Posted on 02/12/2006 7:08:21 AM PST by Flavius
New Delhi, February 12: After taking ‘virtual control’ of the entire North Waziristan province of Pakistan, Taliban and al-Qaeda have recently ‘declared’ the establishment of an ‘Islamic state’ in the area and gained a major base for their operations against the US-led forces in Afghanistan, media reports said.
"The Taliban recently declared the establishment of an ‘Islamic state’ in North Waziristan, and they now, through the brutal elimination of criminal elements who previously held sway, in effect rule in the rugged territory," a latest report in Asia Times magazine said.
It said that by "taking control of virtually all of Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, the Taliban have gained a significant base from which to wage their resistance against US-led forces in Afghanistan.
"At the same time, the development solidifies the anti-US resistance groups in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, which will now fight under a single strategy," the report in the Hong Kong-based magazine said.
In a related report, The Friday Times said "the growing influence of militants and resultant insecurity have forced tribesmen in the restive North and South Waziristan to migrate to adjacent districts of the North West Front province".
The Asia Times said Taliban supporters planted bombs along the routes used by Pakistani security forces and "virtually every day one or two vehicles are blown up. This measure is aimed at keeping security forces away from the actual tribal areas of Waziristan".
The report said its correspondent had videos released by the Taliban and claimed the writ of the Pakistani political agent or the central government's representative "barely extends beyond Miramshah Bazar and Wana Bazar where the official headquarters are located."
The video footage clearly indicated the Taliban bases "where thousands of youths are present, preparations for an attack into Afghanistan and shots of criminals executed at a public rally staged by the Taliban".
The report said the video also includes the "official announcement of the establishment of an Islamic state in Waziristan (including the tribal areas of South Waziristan) and a declaration of the Taliban's rule in North Waziristan".
"This announcement of an Islamic state is interpreted as a prelude to the Taliban's summer offensive, precisely at a time when Iran's nuclear dossier will be submitted to the UN Security Council and both Europe and the US will be mounting pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme," the report said.
also, how many hundredths? thousands? millions? of new talibanies are cranked out at 17 out of the oil madrases
Good. Let them have a taste of real Islam--floggings women in the streets, chopping off hands, beheadings, no kite-flying, no soccer (both banned by the Taliban), no music (un-Islamic!), etc.
Where the Taliban still rule
Movement controls areas out of Pakistani government's reach
BY JAMES RUPERT
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
February 9, 2006
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Four years after the United States led the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a new Taliban movement has taken control in a swath of neighboring Pakistan.
Taliban militants control much of Waziristan, a rocky, mountainous area twice the size of Long Island along the Pakistani border. Despite a heavy presence of Pakistani troops, Waziristan has become the largest and most protected sanctuary for Islamic militant guerrillas in the Afghan-Pakistani theater of the "global war on terror."
U.S. military officers and Afghan officials in three neighboring provinces of Afghanistan say the infiltration of guerrillas from Waziristan has continued unabated and is the primary engine of the continued Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Waziristan "is very important to the Taliban" as a base of operations in the Afghan-Pakistani theater, said Mike Scheuer, a former top analyst at the CIA.
And it is likely to stay that way for years, analysts say. "The strength of the militants in Waziristan has built up over a generation," said Behroz Khan, the regional bureau chief for a Pakistani daily, The News. At best, "it will take a generation to pacify and integrate this region" into the Pakistani state, he said.
While Waziristan's militants use the label "Taliban" and include figures from the former Afghan regime, their exact relationship with the Afghan movement is unclear. Some have voiced fealty to the Afghan Taliban chief, Mullah Omar, but observers such as ex-CIA officer Milt Bearden say it is unclear whether he directs them.
Beginning in late 2003, Pakistan sent an estimated 70,000 troops into its Afghan borderlands, especially Waziristan, in a campaign against Islamic militant fighters. The result, by all accounts except that of Pakistan's government, has been disastrous.
Observers barred
The government bars foreign journalists, aid organizations and other observers from Waziristan, but local journalists and refugees tell of counter-insurgency errors much like those of the Americans in Vietnam and the Soviets in Afghanistan. Under British-era laws that hold an entire village or clan culpable for any crime committed in their lands, the army has retaliated broadly for militant attacks. It has killed hundreds of civilians, destroyed villages, livestock and orchards and alienated Waziristan's people, residents and scholars from the region have said.
Army officers repeatedly have described the campaign as a success that just needs more time. A year ago, the operation's chief commander, Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussein, declared "the back of the terrorists has been broken." In September, the army's chief spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, told journalists "most of ... Waziristan ... has been secured."
Sultan was traveling abroad last week and unavailable for comment, his office said.
"The Taliban are the de facto rulers" in the South Waziristan tribal agency, or district, and army troops there are mainly restricted to their bases, said Khan. The Taliban controls the roads, acts as the police force and judicial authority and openly runs offices to recruit fighters to their ranks, said Khan and recent visitors to the area. Pakistan last year signed a truce with the Taliban leader in South Waziristan, Baitullah Mahsud, and the fighting in recent months has shifted to the north.
In Mir Ali, a North Waziristan district densely dotted with farming villages, "people have been fleeing from their homes because the Taliban and foreigners have moved into the area," said Ahmed Ali, a veterinary specialist from Mir Ali who works in the nearest big city, Peshawar. The army has been attacking local villages in a brutal campaign to root out the militants, said Ali and refugees from Mir Ali interviewed last month.
In Pakistan, support for the Taliban and al-Qaida is strongest - and the government's rule is weakest - in the seven autonomous tribal agencies dominated by ethnic Pashtuns that stretch along the Afghan border. North Waziristan and South Waziristan are the poorest agencies, and the most isolated and least integrated into Pakistan, say Khan and other analysts.
The tribal agencies were created in the 19th century as a buffer zone at the edge of British-ruled India. The British let the Waziris and other fiercely independent Pashtun tribes run their own affairs, and discouraged them from attacking British interests by paying off tribal leaders and conducting punitive military strikes against the uncooperative.
Since Pakistan was formed from British India in 1947, it has maintained the colonial system, ruling through appointed "political agents" who are seen widely as corrupt. Residents were given the right to vote only in 1997, and political parties still are not allowed to function in the agencies. Islamic militant parties "can work there through the mosques, under the guise of religion," said Khan, and so have a monopoly on political discourse.
The original Taliban movement was born in Waziristan and other areas of Pakistan's Pashtun belt in the 1990s, and took power in Afghanistan with support from Pakistan's military. After Sept. 11, when the United States went to war against the Taliban for hosting Osama bin Laden, Pakistan's leadership was forced to go along, but the conditions that gave rise to the militant movement remain unchanged in Waziristan.
Many families feuding
In a tribal culture suffused with blood feuds, men build their families' strength by having as many sons as possible. In a territory with few roads or schools and virtually no industry, vast numbers of young men are unemployed.
"In my village, at least half of the families are involved in blood feuds" over land, women or honor, said Ahmed Ali, the veterinarian. His family has been fighting another in his village for 35 years, he said. Of his 90 closest male relatives (Pashtun women are confined to the home), about half are unemployed, he said. Men in the family can take jobs only with the government, which offers a degree of protection from assassination by their rivals. "If they took an ordinary job, working in the bazaar, they could soon be killed," he said.
Only a few relatives who left Waziristan for schooling are managing to build careers, in cities in Pakistan or the Persian Gulf, Ali said. "The rest are killing their time, hanging out and drinking tea," he said. When Islamic militants come to town, preaching in the mosques about jihad and glory, "boys with no education and no plan for their life are happy to join," he said.
In the past year, the army has tried at times to soften its approach by building roads and schools. "The army's slogan is 'We bring you development,'" Khan said. "But they are not winning the trust of the tribesmen."
Taliban sanctuary
A new Taliban movement has taken over much of North and South Waziristan, two of Pakistan's seven "tribal agencies," which border Afghanistan.
Population: About 3.1 million, mostly ethnic Pashtuns sympathetic to the Taliban.
History: Created by Britain, when it was ruling the subcontinent, as a buffer between India and Afghanistan.
Government: Little federal authority, area ruled mostly by tribal elders.
Travel: Area is almost exclusively off-limits to outsiders; Pakistani government restricts access by Westerners.
SOURCES: BBC, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
link to article
Hist2004
now this is most fascinating. that part of pak was already the wild west, it is just a matter of time before it is acknowledged. this is the result of leftist thinking. musharref has very little control in that region and frankly, pak military there has so so allegiance to musharref anyways. given a free hand, im sure musharref would deal with them in the manner they understand. however, the usa wouldnt like that, while the usa seems happy to have al queda control parts of a nation that has nukes. pure insanity once again. our enemies are relentless and dedicated to a high degree, yes both al queda and democrats.
Sounds like a target rich environment, suitable for what General Curtis E. LeMay once called "bombing them back to the Stone Age", which should be an easy task as it isn't that far from the 9th Century to the 1st.
Paging Major Kong...paging Major Kong! :)
...yes both al queda and democrats.
------
Absolutely. Both arch enemies of Americans...REAL Americans, that is.
im happy your posted to me, because you understood the basis of my post. this type situation is what occurs when an enemy is not dealt with brutally. they regroup and attack from different angles. irans nukes, this pak problem, afghanistan, iraq are all part of the same problem, you whack one down and the other pops up. dems know this and of course approve.
Recent events have improved things considerably. President Bush finally named the enemy as "radical islam" in his state of the union address. As expected, the dopes in the media failed to grasp this. And now the jihadists are declaring Waziristan to be a jihadist state.
Great!
Now we know exactly where to focus the overwhelming might of the American military. We can kill them where they live. Bush should be on the phone to Kansas right now telling them to rev up the B-52s. Thanks to the Taliban and Al Qaeda we now know just where to bomb.
Another brutal victory for the freaky religion of peace. What should the people of North Waziristan expect now?
The upside of this? When the members of al-Qaeda are concentrated in one area it'll make them easier and more efficient to eliminate them with MOAB.
Another brutal victory for the freaky religion of peace. What should the people of North Waziristan expect now?
The upside of this? When the members of al-Qaeda are concentrated in one area it'll make them easier and more efficient to eliminate them with MOAB.
Pilot to co-pilot, "target in sight."
Doah! I hate it when that happens.
"the growing influence of militants and resultant insecurity have forced tribesmen in the restive North and South Waziristan to migrate to adjacent districts of the North West Front province."
I hope most of those who do not support, or wish to be part of this Islamic State, move out of the area so we can drop a couple of bombs on the extremists left behind. Even better, if the Pakistan Government really is concerned about radical Islam and the growing terrorist threat in their own country, they will do the bombing themselves. It is time for them to step up to the plate and really prove they are against terrorism of any kind, and radical Islam in particular.
All the easier to make a formal declaration of war and take action with extreme prejudice against.
Actually, the 1st century wasn't that bad (under Rome). I'd prefer 10,000 BC.
Now it is getting clear why we got disinformation and crocodile tears about the predator drone success in Damdola. (?)
I agree. Where are the protests of this establishment of an "Islamic" state by what seems to be the Taliban from Afghanistan? No outrage of the threat to the sovereignty of the nation?
This is rediculous. Our Pakistani "allies" are just sitting back and letting this happen. They have to get over their "I dont want to ruffle tribal feathers" excuses, go in there and clean house. Either that or let us do it. Bottom line is a taliban / al-qaeda state in Pakistan is unacceptable and Mussharaf know it.
If this were a Dem admin nobody would let this foolishness stand.
As an "independent state" we can now carpet bomb them without violating Pakistan's sovereignty.
Can anyone say "rolling thunder?"
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