KARACHI - The Pakistan federal government's
economic sanctions imposed on the tribal area of South
Waziristan are biting, with thousands of shops shut down
in the main town of Wana and armed police patrolling
deserted bazaars. The move comes after failed efforts to
persuade tribesmen to hand over or register hundreds of
foreign militants suspected of taking refuge in the
region.
Hundreds of kilometers away in the
southern port city of Karachi, economic activity in the
commercial capital was also at a standstill on Friday,
with most residents obeying calls for strikes that are
expected to last several days.
On Thursday, the
ruling Pakistani Muslim League made an unprecedented
offer to the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to
join in a "consensus" government in Sindh province after
a series of attacks in Karachi that claimed scores of
lives. But a spokesman for the PPP said its leader
Benazir Bhutto - who lives in exile - had rejected it.
Karachi's big hitters Pakistan's
establishment recently labeled Amjad Farooqi as
al-Qaeda's mastermind in the country. However, Asia
Times Online contacts vigorously dispute this claim.
Certainly, Amjad is wanted in connection with the murder
of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002. The
contacts claim, though, that Amjad is in fact a
"stand-alone" operator who does not draw support from
any one organization, as he is able to gather his own
manpower and financial resources.
The contacts
suspect that Farooqi has already been arrested in
Karachi, and that he will be "presented" at a later
date.
In the Punjab police criminal
investigation department's "red book", Farooqi is
serialized as No 1497 under the name of Amjad Hussain
alias Farooqi, alias Haider Ali, son of Mohammed Afzal,
a 30-year-old standing five feet seven inches (170
centimeters). He is listed as coming from Toba Taik
Singh, but southern Punjab has been his main playing
field. He was last seen in Karachi's Quaidabad suburb in
the Tariq Hotel last Sunday when Mufti Nizamuddin
Shamzai, a leading Sunni cleric, was assassinated.
According to Pakistani officials, as a result of
renewed interrogation of Sheikh Omar Saeed, who is in
prison after being given the death sentence for
orchestrating Pearl's killing, Amjad's name has emerged
as the ringleader behind several assassination attempts
on President General Pervez Musharraf last year, and in
planning more attacks on US targets in Pakistan, and on
Musharraf again.
Rizwan Burmi, from Karachi, is
another name that officials are citing after
interrogation of several Pakistani militants. He is
known as an expert in guerrilla action and in improvised
weapons and explosives.
Senior people Asia Times
Online spoke to with knowledge of intelligence affairs
say that Rizwan Burmi and Amjad Hussain are not part of
the same ring, as they have their own spheres of
influence. They do, however, share the same goal:
attacks on US interests, which include Musharraf, as he
is considered pro-US.
Similarly, the contacts
claim that top leaders of the ethnocentric Muthahida
Quami Movement (MQM), which is a part of the present
federal government and the Sindh provincial government,
have become targets. The MQM is known to have the favor
the US, and it is a powerful force in Karachi with its
gutter, rabble-rousing approach to politics.
Tribal travails In the latest attempt
to satisfy US demands that foreign miscreants be weeded
out of the tribal areas, Pakistan has begun with a new
approach, having received a bloody nose from local
tribals in its most recent military adventure in South
Waziristan in April.
Apart from shops being
closed, a regulation is being enforced that bans the
display of weapons in public (virtually every tribal
carries a weapon) and prevents the gathering of more
than five people at one place. No regular Pakistani army
soldiers have been used. Instead, the entire action is
being conducted by the local tribal lashkar, or
paramilitary forces, like frontier corps.
According to Asia Times Online contacts in South
Waziristan, the latest endeavors might be too little too
late. They claim that leading insurgents such as Nek
Mohammed and Mohammed Sharif have already gone
underground, having been informed well in advance of the
official operation.
General headquarters in
Rawalpindi, Islamabad's twin capital in which the
military leadership lives, now faces extremely volatile
situations in Karachi and South Waziristan. Asia Times
Online has suggested that these two hot spots are
closely inter-linked (see Troubled Karachi held to ransom,
June 3).
Some top brass suggest the iron fist in
South Waziristan, while going easy on the MQM (hence the
political overtures), lest it stir up further trouble in
Karachi, and disregarding the independent operators with
their own agendas.
At this point, no decisions
have been made. But they will have to, and quickly.
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