PESHAWAR: ANP blames secret agencies for Fata unrest

Dawn ^ | July 20 , 2008 | Ashfaq Yusufzai

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

PESHAWAR, July 20: Accusing the secret agencies of creating law and order situation in the Federally Administered Tribal areas (Fata), Awami National Party has asked the federal government to rein in the intelligence agencies to control the soaring militancy in the region.

“The people of tribal areas have been bearing the brunt of the ill-directed and flawed policies of the federal government,” said Abdul Lateef Afridi, ANP in-charge of tribal areas, at a news briefing after chairing a meeting of party Fata chapter meeting at Bacha Khan Markaz here on Sunday.

He added that on one hand tribal people lived under the constant fear of attacks by the Nato and US forces while on the other hand the secret agencies were fanning unrest there.

Mr Afridi, who is also president of Peshawar High Court Bar Association, said that Pakistan's continuous interference in affairs of the neighbouring Afghanistan coupled with its association with the so-called Taliban had imposed a dangerous war on the tribal population.

“The forces which supported Taliban in their fight against the Americans provided an opportunity to the United States to flex its muscles for launching an attack on the tribal areas,” he added.

He said that peace would remain elusive in the country and NWFP unless the government changed its existing Afghan policy. Afridi claimed that during a recent trip to Islamabad, a US general had provided him bundles of documentary proofs of militant infiltration from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

He said the world was looking towards the tribal areas with anxiety just because those areas were being used as sanctuaries and training grounds for Al Qaeda and Taliban who were being pushed into Afghanistan to fight against the Nato and Afghan forces there.

The tribal people, he said, had lost confidence in the government of Pakistan and the only way to restore their confidence was to implement reforms there.

He said the people had pinned hopes on the PPP, PML-N and ANP coalition government in the centre, but all their hopes had been diminished because the army was still running the government.

The elected prime minister, he added, had little authority and the real power still rested with the military. About the threats by Baitullah Mehsud, chief of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, to ANP-led NWFP government to resign within five days, he said that his party was committed to bringing peace through dialogues and would never take dictates from anyone.The ANP would not resign and would rather pursue efforts aiming to establish peace in the province, he said.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

H/T to the Strata Sphere Blog....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Leading Pakistan Party Blames Pakistani Intelligence For Increased Militancy In Tribal Areas

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Published by AJStrata at 10:44 am under All General Discussions, Bin Laden/GWOT, Pakistan

One of the leading political parties in Pakistan has just accused the Pakistani Intelligence Service of fostering the deadly militants and foreign fighters in Pakistan:

Peshawar, July 20: Accusing the secret agencies of creating law and order situation in the Federally Administered Tribal areas (Fata), Awami National Party has asked the federal government to rein in the intelligence agencies to control the soaring militancy in the region.

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On a related note some are reporting the retreating foreign fighters trying to find sanctuary in the Pakistan tribal areas has grown to more than 8,000.

[NormsRevenge]

hmmm.. under consideration.. hmmmm

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

One of the leading political parties in Pakistan has just accused the Pakistani Intelligence Service of fostering the deadly militants and foreign fighters in Pakistan

Thanks Ernest. One premise mentioned in General Sir John Hackett's "Third World War" is that the Indian Union (to most people, the nation of India) is a bunch of unlike parts stitched together a la frankenstein, apparently one of those common-knowledge biases in British politics. Pakistan is actually the one coming apart, worse than when Bangladesh declared independence. Despite its long efforts to peel Kashmir away from India, and 150 million Moslems living in India, the Hackett-endorsed premise doesn't seem to be coming about.

[Wuli]

“One of the leading political parties in Pakistan has just accused the Pakistani Intelligence Service of fostering the deadly militants and foreign fighters in Pakistan”

While it is often mentioned, by the half-ignorant, that “the U.S.” with a lot of “Saudi money” supposedly “created and ran the Mujahadeen” against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan;

The larger truth is that while the U.S. and the Saudis both had sizable support roles, the management of the networks and the operations in Afghanistan were run through the Pakistan military intelligence services. They had the most and highest level of control compared to any other powers.

It is now, and has for some time, been seen as a relationship that those intelligence operations in Pakistan are loath to give up. It is putting the nation of Pakistan in a bind. It can create the conditions of civil war there, in Pakistan, if the northwest provinces cannot be brought under the elected central government’s control. That control will not come easily.

Those provinces have had some measure of autonomy from central government control ever since Pakistan was formed by the Muslim separatists from India.

Only now, the Taliban attacks against Afghanistan must threaten either the elected government of Pakistan or current levels of autonomy for its northwest provinces; there is no middle ground. If they keep the level of autonomy they have, they - the provinces - will not tame the Taliban. If they lose that autonomy, they may - might - become Pakistan’s own “Taliban”.

[BOBTHENAILER]

I guess I've missed Lord Obamination's meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Gilani, wherein he told him he better get tough on those terrorists in the tribal areas.

In no uncertain terms, and he means it, he's not kidding, or else, or else, he'll get really mad and not negotiate without preconditions.

Or, or, or maybe, just maybe, he'll attack unilaterally, without preconditions.

In the meantime, check out this WSJ article on the dire economic conditions in Paki, post Musharraf, and see if this doesn't sound like what'll happen in America come the Obamination. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121656167471668259.html

[Marine_Uncle]

Interesting set of references/articles. As the issue heats up as how more Western troops must be put into Afghanistan, surely in general the Pakistani have started to worry. And as more reports of airstrikes in the FATA provinces are reported the more nervous the folks will get.
Good. Let them start to do something about their problem of letting radical Islamic morons run their lives.
When they hear that all three of the potential US POTUS candidates are for beefing up our troops and going after UBL and his cronies and taking out Taliban and al Qaeda in general they must realize they are staring at the end of a loaded gun. And the gun is very big.

[Marine_Uncle]

Interesting analysis you present. Pakistan taint in good shape by any standard. I can see where GWB and company do worry how we treat them, due to their nuclear arsenal, and if things where to really start to fall apart and divisions took place within the military, as how serious the problem of loose nukes could become. Just to name one issue that is not going to go away.

[SunkenCiv]

I think the best outcome would be the disarmament of the third world (nuclear arms that is). Failing that, in a couple of years, Pakistan and Iran might be goaded into nuking each other, using up their arsenals in the process. :’)

[Marine_Uncle]

Your thoughts are certainly not out of the realm of possibility. And surely we need to get a new secular government into Iran in due time. Their people for the most part would become grateful once a new world where presented them. Much like in Iraq. They would kill of the real bozos over time and not permit any new form of non-democratic revolution to take place.
We do need the oil and gas Iran has. It is about oil. And the whole concept of stabilizing the ME is really about extracting the rest of the oil and gas out of their lands.
I make no bone about that. Of course the additional benefits in promoting long term democracies based on the vote and bring them into the twenty first century and promoting none radical Islamic ideas is an equal important thing that fits into the mix.
Keeping the Russians hog tied in this region of course is also of almost equal importance.
But how do we/anyone get the Israeli to want to disarm. That is a little problem we have to face.
And the day will come when we start reading about how the Saudi and Egypt are working on nuclear energy programs. Obviously the Saudi have already made note they plan on going nuclear.
Lots of problems that must be considered, obviously. No response required. Just thinking out loud.

[SunkenCiv]

Okay, I won't reply... oh wait... my fingers... they're moving of their own accord... aiieeee!!!

...we need to get a new secular government into Iran in due time. Their people for the most part would become grateful once a new world where presented them. Much like in Iraq. They would kill of the real bozos over time and not permit any new form of non-democratic revolution to take place.

Definitely. As the students chanted, "death to the mullahs, the mullahs must be killed." Iran should become the first predominantly Moslem country to eradicate Islam on its soil.

We do need the oil and gas Iran has. It is about oil. And the whole concept of stabilizing the ME is really about extracting the rest of the oil and gas out of their lands.

Wholeheartedly agree, it is in part about oil and gas, and not just the fields in Iran. The mullahcracy is hellbent to rule the whole works, to build a united Moslem superstate.

Keeping the Russians hog tied in this region of course is also of almost equal importance.

Keeping them fighting a war on their own soil would be even better. Once al-Qaeda is rubbed out, once Iran is restored to the ranks of civilized regimes, the contributions to Islamic resistance in Chechnya etc can blossom. And the US needs to kick the Russians and the Moslem terrorists out of our hemisphere by destroying their proxies/allies (Cuba, Venezuela, and the revived fortunes of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua).

And the day will come when we start reading about how the Saudi and Egypt are working on nuclear energy programs. Obviously the Saudi have already made note they plan on going nuclear.

The US should help the Egyptians with peaceful nuclear power (despite the various technical problems, such as waste disposal, that are real, not imaginary or propaganda as some seem to believe) under the conditions that anything that can make a bomb (even a non-nuclear "dirty" bomb which uses conventional explosives to scatter radioactive waste) is under US control, and the Aswan High Dam is dismantled (due to destruction of ancient monuments and loss of soil fertility, shrimp fishing, etc). That would be a blow to Russian prestige, since the USSR built the dam; similarly, the USSR built all those Aral Sea basin dams which have destroyed the environment.

[Marine_Uncle]

A group of us think the same on most all that arises on these posts.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Droping this link in here....seems a High Level Al-Qaeda leader says he wants to take over Pakistan:

Al-Qaida senior leader grants rare TV interview ( Calls for destruction of Pakistan Government)

Then they would have the Nukes.,....

[Marine_Uncle]

We probably will read about his demise one of these days as a 2000 pounder drops on his head as it rips through the tin roof.