India-Pakistan: Taliban Big Shot Bagged on Border

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October 5, 2005: While India and Pakistan have energetically engaged in peace talks, Pakistan appears to be losing control of the Islamic terrorists operating in Kashmir. Indeed, the Kashmir dispute is the most difficult one the two countries must resolve. The Islamic radical groups appear to be ignoring the Pakistani government's efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully. The Islamic terrorists in Kashmir have been trying to adopt the methods used in Iraq, namely roadside bombs. But lack of technical expertise has led to several aborted bomb attacks.

India and United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) rebels agreed to peace talks. The tribal rebels of northeast India have been frustrated after decades of armed resistance, and not much progress in keeping non-tribal people out of their lands. Meanwhile, tribal violence in the northeast continues, leaving eleven dead, most of them feuding tribesmen, but also including four separatist rebels.

October 4, 2005: Pakistani police arrested a major Taliban leader, Abdul Latif Hakimi, who was the chief spokesman for the group. Hakimi often spoke to reporters via a satellite phone, and was captured because of a tip. Pakistan will interrogate Hakimi before handing him over to the U.S.

October 2, 2005: Along the Afghan border, four Pakistani soldiers were killed while looking for al Qaeda camps. The army has been having success at this lately, but the al Qaeda men, and their Pakistani tribal supporters, are still resisting.

October 1, 2005: In Kashmir, nineteen people died in Islamic terrorist violence. In rural central India (Chhattisgarh state), Maoist rebels killed five tribal people, in an attempt to terrorize the tribes to support the rebels, or at least not be so cooperative with the police.