Waziristan jihadis wage war on each
other By Syed Saleem Shahzad
The present bloody infighting between
al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan's
Waziristan tribal areas is likely to end in
reconciliation between the two groups that will
mark the beginning of the Taliban's major Afghan
offensive.
Well-placed sources maintain
that the chief commander of the Taliban in South
Wazirstan, Baitullah Mehsud, was in Afghanistan's
Helmand province when the fighting, in which
scores have died this week, erupted. He
immediately rushed to
South Waziristan on the
orders of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah.
He put his foot down, and the fighting has
now eased. A new protocol is imminent, under which
all parties will agree to fight in Afghanistan and
not inside Pakistan.
How did this
internecine strife in South Waziristan evolve? Is
it just a battle between foreign militants and
Pakistani Taliban - a clash of interests - or is
it a blessing in disguise for the Taliban and a
serious problem for the US-led forces in
Afghanistan?
Moving the fault
lines There has long been debate within the
Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants over
strategy in the fight against North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) and US-led-coalition
forces in Afghanistan: Should war be waged against
all opponents - including US ally Pakistan -
without discrimination, or should political issues
be considered, so as to allow for strategic
repositioning in future?
The Uzbek
al-Qaeda-linked militants in South and North
Waziristan believe in a global war against NATO
and all its allies, such as the Pakistani
government. This strategy is now in conflict with
that of the Taliban leadership.
The
tension between the two sides broke out into open
warfare on Wednesday in South Waziristan, with
thousands of Pakistani Taliban dug in against the
Uzbek militants and their supporters, believe to
number 20,000. So far, at least 110 people have
been killed, mostly Uzbeks.
The fight has
isolated the chief of the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan, Tahir Yaldeshiv. Tahir is the main
preacher of the idea that fighting the Pakistan
Army is the first priority, and he is violently
opposed to any rapprochement between Pakistani
Taliban and the army.
"The implementation
of the sharia [Islamic law] and the appointment of
the emir of the sharia emirate are supposed to be
the first priority of mujahideen in Pakistan,"
Yaldeshiv said in a speech now widely available on
disc.
Part of the
solution Should the Taliban be part of a
solution for their sympathizers in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, or a constant problem? That was the
debate initiated by Mullah Dadullah when he tried
to mediate a ceasefire between Pakistani Taliban
and the Pakistani military early last year.
Dadullah has constantly argued that Pakistani
Taliban going into Afghanistan and fighting
against NATO forces was a greater service to
Afghanistan's cause of freedom than staying in the
two Waziristans and fighting Pakistani soldiers.
The dialogue convinced the leading
anti-army commanders in North Waziristan, Sadiq
Noor and Abdul Khaliq, and they agreed that jihad
was only relevant in Afghanistan and that fighting
against the Pakistan Army had no relevance to the
Afghan resistance.
Al-Qaeda elements in
North Waziristan, including Uzbeks settled in the
town of Mir Ali, were converted to this point of
view and broke with Yaldeshiv, who was living in
South Waziristan and still demanding the
establishment of the Islamic Emirates in Pakistan
by waging jihad against "the crusaders' ally".
At present, information coming from South
Waziristan suggests that Uzbeks settled in three
main points, Shin Warsak, Azam Warsak and
Kaloosha, have now in effect been surrounded by
local Taliban. The Uzbeks are tenacious fighters,
but the most likely outcome will be their
surrender and agreement that from now on all
fighting will be done in Afghanistan. Such unity
of purpose would be a boon for the Taliban's
looming offensive against NATO.
Syed
Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan
Bureau Chief. He can be reached at
saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
(Copyright
2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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