Waziristan
From Muhammad Taimoor – Pakistan April 7, 2006
The search for Osama Bin Laden in the region of Tora Bora was codenamed: "Hammer and Anvil", with the Pakistan Army being the Anvil and US forces the Hammer.
Those who weren’t killed either escaped or ended up in Guantanamo Bay. However, Osama Bin Laden was one of the few who “escaped” and even after 5 years with the resources of a Super Power equipped with the latest the satellite technology, he still remains at large.
Like Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden and other phantom “terrorists” have provided the Bush regime with the opportunity to divert public attention and target any part of the earth they choose.
At 3.00am on January 13, 2006, US forces carried out an aerial attack on the village Dama Dola in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border. The reason claimed was that Al Zawahiri had been spotted in the village. While the attack itself left 18 people dead, most of them women and children who were fast asleep at the time.
Headlines in the mainstream media in the following days announced: "Ayman Zawahiri killed in raid by the US Forces.
However survivors tell a very different story. According to local resident Shah Zaman:
“We were fast asleep as we were very tired after Eid day celebration. I suddenly woke up by the sound of some aircraft but I didn’t heed much to that because this activity was going on for several days but I didn’t know that these aircrafts had brought a death message for us. After a while, the house was hit by a heavy bomb, so heavy that it shook the ground and the whole house, it had hit the outer mud wall followed by two more bombs by another aircraft completely destroying the house. I could take out my wife and two young daughters Rasheeda 2 and Saahira 8 to a nearby hill. We were there shivering in severe cold and fear, it was a horrible dark night. At the dawn, we climbed down and looked for survivors. The most part of our mud house had turned into rubble, three of our children were dead under the rubble and four were seriously injured. We are labourers, we are very poor people, the government has all the power and means to check for any thing, they could arrest us and check every corner of our houses if they believed Zawahiri was here. Just on the basis of a lie they have destroyed our families. All those killed are members of one single family...no foreigners and no Al-qaeda...we took out the dead bodies out of the debris and we have buried them nearby, they are even lying about the DNA samples taken by there officials, we did not see any official."
[PICTURE: Shah Zamaan of Dama Dola surveys the damage with his daughters]
Saahira, a student of 2nd grade in the village school, said the explosions were so terrible that she was screaming all night long. “I saw the body pieces of my brothers and sisters ," said the sobbing little girl.
Samiullah, a 17 years old said he survived because he had gone to visit distant relatives. His home was completely destroyed along with all of his close family. "Life looks totally dark ahead to me...there`s nothing left...we don’t have even a farthest link with Taliban or any Al-Qaeda member...this is a mere savagery."
Samiullah lost his parents, four brothers, two sisters, three sisters in-law, three nephews and a niece.
Shamroz Khan, another resident of Dama Dola, told that he was among those who took the dead bodies out of the debris, most of them women and children.
[PICTURE: Unexploded munitions amid the devastation at Dama Dola.]
Bashir Khan a critically injured man, was taken to the Agency Headquarters Hospital where he was constantly asking why his wife and children were not coming to see him. He didn’t know that like many other villagers they had all been killed.
The day following the attack, the Pakistani Government blocked all routes to Dama Dola while the official response was riddled with contradictions: Pakistani premier General Musharraf said he believed that there were AL-Qaeda members in the village while a week later, Minister of Information Sheikh Rasheed said in his final statement that no Al-Qaeda members had been found.
Then on January 31st, 2006. Zawahiri appeared on Aljazeera TV proclaiming that he and his boss were safe and sound.
[PICTURE: The aftermath of the US air attack.]
Since February 2006, the town of Kohat in North-West Pakistan has seen some dubious military activity going on. The town with its small population was witnessing an unprecedented military display, with US Cobra gun ships and Black Hawk helicopters hovering over the town day and night.
No one knew exactly what was happening until George Bush flew in on a two days visit to Pakistan when all suddenly became clear.
On 2nd of March 2006 in New Delhi, President Bush said, “It’s important to talk with President Musharraf about continuing our fight against terrorists.”
Two days later a massacre was reported in Miram Shah, North Waziristan. With leading headlines reporting, “110 killed in Waziristan operation.”This was announced by the Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan. Who is the only one to tell the story since the media is totally excluded from the area in the name of security. The operation resulted in an exodus of many tribal families to other areas.
On 5th of March 2006, President Bush's final day in Pakistan, the military government honoured its guest by killing another 44 "Terrorists" in the same region. Although these are the official figures, the real number is said to be much higher.
But all that effort was rewarded by Bush with an old statement, “Pakistan still has much more to do about terrorism.”
On April 5, 2006. Richard Boucher US Secretary of state for South and central Asian Affairs was in Islamabad, and once again a visit by a senior US Government official coincided with death and destruction for the tribal people of Pakistan.
The very same day an assault was carried out by Pakistan military with headlines the next day: “ 16 militants killed in North Waziristan”, followed on April 7th by “Death toll in Waziristan military action rises to 40”.
The targets leave you wondering, who are the real terrorists? Children, scarved women and bearded men living in mud huts, poor yet abiding by traditions and a religion that seems at odds with the New World Order.
Or Coalition forces and their allies?
[PICTURE: A tribesman is rounded up in northern Pakistan and, we are informed, forced to wear the N.W.O. T-shirt to humiliate him.]
Last updated 08/09/2006