http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435
Apparently it is a military run school, and this is in response to the recent increased action by the Pakistani military against militant groups in the tribal regions.
This seems like an obviously terrible move on the part of the Taliban. Is that because it really is as stupid as it sounds, to go and kill a hundred or so children, or is my lack of understanding of the purpose of such an attack simply a reflection of my lack of understanding of the culture that is being targeted by such an attack?
Well, it's not just any school - I understand this is a school for children of the military. So this is a retaliation - you strike at us so we kill your children. Perhaps it is not meant to be effective in a strategic sense.
True - this is just extreme terrorism - just going strictly for straight out fear and intimidation.
However, the audience is still going to end up being larger than just the victims families. Does it matter than everyone else in Pakistan and Afghanistan is now thinking the Taliban are the people who murdered 120 children in cold blood, regardless of whose children they are? Apparently the Taliban doesn't think so...does that say something about the Taliban, or something about that audience?
I don't think the Taliban have to worry about getting a bad rep.
Those schoolkids looked westernised to me, what with their blazers and jumpers, could easily have been pics of British/Pakistani kids at a school in England.
To people like the Taleban, Boko Haram or Isis these westernised muslims are traitors. I don't think the Taleban have made an error, by their lights this is a triumph.
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on December 16, 2014, 10:29:22 AM
To people like the Taleban, Boko Haram or Isis these westernised muslims are traitors. I don't think the Taleban have made an error, by their lights this is a triumph.
So these guys will blow us up even after we all convert to Islam? Man. There is just no pleasing some people.
But I guess considering how often Islamic terrorists murder other Muslims that should not be a surprise.
Going after school children--modeled after a western military academy or not--in retaliation against the Pakistan Army's offensives in the Warizstan tribal areas may be the final nail in the Taliban-ISI covert relationship.
QuotePeshawar school attack: Has Pakistan ISI 'secret support for Taliban' backfired?
Gianluca Mezzofiore
International Business Times
December 16, 2014 13:09 GMT
The horrific attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that left at least 126 people dead, mostly children, has been claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, in revenge for the army offensive in north Waziristan.
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females. We want them to feel the pain," said Muhammad Umar Khorasani, spokesman for the militant group.
The long-awaited military operation to wipe out the Islamist militant safe-haven from Pakistan's western border plays into a complex political relationship with its troubled neighbourhood Afghanistan.
Mistrust between the two countries stems from Afghan accusations that Pakistan is ultimately responsible for the violence in their country. A special focus is reserved for Pakistan's military and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), accused by the US and Afghanistan of nurturing, training, supporting and equipping Afghan Taliban fighters.
As the US force in Afghanistan is scheduled to drop to 5,500 by the end of 2015 and near zero by the end of 2016, questions over alleged Pakistani support for the Taliban insurgency remain unanswered.
"Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, has been providing the Taliban with safe haven and sanctuary in Pakistan for over a decade," Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Intelligence project wrote yesterday.
"The ISI participates directly in planning Taliban operations and target selection against Nato and Afghan targets. It helps arm and fund the Taliban and assists its fundraising efforts in the Gulf states."
Pakistan denies the charges, reversing the allegations by claiming Afghanistan provides safe havens for terrorists. In July, as the ground operation on Islamist groups was launched, a senior general complained about the presence in eastern Afghanistan of Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of TTP.
"Whenever he comes to Pakistan then we can get him and he will be eliminated," said Major General Asim Bajwa, Pakistani army's spokesman. "But before that we are expecting our Afghan brethren, who we have requested to do their bit, to either eliminate him or hand him over to Pakistan."
Supporting Haqqani
However, it has been widely acknowledged that the ISI failed to contain the infamous Haqqani network, which carried out deadly attacks on US troops in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials claimed that Haqqani fighters were allowed to escape to Afghanistan before the operation was launched on 15 June. "The Haqqani network keeps an office in Rawalpindi near the ISI headquarters. General Sharif supervises all of this, just as his predecessors did before him. The general, not the prime minister, makes Afghan policy," Riedel wrote.
Tensions have increased in the past year as more than 2,000 Afghan police officers and soldiers have been killed. Afghan officials have accused Pakistan of sending army commandos, doctors and military advisers to train Afghan Taliban.
They alleged that the military operation to dislodge Pakistani Taliban from Waziristan had the effect of pushing Islamists into Afghanistan.
General Zahir Azimi, an Afghan army spokesman, said: "They were thinking: 'Foreigners are leaving Afghanistan. They don't have a strong air force . . . so we will ramp up our attacks and overrun provinces."
He added that Afghan intelligence intercepted phone conversations between militants and suspected ISI agents.
A new hope
Afghan officials also accuse Pakistan of having fired nearly 5,000 rockets into eastern Afghanistan since last spring, in an attempt to clear the ground for Islamist militants and allow them to establish bases in Afghanistan.
Most recently, the appointment of an all-clean general at the head of Pakistan's spy agency spurred hope for the corrupted intelligence force. General Rizwan Akhtar commanded the paramilitary Rangers during the country's crackdown on the criminal mafias with excellent results. His charisma and high moral standards may help reforming the ISI from the terrorist-backing image they gained over the years.
"For him a terrorist is a terrorist," Nasir Aftab, a senior Karachi policeman, told the Guardian. "There is no impression of good terrorism or bad terrorism, or that some are working for Pakistan."
Experts believe that the surge of domestic terrorism has pushed Pakistan's military to change its murky approach to the Taliban, thus explaining the military operation in north Waziristan.
Now, jihadists are taking revenge and turning the guns against their former founder and supporter.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 16, 2014, 10:47:52 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 16, 2014, 10:47:36 AM
Going after school children--modeled after a western military academy or not--in retaliation against the Pakistan Army's offensives in the Warizstan tribal areas may be the final nail in the Taliban-ISI covert relationship.
QuotePeshawar school attack: Has Pakistan ISI 'secret support for Taliban' backfired?
Gianluca Mezzofiore
International Business Times
December 16, 2014 13:09 GMT
The horrific attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that left at least 126 people dead, mostly children, has been claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, in revenge for the army offensive in north Waziristan.
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females. We want them to feel the pain," said Muhammad Umar Khorasani, spokesman for the militant group.
The long-awaited military operation to wipe out the Islamist militant safe-haven from Pakistan's western border plays into a complex political relationship with its troubled neighbourhood Afghanistan.
Mistrust between the two countries stems from Afghan accusations that Pakistan is ultimately responsible for the violence in their country. A special focus is reserved for Pakistan's military and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), accused by the US and Afghanistan of nurturing, training, supporting and equipping Afghan Taliban fighters.
As the US force in Afghanistan is scheduled to drop to 5,500 by the end of 2015 and near zero by the end of 2016, questions over alleged Pakistani support for the Taliban insurgency remain unanswered.
"Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, has been providing the Taliban with safe haven and sanctuary in Pakistan for over a decade," Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Intelligence project wrote yesterday.
"The ISI participates directly in planning Taliban operations and target selection against Nato and Afghan targets. It helps arm and fund the Taliban and assists its fundraising efforts in the Gulf states."
Pakistan denies the charges, reversing the allegations by claiming Afghanistan provides safe havens for terrorists. In July, as the ground operation on Islamist groups was launched, a senior general complained about the presence in eastern Afghanistan of Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of TTP.
"Whenever he comes to Pakistan then we can get him and he will be eliminated," said Major General Asim Bajwa, Pakistani army's spokesman. "But before that we are expecting our Afghan brethren, who we have requested to do their bit, to either eliminate him or hand him over to Pakistan."
Supporting Haqqani
However, it has been widely acknowledged that the ISI failed to contain the infamous Haqqani network, which carried out deadly attacks on US troops in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials claimed that Haqqani fighters were allowed to escape to Afghanistan before the operation was launched on 15 June. "The Haqqani network keeps an office in Rawalpindi near the ISI headquarters. General Sharif supervises all of this, just as his predecessors did before him. The general, not the prime minister, makes Afghan policy," Riedel wrote.
Tensions have increased in the past year as more than 2,000 Afghan police officers and soldiers have been killed. Afghan officials have accused Pakistan of sending army commandos, doctors and military advisers to train Afghan Taliban.
They alleged that the military operation to dislodge Pakistani Taliban from Waziristan had the effect of pushing Islamists into Afghanistan.
General Zahir Azimi, an Afghan army spokesman, said: "They were thinking: 'Foreigners are leaving Afghanistan. They don't have a strong air force . . . so we will ramp up our attacks and overrun provinces."
He added that Afghan intelligence intercepted phone conversations between militants and suspected ISI agents.
A new hope
Afghan officials also accuse Pakistan of having fired nearly 5,000 rockets into eastern Afghanistan since last spring, in an attempt to clear the ground for Islamist militants and allow them to establish bases in Afghanistan.
Most recently, the appointment of an all-clean general at the head of Pakistan's spy agency spurred hope for the corrupted intelligence force. General Rizwan Akhtar commanded the paramilitary Rangers during the country's crackdown on the criminal mafias with excellent results. His charisma and high moral standards may help reforming the ISI from the terrorist-backing image they gained over the years.
"For him a terrorist is a terrorist," Nasir Aftab, a senior Karachi policeman, told the Guardian. "There is no impression of good terrorism or bad terrorism, or that some are working for Pakistan."
Experts believe that the surge of domestic terrorism has pushed Pakistan's military to change its murky approach to the Taliban, thus explaining the military operation in north Waziristan.
Now, jihadists are taking revenge and turning the guns against their former founder and supporter.
:hmm:
Quote from: garbon on December 16, 2014, 10:52:44 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 16, 2014, 10:47:52 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 16, 2014, 10:47:36 AM
Going after school children--modeled after a western military academy or not--in retaliation against the Pakistan Army's offensives in the Warizstan tribal areas may be the final nail in the Taliban-ISI covert relationship.
QuotePeshawar school attack: Has Pakistan ISI 'secret support for Taliban' backfired?
Gianluca Mezzofiore
International Business Times
December 16, 2014 13:09 GMT
The horrific attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that left at least 126 people dead, mostly children, has been claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, in revenge for the army offensive in north Waziristan.
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females. We want them to feel the pain," said Muhammad Umar Khorasani, spokesman for the militant group.
The long-awaited military operation to wipe out the Islamist militant safe-haven from Pakistan's western border plays into a complex political relationship with its troubled neighbourhood Afghanistan.
Mistrust between the two countries stems from Afghan accusations that Pakistan is ultimately responsible for the violence in their country. A special focus is reserved for Pakistan's military and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), accused by the US and Afghanistan of nurturing, training, supporting and equipping Afghan Taliban fighters.
As the US force in Afghanistan is scheduled to drop to 5,500 by the end of 2015 and near zero by the end of 2016, questions over alleged Pakistani support for the Taliban insurgency remain unanswered.
"Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, has been providing the Taliban with safe haven and sanctuary in Pakistan for over a decade," Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Intelligence project wrote yesterday.
"The ISI participates directly in planning Taliban operations and target selection against Nato and Afghan targets. It helps arm and fund the Taliban and assists its fundraising efforts in the Gulf states."
Pakistan denies the charges, reversing the allegations by claiming Afghanistan provides safe havens for terrorists. In July, as the ground operation on Islamist groups was launched, a senior general complained about the presence in eastern Afghanistan of Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of TTP.
"Whenever he comes to Pakistan then we can get him and he will be eliminated," said Major General Asim Bajwa, Pakistani army's spokesman. "But before that we are expecting our Afghan brethren, who we have requested to do their bit, to either eliminate him or hand him over to Pakistan."
Supporting Haqqani
However, it has been widely acknowledged that the ISI failed to contain the infamous Haqqani network, which carried out deadly attacks on US troops in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials claimed that Haqqani fighters were allowed to escape to Afghanistan before the operation was launched on 15 June. "The Haqqani network keeps an office in Rawalpindi near the ISI headquarters. General Sharif supervises all of this, just as his predecessors did before him. The general, not the prime minister, makes Afghan policy," Riedel wrote.
Tensions have increased in the past year as more than 2,000 Afghan police officers and soldiers have been killed. Afghan officials have accused Pakistan of sending army commandos, doctors and military advisers to train Afghan Taliban.
They alleged that the military operation to dislodge Pakistani Taliban from Waziristan had the effect of pushing Islamists into Afghanistan.
General Zahir Azimi, an Afghan army spokesman, said: "They were thinking: 'Foreigners are leaving Afghanistan. They don't have a strong air force . . . so we will ramp up our attacks and overrun provinces."
He added that Afghan intelligence intercepted phone conversations between militants and suspected ISI agents.
A new hope
Afghan officials also accuse Pakistan of having fired nearly 5,000 rockets into eastern Afghanistan since last spring, in an attempt to clear the ground for Islamist militants and allow them to establish bases in Afghanistan.
Most recently, the appointment of an all-clean general at the head of Pakistan's spy agency spurred hope for the corrupted intelligence force. General Rizwan Akhtar commanded the paramilitary Rangers during the country's crackdown on the criminal mafias with excellent results. His charisma and high moral standards may help reforming the ISI from the terrorist-backing image they gained over the years.
"For him a terrorist is a terrorist," Nasir Aftab, a senior Karachi policeman, told the Guardian. "There is no impression of good terrorism or bad terrorism, or that some are working for Pakistan."
Experts believe that the surge of domestic terrorism has pushed Pakistan's military to change its murky approach to the Taliban, thus explaining the military operation in north Waziristan.
Now, jihadists are taking revenge and turning the guns against their former founder and supporter.
:hmm:
:mellow:
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 16, 2014, 10:55:25 AM
Quote from: garbon on December 16, 2014, 10:52:44 AM
:hmm:
"Breaking up is hard to do."--Neil Sedaka
I just wonder if you thought your commentary on the article was so good that it needed to be quoted by yourself. :D
Quote from: garbon on December 16, 2014, 10:56:14 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 16, 2014, 10:55:25 AM
Quote from: garbon on December 16, 2014, 10:52:44 AM
:hmm:
"Breaking up is hard to do."--Neil Sedaka
I just wonder if you thought your commentary on the article was so good that it needed to be quoted by yourself. :D
Ah, shit.
It's a senseless act of violence and terror. Murdering children in their classrooms.
Some talking heads (or is it voices) on the radio seem to think it's because Pakistani Taliban is so weak, they can't attack hard targets, and need to show that they still mean business.
Fuck them. All of them.
Quote from: Berkut on December 16, 2014, 09:22:03 AM
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435 (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435)
Apparently it is a military run school, and this is in response to the recent increased action by the Pakistani military against militant groups in the tribal regions.
This seems like an obviously terrible move on the part of the Taliban. Is that because it really is as stupid as it sounds, to go and kill a hundred or so children, or is my lack of understanding of the purpose of such an attack simply a reflection of my lack of understanding of the culture that is being targeted by such an attack?
Attack us and we will kill your children. Most soldiers are willing to risk their life, but risking the life of their family is another thing. If the government is seen as unable to protect its civilians, namely the family of those it tasked with the arrest of criminals, then there's a greater likelyhood these guys will either refuse to fight our switch sides.
That's what the Talibans expects, at least. And it might work.
Quote from: viper37 on December 16, 2014, 02:35:14 PM
Quote from: Berkut on December 16, 2014, 09:22:03 AM
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435 (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435)
Apparently it is a military run school, and this is in response to the recent increased action by the Pakistani military against militant groups in the tribal regions.
This seems like an obviously terrible move on the part of the Taliban. Is that because it really is as stupid as it sounds, to go and kill a hundred or so children, or is my lack of understanding of the purpose of such an attack simply a reflection of my lack of understanding of the culture that is being targeted by such an attack?
Attack us and we will kill your children. Most soldiers are willing to risk their life, but risking the life of their family is another thing. If the government is seen as unable to protect its civilians, namely the family of those it tasked with the arrest of criminals, then there's a greater likelyhood these guys will either refuse to fight our switch sides.
That's what the Talibans expects, at least. And it might work.
It might, but it could easily backfire. There are probably a lot of members of the Pakistani military who haven't been all that motivated to fight the Taliban, but now might think they'd best take out the Taliban before the Taliban takes out their families. Not counting those who were related to the murdered children, who now how the motivation of revenge.
I think you guys are ascribing too much of rational agency to the Taliban.
If there is any "rational" strategy to their actions (and that's a big "if") I would say it's this: draw a wedge between the "moderate Muslims" and the "West", so that the former have to choose whether they side with the latter (in which case they will be slaughtered together) or the Taliban.
Quote from: Martinus on December 16, 2014, 04:12:53 PM
I think you guys are ascribing too much of rational agency to the Taliban.
If there is any "rational" strategy to their actions (and that's a big "if") I would say it's this: draw a wedge between the "moderate Muslims" and the "West", so that the former have to choose whether they side with the latter (in which case they will be slaughtered together) or the Taliban.
If this were their strategy then attacking Muslim children is the exact opposite of what they would have done.
Their strategy is: if you mess with us, we kill you.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on December 16, 2014, 04:17:28 PM
Quote from: Martinus on December 16, 2014, 04:12:53 PM
I think you guys are ascribing too much of rational agency to the Taliban.
If there is any "rational" strategy to their actions (and that's a big "if") I would say it's this: draw a wedge between the "moderate Muslims" and the "West", so that the former have to choose whether they side with the latter (in which case they will be slaughtered together) or the Taliban.
If this were their strategy then attacking Muslim children is the exact opposite of what they would have done.
Their strategy is: if you mess with us, we kill you.
As others pointed out, these kids looked Western. And I'm not saying this is an effective strategy. But if I were them, I would aim to do what I described.
Latest death toll - 132 murdered children and 9 teachers. 121 children injured, along with 3 adults.
Apparently the school had around 1,000 pupils, so 1 in 8 of them killed in a few hours and another 1 in 8 injured or maimed.
One of the older injured students, I think a 15-17 year old, said in his classroom the terrorists killed his classmates and as he hid, they shot and burned his teacher.
My assumption being she received this special treatment, for being a woman who dared to be both a teacher and to educated children of the opposite sex.
Pakistan's innocent are reaping the whirlwind sown by their country's elders.
So many times I fantasized about setting my teachers on fire.
Well that's gotta be excellent PR for them in the country where they're most popular...
Quote from: Berkut on December 16, 2014, 09:36:06 AM
True - this is just extreme terrorism - just going strictly for straight out fear and intimidation.
However, the audience is still going to end up being larger than just the victims families. Does it matter than everyone else in Pakistan and Afghanistan is now thinking the Taliban are the people who murdered 120 children in cold blood, regardless of whose children they are? Apparently the Taliban doesn't think so...does that say something about the Taliban, or something about that audience?
If you would like to know, my experience is that muslims, and arabs in specific, though these are not arabs, see children as an extension of their parents and don't emotionally connect with the western perception that children are innocent regardless of whom their parents are. They understand the principle of the western concept, and shamelessly exploit it in their propaganda videos, but they themselves don't give a rat's ass about children that don't belong to their tribe.
Bottom line, muslims don't care about children dying whose parents they consider infidels or traitors, therefore pro-taliban populace will see this as a valid target.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on December 16, 2014, 07:47:26 PM
So many times I fantasized about setting my teachers on fire.
:blink: Man, I just fantasized about banging a couple of mine.
I only had 2 teachers I can think of who could be even close to hot.
The first was my fourth grade teacher, but I was like nine.
The other was a Junior High (7th grade to 9th grade, ~12-14 years old) PE teacher. She had a smoking body but was a royal bitch and everyone was pretty sure she was banging the other creepy male PE teacher.
I had a history teacher that was smoking hott.
I think she was my first crush.
Quote from: sbr on December 16, 2014, 11:11:08 PM
I only had 2 teachers I can think of who could be even close to hot.
The first was my fourth grade teacher, but I was like nine.
The other was a Junior High (7th grade to 9th grade, ~12-14 years old) PE teacher. She had a smoking body but was a royal bitch and everyone was pretty sure she was banging the other creepy male PE teacher.
Two of mine were genuinely hot, and the third was a case of "I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers." One was particularly painful, because I had a one-on-one class with her, and she was fond of short dresses/tight clothing (granted, with her rack, it was hard not to stare at her chest even when she was wearing a really conservative turtleneck sweater).
To top it all off, she was a fellow sci-fi nerd. At the time, we were both super-excited about the upcoming release of The Phantom Menace (in my defense, it
looked like it would be awesome- we live and learn). Only thing that kept me from super-embarrassing mess-in-pants situations every day was that she also insisted on talking at length about her fiancee.
From the slaughter of children to sexual fantasies about teachers. :lol:
It's: Languish.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 16, 2014, 10:47:36 AM
Going after school children--modeled after a western military academy or not--in retaliation against the Pakistan Army's offensives in the Warizstan tribal areas may be the final nail in the Taliban-ISI covert relationship.
QuotePeshawar school attack: Has Pakistan ISI 'secret support for Taliban' backfired?
Gianluca Mezzofiore
International Business Times
December 16, 2014 13:09 GMT
This is hardly News. Pakistan has been at war with it's own batshit crazy extremists for over a decade now. ISI and the Pakistani populace don't yet understand that they themselves unleashed this dragon. Like other non-rational societies this is more likely to be part of some conspiracy theory than the reasonable explanation.
Murdering kids isn't a problem for them since Pakistan just can't be honest with itself about the causes of the terrorism.
It's all the USA's fault. :(
http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20141216/1015915515.html
QuotePakistani Taliban Attacks Backlash Against Gov't Ties With US, Experts Say
Experts claim that Taliban attacks in Pakistan are a backlash against the involvement of the Pakistani government and army in the US operations in the Middle East.
MOSCOW, December 16 (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — The Pakistani Taliban attacks are a backlash against the involvement of the Pakistani government and army in the US operations in the Middle East, experts told Sputnik News Agency Tuesday.
The comments come after a deadly attack carried out on Tuesday by Taliban militants on an army school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar killed more than 130 people, most of them children.
"The TTP's [Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan] campaign against the Pakistani state is just that—a campaign against the Pakistani state. Certainly, one reason the TTP targets the Pakistani state is that it has a relationship with the US, but this is not the major reason," Michael Kugelman, a senior program associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said.
"They [Taliban] feel that the Pakistan government and army have supported the US war on terror attacks," Afzal Ashraf, Consultant Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agreed, adding that the Taliban is reacting largely to Pakistani policy which is tuned by the United States.
Kugelman underlined that the TTP wants to overthrow the Pakistani state and transform the country into a hard-line Islamist regime, just as Afghanistan was in the 1990s. He also noted that Tuesday's attack could mark the beginning of a new phase for the Pakistani Taliban – "one in which it launches a long-delayed campaign of retaliatory strikes."
"The timing could not be worse, given that Afghan Taliban violence in Afghanistan is on the rise, and given that foreign troops are on their way out of Afghanistan. The US has wanted to achieve some semblance of stability in Afghanistan and by extension Pakistan. Recent news suggests such an achievement will be very unlikely," Kugelman told Sputnik.
Afzal Ashraf concurred and noted that the US drone attack in North Waziristan, northwest Pakistan on Sunday, which allegedly killed four Taliban militants, was the main reason behind the atrocity, as it has been successful in killing al-Qaeda and certain Taliban groups.
"Ideology drives Taliban to do some of the things that they are doing," Ashraf said.
Michel Kugelman noted that the Pakistani military is now likely to intensify its operations in North Waziristan
Now here's something a Texan can appreciate. :lol:
QuotePakistan likely to execute dozens of convicts
At least 55 fighters on death-row likely to be executed soon, amid public anger over Taliban attack on Peshawar school.
Pakistan plans to execute 55 people in the coming days, after their mercy petitions were recently rejected by the country's president Mamnoon Hussain, reports say.
Six fighters have been hanged since a Taliban attack on an army-run school in the city of Peshawar last week left 149 people, mostly children, dead, triggering public anger.
Of the six hanged so far, five were involved in a failed attempt to assassinate the then-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2003, while one was involved in a 2009 attack on army headquarters, AFP news agency reported on Monday.
After the school attack, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for "terrorism-related" cases.
According to the Dawn newspaper, it normally takes at least 14 days to hang a convict once his or hers mercy petition is rejected. However, the Punjab government, which is dealing with majority of people on death row, recently made amendments to its laws and reduced the period to two days. It also changed a law under which executions could be carried out only at 4am and now convicts can be hanged any time.
Prime Minister Sharif has ordered the attorney general's office to "actively pursue" capital cases currently in the courts, a government spokesman said.
"Prime Minister has also issued directions for appropriate measures for early disposal of pending cases related to terrorism," the spokesman said.
Pakistan began its de facto moratorium on civilian executions in 2008.
Before the latest resumption, only one person had been executed since the moratorium - a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 22, 2014, 07:04:17 PM
Now here's something a Texan can appreciate. :lol:
Northwest Frontier Province?! Get a rope!
Quote from: Siege on December 16, 2014, 11:14:15 PM
I had a history teacher that was smoking hott.
I think she was my first crush.
And now she's at the bottom of a well. :(