.

Paknationalists The compromise agreement between Pakistan and the  United States  that allowed the resumption of NATO supplies through Pakistan to Afghanistan is verbal and unwritten. This serves the interests of both Islamabad and Washington. The Pak-US stalemate was on the surface focused on a single incident: the  deliberate American military attack  that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, commonly known as 26/11. But in reality, the Pakistanis used the incident to launch a complete review from the Pakistani side of Pakistan’s cooperation in America’s Afghan war project. The implicit message was this: Islamabad could end the review by exiting America’s war effort, leaving thousands of US troops in Afghanistan in the lurch. To emphasize the point, the Pakistani government and military ceded control over the review to the parliament. Knowing the popular mood in Pakistan, the message was received in Washington loud and clear: parliament will ac...

Rejecting the detailed NATO probe on last month’s border attack, Pakistan Army has questioned the validity of the findings supervised by a military man who held command of allied forces in Afghanistan. The military has expressed serious reservations over the US Air Force Brigadier General Stephen Clark’s leading the Mohmand attack probe while refusing to show any compliance for the launch of a fresh investigation. The development reportedly followed an exchange of written communication between the Pentagon and Pakistan’s military headquarters (GHQ) amid the reports that the latter has raised serious questions over the authenticity of the NATO report under the supervision of Brigadier General Clark. According to informed officials, the Pakistan military holds Clark as one of the commanders responsible for the November 26 deadly attack on two Pakistani military pickets - Volcano and Boulder - that killed 24 soldiers. As head of Air Force Special Operations Forces (AFSOF), Clark rema...

By Asif Haroon Raja, Published in Asian Tribune, Feb 25, 2009 It is now getting clear as to why FATA has been declared most dangerous place on earth. After making series of allegations that FATA is the main breeding ground where militants and suicide bombers are trained for launching into Afghanistan; where the entire senior leadership of Al-Qaeda and Taliban is housed; and from where possible attack on US homeland would take off, so far not a single training camp has been located in FATA, nor any high-profile militant leader nabbed or killed. This is in spite of continuous hovering of spy planes and next door US-NATO troops equipped with latest state-of-the-art surveillance and detection gadgets breathing over Pakistan’s neck, and RAW-CIA-Mossad agents having infiltrated into FATA in big numbers. If CIA controlled drones can hit suspected houses, madrassas and Hujras based on intelligence, why have they been unable to detect so-called training sites and the top wanted leaders? Why hav...

Pakistan has suspended supplies to US and Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan as security forces launch a major offensive against suspected pro-Taliban fighters. The Khyber Pass supply route in the troubled northwest tribal belt was closed on Tuesday, as Pakistan sent tanks, helicopter gunships and artillery units into the region . Tariq Hayat, the Khyber region's top administrator, said a curfew had been imposed in the region and the main road leading to the Afghan border had been sealed. "Supplies to Nato forces will remain suspended until we clear the area of militants and outlaws who have gone out of control," he said. Hayat confirmed Pakistani security forces had launched "an operation against militants and armed groups in Jamrud" - the gateway to the Khyber Pass. 'Giant operation' Pro-Taliban fighters have carried out a string of attacks in recent months aimed at choking off supplies transported to foreign forces in landlocked Afghani...