Ejaz Haider on TTP:

When I went to Hangu in 1998 to report on the sectarian riots which saw Orakzai lashkars descend into the Miranzai Valley, I realised that a major shift was happening. Sunni Orakzai tribesmen were linking up with Sunni Bangash to attack Shia Bangash. Never before was it possible for tribal affiliation (the qaum or solidarity group) to be undermined by some supra-tribal ideology.
Imagine my surprise when in Hangu city, on one of the northern hills, I saw emblazoned in white lime the name of a Punjabi — Azam Tariq, the since slain leader of Sipah-e Sahaba Pakistan. Something was afoot and I reported it in The Friday Times along with the interview of Javed Piracha, the then PML-N MNA from Kohat and rabidly anti-Shia. For a Piracha to be able to influence the Pashtun and link up with the Orakzais was another telltale sign.
Fast forward to now. Sabir Mehsud, whose group captured Khalid Khawaja and Colonel Imam, kills Usman Punjabi, the man who was negotiating with the families and also the government. Within days Sabir, a Mehsud, is killed in Razmak by Hakimullah Mehsud’s men to avenge Punjabi’s killing. In the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa I spent my childhood in, that would have been unheard of.
There’s much more to this shift, but given space constraints let’s leave it at this and move on to the TTP. Brig Munir is right; much before 9/11 and the US attack on Afghanistan, the Taliban had begun to ingress into Fata. They not only came to Mirali but also went into Mohmand. A few times there was fire exchange between Frontier Corps troops and the Taliban because the latter considered the Durand Line as disputed as previous Afghan regimes.
But, and this is important, the TTP, for all its rhetoric, is not linked to the known Afghan groups operating in Afghanistan. If anything, in Bajaur we had Afghans fighting Pakistani forces. There is no known TTP operation inside Afghanistan, with the possible exception of the video that emerged of the Jordanian that attacked FOB Chapman in Khost in January 2010. If the TTP had deep linkages with the Afghan Taliban, frenetic efforts by their jirgas to save first Khawaja and later Imam would not have failed.
North Waziristan, Mohmand and now Kurram are areas where multiple groups operate and each offers a deterrent to other groups. Haji Gul Bahadur, who controlled most of the area in North Waziristan, is now under pressure from the TTP, whose elements have relocated to Mirali and Datta Khel and many are Punjabis. It is interesting to note that this is primarily Wazir area!

http://tribune.com.pk/story/132054/some-more-on-the-pakistani-taliban/

AbdulNishapuri Abdul Nishapuri
Will the dajjal of the Supreme Court take notice of the GHQ’s alliance with the Haqqani network and the (Good) Taliban?

The FIR (police report) of 13 Shias killed today must be registered against Generals Kayani and Pasha. Fuck you Deep State and its proxies!

How many ‘progressive’ columnists and bloggers will care to write on the Shia massacre in Hangu?

How many urban activists will hold a vigil for 13 Pakistanis who were today killed in Hangu because of their faith? HOW MANY?

And the Shia genocide continues:

Three Pakistani Shia Martyred by Wahhabi Terrorists in Karachi

According to informed sources in Pakistan, three Shia men were martyred in two separate incidents by terrorists of outlawed Wahhabi organization Sipah-e-Sahaba, Laskhar-e-Jhangvi and Taliban.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) –
According to informed sources in Pakistan, three Shia men were martyred in two separate incidents by terrorists of outlawed Wahhabi organization Sipah-e-Sahaba, Laskhar-e-Jhangvi and Taliban.

Qadir Buksh son of Mubarak Hussain, 60, was martyred by the terrorists of outlawed Wahhabi organization when he was going to Ali Akbar Mosque Organi Town to offer noon prayers. His body was immediately shifted at Qataar Hospital for necessary treatment, where he embraced martyrdom.

In another incident of target killing two Shia youths Syed Musawir Hussain Shah son of Syed Nizam Hussain Shah, 17, and Sikandar Hussain were killed by the terrorists of Wahhabi organization near at Pehalwan Goth Gulistan-e-Johar Area.

Residents of the area informed that Syed Musawir Hussain Shah Son of Syed Nizam Hussain Shah was arrested by the police last month on the charges of the killing of Awami National Party activists. The area residents said that the Awami National Party Pehalwan Goth activists have a close ties with the terrorists of banned outfit Taliab of Waziristan.

It may be noted here that the terrorists of Wahhabi outfits backed by JUI-F were openly threatened the Shia community to take the revenge of the killing of their clerics. Despite the continuous threats of banned terrorists outfit leaders neither the government nor any law enforcement agencies have taken any action against the threats of these anti-state congress agents.

http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=230944

Sectarian killings, media, and ethics

Parachinar – The Shia population of Kurram Agency is under attack of militants who target passenger vehicles traveling in and out of Kurram. Media sources however are hesitant in highlighting the sectarian nation of the problem.

Earlier this week, militants made yet another brutal attack on a passenger vehicle which was traveling between Kurram Agency and Kohat. At least 11 people were killed in the attack. In Pakistan’s volatile environment, this figure may not sound very startling since dozens of people have died in a single suicide blast so frequently made over the past few years throughout the country. However, this particular incident, a repetition of identical attacks in the near past, has something that mainstream media is still reluctant to highlight: it was an attack on people of Shia sect and all casualties belonged to this sub-religion of Islam that is considered infidels by some fanatic Islamic groups.

Kurram Agency, with Parachinar as the main town, is a tribal area inhabited mainly by people of Shia (Jaffria) sect – one of the few places in Pakistan that are dominantly Shia in terms of their population. Due to its border with Afghanistan, Kurram has been through the threat of militants and insurgency of Talibanization. By 2007, Taliban had already infiltrated in a significant proportion to target Shia community because they wanted free passage between Afghanistan and Kurram. But the local Shia population won’t let them use their land and thus started a series of armed clashes stretching over more 3 years. Finally, Taliban had to retreat, vindictive and determined to retaliate.

During the warring years, Shia people could not safely travel to and from Kurram Agency. The main road between Parachinar and Thall (Hangu) remained closed for over 3 years. Convoys that escorted passengers along the road were attacked by militants; Shia passengers were killed and non-Shia usually just looted while vehicles were set on fire after plundering. As the security situation got somewhat better, the Thall-Parachinar road was opened in February 2011. Since then more than one attack has targeted vehicles carrying Shia passengers to/out of Kurram along the road, resulting in civilian causalities and injuries.

Let’s not talk of the security situation as it’s common knowledge now how successful the security personnel have been in preventing militancy (not to discredit those few who lost their lives in the line of duty). The question to consider, and one not paid due attention heretofore, is whether our media should highlight the fact that passengers of Shia sect are being targeted en route. Two angles maybe are taken on this question. Media ethics and the public’s right to know the truth.

From media’s viewpoint, sectarian violence is a sensitive issue and headlines of attacks on a particular sect (which in Pakistan almost always happens to be Shias) can spark sectarian violence in other places in the county. Therefore, it is unethical to highlight sectarian attacks as such; instead the headlines in media tell that the attack killed this and this number of passengers. The policy of preventing sectarian violence sounds reasonable. However, the Shia population is certainly not satisfied. They feel neglected and under-represented in such a serious issue wherein they are the target of deadly militant attacks.

At some online newspapers where readers are allowed comments on posts, some readers have commented bitterly against the media’s policy of veiling the truth by removing the word Shia and using the common “passengers”, stripping the incidents of the sectarian element that is at the core of the issue. They believe that the world should know that they are being targeted, hoping that it would bring some serious attention to the problem and their lives in future would be more secure.

Personally, I have always found it more convincing to stop the aggressor rather than sheltering the target and I believe that calling a spade a spade has its force against evil and oppression. Media channels must highlight the fact that a particular sect is being targeted because word of mouth through phones is faster than news in communities and it gives a deep sense of betrayal and victimization when the truth you know from your trusted kin/friend is hidden in the news – putting media’s neutrality to question.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/304820#ixzz1HA4bexls