Pakistan Update

Another Al Qaida operative has been captured in the mountains near Zhob in Pakistan, it’s not known if this is someone important or not, there are conflicting reports.

 

 This report from FP states he is an important AQ operative:

ZHOB (PPI): Frontier Corps arrested a senior al Qaida activists from mountains around Zhob. Confirming the arrest, official sources told PPI that FC team was on routine patrol in mountains surrounding Zhob last night. They spotted one person moving barefooted. He was stopped and checked. However he was taken into custody on suspicion. Later it was identified as Salman Zakaria bin Muhammad Salman an Arab national. He belongs to al Qaida. It was also known that he occupies an important position in al Qaida. He entered the area while travelling form Wana. He was under interrogation. After his arrest, all the law enforcement agencies have been alerted in Zhob.

Is this Task Force 145, or are Pakistani factions using ISAF as cover? From Dawn:

MIRAMSHAH, April 28: A United States helicopter fired a missile on a residential compound in Charkhel area near the Afghan border in North Waziristan on Saturday afternoon, officials and residents said.

Officials said the attack did not cause any casualty in the house located about 1km away from the border.

Residents said the helicopter intruded into Pakistan’s air space, fired a missile which hit the house and flied back to Afghanistan.

In Miramshah, two rockets landed near the paramilitary fort on Friday night.

Meanwhile repatriation of Afghans continues, and there will probably be acceleration of this process soon. The suicide bomber who tried to assassinate Sherpao appears to be an Afghan/Tajik,  also from Dawn:

ISLAMABAD, April 28: The government has started the process of repatriating around 2.9 million Afghan refugees, including 300,000 unregistered, in the next three years and 205,000 unregistered Afghans have already left for home under a special scheme during the last six months.

The repatriation has cost $20 million, $15 million of which was provided by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the remaining $5 million by the Pakistan government.

This was said by federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind while talking to Dawn on Saturday after a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Under the scheme, two camps in the NWFP at Kacha Garhi and Jalozai and two in Balochistan at Jungle Pir Alizai and Girdi Jungle will be closed and the dwellers will be repatriated to Afghanistan.

The minister said the government was determined to repatriate all Afghan refugees and for this purpose, it was in contact with Kabul and the UNHCR.

Creeping Talibanization still spreads across the country with Cable companies attacked, school girls beaten, cd stores bombed, the airport bombed, and negotiations with Lal Masjid still dragging out. See this article.