Nawaz Sharif’s willing surrender to the Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba terrorists
Nawaz Sharif's Press Conference - Source: BBC Urdu
Pakistan opposition chief backs talks with Taliban
By ASIF SHAHZAD (AP)
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s top opposition leader said Saturday that the government should negotiate with the country’s Taliban militants to ease the relentless security crisis in the nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied nation.
Nawaz Sharif made the comments two days after a pair of suicide bombers killed 42 people at a famed Sufi shrine in the province controlled by his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N. The party is considered more religiously conservative and aligned with pro-Taliban parties than the Pakistan People’s Party, which runs the federal government.
Sharif said Islamabad shouldn’t wait for directives from Washington on how to deal with its problems.
“We have this problem in our home. Why shouldn’t we take initiatives?” he said in a news conference in Lahore that was broadcast live. He specified that the government should talk to the “Taliban who are ready to talk and ready to listen.”
Federal government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sharif’s party has been criticized in recent months for not going after militant groups in Punjab province, which the party runs and where several lethal ones operate that have ties to al-Qaida and Taliban fighters based along the Afghan border in the northwest. One recent group that has emerged in the eastern province has been labeled the “Punjabi Taliban.”
Punjab’s law minister has even campaigned alongside members of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a Sunni extremist group bent on eradicating minority Shiite Muslims. And the party’s leaders often respond equivocally or not at all on the subject of Islamist extremism in Pakistan.
Sharif is a former prime minister who was overthrown in a 1999 coup by then-Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf’s government and the one now in power tried several times to negotiate with Taliban fighters who have strongholds in the northwest. But for the most part, those peace deals failed.
In 2009, the government agreed to impose Islamic law in the Swat Valley to appease militants there, but that deal collapsed after the militants started moving outside the district to spread their reign closer to the capital.
Since then, the military has undertaken several offensives aimed at dismantling the Pakistani Taliban network in the northwest. But the army is believed to have reached “understandings” with militant groups who are based in Pakistan but focus on the fight against Western troops in Afghanistan — much to Washington’s displeasure.
It was unclear Saturday exactly which groups Sharif expected the government to talk to. There are numerous militant organizations in Pakistan, and they often overlap and work together.
Asked about this and the past failed peace attempts, Sharif said only: “Peace is the priority. Ways can be found.”
Source: AP
We got independence from the British who built schools, college, universities, roads, train system, hospitals, courts; did not blow up anyone’s religious places and gave full religious freedom to everyone; just so we can bow to Taliban who blow up everything in sight and have no respect for our constitution, courts, places of worship or sovereignty. I hope people of Pakistan are not as cowards as Nawaz Sharif is. Nawaz Sahrif is welcome to go live in North Waziristan with his favourite Taliban, at the very least it will save the tax payers millions that is spent on Nawaz Sharif’s security.
Nawaz League does not treat Taliban as a terrorist organization:
Punjab to swoop on 17 banned outfits
Monday, July 05, 2010
Monitoring Report
RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Home Department has set up task forces comprising police officials at the district level to crack down against 17 banned organisations following the suicide attacks at the Data Darbar in Lahore.
The task forces will comprise officials from the CID, the Special Branch and the Anti-Terrorism Squad. They have also been advised to establish close contacts with intelligence officers in the districts to exchange information with regard to 17 banned organisations.
An official of the Punjab Home Department told the BBC Urdu Service that orders had been issued to launch crackdowns on secret hideouts of banned outfits and arrest those connected with them immediately.
The task forces have been asked to trace out those who had been financing the banned organisations and their other funding sources and take action under the Anti-Terrorist Act. Headed by District Police Officers (DPOs), the task forces will submit their reports to the Punjab Home Department.
The 17 outfits, which were banned by the Home Department, Punjab, include Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah Sahaba Pakistan, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Tehrik-e-Jafriya Pakistan, Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi, Millat-e-Islamiya Pakistan, Khudamul Islam, Islami Tehrik Pakistan, Hizb-ut-Tehrir, Jamiat-ul-Ansar, Jamiat-ul-Furqan, Khair-un-Naas International Trust, Islamic Students Movement (ISM), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Jamaat-ud-Daawa.
Besides, the Sunni Tehrik has been placed under observation. Among the banned outfits, nine belong to the Deobandi sect, three to Shia sect and three belong to the Ahle Hadith. The BLA is a nationalist organisation, while the ISM is a students’ organisation.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is not included in the list issued by the Punjab government while according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik,the TTP and al-Qaeda, in collaboration with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba, were active in other parts of the country, especially in the Punjab.
A cold war is underway between the federal Interior Ministry and the Punjab government due to the failure of the organisation working under the ministry in providing information about the activities of the extremist organisations and both are accusing each other in this regard.
According to an official of the Punjab Home Department, the departments working under the Interior Ministry do not give any specific information about the possible extremist acts. He said the ministries usually provided general information about a possible extremist act in a city and specific information was very rarely imparted.
Concerning suicide attacks at the Data Darbar, the provincial Home Department said that it had not received any information in this regard from the federal Interior Ministry while the federal Interior Ministry said that it had issued a warning letter two days before the incident in which it was conveyed that the terrorists could target Imambargahs or the shrines in the province.
It is pertinent to mention that about 4,000 persons were kept under surveillance for their alleged links with the extremist organisations under the Anti-Terrorist Act Schedule-4 and these people were bound to inform their respective police stations about their movement.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=29837