Pakistan moves 100,000 troops from border with India: Pentagon

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Apr 29 (PTI) Pakistan has moved 100,000
troops from its borders with India, thinning the lines, to
bolster its campaign against Taliban and other militants on
its restive border with Afghanistan, the Pentagon said
Thursday.
The mass shifting of troops is an acknowledgement of the
fact that terrorism and internal insurgency were posing more
threat to Pakistan now, the Pentagon said in a report to the
US Congress.
"More than 100,000 PAKMIL troops were moved from the
eastern border with India. This unprecedented deployment and
thinning of the lines against India indicates that Islamabad
has acknowledged its domestic insurgent threat," the
department said in its latest report on Afghanistan.
The Pentagon did not specify the regions' from where the
troops had been pulled out, but said it estimated that more
than 140,000 Pakistani forces were now taking part in the
ongoing offensive against the Taliban in Pakistan's
semi-autonomous tribal region, known as FATA.
The Pentagon report was issued hours before the crucial
meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his
Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani in the Bhutanese
capital Thimphu on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit.
The US Defence Department while acknowledging that
Pakistani military operations in tribal areas of NWFP had
placed "a high degree of pressure on militants and reduced
their safe havens", but was unlikely to have an immediate
impact on the US-led war in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon report said that there was a broad syndicate
of extremist groups operating in the AfPak region with
multiple short and long term goals.
It identified the groups as al Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban
and Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT) which it said threatened security of
Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and elsewhere.
"The three major groups include the Quetta Shura Taliban,
Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), and the Haqqani Network (HQN).
These groups cooperate and coordinate at times and their areas
of operations tend to be geographically and demographically
determined," it said.
"They operate mainly in the Pashtun-majority areas of
Afghanistan in the south and east, and in Pashtun pockets in
the north. The common goals of these groups are to expel
foreign forces from Afghanistan (although there is no mention
of foreign fighters allied with them or al Qaeda) and to
undermine the central government," the report added.

Pentagon said Pakistan military crackdown so far has
focussed only on internal threats, but outlined that these
could be more productive depending on how they evolve in
future.
It acknowledged that Pak military had suffered attacks
from terrorists in response to its successful operations.
"These attacks include mass casualty events in Mingora,
SWA (South Waziristan Agency) -- close to clearing operations
-- as well as in Lahore, far away from the fighting.
"While these attacks do not appear to have shaken
Pakistan's commitment, they do demonstrate, for the time
being, insurgent ability to continue attacks despite reported
successful PAKMIL operations," said the report which runs into
nearly 150 pages.
According to the report, Pak Military is beginning to
acknowledge the ties and threats posed by Afghan and Pakistani
Taliban.
"The Pakistani operations have focused almost exclusively
on internal threats. These operations reduce the space
available to all insurgent and extremists groups," it said.
"While this evolving approach is unlikely to have
significant impact on the Afghan insurgency in the short term,
it offers opportunities in coming months to have a greater
impact on the conflict in Afghanistan, depending on how PAKMIL
operations evolve," the report said.
Despite discussions regarding the possibility of transfer
of Afghan Taliban captured in Pakistan to Afghanistan, most
notably Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, no transfers have taken
place, it said.
The PAKMIL has also offered to provide military training
to Afghan army and security personnel. The Afghan Ministry of
Defence (MoD) is reviewing the offer, but is evaluating it
cautiously based on Afghan Government political concerns, the
report said.
"In conjunction with ISAF's Operation MOSHTARAK, the
Pakistan military has maintained an increased presence along
Afghanistan's southern border.
"Pakistan reports these operations have succeeded in
extending the writ of the Pakistan Government within the area
including the former insurgent stronghold of Damadola, native
home of Maulana Faqir Muhummad," it said. PTI LKJ
KAB