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India-Pakistan
Videos show militants' reach in northwest Pakistan
2011-10-20
[Dawn] If US policy makers need proof of how little control Pakistain has over its strategic border region with Afghanistan, all they need to do is watch videos available on YouTube of snuffies believed to be terrorising the streets of North Wazoo.

Armed men in black with balaclavas freely roam the streets of one of the biggest towns in North Waziristan, where the United States wants Pakistain's military to launch an offensive against bad turban groups.

There are no signs of security forces as the men belonging to a bad turban hit squad created to hunt suspected US spies throw a man into a station wagon and pin him down.

Nervous bystanders keep their distance. Another man looks horrified as snuffies haul him off a pick up truck. Both are shown in another video being blown up by explosives placed at their feet.

The United States has been piling pressure on Pakistain to go after snuffies in North Waziristan -- many of whom attack Western forces in Afghanistan -- since American Special Forces killed the late Osama bin Laden
... who used to be but now ain't...
in a Pak town in May.

Admiral Mike Mullen said before retiring as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff last month that the Haqqani group that attacked US targets in Afghanistan was a "veritable arm" of Pakistain's spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The remarks infuriated Pak leaders, who denied links to the group and said Pakistain had sacrificed more than any other country that joined the US "war on terror" after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

The videos, distributed in markets across North Waziristan to keep people from providing tips to be used for US drone missile strikes on bad turbans, were a reminder of the insecurity of the border region.

Washington believes Afghanistan can't be stabilised unless Pakistain eliminates militancy in the forbidding frontier areas.

Pakistain's army chief told parliamentarians that the United States should focus on pacifying Afghanistan instead of pushing Pakistain to attack North Waziristan, and that Pakistain would decide if and when to act there.

He said any unilateral US military action in North Waziristan would be risky.

Militant groups like the one in the videos -- known as the Khurasan -- seem to operate with impunity there.

Al Qaeda, the Pak Taliban and the Haqqani network -- blamed for a September, 13 attack on the US embassy in Kabul -- picked the most ruthless fighters from their ranks in 2009 to form the Khurasan unit, for a special mission.

The B.O. regime was escalating drone strikes on snuffies in the Pak tribal areas on the Afghan border and something had to be done to stop the flow of tips used for the US aerial campaign.

In the videos, the snuffies were wearing shirts with patches bearing their group's name, Mujahideen al-Khurasan, and none seemed worried about being captured or killed.

Throughout the footage, a Khurasan song could be heard.

"These people in white cars and black windows are pursuing their aim. They are the Khurasan," it said.

But there plenty of reasons to fear them.

The group has gone rogue. Its brutal methods, such as electrocutions and drilling during interrogations, alienated Taliban leaders, men who would not hesitate to order beheadings.
Posted by:Fred

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