Re: Militancy: The Punjab Connection
The following articles will reveal who were actually involved in assasination of or assasination attempts on Musharaf, Benazir Bhutto, Prime Miniter Gilani, and lately on Asfandyar Wali Khan…and that who was involved in the destruction of Marriot Hotel. This shows how is extremist and miltant dugged deep in Pakistan’s political, security, and religious-educational structures.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HJ14Df02.html
Pakistan foils coup plot
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - A plot to stage a coup against Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf soon after his recent return from the US has been uncovered, resulting in the arrest of more than 40 people.
Most of those arrested are middle-ranking Pakistani Air Force officers, while civilian arrests include a son of a serving brigadier in the army. All of those arrested are Islamists, contacts in Rawalpindi, where the military is based, divulged to Asia Times Online.
The conspiracy was discovered through the naivety of an air force
officer who this month used a cell phone to activate a high-tech rocket aimed at the president’s residence in Rawalpindi. The rocket was recovered, and its activating mechanism revealed the officer’s telephone number. His arrest led to the other arrests.
Other rockets were then recovered from various high security zones, including the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Islamabad.
According to Asia Times Online sources, more arrests can be expected, both military and civilian.
Several assassination attempts have been made on Musharraf since he took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, and in all attempts there was a connection with the armed forces, especially the air force. However, this time it appears that beyond the attack on the president, a coup against his administration was also planned.
This plot takes place amid major developments. While in the US, Musharraf, in a meeting with President George W Bush, once again pledged his commitment to the US-led “war on terror”. He drew world attention to his belief that the real threat were the Taliban in Afghanistan, and not al-Qaeda. He subsequently agreed to terms with Washington for a massive joint operation against the Taliban.
Still in the US, Musharraf also claimed that former ISI officials were supporting the Taliban and he sent instructions to the director general of the ISI to check on top officials, including retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul and retired Colonel Ameer Sultan (known as Colonel Imam). Gul is a former director general of the ISI and Ameer is considered as the founding father of the Taliban movement. He was Pakistan’s consul-general in Herat in western Afghanistan when the Taliban emerged in the mid-1990s.
Musharraf also instructed that a list be compiled of all retired officers who had been involved in any significant intelligence operations and who were suspected of still being sympathetic towards the Taliban.
At the same time, he began to backtrack from an agreement Islamabad had made with the Pakistani Taliban in the Waziristan tribal areas for the release of al-Qaeda-linked people detained in Pakistan. Instead, more were arrested, including Shah Mehboob, a brother of former jihad veteran and member of parliament, Shah Abdul Aziz. Also arrested was a British-born suspected member of al-Qaeda, known as Abdullah.
"This is just one glimpse of upcoming events as a result of Musharraf’s pro-American policies, which are in contrast to the thinking pattern of Pakistan’s state institutions," said retired squadron leader Khalid Khawaja, a former ISI official who went to Afghanistan after his forced retirement and fought alongside Osama bin Laden against Soviet Russia in the 1980s. (Khawaja features on Musharraf’s list mentioned above.)
“Musharraf always blamed the madrassas [Islamic seminaries] for extremism, but all plots against him or his government go back to the armed forces. But he still does not realize why this happens,” Khawaja maintained.
“He says retired ISI officials are involved in supporting the Taliban. I say there is no difference between retired and serving ones. All of them have the same approach, mindset and conviction. The retired ones act freely, while the serving ones have some job constraints, but both think in the same way. The present move of a coup against Musharraf is the writing on the wall that if he continues with pro-American policies, he will continue to face problems like that,” Khawaja said.
“These governments, whether it is Indian or Pakistani, compel their forces to work for their strategic requirements, and when a particular operation is over, they talk about peace and wash their hands of everything they have done in the past. For instance, the Kargil operation [the Pakistani incursion into Indian-administered Kashmir in 1999]. Pakistan initially called it an action by the ‘mujahideen’. Six months later, they started awarding medals to their army officers for their performance in Kargil. What does it prove? It proves that governments are personally involved in everything, whether it is the Kargil operation or the Kashmiri resistance, and then they blame the mujahideen or whatever.”
Khawaja said that whatever officials did during their service in the ISI, it was on state instructions, and if the state tried to punish these same officials, the result would be the type of events that are happening now.
It is all too apparent that Pakistan’s head and tail are moving in opposite directions: while Musharraf is fully behind the “war on terror”, the strategic institutions are reluctant to follow Islamabad’s instructions.
This is not something new, but over the years Musharraf and hardliners within the army have been able to live with one another. Had a hardline ruler been in Musharraf’s place, Western countries would have tightened the noose around Pakistan and its security institutions would not have been able to manipulate their support of the Taliban. Because of Musharraf, Western countries are not prepared to be tough on Pakistan, which allows the hardliners to continue their activities.
Musharraf is acutely aware of the undercurrents in the army, which historically draws its inspiration from Islam, and more recently from the attacks on the US of September 11, 2001, when anti-US sentiment also took root. Musharraf exploited this by convincing the West of his usefulness in keeping the army - “full of extremism” - under control, something that a democratically elected government could not do, he argued
This cozy arrangement, or uneasy truce, between Musharraf and hardline Islamists in the ranks is breaking down as the US is demanding that Musharraf do something about the resurgent Taliban. He has responded, as outlined above, by cracking down on Taliban supporters and sympathizers. These people, both in uniform and out, have in turn given their reponse: they are not prepared to throw away all the gains that have been made in Afghanistan.
STRATFOR 
Rockets, Coup Rumors and Musharraf
October 13, 2006 23 30 GMT
Summary
Pakistani authorities announced Oct. 13 the arrest of eight militants with ties to al Qaeda, being held in connection with attempted rocket attacks in and near Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. The incident comes amid growing talk of discontent within the military with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and amid criticism from senior military intelligence officials – signaling that Musharraf’s support within the military could be waning. Though Musharraf is not faced with the prospect of losing power any time soon, opposition parties will try to take advantage of this situation, possibly creating political instability in Pakistan.
STRATFOR Rockets, Coup Rumors and Musharraf
October 13, 2006 23 30 GMT
Summary
Police and intelligence agents apprehended eight al Qaeda-linked Pakistani militants in raids on undisclosed locations in Pakistan, seizing weapons, ammunition and explosives, Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told reporters Oct. 13. The same day, Asia Times Online reported that a coup plot against Musharraf had been uncovered soon after the Pakistani president’s return from the United States. According to the article, more than 40 people have been arrested, most of them mid-ranking air force officers. Officials uncovered the conspirators when an air force officer used a cell phone to activate a rocket aimed at the president’s residence in Rawalpindi. The rocket was recovered, and its activating mechanism, also a cell phone, revealed the officer’s telephone number.
Although the reported coup attempt (which would require the involvement of senior army officials) is unlikely, it is possible that air force officials may have been arrested, some of whom might have been junior officers. Moreover, the rockets, which were all found, probably were more of a warning than anything else. Even so,these developments indicate Musharraf might be slowly losing support from his core constituency in the military establishment – especially given the criticism of Musharraf from former heads of the country’s premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Musharraf’s political opponents will try to take advantage of this situation, which could lead to instability in the South Asian country.
Musharraf’s recent statements show he is under a lot of strain. In comments during a dinner gathering with journalists, the day before the seventh anniversary of the coup in which he took power, he said that if moderates do not prevail over extremists in upcoming elections, then Pakistan as envisioned by its founder will be no more.
These remarks come as senior ex-ISI officials continue to express displeasure at Musharraf’s accusations that former officials of the intelligence directorate continue to support the Taliban. In an Oct. 10 appearance on GEO TV’s program Capital Talk, former ISI Director-General and retired Lt. Gen. Hameed Gul described Musharraf’s statement as “shameful,” and said it would have “harmful results” for the president, the country’s intelligence services and the military. Another former ISI director-general, retired Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani, said Afghan government allegations the ISI was supporting the Taliban could only be halted if Pakistan honestly told Kabul that it was “not in a position to control the Taliban from its borders.” And former ISI official and retired air force squadron leader Khalid Khawaja said Musharraf had “endorsed” foreign allegations by giving such a statement. (Khawaja is well known for his ties to the murky al Qaeda-Taliban network.)
The recent story about mid-ranking air force officers is only the latest in a series of interesting accounts of links between Pakistani air force officials and al Qaeda. Musharraf himself acknowledged that noncommissioned air force personnel took part in plots to kill him in 2003. Moreover, former al Qaeda military commander Abu Zubaydah told interrogators that one of his high-ranking contacts in the Pakistani military was former air force chief Mushaf Ali Mir. Shortly thereafter, Mir died in air accident. Stratfor also has learned that many former midlevel ISI officials with the rank of major and colonel have familial ties with Islamist militants who are veterans of the 1979-89 war against the Soviet army in Afghanistan.
Word of links between the ISI and Islamist militants has generated a great deal of controversy – to the extent that there was a media leak of report prepared by a think tank affiliated with the British Ministry of Defense calling for the ISI’s dissolution. Clearly, the pressure is rising on Musharraf regarding the ISI controversy, but most significant is that he is being criticized from within. This is something his civilian political opponents will be looking to exploit. Should this situation lead to political unrest, his fellow generals may not be very keen to continue supporting him.