India-Pakistan: The Frontier Is On Fire

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October 8, 2007: In northwest Pakistan, pro-Taliban tribesman captured another 35 soldiers, while army attempts to locate and free such captives left another twenty tribesmen dead. Another army convoy was also attacked, killing one soldiers. The fighting in the last month has left about a hundred soldiers and policemen dead, along with some 500 tribesmen.

October 7, 2007: Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf won the presidential elections held yesterday. The voters were the members of parliament and provincial assemblies. Musharraf's political opponents boycotted the election, and the Supreme Court has to rule on the legality of Musharraf as a candidate. This may take 9-15 days. Musharraf has been feuding with the lawyers and the Supreme Court. General Ashfaq Kiyani, the former commander of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, succeeded Pervez Musharraf as head of the armed forces. Musharraf gave up that job as part of political deals he made to win the presidential election.

October 6, 2007: In Kashmir, Indian border troops killed seven Islamic terrorists trying to cross over from Pakistan. Two soldiers were also killed. In Pakistan's North Waziristan. 65 pro-Taliban tribesmen and twenty troops were killed in a battle. Elsewhere in the area, a suicide bomber, disguised as a woman, attacked a police checkpoint, killing himself, four policemen and ten civilians.

October 5, 2007: In northwest Pakistan, pro-Taliban tribesman murdered three of the 225 soldiers they captured, along with a stalled (by a landslide) convoy in August. The tribesmen demanded the army withdraw from several checkpoints, or three soldiers a day will be killed.

October 4, 2007: In Kashmir, several days of operations in a remote area left nine Islamic terrorists and two soldiers dead. In northeast India, security forces killed seven separatist rebels.

October 3, 2007: The Pakistani government dropped corruption charges against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who heads one of the powerful families and has enormous political support. This is apparently part of a deal to get Bhutto support for the election of current president Musharraf. The amnesty deal included a number of former political leaders, except Musharraf's immediate predecessor, Nawaz Sharif. Corruption is the biggest problem in Pakistan, crippling the economy, justice system and government. Everyone desires an end to the corruption, and those efforts have forced many prominent, and corrupt into exile, or jail. But these efforts are regularly reversed by political deals.

Meanwhile, in North Waziristan, the center of Taliban power in Pakistan, a bus hit a landmine, killing 14 people. Elsewhere in the area, troops killed ten Taliban supporters in a clash.

October 2, 2007: In northwest Pakistan, 150 pro-Taliban tribesman surrounded an army checkpoint and captured the 25 soldiers manning it.

 

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