Pakistan's growing woes in its wild west
By Naveed Ahmad for ISN
Pakistan has reacted with calculated restraint, gradually moving spies and troops into the tribal areas.
Despite its rule for over two centuries in the subcontinent, the British had abandoned these areas to their fates. During the Cold War, the tribal leadership assured Islamabad that it would, on its own, defend the country's western border from possible Soviet intrusion, and Islamabad placed its confidence in the forces in this mountainous belt. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Islamabad again relied on the tribal leadership. And, left to their own devices, religious seminaries cropped up quickly as large amounts of money flooded in from the US to fight the Soviets.
"The extreme senses of religiosity, pan-Islamism and autonomy were deeply indoctrinated among these technologically backward people, thanks to an unlimited supply of weapons and financial support from the United States and extreme use of force by the Soviets against their Pashtun brethren in Afghanistan," says Muhammad Tahir Khan, a senior journalist covering Afghanistan for the last two decades.
Khan tells ISN Security Watch that the Pakistani government wielded the least control over the region during and after its proxy war against the Soviets.
Unprecedented exposure to modern weaponry and an unlimited supply of foreign capital added to the tribal leadership's growing confidence. The Pashtuns were now increasingly joining the Pakistani civil service as well as the armed forces in officer cadres while their less privileged male family members either taught at the religious seminaries or cultivated the land.
"The presence of mercenary, wealthy and technology-savvy Arab youth assumed the leadership role, promising an ideal Islamic state in a free Afghanistan," Rashid Mafzool Zaka, a consultant for a US project on legislative legislative reform in Pakistan and a faculty member of Fatima Jinnah Women's University in Rawalpindi, told ISN Security Watch.
Until the US began attacking the alleged hideouts of Osama bin Laden in 1998, Islamabad confidently cherished the idea of the strategic depth it had earned on its western frontier with the Taliban holding down the fort.
Old wounds, new cures
With thousands of the more liberal-minded residents of the city of Peshawar migrating amid fears of being forced to change their lifestyle or face serious consequences, the government authorized the army chief to set out a plan to thwart the "Talibanization" of Peshawar.
Earlier, on 26 June, the nation was shocked to see the still images of a popular ski resort, Malam Jabba, in Swat, being blown up by a group of Taliban sympathizers.
Last week, the Taliban drove to Peshawar in cars to abduct 17 Christians who were later released unharmed. On 25 June, 22 pro-government tribesman were killed after being kidnapped by a pro-Taliban group in FATA.
On the ground, the security forces have widened the operation to more areas of the Bara sub-division in Khyber Agency, which neighbors Peshawar, destroying an illegal FM radio station and six militant hideouts as well as unearthing a private dungeon.
No resistance was offered by any militant group and no casualties on either side were reported.
The paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) continued to blow up the hideouts of certain groups with explosives and artillery fire. On 29 June, the home of one militant belonging to the Lashkar-i-Islam group in Malik Dinkhel was destroyed, but security forces said the camps had been vacated recently and the miscreants had "moved to safer places […]."
Given the volatility of the situation, curfew has been imposed in Peshawar's adjoining areas of Khyber Agency. The roads leading to the strongholds of the militants have been blocked by security personnel with barricades and barbed wire.
As the paramilitary forces have been supplemented by the army's artillery and tank regiments, Baitullah Mahsud's Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took the opportunity to announce an end to peace talks and renouncing of all accords made with Islamabad in the tribal and settled areas of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Talking to a leading Pakistani daily, The News, TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar said the organization had decided to scrap the peace deals in Swat, Darra Adamkhel and Mohmand Agency and freeze the Waziristan peace talks following the government action against the Taliban in Swat, Nowshera, Tank and Waziristan.
After assuming power, the secular-minded Awami National Party-Pakistan People's Party coalition government in the NWFP signed a peace accord with the Swat Taliban on 21 May, but talks on its implementation have been stalled twice. Militants in Darra Adamkhel had also inked a peace deal in the last week of May, followed by an agreement in Mohmand Agency.
Speaking to ISN Security Watch, the prime minister's internal security adviser, Rehman Malik, said that the ongoing campaign in Khyber Agency and adjoining areas was the first operation which had popular support from the common people. He hoped that the operation would not backfire. "It would be surgical, precise and accurate," he explained to ISN Security Watch via telephone from Peshawar.
For the last two weeks, public executions, kidnapping of minorities, razing of girls' schools and the bombing of barber shops have become a usual affair in the restive tribal areas and some parts of settled urban territories including Peshawar.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani told a press conference that the immediate problem was in FATA, Swat and adjacent areas of Peshawar.
The situation in the volatile Swat valley has continued to deteriorate since 23 June, when militants claimed responsibility for an attack on security forces patrolling in Ronyal town of Matta Tehsil.
The external connection
Across the Durand Line dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan, 42 international soldiers were killed in June alone in southern and eastern Afghanistan. The coalition forces claimed the lives of 11 Pakistan troops while firing upon suspected Taliban.
In a recent interview with ISN Security Watch, NATO director operations James W Pardew regretted the tragic incident but defended his troops' right to self-defense if fired at from Pakistani territory.
Pardew's official trip to Pakistan was followed by a visit from US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Boucher who arrived early on Monday.
The top diplomat's visit coincides with a military operation in Pakistan's tribal areas and the shelving of the peace deals between the government and the militants.
Meanwhile, US media reports hint that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has discussed new legislation under which non-security aid to Pakistan would be tripled to US$15 billion over a period of 10 years.
However, security assistance will be tied in to Pakistan's performance in the war on terror.
Some Pakistani experts have welcomed the news of non-security aid, hoping perhaps that it will be used in the interests of the people rather than at the whim of President Pervez Musharraf, in particular to combat a growing food crisis and the crunch from a large population of Afghan refugees.
As for Pakistan's military operations in the tribal regions, a small minority of elites favor a long-term engagement in the urban and semi-urban areas bordering Afghanistan.
Journalist Tahir Khan believes that the answer to the problem lies in a relationship based on trust between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a more pro-active and fruitful engagement of Kabul-based tripartite commission, with Afghanistan, Pakistan and ISAF forces on board.
The recent surge in Taliban support amongst the Pakistani Pashtun originates from uncoordinated cross border operations by the coalition troops and the poor performance of Pakistani intelligence and security agencies.