US Marks Bin Laden’s Exit Anniversary with Fanfare‘Mother lode’ of Information Released from Abbotabad Home
David Ignatius - washingtonpost.com
Before his death, Osama bin Laden boldly commanded his network to organize special cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the aircraft of President Obama and Gen. David Petraeus. “The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make (Vice President Joe) Biden take over the presidency,” the al-Qaida leader …
Probe Launched on Links between Pak Jail Break and Afghanistan AttacksAP
PESHAWAR, April 16: Authorities on Monday removed four senior officials over a jail break in the restive northwest and launched a probe into whether it had any link to multiple attacks in Afghanistan. The provincial government said a “total failure” of intelligence was to blame for the break-out, in which dozens of inmates including Taliban militants and death row prisoners …
Turf Wars Heat up on Pak-Afghan BorderLashkar-i-Islam Vs Taliban Vs Army Causes Mass Exodus
AFP
JALOZAI, April 8 – Banmaroo stands in the dust, tears rolling down her cheeks as she recalls how her husband was killed in Pakistan’s latest battle zone on the Afghan border. “He was just a labourer. Firing started. I don’t know who killed him, but I was handed his body in the afternoon. It was in such a rough condition, …
Curfew imposed in Gilgit after Sectarian ViolenceThe Nation
GILGIT, April 4 – The authorities issued shoot-on-sight orders to the law enforcement agencies to maintain law and order situation after 17 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in sectarian violence in Gilgit-Baltistan on Tuesday. The attacks led to an army deployment and imposition of curfew in the city, confining the inhabitants to their homes, as the situation …
Background of Sectarian Conflict in Gilgit-Baltistanwww.pildat.org
Around 75% of the region’s population follows some form of Shia Islam, almost an exact reversal of the norm in the rest of Pakistan. This makes the Northern Areas the only Shia majority political unit in Sunni-dominated Pakistan. There are four sects in Gilgit-Baltistan; Shia, Noorbakshi and Ismaili communities believe in the offices of Imamat, according to them, runs after …
Producing Little Osamas on the RunNew Details Emerge on Bin Laden’s Life in Pakistan
AP
HARIPUR, Pakistan: It’s an ornate but not lavish two-story house tucked away at the end of a mud clogged street. This is where Pakistan’s intelligence agency believes Osama bin Laden lived for nearly a year until he moved into the villa in which he was eventually killed. The residence in the frontier town of Haripur was one of five safe …
Karzai Calls on U.S. to Pull Back as Taliban Cancel TalksBy Rod Nordland and Matthew Rosenberg – nytimes.com
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 15 — Prospects for an orderly withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan suffered two blows on Thursday as President Hamid Karzai demanded that the United States confine troops to major bases by next year, and the Taliban announced that they were suspending peace talks with the Americans. Getting talks started with the Taliban has been a major …
Cultural Ignorance behind the Koran Burning in AfghanistanBy the ATDT Author
The Koran burning incident, which has raged in Afghanistan since the last couple of weeks, is symptomatic of the mutual misunderstanding with which the US and regional players have bumbled on for the last 10 1/2 years – with no clear goal in sight. If the US goal in Afghanistan was to train the security forces to handle their own …
Hindus Oppose Bin Laden film that Portrays Pakistan on Indian SoilGuardian.com
Indians have protested against the shooting of a film by Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow on the hunt for Osama bin Laden on the grounds that the film-makers were portraying Pakistan on Indian soil. Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in May last year. The film-makers, denied permission to film in Pakistan, converted parts of the Indian …
US officials meet Taliban negotiators in Qatar
KABUL, Jan 28 — Several Taliban negotiators have begun meeting with American officials in Qatar, where they are discussing preliminary trust-building measures, including a possible prisoner transfer, several former Taliban officials said Saturday. The former officials said that four to eight Taliban representatives had traveled to Qatar from Pakistan to set up a political office for the exiled Afghan insurgent …
The Human Intel that led to Bin Laden’s HideoutUS Defense Secretary Urges Release of Pak Abettor
WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has urged Islamabad to release a Pakistani physician who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad on May 2 last year. In an interview for an episode of “60 Minutes”, a programme run by the Colombia Broadcasting Service (CBS), Mr Panetta acknowledged that the doctor provided vital clues to the United …
Commission Fails to Pin Responsibility in Journalist Murder CaseThe Express Tribune
Karachi, Jan 14: That the judicial commission’s report on Saleem Shahzad’s murder is inconclusive should not be surprising, experts say. Its shortcoming lies in its very foundation – the formation of a ‘judicial panel’ to investigate a murder. The judicial commission’s failure to point out the murderers of journalist Saleem Shahzad was expected, said Coordinator of the Committee to Protect …
Remembering Saleem Shahzad – Tribute to a slain colleagueBy the Author
It was Saleem Shahzad’s dedication to investigative reporting and his fascination for the crime-beat that foremost stands out in my memory. Come evening and the slender young man, then working for the affiliate Star newspaper, would enter the Dawn reporters room to compare notes with the crime reporter. His style was single-minded and purposeful – rechecking facts to supplement hours …
US Senior Officials Confirm, Taliban Deny Secret TalksTalks Reflect Former US Defense Secretary's Remarks
“In my opinion, any future Defense Secretary who advises the President to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined.”- US Defense Secretary Robert Gates (US Military Academy, West Point, New York, Feb. 25, 2011).
Wilson Center Recommends Sweeping Changes in Troubled Pakistan Aid Program
WASHINGTON: The Wilson Center today released a major new report on the controversial U.S. civilian assistance program to Pakistan, known as Kerry-Lugar-Berman (KLB). The report warns that substantial mid-course changes are necessary if KLB is to fulfill its goals for both the United States and Pakistan, and provides nearly 30 recommendations for guiding KLB forward. “We have to get Pakistan …
Clash Between NATO and Pakistani Troops DefusedBy Rod Nordland (The New York Times)
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 30 — A cross-border incident involving NATO and Pakistani forces was quickly defused early on Wednesday with no loss of life, according to Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, the spokesman for the American-led international coalition here. Few details of the incident were immediately available but it apparently involved heavy artillery fire across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Afghanistan’s Paktika …
Fight Hard, Talk HardThe End Game in Afghanistan
By ATDT Author
It is an axiom that Americans work hard and play hard. What is less known, and at times baffling, are US moves that entail crushing the enemy on the battle field while engaging with its high profile leaders in private. This fight hard, talk hard strategy – designed to do whatever it takes to succeed, is the hall-mark of a …
Tenth Anniversary of US Invasion of AfghanistanTerror Networks Relocate to Pakistan
By the Author
As the US marks the tenth anniversary of its invasion of Afghanistan, pro Taliban terror networks – driven out of Kabul in October 2001 – have reinvented themselves inside Pakistan. They are enabled by an inept foreign policy and absence of governance that allows the most brutal ideologues to consolidate themselves within failing states. The militants have found the most …
Balochistan new hub of sectarian killings13 more passengers killed Oct 4
Mujib Mashal, Al Jazeera
October 06-11: “They ordered the passengers off the bus,” said Hassan, a 16-year-old construction worker who survived the September 19 sectarian attack on Hazaras, a minority Shia group in Pakistan’s southwest Balouchistan province. Carrying around forty passengers, mostly pilgrims going to Iran, the bus was stopped in the Mastung area, just an hour drive outside the provincial capital Quetta, and …
Human Rights body Condemns Mastung MassacreLack of action emboldened sectarian killers: HRCP
September 21: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has slammed the killing of at least 29 Shia pilgrims in Tuesday’s attack on their bus near Mastung, calling the absence of security for them outrageous and adding that the killers had been emboldened by a persistent lack of action against sectarian militant groups. A statement by the Commission said on …