 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Nato build-up gives tribesmen the jitters |
|
|
|
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
ISPR says movement not unusual
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: After deployment along the Pak-Afghan border across the Kurram Agency, hundreds of Nato troops also took positions across the North Waziristan Agency (NWA) on Tuesday, creating panic among the already terrified tribesmen.
Official and tribal sources told this correspondent from NWA that the Nato troops started arriving near the border areas on Monday night. “Some of them had been brought in choppers and others by armoured personnel carriers. The troops had also shifted heavy arms and ammunition including tanks, heavy machineguns and artillery to the border,” said Haji Yaqub, a resident of border town Ghulam Khan.
The troops had been deployed near the border towns of Ghulam Khan, Saidgai, Shawal and Mir Safar. “They started setting up bunkers very close to the border while gunship helicopters are continuously hovering over the border,” said one Roohullah, a resident of the border town of Saidgai.
He said they had never before seen movement of foreign troops in such large numbers near the border. “For us, it’s just unusual as they are on the zero point,” said Roohullah, adding that so far the troops had not crossed the border.
The sources said the Nato troops dug trenches at Mughalgai near Zhawar camp, a famous training camp of Afghan Mujahideen commander, Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, in Khost near Pakistan’s Saidgai town.
Another bunker was set up at Gurbaz near Tarkhobi area of Khost, close to Pakistan’s Ghulam Khan town. Similarly, the sources said, another trench was set up close to Mir Safar and Shawal towns of NWA.
According to sources, the Nato forces had planned setting up four new military camps along the border in the Taliban-dominated provinces of Afghanistan - Khost and Paktika. “They planned establishing four new military camps along the border and this latest deployment of the foreign troops was first step of their future planning,” said the sources.
Senior government officials said the Nato forces were also misinformed about al-Qaeda training camps at Deegan, Mirali and Miramshah in North Waziristan. The sources said the Nato troops were also informed about the presence of senior Afghan Taliban commanders at the residence of Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani at Danday Darpakhel, to condole with him the death of his son, Mohammad Omar Haqqani.
The 18-year-old son of veteran Taliban leader Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani was killed in a firefight with the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan’s Paktia province on Thursday. It merits a mention here that Nato had already deployed a large number of troops close to the border between Afghanistan’s Khost province and Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region.
On the other hand, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s statement provided an opportunity to the US to deploy its troops near the tribal areas. “When a responsible person like the prime minister has himself said that foreign militants were hiding in Pakistani tribal areas and could cause another 9/11 like disaster then who will stop American forces from invading the country,” Omar asked.
He said the Taliban would welcome the Nato forces if they entered into the tribal areas. (According to Reuters, the Taliban spokesman in Bajaur welcomed the build-up on the border as a chance to kill more Americans. “It’s a gift that they’re coming here on our land and making it easy for us to kill our enemies, the enemies of Muslims,” Maulvi Omar said.
Meanwhile, the US-led Nato forces Tuesday night fired 30 mortar rounds from Afghanistan’s Paktika province on Pakistan’s Angoor Adda. A senior government official based in Wana, regional headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, confirmed the latest shelling on Pakistani territory, but said he had no further details about any loss. He said fearing airstrikers and shelling by the Nato forces on their villages, the residents started leaving their homes for safe and distant towns.
Agencies add: The Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said it was probably a routine movement and the media had created “unnecessary hype”. Abbas told a private TV channel that there was no build up of Nato forces close to the Pak-Afghan border.
It was within their side and this was a routine movement for exercise or some operation there, he added. “We closely monitor all such moves so there is none of such thing very close to the border. Certainly we have coordination and communication with each other,” he added.
Abbas said such things were well coordinated and informed before so that no misunderstanding could take place. A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said there was no question of troops entering Pakistan. “Our mandate stops at the border,” spokesman Captain Mike Finney said. There was some “extra activity” on the border with troops searching for surviving insurgents after Sunday’s attack that killed nine US troops, he said.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
‘Al-Qaeda, Taliban leaders not in Pakistan’
ISLAMABAD: Strongly reacting to some of the reports of the presence of al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership in Pakistan by the US newspapers and some intelligence agencies, President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday said more |
|
|
Mulla Omar in Karachi, claims WT
WASHINGTON: Mulla Muhammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has fled Quetta and found refuge from the potential US attacks in Karachi with the assistance of Pakistan’s intelligence, the Washington Times more |
|
|
Will PM intervene or will robber barons kill CCP?
By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has warned that it will cease to exist and its actions will become invalid in case the government fails to re-promulgate the Competition Ordinance on or b more |
|
|
Eight militants die in US drone attack
By our correspondent
MIRAMSHAH: Eight militants were killed and two others injured when a US drone hit a house in the Michikhel area in North Waziristan on Friday, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.
Tribal sources sai more |
|
|
19 militants killed in SWA, Khyber, Bajaur clashes
By our correspondents
WANA/BARA/KHAR: Nineteen militants were killed in clashes with security forces in South Waziristan, Khyber and Bajaur tribal regions on Friday.
Tribal and officials sources said five militants were kille more |
|
|
|
Pakistan has nothing to fear from India: Singh
WASHINGTON: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India is ready to resolve all outstanding issues with the country on the condition that it will not allow its territory to be used against its neighbour more |
|
|
|
Qureshi wants result-oriented dialogue with India
MULTAN: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmud Qureshi said on Friday Pakistan wanted meaningful and result-oriented bilateral negotiations with India.
Addressing a press conference at the airport here, h more |
|
|
|
Only 15 pc believe Pakistan is going right
By Gibran Peshimam
KARACHI: Pakistan’s youths are losing confidence in the future and a mere 15 per cent believe that the country is heading in the right direction, while 72 per cent feel economically worse off than a year ago. O more |
|
|
|
Mustafa Jatoi passes away
ISLAMABAD: Former caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi breathed his last at the St Marry Hospital in London on Friday after a protracted illness. He was 78.
He leaves behind six sons and three d more |
|
|
|
Slaughter of animals, NRO beneficiaries begins on Eid
By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will soon announce its strategy to deal with the cases which are going to reopen on Nov 28, a NAB spokesman told The News on Friday.
“The NAB chairman more |
|
|
|
WFP, Rescue 15 attacks’ mastermind arrested
By Shakeel Anjum
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Police on Friday arrested the mastermind behind the attacks on the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Rescue 15 offices in Islamabad.
The terrorist, identified as Jamshed Ahmad more |
|
|
|
Mushahid asks Karzai not to allow use of Afghan land against Pakistan
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League-Q Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Friday asked President Hamid Karzai not to allow the use of Afghan land against Pakistan under Indian designs.
“Pakistan wa more |
|
|
|
No Indo-Pak FMs meeting: Nirupama
NEW DELHI: India on Friday said no meeting had been scheduled between foreign ministers of Pakistan and India in Port of Spain later this month on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( more |
|
|
|
US to tighten control of Afghan contracts: Gates
HALIFAX: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that the United States must tighten control of Afghan development contracts as a first step towards stemming rampant corruption.
“The reality is more |
|
|
|
China has stake in Kashmir: Mirwaiz
News Desk
HELD SRINAGAR: As he plans to visit China, Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday kicked up a controversy by saying that Beijing has a “direct link” with the Kashmir issue, drawing strong obje more |
|
|
|
Clinton favours Indo-Pak dialogue on Kashmir
WASHINGTON: The United States is encouraging Pakistan and India to resume their dialogue to address Kashmir and other outstanding disputes but any solution must come from the two countries, Secretary of State H more |
|
|
|
Competition Commission forces PIA to fly fair
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Silent prayers of many Hajis have apparently been answered as the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has ordered PIA to refund within 60 days the excessive fares charged from the passengers, wh more |
|
|
|
Attack on policemen in Peshawar
By Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: The death toll in the bomb attack on police party in Yakatoot rose to three after a sub-inspector and another cop succumbed to injuries at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) on Friday as the city mourned more |
|
|
|
‘Musharraf funnelling money to improve image’
ISLAMABAD: Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has reportedly funnelled a large amount of money to his former aides in the country in order to improve his image, as he is planning a return to the c more |
|
|
|
Sen Lugar’s wife arrested, charged with drinking, hit-and-run
News Desk
WASHINGTON: The wife of Republican Senator Richard G Lugar was arrested in the suburb of McLean on Wednesday night after crashing into a parked car, and she was charged with drunk driving and hit-and-run, the F more |
|
|
|
briefs...
Bombers kill 23 in Afghanistan
HERAT: Bomb attacks on Friday killed 23 people in Afghanistan, a deadly start to President Hamid Karzai’s second term that underscored spiralling insecurity nine years into more |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
