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                        <title>The Express Tribune</title>
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			<title>TikTok to prohibit videos promoting bin Laden's 'Letter to America'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2446795/tiktok-to-prohibit-videos-promoting-bin-ladens-letter-to-america</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2446795/tiktok-to-prohibit-videos-promoting-bin-ladens-letter-to-america#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 Nov 23 06:26:59 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[TikTok will prohibit videos promoting Al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Ladin’s letter justifying his actions against US]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[TikTok will prohibit content that promotes Osama bin Laden&#39;s 2002 letter detailing the former al Qaeda leader&#39;s justifications for attacks against Americans, the short-form video app said on Thursday.

Discussions of the 20-year-old letter have spread on the platform this week in the context of debate over the&nbsp;Israel-Hamas war, with some users in the West praising its contents.

The letter, which was written after al Qaeda&#39;s attack on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people, criticized US support for Israel, accused Americans of financing &quot;oppression&quot; of Palestinians, and contained antisemitic comments.

Bin Laden was killed in 2011 in Pakistan by a US&nbsp;military special operations unit.

&quot;Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,&quot; TikTok said in a statement, adding that reports that it was &quot;trending&quot; on the platform were inaccurate.

A search for &quot;Letter to America&quot; on TikTok surfaced no results on Thursday, with a notice that said the phrase may be associated with &quot;content that violates our guidelines.&quot;

Some US&nbsp;lawmakers have called for a ban of the Chinese-owned app and had renewed their criticisms before Thursday&#39;s announcement.

Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer said on Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, that TikTok was &quot;pushing pro-terrorist propaganda to influence Americans.&quot;

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement on Thursday: &quot;There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil, and antisemitic lies that the leader of al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst terrorist attack in American history.&quot;

On Wednesday, The Guardian removed the full text of bin Laden&#39;s letter, which it had published in 2002. The news outlet said on its website that the letter was being shared on social media without full context, and that it would instead direct readers to the news article that originally reported on the letter.

TikTok said previously its recommendation algorithm does not push certain content to users, and that the&nbsp;company has removed&nbsp;hundreds of thousands of videos since Oct. 7 for violating policies against misinformation and promotion of violence.

It is difficult to gain a full understanding of how prevalent certain content is on TikTok, partly because external researchers have limited access to its data, said Renee DiResta, a research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>95% of sectarian violence worldwide focused on Shias only, reveals report</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1802911/95-global-sectarian-violence-focused-shia-muslims-reveals-report</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1802911/95-global-sectarian-violence-focused-shia-muslims-reveals-report#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 18 13:37:38 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Usman Kabir]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1802911</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Balochistan bore brunt of terror attacks in Pakistan during 2017, says Global Extremism Monitor]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[[tvideo url="//content.jwplatform.com/players/3lm8Ryl6-VpHe0zu5.html" height="530px"]
Video: Asad Altaf and Narendar Khatri
Creative: Ibrahim Yahya

Ninety five per cent of sectarian violence all over the world in 2017 was focused on the Shia community, according to a report released by Global Extremism Monitor.

The report was published by Tony Blair Institute for Global Change on Thursday and called on the world to fully engage in a battle of ideas with the extremists on an emergency basis to halt the spread of violence.

According to the study, Pakistan was on a list of countries most affected by violent religious extremism despite lying outside the major conflict zones.

Pakistanis least protected against terrorism, armed conflict: WJP

Over 1,489 people were killed by groups that claimed to fight in the name of religion all over the country in 2017, the report revealed. This figure included as many as 247 civilians who were killed in sectarian terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2017.

Other key findings highlighted in the research underlined that religious extremist groups were fast transforming into transnational actors, which carried out sustained campaigns against the civilian population and weakened state governments.

[display_graph id="107059"]

Global Extremism Monitor observed that sectarianism was the founding ideology of the deadliest and most active terror groups. In addition to these warnings, the authors of the report noted that extremist groups used executions and suicide bombings as a terror tactic and exploited religious doctrines on the nature of war in this regard.

Pakistan 'underachieving' as 14th most powerful country in Asia: report

Another important issue mentioned in the document referred to the increasing participation of women in terrorist attacks globally and the terrible continuation of violence in Syria. According to figures released by the international group, more than half of civilian casualties from global terrorism in 2017 were recorded in Syria.

The Monitor also gave a detailed picture of terrorist incidents in 10 of the most violent countries in the world, including Pakistan.

Non-Sunni population under attack in Pakistan

Over 1,489 people were killed in 2017 by groups which claimed to fight in the name of religion in Pakistan, according to Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

The comprehensive study outlined that terrorists in the country seemed to be working on a two point-agenda, with some extremists seeking to undermine the Pakistani state, while others targeted Shia community and minority groups.

Major terror attacks in Pakistan in 2017

[jtrt_tables id="1803342"]

The research detailed that at least 12 terror groups were active in the country over the course of 2017, and seven of them launched terror attacks.

Pakistani media 'most vibrant' in Asia, threatened by powerful groups inside country: RSF

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was the deadliest, and managed to kill 173 people in the year. TTP hit civilians, government figures, media personalities and security forces in a systematic campaign to undermine the state of Pakistan.

According to Global Extremism Monitor, TTP was responsible for a number of attacks on educational institutes in the country throughout the year, and even told the media that the attacks were a response to Pakistan taking action against the families of militants.

Another disturbing trend highlighted in the account was the enhancement of relationship between different terror groups in Pakistan, evidenced by TTP claiming responsibility for an IED explosion, carried out in retaliation for the killing of Asif Chotu, a member of sectarian terror outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

The study claimed that 247 civilians were killed in sectarian violence perpetrated by the terror groups. Around 136 of these causalities were Shia community members, and over 36 per cent of the attacks on civilian targets took place in Balochistan.

Civilian authorities in Pakistan maintain effective control over security forces, says US govt report

Factions of sectarian outfits affiliated with LeJ also pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) in 2017, which is expected to further inflame tensions in the region at large, underlined the Monitor.

The report stressed that in addition to these terror groups, there were several local extremist organisations which did not initiate attacks themselves, but were instrumental in providing a platform for larger terror outfits to wreak havoc in the region.

Delving into some detail about LeJ, the Monitor noted that the outfit tended to focus more than half of all violent activity on attacking soft targets, like civilians or government buildings and staff.

LeJ was identified as the third largest perpetrator of attacks against civilians in the world, ahead of Boko Haram in Nigeria and IS in Afghanistan. Besides LeJ, two other groups Jamaatul Ahrar and TTP also launched attacks on the Shia community in the country.

[timeline link="source=1CBpv5VZepldmRz_Eex62jzRMdtvXy56xCYtA1HH3Vpc/font=Default&amp;lang=en&amp;initial_zoom=2" height="600"]

Members of the Ahmadiyya community, a religious minority, were systematically killed in targeted attacks in 2017, the report revealed. Christians were not safe from attacks either, and were also prime targets for terror groups over the year.

Journalists were constantly targeted in the country too, and the Monitor said that multiple assassination attempts were recorded on media professionals during the year.

Besides Pakistan, the other countries identified as a hotbed of extremist activity in the world included Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Mali.

The Monitor used open source data on the use of terror tactics by extremist groups as a basis for the study. The tactics identified in the findings of the report included the use of public space by terrorists to launch attacks in order to spread maximum chaos, as well as the deliberate targeting of prominent personalities and public buildings.

In addition to these, data on suicide bombers and summary executions, especially the rise of the use of female suicide bombers, mostly by Boko Haram in the African region, were also discussed in the report.]]>
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			<title>Seven suspected al Qaeda fighters killed in Yemen drone strike</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1751641/seven-suspected-al-qaeda-fighters-killed-yemen-drone-strike</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1751641/seven-suspected-al-qaeda-fighters-killed-yemen-drone-strike#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 18 16:11:21 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[US military is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Seven suspected al Qaeda fighters were killed on Friday when a drone targeted their car in the southern Yemeni province of Shabwa, a security official said.

The car was hit as it drove along a side road in Shabwa's Bihan district, the official, from forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's internationally recognised government told AFP.

The US military is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen.

The security official said the militants were members of al Qaeda, and said the aircraft that carried out the strike was American.

UN envoy holds 'fruitful' talks with Yemen rebel chief

The United States considers the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group's most dangerous branch.

A long-running drone war against AQAP has intensified since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.

AQAP has flourished in the chaos of the country's civil war, which pits the Saudi-backed government against Huthi rebels.]]>
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			<title>‘Hardcore militant’ arrested in Mominabad</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1649537/hardcore-militant-arrested-mominabad</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1649537/hardcore-militant-arrested-mominabad#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 03 Mar 18 03:52:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1649537</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Police disclose arrest during press conference, say arms, explosives also recovered]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Police claimed on Friday to have arrested a hardcore militant belonging to a banned outfit from Karachi’s District West. The police also claim to have recovered arms, ammunition and explosives from his possession.

The accused was arrested during a raid conducted on a tip-off in the Mominabad area of Orangi Town. He was later identified as Ahsan Mehsud alias Roshan. His arrest was disclosed during a press conference held at the District West police chief’s office where SSP Omar Shahid Hamid spoke.

"We have arrested a hardcore militant of alQaeda with arms and explosives," said SSP Hamid. "The accused has confessed to his involvement in various terrorist activities in Karachi." SSP Hamid said that the suspect's uncle, Hassan Mehsud, and brother, Ali Mehsud, are commanders of alQaeda, adding that he was dispatched to Afghanistan to be trained in 2011 and later went to be trained in Quetta where about half a dozen Arab militants were also present.

ATC orders arrest of absconding accused

The accused later met Abdul Qadir alias Haji Baloch in Balochistan where Qadir gave him Rs1.5 million to purchase laptops and other items. Qadir and his son Zubair were involved in terrorism as well as kidnappings for ransom.

The accused, along with his brother and other comrades, had also set up a bomb-making factory. In January 2013, the suspect's brother met Tahir alias Sain, a key suspect in the Safoora bus carnage, who then included him in the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.

SSP Hamid said that the accused and his companions have been involved in various cases of terrorism, particularly in 2013 and law enforcement agencies were their prime targets. Cases were registered while further investigation is under way.]]>
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			<title>Drone strike 'kills four Qaeda suspects' in Yemen</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1564454/drone-strike-kills-four-qaeda-suspects-yemen</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1564454/drone-strike-kills-four-qaeda-suspects-yemen#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 21 Nov 17 10:27:38 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1564454</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[United States is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[A drone strike killed four suspected Al-Qaeda fighters in central Yemen on Monday, a local official said.

The United States is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen.

"A car carrying four fighters was hit as it drove on a mountain road" in Bayda province, the official said. "All of them were killed."

"The fighters were from Al-Qaeda," he said.

Drone strike kills Qaeda suspects in Yemen

Washington considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group's most dangerous branch.

AQAP has flourished in the chaos of the country's civil war, which pits the Saudi-backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against the Huthi rebels.

A long-running drone war against AQAP ( Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) has intensified since US President Donald Trump took office in January.

An air raid he ordered that month killed a US Navy SEAL and several Yemeni civilians in Bayda.

Drone strikes kill four al Qaeda suspects in Yemen: officials

US strikes in Yemen have typically targeted suspected Al-Qaeda fighters, but last month the United States said it had killed dozens of fighters from its militant rival, the Islamic State group, at training camps in Bayda.

More than 8,600 people have been killed since a Saudi-led coalition joined the Yemen war on Hadi's side in 2015.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda leader pledges allegiance to new Taliban leader</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1120639/al-qaeda-leader-pledges-allegiance-new-taliban-leader</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1120639/al-qaeda-leader-pledges-allegiance-new-taliban-leader#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 11 Jun 16 07:08:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1120639</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[As leader of al Qaeda organisation for jihad, I extend my pledge of allegiance once again, said 14 minute recording]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in an online audio message, pledged allegiance to the new head of the Afghan Taliban, who was appointed last month after his predecessor was killed in a US drone strike.

The veteran militant became al Qaeda's leader after US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, and he is thought to be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, having been based there since the late 1990s.

"As leader of the al Qaeda organisation for jihad, I extend my pledge of allegiance once again, the approach of Osama to invite the Muslim nation to support the Islamic Emirate," al-Zawahri said in a 14 minute recording.

Afghanistan signs draft pact with Taliban-allied militants

During its years in power, from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and it has been fighting an insurgency since to regain control of the country.

The authenticity of the recording could not be immediately verified.

Haibatullah Akhundzada, Islamic legal scholar who was one of former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour's deputies, was appointed a few days after Mansour was killed by a US drone attack in a remote border area just inside Pakistan.

Since al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor-turned-militant, succeeded bin Laden, al Qaeda has lost ground to Islamic State in the leadership of the global militant movement.

Obama approves more aggressive Taliban fight

Some Afghan insurgent commanders have broken away from the Taliban to pledge support for Islamic State, though it operates largely in Iraq and Syria, and is active in parts of North Africa.

Al Qaeda was set up by Arab guerrillas who flocked to Afghanistan to fight Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s. It had thrived under the Taliban's rule before both groups were driven underground following the U.S. invasion that followed Al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.]]>
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			<title>Three terrorists linked to banned outfits arrested in Karachi</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1070596/three-terrorists-linked-to-banned-outfits-arrested-in-karachi</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1070596/three-terrorists-linked-to-banned-outfits-arrested-in-karachi#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 Mar 16 14:50:29 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[faraz.khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1070596</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Militants were involved in supplying arms to banned outfits and distributing hate material, says CTD]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh police claimed to have arrested three suspected terrorists, affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), who were allegedly planning to use drones to carry out attacks in the city.

CTD officials said on Tuesday that they arrested three suspected terrorists, identified as Usman Naeem, Umair and Imamuddin alias Muavia, during a raid in West district.

Two Kalashnikovs and a pistol were recovered from their possession. CTD in-charge Ali Raza said the suspects were affiliated with commander Fahad of AQIS. Umair is said to have completed his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from a private university and was researching drone technology for using it in bomb blasts and other terrorist activities. Of the other suspects, Usman is said to be an arms supplier for banned outfits while Muavia distributed hate material of proscribed organisations, which was also recovered during the raid.

CTD arrests ‘terrorists’ affiliated with AQIS and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

Encounter

Two suspected criminals were killed during an alleged police encounter in Korangi Industrial Area on Tuesday. The suspects, identified as Shakoor alias Grenade and Anwar alias Dodo Mian, were killed when the special investigation unit (SIU) of the Criminal Investigation Agency conducted a raid in Korangi on a tip-off. SIU chief SP Farooq Awan said the suspects opened fire at the police and tried to escape. In retaliation, police fired back and killed the two. The suspects reportedly died of serious injuries en route to a hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23rd,  2016.]]>
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			<title>Insurgent group pledges allegiance to al Qaeda's Syria wing</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/962301/insurgent-group-pledges-allegiance-to-al-qaedas-syria-wing</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/962301/insurgent-group-pledges-allegiance-to-al-qaedas-syria-wing#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 15 17:28:22 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=962301</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The group made the pledge in a statement distributed by supporters online; pledge is a boost for anti-IS Nusra Front]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[An insurgent group fighting in Syria made up of around 1,500 Chechen, Uzbek and Tajik fighters has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front, a group monitoring the war said on Wednesday.

Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (Muhajireen Brigade) made the pledge in a statement distributed by supporters online, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Read: Al Qaeda in Syria executes 56 regime troops

The pledge is a boost for Nusra Front against its rival Islamic State, an ultra hardline group which has seized territory in Syria and Iraq.

Among battles fought between Nusra Front and Islamic State is one for control of parts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where fighters from the Muhajireen Brigade could help tip the balance.

Read: Al Qaeda in Syria frees several US-trained rebels: statement

Nusra Front, loyal to the successors of Osama bin Laden, and Islamic State are the two most powerful forces fighting the Syrian army and its allies in Syria's civil war. The groups have fought each other since a split in 2013 largely due to a power struggle between leaders.

Nusra Front's leader said in June his group had around 30 percent foreign fighters including Europeans, many Asians, Russians and Chechens.]]>
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			<title>Syria arrests 'Al-Qaeda suspect in Druze bombing'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/951758/syria-arrests-al-qaeda-suspect-in-druze-bombing</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/951758/syria-arrests-al-qaeda-suspect-in-druze-bombing#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 06 Sep 15 13:04:08 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=951758</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The arrested man reportedly also confessed the group was behind attacks in Sweida city which killed 31 people]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Syrian authorities have detained a member of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front who admitted the group's responsibility for a double bomb attack in the country's Druze heartland, state media said Sunday.

The arrested man, named as Al-Wafed Abu Tarabeh, reportedly also confessed the group was behind attacks on government property in Sweida city after the bombings, which killed 31 people.

"Authorities in Sweida today arrested the terrorist Al-Wafed Abu Tarabeh, who confessed to responsibility for the two terrorist bombings on Friday," state news agency SANA reported.

State television identified Abu Tarabeh as a member of Al-Nusra.

Read: Six Syrian security personnel killed by Druze gunmen in southern Syria - monitor

"The terrorist also confessed to participation in the attacks on the military police and security branches... in addition to acts of vandalism and theft in Sweida," SANA said.

Twin bomb attacks hit Sweida on Friday night, killing 31 people, including prominent Druze cleric and regime critic Sheikh Wahid al-Balous.

After the attacks, residents pelted government buildings with stones, accusing the regime of being behind the bombings.

They destroyed a statue of Hafez al-Assad, father and predecessor of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Angry crowds including armed men also attacked two security buildings in the southwestern city, killing at least six regime security personnel, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Read: Car bomb kills 10 in Syria regime bastion Latakia

The Druze, who follow a secretive offshoot of Shia Islam, have been divided during Syria's civil war, with some members fighting on the government side and others sympathising with the opposition.

Balous was a popular figure among the minority, which made up around three percent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million.

He led Sweida's most powerful militia in battles against Al-Nusra and the Islamic State group, but also opposed conscription of Druze men into the Syrian army's dwindling ranks.

Analysts said his death would likely benefit Syria's government, which was angered by his opposition to conscription and his desire to keep the Druze independent.]]>
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			<title>Top al Qaeda commander killed in Balochistan: home minister</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/931022/al-qaeda-commander-killed-in-balochistan-home-minister</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/931022/al-qaeda-commander-killed-in-balochistan-home-minister#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 15 13:40:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Balochistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=931022</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Sarfraz Bugti says Umar Lateef had established al Qaeda network in Balochistan, south Punjab as well as in Afghanistan]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Security forces killed a senior al Qaeda commander and detained his wife in an overnight raid on his hideout in Balochistan, provincial home minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Sunday.

The security forces also took the couple's two young daughters into custody during the raid in the Chaghi district.

"An important al Qaeda commander - Umar Lateef, a Pakistani national - was killed in an encounter with local security agencies," Bugti told reporters.

Umar Lateef had established an al Qaeda network and was supervising its "terrorist activities and providing travel and logistical facilities to terrorists in both Balochistan and south Punjab as well as in Afghanistan," he added.

Read: FC raid: TTP Sajna group members held in Quetta

Bugti said Punjab had offered a reward of Rs2 million for Lateef and half a million rupees for his wife, who was head of al Qaeda's women's wing in south Punjab and Baluchistan.

His wife is being interrogated by security officials.

Al Qaeda announced last September it was setting up a chapter in the sub-continent to counter the spread of the rival Islamic State group, which controls a broad swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria.

Security forces launched a major military operation against Taliban and al Qaeda-led militants in FATA in June 2014.

Read: Rekindling ties: Top al Qaeda operatives captured from Quetta

The operation was intensified in December after Taliban militants attacked a school in Peshawar and killed more than 150 people, mostly schoolchildren.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda in Syria claims capture of US-backed rebels</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/930174/al-qaeda-in-syria-claims-capture-of-us-backed-rebels</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/930174/al-qaeda-in-syria-claims-capture-of-us-backed-rebels#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 15 19:15:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=930174</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The militant group said Division 30 had coordinated with aircraft from US-led coalition to strike Al-Nusra positions]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Al Qaeda's Syria affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, said on Friday that it had captured "moderate" rebel fighters who were receiving training from the United States.

Al-Nusra accused Washington of recruiting "forces from what it calls 'the moderate opposition'... to undergo a training and rehabilitation programme run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

"A few days ago, one of these groups -- called Division 30 -- entered Syria... so Al-Nusra arrested several soldiers of this division," the group said in an online statement.

It did not specify how many rebels had been captured, or where or when the incident took place.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group had reported that Al-Nusra kidnapped eight rebels from Division 30 in a village in the northern province of Aleppo late Wednesday.

On Thursday, a US defence department spokesperson denied the report.

In its statement, Al-Nusra accused Division 30 of being "agents of American interests and projects in the area, to fight the 'terrorist organisations,' as they (the US and its rebel allies) described it."

The militant group said Division 30 had coordinated with aircraft from the US-led coalition attacking militants in Syria to strike Al-Nusra positions.

"We warn the soldiers of this division not to proceed with the American plan... Their return to the truth and the right way will be more beneficial," the statement said.

Also on Friday, Al-Nusra launched an offensive on Division 30 headquarters in northern Aleppo province.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page about the attack, Division 30 said five of its members had been killed and 18 had been wounded in the clashes.

Combined with the eight kidnapped rebels, this would mean at least 13 of the 54 original Division 30 members who entered Syria in mid-July have been rendered out of combat.

Division 30 called on rebels to come to their aid in defending the base, and demanded that Al-Nusra stop "spilling the blood of Muslims."

Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but has devolved into a multi-front civil war among rebels, regime forces, Kurdish fighters and militant groups.]]>
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			<title>Govt remains tightlipped, as lawmakers demand answers on Mullah Omar's 'death'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/929182/govt-remains-tightlipped-as-lawmakers-demand-answers-on-mullah-omars-death</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/929182/govt-remains-tightlipped-as-lawmakers-demand-answers-on-mullah-omars-death#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 15 09:53:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahid.gishkori]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=929182</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali has also refrained from commenting on the issue]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[While the government has so far neither confirmed nor denied any statements pertaining to the ‘death’ of supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban Mullah Omar, the National Assembly briefly discussed the subject.

"The government has put us in the dark on this issue, but we need to know the truth," Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Shireen Mazari said in the National Assembly.

Although ubiquitous reports of Mullah Omar's death surfaced on Wednesday, the Afghan government confirmed on the basis of ‘credible information’ that Mullah Omar had died in April 2013 in Pakistan.

Read: Afghan Taliban release Mullah Omar biography amid growing frustration within ranks

Afghanistan’s top intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security confirmed further that Omar had died from Tuberculosis in a Karachi hospital.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali, however, has also refrained from commenting on the issue.

Read: Taliban supremo Mullah Omar is dead?

Flash floods

Meanwhile, with the devastating rains and floods reaping havoc across many parts of Pakistan, a notice put forward by MNA Syed Naveed Qamar brought into question the relief efforts being made by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan informed the House that all efforts are being made to provide help to the flood affected people.

Read: Flash floods leave 15 dead in different parts of Pakistan

"NDMA is busy coordinating relief activities in the affected areas," the minister said, adding that "the government, political leadership and other people should come forward to help the affected people."

Further, the minister pointed out that heavy rains and floods were the result of climate change, which were subsequent to global warming created by developed nations using fossil fuels.

Publication of Laws of Pakistan Ordinance

The National Assembly also extended the Publication of Laws of Pakistan (Regulation) Ordinance, 2015, for a further 120 days. The resolution was moved by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervez Rashid.

Read: NA passes ICT Local Govt Bill, 2015

Further, The Safeguard Measures (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, The Countervailing Duties Ordinance, 2015, The Anti-Dumping Duties Ordinance, 2015 and The National Tariff Commission Ordinance, 2015 were also extended for a period of 120 days; by Minister of State for Interior Muhammad Balighur Rehman.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Qaeda websites suggest Libi alive, promise new video</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/391688/qaeda-websites-suggest-libi-alive-promise-new-video</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/391688/qaeda-websites-suggest-libi-alive-promise-new-video#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 10 Jun 12 16:19:04 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=391688</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The messages posted by Ansar and Alfidaa websites suggested that Libi remains alive.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Two websites linked to al Qaeda announced on Sunday that they will air a new video featuring the militant network's deputy leader Abu Yahya al-Libi, whom Washington claimed last week to have killed.

The messages posted by Ansar and Alfidaa websites suggested that Libi remains alive.

"Soon, a video message by Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi, may Allah protect him," read the message posted by al Qaeda's Sahab media arm on both sites, one of which was put online on around 1500 GMT on Sunday.

The United States said Tuesday that al Qaeda's number two was killed in a drone strike, in the most weighty blow to the organisation since the killing of its founder Osama bin Laden.

Pakistani authorities spoke of a pre-dawn CIA drone strike on Monday on a compound in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border while US officials did not disclose details of the attack.

A trusted lieutenant of bin Laden, Libi appeared in countless al Qaeda videos and was considered the chief architect of its global propaganda machine.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda down, but not out in Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/391686/al-qaeda-down-but-not-out-in-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/391686/al-qaeda-down-but-not-out-in-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 10 Jun 12 15:09:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=391686</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Its finances have dried up, and those who once idolised the group wonder whether it can survive.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[When al Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi arrived in northwest Pakistan several years ago, he commanded so much respect that even some of the world's most dangerous militants held him in awe.

Already a legend in the shadowy world of jihad for breaking out of a high security US prison in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2005, he seemed to promise endless funds, training and inspiration for men who dreamed of unleashing carnage in New York or London.

By the time he was killed in a US drone strike last week, he was the latest victim of a series of the unmanned aerial attacks that has crushed al Qaeda's network along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence officials and commanders of militant groups said.

Its finances have dried up, and those who once idolised the group wonder whether it can survive.

"Imagine. They used to travel in Land Cruisers and  double-cabin pickup trucks a few years ago," said a commander from the Pakistani Taliban, which is close to al Qaeda. "Now, they are riding motorcycles due to lack of resources."

The downfall of the network in the border area started with the killing of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town in May last year, and the sustained campaign of drone attacks has further weakened the group. Only about eight hardcore al Qaeda leaders are still believed to be based in the lawless borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, compared with dozens a few years ago.

Current al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri is among those believed to be hiding in the area. Many al Qaeda loyalists have sold their weapons or sought donations to fund attempts to escape to their home countries, the Taliban commander added, speaking in a telephone interview.

But the strike that killed Libyan cleric Libi in North Waziristan, and other similar attacks on militant hideouts, have not made the region any safer. Several other armed groups infest the area, and are not noticeably weaker.

While the aerial campaign has weakened al Qaeda, its ally the Pakistani Taliban remains a highly potent force despite a series of Pakistan army offensives against its strongholds in the northwest. Seen as the biggest security threat to the US-backed government, the Taliban is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across Pakistan, and a number of high profile attacks on military and police facilities.

The Haqqani network, which is strongly allied to the Taliban in Afghanistan, also has bases in Pakistan's northwestern badlands, according to US officials. The group and Pakistani officials however deny they operate from there.

For the United States, however, the leaders of al Qaeda, the group that was behind the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, appear to be the prime target.

"We just took down another leader in al Qaeda the other day," US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told NATO forces during a visit to Kabul last week, referring to Libi, who was al Qaeda's second in command and top strategist.

"The worst job you can get these days is to be a deputy leader in al Qaeda, or for that matter, a leader," he added, to laughter.

Al-Qaeda funds dry up    

Residents in the area, Pakistani intelligence officers and former militants said in interviews that the aerial offensive has put al Qaeda commanders and fighters on the defensive, restricting their movements and their ability to forge closer alliances with other militant groups.

Financing was proving troublesome, since it is traditionally done in cash and in person to avoid being tracked through the banking system.

Libi was one of the few al Qaeda leaders who kept up personal contacts with commanders from other major militant groups like the Pakistani Taliban.

He used his charisma, and credentials as a theologian, to try and keep al Qaeda's network intact in the face of growing pressure from the remotely-piloted drones.

"Libi's death is a big blow to al Qaeda. It is currently facing serious financial problems in the Pakistani tribal areas," said a Pakistani intelligence official, a view echoed by some diplomats in Islamabad.

"Sending and receiving money has become very difficult for them because most of their channels have been shut down or compromised. That is impacting their operations."

Al Qaeda commanders who once appeared at training camps to motivate fighters are rarely seen, according to Taliban commanders and Pakistani intelligence officials.

"Most of them have gone underground, hiding in bunkers and basements, avoiding contact with the outside world," an intelligence official in the tribal border areas told Reuters.

Militancy: a long term threat

One senior Pakistani security official estimates there are only about eight core al Qaeda leaders left in Pakistan. But that does not mark the end of al Qaeda's leadership in the porous border frontier area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which President Barack Obama once called the most dangerous place in the world.

"It would be a mistake for anyone to conclude there is no one on the bench. It's a thinning bench, but there are still bad guys, with bad aspirations in al Qaeda's core group in Pakistan,' said a U.S. official in Washington.

"However, these individuals are not as capable and don't have the profile or following in the wider extremist movement that Abu Yahya or his predecessor Abu Atiyah had."

Much will depend on whether the United States can push Pakistan to go after the remaining al Qaeda leaders, especially in North Waziristan, where Washington says some of al Qaeda's most lethal allies are based.

But Pakistan is unlikely to commit itself to what could be a bloodbath, especially during a crisis in relations with the United States that has been worsening since the unilateral raid that killed bin Laden. Pakistan says its army is stretched fighting the Pakistani Taliban in other areas and it alone will decide when to fully take on groups in North Waziristan.

US officials have said the drone strikes, which inflame anti-American sentiment, will continue despite Pakistani demands they cease. That could undermine cooperation from Islamabad.

The senior Pakistani security official agreed the remaining handful of core al Qaeda leaders left in Pakistan were most probably hiding in North Waziristan.

It's a small number. But getting to them and their friends, like the notorious Haqqani network, won't be easy. Intelligence, especially, is hard to come by. A few years ago, Pakistani Taliban fighters managed to track down a large number of tribal informers for Pakistani intelligence in North Waziristan and slaughtered them.

"Many were killed and other people are too scared to cooperate with intelligence agents. It will take a long time to build up a network again," said the security official.

Even if Pakistan decides to mount a full-scale offensive there, that may only offer short-term solutions. Conditions that breed militancy are still ripe in nuclear-armed Pakistan, and they won't go away until the government implements bold reforms that strengthen the struggling economy.

More jobless young men could turn to militancy, which gives them a sense of power through the AK-47 assault rifle. Suicide bomber vests offer a path to paradise, they are told.

That message is especially alluring in unruly areas like North Waziristan, where more than 60 percent of the population is between the ages of 15-25, job opportunities are virtually non-existent, and the state has little control.

"Every day someone turns 18 in Pakistan," said the senior Pakistani security official, referring to an ever-growing pool of possible recruits for the jihad.]]>
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			<title>Bin Laden Letters: Al Qaeda told Mehsud to stop attacking Pakistan mosques, markets</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/373464/bin-laden-to-mehsud-stop-attacks-on-pakistani-mosques-markets</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/373464/bin-laden-to-mehsud-stop-attacks-on-pakistani-mosques-markets#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 May 12 14:18:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=373464</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Bin Laden had asked members to leave Waziristan to escape drone attacks.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Documents seized from Osama Bin Laden’s compound reveal that the former al Qaeda leader planned to kill US President Barack Obama and now CIA director David Petraeus. Bin Laden also urged supporters to leave Waziristan to escape drone attacks. The terror group also issued directives to stop attacks on Pakistani mosques, markets.

The US on Thursday began publishing selected letters and documents through the West Point Combating Terrorism Center. The 17 letters, numbering 175 pages,  comprise of part of the correspondence Bin Laden received, and sent to al Qaeda (AQ) commanders.

In a letter dated May 2010 sent to AQ leader Attiyah Abd-al-Rahman, who was killed in 2011 in a drone strike, Osama Bin Laden asked “Shaykh Said” to ask “brother Ilyas” to prepare two groups in Pakistan and Bagram, Afghanistan to anticipate and spot trips by US President Barack Obama and General David Petraeus. The letter says that the groups are to target their aircrafts, however, they should not target visits by US Vice President Joe Biden, then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, then Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen or the now late US Special Representative for Af-Pak Richard Holbrooke. “The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there. Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour in this last year of the war, and killing him would alter the war's path,” wrote Bin Laden.

Another letter by Osama Bin Laden, also to Attiyah in October 2010, is directed to the brothers in Waziristan, and said that they should keep a low profile and take necessary precautions. “(They) should stay in the area and those who cannot do so, their first option is to go to Nuristan in Kunar, Ghazni or Zabil. I am leaning toward getting most of the brothers out of the area. We could leave the cars because they are targeting cars now, but if we leave them, they will start focusing on houses and that would increase casualties among women and children. It is possible that they have photographed targeted homes. The brothers who can keep a low profile and take the necessary precautions should stay, but move to new houses on a cloudy day.”

Bin Laden also expressed reservations about the would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad telling a US court during his trial that Shahzad lied when he took his US citizenship oath. “You should know that it is not permissible in Islam to betray trust and break a covenant. Perhaps the brother was not aware of this. Please ask the brothers in Taliban Pakistan to explain this point to their members. In one of the pictures, brother Faysal Shahzad was with commander (Hakimullah) Mahsud; please find out if Mahsud knows that getting the American citizenship requires taking an oath to not harm America. This is a very important matter because we do not want al-Mujahidn to be accused of breaking a covenant.”

Critique of Hakimullah Mehsud

A letter written by AQ leaders Attiyah and Abu Yahya al Libi in December 2010 to Tehreek-e-Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is critical of his operations. “(Of the passive behavior is) killing more people, taking them as shields without basing their action on the Sharia killing the normal Muslims as a result of martyrdom operations that takes place in the marketplaces, mosques, roads, assembly places, and calling the Muslims apostates.”

The al Qaeda leaders also mention that they are sending guidelines on kidnapping and ransom money. “We are sending the attached short list on what is acceptable and unacceptable on the subject of kidnapping and receiving money, and we hope that you and the Mujahidin in Pakistan will approve it.”

In late January 2011, American AQ spokesman Adam Gadahn wrote a letter to an unknown recipient, critical of attacks on mosques. “And among the repulsive issues -and certainly forbidden- the targeting of mosques with explosives and others- as what is happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan and sometimes in Iraq.”]]>
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			<title>US defends killing Americans who join al Qaeda</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/346129/us-defends-killing-americans-who-join-al-qaeda</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/346129/us-defends-killing-americans-who-join-al-qaeda#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 05 Mar 12 22:49:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=346129</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Targets must pose imminent threat, capture not feasible: US Attorney General.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The Obama administration on Monday asserted a right to kill Americans overseas who are plotting attacks against the United States (US), laying out specific details for the first time about a policy that critics argue violates US and international law.

US Attorney General Eric Holder said that Americans who have joined al Qaeda or its affiliates can be targeted for lethal strikes if there is an imminent threat to the United States and capturing them is not feasible.

In prepared remarks to the Northwestern University School of Law, Holder did not refer directly to the CIA drone strike last year that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born Muslim cleric who joined al Qaeda's Yemen affiliate and directed many attacks.

"Any decision to use lethal force against a United States citizen - even one intent on murdering Americans and who has become an operational leader of al Qaeda in a foreign land – is among the gravest that government leaders can face," Holder said in the prepared remarks provided in advance.

"The American people can be - and deserve to be – assured that actions taken in their defense are consistent with their values and their laws," he said.

License to kill?      

Civil liberties groups have decried the program as effectively a green light to assassinate Americans without due process in the courts under the US Constitution, a charge that Holder flatly rejected.

Court approval for such strikes was unnecessary, he said, adding "the president may use force abroad against a senior operational leader of a foreign terrorist organization with which the United States is at war - even if that individual happens to be a US citizen."

President Barack Obama and his aides have fiercely defended their stand on national security in the face of criticism from Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail that terrorism suspects are treated too leniently.

Holder said the use of lethal force against Americans abroad would have to comply with several principles governing the law of war, including ensuring the target was of military value and that steps were taken to limit collateral damage.

"The principle of humanity requires us to use weapons that will not inflict unnecessary suffering," he said, but added that "these principles do not forbid the use of stealth or technologically advanced weapons."

A US official said that there was fierce debate within the administration about whether Holder should give the speech, questioning if it would assuage or irritate Obama's liberal backers who have been concerned that his policies were too close to that of his predecessor President George W Bush.

"The targeted killing program raises profound legal and moral questions that should be subjected to public debate, and constitutional questions that should be considered by the judiciary," said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project.

'Congressional authorization for counterterrorism operations'

The United States has launched numerous strikes against al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan using drones, unmanned aerial vehicles that at times have killed and wounded civilians in addition to the intended target, provoking an outcry.

A UN special investigator in 2010 called on the United States to halt CIA drone strikes, though the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has avoided a direct condemnation and said it was up to governments and military authorities to decide.

Holder said the administration abides by "robust oversight" when targeting Americans abroad, informing senior lawmakers about its counterterrorism operations.

Like the Bush administration, Holder asserted that conducting counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda, the Taliban and their affiliates was the purview of the presidency, citing 2001 congressional authorization.

He said the president has constitutional responsibilities to protect and defend the country.

"Military and civilian officials must often make real-time decisions that balance the need to act, the existence of alternative options, the possibility of collateral damage, and other judgments," Holder said.

The ACLU last month sued the Obama administration in federal  court, demanding that Holder's Justice Department release what the civil liberties group says it believes are legal memoranda justifying targeting Americans overseas using lethal force.

US officials have linked Awlaki to several plots against the United States, including the 2009 Christmas Day attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a US commercial airliner as it arrived in Detroit from Amsterdam with a bomb hidden in his underwear.]]>
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			<title>Man arrested in Cairo not Seif al Adel: Officials</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/343793/man-arrested-in-cairo-not-seif-al-adel-officials</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/343793/man-arrested-in-cairo-not-seif-al-adel-officials#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 12 04:37:47 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[agencies]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=343793</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Makkawi mistakenly detained on return to Egypt from Pakistan.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Egyptian security officials said a man they arrested at Cairo airport on Tuesday – believing him to be a senior al Qaeda leader – is an Egyptian militant wanted in his homeland not an al Qaeda operative.

“He is wanted for involvement with the Al Jihad (group). He is not Seif al Adel,” said a source at the National Security apparatus. Officials and state media earlier said the man was the senior Qaeda militant Seif al-Adel.

Mohamed Ibrahim Makkawi, born in 1954, was detained on return to Egypt from Pakistan, security sources said, but added that initial suspicions he was Seif al-Adel were incorrect.

The source said Makkawi had left for Afghanistan to join the war against Soviet troops in the 1980s, and later settled down in Pakistan.

State media had identified him as an al Qaeda leader, but Makkawi himself had told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview last year that he had been mistakenly identified as the senior militant.

He told the newspaper, in the interview published in May 2011, that he had disagreed with al Qaeda and sought political asylum in Pakistan.

“Following the tragic events of 9/11, I was surprised to find that my name and history had been placed underneath the image of another Egyptian, under the false name ‘Seif al-Adel’ as part of a list of 22 of the most wanted terrorists issued by the FBI, even though I have no connection to al Qaeda or its operations,” he had said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda lashes four Yemenis for drinking alcohol</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/342436/al-qaeda-lashes-four-yemenis-for-drinking-alcohol</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/342436/al-qaeda-lashes-four-yemenis-for-drinking-alcohol#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 27 Feb 12 10:44:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=342436</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The incident occurred in the presence of dozens of witnesses summoned to watch a show of summary justice.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Al Qaeda militants in Yemen have given four people 80 lashes each for drinking alcohol, in the presence of dozens of witnesses summoned to watch a show of summary justice.

The punishment was administered late on Sunday in the town of Jaar in Abyan province, a major Al Qaeda stronghold in the restive south, witnesses said.

Since May, Al Qaeda militants calling themselves Partisans of Shariah have taken control of several towns in Abyan.

The army, backed by US drones, has since been locked in battle with the extremists over the control of Abyan’s provincial capital Zinjibar.

The militants have enforced their own strict interpretation of Shariah, handing out lashes and severing the hands of people they accuse of stealing.

Jaar, where all such punishments have taken place, is under militant control and residents there say there is no government presence.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has taken advantage of a year of unrest in Yemen after protests erupted against the 33-year rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh who formally handed power to his deputy Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi on Monday. Hadi vowed in a speech on Saturday to continue battling the extremists.

His speech was followed a few hours later by an Al Qaeda-style suicide attack on a presidential palace in the southeastern province of Hadramawt, in which 26 elite Republican Guard troops were killed.]]>
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			<title>Renegade officer: ‘Al Qaeda hit-man’ may walk free as witnesses retract</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/342284/renegade-officer-%e2%80%98al-qaeda-hit-man%e2%80%99-may-walk-free-as-witnesses-retract</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/342284/renegade-officer-%e2%80%98al-qaeda-hit-man%e2%80%99-may-walk-free-as-witnesses-retract#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 27 Feb 12 05:23:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[asad.kharal]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=342284</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Sindh requests Punjab for his transfer to province.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Alleged al Qaeda member Major Haroon, accused of murder and kidnapping for ransom, may be released soon after most witnesses and complainants withdrew their testimonies.


Major Haroon quit the army in 2002 against what he called pro-American policies of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. He then allegedly joined al Qaeda.

Fearing his release, the Sindh Home Department sent a letter to the home department of Punjab requesting that Haroon be transferred from Punjab to Sindh. Haroon is also accused of being involved in the kidnapping case of prominent businessman Satish Anand.

Haroon, along with two other co-accused, is presently imprisoned in Kot Lakhpat jail on charges of killing an administrator of Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Dr Abdul-Saboor Malik, in Lahore.

The men are being tried by the additional and sessions judge inside the prison because of the sensitivity of the matter, police and prosecution department’s sources told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.

Before being shifted to Kot Lakhpat Jail, the three men were in Adiala Jail for their alleged involvement in the murders of Major General (retd) Ameer Faisal Alvi, his driver and a passer-by in 2008.

Sources familiar with the high-profile murders said armed men wanted to kidnap Dr Saboor for ransom and they killed him when he resisted. Similarly, Alvi was also gunned down by men who intercepted him for kidnapping.

The investigations of Saboor’s murder case reveal that the accused had been tasked to kidnap affluent people as al Qaeda was in dire need of money, sources added.

During a briefing in the Sindh Assembly last week on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s murder, Interior Minister Rehman Malik had confirmed Haroon’s contacts with al Qaeda.

In the initial stages of the investigation, Lahore police had registered a case against the accused on charges of kidnapping for ransom and murder of Saboor under Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and some sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). However, the Lahore High Court later ordered that the ATA section be deleted. The court directed the investigation officer to investigate the case under the PPC and to submit a charge sheet before a lower court.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>A-Levels to al Qaeda: Traumatised father keeps mum</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/325331/a-levels-to-al-qaeda-traumatised-father-keeps-mum</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/325331/a-levels-to-al-qaeda-traumatised-father-keeps-mum#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 22 Jan 12 05:01:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[muhammad.sadaqat]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=325331</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Father of Aslam Awan claims he has been told ‘not to speak anymore’.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Khushal Khan, the 70-year-old father of Aslam Awan, the University of Manchester graduate who died in a drone attack after joining al Qaeda, has refused to share his thoughts and feelings over the strange and tragic fate of his son.


“I went to offer Fateha for the departed soul of Aslam Awan but the father refused to say Fateha” said Mehmood Khan, a local resident who added that Khan believes that his son was martyred and that martyrs do not need the prayers of others.

When local journalists asked Khan about this, he gave them the same response, but abruptly brought communication to a halt when pressed further. “I am told not to speak anymore on this issue,” Khan told the media.

The grief-stricken retired banker did not disclose who had barred him from speaking about the issue.

Younas Qureshi, another local resident, said that Awan, despite being clean shaven, was a strong Deobandi Muslim, but nobody could say for sure that he was an al Qaeda operative.

Journalists were also denied information from the school at which Awan passed his A-levels in 2003.

However, following the media reports of his death, Awan’s family home remained the subject of strong media focus. Intelligence agency officials and police were deployed around the house as the investigation kicked off. Security forces want to find out if Awan had any local connections during his affiliation with the terrorist outfit. The police have also recorded a statement from Khan and his wife.

DIG Hazara Range Dr Muhammad Naeem, when approached by The Express Tribune, said he was unaware that any resident of Abbottabad with the name of Aslam Awan had been killed in a drone attack. “Nobody told me about what you are asking about. I will collect information and then would be in a position to speak to you by Monday,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda hits hard times after Bin Laden death: Analysts</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/319298/al-qaeda-hits-hard-times-after-bin-laden-death-analysts</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/319298/al-qaeda-hits-hard-times-after-bin-laden-death-analysts#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 12 13:03:15 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=319298</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Deprived of its historic leader, al Qaeda's money troubles have forced it to scale down its activities.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The death of Osama bin Laden last year severely damaged al Qaeda's finances and left the shadowy network struggling to survive in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan, analysts say.

Deprived of its historic leader, whose legendary name drew in generous contributions from rich families in the Gulf, al Qaeda's money troubles have forced it to scale down its activities, they said.

"When Osama was alive, al Qaeda had more money," said a senior security official from Peshawar.

"Before Osama's death, we received reports showing disputes between Osama and Ayman alZawahiri about money. The money was coming from Osama, and Zawahiri was the operational head," he said.

Zawahiri was Bin Laden's deputy who took over after his Saudi boss, who was believed responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, was shot dead in May by US commandos in Pakistan after a 10-year manhunt.

Zawahiri has neither the stature, the influence nor the networks to collect funds from Gulf donors and the organisation's finances quickly began to dwindle after the death, analysts said.

"He is an Egyptian, and that plays a major part," said Riad Kahwaji of the Institute for Near East and Gulf military analysis (INEGMA).

"He still has to prove himself as a capable leader for the cause. We have a lot of reports that show that he is still being challenged by many of other prominent al Qaeda members," he said.

"In the Gulf, family connections, tribal connections do matter a lot. The death of Bin Laden had a major impact on the finances of al Qaeda," said Kahwaji.

Bin Laden first began touring the Gulf to collect funds back in the 1980s when he was taking part in the jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He was received as a hero during these tours.

A Pakistani Taliban source interviewed by AFP in Karachi said the Gulf donors are still financing anti-American jihad in the region but that the Afghan Taliban were now favoured above al Qaeda.

Another Taliban source in Peshawar said that "Al Qaeda still has money, but they focus now more on Afghanistan.

"Before they were giving money to Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but now they're only giving them some small money to survive," he said.

Volunteer fighters returning from Pakistan's tribal belt have told of under-manned al Qaeda cells that are lacking in focus, short of cash and terrified of attacks by US drones.

"They have been seriously depleted, not just by financial problems but also by drone strikes and lack of morale generally and lack of leadership," said Richard Barrett of the al Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team of the United Nations.

"Al Qaeda has been so discredited by its irrelevance to all the changes in the Arab world that it's no longer attractive as a recipient of funds for donors," said Barrett, a former head of counter-terrorism at Britain's MI6 intelligence agency.

Kahwaji added: "People who used to support it now see that you can have an Islamic movement able to send elected members into parliament or government.

"They don't need any more to support a rogue group living thousands of miles away from them to help them change things in their respective countries."]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda claims kidnapping of Weinstein in Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/301043/al-qaeda-holding-us-aid-worker-warren-weinstein-in-pakistan-site</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/301043/al-qaeda-holding-us-aid-worker-warren-weinstein-in-pakistan-site#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Dec 11 21:03:23 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=301043</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Halt air strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen; release1993 WTC bombers, bin Laden family Zawahiri demands.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Al Qaeda is holding a US aid worker who was kidnapped in August in Pakistan, the extremist group's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a Thursday statement seen by a US-based monitoring group.

Zawahiri reportedly claimed  in an audio message released on jihadist forums, that al Qaeda had on August 13 abducted the elderly USAID contractor Warren Weinstein, who was "neck-deep in American aid to Pakistan," the SITE Intelligence Group said.

He said that the White House could secure the 70-year-old Weinstein's release if it halts air strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and releases the 1993 World Trade Center bombers and relatives of Osama bin Laden.

"Just as the Americans detain all whom they suspect of links to al Qaeda and the Taliban, even remotely, we detained this man who has been neck-deep in American aid to Pakistan since the 1970s," Zawahiri said in the 31-minute video.

Among the list of eight demands for Weinstein's release, al Qaeda also called for the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdul Rahman, Ramzi Yousef and Sayyid Nosair, who are tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Also on the list: Abu Musab al-Suri, one of al Qaeda's senior theorists and operatives.

SITE said Zawahiri directly addressed the hostage's family, telling them that US President Barack Obama had the power to get Weinstein freed but that he was "dodging" his responsibility to push for the release.

Obama "lied, he lies, and he will lie," Zawahiri was quoted as saying.

"He might say to you: 'I sought to release your relative, but al Qaeda was stubborn.' Do not believe him.

"He might say to you: 'I tried to contact them and they did not answer.' Do not believe him. He might say to you: 'I am doing all that I can to release your relative.' Do not believe him."

Gunmen snatched Weinstein, country director for US-based consultancy J.E. Austin Associates, which does contracting work with the US Agency for International Development, from his home in Lahore in mid-August.

(Read: Pre-dawn abduction: American ‘aid expert’ kidnapped in Lahore)]]>
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			<title>Drone strikes: Al Zawahiri, al Libi ‘high value targets’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/296777/drone-strikes-al-zawahiri-al-libi-%e2%80%98high-value-targets%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/296777/drone-strikes-al-zawahiri-al-libi-%e2%80%98high-value-targets%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 24 Nov 11 09:09:12 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=296777</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[US officials said lower-level fighters and other insurgent groups will remain a focus of Predator strikes.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ranked Ayman al Zawahiri and his second in command, Abu Yahya al Libi as high value targets in the drone campaign against al Qaeda in Pakistan, American newspaper The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

US officials, however, reportedly said that lower-level fighters and other insurgent groups will remain a focus of Predator strikes. Officials said al Qaeda’s contraction comes amid indications that the group has considered relocating in recent years. The group’s weakened condition has raised questions for the CIA about its deployment of personnel and resources. Despite the fact that US officials now assess al Qaeda’s offshoot in Yemen as a greater threat, the CIA’s station in Islamabad remains one of its largest.

The leadership ranks of the main al Qaeda terrorist network have been reduced to just two figures whose demise would mean the group’s defeat, US counterterrorism and intelligence officials said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2011. ]]>
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			<title>Talking to the terrorists</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/296349/talking-to-the-terrorists</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/296349/talking-to-the-terrorists#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 23 Nov 11 18:44:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=296349</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The truth is that Pakistan has to fight al Qaeda and its warriors to the bitter end.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The news on November 22 was that a Taliban commander who wishes to remain unnamed has declared somewhere that Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) has stopped its acts of terrorism because it is engaged in peace talks with the Pakistani authorities (read the Pakistan Army). The Pakistan Army has immediately denied that any kind of parleys are in process with the TTP, while the government spokesman has reiterated that any peace talks with the Taliban will take place once the TTP has forsworn terrorism and laid down its weapons.

In the regional battlefield, anyone who talks about talks is assumed to be on the run after being worsted in the overall war. That is what it means to all Pakistanis when the Americans say they are willing to talk to the Taliban. The American press makes no bones about the ‘defeat’ of the US in yet another encounter with the Muslim world after Iraq. The belief, therefore, that anyone who talks about peace talks is on the run has taken root in Pakistan. The language used in the Pakistani Urdu press contains honour-related words that heap sarcasm on the sole world power that couldn’t fight our ‘brave terrorist warriors’.

The Taliban commander who wants to remain unnamed must be fully conscious of the meaning of agreeing to engage in talks. The Pakistan Army, too, knows what it means to yield to the vocabulary of peace and has quickly rejected the rumour that it is engaged in any talks. It has memories of talking to Sufi Muhammad in the Swat-Malakand region and still hurts from the peace deals its two Peshawar-based generals had made with Nek Muhammad and Baitullah Mehsud. It is fighting with the TTP in Orakzai and is dealing with a tough nut called Mangal Bagh in Khyber Agency. And no quarters are given or taken.

The Taliban know that the political opposition in Pakistan is ceaselessly talking about ‘talking to our brothers’ in the Tribal Areas and not siding with the Americans ‘against our own people’. They take it as a weakness on the Pakistani side as it undermines the morale of the Pakistani soldier who is risking his life standing up to the terrorists who kill innocent Pakistanis, kidnap businessmen all over Pakistan for ransom and blow up children’s schools. They look at Imran Khan, the proponent of talks with the Taliban, with suspicion as he might finally put paid to the greatly profitable enterprise of terrorism through the ruse of talks.

Whether you like it or not, talks become meaningful when the two sides measure the costs of war and come to the conclusion that ending it would save human life and free up resources. More often, it is the dominant party that offers talks from a position of strength and hopes to extract advantage from an adversary under pressure in the battlefield, thinking that a settlement is better than defeat. It is the implied defeat in peace talks that deters the Taliban from negotiations. The Americans stepped up the war against them to bring them under pressure and it has not worked.

Talking to the Taliban will be problematic for two reasons. Within the TTP, there are warlords loosely allied against Pakistan with no firm central command capable of taking decisions on behalf of all of them. Since the TTP itself is subordinated to al Qaeda, the big decision about starting negotiations will rest with Ayman alZawahiri who will then talk to his downstream warriors such as the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jundullah. As far as one can judge from the map of violence from Peshawar to Karachi, it is the Pakistani side which is on the run, while politicians of various stripes are seen actually willing to capitulate.

The unnamed TTP commander says the group has ceased its terrorist attacks because the Pakistan Army is talking to it. That is not true because after his statement people have been killed in DI Khan and Karachi by TTP affiliates. The truth is that Pakistan has to fight al Qaeda and its warriors to the bitter end. Fortunately, the world is also under threat from these terrorists using Pakistan as their training ground and is willing to help. The wrong recipe would be challenging the world through isolationism and becoming soft on the terrorists by appealing to their human kindness.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Zawahiri and Libi rank high in CIA drone hit-list: Report</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/296356/zawahiri-and-libi-rank-high-in-cia-drone-hit-list</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/296356/zawahiri-and-libi-rank-high-in-cia-drone-hit-list#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 23 Nov 11 15:01:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=296356</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Zawahiri and Libi's death could mean end of al Qaeda, say US officials.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ranked Ayman al-Zawahiri and his second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi as high value targets in the drone campaign against al Qaeda in Pakistan.

United States (US) officials, however, reportedly said that lower-level fighters and other insurgent groups will remain a focus of Predator surveillance and strikes.

Officials said al Qaeda’s contraction comes amid indications that the group has considered relocating in recent years. The group’s weakened condition has raised questions for the CIA about its deployment of personnel and resources.

Despite the fact that US counter terrorism officials now assess al Qaeda’s offshoot in Yemen as a significantly greater threat, the CIA’s station in Pakistan’s capital remains one of its largest in the world.

According to officials, CIA has resisted moving operatives away from Pakistan because its priority is to extinguish the network’s base as al Qaeda has regrouped in the past.

The leadership ranks of the main al Qaeda terrorist network, once expansive enough to supervise the plot for September 11, 2001, have been reduced to just two figures whose demise would mean the group’s defeat, US counterterrorism and intelligence officials said.

“Now is not the time to let up the pressure,” said a US official familiar with drone operations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

“We’ve got an opportunity to keep them down, and letting up now could allow them to regenerate.”

The arrest this week of an alleged al Qaeda sympathizer in New York underscored the group’s ability to inspire “lone wolf” attacks.

US officials, still, who described al Qaeda as being on the verge of defeat after Osama bin Laden was killed said they have been surprised by the pace and extent of the group’s contraction in the six months since then.

“We have rendered the organisation that brought us 9/11 operationally ineffective,” a senior US counterterrorism official said. Speaking on whether what exists of al Qaeda’s leadership group beyond the top two positions, the official said: “Not very much. Not any of the world-class terrorists they once had.”]]>
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			<title>Al Zawahiri: To plot or not to be</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/288941/al-zawahiri-to-plot-or-not-to-be</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/288941/al-zawahiri-to-plot-or-not-to-be#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 08 Nov 11 04:54:32 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=288941</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In maelstrom of Arab Spring, Zawahiri has hailed successive fall of despotic regimes, doing so via militant websites.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Four months after succeeding Osama bin Laden at the head of al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahiri is spreading jihadist propaganda over the Internet but must mainly be preoccupied with his own survival, experts say.

On June 16, six weeks after al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed in a US raid, 59-year-old Egyptian Zawahiri was chosen to replace him as "commander-in-chief" of the militant group, a post previously unknown to the outside world.

Since then some militant groups, such as the Yemeni-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have pledged allegiance.

Other factions which had previously followed bin Laden's calls have been content to welcome Zawahiri's appointment.

Jean-Pierre Filiu, professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and author of a history of al Qaeda, sees the group's actions over the last four months as "purely defensive."

"They are presiding over a militant capital which is diminishing," he told AFP.

Nowhere is it making any real progress, he added. While AQAP may be taking some towns, like Zinjibar in Yemen, that is "mainly due to the chaos reigning in the country. And even in this case it doesn't amount to a victory for Zawahiri".

In the face of the maelstrom of the Arab Spring, which has seen regional governments fall through people power -- though sometimes with a large helping hand from NATO and the West -- Zawahiri has hailed the successive fall of despotic regimes, doing so via militant websites.

Last month the veteran of the Egyptian opposition forces called on Libyans to found an Islamic regime and for Algerians to revolt.

In July he hailed the Syrian "mujahedeen."

However Filiu said that his pronouncements have fallen "practically unnoticed in the Western media. Compared to bin Laden's threats it's negligible."

Dominique Thomas, specialist on Islamism at another French political science school, the EHESS, said Zawahiri was sending messages to affiliated groups, "trying to keep himself above the crowd," with the main message that the Arab revolutionaries should create Islamic states and not allow the West to "steal their revolutions".

But Zawahiri, with a $25 million bounty on his head and a permanent target for US drones' Hellfire missiles, is in no position to mount or coordinate major operations. His imperative is survival.

"The pressure from the Americans is enormous," Thomas stressed.

When US-Yemeni Imam Anwar al Aulaqi was killed in Yemen in September "he had not taken the threat seriously."

In the mountainous, inaccessible Afghanistan-Pakistan border region where Zawahiri is believed to be hiding out "there are drone attacks almost every day," Thomas added.

For Douglas Lute, US President Barack Obama's main adviser on Afghan and Pakistan affairs, "al Qaeda is in uncharted waters after the death of Bin Laden."

"They never had a succession process, this is a period of turbulence for this organisation which is our arch enemy," he added.

"In this succession period there are three to five key senior leaders in al Qaeda that if removed from the battlefield would seriously jeopardize al Qaeda's capacity to regenerate and therefore move us decidedly further toward defeat."

Zawahiri knows whose name is at the top of that list.]]>
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			<title>Radical US-born cleric Awlaqi killed: Yemen defence ministry</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/263891/radical-us-born-cleric-awlaqi-killed-yemen-defence-ministry</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/263891/radical-us-born-cleric-awlaqi-killed-yemen-defence-ministry#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 30 Sep 11 09:27:17 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=263891</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Tribal sources say Awlaqi, who was on US wanted list, killed in air strike which hit two vehicles in Marib province.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Radical US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi has been killed with several other suspected al Qaeda operatives, the Yemeni defence ministry said on Friday.

The ministry did not elaborate on the circumstances of Awlaqi's death in a statement released to the media.

But tribal sources told AFP that Awlaqi, who was on a US wanted list, was killed in an air strike which hit two vehicles in Marib province, an al Qaeda stronghold in eastern Yemen, early on Friday.

One tribal source said that the airplane that carried out the strike was likely to be American, adding that US aircraft had been patrolling the skies over Marib for the past several days.

The Yemeni defence ministry had previously announced Awlaqi's death late last year.

On December 24, the Yemeni government said he had been killed in an air strike only to admit later that he was still alive.

In February, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, Michael Leiter, told US lawmakers that Awlaqi probably posed "the most significant risk" to the United States.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Army says no confirmation on Al Shahri’s death</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/253582/no-confirmation-senior-al-qaeda-militant-dead-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/253582/no-confirmation-senior-al-qaeda-militant-dead-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 17 Sep 11 05:51:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=253582</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan military has ‘no knowledge’ of drone attack targets .]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan had no confirmation that al Qaeda’s chief of operations in the country had been killed in a recent drone strike in the northwestern tribal region, as reported by American officials.

Abu Hafs al Shahri, a Saudi national who had been serving as the senior figure in al Qaeda’s central command, was the target of the drone strike which occurred within the last few days, two US officials said on Thursday.

“We have no knowledge of that,” said Pakistan military spokesman Major Gen Athar Abbas on Friday.

“We have neither heard of this man operating in this region, nor can we confirm his death,” said an intelligence official operating in the tribal regions near the Afghan border.

While US officials declined to provide details, the only drone strike this month occurred on Sunday when a US drone targeted a militant compound in North Waziristan that killed at least three suspected militants. If confirmed, Al Shahri would be the sixth senior al Qaeda figure killed by either US or Pakistani forces in Pakistan since May with the death of their chief Osama bin Laden in a secret US raid in Abbottabad.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said two of the dead in that strike were Pakistani militants, but had no information about the third target. One of the US officials said al Shahri’s responsibilities included coordinating the activities of al Qaeda’s  leadership with the Tehreek-i-Taliban.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda chief of  operations killed in Pakistan: US official</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/253090/al-qaeda-leader-abu-hafs-al-shahri-killed-in-pakistan-this-week-us-official</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/253090/al-qaeda-leader-abu-hafs-al-shahri-killed-in-pakistan-this-week-us-official#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 16 Sep 11 03:00:25 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=253090</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Death poses new challenge to Ayman al Zawahiri.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[US officials believe al Qaeda chief of operations Abu Hafs al Shahri was killed in Pakistan earlier in the week.

According to a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, al Shahri’s death is yet another ‘serious blow’ to al Qaeda’s core group in Pakistan. Al Shahri played a “key operational and administrative role for the group,” the US official added.

Al Shahri’s death would also pose a challenge for Ayman al Zawahiri, long-time al Qaeda number two and believed to be at the helm of the organisation after Bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad. On Wednesday, a Pentagon official said he believed al Zawahiri was still in Pakistan, following the release of a video in which Osama bin Laden’s successor blasts the United States.

“We have no information to indicate that he is anywhere else than in Pakistan,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said. Speaking to The Express Tribune, the US official said that Abu Hafs al Shahri was a contender to assume al Qaeda’s second in command Atiyah Abd al Rahman’s duties. Shahri “coordinated al Qaeda’s anti-US plots in the region, and worked closely with the Pakistani Taliban to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.”

The US official did not comment on the circumstances leading to al Shahri’s death, however earlier this week on September 11, the media reported that at least three people killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan. On August 22, another US drone strike in North Waziristan led to the death of al Qaeda second in command Atiyah Abd al Rahman.

Another senior US administration official confirmed al Shahri’s death in Waziristan to The Express Tribune. “Abu Hafs’ death will further degrade al Qaeda’s ability to recover from the death of Atiyah in August because of his operations experience and connections within the group. Abu Hafs’ death removes a key threat inside Pakistan, where he collaborated closely with Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan to conduct coordinated attacks.” (Additional input from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>'Al Qaeda could be degraded to existing mostly as a propaganda arm in two years'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/253331/al-qaeda-could-be-degraded-to-existing-mostly-as-a-propaganda-arm-in-two-years%e2%80%9d</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/253331/al-qaeda-could-be-degraded-to-existing-mostly-as-a-propaganda-arm-in-two-years%e2%80%9d#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 15 Sep 11 19:46:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=253331</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Vickers says FATA may continue to remain epicenter of terrorism even if al Qaeda is eliminated.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The US Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, Michael G. Vickers has said that assuming there are sustained (counterterrorism) operations against al Qaeda, the cohesion between the group and its operational capabilities “could be degraded to the point that the group could fragment and exist mostly as a propaganda arm”, within 18-24 months.

According to the transcript released by the Department of Defense of Vickers’ address at the NDU, he said that al Qaeda had relationships with groups such as the TTP and the Haqqani network that allowed it to not just have safe haven in those areas, but could also lead to the possibility of conducting “joint operations”.

Vickers added that while al Qaeda remained a thread to the United States, it was “under more pressure and in a more precarious position than at any time since the 2001 ejection from its safe havens in Afghanistan.” He said that their leaders were being eliminated at a rate faster than al Qaeda can replace them.

Undersecretary Vickers’ remarks came on the day that US officials confirmed that the al Qaeda chief of operations Abu Hafs al Shahri was killed in Waziristan earlier this week. Al Shahri’s death follows the death of AQ second in command Atiyah abd al-Rahman in Waziristan, and the arrest of Younas al Mauritani in recent weeks.

Vickers added that, “Of the top nine leaders al Qaeda had on September 11, 2001, only Ayman al-Zawahiri has thus far managed to escape death or detention.”

“Assuming sustained [counterterrorism] operations against the group, within 18 to 24 months core al Qaeda cohesion and operational capabilities could be degraded to the point that the group could fragment and exist mostly as a propaganda arm,” he said.

According to a transcript of his speech released by the Department of Defense, Vickers “likened FATA as epicenter of the “world’s worst of global jihad” to the scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope of a rundown cantina on the planet Tatooine frequented by the worst scoundrels in the universe.”

The Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence also said that the presence of TTP, the Haqqani Network and the Commander Nazir group who provided AQ with safe haven will ensure that FATA will “almost certainly remain a principal area of US counterterrorism focus well after core al Qaeda is dismantled.”

Vickers said that the United States has shown AQ in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia that it “will enjoy no safe haven.”

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Pakistan sceptical over al Qaeda leader’s death</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241122/pakistani-officials-doubt-al-qaeda-operative-dead</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241122/pakistani-officials-doubt-al-qaeda-operative-dead#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 29 Aug 11 05:04:59 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=241122</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Reluctance to confirm may stem from added US pressure to eliminate ‘terrorist havens’.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan has refused to confirm claims by the US that al Qaeda’s second-in-command was killed last week in the tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan.

Washington announced on Saturday that Attiya abd al Rahman has been killed in North Waziristan Agency on August 22. However, it did not divulge the circumstances of his death.

Libyan national Rahman, who was in his late 30s, was a senior al Qaeda figure and among the list of most wanted men that the US handed over to Pakistan following Osama bin Laden’s death in May.

Pakistani security officials, on the other hand, were doubtful over the US claims, saying they had no compelling evidence to suggest that he was killed. “The US may have evidence but we are not sure about his death,” a senior military official told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity. “It is always very difficult to verify such high-profile killings in an area where the situation is so fluid,” he said.

Intelligence sources have said they need ‘hard evidence’ to confirm whether Rahman was indeed in the country’s tribal belt. Analysts say the security establishment’s reluctance to confirm the US claims may stem from the fact that it will put Pakistan under further pressure to eliminate ‘terrorist safe havens’ from tribal areas.

A senior Pakistani security official in Peshawar told AFP: “We have checked this news report with informers and have worked on it. I doubt the authenticity of this news.”

Another security official in Miramshah said he had received no information on the killing. “For me it is just a rumour. Frankly speaking, we are not even aware that a man with this name is working as deputy chief of al Qaeda,” he added.

Officials said the mountainous area is inaccessible. “In such cases we rely on informers. We have not received any such report,” a security official in Mir Ali town, North Waziristan, told AFP.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Death of deputy chief deals heavy blow to al Qaeda</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241106/death-of-deputy-chief-deals-heavy-blow-to-al-qaeda</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241106/death-of-deputy-chief-deals-heavy-blow-to-al-qaeda#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 28 Aug 11 09:08:57 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=241106</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Rahman was multi-skilled al Qaeda organiser and thinker, say analysts.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The killing of al Qaeda's number two leader deprives the group of a multi-talented manager who helped it spawn offshoots around the world and survive a US counter-terrorism campaign in Pakistan, security analysts say.

US officials said on Saturday that Atiyah abdal Rahman, a Libyan, was killed in Pakistan. One official said he was killed in a strike by an unmanned drone on August 22.

The killing is likely to be particularly highly prized by Washington as US strategists would have been concerned about Rahman's potential influence in Libya's turmoil following the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi, analysts say.

Rahman, in his 40s and from the coastal Libyan town of Misrata, built a reputation in al Qaeda as a thinker, organizer and trusted emissary of the Pakistan-based central leadership to its offshoots.

In particular he played a key role in managing ties between the core leadership and al Qaeda in Iraq and helped negotiate the formation in 2007 of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) with a group of Algerian guerrillas.

He was also one of the first al Qaeda leaders to provide a response to the uprisings in the Arab world, urging the group's supporters to cooperate with the revolts even if the rebellions were not Islamist-inspired.

"It's immensely important that he's been killed," said Anna Murison, who monitors Islamist violence for Exclusive Analysis, a London-based risk consultancy.

She said he was widely trusted throughout the organization and Islamists from very varied backgrounds listened to him.

Qaeda looks "finished"

"Al Qaeda as an idea will live on, but al Qaeda core as an organisation looks pretty much finished as there are so few people who can now move up into those senior ranks," she said.

She said he was one of only four people in al Qaeda's leadership with a global profile in the small but passionate transnational community of violent Islamist militants.

She rates these as al Qaeda's current leader Aymanal Zawahri, Egyptian plotter Saifal Adl, and the other Libyan in al Qaeda's central leadership, the theologian Abu Yahyaal Libi.

Rahman rose to the number two spot when Zawahri took the reins of al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed in May in a US raid in Pakistan.

Noman Benotman, a former Libyan Islamist and now an analyst at Britain's Quilliam think tank, said his death was a heavy blow to al Qaeda as he was its main organiser and manager.

"This was the one man al Qaeda could not afford to lose," Benotman said. "He was the CEO of al Qaeda who was at the heart of the management process of al Qaeda worldwide.

Benotman said that in the last two years he "more or less single-handedly" kept al Qaeda together.

"He was a strong decision maker, an excellent debater and a skilled peacemaker between various Islamist groups."

Fought in anti-soviet afghan war

Benotman said Rahman, whose real name was Jamal Ibrahim Ishtawi, was a graduate of the engineering department of Misrata University and left Libya to go to Afghanistan in 1988 and join the Islamist groups then fighting Soviet occupation.

He said Rahman was a personal acquaintance of his but was never a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Islamist guerrilla organisation that waged a failed insurgency to topple Gaddafi in the 1990s and of which Benotman was a leader.

Rahman was one of al Qaeda's earliest members and worked for the anti-Western militant group in Algeria and Mauritania as well as Afghanistan, Benotman said.

In a statement posted on militant online forums on Feb. 23, Rahman acknowledged that the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia were not the "perfections for which we hoped", but they were happy occasions nonetheless.

He dismissed the notion that al Qaeda had a "magic wand" to gather large armies and lead the charge to overturn governments and rescue besieged Muslims, according to a translation by the Site Intelligence Group, a US monitoring company.

Rather, he wrote, "al Qaeda is a simple part of the efforts of the jihadi Ummah (nation), so do not think of them to be more than they are. We all should know our abilities and to try to cooperate in goodness, piety and jihad in the Cause of Allah; everyone in his place and with whatever they can and what is suitable to them."]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda’s second in command killed in drone strike: US</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240952/al-qaeda%e2%80%99s-second-in-command-killed-in-drone-strike-us</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240952/al-qaeda%e2%80%99s-second-in-command-killed-in-drone-strike-us#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 28 Aug 11 05:04:19 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=240952</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[US official says that this was a major blow to al Qaeda.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Al Qaeda number 2 Atiyah Abd-al Rahman was killed in Waziristan on August 22, according to US officials.


The officials, however, declined to confirm the circumstances around Atiyah’s death. A drone strike, that killed four people, is reported to have taken place in North Waziristan.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, a US official said that this was a major blow to al Qaeda. “Atiyah was at the top of al Qaeda’s trusted core. He ran daily operations for the group, and has been Zawahiri’s second-in-command since Bin Laden’s death in May.”

According to the US official, Atiyah was known by al Qaeda affiliates and was entrusted with speaking on behalf of both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. “He planned the details of al Qaeda operations and its propaganda.  His combination of background, experience and abilities are unique in al Qaeda—without question, he will not be easily replaced. Zawahiri needed Atiyah’s experience and connections to help manage al Qaeda.  Now it will be even harder for him to consolidate control.”

Another senior US administration official told The Express Tribune that “Atiyah’s death is a tremendous loss for al Qaeda, because Zawahiri was relying heavily on him to help guide and run the organisation, especially since Bin Laden’s death. The trove of materials from Bin Laden’s compound showed that Atiyah was deeply involved in directing al Qaeda’s operations even before the raid. He had multiple responsibilities and will be difficult to replace.”

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Interview with a spy: ‘Step into Pakistani shoes’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240780/no-pakistani-official-had-knowledge-of-osama-gernier</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240780/no-pakistani-official-had-knowledge-of-osama-gernier#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 28 Aug 11 04:30:48 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=240780</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Former CIA station chief asks his fellow Americans to understand Pakistani threat perceptions, frustrations.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[For a former spy, Robert Grenier speaks remarkably like a diplomat.


In an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune, the former top American spy in Islamabad said he understood Pakistan’s national security threats and the frustration felt by the country’ military leadership about not having a say over the drone strikes.

Grenier, who was posted as the CIA’s Islamabad station chief from 1999 to 2001, was present in the country during the World Trade Centre attacks on September 11, 2001.  Describing the intelligence cooperation between Pakistan and the United States before 9/11 as “very limited”, Grenier says that after President Musharraf’s decision to ally with the United States, “the relationship with the intelligence agencies changed from virtually no cooperation to full co-operation, at least with respect to al Qaeda.”

In an interview last year, Grenier said he believed Pakistan did not know where Bin Laden was. Does he still stand by that statement, months after Bin Laden was discovered in Abbottabad?

“My strong suspicion even now is that no one other than the close collaborators of Bin Laden knew that he was in Abbottabad. No one has apparently found any compelling evidence that there was any official knowledge on the part of Pakistan of Bin Laden’s whereabouts. I continue to believe that they were as surprised as anyone when he turned out to be hiding in Abbottabad.”

Bin Laden’s trail, says Grenier, went cold “essentially after he apparently escaped from the Tora Bora area around December of 2001. As I even said at the time, for all we knew, he could’ve been hiding in a small apartment somewhere in Karachi.”

While Grenier declined to talk about details of the drone program that began under his watch, while he was head of the CIA Counterterrorism Centre in 2004, he offers his insights on the effects of the drone program.

“In the early days, the missile strikes seemed to be limited to the very senior cadre of al Qaeda. In more recent years, it appears that the targets of missile strikes have included much larger number of local fighters – Afghan and Pakistan fighters. It seems to me that it has become much more of a conventional weapon against militants as opposed to a very surgically employed tool against international terrorists.”

Grenier seemed quite understanding of Pakistani frustrations about the programme, but also justified the US strategy behind them.

“Putting myself in the position of my former counterparts in Pakistan, it must be frustrating given the fact that the Pakistanis have to deal with the effect of these strikes, without really having any vote in terms of how these strikes are employed. The American point of view is that it is Pakistan’s responsibility to not let its territory to be used as a base for militants. Given the apparent inability of the Pakistanis to control the tribal areas, [US officials] feel great pressure to do something about it unilaterally.”

Grenier talks about the rifts in relations between the United States and Pakistan as a divergence of their national interests.

“The fundamental problem between the United States and Pakistan right now is that they don’t see their national interests as completely overlapping and in fact over time have been diverging. Pakistan is very concerned about the large US military presence in Afghanistan as a radicalising factor. The US, on the other hand, very much wants Pakistan to address this issue because it imposes a direct threat to US and NATO and Afghan forces. Politically, Pakistan is concerned about an essentially unfriendly government in Kabul with very close relations to India, an issue that the US is very reluctant to address.”

Grenier advises US policymakers to put themselves in their Pakistani counterparts’ shoes before making decisions about the region. He also asks Pakistanis to get more serious about the problem of militancy, which he says is not as dependent on the US presence in Afghanistan as many in Islamabad would like to believe.

“Militancy within Pakistan is not going to go away and I think the drawdown of the US presence in Afghanistan is not going to cause that threat to diminish appreciably,” he said.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Shahbaz Taseer and today’s Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240595/shahbaz-taseer-and-today%e2%80%99s-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240595/shahbaz-taseer-and-today%e2%80%99s-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 27 Aug 11 19:22:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=240595</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Most credible candidate among kidnappers is al Qaeda and subordinate groups out to acquire funds for their activities.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Two cars and a motorbike were used to kidnap the son of former governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz, from Lahore’s Gulberg area while he was on his way to work on August 26. The city was gripped with panic because this was the second high-profile kidnapping, coming soon after the kidnapping of an American official from the city. Most likely, Shahbaz has been picked up by the Taliban through their affiliates such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which last February kidnapped the son-in-law of former chairman joint chiefs of staff committee (CJCSC), General Tariq Majid.

The police is considering other possibilities too. It could be Mr Taseer’s tenants in a plaza which he wanted vacated for repairs; it could be a rival real-estate tycoon seen attacking the Taseer family through a local newspaper; and it could be a quarrel within his circle of personal friends. However, the most credible candidate among the kidnappers is al Qaeda and its subordinate groups out to augment the fast-dwindling kitty of the global terrorist organisation.

Thirty-five year old Amir Malik, the son-in-law of General Tariq Majid, was kidnapped for ransom. He was picked up by armed men in August 2010 from his Faisal Town, Lahore residence. The videotaped message received later showed masked militants wielding kalashnikovs in the background. The price: Rs130 million as well as the release of 153 militants being held in various prisons across Pakistan. The American named Warren Weinstein, too, will most probably be returned after a big payment. An American officer similarly picked up in Quetta was rumoured to have been released after a payment.

It is unfortunate that Shahbaz Taseer did not think much of the security detail provided to him by the Punjab government. The Taseer family had a total of 17 police and five rangers personnel posted with them while Shahbaz himself had two police guards for his personal protection. Because his father, the late governor Taseer, was killed by his own police guard, he travelled without them on the fateful day. The family says they have been receiving threatening phone-calls from the Taliban and their extremist followers in Punjab.

Why should the Taliban-al Qaeda combine be interested in this kidnapping? It should be recalled that when the clergy led by the Barelvi school of thought went on the rampage in Punjab against governor Taseer’s defence of Christian Aasia Bibi’s conviction under the blasphemy law, the Taliban declared themselves resolved to take revenge from the governor. It should also be noted that the cleric who led the funeral prayer for governor Taseer was delivered credible threats till he fled to the UK to seek asylum there. The Barelvis simply don’t indulge in this kind of activity except al Qaeda is short of funds and has slowed down its attacks not because it’s ‘back is broken’ but because it needs to have money to buy weapons and explosives. This happens periodically and the kitty is replenished through kidnappings. These have taken place rather heavily in Karachi and Peshawar. In the latter city, rich people have been pauperised by the heavy ransom they have had to pay to remain alive. Those who collect include warlords like Mangal Bagh of Khyber Agency who have to finance their internecine wars. The last time al Qaeda ran short of funds, it got a retired army officer, Major Ashiq, to kidnap putatively rich people from across Pakistan for ransom. Use of explosives is the mainstay of terrorism in Pakistan and al Qaeda even tried to steal the Wah Factory explosives meant for the mining industry.

Pakistan’s record in foiling kidnapping for ransom is not very good. It is said that one senior Pakistani diplomat kidnapped by al Qaeda’s affiliates in Waziristan was released after a big payment. The same is true of an Afghan diplomat who has recently been released and lives in the palace of President Karzai for fear of being kidnapped again and is narrating his tale of woe to the world media. In the case of General Tariq Majid’s son-in-law, the negotiations may still be ongoing and one should be grateful that state agencies still have a way of reaching the kidnappers. We hope and pray that Shahbaz Taseer will be released soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda No2 Atiyah Abd al Rahman killed in Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240746/al-qaeda-no2-atiyah-abd-al-rahman-killed-in-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240746/al-qaeda-no2-atiyah-abd-al-rahman-killed-in-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 27 Aug 11 17:55:31 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=240746</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Al Rahman is believed to have been killed in drone strike on August 22 in Waziristan.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[US officials on Saturday confirmed that al Qaeda number 2 Atiyah Abd-al Rahman had been killed in Waziristan, Pakistan on August 22.

Speaking to Express Tribune, a US official said that this was a major blow to al Qaeda (AQ). “Atiyah was at the top of al Qaeda’s trusted core.  He ran daily operations for the group since Shaykh Sa’id al-Masri was killed last year, and has been Zawahiri’s second-in-command since Bin Laden’s death in May.”

According to the US official, al-Rahman was known and trusted by AQ affiliates and was entrusted with speaking on behalf of both Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. “He planned the details of al Qaeda operations and its propaganda.  His combination of background, experience, and abilities are unique in al Qaeda—without question, they will not be easily replaced. Zawahiri needed Atiyah’s experience and connections to help manage al Qaeda.  Now it will be even harder for him to consolidate control.”

Speaking to Express Tribune, another senior US administration official said that “Atiyah’s death is a tremendous loss for al Qaeda, because Zawahiri was relying heavily on him to help guide and run the organisation, especially since Bin Laden’s death. The trove of materials from Bin Laden’s compound showed clearly that ‘Atiyah was deeply involved in directing al Qaeda’s operations even before the raid. He had multiple responsibilities in the organisation and will be very difficult to replace.”

The US officials declined to confirm the circumstances around Atiyah’s death, but a drone strike was reported to have taken place on August 22 in North Waziristan that killed four people.

Al-Rahman is believed to have risen to the No. 2 position in the al Qaeda chain of command after US forces had killed its leader, Osama bin Laden in a covert raid on a compound in Pakistani town of Abbottabad in early May.

The then second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri took over reigns of the terror outfit, paving way for al-Rahman to be promoted.

It is believed that Zawahiri along with much of senior al Qaeda and Taliban leadership are hiding in the mountainous tribal regions of Pakistan that border Afghanistan.

A former CIA station chief who had been posted in Islamabad, while giving an exclusive interview to Express 24/7 said that he believed no one in the Pakistani leadership had knowledge of Osama bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad.]]>
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			<title>How Urdu got associated with Muslims in India — Part II</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240607/how-urdu-got-associated-with-muslims-in-india-%e2%80%94-part-ii</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240607/how-urdu-got-associated-with-muslims-in-india-%e2%80%94-part-ii#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 27 Aug 11 17:28:45 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[dr.tariq.rahman]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=240607</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[By the 20th century, Urdu came to possess an impressive amount of Islamic literature including scholarly works.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The first part of this article dwelt on the 18th century movement of linguistic reform (which I called ‘Islamisation of Urdu’) which Persianised Urdu and changed its Indic-orientation to Islamic culture. This part will take up another aspect of the same issue — the use of Urdu in education, printing and religious debate in British India. These factors also associated Urdu, which has an Indic base and was not associated with any specific religious community till the late 18th century, with Islam and Muslim identity in India.

Urdu-Hindi (the ancestor of both modern Urdu and Hindi) was not originally associated either with formal religious institutions or bureaucracy of the state in Mughal India. The language of the Islamic texts and liturgical practices was, of course, Arabic. However, religious texts were explained in Persian. Persian was also used for formal discourse on Islamic issues by the ulema. Yet, probably to communicate to the common people, some of the sufis used the local languages. Thus there are references to conversation, poetry recited during musical (sama’a) sessions and wise sayings in Urdu-Hindi from the 15th century onwards.

Remarkably enough, a religious reformer called Bayazid Ansari (1526-1572) wrote lines in what he called ‘Hindi’ in the Perso-Arabic script in his book entitled Khairul Bayan (1560-1570). The book was written in South Waziristan, in a Pashto-speaking area, but he thought this language useful for the propagation of his religious ideas. Anyway, despite this and other early writings, this ancestor of Urdu was not associated with Muslims. This association grew during the British period and, apart from the reasons given in Part-I of this article, it grew mainly because of the use of Urdu in printing, education and religious debate.

As Muslim political power shrank and anxiety spread about why this had happened, the ulema began a movement of education and purification. This they did by writing small books (chapbooks) in the local languages. Thus there are nur namas, wafat namas, jang namas, lahad namas etc. in almost all languages used by Muslims in South Asia and, as it happens, most of them are in Urdu. This movement started in the 18th century and accelerated in the 19th and the 20th centuries. Indeed, if one consults the British reports on printing, one finds that two themes always predominate: religion and love. In some years, one may exceed the other but, as books on history and morals also have a religious colour, it may be true to say that religion mostly predominates printing.

This was a tremendous social change for all religious communities in India. Thus, although there was a secularising trend introduced by the British also, there were more religious texts available in print than ever before. Hence, the consciousness of religious identity grew among all religious communities in India. And within Islam, the consciousness of sectarian identity grew also. Thus, on the one hand the modernist secular classes grew alienated from the religious masses. But on the other, the religious classes also grew alienated from each other and from other religious communities.

As for education, the madrassas started explaining the Arabic texts of the Dars-i-Nizami in Urdu though the classical exegeses were still in Persian. Meanwhile, Shah Abdul Qadir (1753-1827) and Shah Rafiuddin (1749-1817) translated the Holy Quran into Urdu. Exegeses of the Holy Quran, such as Murad Ullah Sanbhli’s Tafsir-e-Muradi (1771) came to be printed.

Indeed, by the 20th century, Urdu came to possess an impressive amount of Islamic literature. From the popular elegies for the martyrs of Karbala (marsiya) to devotional poetry; from stories read out among illiterate women (for example, Bibi Fatima ki Kahani) to scholarly works on Islamic philosophy; from the hagiographies of saints to the strictly monotheistic sermons of the Wahabis — all this varied literature was predominantly in Urdu.

Moreover, the sub-sects of Islam — not just the Sunnis and the Shias but the Ahle Hadith, Deobandis, Barelvis and others — wrote their polemical literature in Urdu. They indulged in debate (munazara) in Urdu and refuted each others’ claims in the same language. Even those who are considered heretics — as Bayazid Ansari was in the 16th century — published their works, attacked their opponents and defended themselves in Urdu.

Whether one is looking at the fundamentalists, revivalists, modernists or heretics — one notices that their favourite medium of expression is Urdu. This incessant debate went on in face-to-face munazaras and through constant pamphleteering throughout the 20th century and still continues. Even the works of the al Qaeda philosophy and the literature of the militants which is on sale outside mosques and madrassas in Pakistan today is in Urdu though hardly any of them are mother-tongue speakers of the language. Moreover, Urdu is still the preferred language of instruction and examination in Pakistan and India. Even some madrassas in Bangladesh give it some space though, of course, others use Bengali.

All these factors associate Urdu with Islam and the Islamic identity in the public mind in South Asia. While it is true that Urdu has also been associated with socialism (Taraqqi Pasand Adab), modernity and enlightenment (the Delhi Renaissance), the association with Islam predominates. The official discourse in Pakistan celebrates this in order to emphasise difference from India. The Indian Muslims, on the other hand, emphasise the composite character of Urdu and call it a joint product of the Hindu and Muslim civilisations. Yet, in India, too, Urdu is part of Muslim politics and efforts to preserve it necessarily dwell on the Perso-Arabic script and the Persian and Arabic diction of modern Urdu. Yet, a language may have more than one association. And it is always possible that Urdu can produce discourses of inclusiveness, tolerance and pluralism which can make it both a rich repository of Islamic literature and a language of enlightened, progressive and tolerant thought. (For details see my book From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History Oxford University Press, 2011 and Orient Blackswan edition in India).

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Obituary of liberal-secularism — II</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240613/obituary-of-liberal-secularism-%e2%80%94-ii</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/240613/obituary-of-liberal-secularism-%e2%80%94-ii#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 27 Aug 11 16:46:45 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[ayesha.siddiqa]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=240613</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Democracy means Islamists can do what they want in their country as long as they stay away from the developed world.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Perhaps we don’t realise that the world is getting ready to accept religious radicalism as a reality in the Muslim world. The primary lesson drawn from the soft uprising in the Arab world or the recent political development in countries like Turkey goes to show that democracy will pave the way for Islamists and not those defined in western terms as liberal.

A few months ago, a visiting American academic reputed as a South Asia expert, was probing for a right-wing political leader or party that could get other right-wingers to follow him. During a conversation with a European diplomat, it transpired that his country sought to cooperate with Islamists in the Arab world, especially those who are willing to coexist with the international community. Bottom line: Islamists can do almost whatever they want in their country as long as they stay away from violence and the developed world.

Liberalism seems to have failed in the Muslim world and is taking down secularism with it. There are two basic reasons for this. First, the 20th century Muslim world is not largely known for liberalism, including Turkey which had secularism but not liberalism. It is important to note that liberalism is a combination of social, political and ideological plurality. Secularism is not supposed to negate faith but allow for a pluralistic society where all faiths can grow without any pressure from the state. Anti-mullahism does not automatically translate into liberalism until it is accompanied by political liberalism as well. The Turkish ruling elite, which partnered with military-authoritarianism, caused the frustration that led to the rise of the AKP (Adalet Ve Kalkinma Partisi — or Party for Justice and Progress). This also means that the intensity of Islamism will vary from state to state. While in some countries Islamism may support liberalism, in countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and others, it may eliminate it. For those that underestimate the ideological power of the ahle Hadith and Deobandi militant outfits, their real nuisance lies in converting people to the idea that a Muslim society’s main task is to prepare for a never-ending conflict with the world and convert their own and other societies to a lifestyle they believe has been ordained by God. The formula is not liberal at all because it does not even allow for multiple interpretations of the holy text, leave alone other faiths.

But the second reason that the world may eventually come to terms with Islamism is due to the growth of scholars in western universities in particular, who are shaping the academic understanding of the Muslim world in the West in a certain way. These scholars, mostly anthropologists, present Islamism as a critical part of the local culture, which often leads to the conclusion that liberalism is a cultural anomaly. In forcing their affected conclusions, these scholars brutally misconstrue theoretical concepts to fit their conclusions. Scholars of Pakistani origin, for instance, have tried to tailor the concept of secularisation, agency and democratic debate as if to prove rabid Islamism was a normal thing in a society that was once known for cultural and religious pluralism. Then there are others who present madrassas like Jamia Hafsa and others as normal entities. There is no regard in this discourse for historical realities such as the close bond between state and non-state Islamists to serve the state’s interests, which has resulted in strengthening the Islamists.

While the liberal Muslim tradition got pushed back due to several reasons that cannot be discussed in this limited space, the rabid narrative got popularised because of massive financial and political support from Saudi Arabia, Libya, the Gulf States and Iran. Indeed, a lot of the Islamic centres in the West or Islamic studies programmes get funding from the above-mentioned states. Not to mention, the damage done by security studies to the study of Muslim societies. In an urge to create workable policy options, a security study tends to narrowly compartmentalise situations and characters. It means that entities like the Lashkar-e-Taiba or other militant outfits are presented as normal and part of indigenous growth. One way to stop this development is for the liberal discourse to base its argument on the liberal Islamic tradition. Liberalism is not foreign to Islam. People would benefit a lot if they went through the works of scholars like Abdullahi An’Naeem, Khalid Abul Fazl and others to understand that a peculiar kind of Islamism may not represent Islam.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda firmly rooted in Pakistan tribal fiefdom</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/239865/al-qaeda-firmly-rooted-in-pakistan-tribal-fiefdom</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/239865/al-qaeda-firmly-rooted-in-pakistan-tribal-fiefdom#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 26 Aug 11 06:44:01 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=239865</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Since fleeing the invasion of Afghanistan, al Qaeda bosses have carved out a new haven in Pakistan's northwest.]]>
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				<![CDATA[With his well-groomed hair, shaven face and delicate hint of aftershave, al Qaeda logistician Abu Salman has operated for years in Pakistan's badlands with little fear of detection. A decade after fleeing the US invasion of Afghanistan, al Qaeda bosses have carved out a new haven in Pakistan's lawless northwest, recruiting a fresh generation of footsoldiers well versed in how to escape capture.

Despite the long years of conflict, the terror network's reign of fear is too rooted for the Pakistani army or US missiles to dislodge. When Abu Salman nears a checkpoint on the way to the group's premier bastion of North Waziristan, he turns up the music on the car stereo and lights a cigarette. And with this simple indulgence of vices denounced by extremist adherents of Islam, he evades suspicion. Another trick is to leave an English-language newspaper- the ultimate trapping of a secular-minded Pakistani gentleman- lying on the passenger seat.

In his 30s, the al Qaeda operative speaks to AFP under a fake name in the suburbs of Pakistan's largest northwestern city, Peshawar. Officially he is a car dealer. The cover story allows him to swap vehicles without suspicion and so escape detection by Pakistani security forces and the American drones trying to eliminate al Qaeda in the frontline state in the war on terror.

A university-trained engineer, Abu Salman signed up in 2008 while working in Afghanistan. "I saw the pain inflicted by the Americans. I realised that I hadn't done anything with my life up till then," he said. He was given basic military training in eastern Afghanistan in late 2008 but has been integrated into the network as a logistics man, fetching food and medicine.

He personifies the success that al Qaeda has found in Pakistan, exploiting a mosaic of overlapping extremist networks of foreigners and locals dating back 30 years to the mujahedeen resistance to the Soviets in Afghanistan. "Al Qaeda has been pretty much driven out of Afghanistan, but it got stronger in Pakistan," surfing on a wave of anti-American sentiment, says Pakistani journalist and al Qaeda expert Zahid Hussain.

North Waziristan has an estimated several hundred foreign al Qaeda fighters, mostly from Arab countries and Uzbekistan, with a smattering of Africans, Chechens and Westerners, the latter mosly dual nationals. Most arrive overland through central Asia and Afghanistan. A minority, often the most inexperienced, fly in, running greater risks of being arrested as with two French jihadists picked up this year in Lahore.

Abu Salman criss crosses between Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad and the tribal belt. "We avoid the telephone and the Internet to avoid being detected and being killed by a drone," he said. Responsible for providing food and medication, he shops for energy drinks such as Red Bull, which he claims are "very popular" among fighters.

But if most are foreign, Abu Salman claims that "more and more Pakistanis want to join up".

"Al Qaeda rents homes for its fighters as well as local Taliban who are less well off, basically getting funds from kidnapping for ransom," says one regular visitor to the main market in the North Waziristan capital of Miranshah, who gives the name of Ahmad Jan.

Wearing traditional Pakistani clothes, long hair and beards, turbans and a Kalashnikov slung over their shoulder, the foreigners are almost indistinguishable from the tribesmen whose daughters they marry. Only the locals can tell the difference. "Their skin is often lighter, thinner and taller if they're Arabs and they walk differently" says Jan.

There may be no trace of Osama bin Laden's successor Ayman al-Zawahiri, but ordinary footsoldiers take few precautions, other than avoiding restaurants for fear of being a sitting duck for a drone strike.

According to statistics compiled by American website The Long War Journal, drone strikes have killed nearly 2,000 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. Abu Salman claims that most of those killed are Taliban.

Visitors say that the turnover is rapid, that the dead are quickly replaced by new arrivals. Al Qaeda enjoys the protection of Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani whose relationship with Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI and own stronghold in North Waziristan has effectively ruled out any ground offensive.

"Everything has changed in 10 years: most of the tribal leaders have been killed and the tribal system destroyed by the extremists. We can't dance any more, or play music at weddings," said Miranshah shopkeeper Qader Gul, 56. "Anyone who protests risks having a member of his family kidnapped, beaten or killed," agreed Jan.

"The young generation is destroyed. It sees nothing except the drones and armed groups... In these conditions, I don't see how the young will become anything other than Taliban," said Fayaz Dawar, 30, a doctor in Mir Ali.]]>
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			<title>Tortured rebel basks in his finest hour</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/239716/tribune-exclusive-tortured-rebel-basks-in-his-finest-hour</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/239716/tribune-exclusive-tortured-rebel-basks-in-his-finest-hour#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 26 Aug 11 01:18:26 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[harald.doornbos]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=239716</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Rebel comman­der says Qaddaf­i’s fall has been a dream come true.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Akil al Mazoughi, a Libyan rebel commander from the town of Derna, rolls up his sleeves to show the only two ‘gifts’ he once received from Colonel Qaddafi. One may expect a golden watch or an expensive bracelet, but what he got instead were two disfigured wrists and scars that may never heal.

“When I returned to Libya in 2000, I was arrested”, al Mazoughi says, adding: “Qaddafi’s police bound metal wire around my wrists. It was extremely painful.”

Before you can start to grasp how much this torture must have hurt, al Mazoughi shows his leg. On it, 15 or so more blackened scars; each the size of a coin. “They would push cigarettes or hot pieces of metal against my leg,” he explains. “I could hear the terrible sizzling sound as it burned my flesh.”

As he puts his clothes back on, he says: “Would you like to see my back?”

After 11 years, the wounds on al Mazoughi’s body might have healed but the scars remain. There is also little sign of relief from the emotional trauma he had endured. “I have spent my whole life fighting Qaddafi,” he says. “Now it is finally happening, Qaddafi is going down. It is a dream come true.”

In order to avoid arrest at home, al Mazoughi went into exile in 1993. He ended up in Sudan, where he became a sheikh. Al Mazoughi, who studied Sharia, clearly remembers how some of his Libyan comrades chose to go to Pakistan in order to learn how to fight. “They came back from Pakistan around 2003 … ready to start an underground movement inside Libya,” he claims.

He strongly denies having any links with Salafis or with al Qaeda. “No, no,” al Mazoughi says, “I am much more into Sufism, which is definitely not al Qaeda’s thing.”

(Read: Key developments in battle for Tripoli)

By Thursday evening, rebel forces seem to have taken control of around 90 per cent of Tripoli. Everywhere in the capital, opposition fighters have set up checkpoints, manned by jubilant rebels. At Martyr’s Square, in the centre, hundreds of civilians can be seen dancing on the streets while firing their weapons into the air. Green flags, the old symbol of the Qaddafi-era, are thrown on the roads, only to be crushed by enthusiastic drivers.

Only the neighbourhoods of Abu Slim, Akwakh, Hadaba and the Airport road are still under the control of the loyalists. Rebel fighters have surrounded them. Every now and then, bursts of heavy machine gun fire can be heard coming from those urban battlefields. At the Al Shat cemetery, large groups of mourners bury slain rebels. Men cry while carpenters work overtime to make coffins.

It is in this chaos of war and revolution, that commander al Mazoughi tries to move 80 of his fighters from the rebel bastion of Benghazi in the east to Tripoli, 1,000 kilometres to the west. Because the central Libyan town of Sirte is located right in the middle, the rebels cannot make this trip over land.

“I have spoken to Nato and my boys were allowed to charter a plane which will bring them from Benghazi to Tunisia,” he explains. “From there, they will enter western Libya, receive arms and move immediately to Tripoli.”

(Read: Change in Libya)

According to al Mazoughi, it is extremely important to flood the capital with rebel forces. “We have to show Qaddafi’s loyalists that their game is over,” he says. “We are certainly not willing to let Tripoli be turned into another Baghdad.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan-China relations</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/239323/pakistan-china-relations</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/239323/pakistan-china-relations#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 25 Aug 11 16:51:43 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=239323</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan-China relations are in danger of being undermined by Pakistan’s total lack of understanding of Chinese...]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar is not far wrong when she says her country is committed to strengthening anti-terror cooperation with China, rejecting reports that her country was a haven for militants blamed for an attack in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang. Committed Pakistan is all right, but her assurance about Pakistan not being a safe haven for terrorists will be taken by Chinese leaders with a pinch of salt.

However, Pakistan’s attitude towards the issue is quite different with respect to China compared to how Islamabad responds when the same matter arises with America, and how the latter puts pressure on it with regard to the same ‘safe havens’. That, too, is understandable because the Pakistan Army disagrees intensely with America over the future dispensation of Afghanistan and remains deeply wedded to its rivalry with India. In simplistic terms — more in vogue in Pakistan than China — Pakistan and China have the same enemies: the US and India. Pakistan has profound differences with the US over how the war against terrorism is to be fought and has become overly sensitive to how much the Americans can do in Pakistan ‘to help it fight al Qaeda’. The bilateral equation is all but gone after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. As for the Chinese, they don’t think in black and white as the Pakistanis do. Beijing does not react with knee-jerk policy changes as Washington does. It looks at Pakistan as a strategic partner quite apart from the latter’s potential of becoming overrun by the ideology of the terrorists. It is also not ready to replace the quondam Soviet Union as an ideological rival of the US. Pakistan will be making a great mistake if it thinks that China will fight the US and India for it. What is more of a truth is that China will help Pakistan survive if Pakistan takes the path of peace and free-trading, the Chinese trade mark for the 21st century.

China has been misunderstood in Islamabad. It is not going to dish out cash — of which it has a large reserve — rather; it will help Pakistan complete important projects, something at which Pakistan is not very good. There is big money linked to some very important projects with Chinese cooperation. For instance, there is the JF-17 fighter aircraft deal worth as much as $5 billion. There is Gwadar port, which has been built with initial Chinese investment of up to $400 million and there are two nuclear power plants at Chashma, each worth around $900 million. And there is also a proposal for Chinese help in building a dam on the Indus, with the scheme costing, according to Pakistani officials, as much as $15 billion. China calls the shots in Central Asia and its powerful centralised state apparatus will see to it that no province succumbs to religious terrorism and extremism unlike in Pakistan. The region’s economies are already connected with China and committed at the Shanghai Forum to fight terrorism unlike Pakistan which shelters outfits declared as ‘terrorist’ by the UN (where China voted in favour of the bans). Pakistan’s myth-making about America trying to grab Central Asian natural wealth should be put at rest because much of that has already been appropriated by China.

In 2009, the pipeline taking Turkmen gas to China was opened and, by 2013, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong will be using natural gas supplied by the 1,833-kilometer-long Central Asia pipeline. The other myth that America grabbed Iraqi oil should be corrected as well. China and India got all the fat Iraqi contracts after the Iraqis refused to privatise their oil wells. China is among the most pro-trade countries in the world but Pakistan is still biting its nails over trade with India. And it is the major trading partner and financier of America who fought the Iraq war with Chinese money. It is true that Pakistan has great love for China but Chinese nationals have died working in Balochistan, Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The Lal Masjid episode, if one recalls, was triggered by al Qaeda-linked fanatics who attacked Chinese nationals working in Islamabad. Pakistan-China relations are in danger of being undermined by Pakistan’s total lack of understanding of Chinese thinking and by Pakistan’s refusal to be realistic in its foreign policy.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Police hope to recover kidnapped American 'soon'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/238529/police-hope-to-recover-kidnapped-american-soon</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/238529/police-hope-to-recover-kidnapped-american-soon#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 24 Aug 11 13:54:57 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=238529</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Police assures Weinstein not taken out of Pakistan.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[An American development expert kidnapped 11 days ago in the Pakistani city of Lahore should be recovered "soon," a top police official said on Wednesday.

Up to eight assailants kidnapped Warren Weinstein, the country director for JE Austin Associates Inc., in a pre-dawn raid on his house in the eastern city of Lahore on Aug. 13.

"He (Weinstein) has not been taken out of Pakistan," said Lahore police chief Ahmed Raza Tahir told media. "We will soon recover him."

"We have arrested three men, two from Wazirabad and one from Faisalabad and we are trying to reach their network through them," he said, referring to cities in the central Punjab province.

Police have also released a sketch of a suspect.

JE Austin Associates Inc., is an Arlington, Va.-based consulting firm and has been working on a development project in the lawless tribal areas where Pakistani troops have been battling insurgents for years.

The brazen raid raised worries among aid workers, diplomats and other foreigners working in Pakistan, which is battling militancy and where anti-American sentiments run very high.

There has been no demand for ransom so far, police say.

The victim, 70, had been living in Pakistan for five to six years, according to police. He mostly lived in Islamabad but had been travelling to Lahore.

Pakistani Taliban, linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for kidnapping a Swiss couple in July in the volatile southwestern province of Balochistan.

Eight Pakistani employees of a US-based aid organisation, American Refugee Committee, were kidnapped in the western province of Balochistan last month.]]>
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			<title>Minister’s assassination: Taliban behind Bhatti’s murder, says top cop</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237653/tehrik-i-taliban-involved-in-shahbaz-bhattis-murder-ig-islamabad</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237653/tehrik-i-taliban-involved-in-shahbaz-bhattis-murder-ig-islamabad#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 24 Aug 11 04:30:44 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[umer.nangiana]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=237653</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Senate panel raises concern over the high acquittal rate for terror suspects.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Shahbaz Bhatti, slain minister for minority affairs, was killed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Islamabad’s most senior police officer told a Senate panel on Tuesday.

IGP Bani Amin Khan told the Senate standing committee on interior that the TTP was responsible for the “act of terrorism”.

The high-profile murder on the streets of the capital in March had raised concerns on the inability of the police to ensure security. A pamphlet attributed to al Qaeda and TTP found with the minister’s body claimed responsibility for the killing and said he had been punished for being a “blasphemer”. However, some recent reports had also claimed that the murder could have been a result of a family feud.

The IGP said that the police had identified two suspects, but they had gone abroad before they could be caught. Sources familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune that the suspects had flown to Dubai.

“A request for the issuance of red warrants through Interpol (International police) has been made and an interim challan submitted to the court,” said Khan.

He claimed that all cases of terrorism, except for the twin suicide attacks on the International Islamic University in Islamabad and the suicide attack on Silk Bank have been solved by the Islamabad police. “The attack on the university was linked to people across the border,” he told the Senate panel.

Khan said the police have traced the car used for transporting the suicide bomber at the Silk Bank. “The arrest of suspects is likely in a few days,” he said.

The committee chaired by Senator Talha Mehmood noted with concern that almost all suspects arrested in different terrorist activities have been acquitted by courts. The committee blamed weak prosecution and legal branch of the police for this circumstance to which the IGP replied affirmatively.

A majority of cases have been disposed of for a lack of sufficient evidence, the panel was told.

Chief Commissioner Islamabad Tariq Mehmood Pirzada said that it is impossible to find witnesses in state cases and the only option is to produce police officials as witnesses. “This has been the strongest point in favour of defence because courts do not consider such evidence as sufficient,” added Pirzada.

He agreed that there were serious weaknesses in the prosecution and legal branch. The IGP said the weakness of the legal branch lies in the unavailability of competent officers. “Make laws, amend them where necessary and give us qualified law officers for the legal branch,” the police officer said.

He supported the chief commissioner’s suggestion to further amend evidence laws so that they are more workable for both the police and courts.

The committee recommended that the government initiate work on amending the legislations, while focusing on laws of evidence. The committee said that registration of false cases should be made a cognisable offence and its sentence should be increased to a minimum of three years.

The committee, irked at Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s absence, said  that he must be present at the next meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Restoration of military aid: United States offers quid pro quo</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/238232/restoration-of-military-aid-united-states-offers-quid-pro-quo</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/238232/restoration-of-military-aid-united-states-offers-quid-pro-quo#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 24 Aug 11 00:14:14 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=238232</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Levin says washington will restore aid if Islamabad reverses decision to expel US military trainers.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The United States has offered to restore $800 million in military aid to Pakistan if it reverses its decision of expelling US military trainers in the aftermath of the May 2 Abbottabad raid that had killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.


The offer came from an influential US Democrat, Senator Carl Levin, at a meeting with Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, a Pakistani official familiar with the development told The Express Tribune.

Leading a delegation of US congressmen, Senator Levin – who is the chairman of Senate’s Arms Services Committee – also held separate meetings with President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said Gen Kayani refused to review the decision anytime soon.

Pakistan Army expelled close to 100 US military trainers from the country in June in a show of displeasure over the Bin Laden raid. The Pakistani move, the US said, compelled it to withhold $800 million in military assistance.

At a meeting with the US delegation, President Zardari voiced concern over reports of the proposed cut in assistance for Pakistan. “Any cut in assistance would impact our existing economic conditions,” said an official statement quoting the president as telling the visiting US senators.

Zardari said the move would also send negative signals to the public about the US commitment to the people of Pakistan “when they are suffering heavily in economic terms due to unparalleled toll of the war against terror.”

The president hoped that all such steps would be avoided, the statement added.

President Zardari said drag on our relations due to operational irritants can effectively be avoided if the terms of engagements were clearly defined and followed in their true essence by the two countries.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Gilani, Senator Levin underlined the importance of bringing back US-Pakistan relations on even keel because both the countries are fighting the common enemy who is ‘using violence as IEDs.’

(Read: Pakistan key to regional economic integration, says US)

According to an official handout, Premier Gilani expressed reservations over the failure of the US-led Nato troops to stop infiltration of militants at the Pak-Afghan border.

“One wonders how terrorists dare go to Afghanistan without being eliminated by the Isaf and Nato Forces which are equipped with the most advanced weapons,” Gilani asked.

He underscored the importance of relations between the US and Pakistan to go beyond terrorism and cover other areas of bilateral relations on durable basis for the benefit of people of both countries.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Caller: Pay up or prepare to die!</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237345/fear-factor-caller-pay-up-or-prepare-to-die</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237345/fear-factor-caller-pay-up-or-prepare-to-die#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 11 22:11:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[taha.siddiqui]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=237345</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Even extort­ionist­s negoti­ate, Karach­i’s busine­ssmen learn.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[I will bomb your factory. Your workers will die. Your business will be no more. But if Dawood pays, it will not happen.

He spoke casually over the phone with the factory’s manager, Ashraf. “You know business is not good, and we do not have that kind of money,” the manager replied. “How about bringing it down to a little less? Like somewhere around 50,000 rupees?”

“Do you think I am looking for charity?” retorted the caller. “I want my two million rupees. And if I don’t get paid, many will die.”

Ashraf tried again: “Okay, okay, no need to get angry,” he pleaded. And in a last-ditch attempt said, “How about taking installments?”

There was a pause at the other end. “Yes, we can do that. It can be a monthly collection. That way we can have a relationship.”

This was the beginning of their terrifying under-the-table deal. The Korangi factory had no choice. Just days earlier, its owner Dawood, who kept a record of the conversation, was ambushed in his car by men on motorcycles.

Dawood had received numerous phone calls from someone who had initially introduced himself as Kalu ‘Current’. The first one came at the factory. Current told the factory owner that he needed the “two-million-rupee donation” for the Lyari gang war. “I told him off and hung up,” recalled the businessman. The next day he received another phone call, giving him the chilling details that no private citizen wants bandied about: where he lived, his office timings, the car he used.

A scared Dawood confided in his family who then contacted the police. They involved the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC). CPLC advised Dawood’s elders to keep talking but introduce a middleman between Dawood and the extortionist. That was their manager, Ashraf, who started fielding calls from Kalu Current. The CPLC said that in their experience, many times such extortionists are not serious. And indeed, a month later, the calls stopped coming.

During that time, Dawood saw on television that Kalu Current had been killed by the police in a shoot-out. The family heaved a sigh of relief.

A few weeks later the call came again. This time he had a different name, Israr, but he still named a gang in Lyari. He demanded the same amount. Once again, Dawood’s family contacted the authorities who said they should ask the ‘new’ extortionist for time and a reduction in the amount. But everything changed when Dawood escaped an attack. “We did not want anything to happen to a family member over money,” says Dawood’s older cousin Asfar, who was involved in the negotiations. Now that the CPLC asked them to involve the police, the family is too spooked.

After three months of living in constant terror, Dawood’s manager negotiated and brought down the amount to half. Dawood then sent the money with two of his employees as instructed by Israr to a location in Saddar. The extortionist was in touch with the factory manager and told him to change the delivery venues a few times. Finally the men went to a petrol pump in Saddar where young men on a motorcycle took the bag.

Since 2005, according to the CPLC, there have been more than 360 FIRs for extortion - an abysmally low rate given the magnitude of the crime. “These FIRs are less than 30% of the actual extortion,” said CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy.

They gets calls from affluent businessmen at least eight times a day, complaining of an extortion call. “Very few people want to come forward though,” he adds. “They say they can give me the number of the caller, etc, but they do not want to get involved in the investigation.”

Unfortunately, if demands are not met, a kidnapping can follow. CPLC records show that most callers identify themselves from Lyari, with a few saying they were from the Taliban and al Qaeda even. Investigator Raja Umer Khattab, whose unit is dedicated to extortion, says that while the Lyari men started the trend, now everyone is involved. “The criminals associate themselves with these names because of the terror associated with them.”

Khattab advises that the only way to stop these criminals is to cooperate with the police. “Even when we have caught them, we have not been able to convince a single witness to testify,” he added. He also laments that the Pakistan Telecom Authority and cellular networks have not helped by honouring requests to shut down mobile phone numbers used by extortionists.

Looking back, Dawood says it was good that they paid up since no one got hurt. “The police may have protected us from this extortionist but who will save us from the rest of the gang?” Dawood now drives around with an armed guard. “I don’t have a choice.”

&nbsp;

(Names have been changed)

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Daunted Afghans find refuge in former foe Russia</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236916/daunted-afghans-find-refuge-in-former-foe-russia</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236916/daunted-afghans-find-refuge-in-former-foe-russia#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 11 10:13:01 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=236916</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Russia has renewed interest in Afghanistan, quietly allowing local Afghan community to thrive as gesture of goodwill.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Signs in Dari decorate the creaky lifts of a Moscow hotel heaving with Afghan merchants and schoolchildren who have found refuge in a former foe.

Although still haunted by the decade-long war in which 15,000 Soviet troops were killed, Russia has renewed interest in Afghanistan, quietly allowing the local Afghan community to thrive as a gesture of goodwill.

"The Russians now welcome us. It is not like before," said Ghulam Jalal, who heads the Centre for Afghan Diasporas, an organisation that finds work for Afghans in Russia and keeps their culture and languages alive.

Worried by intensifying violence in the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents, Russia is flexing its muscles by proposing business and development plans in Afghanistan, which borders much of ex-Soviet Central Asia, viewed by Russia as its traditional sphere of influence.

Afghans in Russia now make up the third-largest overseas Afghan community after Pakistan and Iran, and the largest community of immigrants from a country other than the former Soviet Union.

Very few of the 150,000 Afghans in Russia, a third in the capital, are in the country illegally, said Omar Nessar, director of the Centre for Studies of Modern Afghanistan in Moscow, in what he called a kind of a "gift".

"Over the years, you will see that few have remained with an illegal status. I suppose it is a gift," Nessar said.

Russia's Federal Migration Service declined to comment, but a former lawmaker in Kabul agreed Russia has welcomed the influx of Afghans fleeing a succession of wars as it seeks greater influence in their country.

"No one wants an uninvited guest in their country. There is a political connection here. Russia wants to reassert its role that it is a friend of the Afghan people and can be trusted," said Noor-ul Haq Olomi, who recently stepped down from Afghan parliament after six years to work on his own political party.

Russia's interest and quest for stability in Afghanistan stems from a fear of the spreading insurgent activity and the steady flow of heroin from Afghanistan.

Though Moscow has refused to send troops to the current war, it has embarked on a series of infrastructure and hydroelectric projects and wants to build housing, Russia's envoy to Kabul Andrey Avetisyan told Reuters.

The Afghan-Russian relationship is at its best in 20 years, he said.

A miniature Afghanistan in Moscow

Jalal's plush office is nestled in the cluster of grey towers making up the Sevastopol hotel in southern Moscow where 8,000 Afghans live and work. They have their own mosque, television station and weekly newspapers.

An on-site school teaches children Afghanistan's two main languages, Dari and Pashto, while adults learn Russian.

Refugees sell Chinese-made gadgets and fluffy toys out of a thousand converted hotel rooms and the smell of freshly baked Afghan bread permeates the shops, which are packed with Russians seeking bargains.

Their channel "Afghan TV" blasts out songs in Pashto.

Nahim, from the western city of Herat, says Russia saved him from a life of misery in Afghanistan, where civilians are bearing the brunt of a war that has dragged on for 10 years since US forces first attacked the Taliban for sheltering al Qaeda after Sept. 11.

The current conflict is the latest chapter in a brutal recent history: after the Soviet exit in 1989, the Afghan communist government collapsed, leading to fighting between warlords and paving the way for the Taliban's rise to power in 1996. Millions of people are believed to have been killed and millions fled.

Nessar, from the Moscow thinktank, said Afghans have been steadily flowing into Russia throughout the last three decades.

Nahim, who gave only his first name, left Afghanistan with his brother in 1998, one of many Afghans to flee the oppressive Taliban regime.

Now 30, he returned briefly four years ago but said he was discouraged from staying by what he saw there.

"We are witnessing first-hand what the Americans are doing there, how they act without a heart," said Nahim, dressed in jeans and leather sandals in his shop, where he sells mosquito repellent, key chains and batteries.

"The Taliban could return, and even if they are less violent than before, I will not go back," he said in fluent Russian.

Reports have intensified of talks between the Taliban and Western and Afghan officials that aim for a negotiated peace, and a possible role for the Taliban in government, as the United States and its NATO allies prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.

The country is increasingly dangerous: UN figures show 1,462 Afghan civilians were killed in conflict-related incidents in the first six months of 2011, a record amount since the start of the war. The United Nations blamed insurgents for 80 percent of those civilian casualties.

NATO plans to hand over all security responsibilities to the Afghans in a transition that began in some areas in July, and many Afghans fear the violence will not abate.

"We thought of going back, but we reconsidered," said Mohammad, 12, who studies at the local school and works in his parents' electronics shop. "I have never seen my homeland and I don't want to. It's dreadful there".

Sporting a bushy black moustache and speaking fluent Russian, Jalal, the head of the Centre for Afghan Diasporas, gestured to framed pictures of him shaking the hands of local officials and Afghan representatives.

Like many Afghans from the country's elite, Jalal studied in the Soviet Union during its occupation of Afghanistan. He became governor of the northeastern Kunar province before fleeing to Russia during the civil war 18 years ago.

He said he regularly meets Russian officials to boost cooperation.

"We came as refugees, to save our children. But we ended up staying and will help more who want to come," Jalal said.]]>
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			<title>Suspect behaviour: Govt in no hurry to screen out extremists in LEAs</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236712/suspect-behaviour-govt-in-no-hurry-to-screen-out-extremists-in-leas</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236712/suspect-behaviour-govt-in-no-hurry-to-screen-out-extremists-in-leas#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 11 05:07:03 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zia.khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=236712</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Federal govt had announced that all security personnel would be vetted to counter radicalisation.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The government has apparently deferred a plan to vet personnel of civil law enforcement agencies for countering radicalisation after a police guard assassinated former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer earlier this year.


Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said immediately after Taseer’s murder that all officials of civilian security agencies would be screened to identify ‘extremists in uniform’.

Official sources told The Express Tribune here on Sunday there had been little or no significant development on the plan. They said that apart from dispatching letters to provincial departments in the beginning, the interior ministry was not pursuing it hard enough.

“It seems people at the helms of affairs have forgotten all about this…Nothing is happening,” said an interior ministry official, requesting anonymity.

Islamabad police chief Bani Amin Khan was contacted twice to seek his opinion on the issue but he refused to share any specific information on both the occasions. “It is an old thing. What do you want me to say about it now,” he said.

Another official, however, said Islamabad police had been asked to fill out forms through which personality profiles were supposed to be generated.

The forms were issued by the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Operations, as part of a departmental exercise.

But hardly five per cent of officers and officials returned the filled form and there was no mechanism to determine what they were telling was true.

Bani Amin neither confirms nor denies this.

In provinces, the situation was more precarious. Even the initial exercise of circulating forms was not undertaken there.

“I don’t remember any such thing happening,” said a senior police official from Punjab. Punjab’s Additional Inspector General Police (AIGP) (Investigation) Azam Joya said his department had not been asked to undertake this exercise.

A top military official said scrutinising people joining armed forces for their religious and sectarian affiliations was a common practice.

Brigadier Azmat Abbas, an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) official, said recruits “are asked to reveal not only their sectarian affiliation but also the religious inclinations”.

“It is…a continuous exercise in the military. We keep on doing follow-ups,” he added.

In case of departments under the Strategic Plans Division, including the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), all would-be employees are asked to fill in an even more detailed document. Prospective employees are told to mention their religious backgrounds, extent of theological knowledge, sects and if they had any affiliation with such an organisation.

A number of inquiries by various agencies follow the process, he added.

Despite all this, a few officers and personnel of security forces had been lured either by al Qaeda elements or the homegrown Taliban.

Analyst Amir Rana, who heads Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS) think-tank, said his perception on whether these measures were effective was different.

“They can only work if done in conjunction with other measures,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd,  2011.]]>
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			<title>UN General Assembly session: White House tepid over summit request</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236774/un-general-assembly-session-white-house-tepid-over-summit-request</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236774/un-general-assembly-session-white-house-tepid-over-summit-request#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 11 04:29:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=236774</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Islamabad is making hectic efforts to arrange talks between Prime Minister Gilani and President Obama.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan is eagerly pursuing summit-level talks next month between Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and US President Barack Obama even though prospects for such a meeting are grim, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will be in New York in the third week of September for a United Nations General Assembly session and the Pakistan government wants to use this opportunity to break a months-old ‘impasse’ that has continued to cast a shadow on its relations with the US since the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2.

Diplomatic sources have confirmed that Pakistan’s embassy in Washington is making hectic efforts to push for a meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Gilani. The White House, however, is not interested in such a meeting – a growing sign of its apparent displeasure over steps that Pakistan took following the Bin Laden killing, sources said.

“At the moment I can confirm that Secretary Clinton will have a meeting with Prime Minister Gilani,” a Pakistani diplomat posted in Washington told The Express Tribune.

“The White House has not agreed for a meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Gilani,” said the diplomat, who requested anonymity. “But we haven’t yet given up.”

The two leaders met last in April 2010 at the sidelines of a nuclear summit when Gilani was amongst a handful of heads of states President Obama opted to meet separately.

Officials said Washington is also keen to break the ‘status quo’ but is pushing Islamabad to take certain measures before ties between the two sides are brought back on track.

The recent visit by former US presidential candidate and senior Republican Senator John McCain and a telephone call by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar were part of efforts from the two sides to move beyond the Bin Laden episode.

In one such sign, the US has confirmed that a row over the movement of its diplomats has been resolved. This breakthrough was achieved after a recent meeting between US envoy Cameron Munter with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani who sought the army chief’s intervention to ease restrictions on diplomats which were imposed after the Bin Laden debacle in an effort to seek greater scrutiny of the Central Intelligence Agency operatives in Pakistan.

A foreign ministry official said that the differences between Islamabad and Washington are of serious nature but what is more alarming is the prevailing ‘inertia’ on the political side in the two capitals.

“This is why we are seeking a meeting with the US president,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Looking the other way</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236457/looking-the-other-way</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236457/looking-the-other-way#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Aug 11 17:05:42 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=236457</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Groups such as Sipah-e-Sahaba, (once?) nurtured by state, are now out to force their former masters to stand aside.]]>
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				<![CDATA[According to a report in this newspaper, the banned terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad is trying to make a comeback, collecting funds through ‘ushr’ in south Punjab — where the government has failed to collect agriculture tax — and limbering up to claim its pound of flesh in a troubled and confused Pakistan on behalf of its master, al Qaeda. All its banned publications like Al Qalam and Muslim Ummah, together with the banned Al Rasheed Trust’s Zarb-e-Momin and Islam are allowed to be printed by the state through issuance of ABC certificates by the ministry of information and this enables them to solicit advertisements. (Zarb-e-Momin was once edited jointly by the Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar and jailed terrorist Omar Sheikh.)

In December 2003, Jaish tried to kill General Pervez Musharraf through one of its activists near Rawalpindi, after receiving some level of inside information from a sympathiser in the police, evidence of which was discovered later from the attacker’s cellphone. Musharraf had also been targeted earlier, by some low-ranking employees of the Pakistan Air Force (some of them were eventually sentenced by a court to prison terms) — since the jihadis the state had nurtured against India were put off by his policy of going with America after 9/11. Today, the entire nation is put off with Musharraf for ‘enslaving’ Pakistan to the Americans, and writers/journalists who allege in their books that the military has been penetrated by al Qaeda activists or that personnel have sympathies with militant outfits are mysteriously killed. If one reads the Jaish newspapers, one will realise that the war in Kashmir is still going on and the ‘martyrs’ of Jaish are routinely being received back from Indian-administered Kashmir.

Yet, Musharraf was not what he appeared to be, a liberal general willing to fight terrorism. The irony is that his favouring the jihadis did not incline the jihadis in his favour. It is worth pointing out that when the Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar, was released from an Indian jail in a prisoner exchange in December 2000, following the hijack of an Indian aircraft to Kandahar, he was permitted to stage a huge rally in Karachi attended by gun-toting followers. In 2001 the various Kashmiri guerrilla groups fighting the jihad were asked to unite under Azhar but this move was unsuccessful. Clearly, times have changed and such groups, (once?) nurtured by the state, are now out to force their former masters to stand aside.

British-Pakistani terror suspect Rashid Rauf, who ‘escaped’ from the custody of police in Rawalpindi in 2007 was a Jaish activist and had planned a terrorist act at Heathrow Airport. Jaish activists are ‘allegedly’ also said to be working with al Qaeda and the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan and around Darra Adam Khel with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Its leader Maulana Masood Azhar — Pakistan says he is not in Pakistan — writes articles under a pen name in his banned publications and, from the looks of what he writes, travels to North Waziristan quite frequently. After the recent release of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Malik Ishaq from a jail in Lahore, the sectarian clout of Sipah-e-Sahaba has increased. Both are devotees of the founder of Sipah, late Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, and today are said to have considerable influence in south Punjab.

The nexus with the state has often been mentioned in the international press. A large body of literatures exists that details the interface the state of Pakistan enjoys with Jaish and LeT and there are recent publications pointing to the helplessness of the state to cleanse itself of these old terrorist connections because of ‘penetration’ of its rank and file with jihadi zeal. The phenomenon of journalists dying after disclosing new facts about this interface has scared the Pakistani citizen who is already less informed about such shadowy outfits as Jaish than his counterpart abroad. And the official doctrine of ‘India-centrism’ tends to confirm this bond. In Bahawalpur’s Model Town, Madrassa Usman-o-Ali is the nerve centre of sectarian jihad, established by Maulana Masood Azhar, intelligence reports about whose activities are regularly being sent by the Intelligence Bureau to the chief minister and governor of Punjab. We are forewarned — but will we do anything about it?

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Young Pakistanis turn to music to beat bombers</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236292/young-pakistanis-turn-to-music-to-beat-bombers</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236292/young-pakistanis-turn-to-music-to-beat-bombers#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Aug 11 06:58:26 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=236292</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Music lovers believ­e that drums and music not only ease frustr­ation, but help others speak out.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Against a backdrop of militant bombs and bullets, wealthy young Pakistanis are turning to the beat of modern music to help bring social change to their troubled Muslim nation.

"I love how when you enter the place, you're completely transformed," said DJ Faisal Big at a recent all-night rave in a brick factory courtesy of London's Ministry of Sound.

"It doesn't feel like Pakistan – definitely not the Pakistan you see on the media."

The one-off Ministry of Sound event cost $100 dollars, an expensive night out in the impoverished country – but the mini-revolution has spread far beyond the brick factory doors.

Organisers persuaded the famous London nightclub, billed as the home of dance music and celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, to send over a DJ to lead a club for one night only.

The youth music scene in a deeply conservative Islamic state, dogged by deadly Taliban and al Qaeda attacks, is opening up to new influences – offering anger-release and a space for political expression.

The cultural capital of Lahore is centre-stage for young people looking to modern music for a break from stifling militancy and political crises.

Close to a preaching centre for Muslim scholars and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's estate, many spend Saturday nights dancing at farmhouses and makeshift clubs on Raiwind road leading to the countryside outside Lahore.

"This is Pakistan, my Pakistan, the changing Pakistan... no more bombs, no more terrorism, our society is changing," said Tahir Ali, dancing at the  Ministry of Sound event on Raiwind road.

"You will see, one day the whole Pakistan will change, we will change our country, we will bring revolution over here and we will get rid of extremism," said Zoobia, dancing with her cousin Umair as dawn broke.

Across town, there is a very different atmosphere but one that is also a world apart from traditional Pakistani music.

In Model Town, the neighbourhood where a 70-year-old American aid expert was kidnapped at gunpoint from his home last week, youngsters gather to bury their frustration in heavy metal.

But this is not a popular revolution – these are the sons and daughters of some of the wealthiest families in Pakistan, taught at expensive English private schools, performing to each other in a school auditorium.

"Heavy metal is a way to express anger about what's happening to the country," said Zain, a guitarist in increasingly popular band Takatak, named after the sound of a knife chopping up goat genitalia.

The band's six heavy-metal lovers believe that the drums and music not only ease frustration, but help others speak out.

"We have terrorism. We have bombs. We have drones. We have no education, suicide bombers. There's the Taliban. There's the government – we're not going to play Beatles in a warzone, are we?" said the band members, interrupting each other before heading to the show.

Gig organiser Younas Chowdhry estimates that there are more than a hundred underground bands in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, the three major cities.

Bands organise their own gatherings and perform privately, with the general public largely unaware of what's going on behind the curtains and in basements.

"They want society to open up, they want a revolution and change of the country's image from a terrorland to a modern vibrant nation and they are sending this message across through music," said Chowdhry.

"For the general public, it is like loud noise. But the youth is getting our message, our music is getting popular and our message is being conveyed, we are heading towards change and youngsters are ready to play a role," said Misbah, another Takatak member.

Then there is the band Laal, which means red and is the long-standing voice of Pakistan's tiny communist party, also used to organising concerts to gather people for public meetings.

Lead singer Taimur Rahman combines classical poetry with a more contemporary style and has successfully motivated peasants into campaigning for ownership of the land they cultivate occupied by the military.

Now he's getting even more political, satirising the corruption of politicians and Pakistan's failure to address terrorism or find Osama bin Laden, who was shot dead by US special forces within the country on May 2.

"At a mass level now, young people are wanting to be involved in politics and wanting to be engaged and so there is this sort of change.

"If it's not being reflected at the level of the street it's only because of terrorism," said Rahman.

He says there is a long history of music as an instrument of social change in the spiritual Sufi tradition of Islam in the region.

But academics are more circumspect about the power of the tiny elite to change society in a country where the literacy rate is 57 percent and the mosques are better at mobilising the street than secular causes.

"It may not be an effective antidote to extremism but it is a first step towards rebuilding a tolerant Pakistan," Tariq Rahman, who teaches Pakistan studies at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, wrote recently.

"If they continue with their gatherings and attract more and more young people and succeed to reach the masses in a decade, we can say that they can bring a social change and a revolution," he told AFP.]]>
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