TALIBAN IN BUNER AND TWO CHOICES FACING PAKISTAN:

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LONG WAR JOURNAL reports:
The Pakistani military was defeated in its three offensives designed to oust the Taliban, who were led by Mullah Fazlullah, this prompted the government to promise the implementation of sharia and bring an end to military operations in exchange for peace.

But the Taliban have violated the peace agreement multiple times since the initial ceasefire was instituted in mid-February, and have continued to do so since Zardari signed the sharia legislation into law. And the Taliban are forcefully expanding their influence in neighboring regions.

The Taliban have reestablished checkpoints in Swat and have started to conduct patrols. In the neighboring district of Buner, a region the Taliban overran in just eight short days with minimal resistance, the Taliban are sending in more troops. The Taliban are also patrolling and manning checkpoints in Buner, while its followers are preaching in mosques and openly recruiting young men to fight.

The Swat Taliban are also flaunting their control of the region. Muslim Khan, a spokesman for Fazlullah, hit the media circuit and bragged that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and other associates were welcome to shelter in Swat.

Khan also said the Taliban would not lay down their weapons, nor would they stop fighting until sharia was enforced throughout all of Pakistan. Jihad "will continue till the Day of Judgment (BuA: REMEMBER - GHAZWATUL HIND, KHORASAN)," Khan told Dawn. He demanded Pakistan shut down traditional courts and threatened lawyers that they would be punished if they tried to practice law in Swat.

Khan's statements echoed those of Sufi Mohammed, the leader of the banned pro-Taliban movement that negotiated the peace agreement with the government. During a rally in Swat on April 19, Sufi said has followers would not rest until sharia is enforced through all of Pakistan.

Note 1: Hamid Gul, the creator of Taliban and ex-ISI chief exactly wants the same thing – sharia be enforced through all of Pakistan.

Note 2: Current ISI Chief Shuja Pasha commented : Mullah Fazlullah as a “true patriot” for offering to fight India post 26/11.

Amazing, if we look at the first sentence of this article and am repeating: “The Pakistani military was defeated in its three offensives designed to oust the Taliban, led by Mullah Fazlullah, which prompted the government to promise the implementation of sharia and an end to military operations in exchange for peace.”

How do you surrender to someone whom you call a patriot? Interesting – but hold that thought for the time being.

Note 3: Hamid Gul, Nawaz Sharif, and Osama bin Laden conspire to assassinate Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. ISI Director Hamid Gul contacted Osama bin Laden, who was then known to provide financial support to Afghan mujahiddin, to pay for a coup/assassination of Bhutto. Gul also brings Nawaz Sharif, then the governor of Punjab province and a rival of Bhutto, into the plot. Bin Laden agrees to provide $10 million on the condition that Sharif transforms Pakistan into a strict Islamic state, which Sharif accepts.

NOTE: THE DREAM TO MAKE PAKISTAN INTO A STRICT ISLAMIC STATE WAS AGREED UPON BY SHARIF AND BROKERED BY HAMID GUL & OSAMA BIN LADEN.

AND TRUE TO THIS NAWAZ TRIED IMPOSING SHARIA IN 1998.

Pakistan can thank a few dogged senators in 1998 who blocked Nawaz Sharif’s 15th amendment bill which was to make Sharia Pakistan’s supreme law. Read this article in Jang newspaper - click here.

Interestingly Taliban say that they will welcome Osama with open arms and like a brother and shelter him and his men. Why ever not? When did ISI stop collaborating with Al-Qaeda?

Keep the above three points in mind and focus back on Taliban’s move into Buner. Given the extensive relations both militarily and ideologically between Taliban, ISI and Pakistan Army, does it not smack of being too complicit, eg: the way Pakistan Army lost to Fazlullah and allowed Sharia in SWAT and now Taliban marches into Buner unopposed. It is all orchestrated and co-ordinated. All this talk of Pakistan Army being spread thin is hogwash.

COMING BACK TO TALIBAN in BUNER:

Kamran Shafi writing in DAWN - 14th April, 2009: “"Let’s go back to the most recent ‘flag march’ the Taliban carried out from Buner to Mardan via Swabi and see its effects already furthering the Taliban’s agenda. Please go to http://buner.com and see what mayhem they are creating there, recruiting jobless youths by encouraging them to ‘take-over’ their respective areas and neighbourhoods. What, pray, would the loquacious Mian Iftikhar, the Frontier’s information minister, say about this latest in a series of coming conquests for the Taliban?

Does he know that Mansehra and Haripur are next on the hit list and that once in Mansehra the Taliban are but a few hours’ drive from the Karakoram Highway? Does someone in the federal non-government know that once they tie up with the Sunni Chilasis who hate the Shia Gilgitis with a passion, there will be havoc of a very special kind in our Northern Areas?”

Sunnis never really had any love for the Shias. The Deoband fatwas prohibit Sunnis from even sharing meals with Shias.

While I have been advocating from day 1 that these Taliban are just taking the military and ideological (Deobandi) tenets of Pakistan Army and ISI forward – the western world feels that Pakistan Army needs to understand that the threat to it is from Taliban and not from India. It is not the Pakistan Army that needs to understand – it is the Western world that needs to understand.

The case of Maj General Alavi. Professional Pakistan Army makes way for Jehadist Pakistan Army:



Major-General Faisal Alavi, a former head of Pakistan’s special forces was murdered in November 2008 after threatening to expose Pakistani army generals who had made deals with Taliban militants.

TIMES ONLINE: He named two generals in a letter to the head of the army. He warned that he would “furnish all relevant proof”.

Aware that he was risking his life, he gave a copy to me (Carey Schoefield) and asked me to publish it if he was killed. Soon afterwards he told me that he had received no reply.

“It hasn’t worked,” he said. “They’ll shoot me.”

He told me how one general had done an astonishing deal with Baitullah Mehsud, the 35-year-old Taliban leader, now seen by many analysts as an even greater terrorist threat than Osama Bin Laden.

Mehsud, the main suspect in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto late last year, is also believed to have been behind a plot to bomb transport networks in several European countries including Britain, which came to light earlier this year when 14 alleged conspirators were arrested in Barcelona.

Yet, according to Alavi, a senior Pakistani general came to an arrangement with Mehsud “whereby – in return for a large sum of money – Mehsud’s 3,000 armed fighters would not attack the army”.

The two senior generals named in Alavi’s letter to Kayani were in effect complicit in giving the militants free rein in return for refraining from attacks on the Pakistani army, he said.

Four days later, he was driving through Islamabad when his car was halted by another vehicle. At least two gunmen opened fire from either side, shooting him eight times. His driver was also killed.

The reports blamed militants, although the gunmen used 9mm pistols, a standard army issue, and the killings were far more clinical than a normal militant attack.

Friends and family members were taken aback to be told by serving and retired officers alike that “this was not the militants; this was the army”. A great many people believed the general had been murdered to shut him up.

MUST READ - : CONFIDENTIAL LETTER FROM ALAVI TO KIYANI (Some portions blacked out).

Read also SHERRY X's WEBLOG: MONSTER IN THE MIRROR.

Bengal Under Attack (BuA): I have from the very beginning taken a line and it is this: Deobandi / Wahabbi elements have taken control of Pakistani Army / ISI apparatus. And they and Taliban are one and the same – one an overt arm the other covert arm of the military. Now Taliban can no longer be called covert arm. Though Lashkar e Taiba (LeT), Jaish e Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar e Jhangvi (LeJ) and others still remain below the radar – so called.

Repeating the point again & again: The reality is that both – the Taliban and the jihadis on one side and the Pakistan Army, have the same slogan — jihad fi’sbillah – jihad in the name of Allah.

THE TWO CHOICES OF PAKISTANI STATE – WESTERN INTELLIGENCE

As expected, the Swat “Sharia for peace” deal appears to be falling apart — within a week of being ratified. The collapse is yet another manifestation of a weakened Pakistani state being manipulated by Taliban rebels. But a far important point is that the current situation is untenable.

Pakistani government leaders cannot remain on the path of negotiations while the Taliban are going for the jugular. The entire rationale behind the peace agreement was that the insurgency in Swat could be ended if Sharia was enforced in the restive area. The Taliban not only have shown that they are unwilling to disarm, but their ambitions are escalating from a local to a national level.

This leaves the government with two choices: 1) Either continue down the current path — allowing the jihadists to advance their cause while trying to avoid confrontation

or 2) draw the line. In either case, conflict would be inevitable.

The difference is one of time and location. The Pakistanis either can fight the jihadists now, seeking to limit the conflict to the Pashtun regions of the northwest, or wait to fight — while the jihadists move to strengthen their ability to strike the Punjab province, the heart of Pakistan. The state is being pushed toward taking action by both the deteriorating security situation at home and mounting pressure from the United States. But it is not clear whether there is sufficient political will in Islamabad to go on the offensive.

Much of this is because the state is caught between the contradictory needs to combat the “bad” Taliban (those that fight in Pakistan) while still maintaining influence over the “good” ones (those that fight in Afghanistan). This distinction itself is a problem: The jihadist landscape is far more complicated than these neat binary categorizations would seem to allow. The problems Islamabad faces in this regard offers a glimpse of what the Obama administration can expect in its efforts to distinguish between what Washington sees as Taliban it can deal with versus Taliban it cannot deal with.

Overall, Pakistan’s situation is far more dire than the situation the United States will face in Afghanistan as it increases troop commitments and seeks out pragmatic Taliban with whom to negotiate. For Islamabad, the war is hitting home now more than ever before.

But is this a correct assessment?

Let’s look at the Buner situation.

A.If Taliban close the Karakoram highway and demand a separate Pashtunistan– then we can assume that Taliban is working against the interest of Pakistan Army and state.

B. And if Taliban do not close the Highway but move on up and gang up with the Chalsis Sunnis and massacre the Shias of Gilgit – well then it will be clear that Pakistan Army is orchestrating the moves. As I have shown earlier, the ratio of Shias to Sunnis has gone from 4:1 to 4:3 and Musharraf together with Osama were responsible for the first wave of massacre of Shias of Gilgit.

I am betting on the latter.

Awami National Party (ANP) was swept to power in the elections in NWFP – and they were looked upon with suspicion for being too “leftist” in their leanings – a remnant of old linkages with Soviet Union. They were also seen as being soft on India – being a party of “Frontier Gandhi”. The Pakistan Army thought the demands of Pashtinistan was ANP inspired as billboards started sprouting up dime a dozen under their jurisdiction.

To suppress Pushtun nationalism with a pan-Islamic nationalism, Pakistan Army unleashed its children – the Taliban onto the ANP parliamentarians. They were killed by Taliban, its leader sent packing to USA and areas were quickly ceded by Pakistan Army without a fight to these Taliban fighters. And lo and behold, Sharia is implemented. The remnants of ANP leaders quickly either fled or joined Taliban to save themselves and their kins.

Pause and think: What did the people of the region vote for? They voted for ANP. And now what have they got? They got Taliban and Sharia.

The Karakoram highway links Pakistan to China and runs through this region. Pakistan Army felt if Pashtunistan became a reality, this part would be snapped up and merged with Afghanistan, depriving them of road link to China. For a country that depends on China for its armaments, exports – this situation will be untenable.

KARAKORAM HIGHWAY

Logically therefore ask : Why is Pakistan Army quietly watching the takeover of this region by Taliban if this area is so vital for their survival and geo-politics? Maybe – Pakistan Army is not bothered. Maybe it feels that the ANP and Pashtunistan demands are killed off by this Taliban takeover. And Taliban is appeased at getting Sharia. And Pakistan Army gets Taliban to control the region autonomously for a fee – but the area will be fully secured and free of separatist Pashtunistan demands.

Ahmed Quraishi – who together with Zaid Hamid, run TV shows in Pakistan are right wingers aligned to Pakistan Military. Their thoughts and articles, devoid of deliberate disinformation, from time to time border on the truth and mindset of the Paksitan military establishment.

In one such article: Pashtunistan Billboards in Pakistan – Ahmed Quraishi makes a few points:

1. And now we have 40-feet wide billboards that have mysteriously sprung up on the main roads of NWFP showing the map of a new country – Pashtunistan – with meticulously defined borders that incorporate most of northwestern Pakistan. The Pakistani Pashtun, the bravest and the most loyal subjects of the Pakistani state, are being pushed toward separatism with full speed. This ‘billboard campaign’ has to be the boldest statement of rebellion and separatism ever made in the history of nation-states anywhere in the world.

2. The deliberate destabilization of Pakistan through American military and political interference will result in turning large parts of the country against the federal government and increasingly draw the military into a civil war that will bleed us for decades to come in the presence of covert support from Afghan soil. The result would be a weakened Pakistani state unable to sustain control over its territory and over its vast arsenal of nuclear and strategic assets.

3. Some parts of the American political/security establishment are involved in an ambitious plan to secure America’s position in and around Afghanistan. This apparently entails empowering India and removing a little ‘nuisance’ called Pakistan. American officials dismiss Pakistan’s legitimate strategic interests as ‘obsessions’. In 2007, the outlines of an American media campaign began to emerge, harping on the theme of the looming disintegration of Pakistan.


BuA: The disintegration of Pakistan is a doomsday scenario being played out in every jehadi Pakistani General’s mind. It is logical that they be paranoid – as they are forever trying to push “non-state” actors into India, Afghanistan and indeed into their own territories for their agenda. Hence it becomes natural for these Generals to dream up scenarios which their enemies may have planned for Pakistan – true or not. As a result conspiracy theories are rife in Pakistan – it is because they themselves are forever conspiring against others. This psychological aspect has to be factored in as this does go beyond a mere map of Ralph Peters.

Going beyond the obvious: A few statements of Taliban and Hamid Gul (Ex ISI head and godfather of Taliban and Lashkar e Taiba). All statements made in FEB / MAR 2009.

FULL TEXT OF MUSLIM KHAN's INTERVIEW : CLICK HERE FOR THE ASIA TIMES ARTICLE (FEB 3RD, 2009)

FULL TEXT OF HAMID GUL's INTERVIEW: CLICK HERE - MAR 29, 2009.

STATEMENT 1: EDUCATION (Important post blowing up of schools etc).

TALIBAN – Muslim Khan: We are Muslims. Islam provides its own statement of education, politics, economics and justice. If Islam is a complete code of life, then what is the need to import education from United Kingdom?

HAMID GUL: "We should be ready to lead the world and for this, we need ideological educational institutions," he said, maintaining that there were lot of schools pushing students against the ideology of Islam and Pakistan.

In such circumstances, there was need for ideological institutions across Pakistan, he underlined. He said Pakistan was not formed for economic gains or other petty reasons rather it was formed to lead the world after providing a practical and workable Islamic model to govern people. He said his aim of life was to promote this idea and he was not retired or tired and the enemies of Pakistan knew it well. "Pakistan and Islam are tied to each other," he concluded.

STATEMENT 2: DEMOCRACY – HATRED TOWARDS IT.

TALIBAN: Sufi Mohammad: Sharia does not permit Democracy. He goes on to give 6 points:

1. He asserted that sharia (as interpreted by the Taliban) is seen as divine law.

2. He defined a Muslim not just in terms of someone who believes in the Oneness of God and the fact that Muhammad (PBUH) was the last prophet of God, but as one who supports and helps to implement the sharia.

3. He stipulated that the existing democratic order was an “un-Islamic system of the infidels” and that supporting such a system was a great sin.

4. The persistence of the “un-Islamic system of the infidels”, in his view, would destroy Pakistan and that he and his supporters would defend the country in the sense of attempting to establish their version of the sharia.

5. The superior courts of Pakistan were seen as part of the un-Islamic system of infidels and therefore rejected as institutions where legal appeals against qazi courts were to be made. Instead, he claimed that such appeals would be made before the soon to be formed institution of Darul Qaza.

6. The Nizam-e Adl (the system of justice established in Swat) as an application of the Taliban version of sharia under the “peace deal” was seen by the Sufi as only the first stage of the implementation process of sharia. According to him, sharia would be completed when it encompassed the institutional structures of Pakistan’s polity, economy and education.

MUSLIM KHAN: If we are 100% loyal to Pakistan, our leaders and rulers are 200% disloyal to Pakistan and its subjects. They rule us against the ideology and the constitution of the country. When Pakistan came into being in 1947, they did not implement Islamic laws. This was a betrayal against the nation, religion and God. Then in Malakand division, when the government promised us the implementation of Islamic laws - we have the documents to show this - why did they betray us? Why were Islamic laws not implemented? Therefore, our struggle is justified and those who oppose Islamic laws, they are outlaws.

HAMID GUL: He said that no super power could change the destiny. He termed religious faith behind the recent movement that resulted in restoration of deposed judiciary. "That is why the US had to surrender to the will of Pakistanis. The army, for the first time, sided with masses," he added.

"Two nations theory has crossed boundaries of sub-continent and engulfed whole globe," said Gul, adding that Muslims were being targeted everywhere.

He said politicians divided the nation irrespective of the nobility of their cause and "we have yet to decide about system to run our country."


INDIA’S OPTION IF TALIBAN TAKES OVER AND SHARIA IS IMPLEMENTED OVER PAKISTAN:

Sharia is going to be implemented over Pakistan – one way or another. Just a matter of time and opportunity. As I showed before, it was neither the Taliban nor Pakistan Army that tried to enforce Sharia over Pakistan – it was NAWAZ SHARIF.

Dr. AKMAL HUSSAIN writing in DAILY TIMES (Apr 23, 2009) states: "Clearly there is a high quality military mind behind the Taliban strategy. In the first phase, large swathes of FATA were captured and a system of governance established by the Taliban at the level of a system of justice, the provision of livelihood for the poor, and a system of recruitment and military training. In the second stage, they enlarged their territorial control over some of the settled areas of the NWFP.

At the same time, guerrilla raids were conducted on key targets in the major cities of the country. The purpose was to undermine the confidence of the citizens in the ability of the state to fulfil the most basic function in terms of which it seeks legitimacy: protection of life of its citizens.

In the third stage, there is a shift from the valleys to the urban centres where strongholds have now been established. These strongholds of urban guerrillas are located in major cities such as Peshawar in the north, Lahore in the east, Multan and Karachi in the south and Quetta in the west. Pakistan is encircled by urban guerrilla forces poised to unleash mayhem of an intensity and scale unprecedented in Pakistan. If and when this happens, it could be a prelude to takeover.

The events in Swat fit a pattern of strategy that is slowly being unveiled. Only time will tell whether the Swat deal will give “peace in our time” as Chamberlain put it or will constitute what Churchill called the “end of the beginning”.

For many Pakistanis who are now leaving the country, this is the beginning of the end."

EDITORIAL in DAILY TIMES PAKISTAN (23rd April 2009): "The message is clear: the Taliban are linked to Al Qaeda and they are counting on such elements in Punjab to help them take their war down to other parts of Pakistan. When the Swat deal was being sewed up, only the MQM objected, but it was soon isolated in parliament when the National Assembly voted in favour of the NAR. The media-mujahideen acted in the same irresponsible manner in which they had acted during the Lal Masjid affair by siding with the Taliban over the videoed whipping of a 17-year-old girl. The Supreme Court added its bit by releasing the Lal Masjid cleric who immediately announced his resolve to spread the Taliban shariat in Pakistan.

Finally, it is the army that has to step forward and face the Taliban. It has baulked so far because of adverse public opinion and an equally lethal media tilt. But now that the politicians are waking up to the danger and the media is increasingly disabused, the army must end its India-driven strategy and try to save Pakistan from becoming the caliphate of Al Qaeda. In fact, Islamabad has to reach an understanding with New Delhi over the matter in order to get the army to mobilise in the numbers required. However, if this is not done, the people will have to fight the war on their own. The MQM is asking the right question: what if the Taliban come and the army is not there to protect us?

Swat is the challenge staring us in the face. If we don’t accept it and fight the Taliban, then the world will have to come and fight it the way it thinks fit."

INDIA & ISRAEL: ACTION STATIONS

Taliban takeover is a matter of semantics. It is Pakistan Army – the jehadist core that in conjunction with Taliban aim to bring in a Islamic renaissance in Pakistan and help to bind in the country. In doing so, it will clearly endanger the existence of India and Israel.

The Hadiths of GHAZWATUL HIND makes it binding and compulsory for Taliban to fight India before moving onto Israel. Kashmir is the first step towards that and we will see exponentially high infiltration and not the sporadic ones we are seeing now. And a nuclear armed Taliban will have a far lower threshold of using nuclear weapons than a democratic state of Pakistan.

USA will be of no help. Time and again these words ring in my ears:

Zbigniew Brzezinski: "What was more important in the world view of history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet empire? A few stirred up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?”