dagblog - Comments for "Battle with militants reaches climax at Pakistan naval aviation base"

Timeline: Pakistan, the

artappraiser — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:34:39 +0000

In reply to Battle with militants reaches climax at Pakistan naval aviation base

Timeline: Pakistan, the battleground for bin Laden revenge

Reuters,May 25, 2011 1:38am EDT

(Reuters) - Pakistan has seen a dramatic increase in the scale and number of militant attacks since Osama bin laden was killed by U.S. forces in a garrison town this month....

Captured Al Qaeda: Foreign

artappraiser — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:33:11 +0000

In reply to Battle with militants reaches climax at Pakistan naval aviation base

Captured Al Qaeda: Foreign Fighters 'Converging' in Pakistan

By Lee Ferran and Nick Schifrin, ABC News, May 24, 2011

A Moroccan al Qaeda operative captured in Afghanistan told coalition forces earlier this month that foreign fighters were "converging" in Pakistan in hopes of carrying out attacks across the border in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force said late Monday.

The unnamed captive, who is described as a "Germany-based Moroccan al Qaeda foreign fighter facilitator," was captured by coalition and Afghan forces on May 8 in southeast Afghanistan.

"After his capture the facilitator provided details about his personal travel from Germany," a statement from the ISAF said. "He also observed foreigners from many countries converging in Pakistan to conduct attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan."

In the same operation in Afghanistan in which the facilitator was captured, the ISAF said they recovered passports and identification cards from France, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia among 10 killed insurgents.....

Cavaet: have no idea about

artappraiser — Tue, 24 May 2011 03:47:14 +0000

In reply to Battle with militants reaches climax at Pakistan naval aviation base

Cavaet: have no idea about the trustworthiness of the reporter:

Naval base attack: Big blow to Pakistan's snooping capabilities
By Rajat Pandit, TNN (Transnational News Navigator) published @ Times of India
May 24, 2011, 02.32am IST

NEW DELHI: Pakistan has lost almost half of its sophisticated long-range maritime snooping and strike capabilities in just one well-targeted jihadi attack on naval base PNS Mehran in Karachi that ended on Monday after a 15-hour gun-battle which left 10 security persons and four attackers dead. At least two of the five P-3C Orion long-range patrol aircraft, supplied to Pakistan Navy by the US, were destroyed in the attack.

The irony is stark. Pakistan got the P-3C Orions, packed with radars and weapons like the E-2C Hawkeye 2000 airborne early-warning suites and anti-ship Harpoon missiles, from the US as part of the around $15 billion military aid in the name of the global war on terrorism over the last decade.

India cried foul, holding that Orions as well as other weapons like F-16s were clearly meant for conventional warfare, not counter-terrorism. Al-Qaida or the Taliban, after all, did not have an air force or a navy. And now, in a role reversal, the Pakistan Taliban has destroyed at least two, if not more, of the four-engine turboprop Orions, probably seeing them "as legitimate targets".

"It's quite a significant loss for Pakistan Navy...almost 50% of its long-range maritime patrol capabilities has suddenly been taken out," said an Indian Navy officer. As per Pakistan-watchers here, Pakistan is slated to get a total of 10 upgraded Orions, with eight of them supposed to arrive by 2012.

"They had five as of now, two older ones which were upgraded and three newer ones. If the two destroyed in the attack are the newer platforms, the loss will be even more significant," said another officer....

Whereas the Hindu population

Desider — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:17:09 +0000

In reply to Churchill called the exit of

Whereas the Hindu population in Pakistan keeps moving out.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2060400

http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2011/03/17/hindu-migration-a-concern-in-pakistan/

Interesting piece on Aryan origins:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/how-europeans-misappropri_b_837376.html

Churchill called the exit of

NCD — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:50:17 +0000

In reply to more nukes aren't going to

Churchill called the exit of Britain and partition of India "A Shameful Flight", which is the title of an excellent book by Stanley Wolpert from Oxford Press, the book blames the man in charge of the British exit, Lord Mountbatten, as a disinterested fool, who 'destroyed in months, what 3 generations of British and Indians had worked to create, a unified India':

Britain's precipitous and ill-planned disengagement from India in 1947--condemned as a "shameful flight" by Winston Churchill--had a truly catastrophic effect on South Asia, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead in its wake and creating a legacy of chaos, hatred, and war that has lasted over half a century.

Of course, there are more Muslims in India than Pakistan, and although their lot is not great, they show no signs of wanting to move across the border to Pak.

more nukes aren't going to

artappraiser — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:23:22 +0000

In reply to Reaping what they sow. Maybe

more nukes aren't going to solve their problems.

Yeah, ain't that story extra rich? Like nukes will get them some respect?! When otherwise, every day in sundry ways, they continue to provide evidence to the rest of the world that they're in some sort of contest to prove they're the most dysfunctional country on the planet?

I'm not naive and know that a large part of India's attitude is due to sectarian hatred, and that it also has many similar irrationalities to those of Pakistan. But still, I really have started to feel sorry for them having Pakistan as neighbors, you can't even get a straight answer from them on where they stand on anything; it's starting to occur to me it would be easier living next to North Korea or Iran.

Just an explanatory note:

artappraiser — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:21:57 +0000

In reply to Battle with militants reaches climax at Pakistan naval aviation base

Just an explanatory note: both Reuters stories I linked to had headline changes and text changes after I posted as the story developed; I have left my post the way I originally found the story at the time.

Reaping what they sow. Maybe

NCD — Mon, 23 May 2011 03:53:52 +0000

In reply to Battle with militants reaches climax at Pakistan naval aviation base

Reaping what they sow. Maybe there is still time for Pak to face the fact that India is not a threat, their home grown terror groups and 'lawless tribal regions' and sinking economy are, along with a totally corrupt government and military establishment. And more nukes aren't going to solve their problems.

Also, Dawn is headlining this

artappraiser — Mon, 23 May 2011 03:47:22 +0000

In reply to Battle with militants reaches climax at Pakistan naval aviation base

Also, Dawn is headlining this about Karachi, based on a cable from their Wikileaks Pakistan Papers:

‘Armed gangs outnumber police in Karachi’
By Idrees Bakhtiar, Dawn, May 23, 2011
KARACHI: “The police are only one of several armed groups and probably not the most numerous or best equipped,” according to a secret assessment of the ‘The Gangs of Karachi’ by then US consul general Stephen Fakan in April 2009.
The assessment focuses on the Pakistan People’s Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Awami National Party, Muhajir Qaumi Movement (H), Sunni Tehreek and “Pashtun terrorists”, besides some armed gangs operating in Lyari and other parts of this megapolis. It states that “the PPP’s decision to include MQM in coalition governments in Sindh and at the centre has helped preclude a return to the PPP-MQM violence of the 1990s. But the potential for MQM-ANP conflict is growing as Pashtuns challenge Muhajir political dominance and vie for control of key economic interests, such as the lucrative trucking industry.
“Any sign that political violence is returning to Karachi, especially if it is related to the growing strength of conservative Pashtun ‘Taliban’, will send extremely negative shockwaves through the society and likely accelerate the flight from Pakistan of the business and intellectual elite of the society,” the report says....