Pakistan Army Seeks Help Hunting al-Qaida

The Las Vegas Sun ^ | April 03, 2004 at 5:15:55 PST | AHSANULLAH WAZIR

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WANA, Pakistan (AP) - A Pakistan army helicopter dropped leaflets in a remote tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, urging tribesmen to help capture suspected al-Qaida fugitives, residents and officials said on Saturday.

The leaflets, in both Urdu and Pashto language, were dropped Friday in South Waziristan, the scene of a major military operation last month against al-Qaida holdouts and tribal sympathizers that left more than 120 people dead.

"Tribesmen are great friends of the Pakistan army," read the leaflet. "These foreigners are misusing your hospitality. They are not your friends ... they are terrorists. You should help your army to flush them out."

The fact the leaflets were dropped by air demonstrated the security forces' reluctance to travel in the area.

Many locals resent the presence of the army in this semiautonomous region, where dozens of homes of people suspected of harboring foreign terrorists were demolished and other properties were damaged in the two-week military operation - Pakistan's largest since it became an ally in the U.S.-led war on terror in late 2001.

At least a dozen civilians were killed in the fighting, near the main South Waziristan town of Wana - about 190 miles southwest of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad - along with 63 foreign and local militants and at least 48 Pakistani troops and government officials.

Some 163 suspects were captured, but hundreds more militants escaped. An Uzbek militant leader, Tahir Yuldash, believed injured, was among those who escaped the military's net.

Uzbekistan has requested "detailed information" about Uzbeks captured during the operation, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said Saturday, adding that Pakistan's government is considering the request and has yet to respond.

Pakistan has not specified the nationalities of the foreigners, saying they were under interrogation and in the process of being identified, but they are believed to include Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs.

Uzbekistan - like Pakistan a U.S. ally in its war on terror - is reeling from bombings and attacks by suspected Islamic militants this week that killed at least 47 people.

A top Uzbek anti-terror official has told The Associated Press the militants were linked to the Wahhabi sect of Islam - a term authorities here have also used to refer to the IMU, a group allied with al-Qaida that battled U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Government officials on Saturday were meeting with the tribal elders of the Yargul Khel and Zali Khel tribes, which have been accused of harboring foreign militants. Both tribes said they would not allow any foreigners to hide in their areas in the future, officials said.

However, Rahmatullah Wazir, a government official in Wana, threatened the "toughest action" against tribesmen if they did not expel foreign terrorists from their areas before a Thursday deadline.

"We have received assurances from tribal elders, but we will see how they act," he told The Associated Press. He gave no more details of what action the tribesmen would face.

After the end of the military operation on March 28, Pakistan withdrew its troops from a target area near Wana, but retained thousands of forces in South Waziristan, which a military spokesman said remain "combat ready."

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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[nuconvert]

"A top Uzbek anti-terror official has told The Associated Press the militants were linked to the Wahhabi sect of Islam - a term authorities here have also used to refer to the IMU, a group allied with al-Qaida that battled U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks."

Wahhabis....they are the Enemy, not all muslims.

[Cronos]

Have you read the Koran? Read this As Broadsword correctly says "The source of all the bloodthirsty sickness in Islam is not the fundies. It is the Koran. I have read the thing. Good grief! It's all in there. The "moderate" Musli are the quiet, smiling enablers and trojan horses of the REAL musli--the ones blowing up, lying and killing for the advancement of Islam. "

[nuconvert]

The Quran is part historic document, part eternal law, and partly commandments for a specific time, place and event.(like right before a battle). It is confusing and contradictory, especially when verses are pulled out of it out of context. There is a lot room for misinterpretation. And that's just what the radical fundamentalists (Wahabbis) and terrorists do. They pick out specific verses and omit others and use for their own purposes and gains. Modernization needs to be done on the Koran for sure. That's being discussed by Islamic scholars.
The moderates have enabled radicals by being too nonconfrontational. Though remember, confrontations between the two have resulted in bloody battles. More and more are coming forward to decry radicalism. It's a snowball slowly rolling down a hill. I wish it would go faster......

[Cronos]

Even when you put the surahs in chronological order they don't make sense -- take the part about the relationships with the Jes. First Mo was sheltered by them in Medina and the surahs dating from that time are pretty complimentary of them,l then , as time goes by and his new religion grated on Jewish nerves he got more abusive of them. Contradictory info.

[nuconvert]

Mohammed was a man. He was not perfect. As I understand it, he had scribes, or people follow him around, and write everything he said. It's understandable if you're going to do that, that you may change over time, depending on the circumstances and situations.
Here's what Daniel Pipes has to say :

"reading the Koran is precisely the wrong way to go about understanding "what's happening in our world." That's because the Koran is:

Profound. One cannot pick it up and understand its meaning when nearly every sentence is the subject of annotations, commentaries, glosses, and superglosses. Such a document requires intensive study of its context, development, and rival interpretations. The U.S. Constitution offers a good analogy: its Second Amendment consists of a just 27 words ("A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed") but it is the subject of numerous book-length studies. No one coming fresh to this sentence has any idea of its implications.

Complex and contradictory. Contradictions in the text have been studied and reconciled over the centuries through extensive scholarly study. Some verses have been abrogated and replaced by others with contrary meanings. For example, verse 9:5 commands Muslims not to slay pagans until the sacred months have passed and verse 9:36 tells Muslims to fight pagans during those same months. The casual reader has no idea which of these is operational. (In fact, the latter is.)

Static: An unchanging holy scripture cannot account for change over time. If the Koran causes terrorism, then how does one explain the 1960s, when militant Islamic violence barely existed? The Koran was the same text then as now. More broadly, over a period of 14 centuries, Muslims have been inspired by the Koran to act in ways aggressive and passive, pious and not, tolerant and not. Logic demands that one look elsewhere than an immutable text to account for such shifts.

Partial: Holy books have vast importance but do not create the immediate context of action. Reading the Bible in isolation gives limited insight into the range of Jewish and Christian experiences over the millennia; likewise, Muslims have read the Koran differently over time. The admonishment for female modesty meant one thing to Egyptian feminists in the 1920s and another to their descendants today. Then, head coverings represented oppression and exclusion from public life. Today, in the words of a British newspaper headline, "Veiled is beautiful." Then, the head-covering signaled a woman not being a full human being; now, in the words of an editor at a fashion magazine, the head-covering "tells you, you're a woman. … You have to be treated as an independent mind." Reading the Koran in isolation misses this unpredictable evolution. In brief, the Koran is not a history book.

A history book, however, is a history book. Instead of the Koran, I urge anyone wanting to study militant Islam and the violence it inspires to understand such phenomena as the Wahhabi movement, the Khomeini revolution, and Al-Qaeda. Muslim history, not Islamic theology, explains how we got here and hints at what might come next."

[Cronos]

Mohammed was a man. He was not perfect. As I understand it, he had scribes, or people follow him around, and write everything he said. It's understandable if you're going to do that, that you may change over time,

Aha, but the Slammies say that didn't happen, the Koran was given in perfect completeness to Mo by the Angel Jibral/Gabriel!

[Cronos]

The Koran is Profound. How about this from Surah At Tawba

But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

[nuconvert]

Yes. It's a combination of both divine message and his teachings

[Cronos]

Complex and contradictory. Contradictions in the text have been studied and reconciled over the centuries through extensive scholarly study. Some verses have been abrogated and replaced by others with contrary meanings

But the Slammies tell us that the Koran is pure and unchanged and that changing it is changing the word of God. So, if verses in the Koran have been abrogated and replaced by others, that means it's more like a work of fiction, edited continuously and has no authenticity.

[Cronos]

then how does one explain the 1960s, when militant Islamic violence barely existed?

err.... yes, it did, forgot about the wars against Israel and India? Forgot about the War in Sudan and the genocide in East Timor and the Saudi clamp down on religion?

[Cronos]

A history book, however, is a history book. Instead of the Koran, I urge anyone wanting to study militant Islam and the violence it inspires to understand such phenomena as the Wahhabi movement, the Khomeini revolution, and Al-Qaeda. Muslim history, not Islamic theology, explains how we got here and hints at what might come next."

Militant Isdlam's book IS the Koran.

[Cronos]

In brief, the Koran is not a history book.
<Br.So, if the Koran is not a history book and does not contain facts and has been edited over time, then it is a work of fiction.

[Cronos]

Yes. It's a combination of both divine message and his teachings

Edited divine messages and edited teachings?

[nuconvert]

Woah....I need to catch up here.....he means not a history book as the Bible is not really a history book. Yes, some of it is historical, but not all. And historical events may be omitted.

[nuconvert]

"that means it's more like a work of fiction, edited continuously and has no authenticity."

No, no more so than the Bible.

[Cronos]

well, the Koran is written in historical times and its teachigns vary according to Mo's mood at the time. It was also written down nearly a century after Mo's death as were the Hadiths (btw the Hadiths are Mo's saying, the Koran is supposed to be the word of God). THe K says that the Bible is a holy Book and accurate, then it says no, it was changed. The K also sys that Ishamel was actually supposed to be sacrificed by Abraham, not Isaac....

[nuconvert]

Hey, this is Daniel Pipes you're arguing with...I didn't say that.