One crisis after another for
Pakistan By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A week-long campaign
of suicide bombings that has killed more than 130
people across Pakistan has seriously demoralized
security personnel in the tribal areas bordering
Afghanistan. These areas are a safe haven for the
Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Directed at police
and army targets, the bombings are believed to
have been carried out to avenge last week's
storming of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in
Islamabad, an operation in which 75 pro-Taliban
militants were killed, according to official
figures. The
bombings were also to protest
the support given by President General Pervez
Musharraf to the "war on terror" prosecuted by the
United States and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization in Afghanistan.
The unrest
coincides with a growing political crisis for
Musharraf over his suspension in March of Iftikhar
Mohammed Chaudhry, the chief justice. The 13-judge
bench of the Supreme Court was due on Friday to
hear Chaudhry's appeal for reinstatement and the
quashing of the case brought against him by
Musharraf for alleged misconduct.
Since
Chaudhry's suspension, the country has seen
widespread protests by the legal profession,
opposition politicians and civil-rights groups. On
Tuesday, 18 people were killed in a suicide bomb
attack at a rally in support of Chaudhry in
Islamabad.
Whatever the verdict in the
appeal, it is unlikely to ease the pressure on
Musharraf. If Chaudhry is successful, the
opposition will be emboldened. If it fails, the
protests can be expected to grow in intensity.
Defense lawyer Ali Ahmaed Kurd said on
Friday that nothing but the reinstatement of the
chief justice would be acceptable. He hinted that
if the court gave the "wrong" decision, it would
mean it was under duress from the military
establishment.
Tribal troubles After suffering
the heaviest casualties ever sustained by
Pakistani security forces during peacetime, many
security personnel in the tribal areas have gone
on long leave or are going about their work in
plain clothes.
"We are scared to be seen
in our uniforms. The militants are better equipped
than we are. And there is no way to stop suicide
bombers," said a police constable in Swat,
North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). He said the
threat was real enough for senior officials to
approve the idea of police performing their duties
in plain clothes.
NWFP has a total of
35,000 police for a population of 22 million,
while the Federally Administered Tribal Agency
(FATA) has 7,000 khasadar (local police)
for about 4 million people. These forces are
considered inadequate, although the NWFP can also
call on the services of the 17,000-strong Frontier
Constabulary.
About 80,000 regular army
troops are also deployed along Pakistan's border
with Afghanistan to check cross-border movements
by militants. But the army is being held back by a
ceasefire agreement made with tribal leaders last
September that the government is keen to keep
going.
"Our forces lack proper training,
equipment, vehicles and weaponry, due to which
their preparedness is very low," a high-ranking
police official said. He confirmed that hundreds
of police officers had applied for leave out of
fear for their safety.
Most of the attacks
over the past week have taken place in NWFP, with
at least 70 of the 110 people who have died being
soldiers. "It is mostly in the tough areas of
Swat, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan that our men have
to avoid wearing uniforms," said a police
official.
On Thursday, in the latest
attack, a bomb-laden car exploded in Hub, about 30
kilometers west of Karachi, killing 26 people,
seven of them policemen. Six more police officers
and civilians were killed at a police training
center in the town of Hangu in the NWFP, officials
said.
The bombings are the most serious
challenge yet to the eight-year military
government of Musharraf, who seized power in a
coup in 1999 and who has successfully staved off
domestic and international demands for the
restoration of democracy through his usefulness in
the Afghanistan campaign.
The attacks on
troops in the northwest came after tribal leaders
unilaterally renounced the September peace deal
under which the Pakistan Army was withdrawn from
the tribal areas in return for pledges to stop
Taliban and al-Qaeda militants from carrying out
cross-border raids into Afghanistan.
This
year, Pakistan has seen 21 suicide attacks that
have killed 225 people. The suicide bombers have
targeted police, army and other paramilitary
personnel with some degree of precision.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has time and
again accused Pakistan of being covertly involved
in training and sending suicide bombers into his
country, but increasingly targets are being sought
within Pakistan.
The United Nations
recently asked its staff in FATA and NWFP to avoid
getting close to installations of the police or
the army. All UN bodies have halted their
activities.
Interior Minister Aftab
Sherpao had a narrow escape when a suicide bomber
blew himself up at his public meeting on March 18
in Charsadda, NWFP. Earlier, two top police
officials were killed in separate incidents in
Peshawar, the capital of the NWFP.
"The
militants want to scare policemen and army
soldiers, and they have succeeded in their
mission," said Ashraf Ali, who is working on a
doctorate on the Taliban at the Area Study Center,
University of Peshawar.
He said Musharraf
now feels politically isolated and is trying
desperately to please the US. "The only way for
Musharraf to get US approval is to fight the
militants," said Ali.
The Awami National
Party (ANP), a pro-Pashtun political outfit, on
Wednesday appealed to the militants and the
Taliban to stop suicide attacks on innocent people
and members of the law-enforcement agencies.
"This situation is the handiwork of
Pakistan's secret agencies. They had planted the
mujahideen [Taliban] against the Russian army in
Afghanistan [in the 1980s]. Now, the Taliban are
being targeted in the name of 'war on terror',"
said Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, senior vice president of
the ANP.
Political analyst Afrasiab
Khattak, an expert on Afghanistan affairs, said
that ideally the government should take the local
population into its confidence by engaging them in
talks if it is serious about tackling militant
activity in their midst.
"All the
decisions regarding the 'war on terror' are being
taken by a few individuals in Islamabad. People in
NWFP and FATA are not taken into confidence, which
is why the situation has come to such a sorry
pass," Khattak said.
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