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Symbol of pro-Taliban resistance
silenced
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - With the killing of Abdullah
Mehsud, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee and
Taliban commander of Pakistani origin involved in
the kidnapping and killing of Chinese engineers
last year, a powerful chapter in the pro-Taliban
resistance in Pakistan's tribal areas is over.
The 28-year-old one-legged fighter, who
emerged as a key figure after the death of
commander Nek Mohammed last June, succumbed to his
injuries in North Waziristan's Shawal region last
Friday and was buried in an unknown place,
well-placed tribal sources in North Waziristan
confirmed to Asia Times Online.
Abdullah's
real identity was Mohammed Alam Mehsud. He fought
alongside the Taliban for many years and lost his
right leg in late 1999, since which time he has
used an artificial limb. His spirit as a guerrilla
leader was undiminished, though, and he pitched
himself against US-led forces when they attacked
Afghanistan in late 2001. He was subsequently
captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but
was released early last year after the Pentagon
said he was no longer a threat to the US and had
no intelligence value. As soon as returned, he
joined up with Nek to fight Pakistani forces in
the tribal areas.
Initial information
gathered from different sources suggests a bloody
shootout took place on March 5 at Deogar Saidgi,
North Waziristan, between the fighters of Abdullah
and security agencies. Abdullah was severely
injured, but while 11 of his comrades, including
four Arabs, two tribals and five other fighters
from different Pakistani cities were arrested,
Abdullah refused to surrender and managed to
escape to the difficult terrain of Shawal, where
on Friday he died.
Asia Times Online
contacted the director general of the
Inter-Services Public Relations of the Pakistan
armed forces, Major General Shaukat Sultan, but he
admitted to no knowledge of the incident.
Abdullah was largely isolated, both
politically and physically, at his hideout in
South Waziristan after most of the renegade Wazir
tribes struck a deal with the federal government
soon after pro-Taliban Pakistani tribal leader Nek
was killed in a laser-guided missile attack.
The Wazir tribes removed all Arab families
from their areas and allowed Pakistani troops to
establish checkpoints in the area. Abdullah,
however, remained committed to foreign fighters
and kept providing them sanctuary. It is believed
that most of the foreign fighters who stayed with
Abdullah were of Central Asian origin, including
Tahir Yuldevish of the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan.
Abdullah's commitment,
however, was repaid with a lot of military
operations, until he was forced to leave his
sanctuaries in South Waziristan and moved to North
Waziristan to take refuge in the isolated and
rugged terrain of the Shawal.
Abdullah's
fighting forces were gradually depleted, and when
he died only a few loyalists were around him to
lay him in rest. Most of his followers have
scattered to different locations, been killed or
arrested.
With Abdullah's case now closed,
the final leg of operations is now pending in
North Waziristan. On Sunday, about 700 Pakistani
troops conducted house-to-house searches in Mana,
Shawal. Six suspects were arrested from among the
Zalikhail tribals, but no foreigners.
North Waziristan's Shawal is reckoned as
one of the most inhospitable terrains in the
region. Before the partition of British India in
1947, the area was a hot-bed of anti-colonial
activity led by Mirza Ali Khan, alias Faqir Ippi.
In September last year, the Pakistan army
conducted an operation in Shawal after a tipoff
that Osama bin Laden and his deputy Dr Aiman
al-Zawahiri were holed up there. It is largely
believed that bin Laden's and Zawahiri's video
tape released on al-Jazeera TV on October 2003 was
filmed in the Shawal area because of the specific
vegetation in the background.
Tribals in
North Waziristan now believe that Abdullah's
killing will finally put an end to conflict in the
troubled tribal belt, at least for the next
several months.
Syed Saleem
Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times
Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information
on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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