March 27, 2007:
In Pakistan, the government got several more
tribes to agree to help fight Islamic terrorists. This deal has not worked out
so well in nearby Waziristan, but is the best the government can do. The deal
calls for the tribes to "refrain" from supporting the Taliban or
Islamic terrorists in general. In return, the government stays out of tribal
affairs, unless invited in.
March 26, 2007: In northwest Pakistan, police caught a group
of Taliban trying to convince high school students at at religious school, to
quit and join the Taliban. The Taliban reacted to the police showing up by
opening fire. No one was injured, but the Taliban got away.
March 25, 2007: In central India, four Maoists surrendered to
the government. They said they were ill and tired of fighting. The Maoists are
demanding that the government halt its program of recruiting people to inform
against the Maoists. This has hurt the Maoists, who are normally pretty
paranoid and trigger-happy over real or imagined "government agents."
March 21, 2007: The fighting in Pakistan, between pro-Taliban
tribesmen and foreign Islamic militants, has left over a hundred people dead. Most of the
victims are Uzbeks and Chechens, who had fled Afghanistan in 2001, after the
Taliban were overthrown. Unable to go home, where they are wanted for
terrorism, the Islamic militants have not behaved themselves in Pakistan
either. The tribesmen don't like foreigners in general, and that, in the end,
is what did the al Qaeda men in. Another group of foreigners is supposed to be
guarding Osama bin Laden somewhere in the Afghan border region. Some of the al Qaeda foreigners, have better
relations with the locals. But over time, foreigners have more and more trouble
sustaining themselves among the xenophobic tribesmen.
March 20, 2007: South Waziristan, a region of Pakistan along
the Afghan border, fighting between tribesmen and Uzbek members of al Qaeda,
left nearly sixty dead, most of them Uzbek. Out of respect for their Islamic conservative
attitudes, and connection to Osama Bin Laden, the Uzbeks had been allowed to
settle in the are in 2002. Several hundred Uzbeks, and Islamic militants from
other parts of the world, congregated in the area, married local women, and
drifted away from the terrorism business. Unfortunately, they drifted towards
crime and banditry. This brought them into growing conflict with nearby tribes,
and now all-out war. The Uzbeks, and their allies, are good fighters, but
vastly outnumbered.