NATO takes the fight to
Pakistan By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - The air attack on Monday in
which up to 80 suspected militants were killed at
a religious school in the Pakistani tribal area of
Bajour marks the first successful operation after
a tripartite meeting in Kabul on August 24 of
representatives of Afghanistan, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization and Pakistan. And it won't be
the last.
It was agreed at that meeting
that NATO forces operating in Afghanistan would be
allowed to conduct hot-pursuit operations
across the border into
Pakistan.
Although Pakistani officials
claim that Monday's operation was conducted by the
Pakistani military, Asia Times Online contacts in
the area are convinced that foreign forces were
also involved, including US unmanned Hellfire
Predator aircraft. NATO and the US have only
acknowledged that they provided intelligence on
the possible presence of Taliban and al-Qaeda
figures at the madrassa that was attacked,
which was known to be pro-Taliban.
After
Monday's operation, intelligence sources say that
Pakistan will further facilitate NATO in the
strategic back yard of Pakistan in an attempt to
bolster the struggling NATO forces in Afghanistan
in their battle with the Taliban.
"I can
see slit throats beneath these turbans and
beards," were the words of Hajaj bin Yusuf, an
8th-century tyrant in what is now Iraq, as he
witnessed a gathering of leading religious and
political figures.
This was the start of
an article (The knife at Pakistan's
throat, Asia Times Online, September 2)
by this correspondent on returning from the
largest-ever meeting of the Taliban in the North
Waziristan tribal area two days before a peace
deal was signed between the Taliban and Pakistani
authorities.
The inspiration behind the
quote was a genuine sense of upcoming bloodshed in
the Pakistan tribal areas, given the hot-pursuit
agreement in Kabul to which Pakistan had agreed in
principle, though it unsuccessfully demanded a
clear demarcation of the boundaries up to which
hot pursuit would be allowed.
Subsequently, Pakistani officials traveled
to the tribal areas, where they tried to explain
their position of being under immense pressure
from the increasingly desperate Americans. The
Pakistanis suggested that the tribals develop a
mechanism under which militants would retreat into
the background, allowing the "soft-faced"
(moderate) tribal leaders to come to the fore.
All the same, it was fully understood by
both sides that bloodshed was inevitable, of which
Monday's massacre in Bajour agency is just the
beginning of a new phase in the "war on terror"
battlefields that will embrace all seven of
Pakistan's tribal agencies. These remote and
semi-independent agencies along the border with
Afghanistan have steadily developed into hideouts
and bases for the Taliban and al-Qaeda and serve
as the back yard for operations in Afghanistan.
The prospect of foreign forces becoming a
regular feature on Pakistani soil conjures up
visions of disastrous proportions. Just as such
troops have been fiercely resisted in Iraq and
Afghanistan, so they will be opposed in Pakistan.
More important, Pakistan will then become
a new base for anti-US jihadis, that is, a new
front will be opened.
The prelude to this
phase was President General Pervez Musharraf's
recent visit to Washington, where he was placed
under heavy pressure to take a broader operational
role in the US-led "war on terror". Soon after
Musharraf's return home, the British commander of
NATO troops in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General
David Richards, visited Islamabad.
He
talked to the Pakistani authorities of creating a
joint operational strategy for Afghanistan. It was
speculated at the time that this would involve
joint patrols on the border. But sources close to
the strategic quarters of Rawalpindi maintain that
there is more to it than that.
In the
first week of October, a team of British army
officers visited the southern port city of Karachi
and inspected the medical facilities in various
hospitals and discussed with the administration of
Aga Khan Hospital the availability of special
wards with emergency facilities for wounded
soldiers.
Many US troops are already
stationed at Jacobabad Air Base in Sindh province,
and recently the Pakistani air force reported
extended reconstruction operations there that
appear to be preparations for extended action.
Similar information has been gathered about Kohat
Air Base in North-West Frontier Province.
"The recent comment of the British
commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan [Richards]
that NATO had failed to deliver on promises made
to the Afghan people and a warning that the
Taliban will be back in strength next summer
explains very well these preparations," a security
official told Asia Times Online.
Meanwhile, in many places in Afghanistan,
especially the south, allied forces are virtually
being held hostage in their bases by the Taliban.
As a result, they are negotiating with the
Taliban in many districts for a peace deal to give
them some breathing space, especially as the
Taliban have in recent weeks focused their
attentions on attacking bases, and will continue
to do so until winter brings the current offensive
to a standstill.
The Taliban have
sustained heavy casualties from this fresh
approach, but they have succeeded in rattling the
nerves of the allied forces in the southwest, to
such an extent that those forces feel they are
rapidly losing the ground from under their feet in
Afghanistan.
It is for this reason that
Pakistani territory is so important, as it would
give the NATO-led forces room to consolidate and
take the fight into the enemy's home territory -
the longer-term consequences be damned.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia
Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be
reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing
.)
