Wednesday, June 29, 2011

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From: William Gladys <william.gladys@tiscali.co.uk>
Date: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 9:55 PM
Subject: Fw: hizb.org.uk | Full Site
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hizb.org.uk | Full Site

Was the trigger happy Prince Harry one of them we wonder, or is this war happy royal now flying helicoptors in Afghanistan instead? William Gladys..

Pakistan expels the Queen's British trainers, UK says it is temporary

Posted: 27 Jun 2011 01:26 PM PDT

Pakistan has expelled a team of British military trainers sent to help with the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida, as the fallout from the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden continues to rock relations between Islamabad and its western allies.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that at least 18 military advisers, deployed as part of a £15m programme to train the paramilitary Frontier Corps, have been withdrawn from Pakistan. Most are already back in the UK.

Their removal is seen as an indirect casualty of worsening relations between Pakistan and the US over the 2 May Navy Seal raid in Abbottabad, which was conducted without Pakistani consent.

Although British relations with Pakistan are warmer, the embattled army, stung by a barrage of public criticism, is keen to demonstrate its independence from all western allies.

Since Bin Laden's death, Pakistan has sent home at least 120 US military trainers, most of whom were engaged in training the FC. The British team, a mix of seasoned officers and NCOs, had been stationed at a British-funded FC base near the capital of Balochistan, Quetta.

The training scheme began last August and was scheduled to run until at least summer 2013. The MoD hopes to redeploy the team once the tensions abate.

In an email statement, a spokeswoman said the trainers had been withdrawn "on a temporary basis" at the request of the Pakistani government in response to "security concerns".

"The training teams will continue their own training and will be ready to redeploy at the first possible opportunity," she told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The 60,000-strong FC, which is deployed along the length of the 1,600-mile border with Afghanistan, has long been in the frontline of Pakistani efforts to combat Taliban militancy and flush al-Qaida from its tribal havens.

But its troops are considered under-trained and ill-equipped, and Pakistan's western allies have in recent years prioritised a multimillion pound effort to bolster their skills and equipment.

That programme has now virtually collapsed as US-Pakistani relations fall to their lowest point in a decade. The trouble began in January after a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, shot dead two men in Lahore, prompting the withdrawal of a quarter of the US training force.

The reductions accelerated following the Bin Laden raid, as the military sought to signal its displeasure with its western allies – in particular the CIA – and to boost its faltering public support.

After a 9 June meeting to discuss the crisis, the military leadership issued a statement in which it disputed American claims of $15bn (£9.4bn) in aid over the past decade, and suggested that future US military assistance should be diverted to civilian economic programmes. CIA drone strikes were "not acceptable under any circumstances," the military said.

The US says it wants to rebuild the relationship, deemed "too important to fail" but tensions have erupted at ground level. Last week the Pakistani media reported that US trainers had clashed with base guards when prevented from retrieving personal effects after being ordered to leave. The US embassy in Islamabad denied the incident.

The FC, which draws its recruits from the Pashtun tribes along the Afghan border, has suffered heavy losses in recent years. Its paramilitary troops have led assaults on mountainous Taliban strongholds and been targeted in numerous suicide bombings. In May, a large attack on a training centre of the related Frontier Constabulary killed 100 young recruits.

But the FC has also been accused of numerous human rights violations, particularly in Balochistan where the British base is located. Human rights groups say the FC has played a central role in a vicious crackdown on Baloch nationalist insurgents, who are unrelated to the Taliban, that has resulted in hundreds of illegal abductions and extra-judicial executions.

Dawn newspaper has reported that at least 170 suspected nationalists, many abducted by FC personnel, had been killed since July 2010. Most bore the marks of severe torture.

A furore erupted last month after video footage showed FC troops shooting dead five unarmed Chechens, including a pregnant woman, at a checkpost in Quetta. The government says it is investigating the incident.

The British team at the Quetta camp was reportedly working alongside six US advisers, helping to train 360 recruits at a time on 12-week courses.

The US has funded a much larger FC training centre on the outskirts of Peshawar.

A military spokesman in Islamabad said between 200 and 300 US military personnel remain in the country.

The Guardian

Hizb ut-Tahrir debates with Pakistan's ruling party (PPP) in the UK

Posted: 27 Jun 2011 06:00 AM PDT

Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain engaged in vibrant community events across the UK last weekend where it debated with the ruling PPP's UK representatives and where Pakistan's High Commissioner failed to turn up to the much awaited open public debate. Mazhar Khan, member of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Manchester, challenged the Manchester PPP representative to explain why the PPP government had allowed the continuous violation of Pakistan's sovereignty. Pakistan Committee member of Hizb ut-Tahrir Mehboob Ali also challenged the PPP representative at this month's Muslim Question Time in Tooting, London to explain why the PPP government was slavishly following an American dictated foreign policy? The crowd in both Manchester and Tooting reacted angrily when the PPP representatives either stonewalled or claimed that they had won free and fair elections and were entitled to rule as they saw fit!

Hizb ut-Tahir also held an open public debate forum in Walthamstow, London to which the Pakistan High Commissioner Mr Wajid Shamsul Hassan was invited to attend and take questions from the Pakistani community. As widely expected, he failed to show up – much to the ridicule and anger of the local community. Atif Salahuddin, part of Hizb ut-Tahrir's Pakistan Committee in the UK, condemned the absence by saying that Shamsul Hassan had a lot to defend and everything to hide which was why he did not even have the courage to show up. Atif said it is clear that those who talk about 'civil society' and 'the rule of law' have the most to hide from the daylight of truth when they are exposed.

Local community leader Mushtaq Raja addressed the gathering saying that it was absolutely clear that both Pakistan's civilian and military leaderships had betrayed the people by fully co-operating with the American raid in Abbottabad. Mushtaq sahib said that a dangerous game was being played by the rulers where they were attempting to portray the Pakistani military as weak and attempting to open a gulf between the people and the army. Mushtaq sahib said that the Pakistani military had all the capability to defend the country from the American attacks but the political will was missing.

Imam Qaiser in his address said that he had many questions which he wanted to put to the High Commissioner: why was his government continuing to betray the people by working with America? Why did the rulers allow the release of Raymond Davis? How many visas have been issued to CIA personnel? How many bases does America have inside Pakistan? Why do both the civilian and military leaderships continue to sacrifice the people of Pakistan by allowing the American drone strikes?

Mehboob Ali said it is clear that Pakistan's rulers have no real answer to Hizb ut-Tahrir's political challenge or to Pakistan's mounting problems. He said the time has come to not only remove these corrupt rulers but also the corrupt secular system, which uses both democracy and military rule to secure the interests of the colonialists. Ali said that the administration Hizb ut-Tahrir worked to bring about would end the American presence in the region by cutting the supply lines running through Pakistan and by expelling all American military and intelligence personnel. Ali said the Hizb had a detailed economic and political program which the Khilafat would implement and re-unify Pakistan with the rest of the Muslim world creating a true superpower.

Hizb ut-Tahrir's UK media representative, Taji Mustafa, dismissed the slander and lies of Pakistan's rulers against the hizb and said it was not Hizb ut-Tahrir who rolled out the red carpet for Hillary Clinton, Admiral Mike Mullen and CIA director Leon Panetta when they visited Islamabad; it was Zardari, Gilani, Generals Ashfaq Kayani and Shuja Pasha who sat and schemed further plans with them. It is also well known, despite all the malicious slander, that the work of Hizb ut-Tahrir is exclusively political and entirely peaceful he concluded.

27th June 2011

25th Rajab 1432

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