Chinese and Pakistani troops start anti-terror exercise
11 December 2006
Agence France Presse

ABBOTABAD, Pakistan, Dec 11, 2006 (AFP) -

More than 200 Chinese troops headed to Pakistan's mountainous northern region on Monday at the start of the first ever joint military exercise held here by the two allies.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers and their Pakistani counterparts raised flags and played their national anthems at a special ceremony in the hill station of Abbotabad, an AFP photographer said.

Two guns boomed to herald the start of the exercise and paragliders showered fresh rose petals over the parade ground, before soldiers took part in a folk dancing display.

The Chinese contingent flew in to the garrison city of Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad on Sunday to take part in the 10-day exercise dubbed "Friendship 2006".

PLA Major General Liu Minjiang said at the ceremony that the exercises would foster "a joint strategy and tactics to fight terrorism." Pakistani Major General Mohsin Kamal said the manoeuvres would strengthen cooperation.

The exercise comes around two weeks after Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to take strategic ties with Pakistan to a "new level" during his first ever visit to the South Asian country.

"This is the first time that a PLA contingent has arrived in Pakistan" on an exercise, a senior Pakistani military official said, adding that Pakistani troops visited China for joint exercises in 2004.

"The exercise is a display of the mutual commitment and resolve to fight terrorism, besides bolstering time-tested friendship between the two countries," the official said on condition of anonymity.

After the ceremony in Abbotabad the soldiers were due to head to the mountains further north for the exercises, the official said.

Beijing remains Islamabad's largest arms supplier and the two are jointly developing the JF-17 Thunder fighter jet. China is also providing major industrial and economic assistance.

Islamabad meanwhile is helping Beijing deal with the perceived threat of Muslim separatists in China's western Xinjiang region, which borders Kazakhstan and Pakistan.

In late 2003 Pakistan said it had killed Hasan Mahsum, identified by China as its "top terrorist", in a raid in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region.

UK-based group confirms death of East Turkestan leader in Pakistan
26 December 2003
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

Text of report by Muhammad al-Shafi'i entitled: "Fundamentalist group announces killing of Al-Qa'idah leader, who is leader of Eastern Turkestanis, in Pakistan", published by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat web site on 25 December

A fundamentalist group in London has announced the killing of [Al-Qa'idah] leader Hasan Mahsum, nicknamed Abu-Muhammad al-Turkestani, 39, on Pakistani soil. It said he was killed in an attack carried out by US forces, in cooperation with members of the Pakistani intelligence, in the strip along the border with Afghanistan.

Chinese authorities consider Hasan Mahsum as one of the most dangerous terrorists who fight the Chinese presence in East Turkestan. Chinese authorities had put the name of Abu-Muhammad al-Turkestani on a list that includes 11 fundamentalists wanted by the authorities for having links to Al-Qa'idah organization, led by Usamah Bin-Ladin. Last year, the United States added the "East Turkestan Movement" to the list of terrorist organizations.

Yasir al-Sirri, director of the Islamic Observation Centre, a London-based human rights organization concerned with news about fundamentalists worldwide, quoted informed Pakistani sources as saying that Hasan Mahsum was killed while he was touring the border strip between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mahsum is the leader of East Turkestan Movement, which seeks independence from China.

Shaukat Sultan, spokesman of the Pakistani Army, said DNA tests will be conducted on the body of Abu-Muhammad al-Turkestani later. A news report, transmitted by the Islamic Observation Centre about the battles in Afghanistan yesterday, carried Sultan's statements, which were also published by the Pakistani newspaper Jang yesterday. In his statements, Sultan announced that the Pakistani army killed Abu-Muhammad al-Turkestani, "leader of the Turkestanis who are opposed to China" in (Ingur Iddah) south of the Pakistani city of Waziristan in the 2 October 2003 battles.

Eight members of Al-Qa'idah organization, including Al-Qa'idah leader Abu-Abd-al-Rahman al-Kindi, were killed in the same battle. Al-Kindi, whose [real] name is Ahmad Sa'id Khadr, was previously accused of involvement in blowing up the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad in 1995.

The name of Abu-Muhammad al-Turkestani was associated with a campaign of bombings in Xinjiang in East Turkestan in 1995 before he fled China for Afghanistan in 1997. Eighteen other Arab, Uzbek, Turkestani, and Afghan members of Al-Qa'idah were arrested in the raids conducted by the Pakistani army in October 2003. US sources say Abu-Abd-al-Rahman al-Kindi, who is believed to be in his fifties, used to run an international organization for humanitarian affairs, which has reportedly sent funds to training camps for Al-Qa'idah in Afghanistan.

Source: Al-Sharq al-Awsat web site, London, in Arabic 25 Dec 03

Pakistan Army Kills 12 In Offensive Against Al-Qaida
2 October 2003
Dow Jones International News

ANGORE ADDA, Pakistan (AP)--Pakistan's army launched its largest-ever offensive against al-Qaida and other militants in a rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 12 suspects and arresting 10, military officials said.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw four bodies and Maj. Gen. Ameer Faisal, the commander of the operation, said eight others were lying in an area about 100 meters (yards) away that was too dangerous to enter. Ten al-Qaida suspects, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs, were led away from the area.

Faisal said the majority of those killed and captured in the operation in South Waziristan appeared to be foreigners. It was not immediately clear if any top-ranking al-Qaida operatives were among them. Osama bin Laden and his alleged number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding somewhere along the long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Taliban fighters are also believed to use the area as a staging ground to launch attacks inside Afghanistan. On Monday, a U.S. soldier was killed in a gunbattle with anti-coalition forces near a base at Shkin, a town in Afghanistan's Paktika province, just across the border from South Waziristan. The base and several others along the border come under frequent attack.

At least two Pakistani troops were wounded in Thursday's operation, Faisal said, and the battle was ongoing. Some 200 Pakistani troops reportedly took part, and Gen. Shaukat Sultan, an army spokesman, said it was the army's largest-ever offensive against al-Qaida, and the largest army operation to date in the fiercely autonomous tribal areas.

The operation came on the same day that Pakistan announced that two top U.S. envoys had postponed a visit to Islamabad for "scheduling reasons."

The fighting began in South Waziristan at about 5:30 a.m., shortly after early morning prayers, Faisal said. He said the two injured soldiers were hurt when the suspects lobbed grenades at them as they first approached the hideout.

At least nine hours later, gunfire could be heard coming from a group of compounds where Faisal said other al-Qaida suspects had taken refuge. At least four Pakistani helicopters circled the area.

"Al-Qaida people have taken refuge in these five big compounds. We do not know how many people are hiding there," Faisal told the AP. He said hand grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, anti-tank mines, audio cassettes and other documents were seized during the operation.

Army helicopters and soldiers were organizing the operation from a base camp at Angore Adda, just a kilometer (half mile) from the fighting, and the last Pakistani town before the border with Afghanistan. The army brought several journalists to the camp by helicopter to observe the operation, then took them to the fighting area.

It was the first time the army has allowed journalists to witness an ongoing operation against al-Qaida suspects. The journalists were taken away from the fighting area with the battle still raging.

The troops moved into South Waziristan early Thursday after receiving word that al-Qaida operatives had sneaked into the area from Afghanistan, the army said in a statement.

"The operation commenced early this morning and is progressing smoothly," it said.

The areas of North and South Waziristan, both in Pakistan's ultra-conservative North West Frontier Province, are home to Pashtun tribesmen who have for centuries maintained a fierce independence and who share the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam.

Maulana Fazl-ur Rahman, a pro-Taliban politician in Islamabad, condemned the operation.

"This operation is not in the interest of the nation. Al-Qaida may be against America, but they are certainly not against Pakistan and Muslims," he said. "This operation will give a negative impression about Pakistan in the Arab world."

Sultan, the army spokesman, told AP that the "operation is part of Pakistan's effort at combating terrorism."

The army said no foreign troops took part in the operation. Residents in the tribal areas have reported seeing U.S. special forces operatives in the past, but the presence of American forces has always been denied by Islamabad and Afghanistan.

The fighting came on the same day that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca had been due to arrive in Pakistan for talks on the war on terrorism, but Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced the visit had been postponed for "scheduling reasons." Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali is in the United States to meet with senior U.S. officials.

Several high-profile al-Qaida arrests in Pakistan have coincided with major international diplomatic events.

Exactly a year after Sept. 11, 2001, a suspected planner of the attacks, Ramzi Binalshibh, was captured in the southern city of Karachi. In June - three days after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf met U.S. President George W. Bush in the United States - another al-Qaida operative was arrested and a video cassette seized that purportedly showed bin Laden warning of attacks against U.S. interests.