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The Lessons of Mumbai were Learned by the Jihadis

Paris carnage (Credit: cnn.com)
Paris carnage
(Credit: cnn.com)

In November 2008, a new form of terrorism filled our television screens as a 10-man cell dispatched by Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba wreaked murder and mayhem across Mumbai. Choosing prominent targets filled with foreigners and Indians, the terrorists opened fire on anyone they came across, butchering 266 before dying fighting the authorities.

In so doing, they took over global headlines for days as well as bringing one of Asia’s super-cities to a standstill. Terrorist groups around the world celebrated this horror and began to discuss how they might try to emulate this success. Seven years later in Paris, the playbook has been copied.

This has been the longstanding fear of Western security agencies. Aware of the perceived success of the Mumbai attack, police and intelligence services across Europe have been ramping up their preparedness and training. Most recently, in June, the UK’s emergency and intelligence agencies did a dry run for a marauding shooter attack in London. And there have been scares. In 2010, a network of European cells that seemed to indicate al-Qaeda was attempting a Mumbai-style assault, with training camps in Pakistan’s badlands, was apparently disrupted.

Then earlier this year, Paris was racked by the Charlie Hebdo murders. But whereas those attacks, initially at least, were selective in their targets, Friday’s were utterly indiscriminate. The bombers at the stadium must have known the French President was in the environs, though they blew themselves up outside, killing whoever happened to be nearby. The other cell liberally targeted Parisians on a Friday night out. This is a markedly different form of horror and one that requires deep indoctrination, preparation and training. It is also a step up in terms of atrocity from what we had seen before in Europe. Mumbai-style terrorism has reached European shores.

At least one of the attackers has been uncovered as having some French background. While unsurprising given the threat picture that we have seen, this is particularly disturbing within the context of the sort of attack they undertook. To brutally shoot and execute fellow nationals pleading for their lives is something which would have required intense commitment. This training may have occurred in Syria, but in many ways this no longer matters. Islamic State (Isis) has shown an interest in stirring chaos and misery around the world with little apparent concern for its strategic impact.

 

Unlike the Madrid bombings, which had the effect of prying apart the coalition in Iraq, the attacks that Isis has inspired, instigated or directed, have been aimed at killing as many as possible in “enemy” countries and stirring tensions in societies. France in particular has been at the epicentre of this threat. In May 2014, Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche opened fire at a Jewish Museum in Brussels killing three. He was later reported to have fought alongside Isis. In August this year, another young man with links to France, Ayoub el Khazzani, was barely prevented from shooting at passengers on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris.

His background remains unclear, but he was linked to a network in Turkey that was linked to Isis and connected to Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a 24-year-old Algerian French resident who was reportedly plotting to attack churches in Paris. He was detained after he called an ambulance to his home having shot himself accidentally in the leg. He was already of concern to French security services.

And none of this is to talk about the numerous plots that French authorities have faced where individuals have launched attacks in advance of jihadist ideologies with no clear evidence of any sort of network. Around Christmas last year there was a spate of random attacks using knives or cars, and in June, Yassin Salhi decapitated his boss and tried to drive a car bomb into a chemical factory in Lyon. He strung up his boss’s head on a fence, took pictures of it with an Islamist flag and sent them to a fighter he knew in Syria.

This, sadly, is the nature of the current threat. And while obtaining the high-powered rifles required to cause such mass slaughter is much harder in the UK, it could strike here. Each wave of terrorism has to cause greater mayhem to have the same impact over time, and consequently for Isis to distinguish itself from al-Qaeda, it must create greater impact and misery.

Timeline of Paris attacks

While the UK can draw comfort from the fact weapons are harder to get here, British people abroad have fallen foul of these plots. The massacre in Sousse particularly affected British nationals, and at least one Briton was caught up in Friday’s Paris attacks. Terrorism has to continually evolve and cause greater brutality to maintain impact and attract attention. And while France is currently the epicentre, the ideology and groups are ones that are keen to equally target the UK.

Raffaello Pantucci is director of  international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute

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Pak army chief’s U.S. visit to focus on Afghanistan, peace talks

Gen Raheel Sharif (Credit: arabnews.com)
Gen Raheel Sharif
(Credit: arabnews.com)

Pakistan’s powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif during his U.S. visit this week will hold talks with top defence officials and discuss key issues like the Afghanistan situation, facilitating peace parleys with the Taliban and Indo—Pak ties, officials said on Sunday.

General Raheel, during his visit from November 15—20, will meet top American defence officials amid indications that the U.S. wants Pakistan to revive reconciliation talks with the Afghan Taliban, considered close to the spy agency ISI.

Significantly, Gen. Raheel is visiting the U.S. on his own as there was no official invitation either from his American counterpart or the Pentagon.

A Pakistani official said Pakistan is ready to play its role in the reconciliation process but the statements by Afghan government blaming the country for the recent deadly attacks by the Taliban have vitiated the atmosphere.

“The issue of peace in Afghanistan will be part of talks in Washington and Pakistan will like to have assurance of action against militants involved in attacks in return for pushing Taliban for talks,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Pakistan has been demanding action against militants like chief of Pakistani Taliban Mullah Fazlullah, who is allegedly hiding in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said last month that his government was trying to arrange talks with the Taliban but nothing concrete has come out so far.

Earlier, the first open round of talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban were held in Murree near Islamabad in July and another round scheduled later was cancelled when the news of Taliban supremo Mullah Omar’s death surfaced.

Gen. Raheel will also brief the U.S. officials about security relations with India after deadly border clashes in recent months raised fears that the conflict might spiral out of control, officials said.

Gen. Raheel would meet Vice President Joe Biden. Other meetings that he would have during his stay in Washington include with Secretary of State John Kerry, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Joseph Dunford, Army Chief of Staff Gen Mark Milley and Director CIA John Brennan.

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Crime Down in Karachi, Paramilitary in Pakistan Shifts Focus

Rangers in Karachi (Credit: jasarat.org)
Rangers in Karachi
(Credit: jasarat.org)

KARACHI, Nov 7 — Paramilitary troops have become ubiquitous around this sprawling Pakistani port city. They watch over police officers at traffic circles, their convoys patrol thoroughfares, their raids drive daily headlines.

After years of crime and militancy that had made Karachi a byword for violence, an extended operation by the paramilitary force — the Sindh Rangers, who are ultimately answerable to the powerful Pakistani military command — has been working. Officials and residents report that crime is notably down across the city.

But in the name of security, the force in recent months has also begun upending the city’s political order. The crackdown has expanded to target two powerful political parties that have long been at odds with the military establishment. And it has left a broad trail of human rights violations — including accusations of extrajudicial killings, in which officers shoot suspects after taking them into unlawful detention, according to rights advocates and members of those parties.

The crackdown, which began two years ago, was initially limited to the slums and outskirts of the city, where Taliban militants and gangsters wielded influence. But this year, the military ordered that the dragnet be thrown wider, especially targeting the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or M.Q.M. The political party has controlled the city for decades through the powerful combination of a large ethnic support base, political acumen and armed gangs.

And in August, the Sindh Rangers arrested and brought charges of financing terrorism against Dr. Asim Hussain, a close aide to former President Asif Ali Zardari, who heads the Pakistan Peoples Party, or P.P.P. Several top leaders of the party, which in addition to its national profile controls the government of surrounding Sindh Province, have left the country, fearing arrest.

“We have dismantled the network of Taliban and criminal gangs of Lyari,” said one senior paramilitary security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the news media. (Lyari is the name of a poor Karachi neighborhood infamous for gang wars.) “Now, it is the turn of militant wings of political parties and those who provided finances to armed groups.”

The leaders of both the parties say they are being targeted for political reasons and accuse the Rangers, and their military masters, of overstepping their mandate and meddling in civilian politics. Interviews with the police and paramilitary officials and political leaders reveal that even among those who support the military, there is a growing sense that the country’s generals have made a concerted decision to wrest Karachi from the M.Q.M.’s control.

The intervention comes as the Pakistani military — and particularly its popular top commander, Gen. Raheel Sharif — has been ascendant in the nation’s affairs over the past year, sidelining the elected government on the most critical points of foreign policy and security questions.

In Karachi, the military’s main publicity tack in justifying its crackdown on the M.Q.M. has been to challenge the conventional wisdom about the party’s methods. Rather than treating it as a political party that employs gang violence, as most analysts describe it, the military is in effect categorizing it as a militant group with a political wing.

“The party has a strong and well-organized militant group who has been involved in every sort of terrorism,” said one intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing operation. “Our main target is the M.Q.M.’s militant wing, not its political wing.”

The Rangers have staged raid after raid against the party’s interests over the past few months, including arresting senior party officials at Nine Zero, the nickname of the party’s headquarters in Karachi, long seen as above any police intervention.

Other kinds of pressure have been brought to bear as well.

Some in the local media sector say that Karachi news channels have been warned by the authorities not to cover the live speeches of Altaf Hussain, the leader of M.Q.M., who lives in London. He and his inner circle have also been the focus of a corruption and murder investigation by Scotland Yard; he is free on bail after being arrested in June.

Beyond that, there has been a rash of news reports linking the party to interests within India, adding the suggestion of treason to the other accusations against the party. The drumbeat has grown so intense that in late September, some M.Q.M. party leaders publicly urged clemency from the military and sought to dissociate the party from allegations of Indian ties.

“The M.Q.M. is a patriotic political party, and it will continue to be loyal to Pakistan without any condition,” the party said in a statement.

One result of the campaign has been a visible decline in the party’s ability to command loyalty on the street. It has long held the trump card of being able to shut down the city with protests. But on Sept. 12, a call to stage huge protests over the alleged extrajudicial killings of its workers by the Rangers failed to have much effect.

“Now, the M.Q.M. cannot close the city,” said one gas station manager. “It seems the armed workers have gone underground due to the ongoing operation.”

The M.Q.M. said that since the start of the Rangers crackdown, at least 54 of its workers have been killed in extrajudicial killings and the whereabouts of 231 activists are not known. The police and officials with the Rangers have denied those accusations.

In one case, a 40-year-old M.Q.M. activist and city employee named Sanaullah was arrested by law enforcement agencies on March 31 last year. His body was found the next day in a nearby town, and his widow, Nida Fatima, is convinced that he was summarily killed by the authorities. “If my husband was involved in any crime, he should’ve been presented in front of the court,” she said in an interview.

Although overall killings have gone down significantly in Karachi, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent rights monitoring group, says there has been a large increase in the number of killings by the police and paramilitary force — and that not all can be explained away as shootouts with determined militants. The group says that at least 430 people were killed in shootouts with the law enforcement agencies in the first nine months of 2015.

Asad Iqbal Butt, an official with the human rights group, said that given the vast increase in detention and investigation powers given to the security agencies by recent legal changes, the killings are even more inexplicable. “After being empowered to keep a suspect in custody for 90 days for interrogation, there is no excuse for such killings,” Mr. Butt said.

Several law enforcement officials, however, insist that the majority of such so-called encounter killings have been with the Taliban and other militant or criminal syndicates that have no compunction against shooting at the police or the Rangers.

“We are fighting with well-organized militant groups that have killed more than 65 law enforcers only this year in ongoing operations,” one senior police official said.

Even as the party has come under immense pressure, political analysts say any talk of the M.Q.M.’s total disintegration is premature. That is in part because the party still maintains a vast support base among Karachi’s large ethnic Mohajir minority, which has not shown any signs of mass defection to any other party despite the recent upheaval.

Some analysts believe the politician Imran Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, have the most potential of any group to cut into the M.Q.M.’s influence in Karachi, especially given the widespread image of the party as being acceptable to the military.

But Talat Aslam, a senior editor at The News International in Karachi, said that Mr. Khan’s party, known as P.T.I., had not yet had much electoral success in the city and that at times it had misplayed its hand here.

“Very often, the P.T.I. gives the impression of being a force of outsiders that could arrive out of the blue to ‘liberate’ the captive and enslaved Mohajirs from the M.Q.M., which rules over them by force alone — a description that does not always go down well with the electorate,” Mr. Aslam said.

Political observers say the most likely consequence of the continuing paramilitary crackdown will be that no single political party will now be able to control the city. But for some here, particularly within the business sector, the improvement in overall violence has been worth the political upheaval.

“We do not care about the politicians,” said Atiq Mir, a leader of the local merchants’ community. “Peace is returning to Karachi because of the steps taken by the Rangers.”

Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad

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Fierce clashes between rival Afghan Taliban factions: officials

KANDAHAR, Nov 8: Fierce clashes have erupted between two rival Taliban groups in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday, reportedly leaving dozens dead in the first internecine fighting since a breakaway faction of the Islamist movement appointed its own leader.

The skirmish was taking place in southern Zabul province between fighters loyal to the widely-recognised Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and followers of Mansoor Dadullah, a deputy of splinter-group leader Mohamed Rasool who announced his own faction Tuesday.

“The fighting started from early Saturday morning in Khak-i-Afghan and Arghandab districts of Zabul province. About 60 fighters of Mullah Dadullah and 20 of Akhtar Mansoor have been killed,” Ghulam Jilani Farahi the deputy police chief for the province told AFP, adding 30 others were injured.

The two districts are under Taliban control, and it was unclear how Farahi arrived at his figures.

“The fighters killed are mostly from Mansour Dadullah’s group, including foreign fighters from Uzbekistan,” he said.

Islam Gul Seyal, the provincial governor’s spokesman, confirmed the battle and said fighting was still going on.

Mansoor Dadullah was appointed as second deputy for Rasool, who was named the leader of the splinter group in a mass gathering of dissident fighters on October 3, in the remote southwestern province of Farah, according to an AFP reporter who attended the meeting.

It was unclear whether the new group could rally wide support but its emergence poses a fresh hurdle to potential peace talks with the government.

It also exposes simmering rifts within the movement since the announcement in July of the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.
Also on Sunday, the bodies of seven minority Shia Hazaras who were kidnapped in October from neighbouring Ghazni province by gunmen were found dead in Zabul.

“The seven Hazara bodies – three women and four men – all have been beheaded and were brought by tribal elders to a hospital in Shah Joy district,” Jawad Waziri district governor for Shah Joy said.
There has been a rise in sectarian killings in Afghanistan this year, blamed by observers on the growing influence of foreign Sunni fighters and the Islamic State group in the country.

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Musharraf challenges Mark Siegel’s charges

Mark Siegel (Credit: tribune.com.pk)
Mark Siegel
(Credit: tribune.com.pk)
RAWALPINDI, Nov 5: Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has challenged the US lobbyist Mark Siegel’s allegations against him. Musharraf through his lawyer filed a petition before the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC), Rawalpindi Judge, Rai Muhammad Ayub Marth, here on Wednesday.

The Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC), Rawalpindi, accepted the petition of Musharraf for hearing and deferred Siegel’s cross-examination via video link which was scheduled at 7:30pm here at commissioner’s office on Wednesday. Siegel had claimed that Musharraf had threatened the late Benazir Bhutto in a phone call made to her while she was planning to return to the country after an eight-year self-imposed exile.

In a petition filed by Barrister Farogh Naseem, Musharraf asked the Anti-Terrorist Court to declare Siegel’s testimony unlawful. He said that the testimony was recorded in violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) as no judicial officer was presented while Siegel testified.

He also objected to Farooq H. Naek sitting next to Siegel as his advocate while he testified. The testimony lacked transparency and did not meet the requirements of the CrPC, the petitioner further said.

After accepting the petition for hearing, the court deferred Siegel’s cross-examination by Musharraf’s counsel via video link that was scheduled for 7:30pm on Wednesday. The court also issued a notice to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) prosecutor and adjourned the hearing till Nov 11, 2015.

On the other hand, Mark Siegel along with his lawyer Farooq H Naik was present here in the Pakistan Mission in Washington for cross-examination in Benazir murder case via video link on Wednesday.

On October 1, Siegel had recorded his statement before the ATC, Rawalpindi, where he had connected Gen Musharraf with late Benazir Bhutto’s murder. He accused him of deliberately depriving Benazir Bhutto of the security detail, despite imminent threats to her life.

He also claimed that Gen Musharraf rejected the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) request to bring foreign security personnel with Benazir Bhutto and the request for vehicles with tinted glasses.

Musharraf had earlier rejected Siegel’s allegations. “I strongly and unequivocally reject the claim of Mark Siegel, a close adviser, paid lobbyist and co-author of the last book of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto,” he said in a statement.

“I am shocked and amazed at Siegel’s assertion that I made a threatening phone call to Ms Bhutto. This claim is entirely false, fictitious and appears to be willfully fabricated.”

Mark Siegel is the fourth prosecution witness against Gen Musharraf. Two witnesses, former interior secretary Kamal Shah and the former National Crisis Management Cell director general did not support the prosecution’s case. The third witness former Intelligence Bureau Director General Ejaz Shah was dropped by the prosecution.

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Afghan Taliban splinter further to elect dissident leader

A spokesman for a breakaway Afghan Taliban faction says they have elected their leader, further deepening the split within the insurgency group.

Manan Niazi, a spokesman for the dissidents, says that Mullah Mohammad Rasool has been voted in as the Taliban’s “supreme leader.”

It’s unclear how many followers the splinter group has but Thursday’s statement is a reflection of deep divisions among the Taliban, who have been waging war on the Kabul government for 14 years.

The differences among various Taliban leaders have been festering since July, when Afghanistan’s intelligence service announced the death of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the group’s founder and leader.

The July announcement said Mullah Omar had been dead for more than two years. The leadership soon afterward chose his deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, as new leader.

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Street in Paris named after slain Pak Journalist Saleem Shahzad

Former STAR reporter Saleem Shahzad (Credit: thenews.com)
Former STAR reporter Saleem Shahzad
(Credit: thenews.com)
In a protest to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (2 November), international organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Monday renamed 12 streets in Paris after journalists who have been murdered, tortured or disappeared.

One of the streets has been named after Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, who was kidnapped, tortured and killed in Islamabad four years ago.

Shahzad wrote about terrorism and security for the Asia Times Online and other publications. The 40-year-old reporter’s body bore signs of torture when it was found two days after he had gone missing in May 2011.

“The cases of impunity that we are presenting are terrible symbols of passivity or deliberate inaction on the part of certain governments,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“This International Day is an occasion for paying homage to the victims and for reminding governments of their obligation to protect journalists and to combat impunity. Those who target journalists will one day be held to account for their actions,” he said.

The United Nations marks November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, to reaffirm its commitment to advocate for the safety of journalists throughout the world.

The day serves to remind us of unresolved crimes against journalists, and draws attention to unsolved cases where violence has been used against journalists who are simply exercising their freedom of expression and duty of reporting.

According to RSF, nearly 800 journalists have been killed in connection with their work in the past ten years, 48 of whom were killed since the start of 2015. The organisation is calling for the appointment of a special representative to the UN secretary-general on the safety of journalists.

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Water insecurity

Water is considered as one of the most curcial non-conventional security drivers that can have potentially devastating implications for inter-state and intra-state relations. Pakistan, with its shared water lines across and within the borders has endured onerous challenges on both fronts. This explains the paramountcy of water security for Pakistan.

With rapidly multiplying population and unabated urbanisation, water will remain at the centre of internal and external conflicts and will continue to draw country’s political fault lines. The sensitivity attached with water puts the national and communal harmony to the test every year. Water and power development authority (WAPDA) recently held a series of consultative meetings to kick off the prime minister’s initiative on water security. As reported in newspapers, the initiative takes a panoramic vista of water challenge covering both demand and supply side aspects.

According to newspaper reports, the initiative follows a report “understanding Pakistan’s water-security nexus” issued by the US Institute of Peace in 2013. The report was yet another reminder of chronic water woes of Pakistan and made a portentous forecast that “because of overuse and misuse, Pakistan is headed toward a serious water crisis. The UN is expected to downgrade Pakistan from ‘water stressed’ to ‘water scarce’ country by 2030.

While issues between India and Pakistan often draw attention, water conflicts within Pakistan’s borders have the explosive potential to poison inter-ethnic and inter-provincial relations and turn simmering tension into violence. In a country where livelihoods depend heavily on reliable access to water, effectively managing water resources can transform a common lightning rod for conflict into an opportunity for building intra-communal cooperation and trust.”

If the aforementioned report inspired this initiative, one wonders why it took more than two years to contemplate the initiative, whereas the report surfaced in 2013. Nevertheless, the initiative has its own value if it does not remain limited to consultations only. Mercifully, the ingredients of the initiative involve wider perspective of the issue and not confined to a date-expired antibiotic of new dams, yet the votaries of Kalabagh dam did not miss this heaven sent opportunity to remind everyone about the panacea of all water related problems of Pakistan.

The initiative encompass population control, water efficiency, water pricing, cropping pattern and policy reforms, storage, conservation of water resources, public awareness etc. While the doomsday prophets construed the aforementioned report as an urgent call for new storages, they deliberately glossed over the key message of the report. Interestingly the report skirted the dam mania and ascribed the crisis to “overuse and misuse” of water rather than hysterical ad nauseam of storage deficiency. The attributed cause unambiguously emphasizes on efficient management and use of water to swat the looming crisis of water insecurity.

Whereas storage is an important contributing factor, it is not the only solution on earth as conjured up by certain damo-phobic vested interest. Considering the fact that large reservoirs entail inflammatory political and socio-environmental repercussions, it would be pertinent to decipher the riddle of “overuse and misuse” in the local context to find solutions leading towards convergence and consensus.
Water bureaucracy of Pakistan has an inherent propensity of suggesting new dams, particularly Kalabagh dam as an open-sesame to all water problems of Pakistan.
Water bureaucracy of Pakistan has an inherent propensity of suggesting new dams, particularly Kalabagh dam as an open-sesame to all water problems of Pakistan. Always starting the debate with a non-starter has kept us moving in circles, exchanging stale arguments, stoking acrimonies, trampling trust and widening crevasses among the people and provinces. This explains the frustration of the chairman Wapda that he expressed during the consultation in Hyderabad by lamenting that “unfortunately, there is no harmony among provinces on water issues”.

Achieving the fervently desired harmony needs a process of meaningful engagement with all federating units without smacking premeditated solutions. Disharmony on water issues is rooted in decades of inapt and partisan policies of water bureaucracy nestled in Wapda itself. Over the years, Wapda arrogated itself to janitor and guardian of the interest of one province only. Wapda, rather than acting as a professional entity to safeguard genuine interests of all federating units, emerged as a proxy representative of Punjab province on the most contentious issue of water.
As a national entity its prime responsibility was to stay neutral on controversial projects and uphold higher standards of professional values and competence.

In a fit of becoming pennant bearer of sanctified Kalabagh dam project, it obliterated its integrity and credibility earned during its formative years. Heavily dominated by Punjab-based officials, it produced contradictory and dubious data to justify a dam that is resented and rejected by elected assemblies and people of the three provinces.

Wapda’s relentless pontification on the project not only brought ignominy for the organisation and discredited it as a premier water development entity, it also cultivated a profound distrust among federating units and effectively slammed the doors of a constructive dialogue to find rational solutions. Wapda merits a critical introspection and objective stocktaking of its institutional conduct. Its tainted past has made it a major barrier in fostering consensus and harmony on water controversy in Pakistan.

Water problem of Pakistan is akin to multi organ failure and cannot be cured with the pill of storage alone. There is any array of issues associated with water security of the country that needs multi-disciplinary measures to secure water future of Pakistan. If today Pakistan’s per capita water availability has perilously tumbled from 5294 cubic metres per person in 1951 to little over 1000 cubic metres today; it is not because water has been siphoned out of our system but mainly because our population has bloated from 34 million during the corresponding years.

Similarly, Pakistan’s ageing irrigation infrastructure and obsolete irrigation practices are another major area of concern. Official data shows staggering loss of 65 million acre feet (MAF) in the system. It includes 32 MAF seeping down in the saline water pockets, rendering it unrecoverable for any other use. This amounts to storage capacity of nearly five Kalabagh dams.

Water bureaucracy never concentrates on conserving these five Kalabagh dams being lost to nowhere but keeps clamouring against water flowing below Kotri barrage which is a prerequisite for ecological health of flood plains, wetlands, riverine forest, communities and Indus delta eco-system. This idiosyncrasy stems from an unremitting obsession with new dams and has served only one purpose of vitiating relations between embittered provinces and federation.

Interestingly, the five key recommendations mentioned in the aforementioned report do not include new storages and dams; it rather underlines policy oriented solutions to address water challenges faced by the country.

Water productivity is another missing dimension of the water discourse. Pakistan consumes 90 per cent of water for irrigation/agriculture purpose. Irrigation depicts only input aspect, which dominates the whole debate on water, leaving more critical aspect of output and productivity completely unquestioned. Amid this ruckus, the real point of discussion i.e. output of water has been completely obscured.

Water is a key ingredient of the value chain of agriculture. Since water has remained a priceless commodity therefore the debate remained centred only around supply augmentation of water. Myopic water bureaucracy remains unfazed on dismal water productivity in the country. Pakistan’s productivity per unit of water is only 0.13 kg per cubic meter, which is almost one third of neighbouring India where water productivity is 0.39 kg/m3. China’s productivity is even higher i.e. 0.82 kg/m3. Likewise productivity per unit of land is another ignored parameter. Pakistan produces 2.65 metric tons of wheat per hectare which is lower than 2.91 MT/hectare of India. Ukraine and Uzbekistan produce 3.09 and 4.43 metric tons of wheat per hectare respectively. Pakistan produces 3.64 MT/hectare of rice compared to 4 MT/hectare in Bangladesh and 4.73 in Indonesia.

A similar scrutiny of cropping pattern is also much desirable.
Pakistan grows rice on 2.8 million hectares and sugarcane on 1.1 million hectares. Both are water greedy crops requiring 1500 mm and 1800 mm of water compared to only 480 mm consumed by wheat. Ultimately water is an input ingredient, therefore its value should be measured with its output. The whole debate of new dams becomes futile in absence of discussion on more fundamental issue of productivity of water and land. Pakistan can achieve the end objective of higher yields by enhancing output of water rather than an endless battle over new dams.

Politically inflammable stuff like water needs diligent handling. The prime minister’s water security initiative ought to be liberated from the clutches of rhetorical platitude of supply side solutions that generates only an endless inconclusive debate.

The initiative should focus on non-controversial and non-conventional aspects of water security with an ultimate objective of increasing yield per every drop of water and per acre of land. The initiative can make some meaningful contribution only if it shuns obduracy of past and desist from taking tunnel-view of the multi-dimensional challenge of water security.

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Afghanistan-Pakistan earthquake: Village leaders warn children unprotected from freezing conditions

Oct 2015 quake victims (Credit: emirates247.com)
Oct 2015 quake victims
(Credit: emirates247.com)

Earthquake survivors in Pakistan and Afghanistan have emerged from a third night without shelter, as village leaders warn they have nothing to protect children from the freezing conditions.

Desperate victims have appealed for blankets, warm clothes and food after Monday’s magnitude-7.5 quake ripped through the region, killing nearly 390 people and levelling thousands of homes and forcing many to camp out in the open.

Rugged terrain, severed communication lines and an unstable security situation have impeded relief efforts since the disaster, and local officials said they had few supplies to hand after the region was devastated by floods just three months ago.

“We usually have our own stock but we already consumed it during the floods so we were running out of stock during this earthquake,” said Muhammad Bahadur, an official in the village of Darosh in Chitral, part of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mr Bahadur’s village had just 70 tents on hand when the quake struck, he said.

“Around 2,500 houses have been completely destroyed… Imagine how we can satisfy the need with only 70 tents?” he said.

Hundreds of children are now sleeping under the open sky with little protection against sub-zero night-time temperatures, he said.

“We are trying to mobilise NGOs to help them because winter is approaching and it would be unbearable,” he said.

Pakistan’s confirmed death toll so far stands at 267, with more than 1,800 people injured and 11,000 homes damaged, and authorities warn that number could spike with many isolated regions still cut off.

Afghan officials said 115 people were confirmed dead and hundreds more injured, with casualties reported from around half a dozen of the country’s 34 provinces, and more than 7,600 homes reported damaged.

‘Children won’t survive cold’

Aid agencies have warned that shelter and hygiene will be the most pressing needs for survivors in the coming days, with the UN saying children in particular face deadly conditions.

The Pakistan Red Crescent said snow was already falling in some areas across the region, forcing them to wait for the weather to clear before being able to reach out to those communities.

“Winter is coming and soon there will be snow everywhere, the children won’t survive the cold,” Shahroon, a resident of Usiak village in Chitral, told AFP.

Shahroon, who goes by one name, said children in his family as young as four were sleeping outside.

“If we stay here the kids will die… we have lost everything already and can’t afford to see these children die in front of us, they are the only valuables we have now,” he said.

Western charities said the Taliban presence in Afghanistan was hindering relief efforts.

The militants on Wednesday claimed to have overrun the remote district of Darqad in the quake-hit northern province of Takhar, underscoring the fragile security situation facing relief workers.

The insurgents have vowed their fighters would provide “complete help” in affected areas.

Desperate survivors were left marooned on mountaintops in Badakhshan, the remote Afghan province where the epicentre of the earthquake was located and where much of the territory is controlled by the Taliban.

Aid agencies have stressed the need for greater disaster preparedness in war-torn Afghanistan — but it has been a low priority for the nation as it struggles to end a 14-year war against the Taliban insurgents.

The military has been leading Pakistan’s rescue efforts, but residents in Chitral said that with winter fast approaching, they could not afford to waste time.

“We won’t wait for authorities to come,” said 29-year-old driver Lal Jan.

“People here are helping each other… people whose houses survived in the quake provide food and shelter to those who are affected. We all are helping each other to clear rubble from our houses.”

Other survivors are already planning to leave if they do not receive help soon.

Shahroon in Chitral said if the government could help them rebuild before the snow came they would stay, but “otherwise we will go to Rawalpindi or Peshawar or any other city and spend our lives begging on the roads”.

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Afghanistan Earthquake Was a ‘Warning’ From God – Madressah reps

PESHAWAR, Oct 27 — The powerful earthquake that killed hundreds of people across Afghanistan and Pakistan was a “warning” from God, according to a religious education group.

Wafaq-ul-Madaris-e-Arabia, Pakistan’s largest federation of seminaries in the Deobandi school of Islam, also said it was pleased at an uptick in mosque attendance following the quake because “collective repentance is the need of the hour,” Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The magnitude-7.5 quake struck a remote, mountainous region of northeast Afghanistan on Tuesday, but most of the deaths and injuries were in neighboring Pakistan. It triggered landslides, damaged thousands of homes, and rocked cities up to 400 miles away.

Although the earthquake was powerful, it struck deep beneath the Hindu Kush mountains, meaning the damage was significantly less than a similar quake in 2005 that killed some 86,000 people.

“Allah Almighty has protected Pakistan of major harm and disaster. The people should offer special prayers giving thanks,” said the statement. It was issued by the Hanif Jalandhary, the general secretary of Wafaq-ul-Madaris-e-Arabia, was well as several other religious scholars, according to The Express Tribune.

Meanwhile, the Taliban urged aid agencies on Tuesday not to hold back delivering supplies to areas of Afghanistan affected by the tremor.

The Islamist militants hold de facto control over some areas rescuers have been struggling to reach. The Taliban said in a statement it had instructed its militants to lend their “complete help” to the recovery effort.

“The [Taliban] calls on our good-willed countrymen and charitable organizations to not hold back in providing shelter, food and medical supplies to the victims of this earthquake,” the statement said. “And it similarly orders its mujahideen in the affected areas to lend their complete help to the victims and facilitate those giving charity to the needy.”

The earthquake also prompted no halt in the perilous security situation on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in the country’s Paktika province after a group of militants opened fire from the Afghan side of the border on Tuesday, a senior Pakistani military official told NBC News.