India-Pakistan: Terrorism as an Export

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January11, 2007: Pakistan has a bigger problem with terrorism than does India. Last year, India, with a population of 1.08 billion, had 2.56 terror related deaths per million population. Pakistan, with 166 million people, had 5.46 dead per million. As in India, not all the Pakistani terror activities were connected with Islamic radicalism. Tribal separatism in Baluchistan led to 31 percent of the deaths. Nearly all the remaining deaths were related to Taliban activities along the Afghan border, or fighting between different religious sects (particularly Sunni and Shia zealots) throughout the country. Pakistan also exports a lot of Islamic terror to Indian Kashmir and Afghanistan. There were 1,552 terrorism related arrests in Pakistan (70 percent of them Taliban, three percent al Qaeda, 13 percent other Islamic militants, and 14 percent separatists.)

In northwest India, separatists and security forces have been fighting for nearly a week, with over sixty dead, most of them rebels and civilians. The separatists have been attacking migrant workers, and thousand of these workers have, with their families, fled back into non-tribal India.

In Bangladesh, political violence, mainly party partisans fighting it out in the streets, has left over fifty dead in the last ten weeks. The main dispute is over the honesty of upcoming elections.

January 10, 2007: Pakistan will bar some Pushtun and Baluchi tribesmen from crossing the border into Afghanistan. Those tribes that have clans on both sides of the border, will be able to cross freely. Others will not. Those banned will still be able to get across, using more difficult "smugglers routes." But these illegal crossers will be more vulnerable to arrest by Afghan police, or getting killed by bandits or security forces, as they sneak across. Pakistan is also beginning a new system of issuing photo ID to Pakistanis crossing into Afghanistan, to help keep track of line crossers.

In Baluchistan, separatist rebels are becoming more active, shooting at police and soldiers, and firing rockets at army camps.

January 9, 2007: In recent weeks, Pakistani Islamic terrorists, trained in terror camps located in Pakistan, have been turning up in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Britain and Somalia. It's becoming more difficult for Pakistan to deny that it is harboring major terrorist organizations within its borders. Meanwhile, a bomb went off at a rally held for Islamic conservatives in Pakistan, wounding four people. The government was blamed, but a competing Islamic conservative group was more likely.

In eastern India, four Maoist rebels were killed in a clash with police.

January 8, 2007: Because so many Pakistani police are incompetent and corrupt, Islamic terrorists can usually beat the system, with the help of a good lawyer, and walk.

January 7, 2007: In Baluchistan (southwest Pakistan), police arrested ten Taliban, who were staying at a religious school. Arrests were also made for a recent attack on the rail line connecting Baluchistan with Punjab.

January 6, 2007: While Iran makes threats to the Arabs and the West, all is cozy with Pakistan. Iran is going to sell natural gas to Pakistan, via a pipeline both nations will build. Pakistan approves of Iran's "nuclear power project" (and has already sold Iran nuclear weapons technology, and apologized to the West for it.)

January 5, 2007: In Pakistan, along the Afghan border, the Taliban tribes are spreading their influence to some of the towns. Previously, the Taliban stuck to the rural villages, but now they are moving in to the towns that do not have policemen assigned full time. There, the Taliban carry out vigilante justice against local criminals, and those considered un-Islamic (stores selling music and videos, schools teaching girls and foreign NGOs.) The police can track this by calling these towns, which they only visit in emergencies, and inquire if one can still buy videos. When the police show up, the Taliban depart, with the promise that they will return when the police leave. The government has not got the money to put police in hundreds of smaller towns.

 

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