01-15-2008, 01:06 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Blowing up Pakistan</b>
Pioneer.com
B Raman
Of the numerous suicide bombings that took place last year all over that country, it is difficult to figure out how many were planned by terrorist organisations and how many manifested fits of insane rage by individual fanatics as Islamabad has failed to crack most of the cases
There were 56 suicide bombings in Pakistan in 2007, resulting in the death of 419 security personnel -- a majority of them from the police and paramilitary forces -- and 217 civilians. The most prominent victim was former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. As against this, there were only six such incidents in 2006 in which 46 members of the security forces and 91 civilians were killed.
Of the incidents in 2007, there were only four during the first six months of the year. The remaining 52 took place after Islamabad ordered commando action in Lal Masjid between July 10 and 13, 2007, in which about 300 tribal girls studying in a madarsa affiliated to the mosque were reportedly killed.
<b>Three events in the second half of 2007 led to a wave of suicide bombings -- the commando action in the Lal Masjid and the alleged death of a large number of tribal girls; the suicide of Abdullah Mehsud, a former inmate of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, when he was surrounded by the security forces in Baluchistan on July 27, 2007, and the Army operation in the Swat Valley of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) in December, 2007, against the members of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) headed by Maulana 'FM Radio' Fazlullah, who had taken control of it, when the NWFP was ruled by a six-party coalition of religious fundamentalist parties called the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).</b>
The coalition quit office in protest against Mr Pervez Musharraf's action of seeking his re-election as the President from the outgoing Assemblies elected in 2002. Thereafter, the Army sprang into action.
<b>The largest number of suicide attacks in a month happened in July. There were 15 suicide strikes between July 14 and 31, 2007 -- an average of one a day. The second largest number in a month was in December, 2007. There were 10, including the one in which Bhutto was assassinated</b>.
There were eight in August, seven in September and six each in October and November, 2007. One of the six in October was the unsuccessful attempt to kill Bhutto in Karachi on October 18. Of the 52 suicide attacks in the second half of 2007, five were against political leaders -- two against Bhutto in Karachi and Rawalpindi, one against some workers of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in Islamabad and one each against Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, a Pashtun leader of the PPP who had deserted her in 2002 and supported Mr Musharraf, and a junior Minister of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Q). Mr Sherpao was the Interior Minister at the time of the Lal Masjid raid. He and the junior Minister escaped unhurt. The PPP workers in Islamabad were targeted because Bhutto had supported the commando action in Lal Masjid.
There was one terrorist attack on some Chinese people working in Pakistan. In Hub, Baluchistan, Chinese engineers travelling by a bus escaped death narrowly when a suicide bomber attacked the coach. There was no attack on American targets despite a strong anti-US feeling prevailing in Pakistan.
The remaining 46 attacks were against targets associated with the Army, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Special Services Group (SSG) and the Air Force. The police were not the primary targets, but a large number of them died because they were deployed in large numbers to protect the targets. Whenever the police guards suspected anyone and called him for frisking, the suspect blew himself up.
Of the 56 attacks during 2007, 23 were in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 21 in the NWFP, including four in the Swat Valley, nine in Punjab, two in Baluchistan and one in Sindh. Of the 23 in the FATA, only two were in North Waziristan and one in the Bajaur Agency, where, according to the US, the terrorist infrastructure of Al Qaeda is located.
The remaining 20 were in South Waziristan, where there are no confirmed reports of any Al Qaeda infrastructure. All the attacks in that region came from areas which are controlled by the Mehsuds. In the areas controlled by other tribes, there were no incidents of suicide bombings. Two cantonments saw repeated suicide strikes -- Rawalpindi (5), where the General Headquarters of the Army are located, and Kohat (3) in the NWFP where a training centre for middle-level army officers is located.
During the second half of 2007, there were two calls for suicide attacks in reprisal of the raid on Lal Masjid by Pakistan Army commandoes. The first was issued by Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi of the Lal Masjid before he and his student supporters were killed by the commandoes. The second was allegedly by Osama bin Laden in his message coinciding with the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 strikes in the US. <b>The call given by Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi before his death at the hands of the Army had a greater impact on the tribal population in South Waziristan and the Swat Valley than the call by bin Laden. The death of Ghazi was followed by one act of suicide bombing almost every day for 15 days</b>.
Since the police and investigating agencies have not been able to crack most of these cases, one does not know for sure how many of these were the outcome of outpouring anger of individuals not belonging to any organisation and how many were orchestrated and coordinated by organisations such as Al Qaeda or the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan of which Baitullah Mehsud is the Amir.
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Pioneer.com
B Raman
Of the numerous suicide bombings that took place last year all over that country, it is difficult to figure out how many were planned by terrorist organisations and how many manifested fits of insane rage by individual fanatics as Islamabad has failed to crack most of the cases
There were 56 suicide bombings in Pakistan in 2007, resulting in the death of 419 security personnel -- a majority of them from the police and paramilitary forces -- and 217 civilians. The most prominent victim was former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. As against this, there were only six such incidents in 2006 in which 46 members of the security forces and 91 civilians were killed.
Of the incidents in 2007, there were only four during the first six months of the year. The remaining 52 took place after Islamabad ordered commando action in Lal Masjid between July 10 and 13, 2007, in which about 300 tribal girls studying in a madarsa affiliated to the mosque were reportedly killed.
<b>Three events in the second half of 2007 led to a wave of suicide bombings -- the commando action in the Lal Masjid and the alleged death of a large number of tribal girls; the suicide of Abdullah Mehsud, a former inmate of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, when he was surrounded by the security forces in Baluchistan on July 27, 2007, and the Army operation in the Swat Valley of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) in December, 2007, against the members of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) headed by Maulana 'FM Radio' Fazlullah, who had taken control of it, when the NWFP was ruled by a six-party coalition of religious fundamentalist parties called the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).</b>
The coalition quit office in protest against Mr Pervez Musharraf's action of seeking his re-election as the President from the outgoing Assemblies elected in 2002. Thereafter, the Army sprang into action.
<b>The largest number of suicide attacks in a month happened in July. There were 15 suicide strikes between July 14 and 31, 2007 -- an average of one a day. The second largest number in a month was in December, 2007. There were 10, including the one in which Bhutto was assassinated</b>.
There were eight in August, seven in September and six each in October and November, 2007. One of the six in October was the unsuccessful attempt to kill Bhutto in Karachi on October 18. Of the 52 suicide attacks in the second half of 2007, five were against political leaders -- two against Bhutto in Karachi and Rawalpindi, one against some workers of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in Islamabad and one each against Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, a Pashtun leader of the PPP who had deserted her in 2002 and supported Mr Musharraf, and a junior Minister of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Q). Mr Sherpao was the Interior Minister at the time of the Lal Masjid raid. He and the junior Minister escaped unhurt. The PPP workers in Islamabad were targeted because Bhutto had supported the commando action in Lal Masjid.
There was one terrorist attack on some Chinese people working in Pakistan. In Hub, Baluchistan, Chinese engineers travelling by a bus escaped death narrowly when a suicide bomber attacked the coach. There was no attack on American targets despite a strong anti-US feeling prevailing in Pakistan.
The remaining 46 attacks were against targets associated with the Army, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Special Services Group (SSG) and the Air Force. The police were not the primary targets, but a large number of them died because they were deployed in large numbers to protect the targets. Whenever the police guards suspected anyone and called him for frisking, the suspect blew himself up.
Of the 56 attacks during 2007, 23 were in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 21 in the NWFP, including four in the Swat Valley, nine in Punjab, two in Baluchistan and one in Sindh. Of the 23 in the FATA, only two were in North Waziristan and one in the Bajaur Agency, where, according to the US, the terrorist infrastructure of Al Qaeda is located.
The remaining 20 were in South Waziristan, where there are no confirmed reports of any Al Qaeda infrastructure. All the attacks in that region came from areas which are controlled by the Mehsuds. In the areas controlled by other tribes, there were no incidents of suicide bombings. Two cantonments saw repeated suicide strikes -- Rawalpindi (5), where the General Headquarters of the Army are located, and Kohat (3) in the NWFP where a training centre for middle-level army officers is located.
During the second half of 2007, there were two calls for suicide attacks in reprisal of the raid on Lal Masjid by Pakistan Army commandoes. The first was issued by Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi of the Lal Masjid before he and his student supporters were killed by the commandoes. The second was allegedly by Osama bin Laden in his message coinciding with the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 strikes in the US. <b>The call given by Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi before his death at the hands of the Army had a greater impact on the tribal population in South Waziristan and the Swat Valley than the call by bin Laden. The death of Ghazi was followed by one act of suicide bombing almost every day for 15 days</b>.
Since the police and investigating agencies have not been able to crack most of these cases, one does not know for sure how many of these were the outcome of outpouring anger of individuals not belonging to any organisation and how many were orchestrated and coordinated by organisations such as Al Qaeda or the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan of which Baitullah Mehsud is the Amir.
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