Pakistani Army

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on November 30th, 2011
Pakistanis have staged anti-NATO protests across the country in recent days. [Photo: EPA]

The attack toook place in the dead of the night, and for more than two hours, American helicopters pounded a well-known and marked Pakistani post.

The Pakistani army frantically tried to convey to NATO, ISAF and the US high command in Afghanistan to stop the attack, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. By the time it was over, more than 24 soldiers lay dead, including officers, and over a dozen wounded.

The Pakistani post, known as Volcano, was where the two sides held their flag meetings.

By Imran Khan in Asia on July 7th, 2010

Standing in the valley I look to the North East and Afghanistan.

The Tora Bora mountains seem to push towards the sky and even in July ominous clouds lurk overhead.

The Pakistani army have brought me to Khurram agency in the remote tribal belt in the North West of the country.

It's stunning, rugged and everything you'd expect it to be.

The Tora Bora mountains was the site of Osama Bin Laden's last stand.

Bloody battle

According to some accounts, in December 2001 bin Laden narrowly escaped coalition fire here before he fled to Pakistan.

Since then Pakistan has seen a wave of almost daily bombings and attacks across the length and breadth of the country.

In recent years the army have taken on the fighters, and the battle has been hard and bloody.

However, they insist the tide is turning.

The army says it has successfully beaten back the Pakistani Taliban and secured Khurram.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on February 5th, 2010
Photo from AFP

Pakistan is marking Kashmir day with countrywide demos to show solidarity with the people of Kashmir. Pakistan believes that there can be no lasting peace with India unless the core issue of Kashmir is settled.

Just yesterday Pakistan’s Military Chief said the country’s army would remain focused on India.

Despite international pressure on  Pakistan to deploy more forces on its Western Border to fight the Taliban the Pakistani army is still eyeball to eyeball with the Indians after India reactivated its forward operating airbases and deployed its forces on the border with Pakistan.

That prompted Pakistan to go for a policy of a quid pro quo by sending her forces to take up defensive positions and reinforce her forward positions to thwart off any Indian attack.

The Indian military Chief has recently talked about a Cold Start option, i.e. to strike first and mobilise later policy.

By Imran Khan in Asia on December 7th, 2009
Photo by Getty Images

Ok, so it's a silly headline, but Osama bin Laden's name has been appearing more frequently in the media of late. There seems to be renewed focus on capturing or killing the man many in the west say is responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

But where is he?

A Pakistani Taliban commander claimed that he had met with Bin Laden in Pakistan, but that he had fled the country once the Pakistani army began their anti-Taliban operation in South Waziristan in October.

Senior US officials seem to have no idea where he is.

One newspaper quoted Robert Gates, the US secretary of defence, about when the last time the US had good intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama. He was blunt: "I think it's been years."

On Sunday, the US announced it would seal the Pakistan-Afghan border to try and prevent attacks on the Pakistani side. It’s seen as a plan to try and get the world’s most wanted man.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on November 11th, 2009

DSC04468.JPGA few years back, Hakimullah just listened attentively as a back bencher, but years on and he is the new commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan  once headed by Baitullah Mehsud.

Today he and his men have a hefty price on their heads. After the Pakistani military launched a three-pronged attack on South Waziristan, his loyalists - said to be numbering in their thousands - have vanished into the rough terrain and are waiting for winter.

By Imran Khan in Asia on November 2nd, 2009
Photo by AFP

There was something different about this bomb scene - I got a sense of that almost as soon as we reached the site.

There was nervousness in the air. The army had cordoned off the streets and the police insisted we could not go near where the suicide bomber had struck.

Normally a bomb site in Pakistan is a chaotic scene - TV news trucks surround the area, correspondents prepare for lives, photographers clamber through the wreckage, bystanders stand and watch the tragic circus unfold as ambulances and police sirens provide the soundtrack. On almost every bombing I’ve covered for Al Jazeera in Pakistan since our launch - 3 years ago this month - I have been able to get to the site, film and record as the situation unfolds.

By Imran Khan in Asia on October 29th, 2009

Standing high in the hills of South Waziristan, where I begin to write this blog from, I finally have a chance to see for myself what Pakistan's army is up against in its fight with the Pakistani Taliban.

The army has banned journalists from travelling to conflict zones in the country, instead offering press briefings and its own videos.

Today is no exception. This is a media event, and dressed in flak jackets and helmets we - both foreign and domestic press - are taken on a tour of key areas the army says are secure.

At each stop we are briefed by the local commander, take a few pictures, are shown key finds such as weapons, ammunition and identity documents, before being whisked away again.

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By Imran Khan in Asia on October 25th, 2009

There are occasions in Islamabad when you think to yourself, wow this is a gorgeous city.

It takes a certain kind of eyes to see - eyes that have time to look past the grey concrete blocks, the security checkpoints and the towering blast walls. Normally, in the fog of 24 hour news, one rarely gets the chance to stop and smell the roses as it were. I got a chance to do that today.
 
After the fierce fighting in Kotkai and the army announcing that it had taken the town, there has not been much to report, so I took a walk in my neighbourhood. On one side of the city the Margalla hills provide a comforting, protective barrier, the crows noisily battle with the other birds. The weather is perfect.
 

By Alan Fisher in Asia on October 20th, 2009

The pictures are too gruesome to show. The charred bodies lie under a makeshift shroud. Someone near the camera holds up an identity card - giving one corpse a name, a history, a dignity that's now been stolen.

Nearby, the covered body of a child, no more than five or six. A victim of a battle the child didn't know even existed. In this place, at least four people have been killed. The figure could be higher. The army knows how many men it's lost. Every day it gives new figures for the number of Taliban it claims it's killed. But no-one seems to know how many innocent civilians are being killed in this conflict.

Exclusive pictures obtained by Al Jazeera show the damage the war in South Waziristan has brought to the town of Saroragha, which sits close to the Afghan border. These are the first images images of what's happening inside South Waziristan.

By Alan Fisher in Asia on October 19th, 2009
Photo by AFP

It’s a day off for many children here in Pakistan. They’ll enjoy the warmth of the late autumn day, unaware of the concerns behind why they’ve been given extra time to play.

The decision was taken by many schools late on Sunday. First it was the ones run by the military who decided to close their gates, then some federal schools thought they should follow suit, followed by a number of private schools.

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