Comments on: With 15,000 fighters in Pakistan’s FATA, who is in control?

By: Muhammad Rizwan Malik

Muhammad Rizwan Malik — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:45:57 +0000

@ RajeevI cant deny your findings. I admit.But that was years ago. The world has changed a lot after 9/11 and Mr. Musharraf. The jihadi organizations have been banned all over Pakistan and their assets have been frozen.Tell me something, do you know how many soldiers Pakistan has sacrificed for USA in the tribal areas in the name of this war against terrorism?? +1600! More than what US has sacrificed in Afghanistan!Pakistan has been fully committed to the war against terrorism and has infact handed over +600 Pakistanis’ to the CIA n FBI for their alleged affiliations to al qaeda and taliban. Those ppl then landed in Gunatanamo Bay!ISI is part of the Pakistan Army. So its wrong to suggest that it has helped the taliban which is tentamount to saying dat ISI has itself been involved in killing its soldiers which is a total lie.

By: rajeev

rajeev — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:40:18 +0000

Muhammad Rizwan Malik:More on Pakistan role in promoting Taliban-just a little sample:”The most explosive question about the Taliban resurgence here along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is this: Have Pakistani intelligence agencies been promoting the Islamic insurgency?”“The government of Pakistan vehemently rejects the allegation and insists that it is fully committed to help American and NATO forces”“Western diplomats in both countries and Pakistani opposition figures say that Pakistani intelligence agencies — in particular the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence — have been supporting a Taliban restoration”“More than two weeks of reporting along this frontier, including dozens of interviews with residents on each side of the porous border, leaves little doubt that Quetta is an important base for the Taliban, and found many signs that Pakistani authorities are encouraging the insurgents, if not sponsoring them.”“One former Taliban commander said in an interview that he had been jailed by Pakistani intelligence officials because he would not go to Afghanistan to fight. He said that, for Western and local consumption, his arrest had been billed as part of Pakistan’s crackdown on the Taliban in Pakistan. Former Taliban members who have refused to fight in Afghanistan have been arrested — or even mysteriously killed — after resisting pressure to re-enlist in the Taliban, Pakistani and Afghan tribal elders said.”“The Pakistanis are actively supporting the Taliban,” declared a Western diplomat in an interview in Kabul. He said he had seen an intelligence report of a recent meeting on the Afghan border between a senior Taliban commander and a retired colonel of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence.”“Pakistanis and Afghans interviewed on the frontier, frightened by the long reach of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, spoke only with assurances that they would not be named. Even then, they spoke cautiously.”The Pakistani military and intelligence services have for decades used religious parties as a convenient instrument to keep domestic political opponents at bay and for foreign policy adventures, said Husain Haqqani, a former adviser to several of Pakistan’s prime ministers and the author of a book on the relationship between the Islamists and the Pakistani security forces.“The religious parties recruited for the jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan from the 1980s, when the Pakistani intelligence agencies ran the resistance by the mujahedeen and channeled money to them from the United States and Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Mr. Haqqani said.”“In return for help in Kashmir and Afghanistan the intelligence services would rig votes for the religious parties and allow them freedom to operate, he said.”“The religious parties provide them with recruits, personnel, cover and deniability,” Mr. Haqqani said in a telephone interview from Washington, where he is now a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.”“The Inter-Services Intelligence once had an entire wing dedicated to training jihadis, he said. Today the religious parties probably have enough of their own people to do the training, but, he added, the I.S.I. so thoroughly monitors phone calls and people’s movements that it would be almost impossible for any religious party to operate a training camp without its knowledge.”http://www.nytimes.com/2007 /01/21/world/asia/21quetta.html?pagewan ted=print

By: rajeev

rajeev — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:51:16 +0000

@As the news says, those militants r earning more than the Pakistani soldiers!So, people! Use your heads..Who do u think is paying them? Who is supplying them with such modern technology?? Obviously no one person or organization can do that so easily. Its the enemy states of Pakistan, India n Israel who r supplying the money and equipment to these fighters. And another interesting fact, none of the fighters r natives of FATA. Infact they r of Central Asian origin!This is all part of a great conspiracy against Pakistan!- Posted by Muhammad Rizwan Malik–Militants are not only surviving they are thriving and India and Israel cannot achieve this.Here is a useful article, intelligence reports and much more to it. There are other links as well, try those too.http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/ NSAEBB227/index.htm

By: Muhammad Rizwan Malik

Muhammad Rizwan Malik — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:51:01 +0000

As the news says, those militants r earning more than the Pakistani soldiers!So, people! Use your heads..Who do u think is paying them? Who is supplying them with such modern technology?? Obviously no one person or organization can do that so easily. Its the enemy states of Pakistan, India n Israel who r supplying the money and equipment to these fighters. And another interesting fact, none of the fighters r natives of FATA. Infact they r of Central Asian origin!This is all part of a great conspiracy against Pakistan!

By: Bangash Khan

Bangash Khan — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:45:27 +0000

The only folks whose heads are being chopped off for opposing the Taliban are the ones who have the misfortune to residen in Taliban-infected areas. That does not make Pakistan a “failed state”. Pakistan is trying to stop these Afghan-imported, heroin-funded, India-trained militants.

By: Saf

Saf — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:08:01 +0000

Hi Azad,Actually I’m in Karachi, so I can get away with saying stuff. I’m online aren’t I? The beheading comment I made was a joke (perhaps a bad one). I think you maybe believing its everywhere, but fortunately (or unfortunately, its how u like to see it) Taliban are at a few parts of the country. I do however get your point. Its creeping from the North/West and no one in their wildest dreams ever thought Swat would be taken over by fanatics.No its both. Pak is being called a failed state because of the lack of civil rights protection AND poverty. Many reasons. We have the resources,the industries,the infrastructure, but…Actually…Iraq has somewhat settled down. I know I should be happy…but I’m depressed that they ‘look’ like they’re doing better. The reasons for their fundamentalism were years of locked up angst.Our tsunami of fundamentalism started from the 80′s onwards however there were inherited issues since Ayub’s time. Many obstacles…again hoping for the best, because I can change only so much.

By: AzadDP

AzadDP — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:18:52 +0000

Saf,This is what some bloggers were underscoring. You are not free to say/do what is right because of the brutal reprisal (why to be beheaded, you asked). This is the reason why others called your a nation a failed state- the Government’s inability to protect civil rights. Not because it’s a poor country. The reasons you cited pretty much come under fundamentalism, I’m afraid. You only can change your country, not others. Look at what happened in Iraq- 5 yrs after liberation they have not settled down for a peaceful democracy, again fundamentalism is the underlying obstacle.

By: Saf

Saf — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:54:17 +0000

Saf,If genuine people’s voice are suppressed and if they are not propagated through proper channels,then the nation is half dead-it is heading towards a Fascist rule..- Posted by mitchellNo disagreement here. What we can gouge from Pakistan’s media, enjoying a couple of years of freedom, is that there’s still a variety of expressions, differing opinions and a fight to stay alive. Hoping for the best…

By: mitchell

mitchell — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:49:41 +0000

Saf,If genuine people’s voice are suppressed and if they are not propagated through proper channels,then the nation is half dead-it is heading towards a Fascist rule..

By: Saf

Saf — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:18:33 +0000

I had seen violent protests in Pakistan against Danish Cartoons. I would love to see at least a Pakistani in the street protesting against the Talibanization of SWAT.- Posted by mitchellWhat? and get beheaded?! lol. Well maybe in Swat, but many groups have been protesting on the streets though they are mostly liberal groups, so just because they don’t get ‘outrageous’ coverage in the West, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Having nut jobs spew out hate protests makes for better TV than peaceful civil demonstrations in the media. However I’m currently in Karachi and the growing number of Sunni moderates who are leaning towards the extreme interpretations of Wahabism,Salafism,Deobandism,etc. is alarming.