Taliban extends influence throughout Waziristan

Bagram prison is within an American military air base which houses some 12,000 soldiers and is surrounded by mountains. On Sunday 10th July 2004(day off for non-Muslims) Saudi national, Mahmoud al-Kahtani, Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, an Iraqi Mahmoud Ahmad, AKA Faruq al-Iraqi who is said to be a link between al-Qaeda terrorists and the Indonesian extremist group, Jemaah Islamiyah and Muhammad Hassan also called "The Libyan", managed to escape.

Not only that , they subsequently made a film about their escape which shown on the Dubai-based Arab language satellite TV channel Al Arabiya in October 2004.

Now there are reports linking the escaped Mahmoud al-Kahtani to increased activity by Taliban related jihadists in Waziristan (Le Monde 6/4/06) Francoise Chipaux interview with Malawi Khursheed.) and pro Taliban local tribesmen in North Waziristan have asked the Army to evacuate the area and refused to acknowledge the government’s orders of prohibition of arms in the area.

According to the BBC, this decision has been made at the Jirga Meeting of the Itmanzai, Dawarh and wazeer tribes, which was held at Mir Ali on Friday.

The meeting was attended by Maulvi Abdul Rehman, Maulvi Saleem Gull, Malik Khan Marjan, Maulvi Hussain Ahmed Sadiq and thousands of ordinary tribesmen.

The leader of pro-Taleban militants in neighbouring South Waziristan made a similar demand in a telephone interview with the BBC's Urdu service.

There are 70,000 Pakistan troops on the long border with Afghanistan , where fighters like Maulvi Sangeen (an Afghan refugee hailing from neighbouring Khost province in Afghanistan) have been harassing troops , attacking forces in the Mana camp, resulting in a claimed loss of lives of 43 mujahadeen in the Shawal valley N. Waziristan, using artillery, and Cobra gunships.

The Islamabad / Pakistani government's version of events, accuses "foreign militants" of being responsible for incidents in Pashtun tribal areas to which the shadowy Malawi Khursheed tells Le Monde "Yes, there are foreigners, but we make the decisions and command the operations," he says. The "foreigners" are jihad militants who have long been in the region, but many observers confirm t small numbers of young Muslims arriving to make holy war. "They come from Germany, the United States, Gulf countries," asserts Malawi Khursheed.

"Everyone loves martyrdom for Islam," he adds, stating: "If we had more money, we could buy more cars and do suicide operations." According to several independent observers, future suicide-commandos receive their training in Waziristan before being sent for operations in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile the fight to establish sharia (Islamic law) continues and "Several "decrees," have put out by these "local Taliban," which have already prohibited barbers from trimming men's beards, video stores, and music at weddings.

Muhammad Shehzad in a very helpful and detailed November 2004 article said ..."Clearly, before any solution can be arrived at in South Waziristan - and such a solution would need to be political - two of Pakistan's major problems would need to be addressed: the first is that the military dictatorship refuses to accept its mistakes or to learn from them. It continues to regard the Army as the panacea for all problems. The second is that the military regime is under US control. The latter wants the Army to solve the problem only through the exercise of force, rather than through efforts of conflict resolution."

Things have evidently only got worse since then. See here for up to excellent detailed up to date news on fighting in Afghan Helmand province where the UK , Canadian and Dutch forces are operating.

Excellent archive on Afghanistan pic / videos / press here

Pic Border city of Chaman 959 Kg of heroin seized by Pakistani forces (c)Reuters Saeed Ali Akchazi