11-01-2006, 01:59 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Mush bombs a madarsa </b>
Pioneer
B Raman
Despite the US's denial, it may have had a hand in hitting a jihad factory
Eighty people, most of them local tribals with a majority of them below 20 years of age, are reported to have been killed in a missile attack on a madarsa located at Chenagai village in the Bajaur agency of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan in the early hours of October 30. The village is located 10 km from Khar, the headquarters of the Agency, and 2.5 km from Damadola, where the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly carried out a missile strike in January last in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No 2 in Al Qaeda.
It is learnt there were 83 persons in the madarsa at the time of the attack, of whom only three survived. The Associated Press news agency has quoted Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, the spokesman of the Pakistan Army, as saying: "We received confirmed intelligence reports that 70-80 militants were hiding in a madarsa used as a terrorist training facility, which was destroyed by an army strike, led by helicopters."
A US spokesman in Afghanistan has denied any US involvement in the raid and said it was purely a Pakistani military operation. According to independent Pakistani Police sources, the missile attack was made following the receipt of information that al-Zawahiri would be spending the night in the madarsa, but the information once again proved to be wrong. These sources say that whoever fired the missiles - whether the Pakistan Army or the CIA - seemed to have been under the impression that the madarsa had not yet re-opened after the Eid vacation for which the students had gone to their villages and hence the casualties would be limited. They were not aware that the madarsa had already re-opened and that the students were back, resulting in large casualties.
The police sources suspect that it was a joint operation by the Pakistan Army and the US forces based in Afghanistan; but when it was found that the attacks had killed a large number of students, it was decided by President Pervez Musharraf that it should be projected as a Pakistan Army operation with no US involvement in order not to exacerbate the already high anti-US anger in the area.
The attack came a few hours before the scheduled signing ceremony of a truce agreement between the Pakistan Army and local tribal leaders under which the Pakistan Army was to stop all military operations in the Bajaur Agency, release those arrested in the past and return arms and ammunition seized from the tribals. In return, the tribals were to undertake a commitment to maintain law and order and ensure that foreigners living in the area did not indulge in any violent activity either in Pakistani or Afghan territory.
The truce agreement would have been similar to the agreement concluded by the Pakistan Army with the tribal elders of North Waziristan on September 5, 2006. Considerable misgivings have been voiced not only by US and other NATO officials, but also by many analysts in Pakistan itself over the wisdom and motive of Gen Musharraf in concluding this agreement.
In an editorial, Dawn wrote on October 25: "Emboldened, it seems, by the September 5 accord with the Government, militants in North Waziristan are now institutionalising their authority over the tribal agency. There is now at least one Taliban 'office' in Miramshah, the regional headquarters, and there is no doubt as to who is calling the shots in terms of administration... This emergence of a state-within-a-state needs to be looked into and checked forthwith."
On October 29, the same newspaper quoted Gen James Jones, a NATO military commander, as telling pressmen in Kabul: "Preliminary indications are that the movements across the border have increased since the signing of agreements on the other side of the border. ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force) is, however, still evaluating the situation and the first indications may not be conclusive. We are watching it very closely."
The attacked madarsa has been in the forefront of the anti-US and anti-NATO activities in the tribal region. The Bajaur Agency in which it is located has been the hub of the activities of Al Qaeda, the neo-Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmateyar's Hizb-e-Islami (HEI), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and other Pakistan-based jihadi organisations.
The FATA, in which the Bajaur Agency is located, has historically posed a dilemma to whoever was in power in Pakistan for three reasons. First, it is inhabited by the most conservative of the conservative Muslims of Pakistan. Second, it is inhabited by the most anti-American of the anti-American sections of the Pakistani population. And third, it is inhabited by the most martial of the so-called martial sections of Pakistan. Next to the Punjabis and the Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the tribals of the FATA constitute the third largest group in the Pakistan Army. There is hardly a tribal family in the FATA, which does not have a serving or retired serviceman.
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Nareshji,
B.Raman information can be trusted 50% only, other paki media outlet have started saying 30 dead were under 15years. These kids comes from every corner of Pakistan. Do you think Mushy can control his best friend's Mullah? I suspect he will release some big catch from prison, just to make Mullah happy or something big he can do in India to make angry Jihadist happy.
Seems like NATO intention was not to get this deal signed before US next tuesday election.
Pioneer
B Raman
Despite the US's denial, it may have had a hand in hitting a jihad factory
Eighty people, most of them local tribals with a majority of them below 20 years of age, are reported to have been killed in a missile attack on a madarsa located at Chenagai village in the Bajaur agency of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan in the early hours of October 30. The village is located 10 km from Khar, the headquarters of the Agency, and 2.5 km from Damadola, where the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly carried out a missile strike in January last in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No 2 in Al Qaeda.
It is learnt there were 83 persons in the madarsa at the time of the attack, of whom only three survived. The Associated Press news agency has quoted Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, the spokesman of the Pakistan Army, as saying: "We received confirmed intelligence reports that 70-80 militants were hiding in a madarsa used as a terrorist training facility, which was destroyed by an army strike, led by helicopters."
A US spokesman in Afghanistan has denied any US involvement in the raid and said it was purely a Pakistani military operation. According to independent Pakistani Police sources, the missile attack was made following the receipt of information that al-Zawahiri would be spending the night in the madarsa, but the information once again proved to be wrong. These sources say that whoever fired the missiles - whether the Pakistan Army or the CIA - seemed to have been under the impression that the madarsa had not yet re-opened after the Eid vacation for which the students had gone to their villages and hence the casualties would be limited. They were not aware that the madarsa had already re-opened and that the students were back, resulting in large casualties.
The police sources suspect that it was a joint operation by the Pakistan Army and the US forces based in Afghanistan; but when it was found that the attacks had killed a large number of students, it was decided by President Pervez Musharraf that it should be projected as a Pakistan Army operation with no US involvement in order not to exacerbate the already high anti-US anger in the area.
The attack came a few hours before the scheduled signing ceremony of a truce agreement between the Pakistan Army and local tribal leaders under which the Pakistan Army was to stop all military operations in the Bajaur Agency, release those arrested in the past and return arms and ammunition seized from the tribals. In return, the tribals were to undertake a commitment to maintain law and order and ensure that foreigners living in the area did not indulge in any violent activity either in Pakistani or Afghan territory.
The truce agreement would have been similar to the agreement concluded by the Pakistan Army with the tribal elders of North Waziristan on September 5, 2006. Considerable misgivings have been voiced not only by US and other NATO officials, but also by many analysts in Pakistan itself over the wisdom and motive of Gen Musharraf in concluding this agreement.
In an editorial, Dawn wrote on October 25: "Emboldened, it seems, by the September 5 accord with the Government, militants in North Waziristan are now institutionalising their authority over the tribal agency. There is now at least one Taliban 'office' in Miramshah, the regional headquarters, and there is no doubt as to who is calling the shots in terms of administration... This emergence of a state-within-a-state needs to be looked into and checked forthwith."
On October 29, the same newspaper quoted Gen James Jones, a NATO military commander, as telling pressmen in Kabul: "Preliminary indications are that the movements across the border have increased since the signing of agreements on the other side of the border. ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force) is, however, still evaluating the situation and the first indications may not be conclusive. We are watching it very closely."
The attacked madarsa has been in the forefront of the anti-US and anti-NATO activities in the tribal region. The Bajaur Agency in which it is located has been the hub of the activities of Al Qaeda, the neo-Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmateyar's Hizb-e-Islami (HEI), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and other Pakistan-based jihadi organisations.
The FATA, in which the Bajaur Agency is located, has historically posed a dilemma to whoever was in power in Pakistan for three reasons. First, it is inhabited by the most conservative of the conservative Muslims of Pakistan. Second, it is inhabited by the most anti-American of the anti-American sections of the Pakistani population. And third, it is inhabited by the most martial of the so-called martial sections of Pakistan. Next to the Punjabis and the Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the tribals of the FATA constitute the third largest group in the Pakistan Army. There is hardly a tribal family in the FATA, which does not have a serving or retired serviceman.
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Nareshji,
B.Raman information can be trusted 50% only, other paki media outlet have started saying 30 dead were under 15years. These kids comes from every corner of Pakistan. Do you think Mushy can control his best friend's Mullah? I suspect he will release some big catch from prison, just to make Mullah happy or something big he can do in India to make angry Jihadist happy.
Seems like NATO intention was not to get this deal signed before US next tuesday election.