Terror Attacks in Mumbai - IV

Tamang · Post by **Tamang** » 06 Dec 2008 22:45

Pak agrees to 48-hour timetable for action against LeT: Report

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has agreed to a 48-hour timetable set by India and the US to formulate a plan to act against Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) and to arrest at least three Pakistanis who Indian authorities say are linked to the Mumbai terrorist assaults, the Washington Post reported citing a high-ranking Pakistani official.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities, said India had also asked Pakistan to arrest and hand over LeT commander Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhwi and the former director of Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Hamid Gul, in connection with the investigation, the Post said on Saturday.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 06 Dec 2008 22:50

So they have decided to sell out Hamid Gul, but kept Dawood intact...Dawood's buddy(ies) in the Maharashra govt. is still an useful asset for Pakistan, so Dawood won't be sold out yet. With Chaggan Bhujbal in charge of Maharashtra security, the Pakistani Fake currency racket can be officially run by the Indian govt. on Indian territory...and a big thanks to Sonia Gandhi for installing this criminal in charge of Maharashtra's security on a whim.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 06 Dec 2008 22:54

This report might be a plant to stop India from what it intended to do in the next 48 hours.

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 06 Dec 2008 23:09

This 48 hour deadline thing with a few key people being surrendered was what i had said is the sanest step India could have demanded with full international support. If Pakistan plays the spoilsport it will have zero credibility left in the international arena. Even the Meddling Halfbrights and Reidels and Margoli's will have to convert to India's side or become jobless and only worthy of being sneered. Liberals are going to now take a hit, left, right and center. Also apart from the zero credibility of the Paki, they will face military action of some sort for sure, covert or overt. Another thing has now become clear to all and sundry. Pakistan with Nuclear weapons is dangerous. Pakistan is too immature a state to possess responsibly weapons of mass destruction. India's main job over and above this will be developing a strategy to dismantle this in the years to come.

Pranay · Post by **Pranay** » 06 Dec 2008 23:34

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7769297.stm

Pakistan feared Indian attack...

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 06 Dec 2008 23:40

harbans,

India has 0 credibility unless there is US backing. Even this 48 hour stuff, I suspect, is for the US and not for India. It is to convince those within the ISI who would even oppose the US. WRT India, even Sharif opposed whatever with India - TSP is rather united against India and therefore anyone and his driver have support within TSP.

Even when these yahoos are handed over, India has a LONG way to go. India needs to dig out whatever is happening within India BEFORE any of them are prosecuted. I am sure unlike Nuke Khan, these guys will be fair game for the US and Israelis too. This is just starting.

Ramana,

On redrawing India can actually sit it out.

I would expect China to make noise on Indian eastern front (to be expected), thus the clamp down on BD.

I would expect a good deal of anxiety as it goes through and would expect a phatakas headed towards India - that is to be expected too.

It is not going to be easy at all. I am sure SA would be up in arms, as would China.

shynee · Post by **shynee** » 06 Dec 2008 23:41

Quoting from the link

But Pakistan's Information Minister Sherry Rehman later denied it could have been a hoax.
"It is not possible for any call to come through to the president without multiple caller identity verifications," he said in a statement.

"In fact the identity of this particular call, as evident from the CLI (caller's line identification) device, showed that the call was placed from a verified official Phone Number of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs."

Pranay wrote:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7769297.stm

Pakistan feared Indian attack...

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 06 Dec 2008 23:42

BTW, my guess is that the hand over has to be done BEFORE Bush leaves office.

Pranay · Post by **Pranay** » 06 Dec 2008 23:48

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/world ... ia.html?hp

Bombay's elite wakes up from self indulgence...

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 06 Dec 2008 23:52

listening to npr and pbs and the rest in the us for the past week, lot of

about muslim disenfranchisement in india, lot of

about social inequity and related

.

do we let this go and take it on the chin or show it for all the hot air that it is?

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 06 Dec 2008 23:53

Little Somini Sengupta in Pigtails writes:

As it turned out, the man whom they came to worship, Mr. Ambedkar, had helped write the Indian Constitution.

That's Dr. Ambedkar to you, Little american girl.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 06 Dec 2008 23:55

Thats nice and we will see if it materializes for their will be a coup if it comes to that. ITs related to the Nazariya-e- Pakistan and all that BS. the disconnect is that people outside Pakistan think that these terrorists are some form of fringe group that is perpetrating these attacks. TSP has morphed or slipped so far back in time that the majority of the Pakistanis think of thse terrorists as razzakars (raiders) who were on a Ghazawa in Dar-ul-harb. So to turn them in to the aggrieved party would be turn back form the course of history they have chosen since the Muslim League was formed. I would be glad to be proven wrong. Even if they turn them in they will launch hijack operations to get these freed. So justice has to be swift and they have to be executed ASAP after the judicial process. No saga of Afzal Guru or the long imprisonment of Mohd. Azhar. Need swift execution.

The Mumbai terrorist attacks must not be seen as an isolated criminal act by fringe elements of TSP society. They are a result of the evil that has taken over Pakistan since Bhutto and Zia resorted to Islam as an identity and purged the version of Islam of all its Indic traditions and practices it had adopted in its sojourn in the sub-continent. Isalm a religion of pace has benn made into a crazed Sunni dominated killigion.

The brutal massacres of the hostages at the Taj Hotel, Trident Hotel, Chabad House and the indiscriminate killings at the CST, the ambushing of the policemen, and the unrestricted warfare with leaving RDX bombs (I refuse to call those IEDs which imply they are some sort of makeshift patakas), the selective killings on non-Muslims (Hindus, US, UK and Jews) all show how evil they have become. And they can display this evilness because of the security they have form the purloined nuclear weapons they got from China (Mubarak Mand and other nameless namards who threaten India when it wants to retaliate) and the technology (AQK and his stealing) that has come from Western Europe. It is preachy for these folks to pretend to apply balms to India when they are responsible for feeding this evil monster. Even now Germany wants to sell submarines to TSP even after six of its citizens were killed. And note the fact that the terrorists used Pakistan Ordnance Factory made German MP5s among their weapons.

Again Holocaust by proxy!
TSP is evil and has deviated from civilized society. It has to be destroyed.

SureshP · Post by **SureshP** » 07 Dec 2008 00:00

X-post

New US management will respect Pakistan sovereignty: McCain
Updated at: 2040 PST, Saturday, December 06, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Democratic presidential candidate in the recent US elections and US senator John McCain has said that America’s new management would respect the sovereignty of Pakistan.

He said this during a meeting with prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani here on Saturday.

On this occasion, senator McCain also said that the Pressler amendment was a blunder.

He said that during his presidential campaign, he had opposed the violation of Pakistan borders.

Regarding Mumbai carnage, Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan had offered India the setting up a joint commission.

The prime minister reiterated his resolve that the Pakistan territory would not be allowed to be used for terrorism.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/updates.asp?id=61884

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 07 Dec 2008 00:01

shaardula wrote:listening to npr and pbs and the rest in the us for the past week, lot of about muslim disenfranchisement in india, lot of about social inequity and related .

do we let this go and take it on the chin or show it for all the hot air that it is?

Show it for the hot air it is whereever possible. Attack the credibility of the reporting with counter examples. Of course if some of it is true make note of it so you can support the right policies for the future.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 07 Dec 2008 00:02

shaardula wrote:listening to npr and pbs and the rest in the us for the past week, lot of about muslim disenfranchisement in india, lot of about social inequity and related .

do we let this go and take it on the chin or show it for all the hot air that it is?

SOme people talked to me about this. You need to answer this.
India created a nation for them so that they can live "peacefully"

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 07 Dec 2008 00:08

Pranay wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/world ... ia.html?hp

Bombay's elite wakes up from self indulgence...

December 7, 2008
Mumbai Terror Siege Politicizes an Upper Class Long Insulated
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
MUMBAI, India — Last Wednesday, an extraordinary public interest lawsuit was filed in this city’s highest court. It charged that the government had lagged in its constitutional duty to protect its citizens’ right to life, and it pressed the state to modernize and upgrade its security forces.

The lawsuit was striking mainly for the people behind it: investment bankers, corporate lawyers and representatives of some of India’s largest companies, which have their headquarters here in the country’s financial capital, also known as Bombay. The Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the city’s largest business association, joined as a petitioner. It was the first time it had lent its name to litigation in the public interest.

The three-day siege of Mumbai, which ended a week ago, was a watershed for India’s prosperous classes. It prompted many of those who live in their own private Indias, largely insulated from the country’s dysfunction, to demand a vital public service: safety.

Since the attacks, which killed 163 people, plus nine gunmen, there has been an outpouring of anger from unlikely quarters. On Wednesday, tens of thousands of urban, English-speaking, tank-top-wearing citizens stormed the Gateway of India, a famed waterfront monument, venting anger at their elected leaders. There were similar protests in the capital, New Delhi, and the southern technology hubs, Bangalore and Hyderabad. All were organized spontaneously, with word spread through text messages and Facebook pages.

On Saturday, young people affiliated with a new political party, called Loksatta, or people’s power, gathered at the Gateway, calling for a variety of reforms, including banning criminals from running for political office. (Virtually every political party has convicts and suspects among its elected officials.)

Social networking sites were ablaze with memorials and citizens’ action groups, including one that advocated refraining from voting altogether as an act of civil disobedience. Never mind that in India, voter turnout among the rich is far lower than among the poor.

Another group advocated not paying taxes, as though that would improve the quality of public services. On Saturday began an e-mail campaign called “I Am Clean,” urging citizens not to bribe police officers or drive through red lights. And there were countless condemnations of how democracy had failed in this, the world’s largest democracy. Those condemnations led Vir Sanghvi, a columnist writing in Mint, a financial newspaper, to remind his readers of 1975, when Indira Gandhi, then the prime minister, imposed emergency rule. Mr. Sanghvi wrote, “I am beginning to hear the same kind of middle-class murmurs and whines about the ineffectual nature of democracy and the need for authoritarian government.”

Perhaps the most striking development was the lawsuit because it represented a rare example of corporate India’s confronting the government outright rather than making back-room deals.

“It says in a nutshell, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” said Cyrus Guzder, who owns a logistics company. “More precisely, it tells us that citizens of all levels in the country believe their government has let them down and believe that it now needs to be held accountable.”

In India’s city of gold, the distinction between public and private can be bewildering. For members of the working class, who often cannot afford housing, public sidewalks become living rooms. In the morning, commuters from gated communities in the suburbs pass children brushing their teeth at the edge of the street. Women are forced to relieve themselves on the railway tracks, usually in the dark, for the sake of modesty. The poor sometimes sleep on highway medians, and it is not unheard of for drunken drivers to mow them down.

Mumbai has been roiled by government neglect for years. Its commuter trains are so overcrowded that 4,000 riders die every year on average, some pushed from trains in the fierce competition to get on and off. Monsoons in 2005 killed more than 400 people in Mumbai in one day alone; so clogged were the city’s ancient drains, so crowded its river plains with unauthorized construction that water had nowhere to go.

Rahul Bose, an actor, suggested setting aside such problems for the moment. In a plea published last week in The Hindustan Times, he laid out the desperation of this glistening, corroding place. “We overlook for now your neglect of the city,” he wrote on the newspaper’s opinion page. “Its floods, its traffic, its filth, its pollution. Just deliver to us a world-standard antiterrorism plan.”

None of the previous terrorist attacks, even in Mumbai, had so struck the cream of Bombay society. Bombs have been planted on commuter trains in the past, but few people who regularly dine at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, one of the worst-hit sites, travel by train. “It has touched a raw nerve,” said Amit Chandra, who runs a prominent investment firm. “People have lost friends. Everyone would visit these places.” In any event, public anger could not have come at a worse time for incumbent politicians, who were at their most contrite last week. National elections are due next spring, and security is likely to be one of the principal issues in the vote, particularly among the urban middle class. It remains to be seen whether outrage will prompt them to turn out to vote in higher numbers or whether politicians will be compelled to pay greater attention to them than in the past.

“There’s a revulsion against the political class I have never seen before,” said Gerson D’Cunha, a former advertising executive whose civic group, A.G.N.I., presses for better government. “The middle class that is laid back, lethargic, indolent, they’ve been galvanized.”

For how long? That is a question on everyone’s lips. At a memorial service on Thursday evening for a slain alumnus of the elite St. Xavier’s College here, a placard asked: “One month from now, will you care?”

“It’s helplessness, what do we do?” said Probir Roy, the owner of a technology company and an alumnus of St. Xavier’s. “All the various stakeholders — the police, politicians — you can’t count on them anyway. Now what do you do?”

Tops, a private security agency, has plenty to do. It is consulting schools, malls and “high net individuals” on how to protect themselves better. Security was a growth industry in India even before the latest attacks. Tops’s global chairman, Rahul Nanda, said the company employed 73,000 security guards today, compared with about 15,000 three years ago.

Mumbai is not the only place suffering from official neglect. Public services have deteriorated across India, all the more so in the countryside. Government schools are notoriously mismanaged. Doctors do not show up to work on public health projects. Corruption is endemic. In some of India’s booming cities, private developers drill for their own water and generate electricity for their own buildings.

Political interference often gets in the way of India’s woefully understaffed and poorly paid police force. Repeatedly, courts and commissions have called for law enforcement to be liberated from political control. Politicians have balked.

The three-day standoff with terrorists was neither the deadliest that India has seen, nor the most protracted; there have been other extended convulsions of violence, including mass killings of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.

Yet, the recent attacks, which Indian police say were the work of a Pakistan-based terrorist group called Lashkar-e-Taiba, were profoundly different. Two of the four main targets were luxury hotels frequented by the city’s wealthy elite: the Taj, facing the Gateway of India, and the twin Oberoi and Trident hotels, a few miles west on Nariman Point. They were the elite’s watering holes and business dinner destinations. And to lose them, said Alex Kuruvilla, who runs the Condé Nast publications in India, is like losing a limb.

“It’s like what I imagine an amputee would feel,” he said. “It’s so much part of our lives.”

Last Wednesday, on the night of the candlelight vigil, Mr. Kuruvilla’s driver made a wrong turn. A traffic policeman virtually pounced on the driver and then let him go with a bribe of 20 rupees, less than 50 cents. Mr. Kuruvilla is not optimistic about swift change. “Our cynicism is justified,” he said.

Ashok Pawar, a police constable from the police station nearest the Taj, entered the hotel the night the siege began. It was full of gunfire and smoke. He could not breathe, and he did not know his way around. “It was my first time inside the Taj,” he said. “How can a poor man go there?”

In The Indian Express newspaper on Friday, a columnist named Vinay Sitapati wrote a pointed open letter to “South Bombay,” shorthand for the city’s most wealthy enclave. The column first berated the rich gently for lecturing at Davos and failing in Hindi exams. “You refer to your part of the city simply as ‘town,’ ” he wrote, and then he begged: “Vote in person. But vote in spirit, too: use your clout to demand better politicians, not pliant ones.”

“In your hour of need today,” he added, “it is India that needs your help.”

On Saturday came a reminder of the Other India. It was the death anniversary of Bhim Rao Ambedkar, an icon for India’s Dalits, once considered untouchables. They poured into the city, some from far-away villages, all wearing the equivalent of their Sunday bests. The political assertion of the outcastes has been one of great transformations of Indian democracy in the last two decades. As it turned out, the man whom they came to worship, Mr. Ambedkar, had helped write the Indian Constitution.

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 07 Dec 2008 00:13

Pakistan must avoid worse ties with India - McCain

Does not quite jive with what Jung has, does it?

Vikas · Post by **Vikas** » 07 Dec 2008 00:13

Don't understand why getting those 20 men from TSP is such a big deal. The only way of achieving peace is to "Destroy Pakistan" as we know it.
Call me cynic but this talk of arresting Pakis and handing them over to India is just talk. Fact remains nothing is going to happen and we will go back to same cycle of filling 40-50 pages when the next terror attacks happen.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 07 Dec 2008 00:16

Vikas Its a small step towards unravelling false brick edifice of N-e-P. If they give these up then it admits they have terrorists and more than that they are handing over believers to kafirs.

Raj Malhotra · Post by **Raj Malhotra** » 07 Dec 2008 00:16

I say nothing is going to happen in 48 or 480 hours, anybody wanna bet on it?

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 07 Dec 2008 00:27

India has 0 credibility unless there is US backing. Even this 48 hour stuff, I suspect, is for the US and not for India. It is to convince those within the ISI who would even oppose the US. WRT India, even Sharif opposed whatever with India - TSP is rather united against India and therefore anyone and his driver have support within TSP.

Rao ji, credibility is a little subjective. I should have clarified the context i meant it and that was specifically with regard to commitment to tackling terror. It is clear that India though bumbles and appears naive, though desperately out of ideas and support to tackle terror is by itself not a harmful country. It's coming out as a big benign elephant while at the same time, Pakistan is giving the appearance of a Hyena..the same look that Jinnah held. India's economic reforms and subsequent development have provided it with credibility to a large extent.

It is obvious the US too has not got it's way with Pakistan and been offered crumbs even after doling out billions. Just look at the AQ Khan affair. So US like India realizes it has weaknesses wrt tackling Pakistan. This has struck them in Mumbai. India today cannot be let at the mercy of the butchers. It's economic interests are well intertwined with that of the West. That is where India's credibility is coming fore. Acting imprudently or like the Pakis at this stage will affect us. That is the reason i recommended the 'doable' list of things against anything that will jeopardize our economic well being.

Pakistan is now sticking out like a sore thumb. Rattling it's nukes on every forum, boasting and vomiting crap at every level. The hate with which it's foreign minister spoke is so evident and transparent, compared to the innocent naivette of our Pranabda and shell shocked pseudo liberal elite. There is in all this an evident support that can be harnessed to great advantage without the need to being rash.

We will punish Pakistan for this and other acts. We will rub their noses in the dirt and shame this shameless state. It has to be done coldbloodedly, without emotion and with finesse. Pakistan has to be put in it's place. It's quest for military parity with India or even nuclear deterrence for balance is now plainly evident a factor for great regional instability. This is what now Pakistan has achieved.

Last few weeks itself India has converted the world view of millions in the West, people who never imagined India had even a space program suddenly read that India sent a probe to the Moon, people who thought India had a rust bucket Navy saw a sleek Tabar take on pirate ships boldly. There's a lot thats happening through very credible hard work in increments thats changing India's image the world over. This is going to be very very different from the past.

John Snow · Post by **John Snow** » 07 Dec 2008 00:30

Nothing is ever going to happen except more terror attacks in India.

Thats my take.

ldev · Post by **ldev** » 07 Dec 2008 00:35

Apologies if posted earlier.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JL06Df04.html

Dec 6, 2008

India sets sights on Pakistani camps
By Siddharth Srivastava

NEW DELHI - Following the Mumbai attacks last week, it is emerging that India intends to take the "war on terror" to the next level - specifically, by taking out militant training camps that India believes dot Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

A senior official in India's Home Ministry told Asia Times Online that a decision had been made at the highest levels that India will be directly involved in "annihilating" some of the terror infrastructure and personnel based in Pakistan.

Although fraught with risk, "hot pursuit" has been debated in India for some time. The Mumbai strikes, which claimed the lives of
nearly 200 people, may have supplied the impetus needed for action.

According to the official, who declined to be named, these operations will essentially be covert to prevent an all-out war between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. Officially, India may continue to deny such actions, all the while taking the battle to the terrorists.

Elite armed naval, air and army forces, backed by intelligence agencies, will be involved. The operation could eventually cover border areas along Punjab such as Multan, where some of the Mumbai attackers are believed to have been recruited.

The coastal belt along Karachi to Gwadar will also be under active Indian surveillance.

Bangladesh, another fertile ground of al-Qaeda activities, will also be within the ambit of such actions, according to the official.

The latest moves by India were conveyed to United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she was in New Delhi this week.

Washington, it appears, does not have a problem with India's intentions as long as it is ensured that there will be no full-fledged conflagration between India and Pakistan. The US also wants to make sure Pakistan's army maintains its presence, even if limited, on the western frontier with Afghanistan.

It seems, at least for now, that India will keep the US informed about any armed operations. Still, it is not necessary that all military actions be conveyed to Washington.

New Delhi, too, is averse to any escalated war with Pakistan. Such a scenario would play into the hands of terrorists and would shatter the peace process which until now has been met with broad support in both countries.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear that open war with Pakistan would set India's emerging economy back by at least two decades.

According to official sources, Indian security agencies facing the flak after the Mumbai carnage have impressed on leaders that the only way to repulse repeated militant attacks is to strike at the roots of terror in Pakistan. The alternative, sources say, would be remaining a "sitting duck".

Officials have said that a vast country such as India, with porous coastal and land borders, simply does not have the security apparatus, funds or personnel to guard against the meticulous jihadi terror machine.

Further, it is thought that anti-terror strikes will "bleed" militants, forcing them to protect their immediate interests rather than plotting more attacks. This could mean that Indian operations in Pakistan will be a long-drawn affair.

New Delhi has already set up a anti-terror federal agency with independent funding and personnel drawn from diverse security agencies.

India's new Home Minister, P Chidambaram, is known for his tough approach. New Delhi also ensured that National Security Advisor M K Narayanan managed to retain his job amid calls for his sacking after the Mumbai attacks.

Narayanan, who enjoys the confidence of Manmohan and Chidambaram, is well versed with Indian security structures and is expected to provide bureaucratic leadership.

India will also seek out Israel to help implement secret sorties into Pakistan. It is hoped that Israel will also assist in setting up an elaborate intelligence network specifically aimed at neutralizing terror activities.

New Delhi considers Tel Aviv to be a partner in the fight against terrorism, and the latter has been more than willing to lend a helping hand, including past undercover security operations in Indian-administered Kashmir.

So far, most intelligence-gathering from Pakistan has been aimed at monitoring the activities of the armed forces.

Pakistani armed forces, at the instance of the US, are focused on the western tribal fronts and the Taliban. New Delhi is of the opinion that a well-organized terror network in Pakistan has trained its resources on India.

Over time, India has managed to collect information - including maps, topography and details about training camps and terrorist activities - in Pakistan.

New Delhi knows that despite his strident rhetoric, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's hands are tied and that he will not move much beyond harsh words.

Zardari's flip-flop over the visit of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief to India is an indication that he does not enjoy full control, according to officials. The last thing Zardari wants is further extremist backlash against his family after the assassination of his wife, the former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.

New Delhi believes there are rogue and entrenched elements within the ISI and Pakistani army that are pursuing an agenda beyond the control of the current political leadership.

Meanwhile, Indian, US, British and Israeli security officials continue to interrogate Ajmal Amir Kasab, the fidayeen (suicide) Mumbai attacker caught alive.

Sources say that Ajmal exists at the bottom of a complex terror chain. As such, his usefulness will likely not extend past revealing logistics about the Mumbai attacks. So far, he has only confirmed what was already known about the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) terror group and its masterminds.

Indian investigators have said that Ajmal has undergone advanced LET training, including marine warfare.

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 07 Dec 2008 00:42

Indeed there are going to be more terror strikes. All Pakistan will do is try and make terrorism in India a more local affair. Terrorism will exist as long as Islam exists. For those who think a few military strikes in Pakistan will end terror, no it won't end it. Here we are trying to establish how significant it will be to set a precedent mechanism that Pakistan hands over key terror suspects under international pressure. Pakistan has said balls to the US. It's never handed Mullah Omar, AQ Khan and many others. Don't think the US Commanders in Afghanistan are not frustrated. They are sick, because they have seen Paki perfidy close hand. Our cynicism and distrust of Americans is understandable because of their sanctimonous approach to India while doling Billions all these years to TSP while we suffered the same trepidations many times over what they have in Afghanistan.

But if we succeed in getting key terror suspects here, Gul (the King Cobra among the Jihadist snakes) too, this will be a massive precedent. This will happen only if Z manages to shut the **** up that Vulture and Pesha scum. We do in a way even though with the help of the international community, get a foot in Pakistans security set up. This is what we should demand and get at the minimum for the carnage in Mumbai.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 07 Dec 2008 00:44

So DDm can write a coherent article except its only for foreign media. When it comes to local media they become incoherent.
ldve soon after Dec 13, 2001 there were numerous stories of how India would liberate POK with maps and all that. Nothing much came of it. if Asia times starts publishing it then its all time pass. note the Israel linkage. Teaching Indians covert ops in TSP is like teaching elementary math to a maths prof.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 07 Dec 2008 00:45

Sorry if alrady posted: Treasury.gov piece.

Treasury Targets LET Leadership

Washington - The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated four individuals that hold leadership positions in Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET), a Pakistan-based terrorist group with links to Usama bin Ladin and the al Qaida network.

"LET is a dangerous al Qaida affiliate that has demonstrated its willingness to murder innocent civilians," said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI). "LET's transnational nature makes it crucial for governments worldwide to do all they can to stifle LET's fundraising and operations."

LET has conducted numerous attacks against Indian military and civilian targets since 1993. The Government of India implicated LET in the July 2006 attack on multiple Mumbai commuter trains, and in the December 2001 attack against the Indian Parliament. LET is also suspected of involvement in attacks in New Delhi in October 2005, and in Bangalore in December 2005. In March 2002, senior al Qaida leader Abu Zubaydah was captured at an LET safe house in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

LET arose in the early 1990s as the armed wing of the Sunni missionary movement Markaz-ud Dawa-wal-Irshad. Despite being banned by the Government of Pakistan in January 2002, LET continues to operate in Kashmir and engage in or support terrorist activities worldwide. LET was designated pursuant to U.S. Executive Order 13224 on December 20, 2001, and under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 on May 2, 2005. The U.S. Department of State named LET a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on December 26, 2001.

Today's action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing financial, technological, or material support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. Any assets these designees have under U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen and U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the designees.Identifying Information

Muhammad Saeed
AKAs: Hafiz Muhammad Saeed
Hafiz Saeed
Hafiz Sahib
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed
Hafez Mohammad Sayeed
Hafiz Mohammad Sayid
Hafiz Mohammad Syeed
Tata Ji
Hafiz Mohammad Sayed
Address: House No. 116E, Mohalla Johar, Town: Lahore, Tehsil
Lahore City, Lahore District, Pakistan
DOB: 5 June 1950
POB: Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan
Father's Name: Kamal-ud-Din
National ID#: 3520025509842-7

Muhammad Saeed is LET's overall leader and chief and plays a key role in LET's operational and fundraising activities worldwide. Saeed oversaw the management of a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2006, including funding of the camp, which prepared militants to fight against Coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Saeed, in 2005, determined where graduates of an LET camp in Pakistan should be sent to fight, and personally organized the infiltration of LET militants into Iraq during a trip to Saudi Arabia. That same year, Saeed arranged for an LET operative to be sent to Europe as LET's European fundraising coordinator.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi

AKAs: Zakir Rehman Lakvi
Zaki Ur-Rehman Lakvi
Zaki Ur-Rehman
Zakir Rehman
Abu Waheed Irshad Ahmad Arshad
Chachajee
Address 1: Barahkoh, P.O. DO, Tehsil and District Islamabad, Pakistan
Address 2: Chak No. 18/IL, Rinala Khurd, Tehsil Rinala Khurd, District
Okara, Pakistan
DOB: 30 December 1960
POB: Okara, Pakistan
Father's Name: Hafiz Aziz-ur-Rehman
National ID#: 61101-9618232-1

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is LET's chief of operations. In this capacity, Lakhvi has directed LET military operations, including in Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq, and Southeast Asia. Lakhvi instructed

LET associates in 2006 to train operatives for suicide bombings. Prior to that, Lakhvi instructed

LET operatives to conduct attacks in well-populated areas.

Lakhvi, in 2004, sent operatives and funds to attack U.S. forces in Iraq. Lakhvi also directed an LET operative to travel to Iraq in 2003 to assess the jihad situation there.

In past years, Lakhvi has also played an important role in LET fundraising activities, reportedly receiving al Qaida-affiliated donations on behalf of LET.

Haji Muhammad Ashraf

AKA: Haji M. Ashraf
DOB: 1 March 1965
PPN: A-374184, Pakistani

Haji Muhammad Ashraf is LET's chief of finance, a position he has held since at least 2003. Ashraf traveled to the Middle East in 2003 and 2004, where he personally collected donations on behalf of LET. Ashraf assisted Saudi Arabia-based LET leadership in 2003 with expanding its organization and increasing its fundraising activities.

Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq

AKAs: Mahmoud Bahaziq
Abu `Abd al-'Aziz
Abu Abdul Aziz
Shaykh Sahib
DOB: 17 August 1943
Alt DOB: 1943
Alt DOB: 1944
POB: India
Nationality: Saudi Arabian
Saudi Registration Number: 4-6032-0048-1

Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq is an LET financier and is credited with being the main financier behind the establishment of the LET and its activities in the 1980s and 1990s. He has also served as the leader of LET in Saudi Arabia. In 2003, Bahaziq coordinated LET's fundraising activities with Saudi nongovernmental organizations and Saudi businessmen, and encouraged LET operatives to continue and accelerate fundraising and organizing activities. As of mid-2005, Bahaziq played a key role in LET's propaganda and media operations.

-30-

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 07 Dec 2008 00:59

SureshP wrote:X-post

New US management will respect Pakistan sovereignty: McCain
Updated at: 2040 PST, Saturday, December 06, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Democratic presidential candidate in the recent US elections and US senator John McCain has said that America’s new management would respect the sovereignty of Pakistan.

He said this during a meeting with prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani here on Saturday.

On this occasion, senator McCain also said that the Pressler amendment was a blunder.

He said that during his presidential campaign, he had opposed the violation of Pakistan borders.

Regarding Mumbai carnage, Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan had offered India the setting up a joint commission.

The prime minister reiterated his resolve that the Pakistan territory would not be allowed to be used for terrorism.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/updates.asp?id=61884

And I used to respect this senile old man and supported him over Obama. I am mighty glad, that he lost.

milindc · Post by **milindc** » 07 Dec 2008 01:15

When does this 48-hour deadline start ?

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 07 Dec 2008 01:22

According to the official, who declined to be named, these operations will essentially be covert

covert [adj] - secret or hidden

It is of course standard practice to announce special forces raids in the press, particularly the Asia Times

What do these reporters use as inspiration for the nonsense they make up?

gandharva · Post by **gandharva** » 07 Dec 2008 01:42

Key Mumbai blasts suspect in Pakistan?
Praveen Swami

NEW DELHI: Onlookers watched in amazement as a wiry young man jumped out of a second-floor window of the Gulistan Apartments near the Shalimar Talkies on Mumbai’s Grant Road, and ran, hobbling, down the street.

Ever since he escaped the Delhi police who hammered at his door in May 2006, Rahil Abdul Rehman Sheikh has gone on to become one of India’s most wanted terrorists. He is alleged to have played a key role in that year’s serial bombings in Mumbai as well as abortive terror attacks in Gujarat and New Delhi.

India’s demand that Pakistan hand over Lashkar commanders alleged to have organised the November 26 massacre in Mumbai, has overshadowed the continuing hunt for Sheikh and his associates.

Sheikh, India’s intelligence services say, is holed up in Pakistan under the protection of Lashkar military commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi and his deputy, who known only by the aliases ‘Muzammil’, ‘Yusuf’ and ‘Abu Hurrera’— the very men the Mumbai police say had command of the November 26 fidayeen attacks.

Mumbai police officials claim Sheikh, who was incorrectly reported to have been arrested in the U.K. just a day before the Mumbai attacks, sent over two dozen Maharashtra residents into the Lashkar.

His recruits, mainly young people drawn to neoconservative organisations like the Students Islamic Movement of India and preacher Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation, travelled to Tehran on legitimate Indian passports and Iranian pilgrimage visas, before crossing through the Zahedan border into Pakistan.

Most of Sheikh’s operatives were raised in the wake of the 2002 communal pogrom. Feroze Ghaswala, a Mumbai-based automobile mechanic, volunteered for the jihad after witnessing the burial of dozens of people killed in the violence which broke out while he was visiting relatives in Ahmedabad. He then travelled to Srinagar, hoping to meet up with jihadists at a religious gathering addressed by Dr. Naik in 2003. Instead, he ran into Sheikh, beginning a dramatic journey that ended with his arrest, and that of Mohammad Ali Chippa, while allegedly attempting to stage revenge bombings in Gujarat.

Irfan Deshmukh, among the principal Mumbai bombings accused and another of Sheikh’s recruits, also worked as a librarian at the IRF.

While there is no suggestion that either the IRF or Dr. Naik are involved in the Lashkar’s terror operations, the institution and the cleric are extensively featured on the website of its parent religious and political organisation, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

And in a controversial speech on al-Qaeda chief Osama bin-Laden, Dr. Naik proclaimed: “If he is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. If he is terrorising America the terrorist — the biggest terrorist — I am with him.” “The thing is,” Dr. Naik explained, “if he is terrorising a terrorist, he is following Islam.”

http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/07/stories ... 210800.htm

enqyoob · Post by **enqyoob** » 07 Dec 2008 01:54

New US management will respect Pakistan sovereignty: McCain
Updated at: 2040 PST, Saturday, December 06, 2008

Sen. John McCain, along with the Lehman Brothers CEO, assured Pakistan that New American Administration Dreams Inc (NAADI), a corporation established on Nov. 5, 2008, would respect Pakistani Sovirginity, and set up a New Financial Order based on Confederate Currency.

Who empowered McCain to go speak for the next US administration, I wonder?

skbanner · Post by **skbanner** » 07 Dec 2008 01:58

On trying to visit Zakir Naik's website (http://www.irf.net) Firefox displays the following warning:

Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!
Suggestions:

* Return to the previous page and pick another result.
* Try another search to find what you're looking for.

Or you can continue to http://www.irf.net/ at your own risk. For detailed information about the problems we found, visit Google's Safe Browsing diagnostic page for this site.

For more information about how to protect yourself from harmful software online, you can visit StopBadware.org.

If you are the owner of this web site, you can request a review of your site using Google's Webmaster Tools. More information about the review process is available in Google's Webmaster Help Center.
Advisory provided by Google

Must be a Zionist conspiracy...

Prabu · Post by **Prabu** » 07 Dec 2008 02:16

This is the right time. In any case, pakiland is not going to hand over all the terrorists. So use that as a reason and strike all the training camps in POK. US and international community will back India. Paki's will be too timid to strike back India with nuclear weopans.

Sumeet · Post by **Sumeet** » 07 Dec 2008 02:17

Pak on track to being named terrorist state

WASHINGTON: The United States is dusting off a long-discarded proposal to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. But with the Bush administration now in its final six weeks in office, a decision in this regard is being left to the incoming Obama government, sources said, contingent on corrective actions taken in the meantime by Islamabad to the satisfaction of India, US and other countries affected by Pakistan's toxic export of death.

US intelligence circles are now re-evaluating Pakistan's contribution to the war on terror, and the ISI's dominant role in the country and its ties with jihadi outfits, at the behest of the Bush administration. The White House itself lost faith in the Pakistan Army's bonafides several months ago which led to Washington's decision to withdraw support to military ruler Pervez Musharraf and back a new civilian government, officials and congressional aides who spoke on background explained. The decision to dump Musharraf was taken at vice-president Dick Cheney recommendation, they added, because of evidence that Pakistan was continuing to help Taliban elements attacking Nato forces.

Now the Bush administration is even more convinced that the Pakistani Army and its intelligence arm ISI, who still calls the shots in Islamabad, are continuing their toxic policies. But firm action against them is constrained by both the transition phase in Washington and the US dependence on Pakistan to maintain supply lines to its troops in land-locked Afghanistan. Officials are now re-examining options in this regard, particularly US leverage against Islamabad if Pakistan considers interdiction strategies.

Pakistan came close to being named a state sponsor of terrorism in 1992 when then Secretary of State James Baker charged then prime minister Nawaz Sharif of supporting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. The then US envoy in Islamabad Nicholas Platt conveyed to Sharif that "we (US) are very confident of our information that your intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, and elements of the Army are supporting Kashmiri and Sikh militants who carry out acts of terrorism... This support takes the form of providing weapons, training and assistance in infiltration ... We're talking about direct, covert support from the Government of Pakistan."

In his talking points, Platt continued: "Our information is certain. It does not come from the Indian Government. Please consider the serious consequences to our relationship if this support continues... If the situation persists, the Secretary of State may find himself required by law to place Pakistan in the U.S.G. [United States Government] State sponsors of terrorism list... You must take concrete steps to curtail assistance to militants and not allow their training camps to operate in Pakistan or Azad Kashmir."

The situation was defused by Sharif government removing then D-G of ISI Javed Nasir even as Washington was going through a transition phase (from Bush Sr to Clinton).

But it now appears that the ISI has cranked up its policy from mere infiltration and support to outright commando style attacks.

Despite a soft-line adopted by Bush administration in public to the benefit of doubt to Pakistan's civilian government and spur it into action, Washington has little doubt that the terrorist attack on Mumbai was sponsored and planned with state support, US officials are saying privately. One things is certain; this was not a run-of-the mill LeT operation.

"I think this event looks a lot more like a classical Special Forces or commando-style raid than it does like any terrorist attack we've seen before," David Kilcullen, a counter insurgency military analyst who served as an advisor to Gen. Davis Petraeus tells Fareed Zakaria in the upcoming edition of his program GPS, articulating what US officials are saying in private. "No al-Qaida-linked terrorist group and certainly never Lashkar-e-Taiba has mounted a maritime raid of this type or complexity."

The US intelligence community believes that hijacking a fishing vessel, infiltrating via the sea, via inflatable boat, launching diversionary attacks designed to pull the first responders out of the way of the subsequent follow on groups that struck the Oberoi, the Taj Mahal, the Nariman Center and the equipment the terrorists carried and their attire were all in the vein of a covert special-forces raid rather than a traditional terrorist attack.

Pakistan's covert support to Taliban and al-Qaida elements on the country's western front has been extensively chronicled in US military circles in recent months, although political and strategic expediency has constrained Washington from speaking about it in public. In December 2006, Afghan security forces captured Sayed Akbar, an ISI officer, who had been tasked by Pakistani intelligence with serving as a conduit to al-Qaida, which was operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border in the Kunar region.

Debriefed by US and Afghan officials, Akbar said he had escorted Osama bin Laden as he traveled from Afghanistan's Nuristan province into Pakistan's Chitral district, prompting US to rush an FBI team there. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also accused Pakistan around the same time of sheltering Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Quetta and said he had even provided GPS coordinates and phone numbers of the hideout to Pakistan's military government but it did not act.

A few months later a US commander, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Nash, who worked with the Afghan police, made a widely discussed slide presentation on his return to Washington, saying "ISI involved in direct support to many enemy operations ... classification prevents further discussion of this point." The support included "training, funding, [and] logistics," he added.

But the most damning, and most recent, piece of evidence came after the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul when US intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack. The messages, US officials said later, indicated that the ISI officers involved in the bombings were not "renegades," or "stateless actors," and "their actions might have been authorized by superiors."

Washington now believes that is also the case with Mumbai, which is why, notwithstanding a soft public stance, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has conveyed to President Zardari what her predecessor Baker told Nawaz Sharif: Pakistan is on track to being declared a state sponsor of terrorism if it does not act.

It was because of this long history of Pakistan's corrosive terrorist record that an outraged Rice dismissed Islamabad's request for evidence this time, saying, there is a "lot of information about what happened here, a lot of information... And so this isn't an issue of sharing evidence."

faraz · Post by **faraz** » 07 Dec 2008 02:24

Pakistan was first going to send ISI chief to India. Then they said that they will send ISI representative.

Does anybody know if they have send this representative ? Can you post the URL for that news ?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 07 Dec 2008 02:25

shaardula wrote:listening to npr and pbs and the rest in the us for the past week, lot of about muslim disenfranchisement in india, lot of about social inequity and related .

do we let this go and take it on the chin or show it for all the hot air that it is?

Shaardula, If you believe in it you have to make the case for it. People dont have more than five minutes to listen to you.

The following points take less than that.
The Mumbai Terrorist attack is an Evil act.

It was Evil to torture and kill innocent people in the Taj, Trident, CST and Chabad House.

The victims were Indians, US, UK and Jews.

There is no justification for this purely evil act. Not kasmir. Not Indian Muslims takleef. Not any geo-political issues.

The terrorists trained and came from Pakistan.

They belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba which is a terrorist organization from Punjab region of Pakistan. They don't belong to Pak Occupeid Kashmir. So Kashmir issue is not involved.

They are driven by Islamofascisim in that they targeted those they killed. Its mini holocaust redux. India was the earliest land to give sanctuary to Jews. Has some of the oldest synagogues in the world. Mumbai Jewish community is as old as 1750s from Baghdad. Siegfried Sasson, the English poet was from Mumbai. Sassoon docks are world famous docks in Mumbai. The US State Dept lawyer Abraham Soafer is from Mumbai.

The Pakistan govt by refusing to punish the Evil perpetrators is itself Evil.

Pakistan should be held accountable to get rid of these Evil perpetrators.

Anyone who does not recognize this is also supporting Evil.

faraz · Post by **faraz** » 07 Dec 2008 02:27

Sarah Palin empowered McCain....Lipstick-on-a-Pig attitude

narayanan wrote:
New US management will respect Pakistan sovereignty: McCain
Updated at: 2040 PST, Saturday, December 06, 2008

Sen. John McCain, along with the Lehman Brothers CEO, assured Pakistan that New American Administration Dreams Inc .(NAADI), a corporation established on Nov. 5, 2008, would respect Pakistani Sovirginity, and set up a New Financial Order based on Confederate Currency.

Who empowered McCain to go speak for the next US administration, I wonder?

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 07 Dec 2008 02:34

pakis has no time sending isi to India.. why would they risk a bare exposure. instead, they would merrily be happy being a TSP. from there on, huge tamaasha.. pull out of being staunch ally, show demonstration, and chest beating allahukkabaar shows, and burning USA and Indian flag. while there brethers celebrate in the caves with fine made in dubai rum.

they know how to being a tsp is more headline prone than being just a free state. it was afghansitan.. iraq, and its shames them the they are not it. but this time, they may be getting what they wish for.

dont worry.. have curry.

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 07 Dec 2008 02:38

And I used to respect this senile old man and supported him over Obama. I am mighty glad, that he lost.

Jung just made him senile. I googled and did not find the same tone, in fact, if at all, he was more pro India. IMHO.

But, I am glad he lost.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 07 Dec 2008 02:40

Pakistani villagers confirm it's the home of Mumbai killer

FARIDKOT, near Depalpur, Pakistan — The lone gunman captured alive by Indian police during last week's terrorist attack on Mumbai comes from a dirt-poor village in Pakistan's southern Punjab region where a banned Islamist group has been actively recruiting young men for "jihad," according to residents of the village and official records seen by McClatchy Newspapers.

Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the dark haired 21-year-old man arrested by Indian authorities in the first hours of the assault -- in which over 170 people died -- left the village four years ago, several residents said. He would return once a year to see small family home and one villager recalled him talking about freeing the Muslim-dominated region of Kashmir from India.

His origins are a key to the investigation of the attack and could have a profound impact on relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, already at the brink of confrontation. Until now, the Pakistan government has repeatedly said that there was no solid evidence to back Indian accusations that the gunmen came from Pakistan.

A McClatchy reporter visited the village three times in four days and obtained official electoral records, which showed that Ajmal's parents, as named by the Indian authorities, indeed reside in the village.

At the time of the first visit on Wednesday, there was no sign of Pakistan plainclothes police. But village mayor, Ghulam Mustafa Wattoo, confirmed that a man named Ameer lives in Faridkot, with a son named Ajmal. But he said Ameer claimed his son was not the man captured by Indian authorities.

But everything in the village fit the details leaked from the Indian police interrogation of Ajmal. Indian police identified the father as Mohammad Ameer, who earns a meager living selling home-made snacks from a mobile cart, and his wife as Noor. At the tiny family house, located on a narrow street deep inside Faridkot, the McClatlchy reporter on a second visit Friday noted a mobile food cart lying in the courtyard.

Ameer, 44 and his wife, Noor, 47, were nowhere to be found. According to several villagers, who asked not to be named for their own security, "a bearded mullah" took them away during the night, likely, they thought, to be a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic extremist group accusing of being behind the Mumbai attack.

Wattoo led the visiting reporter to Ameer's house, where an elderly man named Sultan and a mid-aged woman named Miraj, who identified themselves as relatives, said the occupants had gone away "for a wedding."

But they gave inconsistent and changing stories, sometimes confirming that Ameer lives there, at other times denying it. The mayor, too, had attempted to delay the visit of a McClatchy reporter to the house Friday and changed his story at times. As a result of the delay, plainclothes Pakistani security officials got to the house before the reporter, and they appeared to have coached the occupants to throw visitors off the trail.

A villager, who asked not to be named for his own safety, told McClatchy: "These people are telling you lies. We know that boy (caught in Mumbai) is from Faridkot. We knew from the first night (of the attack)."

Shown a picture of Ajmal, he confirmed it was the young man from the village.

"They brainwash our youth about jihad, there are people who do it in this village. They tell them they'll get a ticket to heaven. It is so wrong," the villager added.

Another resident said separately that he recognized the face in the photograph, though he later changed his mind when other villagers crowded around.

"He (Ameer) has lived here for a few years," said villager Mohammad Taj, an agriculturalist, who thought his age was around 50. "He has three sons and three daughters."

Noor Ahmed, 45, a local farmer said: "He (Ameer) had a stall he pushed around, sometimes here, sometimes elsewhere. He was a meek man, he hasn't particularly religious. He just made ends meet and didn't quarrel with anyone."

Residents said that Faridkot and the surrounding area, including a nearby village called Tara Singh, are a hotbed for recruitment for Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The nazim or mayor of Tara Singh, Rao Zaeem Haider, said: "There is a religious trend here. Some go for jihad but not too many."

Ajmal, who had little or no schooling, has been gone from Faridkot for about four years but would return to see his family once a year, said several locals. One said he would talk about freeing the Kashmir region from Indian rule when he returned, - the main aim of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

There are several Faridkots in Pakistan and one in India, and McClatchy's weeklong search for the home village of the captured suspect was complicated by incorrect details of the location published in the Indian news media.

The Faridkot from which Ajmal came is near the town of Depalpur, in the Okara district in southern Punjab

Many residents and local plainclothes police now appear to be trying to cover up Ajmal's connection with the village. By Saturday, the atmosphere turned hostile, and several reporters who went to Fardikot were roughed up, witnesses said by phone.

Faridkot mayor Wattoo at first denied the village was home to Ajmal Ameer Kasab. "There is a man here called Ameer, he pushed a snack cart around. He came to see me because he was very worried about reports on the news about an Ajmal from Faridkot being caught. But he told me that the boy they caught is not his Ajmal," Wattoo said.

Wattoo had also said there had been no local police investigation of whether Ajmal came from this Faridkot. At another village called Faridkot, near a town called Khanewal, also visited by McClatchy, there had been marked police and intelligence presence.

McClatchy obtained the official electoral records for Faridkot, which falls under union council number 5, tehsil (area) Depalpur, district Okara. The list of 478 registered voters shows a Mohammad Ameer, married to Noor Elahi, living in Faridkot. McClatchy has the national identity card numbers for both husband and wife.

Residents said that the family belonged to a clan of butchers, for which the local word is Kasab or Kasai. There is no tradition of surnames in rural Pakistan, and individuals take the names of their profession or tribe. Ajmal told Indian police his surname is Kasab, according to news reports.

Faridkot is dirt-poor with a remote feel, despite being close to a town. Most people have little education and live in poverty. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, graffiti in large lettering says, in Urdu, "Go for jihad. Go for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad". MDI is the parent organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba. In nearby Depalpur, there is a banner on the side of the main street that asks people to devote goat skins to Jamaat ud Dawa, another MDI offshoot.

Hafiz Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, had visited the nearby town of Depalpur to give speeches, where there were "hundreds" of supporters, locals said. There was a Lashkar-e-Taiba office in Depalpur but that was hurriedly closed in the last few days, they said. The Lashkar-e-Taiba newspaper is distributed in Depalpur and Faridkot. The area lies in the south of Punjab province, an economically backward area long known for producing jihadists.
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/57251.html