‘Pakistan in covert talks with Baitullah’

JUL 28 - The military has delayed a full-scale ground operation in South Waziristan Agency against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud as the two sides have covertly reached an understanding, the Telegraph UK claimed on Tuesday.

A report in the daily said details are still not known, but the military had deliberately delayed launching the attacks against Baitullah after “having corralled his stronghold in South Waziristan”.

Around six brigades of troops have blocked the four main arteries into Baitullah’s territory, which thousands have fled for fear of missile strikes by US drones.

There has also been no drone attacks for few weeks now.

And today, US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said at least seventy percent of the Taliban do not share the philosophy of Taliban and Al Qaeda, Dunya News reported.

Holbrooke said less violent Taliban, those who had renounced extremism, should be included in the political mainstream.

Citing a senior official, the UK paper reported that Islamabad authorities want Baitullah Mehsud to announce that he would not attack the government in the future. The official said it would not be a “total surrender”, but a guarantee on Baitullah’s part that he would not indulge in anti-state activities in the future.

The effort was underway because the military is engaged on several fronts and does not want a full-blown operation in Waziristan.

The claims have not been verified independently, the Telegraph reported, but said the delay was sure to anger the United States. Our observation is that may not be the case as Holbrooke is already talking about 70 percent Taliban being 'moderate'. News reports also say the West is involved in secret talks with them.

The military has meanwhile denied such reports and said it wanted to surround the Taliban and then use air power and artillery to “soften them up”.

The army has struck several peace deals with Baitullah in the past, but all have collapsed.


Related report:
Pakistan in ’secret negotiations’ with Baitullah Mehsud
Taliban Resume Attacks in Swat Valley

One Million Children May Miss Out On School in NWFP

JUL 23 - The United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) says as many as one million children in the northwest region of Pakistan could miss out on school if buildings needed to house classrooms are not restored in time for the start of the new school year which begins on September 1st.

According to UNICEF, 60 percent of the two million people who fled their homes in the Swat Valley are children under the age of 18.

UNICEF's director of Emergency Programs in Pakistan, Louis-Georges Arsenault says more than 4,000 schools have been converted into shelters and about 200,000 homeless people are living there.

"And, also in Swat, as you probably have heard many times, some 200 schools were destroyed by the Taliban and 75 percent were girls schools ... If we are not able to have the precondition for these shelters to be in shape for the school year and also have the minimum for when the people are returning to the communities, one million children will be at risk of losing and not starting the school year in time," Arsenault said.

Arsenault says about 300,000 people are on the move back to Swat, Buner and Dir. He says the government is helping them to go back to their communities.

But Arsenault says UNICEF believes a great many people will remain behind.

He says preparations must be made to return children to school. Education materials must be purchased.

He says UNICEF will not be able to accomplish everything that needs to be done unless it receives more money. He says the agency is running a $20 million shortfall and this is seriously compromising its humanitarian operation.

Talk to Taliban with or without Karzai- Musharraf

JUL 20 - Former president Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf says dialogue has to be established with the Taliban and political progress, rather than military might, would achieve a solution in Afghanistan.

Musharraf however cautioned that the senior elements of the Taliban leadership may not be receptive to a dialogue with the incumbent President Karzai who is contesting for a second term of office in August polls and appears to have the support of the Obama administration and other Western nations.

"I personally think that you need to establish a political dialogue and political dialogue with senior elements within the Taliban. Unfortunately, the Taliban or the senior elements in the Taliban, I don't think are open at the moment to any discussions or any negotiations with (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai.

"We need to have people, whether through a jirga or whether it is the president himself, to have access into the Taliban."

Musharraf was giving an interview to British news channel Sky Television in London where he is presently based at. According to reports, he has no immediate plans to return to Pakistan soon where the Supreme Court is to take up cases on his Nov 3 2007 mis-actions.

"I think the (military) strategy is right but we need to put in a little more input, more forces required, and maybe we need to concentrate also on the long-term strategy. We are following a short-term military strategy only," the former general said.

Commenting on the Taliban , he said "The Taliban have done wicked things. But then we have to come to a solution. "Military is never the ultimate solution. The military can buy you time, it can create an environment, but ultimately it is the political instrument which has to be used.

Musharraf said the Taliban's influence in Pakistan's Afghan border areas had strengthened since he resigned the presidency in August last year.

"There is a degree of instability that has come up because of this resurgence of Talibanization activity in the settled districts of the frontier, especially Swat, but I am very sure as long as the armed forces of Pakistan stay and they are strong, Pakistan will remain stable," he said. (Based on AFP news report)

13 al Qaeda suspects detained in Balochistan

JULY 14 - Law enforcement agencies in Balochistan have detained 13 suspected militants from a place near Dera Murad Jamali bearing foreign nationalities allegedly having links with al Qaeda network.

The militants were intercepted by the security personnel in a bus going to Multan from Quetta after receiving information about the movement of the militants.

The detentions were made on National Highway, somewhere between Sibi and Notal, from a Peshawar-bound passenger coach.

The detainees include five Afghans, three Turks, two Saudis and two Kuwaitis.

The detainees were carrying five suicide vests and an 11-kilogramme bomb in their baggage.

They were also carrying currency notes of 4,240 US dollars, 694,000 Pakistani rupees, 50,000 Iranian tumans and more than 100,000 Afghanis, reported Dawn News today. Some documents were also seized.

‘They were going to Multan for carrying out suicide attacks in southern Punjab,’ sources said.

Former Karachi councillor, two sons among four dead in targeted killing

JULY 9 - A senior member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and former councillor of Landhi No 4 with his two sons and a pedestrian were killed when unidentified armed men opened indiscriminate fire on them at Zaman Town within the limits of Landhi police station.

Also today, a MQM-Haqiqi man Nadeem, 32, son of Nazir was gunned down at a furniture market in Liaquatabad No 4 within the limits of Sharifabad police station.

MQM-H (Amir Khan Group) Information Secretary Feroz Haider said the victim had been a former member of MQM-H and was associated with Unit 162, Liaquatabad. However, Haider added that the deceased had tendered an apology to a rival party and was allowed to live in the area.

Police have termed both incidents as part of the ongoing target killings of political workers.

Landhi police sources said Muttahida leader Haji Jalal, 65, was sitting outside a carrom board shop with his two sons, Abdullah Jalal and Usman Jalal when the assailants riding on two motorcycles reached there and sprayed them with bullets.

A passer-by Suhail also sustained serious bullet injuries.

All the four injured were rushed to JPMC where they succumbed to their injuries during the treatment.

Jalal was elected a counsellor of Landhi 4 in 1987, and was a renowned leader of the MQM. Jalal had been detained in Central Jail Karachi for several years in the case of Major Kaleem, reported Daily Times.

Following the incident, tension gripped Landhi, where armed men forced shopkeepers to pull down shutters.

Intermittent firing was also heard in the area.