RACKET BUSTED: BSF officials showing the fake Indian currency notes worth Rs 65 lakhs, recovered from two Pakistani smugglers at Naushehra Dallahan village near Indo-Pak international border, about 55 kms from Amritsar. Photo: PTI
48 officials arrested in Orissa mining scam (click here)
Posted on Apr 03, 2010 at 20:52Bhubaneshwar: Orissa Police have arrested 48 officials from different companies in Keonjhar district for allegedly running a racket transporting illegal iron ores from Orissa across Jharkhand with the alleged connivance of railway officials.
"The investigation is progressing. Based on evidence 48 officials have been arrested and investigation will continue. Whoever will be guilty will be brought to book. The transportation of ores was being carried out by a mafia," said Orissa Steel and Mines Secretary Ashok Dalwai.
Understanding of the Local Situation (click here)
Other local and regional circumstances need to be taken into account. Among these is the mistrust of local leaders in the central authority in Kabul, Peshawar and Islamabad. Pakistani authorities in Islamabad have not forgotten that at the time of independence in 1947 , the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) wanted to opt for India rather than for Pakistan!
Religious divisions between Sunni and Shia have traditionally been more pronounced in Afghanistan. The Shias of the Hazara area in central Afghanistan, in Helmand Province and other parts of south-western Afghanistan are inherently in conflict with the Sunni majority in Kabul. Since Iran has expanded its involvement in the AfPak area, Sunni-Shia confrontations are on the increase in Pakistan.
Feudalism, poverty and corruption* all have been an inherent part of life in the AfPak area. They are three elements which have considerable influence on today’s crises in the two countries.
* ‘Corruption’ is a term which unfortunately is used abroad in a simplistic and undifferentiated manner. It does not take into account the many forms so-called ‘corruption’ can take from simple favouratism based on local traditions to modern criminal acts of dishonesty. There is no single approach in dealing with Afghan behaviour that foreign politicians conveniently describe as ‘corruption.’
The UN identifies Afghanistan as one of the poorest countries in the world with an average life expectancy of only 42 years, an adult literacy rate of around 28% and a mortality rate of children under five of 297/1000. The picture in the tribal belt of Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan is not any different.
India has never fully accepted that three of its western provinces (Sind, Baluchistan and NWFP) and parts of the Punjab were taken away in 1947 to form today’s Pakistan. This explains to some extent the interest India has shown since then in maintaining a strong political foothold in Afghanistan....
Al Qaeda in the AfPak strategy (click here)
By Marc Lynch 
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - 1:27 PM
...I am more concerned with an issue more in the areas where I focus: the relationship between al Qaeda Central and the broader network of affiliated movements (AQAM, in the lingo) and like-minded individuals (which me might call AQN, the al Qaeda Network). A key part of the Obama administration's strategy has been a very successful reorientation of America's relationship with the Muslim world, downplaying al Qaeda and refusing to allow that extremist fringe to hijack or monopolize those vital relationships. But the new focus on al Qaeda in the AfPak strategy threatens to reverse that vital achievement ... and even to revive al Qaeda's flagging fortunes in the wider Muslim world.
In part, this refects a debate which has been raging for years over the importance of AQC to the wider network of salafi-jihadist groups and individuals. The Obama administration's Afghanistan strategy seems to have taken one side in that debate –- but whether that is because it is correct, or because it is useful to justify an Afghan military strategy chosen for other reasons, is hugely important.
For Bruce Hoffmann and other "Centralists," al Qaeda Central continues to play an extremely important role in guiding, shaping, arming, and directing the seemingly inchoate network of jihadists. They point to evidence of contacts between the perpetrators of well-known cases and AQC affiliated people in Pakistan or elsewhere. They point to the deluge of AQ propaganda still pouring out of al-Sahab and other jihadist media outlets. On the other side, Marc Sageman and other "bunch of guys" analysts see the threat as primarily one of a very loosely affiliated network of like-minded individuals and organizations who neither need nor want direction from AQC. If AQC was needed as a spark to light the fire, it is no longer needed to keep the fires burning or new fires from breaking out when local conditions come together...
Orissa requires more time to start anti-Maoist operation (click here)
"Though the BSF battalions have arrived they need to undergo familiarisation training before starting the joint operation ... They need to know the topography of the area where they will have to fight against unknown enemies," Prakash Mishra, chief of anti-Maoist operation in Orissa, told PTI today.
Five battalions of BSF have reached the state for joint operations in Koraput-Malkangiri-Dantewada axis along the border....
