Posted on 12/30/2005 10:53:13 AM PST by Flavius
NEW DELHI -- Pakistan said it has destroyed some militant camps in troubled Balochistan province.
Human Rights Groups in the country have described the action as alarming and asked the government to initiate dialogue with rebels.
"Paramilitary forces have eliminated outlaws camps up to some extent in operations in different regions of Kohlu district in Balochistan," said Interior Minister Mir Mohammad Shoiab.
The Times of India newspaper Friday quoted him as saying the government was determined to destroy the camps to facilitate a development process that would bring the province to the same development levels as other regions of the country.
He said the government decided to take all necessary steps to restore law and order in the troubled region. The news report said a team from Pakistan's Human Rights Commission visited Kohlu for an assessment.
It asked the government to initiate political dialogue with the Baloch political leadership to normalize the situation.
"Balochistan was being pushed toward isolation, but the commission would highlight excesses, oppression and violation of human rights against the people of the province," said Asma Jehangir, head of the Human Rights Commission.
She said the government created security problems in Kohlu to justify the establishment of military checkpoints.
Rebels in Balochistan have protested the government's move to set up military installations in the region.
The province has witnessed a stand off between Bloch tribes and the army for the past few years.
Who Is the Fifth Column?
By John Perazzo
The "Fifth Column" is a term that refers to those individuals and organizations that, though they are nominally American, want the United States to lose the War on Terror - the war that Norman Podhoretz and James Woolsey have called "World War IV." The term "Fifth Column" was coined by a Spanish Civil War General named Emilio Mola. As four columns of his troops advanced on Madrid, he stated confidently that, within the city, he also had a "fifth column"of supporters - those who were aiding, from the inside, his military campaign against the government. Dictionaries generally define a fifth column as "any group of people who give aid and support to the enemy from within their own country."
Spokesman for Taliban held in Balochistan
By Our Staff Correspondent
QUETTA, Oct 4: The law-enforcement agencies have arrested Latif Hakimi, the chief spokesman of Taliban Movement with five other Taliban suspects from Balochistan. “Latif Hakimi has been arrested and was under interrogation,” Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the Federal Interior Minister confirmed to media men, on Tuesday.
According to sources, Latif Hakimi was arrested three days back from a house in the outskirts of Quetta with five other people,” sources said and added that a satellite and two mobile phones and a fax machine was recovered from his possession.
Sources said that law-enforcement agencies and some senior officials raided a house where Hakimi was found and was taken into custody.
He was later shifted to unknown place along with five other Taliban suspects for interrogation. Some sources said that he was shifted to Islamabad. However, no official was available to comment.
Agencies add: Hakimi has been the main spokesman for the Taliban, who were ousted by US-led forces in 2001.
He was frequently in touch with reporters, speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.
Hakimi often made outlandish claims on behalf of Taliban fighters, saying they had inflicted huge casualties on US and Afghan government troops.
But his information was also, at times, very accurate.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Hakimi was arrested in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan.
“We’re interrogating him and we expect to get some important information from him,” he said.
Asked if Hakimi would be handed over to the United States, as have other Taliban and Al Qaeda militants arrested in Pakistan, Ahmed said: “First we will interrogate him and then we will see.”
An official in Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office welcomed the news.
“We are grateful for his arrest. Hakimi was someone who claimed the deaths of innocent people,” Khaliq Ahmad said. “We hope that his arrest leads to more arrests.”
He could not say whether Afghanistan would request that he be handed over to Afghan custody. A US military spokesman in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said he had no immediate comment.
Hakimi last called Reuters on Monday at around 4pm to deny an Afghan government report that 31 Taliban had been killed in fighting with government troops.
“They’re lying,” Hakimi said. “We were the attackers and we killed 11 Afghan soldiers. Only three Taliban were injured.”
The Afghan Defence Ministry said eight government troops had been wounded.
PROBLEMS: Hakimi frequently vowed unending jihad against US and government forces and angrily rejected suggestions of reconciliation.
Late last year, responding to a US call for the Taliban to lay down their arms, he said peace would not resolve Afghanistan’s problems.
“They are the criminals for destroying our homeland,” he said of the United States.
“Our problems will not be solved through peace. None of the mujahideen will compromise with them and the mujahideen are standing against the enemies.
“They are the criminals for destroying our homeland,” he said of the United States.
We are the criminals?!!
What was left to destroy? after the taliban got done? they Blew up the buddas, killed anyone not wearing a burka
and drove the rest back into the stoneage.!!
God Bless the Paki Govt. I hope they killed them all.
After interrogation.
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