chinese toy plane captured by pakistan

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aaaditya

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well here is a bit of worrying news:
seems chinese are selling toy planes to alqaeda:

Unravelling the spin on a toy plane
By Jannat Jalil
BBC News, Islamabad



The army puts the "spy plane" on display
The Pakistani army recently announced it had destroyed an al-Qaeda base in the remote north-western tribal region bordering Afghanistan, where it is thought Osama Bin Laden might be hiding.
The army took journalists to North Waziristan to show them the results of its military offensive - but, our correspondent says, the media offensive was not a complete success.

It was a display designed to impress.

On the manicured lawn at the army camp in Peshawar, our first stop, piles of weaponry were neatly lined up on a long white-clothed table.

Anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers, Kalashnikovs.

Just some of the huge amount of weapons, the army said, it had seized during its offensive in North Waziristan.

There were mortars, ammunition - and a bright yellow model plane.

Explosives

Had some child left his toy here by mistake? Apparently not.



Initial claims of the al-Qaeda raid later proved unimpressive

This, said the commander, was a Chinese-made, remote-controlled spy plane which had been used by militants to spy on army positions.

It is bright yellow I said. Their reply, that does not matter if it is used at night.

Several journalists asked how such a flimsy looking thing could carry a camera?

Not just a camera was the response from one general.

This plane could be used to drop up to one kilogram of explosives.

The plane itself looked like it weighed less than that.

Stink bombs I could believe, but not explosives.

Pressure

But the Pakistani army bristles when anyone tries to question what it is doing.




As the army flew us by helicopter to North Waziristan, we could get a sense of just how difficult its job is.

We passed mountain after mountain, some covered in large forests

The task of locating al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects in this vast region is made all the harder by the fact that many locals strongly resent the army presence.

Until three years ago, Pakistani soldiers had never ventured into the semi-autonomous tribal regions.

But under pressure from the US and Afghanistan to root out al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters, they have carried out a number of military operations, especially in South Waziristan, which have resulted in heavy casualties.

Journalists - even Pakistani ones - are not allowed into this remote area, except on occasions like this, when the military wants to trumpet another success against al-Qaeda.


Initial claims of the al-Qaeda raid later proved unimpressive. The captured fighters, described as important figures and foreigners, turned out to be Afghans.

The army could not even tell us if they were Taleban and did not produce them for us to see.

And the al-Qaeda base that had been destroyed turned out to be the compound of a madrassa or religious school that has been raided several times.


'Misconceptions'

Journalists asked the commander of the operation, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussein, if its timing had anything to do with the fact that President Pervez Musharraf was attending the UN summit in New York.



The al-Qaeda base raided turned out to be a madrassa

Safdar Hussein is a bluff, no-nonsense general.

He is as proud of his troops as he is suspicious of the media, which he accuses of creating misconceptions about Pakistan.

He said when he announced this operation he had not even known what date Gen Musharraf was flying to the US.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt the Pakistani army has been coming under intense pressure to show it is committed to combating Islamic militancy.

Especially from its neighbour, Afghanistan, which accuses Pakistan of providing a refuge for Taleban fighters.

Here, in briefing after briefing, general after general bombards us with figures about how many troops are patrolling the border, how many militants have been killed or captured, how many more border posts Pakistan has than Afghanistan.

They point out that more than 250 Pakistani troops have died in counter-terrorism operations since 2001.

But all this still does not satisfy the Afghans.

So in frustration, Pakistan has now proposed building a fence along parts of the border - a border that cuts through some of the world's most imposing mountain ranges, and parts of which are still disputed by Afghanistan.

This idea may seem as likely as a bright yellow toy plane being used to spy on army positions, but the Pakistanis say they are deadly serious.

Upon my return to Islamabad I went to a toy shop.

There was the exact same plane, the same model - even the same, bright yellow colour. The price about $55. Who would have thought a spy plane could be so cheap.

several millitant organisations use similiar toys for spying and bombing roles (ltte),so does this mean that alqaeda is collaborating with those terrorist organisations,this has really severe global implications.:D
 

Francois

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
It is no news that the "pacific" China is well involved with terrorism world wide.
Nothing surprising, well...
 

aaaditya

New Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4
Hussain said:
Why because of the plastic plane?
the more worrying factore is that the toy plane in the image is proving to be the latest favourite for terrorists to spread their terror,these can be considered as a poor organisations uav or ucav,equip them with a small camera(currently the spy cameras available are small enough to fit in a match box)and you can get valuable information ,equip the plane with small amount of explosives and you can use them to assasinate to political figures(just crash it on the convoy),equip it with a higher amount of explosives and you can use it to hit high rise buildings and other valuable assets.

in most cases it is too small to be detected easily and even if detected ,it is usually not taken seriously enough because of its small size.

similiar systems have been captured from kashmiri freedom fighters in the doda region(they intended to use them for spying purposes)before they could put them to any practical use.the ltte used it to take images of several vital sri lankan instalations.

alqaeda is as well trained,motivated and innovative as the ltte.and if they have them then pakistani armed forces are going to have a real headache in the coming future.:D
 
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turin

New Member
Francois said:
It is no news that the "pacific" China is well involved with terrorism world wide.
Nothing surprising, well...
Oh now thats a logic. So I guess the US are also willingly assisting terrorists since they use a lot of american equipment as well. Heck, its a toy plane...who knows by which ways these guys did get their hands on that. I could even buy the proper electronics for some kind of mini-UAV in a local shop and then use it somewhere else. What would that prove? That Germany is involved in worldwide terrorism as well?
 

Pathfinder-X

Tribal Warlord
Verified Defense Pro
I think he was being sarcastic.

Anyways this topic is senseless. Anyone could pick up a toy plane from the corner store, and does that mean they are potential terrorist? Hey you can pick up steel pipe on contruction sites here in Canada, so we must be supporting violence in society eh?

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