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Posts tagged with: Waziristan

Imran’s Jehad for Peace

In the battle of Badr there was a boy of fifteen ‘Umayr who stood amongst the ranks of the believers. His heart was full of fear as he stood amongst the taller, broader, stronger and more experienced soldiers. But this fear was not of war nor of death. It was the fear of being asked to turn back to Medina because he was too young to fight.

This was the love and devotion that was deserved by the character of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).  When the Prophet inspected the ranks he discovered this young man and as expected asked him to turn back. With tears the boy begged until the Prophet resigned to allow him to come. The young community of Muslims were after all outnumbered disproportionately 313 against over a thousand with armed superiority.

The love of the people is one of the qualities that defines a true leader. This is where we can appreciate Heaven’s role because not every one is destined to be a leader; let alone a true leader. This is a quality that in our time Imran Khan is blessed with. He is not a shrewd politician, nor is he cunning but what he has is the will and the heart to deserve the love of his people.

On saturday morning when my father woke me up for us to join Khan for the Waziristan rally my heart was in it but my self-preserving mind was against it. Along with my own back injury and an unrelenting chest congestion; my one year old first born son Isa had been ill all night with high fever and vomiting. At 6 am after not having slept all night I was told by my father that I should stay with Isa and not proceed to Waziristan. At first my mind gave in but in my heart I remembered little ‘Umayr who fought bravely at Badr. I trembled with fear that what if one day that boy was Isa fighting for the independence of our nation that his father had not stood up for. I leapt to my feet kissed my son and wife goodbye and with my mothers prayers set sail for Waziristan with Abu.

Is it not unusual for a young man of 28 with all the luxuries of a rich upper class background to be willing to; with full knowledge of the consequences; be prepared to give his life for a leader he believes in? This is the love that Imran commands. I have no reason or desire to give my life for anything; but I know very well that all my luxuries would be of no satisfaction without the dignity of freedom. I sent an SMS to my elder brother with my will written in it and decided to join the protest against the drones and boycotting our government’s silent licensing of it.
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Why PTI Peace March Matters

Malik Amin Aslam Khan writes an op-ed in The News on 2nd October titled Why PTI Peace March Matters — [EXTRACT] — The ‘peace march’ to Waziristan is intended to bring world focus on the innocent victims of drone terrorism who now consistently live under constant threat from the sky. It aims to speak for the silent but shattered families and scores of voiceless victims of imperialist terror. It endeavours to express grief and solidarity with the brave and unsung sufferers of the drone war in an earnest effort to comfort them that they are not alone, isolated and forgotten by Pakistanis.

Against all warnings, Imran Khan is daring to follow up the politically symbolic political gathering in Quetta by now leading the peace march to Waziristan. By doing so he is courageously going where no political party or political leader of any stature has dared to go before, hoping to redraw the rules of this unjust war. It is time to own up to this travesty of justice within our own country before the war-torn region gets irreparably engulfed with the air of revenge. The PTI peace march will aim to revive hope before it becomes too late for Waziristan – and for Pakistan. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE


APC’s making their way to Quetta / Waziristan? (US/NATO?)

APC being transported to Baluchistan

UPDATE I – Observers have been trying to identify this APC and best guestimates are of a long wheel base US Stryker possibly an M1135 NAB-RV [Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle]

UPDATE II – It is possible after observing the wide wheel base that this vehicle is actually a Short Range Ballistic Missle Launcher (upto 300km) resmebles the image here or here, in all likelihood this is not of Pakistan Army as teh color marking were of a muddy brown and the launcher was being transported in a private carrier without protocol and security

In a set of recently published pictures that were taken by me while I was going to Hingol, Baluchistan for a few days of offroading.  We happened to come across a transporter parked at a gas station about 2 km west of a small town called Winder some 40km away from Karachi on the RCD Highway (Karachi-Quetta).  It was a large privately owned transporter carrying a heavily draped vehicle which seemed like an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC)

The heavily draped cargo had no physical markings except a few on the back with bold letterings “Caution: Inflammable” It seemed to be a military grade Armored Personnel Carrier with a set of 8×8 heavy duty tires.  According to some experts on site and even Bilal, a commenter on this blog, this type of an APC is not available in the inventory of the Pakistan Army but is found in use with NATO or US forces.  It is my speculation that, had if the Pakistan Army, owned this APC or was transporting this cargo, they would have utilized their abundant brown colored military trailers and not be dependent on private contractors to move these to Quetta or possibly Waziristan
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What Becomes of Us

IDP Swat ChildLook at this picture, this is a child labeled as IDP (internally displaced person) living currently in a make shift camp without proper basic living conditions e.g. food, water, sanitation. He doesn’t have fear in his eyes, even though it could well be that his family died during air raids by his own country’s air force or shelling by army tanks of his nation’s army or if spared by all that then by a drone attack of our biggest ally or may be they survived but this kid still must have seen a lot of carnage and so would have all the other kids of his age around him. We are fighting this war for a some time now and it seems to be in the pipeline for a few more so we are talking about a whole generation being raised in such conditions with atrocities being committed all around them. To me it seems like we are running a Taliban production center ourselves or at least the final product is quite ready to be installed with radicalism or Islamic fundamentalist ideas. But even putting that aside for a moment this does raise some questions, the answers to which all of us don’t know but have every right to demand from god knows who. May be even god wouldn’t know since he sure would be keeping his distance from all this utter stupidity going on in our land; after all that’s also politically correct.

Coming back to the questions that are very basic;

  • What is the prize we are after? What are we fighting for, and whatever the desired end is does it justify the means?
  • Who are we fighting against? Are we waging a war on our own people to make our country a safer place, that is perplexing and an oxymoron in itself. Who is the enemy, is it an army of people and how many people do we have to kill before we conquer whatever we want to conquer or is it an ideology that we want to tear down through a military solution.
  • Who is our leader in this war? The one person who will stand up and say this is where we are and this is where we want to be as a nation and that is why this is a war of necessity, a struggle for survival and people of this nation could follow suit of the leader.

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Open Letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Feryal GoharYour Excellency,

Allow me to apologize to you for not being able to be present during your address to civil society at the hallowed campus of Government College University in my beloved city of Lahore. Much as I would have wanted to benefit from the wisdom of your analysis and foresight, I could not make the journey quickly enough from the remote town of Chilas where I was in consultation with the proponents of a major dam which shall displace 32,000 people and submerge 32,000 ancient rock carvings if and when built. Allow me to further explain that since flights were cancelled from the nearest airport in Gilgit, a tedious five hour journey on the Karakoram Highway, I was compelled to take the road journey over the Babusar Pass situated at an altitude of 14,000 feet above sea level, travelling a total of eighteen hours to Islamabad.

Your Excellency, it was during this eighteen hour journey through some of the most desolate yet spectacular landscape of my country that I imagined speaking to you, being unable to join the privileged few who were invited to hear you speak both in Lahore and in Islamabad. As the vehicle carrying us made its way carefully over open culverts fashioned by the able engineers of the China Construction Company, as it slid over six inches of freshly falling snow, as it dipped into crevices swirling with glacial melt, and as it glided smoothly over the bits of tarmac which have survived the devastation of the 2005 earthquake which killed 70,000 people in these remote parts, I spoke to you, imagining that you were truly interested in what I, an ordinary citizen of this, my beloved, blighted country had to say.
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Waziristan Strategy or Pakistan Strategy?

By Azhar Aslam

nwfp-waziristanWaziristan today has come to symbolize the paradigm in which Pakistan finds itself. An epicentre of ‘terrorism’, a symbol of ‘Talibanization’ and now a field for what has been euphemistically called ‘mother of all battles’. Pakistan and Waziristan were not always like this. How we have come to this pass is crucial to analyse, but even more urgent is to assess that are we prepared enough to win this battle?

Is this just a battle or a war? Is the battle confined to South Waziristan? What are the implications beyond Waziristan? What lies beyond the battle? What will happen after South Waziristan has been secured? What are our plans after the area has been secured and captured? How are we going to treat captured combatants? What will be things be like in two, five, ten and twenty years from now?

It is clear that there are no short term measures that can address a problem as complex and deeply embedded as this. The military win will be down to appropriate strategy, superior operational and tactical skills, appropriately trained troops, coordinated intelligence and finally high morale and right motivation. But this battle is about more than just winning in Waziristan. A lot more.
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Abdullah Saad > Operation Rah-e-Nijat: An operational assessment

Abdullah Saad discusses the operational assessment of Pakistan Army’s offensive in South Waziristan Operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Salvation). A definite read to understand the dynamics of this offensive that Pakistan needs to take upon itself to possibly clean up the shit left by the Americans and their disastrous War on Terror


Why We Must Unite Against the US-Led War on Terror in Pakistan

Ever since Musharraf launched the first incursions into Waziristan in 2002, the military offensives have been controversial, heavy-handed, and extralegal. The recent operations in Bajaur and Swat raise new concerns. Instead of risking loss of ground troops, the top military brass has shifted focus to aerial bombing. Entire villages have been uprooted, creating the largest IDP crisis in our history. As our State bombs Pukhtunwa to a pulp, it relies on our unwillingness to object–to stay silent as our leaders exploit our fear of “Talibanization” to legitimize an illegal and cruel war.
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Karachi University Seminar about the Military Operation in Bajaur, Waziristan, Kurram Agency & Swat

On 25th October, Saturday an event was organized in Karachi University organized by Karachi University Teachers Society, (KUTs) in collaboration of Peoples Resistance (PR).

The main speakers were, Mr. Kak Kahil a Peshawar based AJ TV Journalist and Mr. Wali Haider who has just recently returned from the Bajaur region. Both speakers spoke at length about the situation in the region and following their speeches were later peppered with some very interesting questions by the students about Imperialistic war in tribal & the settled areas of Pakistan, both speakers extensively criticized Taliban’s activities while also took the Pakistan Army to task for playing second fiddle to the NATO and US agenda which are leading towards a collapse of the sovereignty of Pakistan. The News reported on the event as follows
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Hot pursuit or breach of territorial integrity in Pakistan

Amjad Malik writes specially on the issue of US incursions in Pakistan

As Pakistan is paying the price for flirting with United States yet again and did not learn anything from Russian invasion results and being in the rock and hard place, the country is viewed by many that its giving too much to the Americans but according to the USA not enough, hence unilateral incursions. These attacks whether through missiles or land operations are fatal for state sovereignty principle as it not only establishes might is right principle but exposes a trust deficit amongst operators of war on terror at international front. King Abdullah rightly pointed out some intelligence failures and lack of cooperation at that front and insisted the need of joint Intel set up internationally to combat this menace which is affecting us all. When we look at UN charter, the forum which was set up to avoid war and to reaffirm faith in human rights and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligation of treaties can be maintained, and the tolerance was the key and there was agreed prohibition of armed forces save in the common interest. Article 2(4) of the UN charter says that ‘All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purpose of the United Nations.”
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