April 3, 2007:
The European Union has asked
Pakistan to shut down Islamic terrorist training camps in Pakistan. The
Pakistani government denies that these camps exist, although reporters have no
problem getting close enough to some of them to take pictures. While Pakistan
has reduced terrorist activity inside Pakistan over the past few years, it has
done so partly via an informal understanding with many Islamic radical groups.
The basic deal is that the Islamic militants can set up their training camps in
Pakistan, as long as they do not commit any terrorist acts in Pakistan. What
angers the Europeans is that many of these camps train European Moslems, who
are determined to commit terrorist attacks in Europe.
April 2, 2007:
Several thousand Pushtun tribes men have joined the battle against
foreign al Qaeda fighters living in the tribal areas near the Afghan border.
Pro-Taliban tribal leaders are behind this war against the foreign al Qaeda
fighters. Al Qaeda is having a hard time in this part of the world. The tribesmen
just don't like foreigners much, even if the outlanders share beliefs with the
tribesmen. April 1, 2007: The president of Afghanistan has accused Pakistani
intelligence (ISI) of harboring senior Taliban leaders, including the top man,
Mullah Omar. True or not, it shows the extent of the distrust between the two
countries.
In central India, Maoists murdered two village
elders, because they sold some land for the construction of a steel plant. The
Maoists insist they have the authority over such decisions, and kill anyone who
threatens that authority.March 31, 2007:
In two weeks of fighting, nearly 200 foreign al Qaeda militants have
been killed in Pakistan.
March 30, 2007:
A weeklong cease fire in the Pakistani tribal areas ended, and fighting
resumed between Pushtun tribesmen and foreign al Qaeda fighters. The tribes
want the foreigners out of Waziristan, but these guys, and their local wives,
really have no place to go. If they return to their homelands in Central Asia,
Russia and the Middle East, they will be arrested and tried as terrorists.
Meanwhile, in the same area, another group of local tribesmen, in support of
the Taliban, are fighting with police. The Taliban were caught trying to
forcibly recruit high school students for combat in Afghanistan.
March 29, 2007:
In eastern Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed himself near an army base,
wounding several soldiers. Islamic terrorists are trying to instigate a
nationwide rebellion against the Pakistani government, in order to establish an
Islamic Republic (a dictatorship run by Moslem clerics).
March 28, 2007:
In the Pakistani capital, Islamic militants took three policemen
hostage, and demanded the release of students and instructors from a large
religious school in the capital. This
school, with 11,000 students (most of them girls), is attached to the
Red Mosque, a hotbed of Islamic radical activity. The government has been
reluctant to move against the Red Mosque in the past, for fear of triggering a
large scale uprising. About a third of the Pakistani population are supporters
of Islamic radical goals (worldwide adoption of Islam, carried out by Islamic
terrorists, and so on.)