In a victory for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda after weeks of bitter partisan struggle, Japan's Diet Jan. 11 approved legislation reauthorizing the naval refueling mission that the Self-Defense Forces launched in 2001 in support of US-led military operations in Afghanistan. Tokyo ordered its ships home after the original law expired in November and the opposition blocked an extension. The mission is to resume in February.

From the Asian Human Rights Commission, Jan. 2:

The two daughters of Ms. Asma Jehangir, a well known lawyer, human rights activist and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of religion or belief, were assaulted and illegally held for several hours along with their friends by armed persons of the Pakistan Muslim League Q (PML-Q); they were beaten severely and threatened to be killed. One of the girls was pushed into a room and this was only prevented due to the intervention of their mother. Ms. Asma. Ms. Asma herself was also threatened by the gunmen who used very filthy language against her. When police were called to the scene they took the side of the gunmen who claimed to be police officers. However, only two out of this group were policemen and the 20 other gunmen belonged to the PML-Q.

Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi is completely shut down after rioters burned dozens of cars and set fire to stores in outrage at the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. All the city's petrol stations are sealed off and street lights were turned off. Protestors exchanged fire with the police in some parts of the city. Bhutto was killed along with at least 20 others in a suicide blast on an election rally in Rawalpindi. More than 60 were also injured in the attack. (Bloomberg, Dec. 27) At least five are reported dead in the Karachi violence. A passenger train was set on fire at Hyderabad, in Bhutto's stronghold of Sindh province. At Bhutto's home town of Larkana, Sindh, crowds set two banks on fire. In Multan some protesters fired shots into the air, and police fired teargas into crowds in Peshawar. When the hundreds of Bhutto supporters outside the hospital in Rawalpindi got word of her death, some smashed the glass door of the emergency unit, threw stones at cars and clashed with police, shouting: "Killer, killer, Musharraf!" (London Times)

Pakistan's security forces have been waging a "secret war" in the Baluchistan region since the death of tribal leader Mir Balaach Marri in combat last month. Peter Tatchell writes in The Guardian, Dec. 21: "The often indiscriminate attacks on civilian settlements are taking place mostly in the Kahan and Dera Bugti regions, and involve the deployment of heavy artillery, fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships. Pakistan's attacks have reportedly, so far, resulted in deaths of at least 100 men, women and children. More than 200 houses and other buildings, including schools and clinics, have been bombed and burned to the ground. Many farm animals were also killed in the attacks, depriving already poor people of their livelihood."

"Al-Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Dec. 21. "There is no question that some of the areas in the frontier area have become areas where al-Qaeda has re-established itself." (LAT, Dec. 21) He spoke one day after Congress slapped restrictions on military aid to Pakistan, withholding $50 million of the administration's $300 million request until Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certifies Islamabad is restoring democratic rights. (WP, Dec. 21)

The recapture of Musa Qala from the Taliban by British-led forces has resulted in many civilian casualties, local residents say. British military authorities report only two civilian dead in the battle—both children. But residents say they counted 15 women and children killed. Hundreds of "insurgents" were taken into custody by ISAF forces after the town fell, and quantities of opium and weapons were reportedly found. (Press TV, Iran, Dec. 16)

Faiz Mohammed Baluch and Nawabzada Herbiyar Marri, two exiled human rights activists from Baluchistan, were arrested Dec. 4 by London Metropolitan Police in a supposed anti-terrorist operation code-named "Super-Sweep." Fellow rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: "I know one of the detained men, Faiz Baluch, and have worked with him on campaigns against Pakistani human rights abuses in occupied Baluchistan. In all the work that I have done with him, he [has] been engaged in an entirely lawful, constitutional struggle for the independence of their homeland."

However ugly the Taliban may be, there is a truly perverse sense of deja vu in watching British troops battle Pashtun insurgents. This would actually be "fourth time as farce," given that there were three Anglo-Afghan Wars in the "Great Game" period (which is manifestly back on again). At least 12 insurgents—and, oh yeah, two children—are reported dead in British-led airstrikes by international forces on Musa Qala, a town in Helmand province which was taken by the Taliban earlier this year. One British solider was also killed in the battle for Musa Qala. The campaign to re-take the stronghold is dubbed "Operation Mar Karadad," and also includes US, Dutch, Danish and Estonian forces. (Radio Netherlands, AFP, Dec. 9; DPA, Dec. 8)