India-Pakistan: The Talibans Semi-Secret Supporter

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January23, 2007: In Pakistan, the government has started destroying illegal religious schools. This has resulted in threats of mass demonstrations and violence by Islamic conservatives. But the government is tired of the many religious schools that mainly turn out terrorists.

January 22, 2007: In Karachi, Pakistan, police arrested a senior leader of the largest Sunni terrorist group in city. Sunni and Shia terrorist groups have been fighting each other for decades, mainly because Sunnis consider Shia heretics. This violence would be big news if it weren't for the even greater violence on the Afghan border.

January 21, 2007: In northwest India, tribal rebels launched more terror attacks, killing or wounding over twenty people.

January 20, 2007: In Pakistan, Pushtun tribesmen blocked the road to Afghanistan, to protest poor electricity supplies. The power is interrupted more often, but power companies are reluctant to invest in the unruly tribal territories. Meanwhile, growing revenues from the Afghan drug trade are bringing more electricity guzzling gadgets to the region.

In central India, police clashed with communist rebels, killing five of them.

January 19, 2007: Pakistani police have arrested 400 men suspected of belonging to the Taliban. But some locals say the police often arrest those who refuse to join the Taliban, for operations in Afghanistan.

January 18, 2007: In southwest Pakistan (Baluchistan), tribal rebels continue to set off bombs and snipe at army bases. Low level stuff that won't go away.

January 17, 2007: The recent capture, in Afghanistan, of Taliban communications director, Abdul Haq, has led to some embarrassing revelations. Haq, who has held his job for about 14 months, admitted that the recent increase in Taliban activity was facilitated by Pakistani intelligence (the CIA-like ISI). Pakistan has long denied this, but then they have to do that. ISI is an organization that has long been tainted by the disease (Islamic radicalism) that it is assigned to control. Very curious situation, but the same could be said of Pakistani politics in general. The Haq revelations, which included lots of details, has forced Pakistan to get more involved with pressuring ISI to cut support to the Taliban. There's no guarantee that will happen. Haq also became yet another source of reports that Taliban chief, Mullah Omar, is in the border city of Quetta, under ISI protection.

In northwest India, tribal rebels set off a bomb in a market, killing two civilians.

 

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