Some Frontier Corps jawans desert force

Some Frontier Corps jawans desert force

By Iqbal KhattakPESHAWAR: Some jawans of the Frontier Corps (FC) are reportedly deserting the force due to regular and violent attacks by the militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, sources told Daily Times on Friday. Military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad, however, called the desertion of a “few jawans insignificant incidents”.An FC soldier who met Daily Times earlier this week said he had deserted from the force days before his deployment to North Waziristan because he did not “want to fight his own people”. The soldier, asking not to be named, said that he did not desert the force because he feared death, but it was difficult for him to understand whether the fighting in Waziristan was “Islamic or not”. Asked why he thought so now after remaining in the force for 14 years, the soldier said: “This question is haunting several other soldiers and this confusion is stopping them from putting up a tough fight.” “We ask ourselves that if we die fighting in Waziristan will we be martyrs? No one is here to give an answer,” said the deserter who is now looking for a job to feed his family. Maj Gen Arshad said that small-scale desertions could take place in any force and in any country for one reason or another. He added that thousands of people had enrolled for recruitment in the FC recently. The deserter hails from a poor eastern suburb of Peshawar where around six FC jawans reportedly deserted the force – the first line of defence against the Taliban and Al Qaeda elements in North and South Waziristan. Another deserter said that insufficient salary was also one of the reasons the soldiers had deserted the force. “I was being paid Rs 4,500 only,” he said. There are also reports of desertion among army soldiers in Waziristan, but these desertions don’t reflect the overall situation prevailing among the security forces. By 2006, more than 700 soldiers, including officers, were reported killed in clashes in the ongoing war on terror. A military officer said the army suffered higher casualties because “the soldiers do not follow the standard operation procedures”.

Pak top brass talks with US to avert attacks

Pak top brass talks with US to avert attacks
Shaiq HussainISLAMABAD - In the backdrop of fierce clashes between the army, paramilitary forces and militants in North Waziristan, Pakistan’s top security brass is engaged in intense negotiations with senior officials in Washington to avert possible US attacks on the restive tribal belt.Strong indications from the US capital suggest growing restlessness among the security cadres over the surge in violence in Pakistan’s tribal belt and the alleged regrouping of Al-Qaeda and Taliban there.The diplomatic circles here believe that the Bush administration was under increased pressure to mount assaults against the Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Waziristan from Afghanistan. They said that in such a worrisome scenario, Pakistan was all out in its contacts with the top officials in Bush administration to avert possible military action from the US led allied forces on its soil fearing it would lead to catastrophic repercussions.Sensing the urgency and seriousness of situation, Pakistani security forces on Sunday targeted the militants and killed six Taliban fighters in North Waziristan where the overnight battles left 13 miscreants dead. After the scrapping of North Waziristan peace deal few days back by the militants that Pakistan had reached at with the tribesmen last year, the military and paramilitary forces have been trying their best to control the spiraling violence. A diplomatic source said that Islamabad had been trying to impress upon the Bush administration that any attack on Waziristan or any other tribal area from outside would only add to the militancy in Pakistan.“Pakistani officials have been urging restrain during their interaction with the US. Authorities while telling them that Islamabad’s policy of talks for the revival of North Waziristan peace deal along with the use of force when and where it is required must be given a chance as it would bear fruits,” he said.

Pakistan's soldiers 'huddling in their bases' in tribal regions

Pakistan's soldiers 'huddling in their bases' in tribal regions

· Army paralysed by Taliban threat, says ex-CIA agent· Retired officers accused of helping militants Declan Walsh in IslamabadSaturday June 16, 2007The Guardian
The Pakistani army is paralysed by the growing Taliban threat and some retired officers are covertly aiding the militants, according to a former CIA officer.
Soldiers posted to Waziristan, a tribal area that hosts an estimated 2,000 al-Qaida fighters, are "huddling in their bases, doing nothing", said Art Keller, a CIA case officer who was posted to Pakistan last year.
"Their approach was to pretend that nothing was wrong because any other approach would reveal that they were unwilling and unable to do anything about Talibanisation," said Mr Keller, who has visited Waziristan.


Article continues
href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/Params.richmedia=yes&spacedesc=mpu&site=Guardian&navsection=1698&section=103681&country=usa&rand=3857167">
src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/Params.richmedia=yes&spacedesc=mpu&site=Guardian&navsection=1698&section=103681&country=usa&rand=3857167"
width="300" height="250" border="0" alt="Advertisement">
The Pakistani military insists it is doing its best. President Pervez Musharraf has repeatedly referred to the 80,000 soldiers posted to the tribal areas, about 700 of whom have been killed in action.
But Mr Keller said that behind the scenes the fight was riven by divisions among the officers. "There are the moderates who fear Talibanisation, the professional jihadis who want to embrace the Taliban again, and the middle group who aren't too fond of the Taliban but resent doing anything under pressure from the US out of sheer bloody-minded stubbornness," he said. "Because of [that], the Pakistani military remains paralysed."
Mr Keller alleged that retired army officers, including the former spy chief Hamid Gul, were secretly supporting the Taliban. "To the degree that they aren't arrested or forced to cease and desist, they are tacitly tolerated," he said. Gen Gul, who has faced similar accusations before, said last night: "I morally support the movement to end the American occupation of Afghanistan. But there is no physical dimension to it, no hidden agenda."
Mr Keller's comments come at a sensitive time in US-Pakistani relations. Since 2001 Washington has given Pakistan $10bn (£5bn) in exchange for counter-terrorism cooperation. But although hundreds of al-Qaida figures have been arrested, Osama bin Laden remains at liberty and Taliban attacks on Afghanistan have soared.
On Thursday the US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher visited Quetta, the capital of the western province of Baluchistan where Nato officials say the Taliban has a headquarters. The chief minister of Baluchistan, Jam Muhammad Yousaf, told him that "Mullah Omar or Osama bin Laden are not [here]", according to a government statement.
Uzbek, Arab, Chechen and Somali militants are sheltering in Waziristan, to the north of Baluchistan. The majority Uzbeks are concentrated around Mir Ali in north Waziristan, where they have allied with local fighters - self styled "Pakistani Taliban" - to coordinate attacks inside Afghanistan.
Gen Musharraf's efforts to stem the violence through a controversial peace deal with the militants have failed, and in recent months "Talibanisation" has spread north out of the tribal belt and into North-West Frontier Province, with attacks on music shops, barbers and government officials.
But Mr Keller said American efforts to catch the ringleaders were being thwarted by Pakistani rules restricting CIA agents to heavily guarded military camps. "Limited freedom of movement and limited freedom to directly engage locals were, and remain, the biggest obstacles to success," he said. Critics say the CIA has also inflamed the situation through secretive attacks by Predator aeroplanes on al-Qaida targets that have killed dozens of civilians.
Last year the CIA revived efforts to hunt bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahiri. Mr Keller doubted they were in Waziristan. "I don't think the two top guys are there but some roads leading to them run through there," he said.
Excessive pressure from Washington was also hampering the chase, he added. Spies needed peace and quiet to "spin webs and wait for the flies to come", he said. "Such a manhunt is chess, not checkers."