India-Pakistan: Taking It Out On The People

Archives

June 28, 2006: The 32 month truce between India and Pakistan is holding, at least as far as conventional forces are concerned. There have been no border incidents in all that time, involving regular forces. But Islamic militants continue to run their training camps in Pakistan, and move terrorists across the border into Indian Kashmir. It's believed that there are about 1,600 Islamic terrorists active in Kashmir. But the difficulty in getting weapons across the border means that most of the terrorists don't have weapons. Most terrorist activity has been directed at the local Moslem population, in order to hurt police intelligence efforts. The police and army have managed to keep their own casualties low, with only about 25 police and soldiers killed or wounded in the first six months of the year. Most of the casualties have been terrorists or civilians.

June 27, 2006: In Pakistani Baluchistan, tribal separatists launched rocket attacks at army camps, and blew up another pipeline. Pakistan said it was sending 10,000 more troops to the Afghan border. In eastern India's Chhattisgarh state, Maoists violence left nearly about a dozen dead over the last few days. The Maoists are continuing attacks on tribal leaders, in order to shut down police intelligence networks in rural areas. Police and troops are chasing after the Maoist gunmen, and frequently catching up with them and resulting in gun battles.

June 26, 2006: In the Pakistani tribal region of north Waziristan, a suicide bomber hit an army checkpoint, killing seven and wounding about twenty.

June 25, 2006: In the Pakistani tribal region of north Waziristan, the pro-Taliban tribes are asking for a truce, and a lifting of government checkpoints on the main roads. The army uses control of these roads to apply economic pressure on the rebellious tribes.

June 23, 2006: Baluchi warlords near the Iranian border are running a people smuggling operation. Recently, some of their "clients" (and those smuggled by other groups) were captured and expelled from Iran. The local warlord took the foreigners into custody and is now trying to extort more money from the families of the captives. The government doesn't want to get involved, because they have their hands full with Taliban and Baluchi separatist gunmen.

June 22, 2006: In Baluchistan, the army has forced the rebels from the Dera Bugti to abandon their fortified compounds and head for the hills. There, the tribesmen are conducting guerilla warfare. The army has an edge because of helicopters and warplanes, and it's more difficult for the tribesmen to get from their rural hideouts, to targets they want to attack.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close