Donors pledge $5bn for Pakistan

[Coventina]

Source: BBC

International donors have pledged more than $5bn (£3bn) to help stabilise Pakistan, at an aid conference co-hosted by Japan and the World Bank.

Nearly 30 countries and international organisations met in Tokyo to offer financial support to enable Pakistan to fight off Islamic extremism.

The United States and Japan each pledged $1bn (£671m).

In return, President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan would do its utmost to defeat militants in its border areas.

Pakistan's stability is being threatened by al-Qaeda and Taleban forces in the lawless northwestern areas neighbouring Afghanistan.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8003557.stm

[xchrom]

1. does that mean that pakistan will turn it's military attention

away from india -- and toward it's internal threats?

i think that 'failed state' is a fait accompli for pakistan.

it's now just a matter of degrees.

[ohio2007]

2. whats that word for paying protection $ to maintain a cease fire and promise to live in peace

for an agreed to amount of time?

[Vidar]

3. More likely that this money will help arm the successful extremist rebels.

[robertpaulsen]

4. Fuck Pakistan.

Their stability is threatened by al-Qaeda and the Taliban? The fucking ISI created the Taliban. And now we have to save Frankenstein from the Creature. How many times does the CIA have to repeat history before they realize the results end up the same?

Probably to infinity. So my complaints don't help. It just feels cathartic to say it:

FUCK PAKISTAN!

And fuck all our other "allies" in the WOT.

[closeupready]

5. Why do I bother opening these threads anymore.

Jesus.

[ohio2007]

6. Fortifications are springing up across Islamabad as foreigners retreat from public view and Pakistan

Islamabad in frontline of Pakistan struggle with Islamic militants

Fortifications are springing up across Islamabad as foreigners retreat from public view and Pakistanis worry about the possibility of a Mumbai-style attack on shops, offices or even schoolchildren. Twelve-metre (40ft) high sandbag walls, nests of gun-toting soldiers and concrete blast walls have started to appear around the once sleepy federal capital, where over the last year Taliban suicide bombers have attacked a five-star hotel, the Danish embassy and several army and police posts.

The most visible precautions have been taken at UN offices, most of which now resemble facilities in war zones. "In terms of security instability Pakistan has become as dangerous as Iraq and Afghanistan," said a senior UN official. Last week a Taliban commander, Mullah Nazir Ahmed from South Waziristan, threatened to overrun the city. "The day is not far when Islamabad will be in the hands of the mujahideen," he told al-Qaida's media wing As-Sahab.


snip

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/18/islamabad-war-islamic-militants