India-Pakistan: Terrorists Trounced in the Tribal Territories

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November 3, 2009: Two weeks of fighting in South Waziristan have left nearly 400 Taliban and al Qaeda dead, along with about 40 soldiers. Nearly has many Pakistani civilians and security personnel have been killed by terror attacks. While there are high (media) profile operations, they have little impact on Pakistani military capabilities, and have increased public support for the military offensive in the tribal territories.

Pakistan has seven brigades of troops advancing into South Waziristan, while another seven brigades guard the roads and easy escape routes. Some of the terrorists will escape, but it won't be easy. With Winter beginning, it will be dangerous trying to sneak out of the area cross country. The South Waziristan operation has destroyed dozens of terrorist safe houses, training areas and weapons storage sites. Large quantities of documents have been seized. This included passports belonging to known terrorists who had been involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and subsequent operations in Europe and Arab countries.

The Pakistani army has captured several towns and villages in South Waziristan, including Krama and Kanigurram, which were known bases for various local and foreign terrorist groups. For years, Pakistan insisted that there were no such terrorist bases in the tribal territories. The army expects to be done with South Waziristan by the end of the year, At that point, there might be a similar operation in North Waziristan, unless enough of the tribes up there agree to cooperate in clearing out Islamic terror groups. With each such operations, the Islamic terrorist groups become weaker, but do not disappear. As long as the Islamic terrorists have cash and a few guns, they can find a new place to hide in the tribal territories, or across the border in Afghanistan. But while on the run, the Islamic terrorists are much less effective. Since these groups thrive from the publicity their violent attacks produce, less violence will kill them.

Across the country, Pakistani police have been rounding up the usual terrorist suspects, resulting in over a thousand arrests. This even includes some terrorist groups that had long been tolerated because most of their operations were against India. But now Pakistan is accusing India of supporting Islamic terror groups inside Pakistan. No proof is offered, but it is important for the Pakistani government to deflect blame from itself, for tolerating, and even encouraging, Islamic radical groups for the last three decades. The current round of Islamic terror attacks on Pakistani civilians has the country in an uproar, and politicians and religious leaders are demanding that something be done. Several hundred foreigners (most of them Arabs) in cities, like Karachi, have been arrested.

The UN has ordered its foreign staff out of the Pakistani tribal territories, because of the danger of kidnapping, or getting killed by a terrorist attack. Islamic terrorists consider the UN hostile to Islam, and a front for espionage.

November 2, 2009: In Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Islamic terrorists set off a bomb 500 meters from army headquarters, killing at least 35 people. Pakistan is offering a reward of $5 million for Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

November 1, 2009: In Indian Kashmir, Islamic terrorists killed two policemen. Near the Khyber Pass, in Pakistan, Islamic terrorists destroyed a girl's school.

October 31, 2009: In Pakistan, seven soldiers were killed near the Khyber pass, by a roadside bomb.

October 30, 2009: India accused Pakistan of violating the ceasefire in Kashmir, by firing 14 mortar shells at Indian troops, who were chasing down Islamic terrorists trying to cross the border (LOC or Line of Control.)

October 28, 2009: In Indian Kashmir, three Islamic terrorists were killed in two separate incidents.

October 27, 2009:  Islamic terrorists struck back with a suicide car bomb in Peshawar, Pakistan, the largest city in the tribal territories, going off in a marker place, killing over a hundred, mostly women and children. In western India, a train with nearly 700 people on board, was seized by Maoist rebels. Police later drove the rebels away. Because of this, and several other recent attacks on trains, more police and troops are being assigned to guard trains that pass through Maoist infested territory.