Word: askaris
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...imminent plan to push into the Afghan Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar. The message: If the Americans and NATO create problems for the Taliban in Afghanistan, then Taliban militants have the option to target American sites anywhere. And in that case, "Peshawar is the easiest target," says Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi, a defense analyst and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Punjab in Lahore...
...With a long fight ahead of it, the Pakistan army won't welcome demands that it expand its range of operations. "They will view this letter with some displeasure," says Hasan Askari-Rizvi, an independent military analyst. "Pakistan army is not going to go to North Waziristan before it completes its operation in South Waziristan." Two of the militant groups that Washington would like to see Islamabad target are based in North Waziristan: the Haqqani network and the one led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, both of whom mount cross-border attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan...
...think that the Pakistan army will target Haqqani," adds Askari-Rizvi. "The reason being that they don't want to open a front with every militant group." The army has long insisted that it does not have the resources to counter the full range of militants based in the tribal areas. Already, military officials argue, heavy numbers are committed all along the tribal areas and in the Swat Valley. It is also forced to commit forces to guard against upsurges of militancy in other parts of Pakistan. And, of course, the army's priority remains guarding the eastern border with...
...army's response builds pressure on the government and encourages tougher opposition to the bill in Parliament," says military and political analyst Hasan-Askari Rizvi. "It's a kind of political move on the part of the military...
...difficult to say whether it was done by the Taliban or other group," says Askari-Rizvi. "What is clear is that it is an attack on a religious leader who has been very critical of the Taliban's use of violence, which seems to be the reason for the attack." Moderate religious leaders who have spoken out against the Taliban's brutality have been repeatedly targeted in recent months. In June, a suicide bomber killed Sarfraz Naeemi, who belonged to a sufi strain of Islam, in his mosque office in Lahore...