Pakistan goes its own pace on militants
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - When is a peace deal not a peace deal? The one signed between the
Pakistani government and militants in the Swat area in North-West Frontier
Province (NWFP) in February which imposed sharia law in return for a ceasefire
could be such a deal.
The government said on Monday that at least 26 militants had been killed in
Lower Dir, close to the Swat Valley, after two days of fighting in one of the
districts covered by the sharia deal.
However, a Taliban spokesman in the area said the assault by paramilitary
Frontier Corps forces was a "violation" of the deal. The Taliban at the weekend
withdrew from neighboring Buner
district just 96 kilometers from the capital Islamabad. They had briefly taken
over the area.
"We don't have any intentions to spread out to Islamabad. We will contain
ourselves up to the Swat Valley and want to present a model of true Islamic
justice in Malakand Agency. We have pulled out all external Taliban elements
from Buner and there is no reason for any military operation to be conducted
now," Muslim Khan said in a statement.
Despite the latest developments, informed quarters have told Asia Times Online
there will be no compromise on the Swat peace deal, despite pressure from
Washington, and that other such deals might be made. Nevertheless, military
operations will continue if the militants commit any violations.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in response to the
troubles in Buner that the "Taliban advances pose an existential threat to the
survival of Pakistan", yet the leaders in Islamabad appear relaxed.
What Pakistan is up to
Over the past eight months, Pakistan has developed a counter-insurgency policy
in response to two categories of militants. These are the major players in the
regional war which form the Afghan national resistance against foreign troops,
and a minor segment in Pakistan which only aims to create chaos inside that
country with the particular object of neutralizing Islamabad's support in the
"war on terror".
The major regional players, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar, Mullah Bradar, Jalaluddin Haqqani and Anwarul Haq Mujahid, have
never wanted to create instability in Pakistan. Islamabad believes that if
tomorrow foreign armies were to leave Afghanistan, these people would dominate.
The minor groups, the Pakistani establishment analyzes, are not anti-Pakistan
in the sense that they want to seize the state of Pakistan; they simply want to
end Pakistan's collaboration with the US on the terror front.
These include Dr Ismail in Bajaur Agency, Mullah Nazir and his Ahmadzai Wazir
tribe in South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan. The
establishment wants to make ceasefire deals with these militants through direct
and indirect tribal and non-tribal channels.
This would leave a small segment of militants, namely the Tehrik-i-Taliban
Pakistan, including Baitullah Mehsud, Mullah Fazlullah of Swat, Abdul Hakeem
Mehsud in Orakzai, Punjabi militants and Uzbek warlords. They aim to bring
chaos to Pakistan over the "war on terror".
In the post-George W Bush era, Pakistan is able to work on the basis of ground
realities rather than at the dictate of the US and the myths it wove about
al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This forced Pakistan to sign on for entire campaigns,
such as to hunt for high-profile targets such as Osama bin Laden and his deputy
Ayman al-Zawarhiri and other Arabs and foreign elements. The new policy aims at
the elimination of insurgents without any specific campaign.
Major General Tariq Khan, the Inspector General of the Frontier Corps (FC), is
at the forefront of this. He spoke last week to Asia Times Online at the FC's
headquarters in the historic Balahisar Fort in Peshawar, the capital of NWFP.
The Frontier Corps is trained and equipped by the Americans and has emerged in
the past few years as a major counter-insurgency force that has been lauded by
US army chief Admiral Mike Mullen for its role in Operation Lion Heart.
In this operation, the FC was involved in the Mohmand and Bajaur areas, while
across the border in Afghanistan North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces were
active in Kunar and Nooristan provinces. The aim was to clip the wings of the
Taliban in the southeastern Afghan corridors all the way up to northeastern
Kapisa province near the capital Kabul.
"Our position on the operation in Bajaur and Mohmand was against the violence
which had suddenly erupted in Bajaur," said Khan. "The operation was not meant
for al-Qaeda as al-Qaeda does not have any sizeable presence anywhere in the
region. They are facilitators or leaders in some parts. During that operation
in Bajaur and Mohmand, the insurgents who clashed with the government were
killed, including the Arabs."
Khan added that from the perspective of the Pakistani forces, they were just
fighting militants, whether Arabs or locals, and they fought them without any
particular treatment. Khan said the military's policy had enabled Pakistan in
the past eight months to gain ground and redeploy its forces in five tribal
areas out of the seven from where they had been ejected by the militants.
Asia Times Online contacts maintain it is a common perception, especially among
the top strategic quarters in Washington, that once the Pakistan army started
mobilizing troops for these operations and NATO beefed up its presence in Kunar
and Nooristan, the top leadership of al-Qaeda, including Bin Laden and
Zawahiri, moved out of this region.
They are thought to have shifted to a nearby place, either deep inside the
jungles of Nooristan on the Afghan side or somewhere around Chittral. Recently,
Washington pressurized Pakistan to start a new joint campaign for the hunt of
Bin Laden, but Pakistan refused to allow such an operation in which US special
forces would take part.
Khan, however, does not believe Bin Laden or Zawahiri were in the region when
Pakistani forces moved in. "I know many people speculate about that, but I
would like them to share intelligence, and then we would love to hunt them."
In terms of Pakistan's counter-insurgency prioritizes, one of the world's most
wanted persons - Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud - rates low, although
his network has caused major instability not only in NWFP but in the entire
country. Some say he is the harbinger of the neo-Taliban's strength.
"Baitullah Mehsud is overrated," said Kahn. "Nobody has really gone into South
Waziristan and sorted him out and when that happens, probably we will make a
better assessment of his capacity. We have given him some importance in the
area, and it has allowed him to acquire a kind of artificial leadership because
whenever someone has trouble, they call him and he sends in some
improvised-explosive-devise experts and a few rocket experts, who are Tajiks
and Uzbeks.
"He also has a lot of funding, and he has got some training schools for suicide
bombers, and he does some recruitment. He creates a military response or
maneuver just by doing such explosions here and there and he opts to put
pressure on the government to relieve the military pressure we are applying
here," said Khan.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can
be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
Despite the latest developments, informed quarters have told Asia Times Online
there will be no compromise on the Swat peace deal, despite pressure from
Washington, and that other such deals might be made. Nevertheless, military
operations will continue if the militants commit any violations.
