Musharraf Vows to Aid Afghanistan in Fighting Taliban

Ray · 09-07-2006, 17:35 PM

Quote:

Musharraf Vows to Aid Afghanistan in Fighting Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 6 — President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, on a two-day visit to shore up relations, promised Wednesday to help Afghanistan combat the worsening Taliban insurgency, which operates from his country.

Relations between the nations have deteriorated badly this year as the insurgency has bloomed, and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has blamed Pakistan for providing a haven to militants and suicide bombers.

Mr. Karzai has called on the United States and its NATO allies, whose troops are deployed and dying in increasing numbers in southern Afghanistan, to press Pakistan to clamp down on the Islamic militants, which Pakistan has long used as an arm of foreign policy to pressure neighboring rivals, Afghanistan and India.

American and other foreign diplomats have been pushing for closer ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan as the only way to resolve the insurgency and regional terrorism in the long term.

The meeting on Wednesday came before state visits by General Musharraf and Mr. Karzai to Washington this month, and a meeting they are scheduled to hold with President Bush.

After a one-on-one session that ran well over its scheduled time, General Musharraf and Mr. Karzai emerged with promises of greater cooperation, but hanging over all the declarations were questions about Pakistan’s support for the insurgents, and whether General Musharraf would follow through on his promises.

“We hope very soon we can remove the obstacles between the two countries in our relations,” Mr. Karzai said at a joint news briefing at the presidential palace in Kabul. “I am very happy today that President Musharraf assured me that he is going to try his best to get rid of this sickness in the region,” he said.

General Musharraf said he had come on a “mission to iron out any possible misconceptions” as to Pakistan’s intentions for Afghanistan. “There is only one option, and that one option is to have brotherly relations between our two countries.”

Pakistan and Afghanistan have waged a war of words for the last six months, since Mr. Karzai visited Islamabad in February and presented General Musharraf with an intelligence dossier on Taliban leaders who used Pakistan as a sanctuary.

General Musharraf dismissed the intelligence as out of date and “nonsense.”

His latitude to crack down on the Taliban has been constrained by the influence of Islamic parties in his government and some popular support for Islamic militancy, particularly in the border areas where his government has limited control.

General Musharraf said an agreement his government signed with militants in the Pakistani border region of North Waziristan on Tuesday was intended to end attacks on Afghanistan and training or militant activity on both sides of the border.

“No militant activity, no training activity, they have accepted this,” General Musharraf said. “This is the bottom line of the peace agreement.”

Mr. Karzai expressed concerns about the agreement, which many analysts interpreted as allowing sanctuary for the militants in return for stopping attacks on Pakistani security forces, but he called it a positive step. “Let’s see how it is going to be implemented and what will happen,” he said.

The United States is taking a harder look at Pakistan’s role in the Taliban insurgency, Afghan and American officials here said. Seth G. Jones, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation, said that after talks with military, security and diplomatic officials in Afghanistan, there was increasing evidence that Pakistani intelligence agents had been financing, training, providing intelligence and assistance to Taliban insurgents.

The Taliban have staged a resurgence in Afghanistan, Mr. Jones said, because they benefit from a haven across the border in Pakistan and enjoy state support. Whether the orders come from General Musharraf himself is not clear, Mr. Jones said, but he said it was clear that he knew about the support, and that he so far had failed to stop the militancy.

NATO members have also added their voices to Afghanistan’s pleas for more pressure to be brought upon General Musharraf to contain Taliban insurgents.

General Musharraf visited on the same day that Afghanistan signed an agreement with NATO on greater cooperation. Ambassadors of the North Atlantic Council have been visiting Afghanistan this week to look at security in the south, troop levels and plans for NATO to assume military command of eastern Afghanistan in coming weeks.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, secretary general of NATO, said the agreement showed NATO’s long-term commitment to Afghanistan. Mr. Karzai welcomed it for bringing more stability to the country.

But even as the agreement was signed, Canadian troops in the southern province of Kandahar continued to wage heavy battles against hundreds of Taliban insurgents hemmed in a district west of Kandahar.

The commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Richards, said he sensed that the operation, which had already cost hundreds of lives, including those of 19 NATO service members, was turning in NATO’s favor. “They are feeling the pressure,” he told journalists during a flying visit to Kandahar.

Mr. Jones, of RAND, said NATO and the American-led coalition had evidence of Pakistan’s role, and specifically the role of Pakistani intelligence, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I., in aiding the insurgents. “The evidence suggests the I.S.I. is involved in several ways,” he said.

Pakistani intelligence agents have provided intelligence to the Taliban about coalition plans and tactical operations, he said, tipping off Taliban forces and allowing them to flee. Western military forces have intercepted the tips and know they are from people connected to Pakistani intelligence, Mr. Jones said.

Mr. Jones said there were numerous accounts that Pakistani agents were providing assistance to wounded Taliban fighters who made their way back to Pakistan, paying their medical bills and ensuring their care.

The Pakistani intelligence agency was providing support, housing and security for the Taliban leadership, including the reclusive leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, he said.

It was also directly or indirectly involved in training fighters in camps, preparing them to fight either in Kashmir or Afghanistan, and in providing finance and possibly weapons, he said.

“The U.S. government also believes they have given monetary assistance and maybe weapons,” he said.

American Embassy and military officials have said Pakistan is cooperating by deploying thousands of soldiers along the border with Afghanistan to try to check the infiltration of militants.

Yet the overwhelming consensus in Afghanistan, including among foreign diplomats and members of Mr. Karzai’s administration, is that Pakistan is orchestrating, or at least turning a blind eye, to the campaign against Afghanistan to keep the country unstable, and to retain influence through its clients.

Pakistani officials stressed, as General Musharraf did, that it was in Pakistan’s interest to see a stable, prosperous Afghanistan.

General Musharraf said he had raised concerns that India, Pakistan’s rival to the east, was establishing consulates close to the Pakistani border in Afghanistan.

“This is our concern,” he said. “I have brought it to President Karzai.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/wo..._r=1&ref=world

I am sure most of us are following the development in Pakistan following the Balochistan crisis and Bugti's murder and the resultant chaos in Pakistan.

Also all must be aware that Musharraf has given a free hand to the Taliban by withdrawing the troops from North Waziristan and the treaty with the tribal leaders and thereby opening the border and leaving it without troops.

Now, one can see the wily way Musharraf is making a monkey out of all.

Tronic · 09-07-2006, 17:46 PM

Pakistan is one coup away of becoming a radical Islamic nation with nukes....

Amled · 09-07-2006, 18:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tronic

Pakistan is one coup away of becoming a radical Islamic nation with nukes....

Now that is one scary scenario!

Tronic · 09-07-2006, 18:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amled

Now that is one scary scenario!

yes it is... but it is a very realistic possibility... Pakistan is a very unstable country with nukes...

Archer · 09-14-2006, 02:26 AM

http://www.warlordsofafghanistan.com...-musharraf.php

Quote:

Pervez MusharrafENGGeneralissimo of Pakistan
Musharraf, an intelligent, promising Pakistani army officer, rose through the ranks during the 1970s and 1980s. He was an an ethnic minority Urdu-speaker, not Punjabi, a political and social handicap. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promoted him to the head of the army over more senior officers because he thought Musharraf posed little danger of a coup. In 1999, Musharraf overthrew him anyway on the tired old pretext of corruption.

In the two decades before Musharraf’s coup, Pakistan had played an important role in the Afghan civil war. The Pakistani secret service, the ISI, distributed billions in American aid to the commanders of their choice, especially Hekmatyar. The ISI became a rogue organization, conducting one holy war in Afghanistan and a second in Kashmir, frequently outside Pakistani government supervision. In fact, Pakistan built a holy war industry directed by the ISI, with thousands of hard-line Islamic schools from which to draw teenage recruits, training camps, and a cottage industry of knock-off weapons. It was the ISI that chose Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, as their new proxy in Afghanistan, dropping Hekmatyar as a failure. And it was Pakistani aid that allowed the bumbling Taliban to conquer so much of the country. After 9-11 Musharraf tried to save the Taliban, pleading with the United States to be patient. But Omar was either too ignorant or too crazy to surrender Osama.

Today Musharraf has problems. Many Taliban commanders have fled to Quetta, a Pashtun town in southern Pakistan. Musharraf does not dare arrest them or prevent them from launching attacks across the border. Osama fled to a Pashtun tribal area near Peshawar, also in Pakistan. Musharraf is afraid that capturing Osama could spark a revolt, so he dawdles. His fears are valid. The Balooch and Pashtuns are killing Pakistani soldiers, and attempts have been made to blow up Musharraf’s motorcade.

Pakistan sponsors more terror activities than all other nations in the world combined. Paradoxically, because it is so terrifying, Pakistan manages to stay off the terrorist-state blacklist. The United States pressures Musharraf to do something, and he makes a feeble show of it, but nothing happens.

We dare not push him harder because Pakistan is such a cauldron of Islamic fanaticism that we fear his fall from power; his replacement could be an anti-Western fanatic with atomic weapons.

Ray · 09-14-2006, 04:17 AM

Musharraf is a great survivor!

And is a great juggler and somersault artiste!

Archer · 09-14-2006, 04:57 AM

Hes also becoming increasingly podgy! Adding inches round his midriff AND wearing tight figure hugging tunics, makes him look positively stupid.

He should stick to suits or loose jackets.

SLASH · 09-14-2006, 06:14 AM

I don't think Musharuff has any control over the ISI. It seems as if its the ISI which is governing Pakistan and not Musharuff. Similar support was promised to India but look whats happening. They are still seeking revenge from the 1971 defeat. They wish to divide our country into pieces

.

lemontree · 09-14-2006, 07:08 AM

Quote:

I don't think Musharuff has any control over the ISI. It seems as if its the ISI which is governing Pakistan and not Musharuff. Similar support was promised to India but look whats happening.

That is an illusion created to fool the international community. Musharraf is very much in control, it is only the islamic parties that he is scared off.

Quote:

They are still seeking revenge from the 1971 defeat. They wish to divide our country into pieces.

Can't blame them for that, it would have been traumatic for them. But if wishes were horses then beggars would ride.

Archer · 09-14-2006, 08:36 AM

Well said in all respects! The entire ISI thing is such a fraud- deniability par excellence!

Ray · 09-15-2006, 13:13 PM

Musharraf is in deep waters.

The action against Balochistan is sapping his army of troops and so the Taliban is having a ball.

Hence the treaty!

Any more tomfoolery on his part and Pakistan will part like the Biblical Red Sea! He will not be able to lead his people through it, he will just drop Pakistan in the ditch!

09-07-2006, 17:46 PM	#2 (permalink)
Tronic Navajo Code Talker *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 12-27-04 Location: Patiala, India Posts: 5,364 Country:	Pakistan is one coup away of becoming a radical Islamic nation with nukes.... __________________ *Nabha Sparasham Deeptam* *-Touch The Sky With Glory*

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09-14-2006, 04:17 AM	#6 (permalink)
Ray Postmaster General *Military Professional* Join Date: 08-20-03 Posts: 27,232 Country:	Musharraf is a great survivor! And is a great juggler and somersault artiste!

09-14-2006, 04:57 AM	#7 (permalink)
Archer *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 10-13-03 Posts: 2,888	Hes also becoming increasingly podgy! Adding inches round his midriff AND wearing tight figure hugging tunics, makes him look positively stupid. He should stick to suits or loose jackets.

09-14-2006, 06:14 AM	#8 (permalink)
SLASH Patron Join Date: 06-10-06 Location: Sydney Posts: 247 Country:	I don't think Musharuff has any control over the ISI. It seems as if its the ISI which is governing Pakistan and not Musharuff. Similar support was promised to India but look whats happening. They are still seeking revenge from the 1971 defeat. They wish to divide our country into pieces .

09-14-2006, 08:36 AM	#10 (permalink)
Archer *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 10-13-03 Posts: 2,888	Well said in all respects! The entire ISI thing is such a fraud- deniability par excellence!

09-15-2006, 13:13 PM	#11 (permalink)
Ray Postmaster General *Military Professional* Join Date: 08-20-03 Posts: 27,232 Country:	Musharraf is in deep waters. The action against Balochistan is sapping his army of troops and so the Taliban is having a ball. Hence the treaty! Any more tomfoolery on his part and Pakistan will part like the Biblical Red Sea! He will not be able to lead his people through it, he will just drop Pakistan in the ditch!

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