Mustafa Qadri

Misguided individuals such as Faisal Shahzad have obscured our rich heritage and reduced Pakistan to a ‘terror central’ stereotype

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 May 2010 19.00 BST

The well-worn maxim that all publicity is good publicity does not immediately spring to mind in Pakistan. But given the country’s frontline position in the fight against global terrorism, the involvement of yet another Pakistani in a plot to bomb a major international city will be a boon for everyone in favour of continued war in the “AfPak” region. For the rest of us, the alleged attempt by Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad to bomb New York’s Times Square has been a disaster.

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Amid daily suicide attacks, the Pakistan Army is closing in on Taliban strongholds — and this time they seem to have the support of the Pakistani people, reports Mustafa Qadri from Islamabad

Pakistan’s once sleepy capital Islamabad has been transformed into something of a fortress, with checkpoints, cement barriers and police dotting the tree-lined streets. There is no doubt about it: Pakistan is at war, and the signs are everywhere. As of last week, the police alone say they have prevented 67 individuals from carrying out suicide attacks, most recently in a dramatic confrontation at a barricade in Islamabad.

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In the Pakistani army’s offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, the line between victims and villains remains unclear

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 October 2009 16.30 BST

The Pakistan army’s invasion of the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan this week brings few surprises. For years observers in Washington and Brussels have been pressing for an assault on this scale. The army says its aims in Operation Rah-e-Nijat (“Road out of Misery”) are to finally eliminate the main sanctuary for the Taliban and al-Qaida in Pakistan and, according to army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the foreign and local “elements” that given them succour.

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Bigger Than Bin Laden Beitullah Mehsud, the man analysts describe as more dangerous than Osama bin Laden, continues to evade death in Pakistan, writes Mustafa Qadri Ever since he was labelled more dangerous than Osama bin laden, Beitullah Mehsud has been the single greatest target of US drone attacks. Remarkably, he has evaded death on [...]

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Two remote U.S. missile strikes that killed at least 20 people at suspected terrorist hideouts in northwestern Pakistan yesterday offered the first tangible sign of President Obama’s commitment to sustained military pressure on the terrorist groups there, even though Pakistanis broadly oppose such unilateral U.S. actions.

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The unmanned drones have carried out over 30 missile attacks in the tribal region over the past three months, killing over 200 people.

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The following piece, on the Bush Administration’s policy of unilateral strikes on suspected militant hideouts, appears in today’s NewMatilda.com: Not So Covert Operations By Mustafa Qadri In its last days in office, the Bush Administration is hurriedly escalating the so-called war on terrorism, writes Mustafa Qadri The election last week of Barack Obama as President [...]

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At least 15 people, including women and children, were killed by US special forces Wednesday during a raid on a border village in a Pakistani tribal region, local residents and security officials said.

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