Pak Media Plays “Mullah Rasoul” Game, Just Like They Played “Mullah Baradar” Game Before Him

[SEE: Pakistan Arrests Mullah Rasoul After He Outs CIA/ISI Taliban Mansour ; US Claims Proof of Indian Pathankot Base Attackers Linked To Dadullah Group ; Dadulluh’s Nephew Assumes Reins of Breakaway Mahaaz-e-Dadullah Faction ]

Breakaway Taliban faction mired in uncertainty

By Tahir Khan

The group’s chief Mullah Rasool is thought by some to have been arrested inside Pakistan. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: A breakaway faction of the Afghan Taliban is struggling to survive due to the uncertain fate of its chief, Mullah Muhammad Rasool.

Rasool was arrested in Pakistan after he fled infighting in the southern and western parts of Afghanistan,  in March this year.

Mullah Abdul Rahman Niazi, a spokesman for the rebel group, confirmed last week that Rasool had been missing. Niazi, who now lives somewhere near Kabul and is accessible to the Afghan media, had earlier denied such reports.

Pajhwok news agency had quoted Niazi as saying that his splinter group has appointed Mullah Abdul Rauf Arif as the new chief last week. However, Niazi later dismissed the report as false.

Arif, a former governor of Khost, is among the few Taliban, who have not yet declared allegiance to Haibatullah. Another leader, who is known by the name of Ghazi, is also associated with the breakaway faction, a Taliban leader says.  He is of the view that the remaining dissident leaders are reluctant to declare support for Haibatullah.

Taliban loyal to Haibatullah claim that the Afghan security establishment fully supports the rebel group, a charge the dissidents deny.

The rebel group faced a major blow this month when its deputy Maulvi Baz Muhammad quit and declared allegiance to Haibatullah.  He was one of the few prominent dissident leaders who had refused to support Mullah Akhtar Mansoor until his death in May and Habiatullah.

In a series of interviews, Niazi claimed that former deputy foreign minister Mullah Abdul Jalil and Anwarul Haq Mujahid, son of senior former Mujahideen leader Maulvi Younas Khalis, are part of the dissidents. However, both had rejected Niazi’s claims. Jalil had supported Mansoor days before he was killed in a US drone strike.

Taliban suicide bombers kill 27, wound 40 in attack on Afghan police

The anti-Haibatullah Taliban faced another setback when the father and brother of Mansoor Dadullah declared support for Haibatullah that ended another breakaway faction – the Dadullah Mahaz (Front). Dadullah led the group until his death in late November last year, when fighters loyal to Mansoor attacked him in Zabul.

A section of the media had reported this month that the Dadullah had appointed Mullah Emdadullah Mansoor, nephew of Mansoor Dadullah, as the new leader of the faction. However, the group’s spokesman, Rehbarmal told The Express Tribune that he does not know Emadullah and that now the father, brother and family of Mansoor Dadullah support Haibatullah.

Another Taliban leader said Emadullah is not the nephew of Mansoor Dadullah.

Haji Abdullah, father of Mansoor Dadullah and his son, Mullah Ehsan, said in a video message said their family supports Haibatullah and that they have no relations with any other group and all claims are baseless.

Escalating Threats and Choosing Sides In the S. China Sea

[Yesterday’s threat came from the Chinese/Pakistani side, delivered by another “Expert”, predicting “united steps” to any hostility which jeopardizes the CPEC project (China, Pakistan may counter any Indian disruption to CPEC). Considering the ongoing provocations by the US Navy in the S. China Sea, and the following report on the relocation of US forces, China may be giving some serious thought to some sort of military preemption right now.]

“The U.S. Navy plans to deploy 60 percent of its surface ships in the Indo-Pacific in the near future. “

China And Pakistan Beware — This Week, India And US Sign Major War Pact

Charles Tiefer ,  

President Barack Obama meets with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in June. (Photo by Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images)

Around August 30, in Washington, India and the U.S. will sign a major war pact that makes them logistical allies against, among others, the superpower China currently making a bold power grab in the South China Sea.

Specifically, Indian Defense Mister Manohar Parrikar will sign the deal during a two-day visit in Washington. The deal is the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), a foundational agreement for India and the U.S..  In this instance, the agreement provides for each to use the other globally for supplies, spare parts, services and refueling.  Effectively, U.S. armed forces can operate out of Indian bases, and vice versa, on a simple basis.

For the U.S., this is part of the “pivot” to Asia intended by President Obama to meet a rising China. The U.S. Navy plans to deploy 60 percent of its surface ships in the Indo-Pacific in the near future.  Instead of having to build facilities virtually from the ground up, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. has the benefit of simple arrangements for the tremendous Indian facilities.

For Prime Minister Modi, it is a major step for India away from its Cold War alliance with Russia, toward a new alliance with the U.S. (and Japan and Australia) to protect the Indian Ocean and the seas off Southeast Asia, especially from China. India remains on hostile terms with China from border disputes dating back to a war in the 1960s.  And, the gigantic engines of their economies are, for the most part, rivals.

For both the U.S. and India, LEMOA responds to the powerful challenge of Xi Jinping’s artificial islands – with air bases — in the South China Sea. It may also matter against the common enemy of the U.S. and India in radical jihadists.

For example, ISIS recently carried out a terror bombing in Bangladesh. What if ISIS got a substantial ground effort going, not as much as their “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq, but on the substantial scale of their effort in Egyptian Sinai and Libya?  Having LEMOA makes it much simpler for American naval and air forces to fight there.  The U.S. does not have actual bases in India.  But, it has the next best thing – a simple way to use India’s bases.

LEMOA is the key way-station on agreements still to come of military technology sharing of tremendous importance for India, again, primarily to help it stand up to the emerging superpower of China. One upcoming deal is the Communications and Information Security Memorandum Agreement (CISMOA).  Another, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Intelligence (BECA).

With prior pacts, thru LEMOA, ultimately to CISMOA and BECA, India increasingly can either buy (and use), from the U.S or others, or make itself, top-of-the-line technology for its air force and navy to stand up to China’s, particularly in the Indian Ocean. Pakistan, it must not be forgotten, is making itself a base for Beijing’s forces to operate in its region. Modi has made India a tremendous buyer of advanced weaponry.  The U.S. is by far the world’s largest seller of weapons.

There are prior deals and policies here. The U.S. recognized India as a Major Defense Partner.  It brought India into the Missile Technology Control Regime.  Among other aspects, the various deals expedite India obtaining the keys to the kingdom, namely, licenses for top U.S. defense technology.  In other words, U.S. contractors are getting, through LEMOA as through prior deals, a much better launching pad from which to sell many billions of dollars of top-of-the-line armament to India.  Conversely, India often requires a degree of coproduction domestically, so LEMOA and other deals will help India grow as a gigantic weapons dealer itself, selling to the rest of the world.

All these arms matter in many friction points. Take the nasty Islamist terrorist organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM).  Pakistan’s powerful and dangerous intelligence arm, ISI, uses JEM against India, but it is also among a group of organizations backed by ISI that the U.S. considers a U.S. enemy, too.  JEM’s chief is Masood Azhar.   India tried unsuccessfully to tag Azhar at the United Nations as a terrorist.  Who blocked it?  China.  So while the South China Sea may seem far off from India, China is breathing down India’s neck, up close and personal

The U.S. did not make the bellicose move in the South China Sea. Xi Jinping did.  There are many downsides to an arms races.  But if we do not move, we lose. We have little choice but to play catchup.

US Claims Proof of Indian Pathankot Base Attackers Linked To Dadullah Group

[By identifying the anti-Mansour faction, the Mullah Dadullah Group as the Pathankot attackers, the US has taken another step towards giving Pakistan an easy out (as it lays the blame onto the Taliban group which opposes Pakistan), and provided the Pak Army another path which conveniently leads to potentially successful peace talks in Afghanistan (SEE:  US Drone Killing of Mansour Made Taliban Unification Possible, For Good Or For Bad).]

Pathankot attack: US gives new information on Pakistan hand

Neeraj Chauhan

(File photo of Pathankot Air Force base)

NEW DELHI: Even as the NIA is examining the option of filing a chargesheet against Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar in the Pathankot terror attack case, the US has handed over proof confirming that the strike emanated from Pakistan.

The US has informed the NIA that IP addresses of Facebook accounts of JeM handlers who masterminded the January attack and IP address of the website of the outfit’s financial arm, Al Rahmat Trust, are located in Pakistan. The probe revealed that FB groups accessed by friends of JeM handler Kashif Jaan were related to jihad and JeM and contained photos of the four killed terrorists – Nasir Hussain, Hafiz Abu Bakar, Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum.

At the time of the attack, the webpage of Al Rahmat Trust was uploaded on rangonoor.com and alqalamonline.com, which are administrated by one Tariq Siddiqui with a common email for both sites, and its address is in Rafah-e-Aam Society in Malir, Karachi. “The US has confirmed that all these websites and IP addresses originated in Pakistan and these were uploaded around the time of the Pathankot attack,” an official said.

It was found that Jaan was using a FB account connected to the same mobile number which the attackers called from Pathankot after abducting Punjab police SP Salwinder Singh. The terrorists had also called another number in Pakistan connected to the FB account of “Mulla Daadullah”. These accounts were accessed around the time of the attack using IP addresses of Pakistan-based telecom firms (Telenor and Pakistan TeleCommunications Company Ltd).