8 Hostages Executed in Pakistan Siege (8 Pakistani Soldiers)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/27/international/asia/27STAN.html

Eight Pakistani soldiers who had been taken hostage by militants in Pakistan's tribal areas have been executed, officials said Friday, in the latest sign that the effort by Pakistan's government to flush foreign militants from the region has gone badly awry.

The operation has proved a demoralizing embarrassment for Pakistan's army, the country's most powerful institution. While several dozen militants have been killed, and nearly 200 taken prisoner, the government does not appear to have captured the high-profile targets that it claimed last week to have surrounded in a mud-walled compound.

At least 30 security workers have been killed in the operation, according to government officials, along with at least a dozen civilians. Twelve paramilitary soldiers and two low-level government officials are still being held hostage separately.

<snip>

But criticism of the operation has been rising in the news media and, more important, among former military officials — General Musharraf's most important constituency. One of them, a former major general, Anwar Sher, said Friday, "Because of our inefficiency we lost many soldiers."

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[LONG-LINER]

2. extremist are bad

[IndianaGreen]

3. This is really getting ugly

Don't forget that just a couple of days ago the Pakistani Army dynamited the homes of people accused of sheltering the rebels, a standard tactic used by IDF in Occupied Palestine.

These guys are better armed and are tough as nails. I wonder if the tribal areas are on the verge of open rebellion against the military dictatorship of General Musharraf.

Here is a story from last year about another operation that failed to win the hearts and minds:

Musharaff gives go-ahead for US military operations in Pakistan
By Vilani Peiris and Sarath Kumara
9 May 2002

Under intense pressure from Washington, Pakistan’s military strongman General Pervez Musharraf has given the green light for US troops to operate inside the country alongside local army forces in pursuing so-called Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.

The first operation on April 26 was a joint raid on a religious school in Darpa Khel village in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border. According to Pakistani officials, 24 US Special Forces soldiers, backed by Apache attack helicopters, joined some 200 paramilitary troops in storming a seminary founded by the Taliban’s former Tribal Affairs Minister, Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani. Five people were detained for “suspected links” to the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

The raid provoked an angry response from local tribesmen who have close links with ethnic Pashtuns in the south and east of Afghanistan. A group of several hundred demonstrated in front of a government office to protest the military operation. A local cleric Maulvi Abdul Hafeez told Associated Press: “In order to prevent these kinds of raids in future, we have started consulting other tribal elders and clerics. We will not let the American forces operate in our areas.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/may2002/uspa-m09.shtml

[Chicago Democrat]

4. The Pakistani Army seems really incompetant.

Makes one appreciate our US army guys all the more. They will problably loose alot of soldiers if they really go all out against the tribal areas.