India-Pakistan: We Love Our Islamic Terrorists

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August 16, 2006: Separatist violence continues in India's northeast, as Assam tribal rebels increased their attacks on army and police patrols. The army suspended many of its operations in the last week, as a peace gesture towards the main tribal separatist group, the ULFA. One faction of the ULFA, which has been fighting for nearly three decades, is holding out for the release of senior ULFA leaders held in Indian prisons.
August 15, 2006: The investigation of the British aircraft bombing plat indicates that large amounts of money may have been diverted from funds donated for earthquake relief in northern Pakistan. The bomb plotters had access to large amounts of cash, wired from Pakistan, which they used to buy three safe-houses, for over a million dollars in cash, chemicals and other equipment. Corruption and charities have long gone together. Charities have been caught diverting money to Islamic terrorists, and money donated for disaster relief is always at risk of being stolen before it gets to the victims.
The reason Pakistan so often shows up when there's a major Islamic terrorist plot is because, for nearly three decades, senior members of the Pakistani government, and military, have been believers in Islamic conservatism. That includes the imposition of Islamic law. This sort of thinking became popular in the 1970s, after many Pakistani military officers came to believe that Islamic radicalism was the only way to save Pakistan from its corrupt and inefficient ways. However, these Islamic militants are a minority in Pakistan, and are unable to force their views on the entire population. But these Islamic radicals are able to keep the government from destroying terrorist training camps, or launching an all-out efforts to round up all Islamic terrorists in the country.
In eastern India, hundreds of special police were deployed to prevent Maoist rebels from disrupting independence day celebrations. At least four Maoists were caught and arrested.
August 14, 2006: In Pakistani Baluchistan, two bombs went off in market places, killing two and wounding nine. These attacks appear to be the work of tribesmen trying to force the government to share more oil and gas revenue with the tribes.
August 12, 2006: Baluchi rebels blew up a portion of a gas pipeline in Pakistani Baluchistan.
August 11, 2006: Pakistani counter-terror forces arrested several Britons of Pakistani ancestry, as suspects in a plot to set off bombs on ten airliners flying out of Britain. Such plots tend to have connections to Pakistan because Islamic terrorists can still maintain secure bases and training facilities in Pakistan. Thus it is in Pakistan that technical details, and often specialist training, for such plots can be worked out.
Pro-Taliban tribesmen fired 122mm and 107mm rockets at army bases South Waziristan (Northwest Pakistan). The unguided rockets didn't hit anything.

 

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