Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan (TSP): May 8, 2011

asgkhan · Post by **asgkhan** » 23 May 2011 14:26

This is not a case of terrorists vs. Pakistan defence forces, more like blue on blue, or friendly fire. To dig further, it is pakistan army in uniform vs, pakistan army sans uniform.

abhijitm · Post by **abhijitm** » 23 May 2011 14:36

The day is not far away when we hear a nuke explosion in pindi or lawhr.

Atri · Post by **Atri** » 23 May 2011 14:39

abhijitm wrote:The day is not far away when we hear a nuke explosion in pindi or lawhr.

lahore too close to amritsar, saar... pindi is phine though..

abhijitm · Post by **abhijitm** » 23 May 2011 14:44

I know thats why I am worried. I dont give a hoot about how many pakis die but the repercussion we will have of any such attack is again devastating.

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 23 May 2011 14:45

asgkhan wrote:This is not a case of terrorists vs. Pakistan defence forces, more like blue on blue, or friendly fire. To dig further, it is pakistan army in uniform vs, pakistan army sans uniform.

That is certainly true for the Pakistanis.
For example in the case of the Pakistan Army and the LET, one brother gets lucky and goes into the Pak Army as a Jawan, and the other brother can't find any employment and joins the LET. Both have similar pays, but the LET brother gets to actually wage Jihad against the enemy, and might get shaheed.

From the Pakistanis point of view, it is debatable which is more prestigious - the Army man or the Jihadi. I suspect that the Jihadi is more respectable.

abhijitm wrote:The day is not far away when we hear a nuke explosion in pindi or lawhr.

Waise neither of these two cities have Nuclear Weapons deployed.
But god forbid if a base such as the one today was attacked and had an assembled nuke lying around, and the Jihadis had intel and attacked.
If the Jihadis get surrounded, they probably won't hesitate to detonate that nuke if they could.
Once a human being is cornered and is about to be killed and he knows it, all bets are off.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 23 May 2011 14:48

arunsrinivasan wrote:^^ Both Dawn & BBC reports say "At least two of these multi-million dollar aircraft (P-3C Orion) were set ablaze"

Expect India to buy more C17s to help the US of A to " compensate " the loss of the two Orions

PMO may well offer this deal.

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 23 May 2011 14:49

Operation to regain control of PNS Mehran over

Bodies of three militants have been recovered from the building. Reports about security forces arrested some militants could not be confirmed.

Gunmen armed with rockets and explosives stormed base, destroying two US-made two P-3C Orion aircraft surveillance aircraft and killing 12 security personnel.

Patni · Post by **Patni** » 23 May 2011 14:51

Wrong bonfire!! Pic from following link deleted as it is from Marriott bombing.

http://www.thecurrentaffairs.com/wp-con ... Attack.jpg

amit · Post by **amit** » 23 May 2011 15:05

sum wrote:From reports of 30 raiders, we are already hearing 4-5 being killed and 7 captured and encounter ending. So, by Paki logic = 4+7 =30

This is another v2 of the first equation: 1TFTA=10SDRE.

But me feeling proud today for being a Bengali. See what dhoti-clad Bengalis from Calcutta can do you TFTAs. And we didn't even send our Mamata Didi!

amit · Post by **amit** » 23 May 2011 15:06

Patni wrote:

Larger pic size of image showing early stage of bonfire at PNS mehran.

This pic has great psy-ops potential. Should be propagated far and wide. Will do my bit.

asgkhan · Post by **asgkhan** » 23 May 2011 15:11

Journalists and conspiracy theories abound in Karachi

By Michael Georgy
KARACHI | Mon May 23, 2011 5:58am EDT
(Reuters) - A huge billboard outside Pakistan's naval air force headquarters, which came under sustained attack for hours on Monday, says it all -- "Pakistan Air Force Museum. Unique experience."

Attacks against Pakistan security forces are all too common, but the scale of Monday's operation marked it out as the most audacious since the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces early this month.

Blasts rang out and helicopters hovered above the PNS Mehran base in the commercial hub of Karachi, for hours after more than 20 Pakistani Taliban militants stormed the building with guns and grenades on Sunday night, blowing up at least one aircraft.

The Pakistan Taliban, which is allied with al Qaeda, said the attack was to avenge bin Laden's killing. At least 12 military personnel were killed and 14 wounded.

It was not clear how many of the militants were killed.

"If these people can just enter a military base like this, then how can any Pakistani feel safe?" asked Mazhar Iqbal, 28, engineering company administrator taking a lunch break in the shade outside the complex where a crowd had gathered on a patch of grass to watch journalists set up camp as much as anything.

He said he was from an insecure area of the southern city already infamous as a source of funding for militant groups.

"The government and the army are just corrupt. We need new leaders with a vision for Pakistan."

Karachi has a population of about 18 million people, a volatile mix of rival ethnic groups and political factions, who all to readily resort to violence to settle scores.

Sprawling along the sun-baked coast of the Arabian Sea, the city is also home to Pakistan's main port, financial markets and the central bank.

It is also a transit point for military and other supplies to Afghanistan for the U.S.- and NATO-led anti-insurgency effort there.

QUESTIONS

The navy base is ringed with a concrete wall with about five feet of barbed wire on top. An aircraft, armed with rockets, hangs on show on a stand outside.

Two white paramilitary ranger vehicles had taken up position outside the main gate, each with a machinegun on top and an officer wearing a black cap and camouflage.

There were about 30 to 40 journalists gathering outside, with seven satellite dishes attached to their trucks. Helicopters buzzed overhead and the main road outside was closed to traffic.

Moin Babar, 35, a technical engineer, said people were trying to understand how the militants made it inside.

"I heard that 15 went in through a sewer," he said.

Kamran Khalil, 48, a civil engineer, suggested, like many others, a conspiracy.

"How can this happen? It's taking them so long to resolve the issue. India or the CIA could have been behind this. They want to show that Pakistan forces are ineffective."

Many in Pakistan were furious with the U.S. operation to kill bin Laden without sharing any intelligence beforehand with Islamabad, which they saw as a severe breach of sovereignty.

"This is all a reaction to American policy in Pakistan," said Atif Ali, a 30-year-old construction worker, standing near one billboard advertising audio equipment in which a beautiful woman says "Let's play" and another advertising pizza.

(Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Robert Birsel)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/ ... OI20110523

sum · Post by **sum** » 23 May 2011 15:35

Gawd, all damn reports are only talking about the P-3Cs...whatever happened to the Fokker/Atlantique/Z-9s? Why no news of them?

Hope that few of the miscreants are hiding in different parts of the base and will soosai themselves when a large force comes to do the cleanup. ( again a trick taught by ISI and used in J&K frequently. IIRC, two IA Lt-Generals had barely escaped with major injuries when one such Paki hid himself in a drain after a major op and blew himself when the generals came to inspect post-operation cleanup. How ironic if same trick is tried on the TFTA)

abhijitm · Post by **abhijitm** » 23 May 2011 15:37

how many p3 confirmed? any news?

sum · Post by **sum** » 23 May 2011 15:41

^^ NDTV mentions 2 P-3Cs destroyed....not sure of other outlets.

abhijitm · Post by **abhijitm** » 23 May 2011 15:43

fingers crossed. I am hoping 3 p3 + 1 atlantique.

sum · Post by **sum** » 23 May 2011 15:46

Finally, Pakis settle on the "rogue theory" again:
Insiders helped Taliban plot Mehran strike

Terming the Taliban [ Images ] attack on the Mehran naval air base as a 'big security lapse,' Pakistani defence and political analysts on Monday said that 'insiders' were facilitating the militants in their deadly agenda and asked the government and military to wake up to this.
<a href='http://ads.rediff.com/RealMedia/ads/cli ... -2011.html' target='_blank'><IMG SRC="http://imads.rediff.com/0/OasDefault/Re ... 7may11.jpg" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></a>

The daring attack by the armed militants, who used rockets, grenades and heavy ammunition, has raised serious doubt over the military's ability to protect its key installations.

"It is a worrying thing this attack and is nothing but a serious security lapse on part of the navy," Air Vice Marshal (retd) Shahzad Chaudhary, a defence analyst said.

He pointed out that the PNS Mehran was one of Pakistan's most important naval airbases with the latest equipment and aircrafts and for militants to attack it so easily and brazenly showed big loops in the security.

"Just last month two bomb attacks were carried out on naval buses in the city in which innocent people were killed and the naval installations should have been on high alert," after that, he said.

"It is not possible for these terrorists to have so much creditable information about the presence of the aircrafts on the base without inside help. The fact that these militants have managed to hold off the security forces for the last 13 hours shows they came well drilled and prepared for the operation," Zehra said.

She said that it was time for the nation and armed forces to recognise they were fighting against a well organised enemy which is clearly getting inside help.

"They are rogue elements apparently helping these militants."

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 23 May 2011 15:47

They caught a guy outside the base , his only fault, he was viewing the whole episode on a telescope

ranjbe · Post by **ranjbe** » 23 May 2011 15:50

US sources have quoted price of a P3C at 36 million dollars. Given 2 of such aircraft were martyred, all the talibunnies got their 72, and PN lost their 72. The purest of the pure beards know what they are doing!

amit · Post by **amit** » 23 May 2011 15:50

krishnan wrote:They caught a guy outside the base , his only fault, he was viewing the whole episode on a telescope

Did they apply the lungi test on him?

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 23 May 2011 15:52

Wah, Kamra, Badabar, GHQ, Aabpara, FIA HQ and now Naval Air Station (in between many minor targets like recruitment centres, police training centres etc) have been attacked. Suddenly one Pakistani abdul wakes up and gets an 'Aha. . .' moment.

asgkhan wrote:"If these people can just enter a military base like this, then how can any Pakistani feel safe?" asked Mazhar Iqbal. "The government and the army are just corrupt. We need new leaders with a vision for Pakistan."

That is why I said here before

I expect a sense of sympathy among most of the PA for the efforts of the AQAM. After Op Geronimo, Kayani had to rush to various garrisons and address the officers and the soldiers.. . . In a society that is overwhelmingly believing that 'Islam is in great danger' and conspiracies are being hatched against the Muslims, who can implement a comprehensive vetting process more common in civilized societies and guarantee its success ? How can the SPD even find men who do not subscribe to these falsehoods or jihadi ideologies ? Why should we even assume that the SPD itself is above board in these Islamist matters ? There has been a long list of jihadi Islamist Generals as DG of ISI or as Corps Commanders of the PA. The top leadership of PA may present a different face to the American interlocutors but the distrust of and anger against the infidel among the rest of PA is complete and cannot be reset. Why should we expect that the nukes may not fall into more adverse hands in Pakistan ?

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 23 May 2011 15:54

ranjbe wrote:US sources have quoted price of a P3C at 36 million dollars. Given 2 of such aircraft were martyred, all the talibunnies got their 72, and PN lost their 72. The purest of the pure beards know what they are doing!

The problem also is that American taxpayers will once again have to shell out USD 108 million to replace these three for free.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 23 May 2011 15:57

SSridhar wrote:
ranjbe wrote:US sources have quoted price of a P3C at 36 million dollars. Given 2 of such aircraft were martyred, all the talibunnies got their 72, and PN lost their 72. The purest of the pure beards know what they are doing!
The problem also is that American taxpayers will once again have to shell out USD 108 million to replace these three for free.

I thought that instructions had already gone to New Delhi to buy more C17s
to help defray the costs of replacement?:)

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 23 May 2011 16:08

I wish PNS Iqbal were hit. Remember that the 26/11 butchers were trained and assisted by TSPN frogmen from that base.

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 23 May 2011 16:11

Pakistan's military under al-Qaeda attackBy Syed Saleem Shahzad

sum · Post by **sum** » 23 May 2011 16:12

Rangudu wrote:I wish PNS Iqbal were hit. Remember that the 26/11 butchers were trained and assisted by TSPN frogmen from that base.

Some of these frogmen might have been sent to take out these purer guys. Hope they met their 72 at the hands of the "purer than LeT" variety.

vdutta · Post by **vdutta** » 23 May 2011 16:15

Am i the only one disappointed in this raid .

i mean come on, they all were lined up like pigeons on the electric wire. you could have blown all of them. why just one

plus after 15 hrs of firefight only 15-16 pigs got jannat. bad bad report card..

sum · Post by **sum** » 23 May 2011 16:18

From Asia times article, lots of info:

Then navy commandos entered on early Monday morning, but they took at least 12 casualties. Later, the Special Services Group of the army was deployed and it has also received some casualties.

Lots of SSG-N and SSG folks have met their 72. Many might be from PNS Iqbal..

More than 10 heavily armed militants attacked the base from three sides, blowing up several sensitive aircraft including a United States-manufactured surveillance plane.

Planes other than the P-3(s) have also taken hits...

"It was shown several months ago that the Pakistan navy is vulnerable to Islamists when a marine commando unit official was arrested," the security official said. "He was a member of the Mehsud tribe from South Waziristan [tribal area] and was completely indoctrinated by militants. Naval Intelligence never shared the information with the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] or any other security agency that during interrogation he confessed that militants planned to attack installations during the visit of a foreign delegation. Now, they [intelligence] realize how the organization [navy] is riddled and vulnerable to the influence of militant organizations," the official said.

SSG is useless in the fight against the purer since they themselves are aiming to be such way...

Sagrawal · Post by **Sagrawal** » 23 May 2011 16:21

I think it might be possible that they destroyed as many aircraft as they could. Pakis are just trying to hide the actual numbers.

Narad · Post by **Narad** » 23 May 2011 16:26

As per DnD, Rehman Malik confirmed 4 Mujahideen dead while 2 Managed to Escape.

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 23 May 2011 16:40

krishnan wrote:They caught a guy outside the base , his only fault, he was viewing the whole episode on a telescope

Was it attached to a gun?

Sriman · Post by **Sriman** » 23 May 2011 16:40

Chortle

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 23 May 2011 16:42

vdutta wrote:Am i the only one disappointed in this raid .

i mean come on, they all were lined up like pigeons on the electric wire. you could have blown all of them. why just one

plus after 15 hrs of firefight only 15-16 pigs got jannat. bad bad report card..

tut...tut... vdutta saab,

your schadenfreude is showing

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 23 May 2011 16:43

maybe the telescope was attached to a racket laucher

vdutta · Post by **vdutta** » 23 May 2011 16:51

chetak wrote:
vdutta wrote:Am i the only one disappointed in this raid .

i mean come on, they all were lined up like pigeons on the electric wire. you could have blown all of them. why just one

plus after 15 hrs of firefight only 15-16 pigs got jannat. bad bad report card..

tut...tut... vdutta saab,

your schadenfreude is showing

what is schadenfreude ?

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 23 May 2011 16:53

vdutta wrote:
what is schadenfreude ?

happy in other's misfortune.

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 23 May 2011 16:54

By the way, AFAIK, only germans have such a compact phrase for this emotion. Wonder why. Why don't other languages have a word for it?

Seems like something that Pakis should have invented.

Patni · Post by **Patni** » 23 May 2011 16:56

Rehman Malik says extremists helping Pakistan's enemies

Submitted by Vijay Sharma on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 16:31

Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister has accused the terrorists who attacked the PNS Mehran of helping Pakistan's enemy.

"They have destroyed the same ships that would have helped Pakistan detect enemy ships.. By destroying them, they have helped our enemy," Malik said.

Malik asked Pakistani people to realize who are the enemies of the state. He pointed out that there are some people in Pakistan who pray for blessings to the terrorists when such attacks take place.

"For God's sake, please realize who is your enemy.. If anyone attacks Pakistan, he is Pakistan's enemy. Please do not make sensationalist statements just to come on TV.. Let's show the World that we are united," he appealed to the people.

"Some politicians said they [the government] are lying, the Taliban are good. Are these the acts of good people? This is a question of our future, the future of our children," he said.

A large number of terrorists, between 10 and 25, attacked the base Sunday night, armed with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and grenades. Four of them were arrested while they managed to destroy two P-3C Orion aircraft, used in surveillance.

However, Malik said there only 4-6 terrorists -- three of whom have been recovered dead. Two are suspected to have escaped and one is yet to be traced.

The reaction by Malik is part of efforts by the Pakistan government to wean public opinion away from fundamentalists and extremists.

The Pakistani government has been under attack from the International community for failing to crack down on Islamic terrorists while under attack from inside the country for being too hard on Islamists.

Many Islamist groups have large support bases among the Pakistani public and the current attack is being seen as a 'God Given' opportunity for the Government to try to influence public opinion against the extremists.

The government has, in the past, characterized some Islamist extremists as agents of India -- its enemy number one.

Malik also praised the commandos and officials killed in the attack. He said 10 officers and commandos were killed, while 15 people were injured, including 3 firemen.

There were 17 foreigners, including 11 Chinese and 4 American military officials. Malik said they were all saved "amidst gunfire."

Four of the terrorists blew themselves up, he added.

"They had fair features.. we will soon be establishing their origins and ethnicity," Malik said. He said no one has been arrested and dismissed rumors that the attackers were from Punjab [in Pakistan.] "Please don't spread any rumor.. The Taliban have claimed responsibility.. But we will investigate and find out where they are from," he said.

"They were very fair. They had very sharp features, 20-30 or 35.. They were not wearing Salwar Kameez (Pakistan dress.) They had western clothes. They had one-inch beards," he said.

He pointed out that the terrorists had rocket launchers. "Rocket launchers are not there with ordinary terrorists.. They are supplied only to states. That is why I ask you to be patient before jumping to conclusions about who is behind this. This episode shows to what extent Pakistan's enemies will fall to make us weaker," he pointed out.

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 23 May 2011 16:57

Mullah Omar ‘disappears’ from Pak hideout: Afghan official
Afghans change their story, but it still spells disaster for the paki H&D.

Afghanistan’s intelligence services said Monday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar had “disappeared from his hideout” in Quetta, Pakistan, up to five days ago but could not confirm his death.

“So far we cannot confirm the killing of Mullah Omar officially.”

Prove that MO was in Quitter, and you now have the makings of a pot-boiler in your hands (Abort-a-bad, Part Deux).

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 23 May 2011 17:00

Patni wrote:"They were very fair. They had very sharp features, 20-30 or 35.. They were not wearing Salwar Kameez (Pakistan dress.) They had western clothes. They had one-inch beards," he said.

Just like Kasab. He was dark, had blunt features, wore western clothes, no beard, and a vermillon string around his wrist. Definitely not a paki.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 23 May 2011 17:01

^ could this attack be a diversion tactic by good Taliban to free from TSPA/ISI before his is Osamified?