Good times: 

Port Grand finally makes a grand opening

The long-awaited opening of the Asia's biggest food and entertainment resort, Port Grand carried out 

Grand Leisure Corporation (GLC) is constructing the Karachi Port Trust's mega project at the 13-acre scenic coastal stretch of Karachi Port ranging from Native Jetty Bridge to M.A Jinnah Bridge roundabout at a cost of over Rs 1 billion on Built-Operate-Transfer basis for 21 years.

Management of the well-known Food Street expects a huge crowd of 10,000 local and foreign visitors in a single day at the under-construction resort, which is first of its kind in the country. "Within a few months of the soft opening we would have influx of people but for a full-fledged operation we hope that around 10,000 people to visitthe resort in a day,"

Entry fee for the Port Grand at Rs 200 per head, out of which the visitor would be allowed to do a hundred rupees' shopping. That means the effective rate of entry in Port Grand is to be Rs 100. "This is to ensure that sober and decent people enter the resort because this is a place where we would like to welcome all families and professionals,"

security cameras installed throughout the resort to snap the wrongdoers, if any. "We would keep the photos in record and would not allow entry to a miscreant next time," Hassan said. To a query on feasibility of the 1867-built bridge, Hassan said the government was tending to lay down the outdated bridge, but the Port Grand management reclaimed it and renovated it in a way that sky rocketed original cost of the project, Rs 200 million, to over Rs 1 billion.

The whiff of putrid sea air that hits you as you near the entrance of the highly anticipated Port Grand Food and Entertainment Complex is forgotten once you step inside the metal gate. The newest addition to Karachi’s nightlife promises to offer visitors a world of its own in an enclosed area cut off from the craziness of city life.

“A lot of people thought this was going to be another Burns Road, but this is a different cup of tea all together,” said Managing Director Shahid Firoz of Grand Leisure Corporation. “We hope this project will lend a bit of positivism to this city and country.”

Port Grand formally opened on Saturday in a festive mood with Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad as the chief guest.

Port Grand expects to attract 4,000 to 5,000 people daily. Currently, 40 outlets are up and running and more are expected to open soon. The first thing you notice once inside is the shopping mall that houses a number of brands, including shops for gifts, clothes and accessories and books.

Towards the left of the mall was the much-talked about Napier’s Tavern. With its historic architecture and fine dining, the lodge is expected to serve as a setting for the city’s corporate crowd. The lodge was built right under a one-hundred-year-old banyan tree where Charles Napier is believed to have built a tavern. The builders used the same stones and wood extracted from the demolished bridge to salvage the heritage.

Further left, stretches the food enclave for a kilometre. Men, women and children were strolling about the concrete path along the 19th century Native Jetty bridge that connects the Karachi Port Trust to Keamari. Live cartoon characters were waiting to start their act to entertain the young visitors and loud music blared across the food street as organisers, waiters and construction workers added some of the finishing touches to the outlets and stalls — that offered a wide array from fast food and desi food to Thai cusine. Unfortunately, many of them were still being set up. The organisers announced that the complex would open for the public from Sunday evening.

The food enclave runs along the port where you can view the sea while sitting on green benches lined across the fresh green turf. The three spaced-apart metal barriers from the water could, however, be tempting for adventurous children. You can even see the cargo being loaded and unloaded from the ships that arrive from all over the world. The food street ends close to a point where you can see ships harboured at the KPT Boat Wharf.  The land for the project was leased by the KPT for 30 years on a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement. Work on the billion-rupee project started in 2005 and it was expected that it would be completed by 2009. However, Grand Leisure Corporation claimed that the delay was caused by the need to completely revamp the Native Jetty bridge which was in bad shape. This caused expenses to shoot up. “Better late than never,” said Firoz. “If we wish to do things the right way there might be a delay but the end product will be something positive.”

KPT has provided double fencing around the complex for security and privacy and KPT guards also patrol the bridge. Entry has been made secure and security personnel have been put in place from the PNC building. KPT Acting Chairman Iqbal Umer said that the corporation was providing for most of the security itself.

“We have provided state of the art security,” said Nazneed Shahid, Firoz’s daughter, who has been involved in the project. “The area is no more unsafe than any other place like Boat Basin, for instance.”

Phase two includes a food court with more traditional foods like paani puri, bhel puri, shawarma, etc. “We hope to make this place a cultural hub,” said Nazneen.

China, N.Korea is Ready backing Pakistan : EU Mediator

China, N.Korea is Ready backing Pakistan : EU Mediator > London (UNN) US trying escalate tension with Pakistan under the banner of “war & terror” to create a mean full situation to cover Pakistan nuclear arms warned by Faisal Muhammed a well known EU based Diplomatic Mediator.

Talking with News Arab in London he disclosed that US will take next action in Pakistan through Osama’sAudio tape which they claim it was made one week before Osama dead.

He said one side US starteddialogue with insurgents in Afghanistan but other side in Pakistan they force to eliminate these insurgents, this act shows US transferring its war From Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Which he informed two years before but Pakistan’s officials regret it  and Pakistan now is in danger.

Faisal Muhammed said everyone in the world is seeing the seriousness of the issue in Pakistan and this is the time for Pakistan to play “China Card”.

Pakistan as the only nation that China can trust in an Asia where Beijing is “encircled” by US allies including India.   He disclosed if Pakistan take “U turn” toward China the N.Korea will also supported Pakistan, which would be help full for Pakistan to reduce US pressure and safe this region with warlike situation.

Pakistan under pressure to launch attacks on Islamist militants

A deadly bomb attack struck a hotel in North Waziristan on Monday where Pakistan is under increasing US pressure to launch a major operation against Islamist militants.

Pakistan is passing through the most difficult phase in its history when even "bearded and turbaned" people were not safe, according Maulana Fazlur Rehman Photo: AFP

American officials believe that Islamabad is dragging its heels on plans to root out groups linked to al-Qaeda and may retains ties to extremists.

However, a Pakistani newspaper yesterday claimed Pakistan was ready to begin operations against sanctuaries for al-Qaeda and the Taliban in North Waziristan apparently after Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, secured an agreement during her visit last week.

One person was killed and eight wounded in a blast at the hotel in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.

"An improvised explosive device that was planted in one of the rooms went off, initially wounding nine people," according to an intelligence official.

The United States has long put pressure on Pakistan to mount an air and ground offensive in the region to deny insurgents bases from which to attack international forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be of its own time and choosing, arguing that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are already overstretched.

Instead, the US uses a secret drone programme to kill suspected militants.

No one from the Pakistani military was available to comment on the planned offensive.

* Pakistan is passing through the most difficult phase in its history when even "bearded and turbaned" people were not safe, according Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the head of the country's biggest Islamist party and a long-standing ally of the Afghan Taliban movement.

Speaking at a meeting of his Jamiat Ulema-I-Islam party, he said madrassas and Islamic scholars were being targeted by the US and said the strife resulted from the reign of Pervez Musharraf.

"The decision taken by a military dictator to take part in the US war against terror has made the entire nation suffer," he said.

Hillary Clinton arrives in Pakistan on surprise visit

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Pakistan on a surprise visit aimed at soothing tensions between the two countries.

It's the first such high-level visit to Pakistan since the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden on 2 May.

Relations between US and Pakistan are always complex and fragile but they are particularly volatile at the moment.

Islamabad is unhappy that it had no prior knowledge of the raid on Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad.
In Washington, suspicion is rife that some in Pakistan knew of Osama Bin Laden's hiding place.
On Thursday, the US military announced the withdrawal of a number of its troops from Pakistan. The Pentagon said it had received a request from the Pakistani government to reduce its presence in the country.
During her visit, Mrs Clinton is to meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and Ahmad Shuja Pasha, chief of Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency ISI.
The secretary of state is accompanied by chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
They are expected to demand more cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Some in Washington believe that Pakistani intelligence works closely with violent extremist groups.

How American folly could destroy Pakistan


Recent weeks have worsened still further the grotesquely complex and tragic situation in which Pakistan finds itself. On the one hand much of the US media and political elite damn Pakistan for sheltering Osama bin Laden and the Afghan Taliban leadership – with President Barack Obama threatening further capture or kill raids. On the other, as the attacks following bin Laden’s death show, Pakistan itself still suffers from one of the world’s worst Islamic terrorism problems.

More than 30,000 have been killed in terrorist attacks and fighting, including more than 3,600 soldiers and police since 9/11. Even Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), blamed for its connections to militants, has suffered, losing more than 80 of its officers. The latest attack, on a naval base in Karachi on Monday, was so daring it only increased fears that Pakistan itself may be collapsing.


This is still a long way from being the case, unless the US takes a hand in Pakistan’s destruction. Recent events have brought criticism of Pakistani military incompetence and infiltration by militants. Yet in other ways the military is fighting back successfully. In March, I visited the northern district of Swat, which until spring 2009 was largely controlled by the Pakistani Taliban, until it was recaptured by a military counter-offensive.


The army’s reconstruction efforts are striking, all the more so given the damage done by last year’s floods. True, its campaign was also ruthless, including numerous extra-judicial executions. But I did visit an impressive programme to rehabilitate lower-level Taliban fighters, while the military has had success driving back insurgents in the tribal areas.


To understand this apparently contradictory picture of Pakistani military behaviour, it is necessary to understand that the great majority of soldiers will fight hard to defend Pakistan against attack from within or without, but that they absolutely detest being seen as doing so for the sake of the US. Pakistani soldiers see themselves as a superior caste, but they are drawn from the population, and share its hostility to the US and the US alliance with India.


In the years before 2009, these feelings caused serious problems of morale in the fight against militancy. Soldiers home on leave would be asked by their neighbours why they were taking American money to kill Muslims – an appalling blow to their self-respect. A number of officers resigned rather than fight fellow Pakistanis, and there were instances of units refusing to fight or surrendering en masse.


Once the Pakistani Taliban emerged as a real threat to the Pakistani state, however, the mood changed considerably. Atrocities by the Taliban against civilians and troops helped, as has military propaganda that India is helping the Pakistani Taliban in order to destroy Pakistan. There is not a shred of evidence for this but it has done wonders for morale.


This willingness to fight applies only to the Pakistani Taliban, not the Afghan Taliban. The shelter given to the latter reflects not only the strategic calculations of the high command about Afghanistan, but also the conviction of Pakistanis that the Afghan Taliban are engaged in a legitimate struggle against an alien occupation. This does not mean that most Pakistani soldiers wish to see the Taliban ruling Pakistan – if only because they know that this would mean the disintegration of the country and the triumph of India.


By the same token, however, Pakistani soldiers will feel bound to resist further American incursions. A single raid to capture the man responsible for 9/11 was justified, despite the risk. But a retired Pakistani general sketched for me what would happen if this became a pattern. He said that drone attacks on Pakistani territory are not critical because ordinary soldiers cannot do much about them, but: “US ground forces inside Pakistan are a different matter, because the soldiers can do something about them. They can fight ... And if the generals told them not to fight, many would mutiny.”


Washington must not get carried away by killing bin Laden. The only figure worth the risks of another raid would be bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Killing the Afghan Taliban leadership is madness, given that Washington must talk to them about a settlement. Instead, the US should reassure a thoroughly rattled and hostile Pakistani population, in part by cutting back on drone strikes. The danger is that a future US raid leads to a US-Pakistani fight, or a Pakistani mutiny. Then Washington, grotesquely, might contribute to the destruction of the Pakistani state it is trying to save, and a historic triumph for Islamist extremism. Pakistan’s tragedy would then become one for the entire world.




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Pakistan media ridicule army for attack

In an unexpected move, some media outlets have accused the military of complicity in the Karachi naval base attack.

Pakistan's military has come in for unexpectedly stinging criticism from the country's media following an attack by Taliban fighters on key naval bases in the southern port city of Karachi.

Editorials in both the English and Urdu-language press on Tuesday ridiculed the army and accused them of complicity in the attack, which saw a small group of fighters lay siege to the PNS Mehran naval base.

"Political rhetoric and a Cabinet Defence Committee meeting are not going to solve this one," read an editorial in the English-language daily, The News.

"This is an epic failure exposing an existential threat that will need epic leadership to countervail."

An editorial in the usually pro-military Urdu-language Jang, said that the attacks illustrated "a weakness of security measures".

"In very polite words, it can be called worrisome negligence," the paper said.

The English-language Dawn newspaper questioned whether the attackers had received help from within the military, asking: "Did the Taliban raiders have information inside the naval base?"

"Such a possibility cannot be ruled out, because the involvement of serving personnel in several previous attacks has been well-established," the paper said.

Saudi Arabia, UAE funded extremist networks in Pakistan

Charities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates financed a network in Pakistan that recruited children as young as eight to wage “holy war”, a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Wikileaks.

A US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said financial support estimated at $100 million a year was making its way from those Gulf Arab states to an extremist recruitment network in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Dawn newspaper reported.

Asked to respond to the report, Saudi foreign ministry spokesman Osama Nugali said: “Saudi Arabia issued a statement from day one that we are not going to comment on any WikiLeaks reports because Saudi Arabia is not responsible for these reports and we are not sure about their authenticity.”

The November 2008 dispatch by Bryan Hunt, the then principal officer at the US consulate in Lahore, was based on discussions with local government and non-governmental sources during trips to Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.

It said those sources claimed that financial aid from Saudi and United Arab Emirates was coming from “missionary” and”Islamic charitable” organisations ostensibly with the direct support of those countries’ governments.

Saudi Arabia, the United States and Pakistan heavily supported the Afghan mujahideen against Soviet occupation troops in the 1980s. Militancy subsequently mushroomed in the region and militants moved to Pakistan’s northwest tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, seen as a global hub for militants.

Since then there has been a growing nexus between militant groups there and in Punjab. In recent years militants have been carrying out suicide bombings seemingly at will in Pakistan, despite military offensives against their strongholds.

Children sent to training camps But militancy is deeply rooted in Pakistan. In order to eradicate it, analysts say, the government must improve economic conditions to prevent militants from recruiting young men disillusioned with the state.

The network in Punjab reportedly exploited worsening poverty to indoctrinate children and ultimately send them to training camps, said the cable.

Saudi Arabia is seen as funding some of Pakistan’s hardline religious seminaries, or madrassas, which churn out young men eager for “holy war”, posing a threat to the stability of the region.

“At these madrassas, children are denied contact with the outside world and taught sectarian extremism, hatred for non-Muslims, and anti-Western/anti-Pakistan government philosophy,” said the cable.

It described how “families with multiple children” and”severe financial difficulties” were being exploited and recruited, Dawn reported.

The path following recruitment depends upon the age of the child involved. Younger children (between 8 and 12) seem to be favoured,” said the cable.

Teachers in seminaries would assess the inclination of children “to engage in violence and acceptance of jihadi culture”.

“The initial success of establishing madrassas and mosques in these areas led to subsequent annual “donations” to these same clerics, originating in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” the cable stated.


************

Promise of Paradise How Taliban trains suicide bombers

Isolation, distortion of Islam key to training teen 

bombers

 Umar Khitab, 15, was a would-be suicide bomber. He remembers the day he arrived at a Taliban “suicide nursery,” a school for young suicide bombers.

“There were 13 other children, mostly from FATA (the Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and Malakand, who had been brought for training,” Khitab, a resident of Charbagh Tehsil in Swat, said. “The training camp located in South Waziristan had a lot of facilities, such as computers, compact discs, and audio and video.”

Fortunately, before Khitab was sent on a mission, he was freed and has now been rehabilitated at an army-run centre in Malakand.

Hundreds of children are undergoing brainwashing at a number of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) training centres in FATA, according to Pakistani intelligence.

In an interview April 8, 14-year-old failed suicide bomber, Umar, who was arrested during the Dera Ghazi Khan Shrine attack April 3, said there were 350 to 400 suicide bombers, many of them teenagers, being trained by the TTP in North Waziristan.

“They keep teens in isolation, secluded from other people. Only three to four people are allowed to meet them,” said Abdul Basit, a scholar of suicide bombings at the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies in Islamabad.

As many as 5,000 Pakistani children have received militant training, including on suicide bombing, the institute estimated.

Some teens come from madrassas, where they learn a distorted version of Islam from extremist, often religiously ignorant, clerics, analysts say.

More theological brainwashing awaits teens at the TTP training centres, which meld them with talk of jihad, a route to Paradise through killing infidels, and promises of 72 virgins.

They also watch videos purportedly showing the killing of Muslims by non-Muslims in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Instructors tell them that a war is being waged against Islam.

The TTP also trains them in kidnapping, explosives and weapons.

Evidence found

In May 2008, the Pakistani Army’s 14th Division took Spinkai in South Waziristan. There it found a training camp run by Qari Hussain, then suspected of being in charge of suicide bombings in Pakistan, according to Dawn.

Army officers found a well-equipped training centre with computers, video equipment and literature that showed how children as young as 10 learned to become suicide bombers, Dawn reported. Some videos showed how to make and detonate improvised explosive devices. One recovered video showed a group of teenage boys, some clearly pre-teens, wearing white headbands and being lectured by a masked instructor as armed guards stood nearby.

“They have qualified experts in the training camps located in FATA. (The) majority of the would-be bombers receive their training in those camps and then are sent to hit the targets elsewhere in the country,” Shafqat Ali, a Malakand Division senior police officer, said.

“We arrested more than 300 would-be suicide bombers during the past two years. The majority of them were quite young and knew about the planting of explosives, making and wearing and detonating suicide jackets,” he said.

Militants adjust to government crackdown

The militants used to send suicide attackers out from FATA but have changed their tactics after the government tightened security.

Now, after initial training at a centre, they send the bombers to a school nearer the target. “In case of planning a suicide attack in Peshawar, the militants prepare the bombers in a nearby place as about 50 would-be bombers have been arrested by police and security forces during the past three years,” Ali said.

Police display a suicide jacket and bomb-making materials recovered from suspected militants in Lahore in this March 2008 file photo. [REUTERS/Mohsin Raza]

In October, police in Karachi arrested a 16-year-old would-be suicide bomber, who revealed that the TTP had established a training school outside Karachi.

In a madrassa, the teenager, Mohammad Salaam, met a man called Zahir Shah. “He convinced me that Muslims globally are being subjected to brutality,” Salaam told investigators.

“They deliver lectures and sermons in an attempt to … brainwash young men to join their ranks and carry out suicide bombings,” Salaam recalled. “They deliver lectures and sermons in an attempt to … brainwash young men to join their ranks and carry out suicide bombings,” Salaam recalled.

Salaam said instructors told him that as a good Muslim he had a duty to defend Islam, and that “as soon as I blow myself up, I will be in heaven and will get eternal peace.”

They also threatened to kill him if he refused to carry out a suicide attack. Salaam agreed to become a suicide bomber, but Karachi police arrested him before he could execute his orders.

Militants isolate bombers both in the training centres and once they’re on their way to a mission. A handler usually accompanies them, guides them to the target, and then leaves them to detonate their explosives.

Some bombers falter before mission

Sometimes, though, if bombers lose contact with the handler, they also lose their sense of mission.

Police arrested two such rudderless bombers in Peshawar last August. “Both had lost contact with their handlers,” a police officer in Pishtakhara Police Station told Central Asia Online. “The bombers from Mohmand Agency were staying somewhere in Peshawar where they had been prepared for attacks. At the 11th hour, they failed to contact their handlers, which led to their arrest.”

Security forces captured the pair when they defied orders to halt and tried to run away. Police found suicide jackets and ammunition in the large shopping bags they were carrying.

“A communication gap between the suicide bombers and their handlers also led to the arrest of a student of University of Peshawar in early February this year,” campus police officer Daud Khan said. “He had been deputed to blow himself up on the campus.”

“I have received complete training in Bajaur Agency, where they gave us Pashtu books that contained the methods of making and planting bombs and carrying and transportation of explosives,” Jamil Ahmed, the 17-year-old detainee, told investigators. Later, he changed his mind and informed the police because he didn’t want to kill the innocent.

Militants have used other means to ensure bombers don’t waver before blowing themselves up.

“Before sending them on a mission, they are administered some narco-drugs which keep them semi-conscious,” Haroon Rashid, another would-be bomber, told police.

Rashid was arrested in Peshawar’s University Town May 6 when he failed to detonate a suicide bomb at a foreign mission in the area.

Naval base attack: Big blow to Pakistan’s snooping capabilities

Pakistan has lost almost half of its sophisticated long-range maritime snooping and strike capabilities in just one well-targeted jihadi attack on naval base PNS Mehran in Karachi that ended on Monday after a 15-hour gun-battle which left 10 security persons and four attackers dead. At least two of the five P-3C Orion long-range patrol aircraft, supplied to Pakistan Navy by the US, were destroyed in the attack.

The irony is stark. Pakistan got the P-3C Orions, packed with radars and weapons like the E-2C Hawkeye 2000 airborne early-warning suites and anti-ship Harpoon missiles, from the US as part of the around $15 billion military aid in the name of the global war on terrorism over the last decade.

India cried foul, holding that Orions as well as other weapons like F-16s were clearly meant for conventional warfare, not counter-terrorism. Al-Qaida or the Taliban, after all, did not have an air force or a navy. And now, in a role reversal, the Pakistan Taliban has destroyed at least two, if not more, of the four-engine turboprop Orions, probably seeing them “as legitimate targets”.

“It’s quite a significant loss for Pakistan Navy…almost 50% of its long-range maritime patrol capabilities has suddenly been taken out,” said an Indian Navy officer. As per Pakistan-watchers here, Pakistan is slated to get a total of 10 upgraded Orions, with eight of them supposed to arrive by 2012.

“They had five as of now, two older ones which were upgraded and three newer ones. If the two destroyed in the attack are the newer platforms, the loss will be even more significant,” said another officer.

India, of course, has been wary of the Orions for quite some time. With “a loiter time” extendable to over 10 hours, they pose a significant threat to Indian warships in the entire Arabian Sea due to their long radius of operations. An Orion, which can cost well upwards of $100 million depending on its configuration, incidentally can also carry nuclear weapons in its internal bomb bay under the front fuselage.

Indian Navy, in fact, had pushed for installation of the Israeli Barak anti-missile defence systems on 14 of its frontline warships like aircraft carrier INS Viraat, destroyer INS Mysore and stealth frigate INS Shivalik to counter the Harpoon and Exocet missiles acquired by Pakistan.

There are lessons for India to also learn from the jihadi attack to ensure its precious air and naval assets are protected in a much better manner. IAF, incidentally, came up with its own version of special forces, the Garuds, in 2004-2005 after facing fidayeen (suicide) attacks on its crucial airbases like Srinagar and Awantipora. “Security of our airbases should be further upgraded,” said an officer.

The US had also offered to sell eight P-3C Orions, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, to India under the foreign military sales programme some years ago but the deal did not materialize.

Instead, India is now going for 12 Boeing-manufactured P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft for around $3.1 billion, with the first slated to arrive in early-2013.

At present, the Navy is making do with five Russian-origin upgraded Ilyushin-38s and eight ageing Tupolev-142M maritime patrol aircraft, backed by a fleet of Dornier-228s, to keep tabs on the entire Indian Ocean region.

Three Pakistan nuclear sites attacked in last five years, says expert

It's a subject Americans can't stop discussing and one Pakistan hates talking about. The Mehran attack has once again focused world attention on the security of the country's fast-growing nuclear arsenal.

The Obama administration on Monday did not publicly go beyond "strongly" condemning the attack and appreciating the "service and sacrifices of their brave armed forces," but the incident has reignited the simmering debate about vulnerability of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. US analysts noted that Mehran is only 15 miles away from the Masroor air base, where Pakistan is believed to have a large depot of nuclear weapons that can be delivered from the air.

While Pakistan insists that its "crown jewels" are under foolproof security, but at the heart of the debate is a worry that they are vulnerable to internal attack by a "jihadized" military, judging by multiple attacks on military facilities by terrorists who seemingly have the inside track on security , including in the Mehran strike. Add to this, a recent WikiLeaks cable citing Pakistani military officials admitting sabotage of F-16 s by "Islamists amongst the enlisted ranks" has added to the concern.

Pakistani militant attacks over the last five years include strikes against three nuclear facilities, in Wah, Sargodha, and Kamra, according to Prof Shaun Gregory, a security specialist at Bradford University. But each time, the Pakistan military establishment, which has itself suffered attacks at its General Headquarters and training and recruitment centers , insists that there was no danger to its nuclear assets.

But Gregory says the attacks illustrate "a clear set of weaknesses and vulnerabilities" in Pakistan's nuclear security regime, a danger brought home by the ease with which militants are now penetrating military installations. Concern is growing in the west about the internal dynamics in a military that was once thought to be "westernized and professional" .

The US has forked out over $ 100 million to improve Pakistan's nuclear security but Washington now admits it has no idea how the money was spent. There is consternation in Washington about the speed with which Pakistan is ramping up its nuclear arsenal with some analysts predicting that it could soon have the world's fourth largest nuclear arsenal, behind US, Russia, and China, and ahead of France and UK.

Washington is thick with speculation about US contingency plans in the event of a nuclear heist in Pakistan, notwithstanding assurances that US has no designs on Pakistani nukes. But every US statement is dissected in Pakistan for hidden meanings amid fears that Washington is planning to neutralize its nuclear arsenal.

Get over India obsession,
Obama tells Pakistan, 
warning of more raids Urging Pakistan to give up its mistaken notion of India as a security threat, US President Barack Obama has said he would order another raid like that one which killed bin Laden ifIslamabad did not act on threats developing in the country towards the US or its allies. 

"Our job is to secure the United States. We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our allies' people. We can't allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action," Obama told BBC in an interview broadcast this weekend.

The US President's warning came in the face of a resolution approved by Pakistani MPs earlier this month said the country would "no longer tolerate such actions and a repeat of unilateral measures could have dire consequences for peace and security in the region and the world." 

But Obama, unmindful of Islamabad's stand, said Washington had always been clear about its willingness to act if Pakistan did not, and his administration was not the first to say this.

"Our hope is and our expectation is that we can achieve that in a way that is fully respectful of Pakistan's sovereignty. But I had made no secret. I had said this when I was running for the presidency, that if I had a clear shot at Bin Laden," Obama said when asked if he would order another raid if a high-value target was detected.

BBC: You'd take it.
Obama: That we'd take it.

In the same context, Obama linked Pakistan's behavior to its insecurity vis-à-vis India, a diagnosis he said he and British Prime Minister David Cameron shared.

"I think what Prime Minister Cameron understands, as I understand, is that Pakistan has been very obsessed with India. They see that as their existential threat. I think that's a mistake," Obama said, reiterating opinion he has expressed before.

In remarks that were clearly addressed to Pakistan and its India-obsessed military, Obama said "peace between India and Pakistan would serve Pakistan very well" as it would free up resources and capacity for Pakistan to engage in trade and commerce, and "make enormous strides that you're seeing India make."

"But that's their (Pakistani) orientation. It's been that orientation for a long time," he added regretfully. "And so they look at issues like Afghanistan. Or the border region in the Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) through the lens of what does this mean for our contest with India."

The US President said Washington has been trying to talk to the Pakistanis about how they can reorient their strategy so that they understand that the biggest threat to Pakistan and its stability is homegrown, but he did not indicate any progress, much less success, in the matter.

If the US and Pakistan did not act and the Pakistanis don't get a handle on the situation, then "they're gonna see a significant destabilization of the country," he warned.