It hit me yesterday, but I let it lie. There were a few things that bothered me. In the first there was only one source. The other sources came a little later. The other part was that I am not aware of the Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP). The story (at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/how-to/who-is-tjp-the-group-behind-the-pakistan-air-force-base-attack-and-why-is-it-a-concern-for-pakistan/articleshow/104983146.cms). There we learn that they are a militant group linked to the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. This group has been involved in acts of terrorism against security forces and has recently conducted two separate attacks on security forces in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.
My question becomes whether the Taliban is branching out, or is the TJP emulating the Taliban. The fact that they hit a Pakistani Airbase, Mianwali air force base to be more precise. The result was the destruction of multiple aircraft at the facility. So what is the part we see with “a relatively new militant group”? The fact that they hit an airbase is pretty interesting. So either they are really efficient, or the security of that Pakistani airbase is lacking and the western media never picked up on any of that. One source gave me that over 40 fighter planes were damaged. Considering that the JF-17 Thunder costs $25 million, the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon costs around $40 million and the Chengdu J-7 costs I do not know how much. But 40 of them will bring the damage to a cool billion. As such a relatively new militant group inflicted damage and plenty of it and the western media was no help at all.
The issue isn’t merely the lagging security with Pakistani airforce, the larger issue is whether TJP has clear links to the Taliban and what kind of links there are. I actually do not know but the western media doesn’t give us that. I had to rely on the Times of India and two other sources, one was a newscast on YouTube. I understand that news on Kim Kardashian is so much more palatable to digital dollars. Yet the idea that an airforce base is hit and over 40 planes are damaged would be front page news in most worlds, so hat gives?
The main objective of the TJP is to wage jihad against Pakistan with the aim of establishing an Islamic state and imposing a theocratic version of sharia law similar to what the Taliban implemented in Afghanistan. So not only did America screw up Afghanistan, the Taliban is now seemingly branching out making matters worse for nearly all, optionally except Iran. All elements that would propel this to the front of any page of news.
I know (through sources) that the base has strategic value, but I know next to nothing on the region (and very little about Pakistan). What surprises me is “Yaghistani is believed to have attended Jamia Farooqia, a prominent Deobandi seminary in Karachi. Reports suggest that he fought alongside NATO and American forces in Afghanistan until the US withdrawal in 2021.” As such we now get the idea that America trained the key person in the TJP, as such Pakistan could have a much larger problem than the Times of India indicates and the western media leaves unmentioned. But that is my view and I could be wrong here. Yet at least I stop at the parts I do not know, a part that the digital dollar hunting media is unable to do at present.
What a start of the week.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 