January23, 2007:
In Pakistan, the government has started destroying illegal religious
schools. This has resulted in threats of mass demonstrations and violence by
Islamic conservatives. But the government is tired of the many religious
schools that mainly turn out terrorists.
January
22, 2007: In Karachi, Pakistan, police arrested a senior leader of the largest
Sunni terrorist group in city. Sunni and Shia terrorist groups have been
fighting each other for decades, mainly because Sunnis consider Shia heretics.
This violence would be big news if it weren't for the even greater violence on
the Afghan border.
January
21, 2007: In northwest India, tribal rebels launched more terror attacks,
killing or wounding over twenty people.
January
20, 2007: In Pakistan, Pushtun tribesmen blocked the road to Afghanistan, to
protest poor electricity supplies. The power is interrupted more often, but
power companies are reluctant to invest in the unruly tribal territories.
Meanwhile, growing revenues from the Afghan drug trade are bringing more
electricity guzzling gadgets to the region.
In
central India, police clashed with communist rebels, killing five of
them.
January
19, 2007: Pakistani police have arrested 400 men suspected of belonging to the
Taliban. But some locals say the police often arrest those who refuse to join
the Taliban, for operations in Afghanistan.
January
18, 2007: In southwest Pakistan (Baluchistan), tribal rebels continue to set
off bombs and snipe at army bases. Low level stuff that won't go away.
January
17, 2007: The recent capture, in Afghanistan, of Taliban communications
director, Abdul Haq, has led to some embarrassing revelations. Haq, who has
held his job for about 14 months, admitted that the recent increase in Taliban
activity was facilitated by Pakistani intelligence (the CIA-like ISI). Pakistan
has long denied this, but then they have to do that. ISI is an organization
that has long been tainted by the disease (Islamic radicalism) that it is
assigned to control. Very curious situation, but the same could be said of
Pakistani politics in general. The Haq revelations, which included lots of
details, has forced Pakistan to get more involved with pressuring ISI to cut
support to the Taliban. There's no guarantee that will happen. Haq also became
yet another source of reports that Taliban chief, Mullah Omar, is in the border
city of Quetta, under ISI protection.
In
northwest India, tribal rebels set off a bomb in a market, killing two
civilians.