India-Pakistan: Bearing Down on Baluchistan

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March 14, 2006: Already engaged since March 4th in a division-sized operation against about 500 or so Taliban personnel and sympathizers in North Waziristan, Pakistani security forces are apparently preparing for a major effort against Baluchi rebels in the southern part of the country. Military aircraft, including attack helicopters, have been reported concentrating at bases near some of the most restive parts of Baluchistan, and troops movements are underway.

In central India, increased violence by Maoist rebels is causing thousands of civilians to flee the area. The Maoists are demanding support from the civilians, and will kill those they believe are supporting the government.

In eastern Bangladesh, police arrested two more Islamic terrorist leaders, and seized bomb making materials. The trapped terrorists set off some bombs, killing members of their families.

March 13, 2006: Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are not good. The Afghans accuse the Pakistani of tolerating, or even assisting, Taliban groups based in Pakistan, while Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of working with India to support tribal rebels in Pakistan (particularly Baluchistan.)

March 12, 2006: Pakistan is working deals with tribal chiefs in Baluchistan, trying to isolate the few tribes that are at the core of the fighting. Meanwhile, to the north, in Waziristan, Islamic radicals killed two local men, one of them a cleric, because they believed the men were "spying for the Americans." One of the men was believed to have contacts with the Afghan army, just across the border. The U.S., Afghans and Pakistani intelligence all try to recruit informers in the area. Meanwhile, as part of the peace effort between Pakistan and India, Pakistan is shutting down Islamic terrorist operations in Pakistani Kashmir.

March 11, 2006: In Pakistan, along the Afghan border, Pakistani troops lifted the curfew they had imposed during a week of fighting with Islamic radical gunmen.

March 10, 2006: In Pakistani Baluchistan, an anti-tank mine planted in a dirt road destroyed a truck carrying civilians, killing 28 of them. The mine was apparently planed by tribal rebels, intending to destroy army vehicles that used the road.

March 7, 2006: In Pakistan, after three days of fighting in the North Waziristan tribal area, which left 140 militants dead, soldiers searched for the two clerics who had instigated the fighting. The clerics had armed followers who tried to impose strict religious customs on the local population.

In northern India, Islamic terrorists set off three bombs at Hindu holy city of Varanasi. Islamic terrorists operating in Kashmir took credit.

 

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