Mehsud

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A Look at Fighting Voter Fraud in Afghanistan

October 21, 2009 in Afghanistan, Elections, Pakistan, Terrorism, Violence | No comments

Election officials in Afghanistan have a lot to consider about how to eliminate — or at the very least minimize — voter fraud in the country’s November 7th presidential runoff.

AndrewRT, Wikimedia Commons

AndrewRT, Wikimedia Commons

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a television interview that the United Nations wants to replace more than half of the country’s 380 district election heads as one way to make the second round more credible.

But the U.N. spokesman in Afghanistan told me today that staffing is just one of the many things Afghan election officials have to consider in the coming weeks.

Click here for the story.

Meanwhile in Pakistan, authorities closed many schools a day after two suicide bombers attacked the International Islamic University in Islamabad, killing four people at a faculty building and a women’s cafeteria.

Separately, surveillance video footage from one of last week’s attacks in Lahore made its rounds on local media channels.  The attack was on the country’s Federal Investigation Agency, which is similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States.

Also, Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked Taliban strongholds near the Afghan border on the fifth day of an offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

Officials say troops are facing fierce resistance as they fight to gain control of Kotkai, the hometown of the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud.

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Beware the Uzbeks in Pakistan

October 2, 2009 in Pakistan, Terrorism | No comments

http://enews.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=2167

http://enews.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=2167

Pakistani intelligence officials say they believe a suspected U.S. missile strike in late August killed Uzbek militant leader Tahir Yuldashev in the South Waziristan tribal region.

Click here for the story.

Officials say Yuldashev had links to al-Qaida.  If authorities can confirm his death, this would be a major blow to the militants and a huge success for Pakistani forces fighting for control in the area.

But why are we talking about Uzbeks in Pakistan?  Uzbekistan is nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away.  And why do officials always mention the fearsome reputation of these Uzbek fighters?

Yuldashev was the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.  He began fighting against the Uzbek government in the 1990s with the goal of creating an Islamist state in Central Asia.  Analysts believe Uzbek authorities pushed Yuldashev to the border area of Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan, where the Taliban gave him refuge.

But following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, analysts say Yuldashev fled to Pakistan’s tribal areas.  Now this is where it gets tricky…

Yuldashev was still under the Taliban’s protection while in Pakistan.  At this time, analysts say the Pakistani government was largely ignoring the Taliban in its territory because the militants were focused on fighting in Afghanistan.  But Yuldashev’s fighters started making problems for the Taliban by launching attacks in parts of Pakistan.

Ultimately, the Pakistani military moved in and took on the Pakistani Taliban, which analysts say was sheltering Yuldashev’s men.

The miltary is now closing in on militant strongholds.  While the Pakistani Taliban is fighting for its land, the Uzbeks are fighting for their basic survival.  They have nowhere else to go.  They can’t go home to Uzbekistan.  They can’t flee to Afghanistan and into the arms of the coalition forces.  They can’t even go elsewhere in Pakistan.  Uzbeks can’t really blend in among Pakistanis, and they’ve already annoyed their caretakers by causing problems.

Basically, they are a cornered with no other option but to fight, and they’ve been fighting for nearly two decades.  They have nothing to lose here, which makes them particularly dangerous.

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