New York, October 2
Pakistan army is poised to storm into militants main stronghold of South Waziristan to target what senior military officials say is 'Talibans Epicentre'. The 'D-Day', The New York Times reported today, is coming in a few days quoting senior Pakistan military and security officials, who are expecting "a stiff resistance".

Military build-up - both ground troops and armour - has been completed and the army has enforced a three-month economic blockade of the area, where US suspects that even the main leadership of the Al-Qaeda, including its chief Osama Bin Laden may be sheltered.

"This is where we will be fighting the toughest of all battles" senior military officials were quoted who said the army was now ready to re-enter the area, having decided it could wait no longer.

Since June, the paper said thousands of army soldiers were sitting on the fringes of the area, waiting for orders from the military high command to move in.

Thousands of civilians have left the area following calls from the army and re-located to Dera Ismail Khan and Tank both in North West Frontier Province, giving the army a relatively free hand to mount an operation.

"For three months, the military has been drawing up plans, holding in depth deliberations and studying past operations in the area, where previous campaigns ended in failure and resulted in some of the Pakistan army's' highest level of casualties," Times said citing senior military person.

Even now, the paper quoted military officials as saying they expected stiff resistance once again in an area which they called "epicentre of Taliban in Pakistan and a secure base for Al-Qaeda".

The past two operations in South Waziristan ended up with the military bogged down and suing for peace resulting in a series of accords that ultimately strengthened the hands of Taliban.

An operation in January 2004, 'Operation Zalzala' followed by another in February 5, 2005 both ending in failures. With the failures went any pretence of state authority in Waziristan, as the government in effect ceded control to emboldened militants.

Military officials are hoping things would be different this time, drawing upon their experience gained after taking on militants first in Bajaur, then in Mohamand and most recently in Swat.

The paper quoting military strategists said the best time for Pakistan army to have stormed the Taliban citadel was immediately after the slaying of Tehrik-i-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in US drone strikes in August.

But a senior Pakistan military official said in addition to needing to wait for the forces as resources to be available, the military wanted to see the repercussions of Baitullah's death.

"We thought Baitullah's death would unravel the Mehsud militant group and galvanise the tribe to stand up to the people they have suffered from," officers said. "It didn't happen".

The Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has made two aerial trips to oversee his troops preparations and during the visit described Waziristan as an intelligence black hole.

"We have to move in" Kayani said recently. — PTI

After a brief lull in attacks on Indians, a 28-year-old unidentified student was brutally attacked by two club-wielding teenagers around midnight last Tuesday in a north-western suburb. The victim, who was reportedly hit at least half-a-dozen times in an unprovoked attack, was left with 20 stitches on the head.

Victorian police said the student had disembarked from a bus at Keilor Plains train station located on the Sydenham line soon after midnight at 12.15 am on September 29 and was walking down Power Street when he was approached by two men, believed to be aged 16 and 19 years.

The police was quoted as telling Melbourne-based ‘The Age’ newspaper that the two youth asked the Indian student for a cigarette, following which he gave one to both of them. But just as he turned to walk away, the student was hit over the head at least half-a-dozen times with what he later told the police was either a plank of wood or a baseball bat.

He was knocked unconscious and the offenders made off with his backpack. Constable Kevin Squires of Footscray police was quoted as describing that the attack was callous and unprovoked. “They seemed to be hanging around the station just looking for someone,” he said, adding, The location of the violent attack is the same where a majority of the assaults on Indian students have occurred. Following these rapid fire incidents of attacks, the police had supposedly stepped up patrolling and also installed close circuit cameras in and around certain railway stations on this train line passing through localities such as Footscray, Sunshine and St Albion where many Indian students are known to reside.

Though it is after a gap that an Indian student has been attacked, there has been little let up in violent incidents, some of them racist, against Indians in this multi-cultural cosmopolitan metropolis. The last recorded incident was an assault on an Indian cabbie by an upcoming Australian footy player on September 25, which was preceded by a brutal attack on four persons of Indian origin.

United Nations, October 2
A group of 57 Islamic countries, OIC, has appointed a special envoy for Jammu and Kashmir, a move being seen as part of Pakistani efforts to internationalise the issue.

The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) made the announcement in this regard following the meeting of its Contact Group on Kashmir at the UN headquarters here.

The appointment of Abdullah Bin Adbul Rahman Al Bakr, a Saudi national, as the Special OIC Envoy on Jammu and Kashmir was welcomed by Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who also held a series of meetings with the leaders of the Muslim countries raising the issue of alleged violations of human rights in Kashmir.

Mirwaiz said the appointment of the Special Envoy would help resolve the Kashmir issue according to the “aspirations” of the Kashmiri people. The OIC contact group on Kashmir was addressed by Foreign Ministers of Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Niger.

The Mirwaiz, PoK prime minister Sardar Yaqoob and Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of the Washington-based separatist Kashmir American Council, also addressed the meeting.

Now that Pakistan and separatist leaders have been successful in having an OIC Special Envoy for Kashmir, they have started lobbying before the UN and its secretary general Ban Ki-moon for appointment of a Special UN Envoy for Kashmir. — PTI

Ostensibly justifying Punjab government's request for postponement of by-elections, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said there were strong intelligence reports of threats to his and Nawaz Sharif's life during the election campaign.

"Intelligence reports had indicated that me, Nawaz Sharif and brother Shahbaz Sharif would be targeted," Gilani told reporters in Gilgit adding:"I passed this information on to Mr. Nawaz Sharif." The Punjab government has moved the Lahore High Court for deferring the by-elections schedule on November 7 for four vacant seats of the national and Punjab assemblies. Mian Nawaz Sharif, former premier and chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is candidate on a National Assembly seat from home town Lahore.