Quake relief helicopter was fired on, say US pilots
By Jan McGirk in Islamabad Published: 02 November 2005 A rocket-propelled grenade has been fired at an American cargo helicopter bringing aid to earthquake victims in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, US pilots said.
The Chinook helicopter, flying over the devastated town of Chakothi near the Line of Control, was not hit, and there were no injuries or damages, but the alleged incident calls into question the massive American airlift of humanitarian aid to Pakistan, one of its allies in the "war on terror".
The Americans briefly suspended relief operations, but were due to resume aid flights this morning. A joint investigation was launched by Pakistan and the US.
American officials were not able to identify who fired the weapon, and last night no one had admitted responsibility. But Chakothi is a stronghold for Islamist militants opposed to President Pervez Musharraf's ties to the Bush administration.
A Pakistani Army spokesman, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, denied that the Chinook was fired upon, and suggested that the Americans had confused the sound of road-blasting for dynamite with enemy fire. "The blast was huge enough to kick up dust which the pilot probably misunderstood as rocket fire," he said. The roads in Kashmir province are blocked by landslides after the earthquake on 8 October.
None of the 60 relief helicopters operating over Pakistan is armed. Weapons have been removed to increase cargo capacity while the aircraft are on loan from forces in Afghanistan.
A rocket-propelled grenade has been fired at an American cargo helicopter bringing aid to earthquake victims in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, US pilots said.
The Chinook helicopter, flying over the devastated town of Chakothi near the Line of Control, was not hit, and there were no injuries or damages, but the alleged incident calls into question the massive American airlift of humanitarian aid to Pakistan, one of its allies in the "war on terror".
The Americans briefly suspended relief operations, but were due to resume aid flights this morning. A joint investigation was launched by Pakistan and the US.
American officials were not able to identify who fired the weapon, and last night no one had admitted responsibility. But Chakothi is a stronghold for Islamist militants opposed to President Pervez Musharraf's ties to the Bush administration. A Pakistani Army spokesman, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, denied that the Chinook was fired upon, and suggested that the Americans had confused the sound of road-blasting for dynamite with enemy fire. "The blast was huge enough to kick up dust which the pilot probably misunderstood as rocket fire," he said. The roads in Kashmir province are blocked by landslides after the earthquake on 8 October.
None of the 60 relief helicopters operating over Pakistan is armed. Weapons have been removed to increase cargo capacity while the aircraft are on loan from forces in Afghanistan.
No good deed goes unpunished...
http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/harakat.html
Which Islamist terrorist groups have been active in Kashmir?
The State Department lists three Islamist groups active in Kashmir as foreign terrorist organizations: Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Muhammad. The first group has been listed for years, and the other two were added after the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. All three groups attracted Pakistani members as well as Afghan and Arab veterans who fought the 1980s Soviet occupation of nearby Afghanistan.
Harakat ul-Mujahedeen (Islamic Freedom Fighters Group) was established in the mid-1980s. Based first in Pakistan and then in Afghanistan, it had several thousand armed supporters in Pakistan and Kashmir. Harakat members have also participated in insurgent and terrorist operations in Burma, Tajikistan, and Bosnia.
Jaish-e-Muhammad (Army of Muhammad) was established in 2000 by Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani cleric. Jaish, which attracted Harakat members, had several hundred armed supporters in Kashmir and Pakistan.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure), active since 1993, is the military wing of the well-funded Pakistani Islamist organization Markaz-ad-Dawa-wal-Irshad, which recruited volunteers to fight alongside the Taliban.
Since Pakistan "outlawed" these groups, attacks in Kashmir and Pakistan have been carried out under other guises. One group calling itself al-Qanoon or Lashkar-e-Omar is thought to be a coalition of members of Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other Pakistan-based Islamist groups, including the anti-Shiite Lashkar-e-Jhangvi organization.
Unfortunately, it's no surprise that islamic extremists would fire at an American helicopter attempting to save the lives of Islamic Pakistanis, is it?
Absolutely ridiculous.