Quote:RAWALPINDI: At least 32 people were killed Friday when suicide bombers stormed a packed mosque in Rawalpindi, firing on worshippers and detonating explosives, officials said.

Quote:An uncle of mine, major of Pakistan army has attained shahadat in today's attack in Pindi.



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but at least 4 very high ranking officials of Pakistan Army have also attained shahadat in today's attack

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And Army has now confirmed the shadat of 1 Major General, 2 Brigadiers and children of several high ranking military officials.



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Corps Commander Peshawar's son is included amongst the list of shuhuda'.



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Former VCOAS Gen. M. Yousef amongst the injured. His son is a regular contributor on this forum.



My cousin said he was 500 meters from the Masjid when the blast happened he is fine but his course mate, a Maj-Gen, died.

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[COLOR="Red"]One of our dear family friends and a hero of the Afghan Jihad, Major ® Shoaib embraced shahadat in todays attack[/COLOR]. He was a ghazi in his life and died a shaheed.



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Quote:The first is to conduct raids to capture Taliban leaders in Baluchistan. Most Taliban are in or near Baluchi cities like Quetta. These should be police and intelligence operations, much like American-Pakistani efforts to capture Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other Qaeda operatives after 9/11. The second is to hit Taliban leaders with drone strikes, as the United States and Pakistan have done so effectively in the tribal areas.



The cost of failing to act in Baluchistan will be enormous. As one Russian diplomat who served in the Soviet Army in Afghanistan recently told me: “You are running out of time. You must balance counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan by targeting the leadership nodes in Pakistan. Don’t make the same mistake we did.”

Quote:The attacks caused structural damage to the building and left it stained with blood and body parts.



Security forces killed the two remaining assailants, who had opened fire indiscriminately, the military said.



Ameer Sheikh, a retired army officer who worships daily at the mosque and got to the scene immediately, said that the attackers carried out executions.



"They got hold of their hair and shot them," he said. "I saw people who used to be in the front row with me, lying there dead.



"I met a lot of army officers who had rushed there, desperately looking for their sons."



Mr Sheikh's son, Nasir Ali Sheikh, who was in the mosque at the time of the attack, managed to slip out and hide in some bushes. He said that the terrorists had also struck the women's section of the mosque.



"It was very terrible inside," said Nasir Ali Sheikh. "There were two people wearing belts with grenades and bullets... for fifteen to twenty minutes, we were helpless and hopeless."



The main Pakistani extremist group, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is closely tied to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack

Quote: Updated at: 2150 PST, Saturday, December 05, 2009

RAWALPINDI: The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani attended funerals of some of Shaheeds of yesterday’s tragic terrorist attack on a Mosque during Juma Prayers, in which officers, soldiers, elders, children and civilians lost their precious lives.



He expressed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. The Nation, including the Army stands united in sharing their grief. Having met and talked to these families, he praised their exemplary strength of faith at this moment of trial. This intrinsic strength is a true reflection of the indomitable will and resilience of the Pakistani Nation.



The COAS thanked the Nation for their wholehearted support and sympathy at this hour of grief. This spontaneous and overwhelming show of solidarity by the Nation with the Army is a treasure, which we deeply value and cherish.



The COAS stated that [COLOR="Red"]Pakistan is our motherland. It is the bastion of Islam. We live and die for the glory of Islam and Pakistan.[/COLOR] Our faith, resolve and pride in our religion and in our country is an asset, which is further reinforced after each terrorist incident. Pakistan Army stand’s committed to defend, protect and preserve Pakistan at all cost.



The COAS concluded by reaffirming his conviction in the will of the Pakistani Nation to fight all odds. He stated that Pakistan Army, with the help of people of Pakistan will Inshallah protect and preserve our core values and interests in a dignified and chivalrous manner.

Quote:WASHINGTON: The Obama administration may be putting out a fire in Afghanistan, but the dynamite factory is next door in nuclear-armed Pakistan, commented Democratic lawmaker Gary Ackerman this week.



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'My constituents keep asking? Is it worth risking the lives of those who respond to the fire in a place that may or may not hold a lot of value in and of itself,' Ackerman, a US congressman from New York, told Obama's defense and diplomatic chiefs.

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'It is a very delicate balancing act,' said Riedel, now with the Brookings Institution think tank. 'You don't change Pakistan's strategic behavior very easily. It is not something that will change in the course of months or years,' he added.





The Pakistanis are rattled by what the United States is doing in Afghanistan, with contradictory positions of not wanting a 'surge' of 30,000 more US forces across the border while also fearing Washington will withdraw too quickly and destabilize the region further. 'So they don't want us to surge or leave, but they also don't want to do more to make America and Nato policy in Afghanistan more likely of any sort of success,' said Robert M. Hathaway, director of the Asia program at the Wilson Center, another Washington-based think tank.



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For example a proposed $7.5 billion non-military US aid package has been met with bountiful suspicion, particularly from the army, which says it comes with too many conditions. 'They don't seem to want a strategic relationship. They want the money, they want the equipment, but at the end of the day they don't want a relationship that costs them too much,' said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

Quote:Washington With rumours swirling about his status and ultimate fate, Asif Ali Zardari could well do a Vladimir Putin and step down as Pakistan's President to become the prime minister, a media report said.

Quoting a Pakistani source, the US-based 'Foreign Policy' magazine reported Zardari could "pull a Putin" whereby he cedes power to the prime minister and then, as head of his party, makes a ploy to have himself elected to that post.



However, it's unclear how successful such a ploy might be, the magazine said.

Quote:LAHORE, Pakistan – Two bombs ripped through a crowded market in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 35, authorities said.

TV footage showed cars and shops on fire in the Moon Market area of the city after the blasts.

Islamist militants have carried out scores of bloody bombings in Pakistan in recent weeks as the army presses an offensive against a Taliban stronghold in the northwest close to the Afghan border.

Quote:No new strategy will work. The enemy quickly gets re-adjusted to any new plan. This is all our own fault. The Lal Masjid cleric is giving loud calls for jihad.......Mulana Taqi Usmani and Mulana Rafi Usmani has not participated in the Ulma mini conference today...leaving a big question mark.



JI and JUI enjoying the situation because the [color="#FF0000"]Kilafat Idiology[/color] is becoming a possibility. The menace is growing. May Allah please forgive us.