WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Pakistani troops are mounting operations in the country's turbulent Baluchistan province, sandwiched between Afghanistan and Iran, angering many local leaders.
Sardar Akbar Bugti said, "They have entered Dera Bugti and Sui in big numbers. They are coming to our areas in big numbers for the last five days and they are repositioning themselves in Sui, and this time they plan to encircle us. It was a pre-planned attack and I was their target. They wanted to knock me out." Bugti told the Daily Times that the "development" was Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's second action against him.
In July tribal members clashed with law enforcement personnel sent in following an attack on gas installations in Sui in January. Fifteen people were killed in the encounters.
Control of revenues from the area's rich natural gas deposits has been a point of contention between the government and the tribesmen. In May a subcommittee formed by the parliamentary committee on Baluchistan under Mushahid Hussain developed proposals concerning the payment of natural gas royalty arrears, provincial autonomy and the development of gas-rich areas. The proposals were never acted upon.
Violence in the province continues to rise. Earlier this week in Turbat three people were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated in a house. Police charged that the trio had been planning to carry out terrorist activities. In a rising tide of violence previously little-known organizations like the Baloch Liberation Army and the Baloch Liberation Front have accepted responsibility for attacking paramilitary forces.
On Nov. 4 the Frontier Constabulary in Chaman seized a rocket launcher, 43 rockets, 40 fuses and quantities of ammunition. Authorities said that they were due to be smuggled into the interior of the province.
Indonesian police are reporting the death of top Jemaah Islamiyah leader Azahari bin Husin, who blew himself up after being cornered by security forces in Batu in Malang, East Java.
Police said that Husin was responsible for the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings. Police have also charged that Husin was behind the Sept. 9, 2004 attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta.
The Oct. 12, 2002, Bali blasts killed 202 people, while the Oct. 1 bombings killed 23. Eleven people were killed in the Australian embassy attack.
Police tracked Husin for months before moving in. Indonesia's elite anti-terror squad Detachment 88 finally located Husin. Antar news agency reported that one of Husin's assistants was under observation and subsequently led police to the hideout.
The Australian newspaper quoted Indonesia's national deputy detective chief, Gen. Gorries Mere, as saying police believed the dead man was Husin, commenting, "We suspect it is him."
A journalist at Malang told Indonesian television, "The body was in pieces but his face could still be recognized by two members of the anti-terrorist unit from Jakarta. He blew himself up together with the house."
Police at the scene reportedly took several other people into custody.
Australian intelligence was particularly interested in Husin, who attended school and university in Adelaide.
Following the embassy bombing one of his Husin's associates, Rois, told police that Husin received the money for the attack directly from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Kuwaiti police are prohibiting "Islamists" from visiting five Kuwaiti detainees recently freed from the U.S. holding facility of Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The decision to bar the militants reportedly follows an altercation between a brother of one of the detainees and a guard.
A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Arab Times that the militants were responsible for the travails of Guantanamo detainees because they led them astray. In the wake of the altercation security guards have banned future visits by the militants.
Six Kuwaitis remain in U.S. custody in Guantanamo.
U.S. politicians are beginning to question the arrests and detentions of suspected terrorists and foreign combatants by the Bush administration. In reference to United States policies in the war on terror, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said on CBS' The Early Show, "America's image throughout the world is very bad. Mistreatment of prisoners is one of the factors that have caused us to suffer so much in the eyes of the world. Besides being cruel and inhumane, torture doesn't work."
The head of the Society of Families of Kuwaiti Prisoners in Guantanamo, Khalid Al-Oudah, citing "very reliable sources," said that 40 Saudis would also shortly be freed from Guantanamo.
