Bad Taliban were also produced by agencies and so the Good Taliban

Masked terrorists ambushed four mini-buses near Bagun town in Kurram agency on Friday. They set on fire one minibus and kidnapped 45 passengers and seized the three other vehicles. According to agency reports, at least eight people were killed in the attack.

The vehicles were coming to Parachinar from Peshawar and, according to sources, most of the passengers belonged to the Shia community.

The sources said that the gunmen later freed five women and seven children.

In a similar attack in mid-March terrorists killed nine people on the Parachinar road.

A tribal elder in Alizai town said that three bodies had been retrieved and the two injured had been taken to hospitals.

“We have reports that eight people have been killed and 45 others have been kidnapped,” he said.

The attack is the latest blow to a peace deal signed in February to end a four- conflict which has claimed lives of hundreds of people belonging to both sects.

The agreement was enforced after all the players concerned pledged to honour it in letter and spirit.

People of Kurram travelling between Parachinar and Peshawar have been frequently attacked in Hangu district.

A few days ago, a minibus coming from Parachinar was attacked and 11 passengers were killed. A few days later, eight people were injured in a similar attack.

The Thall-Parachinar road was closed to traffic as tension gripped the volatile area after Friday’s ambush.

Local people said the political administration and law-enforcement agencies are saying nothing about the number of casualties.

“Officials are hiding information about fatalities,” said a tribal elder in Alizai which is adjacent to Bagun.

According to Mehbood Ali, one of the injured passengers, the vehicles were attacked with automatic weapons by masked terrorists. He said anyone trying to flee was shot, adding that the 45 passengers who were kidnapped appeared to have been taken to central Kurram.

There is widespread unease in the region over the increasing number of attacks on passenger vehicles despite the peace agreement.

Meanwhile, terrorists fired mortar shells at a school in Piwar village near the Afghan border on Friday, but there was no casualty.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/26/new-attack-on-parachinar-road-8-killed-45-kidnapped.html

The sources told The Express Tribune that the incident occurred around 12 am in the Bagan area of Lower Kurram Agency, when suspected militants attacked a convoy of passenger vans on its way to Parachinar from Peshawar.
“Four Hiace vans were on their way from Peshawar to Parachinar — the headquarters of Kurram Agency — when armed men opened fire on the convoy, killing 13 and injuring eight others,” a source said.
He added that suspected militants torched one of the vehicles and hijacked the other three vans with passengers onboard. However, another source put the number of vehicles at three, saying that one was torched and two were hijacked.
The sources said that the convoy had entered Kurram Agency after crossing the Chapari check-post via Thall tehsil of Hangu district. The area where the attack took place is situated five kilometres from the Chapari check-post, inside Kurram Agency.
Sajid Hussain Turi, a lawmaker from Kurram Agency, told The Express Tribune that 26 passengers were kidnapped and 15 of them, including women and children, have been located.
Turi blamed the government and security forces for the attack and warned that they were being pushed to the wall, which will have consequences.
A peace accord signed between the warring sects last month in Kurram Agency is being threatened by the Taliban who have mounted a number of attacks against the Turi tribesmen in recent weeks.
The accord, brokered by a grand tribal jirga, may collapse anytime with possible retaliation by Turi tribesmen, as the number of their people killed by the Taliban is climbing, sources told The Express Tribune.
An MNA from Fata, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the Taliban, who are being indirectly supported by the Sunni tribes are bent upon destroying the accord signed after four years of bloodshed in Kurram Agency.
Earlier this week, the federal government, which had endorsed the accord, ordered action by the security agencies against the militants. However, tension continues to mount as the Taliban continue to attack the Turi tribesmen.
According to Pakistan Army officials, militants have shifted their operations from Waziristan and Orakzai to Kurram Agency. The Taliban have expanded their control over Kurram, military sources said, adding that the militants reportedly use the area as a training ground for their fighters and have set up several bases in the agency.
(With additional reporting by Qaiser Butt in Islamabad)
Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2011.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/137908/kurram-agency-13-tribesmen-killed-in-ambush-33-abducted/

Yeh Sab India Israels Yahoodi Sazish Hay. Taliban Aisay Kaam Nahi Kartey

Understanding the problems of Kurram Agency
By Shaukat Qadir
Published: March 28, 2011

The writer is a retired brigadier and a former president of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute
I had the privilege of commanding the Thal Brigade in the period when the Taliban were beginning to capture Afghanistan. Thal lies between Hangu and Parachinar, in the heart of the volatile Kurram Agency. I have, therefore, some first-hand experience of the terrain, the people and the problems there.
Everyone knows that there is an age-old sectarian rift in the region. However, that is one of a myriad of issues. Unlike other tribal agencies, where one tribe is dominant, if not the exclusive occupant of the agency, Kurram has a diverse tribal structure, giving rise to inter-tribal rivalries and internecine wars. The main tribes in Kurram are: Turi, Bangash, Zazi, Para, Mangal and Orakzai. The Orakzai are, in many ways, the most significant of the tribes in Kurram, since the Orakzai Agency, consisting almost exclusively of Orakzais, neighbours it.
The army went into South Waziristan (SWA) when the Isaf troops, instead of playing the anvil to the Pakistan Army’s hammer, vacated numerous posts opposite the SWA. This meant Hakeemullah, and the bulk of his Mehsud followers (estimates of their numbers range from 3,000-5,000), managed to escape to Afghanistan.
The Mehsud faction of the Taliban was always the most effective machinery targeting the Pakistani state; whether under Baitullah or his successor, Hakimullah. This was due to the fact that they had control of a considerable territory in SWA, which provided administrative, training and financial support, along with a safe haven and a command and control infrastructure, training volunteer recruits even from Punjab. Deprived of this by the entry of the army and denied such space in Afghanistan by the Afghan Taliban, the faction needed another safe haven.
In March 2008, the Orakzai tribe organised a Loye Jirga (Grand Council of Elders) to raise a lashkar against the Taliban. The jirga was targeted by three suicide bombers, killing as many as 125 tribal elders, depriving the Orakzai tribe of effective traditional leadership. The Taliban swiftly took over Orakzai Agency and rule it to date, though not as effectively as they controlled SWA. This was the space available to Hakimullah, but Orakzai Agency shares no border with Afghanistan. Consequently, Hakimullah and his followers had to trickle in via Khyber and Kurram Agencies.
After securing SWA, Orakzai was marked by the army as its next target. However, Orakzai Agency has a peculiar advantage for the force defending it. It presents a linear front to the settled areas in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and its flanks are protected by Khyber and Kurram. Any army that has learnt its lesson on the conduct of warfare against a guerrilla army (and the present Pakistan Army seems to have done so), is fully cognisant of the importance of surrounding the guerrilla forces to deny them any exit for escape. Any attempt at assaulting Orakzai frontally, even if multi-pronged, will afford the guerrilla force an ideal opportunity to fade away to the flanks of each prong, and, in small groups, nibble at the flanks. That is why it is imperative for the army to secure its flanks in Khyber and Kurram before entering Orakzai in force.
Even if one flank, Kurram, is secured, the army can, from that direction, launch its offensive, while sealing the linear front Orakzai presents to the settled areas opposite it, and, if Hakeemullah continues to retreat into Khyber, the army could also continue to extend its operation. But the army definitely requires a secure Kurram, at the very least.
Hakeemullah is aware of this strategic compulsion and cannot but ensure that the army is denied secure flanks in Khyber and Kurram. In Khyber, Hakeemullah is being assisted by the few followers of Mangal Bagh and numerous splinter groups amongst the Afridis. However, in Kurram, he is forced to ensure this personally. Thus, the incident on March 25, killing some and kidnapping over three dozen individuals, all members of the Shia community, came at a juncture, when, powered by the Orakzais — who have a vested interest in seeing the Orakzai Agency liberated — the Turi, Bangash, Zazi and the Mangal tribes had joined to make peace and reassure their Shia brethren of their safety.
It has nothing to do with the inability of the Taliban to abide by their word; it is a strategic necessity in their fight for survival.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2011.
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Reader Comments (7)
ALL COMMENTSREADER’S RECOMMENDATIONS
TightDhoti
14 hours ago
Reply
How about reflecting on the loss of lives in the region rather than the strategic machinations? After all you claim to know the terrain, people and problems well?
Stop giving excuses for the Army on how it has to secure its flanks first. As you said, this is going on for years, which means for years fellow Pakistani citizens have been murdered or killed. They are acting only now? Actually no, they are negotiating another round of peace talks with the very same people.
You claim that the present Pakistan Army has learnt how to deal with gorilla forces. Was part of that learning process to ditch the anti-Taliban lashkars that they themselves encouraged?
Your article suggests that the military is under resourced and needs time to secure exit points in the region, to make sure no one melts away. In such a situation its good to know that our establishment has agreed to offer all support necessary to help prop up the Saudi Royals. Never knew we had the extra troops to not only guard the Eastern border, fight the bad guys in the West and support foreign dictatorships.
Recommend10
observer
14 hours ago
Reply
@Shaukat Qadir
Brigadier Saab, any information on,
a. who ‘softened’ the nay sayers with gunship attacks.
b. who armtwisted the Shias into accepting a peace accord.
c. who was the principal beneficiary of the accord.
d. who guaranteed it with ‘shariah compliant’ punishments for the violators.
e. who has carried out the latest attacks.
f. and now that it has been carried out, what does the state propose to do.
Recommend1
faraz
10 hours ago
Reply
Hakeemullah mehsood entered Kurram in 2008, but Kurram agency was put under siege in 2006. And you have conveniently avoided discussing the role of good taliban in massacring the Shias.
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Agnostic Muslim
6 hours ago
Reply
@TightDhoti:
“How about reflecting on the loss of lives in the region rather than the strategic machinations?”
And how wil the lives in the region be saved or made better without proper strategic and tactical calculations to ensure victory in the long run at an acceptable cost?
Pointless emotional rhetoric and inane hyperbole is what you have posted above.
“Was part of that learning process to ditch the anti-Taliban lashkars that they themselves encouraged? ”
Cherry picking of facts as usual by the Pakistan bashing liberal fascists. The Army never claimed that it would offer an open ended supply of weapons and resources to the Tribal lashkars. Yes, it is true that it encouraged them to rise up against the Taliban to assist in keeping Taliban remnants (which would be much smaller after military operations) at bay, but even then there were warnings that we did not want to replace one ‘non state militia’ of the Taliban with another ‘non state militia’ of the Lashkars, especially if we supported the latter with weapons and resources. There were in fact many commentators, Western and Pakistani, who questioned the wisdom of supplying and strengthening the Lashkars, and cautioned against doing so using some of the arguments I summarized above. Apparently the Army HAS learned its lessons, and did not create another ‘non-state monster’ to replace the current Taliban one.
“Your article suggests that the military is under resourced and needs time to secure exit points in the region, to make sure no one melts away. In such a situation its good to know that our establishment has agreed to offer all support necessary to help prop up the Saudi Royals. Never knew we had the extra troops to not only guard the Eastern border, fight the bad guys in the West and support foreign dictatorships.”
More balderdash. Pakistan is not paying for those selected to serve in the Arab security forces – their wages and other expenses are being borne by the Arab states. And for liberals who rant and whine about Pakistan being in no position to ‘take on the US for the sake of the Ghairat brigade’ you sure have no qualms about bringing out the ‘Ghairat card’ when it comes to helping the Arabs with manpower, which in fact benefits Pakistan as well since the money does come back in the form of remittances.
“Actually no, they are negotiating another round of peace talks with the very same people. ”
There is no credible evidence that the Army is simply going to allow the Taliban to rule certain areas unchallenged as a goal of negotiations. All we have for now is speculation and anonymous sources. Wait and see.
Recommend
SaudiRules
5 hours ago
Reply
We love all of the pakistan army’s support for our king! The pak army is the best money(oil) can buy.
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zarin
2 hours ago
Reply
I agree with Tight Dhoti.
I think this is challenge or in some way shame for prestegious Pak army that are unable to clear a road from Sadda to Thal which is hardly 50 KM . The respectable retired army officer knows as he was commander in Thal. No body has any reason to defend army. The ground reality is that the so called military operation is in fact Hide and Seek game in Kurram & Orakzai and also Waziristan. I don’t say Army is not capable but what is the reason of their failure is million dollars question. The peace agreement was sponsored by ISI , with guranty of Haqani network and a local Taliban wanted supremo Fazle aeed Haqani announced to punish the violator as per Sharia rules, but all are silent after this brutual killing.This also shows who is the real player in the area and the respectable author a retired army officer may know the facts.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/138954/understanding-the-problems-of-kurram-agency/

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C03%5C27%5Cstory_27-3-2011_pg3_1

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