In a recent survey conducted by the conducted by the Nielsen research company and sponsored by the British Council, it has been determined that generation next of Pakistan, specifically the youth population of the country is extremely dissatisfied with their government and see very little future for themselves.

These troublesome statistics state a disturbing and a very concrete fact, that, if Pakistan fails appease its younger generation or it does not take much needed re-conciliatory steps, the consequences to the demographic figures of the nation could be disastrous.

The unanimous mindset of the Pakistani youth has significantly leaning towards extremist thinking, where a majority of them keep the Muslim community far above their own country and nine out of ten teenagers have very little or absolutely no confidence in the Pakistani government.

According to David Steven (Center for International Cooperation, New York University),

“This is a real wake-up call for the international community. You could get rapid social and economic change. But the other route will lead to a nightmare that would unfold over 20 to 30 years.”

This latest disappointing reports comes at a time, when the country is battling an exponentially high rate of insurgency that threatens the stability as well as the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan. In the last month or so, Pakistan has witnessed a gruesome and a relentless wave of terror attacks from dreaded militant groups such as Pakistan Taliban and Al-Qaeda amid a continued military offensive in the country’s South Western region against the militant outfits.

Pakistan has been suffering from an intense unemployment rate largely due to its grievously low rate of education, where one out of four teenagers is an illiterate. Furthermore, this lack of education and basic awareness has led to a strong inclination towards Islam, where a majority of those studied identified themselves as Muslims first instead of being Pakistanis.

Via New York Times.

In a recent breakthrough in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, two suspects, who have been identified as Pakistani nationals have been apprehended by the Italian authorities in Brescia  province. The pair of father and son, reportedly had provided the terror elements of the Mumbai attacks with logistical support.

According to the initial reports, the duo had transferred money to successfully activate their internet phone accounts, that were later used by the terrorists involved in one of the most daring and heinous attack carried out on Indian soil. The money was transferred using a stolen identity that of a U.S based company in the amount of $229 and got them access to five online telephony lines, that have long been a thorn in the bush for the intelligence agencies, as such accounts are extremely difficult to trace.

Italian authorities had been tipped off about the fraudulent by the U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Indian police department and the investigations were on since December last year. The 26/11 attacks were carried out by terrorists from Pakistan, who had hit two luxury hotels, a Jewish residential compound and several other sites, including a busy train station. The horrendous attacks claimed the lives of 166 people, that included one Italian citizen, among 19 foreign nationals who were killed in the three days siege.

The pair of Pakistani nationals who were apprehended have been identified as 60-year-old Mohammad Yaqub Janjua and 31-year-old Aamer Yaqub Janjua, who have now been accused of aiding and abetting international terrorism along with illegal financial activity.

Via Associated Press.

The bedrock principle in the debate on the war in Afghanistan rests on the idea that whatever military action the US undertakes in the country will only serve as ‘a prelude to, rather than a substitute for, Afghanistan taking over the security job.’

That is saying that the ‘White House wants to make sure surge will enable handover.’ The Obama administration is focusing on exit from Afghanistan and the long-drawn war that the US has been waging in the country. ‘Obama’s main problem with the initial military plan was that it seemed too open ended.’ The US president wants to bring the troops back home.

The said exit plan is critical to the buildup of troops in Afghanistan. ‘The goal is for American troops to reverse the rise of Taliban strength in the short term, buying time for Afghan President Hamid Karzai to build up security and police forces that can take over while American forces phase out.’ This real face of the Afghan policy explains why the Obama administration has been taking what is construed as a long time in deciding what to do with the war in Afghanistan.

‘The goal in the rethink, then, is to put in place a specific plan for an Afghan force buildup that moves directly parallel to a new American military push against the Taliban. And a crucial, but little-noticed, adjunct of that strategy requires making sure that next-door-neighbor Pakistan steps up the pressure on the Taliban and al-Qaeda elements that use its territory as a safe haven for their operations in Afghanistan.’

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Via The Wall Street Journal

NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen admits that the countries within the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative share the northern alliance’s interests in stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan. This is for the reason that instability in Afghanistan will cause the spread of instability in the region. Pakistan, specifically, is of grave concern in terms of the stability equation because it is undeniably a nuclear power.

That is why, according to the NATO chief, the cooperation of Muslim countries is crucial in the war in Afghanistan. He says, “If it became visible that countries with a Muslim background also contributed to our mission in Afghanistan, then it would become even more clear, which is a fact, that this is not about religion but a fight against extremism and terrorism. Already now, a couple of countries with Muslim backgrounds contribute to our mission in Afghanistan. It is very important for me to stress that this is definitely not about religion; it is about protecting the Afghan people against terrorism and extremism.”

Rasmussen offers suggestions as to how Muslim countries can show their support to NATO’s counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan. He says that Muslim countries can contribute in terms of military requirements and financial aid. NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan is one important aspect that needs support. The training component may very well be the flagship of the NATO mission in the beleaguered country because it involves ‘the transition to an Afghan lead across the board from security to development.’

More specifically, the training mission in Afghanistan involves the development of the capacity of the Afghan security forces ‘to educate and train Afghan soldiers and Afghan police so that the Afghans can become capable to take lead responsibility for their own security.’

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Via The Christian Science Monitor

A massive truck bomb devastated a police station in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan and claimed the lives of four people and injured 30 more, in a region that been marred by a serious of terror attacks in retaliation of  the military offensive against the militant outfits in the region. The intensity of the blast ripped through the police station, severely damaged a nearby mosque and demolished the houses in the vicinity of the blast radius. The attack occurred in the town of Badh Ber in Peshawar.

The current Pakistani military offensive against the forces of Pakistan Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other foreign fighter has in fact caused an uproar in the militant outfits, compelling them to undertake a massive and unrelenting terror campaign throughout Pakistan, killing more than 300 people in a little over a month. The truck that carried the explosives to the police station for today’s attack was intercepted by the local police and fired upon, but the driver of the vehicle managed to detonate the charges. According to one of the witnesses,

“The sound of the blast was very loud, and when I rushed out from my home I saw everything was destroyed here.”

As per the police estimates, the explosives used in today’s heinous attack are estimated to be about 250 kilograms, that is known to be the highest amount that has been used in such attacks so far. The current  security forces offensive in the South Waziristan region has uprooted a host of terrorists from their stronghold and has forced them to take shelter in Peshawar, thus making the city another haven for these militants.

Via Associated Press.

The Taliban have apparently been fighting for the institutionalization of the Muslim Sharia law, imposing extremist views on the population. These militants and religious fundamentalists forced ‘their ultraconservative brand of Islam in and around the Swat.’ In the process, they have also been ‘displacing centuries-old traditions,’ as claimed by the Pashtuns.

One of the aspects that have been victimized by the ‘Talibanization’ in Pakistan’s northwest is ethnic Pashtun culture. ‘Pashtun literature used to be full of romance and praise for the beauty of nature. Now it reflects the death and explosions that have filled the lives of Pakistanis.’

The very social fabric of the Pashtuns’ centuries-old culture has been frayed by the Taliban to near–destruction – Pashtun poetry, dancing, even community interaction centers.

‘The Pashtuns, an ethnic group concentrated in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan, live by a revered code of conduct called Pashtunwali. Society has traditionally centered around community centers called hujras, where assemblies of elders and community leaders called jirgas are an important part of the culture.’

Pashtun music has also been victimized, with music stores being attacked. “Music functions are integral parts of Pashtun marriage ceremonies, and even Islam allows the beating of tambourine in marriage functions, but all these things are rapidly becoming a tale of the past in face of Talibanization,” says Dr. Raj Wali Shah Khattak, former director of the Pashto Academy at the University of Peshawar.

According to Said Alam Mehsud, a leader of the Aman Tehreek, a peace movement recently launched in Peshawar, “This is an attempt to Arabize the Pashtun society by attacking their culture and their highly revered institutions.”

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Via The Christian Science Monitor

While the terrain is, indeed, extremely rugged, the area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border is heavily populated, contrary to popular belief. The area of the FATA has millions of Pakistani residents, and most of them are ‘extremely conservative and hostile toward the Pakistani government.’ In 1998, South Waziristan had a population of nearly half a million people. The population has significantly leapt in volume today, along with an ‘estimated 1.7 million Afghan refugees living on the Pakistani side of the border.’

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan are areas bordering Afghanistan, outside the four provinces, comprising a region of some 27,220 square kilometers. The area has Afghanistan to the north-west, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to the east and Balochistan to the south. The area is colloquially referred to as Pakistan’s Tribal Belt or Pak tribal belt. South Waziristan forms part of Pakistan’s FATA.

The Pakistani army is currently bombarding the region known as the jihadists’ ultimate refuge. South Waziristan is known as ‘jihadist central.’ The place is said to still be the location of several terrorist training camps where jihadists of all stripes have been eventually based. ‘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.’

Jihadist bombmakers of today are said to be more highly skilled than ever. They have also been training foreign students and recruits at training camps such as those in South Waziristan. These jihadist experts ‘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.’ Terrorist tradecraft, already a shared capacity-building skill, will spell a difference in the success of many grassroot terrorist cells.

If there is a nucleus to the global jihadi movement right now, South Waziristan may very well be it.

Via STRATFOR

Upon assessing the remaining terrorist threat from Afghanistan, the US president’s national security adviser former Marine Gen. James Jones said, “The al-Qaida presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.”

If the US were to go by the advice of its national security adviser who had presumably based his conclusion upon tons of top-grade intelligence reports, it can be said that the al-Qaeda practically no longer exists in Afghanistan, and should no longer be a threat to the US. Therefore, if they have relocated somewhere else, there should be no use to grant the US generals’ request for a 40,000-troop surge in Afghanistan.

Just who exactly are the US enemies in Afghanistan, anyway? The Taliban are preoccupied with the future of Afghanistan to be run by their Sharia law. And, according to the official statement, the Arab militants have practically left the country. Plus, there are also some indications that the Taliban, run by cliquish tribal warlords, are not exactly hospitable to the al-Qaeda, and are really not interested in bringing them back. ‘Even in neighboring Pakistan, the remnants of al-Qaida are barely hanging on.’

According to a Wall Street Journal report, “Hunted by U.S. drones, beset by money problems and finding it tougher to lure young Arabs to the bleak mountains of Pakistan, al Qaeda is seeing its role shrink there and in Afghanistan, according to intelligence reports and Pakistan and U.S. officials. … For Arab youths who are al-Qaeda’s primary recruits, ‘it’s not romantic to be cold and hungry and hiding,’ said a senior U.S. official in South Asia.”

So, if the war on terror specifically targeted the now-diminished and dissipated al-Qaeda, the erstwhile enemy may already be deemed a non-enemy, and that the US should leave Afghanistan posthaste and not further waste precious US taxpayers’ money that subsidizes a war which even US soldiers are confused about.

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Via truthdig

The Mehsud tribes are some of the fiercest militant fighters and Islamist gangs in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Pakistani army has vowed to attack the lairs of the Mehsud militants and crush them. At the behest of the United States and the West who have held Pakistan primarily responsible in solving its insurgency problem, in exchange for massive military aid, Pakistan is preparing to launch its fresh attack on terrorism. Its latest, and possibly biggest, anti-insurgency campaign will be conducted in South Waziristan, a jihadist haven and ‘long the most hostile of Pakistan’s seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas.’ Both army offensives and peace deals in the past have not been successful in neutralizing the Mehsuds.

The planned ground attack on the Mehsud militants is met with some grave difficulties: the deathly terrain in these Pakistani hinterlands, an expectedly harsh winter coming up, and the Mehsud Taliban in top fighting form and raring to avenge the death in August by an American drone of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud.

Prepping up for the upcoming major military offensive into South Waziristan for months, the Pakistani military has positioned two divisions comprised of approximately 28,000 troops for the attack. This huge and heavy force will even be augmented by paramilitary forces and local tribal militias loyal to Islamabad.

As several blasts have been rocking Pakistan over the last few days and killing dozens of people, Pakistan braces itself for a full-scale war with the most difficult of the Taliban.

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Via Economist.com

New colonialism in a globalized world is a curious thing. Countries buying vast parcels of farmlands in poor countries poses new emerging problems. In such cases, only the countries’ respective heads of state know the full details. It gets complicated when provincial governors have auctioned off their land to the highest international bidders such as in Laos and Cambodia where the national governments have lost track of what’s left of the national territories the countries can still call their own.

The International Food Policy Research Institute can only make a guess. The UN agencies rely on newspaper reports in such queries. The World Bank wants countries to read carefully the fine print on such multinational agreements. The land policy division of the World Bank ‘estimates that 10 to 30 percent of available arable land could be up for grabs, although only a fraction of the potential number of lease and sale agreements have been signed.’

It was a particularly busy sale season in 2008, for instance, ‘when plans and applications in many countries more than doubled, in some cases tripled’ One such case was Mozambique where ‘foreign demand is more than double the existing cultivated farmland, and the government has already allocated 4 million hectares to investors, half of them from abroad.’

In many cases, the buyers of foreign land are not private investors but foreign governments themselves. Some examples of these are Sudan that has leased 1.5 million hectares of prime farmland to the Gulf states and where Egypt and South Korea have lease contracts for 99 years; Cambodia where Kuwait has leased 130,000 hectares of rice fields; Uganda where Egypt has leased 840,000 hectares to grow wheat and corn; the Democratic Republic of Congo that has offered to lease 10 million hectares to the South Africans; and hunger-stricken Ethiopia in whose land Saudi Arabia grows what it boasts as its export rice.

Almost all of these host countries are impoverished and incapable as food exporters. Their most important asset which is land is compromised as far as local farmers and local food production are concerned. Kazakhstan and Pakistan, for example, suffer from water shortages. Sub-Saharan Africa may have ample water resources but also own huge populations that necessitate huge productions for local consumption.

Instead of land acquisition, experts advice contract farming where ‘foreign investors provide the technology and capital, while the local farmers own or lease the land and supply rice or wheat at fixed prices.’ But while this is the ‘classic, tried-and-tested model,’ it is not what foreign investors want as they dangle to weak and susceptible governments such tempting lures as aid, infrastructure in the form of schools and paved roads, world-class technology, and most importantly, cold hard cash.

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Via salon