Pakistani lawyers shouting anti-Musharraf slogans during a demonstration in Islamabad. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has announced that elections will be held before Feb. 15 and confirmed his pledge to quit as army chief, state media said. [Xinhua] (click here)
Afghan men cover grave of one of the lawmakers killed in Tuesday's suicide bombing during the funeral in Kabul, Afghanistan ,Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007. Security was tight in Kabul on Thursday as thousands of people attended the funeral for lawmakers killed in Afghanistan's deadliest-ever suicide attack.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Afghans Bury MPs After Suicide Attack (click here)
By AMIR SHAH – 12 hours ago
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hundreds of weeping relatives rushed toward the grave of Afghanistan's leading opposition spokesman, who was buried Thursday along with four other legislators killed in the country's deadliest suicide attack since the Taliban's ouster.
Thousands gathered to bury Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, the other lawmakers and their bodyguards, who were among the 73 people, most of them children, slain in Tuesday's bombing.
Clerics recited prayers and local and international dignitaries stood by in silence as the flag-draped coffins of the legislators and their bodyguards were lowered into the ground near Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul.
A sixth was to be buried in the southern province of Helmand....
Where there are two there are many.
The U.S-led Coalition forces identify Taliban explosive handlers (click here)
www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-08 13:39:47
KABUL, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-led Coalition forces identified two Taliban members detained during the Oct. 23 operation in central Afghan province of Wardak, said a coalition statement released on Thursday.
Jawed, aka Latif Allah, and Mohammadullah were detained by the Coalition forces in the Nerkh District during the operation to disrupt Suicide Improvised Explosive Device (IED) facilitator, the statement said.
During detention, Jawed admitted to being a Taliban explosive handler and providing a landmine to an unnamed Taliban commander, it said.
Both Jawed and Mohammadullah's fingerprints were discovered ona cache of IED construction materials which included several fuses, electrical cords and detonation cords, it said.
According to intelligence reports, both detainees are associates of a known Taliban commander responsible for training suicide IED bombers as well as having foreign fighter facilitator ties, it said.
"Coalition forces will continue to aggressively pursue SIED cells and their purveyors to ensure the safety and security of the people of Afghanistan." Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman said.
Some 55,000 foreign troops are being deployed in the country keeping security and fighting against the insurgents.
Militancy and conflicts have claimed the lives of more than 5,600 people including over 1,200 civilians so far this year in the war-torn Afghanistan.
Pak Taliban captures third town in Swat (click here)
Peshawar, Nov 7: Pakistani Taliban have captured a third town in the Swat region of Waziristan Province.
Police said that militants seized the town of Madyan and hoisted flags over buildings.
“They seized Madyan town, they have overrun Matta and Khwazakhela towns in their earlier push,” the Dawn quoted police official, as saying.
According to sources, police gave up their weapons, vehicles and control of local police stations. The militants are continuing their advance, the sources added.
A Swat police official said that helicopter gunships are on their way to target militant positions in the area.
Meanwhile, Taliban leader Maulvi Fazalullah is moving around half of the Swat area like a ruler with full protocol. He has appointed his own ‘governors’ in Tehsil Kabal, Matta and Khawazkhela. (ANI)
Pak losing territory to pro-Taliban rebels (click here)
8 Nov 2007, 0058 hrs
IST,TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Pakistan is fast losing chunks of its territory to pro-Taliban rebels. On Wednesday, it lost yet another town in the picturesque valley of Swat to the rebels with which, say officials privately, as much as 70% of the valley’s 94-km stretch is under the control of Mullah Fazlullah’s band of automatic-toting militants. Reports said that the militants have taken control of key towns like Matta, Khazakhela, Madyan and Charbagh. According to one agency report, the town of Kalam, too, has fallen to the militants after dozens of paramilitary troops and policemen surrendered their weapons. Before capturing Kalam, the militants captured Bahrain, a strategic town poised over the raging Swat river. At a number of government offices in these towns, the Pakistani flag was brought down and replaced by black-and-white flags, reminiscent of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. By Wednesday evening, Fazlullah’s private FM radio station (because of which the cleric is known as "Mullah Radio") was proclaiming the territorial gains....
The area around Benazir Bhutto’s residence in Islamabad was sealed off by the police. (click here)
A new bench of Supreme Court judges loyal to the president was sworn in this week. In his statement on Thursday, made after a meeting of his national security council, General Musharraf seemed to indicate that he would be sworn in as a civilian president after the Supreme Court deemed his re-election valid.
But he gave no precise indication when the court would meet or when he expected to start his new presidential term.
Ms. Bhutto, who survived a bomb attack on her return to Pakistan last month, returned to Pakistan on the understanding that she would participate in elections after living abroad for years to avoid corruption charges.
Until now, the brunt of the resistance has been led almost single-handedly by lawyers in urban areas who have been rounded up and held in jails by the hundreds....
She was out of the country. I don't recall a mention of her return, but, I could have missed it and is this a symbolic confinement?
Bhutto placed under house arrest (click here)
From the Associated Press
9:43 PM PST, November 8, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani police backed by armored vehicles surrounded the Islamabad home of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Friday, and a security official said she had been placed under house arrest ahead of a major protest.
The move against Bhutto came amid a broader crackdown on her supporters, who were planning to rally near Islamabad against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. Bhutto's party said some 5,000 of its supporters have been rounded up in the last three days, and riot police were out in force in nearby Rawalpindi, the city where Friday's rally was to take place.
A security official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Bhutto had been place under house arrest. He did not elaborate.
Amid the growing unrest, Musharraf's said Thursday that parliamentary elections will he held by mid-February, a month later than planned. Musharraf's announcement came a day after President Bush urged him to hold the vote on time.
Bhutto denounced Musharraf's pledge as insufficient and said he should step down as army chief within a week....
Musharraf knows Bhutto is in control and he's fighting it, that is why he hasn't relinquished status and won't in attempt to stop the effect of her presence. She knows. She knows what she is doing but there is always an element of uncertainty. There is too much success in the field of militias from the tribal areas and in Kashmir. India has their hands full. To call the circumstances anything but uncertain if foolish.
These were the 2002 elections in Pakistan. There are oppressive rules to Pakistan's elections. And those rules are probably in the progress of being changed if Musharraf is thinking about eletions next year (click on).
Too much going on. A lot of unrest. A lot of opportunity for overthrow and who knows what will happen to the military instillations. I don't take anything Perez states as fact. He cannot guarnatee his government, it's authority or stability. Too many power shifts and desperation. He is attempting to use THE SAME strategies of the past to 'hold onto' his authority. I don't think it's working at all. Bhutto is applying a lot of pressure and the Pakistani people want it. Anything is possible.
Analysts on Emergency Rule in Pakistan (click here for audio)
...The ousted chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is urging those lawyers who have taken to the streets in Pakistan’s major cities to continue defying de facto martial law. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party who recently returned home after 8 years of self-imposed exile, accuses General Musharraf of having removed “all pretense of a transition to democracy” by conducting an extra-constitutional “coup.” Although General Musharraf said Thursday that general elections will take place before February 15 – a month later than originally scheduled – Ms. Bhutto has pledged to move ahead with plans to hold a rally on Friday, November 9, 2007 in Rawalpindi against his declaration of emergency rule. And on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - opponents of emergency rule would begin a “long march” across the Punjab from Lahore to Islamabad....
The balance of peace with Musharraf leading both the military and government is outrageously tenuous and should have never been a priority of the USA. Bush could be impeached for playing footsie with a coup leader. The USA has laws against such dealings. The Middle East is in chronic disruption of stability. There better be a plan to take out Pakistan nukes in place by every major nuclear power on the globe including France, if Perez so much as opens his silos. There better be and it needs to be in place now ! There is a very disquieting rumble to Musharraf's tenacity and Pakistan is quickly sinking into disruption of it's status among nations. He was buoyed for years now, but, with increasing aggression by the tribal areas against his government and the return of Bhutto to attempt to stabilize it, and now house arrest of her, there is an underlying 'frenzy' of his power 'shifts' that dictate overbearing concern for immediate resolve to stability. His is more than nervous. There needs to be international resonance on the instability and the nuclear threat. His nukes are known to be reliable. India needs back up. What is Kashmir doing?
Gunbattle enters third day in Indian Kashmir, leaving 3 soldiers, 2 rebels dead, army says (click here)
SRINAGAR, India: A fierce gunbattle between government troops and suspected Islamic rebels raged for a third day in Indian-controlled Kashmir Thursday, police and army officials said.
Three soldiers and two suspected Islamic rebels have been killed in the fighting as government forces battle militants in Pattan, a town 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, said Col. Majinder Singh, an Indian army spokesman.
The firefight started late Tuesday when suspected rebels hurled grenades and opened fire on an army patrol in Pattan, Singh said.
One soldier was killed Tuesday and two others on Wednesday.
The fierce battle continued to rage Thursday afternoon and troops recovered the body of a suspected rebel from a gutted house, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Another rebel body had been found Wednesday.
Today in Asia - Pacific
including an army officer have been wounded so far....
The USA military needs to 'statically' redesign their deployments in the region. This is more of an emergency than preceived, in my estimation. A while back when Hillary called for 'contingency plans' it was estimated it would take 3 months to move soldiers from Iraq. I suggest those measures start to be deployed to make a statement to Perez and now. Things have been going badly in the entire region of Afghanistan and the 'idea' that any foothold of authority of those two nations are in the balance is not an unreasonable thought.
Another Militant Killed Crossing Kashmir Border (click here)
By Fayaz Wani
Srinagar, Nov 8: The Indian army today said they foiled yet another attempt by militants to cross into Kashmir from a Pakistani controlled area, killing a militant.
An army spokesman in Srinagar said that army personnel deployed along the frontier with Pakistan noticed militants trying to infiltrate into this side of Kashmir from Keran sector in the border district of Kupwara, some 136 kms from the summer capital Srinagar.
He said the security personnel rushed towards the spot and challenged the militants to surrender. "The militants opened fire on the soldiers. The fire was returned by the troops and in the ensuing gunfight, which lasted for four hours, a militant was killed", the Indian army spokesman said.
He, said however, that combing operations were continuing in the area to flush out the militants, who might have escaped during the course of the gunfight....
