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Afghanistan/South Asia
Local population still being held hostage
2004-03-20
Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, Director-General, Inter Services Public Relations, said at a media briefing on Wana at the GHQ that a 'couple of thousand' Pakistani troops were engaged in Wana and had cordoned off an area of 50 square kilometres.
The cordon zone keeps growing. First it was 15-20, then 20, and now 50.
Explaining the high casualties suffered by Pakistani paramilitary forces, the spokesman said the Frontier Constabulary underestimated the level of resistance and "barged into the den of hardened terrorists on March 16". He said when the Frontier Constabulary started the search operation, it came under fire from trained terrorists. These hardened terrorists used the local population as human shield, and the Pakistani forces, in order to keep the collateral damage to the minimum, applied maximum restraint.
That may explain why they've been so eager to negotiate here. Usual caveats about Pakistani duplicity aside, if they're holding anywhere near the 250 hostages that have been attributed to them it's gonna be bad news if the troops go in shooting. Isn't holding the whole town hostage originally a tactic from the first Chechen war?
In the area of Razmak, four people were apprehended on Friday. Of them, one is an Arab and the remaining are possibly locals. A huge cache of weapons had been recovered from them, he said. He said the local people in Wana were sympathetic to these terrorists, and the government was trying to make them realize that the environment had changed. "If they want to live in the past, the government is left with no option but to use force and flush out the terrorists."
Posted by:Dan Darling

#4  I think the local population is beginning to realize that if you lie down with dogs you are liable to wake up with fleas....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2004-3-20 10:51:54 AM  

#3  I think Perv was mainly impressed that Zawahiri et al were trying to kill him. Worth risking alot to kill Zawahiri before he tries again.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2004-3-20 6:58:17 AM  

#2  Hi Pakistan obviously doesn't get it. They keep using the term terorists, with no sneer quotes. Everyone knows that the guys in the forts are "militants", resisting the "invaders" and "occupiers" the only way they have available. Sheesh.
Posted by: Seafarious   2004-3-20 2:46:36 AM  

#1  Dan, interesting post.
What is going on over there?
Re: the locals
Read another story on this which included the locals bitching and moaning about the firefight and basically whining to "make it go away."
Surely these people knew the terrorists were there all along...I hear that Waziristan is a very chummy place--Everyone knows (or is related to) everyone else.
I'm impressed with the attitude of the Pakistani government that there's a "new sheriff in town"--is my delight misplaced?
Was Perv so impressed by President Bush naming Pakistan a key U.S. non-NATO ally this week that he decided to prove it in a big way, as this was concurrent with the beginning of this siege?
(I think Pakistan was just granted a huge aid package from us, too but they still didn't get their F-16s.)
Posted by: Jen   2004-3-20 12:33:21 AM  

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