Afghan Press Author: Rooh-ul-Amin

The civilian government with the military support defied US new strategy signed by president Bush for operating within Pakistan territory to fight militancy, according to Pakistani officials and US.

Looking at the sensitivity Chief of Army Staff, Pervez Ashfaq Kayani convened a top summit meeting of military officials in GHQ and the nation for the first time hailed its bold decision not letting foreign troops to carry out their anti-terrorism US strategies on a foreign land.

A private channel conducted a voxpops to judge the public reaction at the recent series of US incursion into Pakistan territory.

Majority of them expressed their vehement opposition to the US strategies and shared sympathies with their tribal brethren. It showed that even the most creamy and educated class is getting closer to the Taliban because the wrong policies of Bush administration.

An interviewee lashed that it was a great cruelty with the tribal not safeguarding them adding that if it had occurred in Islamabad, Lahore or any other city of Pakistan then how the government would have reacted that might have yielded different results but our tribal brothers are bearing the weight of so-called war on terror since the US invasion in Afghanistan. Sharing the sympathy with their tribal brothers activists of civil society staged a protest demonstration in Islamabad against the government oblivion in protecting the civilians.

It was the true reflection of the FATA residents and felt a sense of kinship. For the last few years the tribals were feeling a sense of alienation in their own country but it is on the verge of heeling.

This is the sentiment that intruders and foreign agencies have exploited well for their ends in turning the tribal as adversaries for their own Army.

Though the anti-US sentiment is vehement among the tribal but anti-Pak army is prevailing in Biatullah Mehsud and Co.

The statement of Zardari the newly elected president of Pakistan, dismayed further the public when he lashed that the issue must be consulted with UN where as for the public UN is a stooge dancing to tunes of US and instrumental in safeguarding American interests.

Senior U.S. defence officials informed Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani last month that if Pakistan failed to stem the flow of Taliban and other militant fighters into Afghanistan, the United States would adopt a new strategy, one that would include ground strikes on insurgent hideouts in Pakistan. But a senior Pakistani official said Kayani believed the strategy was still under discussion and that Pakistan’s counterinsurgency planning and operation against terror was improving.

Following a strike last week by helicopter-borne US commando on a village about 20 miles inside Pakistan the news of US president and Mike Mullin, was denounced by the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, who reiterated Kayani’s earlier statement that the attacks have violated the sovereignty of a sovereign sate.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said at a news conference in Kabul that he approved the US new strategy, citing the need to “remove and destroy” insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan. But North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) a US oriented defence alliance formed in April 1949, said it had no intention of sending any of the 48,000 troops under its command in Afghanistan across the border. United Nations mandate for NATO does not include “ground or air incursions into Pakistani territory,” said spokesman James Appathurai. Whereas US has already violated UN resolution No: 1354 that dose not permit American led forces to be acceded than 14000 in Afghanistan. It has stationed more than 70,000 troops and for US it is looking scant to grapple with terrorism thus American president Bush has declared that a Marine battalion would be deployed to Afghanistan in November to be followed by an army combat unit in January. The present troops have been divided into two, one under the command of NATO and the other under the US Central Command. US military has alleged that safe havens within and out of Afghanistan have inflicted a heavy loss at them in men and material and the current step and decision was taken to weed out terrorism of the region.

Two U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan on Thursday, made 2008 the deadliest year for American forces since U.S. troops invaded the country in 2001. But the same year proved more deadly and fatal for Pukhtoons. Looking at the sensitivity Pak army expedited its war on terror to check further US attacks in tribal regions and to efface the stigma that Pakistan has received in world community for not safeguarding its public against a foreign aggression.

More than 47 Taliban including seven foreigners were killed and over 50 injured as security forces backed by jet fighters and gunship helicopters continued shelling militant hideouts in various parts of Bajaur Agency on Friday. Twenty militants were also netted during the operation.

Security forces also destroyed Darul Kafala of banned group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan situated in Inayat Kallay.

Jet fighters and gunship helicopters pulverized militant positions with shells and bombs.

Security forces after consolidating their positions in Khar, Nawagai and Loi Sam were heading towards Chaharmang and Zorbandar areas while one Pak-Army Major Asad Akbar of Mardan and seven security men have been killed in the ongoing operation. Major Asad was laid to rest at his native village Qasmi in Mardan.

Ground forces backed by helicopter gunships, planes and tanks pounded suspected militant positions in Rashakai, Loi Sam, Bai Cheena, Banda, Kerala, Damadola and other areas, damaging dozens of hideouts and shops.

According to local population during the operation a huge number of non-combatant civilians has been killed.

Moreover hundreds of families were trapped in the embattled areas because of continuous shelling and an undeclared curfew in the region.

Khar, the regional headquarter, remained peaceful with the proliferation of Levies personnel patrolling the main bazaar.

There is a severe shortage of edible commodities and medicines in the region and telephone lines in various areas have been discarded.

PESHAWAR: Acting President of Pakistan Dr Fehmida Mirza appeasing an internally displaced woman from Bajaur during cheque distribution ceremony at Chief Minister House during her emergent visit to Peshawar on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD: Activists of Civil Society chanting slogans against Pakistan Army for not ensuring border protection and the recent series of US attackes into Pakistani territory.