No plan for expanded presence in Pakistan: U.S.

The united status has been forced to defend its plans for an expended presence in Pakistan after media criticism that it was aimed at “mithan a “couple of dozens.” The U.S. had no “insidious” intentions behind the expansion, the U.S. diplomat was quoted as saying by local newspapers. “When you have got nonmilitary and economic assistance going up to $1.5 billion every year and security aid also trebling, then you need people to develop, implement and run the programmes, and more importantly, keep an oversight to ensure that money is appropriately spent,” he said. The embassy expected to get 450 new permanent staff members and recruit 1,200 Pakistanis, he said.

Non-Military aid: the U.S. Congress is considering a bill providing for $ 7.5 billion in non-military aid to Pakistan over five years, a three-fold increase over present amounts. The Dawn reported that the U.S. would spend nearly $1 billion on the construction of its new embassy and that this money would be drawn from the war supplement aid to Pakistan.

The newspaper said the planned $112.5-million complex for marines within the embassy compound in the diplomatic enclave was an indication that their numbers “may run into the hundreds” the cost of reconstructing and fortifying the embassy itself was reported to be $405 million, while another $200 million is to be reportedly spent on constructing houses for its staff.

The reports have caused a stir about U.S. “designs” in Pakistan, with unnamed diplomats and former diplomats telling the press that the staff surge would mosely comprise intelligence agents for “covert operations” under a diplomatic guise. One former forign secretary told Dawn that this was a clear indication that America would “remote-control” the region from Pakistan.

The reported increase in the number of marines has also raised fears of American “boots on Pakistani soil”. While Mr.Feiersteinown was categorical that the increase in the number of marines was insignificant and was intended for the purposes of the embassy’s own security, newspapers have persisted in reporting that between 350 to 1.000 marines will be eventually stationed in the upcoming complex

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Children trained as bombers rescued

Security forces have rescued several children forcibly recruited by the Taliban, allegedly to be used as fighters or suicide bombers, and there could be hundreds more like them, an army officials said Tuesday.

The claim came as suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region, causing an explosion that killed two police and wounded five security of ficials, authorities said.

Pakistani troops are engaged in offensives against the Taliban in various areas along the lawless border with Afghanistan, fighting militants often drawn from among the local communities.

Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed, who heads a special support group tasked with handling the return of people displaced by three months of fighting in the Swat Valley and surroundings areas, said he had met nine boys rescued from the Taliban.

“They have been brainwashed and trained as suicide bombers, but the nine who I met seemed willing to get back to normal life,” he told Pakistani state-run television. He said the children had told him there were many more, possibly hundreds, like them.

“It seems that there are some 300 to 400 such children who the Taliban had taken forcibly or who they were training,” said Lt. Gen. Ahmed.

He did not say how then nine boys he had met had been rescued. A psychiatrist would examine the children to recommend how they should be reintegrated into society, he said. “It will be a big challenge” to reverse the indoctrination they received, Lt. Gen. Ahmed noted.

He said the boys had some times been lured by offers of food, but that they had been underfed and some had fallen ill.

Late on Monday, North West Frontier Province Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour said security forces had rescued dozens of children aged 6 to 15 who the Taliban were allegedly training as suicide bombers.

“They are prepared mentally. They say that Islam is everything for them. They say they are doing it for Islam. They say they have to carry suicide attacks for the sake of Islam,” Mr. Bilour told Private Geo TV. He said he did not have a specific number, but that there were dozens and that the government would do its best to help the youths.

“Around 15 of them are already in the process of rehabilitation in an army school in Mardan,” he said, referring to a northwestern town. “They are brainwashed to such an extreme that they are ready to kill their parents who they call infidels.”

On Sunday, authorities in Swat’s main town of Mingora presented several teenagers alleged to have been forcibly recruited by the Taliban. Seven boys, their lower faces covered to prevent them being recognized, were shown to reporters.

One, a 16-year-old Shaukat Ali, said the militants abducted him while he was playing cricket. He said they told him they wanted him to be “a warrior” and offered to pay his family for his services.

The latest suicide attack targeted a checkpoint some two miles (three kilometers) north of Milran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, local government official Rehmat Ullah said.

North Waziristan is proving to be a trouble spot for the Army just as it is in the initial phases of an offensive against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in neighboring South Waziristan.

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7 held in U.S. on terror charges

Seven men including six Americans have been arrested in the state of North Carolina on charges they conspired to “engage in violent jihad,” said the Justice Department.

The defendants, who include a father and his two sons, were formally indicted by a grand jury last Wednesday and were arrested by federal police on Monday, according to a statement from the department.

The men, who range in age from 20 to 39, went before a federal judge in Raleigh, North Carolina, where they live, immediately after their arrest. They face a complex set of charges, with all being accused of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. They face life sentences if convicted.

“These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far away land but can grow and fester right here at home”, said U.S. Attorney George Holding.

The oldest member of the group, Daniel Boyd, is accused of traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan between 1989 and 1992 for “military style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,”

Between 2006 and July 2009, prosecutors allege, Boyd and the other defendants tried to raise funds for terror attacks and underwent assault weapons training.

The indictment does not describe any plans to carry out specific attacks inside the United States, but alleges the group did plan to target Israel, “In June 2007, Daniel Boyd and several other defendants departed the United States for Israel in an effort to engage in violent jihad but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts,” the statement said.

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Hillary not to visit Pakistan

US secretary of State Hillary Clinton has no plans to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan during her upcoming trip to India and Thailand, the American state department has said.

“I am sure that she will visit Afghanistan and Pakistan, but not on this visit. It is just to India and Thailand,” State department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters at his daily press briefing.

It is believed that certain quarters in the State Department, friends of Pakistan in the US and Islamabad itself wanted Clinton to make a stopover in Pakistan during her trip to India later this week.

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India Pakistan positive on talks

Sharm-el-sheikh: Indian foreign secretary Shiv shankar menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman basher met here late on Tuesday night and again briefly on Wednesday as part of renewed efforts by the two countries to restart the dialogue process and address the recurring problem of terrorists using Pakistani territory to launch attacks in India.

Mr. Menon said Tuesday’s talks, which lasted 90 minutes, involved “good,” “detailed and lengthy” discussion on the issues he and Mr.bashir had been tasked to take up. Apart from the dossier Pakistan had prepared on its investigations in to the Mumbai terrorist attack, the foreign secretary said he was briefed by his counterpart on the steps Islamabad had taken. “I told him of our concerns and he told us what they had done and of their determination to fight terrorism,”Mr.Menon said, “but our jobs was to report back to our leaders, not draw conclusions”.

Although the Indian side had earlier suggested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and yousaf raza gilani could. “Meet” the press together after their scheduled meeting on July 16, Mr, Menon was unwilling to predict the outcome of the principals’ meeting, including whether or not there would be a joint statement of some kind. He said the question of “form” was less important than dealing with the condition generating stress in the relationship and urged the media not to speculate about what still a work in progress, “the less you speculate, the less likely you are to go wrong,” he said.

Speaking to The Hindu, Pakistani foreign Ministry officials also described the foreign secretaries’ meeting as positive. “Quite a lot has been done on our side (to address India’s concerns),” a Pakistani official said. “Now let us see if the two prime Ministers can agree to a resumption of the dialogue process”. As of now, it appears the Indian side is looking only for modest gain from sharm-el-sheikh and that there is considerable internal resistance to the resumption of the composite dialogue. “I don’t think there will be any dramatic announcement here,” a key south block official said. But he added that this did not mean there had not been very definite forward movement. “Things are moving slowly, but they are moving.”

In private, Indian and Pakistani officials said a further round of “talks about talks” could be held on the sidelines of the U.N. general assembly in September, though perhaps only at the foreign minister or foreign secretaries level. Mr.Menon said the Pakistani dossier on Mumbai which is still being evaluated by India-named five individuals who were under arrest there, nine who were proclaimed offenders but absconding and some others who might also be involved in the conspiracy. “The names of terrorist organization also figure,” he said declining to provide any details since Pakistan had not made the report public.

On June 17, 2009, Dr.Singh and President Asif ali zardari of Pakistan met on the sidelines of the shanghai cooperation organization summit in Yekaterinburg and agreed to ask their foreign secretaries to discuss what Pakistan had done and could do to address India’s concerns relating to terrorism.

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