Is Pakistan falling to Taliban?

Vinod2070

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How Secure Is Pak's Nuclear Arsenal?
From commando-style attack by jihadi terrorists operating from sanctuaries inside Pakistan. That is the question which should be worrying security experts all over the world

B. Raman

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How secure is Pakistan's nuclear arsenal from a commando-style attack by jihadi terrorists operating from sanctuaries inside Pakistan?
That is the question which should be worrying security experts all over the world as they learn with horror--based on visual evidence from closed circuit TV (CCTV) cameras and oral evidence from members of the Sri Lankan cricket team and the British match umpires and referees--how the 12 or so terrorists who attacked the SL cricket team had the Liberty Square of Lahore at their disposal for about 30 minutes and walked away after the attack without the least fear of being chased and caught either by the security forces or the public.
It was as if they were walking away from a golf green after a game of golf--unhurried, unconcerned and totally relaxed.
Seven police officers, who were in the escort party of the convoy, died in the exchange of fire. Their bravery must be acknowledged and saluted. But how about the dozens of other police officers, who were supposed to be on route security to prevent an ambush of the convoy? The British match officials have said that not a policeman was to be seen on the road. This, despite the Presidential-scale security reportedly promised by President Asif Ali Zardari to the SL team.
How about the staff of the police station located near the Square? Why didn't they rush out and confront the terrorists? How about the police vehicles, which were supposed to be on patrol along the route to look out for suspicious movements and characters? How about the rapid response commando teams, which were supposed to be there in the stadium and at the LIberty Square, which was known as a vulnerable point since all vehicular movements had to slow down there?
They just disappeared or were not posted at all. In all the CCTV footage, the only sign of police one sees is a police vehicle crossing a terrorist and not taking any action as if it was crossing a normal pedestrian.
How about the road blocks all over Lahore which were supposed to have been put up after a terrorist strike to prevent the terrorists from getting away?
Many compelling questions arise as one gets details of what happened and what did not happen in Lahore on March 3,2009? Were there insiders in the security establishment, who had played a role in the conspiracy? Were there accomplices or jihadi sympathisers in the security establishment, who facilitated the terrorist strike? Do the political and military leaders of Pakistan realise the total security vacuum in their country, which has made it a safe haven to jihadi terrorists from all over the world, who are able to operate at will without any fear of the consequences?
It has become a cliché to say that the Pakistani leaders are in a denial mode. So was former President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia till the Bali terrorist strike of October, 2002. Thereafter, she realised the gravity of the situation and made amends for her past negligence. So was former President Begum Khalida Zia of Bangladesh till the the nearly 400 synchronised explosions organised by the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen (JUM) in August, 2005. Thereafter, she realised the gravity of the situation and acted against the JUM.
Pakistan has been the scene of repeated terrorist strikes and the spawning ground of jihadi terrorism of various hues directed against other countries since 1981. Till today, neither the political nor the military leaders of Pakistan are prepared to admit this. After the Lahore attack on the SL team, Ilyas Khan, of the Islamabad Bureau of the British Broadcasting Corporation, reported as follows the same day: "Militant attacks in all parts of the world have been investigated and solved, but Pakistan is yet to solve even one out of the hundreds of attacks it has suffered since the 1980s."


In every major terrorist strike of Pakistan, there was evidence of insider involvement. Some junior officers of the Pakistani Air Force were found to have been involved in the conspiracy to kill former President Pervez Musharraf at Rawalpindi in December, 2003. The investigation brought out the startling fact that the conspirators had met in the staff quarters of one of the PAF officers in a PAF complex in the Islamabad-Rawalpindi area to finalise their attack.
Before and after the unsuccessful terrorist strike on her at Karachi on October 18,2007, Benazir Bhutto had alleged that Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the Amir of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), and some serving and retired officers of the Pakistan Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were involved in the conspiracy to kill her. Saifullah was detained for some weeks for interrogation, but thereafter released without any action being taken against him. No action was taken against the officers named by her. Not even a formal enquiry.
After addressing a public meeting at Rawalpindi on December 27,2007, she left for her home in her car. Neither the police escort party nor Rehman Malik, the present Internal Security Adviser, who was at that time the co-ordinator of her physical security, followed her. They left for home by a different route after the meeting was over. Benazir was shot dead as her car came out of the ground. Malik and other officers came to know only after they reached home that she had been shot dead.
One can go on giving such instances, which show a total lack of control over the security establishment, which has become a law unto itself and disturbing indicators of the extent and depth of penetration of the security set-up by the jihadi terrorists. Many countries in the world, including India, are badly affected by terrorism. In many countries of the world, including India, there are inefficiencies and inadequacies in the counter-terrorism apparatus. But in no country of the world is the security establishment so badly penetrated by the jihadi terrorists as it is in Pakistan.
The Pakistani leaders not only refuse to admit this. Even more alarming, they live in a world of self-delusion which makes them think that all these realities are the figments of imagination of others ill-disposed towards them.
If this is the real state of affairs, one has very valid reasons to worry about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Pakistani political and military leaders repeatedly assure the international community that their nuclear arsenal has tight physical security and that no terrorist can penetrate it and get hold of nuclear weapons or material. After seeing what has happened in Lahore, the international community cannot afford to accept the Pakistani assurances at their face value. It must subject the physical security of the arsenal to greater scrutiny by independent outside experts. Even if this is done, a 100 per cent security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal cannot be assured so long as the terrorist safehavens and infrastructure in Pakistan are not removed. Pakistan must be forced to do so through international pressure.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090306&fname=raman&sid=1
 

EnlightenedMonk

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But, what serious options do other countries have as far as their nuclear arsenals are concerned?

I'm sure the Chinese and Americans know where the warheads are situated. In case it comes to an inevitable Taliban takeover, the arsenals need to be destroyed by precision strikes. And, the reactors need to be taken out as well...

But, I'm quite certain the Americans through their intelligence sources know where the warheads are and could take them out...
 
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The current scenario is the taliban have taken over more than 25% of pakistan but the pakistan government is still strong, when 50% takeover is happened then people will have to act not wait to reach 100%
 

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The current scenario is the taliban have taken over more than 25% of pakistan but the pakistan government is still strong, when 50% takeover is happened then people will have to act not wait to reach 100%
But here the problem is that how do you exactly define a "takeover" ??? The Taliban might never come forward and try and replace the government. They might use sympathisers within the elected government to control what they want and get their policies passed.

In that case, Pakistan would not "officially" be under the Taliban, but there would be extreme Taliban influence, what would we do in such a case? Would we still go ahead and destroy the arsenal?

So, Taliban might only continue to cause trouble by bombs, attacks etc without actually replacing the government and the Army will look on helplessly, under such a situation, what is our option?

Do we go ahead and take out the nuclear arsenals? Or, do we try to covertly sponsor another military takeover. Because, as far as I'm concerned, the military seems to be the lesser evil as far as the track records are concerned. They atleast used to put a little bit of a leash on the terrorists. Ever since the civilian government came to power, the terrorists are running amok !!!
 
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the taliban have been victorious in afghanistan and pakistan what will stop them? USA can't do it and pakistanis are taking it too lightly in hopes of keeping the monster to be used against India?
 

EnlightenedMonk

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the taliban have been victorious in afghanistan and pakistan what will stop them? USA can't do it and pakistanis are taking it too lightly in hopes of keeping the monster to be used against India?
I think a lot of people in Pakistan are realising the fact that the Taliban are the real threat and not India. And, more importantly, I think the Army there is slowly realising it with the attacks on soldiers despite the ceasefire and other deals.

Now, its the honeymoon period after the ceasefire and we'll all think that the Pakistani Government is in bed with the Taliban. But, this honeymoon period will end very soon and they'll be back to their own fighting ways...

Take my word for it... I give this ceasefire another couple of months at most... hehehehe....:D:D:D:D
 
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I always thought financing for the taliban would dry up but their heroin buisness is producing good revenues where they even have SAM's to bring drones down.
 

EnlightenedMonk

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I always thought financing for the taliban would dry up but their heroin buisness is producing good revenues where they even have SAM's to bring drones down.
Aajkal recession chaloo hai yaar... Paisa kam ho jayega... hehehehe....:D:D:D:D

If they still make good money with heroin during this downturn, I'll give up my computers and teaching and get into the heroin business myself... heheheh... ;;);;);;);;);;);;)

On a more serious note, I'm sure the Government there will try and do everything to get at their sources of money when the Army realises what big a threat these people really are...
 
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they claim to have 6 tons of heroin ready to be shipped to UK for their chemical jihad, many in the government are also profitting so they don't want to see it end and lose their revenue.
 

EnlightenedMonk

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they claim to have 6 tons of heroin ready to be shipped to UK for their chemical jihad, many in the government are also profitting so they don't want to see it end and lose their revenue.
Oh, a Government-Taliban money nexus eh??? I didnt know about that !!!

That changes a lot of things !!! The Government might find it very difficult to stop the heroin trade then.... :35::35::35::35:
 

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Video of girl's flogging as Taliban hand out justice

Mobile phone movie shows that militant influence is spreading deeper into Pakistan



WARNING: This video contains images some people may find disturbing
Link to this video A video showing a teenage girl being flogged by Taliban fighters has emerged from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, offering a shocking glimpse of militant brutality in the once-peaceful district, and a sign of Taliban influence spreading deeper into the country.
The two-minute video, shot using a mobile phone, shows a burka-clad woman face down on the ground. Two men hold her arms and feet while a third, a black-turbaned fighter with a flowing beard, whips her repeatedly.
"Please stop it," she begs, alternately whimpering or screaming in pain with each blow to the backside. "Either kill me or stop it now."
A crowd of men stands by, watching silently. Off camera a voice issues instructions. "Hold her legs tightly," he says as she squirms and yelps.
After 34 lashes the punishment stops and the wailing woman is led into a stone building, trailed by a Kalashnikov-carrying militant.
Reached by phone, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan claimed responsibility for the flogging. "She came out of her house with another guy who was not her husband, so we must punish her. There are boundaries you cannot cross," he said. He defended the Taliban's right to thrash women shoppers who were inappropriately dressed, saying it was permitted under Islamic law.
The Guardian received the video through Samar Minallah, a Pashtun documentary maker and anthropologist who lived in Swat for two years in the late 1990s. It has been passed between Swat residents by mobile phones.
Ms Minallah said the punishment had been inflicted within the last 10 days, following the signing of a controversial peace deal under which the provincial government ceded control of the valley's judicial system to the militants.
"This video is being widely circulated because the Taliban want people to see it. They want to give the message that this is taking place after the peace deal because this is something they ideologically believe in," she said.
Local sources including journalists and human rights workers, some of whom declined to be identified, confirmed the video was recent, although estimates of its timing varied between one and three weeks ago. The Taliban spokesman said it predated the peace deal.
Sher Muhammad Khan, an official in Swat with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: "They have committed so many atrocities since the peace deal. They have taken entire control of the district. There is nobody to control them; they decide disputes according to their whims."
Since the 15 February deal, a hybrid of traditional and Islamic law has been operational in Mingora, the largest city in Swat district. The qazi courts, as they are known, are not operated by the Taliban but by a related political movement. They have a murky legal status because the changes have yet to be signed into law.
Floggings and other physical punishments have not been imposed in Mingora, where some residents have praised the system's efficiency. However, in outlying districts, where government writ has been entirely crushed, a crude form of gun justice prevails.
The woman in the video, named as Chaand and believed to be aged 17, was punished in Matta, a district further up the Swat Valley.
Minallah and other sources said the girl was punished on suspicion of having had an illicit relationship with a married man. She did not receive a trial. "The whole case is based on the suspicions of one neighbour," said Minallah.
The woman's brother is among the men pinning her down, she added. "It's symbolic that he does it with his own hands. It gives him honour in local society, that he has done it for the sake of religion."
The Swat Valley is controlled by Maulana Fazlullah, a charismatic preacher who initially gained popularity through radio broadcasts, then seized control through gun battles, suicide attacks and intimidation of the local population.
Since the peace deal, women have been beaten for shopping unaccompanied in Mingora's main market and dozens of girls' schools remain closed, many of them bombed.
Fazlullah has sworn loyalty to Baitullah Mehsud, the overall Taliban leader from South Waziristan who claimed responsibility for last Monday's eight-hour assault on a police centre in Lahore and has vowed to mount attacks in Washington.
On Wednesday a presumed American drone fired rockets at a compound controlled by his network, killing at least 14 people.
The effective surrender of government authority in Swat has caused great alarm across Pakistan and among western allies.Minallah said she feared Talibanisation would spread across Pakistan. "I have distributed this video because I feel people are in denial. They don't want to believe what is happening."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/taliban-pakistan-justice-women-flogging
 

Vinod2070

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These people are just animals. They can show their "mardanagi" only on women and unarmed people. When the time comes to fight real soldiers, they run on their donkeys like there is no tomorrow.

Pakistan has shown how much it cares for its people by handing them over to these fanatics.
 

EnlightenedMonk

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Shocking video indeed...

But this won't be the first one coming out of Pakistan now that Sharia is in place in full force... we'll see more such drama playing itself out in larger scales very soon....

Public executions, chopping off limbs, stoning etc will now become commonplace in that country...
 

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Implications of the Manawan Attack

April 2, 2009 | 1012 GMT





By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
On March 31, Baitullah Mehsud, commander of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), called The Associated Press and Reuters to claim responsibility for the March 29 attack against a Pakistani police academy in Manawan, which is near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore and the Indian border. The attack had been previously claimed by a little-known group, Fedayeen al-Islam (FI), which also took responsibility for the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September 2008. Mehsud has also released an Urdu-language audio message claiming responsibility for the Manawan attack as well as a failed March 23 attack on the headquarters of the Police Special Branch in Islamabad. Mehsud, whom authorities claim was behind the March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, also warned that there would be additional attacks all across the country in retaliation for U.S. drone strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Area. He even threatened to launch attacks in Washington, D.C.
It is not clear at this point if the two claims of responsibility for the Manawan attack are indeed contradictory. If FI is an independent group, it is possible that it was working with Mehsud in the assault on the police academy. However, it is also quite possible that FI is either part of the larger TTP (which is an umbrella group with many factions) or perhaps just a nom de guerre used by the TTP to claim certain attacks. When a reporter asked about the FI claim, Mehsud refused to comment. Two things can be ascertained from this: that Mehsud’s organization has the ability to conduct these attacks, and that a major jihadist figure like Mehsud has no real need to claim the attacks of others to bolster his reputation. In fact, lying about such a thing would hurt his well-established reputation.
It is a good bet, therefore, that the TTP was in fact involved in the Manawan attack. The odds are even greater when one considers the intelligence reports from a few days prior to the attack: that Mehsud had dispatched a group of 22 operatives from his base in South Waziristan, through the town of Mianwali in southwestern Punjab, to conduct attacks in Lahore and Rawalpindi. Pakistani authorities were actively searching for those operatives when the attack occurred in Manawan.
While STRATFOR has already published a political assessment of the Manawan attack, we believe it might also be interesting to look at the incident from a protective intelligence standpoint and examine the tactical aspects of the operation in more detail.
Sequence of Events

The attack on the police academy in Manawan happened at approximately 7:20 a.m. on March 29 as more than 800 unarmed police cadets were on the parade field for their regularly scheduled morning training. Witness reports suggest that there were 10 attackers who scaled the back wall of the academy and began to attack the cadets. Part of the attack team reportedly was dressed in police uniforms, while the rest reportedly wore shalwar kameez (traditional Pakistani dress). Several members of the team also wore suicide belts, and at least some of them carried large duffle bags (similar to those carried by the assailants in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks and the March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore). The gunmen reportedly engaged the cadets with hand grenades and fire from assault rifles. As the gunmen raked the parade ground, many of the cadets reportedly fled the compound or barricaded themselves in various rooms inside the facility. Because the bulk of the people at the academy were cadets and not trained police, they were not issued firearms.
The armed guards at the academy were able to offer some resistance, but the attack team was able to make its way across the parade ground and into the barracks, where the attackers established defensive positions, apparently with the hope of initiating a prolonged hostage situation. Reports are conflicting as to how many hostages they were actually able to seize and control inside the barracks.



The Pakistani police and military responded aggressively to the attack. Within about 30 minutes, officers from the Elite Force — a highly trained branch of the Punjab Police responsible for counterterrorism — reportedly had surrounded the barracks building. By 9 a.m., paramilitary Pakistan Rangers and Pakistani army troops began to arrive. Many of the wounded cadets were evacuated from the parade ground using armored personnel carriers (APCs) to protect them from the attackers’ fire. The attackers apparently attempted to use grenades to attack the APCs, but were met with heavy suppressive fire from the security forces. Pakistani forces also apparently used tear gas against the attackers, as well as APCs and helicopter gunships. Eventually, the Elite Force went room to room to clear the barracks building of attackers. By 4 p.m., the siege had ended, with six of the attackers captured and four killed. (Three of the four reportedly killed themselves using suicide belts.) Despite initial reports of high casualties, it now appears that only eight police officers or cadets were killed in the attack, with more than 90 others wounded.
While armed assaults against paramilitary forces, convoys and other targets are common along the border with Afghanistan, this attack was only the second such attack in Lahore. Terrorist attacks in Pakistan have more commonly been committed by suicide bombers, and it appears that Mehsud’s group may have embraced a change in tactics, perhaps influenced by the success of Mumbai. (However, as we will discuss below, this latest attack, like the attack on the cricket team, was far from a spectacular success.)
Analysis

First, it must be recognized that jihadist attacks on police recruits are not uncommon. We have seen attacks on police training and recruiting centers in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other countries, and we have also seen them before in Pakistan. On July 15, 2007, a suicide bomber attacked a police recruitment center in Dera Ismail Khan, killing 26 people and wounding 35. The victims were at the center to take medical and written tests for entering the police force.
A training center like the one in Manawan provides an unusually large concentration of targets. The more than 800 cadets at the academy were a far larger group of police than is normally found in the police stations scattered throughout the country. The training center was also a far softer target than a traditional police station, where all the officers are armed. From media reports, it appears that there were only seven armed guards on duty at the academy at the time of the attack. The instructors allegedly were armed only with lathis (long canes commonly used by police in India and Pakistan). The academy’s rigid training schedule also provided a highly predictable target, as the attackers knew the cadets would be on the parade field from 7-8 a.m. every day.
With so many potential targets on the parade field and in the barracks, and with so many attackers, it is amazing that there were only eight people killed in this attack (one-fourth the death toll of the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting). This is an indication that the Manawan attackers were not nearly as well trained in marksmanship as the assault team that conducted the November Mumbai attacks, in which 10 gunmen killed 173 people. The 10 heavily armed Manawan assailants did not even succeed in killing one victim each in a situation akin to shooting fish in a barrel.
From a military standpoint, such a formation of massed people in the open would have been far more effectively targeted using mortars and crew-served machine guns, so it can also be argued that the attack was poorly planned and the attackers improperly equipped to inflict maximum casualties. Even so, it is quite amazing to us that attackers armed with assault rifles and grenades did not kill one victim apiece.
Of course, one thing that helped contain the carnage was the response of Pakistani security personnel and their efforts to evacuate the wounded under fire. While not exactly practicing what are known in the United States as “active shooter procedures”, the Elite Force officers did quickly engage the attackers and pin them down until more firepower could be brought to bear. The Elite Force also did a fairly efficient job of clearing the barracks of attackers. The Pakistani response ensured that the incident did not drag on like the Mumbai attacks did. The Elite Force went in hard and fast, and seemingly with little regard for the hostages being held, yet their decisive action proved to be very effective, and the result was that a minimum number of hostages were killed.
There were some significant differences from the situation in Mumbai. First, there was only one crime scene to deal with, and the Pakistani authorities could focus all their attention and resources there. Second, the barracks building was far smaller and simpler than the hotels occupied in the Mumbai attacks. Third, Manawan is far smaller and more isolated than Mumbai, and it is easier to pin the attackers down in a city of that size than in a larger, more densely populated city such as Mumbai. Finally, there were no foreign citizens involved in the hostage situation, so the Pakistani authorities did not have to worry about international sensibilities or killing a foreign citizen with friendly fire. They were able to act aggressively and not worry about distractions — or the media circus that Mumbai became.
The Future

Perhaps the most important thing to watch going forward will be the response of the Pakistani people to these attacks. In his claim of responsibility, Mehsud said the Manawan attack was in direct response to the expanding U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) campaign in Pakistan. Mehsud threatened that there would be more militant attacks in Pakistan and the United States if the UAV attacks did not stop. Clearly, Mehsud is feeling the heat from these attacks, and although he claims he is ready to be martyred, his bravado is belied by the fact that he is taking such extraordinary measures to try to halt the UAV campaign. He obviously fears the UAV strikes, not only for what they can do to him, but for what they can do to degrade his organization.
When the Elite Force completed the clearing of the barracks, several officers came out on the roof of the building, shouted “God is great” and fired celebratory shots into the air (something that is anathema to Western police and military forces). Many of the people gathered outside the academy joined in the shouting and loudly cheered the Elite Force. This sentiment was widely echoed in the Pakistani media.
Although the Manawan attack was intended to demoralize Pakistani security forces, it may have just the opposite effect. The bravery and dedication exhibited by the Pakistani police and soldiers who responded to the attack may instead serve to steel their will and instill professional pride. Mehsud’s recent threats, along with the militant attacks, may also work to alienate him from people who had been supportive of — or at least ambivalent toward — him and the jihadists.
Up until 2003, the Saudi public, and many in the government, pretty much turned a blind eye to the actions of jihadists in Saudi Arabia as long as the jihadists were concentrating their attacks on targets outside the kingdom. But when the jihadists declared war on the Saudi royal family and began to conduct attacks against targets inside the kingdom that resulted in the deaths of ordinary Saudis, the tide of public opinion turned against them and the Saudi government reacted aggressively, smashing the jihadists. Similarly, it was the brutality of al Qaeda in Iraq that helped turn many Iraqi Sunnis against the jihadists there. Indeed, an insurgency cannot survive long without the support of the people. In the case of Pakistan, that also goes for the support of Inter-Services Intelligence and the army. The TTP, al Qaeda and their Kashmiri militant allies simply cannot sustain themselves without at least the tacit support of Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus and army. If these two powerful establishments ever turn against them, the groups will be in serious peril.
Pakistan has long been able to control the TTP and al Qaeda more than it has. The country has simply lacked the will, for a host of reasons. It will be interesting to watch and see if Mehsud’s campaign serves to give the Pakistani people, and the authorities, the will they need to finally take more serious steps to tackle the jihadist problem. Having long battled deep currents of jihadist thought within the country, the Pakistani government continues to face serious challenges. But if the tide of public support begins to turn against the jihadists, those challenges will become far more manageable.
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090401_implications_manawan_attack
 

EnlightenedMonk

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Thanks dude... got the same thing today morning by email as well.... Thanks for posting...
 

VayuSena1

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Shocking video indeed...

But this won't be the first one coming out of Pakistan now that Sharia is in place in full force... we'll see more such drama playing itself out in larger scales very soon....

Public executions, chopping off limbs, stoning etc will now become commonplace in that country...
More than all these primitive and uncivilized methods of punishment inflicted upon their own masses, I believe that as Indians it is the nuclear weapons that we should be worried about. Due to the level of education, awareness and attitude of these so-called fighters, I would not expect them to consider the fallout effects of a possible nuclear detonation.

I am yet to see any concrete statement made by either the Pakistani government or the international security forces stationed in close proximity to the affected region, explaining what precautions they are likely to take incase such a situation is likely to occur. Neither the media nor the public is made aware of any of these precautions, which makes it worrisome for Indian government and top military brass as well since equipment to counter incoming nuclear ballistic missiles and satellites that would detect such weapons much before they are even deployed are currently being tested and manufactured and are not readily in the hands of the Indian armed forces.

The closest date Anti-Ballistic Missile shield that we can expect according to the news reports and statements from Dr. Prahlad and other distinguished weapon scientists, would be somewhere in 2013, which means that till that time, we have to rely on conventional means or possibly a pre-emptive nuclear strike should the Talibans be anywhere close to getting Pakistani nuclear weapons.

This concern by both Government of India and the regional governments around Pakistan is often portrayed by the media as an over reaction and an unncessary worry, however any sane person from a civilized background would understand how grave this situation is and could turn into a reality if necessary precautions are not taken. There is no telling to what the Talibans can do to outsiders if they do not have compassion for their own men and women, which is visible by the standards they expect in a particular society and the punishments they inflict upon their own masses for the most trivial of matters.
 

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Leather and spank show from the Taliban,and we still have the gumption to call them medieval and regressive.even Hugh Hefner will find them right up his alley.....

Spank Pakistan spank !!
 

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‘Taliban in every city and town of Pakistan’

Pak Top Cop Tells National Assembly Panel

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



New Delhi: In what will deepen fears about Pakistan’s capacity to tackle al- Qaida and Taliban, a top police official from North-West Frontier Province — where the jihadi groups have an entrenched presence — said the Taliban was present in every city and town and hoped to launch more 9/11-type strikes against the West.
NWFP police chief Malik Navid told the Pakistan National Assembly’s standing committee that the extremist organisations were spreading rapidly through the country being no longer confined to the mountains of NWFP or Waziristan. He said the terrorists’ aims included destabilisation of current regimes in the West Asia — a long-term objective of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
Navid, according to reports from Pakistan, said the al-Qaida-Taliban combo hoped to use parts of the West Asia as launch pads for attacks against the Europe and the US and pointed out that the groups had developed some expertise in making bio-chemical weapons. He warned that the Pakistan government needed to urgently focus on containing militancy as it spread from its bases.
The frank assessment of the police official serves to confirm concerns about whether Pakistan and its military complex in particular was prepared to clearly acknowledge the threat posed by jihadists given the army and ISI see Taliban as allies in ensuring a “friendly” dispensation in Afghanistan while also feeding the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistan army’s sporadic efforts to roll back jihadis has lacked conviction and have predictably shown poor results.The patronage extended to Deobandi and Wahabi groups by Pakistan’s army and ISI since the mid-90’s for anti-India operations — as they were seen to be more brutal and ready to carry out the directions of their handlers than Kashmiri outfits — tied in with the rise of Taliban who came from the same cloth.


STRIKE AT WILL: People cry for the victims of a bomb blast at a Shi'ite religious centre in a local hospital, in Chakwal, Pakistan, on Sunday
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Defa...geLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00101&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
 

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