DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Sectarian Violence From Kohistan To Karachi

DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Sectarian Violence From Kohistan To Karachi
*Protests rage over Kohistan killings
*Pakistani Shiite Muslims chant slogans during a protest against the killing of their community members in Karachi on February 28, 2012. Sectarian gunmen disguised in military fatigues hauled 18 Shiite Muslim men off buses on February 28 and shot them dead in cold blood in a usually quiet region of northern Pakistan. Authorities blamed the assault on Islamist militant groups, without naming a specific organisation. The attack took place in the northern district of Kohistan, which neighbours the Swat valley, a former Taliban stronghold.

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Dawn

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 29, 2012: Gunmen in military uniform forced people going from Rawalpindi to Gilgit to disembark from buses in Kohistan’s Harban area on Tuesday and gunned down 16 of them after checking their names on their ID cards which invoked protests all over the country.

“Sixteen people were killed in the incident. The bodies were handed over to the deputy commissioner of Chilas after autopsy at Shitial hospital,” Mohammad Ilyas, district police officer, Kohistan, told reporters.

According to foreign news agencies, this was a sectarian attack as confirmed by a man claiming to be spokesman for the Jandullah faction of Taliban. He said the 16 were killed by ‘Mujahideen’ because they were Shias.

A large number of people came out on roads in protest against the killings. They burned tyres at different chowks. Shops and markets were closed. The district administration imposed Section 144 in Gilgit city and announced closure of offices and schools for three days.

Protesters took out a procession from Imamia Jamia Mosque in Skardu and marched up to Yadgar-i-Shuhada Baltistan.

Jafria Alliance Pakistan (JAP) has condemned the brutal killings and announced a three-day mourning and country- wide protest on Friday.

According to officials, the attackers intercepted four buses on the Karakoram Highway, asked the passengers to get off, shot 16 people dead after checking their ID cards and escaped.

DPO Mohammad Ilyas said 117 passengers were on the buses. Police took the bodies to the hospital.

Harban is about four kilometres from Tangier and Darail areas where security forces have been attacked for several times in recent past.

MPA Abdul Sattar Khan, who belongs to Dasso tehsil, said the carnage was apparently related to recent sectarian clashes in Gilgit.

Senior officials of the Kohistan district administration were tight lipped about the nature of the killings.

“We have registered an FIR and started investigation and everything will be clear after completion of preliminary investigation,” Mr Ilyas said.

Farman Ali Baltistani adds from Skardu: Seven victims were from Baltistan division, four from Nagar, two from Astore and one from Gilgit. The bodies of the other two could not be identified.

Meanwhile, two people were injured in incidents of firing in Sakwar village. They were identified as Zulfiqar and Abdul Mannan, residents of Gilgit.

President Asif Ali Zardari took notice of the incident and summoned a detailed report within three days.

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik formed a joint investigation team.

Malik said that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have been involved in similar crimes in the past.

Gilgit-Baltistan Governor Pir Karam Ali Shah and Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah condemned the Harban killings. They said the culprits would soon be arrested.

Our correspondent adds from Shangla: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti called Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah and condemned the incident.

He termed it a cowardly and brutal act and said the elements involved would be brought to book whether they belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Gilgit-Baltistan.

AP adds: According to lawmaker Abdul Sattar the victims were Shias. He said eight gunmen were involved in the ambush, and all were wearing military uniforms, presumably to make it easier to stop the buses.

Officials initially said 18 people had been killed and that just one bus was involved.

Mr Sattar and Sher Khan, an official at the Rawalpindi bus station, said attacks had been feared on travellers after an incident last month in which an unknown number of Sunnis were killed in the Gilgit region. Sher Khan said buses were travelling in convoy as a security measure.

Aamir Yasin adds from Rawalpindi: Private transporters running buses from Rawalpindi to Gilgit-Baltistan suspended operation after the incident.

More than 50 buses for Gilgit and Skardu run on the route. Due to insecurity, people mostly use air route to go to Gilgit.

The transporters said they would not resume the bus service unless the government took adequate security measures and ensure safety of passengers. “The government should take serious steps to stop such attacks,” said Nisar Ali, the owner of
Mashabroom Tour Operators.

He said that most of the passengers on the buses were pilgrims returning from Iran and some army officers and personnel.

“Luckily, 47 pilgrims remained safe because their bus had departed one hour late,” he said.

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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Dawn
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DTN News: Pakistan's Taliban Offer Prisoner Swap

DTN News: Pakistan's Taliban Offer Prisoner Swap

Source: DTN News / AFP

(NSI News Source Info) PESHAWAR, Pakistan- June 22, 2010: Taliban militants in Pakistan's northwest Tuesday offered the government a prisoner swap in return for 33 missing soldiers, threatening to kill the men if the proposal is rebuffed. A Taliban spokesman told AFP that Pakistani authorities should "face the consequences" if they did not agree to the swap, calling for the details to be worked out in talks with tribal elders in Mohmand tribal district. Security officials say 33 soldiers are still missing since the Taliban attacked a checkpost in a remote part of Mohmand along the Afghan border. Six soldiers were killed in the attack and their bodies handed over to tribal elders last Thursday, officials said. Another 25 soldiers strayed into Afghanistan after the clashes, but were handed back to Pakistani officials. "Thirty-three soldiers are in our custody. We offer the government to exchange them in return of our colleagues," Qari Ikramullah, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban in Mohmand, told AFP by telephone. "We are in a state of war, we have no resources to keep them in our prison. The government should accept this offer or face the consequences," he said. "They will have to face death." Major Fazal-ur-Rehman, a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, confirmed that 33 soldiers were missing but said authorities had received no offer of a swap with the Taliban. "We have not received any such offer. If we do, then the government will make a decision on the offer," he added. Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups on multiple fronts across its sprawling tribal badlands, which Washington has described as the most dangerous place on Earth. The rugged terrain lying outside direct government control is considered an Al-Qaeda headquarters and stronghold of militants plotting attacks on US-led troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Related articles **Attacks by Taliban militants kill five Afghan civilians TODAYonline **Probe: US Tax Dollars May Be Funding Taliban Antiwar.com **Congressional Investigation Confirms: US Military Funds Afghan Warlords The Nation.

DTN News: Pakistan ~ The South Waziristan Migration

DTN News: Pakistan ~ The South Waziristan Migration

*Source: By Scott Stewart STRATFOR

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - October 15, 2009: Pakistan has been a busy place over the past few weeks. The Pakistani armed forces have been conducting raids and airstrikes against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other foreign Islamist fighters in Bajaur Agency, a district inside Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), while wrapping up their preparations for a major military offensive into South Waziristan. The United States has conducted several successful missile attacks targeting militants hiding in areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border using unmanned aerial vehicles. Threatened by these developments — especially the actions of the Pakistani military — the TTP and its allies have struck back. They have used larger, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) in attacks close to their bases in the Pakistani badlands to conduct mass-casualty attacks against soft targets in Peshawar and the Swat Valley. They have also used small arms and small suicide devices farther from their bases to attack targets in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the respective seats of Pakistan’s military and civilian power. Initially, we considered devoting this week’s Security and Intelligence Report to discussing the tactical details of the Oct. 10 attack against the Pakistani army headquarters. But after taking a closer look at that attack, and the bigger mosaic it occurred within, we decided to focus instead on something that has not received much attention in the media — namely, how the coming Pakistani offensive in South Waziristan is going to have a heavy impact on the militants currently living and training there. In fact, we can expect the Pakistani offensive to cause a large displacement of militants. Of course, many of the militants who are forced to flee from South Waziristan, the epicenter of Pakistan’s insurgency, will likely land in areas not too far away — like Balochistan — but at least some of the militants who will be flushed out of South Waziristan will land in places far from Pakistan’s FATA and North-West Frontier Province. The Coming Offensive The Pakistani military has been preparing for the coming offensive into South Waziristan for months. They have positioned two divisions with some 28,000 troops for the attack, and this force will be augmented by paramilitary forces and local tribal militias loyal to Islamabad. As seen by the Pakistani offensives in Swat and Bajaur earlier this year, the TTP and its foreign allies are no match for the Pakistani military when it turns its full resources to address the problem. The Pakistanis previously attempted a halfhearted offensive in South Waziristan in March of 2004 that only lasted 12 days before they fell back and reached a “negotiated peace settlement” with the militant leaders in the area. A negotiated peace settlement is a diplomatic way of saying that the Pakistanis attempted to pay off Pakistani Taliban leaders like Nek Mohammed to hand over the foreign militants in South Waziristan and stop behaving badly. The large cash settlements given to the militants did little to ensure peace and instead allowed the Taliban leaders to buy more weapons, pay their troops and essentially solidify their control in their areas of operation. The Taliban resumed their militant activities shortly after receiving their payments (though the most prominent leader, Nek Mohammed, was killed in a U.S. missile strike in June 2004). This time, the South Waziristan offensive will be far different than it was in 2004. Not only do the Pakistanis have more than four times as many army troops committed to it, but the Pakistani military has learned that if it uses its huge airpower advantage and massed artillery, it can quickly rout any serious TTP resistance. In Bajaur, the Pakistanis used airstrikes and artillery to literally level positions (and even some towns) where the Taliban had tried to dig in and make a stand. Additionally, in January 2008, the Pakistani army conducted a successful offensive in South Waziristan called “Operation Zal Zala” (Earthquake) that made excellent progress and resulted in the loss of only eight soldiers in four days of intense fighting. This offensive was stopped only because Baitullah Mehsud and his confederates sued for peace — a truce that they quickly violated. The lessons of past military operations and broken truces in South Waziristan, when combined with the recent TTP strikes against targets like the army headquarters, have served to steel the will of the government (and particularly the military). Pakistani government sources tell STRATFOR that they have the intent and the ability to “close the case for good.” This means that there should be no negotiated settlement with the TTP this time. Of course, we are not the only people who can anticipate this happening. The TTP and others like the al Qaeda core leadership know all too well what happened in Bajaur and Swat. They have also been watching the Pakistani military prepare for the South Waziristan offensive for months now. The TTP leadership realizes that if they attempt to stand and fight the Pakistani military toe-to-toe they will be cut to shreds. Because of this, we believe that the TTP will adopt a strategy similar to that used by the Taliban in the face of overwhelming U.S. airpower following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, or that of the Iraqi military following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Rather than fight in set-piece conventional battles to the bitter end and be destroyed, after some initial resistance the TTP’s fighters will seek to melt away into the population and then conduct insurgent and terrorist strikes against the Pakistani military, both in the tribal regions and in Pakistan’s core regions. This is also the approach the TTP leadership took to the Pakistani offensive in Swat and Bajaur. They made noises about standing and fighting in places like Mingora. In the end, however, they melted away in the face of the military’s offensive and most of the militants escaped. Contrary to popular perception, the area along the Afghan-Pakistani border is fairly heavily populated. The terrain is extremely rugged, but there are millions of Pakistanis living in the FATA, and many of them are extremely conservative and hostile toward the Pakistani government. This hostile human terrain poses perhaps a more significant obstacle to the Pakistani military’s operations to root out jihadists than the physical terrain. Accurate and current population numbers are hard to obtain, but the government of Pakistan estimated the population of South Waziristan to be nearly 500,000 in 1998, although it is believed to be much larger than that today. There are also an estimated 1.7 million Afghan refugees living on the Pakistani side of the border. This human terrain should enable many of the TTP’s Pashtun fighters to melt into the landscape and live to fight another day. Indeed, the militants are already heavily embedded in the population of South Waziristan, and the TTP and its rivals have controlled much of the area for several years now. We have seen reports that up to 200,000 people have already fled areas of South Waziristan in anticipation of the coming military operation, and it is highly likely that some TTP fighters and foreign militants have used this flow of displaced people as camouflage to leave the region just as they did in Swat and Bajaur. Whether the coming offensive is as successful in destroying the TTP as our sources assure us it will be, the military action will undoubtedly force even more militants to leave South Waziristan. The Camps In the wake of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the many militant training camps run by al Qaeda and other organizations in Afghanistan were destroyed. Many of the foreign jihadists who were at these camps fled to Pakistan with the Taliban, though others fled to Iran, Iraq or elsewhere. This migration shifted the focus of jihadist training efforts to Pakistan, and South Waziristan in particular. Quite simply, there are thousands of foreign jihadists who have traveled to Pakistan to receive paramilitary training at these camps to fight in Afghanistan. A smaller number of the trainees have received advanced training in terrorist tradecraft, such as bombmaking, in the camps. Due to the presence of these transplanted training installations, South Waziristan is “jihadist central,” with jihadists of all stripes based in the area. This confluence will complicate Islamabad’s attempts to distinguish between “good” and “bad” Taliban elements. Both the good Taliban aligned with Islamabad that carry out their operations in Afghanistan and the bad Taliban fighting against Islamabad are based in South Waziristan, and telling the difference between the two factions on the battlefield will be difficult — though undoubtedly elements of Pakistani intelligence will attempt to help their Taliban friends (like the Haqqani network and Mullah Omar’s network) avoid being caught up in the coming confrontation. There are literally thousands of Arab, Uzbek, Uighur, Chechen, African and European militants currently located in the Pakistani badlands, and a good number of them are in South Waziristan. Many of these foreigners are either teaching at or enrolled in the jihadist training camps. These foreigners are going to find it far harder to hide from the Pakistani military by seeking refuge in Afghan refugee camps or small tribal villages than their Pashtun brethren. Some of these foreigners will attempt to find shelter in North Waziristan, or perhaps in more heavily — and more heterogeneously — populated areas like Quetta (Mullah Omar’s refuge) or Peshawar. Others may try to duck into the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan, but there is a good chance that many of these foreign militants will be forced to leave the Pakistan-Afghanistan area to return home or seek refuge elsewhere. This exodus will have mixed results. On one hand it will serve to weaken the international jihadist movement by retarding its ability to train new jihadists until replacement camps can be established elsewhere, perhaps by expanding existing facilities in Yemen or Africa. On the other hand, it will force hundreds of people trained in terrorist tradecraft to find a new place to live — and operate. In some ways, this migration could mirror what happened after the number of foreign jihadist began to be dramatically reduced in Iraq — except then, many of the foreigners could be redirected to Pakistan for training and Afghanistan to fight. There is no comparable second theater now to attract these foreign fighters. This means that many of them may end up returning home to join insurgent movements in smaller theaters, such as Chechnya, Somalia, Algeria and Central Asia. Those with the ability and means could travel to other countries where they can use their training to organize militant cells for terrorist attacks in much the same way the foreign fighters who fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s and left after the fall of the Soviet-backed government there went on to fight in places like Bosnia and Chechnya and formed the nucleus of al Qaeda and the current international jihadist movement. The Next Generation There is a big qualitative difference between the current crop of international fighters in South Waziristan and those who fought with the mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s. During the earlier conflict, the foreigners were tolerated, but in general they were not seen by their Afghan counterparts as being particularly valiant or effective (though the Afghans did appreciate the cash and logistical help they provided). In many engagements the foreigners were kept out of harm’s way and saw very little intense combat, while in some cases the foreign fighters were essentially used as cannon fodder. The perception of the foreigners began to change during the 1990s, and units of foreigners acquitted themselves well as they fought alongside Taliban units against the Northern Alliance. Also, following the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the foreign jihadists have proved themselves to be very effective at conducting terrorist attacks and operating in hostile territory. In fact, over the past several years, we have witnessed a marked change in the ways the Afghan Taliban fight. They have abandoned some of their traditional armed assault tactics and have begun to employ al Qaeda-influenced roadside IED attacks and suicide bombings — attacks the Afghan fighters had previously considered “unmanly.” It is no mere coincidence that the number of suicide attacks and roadside IED attacks in Afghanistan increased dramatically after al Qaeda began to withdraw its forces from Iraq. There is also a direct correlation between the IED technology developed and used in Iraq and that now being employed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. All this experience in designing and manufacturing IEDs in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan means that the jihadist bombmakers of today are more highly skilled than ever, and they have been sharing their experience with foreign students at training camps in places like South Waziristan. Furthermore, the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan has provided a great laboratory in which jihadists can perfect their terrorist tradecraft. A form of “tactical Darwinism” has occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan as coalition firepower has weeded out most of the inept jihadist operatives. Only the strong and cunning have survived, leaving a core of hardened, competent militants. These survivors have created new tactics and have learned to manufacture new types of highly effective IEDs — technology that has already shown up in places like Algeria and Somalia. They have been permitted to impart the knowledge they have gained to another generation of young aspiring militants through training camps in places like South Waziristan. As these foreign militants scatter to the four winds, they will be taking their skills with them. Judging from past waves of jihadist fighters, they will probably be found participating in future plots in many different parts of the world. And also judging from past cases, they will likely not participate in these plots alone. As we have discussed in the past, the obvious weakness of the many grassroots jihadist cells that have been uncovered is their lack of terrorist tradecraft. They have the intent to do harm but not the ability, and many times the grassroots cells end up finding a government informant as they seek help acquiring weapons or constructing IEDs. When these inept “Kramer terrorists” manage to get linked up with a trained terrorist operative, they can cause considerable damage. The possibility of these militants conducting attacks or bringing much-needed capability to grassroots cells means that the South Waziristan migration, which has almost certainly already begun, will give counterterrorism officials from Boston to Beijing something to worry about for the foreseeable future.

This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to www.stratfor.com

DTN News: Pakistan Taliban Appoints Successor To Militant Chief Baitullah Mehsud

DTN News: Pakistan Taliban Appoints Successor To Militant Chief Baitullah Mehsud

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - August 23, 2009: The Pakistan Taliban have appointed a successor to their feared leader believed to have been killed in a US missile strike, a militant commander said Saturday.

A Pakistani displaced woman walks past soldiers depute to guard the visiting U. S. Senator Bob Corker (unseen) at a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan on Friday, Aug. 21, 2009. Over two million people fled their home towns in Pakistan's troubled Valley of Swat and other areas due to military offensive against the Taliban months earlier.

American and Pakistani officials believe Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed earlier this month in a missile attack by US drone aircraft in the lawless South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan.

Taliban commanders say Mehsud survived but is seriously ill. TTP deputy and battle-hardened former teacher Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, who announced on Wednesday that he had taken over as acting chief of the group, said a Taliban shura, or council, had made the appointment.

"A Taliban shura has unanimously appointed Hakimullah Mehsud as successor to Baitullah Mehsud," he told AFP by telephone. "

The shura meeting continued for two days and was attended by 22 members," he said. Residents and intelligence officials in Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district, the base of Mohammad, said the militant leader relayed the news of Hakimullah's appointment on his illegal FM radio station.

"The shura has appointed Hakimullah as successor to Baitullah Mehsud. The shura earlier had nominated me as the acting chief but now I will be again deputy chief," an intelligence official quoted Mohammad as saying over the radio. "I shall continue to be ameer (chief) of TTP in Bajaur," Mohammad said.

Pakistani intelligence officials say TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar, who was arrested this month, has confirmed that Mehsud was killed in a CIA strike on his father-in-law's house on August 5. "Baitullah is alive but he is seriously sick," Mohammad said, adding: "God forbid if Baitullah is dead, Hakimullah will be his successor."

Hakimullah is considered as close aide of Mehsud, and a powerful commander who operates from the Orakzai tribal district, where US drones have conducted several missile strikes. Pakistan in late April launched a punishing military offensive against Taliban in the northwest, targeting the rebels in the districts of Swat, Buner and Lower Dir after militants advanced perilously close to the capital.

Last month the military claimed to have cleared the area of the Taliban threat, and vowed to turn their attention to the mountainous tribal belt where Mehsud and his network have thrived since 2007.

Pakistani and US officials accuse Mehsud of masterminding the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a string of other attacks that have killed hundreds of people here over the last two years.

Government officials have said the death of the Al-Qaeda-linked warlord plunged the TTP into disarray, with factions opening up as different commanders vied to lead the militia blamed for hundreds of deaths across Pakistan.

DTN News: Pakistani Taliban Chief Baitullah Mehsud 'Dead'

DTN News: Pakistani Taliban Chief Baitullah Mehsud 'Dead' *Source: DTN News / AFP (NSI News Source Info) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - August 8, 2009: Pakistan said Friday it believed Baitullah Mehsud, the charismatic commander of the Pakistani Taliban, had been killed in a US drone attack in a major blow for the Islamist militants. US and Pakistani officials accuse Mehsud of masterminding the 2007 assassination of ex-Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and blame him for the deaths of hundreds of people in bomb attacks over the past two years. Senior officials in Pakistan's powerful security establishment who supervise operations in Mehsud's Waziristan stronghold said the warlord was dead, but the government said it was seeking verification. "According to my intelligence this news is correct, but we are investigating," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters. "To be 100 percent sure, we are going for ground verification," he added. "Information is coming from that area that he is dead," said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. "I am unable to confirm unless I have solid evidence," the cabinet minister added. The United States also said it could not confirm Mehsud had been killed, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs conceded, "there seems to be a growing consensus among credible observers that he is indeed dead." Tribesmen said on condition of anonymity that Mehsud was killed with his wife when a US drone fired two missiles into a family home in the Laddah area of South Waziristan on Wednesday. A kinsman had initially said he was "safe". The US Central Intelligence Agency, with the tacit cooperation of Islamabad, has carried out dozens of attacks in Pakistan using unmanned Predator and Reaper drones over the past year, but declines to discuss the strikes publicly. Islamabad and Washington had said liquidating Mehsud was a strategic aim in the fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists whom the United States has accused of posing an existential threat to nuclear-armed Pakistan. "I warn Baitullah Mehsud's group to end terrorism. It is a targeted operation against Baitullah Mehsud and it will continue until the group is eliminated," Malik added. Pakistan publicly opposes US drone strikes, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace. Mehsud, who has a five-million-dollar US bounty on his head after Washington branded him "a key Al-Qaeda facilitator," has reportedly narrowly escaped previous attacks. US experts said Mehsud's death would be a big deal as he represented the biggest threat to Pakistan's stability. "We've buried him more than once in the past. But assuming it is right, it is a pretty significant step. He became a symbol of the Taliban's war on the Pakistani state, much more than any other figure," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and White House adviser. Taliban commanders have neither confirmed nor denied Mehsud's demise. But top militants in his umbrella group Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) were gathering in his South Waziristan stronghold on Friday ahead of an expected announcement. "An important announcement is expected at the end of the meeting," said one Taliban commander. Analysts said Mehsud's death, if confirmed, would deal a heavy blow to the organisation increasingly seen as the bloodiest orchestrator of extremist bombings that have killed about 2,000 people in Pakistan over two years. "It will trigger a leadership crisis, they will find it very difficult to fill the vacuum. There cannot be a bigger loss for TTP than losing Mehsud," a Pakistani expert on tribal affairs, Rahimullah Yusufzai, told AFP. Several names are touted as his possible successor but none match his stature. The US government alleges Islamist fighters hide out in the Pakistan mountains near the Afghan border, plotting attacks on Western targets and crossing the porous frontier to attack foreign troops based in Afghanistan. Washington has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda and has ordered an extra 21,000 troops to Afghanistan in a bid to stabilise the neighbouring country for elections this month.