Syed Saleem Shahzad: Militants open a new front in Pakistan
so, the "agencies" are involved here too~~~t
Senior investigators have told Asia Times Online that the situation in Karachi is very delicate and law-enforcement agencies had decided to avoid any direct clashes with militants. That is, there was a tacit agreement that the militants could use Karachi to raise funds and for other logistic purposes, and the security agencies would not carry out any operations against their sanctuaries. Most of the fund-raising was to provide support for the Taliban in Afghanistan - a source of anger for the US.
This concern was translated to a Karachi-based political party, the Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM), which recently began a campaign against the Taliban in the city. This included an incident in which the MQM blew the whistle on a kidnapping operation in Karachi by the Mehsud tribe in which several police officers were injured. This forced the police to take action, leading to several arrests, including the high-profile one announced on Monday.
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With the "truce" with the security forces having been broken, Mehsud and his allied groups now want to strike back, starting by creating chaos in Karachi. They have chosen the city for two reasons:
It has the largest concentration of the Mehsud tribe after South Waziristan.
It has a non-Pashtun majority, making it ripe for ethnic violence with the second-largest community, the Pashtuns. In this battle, Asia Times Online has learned, the militants are searching for ways to unnerve their enemies in top positions, including high-profile kidnappings in the country's largest city and financial center. The battles of the tribal areas have now unmistakably moved to the urban centers.
Senior investigators have told Asia Times Online that the situation in Karachi is very delicate and law-enforcement agencies had decided to avoid any direct clashes with militants. That is, there was a tacit agreement that the militants could use Karachi to raise funds and for other logistic purposes, and the security agencies would not carry out any operations against their sanctuaries. Most of the fund-raising was to provide support for the Taliban in Afghanistan - a source of anger for the US.
This concern was translated to a Karachi-based political party, the Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM), which recently began a campaign against the Taliban in the city. This included an incident in which the MQM blew the whistle on a kidnapping operation in Karachi by the Mehsud tribe in which several police officers were injured. This forced the police to take action, leading to several arrests, including the high-profile one announced on Monday.
***
With the "truce" with the security forces having been broken, Mehsud and his allied groups now want to strike back, starting by creating chaos in Karachi. They have chosen the city for two reasons:
It has the largest concentration of the Mehsud tribe after South Waziristan.
It has a non-Pashtun majority, making it ripe for ethnic violence with the second-largest community, the Pashtuns. In this battle, Asia Times Online has learned, the militants are searching for ways to unnerve their enemies in top positions, including high-profile kidnappings in the country's largest city and financial center. The battles of the tribal areas have now unmistakably moved to the urban centers.
posted by temporal at 4/16/2009
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