Pakistan Counter Militancy: The Baitullah Effect
Sep 10, 2009
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The killing of Baitullah Mehsud dreaded chief of Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan is now confirmed and would have a temporary impact on counter terrorism campaign in Af-Pak, though its overall implications in the South Asian region as a whole particularly on terrorism directed against India from Pakistan would remain low. |
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Gilgit - Baltistan Proposal – Kashmir Up in Arms
Sep 10, 2009
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Pakistan’s decision to grant self-governance for Northern Areas a part of the Jammu and Kashmir state and rename it as Gilgit-Baltistan invited mixed reaction. The president of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Mian Qayoom, opposing the move said, “Unless Kashmir dispute is resolved according to the resolutions of the United Nations, neither Pakistan not India can change its status by self-governance or autonomy package for the disputed areas.” |
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Al Qaeda, Taleban and the Military in Pakistan
Ambassador K Gajendra Singh
Apr 29, 2009
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It is not easy to make clear sense of currents , cross currents and events spiraling around Pakistan and Afghanistan with so many forces acting from inside and outside Here is an in depth attempt with comparisons with similar situations in the history of Islam. |
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The Af-Pak Quagmire
Feb 17, 2009
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Professor Raja Mohan’s attempts to place the Holbrooke visit to India today in perspective is an apt view point possibly from the desirable US position on the Afghanistan Pakistan “cauldron”. (The Af-Pak Mandate IE 16 February 2009). However given the complexity of the situation what is desirable may not be doable, particularly so as the conditions are not just hyphenated between two states, but have been traditionally a part of the Great Game between the Russian and British Empires with other players as Iran, China and Turkey waiting in the wings. |
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Taliban and Terrorism : Pakistan’s Twin Confessions
Feb 14, 2009
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In a surprisingly candid statement for the first time by a prominent Pakistani leader, President Asif Zardari acknowledged the presence of large number of Taliban in the country. This confession came just a few days after the Interior Advisor, Mr Rehman Malik accepted that the attack in Mumbai 26/11 was planned and launched from Pakistan |
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Confessions of Mumbai Terrorist
Dec 10, 2008
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The following is a statement attributed by Mumbai police sources to Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman alias Abu Mujahid, the lone gunman captured alive during the Mumbai attacks. The statement was recorded while the attacks were on and it is possible that the suspect has changed his version during subsequent rounds of interrogation. The statement, including spelling, is being reproduced verbatim. The subheadings are not from the statement but included by The Telegraph. |
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The Booming Guns of FATA
Dec 8, 2008
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Pakistan has deployed 180,000 troops along its border with Afghanistan, as per briefing by the new ISI chief, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, to a joint session of parliament. However the level of success remains uncertain. While the terrorists have suffered heavy casualties if media reports are to be believed, continued intensity of violence denotes that control of the security forces remains nebulous. There are multiple levels of violence, suicide attacks, kidnappings, ambushes and counter militancy operations. |
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Saving Pakistan From Al Qaeda
Dec 8, 2008
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In times of stressful relations between nations, conspiracy theories abound. With manipulative terrorist organizations as the Al Qaeda having mastered the art of disinformation, the potential to widen the cleavage between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai terror strikes is excellent. Enter the Qaeda’s information manipulators and we have two nuclear powers on the brink of a war, which they had avoided in 2002. |
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Indo Pakistan Escalation - De - Escalation Monitor
Dec 4, 2008
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Indo Pakistan strategic signaling is on at present and it would be very difficult to assess as to how the ladder of escalation or de-escalation will go. However so far some indications which have emerged as follows:- |
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Zardari – Enamouring India’s Chattering Class
Nov 23, 2008
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Conversing at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, President Asif Ali Zardari succeeded in doing what many Pakistani leaders have done before him, enamouring the chatterati in New Delhi with his glib responses and hollow promises playing to a gallery of the Indian hoi polloi. |
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ZARDARI AND PAKISTAN: BETWEEN ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
Oct 24, 2008
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Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari is at a point of time in history of the troubled nation when survival of the country is at stake. Zardari has chosen to put his personal and family credibility at risk to face the challenge, some thing which his slain wife Benazir Zardari Bhutto as well as father in law, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto did before him. Following in the Bhutto tradition, which is a unique blend of personal sacrifice and public compromise, Mr Zardari plans to pull Pakistan's chestnuts out of the fire of an imminent economic collapse and/or severance of the Western tribal half by the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan and the Al Qaeda combine. |
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Pakistan's Multi Pronged Counter Election Strategy
Oct 3, 2008
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Elections are a key component of democracy in modern states, exemplified by the memorable phrase by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Jammu and Kashmir has seen a series of successful elections over the past decade and more. The present elections when held would be the third in the latest series after the 1996 and 2002 State Assembly elections. Democracy firms in with every successive election and thus the third in 2008 would have seen uninterrupted rule, “by the people” of the State for almost two decades. |
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Detalibanising South Asia
Sep 21, 2008
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Alas! The sacrifice of gallant Delhi counter terrorist M C Sharma may be frittered away unless we detalibanise South Asia, the global hot spot today over taking West Asia or what is commonly known as the Middle East. What with religious extremists impacting the large swathe of nation states from Afghanistan to India and extending their reach in the North to Chinese Xingjian, Islamic terrorism has come to haunt the Sub Continent over the past few decades. |
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Pakistan PML N Pulls Out Ministers
May 13, 2008
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The announcement of withdrawal of ministers by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) from the fledgling Pakistan cabinet on 12 May did not surprise many. There was a sense of foreboding doom as negotiations over the core issue, restoration of judges moved from Islamabad, to Dubai and then to London. The intermediaries in these two locations who would have participated in breaking the dead lock are not public knowledge, but influential investors from the Gulf and old Pakistan hands from Britain and the United States seem to have failed to convince Zardari and Sharif to stay together. |
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Pakistan’s Constitutional Package: Travails of Transition
May 4, 2008
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The road to stability in Pakistan is normally through Dubai. This axiom has been proved once again as despite the Murree Declaration signed by the two principal protagonists in the current political dispensation, the de facto chiefs of the Pakistan People"™s Party, Asif Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, Nawaz Sharif, a break through occurred only in the Gulf capital. |
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PAKISTAN : MUSHARRAF EXTENSION
Apr 30, 2008
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President Musharraf moving towards a second five year mandate. Pakistan polity likely to be in flux over the issue in the run up to 2007 elections.
Increase in suicide attacks in Pakistan. These are directed against Pakistani troops or areas frequented by Western residents and visitors. |
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PAKISTAN : COUNTER MILITANCY IN FATA
Apr 30, 2008
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An insight into Pakistan"™s counter militancy strategy in FATA. Subterfuge or genuine counter guerrilla creativity?
Political turmoil resulting from removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhury seen to subside through deft political manoeuvring by President Musharraf. |
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PAKISTAN : VIGILANTE ATTACKS
Apr 30, 2008
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Uzbek militant groups suffers heavy casualties in army backed vigilante attacks in Wana, South Waziristan .
Operations in Balochistan lead to widespread protests by Baloch Students Organisations.
Suicide attacks and other terror strikes in hinterland particularly NWFP and Balochistan continue. |
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PAKISTAN : POLITICAL AND MILITANCY CHAOS
Apr 30, 2008
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Stand off between the judiciary and the executive in Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry case continues.
Signs of networked terrorism by Taliban in FATA and NWFP with a rise in clashes between militants and government forces and suicide attacks. |
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PAKISTAN : CONSPIRACY CONUNDRUM
Apr 30, 2008
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Politics of uncertainty as pressure mounts on President Musharraf for greater democratization.
Some signs of rapprochement between suspended Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudhry and the government. |
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