Communicating Arts - Main Web SitePost Start: 070708-2320H EDT; Updated: 070709-0030H EDT
PESHAWAR, July 7: Expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in North Waziristan, NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai on Saturday asked the tribal elders to expel foreign elements from the agency.
“Time is running out. If you don’t take right decisions at this crucial juncture, you would face very tough time in the days to come,” he warned the elders.
“You must expel foreign militants from the agency,” the governor said, adding that a lasting peace in the agency could not be maintained unless these elements were rooted out. [1]
QUETTA, July 7: Border security officials on Saturday arrested a suspected militant in Sambaza area of the Zhob district and claimed to have recovered over three dozen bombs from him. [2]
The above quote posted from Quetta in Pakistan's English web site Dawn.com comprises about one-third of the story. I was tempted to roll through similar "teasers" but will spare you (and Dawn and myself) that.
Back up a couple of days: "Gunmen kill four policeman" (Peshawar, July 5); "Missiles fired on army base in Landi Kotal" (Landi Kotal, July 5).
The manner of reporting at Dawn.com: quite similar to what I found at Shabelle.net out of Somalia--short, factual pieces with not a lot of investigation beneath them. Still, it's the day to week to month litany of violance that tells the story.
This Sunday evening (eastern standard time), Monday morning (Islamabad time) story follows from the recital of bombs and other munitions recovered, policemen murdered, and warnings (in one direction or another) given.
The bare and repeated facts from the Red Mosque:
- 50 to 60 fighters intent on implementing Sharia Law in Islamabad, and among them known and wanted Al Qaeda militants;
- Hundreds, and the lowest I believe I've read has been 300 and the highest 1,800, of, one may say, noncombatant persons of uncertain volition kept with the fighters;
- One of two of the leading clerics of the mosque remains in the compound, the other having been caught escaping in a woman's burkha;
- On the part of the government: final warnings have been given to surrender without condition or face death;
- On the part of the cleric now representing the militants: surrender has been offered, but only without arrest: otherwise--martyrdom.
Most of what passes for fighting on the part of guerrilla-style fighters elsewhere involves car, roadside, and suicide bombs, death squad roundups, assassinations, sniper fire, and, now and then, skirmishes with uniformed service forces. By comparison, the stand-off at the Red Mosque resembles violent student protests everywhere for any cause of the day: sympathetic demonstrators, a few rock throwers, the takeover of a building. In this update on that familiar formula, the rocks have turned into Kalashnikovs and other serious weapons, and the takeover of the building has come by way of invitation from its administrators.
The prizing and quest for authenticity in spiritual matters--the "be it" and "feel it" factors in religious affiliation and practice--has been addressed in dozens of ways across the campuses of free societies, but in this struggle, the one way is the way prescribed by a cleric in agreement with men with guns.
It's now about 9 a.m., Monday, July 9, 2007 in Islamabad. Here's a portion of the latest from Dawn.com, still dated on Sunday:
"In a surprise move late on Sunday night, the security forces closed the camp office of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club situated a few yards away from the ‘no-go area’ within the curfew zone. They also asked journalists to leave the area." [3]
That's not a good sign.
And I do believe here, even with large bombs slaughtering hundreds in and around Baghdad, that the whole world is watching this small but telling drama.
With the article by Syed Irfan Raza, quoted above [3], the details on fighters shooting students to keep them from surrendering to the army have become more clear. Raza quotes Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah as saying, "militants had made all students, including girls, hostage and injured three girls by firing on their legs when they tried to escape." [3]
Dawn.com's latest has Qari Hanif Jallundri, a senior official of the main Pakistani organisation overseeing seminaries, seeking last minute compromises from both sides to avoid an assault on the compound. That news is relayed in short paragraphs on a page devoted to breaking news, the address for which is this today: http://www.dawn.com/2007/07/09/welcome.htm.
1. "Tribes urged to expel foreigners." Dawn.com, July 8, 2007.
2. "Three dozen bombs seized in Zhob." Dawn.com, July 7, 2007.
3. Raza, Syed Irfan. "Commander's killing raises spectre of all-out assault." Dawn.com, July 8, 2007.
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
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