Pakistan Senator says Obama pressure on militants hurts Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: President Barack Obama’s warning to Islamabad over suspected ties to militants will only fuel anti-Americanism and make it harder for Pakistan to support U.S. efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, a senior senator said on Friday.

Pakistan is seen as critical to bringing peace to neighbouring Afghanistan, but the United States has failed to persuade it to go after militant groups it says cross the border to attack Western forces in Afghanistan.

“This is not helping either the United States, Afghanistan or Pakistan,” Salim Saifullah, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, told Reuters.

“There will be pressure on the (Pakistan) government to get out of this war,” he said, referring to the U.S. war on militancy.

Obama warned Pakistan on Thursday that its ties with “unsavory characters” had put relations with the United States at risk, as he ratcheted up pressure on Islamabad to cut links with militants mounting attacks in Afghanistan.

His comments are likely to deepen a crisis in the strategic alliance between the United States and Pakistan.

Obama accused Pakistan’s leaders of “hedging their bets” on Afghanistan’s future, but stopped short of threatening to cut off U.S. aid, despite calls from lawmakers for a tougher line over accusations that Pakistani intelligence supported strikes on U.S. targets in Afghanistan.

Pakistan says it has sacrificed more than any other nation that joined America’s global “war on terror” after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, losing 10,000 soldiers and security forces, and 30,000 civilians.

But its performance against militants operating from its unruly tribal northwest border region is a frequent source of tension between Washington and Islamabad.

Pakistan is often accused of playing a double game, vowing to help the United States fight some militant groups while using others as proxies in Afghanistan.

Ties were heavily damaged after U.S. special forces launched a secret raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May, which Islamabad saw as a violation of its sovereignty.

On Thursday, a Pakistani commission said a Pakistani doctor accused of running a vaccination programme that helped the CIA track down bin Laden should be tried for high treason, which is punishable by death.

Relations deteriorated further after the top U.S. military official accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency of supporting a Sept. 13 attack by the Taliban-allied Haqqani militant group on the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

Saifullah said Washington’s public criticism of Pakistan would only encourage militant groups.

“War in Afghanistan is passing through a critical phase, evolutionary phase,” he said. “At this stage, muddying water is not appropriate. This is exactly what the militants want. They are playing to their tune. This is adding strength to them.”

Some analysts agree with his assessment.

“This will create more tension and what the Americans want is not likely to happen in the near future,” said political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi.

The United States has long called for a military offensive against the Haqqani network, which it says is based in North Waziristan, a global hub for militants on the Afghan border.

Pakistan sees the Haqqani network — perhaps the most feared insurgents in Afghanistan — as a counterweight to the growing influence of rival India there, analysts say.

Pakistan denies links to the group, which says it no longer operates from sanctuaries in North Waziristan.

Obama made clear that future U.S.-Pakistani relations would depend heavily on whether Islamabad complies with Washington’s demands to sever connections with insurgents.

Mahmud Ali Durrani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, wondered if the two sides could ever repair ties.

“There are too many issues, and too much mistrust to call this a strategic relationship,” he said.

But public demands from Washington will make Islamabad more reluctant to take action because caving in after constant pressure could be political suicide in a country where anti-American sentiment runs high, and the government is unpopular.

Many Pakistanis believe they have been dragged into a war against militancy that only serves American interests.

That sentiment is growing because of an escalation of U.S. drone aircraft missile strikes against militants in Pakistan under the Obama administration.

“Are we owned by the United States? If so, please make our terms of servitude clear, Mr. Obama, so we can just get on with it,” said Mishayl Naek, a bank employee in the city of Karachi, in reaction to the U.S. president’s demands of Pakistan.

For Asad Ali Bangash, 45, Obama’s comments were proof of what he has feared all along.

“America wants an excuse to invade Pakistan. There are difficult times ahead for Pakistan, because America has decided that Pakistan has to be eliminated because it is a fort of Islam,” said Bangash, who runs a medical supply business.

Obama wants to stabilise Afghanistan as U.S. forces are drawn down with the goal of ending their combat mission by 2014.

Instead of public confrontation, Obama should work more closely with Pakistan to help Afghanistan, said Saifullah.

“This is no time for this kind of (allegation) when they are pulling out,” he said. “They should be seriously working on the endgame.”

Even if Pakistan wanted to eliminate the Haqqanis, an assault could be risky. The group, which says it has more than 10,000 fighters, spent years forming alliances with various militant groups seeking to topple the U.S.-backed government.

The Haqqanis’ ties with powerful tribes are another concern. Intelligence officials say Pakistan fears an assault would provoke a larger tribal uprising in North Waziristan. AGENCIES

Taliban gunned down US drone

Taliban spokesman Zabihollah Mojahed claimed that the militants gunned down the aircraft late on Saturday. Reports quoted witnesses as saying that they saw the drone catching fire mid-air and crashing into a civilian house. Earlier this week, another US drone crashed due to technical problems in eastern Ghazni Province, NATO said in a statement. But Taliban claimed the first crash as well.

The Taliban militants say they have shot down several aircraft and NATO choppers in different parts of Afghanistan over the past few months. Taliban have stepped up their attacks on US-led forces in the recent months.

North Waziristan: US drone attack kills 4 militants

According to sources, the drones fired two missiles on a house and killed four militants after which fear gripped the area.

The sources further said that the casualties in the attack are feared to be increased.

North Waziristan: Twin drone strikes claim 18 militants

At least 18 militants are said to have been killed in twin drone attacks in Mir Ali, North Waziristan, trendpk.com reported on Monday.

According to official sources, the first attack by US unmanned aircraft took place near Mir Ali town at about 9:00am in Shair Tala, 15 kms away from Mir Ali.Four missiles were fired at a car suspected to be that of the militants. Resultantly, 6 militants got killed. However, the identity of those killed could not be ascertained till the filing of this report.

Meanwhile, in a second drone strike 18 miscreants got killed. It is pertinent to mention that this year as many as 115 drone strikes have been recorded in the north-western tribal belt of Pakistan.

North Waziristan: 4 Militants killed in Drone Strike

At least 4 militants have been killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan, Trendpk.com reported on Tuesday.

The strike took place in Spalga village, 15 kms south of Miramshah, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal district, near the Afghan border.

Another security official confirmed the strike and said the drone fired two missiles.

However, more casualties are feared as some people might be trapped under rubble.

Pakistani tribesman to sue CIA over drone deaths

PESHAWAR: A Pakistani tribesman is to sue the CIA for 500 million dollars after his son and brother were killed in America’s covert drone war against Al-Qaeda, his lawyer said Monday.

Karim Khan from North Waziristan, the district on the Afghan border where the US campaign has stepped up in recent months, claimed his house had been hit by US missiles on December 31, 2009.

“That drone attack killed my son, my brother and a local man. We are not terrorists, we are common citizens,” he told a news conference where he and his lawyer Mirza Shehzad Akbar announced his plan to sue.

Pakistani intelligence officials said at the time that four militants were killed in the US missile strike in the Mir Ali area.

“According to Islamic law the punishment for blood is blood. If I have the means, I will take revenge for this attack,” said Khan.

“We need

India marks two years since the Mumbai attacks

MUMBAI: India was set Friday to mark the second anniversary of the militant attacks on Mumbai with memorial events and prayer meetings to honour the 166 victims killed during 60 hours of carnage.

Police and security forces who tackled the 10 Islamist gunmen were due to parade through the city, while mourners also planned to gather at the hotels, railway station, cafe and Jewish centre where the massacres took place.

The attackers arrived by sea on the evening of November 26, and authorities only regained full control of the city three days later.

Live television footage was shown around the world as commandos battled with the militants and terrified civilians tried to escape the bloodbath. About 300 people were injured.

Nine of the gunmen were killed and the sole survivor, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, was condemned to death by a Mumbai court in May. He is

Seven Afghan police killed in Taliban raid

At least seven policemen were killed and one wounded during an insurgent attack in southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, an official said on Wednesday.

The militants attacked a police checkpoint in the Khas Uruzgan district late Tuesday night, Uruzgan governor Haji Khodai Rahim told AFP.

Rahim said that seven policemen were killed and an eighth had gone with the insurgents in the wake of the overnight attack, raising fears of an inside job.

“This was a plot,” Rahim said.

“The eighth soldier who was on guard, had links with Taliban, he directed the militants into the check point.”

One soldier was also seriously wounded in the overnight attack.

A spokesman for Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said their fighters killed eight policemen and seized weapons from all those who manned the checkpoint.

Kashmir rebels kill two Indian policemen

SRINAGAR: Suspected Muslim militants shot dead two policemen on Wednesday in the latest violence to strike revolt-hit Indian Kashmir, police said.

The attacks were the first since US President Barack Obama said in New Delhi Monday that Washington could not “impose” a solution on India and Pakistan’s dispute over Kashmir — which has sparked two wars between the neighbours.

“Pistol-wielding militants walked up to the policemen and shot them dead at point-blank range,” a police spokesman said.

The shootings took place in Patan town, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Indian Kashmir summer capital of Srinagar.

“The militants seized the rifles of the dead policemen and fled the scene,” the spokesman said.

Security forces sealed the area and launched a search to “arrest or eliminate” the militants involved in the attack.

Muslim rebels have

Taliban in peace talks with Pakistani tribe

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban are negotiating a peace deal with a Pakistani tribe in the northwest, tribal elders said on Thursday, that could give militants access to remote strategic areas on the Afghan border.

The talk of a deal between members of tne Haqqani network — one of the most dangerous Taliban factions — and the Turi tribe in the Kurram region is likely to raise concerns in the United States which has been demanding Pakistan get tough with the militants fighting Western forces across the border.

“We are holding talks to end violence and fighting in the region. People have become fed up with fighting,” Sajid Hussain, a member of parliament involved in the talks, told Reuters.

Hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between the Turi tribe and their rivals backed by the Taliban in recent months.

The deal, which has not yet been finalised,

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