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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Waziristan remains a national embarrassment for Pakistan |
| 2005-09-08 |
| While the government has international support for its military operations in Waziristan, opinion abroad differs over whether these forays against Al Qaeda have been terribly effective. It was South Waziristan to start with and now, in the third year, it is North Waziristan too. From Wana the focus has shifted to Miranshah, despite official declarations of containment of the trouble in the south. Three people were killed and four injured on Monday when a gunman opened fire at officials who tried to confiscate his Kalashnikov in that town. The unidentified man was accosted because he was defying a ban on carrying weapons in the marketplace. He fled after the incident. More significantly, the sole killer who made his getaway took the life of Miranshahâs political agent, Iftikhar Ahmad, and his assistant, apart from injuring four others. After that, another ban on carrying weapons was imposed on the town. While the mayhem was taking place in Miranshah, bombs exploded at a school in Wana and a clinic in Kaniguram in South Waziristan, proving that all was not well there either. Another operation has been launched in the territory after these incidents following information that the terrorists were mustering in Shawal valley near the Afghan border. The Peshawar Corps Commander, Safdar Hussain, who had earlier said that he had beefed up security in Waziristan to âprotect Afghanistan during the September 18 elections thereâ has now deployed more troops backed by helicopters to counter the new spate of violence. He has also imposed curfew on Miranshah to facilitate the hunt for the absconding gunman. But all this signifies that earlier claims of having tamed the local sympathisers of Al Qaeda were not so credible after all. Talking to a TV channel on July 28, 2005, General Safdar Hussain had said that new militants in Waziristan were under the command of Qari Tahir Yuldashev of Uzbekistan. He also said local people used to be in sympathy with the Uzbeks when there was an operation against them in Afghanistan, but now there was no sympathy for them. It is obvious now that the corps commander was being overly optimistic. The Pakistan army has failed to catch ex-Guantanamo Bay prisoner Abdullah Mehsud who kidnapped two Chinese engineers and caused the death of one of them. (General Hussain says, âHe is a nobodyâ.) He may also be overstating the case about another local terrorist Baitullah Mehsud who, he says, has rectified his past behaviour and become a good man. General Hussain was also more emphatic about âforeign forcesâ interested in fomenting trouble inside Pakistan. Most of us would think he was talking about India but the reference could actually be to the Americans in Afghanistan who have been complaining about laxity on the Pakistani side to take a decisive step in Waziristan. General Hussain denied infiltration into Afghanistan from the Pakistani side, but there is sinister talk in Peshawar that infiltration is actually being orchestrated from the Pakistani side. In addition, despite official denials, there were widespread reports of the Peshawar corps commander or the governor of the NWFP having bribed Baitullah Mehsud and others to buy peace in the area. Unfortunately the latest tape played on Al Jazeera TV shows the 7/7 London bomber Siddiq Khan possibly somewhere in Pakistan proclaiming jihad in the name of Al Qaeda. He had stayed in Pakistan for three months before returning to London early this year. Where did he go to link up with Al Qaeda? The world is going to focus on North and South Waziristan soon if the Siddiq Khan tape throws up more clues. It is not in Pakistanâs interest to allow the trouble in the Tribal Areas to continue simmering. It is not good internally where the combined opposition says the operation is a lie told to the Pakistani people on behalf of America. And it is not good policy to say that the trouble is fomented by âforeign forcesâ. The trouble must be removed as soon as possible and the operation wound up before it becomes a permanent fixture and is used as a dangerous counter in Pakistanâs national politics. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 What a Maroon! |
| Posted by: Bugs 2005-09-08 18:26 |
| #2 Makes you want to choke someone... |
| Posted by: Mohammed Spreewell 2005-09-08 14:56 |
| #1 Have they tried Midnight Basketball? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-09-08 13:04 |