October 8, 2007:
In northwest Pakistan,
pro-Taliban tribesman captured another 35 soldiers, while army attempts
to locate and free such captives left another twenty tribesmen dead. Another
army convoy was also attacked, killing one soldiers. The fighting in the last
month has left about a hundred soldiers and policemen dead, along with some 500
tribesmen.
October 7, 2007: Pakistani military dictator Pervez
Musharraf won the presidential elections held yesterday. The voters were
the members of parliament and provincial assemblies. Musharraf's political
opponents boycotted the election, and the Supreme Court has to rule on the
legality of Musharraf as a candidate. This may take 9-15 days. Musharraf has
been feuding with the lawyers and the Supreme Court. General Ashfaq
Kiyani, the former commander of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence
or ISI, succeeded Pervez Musharraf as head of the armed
forces. Musharraf gave up that job as part of political deals he made to win
the presidential election.
October 6, 2007: In Kashmir, Indian border troops
killed seven Islamic terrorists trying to cross over from Pakistan. Two
soldiers were also killed. In Pakistan's North Waziristan. 65 pro-Taliban
tribesmen and twenty troops were killed in a battle. Elsewhere in the area, a
suicide bomber, disguised as a woman, attacked a police checkpoint,
killing himself, four policemen and ten civilians.
October 5, 2007: In northwest Pakistan, pro-Taliban
tribesman murdered three of the 225 soldiers they captured, along with a
stalled (by a landslide) convoy in August. The tribesmen demanded the
army withdraw from several checkpoints, or three soldiers a day will be
killed.
October 4, 2007: In Kashmir, several days of
operations in a remote area left nine Islamic terrorists and two soldiers
dead. In northeast India, security forces killed seven separatist
rebels.
October 3, 2007: The Pakistani government dropped
corruption charges against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who heads one
of the powerful families and has enormous political support. This is apparently
part of a deal to get Bhutto support for the election of current president
Musharraf. The amnesty deal included a number of former political
leaders, except Musharraf's immediate predecessor, Nawaz Sharif.
Corruption is the biggest problem in Pakistan, crippling the economy, justice
system and government. Everyone desires an end to the corruption, and those
efforts have forced many prominent, and corrupt into exile, or jail. But these
efforts are regularly reversed by political deals.
Meanwhile, in North Waziristan, the center of
Taliban power in Pakistan, a bus hit a landmine, killing 14 people. Elsewhere
in the area, troops killed ten Taliban supporters in a clash.
October 2, 2007: In northwest Pakistan, 150
pro-Taliban tribesman surrounded an army checkpoint and captured the 25
soldiers manning it.