Peshawar school reopens after Taliban massacre of students

PESHAWAR: Pakistani children and their parents returned on Monday to the school where Taliban gunmen killed 150 of their classmates and teachers, their green school blazers, Superman lunchboxes and hands clutched tightly to their parents a symbol of perseverance despite the horrors they had endured.

Pakistan has been reeling from the December 16 terrorist attack in Peshawar one of the worst the country has experienced. The violence carried out by seven Taliban militants has put a spotlight on whether the country can end the stubborn insurgency that kills and maims thousands every year. The violence also horrified parents across the nation and prompted officials to implement tighter security at schools.

For parents like Abid Ali Shah, getting ready for school Monday morning was horrifically painful. Shah's wife was a teacher at the school and was killed in the violence. Both of his sons attended the school. The youngest was shot in the head but survived after the militants thought he was dead. Monday morning they were late as they struggled with preparations previously done by Shah's wife.

"A hollowness in my life is getting greater. I am missing my wife," Shah said.

His older son, Sitwat Ali Shah, said he had managed to control his emotions. It wasn't until he saw his brother break down in tears that he did as well.

A ceremony was expected to be held at the school, but classes were not expected to be held until later this week.

Security was tight, part of a countrywide effort to boost safety measures at schools in the wake of the attack. Media and vehicles were kept hundreds of meters (yards) away from the school. The chief of Pakistan's army, Gen. Raheel Sharif, was on hand inside the school to greet students, a military spokesman said on Twitter.

For many, attending school Monday morning was an act of defiance and proof that they would not be cowed in the face of Taliban threats to attack again.

Andleeb Aftab, a teacher at the Army Public School, lost her 10th grade son, Huzaifa, in the attack. She arrived Monday wearing a black dress and black head scarf and walked briskly toward the school, where she had last seen her son alive.

"I have come here because the other kids are also my kids," she said. "I will complete the dreams of my son, the dreams I had about my son, by teaching other students. I have chosen to get back to school instead of sitting at home and keep mourning."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Pakistani military kills over 60 militants after school massacre

PAKISTANI jets and ground forces have killed 67 militants in a north-western tribal region near the Afghan border, officials say, days after Taliban fighters killed 148 people most of them children in a school massacre.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani prosecutor said the government will try to cancel the bail granted to the main suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks a decision that outraged neighbouring India and called into question Pakistan’s commitment to fighting militancy.
The violence at a school in Pakistan’s northwest earlier this week stunned the country and brought cries for retribution. In the wake of the mass killing the military has struck targets in the Khyber tribal region and approved the death penalty for six convicted terrorists.

PAKISTAN MOURNS AFTER SCHOOL MASSACRE

The military said its ground forces late on Thursday killed 10 militants while jets killed another 17, including an Uzbek commander. Another 32 alleged terrorists were killed by security forces in an ambush in Tirah valley in Khyber on Friday as they headed toward the Afghan border, the military said.

Khyber agency is one of two main areas in the northwest where the military has been trying to root out militants in recent months. Khyber borders Peshawar, where the school massacre happened, and militants have traditionally attacked the city before fleeing into the tribal region where police can’t chase them.

The other area is North Waziristan, where the military launched a massive operation in June.

In the southern province of Baluchistan, Pakistani security forces killed a senior Pakistani Taliban leader along with seven of his associates in three separate pre-dawn raids, said a tribal police officer, Ali Ahmed.

Army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif late on Thursday signed death warrants of six “hard core terrorists” convicted and sentenced to death by military courts, the army said.

It was unclear when the military planned to hang the six men, but authorities generally move quickly once death warrants are signed. Such executions are usually carried out at prisons under the supervision of army officers and then the bodies are handed over to relatives for burial.

There was no information on the men or the crimes for which they were convicted.

The news comes after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday announced that he would lift a moratorium on executions in terrorism-related cases. The government has not yet carried out any executions.

The lifting of the moratorium was aimed at demonstrating the government’s resolve. But the decision by an anti-terrorism court Thursday to grant bail to the main suspect in the Mumbai attack, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, called into question that commitment.

Lakhvi is one of seven people on trial in Pakistan for the assault, but the trial has produced no results so far. It has been closed to the media.

India reacted with outrage to news of Lakhvi’s pending release.

Special public prosecutor Abu Zar Peerzada said he would appeal to the High Court to cancel the bail and said Lakhvi had not yet been released.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/

Pakistan: Taliban demand Sharia, release of all jailed jihadis, breaking of all ties with U.S.

That part about breaking all relations with the U.S. sounds great. Let the Pakistanis finance their own jihad. Note again that they want Sharia, despite being universally portrayed in the West as opportunistic hijackers of Islam who use Islamic language to mask their true secular agenda. The Taliban also want an end to all drone attacks in other words, they want the last remaining counter-terror efforts ended, and al Qaeda allowed to operate unhindered.
“Taliban want Islamic system of governance in Pak: Reports,” from PTI, February 9:
ISLAMABAD: An Islamic system of governance, introduction of Shariah law and release of jailed militants are part of a 15-point agenda finalized by the Taliban for peace talks with the Pakistan government, according to media reports on Sunday.
The Taliban ‘Shura’ or council, which has been meeting in the restive northwest since yesterday under its deputy chief Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, also demanded the withdrawal of the army from tribal areas, said a report on the website of the Dawn daily.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ibrahim Khan and Jamiat Ulema-e- Islam-S leader Yousuf Shah, members of the Taliban-nominated committee, are in Waziristan for a meeting with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. They are likely to convey the Taliban’s demands to state negotiators, the report said.
The Taliban’s 15-point agenda was also reported by Dunya News channel. However, Geo News reported that the Taliban’s demands included release of militants, withdrawal of the army from insurgency-hit areas and compensation to people affected by violence.
The reports about the 15-point agenda could not be independently confirmed.
According to the report on Dawn’s website, the agenda includes introduction of Shariah law in courts, halting US drone attacks and introduction of an Islamic system of education in public and private institutions.
Other demands include release of Pakistani Taliban and foreign fighters from jail, restoration and compensation for property damaged in drone attacks, handing over control of tribal areas to local forces, withdrawal of the army from tribal areas and shutting down of check posts.
The report said the agenda also states all criminal allegations against the Taliban should be dropped and prisoners from both sides released.
“Equal rights for all, poor and rich, families of drone attack victims to be offered jobs, end interest-based system, stop supporting the US in the war on terror, replace the democratic system of governance with the Islamic system and stop all relations with the US,” the report quoted the agenda as saying.

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Taliban negotiators: No peace until Pakistan embraces Islamic law

This dogma in the West can only be questioned on pain of charges of “Islamophobia” and “bigotry”: the Taliban misunderstands, misinterprets and hijacks Islam, and true Muslims abhor its twisted version of their peaceful religion. Some Islamic apologists in the West even claim that the Taliban and Muslim leaders such as Maulana Abdul Aziz (pictured above) aren't Muslims at all. Yet these misunderstanding of Islam, these non-Muslims, these impious opportunists who only use religion as a cover, insist on Pakistan fully implementing Islamic law. The learned analysts offer no explanation for this anomaly.
“,” from AFP, February 5
Negotiators representing Taliban insurgents said Wednesday there was no chance of peace in Pakistan until the government embraces Islamic shariah law and US-led forces withdraw completely from neighboring Afghanistan.
The tough conditions appear to deal a blow to hopes that talks with the Pakistani government could end the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) insurgency that has rocked the nuclear-armed country since 2007.
Initial peace talks failed to get under way Tuesday when the government delegation refused to meet the militants’ negotiators, citing confusion about the make-up of their team.
The two sides are expected to try to meet again on Thursday or Friday, though no definite arrangements have yet been made.
Washington and Kabul have been deadlocked over a pact known as the Bilateral Security Agreement, which would allow some US troops to stay on in Afghanistan beyond 2014, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai refusing to sign it.
Its supporters say the pact is crucial to Afghanistan’s stability after the bulk of NATO forces pull out.

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