Dawn – North Waziristan; Jirga warns of ending peace deal

Our Correspondent

Miramshah, 22 April 2013. A local jirga in North Waziristan Agency has said it will end a five-year-old peace agreement with the government if curfew in the tribal region is not lifted by April 24.

The agency remained under curfew for the sixth consecutive day on Sunday.

The curfew was imposed after clashes erupted between security forces and militants in the Miramshah area, which left 18 people injured.

The jirga asked the political administration to lift the curfew, open roads for traffic and abolish new checkposts in the area.

The Uthmanzai tribe and local Taliban had signed the agreement with the government in 2007.

Tribal elders at the jirga said they would pull out of the peace agreement unilaterally if the government failed to accept their demands.

People in the agency were critical of the government after the imposition of curfew. They expressed concern over closure of educational institutions in the area.

Recently, a local Taliban shura stopped students from attending schools after security forces closed the main road for traffic.

A large number of students studying in Peshawar and other parts of the country have been stranded in different parts of North Waziristan because of the curfew.

Hundreds of people and a number of trucks loaded with goods have been stranded in Bannu.

There is shortage of vegetables, fruits and other basic commodities in local markets because of closure of the main roads.  In Miramshah, the price of 80-kg bag of wheat flour has jumped from Rs2,700 to Rs4,000 and tomato is being sold at Rs150 per kg.

Candidates taking part in May 11 elections have restricted their election campaigns because of the prolonged curfew and tensions in the area.

http://dawn.com/2013/04/22/jirga-warns-of-ending-peace-deal/

Dawn – Taliban stop students from going to schools

Pazir Gul

Miramshash, 16 April 2013. Irritated by blockade of main artery of Miramshah in North Waziristan, the local Taliban Shura issued a ‘decree’ on Monday barring boys and girls from going to schools near the Cantonment area until security forces removed the barricades.

The Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Shura warned parents not to send their children to five education institutions near the Cantonment area in Miramshah.

“Boys and girls will not go to these educational institutions until the road is opened for general public. If any boy or girl violates the decision of the Shura then he/she will be responsible for the consequences,” said a statement issued by the Shura.

Security forces permanently blocked the road because of security concerns after a suicide attack on Esha checkpost on March 24 which killed 24 soldiers and injured 40. Security has been tightened in the area since then. Regular imposition of curfew in the areas along the main road has badly affected social and economic activities in the volatile tribal agency.

The statement said the road blockade was causing huge inconvenience to the people and had forced hundreds of girls to pass through main streets and markets. “The movement of young girls and women through streets is against the teachings of Islam and local traditions. Therefore the Shura and the tribal people cannot tolerate it.”

The warning has put the future of hundreds of boys and girls at stake.

The garrison area boasts three semi-government English medium schools for boys, one high school for girls and one degree college for girls which has an enrolment of more than 400.

The educational institutions are already in tatters in Waziristan and other parts of the tribal region because of militancy and violence.

The statement said that Mujahideen (Taliban) had signed a peace deal with the government “for the glory of religion and to protect dignity of the local people”. It said the Shura had never put a ban on education in the area but they (Taliban) could not tolerate anything which negated tribal values and traditions.

http://dawn.com/2013/04/16/taliban-stop-students-from-going-to-schools/

The Hindu – Malala Yousafzai wave sweeps Pakistan

Anita Joshua

Islamabad, 13 October 2012. When gun-toting men stopped their school wagon in Mingora last Tuesday around 12.45 pm asking for Malala Yousafzai, none of the three girls inside spoke. This, despite the terrorists threatening to shoot all of them if they did not identify Malala.

Today, stirred by the braveheart, who dared to stand up to the Taliban, and her friends, Shazia and Kainat, who refused to identify her even under threat, girls across Pakistan are saying ‘I am Malala.’

This is happening not just on the social media – which offers a degree of anonymity and security – but also on television and on the streets; some with their faces uncovered. ‘I-am-Malala’ has been trending not just in Pakistan but also in Afghanistan where girls’ education is equally at risk from the very same elements.

On Saturday, the Afghanistan Education Ministry organised a nationwide prayer for her at schools. She is being likened to ‘Malalai of Maiwand,’ the ‘Afghan Joan of Arc’ who rallied the Pashtun army against the British in 1880.

In an echo of the Pakistan People’s Party pet slogan kitne Bhutto maroge, har ghar se Bhutto niklega (how many Bhuttos will you kill, every house will produce one), the refrain across the country is “how many Malalas will you kill?’’

As daily vigils are being organised to pray for the speedy recovery of Malala and her friends, girls were coming forward; willing to stand up and be counted. Her classmate from the Khushal Public School in Mingora, asserted: “Every girl in Swat is Malala. We will educate ourselves. We will win. They can’t defeat us.’’

If anything, the fate of Malala – who came to represent the ‘voice of the girls of Swat’ because of her blog, written under the pseudonym Gul Makai, in which she advocated girls’ right to education during the Taliban reign of terror over Swat – has made the media a bit circumspect about exposing the girls too much for fear that the terrorists might target them, too.

Still, at vigils and demonstrations, children are turning up in considerable numbers; a rare sight in Pakistan where crowds are avoided given the impunity with which terrorists penetrate. Even in Peshawar – where there are indications of various terrorist outfits regrouping and mobilising after a brief lull – girls are coming out in support of Malala; fearing that silence is no longer an option.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/malala-wave-sweeps-pakistan/article3994568.ece?homepage=true

The Tribune – Drone strikes kill top Afghan rebel; Key Pakistan Taliban leader also dead

Washington/Islamabad, August 25. Badruddin Haqqani, the key operational commander of the Al-Qaida linked Haqqani network, and top Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah are believed to have been killed in US drone and air strikes in the tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Badruddin, the son of Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, is ranked as a deputy to his elder brother and the network’s chief Sirajuddin and was believed to be killed in one of the five volleys of drone strikes in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan since August 18.

Four of the missile hits took place in Shawal Valley, considered to be traditional area of operations of the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, and US reports said he may have been killed in the August 21 strike near Miranshah.

One senior Pakistani intelligence official said Badruddin had fled a compound that he and other militants were in after it was hit by a missile, then was killed by a second drone strike on a car that he was in. There was no official word on Badruddin’s fate from the Haqqani network.

Senior US officials were quoted by the New York Times as saying that they had strong indications that Badruddin was killed in a drone strike. “Our informers have told us that he has been killed in the drone attack on the 21st but we cannot confirm it,” said one of the Pakistani intelligence officials.

If Badruddin’s death is confirmed, it could deal a major blow to the Haqqanis, one of the United States’ most-feared enemies in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, a statement by coalition forces in Afghanistan said that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leader Mullah Dadullah was among 20 militants killed in a “precision air strike in Shigal wa Sheltan district (of) Kunar province yesterday.”

Dadullah, whose real name is Maulana Mohammad Jamaluddin, was made the commander of Taliban in Pakistan’s Bajaur Agency in 2010. His deputy Shakir too was killed in the air strike, the statement said. (Agencies)

Terror King Badruddin Haqqani

- Badruddin Haqqani: Key operational commander of Haqqani network, ran its day-to-day militant operations, handles high-profile kidnappings and manages its lucrative smuggling operations

- Son of Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, he was ranked as a deputy to his elder brother and network chief Sirajuddin

- Thought to be in his mid-30s, he was a member of the Miranshah Shura, one of the Afghan Taliban’s four regional commands that controls the group’s activities in Afghanistan-Pakistan region

- Badruddin was one of the nine Haqqani family members designated by the US as global terrorists

Who is Mullah Dadullah

- Was self-proclaimed Taliban leader in Pakistan’s Bajur tribal area that lies across the border

- Fled to Afghanistan to escape an operation launched by the Pakistan Army

- Responsible for movement of fighters and weapons, as well as attacks against Afghan and coalition forces

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120826/main2.htm

Dawn – Fear of operation in North Waziristan; Tribals advised to take refuge in Afghanistan

Miramshah, 26 August 2012. A local Taliban Shura and tribal Maliks have decided that tribal people would avail the option to take refuge in Afghanistan if the government launches a military operation in North Waziristan.

In the wake of widespread speculations about an army action against militants in the area, about 1,500 Maliks, clerics and members of the Taliban Shura held a meeting at Islami Madressah Nezamia in Edek village, near Miramshah, on Saturday.

The chief of a peace committee, Maulvi Gul Ramzan, Mufti Saddiqullah, Taliban commanders and elders of Utmanzai tribe addressed the Jirga and discussed various options in case security forces launched an offensive.

The Jirga declared that Utmanzai tribe was abiding by a peace agreement signed with the government in February 2007 and would continue efforts for maintaining peace in the area, but the government and security forces were violating the deal.

“The peace agreement between the tribes and government is still intact. In case government starts a military operation the people of North Waziristan will migrate to Afghanistan,” it decided.

“The Afghan government is much better than the Pakistani government because at least women and children are not killed in drone strikes in the neighbouring country,” the speakers said, criticising the government for not stopping American missile attacks.

The Jirga was informed that a committee had been set up to discuss the situation with the administration and security officers.

The committee would ask the government that on what basis an operation would be launched.

The speakers claimed that the law and order situation in North Waziristan was far better than other parts of the country.

They urged people not to leave North Waziristan.

They complained that security personnel were treated passengers very roughly at check posts.

Meanwhile, the army and administration have been assuring tribal people that the government has no plan to launch an operation. Officials have been making announcements on local radio channels since Friday that they have no information about an operation.

“Troops have been deployed along the border with Afghanistan to stop intrusion,” they said and urged people not to shift families from Waziristan.

The administration also announced that there would be a curfew in the area from 5am to 6pm on Sunday to provide protection to a security forces’ convoy. Such curfews are imposed every Sunday.

Our Correspondent adds from Bannu: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) staged a rally against US drone strikes in Waziristan and resumption of supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The party’s leaders alleged at the rally held at a sports complex that the government was launching an operation in Waziristan to please America and other western countries. They warned that JUI-F’s workers would resist such an operation.

http://dawn.com/2012/08/26/fear-of-operation-in-n-waziristan-tribals-advised-to-take-refuge-in-afghanistan/

Dawn – Militants commence Ramazan campaign

Islamabad, 22 July 2012. Militants welcomed Ramazan with a string of attacks on Saturday that claimed 21 lives and injured at least two dozen people, DawnNews reported.

Nine people, including five children, were killed and more than 15 others were injured when a suicide bomber struck the main headquarter of anti-TTP militant commander Maulvi Nabi Hanfi in Spin Thall area on the border of the tribal regions of North Waziristan and Kurram, official sources said.

Official and intelligence sources said that the suicide bomber on foot entered Mullah Nabi Hanfi’s headquarter located near Thall Tehsil of the Hangu district on the border of Kurram and North Waziristan and blew himself up.

Official sources added that those killed in the explosion included four suspected militants hailing from the Maulvi Nabi group.

Moreover, the injured had been shifted to hospitals in Hangu.

Maulvi Nabi was once part of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but had parted ways with the organisation upon developing some differences.

In another attack, four people,including three of the same family, died of an IED explosion in Doog Darra area of Upper Dir on Saturday morning whereas eight others were injured in the attack.

The improvised explosive device “was detonated using a remote controlled device” near the town of Dhog Darra in Upper Dir district, regional police chief Ehsanullah Khan said.

The dead included the driver of the vehicle and two young men, who died on the spot whereas another person succumbed to his wounds after being shifted to the hospital.

“It was a militant act aimed at creating fear among the people in the area,” Khan said.

In yet another attack that took place on a coast guard’s checkpost in Gwadar, eight security men were killed and two other were injured.

Levies sources said the officials were on routine duty at the checkpost when unknown gunmen driving on motorbikes attacked the checkpost with rockets and gunfire.

Initially, six security men were killed and three had been wounded. Two security officials succumbed to their injuries upon being shifted to a hospital for treatment.

The attackers managed to flee from the site of the attack. However, security officials cordoned off the area and began a hunt for the gunmen.

http://dawn.com/2012/07/22/militants-commence-ramazan-campaign/

Dawn – US kills Qaeda number two in drone strike

Washington, 6 June 2012. The United States said Tuesday that al Qaeda number two Abu Yahya al-Libi was dead, after a drone strike dealt the weightiest blow to the terror group since the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The demise of Libi, a charismatic figure beloved by rank-and-file radicals with a flair for media and managerial authority over terror affiliates, meant another victory in President Barack Obama’s ruthless bid to crush al Qaeda.

“Our government has been able to confirm Al-Libi’s death,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, ending a prolonged US tussle with a man who once escaped from a US jail in Afghanistan, and had defied previous attempts to kill him.

Officials refused to confirm the circumstances of Libi’s death, but Pakistani authorities previously spoke of a pre-dawn CIA drone strike on Monday on a compound in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

“It is significant,” another US official said, saying Libi headed al Qaeda operations in Pakistan and outreach to affiliates such as Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has attacked US targets.

Officials were unable to say whether there were any other casualties in the attack on Libi, after earlier reports that 15 people had died in the drone strike.

News of the killing of Libi followed reports detailing the scope of the US campaign against global terrorism, including revelations that President Barack Obama personally presides over a “kill list” of top suspects.

Libi’s death will also bolster Obama’s national security credentials as he seeks to repel claims of weakness abroad leveled by his Republican opponent in November’s election, Mitt Romney.

Republicans have complained that the White House is selectively leaking intelligence data to bolster Obama’s reputation as a steely commander in chief.

The Libi killing may again worsen tenuous US ties with nominal anti-terror ally Pakistan, severely harmed by drone strikes, a US raid that killed bin Laden last year and Islamabad’s refusal to reopen Nato supply lines into Afghanistan.

A trusted lieutenant of bin Laden, Libi appeared in countless al Qaeda videos and was considered the chief architect of its global propaganda machine.

The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that Libi had served as the group’s “general manager” and had overseen day-to-day operations in Pakistani tribal areas.

The official described the killing of Libi as a “major blow” to al Qaeda’s core that would put further pressure on the group’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Analysts said that Libi had played a talismanic role in al Qaeda, and his loss could be a blow from which the movement may not recover.

“If Zawahiri is put down soon, al Qaeda’s senior leadership will be broken and the torch will have to pass to AQAP,” said terrorism expert Jarret Brachman, of North Dakota State University.

Libi’s death followed the US claim that Atiyah abd al-Rahman, then described in Washington as al Qaeda’s number two, was killed in a US missile strike in North Waziristan on August 22 last year.

“It is a job that is hard to fill and there may not be, given the duration of late that people have held that job … a lot of candidates hoping to fill it,” Carney said.

Pakistani officials had originally said it was unclear whether Libi had been present at a compound in the village of Hesokhel, east of Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan, that was targeted in the drone strike.

Libi had evaded US clutches before: he escaped from a high security US prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2005.

There had been unconfirmed reports that Libi was wounded in a US drone strike that killed nine militants on May 28. A report that he was killed in a December 2009 drone strike in South Waziristan also proved false.

Obama has presided over a relentless attempt to crush al Qaeda, including in Pakistan and Yemen, since taking office in 2009.

Last month, during a visit to Afghanistan, he said his goal of defeating the group behind the September 11 attacks in 2001 was “now within our reach.”

A Pakistani Taliban leader, speaking to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said Libi “had been living in the Mirali area for quite a while. Most of the people from his group were also in Mirali. When the first missile hit, they went to the house to check the damage.”

“And immediately, another missile hit them at the spot. Unfortunately, Sheikh Sahib (Libi) was martyred. This is a big loss, he was a great scholar. After Doctor Sahib (Zawahri), he was the main al Qaeda leader,” the Pakistani Taliban leader said.

Mirali is a town in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Residents of the village said to be the site of Libi’s death, Hesokhel, noted an unusually high number of militants gathered there after the drone strike and they kept people away.

“They usually bury the bodies after a drone strike in the nearest graveyard,” said one of the villagers, describing the aftermath of previous strikes in the area. “This time they put all the bodies in their cars and took them away.”

President Barack Obama has made strikes against anti-US militants, particularly the killing of bin Laden, a major component of his bid for re-election in November.

There have been eight such strikes since Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari attended a Nato summit in Chicago on May 21, where they talked briefly but held no formal meeting.

Three of those strikes occurred on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

http://dawn.com/2012/06/06/us-kills-qaeda-number-two-in-drone-strike/

BBC News – US drone attack ‘targeted al-Qaeda deputy’

Tuesday 5 June 2012. A US drone strike on Monday in Pakistan targeted al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi, US officials say.

They say it is still unclear whether he was among those killed in the strike on a suspected militant compound in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

Two missiles by the unmanned aircraft killed 15 people, Pakistani officials say.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry strongly condemned the strike, calling it “illegal”, Reuters news agency reports.

‘Major blow’

A senior US official told the BBC that Libi was the target of Monday’s morning strike in Hesokhel, to the east of Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan.

The first missile struck the compound, killing three militants, Pakistani security officials said.

A second missile then killed 12 more militants who had arrived at the scene, they added.

If Libi’s death is confirmed, it would be a “major blow to core of al-Qaeda”, the US official told the BBC.

Washington believes that following Osama Bin Laden’s death last year, Libi, an Islamic scholar from Libya, became al-Qaeda’s second-in-command after Egyptian born Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Libi is reportedly in charge of day-to-day operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Libi was reported killed in a drone strike in Pakistan in 2009, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.

Pakistan’s frontier tribal region is considered a hub of activity by al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

There have been eight US drone strikes in the past two weeks despite Pakistani demands for them to be stopped.

It was the eighth and deadliest attack since 23 March, marking a considerable upsurge in the use of the controversial US drone programme, reports the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad.

It has come about since a deal to reopen Nato supply routes through Pakistan fell through.

The Pakistani government closed the routes six months ago in protest at a US air strike along the Afghan border in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed, an episode which contributed to the current crisis in relations between Washington and Islamabad, our correspondent adds.

Pakistan says the drone attacks fuel anti-US sentiment and claim civilian casualties along with militants. The US insists the strikes are effective.

The strike comes days after more details of the Obama administration’s drone policy emerged in the US.

Administration officials told the New York Times that Mr Obama and top security officials regularly consult on adding militants to a drone “kill list” – and said the US president personally approves or vetoes each strike.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18327634

BBC News – US drone ‘kills nine’ in Pakistan’s North Waziristan

Saturday 5 May 2012. A US drone strike has killed at least nine suspected militants in the volatile tribal areas of north-west Pakistan, say Pakistani officials.

The drone fired missiles at a suspected militant compound in the Shawal area of North Waziristan, close to the Afghan border, officials said.

Drones often target Pakistan’s tribal areas, thought to be the hub of Taliban cross-border insurgent activity.

Pakistan said the drone strike was illegal and counterproductive.

Security officials in North Waziristan told the AFP news agency that the compound, which militants were using as a training centre, was completely destroyed.

The US does not normally comment on individual drone operations, which have killed hundreds of people in recent years.

In January, President Barack Obama confirmed for the first time that the covert programme targets militants on Pakistani soil.

Those killed in the drone operations have included al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, as well as civilians and other militants.

In US officials’ first detailed comments on drone strikes, President Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, said last month that the attacks were helping to win the war on the militant network.

But he also conceded that there had been civilian deaths as a result of some strikes.

The frequency of the attacks rose after Mr Obama took office in 2008. More than 100 raids were reported in the area in 2010, and more than 60 took place last year.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Saturday repeated its assertion that drone attacks were a violation of the country’s sovereignty.

The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islambad says many analysts believe the drone strikes could only continue if there was tacit support from Pakistan’s leaders.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17967249

BBC News – Pakistan drone attack kills six in North Waziristan

15 November 2011

A US drone attack has killed at least six suspected militants in north-west Pakistan, intelligence officials say.

The men were in a compound near Miran Shah town in North Waziristan when the drone fired two missiles.

Drone attacks have focused on North and South Waziristan, where US officials believe many al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters find shelter.

The US says the region is home to several militant groups involved in attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Drone attacks frequently target Pakistan’s restive tribal areas, where many insurgents have taken refuge.

The frequency of the attacks has increased since President Barack Obama took office in 2008. More than 100 raids were reported in the area in 2010, and more than 60 have taken place this year.

The US does not routinely confirm drone operations, but analysts say only American forces have the capacity to deploy such aircraft in the region.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15732204