January4, 2007: The Pakistani strategy of getting Pushtun tribal chiefs to agree to keep al Qaeda and Taliban out, has failed. The U.S. and Afghanistan are increasing the pressure on Pakistan to admit to the failure, and to get in there with some more tangible methods to shut down the terrorist sanctuaries on their territory. This could get ugly. If the Pakistanis refuse (because fighting the Islamic conservative tribesmen is unpopular with many Pakistanis), then the U.S. and Afghanistan could declare the tribal areas as uncontrolled, and fair game for self-defense operations. That would mean Afghan and American forces chasing terrorists into the Pakistani tribal territories ("hot pursuit"). Pakistan won't like that, but are they willing to go to war with the United States over Pakistan's failure to eliminate terrorist bases in Pakistan?

January 3, 2007: Pakistani troops are compiling data on where the most illegal crossings of the Afghan border occur. Based on this list, fences and minefields will be built in the most trafficked areas. This will force line-crossers to use more difficult (and time consuming) terrain to get across.

January 1, 2007: China, in cooperation with European partners, is offering to upgrade Pakistan's antiquated air-defense system. India has warplanes, like the Su-30, that can fly higher (over 75,000 feet) than any current Pakistani anti-aircraft weapons can reach. While Pakistan has some F-16s that can intercept, this situation leaves Pakistani targets vulnerable to air-delivered Indian nuclear bombs.

December 31, 2006: In southwest Pakistan (Baluchistan), troops and helicopters were used to find and destroy several bases used by rebels of the Bugti tribe. The Bugti are still angry over an air strike last year that killed their tribal chief. The government promised more violence if the Bugti don't settle down, and most of the Bugti have shown better behavior.

December 28, 2006: Despite the Winter weather, Islamic terrorists continue attempting to cross the Line of Control, from Pakistan into India. Border guards spotted three men trying to cross, fired on, and killed them. In addition to AK-47s, the men were carrying two radios, for communicating across the border. Those terrorists that do get across the border, find themselves dealing with an increasingly hostile Moslem population. More of the terrorism activity is directed at these uncooperative Moslems, who respond by being more cooperative with the security forces, making life more dangerous for the Islamic radicals.

In southern India, a top Maoist rebel leader was killed. The man, Chandramouli, had a $23,000 (million rupee) price on his head. Maoist violence is a major source of terrorism related deaths in India. Only about 40 percent of 2,765 terrorism related fatalities in India in 2006 occurred in Kashmir, which gets most of the attention. But 27 percent of the deaths were due to leftist terror groups, mainly those describing themselves as Maoist. The rest of the terrorist deaths were at the hands of tribal separatists in the northeast, and Islamic terrorists operating outside Kashmir.