Tohand overIT equipment to Sindh police,a ceremony was held at Central Police Officein Karachi onFriday,February 14, 2014. The highlight of the event wasa significant donation to the Sindh police by the deputy consul general of Germany, Hans Juergen Paschke, in the form of technological equipment and electrical appliances worth $99,000.The donation was a part of the aid from the German government under the project¿Capacity development of Sindh Police– (CDSP) which is being managed by the Gesellschaft Fuer international Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The equipment, handed over to Sindh Police inspector General Shahid Nadeem Baloch, is expected to be used by the Police Training College in Saeedabad and to facilitate enhanced professional skills of trainee police officials. Next donation, as revealed by the German representative, will consist of furniture and fingerprint systems, worth $1,00,000. Germany is keen on assisting and facilitating efficient working of police inorder toimprove security situation in the Province. Forensic equipment tools and modern investigation kits, of worth $1,20,000, are also expected from Germany later this year.

Mr. Imtiaz Gul, Executive Director, CRSS, speaking at The Atlantic Council, Washington DC, Feb 10 on Pakistan's Peace Talks with the TTP and what those talks mean for thecountry. Context: If an offensive goes ahead, Pakistan military will be unable to take full control of North Waziristan, a ruggedly mountainous zone slightly larger than the US state of Rhode Island, said Imtiaz Gul, Executive Director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. And no offensive will significantly weaken the militant groups based in North Waziristan unless US and Afghan forces are able to block the mountainous border and prevent the escape of militant fighters into Afghanistan, Gul told a February 10 conference sponsored by the Atlantic Council South Asia Center, and moderated by its Director, Shuja Nawaz. The talks initiated by the Nawaz government with TTP, are likely meant to create political space for a military operation, said Arif Ansar, the Chief Analyst and CEO of PoliTact, a Washington-area strategic consulting firm. Summary: While Pakistan government and its Taliban movement formally have started peace talks, events there suggest that the coming months may as likely bring a Pakistani military offensive, long sought by the United States, against the country biggest territorial stronghold of the Taliban and other militant groups. In latter January, the Pakistani military and the Taliban traded their heaviest attacks on each other in recent months, many of them around that stronghold, the district of North Waziristan. Surgical strikes informed by good intelligence may be able to weaken the Taliban leadership, Gul said. On the night of January 20, Pakistan air force attacked villages in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, the second time in a month that Pakistan has launched such air strikes. Those strikes have come as the United States effectively has suspended (since December 25) its campaign of missile attacks from remotely piloted drones, a campaign...

The incidents of terrorism continued unabated in Pakistan in the year 2013. As there was no let up in militant, sectarian, terrorist and politically-motivated attacks across the country, nearly 6,000 people lost their lives making 2013 one of the deadliest years in Pakistan decade-long fight against terrorism and extremism. The ferocious wave of militancy during the year also gripped areas that were previously considered peaceful, challenging the law-enforcement agencies to counter the threat. It is estimated that more than 5,500 Pakistanis were wounded in suicide and other terrorist as well as criminal acts in the year 2013. The year also witnessed an unusual surge in incidents of sectarian attacks in which mostly the Shiite Muslims were killed. However, the violence took an alarming turn towards the end of the year when top leaders and scholars from both the Sunni and Shiite sects were targeted, fueling the sectarian tensions across Pakistan. However, in the face of the continuing wave of violence, the country witnessed for the first time in its troubled political history a successful transfer of power from one elected government to another, raising hopes that the newly-elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will bring the much-needed peace to the country. But the political transition did not discourage the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to stop its violent campaign. It is reported in local press that from early June 2013 to the end of January 2014 there were more than 850 incidents of terrorism perpetrated by the TTP and its associate outfits, claiming lives of more than 1,400 Pakistanis. The killing of 10 foreign tourists, including Chinese in Diamer dealt a devastating blow to the mountaineering industry and caused huge embarrassment for Pakistan worldwide. While terrorist outfits appeared more organized and lethal in their subversive acts, cluelessness and confusion in the political circles as well as security establishment about how to deal with...

'We are as eager to enforce Sharia as the prime minister is for peace talks,' Ehsanulla Ehsan, a former spokesperson for the TTP, told a Peshawar-based journalist hours after the outfit tossed up its nominees for talks with the government. It also resonated what his slain boss Hakimullah Mehsud and another TTP ideologue Omar Khalid Khorasani made clear on several occasions. In a video message released on several jihadi websites on March 20, 2012, Commander Omar Khalid had the Taliban seek to overthrow the Pakistan government, and replace the current system of governance with the Sharia as the supreme law of the land. 'We aim to counter the Pakistani government, its intelligence agencies, and its army, which are against Islam and have oppressed the Mujahedeen,' he said. Ehsan tone radiated a strong sense of triumphalism ´ at least the way the militants view the government move. By nominating a four-member committee to talk to the Taliban, the government essentially conceded its authority over territories where the TTP says it will provide security to the negotiators. Is the talks initiative doomed because of certain inherent contradictions? It is certainly fraught with risks, if not doomed to fail. Firstly, not only did TTP indulge in chest-thumping over the government move towards the talks, it virtually snubbed the toothless four-member committee by proposing names of persons who are part of, and believers in, the state of Pakistan ´ ex-senators Samiul Haq and Prof Ibrahim, Qari Kifayatullah, and Imran Khan. The non-state TTP expected these state-actors to represent its violent agenda and by implication support the demand for an Islamic emirate in Pakistan. Anybody agreeing to represent the TTP in talks with the government practically exposes his or her deep-seated ideological empathy, if not love for a terrorist outfit. Secondly, by nominating Imran Khan, the TTP ostensibly attempted to discredit Khan, whose quest for talks has largely been misunderstood as...

The latest wave of violence in Pakistan betrays the pattern that we have seen since December 2007, and needs to be looked at in a different way. Firstly, these attacks are indiscriminate ´ targeting both civilians and soldiers, in an obvious attempt to undermine security and instill fear in the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan. Secondly, they occur in the context of bickering amongst mainstream political parties that underscores the deep polarization on peace talks with the Taliban. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on the other hand is very clear about who they are fighting. 'The army is our enemy,' TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a policy statement delivered on January 19, following a terrorist attack in Bannu in which 22 troops were killed. 'We will carry out many more attacks like this one.' He said the attack was 'part of our fight against a secular system'. He said the TTP stance on dialogue with the government was very clear. 'If the government proves that it is sincere and has the authority [to conduct meaningful dialogue], then we are ready to talk despite the losses inflicted on us.' The statement indicates the Taliban resolve, while our politicians squabble shamelessly. 'To talk or not to talk,' is the question, but there is no identification of the enemy, and no clarity on which of their demands the government can give in to. Any initiative that ignores these two fundamental prerequisites is bound to fail, and will only embolden non-state entities. Major political players in the country argue over whether we should talk or fight, but do not understand who they would talk to ´ terrorists who only want instability and destruction, or tunnel-visioned, religiously-driven, Al Qaeda-inspired zealots striving for a so-called Islamic emirate in Pakistan? In either case, the proposition of talks is doomed. A government committed to the constitution will not venture to talk to terrorists, and concede to militants an emirate of their own....

At least 40 deaths within five days in three incidents ´ about ten in an apparent suicide blast in the busy RA Bazaar of Rawalpindi on January 19, and a remotely-operated time-device embedded in a van carrying Frontier Corps soldiers from Bannu to Miranshah, North Waziristan on January 20. Four days earlier, around at least eight worshipers fell to a powerful bomb blast at a Tableeghi Markaz in Peshawar. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the Rawalpindi and Bannu attacks but condemned the one on the Tableeghi Markaz ´ though that hardly matters. This latest wave of violence shows a certain pattern we have witnessed since December 2007. The three latest incidents suggest that the targets of attacks are indiscriminate and include both civilians and security forces. These are obvious attempts to undermine security and instil fear. The attacks also came at a time when mainstream political parties were playing blame games, underscoring deep polarisation on the issue of talks. The TTP is clear in its aggressive designs on the state of Pakistan. This is highlighted by the TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid statement that, 'The army is our enemy. We will carry out many more attacks like this. Major political players within the country, on the other hand, lack any understanding on who to talk to. Who are the potential interlocutors? Terrorists who are out only for instability and destruction, or some tunnel-visioned, religiously-driven and Al-Qaeda-inspired zealots striving for an Islamic emirate in Pakistan? In either case, the proposition of talks is perilously doomed because neither will a legitimate, law-abiding government venture to talk to terrorists, nor will it be ready to concede to militants an emirate of their own. Or should we assume that the wave of terrorism is an attempt to thwart the talks initiative? The Rawalpindi attack came within 72 hours of the thus far deadliest Taliban strike in Kabul since 2001. The Taliban claimed...