Army camp attack: Pamphlet vows more attacks if NATO supplies continue

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Army camp attack: Pamphlet vows more attacks if NATO supplies continue

By Our Correspondent
Published: July 11, 2012




LAHORE: Militants have threatened to carry out more attacks on soldiers and government installations similar to Monday’s assault on an army camp in Gujrat, according to a pamphlet found by the police.

More attacks were forthcoming if Nato supplies were not closed, an intelligence agency report cited the pamphlet as saying.
Another intelligence agency’s report stated that terrorists linked with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) involved in Pir Chambal incident were planning more attacks on government installations.
The agency’s report reads “……an unregistered motorcycle with a time bomb was found and the bomb was defused. At 7:30 am on Monday, a hand grenade lying in bushes also exploded but caused no damage, police found a pamphlet in which it has been threatened that their activities would continue in future due to restoration of Nato supply.”
Sadar Police Station SHO Inspector Saeed Warraich told The Express Tribune that the terrorists have warned the public, through a pamphlet, to stay away from police, security forces and intelligence agencies’ personnel because their attacks would continue everywhere in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab due to restoration of Nato supply.
Officials said that the Punjab government ignored warnings from the intelligence agencies to monitor the movement of members of banned religious outfits under the cover of Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) rally.
Persons of banned outfits, who were considered so dangerous that they were barred from travelling beyond the jurisdiction of their local police stations, were seen at the DPC rally in Islamabad, said an intelligence agency report.

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Fury grows at Islamabad's NATO u-turn
By Malik Ayub Sumbal

ISLAMABAD - Tens of thousands of activists from banned jihadi organizations arrived in Islamabad this week to protest the government's decision last week to re-open the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supply route from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

A coalition of more than 40 religious parties know as Difah-e-Pakistan Council - the Defense of Pakistan Council (DOC) - have gathered in front of Parliament House. The organizers claim there are more than 500,000 participants, but the real number is likely closer to 50,000.

The protest is being led by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), formally known as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The LeT has been accused of launching many terror attacks in



India, most notably the 2001 assault on the Indian parliament and the November, 2008 attacks in Mumbai. In April, the United States put a $10 million bounty on Hafiz Saeed for his alleged role in planning Mumbai's night of terror.

Another banned outfit, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), has also participated in what the DPC is calling a "long march" to Islamabad. The HuM is headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a co-founder of the Islamic militant group Harakat-ul-Ansar, which was formed in the early 1990s in India.

According to the Global Jihad website, "Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil was one of five signatories, alongside Rifaai Taha, Ayman Al Zawahiri and Sheikh Mir Hamza, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan, of Osama Bin Laden's fatwa" on February 23, 2008". Entitled "The World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders", this fatwa is seen as a declaration of war by al-Qaeda against the Western democracies led by the United States.

Several other banned outfits have participated in the protest, including the Jamaat-i-Islami and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, which was formally known as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The SSP is one the most notorious sectarian groups in Pakistan, and was involved in the massacre of the thousands of Shi'ites Muslims in the 1990s.

Malik Ishaq, a leader of the banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi who was released a few months ago from Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore, is also a senior leader in the DOC and has actively participated in the "long march".

Pakistan closed NATO's Afghan route in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops. Following months of negotiations, Islamabad finally agreed to reopen the route last week after US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for the deaths.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik had warned banned outfits not to enter Islamabad, saying they would be immediately arrested. However, nobody has been detained by security forces. Critics say Malik's threat merely aimed at proving to the United States and the international community that Pakistan is serious about keeping tabs on banned organizations.

Former director general of Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, General Hamid Gul, confirmed a phone interview to Asia Times Online that security forces "wouldn't dare" arrest anyone taking part in the protest, which he said was led by legitimate organizations. Gul was speaking from Gujranwala in Punjab province, where he was leading a section of the long march.

A large convoy of vehicles is still streaming towards Islamabad, said Gul. More jihadis will join the sit-in front of Parliament House, and they will not leave unless the government restores its suspension of the NATO supply links, he added.

Addressing the rally, religious leaders have said that unless the NATO supply is closed, the protests will turn violent. The DoC has also called for more "long marches" against the NATO supply lines, on July 16-17 from Peshawar to the Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan.

Credible sources have confirmed that militants in Balochistan, the Federally Administrative Tribal Areas and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have vowed to block and burn any trucks carrying NATO supplies. Religious parties are also making plans to block Peshawar and the road to the Khyber Pass.

Officials say that Pakistani intelligence agencies' backing of the banned organizations' protest signals a policy shift away from the US.

"The United States can open all their channels and back-door diplomacies with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, so why can Pakistan and its intelligence agencies not take on board the Jihadists and banned outfits organizations for the survival of Pakistan and its nation," a senior official in an intelligence agency told Asia Times Online.

"This is not our war but we have suffered huge losses and now even our sovereignty is on stake, so we cannot do more especially in making foes for the others, enough is enough," he said.

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Bureaucratic delays holding up Nato supplies through Pak

Jul 12, 2012


Islamabad: Bureaucratic delays have largely held up shipments to troops in Afghanistan via its eastern neighbour, Pakistani officials said yesterday, a week after the country reopened US and Nato supply lines.
So far, only a handful of supply trucks have crossed the border, which Pakistan closed to the convoys last November after American airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani border troops.
Pakistan is a notoriously bureaucratic country where obtaining permissions or processing paperwork can take a frustratingly long time. AFP

Islamabad agreed to reopen the supply routes on 3 July, after months of negotiations and a US apology over the incident.
Two trucks carrying supplies to US and Nato troops passed through the Chaman border crossing in the southern province of Baluchistan last Thursday, but a Pakistani customs official said that no other trucks have crossed since then.
Four trucks from the port city of Karachi arrived at the border yesterday and are expected to cross on Thursday, the official added. Chaman is one of two border crossings used to transport Nato supplies.
Trucks have yet to pass at Torkham, the second crossing, a regional official in northern Pakistan said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Since official resumption of the supply route, not a single fuel truck has left either of the two main ports in Karachi, said Israr Shinwari, president of the All Pakistan Tankers Association.
He blamed bureaucracy for the delay, saying that procedures and paperwork must be completed before goods and fuel can even be loaded on the trucks.
Goods shipments appeared likely to resume before fuel supply, Shinwari said, with the tankers expected to move in about a week.
Pakistan is a notoriously bureaucratic country where obtaining permissions or processing paperwork can take a frustratingly long time.
Before the closure, about 150 to 200 trucks carrying Nato supplies crossed the border daily.
Few expected shipments to reach those numbers immediately after Pakistan reopened the supply lines, and the delay did not seem to reflect a change of heart on the side of the Pakistani government. The trucks have been waiting in Karachi for months and need maintenance and proper customs clearance before any movement can take place, officials and drivers say.
AP