On Sunday 14 Dec 2008 9:00:23 pm Badri Natarajan wrote: > What's the change shown in that GIF in 2008? Pakistan appears to lose some > territory in the north west?
Badri - the mainchange is theloss of the NorthWest frontier province/FATA Having said that - my gif is a propaganda joke which is only partly incorrect. Take a look at this map which shows Waziristan, NWFP and FATA (NorthWest Frontier Province and the "Federally Administered Tribal Areas") http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/cybersurg/brf/Pak-FATA-map.jpg The colors are only partly helpful. The big red area is Waziristan. As per the most recent reports Waziristan is completely out of the control of Pakistan and is now an independent area. The recent rocket attacks that destroyed more that 200 NATO vehicles including Humvees were near Peshawar, which may gradually slip into Taliban hands. It may be wrong to be fooled by the "Taliban" name. the Taliban are of two types (as per my information) One is the pro Pakistan Taliban who are a threat to India The other are the anti-Pakistan Taliban. This group may actually represent Pashtun nationalism. I believe it is this group that have taken over Waziristan. In the long term I believe that it will be necessary to encourage the formation of a Pashtunistan as a buffer state between a truncated Pakistan (Pakjabistan??) and a truncated Afghanistan. shiv
