bazaar had been torched twice during Muharram in the past causing losses worth billions of rupees to businessmen.
The mourners just fulfilled the formality of brining out procession by coming few meters outside the imambargah and than returned inside.
In Mansehra, Ashura was observed with traditional zeal and fervour. Heavy contingents of police were deployed at the imambargah and procession routes to avert any untoward situation.
The Ashura processions were taken out from Imam Hussain Imambargah at Mufti Abad and Parain Imambargah and culminated after marching thought the specified routes.
In Nowshera, two processions were taken on Ashura out amid tight security.
They mourners paid glowing tributes to the deaders of Karbala, vowing that they were ready to follow the teaching of Hazrat Iman Hussain.
In Lakki Marwat, Ashura was observed with religious reverence and solemnity in the district. A procession was taken out from Mohallah Sayyedaan amidst tight security. Prominent Shia leader Syed Zahoor Abbas Shah Afgar Bukhari led the procession.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2011 00:00 ||
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BRUSSELS: The United States has no reason to speculate about Pakistani President Asif Zardari's medical condition and expects him to be able to return to work in full health, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.
"We have no reason to speculate about that. The information that ... we have is that he has sought medical treatment for a number of medical challenges and we wish him a speedy recovery and certainly we expect that ... he will receive the treatment he is seeking and ... then be able to return in full health to his duties," Clinton said.
She was responding to reporters when asked about the possibility Zardari might be in the process of being pushed out for political reasons.
Meanwhile, the presidential spokesman said on Thursday that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is stable and resting in a Dubai hospital and will undergo further tests, according to his doctor.
"The president is stable, comfortable and is resting. Initial tests and investigations have been within normal range," spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a text message.
Zardari is in Dubai for treatment for a heart condition, raising speculation that the unpopular leader may resign. One source said Zardari had suffered a minor heart attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2011 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.
President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is thought to have had a mini stroke with no lasting harm. It has been reported that doctors in Dubai have diagnosed a Transient Ischemic Attack -- caused by a blockage that prevents blood flow to a part of the brain, producing stroke-like symptoms for an hour or two. On Friday he was described as "lucid".
Mohmand
[Dawn] Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Major General Ashfaq Nadeem on Thursday said November 26 attack on Salala check post was a deliberate act and part of a 'plot,' DawnNews reported.
Nawaz Sharif
Asif Ali 
[Dawn] Afghanistan and Pakistain were locked in a war of words on Thursday over a shrine bombing that killed at least 55 people in Kabul and which the Afghan government blamed on a Pak terror group.
Militancy expert Rahimullah Yusufzai also doubted the claim, saying that the splinter group's capacity is very limited even in Pakistain, which has seen a recent decline in attacks linked to its own bloody Taliban insurgency.
