13 replies to this topic

[Simpleton]

Militants attack Pakistan jail, nearly 400 escape: police


Saud Mehsud Reuters
2:51 a.m. EDT, April 15, 2012

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Nearly 400 prisoners escaped from a jail in northwest Pakistan early on Sunday after it was attacked by Islamist militants armed with guns and rocket propelled grenades, a senior police official said.

Some who fled the jail in the town of Bannu, near unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal areas close to the Afghan border, were militants, an intelligence official said.

One inmate who escaped was on death row for involvement in an attempt to assassinate former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a second police official said.

Pakistan's al Qaeda-linked Taliban movement, which has close links to al Qaeda, said its fighters mounted the assault, which triggered clashes. Several people were wounded.

"We have freed hundreds of our comrades in Bannu in this attack. Several of our people have reached their destinations, others are on their way," a Taliban spokesman said.

The claim could not be immediately verified.

If the al Qaeda-linked Taliban freed the prisoners, it could deal a psychological blow to Pakistani security forces following government assertions that security crackdowns have weakened the group.

While the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan have staged several jailbreaks, such operations are rare in Pakistan, one of the most unstable countries in the world.

Pakistan is seen as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. Yet the South Asian nation faces its own major security challenges.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, is seen as the biggest threat, staging suicide bombings and shootings in a drive to impose its harsh version of Islam in the nuclear-armed country.

Major suicide bombings have eased in recent months, but it is unclear whether that is due to military gains or a shift in Taliban tactics.

A loose alliance of a dozen groups, the TTP began its battle against the state in 2007, after a bloody army raid on Islamabad's Red Mosque, which was controlled by its allies.

The assault, ordered by Musharraf, was widely seen as the event which sparked a full-blown Islamist militant challenge to the state.

A police official identified one of the inmates who escaped as a "dangerous prisoner" named Adnan Rasheed who took part in one of the attempts to kill Musharraf.

"He was a mastermind in (one of the attacks) on Musharraf. These people came for him and took another 383 people too," the official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Police and intelligence officials said only some of the prisoners who escaped were militants.

"Dozens of militants attacked Bannu's central jail in the early hours of the morning, and over 300 prisoners have escaped," senior police official Mir Sahib Jan told Reuters.

"There was intense gunfire, and rocket-propelled grenades were also used."

Paramilitary troops and security forces surrounded Bannu Central Jail. Of a total 944 prisoners in the jail, 384 escaped, said another police official.

Militants apparently targeted six jail blocks in the attack, he said.

The Pakistani Taliban are closely linked with the Afghan Taliban. They move back and forth across the porous border, exchange intelligence, and provide shelter for each other in a region U.S. President Barack Obama has described as "the most dangerous place in the world".

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

[tank commander]

if the report is correct this prison was holding extremly dangerous prisoners a threat to the state and its insitutions and the location of the prison in this hostile area surely it was a matter of time before it got attacked and that brings me to my point why were these prisoners  housed in such a volatile unsecure area . What could the police do against such a violent planned attack . i wish my condolences to any family of policemen  who lost a loved one , or any other by innocent bystander .

[Panzer-kiel]

now.....this action has suddenly multiplied the problems for our troops,  we were expecting something big today, but the location completely eluded us......hav to live with that!

[Pikes]

TTP and their financiers got their assets released.

[ali23]

100 prisoners came back voluntarily according to the media.

[waz]

Years of hard work of getting these savages behind bars has now been undone. The pathetic state of our institutions has been exposed again. Why on god's earth would you house such evil beings in a remote volatile area that is prone to attack 24 hours a day?

[Jazba-e-Kashmir]

western news agencies are going to turn everything against the nuclear technology Pakistan has, how ISI can't secure anything and it would create a hatred against the country yet again.

[Ababeel]

Taliban attack Afghan capital, 3 other cities

String of attacks rock Afghan capital, provinces
By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press – 15 minutes ago

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban insurgents struck the heart of the Afghan capital and three eastern cities Sunday, firing automatic weapons and grenades at embassies, government buildings and NATO bases as they launched the spring fighting season with the boldest and most complex assault in years.

The multi-pronged attacks show the Taliban and their allies are far from beaten and underscored the security challenge facing government forces as U.S. and NATO forces draw down. The majority of international combat troops are scheduled to leave by the end of 2014.

The first blasts rocked the diplomatic quarter of Kabul on Sunday afternoon, and soon gunshots and rocket-propelled grenade fire were ringing out across the city. Smoke rose over the skyline as sirens wailed. A loudspeaker at the U.S. Embassy could be heard barking: "Duck and cover. Move away from the windows."

One police officer and 17 militants were killed in the attacks, the most widespread in the Afghan capital since an assault on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters last September blamed on the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based insurgent group allied with the Taliban. Fighting continued more than 12 hours after the first blasts, with explosions echoing into the night.

The sophistication and firepower of the latest strikes, as well as the high-profile government and foreign targets, bore the hallmarks of the attack last fall and others carried out by Haqqani insurgents.

As in the earlier attack, armed insurgents took over half-built buildings Sunday and used them to fire down on nearby embassies and bases. In the streets of Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, where a NATO base and a number of embassies, including the U.S. Embassy, are located, residents scrambled for cover as gunfire rained down from all directions.

"I saw two Land Cruisers pull up and two militants jumped from the car," said Mohammad Zakar, a 27-year-old mechanic who has a shop near the building commandeered by the militants. "They opened fire on an intelligence service guard ... They also fired and killed an Afghan policeman and then they jumped into the building. All the shops closed. I ran away."

Across town at the parliament building, insurgents climbed to the upper floors of another empty building and fired on lawmakers below. A few legislators climbed on the roof of the parliament and fired back.

"I shot up to 400 or 500 bullets from my Kalashnikov at the attackers," said Mohammad Nahim Lalai Hamidzai, a lawmaker from Kandahar.

Militants also attacked a NATO site on the outskirts of Kabul, where a joint Greek-Turkish base came under heavy fire and forces responded with heavy-caliber machine guns. A police officer said a suicide bomber inside a building near the base was shooting toward the Kabul Military Training Center.

The eastern cities of Jalalabad, Gardez and Pul-e-Alam also came under attack, with suicide bombers trying to storm NATO bases.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said dozens of suicide attackers and gunmen were sent into four provinces in an assault that had been planned for two months to show the extent of the insurgency's power after NATO commanders called the Taliban weak and said there was no indication they were planning a spring offensive.

"We are strong and we can attack anywhere we want," Mujahid said, calling the attacks an opening salvo ahead of the yearly spring offensive, when warmer weather typically brings increased attacks.

The near-simultaneous assaults were the latest blow to an international effort that has been on edge for months as distrust grew between international and Afghan forces following the release of a video purporting to show Marines urinating on Taliban corpses, as well as the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base and a deadly attack by a U.S. soldier that killed 17 Afghan villagers.

Those tensions had appeared to be subsiding in recent weeks and the relatively quiet start to spring had brought hope: a deal governing night raids, talks with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent group and the appointment of a new head to the High Peace Council — which is trying to negotiate with the Taliban.

That quiet was shattered Sunday. More than a dozen explosions rocked Kabul and heavy gunfire crackled through the streets for hours.

At least one police officer was killed in Kabul, according to an AP photographer at the scene. Seventeen militant fighters also died, including four in Kabul, and two others were arrested, the Interior Ministry said. Seventeen police officers and 14 civilians were wounded in attacks across four provinces.

Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said the U.S., German and British embassies and some coalition and Afghan government buildings took direct and indirect fire.

U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the coalition was standing by to support the Afghan forces, if needed but had not been called in.

"I consider it a testament to their skill and professionalism — of how far they've come — that they haven't yet asked for that support," Allen said in a statement.

Some international forces could be seen taking part in operations to secure and retake buildings in the capital — NATO troops embedded in Afghan units as "trainers" or "mentors."

Explosions caused minor damage to the German Embassy grounds, but no staff were injured, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin.

The shooters appeared to be focusing on the nearby British Embassy, which also suffered "limited damage," according to British Foreign Secretary William Hague. He said all staff were safe.

Mujahid said the Kabul attacks targeted NATO headquarters, the British and German embassies, the Afghan parliament building, two hotels, and other sites along Darulaman road, where the Russian Embassy is located.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Sunday's attacks showed why the U.S. should not try to hasten the exit from Afghanistan.
"To get out before the Afghans have a full grip on security, which is a couple years out, would be to invite the Taliban, Haqqani and al-Qaida back in and set the stage for another 9-11," Crocker said.

At nearly the same time as the Kabul attacks, Taliban fighters launched assaults on Afghan and NATO installations in the capitals of Nangarhar, Logar and Paktia provinces.

In Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, two groups of militants — some wearing burqas to disguise themselves as women — launched separate attacks on a military airfield used by NATO and Afghan forces, as well as a smaller NATO base nearby. The ministry said Afghan security forces gunned down all four of the militants.

"There were lots of blasts," said Abdul Qahar Safi, a resident of Jalalabad. "I came to take my children from the school."
In Logar province, south of Kabul, five militants occupied a building under construction and started firing, the ministry said. Three police were wounded when the insurgents, who were all shot and killed, threw hand grenades on policemen responding to the scene. Four civilians also were wounded in the attack.

Farther south in Paktia province, a group of armed insurgents — some wearing women's clothes — entered a building near a police training center in Gardez. The ministry said the militants started firing in different directions. Three attackers were killed, and five civilians and three policemen were wounded.

The coordinated assaults showed a level of organization that was reminiscent of the last sustained attack in the heavily guarded capital in September.

In that strike, six fighters with heavy weapons took over an unfinished high-rise and fired on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters. They held out against a 20-hour barrage by hundreds of Afghan and foreign forces. By the time the fighting ended, insurgents had killed 16 Afghans — five police officers and 11 civilians.

That attack was blamed on the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, though Pakistan denied any involvement.
In a statement Sunday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar expressed concern over the latest attacks and said Pakistan condemns terrorism in all forms and has consistently encouraged dialogue to resolve issues in Afghanistan.

http://www.google.co...db5d71be5f4c3ee

[Ababeel]

Kabul Falling Already ?


PKKH Exclusive | by Tabish Qayyum
What can easily be considered as the most brazen, coordinated and lethal attack by Taliban in Afghanistan is already taking place as we write these lines. According to initial reports coming out from Afghanistan, three provinces are witnessing the ferocious encounter along with attacks at multiple sites in the most fortified diplomatic area of most secured Kabul.

According to the details emerging, eastern provinces of Logar and Paktika is also bearing the assault. Cities of Nangarhar, Zabul along with Jalalabad are attacked by Taliban and other militant groups fighting against US-NATO occupation in a combined operation as claimed by Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid. In an e-mail written to media, claiming responsibility of the attacks he remarked the attacks as beginning of this year’s decisive spring offensive often continues till winter, which sees a lull in fighting.

The attacks in Kabul are taking place at the NATO headquarters, US, British, German embassies, Afghan Parliament, Serena Hotel and Kabul Star hotels. Sporadic fire has been reported from Darulaman road, near Russian embassy as well. Jalalbad Airport is also under heavy Taliban attack, which is largely used by ISAF allied forces, suicide blasts are reported at Hangars. Abdulhadi, who works for the World Food Programme in Jalalabad, told the BBC: “The US air base was under attack. We heard loud explosions and had to take cover in a bunker.”

“These attacks are the beginning of the spring offensive and we had planned them for months,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters. ”In all these attacks, tens of mujahedeen fighters equipped with light and heavy weapons, suicide vests, RPGs, rockets, heavy machine guns and hand grenades are attacking their targets,” Mujahid said in an email. “Our initial reports indicate that a large number of foreign forces, Afghan police and army are killed and wounded.” Claims Zabiullah.

Dozens of attackers launched the attack with at least seven explosions followed by rocket propelled grenades, excelling their assault with machine-guns have now reportedly taken strong-holds at various location, in order to prolong their attack. A similar attack was seen last September when US embassy and NATO headquarters were attacked with rockets from a towering construction site.

Few rockets have also landed inside Japanese embassy, where smoke is seen coming out of one guard tower at British embassy. US embassy twitter handle claims, “”The embassy is currently in lockdown… all compound personnel are accounted for and safe.” while the British foreign office says, ”in close contact with embassy staff”. A huge plume of smoke can be seen on Kabul as these attacks continue, Kabul Star hotel where unknown number of militants are taking strong-hold is seen engulfed with massive fire as rockets and firing continues around the complete area. ANA and ISAF forces have taken positions on roof-tops of major buildings of the green-diplomatic section of the city area in Kabul.

In the eastern province of Paktia, NATO helicopter gunships attacked insurgents holed up in a building next to a construction site while in the eastern city of Jalalabad, a Reuters witness said that Taliban attacked a foreign force base near a school. As the attacks continue to unfold, causalities can be beyond expectations given the scale and magnitude of the attacks. There are unconfirmed reports, that militants have already seized control of Afghan Parliament holding many MP’s hostage.

Since the backlash of Quran burning Issue, Corpse mutilation, urinating on dead bodies followed by massacre in Kandahar intelligence agencies noted a “silence before storm” which meant a massive offensive was on the card by  Taliban and all fighters in the region. It could turn out to be more embarrassing for US and NATO mission who continue to gloat the ability of Afghan National Armies capability to secure Afghanistan if these series of attacks prolong beyond 24 hours, in a similar way to the 26/11 attacks in Indian financial capital Mumbai, allegedly by dozen Kashmiri militants audaciously fighting for 62 hours in a sea-borne assault.
As US faces worst ramifications of the war, on the other side of the border thousands of people protested against Pakistani Parliaments review on relations with US which have been rejected by the DPC – Defense of Pakistan Council lead by Maulana Sami-ul-Haq. “We will not allow US to invade our country or any other muslim country, hence any effort to restore NATO  supplies will turn out to be futile”, addressing the conference in Peshawar, Prof.Hafiz Saeed also addressed, having a bounty on his head of 10 million recently by US, Saeed said, “US has faced humiliating defeat in Afghanistan, and it should leave the region in order to restore the peace and security situation here”

Lt.Col Davis, also known as the ‘whistle blower’ of the actual situation in Afghanistan revealed that senior military leadership has been hiding facts from the government and people in US, as the purposeless war continues to risk the lives of their soldiers.

Taliban recently abandoned the talks that were to take place in Kabul on the pretext and outfall of Kanadahar massacre, and Pakistan’s main supply route continues to remain blocked after the air raid, at ‘salala’ check-post by US, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan has yet again urged for an unconditional apology in recent parliamentary review.

US and NATO seem to continuously fail in their efforts for any respectable exit and closure from Afghanistan, yet they remain persistent on claiming success in the mission. Given the ability and outreach of Taliban, it will not be wild to assume that catastrophic scenes can be witnessed long before 2014 withdrawal plan, lest Kabul falls again in the hands of Taliban.

http://www.pakistank...alling-already/

[Caesar]

I know some idiot closet taliban will jump up and down .... but why were these terrorists just not killed in encounters with the security forces?? Why would you want to keep dangerous criminals behind bars and pay for their food, security and other stuff?

The most economical way is to kill them or permanently disable them. This is a golden opportunity; the security forces need to hunt them down and ensure they are killed this time.

[Simpleton]

Pakistan intelligence says it warned of jail attack
By Nasir Jaffry (AFP) – 1 day ago

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's intelligence services warned the government three months ago about a possible attack on a prison in the restive northwest that was raided at the weekend, officials said Tuesday.

On Sunday nearly 400 prisoners, including militants, escaped from a jail outside the town of Bannu after an attack by insurgents armed with guns, grenades and rockets.

The intelligence information was conveyed to the government through a letter dated January 5, 2012, a copy of which was seen by AFP.

The letter identified Bannu jail as a target, along with the Pakistan Air Force base in the northwestern garrison town of Kohat, the Kohat cantonment and a police station.

"The intelligence information about the possible attacks was shared with the government in January 2012," a senior intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

More than 150 heavily-armed Islamists stormed the prison near the lawless tribal region where Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants have carved out their stronghold.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, which he said was launched to free some of their top members.

A former member of the air force sentenced to death for an attempt to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf was among the escaped militants, he said.

Adnan Rasheed was convicted after a bomb planted under a bridge in Rawalpindi near Islamabad in December 2003 exploded moments after Musharraf's motorcade passed. His appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.

The intelligence official said Rasheed was the only high-profile militant in the jail and the attackers were heard shouting his name after breaking in.

He said the government had also been warned of future attacks which would not be confined to the troubled northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Another intelligence official said: "Intelligence agencies had intercepted that an attack on Bannu jail to free inmates was being planned. But the date and time of the attack was not known."

He also said Kohat air base, cantonment and Bannu jail had been identified as targets and that law enforcement agencies had been informed.

Provincial authorities on Monday removed four senior officials over the jail break, which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain blamed on "a total failure of intelligence agencies".

Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border is rife with homegrown insurgents, Al-Qaeda operatives and Taliban, who are understood to use rear bases in Pakistan to plot attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan.

[Simpleton]

Even if warned, the question asked previously still holds, why keep such prisoners in a war zone, or close to one?

[BaburMissile]

Should this come as a surprise after all that has happened in the past few decades? Pakistan is in a terrible state and we should expect the worst. Pakistan has no caretakers, but only greedy exploiters. Pakistan is like an orphan.

[Sanguine]

Tale of two assaults


Pakistani and Afghan insurgents picked the same day — Sunday, April 15 — for a spectacular show of their strength.




They struck simultaneously at among the most protected facilities of their respective countries.

Here the focus is not on the number of casualties or damage caused by the militants’ attacks or fight with the security forces, but the response of institutions responsible for dealing with the insurgents.

In Afghanistan, insurgents selected multiple sites for launching attacks sending a strong message to their opponents of their presence and capacity to plan and carry out what international forces call their spring offensive.

Their counterparts in Pakistan selected a highly guarded prison at Bannu ostensibly to secure the release of a colleague condemned to death. Both succeeded; the Afghan militants in launching — in a spectacular manner — the new offensives and the Pakistani ones in releasing a high-profile terrorist colleague along with a very large number of other inmates. The response of the state institutions, however, underscores the difference.

In Kabul, no doubt there was loss of life among the security forces. But the situation also provided them with ample opportunity to establish themselves as professionals capable of handling insurgents’ attacks with minimum collateral damage. Appreciation was also accorded to the Afghan National Army’s swift response that boosted the morale of the Afghans who now appear to have more confidence in their forces’ ability to tackle the insurgents.

The Afghan president termed the incident a failure of the intelligence agencies but nevertheless expressed confidence in his security forces, saying the successful operation against the insurgents established that the Afghans were capable of running their country without international forces.

In Pakistan, the militants’ jailbreak turned out to be a scene from a sensational Punjabi or Pushto movie wherein the hero, trampling on all security barricades, breaks open the gates of the jail freeing friends and inmates.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban militants, whose back the military claims to have broken, succeeded in freeing their colleagues and reaching hideouts in North Waziristan safely.

Infested with militancy and lying close to the main theatre of war, the region is supposed to be under the close watch of security forces. There are scores of security checkpoints being manned by different forces to screen almost everybody. No vehicle is allowed to pass without being searched.

Keeping in view the number of check posts on the road to Miramshah, few appear to believe the story scripted by the government. From Bannu township, where the jail is located, the first check-post is the Cantonment police station which thoroughly screens each vehicle entering the cantonment. Crossing this post, one has to undergo another thorough search at another checkpoint at Officer Colony.

A barrier is erected at the flour mills site followed by another on the main bridge on the same road. A short distance and one reaches another checkpoint near the Tablighi Mosque.

Once cleared at this point, vehicles are once again supposed to be rechecked at another check-post manned by the military and paramilitary. Passengers have to disembark here and their identity cards are checked before they are allowed to proceed further.

After undergoing a humiliating body search by the military, the same vehicles and passengers have to be ready to be searched yet again by paramilitary forces near the custom checkpoint hardly a kilometre away from the military post. There is another check-post manned by the Bakakhel police for checking the identity cards of passengers and the vehicles’ papers as this is the point from where, police believe, stolen vehicles are taken to the tribal area.

The Bakakhel police check-post is not the last on the route as again Pakistan army jawans are waiting hardly 500m away to recheck the papers and cards. Once vehicles and passengers are cleared by the army, the paramilitary and Khasdar forces again check the men and vehicles at Deri Ghunderi before allowing them to enter Mirali bazaar.

Treated as hostile territory, particularly by the military, there are stories in abundance of the security forces’ highhandedness vis-à-vis the tribal folk. Tribesmen, who otherwise have a respectable reputation in their villages, are often publicly humiliated. Commuters have often complained of the humiliation they have to endure, particularly when searched at these checkpoints where security personnel often resort to verbal abuse and slapping or kicking people for even minor provocations.

The question is: how did the militants manage to evade the vigilant military and paramilitary manning these check-posts, and conduct a daring raid on Bannu jail causing so many prisoners to escape and succeed in reaching North Waziristan without any apparent difficulty. How can it be possible that the militants broke the security cordon and passed through these checkpoints without the connivance of the government or the security forces?

Who should one believe? Contrary to government accounts, the locals say there was no jailbreak at all. Keeping in view the high level of security presence in the area, one is almost tempted to believe the locals. Those who entered the jail soon after the incident too have a different story to tell. The accounts of a Khyber News correspondent, who claimed to be the first to enter the jail and interact with inmates serving long terms and assigned jail duties, belie government claims.
Did the attackers entering the jail and firing at the locks form part of a drama staged by the jail staff? Interestingly, of all the jail records only one register has been burned by the militants — the one carrying photos and the record of convicted terrorist Adnan Rasheed. The rest is speculation.

http://dawn.com/2012...f-two-assaults/