Its’ interesting. Suddenly I see mention of Indian hand behind the recent suicide attacks. Could it be true or is it just an old ploy of intel. agencies to divert attention from their failure to contain such attacks?
Editorial: Why are the Chinese being targeted?](http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\07\20\story_20-7-2007_pg3_1)
At 9:30 am on Thursday, a time-bomb blast at Hub Town in Balochistan killed 24 policemen and local citizens. The target was the moving van of Chinese engineers travelling from their location of work — zinc mines — to Karachi. The person on the spot who probably pressed the button to ignite the bomb missed the front van and hit instead the security vehicle full of Las Bela police guard following the Chinese engineers. Hub Town is located on the Quetta-Karachi road known as the RCD Highway.
Initial reactions from those who observe Balochistan is that the blast is not connected with the ones that took place in the north of the country. Most recently, someone killed the Chinese mechanics in Peshawar providing back-up services to Chinese rickshaws plying in the city. Since it followed the Lal Masjid operation, it is easy to presume that the “friends” of the Lal Masjid clerics — who were punished for kidnapping some Chinese nationals in Islamabad — have taken revenge and sent a message through the killing to Islamabad.
In 2004, Abdullah Mehsud kidnapped two Chinese engineers at the Gomal Zam Dam in South Waziristan. He was an old Banuri Masjid (Karachi) warrior. After all negotiations failed, the kidnappers were stormed, which resulted in the death of one Chinese engineer. Abdullah was helped by five kidnappers, two of them from South Waziristan and three from Afghanistan. Mehsud, who was released from Guantanamo Bay by the Americans the same year after two and a half years, demanded the release of five of his friends from jail in Pakistan as ransom. He also wished to take revenge for the murder of his teacher at Banuri Masjid, Mufti Jameel, also information secretary of the JUI at the time of his death.
Earlier in 2004, a car bomb killed three Chinese engineers out of the 500 employed at the Gwadar seaport. Gwadar airport too came under rocket attack. While most opinion focused on the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as the culprit, there were others who pointed to a “foreign hand”, which means India in the Pakistani parlance although America too is beginning to be added as the second candidate. Then in 2006, at Hub again, three Chinese were gunned down by unknown attackers. These engineers too were working at the Gwadar seaport.
Opinion is divided on who actually did the latest deed at Hub. Balochistan is subject to insurgency with Baloch nationalists openly condemning federal encroachment on the province’s natural resources. The grievance has grown out of many historical factors but all the Baloch universally complain of lack of development in their mineral-rich province. Increasingly, the sub-nationalism there is fuelled by the desire to repossess these resources. The Gwadar seaport project too is opposed because it is seen as ultimately benefiting people from the rest of Pakistan rather than from Balochistan.
The government in Islamabad, while facing the BLA and its sabotage activities, tends to focus on India as BLA’s benefactor and instigator from Afghanistan where India has recently reopened its consulates. It has claimed that large sums of foreign currency supplied by India to the militants have been discovered in the rebel strongholds in the province. Some of the “linkages” go back to an earlier upheaval when the Baloch sardars fled Balochistan and took refuge in Afghanistan. Today, the rebellious Baloch leaders are under pressure. The Bugti sardar, Nawab Akbar Bugti, has been killed in a military operation and the Mengal sardar, Akhtar Mengal, belonging to the crucially important area of Khuzdar because of the Iranian gas pipeline, is in jail, while some others like Senator Sanaullah Baloch have accepted exile in London.
The Chinese are being killed in the north because their killing hurts the government in Islamabad the most. It was the abduction of the Chinese nationals by the Lal Masjid vigilantes which finally forced President Musharraf to take action against the seminary. An additional factor in both regions is the factor of “trespass” into territory the tribal rebels wish to cordon off as their “no-go” territory. In Balochistan, the Chinese are being seen as a part of the international conspiracy — allegedly led by America — to deprive the Baloch by “globalising” their natural resources. The Chinese are in the crossfire, so to speak, in the war that the Baloch are waging against the state of Pakistan.
Pakistanis universally admire China as their friend of all seasons, but there remains an unexpressed plaint among the Islamist elements in Pakistan about the suppression of the Islamist rebels in China’s eastern province of Xinjiang. Some of these rebels have been found among the “Taliban” in the tribal areas. As the Chinese deaths increase, the Pak-China equation comes under pressure and the Chinese enterprise — now increasingly in the private sector — is beginning to fight shy of coming to projects in Pakistan. *
** Indian diplomats step up activities **](The News International: Latest News Breaking, World, Entertainment, Royal News)
By Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The government has been observing Indian diplomats activities for the last six months especially after the start of the present judicial crisis, reliable official sources revealed to The News.
“Indian diplomats suddenly become more active and started meeting different government officials, politicians and lawyers secretly after March 9,” the sources said. They said that these official and Indian consulates in Kandahar and other Afghanistan cities bordering Pakistan were controlling and monitoring ambiguous activities in Pakistan. The sources revealed that two Indian embassy diplomats were seen hobnobbing with some senior officials (not judges) of the Supreme Court on 14th June this year. Sources said that these diplomats have played a key role in blowing the whole judicial issue out of proportion.
They said that main feature of these activities of the diplomats of the neighbouring country was to target the Chinese. “Kidnapping of the Chinese in Islamabad and killings in Peshawar was also the result of the propagation of these diplomats,” the sources claimed.
“Repeated attacks on Chinese are amid at deteriorating Pak-China relations and thus destroying Pakistan’s economy,” sources said, adding: “Those who are being used by these foreign diplomats are not the friends of Pakistan.”
Discussing Thursday’s Hub attack, these government sources said that this was a traditional terrorist attack. They said the notorious intelligence agency of the neighbouring country has become active again. They said that use of mines and intensive firing with modern weapons in Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s attacks on security forces have proved involvement of this intelligence agency in the attacks.
Further explaining the Indian involvement, the sources said that these diplomats have started a proper campaign against Pakistan Army. They alleged that the book written by Dr Ayesha Siddiqa against the army was also the part of that campaign. They claimed that Dr Ayesha had closed relations with a lady diplomat of Indian Embassy. “Ayesha’s personal car is still present in the house of said lady diplomat in Islamabad,” the sources said, adding: “Even Ayesha’s compartment in London was also provided by this diplomat.”
Official sources said that the present statement of the Indian prime minister on Kashmir was totally out of context. “There was no need to made such a statement in the present scenario.” The sources said there were no negotiations going on at any level right now. These sources alleged that this statement was aimed at diverting the attention from the Indian involvement in the on-going terrorist attacks in Pakistan, which are “specifically targeting our Chinese friends”.
The sources said the Indian diplomatic missions in European countries and the USA are proactively propagating that Pakistan was an irresponsible nuclear state. “We are facing many problems at home front while these Indian missions are trying to convince the western people that our nuclear assets could go in the hands of “extremists” any time.” The sources said that they want to target Pakistan strategic defence assets.
Islamabad to take up issue of ‘171 RAW-trained terrorists’ with Kabul](http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\07\20\story_20-7-2007_pg7_5)
** Agencies suspect Afghan involvement in suicide bombings
- Rule out Al Qaeda’s role in recent terrorist incidents
- Punjab Rangers to replace FC for capital’s security
By Naveed Siddiqui*
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad is set to take up with Kabul the issue of “171 RAW-trained Afghan terrorists” who intelligence agencies say sneaked into Pakistan two months ago and are yet to be traced.
Intelligence agencies suspect that these Afghans were involved in the recent spate of suicide bombings in Pakistan.
Sources told Daily Times that intelligence agencies informed a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao on Wednesday that 25 of the 171 Afghans had links with RAW agents in Indian consulates at Jalalabad and Kandahar.
The sources said that the Afghans had crossed the border via Torkham and Chaman two months ago and had spread in the settled areas of the NWFP, Sindh and Punjab for suicide bombings.
The sources said that the intelligence agencies ruled out Al Qaeda’s role in the recent terrorist incidents and held the RAW network responsible for the suicide bombings in Islamabad, NWFP and other parts of the country.
The sources said that the government had decided to take up this issue with the Afghan government through diplomatic channels. They added that the Foreign Office representative present at the meeting had been asked to prepare a draft of all evidence of RAW activities for taking up the matter with the Afghan government.
The sources said that the meeting had also decided to deploy Punjab Rangers for the security of the Diplomatic Enclave, foreign missions, sensitive installations, important personalities and maintaining law and order in the federal capital. They said that 60 platoons of the Frontier Constabulary were being sent back to the NWFP to tighten security in the restive province.
The sources said that the Interior Ministry had sanctioned the recruitment of 7,500 personnel for the Islamabad Capital Territory Police, and asked the Punjab police to recruit more personnel as well.
The Interior Ministry has ordered the Islamabad district administration and the police to submit a report on the criminal record of militant suspects in the federal capital as well as information about the staff and security situation of all private organisations.
The meeting also decided to issue orders to the provincial home departments and the Islamabad administration to tighten security for the Pakistan People’s Party leadership after the blast at the party’s camp set up to welcome Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on Tuesday night.
The meeting issued directions to the district coordination officers and district police officers to ensure that no Islamic organisation arranged big gatherings so that anti-state elements could not exploit the situation.
intriguing indeed :hmmm:
