ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani army said it is investigating reports that Pakistani Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud has died from injuries sustained in a US drone missile strike.
Pakistani army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said the army is using its agents in Pakistan’s northwest where the death is reported to have occurred to try to confirm or deny the reports.
Pakistani state TV reported earlier Sunday that Mehsud died in Orakzai tribal area, where he was reportedly being treated for his injuries. It cited ”official sources.”
Pakistani intelligence officials have said that Mehsud was hit in a US drone strike in South Waziristan on Jan. 14, triggering rumors he had been injured or killed. Mehsud issued two audio tapes after the strike denying the rumors. The state run TV also claimed that Mehsud had been buried in Tajaka village in Mamozai area of Orakzai Agency.
With talk of NATO pulling out of Afghanistan, an increasingly potent Taliban threat and rising questions in the U.S. about whether defeating the insurgency is possible, there is even less incentive for the Pakistani authorities to share intelligence on Haqqani and Omar, said Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University’s Pakistan Security Research Unit.
“The Pakistanis want the Americans out; above all they want India out. And the only creatures who can do that are the Afghan Taliban,” he said. “If the Pakistanis hand over more info on al-Qaida and the rest, it will have a marginal effect as to what happens in Afghanistan.”
The Pakistanis have not supplied the U.S. with any intelligence on the Haqqani network, Gregory said. In return, Haqqani and other Afghan Taliban have not joined their Pakistani Taliban brethren in trying to seize other regions and advance on the capital, Islamabad.
“They don’t want to antagonize several groups in Pakistan. If the Haqqani group starts helping the Pakistani Taliban, then God help us,” said Talat Masood, a Pakistani defense analyst. “The Americans cannot stay in Afghanistan forever, but we will have to live here forever.”
KARACHI: A bloody feud that followed Baitullah Mehsud’s death involving about three-dozen best-trained Taliban fighters early on Wednesday morning was actually a battle among various Taliban warlords to control Rs 2 billion Taliban funds and ownership of arms and ammunition worth about Rs 1 billion by grabbing the ‘Emarat’ (the leadership) of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), according to senior security officials and knowledgeable Taliban sources.
The drone strike that resulted in the death of Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist is believed to be a result of deliberately planted false intelligence, sources in South Waziristan have confirmed.
Rival militants close to Qari Zainullah Mehsud (who was killed on Baitullah Mehsud’s orders) tipped off suspected local CIA informers about the presence of a ‘high value afghan taliban target’ in a house in South Waziristan.
Qari Zainuddin, a former aide of Baitullah Mehsud, had denounced Baitullah Mehsud in June this year and had revealed Mehsud’s links with Indian and Israeli intelligence agencies. Zainuddin was gunned down in his office the next day and Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for the killing.
In what appears to be an attempt to extract revenge by those loyal to Qari Zainuddin, false intelligence was deliberately fed to a number of local residents suspected of working as informers for the Americans in Afghanistan. Hours later, a CIA operated drone guided by a physically dropped electronic homing device, attacked and destroyed the house which the Americans believed was occupied by Anti-US Afghan Taliban.
The CIA has been paying tribesman in Waziristan “plant the electronic devices” near militant safehouses, reported the Guardian on June 1st this year. “Hours or days later, a drone, guided by the signal from the chip, destroys the building with a salvo of missiles.”
This isn’t the first time an electronic homing device has led the Americans to strike a wrong target. The Guardian’s report continues:
Pakistani Terrorist chief Baitullah Mehsud, who led a violent campaign of suicide attacks and assassinations against the Pakistani government, has been killed in a US missile strike, a TTP commander and aide to Mehsud said Friday.
‘I confirm that Baitullah Mehsud and his wife died in the American missile attack in South Waziristan,’ Kafayatullah told The Associated Press by telephone. He would not give any further details. [Source]
In February this year, PKKH had reported on how Baitullah Mehsud had outlived his shelf-life, and was of no further use to his American masters. With the TTP defeated in Malakand, he had been cornered in his hometown in South Waziristan and it would only have been a matter of days before he was captured.
It now increasingly looks like Baitullah Mehsud is living on borrowed time. It would be interesting to see who gets to him first, the Pakistanis or the Americans. Pakistan Army would be well advised to attempt to capture him alive, something that the Americans and Indians would try and ensure does not happen.
In the Sri Lankan cricket team case, Indian operatives crossed the border from Indian to join other Indian-origin or Indian-trained terrorists who traveled all the way from Afghanistan to Lahore
Indian terrorism training bases, intelligence outposts and personnel in Afghanistan identified
In some cases, Indian intelligence was indirectly supporting attacks against US soldiers in Afghanistan in order to worsen Pak-US military relations
India’s friends, advocates and lobbyists in Washington stunned
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was stunned when Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani handed him a dossier containing photographs of Brahamdagh Bugti and other terrorists meeting Indian agents not only in Afghanistan but also during their visits to India and the names of the Indian officials who met them. This was part of more evidence about India’s involvement in recruiting, training, financing and arming terrorists in Afghanistan and sending them to Pakistan. India’s links to the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore and other high profile terrorism cases have been established, shocking even Indian’s many advocates in Washington. Mr. Gilani gave this surprise to the Indians behind closed doors. Now India fears that Pakistan would use this meeting to expose Indian connections with two anti-Pakistan terrorist leaders and their foreign-funded terror armies: Brahamdagh Bugti and his BLA [Balochistan Liberation Army] and Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, both being supported from bases in US-controlled Afghanistan.
URGENT: India Pays Baitullah Mehsud To Attack Pakistan’s Nuclear Sites, Plan Deployed
The Indians working with their allies in the Karzai government have designed a foolproof plan to attack Pakistani nuclear sites using hired terrorists. They think they can pull it off and permanently damage Pakistan’s standing internationally and hasten calls for denuclearizing Pakistan. Any attack on Pakistani nuclear sites in the coming days will be taken as a declaration of war by India and will be dealt with equal force. There should not be confusion on this.
The ex TTP commander who had denounced Baitullah Mehsud and revealed Mehsud’s links with foreign agencies, has been shot dead by a gunman. (Read: Israel, India Backing Mehsud: Reveal Former Aides)
Qari Zainuddin, had recently given statements to the media opposing Mehsud. He was killed in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan, police said.
Haji Turkistan Betani, a former close aide of Baitullah Mahsud, has claimed that assassination of Benazir Bhutto was plotted by Baitullah Mehsud.
Talking to Sana Bucha in Crisis Cell programme of Geo News, Haji Turkistan said that he was with Baitullah, who had stated that he had sent two persons to Rawalpindi for assassinating Benazir Bhutto. He also revealed that Baitullah is an American agent and this is the reason he has not been targeted by the US drones.
Haji Turkistan said that Baitullah is misguiding innocent youths on the instigation by Israel and India to destroy mosques and educational institutions and martyr religious scholars inside Pakistan.
This comes after Qari Zainuddin, a rival commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban Chief Baitullah Mehsud, on Wednesday disclosed that the TTP has links with India and Israel. He said that Baitullah Mehsud has acted against Islam as well as the country and if not eliminated now, militancy would surge and problems for the government would grow.
Army Operation Not Intended To Disrupt Afghan Jihad
Islamabad has not targeted Washington’s main enemies — Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders on the Pakistani border — and instead has directed its assault on Pakistani Taliban, US officials and analysts say.
Pakistan’s interests ‘don’t necessarily align 100 per cent with the US as well as allies’ interests,’ said a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Activities within Pakistan led to differences with Baitullah Meshsud, we are Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan and we have nothing to do with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan” – says Qari Zainuddin, representative of Afghan Taliban in an interview to a local news channel today.
After months of arrogant behavior, the United States is conceding to some of Pakistan’s demands, like unconditional aid and a check on Indian terrorist activities against Pakistan using Afghan soil. But does Washington know that India wants a war in Afghanistan until the last American soldier?
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani officials say that the last batch of students and staff kidnapped in the northwest after leaving their school this week have been rescued.
Deputy Interior Minister Tasnim Qureshi told state-run Pakistan Television Thursday that 46 students and two teachers had been recovered from their militant abductors. The army said the rescued students were being taken to the Bannu district.
The students were abducted earlier this week from the North Waziristan tribal region and were believed to have been held there or in nearby South Waziristan.
The Americans do not want Pakistanis to capture Baitullah Mehsud alive, and attempting to eliminate him using air-strikes will not be easy since Pakistan Army is advancing towards him already. They will either take him out before he is captured, or he will mysteriously disappear only to re-emerge later at a different location. The U.S. military has moved troops near Mehsud’s area under the pretext of finding Osama or Mullah Omar. This is a deception. They have been saying Osama is in Pakistan for years. Why haven’t they acted earlier? This American move has something to do with Pakistani military’s march to destroy Mehsud and his proxy militia. We already know that terrorists are using American weapons to kill us while pretending to be Taliban. The Pakistani military better watch out what our ally is up to this time.
So far the principle result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the events of 9-11 has been the destabilization of Pakistan. That breakdown is peaking with the events in what AP calls the “Swat town” of Mingora—actually a city of 375,000 from which all but 20,000 have fled as government forces moved in, strafing it with gunships. We’re talking urban guerrilla warfare, house-to-house fighting, not on the Afghan border but 50 miles away in the Swat Valley. We’re talking about Pakistani troops fighting to reclaim the nearby Malam Jabba ski resort from the Tehreek-e-Taliban, who since last year have been using it as a training center and logistics base. We’re talking about two million people fleeing the fighting in the valley and 160,000 in government refugee camps.
Baitullah Mehsud is rolling in dollars and has access to highly sophisticated light weaponry. He is also in possession of highly sophisticated communication equipment, or homing devices in other words. The Pakistan army has been asking the US for help in ‘taking out’ Mehsud and has on at least four different occasions provided the US with accurate information of his location over a period of twelve to twenty four after the US was informed, but he was never targeted.
Kashif Abbasi visits our troops in Buner and witnesses first hand the battle against TTP Terrorists, as well as soldiers harvesting crops and leaving it at the houses of poor villagers who have had to leave due to the fighting. Pakistan Army Zindabad!
MUST WATCH: Zaid Hamid speaks on Pakistan Army’s operation ‘Rah-e-Haq’ in Malakand Division, Northern Pakistan. Also discusses the reality of provincial autonomy for Baluchistan.
Politically, by giving the Pakistani Taliban a chance for peace, General Kayani has won the sympathies of the people of the region and broad national support. The local population have also had a chance of looking at life under the Pakistani Taliban, a large part of whom are former thugs and thieves. This has bought the Pakistan Army a great deal of political mileage. Meanwhile, militarily the Pakistani Taliban are overstretched. They are also dangerously close to being strategically dissected, outflanked and caught with their pants down.
Pakistan is now officially at war. It is time we offer unconditional support to our troops, officers and men who are fighting and dying for our honor, security and peace. We have all seen enough of filthy and sick face of TTP terrorists and their brutal massacre of innocent Pakistanis. Finally, the political government takes responsibility and takes the nation into confidence. Lets shun our differences for the moment and unite for a common cause of eliminating the terrorists who have insulted and humiliated our faith, nation and the country. It is time we remove the cancer.
We also warn the government not to succumb to US demands and dictations. We are watching the US and the government very closely and any wrong move by them would be resisted fiercely. The government of PPP must not make a wrong move or they will be exposed and removed by patriotic Pakistanis.
Apocalypse Now. Run for cover. The turbans are coming. This is the state of Pakistan today, according to the current hysteria disseminated by the Barack Obama administration and United States corporate media – from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to The New York Times. Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said on the record that Pakistani Talibanistan is a threat to the security of Britain.
But unlike St Petersburg in 1917 or Tehran in late 1978, Islamabad won’t fall tomorrow to a turban revolution.
Pakistan is not an ungovernable Somalia. The numbers tell the story. At least 55% of Pakistan’s 170 million-strong population are Punjabis. There’s no evidence they are about to embrace Talibanistan; they are essentially Shi’ites, Sufis or a mix of both. Around 50 million are Sindhis – faithful followers of the late Benazir Bhutto and her husband, now President Asif Ali Zardari’s centrist and overwhelmingly secular Pakistan People’s Party. Talibanistan fanatics in these two provinces – amounting to 85% of Pakistan’s population, with a heavy concentration of the urban middle class – are an infinitesimal minority.
The Pakistan-based Taliban – subdivided in roughly three major groups, amounting to less than 10,000 fighters with no air force, no Predator drones, no tanks and no heavily weaponized vehicles – are concentrated in the Pashtun tribal areas, in some districts of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and some very localized, small parts of Punjab.
To believe this rag-tag band could rout the well-equipped, very professional 550,000-strong Pakistani army, the sixth-largest military in the world, which has already met the Indian colossus in battle, is a ludicrous proposition.
Finally this puppet government appears to have woken up to Indian/Afghan backed terrorism in Pakistan:
ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday startled the Senate by saying that Russia and India were supporting the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in its secession bid, saying the same outfit had kidnapped UNHCR official John Solecki.
Making a policy statement while winding up the five-day debate that in fact continued for three days, excluding Saturday and Sunday, on the killing of there Baloch leaders and the deteriorating law and order in Balochistan, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik claimed they had proof of foreign involvement in the province.
Watch Ahmed Quraishi and Zaid Hamid discuss the Balochistan situation in our last week’s episode of Loud & Clear, from Islamabad
Ahmed Quraishi discusses the CIA backed game in Balochistan, Swat peace deal, the recent aid promised to Pakistan and the conditions attached to it – with strategic defence analyst Zaid Hamid.
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The ex TTP commander who had denounced Baitullah Mehsud and revealed Mehsud’s links with foreign agencies, has been shot dead by a gunman. (Read: 
After months of arrogant behavior, the United States is conceding to some of Pakistan’s demands, like unconditional aid and a check on Indian terrorist activities against Pakistan using Afghan soil. But does Washington know that India wants a war in Afghanistan until the last American soldier?
