“The announcement looks good to the Pakistani public. The public thinks it’s an endless thing, especially in Orakzai. So they probably wanted to give the people some relief,” said retired general Talat Masood, a military and security analyst. “It was for domestic consumption. But unfortunately, this was not really the reality and their credibility is now in question. I think it was an honest misjudgement and some unnecessary exuberance.”

After weeks of tense calm in volatile North Waziristan Agency (NWA), the Taliban on Wednesday announced to honour their peace accord with the government. The Taliban, led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, issued a leaflet in Urdu language, pledging to abide by the peace accord. “We will keep our peace accord intact for the sake of our people and all the Muslims,” the Taliban explained in the leaflet. They denied any role in the recent strong-worded leaflets issued by some elements in North Waziristan against the government and the military authorities, accusing them of working for the interest of the US in the region. They also distanced themselves from remote-controlled bomb attacks on security forces in tribal region and termed them an act of the enemies of the North Waziristan residents.

Though militants no longer have any known hideout in Swat, they are still able to strike fairly regularly through suicide bombings. An act of terror happens just when one starts experiencing normal life in Swat. Before the latest bombing, another suicide bomber had struck on Nov 30 last year killing the NWFP Assembly member Shamsher Ali Khan while the MPA was receiving well-wishers at his home on the occasion of Eid. Such occasional attacks cannot be discounted in future as a significant number of Taliban militants managed to escape during last year's military operation. Though many of them were subsequently captured and some were summarily put to death in custody, those still at large would prefer to fight on and attempt revenge against the security forces, the police and ruling politicians.

KHAR: Security forces secured more areas near the Pak-Afghan border in Charmang valley in Bajaur’s Nawagai subdivision, official sources said on Monday. The sources said security forces continued advance into Charmang and took control of several areas. Forces set ablaze the houses of 15 commanders of militants in Charmang.

Food security ranking of 131 districts in Pakistan, according to FIP 2009, indicates that 48.5 percent of the total population in 76 out of 131 districts of Pakistan is food insecure. The population in another 26 districts is on borderline and extremely vulnerable to any external shock. The 10 most food insecure districts according to this report include Dera Bugti, Musa Khel, Upper Dir, North Waziristan, Muhmand, Dalbidin, South Waziristan, Orakzai, and Panjgur. Other worst food insecure districts, according to FIP2009 are Bajur, Laki Marwat, Lower Dir, Shangla and Malakand etc. The international community might not have heard of these districts in the context of food insecurity. However, many people would easily recall that these districts are perceived as the "axis of evil" within Pakistan. There is no empirical evidence to prove that food insecurity is the only cause of militancy in the above-mentioned districts. However it is an established fact that food insecurity leads to violence and conflict.

Rasheed, articulate and determined, also raised fundamental issues with regard to the ongoing military operations in FATA and the rest of the NWFP. He claimed that more than 90 per cent of the 7,000 people killed in the military action in the region since 2004 were civilians. In his native Bajaur, he contended that 99 per cent of the 3,000 tribespeople who lost their lives in the military operation were women and children and, therefore, innocent. Rasheed is ready to face punishment if his family is found involved in anti-state activities but he also wants those making accusations against him and his relations to be made accountable if they are proved wrong. Moreover, he wants a judicial probe into the civilian deaths in the military action and the US drone strikes in the Frontier. He is seeking an independent probe by judges, political leaders, the media and human rights activists into the so-called "collateral damage" resulting from the military operations and is willing to defend his viewpoint on all forums. On his part, he believes his hujra was demolished and his mother and niece were killed to punish him for consistently opposing since 2004 the military action in the NWFP and FATA. He considers it as an act of revenge, a claim that the security forces and the government would never accept.

...But terrorists come from all socioeconomic backgrounds. For poor people in countries where economic prospects are bleak, jihad can be one of the few jobs available. Of the 25,000 insurgents and terrorism suspects detained by U.S. forces in Iraq as of 2007, nearly all were previously underemployed, according to Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the commander of detainee operations at the time. And according to Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment, the Saudi Interior Ministry found that most of the 639 convicted terrorists going through a rehabilitation program came from lower- or middle-class families, while 3 percent had high-income backgrounds...

The World Bank considers Yemen "one of the most water-scarce countries in the world" where only 125 cubic meters of water are available yearly per capita compared to the world average of 2,500 cubic meters. Just 46 percent of Yemen's rural population has direct access to an adequate water supply and the number is only slighter better in cities, according to the German Development Service (GDS), which is working with the Yemeni government to improve water management.

This was perhaps the first time that a senior US official has openly flagged China as the US's rival in the energy politics of Central Asia. US experts usually have focused attention on Russian dominance of the region's energy scene and worked for diminishing the Russian presence in the post-Soviet space by canvassing support for Trans-Caspian projects that bypassed Russian territory. In fact, some American experts on the region even argued that China was a potential US ally for isolating Russia.
(...)
China has the huge advantage of financial muscle. It can simply outspend the US or European countries. Short of stoking the fires of militancy and ethnic unrest in Xinjiang, the US may have run out of options to disrupt China's emerging leadership in Central Asia. On its part, Beijing knows that the stability of Xinjiang is crucial for China's Central Asia policy - and vice versa. The two have become inextricably linked in the Chinese regional strategy. Beijing knows that "foreign devils on the Silk Road" - militant groups with foreign backers - can harass China by blowing up long stretches of the pipelines which are impractical for Beijing to protect in Xinjiang's vast mountains and deserts. That is one solid reason why Beijing has not been taken in by the US overtures for cooperation in Afghanistan nor is enamored by Obama's standing invitation to step into South Asia as the arbiter of peace and regional security.

“Under the new law, Taliban will be deemed terrorists unless they prove themselves otherwise,” he said, adding that the “burden of proof” would now be shifted to the accused under the special law.

Afghans are cynical (and wise) enough to assume from past experience that the secrecy covers up facts too grisly for public airing. Aerial counterinsurgency was invented in the Pakistani-Afghan borderland and Iraq by the British in the 1920s. Then, as now, it was a means of fighting insurgency without public scrutiny. Then, as now, no one counted the dead.

"The Sri Lankan government cannot get away with hiding what it did to civilians during the war," Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for HRW, told Inter Press Service. "This report helps to show that. It compiles all of the information out there about what happened and it turns out there's a lot of sources ... If their goal was to win the war and not allow the world to see what was happening to civilian caught in the crossfire, then they failed."
The State Department also discusses reports of the killing of captives or combatants seeking to surrender by the Sri Lankan government and disappearances of Tamil civilians by government forces or government-supported paramilitaries.

Police officer Naimatullah Khan said in recent days 80 vehicles a day have carried fleeing families past the Chonda checkpoint on the edge of the region, where security officials were screening the departing civilians.

The Peshawar High Court has now asked the government to produce a record of prisoners belonging to the Mehsud tribe arrested under the said orders and put in different jails. The political agent’s orders also say that Mehsud elders have failed to stop terrorist activities against the government and are unfriendly towards the state therefore the arrest orders had been issued.

With regard to the people of Afghanistan, my colleague Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy presents the most compelling piece of recent evidence that the occupation is a complete failure. Five years ago, 70 percent of eligible voters participated in the Afghan presidential election. This year it was down to 38 percent. This is mainly because the security situation has deteriorated over the last five years. It also represents a political failure: the inability or unwillingness to negotiate a political settlement that would have allowed many more people to vote.

Abbas said that during the eight year operation against extremism 1900 Pakistani army troops have been martyred, 5000 injured, 4000 miscreants killed and 3000 have been arrested. 'During during Malakand operation 340 Pakistani army troops including officers have been martyred, 1800 miscreants were killed and 2000 were arrested,' he said.

At least 41 bodies, mostly of Taliban militants, have been found in Pakistan's Swat valley over the past 24 hours, officials said Tuesday, describing them as revenge killings by residents. The corpses, six of them beheaded, were dumped on the roadside, riverside and fields in different areas.

A well-to-do landlord, Sher Shah Khan, who had criticized what he termed the army’s early reluctance to confront the militants, said he was not worried about the reports. “If the security services kill in the same manner as the Taliban killed, people have no problem.”

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas denied the military had any links with the Abdullah militia and another pro-government group led by Turkistan Bhitani in the nearby town of Tank. Abbas referred questions to the civil administration in the area, whose officials did not make themselves available for telephone interviews. Still, Abbas acknowledged the fighters were useful in the battle against the Pakistani Taliban, which has carried out scores of attacks across the country over the last 2 1/2 years that have triggered international fears over the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. "If you have to fight the big devil, you welcome anyone in that fight," Abbas said.

The UN had only received three per cent of around $58 million it needed for what it calls ‘early recovery’ projects – the provision of food as well as the restoration of schools, hospitals and water supply systems, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan Martin Mogwanja told a press conference. The United Nations estimated more than two-thirds of the 2.7 million displaced by the conflict had gone home. The estimate is the highest yet, and based on data provided by the government.
(...) ‘Eighty per cent of the people surveyed ... are of the opinion they would not be able to survive without any assistance in the return areas for more than two weeks,’ said Mr Mogwanja.