Free Republic

In a major battlefield success, Islamic militants attacked and occupied a Pakistani military fort on the Afghan border, officials said Wednesday. Seven Pakistani frontier guards died in the assault and 20 were listed as missing. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said 50 attackers died in the surprise attack on Sararogha Fort in South Waziristan on Tuesday night. The casualty figure could not be independently confirmed, and in the past the rebels have dismissed government claims about their losses as heavily inflated. "About 200 militants charged the fort from four sides," Abbas said. "They broke through the fort's wall with...

Musharraf urges Muslims to shun terror PTI | December 08, 2005 | 00:39 IST Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf��has said that the "failure to resolve Kashmir and Palestine issues led to desperation, confusion and extremism," and asked Islamic countries to ban extremist groups. Addressing an extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Mecca on Wednesday, Musharraf said "our differences and divisions are exploited. Our failure to secure just resolution of disputes such as Palestine and Kashmir has spawned desperation, confusion and extremism". "We must condemn and reject all forces of terrorism and extremism, by banning organisations which preach...

The politics of Pakistan and man-woman relationships in this society — the parallels are hard to ignore. Even harder to ignore is the ease with which these parties [and women] allow their dignity to be trampled I don’t like military regimes and military dictators. The dislike goes back to childhood. I grew up under a military rule. Memories of how our society became increasingly undemocratic and intolerant under Zia are still clear. Dictatorship, regimentation, jihad, hudood laws, the worsening state of women’s rights — were part and parcel of the era that shaped the individual that I am. Is it...

Pakistan took a first step toward normalizing relations with Israel on Thursday, with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom meeting his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Kasuri, in Istanbul. In the public meeting, the ministers discussed ways of promoting bilateral ties, but not establishing full diplomatic relations. Shalom and Kasuri will meet again in about two weeks at the United Nations General Assembly, where a first meeting could also take place between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. "Pakistan attaches great importance to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza, and has therefore decided to engage Israel," Kasuri said after the meeting....

Caught between Western demands to fight Islamic terrorism and protests from hardliner Muslims at home, President Pervez Musharraf faces a dilemma that will only grow with each new attack, analysts say. He is caught between the devil of the West, which wants him to crush religious extremism, and the deep blue sea of taking on the entire religious community at home,” said Lahore-based political commentator Mohammed Afzal Niazi.

Britain has allowed militant Muslim preachers freedom to preach their message of hate in the mosques, the meeting halls and the sitting rooms of British Muslims. Literature and videos promoting extremism have been allowed to spread deep into the Muslim community. While some outsiders saw this as typical British eccentricity or liberalism, foreign intelligence agencies have been furious with British laxity for some years. This week, more than 250 militants have been arrested and, in a speech to the nation last night, Musharraf again asked the public to join him in a jihad against Islamic extremism. But since September 11,...

Consider: How many times has the General held out the promise that he will take firm steps against the bigoted obscurantist? How many times has he proclaimed that “Enlightened Moderation” is the way forward? How many times has he indicated a roll-back of the awful laws brought in by the quite awful Zia ul Haq? And how many times has he made his much practised u-turns on all of the above? How many times has he taken the side of the backward mullah rather than that of the moderate? Each and every time strengthening the extremists and the obscurantists even...

It is an open secret in Pakistan that virtually the entire leadership of the Taliban military hierarchy lives and operates out of the city of Quetta, which is the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province. Since the fall of the Taliban in Kabul in late 2001, Western and Pakistani reporters have been able to interview Taliban commanders and other leading figures well inside Pakistan, especially around Quetta. Despite the documented facts, the Pakistan government has always flatly denied the presence of Taliban commanders in Quetta, or elsewhere inside Pakistan for that matter.

The man who tried to kill Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in December was a spy in Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency, a U.S. defense intelligence source told United Press International on Thursday. Pakistan officials deny the man was a spy. They say he was an extremist freed by U.S. forces once the spy agency said he was not involved in terrorist activities. Mohammed Jameel, 31, was one of four people who tried to ram two explosive-filled cars into Musharraf's motorcade on Dec. 25 as he was returning to his home near Islamabad. All four are believed to have died in...

<p>DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – Gen. Pervez Musharraf personally acknowledged Friday that Pakistani scientists appeared to have sold nuclear designs to other nations, probably "for personal financial gain."</p> <p>He said his government did not know of the sales at the time and said that those involved would be dealt with as "anti-state elements."</p>