US Military planning to go after Taliban hiding in Baluchistan

by israeli.agent | March 18, 2009 at 07:25 pm

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US President Barak Obama is planning to concentrate more on to the trouble area of Baluchistan and to escalate the war on terror to the Taliban infestied troubled province. This will give the Taliban think tank something more to ponder about when unmanned drones starts sending messages to them who are hiding in the rugged mountains of Baluchistan. The shift in firepower is based on the finding that Taliban leaders are organizing the terror attacks on Afghanistan from this area.

Since the tribal areas of Pakistan is no more a safe haven for Taliban - thanks to the pressure from US Drones and the reluctant but somewhat effective actions from the Pakistan Military - they are moving deep into the Baluchistan. US is also alarmed increasingly visible presense of Taliban in Baluch cities like Quetta where they try to terrorise the local Baluchs by imposing strict medieval laws and moral values by barring women from work and education.

Washington is considering expanding its controversial policy of missile strikes and commando raids deeper inside Pakistan, according to reports this morning.

In what would be a major escalation of the "war on terror", the New York Times reported that the US may push its firepower into Pakistan's vast, economically backward, Baluchistan province.

Washington has so far targeted militants based in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas, which run along Afghanistan's eastern border. Baluchistan, however, is a "settled" region and considered a regular part of the country. However, the province, and especially its capital, Quetta, has long been considered the home of the Afghan Taliban and an important sanctuary for al-Qaida.

This morning's reports drew a sharp reaction inside Pakistan.

"The United States would be pouring petrol on the 'war on terror' by these methods," said Munawar Hassan, secretary general of Jamaat-i-Islami, the biggest mainstream religious party. "The United States has no message of peace for the world, they can only talk through arms and armaments."

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Critics have suggested that Pakistan is using Baluchistan to secretly back the Taliban in Afghanistan, as it sees the regime of Hamid Karzai in Kabul as dangerously close to arch-foe India – a claim denied by Islamabad. Pakistan's army nurtured the rise of the Taliban, who swept to power in Afghanistan in the mid-90s. However, after 9/11, Islamabad allied itself with the west, which resulted in the creation of a Pakistani Taliban, opposed to their own government.