Army, govt at loggerheads over Taliban talks

The News 21 sept 2013 ISLAMABAD: Disagreement over how to handle an escalating insurgency has put Pakistan’s all-powerful army on a collision course with the government, with the military increasingly vocal in its criticism of civilian leaders, officials and diplomats said. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who came to power in May has promised to tame militancy through negotiations, but four months on, talks have yet to start and attacks continue daily. The army, which has ruled the South Asian nation for more than half its history, has avoided open confrontation with Sharif and his government but tension is on the rise. “The army chief ... is thinking: ‘Mian Sahib (Nawaz Sharif), enough is enough’,” a senior army officer serving in the strife-plagued Pashtun tribal area along the Afghan border told Reuters during a visit to Islamabad. The military-civilian discord has been the source of tension throughout Pakistani history but Nawaz Sharif’s election has raised hopes the government would get a larger say following Pakistan’s first transition between civilian administrations. Nawaz Sharif promised to hold talks with the militants during the election campaign, a welcome vow for many Pakistanis who, while abhorring the bombers, have never been convinced of the necessity of joining the US-led campaign against militancy. The army, which keeps thousands of troops in the tribal belt, opposes talks with the Pakistani Taliban, saying previous attempts to bring the militants to the negotiating table yielded no results. Frustration spilled into the open on Sunday when a roadside bomb killed a general and another officer near the Afghan border, just days after government officials promised to launch peace negotiations with the Pakistani Taliban soon. “This incident has dealt a serious blow (to the peace process),” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar told parliament this week. “We have come to a standstill.” “QUITE DISTURBING” The tension comes at a crucial time when speculation is mounting over who will replace the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, arguably Pakistan’s most powerful man, who is due to retire in November. The army put out a toughly worded statement this week.“While reaffirming the army’s support for the political process, (Kayani) also said, unequivocally, that terrorists will not be allowed to take advantage of it,” it said. “The army has the ability and the will to take the fight to the terrorists.” The United States, Pakistan’s biggest donor, is pushing Islamabad to step up its campaign against groups such as the Haqqani network which regularly attacks US forces in Afghanistan from hideouts in Pakistani mountains. “The absence of a strong government narrative on how to counter terrorism is quite disturbing for everyone, including the army chief,” said a senior Western diplomat in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban are a fragmented alliance of factions with no coherent voice. Some within the group have announced preconditions, while others have denied this. The government would not say who would talk to whom, where and when. “Until they (government) say out loud who the enemy is, there can be no policy and there can be no results,” said the senior military officer. The army says it would not agree to any preconditions, particularly the withdrawal of troops from tribal areas. “They are saying: ‘Get out of here and let us be kings’,” another army source also serving in the tribal belt said of the Pakistani Taliban. “That’s not an option.” ISPR adds: A spokesman of ISPR has categorically rejected Reuters News story captioned ‘Pakistan Army, Government at loggerheads over Taliban Talks’. He said it is highly regrettable that the reporter in this story has quoted an anonymous military source to attribute remarks to army chief. The story is baseless and has a malafide intent, the spokesman said.

Fazlullah behind attack on General Sanaullah in Dir

The News Umar Cheema Wednesday, September 18, 2013 From Print Edition ISLAMABAD: Although defunct Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed the responsibility for killing GOC Swat Maj Gen Sanaullah Niaz and his two subordinates, government officials suspect the involvement of Maulana Fazlullah group, Tehreek-i-Taliban Swat (TTS), as it has been involved in such attacks. Incidentally, Fazlullah also had violated the peace agreement in Swat resulting in a military operation to evacuate the area occupied by his militants.The attack was carried out a day after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s announcement of gradual pullout of the army from Swat, a decision withheld Tuesday by Peshawar High Court. In a briefing given by the army about its operations in Fata and Swat, the political leadership was told that TTS has resorted to suicide bombing and Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) attacks on the law enforcement agencies and Aman Lashkar. Gen Sanaullah, Lt Colonel Tauseef and a soldier Imran were attacked through, what an ISPR statement said, an IED planted on the road near the border in Upper Dir. The political leadership was earlier warned that Fazlullah in collaboration with a neighbouring country could enhance terrorist activities in the areas adjoining the Pak-Afghan border. Fazlullah is hiding in Afghanistan and “recent nexus of TTS with Afghan government is likely to enhance the terrorist activities in adjoining areas of Afghanistan i.e. Mohmand Agency, Bajaur Agency, Dir, Swat and Chitral,” according to the briefing document obtained by The News. This, the official source explained, does not mean giving a clean chit to TTP as the IED attack might have been carried out by it, however, the pattern indicates the involvement of TTS.On the other hand, TTP not only claimed responsibility of the attack, it also set pre-conditions for initiating peace talks that included the army’s pullout from Fata and release of its prisoners detained in different jails and internment centres. All these demands have been rejected by Army Chief General Kayani, leaving the political government in a quandary where and how to kick start the dialogue with TTP.The statements of political leaders following the Sunday’s incident also dropped hints of some ‘forces’ are planning to sabotage the peace talks. Fazlullah-led TTS had told mediapersons in June 2012 that they were using Afghan soil as a springboard for launching attacks on Pakistani forces.“Maulana Fazlullah is leading TTS attacks from Afghanistan’s border provinces and is in touch with fighters in Malakand division,” Sirajuddin, the spokesperson for TTP’s Malakand chapter, had told media in 2012. He claimed that Fazlullah was commanding over a thousand diehard fighters. Karzai government had initially denied Fazlullah-led millitants’ bases in Afghanistan and only conceded their presence in the border region after the admission of the spokesman of TTS. Earlier, Afghan government had claimed the killing of Fazlullah in a clash between security forces and militants in the Barg Mittal area of Nuristan. In October 2001, DG ISPR had publicly urged Afghanistan and US-led forces there to go after notorious Taliban cleric Maulvi Fazlullah, whose fighters took part in cross-border raids that “killed about 100 members of Pakistan’s security forces in recent months, but no action was taken.”

Terrorists will not be allowed to dictate terms: General Kayani

The News Tuesday, September 17, 2013 RAWALPINDI: Rejecting the outlawed terrorist outfit TTP’s demand for withdrawal of troops from the tribal areas and release of their prisoners as a pre-condition for peace talks with the government, army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday said the army had the ability and the will to take the fight to terrorists in accordance with the will of the nation and at any cost. The statement from the top general came a day after two senior military officers were killed by a Taliban bomb in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the military is fighting al-Qaeda and Taliban-led militants. Reaffirming the army’s support to the political process, the COAS unequivocally said terrorists will not be allowed to take advantage of it and vowed to spare no effort to bring the perpetrators of these cowardly acts of terrorism to justice. Gen. Kayani again emphasised that while “it is understandable to give peace a chance through a political process, but no one should have any misgivings that we will let terrorists coerce us into accepting their terms”. He lauded the ultimate sacrifice of the martyrs and those injured in the cowardly acts of terrorism which took place in Fata during the last two days. He paid rich tributes to the exemplary courage, total commitment to duty and demonstration of highest leadership qualities by Major General Sanaullah Khan, General Officer Commanding (GOC) in the Swat valley, where the army sent 30,000 troops in 2009 to expel the Taliban fighters. Kayani said the General Officer Commanding (GOC) had set a towering example of leading from the front which was the hallmark of the Pakistan Army leadership. Acknowledging the General Officer’s ultimate sacrifice for the motherland, the army chief said: “We all salute his bravery.” He also pledged to stand by the families of Shuhada and the injured and added that the nation and its army will remain indebted to the sacrifices of their soldiers. Major General Sanaullah Khan embraced Shahadat along with Lieutenant Colonel Tauseef Ahmad and Sepoy Irfan Sattar when his vehicle came under an IED attack at 1230 hours on September 15 near village Gatkotal in the Upper Dir. Sanaullah was visiting his troops at the Pak-Afghan border and stayed the night with troops at a 10,000 feet high border postin Bin Shahi Sector. His vehicle was targeted while coming back. According to the ISPR, during the night of 14-15 September, terrorists also attacked a Khassadars patrol party near Bannu. The attackers were repulsed; however, an encounter resulted into the Shahadat of one and injuries to four Khassadars. Later, during early hours of 15th September, two army posts located on the Miranshah-Mir Ali Road were subjected to IED attacks by terrorists. The posts are meant to keep the traffic uninterrupted and secure. One soldier of the army and one of FC KP laid their lives for the motherland while two soldiers sustained injuries in these attacks.

Major General Sanaullah Khan laid to rest in Mianwali

The News update 16 Sept 2013 MIANWALI: Major General Sanaullah Khan Niazi, who lost his life in an IED blast in Upper Dir was laid to rest in his home town of Mianwali on Monday. The martyred General was buried in Daud Khel area of the city while his funeral prayers were offered at Chaklala Garrison. Services chiefs , interior minister and other senior military and civilians leaders attended the funeral prayers. Niazi along with his right-hand man Lt. Colonel Tauseef and Lance Naik Irfan Sattar were killed when they were returning from a visit to the Pakistan Army's front posts along the Pak-Afghan border on Sunday morning. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the high profile murder of the two-star general.

Highest-ranking Pak Army officials killed since 9/11

The News 16 September 2013 LAHORE: Since the commencement of the US-led war on terror in September 2001, the Pakistan Army and its allied paramilitary forces like the Rangers have lost one serving lieutenant general and three major generals in the line of duty. Yesterday, Major General Sanaullah Khan was among the three military officials martyred in a blast near the porous Pak-Afghan border.On February 25, 2008, Pakistan Army’s top medic Lt Gen Mushtaq Baig was killed near the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, along with his driver and security guard, after a suicide attacker had conveniently ripped apart the vehicle he was travelling in. At least five other passers-by were also killed and 20 injured in this incident. However, General Baig remains the highest-ranking officer to be killed in Pakistan since the 9/11 attacks.On December 4, 2009, a terrorist attack on a Rawalpindi mosque during Friday prayers had left more than 40 people dead, including Major General Umer Bilal. The December 2009 Rawalpindi attack had targeted the Parade Lane Mosque located near the fortified Pakistan Army’s Headquarters, but five armed suicide attackers had perhaps found it easy to open fire from a close range on some 150 people offering prayers and to hurl grenades at them. Security forces had soon arrived on the scene to engage the terrorists. All five of the militants had either died by blowing themselves up or were killed while fighting with the soldiers inside the mosque. Apart from Major General Umer Bilal, various serving Army personnel, including a brigadier, two lieutenant colonels and two majors were among the unfortunate victims of this attack.Meanwhile, Deputy Director of National Logistic Cell, Taskeen Anjum, and Hashim Masood Aslam, the only son of Commander VI Corps, Lt Gen Masood Aslam, had also perished in this terrorist attack. And if this correspondent can recall well, former Chief of Army Staff, General Muhammad Yusaf Khan, was among the injured.After the attack, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed the responsibility for this incident in an email sent to the CNN. The e-mail of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had stated: “We once again mention that we are not against the innocent people and the state of Pakistan but against those officers and ministers who are American by hearts and minds and Pakistani just by faces.” Meanwhile, a retired Major General, Ameer Faisal Alavi, was gunned down on Islamabad Highway near the PWD Housing Society on November 19, 2008. He was the former head of the Pakistan Army’s elite Special Service Group (SSG) and had commanded this force during the first major assault on militants in Angoor Ada in South Waziristan in 2004. The Kenya-born Major General (R) Ameer Faisal Alavi was a special operations expert. It was later alleged that Ilyas Kashmiri, the chief of Jammu and Kashmir chapter of Harkatul Jihad-al-Islami, was behind the planned murder of Major General Alvi. On June 1, 2011, four officials of the Pakistan Rangers, including Punjab Director General Major General Muhammad Nawaz, his son Captain Asif Nawaz and a Lt Colonel Aamir Abbas, had died after their helicopter had crashed into the Indus River near Kot Sultan, District Layyah. The helicopter had met this accident just 25 minutes after taking-off from Dera Ghazi Khan. The then Layyah District Police Officer Muhammad Saleem had said the helicopter caught fire midair before crashing. The crash was linked to cloudy weather and dust storms. According to reports, the chopper was in contact with officials at the Multan Airport till 10:12am on June 1, 2011, after which it had lost contact with the control tower.But then, there have been a few celebrated survivors too! Just to recap, in 2000, Kamran Atif, an alleged member of Harkatul Mujahideen al-Alami, had tried to assassinate the then Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf. Atif was sentenced to death in 2006 by an Anti Terrorism Court. On December 14, 2003, General Pervez Musharraf had survived another assassination attempt when a powerful bomb had gone off just minutes after his highly-guarded convoy had crossed a bridge in Rawalpindi. Musharraf was apparently saved by a jamming device in his limousine that prevented the remote controlled explosives from blowing up the bridge as his convoy passed over it.On December 25, 2003, two suicide bombers had tried to assassinate Musharraf yet again in futility, but their car bombs had failed to kill him; 16 others had died instead. On June 10, 2004, gunmen had opened fire on a convoy carrying the then Karachi Corps Commander, Lt Gen Ahsan Saleem Hyat, leaving 11 people dead. The Corps Commander, who escaped unhurt in this attack, was later elevated as Vice Chief of Army Staff under General Pervez Musharraf. On July 6, 2007, President General Pervez Musharraf had escaped the fourth recorded attempt on his life when around 36 rounds were fired at his aircraft from a submachine gun in Rawalpindi.

Acceptance of Taliban demands amounts to govt surrender Peace talks have a bleak future after killing of Swat GOC

The News 16 Sept 2013 ISLAMABAD: The PML-N government’s peace initiative with the Taliban has suffered a major setback with the killing of a high-ranking Army officer in a roadside bomb blast and the subsequent responsibility claim coming from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The General Officer Commanding of Swat Major General Sanaullah Khan Niazi and his right hand man Lieutenant Colonel Tauseef were killed 24 hours after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government announced that the withdrawal of the troops from Malakand Division would begin next month and that the civil administration would take over control of Swat and other districts accordingly. Shiraz Paracha, spokesman for Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, had said the withdrawal could begin in mid-October. The withdrawal announcement in fact coincided with the federal government’s decision to launch peace talks with the Taliban in the light of the resolutions of an all-party conference held last week in Islamabad which was also attended by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the ISI chief. The Pakistan Army had to launch a massive military operation in Swat district of Malakand Division in May 2009 after the Taliban led by Maulana Fazlullah alias Mullah Radio established a parallel administration in Swat and other adjoining districts. The Air Force assisted the Army and after successful completion of the operation and restoration of the state’s writ, it was decided that the troops would stay on in Malakand and build cantonments in different areas. Fazlullah and his private army escaped from Swat and took shelter in Afghanistan. Therefore, the KP government’s announcement to withdraw the troops was quite surprising and was apparently meant to appease the Taliban. A day before the killing of the GOC Swat, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had warned that some influential groups and forces have become active to sabotage the APC-approved and military-backed dialogue process with local militants. He said that after the recent APC, it had come to his notice that there were some serious attempts being made to push the situation for a military operation instead of talks and peaceful resolution of the crisis. But the TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid’s responsibility claim has abundantly made it clear that it was none other than the TTP which was bent upon sabotaging the government’s peace initiative which has been described by many as a “national surrender”. “Our men did it,” so said the TTP spokesman after the attack that killed the GOC Swat.Earlier, on Saturday night, the Taliban ambushed a group of tribal policemen travelling in a vehicle near Bannu, killing two of them and wounding four others. Two years ago, the TTP had tried to kill the then General Officer Commanding Swat Major General Javed Iqbal on September 21, 2011 when his helicopter came under attack near Upper Dir. Maj Gen Iqbal was shot in the leg but the helicopter was able to keep flying. The general was taking an aerial view of the troops deployment. However, the killing of the GOC Swat is going to seriously affect the pace of the ongoing peace process which had even been backed by the COAS during the recently held APC, with General Kayani saying: “The government and the armed forces were on the same page on the issue of talks with the militant groups and it is for the politicians and the government to decide the policy. The army and the military establishment will fully back such a policy.” Although the TTP spokesman had welcomed the government’s unconditional offer of peace talks, the killing of a high-profile general, followed by the responsibility claim, indicates that there is no cessation of violence on the part of the Taliban, let alone renouncing force. To tell the truth, the Taliban have upped the ante after the recent APC calling for the state to show more sincerity before the negotiations. “The government will also have to convince the Army and to decide on a roadmap for the talks,” the former TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan was quoted as saying a day after the APC was held. Quite intriguingly, the day the GOC Swat was killed, the TTP spokesman demanded that the government release militant prisoners and begin withdrawing troops from the TTP’s tribal sanctuary before they participate in peace talks, thus raising doubts about prospects for negotiations. According to Shahidullah Shahid, the TTP’s Shura issued the peace talks demands following a meeting to discuss the government’s offer to negotiate.“The Taliban have been deceived in the past in the name of peace, so the government will have to take some steps before the start of talks to assure the Taliban that the government is serious about the peace process,” Shahid told a news agency from an undisclosed location. “The government must release Pakistani Taliban militant prisoners and show that it is withdrawing soldiers from the tribal region along the border with Afghanistan. If the government does not take these two steps, the peace process cannot move forward,” the TTP spokesman said. On the other hand, it would be quite hard for the government to fulfil the TTP demands which were made hardly a few hours after the killing of a high-profile Army general and that too by the Taliban. Despite the military leadership’s nod for the peace talks, there are still those in the security establishment who believe that the Islamabad APC’s resolution was a document of surrender and that accepting these demands would essentially amount to admitting defeat of the state as well as that of the security forces against those who have let loose a reign of terror in Pakistan and killed 40,000 plus civilians and civvies. Analysts say conceding to the demands set by the TTP (hours after the Taliban killed Major General Sanaullah Khan) would tantamount to surrendering whatever is left of the writ of the state and hence bowing out to those who are trying to enforce their own brand of Islam in Pakistan.

Maj Gen, Lt Col martyred in Dir attack Lance Naik also among the victims; Taliban claim responsibility;

The News Delawar Jan Monday, September 16, 2013 PESHAWAR: A two-star general of the Pakistan Army, commanding the security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Malakand Division, was martyred along with one other officer and a soldier in an attack in Upper Dir on Sunday, military and police officials said. Major General Sanaullah Niazi was attacked with an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Gat Koto area when he was returning from a visit to border posts, officials said. The general was travelling from the border by road that enabled the militants to attack him. Lieutenant Colonel Tauseef and Lance Naik Irfan Sattar were also martyred in the blast. Two other soldiers, Yasir and Ghaffar, suffered injuries. This was the first high-profile attack in which a general was killed in the field. A former GOC in Malakand Division, Major General Javed Iqbal, was also attacked earlier in this border region when he was inspecting the area from a helicopter. He was injured but survived the attack. The army’s public relations wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations, confirmed the deaths. “Major General Sanuallah, General Officer Commanding, Swat Division, and Lieutenant Colonel Tauseef embraced shahadat in an IED blast today (Sunday) near the Pak-Afghan border in Upper Dir,” said an ISPR press release. “Major General Sanaullah was on a visit to a forward post near the Pak-Afghan border for the last couple of days. After completing visits, he was on his way back when an IED planted by terrorists at a roadside blasted which resulted in the shahadat of Major General Sanaullah and Lieutenant Colonel Tauseef,” it added. The attack cast a shadow over the prospects of peace talks with the militants that are yet to formally begin. Questions are also being raised about the Taliban’s seriousness to hold purposeful talks. The border with Afghanistan along Upper Dir, Lower Dir and Chitral has been volatile since early 2011 due to cross-border attacks by Pakistani militants hiding in the Kunar and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan. Pakistan deployed thousands of troops along the border in September 2011 to stop cross-border attacks. The army has established over 50 posts on the border to prevent attacks by militants led by fugitive Swat Taliban chief, Maulana Fazlullah. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack and its spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told reporters in a phone call from an undisclosed location that the Swat Taliban had conducted the bomb explosion. The GOC was based in Swat, the valley whose control was wrested by the Pakistan Army from Fazlullah, and commanded troops in Buner, Shangla, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Chitral and the Malakand Agency. Police officials in the border region said the device was planted in a dirt road that winds through mountains from the border to Shaltalo, a village the Taliban soaked in the blood of 34 people, 27 of them police and Levies officials, in an attack in June 2011. “The blast has destroyed the general’s vehicle and mutilated the bodies,” an official of Shahikot police station said. According to him, the attack was carried out some 13 kilometres away from the police station. “The attack took place between Sabir checkpost and the police station,” he added. Army troops rushed to the site and clamped a curfew in the area. Early reports suggested three suspected persons were arrested during the search operation. Locals said they heard firing in the area. The GOC visited Upper Dir on September 6 to kick off a 10-day sports festival in Dir. In his address, he promised the people that terrorists would not be allowed to strip them of their desire for peace. “The army has fortified the border along Upper Dir and would not allow terrorists to destroy peace in the district,” he had told the participants of the inaugural ceremony. The news of his martyrdom shocked everyone involved with the festival and the event was cancelled to mourn his death. His Namaz-e-Janaza was offered in Shahikot, according to police.Residents in Barawal, a major town in the border region close to the site of the attack, said the situation was normal there. “There is no unusual movement of the army in Barawal,” a resident said, adding the attack had saddened the people. The attack highlighted the ability of the Fazlullah group to launch devastating attacks and the military’s constraints to go after him. The troops had succeeded in warding off cross-border attacks during the last 15 months as no major attack could be launched. The last deadly attack that had killed 17 soldiers was carried out in June 2012. Upper Dir was never known as a sanctuary for militants and an attempt by the Taliban to entrench themselves in the remote Doog Darra area of the district was foiled by local people who fought and expelled them. Fazlullah kept quiet for almost a year after he sent gunmen to kill Malala Yousafzai, a young girl from Swat who is now famed for her bravery and struggle worldwide. After the attack on Malala, pressure mounted on the Karzai government to act against Fazlullah, but it proved useless. Pakistani officials believe the reclusive Taliban commander is supported by Afghan intelligence officials and the governor of Kunar. Our correspondents, agencies add: President Mamnoon Hussain, and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan expressed profound grief and sorrow over the martyrdom of the military officers and soldier in Upper Dir. In their separate statements, they paid tribute to the Pakistan Army officers and soldier for their services for the defence of the motherland and prayed for their eternal peace.They also expressed sympathy with the bereaved families. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif separately telephoned Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and expressed grief over the Upper Dir incident.They expressed solidarity with the Pakistan Army in their telephonic conversation with the army chief.