Red alert in Islamabad as Taliban advances

Red alert in Islamabad as Taliban advances

Headlines Today
Islamabad, April 10, 2009

A red alert has been sounded in the Pakistan capital following reports that heavily-armed terrorists have entered Islamabad to carry out a major strike.

The heightened threat perception has forced the authorities to shut down schools. US embassy in Islamabad too has been shut down for a day. The embassy has issued an urgent advisory asking all US citizens to stay indoors.

Regular consular services, such as visa processing for Pakistani nationals, won't be available in the capital. But the embassy will still be available to provide emergency services to Americans.

The consulates in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar will remain open. Islamabad based offices of international donor organisations will also remain closed today.

Plot to attack

The plot was unearthed with the arrest of four suicide-attackers on Thursday evening. Police suspect there are more fidayeen on the prowl. The FIA and the Islamabad police has chalked out a joint action plan to hunt them down. A massive manhunt is on.

This is what sources told the Pak daily The News about these attackers on the prowl

The fidayeen belong to the Baitullah Mehsud group
29 suicide attackers have entered Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore
9 terrorists along with 20 Uzbeks left Waziristan in March to attack different Pak cities
Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is high on their hit-list


Buner falls
Meanwhile, in their bid to takeover Islamabad, around 400 to 500 armed terrorists entered Buner's Bagra and Kalabatt areas, setting houses on fire. Buner district is northwest of Islamabad, barely 100 kms away.

"We will take over Islamabad," Mullah Nazeer Ahmad, Taliban leader, had declared.

This comes two days after clashes with a people's war group or 'lashkar' that was formed to stop the Taliban advance.

While, Buner seems to have fallen to the Taliban, it went down fighting. Locals dug huge pits at the village borders to impede Taliban's entry. Women and children were sent off to safer locations. But Taliban terrosists killed tribal elders, the members of the local war group and also policemen in violent clashes.

First it was Swat and now Buner. Terrorists now only need to cross one district - Haripur before they reach Islamabad. And PoK is very close to where all the action is-a threat that neighbouring India would certainly be worried over.

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So, unless these suicide bombers are arrested, Pakistan can expect some big attacks, but as indicated in the news security has been beefed up and schools, consulates shut down, so attackers might scale down and wait for another time. Must have been a big-attack in the offing.

The thing is that 26/11 has set a new benchmark for terrorists. A bunch of heavily armed terrorists with AKs and grenades can do a lot of damage. They can hold hostages and also demoralize the police (the Pak Police is already).
These guys dont have to go and plant bombs or ram a truck laden with explosives to cause any damage. So its possible that these Talibanis are not looking at suicide bombing mission, but on a gun trotting mission to kill the max.

Also latest intel suggests that upto 28 Talibanis have sneaked into the Kashmir Valley. This has been gathered from a number of radio intercepts. They obviously wish to harm the peace in the Valley before the elections.

They deserve it after all thousands of cuts policy is there brainchild only. Eating grass but having bomb is also there policy. They are reaping what they sowed

Yes but then now they have reached our borders which is a very dangerous situation. We dont want them close to our borders let alone be inside it. So the reports of about 28 of them being in the Valley is very troubling. They obviously cant create a SWAT like situation here, but yes they can kill innocents mercilessly which is unacceptable.

These are not taliban but the terrorists who have infiltrated on behest of Pakistani Army and haven't come on their own. The usage of high-tech gadgetry like GPS equipment for infiltration indicated that they had a good training from PA. IA should be vigilant and should hole-up these guys and eliminate them.