Raise Your Price, Pakistan

Raise Your Price, Pakistan

How about exchanging Taliban Number Two Abdul Ghani Baradar for terror master Brahamdagh Bugti and the dismantling of the terror network targeting Pakistan’s Balochistan?

By Ahmed Quraishi

Tuesday, 2 March 2010.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Pakistan has agreed to hand over Afghan Taliban’s number 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to Afghanistan. How about asking for Mr. Brahamdagh Bugti in exchange? Or for the dismantling of the Afghan-based terror infrastructure targeting Pakistani Balochistan?

There are signs that Afghanistan’s role as a base for anti-Pakistan operations over the past seven years is gradually shrinking. But it is not completely over yet. The rollback in that role is directly linked to what the United States wants. And Washington’s recent change of heart regarding Pakistan’s role and legitimate regional security interests are the result of the Pakistani military standing its ground, not any genuine change of heart in US policymaking circles. This is why you did not see any US official jumping in excitement at the idea of Pakistani military training the Afghan National Army, which is what our army chief has proposed.

So the change in the US position may be tactical, forced by Pakistani straight talk. Examples abound, including how CIA dragged its feet before it finally began targeting anti-Pakistan terror groups and leaders in the border area.  There might have also been some visible decrease in the level of logistical support that the so-called Pakistani Taliban received from the Afghan soil [and not all of it from the proceeds of Afghan Taliban’s drug trade, as Afghan and American officials have been trying to convince their Pakistani counterparts].  Pakistani officials are yet to certify this decrease publicly. Granted that Admiral Mike Mullen is someone who genuinely tries to understand Pakistani concerns. And he has been doing his bit with apparent sincerity in the past few months. But there are still some tensions below the surface. A Time magazine story over the weekend tried to delink US connection to the Jundullah terrorist group and throw the entire responsibility at Pakistan, targeting Iranian paranoia by suggesting a Pakistani intelligence support for Jundullah ‘as a tool for strategic depth.’  This type of media leaks and background intelligence briefings have to stop. Enough of the demonization of Pakistan that the US media unfortunately spearheaded over the past three years, apparently through some kind of semi-official patronage. If US officials can bluntly accuse their Pakistani counterparts of sponsoring ‘anti-American articles’ in newspapers, whatever that means [What is ‘anti-American articles’ anyway?], surely Islamabad can pose the same question, especially when Pakistan’s case is stronger.

The same goes for the admirable US nudge to India to resume peace talks with Pakistan. Had things not gone wrong in Afghanistan for the grand US project, Washington was all set to introduce India as the new regional policeman in Afghanistan following the eventual pullback of NATO and US militaries from that country. Pakistan was being pushed to accept this as fait accompli and Mr. Zardari’s pro-US government was more than willing to play along. Again, a Pakistani public opinion that is not ready for such a major one-sided Pakistani concession probably threw a spanner in the works.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir must be commended along with his team for stating the Pakistani bottom line. Forget the US statements on the need for peace between Pakistan and India. The fact is that the US played the two countries against one another in Afghanistan in the past eight years. If Pakistan accepts, a photo-op would work just fine for Washington as it does for New Delhi. We’d be asking too much if we think anyone in New Delhi or Washington is really itching to help Pakistan resolve its grievances with India. It’s just that the regional dynamic is helping us at this point in time. So let’s make the most out of it while we retain the initiative. Instead of the theatrics, we must ask for something substantial this time. No more prolonged people-to-people exchanges. There is no problem between our peoples. And please, no more equating Pakistan’s responsibility for peace with India’s responsibility. The onus is on India. It is the bigger country. It can change the entire mood in the region by taking small steps to alleviate Pakistani insecurities. It can do so by taking steps in the water dispute, in improving how it treats Pakistani visitors, and by reducing tensions with the Kashmiri people on the ground.

Bottom line: Enough of selling ourselves cheap over the past eight years. Pakistan should secure its interests and accept nothing less.

An edited version of this op-ed was published by The News International.

© 2007-2009. All rights reserved. AhmedQuraishi.com & PakNationalists

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Pakistanis Livid At Thailand For Hosting Anti-Pakistan Event

Pakistanis are faxing, emailing, calling and sending letters at the addresses below

 

CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE

Pakistan’s pro-US government fails to take note of this just as it failed to confront the United States about the anti-Pakistan activities of rogue CIA and Indian agents on Afghan soil. Pakistani citizens and groups are now stepping in, overwhelming the Thai embassy in Islamabad with protest letters, faxes and emails.

SPECIAL REPORT

Wednesday, 24 February 2010.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The Zardari government is silent on a major development where the government of Thailand allowed foreign-backed anti-Pakistan groups, including groups funding terrorism inside Pakistan, to hold a conference in Bangkok on Feb. 22 and 23.

The conference explicitly called for international support for the breakup of Pakistan and for carving out smaller states in its place.

Dissidents claiming to represent Balochi-speaking Pakistanis and Iranians were invited to the conference, full expenses paid.

An unknown group that calls itself Baloch Voice Foundation, based in Paris, organized the event. The group is funded according to reports by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, a US think tank that shows a lot of interest in promoting separatism inside Pakistan and Iran.

Bangkok is known in intelligence circles as a favorite CIA destination for shady public events.

CIA, with Indian help, recruited Mr. Brahamdagh Bugti to wage a terrorist insurgency inside Pakistan in the name of freedom for Balochi-speaking Pakistanis. Mr. Abdolmalik Rigi was hired to spread terror inside Iran. Pakistani authorities have shared evidence with Washington proving that rogue CIA elements are sponsoring Mr. Bugti. Iran on the other hand has shown more boldness than Pakistani authorities, intercepting a plane and arresting Mr. Rigi after he visited a US military base in Afghanistan.

A group of Pakistani citizens gathered in front of the hotel in Bangkok carrying banners that read, ‘Stop using Thai soil against Pakistan’ and ‘Balochistan is Pakistan’ among others.

Pakistanis who wish to protest with Thai authorities for this blatant act of war, please use one or more of the following options:

1.       Fax: Embassy of Thailand, Islamabad, Fax number + 92 51 225 6730

2.      Email:

2.1    thaiemb@dslplus.net.pk

2.2   thaikhi@mfa.go.th

2.3   thaicon@go4b.com

3.      Telephone: (92-51) 228-0909, 228-0586, 225-2185

4.      You can also send letters to the Thai Embassy in Islamabad. The address is Embassy of Thailand, House 23, Street 25, F-8/2, Islamabad.

If you are going to contact the Thai authorities, please observe the following in your emails/letters/calls:

a.      Be courteous and respectful

b.      Clearly mention that you are writing with reference to the Conference on Balochistan organized by a group of non-state actors in a Bangkok hotel on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23, 2010

c.       Say that Pakistanis resent that the Government of Thailand allowed the use of its soil against Pakistan, and that it is unacceptable.

d.      Pose this question: How would you like Pakistanis to collect funds to support insurgents and terrorists fighting the Thai government in one part of your country?

Here are some facts about the conference and its organizers and participants:

1.       Event organized by Mr. MUNIR MENGAL, indicated with an arrow in the picture above.

2.      Munir Mengal is the founder of Baloch Voice TV, better known for promoting a false story where he claimed he was jailed in Pakistan with female Pakistani Baloch prisoners. The Provincial Government of Nawab Aslam Raisani later investigated the claim as part of last year's efforts to free an abducted UN official in Quetta. Mengal's lie was exposed when not a single Pakistani Baloch lady was found in jail anywhere in Pakistan.

3.      Selig Harrison, who is linked to the US intelligence, indirectly participated in the conference and presented a paper.

4.      Followers of Khair Bux Marri, a feudal Pakistani politician from Balochistan, boycotted the conference. His son was arrested in London for financing terror activities inside Pakistan. UK refused to hand him over to Pakistan.

5.      The conference led to internal feud between several groups that claim to represent Pakistani Balochs. One of these groups is something called the Washington-based American Friends of Balochistan, and there are Moscow- and Dubai-based groups, not to mention the self-styled Government of Balochistan in Exile, which says it is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

6.      All of these groups have mushroomed following the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. The Afghan soil is apparently being used by foreign powers to target other countries in the region.

7.      Elements in Washington, New Delhi, and the US puppet government in Kabul have manufactured a separatist insurgency in Pakistan’s Balochistan province as a means to pressure the Pakistani military into relinquishing Pakistan’s interests in America’s war in Afghanistan.

Special thanks to Patriots of Pakistan Society for its help in compiling this report.

Balochistan: CIA's Crumbling Project

  

A photograph has surfaced that shows a terrorist wanted by Iran visiting a US military base in Afghanistan. Another terrorist wanted by Pakistan has also been spotted meeting Indian spies under American watch—in Afghanistan.  Iran arrests one such terrorist but Pakistan’s pro-US government refuses to take a stand on a terrorist insurgency openly backed by rogue US elements, with Indian support.

By AHMED QURAISHI

Tuesday, 23 February 2010.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—After occupying Afghanistan, rogue CIA elements launched a campaign to create a new state of Balochistan out of two conjoined provinces in Pakistan and Iran.

This was done to create the shortest possible supply route from the sea to Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan.

The Sunni-Shia divide was exploited in Iran and a language-based divide was used in Pakistan. In other words, the result was a sectarian Balochi insurgency in Iran and an ethnic one in Pakistan.

This is how Jundullah was born in Iran and Balochistan Liberation Army in Pakistan. Both were armed and supported by CIA using the Afghan soil.

But this American terror infrastructure is now crumbling. Fast.

The idea of using Afghan soil for regional US strategies – against Iran, Pakistan, Russia and China, as the need be – has failed miserably. One reason is exposure. Eight years is enough time for everyone to understand the double game being played in the region in the name of war on terror, which is America’s war no matter how many millions of dollars the US government invests in propaganda in the region to convince the people it is otherwise.

Despite a pliant Pakistani government, Pakistan, for example, is not ready to cooperate with the United States if Pakistani interests are not protected along with US interests. Pakistan took a long time to take a stand. But it has come around finally. Of course CIA was not operating alone. It enlisted the help of India and several Western intelligence agencies, turning Afghanistan into a source of regional destabilization. That’s exactly what al-Qaeda was doing before 2002.

The arrest of the ringleader of CIA-backed Jundullah group, Mr. Abdolmalek Rigi, is a major development. Iran’s intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi showed damning evidence today to the media, confirming beyond doubt the terror group’s link to US intelligence in Afghanistan:

“In a press conference Moslehi showed a photograph of the leader of the group, Abdulmalek Rigi, 24 hours before his arrest at a US troops camp in Afghanistan, as well as an ID card, an Afghan passport and a Dubai visa belonging to Rigi and prepared by the US to facilitate his travels in the region as evidence to show the terrorist leader’s cooperation with Washington and certain other countries.”

Last year, his younger brother Abdolhamid Rigi was arrested by Pakistani intelligence and handed over to Iran. The younger Rigi admitted on television to meeting US diplomats, or possible intelligence agents, in Karachi and Islamabad.

 

The worst part of the story is that former President Musharraf might have allowed CIA-backed Jundullah to use Pakistani soil, along with Afghanistan’s, to mount operations inside Iran. Of course there were times when Iran did the same: organize and arm sectarian militant groups inside Pakistan as part of Iran’s policy of militarizing Shia minorities in neighboring countries. But that was a different time. What the Americans were doing in Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan was tied to the parallel terror insurgency in Pakistani Balochistan.

It is possible that this was one more concession that Mr. Musharraf granted US in Pakistan. But it is Pakistan and its intelligence that arrested and handed over Jundullah leader’s younger brother to Iran last year. Pakistani intelligence might have had something to do with the arrest of the elder Rigi too. But Iranian officials are denying that Pakistan helped them in any way in this arrest, and won’t say where Abdolhamid Rigi was seized.

Pakistan has been bound by many of the secret understandings and concessions that Mr. Musharraf made with Washington. The Zardari government that succeeded him is suspected of having more secret understandings than its predecessor. But the Pakistani military has been gradually relieving Pakistan of many unreasonable unilateral concessions [Example: US passport holders can no longer use a separate gate to enter and exit from Pakistani airports without scrutiny]. But at same time, the Pakistani military is bound by other government-to-government commitments made by Mr. Musharraf and now the Zardari government.

But there are enough signs that elements within the US intelligence community continue to support terrorism inside Pakistan in the name of Balochistan.

With US nod, India has recently recruited around 100 poor Pakistanis from Balochistan and transported them for training in India. New Delhi is doing this using Afghan soil.

Another evidence is a conference in Bangkok, Thailand, this week that called for breaking up Pakistan and creating an independent state called Balochistan. The conference was organized by a Paris-based group called Baloch Voice Foundation, which has not been known before. Unconfirmed reports suggest that this foundation is funded by Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that shows a lot of interest in the potential for separatism in Pakistan and Iran. The US think tank’s website says that it provides unbiased information from Russia, China and “the world of terrorism,” which pretty much sums up how it views Muslim-dominated regions.

India actively supports terror groups that claim Baloch representation but it is American citizens and groups that have been making the loudest noises over Balochistan since 2002.  This has to do with Indo-US sharing of ideas over Pakistan after 2001 and that story makes for interesting reading.

It is interesting how the government of Thailand allowed the use of its soil for an anti-Pakistan activity. Pakistani protesters outside the Bangkok hotel didn’t miss this point and raised it on their placards.  But Pakistan’s pro-US government remains silent on this blatant act of war on the part of the Thai government.

Taking cue from Iran’s action against Jundullah, and Israel’s action against a Hamas activist in Dubai, Pakistan needs to get firm on eliminating the Afghan-based nursery of terrorism inside Pakistan.

A Balochi Beating India's Manmohan

This picture was taken recently in Chaman, the small Pakistani town on the border with southern Afghanistan. While the US and Indian media promote terrorism in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, a terror which is supported by US and Indian intelligence operatives using the Afghan soil, the reality on the ground is far from the image that American and Indian spinmasters wish to convey. [US think tanks are the latest entrants in the psy-ops against Pakistan, promoting the idea of the separation of resource-rich Balochistan from Pakistan.]

In this picture, a Pakistani Balochi is beating a donkey-shaped effigy of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Indians and Karzai's intelligence, with tacit approval of CIA operatives in Afghanistan, have been luring young poor Pakistani Balochis to training camps in Afghanistan and brainwashing them to launch a wave of terror inside Pakistan in the guise of a separatist ethnic insurgency. As soon as US military and intelligence landed in Afghanistan, a long-dead terrorist group called BLA, created by the Soviet KGB in the 1970s, was brought back from the dustbin of history and reorganized. The Indians helped by bringing agents from India fluent in the Urdu language. These language experts were tasked with composing press statements and sending them to Pakistani media offices across Pakistan.

To turn this into a real separatist war, unknown terrorists were sent to Quetta, the provincial capital, to target-kill non-Balochi Pakistanis in an effort to stir an ethnic backlash. There isn't much 'ethnic' difference among Pakistanis, but inept politicians have been using minor language differences, which do exist, to create the aura of different ethnicities for political reasons.

Unfortunately, former President Pervez Musharraf turned a blind eye to US, Indian and Karzai puppet regime's meddling in Pakistani Balochistan. The incumbent pro-US government of President Asif Zardari is doing the same. No one in today's Pakistani ruling structure appears willing to fend off the Americans and their Indian and Afghan poodles.

But despite all these efforts, Pakistani Balochis remain staunch Pakistanis, just like their fathers and grandfathers who fought off the Indian massacre of Pakistani migrants during Pakistan's War of Independence in 1947.

The biggest proof of this came last June, when the entire Pakistani Balochi tribe of Mari came out for the funeral of Lieutenant Safiullah Mari, who died fighting the Afghan-backed terrorists in the Pakistani tribal belt. Not only did the Maris chant pro-Pakistan slogans, the father of Lt. Baloch announced he was ready to give his other son to defend Pakistan. This was a slap in the face of terrorist feudal leaders like Harbiyar Mari, who enjoys British protection in London, and Brahamdagh Bugti, who enjoys American and Karzai's protection in Kabul. Both have been trying to radicalize the Mari tribe against their own country.

[See the video of Lt. Baloch's funeral.]

No Politician Ready To Condemn Brahamdagh

The so-called Balochistan Republican Army is part of a list of three or four terrorist groups that do not really exist on the ground but are the joint creation of CIA and Indian intelligence in Afghanistan, with Karzai's intelligence acting as facilitator. This operation is headed by a traitor of his country and people named Brahmdagh Bugti, who keeps moving around in various Indian-protected safe houses in Kabul plotting how best to damage Pakistan.

Brahmdagh and some of our misguided kids recruited by anti-Pakistan foreign powers in Afghanistan pulled another terrorist attack inside Pakistan this week when they planted a bomb inside Bolan Express, a train connecting Karachi with Quetta.

The foreign-backed terrorists working for Brahmdagh accepted responsibility for killing and injuring innocent Pakistanis. And yet it was stunning to see that the Chief Minister of Balochistan refused to condemn these terrorists. And he's not alone. What about the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan? What about 'national' politicians like Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhry Shujaat? Is there not a single Pakistani politician willing to call a spade a spade?

Granted that problems in Balochistan need to be resolved but can't we even condemn those who are openly working against the country with the support of our enemies? What kind of a bankrupt politics is this?

These are the same politicians who refuse to blame the US for turning Afghanistan into a base for anti-Pakistan activities. Balochistan's chief minister and other politicians could have used the images from the killed and injured in the train to discredit the foreign-backed terrorists. But this chance has been wasted.

Pakistanis must take notice of this major failure of these politicians who consider their own interests more important than Pakistan's.

We have a bunch of jokers in power in the most difficult hour in our homeland's history.

Only in Pakistan can you blow up a train and then find no one ready to condemn you.