Genocides by pakistani army (compilation)

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This was something which the British had discovered long back. Pashtun's honour is not for sale but for the right price, it can be rented out.

I have to say that Brits didn't become the biggest empire for nothing. They were quite sophisticated for that time. They pretty much knew how to deal with everything that came their way. With treachery, bribe or war whatever it took.

 

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Video exposes pakistani army torturing innocent pashtuns

 

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Pushtun Genocide

 

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This is why air raids are not used in india in COIN.

Pakistan strike kills 71 civilians, official says

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Up to 71 civilians were killed in a weekend strike by Pakistani jets near the Afghan border, survivors and a government official said Tuesday — a rare confirmation of civilian casualties that risks undercutting public support for the fight against militants.
The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said authorities had already handed out the equivalent of $125,000 in compensation to families of the victims in a remote village in the Khyber tribal area.
Also Tuesday, a village elder claimed 13 civilians had been killed in U.S. missile strike on Monday night elsewhere in the northwest, contesting accounts by Pakistani security officials that four militants were killed.
Pakistan's tribal regions are largely out of bounds for reporters and dangerous to visit because of the likelihood of being abducted by militants, who still control much of the area, making it very difficult to verify casualty figures.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas on Monday denied that any of the dead in the Pakistani air force attack were civilians, saying the army had intelligence that militants were gathering at the site of the strike. The victims were initially reported to be suspected militants.
Two survivors interviewed Tuesday in hospital in the main northwestern city of Peshawar gave the first detailed account of the attack, which took place Saturday morning.
They said most of the victims were killed when they were trying to rescue people trapped by an earlier strike on the house of a village elder.
"This house was bombed on absolutely wrong information," said Khanan Gul Khan, a resident of the village who was visiting a relative in hospital. "This area has nothing to do with militants."
Khan said many of the families in the village, Sara Walla, had sons serving in the security forces and that it had a history of cooperating with the army. He said the owner of the house that was bombed initially, Hamid Khan, had two sons serving in the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
He said 68 people were killed and many more wounded. The political official said Monday that the families of 71 victims had been compensated, but did not identify them.
Dilla Baz Khan suffered a fractured arm in the second attack, which he said came around two hours after the first one.
"We were about to pull out a lady from the rubble when another jet came and bombed us," he said from the orthopedic ward of the Hayatabad medical complex in Peshawar. "Then I lost consciousness."
He said an official from the Khyber political administration visited him Monday and give him $220 for the loss of four relatives, including his brother. "He said we are sorry for this and we pray for your early recovery," he said.
The Pakistani army, under heavy pressure from the United States, has moved forcefully against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the northwest over the last 18 months. It regularly reports killing scores of militants in airstrikes, but rarely says it is responsible for civilian deaths.
The offensives against militants blamed for surging attacks in Pakistan as well as across the border in Afghanistan have displaced more than 1 million people. Pakistani politicians have either supported the operations or avoiding criticizing them, something of a change from several years ago when many backed negotiations with the insurgents.
Brief reports of significant civilian casualties in the strike Saturday have appeared in the local media in recent days, but have not attracted much attention or criticism. The army, while nominally under civilian control, is the most powerful institution in the country.
An editorial Tuesday in Dawn, a respected English-language daily, said it was clear that the dead had no links to the militants and that the incident "strengthens the hands of the Taliban." It said around 60 people were killed.
"Such actions defy description and an explanation is in order from those who ordered the assault," it said.
The United States also regularly attacks al-Qaida and Taliban targets in northwest Pakistan with missiles fired from unmanned drones. American officials do not acknowledge being behind the attacks, which are credited with killing scores of insurgents. Critics say those attacks also regularly claim civilian lives.
Pakistan intelligence officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said a missile attack late Monday close to the town of Miran Shah in North Waziristan killed four suspected militants. Noor Gul, a resident in the village, disputed that, saying 13 civilians, including two children, were killed.

 

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Six hellish days



Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Rahimullah Yusufzai

Tragedies continue to occur in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the new name of an unfortunate province that has suffered the most as a result of 'strategic' policies formulated and pursued by men in uniform. One tragedy struck Timergara in Dir Lower district where 55 workers of the ruling Awami National Party celebrating the renaming of their province were killed in the April 5 suicide bombing, and the other hit Khyber Agency's Tirah valley where bombardment by Pakistan Air Force jet-fighters on April 10 caused the death of 63 civilians.

The death toll in the two incidents was almost equal and those who died had done nothing against the ones who dispatched them to a violent end. Almost 100 people were injured in the Timergara blast, some maimed for life and others forced to depend on charity and government handouts to survive. Around 80 people wounded in the Tirah incident were brought to hospitals in Peshawar by relatives and friends with great difficulty after walking through mountains and driving on unpaved roads. As usual, there was no government support to transport or airlift the injured and the dying to Peshawar hospitals. The Timergara injured were luckier, if one can use this term, as the ANP-led provincial government ensured that most of them were flown in military helicopters to Peshawar to save lives.

Apart from the Timergara and Tirah tragedies, there was also the coordinated attack on the US consulate general in Peshawar. It was after a while that Peshawar experienced an act of terrorism and its inhabitants and defenders were reminded that their city still wasn't safe. The attack happened on the same day as the Timergara bombing, showing the capabilities of the militants in striking at two-far away locations in different parts of the province. At least three suicide bombers stormed their target but failed to enter the heavily-guarded consulate premises. The death toll was eight, among them brave private security guards who are mostly hired at low salaries by mushrooming firms throughout Pakistan and required to work for long hours.

The US consulate general was an obvious target for the militants and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was quick to claim responsibility for the attack. One was surprised that it wasn't attacked earlier, though it was apparent that the tight security put in place at the consulate and its location in the fortified Peshawar Cantonment area was the major reason for deterring the militants. The layers of security came at a cost as the Hospital Road, once a busy thoroughfare where the consulate is located, has been closed to the public for years. There has been much talk and no action to shift the consulate to a more secure place or set aside an enclave for the few diplomatic missions operating in Peshawar. The US consulate in Peshawar neither issues visas nor does it perform any other useful work and one wonders if it won't be a good idea to close it until the situation becomes normal. This would deprive the militants of a tempting target and ease the burden on the over-worked and tense law-enforcement agencies protecting the citizens of Peshawar.

The TTP and its Swat chapter added one more crime to their bloody resume by claiming responsibility for the Timergara suicide bombing. There was no justification for the collective punishment inflicted on ordinary ANP workers innocently celebrating the renaming of NWFP. No doubt the militants and the ANP are sworn enemies, but certain values like sparing the innocent must be kept in mind while seeking revenge. It was a sin causing death and destruction on such a scale against political workers and sowing the seeds of blood-feuds that would continue for generations. Questions are being asked about the futility of holding such an event with inadequate security in an area that isn't an ANP stronghold and where Taliban militants had only recently been flushed out after a tough military operation. In fact, the previous day an officially-sanctioned and protected ANP rally had been staged in Dir Lower under the leadership of provincial minister Hidayatullah Khan to rejoice over Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and there was no need to organize a similar event.

The ANP leadership needs to review its decision to celebrate the renaming at a time when the province is bleeding due to militancy and military operations and where around a million people remain displaced from their homes. There is no doubt that the renaming of the province has corrected a historical wrong and given an identity to its majority Pakhtun population. But celebrations ought to be tempered by the realization about the grave ground realities prevailing in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Public displays of joys through fireworks, dancing and drum-beating appear out of a place and even provocative to opponents of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in these times of sorrow. Most people are in no mood to celebrate something that won't end their suffering caused by insecurity, lawlessness, price hike, joblessness and electricity breakdowns.

The Tirah tragedy was avoidable. As has been its method, the military initially claimed killing 35 militants in the bombing in Sra Vella village inhabited by the largely pro-government Kukikhel Afridi sub-tribe. Even when reports emerged that all or most of the 63 people slain in the bombardment were civilians, the military authorities kept quiet. In fact, the military has refused to concede civilian casualties, or 'collateral damage' in all its offensives todate in Swat and rest of Malakand division and in the tribal areas. Admitting the loss of civilian lives in misdirected aerial strikes, artillery shelling and raids and apologizing for the 'collateral damage' won't do any harm to the image of the military as the people understand that such incidents do happen in battle. In fact, this could reduce the pain of the bereaved families because the usual practice of referring to their loved ones as 'militants' or 'miscreants' invariably contributes to their agony.

The Khyber Agency administration is now required to do damage control and lessen the pain of the families that lost 63 members and are tending to the scores of others who sustained injuries. The political agent of Khyber Agency convened a jirga of the Kukikhel tribal elders on April 12, offered apology for the civilian deaths and announced Rs10 million as compensation for the innocent among those killed and injured in Tirah. However, federal minister for environment, Hamidullah Jan Afridi, who belongs to Khyber Agency, wants the Pakistan Air Force to tender an apology for the deaths of innocent people and is seeking accountability of those responsible for the tragedy.

The irony of the situation is that three sons of late Hameed Khan, whose three-storey house was bombed by the jet-fighters in Sra Vella in the first strike, are reportedly serving in Pakistan's security forces. They were on duty when their house was bombed and five to six of their family members including women and children were killed. The second bombing raid was far more devastating as rescuers who had rushed to retrieve bodies and recover the injured were attacked. Militants by now know that there could be a second strike and, therefore, avoid congregating at the site of an earlier aerial raid. Unassuming civilians often become victim of such attacks. Besides, aerial bombardment invariably causes 'collateral damage' and more so in an area as inaccessible and closed as Tirah valley where the government presence is non-existent and intelligence-gathering is difficult. As someone remarked, the drones with laser-guided missiles are far more on target in remote places than jet-fighters and gunship-helicopters.

The military needs to improve intelligence-gathering to undertake targetted raids to avoid tragic happenings. Undoubtedly, Taliban militants and those aligned to Lashkar-i-Islam, Ansarul Islam and other groups are based in Tirah valley and it may not be easy to differentiate friends from foes due to inadequate intelligence. But not bombing should be the preferred option than unleashing airpower in case of insufficient or faulty intelligence. The Tirah tragedy could likely provoke members of the bereaved families to turn to militancy and seek revenge. And Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would continue to suffer tragedies perpetrated by the militants and, at times, inadvertently at the hands of the military.