Bharat Rakshak

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said that Washington and Islamabad would work together for peace and security in Afghanistan as she also recognised the need to stem militants’ use of safe havens on the Afghan side for attacks against Pakistan.

Clinton, who led a high-level delegation for talks with top Pakistani political and military leaders this week, indicated in a CNN interview an improved level of mutual understanding.

“We are very clear. We need to do two things together. We need to squeeze the terrorist networks, including the Haqqani network, out of their safe havens, preventing them from being able to plan and carry out attacks across the border.

“And we have to, on the Afghan side of the border, squeeze and eliminate safe havens of those who move back and forth and use safe havens in Afghanistan to attack Pakistan,” she said. {So, there is reconciliation now ?}

Islamabad has been for months asking the US-led international forces stationed in Afghanistan to stop Afghan-based militants from using safe havens in that country for attacks inside Pakistan.

The chief US diplomat, who issued some tough statements ahead of her visit to Islamabad this week, also openly acknowledged the effectiveness of Pakistan’s cooperation against al Qaeda.

“The cooperation on security that we have received over the past years from Pakistan has been absolutely essential in our efforts to defeat and disrupt the al Qaeda network.”

The Pakistanis, she noted, themselves had suffered enormously as a result of their military actions against the terrorist networks and of course that had not only been military losses but civilians too. “A total of about 30,000 over the last decade,” she noted.

Clinton’s delegation included Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey and Director of CIA David Petraeus for the two-day Pakistan visit, which took place in the backdrop of serious strains arising from a spate of events this year, including American unilateral action to take out Osama bin Laden from his Abbottabad hideout and retired Admiral Mike Mullen’s assertions of Pakistani connections with Afghan Haqqani militants.

NATO plans to pull out combat troops from Afghanistan by 2014 and hand over security responsibility to Afghan Army and police.

Meanwhile, the US has also acknowledged reaching out to militants as part of Afghan reconciliation efforts for an orderly transition in the conflict-hit country. app

Harish wrote:** Deleted **

Harish wrote:** Deleted **

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO says international troops and Afghan forces have killed "multiple" insurgents during an operation in an eastern Afghan province where a feared Pakistan-based militant network is particularly active.

The U.S.-led coalition said Monday that Afghan and international forces called for an airstrike on militants in Paktiya province's Wuza Jadran district on Sunday. It said the target of the operation was a heavily-armed group of Haqqani network fighters who operate in the area.

NATO has stepped up its focus on eastern Afghanistan, in areas along the Pakistani border. The al-Qaida and Taliban-linked Haqqani use Pakistan as a safe haven and the U.S. and Afghanistan have urged Islamabad to act against the militants.

LANDI KOTAL, Oct 23: The security forces demolished 14 houses of suspected militants in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency on the second day of search operation on Sunday, officials said.

They said that most of the houses were demolished in Yousuf Talab area of Sipah. The residence of a local commander of Lashkar-i-Islam was included in the demolished houses, they added.

The security forces also dynamited a market in the same locality where officials claimed that militants used to store ammunition. However, no ammunition was recovered from the market.

The officials said that at least 12 suspected militants were also taken into custody during the search operations, carried out in Yousuf Talab, Nala, Spin Qabar and Kuhi areas. The arrested persons were shifted to Shahkas Fort in Jamrud for investigations, they added.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Pakistan will face “dire consequences” if it fails to contain terrorists operating from its soil.

Clinton made this statement in an interview with Bloomberg News two days after she visited Islamabad, adding that Pakistan requires help from the US and Afghanistan to battle militancy.

She added that the US administration does not want Pakistan to overtly launch an military offensive against the banned outfits and forces that attack US and Afghan forces, but carry out clandestine actions.

There are “different ways of fighting besides overt military action,” she said.

Clinton said that she urged Pakistan to share intelligence with the US forces station in Afghanistan to foil attacks and block supply routes.

She also said that better synchronization might curtail incidents like the attack on the American Embassy in Kabul for which the US blamed the Haqqani network.

Soon the orders for my posting to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) were signed and sent to the embassy in Colombo while more copies were ready to be cyclostyled for dispatch to all others concerned. (Photocopiers were not yet known in Pakistan.) I was disappointed at the prospect of spending the next three years of my life in a country not advanced by any means; and one that was inhabited by people whose skins were even darker than mine! But family and friends consoled me by pointing out that I would get excellent tea to drink. And it would be affordable for me to come home for the holidays, bringing Ceylonese tea gifts for my loved ones. Such consolations did not help much in raising my spirits.

And then, quite suddenly, lady luck smiled on me.


I was called by Director (Personnel) Khan Aziz A Khan who told me that there was a change in my posting and that I would now be going to Ankara instead of Colombo. I was delighted.

and one that was inhabited by people whose skins were even darker than mine!

The Obama administration isn’t asking Pakistan’s military to occupy its rugged border regions, the base for extremist groups that attack U.S., allied and Afghan forces on the other side, Clinton said in an interview with Bloomberg News following two days of meetings in Islamabad. There are “different ways of fighting besides overt military action,” she said.

sum wrote:Why is it that our "thinkers" are always waiting for the smallest things to start praising the TSPA generals and ask to reward them?

So, one helo returned means all the direct evidence of Kayani in 26/11, Kabul embassy bombing etc is forgotten and we should sing praises of him?

GopiD wrote:I have been lurking around the BRF for a long time and wanted to put in my idea regarding the recent bilateral relationship between India and Pak....

GopiD wrote:Hi Friends,

I have been lurking around the BRF for a long time and wanted to put in my idea regarding the recent bilateral relationship between India and Pak....

We all are aware of the pathetic situation in which Pak's economy is and we all also know that not a thing moves without TSPA's approval with regards to relationship with India. I think TSPA is slowly but surely understanding the gravity of the economic situation in Pak and wants to change the situation, but it hardly has any option other than china. Given the strategy in which China invests, TSPA knows fully well that it can't expect much from it. On the other side is Afghanistan which is in a hopeless economic situation itself. The only other viable option is India, but India is pak's arch enemy and TSPA can't be seen as giving up on cashmere. Hence they have allowed the civilian face of TSPA to slowly build economic relationship with India and on the other hand they are activating the sleeper cells in India to carry out the attacks for plausible deniability. By this way, TSPA thinks it can have the cake and eat it too.

It would be naive on our part if we think that TSPA doesn't know the abyss in which pak's economy is and it would also be naive of us if we think that the economic relationship is being built with us by pak civilians without the blessings of TSPA.

I think the overall idea of TSPA is to let the civilian side at least have something to eat so that TSPA can save their seat on the throne of pak. TSPA knows that now US has replaced India's place as enemy in the aam pakis' mind and it won't be long before the aam paki's turn onto the TSPA for all the ill's of Pak if they aren't given something in the name of job/food/goat.

TSPA knows fully well that the MMS government is yearning for something to build the relationship with pak and they will hold on to anything that is thrown to us.

The MMS is government is showing absolutely no intelligence by accepting these carrots from TSPA. Instead we should leave Pak on it's own and let it rot until the end where TSPA is sunk by it's arrogance and perfidy, before stepping into the field.

The recent chopper incident and it's immediate release by TSPA should be viewed in the above light....

My 2 paise........

GopiD wrote: I think the overall idea of TSPA is to let the civilian side at least have something to eat so that TSPA can save their seat on the throne of pak. TSPA knows that now US has replaced India's place as enemy in the aam pakis' mind and it won't be long before the aam paki's turn onto the TSPA for all the ill's of Pak if they aren't given something in the name of job/food/goat.

Ramana wrote:

He wrote a very long book. Should ask for it.

SwamyG wrote:
The image is from MoneyControl.com: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/curren ... 04606.html

Pakistan's media landscape has exploded over the last decade. But it is still the most dangerous place on earth to be a journalist and there are now calls for a strict code of conduct to protect the press and the public.

...

But many agree that the hyperactivity of breaking, rolling news has meant objectivity taking a back seat.

"There's a war for ratings and the competition is unhealthy," Zaffar Abbas, editor of Dawn newspaper, says.

Even though parliamentarians proposed a code of conduct for the electronic media to control the graphic coverage of terror attacks, there are still major errors.

The gruesome picture of what many believed was the corpse of Osama Bin Laden was broadcast across Pakistani media - it turned out to be a fake.

More recently, an image of a bearded man wearing a substantial white turban and a brown blazer standing next to former US President Ronald Reagan was reprinted in many Pakistani dailies as an image of Reagan with the notorious Afghan militant Jalaluddin Haqqani.

But Haqqani has never visited the US. The picture, is in fact of an Afghan mujahideen commander called Younis Khalis.

And last year a number of Pakistani newspapers admitted they had been hoaxed after publishing reports based on fake Wikileaks cables containing anti-Indian propaganda.

Clearly the right questions were not asked at the critical moments before publication.
Spewing hatred


Recently, prominent journalist Najam Sethi was targeted on a local television channel which excoriated him (and his daughter) for being anti-Pakistan and collaborating with the United States.

Mr Sethi's life is already under threat because of his outspoken and critical journalism. But a tirade from a high-profile TV host shows that media personalities with clout can be defamatory without being held accountable.


...

Pakistan is a place where violence against women is commonplace. The coverage is instant but the treatment of the stories is like walking through a minefield.

One case in point is a girl who was gang-raped in Karachi last year. It was covered extensively, but some newspapers named the victim, giving her address and - to add insult to injury - a minister appeared on TV implying she had a "bad character".

The case of a female doctor allegedly raped by a military official in 2005 just disappeared from news stories. Former President Pervez Musharraf made a statement in defence of the accused before the investigation was even over.

Asma Jahangir, now the Supreme Court Bar president, called it a "cover-up". Pakistani authorities deny this, but there was no follow-up in the local media.

Carl wrote:Tsk tsk, Pakis don't have the cultural memes for democratic freedoms. They would go into a dwindling spiral if you handed them freedom on a platter:

"I had personally spoken to the managing directors of the Pakistan State Oil and Shell Pakistan and demanded that they arrange to pay us Rs 200 million each. Otherwise, I had warned .."

parsuram wrote: Tibetan youths, who btw, have a couple of orders of magnitude better IQ than the jehadis,

SSridhar wrote: GopiD, please do post more frequently.

SSridhar wrote:

sum wrote:Why is it that our "thinkers" are always waiting for the smallest things to start praising the TSPA generals and ask to reward them?

So, one helo returned means all the direct evidence of Kayani in 26/11, Kabul embassy bombing etc is forgotten and we should sing praises of him?

This is our misfortune.

KLNMurthy wrote: Mr. Raman's comments epitomize the fundamental errror in our strategic thinking. In his SAAG article he makes everything of Kiyani's professionalism and coolness and nothing of the underlying unrelenting hostility towards India which TSP and specifically Kayani have expressed enough times so as to leave no room for doubt. It is hard to escape the conclusion that at the emotional core of our strategic community (of which Mr. Raman is a hawkish member) episodic "good treatment" accorded by the enemy trumps the fact of the enmity itself.

It may be unkind but Stockholm Syndrome is not a wrong way to describe this psychology. A smart predatory enemy like TSP having knowledge of Islamic conquests in its DNA knows how to push these buttons and manipulate its victims.

China's Invested Projects Secure in Pakistan: Expert and Ambassador
2011-10-24 17:41:25
by Xu Fei
http://english.cri.cn/6909/2011/10/24/1821s664215.htm
Dozens of officials and renowned academics from China and Pakistan gathered in Beijing on Monday for in-depth discussions designed to explore opportunities for future cooperation as well as the expansion of bilateral investments in each country.

Pakistan's Ambassador to China Masood Khan said Pakistan welcomes trade delegations from China. Meanwhile, his government is also sending trade delegations and investors to various expos and exhibitions around China as one of the ways of balancing trade between the two countries.

In 2010, trade between China and Pakistan grew by 27.7 percent from a year earlier to 8.67 billion US dollars, with Pakistan's exports to China increasing by 25.5 percent and imports by 37.2 percent.

Concerning the priority areas for Chinese investments in Pakistan, the ambassador said Pakistan is looking into cooperative projects in sectors such as energy, telecommunications, infrastructure and port development

However, the unstable political situation and shortage of energy has resulted in foreign direct investment in Pakistan declining during recent months. Some earlier reports have said that due to security concerns, the China Kingho Group, one of China's largest private coal miners, even cancelled a 120 billion-yuan deal to develop coal mines, power plants and chemical plants in Pakistan's Sindh province.

Masood Khan explained that they have taken the necessary precautions in order to guard against malicious groups.

"Foreign investors are as secure in Pakistan as they can be in any part of the world. And some unfortunate incidents did take place in the past, in 2008 and 2004. But since then, no incidents have taken place. We have taken special measures to protect Chinese investment in Pakistan, including paying special attention to the protection of Chinese personnel, their work places and the places where they live as well as their movement from their residential areas to their work place. And they are provided with extensive police and security personnel," said the ambassador.

The ambassador added that the earlier reports concerning the China Kingho Group's cancellation of projects are false. He explained that "the China Kingho Group neither participated in the bidding process nor entered into any formal negotiations with Pakistan".

About 120 Chinese projects are now underway in Pakistan and there are 13,000 Chinese people working there.

MFN status to India criticised
OCTOBER 24, 2011 RECORDER

http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/s ... 2/1244975/


Indian national flag was burnt and a rally was organised, here on Sunday, as a protest against declaring India as the most favourite nation (MFN) and extending bilateral trade with the neighbouring country.

The rally began from Chowk Kutchery and ended at Ghanta Ghar under the leadership of Tariq Naeemullah Khan, President of United Citizen Front (UCF).

Addressing the rally, Naeemullah said, "we are fighting against India since the creation of Pakistan and we never acknowledged it as our friend but present regime gave a status of MFN under the pressure of United States which is detrimental to our industry and economy."
Haji Mehmood Khan said, "India stopped our waters, constructed dams unlawfully and it is killing Kashmiri Muslims ruthlessly, how can we declare it MFN, he questioned.

Khurshid Khawar said, "There should be no permission for the transit of Indian goods to Kabul via Pakistan."
The participants shouted slogans against President, Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani for playing the role of 'lackeys of India'.

They also shouted slogans against India and United States.

Mahendra wrote:^NDTV-carrom-ball-spin-on-Aloo-Andey

sum wrote:Pak military leadership must be hailed: B.Raman

The Pakistan Army resisted that temptation, treated the incident in the low-key in which it deserved to be treated, consciously avoided dramatising it and let the chopper and its occupants fly back to India within a few hours

This speaks highly of Gen Kayani as a military professional.

His positive and cool reflexes as reflected during the incident need to be noted, acknowledged and hailed by India.

The way the Pakistani military and political leadership resisted the temptation to exploit the incident for ulterior purposes needs to be highlighted and praised.

We do not hesitate to criticise what we see as the negative traits and reflexes of the Pakistan Army in matters relating to India.

In equal measure, we should not hesitate to highlight and hail the positive traits and reflexes of the Pakistani military leadership. The manner in which the Pakistani military leadership handled the incident is worthy of high praise.

Should the good vibrations generated by the Pakistani gesture remain an isolated act without follow-up? I don't think so.

This should be used as a starting point for setting up a more substantial military-military relationship between the armies of the two countries as a distrust-reducing measure. This is the time for us to consider inviting Gen Kayani to visit India.

...

I guess the Pakis will cross check this GPS coordinates data with the IAF's helicopter tender!

Any what does our ex-intelligence super cop have to say about this part of the TSP behavior!

Looks ike a bad month for IAF and IA in North East.