Posted on 03/08/2006 4:23:11 PM PST by SevenMinusOne
Manhunt launched for clerics behind Pakistan tribal clashes (AFP)
7 March 2006
MIR ALI, Pakistan- Pakistani troops Tuesday searched for two pro-Taleban clerics accused of instigating the worst fighting near the Afghan border since the start of the ”war on terror”, officials said.
A tense calm prevailed amid a curfew in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal area, where 140 militants died in days of fierce fighting that erupted on Saturday. There were only sporadic clashes overnight.
The bodies of some insurgents were lying around the military fort in the town, said one of the thousands of residents who have fled the town for the nearby village of Mir Ali.
The local administration has called tribal elders to hold talks on opening the main market and ending the violence, but one tribesman said few were willing to risk reprisals from the Taleban by acting as go-betweens with the government.
“We cannot negotiate because we cannot speak on behalf of anyone,” said Malik Inamullah, one of the elders.
“The government wants us to take responsibility that Taleban will not attack, how can we take this responsibility? So there is a deadlock.”
“The fear of the Taleban is still strong among the tribal elders. They fear reprisals if they cooperate with the government,” Inamullah said.
Army helicopter gunships continued to circle overhead and terrified residents had to sneak into nearby mountains to get out of Miranshah because the military has virtually sealed off the town, locals said.
A provincial government official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, Sikander Qayyum, told the BBC that 140 militants have been killed in the three days of clashes that started Saturday during a visit to Islamabad by US President George W. Bush.
Security forces said they arrested seven suspects in overnight raids in Miranshah.
“We are desperately searching for the two main culprits, Maulvi Abdul Khaleq and Maulvi Sadiq Noor, but we still do not have any information about their whereabouts” a senior security official told AFP.
Khaleq, who runs a major madrassa, or Islamic boarding school in Miranshah, had called for a “holy war” against the army after troops last week destroyedan Al Qaeda training center in nearby Saidgai village, officials said.
Khaleq’s brother was among some 40 militants killed in the raid last Wednesday, they added.
Troops were destroying living quarters at Khaleq’s seminary on Tuesday, residents said.
Noor, who also runs a preaching center and a madrassa near Miranshah, joined forces with Khaleq and on Saturday hundreds of armed Islamic students occupied the main buildings in Miranshah and attacked military posts from several directions, the officials said.
The military says more than 100 died on Saturday and another 19 on Monday when troops backed by helicopter gunships seized control of the main bazaar and government buildings, forcing the militants into mountain hideouts.
Officials said Noor and Khaleq have been trying to impose strict Islamic laws in Miranshah and are closely linked to the Taleban, the fundamentalist regime ousted from Afghanistan in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
Government forces late last year raided cleric Noor’s seminary following intelligence that he was providing shelter to Al Qaeda and Taleban fugitives. However there were no arrests.
Agreed.
Our resolve to stand firm (within the Mil HQ, Pentagon and State Dept) and to become more aggressive in the Pak border region is a must throughout the rest of this year. Our shooters must be turned loose more throughout this region.
Exactly right -
And sadly I think it is our guys at State and within the Pentagon that need their hands held to be made to feel more at ease about our shooters hunting in the Pak border region (even more so then Musharraf).
The bottom line is our shooters want to take the fight to these b*stards.....and the ground work has been laid and the blood given over the past 4 years for us to cut loose now and say "come hell or high-water we are coming in to get a few HVT's"......and the PR BS is for others to have to deal with.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/03/08/top3.htm
MIRAMSHAH, March 7: Security forces have destroyed a school run by a wanted cleric in the tribal headquarters of North Waziristan Agency, while an uneasy calm prevailed elsewhere in the restive area, residents and officials said on Tuesday.
The residents said a building housing Maulvi Abdul Khaliq’s Darul Uloom Faredia Gulshan-i-Ilum was reduced to rubble following an attack by a Cobra helicopter gunship.
“At least four rockets were fired from the helicopter gunship,” said an eyewitness.
As you well understand, State often gets in the way. But why even let them remotely connected in these operations. It should be between the Pak military/intel and ours.
It is dealing with them "after the fact" where State gets involved and mucks everything up.....Thus making the needed follow up operations to any systematic process extremely difficult.
Though we can and do keep a tremendous amount of operations completely away from State. Just those that leave a large footprint is where they come in. JAGs on the other hand are trying their best o muck up the entire process all along the way.
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