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blah blah blah ..

dude my soldiers are fighting this menace, these despicable creatures who are a bad name to humanity. We will crush them to the end of the lands.

Now stay away if you have nothing positive to add .

Go Bust the chickens aka Taliban,.. Pak Army Zindabad

shardmanny

please change the title, or let someone else other then ehsan re-write it. the message has obviously been copied from tabloids such as the sun and star.

'we're backing our boys' type slogans are gay

ehtasab

Do you mean that after you sign an "peace" accord, you can break it and infiltrate to other cities to take-over that city, they should still be called "peace maker"?

Khehkeshan

Taliban goal is one only - spread their rule in the guise of sharia over all of pakistan.

firenze

Long Live Pakistan ....

ravage

Swat – a report from the frontline
Saturday, May 16, 2009
By Farhat Taj

Recently an AIRRA (Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy – an Islamabad-based research organisation) investigation team went to some parts of Swat that had been under army attacks. The team observed whether the attacks were targeted at the Taliban and their installations. It observed two villages -- Ladikas and Watkai in Mingora -- and Khwazakhela, a tehsil in Swat. The team with its access to the people of the area could manage to take Besham route from Islamabad to reach Mingora via Khwazakhela. Though continuous curfew and alternate threats from the military posts and the Taliban posts badly hampered the journey of the team but somehow some of the members could manage to reach Mingora via Khwazakhela and Charbagh with the exodus of the people from different parts of Swat valley. The team was able to access and interview several dozens of those families who were still stuck up in the valley.

The team observed that the security forces have successfully destroyed the installations of the Taliban and have disrupted their chain of command in that area. They have killed many Taliban there with very little collateral damage, albeit with the destruction of civilian infrastructure. The best example is the Taliban headquarter in Khwazakhela. The headquarters was located on a mountain. It housed the Taliban operational command led by commander Yamin, the intelligence department led by commander Rashid and the department of logistics and supplies. The aerial bombardment of the Pakistan army reduced all that to rubble. The entire side of the mountain housing the headquarters has been exploded and razed.

The Taliban terrorists had established the headquarters with great efforts. They had cleansed a huge portion of the forest on the mountain to make free space for the building. They recruited the youth on a large scale, strengthened their command and control structure, established their hierarchical structure, planted mines on the main roads, dug bunkers and occupied the strategic passes in only two and a half months. And they did all this after the peace deal agreed with the NWFP government in February of this year.

The team interacted with the people in the area. Most of those killed were confirmed Taliban. There had been almost no serious collateral damage. Nearby buildings collapsed due to the force of explosions. Some people got injuries when hit by the collapsing debris.

Moreover, the army has cordoned off several narrow alleys of Mingora to prevent the Taliban from escaping. The military has cordoned off Swat from the northeast (the Shangla side), the southeast (the Buner side) and the southwest (the Dir side). In Mingora city itself, the Taliban are reported to be lying dead in the streets and local people confirm that some of them are well-known Taliban leaders.

There are still stranded people in Swat. The people are facing enormous difficulties due to power failure and water reservoirs in their homes which have dried up. Food commodities have become scarce and fuel stations have more or less stopped functioning. Soldiers of the Pakistan army and the FC are sharing their limited food rations with the stranded people. This goodwill gesture has earned respect of the stranded people for the security forces.

It is suggested to the army to issue the photos or video clips of the killed Taliban to the media and of the destroyed Taliban installations. Local people and the IDPs often know the Taliban and location of their installations. They would confirm that the dead were indeed the Taliban and the installations shown as destroyed indeed belonged to the Taliban. This is important because it will ensure transparency and reassure people of the success being achieved in the war.

It is highly commendable that the security forces are conducting targeted operations that have considerably damaged the Taliban in Swat. I would once again request the army high command to destroy the Taliban networks, installations, headquarters everywhere in Pakistan, including FATA and south Punjab. Taliban leaders in each and every city or town of Pakistan have to be neutralised. There is a strong connection between the Taliban in Waziristan, Orakzai, Swat, South Punjab, Khost and Kunar in terms of supply of manpower, weapons and chain of command. This connection is the Al Qaeda-linked Jalaluddin Haqqani and his terror secretariat in North Waziristan. This connection has to be broken, which means that Haqqani's 'secretariat' must be destroyed. Other than the military front, the war against militancy also needs to be fought on the ideological battleground -- Talibanisation needs to be denied ideological space in the country's security and state apparatus and this can be done by targeting elements in state structures and institutions deemed as being sympathetic to the militants.

The army must carry the war against the Taliban to its logical end. The army owes it to the Pakhtun and by extension to Pakistan, because the Pakhtun are citizens of the country and hence deserve the same protection by the state as accorded to those in the other provinces. The Pakhtun have always taken pride in giving their best sons to the army. It is now the turn of the army to reciprocate in such a manner that truly honours the Pakhtun martyrs of the army. This means complete elimination of the Taliban so that the Pakhtun live their lives free of the jihadi fear and intimidation. If done successfully, this will bind the Pakhtun even more closely with the state and the army. In that context, the army must convert this war into an opportunity that will substantially contribute towards making Pakistan a successfully functioning multi-ethnic state.

While the army is rising itself to the occasion, the performance of the politicians is dismal. The soldiers are giving their blood to save us from the Taliban. They are sharing their limited food ration with the stranded people. The army has given a share of their salary to support the relief work for the IDPs. Where are political leaders? What is President Zardari doing abroad? He should be visiting the IDPs rather than foreign lands. What is Asfandyar Wali doing in London? Why is Afrasiab Khattak in Dubai? The IDPs constantly complain that the ministers, MPAs and MNAs only come when the media is there and leave soon afterwards, without tending to their (the IDPs) problems.

All MNAs and MPAs, especially those elected by the people of Swat, Dir and Buner, should stay with the IDPs of their respective constituencies as long as possible because these are after all the people who voted them into public office.



The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo, and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. Email: bergen34@yahoo.com

wine

Ravage, i think you should made it a separate thread for discussion, it will also receive more attention and destroy myths about very large collateral damage !

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FC capture foreign fighers (two saudi, one libiyan & afghan) in Mehmund Agency:

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Operation Rah-e-Haq Footage + National Song:

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Hum ko Awaz Day Tu

shami2k

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Rescued from the Taliban
As the army moves deeper into Swat, people have started talking about Taliban's atrocities, including forced marriages with young girls. At least three soldiers were injured as an army unit tried to rescue one such family from the Taliban.

Watch the saved family video here:
Dawn Interactive - Video

firenze

That's the way a real shaheed buried, on the other hand Taliban bodies are eaten by dogs in Swat

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ehsan

I was standing in front of my trench, when I was shot…’


Wounded soldiers are willing to lay down their lives for the fight to ‘eliminate’ militants. —AFP/File photo

RAWALPINDI: ‘They used to attack early in the morning or after dark. They would always go for an ambush,’ said Lieutenant Zaigham, wounded in battle with the Taliban and lying in a hospital.
Zaigham – who did not give his full name – sustained shrapnel wounds from fierce street fighting in the Swat valley and is a patient at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, away from the combat in the northwest.
Lying in bed with bandaged wounds, he and fellow soldiers spoke of intense battles against heavily-armed insurgents, who put up stiff resistance and are often able to outflank Pakistan’s well-equipped and motivated soldiers.
Pakistan has declared the combat area a closed military zone, sealed off to journalists and aid workers. It is impossible to corroborate information coming from behind the frontlines from either soldiers or trapped civilians.
From May 4 to May 17, when Zaigham was wounded, his unit advanced slowly from Khwazakhela in northern Swat to the nearby town of Matta, which has long been under Taliban control.
‘There were strong resistance during the entire journey but we managed to clear the area. They buried mines and planted IEDs (improvised explosive devices) every 50 metres,’ he said.
‘There were checkpoints, bases and training centres in the mountains. We were clearing and destroying all this.’
‘They positioned snipers in holes made out of the walls of houses. They used civilians as human shields. They used to attack from houses and roofs.’
‘They are well equipped, they have mortars. They have rockets, sniper rifles and every type of sophisticated weapons,’ said Zaigham.
‘I am certain that foreign elements are behind these militants. Can I ask something very simple – who are their sponsors? What their sources of funding? Who runs their logistics?’ he said.
Residents trapped by the fighting in Swat have also said the Taliban dug trenches and were well armed. US-based Human Rights Watch has accused the Taliban of using ‘human shields’ by preventing civilians from leaving.
Zaigham was wounded when a rocket shell exploded in Matta and shards of shrapnel sliced into his shoulder and leg. He needs constant care.
‘Some of my colleagues embraced shahadat (martyrdom) in this fight and some were wounded, but we forced the militants to retreat,’ he said.
Pakistan says more than 1,050 militants and 58 soldiers have been killed, but Taliban spokesmen speaking to local media heavily contradict those claims.
Neither have authorities released any word on civilian casualties.
Wounded soldiers who spoke to AFP said they were willing to lay down their lives for what commanders have declared a fight to ‘eliminate’ militants.
Soldier Haseeb Ahsan, 26, was among those flown into Peochar, in northern Swat last week in a bid to open a new front and wrest back control of a Taliban bastion and alleged stronghold of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.
The airborne troops admitted they came under heavy fire.
‘We landed in the jungle. Militants ambushed our group. I received two bullets in my right thigh, but I kept on firing’ he said.
‘My wish was to die in the way of Allah and for my country. I will definitely go back and hit them hard,’ he said.
One of the younger soldiers, Mohammad Asif, 18, was he was wounded last week in Swat’s main town of Mingora, where the Taliban are still in full control.
‘It was midnight. I was standing in front of my trench, when I was shot. They always attack secretly. I wanted to tell them ‘don’t attack like jackals, attack like men’,’ he said.
‘When I was hit, I returned fire and they ran away. I want to go back, I wish I could become a martyr for my country’ he said.


DAWN.COM | Pakistan | ?I was standing in front of my trench, when I was shot??

sameenji

^Sir i really respect you,because you seem a real,nice person here on GS.My respects

I see vice president written under your name...Whats goin' on here,mods should delete all the unwanted multis, n offensive/vulgar threads here.
Its destroyin' the good ,sweet image of GS.

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PAF targeted hideouts of Militants in Swat

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