Acquitted terrorists regrouping in K-P

By Qaiser Butt

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has blamed the lower judiciary for a rapid increase in terrorist activities in the province.

Cabinet alarmed that courts have sentenced only two per cent of the accused. PHOTO: APP

According to the government, terrorist activities in the province have increased because courts “honourably” exonerate 98 per cent of the terrorists that face trial.

The provincial cabinet met in Peshawar on Wednesday to discuss the situation, said provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain during a news conference. “Those terrorists freed by the courts become active again as they are given the opportunity to regroup,” he reasoned.

Hussain said that the cabinet was astonished that courts sentence only two per cent of the terrorists that stand trial. “Terrorists deserve to be hanged. They should be awarded the death sentence,” he rhetorically said.

Giving details of cases decided by courts in the last two years, Hussain said that 200 cases were registered during 2009 but the number fell to 101 in 2010. However, according to him, a 75 per cent increase was recorded in the last three months.

It is due to the government’s efforts, he said, that only 96 per cent of those accused for terrorism were freed by courts and four per cent were sentenced.

“Those terrorists who were freed by the courts have been able to re-establish their networks,” Hussain said. “The police and security forces have made massive sacrifices in arresting them but the terrorists have been given a licence to kill innocent people.”

The Khyber-Pakhtunkwa cabinet also noted that those militants who were not sentenced were apparently responsible for more attacks on police and security forces.

“Almost all of them took shelter in Mohmand Agency and Malakand to re-launch attacks on civilians and security forces,” Hussain said.

He said that senior leaders have allowed local commanders to make independent decision about terrorist activities. “Courts must discharge their responsibilities in accordance with the prevailing situation in the province,” he said.

Terrorists in the making: In the name of ‘martyrdom’

Iftikhar Firdous

PESHAWAR: “You will go to heaven before any of us, if you blow up yourself the way I tell you,” Meena Gul recounted the persuasive promise of her brother, a Taliban commander.

The twelve-year-old girl was apprehended by security personnel from the Munda area on the boundary of Dir district and Bajaur Agency in January.

Meena Gul managed to escape from the clutches of the Taliban in Charmang when militants’ hideouts were reduced to ashes in the bombardment. Her story, distressful in itself, was overshadowed by an ominous revelation of a women’s wing of the Taliban across the border to carry out suicide attacks.

“My sister-in-law, Zainab, was responsible for their training. She escorted eight women from our village to Afghanistan,” Gul told The Express Tribune. Zainab battled Pakistani forces dressed as a man.

“My younger sister blew herself up in a suicide attack in Afghanistan. I, however, managed to escape. I was too scared,” Gul confessed.

A police officer burst into laughter on that cold winter morning at the DPO’s office in Lower Dir at the incredible disclosure. “Has the child lost her mind?” He exclaimed. “She cannot be taken seriously,” added another.

Gul’s words proved to be true when a burqa-clad suicide bomber detonated explosives, killing some 47 people and injuring over a hundred, 11 months later.

Meena Gul was a resident of Afghanistan. At the time, the police record showed her family had travelled across the country, residing in Karachi, Lahore and refugee camps in Peshawar.

The last suicide attack by a woman was in December 2007; she blew up herself at a checkpoint in the heart of Peshawar. It was also the first. The woman in her thirties, enveloped in a burqa, was the only casualty.

She was also identified by the authorities as an Afghan. But at the time they insisted she was more of a carrier than a bomber.

“The perpetrators of the Bajaur bombing were from Afghanistan,” said Corps Commander Peshawar, Asif Yasin Malik, on his visit to Bajaur Agency.

He condoled with the tribesmen, promising them that those involved in the massacre of innocent people will be brought to justice.

“People in the tribal belt are being influenced from across the border,” he stated.

The TTP has always acknowledged their women’s wing. They have been mentioned in the FM broadcasts of Maulvi Faqir Muhammad in Bajaur and the absconding chief of the TTP chapter in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah.

Enforcing greater gender equality in security checks implies stepping on a minefield of cultural constraints.

Searching women is considered taboo in Pakistan’s more conservative Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

If women are seated in a vehicle, it is typically not checked by security personnel.

The threat of terrorism is so pervasive that the centuries-old tradition of automatically excluding women from being suspect in crimes against humanity may have to be revised.

“Like all other cultural values distorted by the ongoing war, it is the sanctity of women that is now at stake,” concludes Sabir Shah, a resident of Peshawar.

US Diplomats Escaping Pakistan?

US bully diplomacy in Pakistan and blunders in neighboring Afghanistan have placed unbearable pressures on American diplomats.

SPECIAL REPORT | Saturday | 11 December 2010 | DailyMailNews.com
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

PESHAWAR, Pakistan-The policies of the United States in Pakistan have rendered the lives of American diplomats unbearable in this country. Out of hundreds of foreign diplomats posted at embassies and consulates all over this nation of 180 million people, only US diplomats face major threats. This is a country where CIA-run drones have killed hundreds of innocent Pakistani men, women and children, and where major terror attacks fueled by America’s war in Afghanistan have killed more than 5,000 Pakistanis.

US diplomats are also under pressure because of growing resentment among Pakistanis toward blunt US meddling in Pakistani politics.

The latest victim of her country’s lopsided policies is Elizabeth Rood, Consul General of the US in Peshawar. Only two months into her job, Ms. Rood left Pakistan yesterday back to Washington where she expects to be reassigned to a station other than Pakistan.

According to a report by The Daily Mail of Pakistan, which quoted sources in the government of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, ‘Miss Rood, a native of Carolina in US, had previously tendered her resignation but it was not accepted by the US Government. Apparently, the reason behind her quitting her duties in the volatile region was life threats from the Taliban.’

Another report in The Nation quoted a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad as saying Mr. Rood ‘has not resigned from her service, rather, she was called back to the States.’

Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, who led the US diplomatic mission in Islamabad after 9/11, became the highest-ranking US diplomat in Pakistan to abort her assignment and return home in 2002 just nine months into her job because of the sense of constant pressure. Since then, US State Department’s Islamabad station has seen one of the largest numbers of requests to move out elsewhere.

Ambassador Anne Patterson, who completed her term last month and left Pakistan, saw US diplomats bunker inside the embassy during her tenure. Patterson was roundly criticized for introducing a culture of fear and almost ending physical contacts between US diplomats and the Pakistani public. One of the highlights of her period is the introduction of a new service: calling up ordinary American citizens who plan to visit Pakistan for business or pleasure and warn them not to come.

Ambassadors of other western countries do not face similar difficulties in Pakistan, confirming that US policies generate hostility more than anything else.

Pakistanis are shocked at the level of US meddling in Pakistan, further confirmed by the release of secret US diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks website.

These insights have stunned even western observers who never expected Pakistani rulers to have allowed Washington unbridled access.

‘Explosives used in Pakistan blasts traced to Kabul’

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday claimed that the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used in terrorist activities across Pakistan were being manufactured in Afghanistan. It further blamed Afghan militiamen for secretly training Pakistani tribesmen to make such explosives.

“Afghan militiamen always destroy the biometric systems, which makes it impossible to identify people allied to the militants, who cross the border; the militants lure the youth into this notorious business,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters after attending the National Counter Terrorism Conference.

The conference focused on coping with threats of roadside blasts.

Quoting reports of powerful intelligence agencies, the minister said that explosive materials used in the deadly attack in Meena Bazar, Peshawar, were manufactured in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. “Our security forces are witnessing the entry of armed terrorists in the tribal belt of Pakistan; the provincial government does not know how many drug barons and criminals are crossing in daily to carry out their evil designs,” he said.

The minister said that the Frontier Constabulary will take special training to eliminate such terrorists, who are secretly running their business of explosive devices in the mountainous terrains, hinting towards Thursday’s bomb attack in Hangu which wounded half a dozen paramilitary troops.

The minister made this claim amid recent improvement in the relationship between the two neighbours pertaining to ‘law and order’ and in the light of mutual cooperation between law enforcement agencies to curb terrorism along the common border.

Earlier, in his address Malik revealed that Pakistan as a frontline state in the war on terrorism has sacrificed the lives of 2,500 soldiers since the start of the operation in Afghanistan by the US and Nato.

“As many as 4,000 innocent people have lost their lives to suicide and bomb attacks across the country during the last three years,” he said.

Malik said that local banned outfits active in raising funds to carry out terror activities are working at the behest of al Qaeda and the Taliban. He also said that the local police are incapable of coping with terrorists due to non-availability of modern weaponry, requesting assistance from the international community in boosting police training and forensic capabilities.

Indian cellular network’s penetration into FATA ringing alarm bells

By: Farzana Shah

PESHAWAR - The Indian cellular network in Afghanistan has started penetrating into Pakistani tribal areas with the sale of SIM cards of Indian and Afghan cellular companies in FATA is adding to the security fears of the country.

According to sources, the SIM cards of cellular network, owned and operated by India, are being sold in North Waziristan Agency, South Waziristan, Bajaur Agency, Kurram Agency, Mohmand Agency and Orakzai Agency.

These areas of Pakistan mostly bordering Afghanistan are the most militancy infested ones.

The Indian cellular communication network in collaboration with Afghanistan is said to have started functioning in Pakistani tribal areas. The law enforcement agencies in their report have cautioned the Government about risks this new development brings to the security of Pakistan.

“The Indian-Afghan mobile phone network has a vast range penetration in Pakistani tribal territory. “This network penetration can be a threat to security as it can be used by militants for terror activities a,” a security official told on the condition of anonymity.

It is worth mentioning here that tracing calls made from these SIM cards will be a difficult task for Pakistan owing to the fact it is being operated and controlled by India in Afghanistan.

Considering the apprehension of the law enforcement agencies, the Government has announced to ban use of Indian, Afghan SIM cards in FATA.

A letter sent by the centre to FATA and Governor secretariats and interior department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa directed the ban on those SIM cards and also asked for action against dealers selling them.

The political agents of aforementioned tribal agencies have been directed to take measures for disbanding foreign mobile network and launching crackdown against sellers of SIM cards.

They have also been asked to send the report in this regard to the centre through FATA secretariat.

12 killed in Orakzai, Mohmand clashes

Tariq Saeed

Peshawar - As the clashes between the insurgents and the security forces continued in the Pakistani volatile tribal belt, a dozen more militants were killed and many others sustained wound on Tuesday in Orakzai and Mohmand agencies. However, the skirmishes also resulted in martyrdom of a man in uniform while two others wounded seriously.

On the other hand the security forces Tuesday claimed to have cleared almost 90 percent area of the Orakzai Agency from terrorists, saying over 600 terrorists were killed and more than 67 security men martyred in the operation. The restive Orakzai Agency which has been in the grip of worst kind of violence for the last couple of weeks, as the reports reaching here said, continued to bleed on Tuesday and a soldier was killed and two others sustained serious injuries when the security forces convoy was ambushed by the miscreants who resorted to indiscriminate firing at Saanda area in Lower Orakzai Agency in the morning. The retaliatory fire by the security forces, according to official sources, eventually left at least six alleged terrorists dead and many others wounded.

Only a day earlier, it may be recalled a road side explosion in Kalaat area of Orakzai Agency had resulted in killing of as many as three people and wounding equal number of others while militants assault on the security forces convoy in Yakh Kandao area in Upper Orakzai Agency last week resulted in martyrdom of a serving colonel of the Pak army and five soldiers.

In the meanwhile, the forces Tuesday struck hard on the militant’s positions in Mohmand Agency Tuesday morning leaving around six militants dead. The forces as the reports said, heavily shelled the alleged terrorist’s hide outs in Kareer area of Tehsil Saafi in Mohmand Agency and destroyed a militant’s den as six trouble makers were gunned down and equal number of others received injuries. In Swat the security forces foiled an attempt of the militants to destroy a government school in Koza Bandai. The school building sustained partial damages. The forces soon after the incident launched massive search operation in the hub of Taliban Imam Dheri and Koza Bandai.

The security forces Tuesday said 90 percent area of the Orakzai Agency was cleared from the terrorists as the operation left over 600 terrorists dead and more than 67 security men martyred in action against the militants.

Briefing media men the Inspector General Frontier Corps (FC) Nadir Zeb said a limited operation was still underway against the terrorists in Upper Orakzai Agency area of Mamozai adding the operation would continue till the time the trouble makers were flushed from the region. He admitted that during the surgery in Orakzai at least 67 personnel of the security forces embraced martyrdom were razed down which were being restored in shelters.

To a query he said clues were found regarding Al-Qaeda presence in Orakzai; however, most of their operatives have been killed or fled the region. He further claimed that the terror activities in the country were planned also in Orakzai Agency but most of the plots were foiled by the security forces well in time. Likewise, he said, as many as 654 terrorists were killed and 250 others injured in the operation adding at least 32000 families were forced to leave their houses.

Pakistan border region becomes terror epicenter

By KATHY GANNON
The Associated Press

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — It’s a land of daunting mountains, crisscrossed with rugged paths. Tucked in the valleys, families live a subsistence existence in mud houses secluded behind 10-foot-high walls, cooking over open fires and sleeping under the sky. Dirt poor, uneducated, their only knowledge of the outside world comes from a crackling radio.

In this file photo taken on Sept. 13, 2006 Pakistan army soldier stands next to ammunition seized from militants in Wana of Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan. These wilds of North Waziristan, on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, have become a crossroads for terrorism. In mosques, mullahs tell worshippers that it is a religious duty to fight the U.S.-led forces just over the mountains in Afghanistan. Villagers open up their homes to would-be fighters and suicide bombers heading across the border to kill coalition troops _ or heading the other direction into Pakistan’s heartland to carry out attacks that have shaken the fragile U.S.-allied government in Islamabad. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed, file) (Anjum Naveed – AP)

The wilds of North Waziristan, on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, have become a crossroads for terrorism. The United States is pushing Pakistan to mount an offensive there before the year is out, but Pakistan is saying it won’t be rushed.

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen has branded North Waziristan the “epicenter of terrorism,” and President Barack Obama has said controlling it is key to winning the Afghan war.

In mosques, mullahs tell worshippers that it is their religious duty to fight the U.S.-led forces just over the mountains in Afghanistan. Villagers open up their homes to would-be fighters and suicide bombers heading across the border to kill coalition troops – or heading the other direction into Pakistan’s heartland to carry out attacks that have shaken the fragile U.S.-allied government in Islamabad.

The threat is also exported far abroad.

Among the thousands of militants holed up in the territory are scores with European or U.S. passports, believed to be planning attacks in Europe and North America. The arrest of a German in Afghanistan this year revealed a plot hatched in North Waziristan to carry out bloody bombings and shootings in Europe. It was also to North Waziristan that U.S. resident Faisal Shahzad traveled to train in arms and bombmaking, before attempting to detonate a car bomb in New York City’s tourist-packed Times Square in May.

Any offensive will be a formidable task. Until 2004, the Pakistani army had not entered North Waziristan, part of Pakistan’s highly autonomous tribal border belt. Even now the army, with 140,000 soldiers deployed elsewhere in the tribal region, has little presence in North Waziristan. At their base in the region’s main town, Miran Shah, they rarely patrol.

One of the main militant groups in North Waziristan led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur handed out pamphlets at the bazaar in Miran Shah on Sunday warning the government that any offensive would result in “unending war.” A copy of the pamphlet was obtained by The Associated Press and verified by intelligence officials and local residents.

Some 10,000 foreign militants are in North Waziristan, says Kamran Khan, a parliament member from Miran Shah, a figure that mirrors estimates by U.S. and Pakistani officials.

They are mixed in a cauldron of armed jihadist organizations, including Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida. One of Afghanistan’s deadliest insurgent groups, the network of Jalaluddin Haqqani, has been headquartered in Miran Shah for three decades. U.S. and Pakistani intelligence believe they sighted al-Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, in the territory in 2004 and nearly killed him with a drone strike.

“Everyone is there. There are Arabs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Indonesians, Bengalis, Punjabis, Afghans, Chechens and the ones they call the white jihadis” – meaning European militants, Khan said, speaking to The Associated Press in Islamabad.

Residents are widely sympathetic with the Taliban and their fight against the Americans in Afghanistan, said Khan, 28, who says he only travels to Miran Shah with an escort of 30 armed guards because of regular death threats.

“Our area has no development, no education, only madrasas (Islamic religious schools),” said Khan. “Our people listen five times a day to the maulvis (clerics) and they are always saying this is jihad.”

Because of the dangers, international journalists are restricted by the government from entering the territory. Its tribes have close connections with the key border city of Peshawar, 170 kilometers (100 miles) to the northeast.

Roughly the size of Connecticut, North Waziristan’s population of 350,000 is mainly Pashtun, the same majority ethnic group in Afghanistan that is the backbone of the Taliban. Mountain paths lead across the unguarded border into the Afghan provinces of Paktia and Paktika, both Taliban strongholds.

In the 1980′s, North Waziristan was a vital supply route for U.S.-backed rebels fighting the invading Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Islamic holy warriors from around the globe flocked to the territory.

Among them were Osama bin Laden and his Arab warriors, who before setting across the border stayed in Miran Shah’s gritty hotels, where pieces of dirty foam on the wooden floors serve as beds.

Washington has stepped up drone attacks in the territory. One resident told AP of two cemeteries in North Waziristan with the graves of 300 foreign fighters, most killed by drones.

Pakistani officers say the army will launch an offensive – but the question is when. They say the military won’t be rushed.

“It has to lay the foundations, create the conditions, weaken and divide its enemies” and solidify civilian control elsewhere in the tribal belt so troops there can be deployed in the operation, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk frankly of the plans.

The initial foray could be a limited operation against Mir Ali, a small town east of Miran Shah where U.S. intelligence says al-Qaida has reconstituted, the official said.

But most likely, any offensive would not go after the Afghan Haqqani network, a key target that Washington wants hit to ease attacks on its troops in Afghanistan. Doing so could spark a backlash from sympathetic Pashtuns in the tribal belt and fuel accusations by rightwing politicians and TV commentators that the Pakistan army is selling out to Americans.

If Pakistani forces go too far, “there will be a contagion of rage across the Pashtun tribes against the Pakistan army, and they will be faced with the choice of being driven from the tribal region (or) having a major wave of attacks in Pakistan cities,” Michael Scheuer, former CIA pointman in the hunt for bin Laden, told AP.

Instead, an offensive would likely focus on the Pakistani Taliban, which has declared war on the Islamabad government, and on any non-Afghan militants.

Another challenge is that the Pakistani military is tied down elsewhere.

The army is still trying to stabilize neighboring South Waziristan, where an operation late last year flushed out Taliban fighters but also drove hundreds of thousands of residents from their homes.

And many troops are busy holding down the nearby valley of Swat, where the military put down a Taliban surge in 2008.

“If we leave Swat today, they (the Taliban) will be back tomorrow,” said the security official.

Editor’s Note: Kathy Gannon is special regional correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar.

Relief scheme hit by bribery claims

Manzoor Ali

PESHAWAR: Even though as many as 39,725 Watan cards have been processed in 19 districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, flood survivors continue to criticise the authorities over the delay in the issuance of the cards.

Flood victims in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa desperately wait for the Rs20, 000 promised by the govt

On October 11, elders from several villages from the Tangi tehsil of Charsadda district travelled all the way to the Peshawar Press Club to tell the media that they were facing problems in receiving the cards, with scores of people yet to be registered. The elders expressed fear that they will remain deprived of financial aid.

Their concerns are not groundless, as scores of such people are complaining about the delay in the process.

Some 10 days before Ramazan the authorities collected data of damaged houses in the Sher Bahader Killay of Charsadda district. However, a majority of the residents are yet to receive the initial installment of Rs20,000 announced by the government.

They have been making the rounds to government centres in order to inquire about receiving the cards and restarting their lives.

Mohammad Ali, a resident of Sher Bahader village, told The Express Tribune that he has yet to receive his card and upon inquiry he is told by patwaris that the names of most residents have not been listed in the computerised database of the victims.

Ali said that at least 50 houses in their village, located close to the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway, were destroyed. However, only 15 people in that village have received Rs20, 000 in financial aid.

He alleged that those people whose houses are still intact were given Watan cards by paying Rs2, 000 to Rs 5,000 in bribes, while the actual victims are yet to be provided financial assistance.

“The authorities assessed damages in our village 10 days before Ramazan and we are still waiting for help,” Ali said.

Hikamat Shah, another resident of the same village, told The Express Tribune that even the victims have to grease the palms of the policemen. He said that the centre to distribute cards has been set up at Charsadda College where locals have to pay Rs500 to policemen in order to jump the queue.

“Those who do not bribe the police have to wait longer to get their cards, as there are a lot of people who visit this centre,” he said.

Another villager, Yasin, said that only eight people who received Watan cards in their village were flood victims, while the remaining seven were not but had an influential background, adding that the genuine victims were ousted from the list to make space for ‘blue-eyed boys’.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) figures up to October 19 available with The Express Tribune show that so far at least 39, 725 cards have been processed in 19 districts. Of these, 34,786 cards have been issued and 25,835 cards have been activated and funds worth Rs516.7 million have been transferred on these cards.

A PDMA official was of the view that around 10,000 of people have not activated their cards yet, as it takes at least 48 hours for activation.

US, Nato forces should eliminate terror bases in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Tuesday linked regional peace to elimination of terrorism in Afghanistan, asking the Nato and US forces to uproot the bases of terrorists in the war-torn neighbouring country.

Speaking at a gathering at the Press Club here, the minister said the Awami National Party (ANP) had always advocated a political and peaceful solution to the ongoing crisis but there were certain foreign elements in Pakistan and Afghanistan that never responded positively to the peace initiatives in the region.

“Perpetual peace in the region is linked to complete tranquillity and harmony in Afghanistan,” he said, adding that a peaceful Afghanistan was a must for peaceful Pakistan, particularly for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal belt.

Mian Iftikhar said that some opportunists were out to weaken the democratic government but they would not succeed in their bid in the presence of an independent judiciary, free media and strong parliament.

“Our government still has reservations over the distribution of the US aid for the flood-hit areas under Kerry-Lugar Bill,” he said, adding that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was already suffering from militancy when the floods hit the province.

14 more killed in two US drone attacks in NWA

By Malik Mumtaz Khan & Mushtaq Yusufzai

MIRAMSHAH/ PESHAWAR: Fourteen more people, including suspected militants, were killed and several others sustained injuries in two more attacks by US spy planes on a couple of villages in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) on Wednesday.

Tribal sources in the area said they had never seen the US drones in such a large number in the past in the militancy-stricken NWA, causing panic among the people. The remote-controlled spy planes early Wednesday morning carried out the first attack, firing eight missiles at a house in Dargah Mandi village, seven kilometres west of Miramshah, the main town of North Waziristan.

Villagers said the drones first fired four missiles, killing seven people, including some believed to be militants. After an interval of 15 minutes, the villagers said, the drones fired eight more missiles and targeted the tribesmen and some militants engaged in rescue work.

According to the tribesmen, a number of mud-houses located in the vicinity of the suspected militant hideout were also partially damaged when the drones rained the missiles. The attack also caused injuries to some villagers.Security officials said 12 people, including some tribal militants, were killed in the attack on the house in Dargah Mandi.

“We have some reports about the killing of rescue workers but the house struck by the drones was said to be a militant hideout,” a government official based in Miramshah said. Pleading anonymity, he said the militants killed in the missile strikes were tribal fighters reportedly engaged in the fight against the Nato forces across the border in Afghanistan. He said it seemed someone had provided wrong information to the US military in Afghanistan about the presence of a high value target in the village as 11 spy planes were seen flying in the area during and after the attack on Dargah Mandi.

Military authorities and the local political administration immediately lifted the curfew in Miramshah and adjoining areas to facilitate the tribesmen to shift the injured people to hospitals.

Earlier, the authorities had announced a curfew in entire North Waziristan on Wednesday due to the movement of troops in the area. The political administration usually imposes curfew in areas that security forces are supposed to traverse to avoid any mishap.

Also, two more people were killed when a drone fired two missiles and struck a house at Paikhel village in the troubled Dattakhel Tehsil near the Afghan border on Wednesday evening. AFP adds: An Afghan Taliban commander and close relative of Sirajuddin Haqqani was among those killed in a recent US missile strike, Pakistani security officials said on Wednesday.

A US drone fired two missiles at a vehicle in Qutabkhel village in North Waziristan tribal district on Tuesday, killing four militants.”Afghan Taliban commander Saifullah travelled to the region from Afghanistan three days ago and was killed in yesterday’s US missile strike,” a senior security official in the area told AFP. The information was based on intelligence intercepts, the official said.

Severe flooding in Pakistan

It is only the start of the monsoon season, but already Pakistan is experiencing some of the worst flooding it has seen in over 80 years. Entire villages have been washed away, an early estimate of over 1,600 deaths so far and over 2 million displaced

A boy hangs on to the front of a cargo truck while passing through a flooded road in Risalpur, located in Nowshera District in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province July 30, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

Men take refuge on a boat during heavy rain in Pakistan’s Nowshera District on July 29, 2010. (REUTERS/K. Parvez)

Residents watch water pour through a street on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan on July 28, 2010. (A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistani villagers move to high ground escaping a flood-hit village near Nowshera, Pakistan on Thursday, July 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Nimra, a three-year-old girl, who was rescued along with her family from Kaalam in the northern area, kisses the window glass of an army helicopter after their arrival at Khuazakhela in Swat district located in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province on August 1, 2010. (REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood)

Residents watch from a nearby hill as army helicopters rescued trapped residents from Nowshera, Pakistan on July 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

Residents stand by flood water that entered a residential area of Muzaffarabad, Pakistan on July 30, 2010. (SAJJAD QAYYUM/AFP/Getty Images)

An aerial view of a man and his animals surrounded by floodwater in Taunsa near Multan, Pakistan, flooded on Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer)

A Pakistani villager struggles to reach his village through a fast-moving flood water caused by heavy monsoon rain in Bakhtiarabad, 250 km (155 mi) north of Quetta, Pakistan on Friday, July 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Fida Hussain)

An aerial view shows Nowshera city submerged in flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan on Friday, July 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

A Pakistani volunteer uses a small boat to evacuate locals in a flood-hit area of Nowshera on July 30, 2010. (A. MAJEED/AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistani flood survivors cross a bridge near a damaged home in Medain, a town of Swat valley on August 2, 2010. (A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistan army soldiers pass a baby across a channel in the floodwater as they help people flee from their flooded village following heavy monsoon rains in Taunsa, Pakistan on Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer)

Villagers try to catch trees floating in the flooded Nelum river in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir on Friday, July 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Aftab Ahmed)

Residents help a man untie a chicken from his neck after he evacuated his flooded home with the fowl by swimming to higher grounds in Nowshera, Pakistan on August 1, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

A family being rescued by army soldiers passes a cargo truck with men on top taking shelter from heavy floods in Nowshera, Pakistan on July 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

A soldier evacuating residents carries a flood victim to a helicopter in Sanawa, Pakistan’s on August 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer)

A Pakistani boy named Jeeshan stands outside his tent in a camp set up by the Pakistani army inside a college on the outskirts of Nowshera on August 2, 2010. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistani flood survivors line up beside a damaged bridge in Medain, a town of Swat Valley on August 2, 2010. (A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images)

A boy is flung back by the force of a Pakistan Air Force helicopter rotors as it drops water supplies to residents on August 2, 2010 in Nowshera, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Evacuees wade through a flooded area following heavy monsoon rains in Peshawar on Saturday, July 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Saeed Ahmad)

People wait to cross a flooded road in Bannu, northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Ijaz Mohammad)

A boy walks through flood destroyed homes on August 4, 2010 in Pabbi, near Nowshera, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

A family portrait is seen, attached to a bookcase buried in mud on August 4, 2010 in Pabbi, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

An aerial view of floodwater covering the land as far as the eye can see, around Taunsa near Multan, Pakistan, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer)

A flood survivor carries a soaked mat in a flooded area of Nowshera on August 3, 2010. (A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images)

A man gathers up some of his belongings outside his flooded house in Nowshera, Pakistan on August 2, 2010. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistani women pray at sunset by the Ravi river in Lahore on August 2, 2010. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)

A boy sits on a bed as his family members salvage belongings from their destroyed house in Pabbi, Pakistan on August 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood)

Flood victims line up to collect relief supplies from the Army in Nowshera, Pakistan on August 2, 2010. Islamist charities, some with suspected ties to militants, stepped in on Monday to provide aid for Pakistanis hit by the worst flooding in memory, piling pressure on a government criticized for its response to the disaster that has so far killed more than 1,000 people. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

Flood-affected people jostle for food relief in Nowshera in northwest Pakistan on Friday, Aug. 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

A Pakistani worker pushes back flood-stricken women who are trying to enter a relief center to get food supplies on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Families set in for the evening in their makeshift tent homes located on a median strip after having abandoned their flood-destroyed homes, on August 3, 2010 in Pabi, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Children, whose families have declined to be rescued, wade in rising flood waters on August 6, 2010 in the village of Panu Akil, near Sukkur, Pakistan. Rescue workers and armed forces continued rescue operations evacuating thousands in Pakistan’s heartland province of Sindh. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Residents evacuate to safety in a flood-hit area of Nowshera, Pakistan on July 30, 2010. (A. MAJEED/AFP/Getty Images)

Onlookers perched on a damaged bridge watch a flood survivor use a rope to cross the river in Chakdara in Pakistan’s Swat Valley on August 3, 2010. (STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

A young flood survivor cools herself with water at a makeshift camp in Nowshera, Pakistan on August 5, 2010. (FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/Getty Images)

A man tries to cross a makeshift bridge to escape his flooded home in Nowshera, Pakistan on July 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

A Pakistan army helicopter evacuates stranded villagers in Nowshera, Pakistan on Friday, July 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

A family takes refuge on top of a mosque while awaiting rescue from flood waters in Sanawa, a town located in the Muzaffar Ghar district of Pakistan’s Punjab province on August 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer)

A woman yells as her child is evacuated from the roof of a mosque where residents were taking refuge from flood waters in Sanawa, Pakistan on August 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer)

“We want to believe that things last for ever, whether it is love, life, God, or the laws of nature. But death, as Freud continually reminds us, is what certainty looks like. Perhaps the best we can hope for is to live in uncertainty for as long as we can bear it.

US meddling in transit trade talks irks ex-diplomats

The News International

PESHAWAR: Former diplomats, intellectuals and leaders of public opinion have shown concern over the American pressure being exerted on Pakistan to extract unilateral concessions for allowing transit trade facility for the Afghanistan-bound Indian goods through the land route from Wagha to Torkham.

Some of them approached The News to record their serious concern on the occasion of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Pakistan as she was expected to exert pressure on the Pakistan government on this issue. They said this would be unacceptable because Pakistan’s policy of not allowing the use of the Wagha-Torkham land route was based on a broad national consensus giving due weight to vital security considerations and the history of its relations with India.

The former diplomats, members of the intelligentsia and public opinion leaders pointed out that this issue in the recent context cannot be delinked from Indian activities in using Afghanistan’s soil to subvert and destabilise Pakistan.

They explained that Brahmadagh Bugti’s operations in organising the Baloch insurgency from the Afghan territory with Indian collusion was a case in point.

They felt that following the Indo-US nuclear accord, there was a clear convergence of the strategic interests of New Delhi and Washington in the region. They argued that the US pressure on Pakistan to yield its position, which was based on inter-state principles of sovereign equality and mutual benefit, was a blatant manifestation of lack of balance in its policy in the region.

In their view, Hillary Clinton’s visit to Pakistan was taking place in the backdrop of interesting and mixed diplomatic developments in the region. They said it was preceded by the intensive dialogue between Pakistan and the US in 13 key areas, which is expected to enhance their bilateral relations.

However, they felt that on the negative side, her visit had come soon after the failure of Indo-Pak bilateral dialogue in Islamabad. They opined that the signing of the MOU on May 6, 2009 during the trilateral heads of states meeting between US, Afghanistan and Pakistan had raised serious concerns in Pakistan. They claimed four American officials sitting in an adjoining room were instantaneously being briefed by the Afghan delegation during the recent official level talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan on the transit trade in Islamabad. In their opinion, this showed the level of US interest in the issue.

The Pakistani diplomats, intellectuals and public opinion leaders said they were aware of the concerns of the US government about the pervasive anti-US sentiment that was nurtured in Pakistan as a result of past US policies.

They appreciated the Obama administration’s efforts to reduce the mistrust and suspicions between the US and Pakistan, especially the modus operandi of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her last visit to Pakistan. From the point of view of this policy, they felt it would be not only counter-productive but would also hurt American interests in Pakistan if it got unilateral concessions for India in context of the transit trade through intercession at the highest political level. Such concessions, in their view, would not be sustainable and would give a fillip to mistrust between the US and Pakistan.

Tribesmen launch party to declare Fata as province

PESHAWAR, June 15: The Muttahida Qabail Party, a newly launched political party of tribesmen, has demanded of the government to declare Federally Administered Tribal Areas as a separate province.

The party was formally launched in a well-attended meeting at Peshawar Press Club here on Tuesday. The chairman of the new party, Malik Habib Orakzai, said that they launched the party to initiate struggle for restoration of peace in tribal areas, attainment of basic human rights of tribesmen and economic and social development of the area.

He demanded of the government to declare Fata as a separate province. “Since the inception of the country successive governments have never bothered to give due rights to tribesmen. The huge funds allocated for uplift of Fata have also not been spent on development of the neglected areas,” he said.

Tribal elders including Malik Arab Afridi, Malik Said Abbas and Attaullah also spoke on the occasion.

“We launch the political party to play an effective role in the national politics for brining a positive change in the destiny of tribesmen and hold all the usurpers accountable, who always manage to reach the National Assembly and Senate but never bother to serve their constituents,” Mr Orakzai said.

Rejecting the concerns of the United States and its allies about the presence of terrorists in the tribal belt, he said that majority of tribesmen were peace loving people but a handful elements brought a bad name to them.

He said that after 9/11, through a well-planned conspiracy innocent tribesmen were killed, maimed and deprived of their properties.

Mr Orakzai also demanded immediate halt to military operations in tribal areas. He said that Fata parliamentarians had failed to play role for development of the areas as they served their own interests.

He said that President Asif Ali Zardari had announced some incentives for the tribesmen, including political independence, but the commitment was yet to be materialised.

Mr Orakzai said that government should ensure proper justice system in the tribal areas, announce holding local bodies’ elections, provide jobs to unemployed youths, change the Levies Force into tribal security force and approve quota for tribesmen in the armed forces.

The MQP leader also demanded compensation to the families, who had suffered casualties in the operations and registration of the internally displaced persons of various agencies.

“If the government launches operation in North Waziristan we will strongly oppose it,” he threatened.

Hospitals response to emergencies impresses Owais Ghani

By Bureau report

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani on Sunday praised response by the medical professionals of tertiary care hospitals of the provincial metropolis to emergencies in wake of terrorist activities and said the challenging circumstances were near an end.

“Every time the medical professionals were found in hospitals and I have never come across a single public complaint against them, especially during the past two years and no doubt credit for that goes to the doctors and the society”, he said while addressing as the chief guest at the annual get-together and dinner of the faculty of the Postgraduate Medical Institute, Peshawar.

Forces kill 13 terrorists in Orakzai Agency

PESHAWAR: The security forces on Tuesday killed 13 Taliban during a fresh offensive in Orakzai Agency and also destroyed several hideouts in the process. According to official sources, security forces arrested 26 Taliban, including three important commanders in the Tribal Areas and Lower Dir district. In Lower Orakzai Agency, the security forces, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery, killed eight terrorists after a battle over a checkpoint in the Beezot area. The forces also arrested five extremists from the Mashti area. Airstrikes killed five more in the Kasha area of Orakzai, AP reported. The military escalated an offensive in Orakzai Agency in mid-March after militants fled there to avoid a separate offensive in South Waziristan. staff report/ap