Posted on 11/17/2007 3:57:57 PM PST by BGHater
ISLAMABAD -- Some 15,000 Pakistani troops have massed for a major assault on Islamic militants in a scenic northern valley, whose fall has raised concern about Pakistan's ability to withstand rising extremism, the army said Saturday.
Security forces have been fighting in the Swat Valley, a former tourist destination just 160 kilometres from the capital, since July, when a bloody army raid on a radical mosque in Islamabad sparked a wave of militant violence.
Foreign fighters have allegedly joined the armed followers of Maulana Fazlullah, a pro-Taliban cleric in the valley, amplifying western fears that swaths of Pakistan near the Afghan border offer an increasingly safe haven for al Qaeda.
Washington is expressing concern about rising violence in Pakistan, where well over 1,000 security forces, civilians and militants have died in the past five months.
A senior Pakistani commander said Saturday that the army had recorded 28 suicide attacks in that period.
"It's not Iraq, but it is getting worse,'' Michael Vickers, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defence for special operations and low-intensity conflict, told The Associated Press on Friday in Washington. "We would always like them (Pakistani authorities) to do more given the importance of the problem,'' he said. "They're certainly doing a lot.''
The army said Saturday that troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery were attacking militants to push them back into the mountains overlooking the Karakoram Highway, Pakistan's vital overland route to China.
Between 35 and 40 rebels were killed in that push on Friday, it said in a statement. That raised the number of militants killed this week to over 100, according to army reports.
A police official said some civilians had died after shells struck their homes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to address the media, but gave no further details.
Sirajuddin, a Fazlullah spokesman who goes by one name, confirmed that the military had intensified attacks but said his forces had suffered only "some'' casualties.
"Our mujahedeen are still in a strong position, and God willing we will defeat the enemy,'' he told AP by telephone. He accused the army of killing civilians by shelling residential areas.
In another burst of violence, police said at least 30 people died in clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Parachinar, a town near the Afghan border.
During a rare media briefing at the army's headquarters, a senior commander gave details of the threat cited by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf when he imposed a state of emergency on Nov. 3.
Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha said militants from Afghanistan as well as the lawless Pakistani border regions of Waziristan and Bajur had reinforced the followers of Fazlullah in Swat.
Pasha, director general of military operations, said the army had assembled about 15,000 troops in Mingora, the valley's main town and would launch its main offensive within days.
"We will bottle up as many of them as possible and then eliminate them,'' Pasha said. "This is our killing ground.''
An armed militant supporter of Maulana Fazlullah, a hard line cleric, stands guard outside a captured police station in Matta near Mingora, the main town of Pakistan's Swat district bordering Afghanistan, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Riaz Khan)
I wonder where the Taliban will put another 15,000 surrendering Pakistani soldiers?
Swat Valley, Mini Switzerland of Pakistan: Malam Jabba...Famous ski resort in Swat Valley
Things to Do in Pakistan: Swat Valley, Mini Switzerland
Miandum Valley in Swat
for examples in the Swat Valley area
Maulana Fazlullah, you a dead man!
(He does not dare to show his face. I could NOT find one photo of Fazlulla on the web after an hour of searching)
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Swat joins Talibanistan
By Bill RoggioJuly 7, 2007 2:42 PM
Maulana Fazlullah's TNSM violates the terms of its May "peace agreement"
As the Red Mosque standoff in the heart of Islamabad enters its fifth day, the mosque's supporters in the Northwest Frontier Province have attacked the government. In Swat, a settled district in the Northwest Frontier Province, Maulana Qazi Fazlullah, a 28-year-old radical cleric, has called for his followers to strike at government agencies for taking action against the Lal Masjid. "In broadcasts on his FM channel on Tuesday and Wednesday, [Fazlullah] asked his supporters to take up arms against the government to avenge the action taken against Lal Masjid and carry out suicide attacks," Dawn reported on July 4.
Fazlullah's followers have carried out his call for violence. In the five days since the Red Mosque standoff began, four major attacks were carried out against police forces in the district. Six have been killed and thirteen wounded in shootings, roadside bombings and ambushes throughout the region.
North of Swat in the district of Dir, four soldiers were killed, including two officers, and another was critically wounded in an IED attack. The army convoy was reported to be heading into Swat in preparation for a possible “showdown between supporters of Maulana Fazlullah and law-enforcement agencies.”
Fazlullah is in direct violation of a "peace agreement" he signed with the provincial government. The terms of the nine-point peace deal required Fazlullah to "support the polio vaccination campaign and education for girls, as well as government efforts to establish law and order," the Daily Times reported on May 23. "He also agreed to wrap up all training facilities for militants and making of weapons, and support the district administration in any operation against anti-state elements." Fazlullah's followers were also to stop carrying weapons in the open. In return, Fazlullah was permitted to continue broadcasting his illegal FM radio programs and the government would "look for legal ways to withdraw cases against the cleric."
Maulana Fazlullah is the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the jailed leader of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM - the Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law). He is said to have "close links with the administration of the Lal Masjid," according to Sharif Virk, the chief of police for the Northwest Frontier Province. Fazlullah has successfully organized anti-polio and anti-girls schools campaigns throughout the region. The Swat region is believed to be a haven and training ground for the Pakistani Taliban. "Militants from Waziristan are present in Swat in great numbers," and being sheltered by the TNSM, The News reported just one day prior to the signing of the "peace treaty."
The TNSM is known as the "Pakistani Taliban" and is the group behind the ideological inspiration for the Afghan Taliban. The TNSM sent over 10,000 fighters into Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces during Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001. Faqir Mohammed, a senior leader of the TNSM in neighboring Bajaur agency who is wanted by the Pakistani government, kicked off a suicide campaign after the air strike on the Chingai madrassa in October 2006. Forty-five Pakistani soldiers were killed after a suicide bomber sent by Faqir struck at Pakistani Army recruits training outside of the Dargai base in the NWFP. The Pakistani government signed Bajaur over to the TNSM in March 2006.
The Swat administration is wringing its hands over Fazlullah's call for violence in the wake of the Lal Masjid standoff. "A peace jirga held on Friday condemned the recent attack on District Police Officer Mazharul Haq," Dawn reported. "The jirga presided over by Maulana Fazal Haq expressed concern over tension in the valley. It decided to hold a meeting with Maulana Fazlullah to defuse the tension."
But the peace jirga refused to hold Fazlullah accountable for his call for jihad on his radio stations and the subsequent violence. "Members of the jirga said it was not clear which party had breached the peace agreement between the government and the cleric," Dawn reported. "They said FM stations should not be used for promoting personal interests, but there should be no ban on using them to propagate Islam."
An anonymous American intelligence source has informed The Fourth Rail that the Pakistani government is quietly negotiating a series of "peace deals" with the Taliban throughout the Northwest Frontier Province, much like the deal cut with Fazlullah. The Pakistani government is stinging from the international condemnation over the Waziristan and Bajaur Accords, which surrendered the tribal agencies to the Taliban and al Qaeda.
But the deal in Swat has done nothing to curb the rise of the TNSM, or prevent al Qaeda from training in the region. Fazlullah is still strong, as the recent attacks on the police demonstrates. Like in Tank and Bannu, the police in Swat have been intimidated by Fazlullah's TNSM.
Swat is clearly Taliban country.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/07/swat_joins_talibanis.php
Likely Mullana Zazlullah has already cut and run, leaving his follwers to be cannon fodder for an infuriated Pakistani Army 15,000 strong in the Swat valley. These tangos do not have a choice but to fight and die, or run to Afghanistan to face NATO guns.
Amelia Island, as in Jacksonville Beach, FL?
No, Amelia, La, site of a haz waste incinerator facility.
Well, as good as it looks, AND IT LOOKS REAL TEMPTING GOOD, I’m going to go with a room on the Fourchon at Charlie’s old place, laissez la bon temps roulez and the fishing is great.
LOL, he’s never heard of Morgan City. I hunt well north of MC, across the Atchafalaya River at Whiskey Bay.
I’m going to bed soon, but your post begs the question; what made you seek that “tourist destination”, had you seen everything else in the world?
I was traveling around Asia for fun and adventure. I was in western China and I wanted to go to Nepal so I went overland through Pakistan and India. At the time relations were petty good between Pakistan and the U.S. (Reagan was President. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and we were supporting the resistance to that invasion with much of that support flowing through Pakistan.) Since I was passing through Pakistan, I decided to have a look around. Beautiful land; interesting but majorly screwed up people. The Pakistanis were actually something of a relief after China because there was private enterprise everywhere so you could get what you wanted (food, shelter, transport) much more easily. My overwhelming impression was that Pakistan was a lot of trouble waiting to happen. Now when anyone talks of our "alliance" with Pakistan I get a sinking feeling. We will always have many enemies in that part of the world no matter what. They are designed from the ground up to abhor us.
I am getting so jaded when it comes to Pakistan...dang I’m getting old.
This is the 201,789th time we have seen a “serious” effort from Pakistan. Most of the previous attempts have resulted in surrenders by Pakistani forces, followed by “peace” deals and releases of major terrorists.
“I am getting so jaded when it comes to Pakistan...dang I’m getting old.”
Maybe it’s just learning from experience, and not so much old age. ;~ )
However, I’m holding out, optimistically, that the Pakistanis are going to launch a major assault.
signed,
pollyanna
Hammer and anvil comes to mind. If we are going to eliminate them, they must be on our side of the border. The alternative is a continued haven for those forces to move back and forth with a safe base on the Paki side.
Musharraf has launched these attacks before - only to have a cease fire called in two or three days - (his decision or hamstrung? we don't know) 0 the results are the it always leave the Taliban/aQ stronger - and freer to cross into the Korengal VAlly in Afghanistan - which Bin L considers home = and where we are looking at a killed/wounded rate of 1 in 4.
When action is required past failure should not lead to lack of action. It is a haven under the status quo. Effective Paki action in those areas is what we want.
Concur with you that it needs to be effective, but we don't control that.
Sounds like some trip. Like you, whenever I hear the term “...our ally Pakistan...” I can’t help but think “hmmmm, with friends like these, who needs enemies”?
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