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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| How did the Wana operation go wrong? |
| 2004-04-23 |
| Edited for length Jahir Jan is dead! No sooner had this information made its way to Landi Dok village in Kaloosha, some 10 kilometres west of Wana on March 16, than the ferocious and enraged Zillikhel tribesmen poured out of their homes, and by the afternoon had surrounded the few hundred South Waziristan Scouts (SWS) that had laid siege to the house of Noorul Islam, one of the five wanted Al Qaeda backers. But who is Tahir Jan? None other than Tahir Yuldashev, the charismatic leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). That is the way the local tribesmen know and refer to him. The army intelligence was right; Tahir was holed up in the compound with at least 25 followers. Tahir and his men responded with fire when the scouts led by Col Khalid Usman Khattak, asked them to surrender. But what the scouts were not counting on was the reaction of the local tribesmen. Tribesmen told TFT during a visit to the area â it is still out of bounds for non-local journalists â that it was Zillikhel tribesmen that turned the tables on the scouts. âSuddenly, the scouts found themselves sandwiched between Tahirâs men and the Zillikhel,â a source told TFT. Tahir Jan, say local tribesmen, is a household name, held in high esteem for his chivalry and his âlove for Islamâ. The wounded Tahir Jan escaped in the heat of the battle. But what followed thereafter was bloody and messy. Caught between the Zillikhel tribesmen and Tahirâs men, locals say the scouts faced heavy casualties â 46 according to official sources, including the two tehsildars. Scores of scoutsâ vehicles were rocketed and torched (the road between Azam Warsak and Kaloosha still bears signs of the burnt out vehicles, with bullet-ridden boundary walls of the apple orchards). During the fighting, dozens of scouts took shelter in mosques and some private houses, locals said, and were rescued by their friends from Wana. Most had to change into civvies in order to survive. The series of bloody and dramatic events have left a trail of grievances and allegations of plunder, denied by troop commanders. During the visits to areas between Wana and Azam Warsak, an outpost on the way to Angoor Adda, the last Pakistani border town, TFT set out to get eyewitness account from the furious but terrified tribesmen and seek answers to some fundamental questions: when did Al Qaeda come into play in the area; who belongs to Al Qaeda; are Al Qaeda and Taliban the same entities; do common people support these organisations; and is this support embedded in the Islamic faith or flows from the famous code of Pashtoonwali (that values and upholds chivalry, and considers protection of the guests dearer to oneâs own life)... Some of the most influential maliks and tribal chiefs close even to the administration had hosted âmujahideenâ from across the border after the fall of the Taliban. Local sources claimed that people like Naik Mohammad, charged with abetting al-Qaeda and Taliban, had been thick even with the intelligence agencies. Naik used to dine with the maliks of the area and was present in Wana not only before the March 16 operation but even after that. The wanted men enjoyed good relations even with the political administration, which must have been aware of the 600-plus foreigners (Chechen, Uzbeks) the government now claims were present in the area. If the interviews with tribesmen were to be synthesised, the main points would probably read like this: You might eliminate or arrest âterroristsâ but the Islamic faith runs deep in the tribal society, which has been kept backward and ignorant by the administration for its own vested interests. Strangers to âpragmatism or enlightened moderationâ, these are straightforward people, averse even to the thought of betrayal. For them Al Qaeda means being staunch Muslims, and Pashtoonwali demands that these brothers must be protected. Incessant government pressure and continued army build-up in the border areas, however, has infused new thinking. Why should tens of thousands people suffer for the alleged crimes of a few dozen? People hold Al Qaeda followers in esteem, but privately concede they would do other Muslims a great favour by moving out or abandoning their mission to save the common tribesmen from the wrath of the government. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |