Posts Tagged ‘Insurgency’

New blasts mar Syria truce, killing 20

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A general view of the site where two bombs detonated near state buildings in the northern city of Idlib in this handout released by Syria’s national news agency SANA on April 30, 2012. -Reuters Photo

DAMASCUS: Twin blasts targeting security buildings killed more than 20 people in the northwest Syrian city of Idlib on Monday, as an explosion was also reported in the capital, a monitoring group said.

The violence a day after the arrival of the chief of a United Nations monitoring mission was sure to put further strain on a UN-backed ceasefire that went into effect on April 12 but has failed to take hold fully.

Most of those killed in Idlib were members of the security forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“The blasts targeted two security headquarters, one housing air force intelligence, and the other military intelligence,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

State news agency SANA said “terrorists” were behind the attacks that were carried out by “suicide bombers.”

Syrian television put the death toll at nine, among them civilians, and said around 100 people were also wounded in the two blasts in residential areas of the city.

It broadcast footage of bloodstains on the ground in one neighbourhood, and groups of angry people denouncing the violence and expressing support for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“Is this the freedom they want?” shouted one man, standing near a woman who was carrying a child with blood running down his forehead.

One building appeared in ruins and cars nearby were flattened by the force of the explosion.

Hours later a third blast rocked the university neighbourhood of Idlib, and the Britain-based Observatory said: “There are reports of wounded.”

A powerful blast, probably a car bomb, was also reported in the suburb of Qudsiya near the capital Damascus, causing an unknown number of casualties, the Observatory added.

The explosion targeted a military vehicle, said Abdel Rahman.

“Initial reports indicate there are casualties,” he added. “But we cannot yet confirm the number of victims.”An unknown number of civilians living in houses near the site of the explosion were wounded, he said.

Overnight, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the Central Bank in the capital, state media said, adding that an “armed terrorist group” also carried out a second RPG attack on a police patrol in front of a hospital in the Damascus area of Rokn Eddin. Four police were wounded.

On Friday, a suicide car bomb in the heart of the capital killed 11 people.

Anti-regime activists have accused the government of being behind the series of explosions, while the authorities say “terrorists” are responsible.

The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, said in a statement that the RPG attacks in the capital were “another trick” by the regime to justify its continued crackdown against a revolt that began in March last year.

“The Assad regime is trying in various ways to mislead and distract (UN) observers in order to prevent them carrying out their work,” the statement said, also calling for “an international commission of inquiry to uncover who was behind the explosions.”

Veteran peacekeeper Major General Robert Mood urged all sides on Sunday to abide by the ceasefire as he arrived in Damascus to take command of the UN military observer mission overseeing the truce.

The peace plan brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan calls for a commitment to stop all armed violence, a daily two-hour humanitarian ceasefire, media access to all areas affected by the fighting, an inclusive Syrian-led political process, a right to demonstrate and the release of detainees.

“To achieve the success of the Kofi Annan plan, I call on all sides to stop violence and help us continue the cessation of armed violence,” Mood told reporters.

“We will work for the full implementation of the six-point Annan plan which the Syrian government agreed to.

“To achieve this, we now have 30 monitors on the ground, and in the coming days we will double this figure,” he said, adding that the number would “rapidly” increase to 300.

Mood, a 54-year-old Norwegian who negotiated the conditions for the deployment of the advance team, was head of the UN Truce Supervision Organisation, which monitors Middle East truces, from 2009 until 2011.

He stressed the monitors need the cooperation of all parties to achieve their mission: “The observers can’t solve all problems in and of themselves…

All sides must stop violence and give the process a chance.”At least 70 people, among them 47 civilians, were killed nationwide at the weekend, monitors said.

A spokesman for the advance team of observers said they had set up base in major troublespots, including Idlib, central Homs and Daraa in the south.

The United Nations estimates that more than 9,000 people have been killed since the revolt against Assad’s regime broke out in March last year.

The uprising started as a popular revolt but has since transformed into an insurgency.

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Via DAWN.com

Can technology fix India?

The dreams of modern India rarely make it to Rayagada. The Indians of these eastern forests forage for sago leaves and wild mango to survive. Barely a third can sign their names. Most live without electricity. Many have joined a Maoist insurgency fighting to overthrow the system.

Now, modernity is creeping in. Smart cards, fingerprint scanners and biometric identity software are transforming Rayagada into a laboratory to test a thesis with deep implications for the future of India: Can technology fix a nation? The target here is the disastrously corrupt Public Distribution System, a $15 billion food subsidy program frozen in a pre-digital world, where bound journals hold falsified records scrawled in handwriting so illegible one reformer lamented ”even God could not read it.”

For a country repeatedly jolted by screaming corruption scandals, the fraud and theft tainting the Public Distribution System is the ever-present white noise in the background, losing an estimated 58 percent of its subsidized grain, sugar and kerosene to so-called ”leakages” – the scams that infest every part of the system.

The system is meant to serve 400 million people, yet more than 250 million Indians are undernourished and 43 percent of children under 5 are stunted.

The program’s failure is a symptom of the government dysfunction that has disillusioned many who were left out of India’s economic growth and driven some to join the Maoists, branded the country’s top internal security threat. – Photos by AP.

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Via DAWN.com

British Red Cross doctor kidnapped in Quetta found beheaded

Members of the media gather as rescue workers and police shift the body of Khalil Rasjed Dale, a British doctor working with the International Committee of the Red Cross, at a hospital in Quetta on Sunday. – Reuters

QUETTA: The beheaded body of a kidnapped British doctor working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was found by the roadside on Sunday in Quetta, police and Red Cross officials said.

,Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was abducted, by suspected militants on Jan 5 while on his way home from work.

“The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act,” ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement. “All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil’s family and friends.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the killing.

“This was a senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistan, and causing immeasurable pain to those who knew Mr Dale,” Hague said in the statement.

The foreign office has promised to hold the killers accountable.

“The Government of Pakistan condemns this barbaric act in the strongest terms and is determined to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice,” a statement from the Foreign Office said.

“Pakistan is committed to combat terrorism and the death of Mr Dale has only strengthened our resolve to eliminate this scourge,” it added.

A senior police officer said the Pakistani Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killing, saying a ransom had not been paid.

Police discovered Dale wrapped in plastic near a western bypass road. His name was written on the white plastic bag with black marker.

“A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body,” said Safdar Hussain, the first doctor to examine the body. “He was killed about 12 hours ago.”

Dale is only the third Westerner killed in such a fashion in Pakistan. The others include Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and Piotr Stanczak, a Polish geologist, in 2009.

The Taliban have been fighting a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani state since its formation in 2007. It is close to al Qaeda and it claimed credit for a failed car bomb attempt in New York’s Times Square in May 2010.

Pro-Taliban militants are also active in Balochistan, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

Dale had worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq before coming to Pakistan. He had been managing a health programme for Balochistan for almost a year when he was abducted, the ICRC statement said.

“We are devastated,” Daccord said. “Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause.”

In March, a Swiss couple that had been abducted in Baluchistan showed up at an army checkpoint after eight months of captivity. Militants said a ransom had been paid, but this wad never confirmed.

Four health workers, including two doctors, were kidnapped by militants the week before Dale’s disappearance from the Pishin area of Balochistan, near Quetta. They were freed after a shootout between police and their kidnappers.

And in August 2011, American aid worker Warren Weinstein was kidnapped from his home in Lahore. Al Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the abduction.

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Via DAWN.com

Seven militants killed in Yemen clashes

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A picture taken on April 10, 2012 with a mobile phone shows a Yemeni tribal gunmen helping the government forces in their battle against the Al-Qaeda network gathering in the southern town of Lawder in Yemen’s Abyan province. – AFP File Photo

ADEN: At least seven militants linked to al Qaeda were killed in clashes inYemen’s restive south, a regional tribal spokesman said on Saturday, as the impoverished Arab state fights to tame a stubborn insurgency.  

Yemen has launched an offensive against Islamist insurgents in the territory who took advantage of the chaos surrounding more than a year of mass protests and fighting that unseated Ali Abdullah Saleh from the presidency.

Ali Aidah, spokesman for an army-allied tribal force, said five militants from Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda-affiliated group, were killed in an ambush by tribesmen in the al-Arkoub area near the southern city of Lawder on Friday night.

Two more militants were killed in an attack by tribesmen in another area outside of Lawder, he said.

Separately, a security official in the southern province of Lahej said a Yemeni intelligence officer, Colonel Yasser Abdul-Qawi, was shot dead by unknown gunmen on Saturday morning while he was walking near the main city hospital.

More than 250 people have been killed since government forces stepped up attacks on the militants whom it accused of assaulting a military camp near Lawdar earlier this month.

Islamist insurgents have already taken control of a number of cities in the southern territory, which is close to key shipping lanes in theRed Sea.

Yemen’s new president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who took office vowing to fight al Qaeda, is also facing challenges from Shi’ite Muslim rebels in the north and secessionists in the south of the impoverishedArabian Peninsulastate.

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Via DAWN.com

Tribal insurgency: Paramilitary troops kill four ‘Baloch insurgents’

“Acting on a tip-off, a Frontier Corps (FC) party raided a state-run school, which was destroyed by last year’s floods, in the Gaybun area, about 30 kilometres from Turbat city, before dawn on Friday,” an official of the Balochistan Levies told The Express Tribune.

The troops asked the suspected militants hiding inside to surrender. However, the militants opened fire on the raiding party.

“In the retaliatory fire from paramilitary troops, four suspects were killed,” a spokesperson for the Frontier Corps told The Express Tribune. “Another seven suspects were arrested.”

The FC spokesperson claimed that a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the deserted school which the militants were using as a hideout. Sources said the militants could be from one of the Baloch insurgent groups blamed for mounting attacks on security forces in Makuran division.

The bodies were shifted to a state-run hospital in Turbat where they were identified as Hassan s/o Sher Mohammad, Aslam s/o Shahsawar, Ali s/o Mohammad and Adam.

According to official sources, the suspects were wanted for their involvement in several attacks on security forces in Kech district.

The Baloch National Front (BNF) disputed the claim and alleged that security forces raided a house, killed four innocent Baloch civilians and whisked away several others. The party appealed for a shutterdown strike in Mekran, better known as Makuran, for Saturday to protest the killings.

Separately, the FC spokesperson claimed that the security forces have seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition during search operations in Naushki and Nasirabad districts. The haul included 11 small machineguns (SMG), three light machineguns (LMG), 14 rifles and 9 shotguns.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2012.

Gunman in Afghan uniform kills Nato soldier

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The death toll of Nato troops being killed by Afghans in uniform has now reached 18 this year. -File Photo

KABUL: A man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on Nato allies, killing one soldier before being shot dead, the Nato-led force in Afghanistan said Thursday.

“An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against coalition service members in southern Afghanistan late yesterday, killing one service member,” Nato’s International Security Assistance force (ISAF) said.

“The individual who opened fire was killed when coalition forces returned fire,” an ISAF statement said, adding that the nationality of the dead Nato soldier would be released in his home country.

The shooting is the latest in a series of similar incidents in which Afghan soldiers have turned their weapons against Nato troops helping the Afghan government fight an insurgency by hardline Taliban militants.

The death takes the toll of foreign troops killed by Afghans they were working with to 18 this year — including seven Americans and five French trainers — in 11 separate attacks.

ISAF, which is training Afghans to take over responsibility for security for the whole country by the end of 2014 when foreign troops pull out, has said the deaths sap spirits among its troops.

“Although the incidents are small in number we are aware of the gravity they have as an effect on morale,” ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson said in Kabul earlier this month.

“Every single incident has an out-of-proportion effect on morale and that goes for coalition forces as it goes for Afghan national security forces.”

Some of the attacks are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated Afghan army ranks, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between the allied forces.

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Via DAWN.com

Car bomb hits Damascus as more die in ‘ceasefire’

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A car bomb struck Damascus amid renewed violence despite the ceasefire on April 24. — Photo AFP

DAMASCUS: A car bomb on Tuesday rocked central Damascus, a day after nearly 60 were killed across Syria despite a hard-won ceasefire and the upcoming deployment of 300 UN peace monitors.

Three people were wounded when the blast went off in the Marjeh district of the capital, Syrian state television reported, blaming “terrorists”, the government term for rebels.

“An armed terrorist group detonated the car bomb near the Yelbugha complex in Marjeh, wounding three people and causing damage to nearby buildings,” it said.

State news agency SANA said the bomb was placed under the car of an unsuspecting man, who was among those hurt.
The blast came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said violence across the country killed 54 civilians and five soldiers on Monday, despite the tenuous ceasefire.

Thirty-one of the civilians died in a government assault on the Arbaeen neighbourhood in the central city of Hama and 13 others, including women and children, died in a mine blast in the village of Jarjanaz, in northwestern Idlib province.

Video footage posted online by activists showed a street in Arbaeen with large pools of blood and women weeping. Two young girls were shown in one video crying and holding up the picture of a man.

“This is my father,” cries one girl.

The violence occurred despite the April 12 ceasefire, and the presence of an advance team of UN monitors to implement the truce.
The Observatory said clashes also took place Tuesday in two suburbs of Damascus and gunfire was reported the town of Bosra al-Sham, in southern Daraa province.

The persistent bloodshed 12 days into the ceasefire has sparked growing criticism from opposition activists of the fledgling UN mission, which now numbers just 11 observers out of a planned initial deployment of 30.

Neeraj Singh, a spokesman for the advance team, said the observers would be visiting different unspecified locations on Tuesday. The monitors have toured several protest hubs since their arrival in the country earlier this month, including the battered city of Homs, where two of them set up base at the weekend.

During their visits, they have been greeted by thousands of protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the arming of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Despite scepticism over the UN mission, UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday gave the go-ahead for the deployment of 300 ceasefire monitors from next week.

Ban insisted that the Assad government ensure the protection of the unarmed observers and allow them to travel freely throughout the country.

Russia, a staunch ally of the Damascus regime, warned both sides to the conflict against disrupting the work of the UN observers which it said was crucial to providing an unbiased picture on the ground.

“The more observers there are, the more information we get that is based on objective facts and that is free from speculation,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Critics have said the UN mission was simply allowing the regime to buy time as it presses its crackdown against what began as a popular revolt but has turned into an insurgency.

Washington has also expressed reservations, warning it may not back the mission’s renewal after 90 days.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama ordered new sanctions on Syria and Iran and the “digital guns for hire” who help them oppress their people with surveillance software and monitoring technology.

Obama announced additions to the pile of US sanctions already faced by the two governments as part of a wider effort to crack down on human rights abuses, atrocities and genocide.

The measures will hit the two governments but also companies that help create systems that track or monitor their people for killing, torture or other abuses and prevent individuals involved from entering the United States.

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Via DAWN.com

Police shoot dead ‘two sectarian killers’ in Balochistan

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Supporters of Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) protesting against target-killing of Hazara community during demonstration at Zarghoon road in Quetta. – PPI Photo

QUETTA: Pakistani police shot dead two people allegedly involved in sectarian violence in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said Monday.

Anti-terrorists officers in the province, a flashpoint for violence between Pakistan’s majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shia’s, gave chase after they tried to approach the suspects in a Toyota car which sped away.

The suspects then abandoned the vehicle and tried to escape into fields under the cover of fire, provincial police chief Qazi Abdul Wahid told AFP.

“An ensuing gunbattle police killed the pair,” he said, adding that the encounter took place near Quetta’s suburban Akhtarabad neighbourhood which lies close to the Shia Hazara community. Police recovered six pistols and one hand grenade from the suspects.

“We firmly believe they are target killers who had been on some mission. They belong to some extremist group involved in sectarian violence,” Wahid added.

Around 35 people have been killed in Baluchistan over the past month in what police called targeted killings by militants from the rival Muslim sects.

The minority Shia’s account for around a fifth of the country’s 167 million population.

Balochistan is also rife with militancy and a regional insurgency waged by separatists who rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s wealth of natural resources.

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Via DAWN.com

Afghanistan, US finalise draft post-2014 deal: Kabul

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In this Sunday, March 11, 2012 photo, Afghan soldiers, left, walk past a US Army soldier outside of a military base in Panjwai, Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai’s office said Sunday, April 22, 2012 that Afghan and US officials have finalized a long-awaited strategic partnership deal. -AP Photo

KABUL: Afghan and US officials have finalised the initial draft of a strategic partnership agreement that will govern relations between Kabul and Washington after 2014, a presidential statement said Sunday.

“The draft agreement on Afghanistan and US long-term partnership was finalised and initialed on Sunday in Kabul by the heads of the two negotiating delegations in Kabul”, a presidential statement said.

“The agreement is now ready for signature by both the residents.”No details were released of the content of the draft agreement, which will now be reviewed by the US and Afghan presidents, the US Congress and the Afghan parliament.

The 130,000-strong US-led Nato force helping the Afghan government fight a decade-long Taliban insurgency is due to end combat operations and pull out by the end of 2014 and the two countries are in talks about their future relations.

Kabul has already achieved two preconditions for signing the treaty — full control over the US-run Bagram prison and controversial special forces night raids against Taliban insurgents.

The US ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Afghanistan’s national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta agreed on the wording of the draft, titled “Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement between Afghanistan and the United States”.

“The document finalised today provides a strong foundation for the security of Afghanistan, the region and the world and is a document for the development of the region”, Spanta was quoted as saying the statement.

The US ambassador said in the statement that the agreement will cement a long-term strategic partnership between “two equal and sovereign States”.

He said his country was committed through the strategic partnership document to doing its utmost to assist Afghans and to help Afghanistan develop as “a unified, democratic, stable and secure state.”

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Via DAWN.com

Maoists kidnap govt official in central India

Chhattisgarh is one of several states where Maoist guerrillas, who claim to be fighting for the rights of poor tribals and farmers, have waged a decades-long battle to overthrow state and national authorities. — AP (File Photo)

RAIPUR: Maoist rebels in India have taken a government official hostage and killed his two bodyguards in the central state of Chhattisgarh, police said Sunday, in the latest of a series of kidnappings.

The guerrillas shot the two guards dead when capturing Alex Paul Menon on Saturday as he toured a village in Sukma district, 320 kilometres from the state capital Raipur, police said.

Menon, 32, is Sukma’s district collector, a role that makes him the most senior civil servant in the area.

“It is a very unfortunate incident, and the government will do everything to secure the release of the collector,” Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh told reporters.

Menon’s kidnapping comes 10 days after Maoists in the neighbouring state of Orissa released an Italian tour guide whom they had held hostage for nearly a month.

A state assembly lawmaker also remains in captivity after being kidnapped in Orissa last month.

The Maoists have in the past kidnapped government officials and police officers to raise ransom payments and negotiate other demands.

Most hostages have been released unharmed, but some have been killed.

Chhattisgarh is one of several states where Maoist guerrillas, who claim to be fighting for the rights of poor tribals and farmers, have waged a decades-long battle to overthrow state and national authorities.

The government describes the Maoist movement, which often targets police and soldiers with deadly roadside mine ambushes, as India’s biggest internal security threat.

The insurgency, which began in 1967, feeds off land disputes, police brutality and corruption, and is strongest in the poorest and most deprived areas of India, many of which are rich in natural resources.

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Via DAWN.com

Crashed US chopper responded to blast: Afghan official

A Black Hawk helicopter of the US Army’s Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-71 Aviation Regiment performs exercise at Forward Operating Base Edi in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan. — Photo by AP

KANDAHAR: A US Black Hawk helicopter that Washington said crashed in Afghanistan with four people believed to be on board had been responding to a suicide bombing, an Afghan official said Friday.

A US defense official in Washington told AFP that those on board were likely American soldiers, but could not confirm whether they had been killed or wounded in Thursday’s incident in the country’s southwest.

A senior police officer in Helmand province said the helicopter went down in stormy weather on a flight related to a deadly suicide attack on an Afghan police post in the province’s Garmser district.

“There was a suicide attack on a police checkpoint that killed four police and wounded seven others,” he said, adding that it was unclear whether the helicopter was heading to the area in support or to pick up casualties.

“There is no proof of Taliban involvement in the crash,” Mohammad Islamil Hotak told AFP.

He said police had received initial reports that all four members of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) board had been killed in the crash, but that this had not been confirmed.

The US official said poor weather had likely been a factor in the incident, but cautioned that nothing was being ruled out.

“The crash site is secured; the cause is under investigation. Additional information will be released as appropriate,” Isaf said in a statement.

While helicopter crashes occur with some regularity in Afghanistan, Isaf says they are rarely the result of Taliban fire.

On March 16, 12 Turkish soldiers and two civilians were killed in a chopper crash in the Afghan capital Kabul.

In January, six US troops were killed in a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crash in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province.

And 30 US troops and eight Afghans were killed in August 2011 when Taliban insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter, in the deadliest incident for US and Nato forces since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001.

The crash came a day after another difficult blow to the US-led war effort in Afghanistan – the publication of photos showing US troops abusing the mangled remains of Taliban insurgents.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday called for an “accelerated” transition of security responsibilities from Nato forces in the wake of the scandal, the latest in a series involving US troops.

Those incidents have damaged Afghan-US relations and fueled anti-Western sentiment in the war-wracked country.

Nato has a 130,000-strong military force fighting the Taliban, which has led an insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul government since being toppled from power by a 2001 US-led invasion.

Afghan forces are gradually taking over control of security in the country, with the goal of being in the lead nationwide next year and enabling most foreign troops to depart by the end of 2014.

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Via DAWN.com

Afghan Taliban appeal for donations

KABUL – Afghanistan’s Taliban appealed Wednesday to the Muslim world for donations for their insurgency in a rare move that analysts said was part of their media war.Complete with telephone hotlines and email addresses, the appeal was posted on a Taliban website asking Muslims worldwide to help the rebels in what they say is a “Jihad” against non-Muslim …

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End insurgency to end foreign presence: Karzai

Terrorist attacks are the reason for the presence of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said, suggesting to insurgents they are merely prolonging the stay of the foreign forces.

Speaking at the 147th birthday anniversary of Mahmud Tarzi, Karzai praised the Afghan security forces for repelling the insurgent attacks which brought the capital to a standstill on Sunday and …

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Final nail in the coffin: Lashkari Raisani bids farewell to PPP, Senate

ISLAMABAD: Disillusioned with the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) failure to address the grievances of the Baloch people, senior leader from Balochistan, Lashkari Raisani, resigned from party membership on Tuesday.

“Lashkari Raisani submitted his resignation to the party’s top leadership today (April 17),” a close associate of Raisani told The Express Tribune. He also formally resigned from senate, tendering his resignation to Senate Chairman Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari.

The former party leader maintained that the PPP was unable to trace missing persons and stop target killings in the province. “The reason for this resignation is my disillusionment with the present PPP leadership,” stated Raisani in his one-page resignation letter.

Two months earlier, Raisani developed differences with the party’s top leadership over the issue of awarding senate tickets to party workers as well as resolving the Balochistan issue. He said he had already planned his resignation in advance, and that he would disclose his reasons for quitting in a few days.

Raisani had resigned as president of PPP’s Balochistan chapter last year. The ex-PPP leader, who is also Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani’s younger brother, was not satisfied with the central leadership’s handling of issues pertaining to Balochistan, claiming the government had mishandled it.

Political analysts told The Express Tribune that the government’s efforts to address the issues of the troubled province may face a serious setback after Raisani’s resignation.

However, Mir Muhammad Ali Talpur, an expert on Balochistan, said: “Lashkari Raisani’s, or for that matter even his brother Chief Minister Aslam Raisani’s resignation are inconsequential and will have no effect on politics or the insurgency because Balochistan is being run by the army and the FC, and will continue to be run (by them) in the foreseeable future.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2012.

Militants attack Bannu jail, 400 inmates escape