| Submit your comments on this article | |
| India-Pakistan | |
| 'Pakistan marble helps Taliban stay in business' | |
| 2008-07-15 | |
| The takeover of the Ziarat marble quarry, a coveted national asset, is "one of the boldest examples" of how the Taliban have made Pakistan's Tribal Areas far more than a base for training camps or a launching pad for sending fighters into Afghanistan, according to a New York Times report published on Monday. In April, the Taliban appeared and imposed a firm hand. They settled a feud between tribes over the possession of the marble reserves, and demanded a fat fee up front and a tax on every truck that ferried the treasure from the quarry. Since then, Mir Zaman, a contractor from the Masaud subtribe, which was picked by the Taliban to run the quarry, has watched contentedly as his trucks roll out of the quarry with colossal boulders bound for refining in nearby towns. "With the Taliban it is not a question of a request to us, but a question of force," said Zaman, a bearded, middle-aged tribal leader who seemed philosophical about the reality of Taliban authority here. At least the quarry was now operating, he said.
From the security of this border region, they deploy their fighters and suicide bombers in two directions: against NATO and American forces over the border in southern Afghanistan, and against Pakistani forces -- police, army and intelligence officials -- in major Pakistani cities. Of all the minerals in the Tribal Areas, the marble from Ziarat is one of the most highly prized for use in expensive floors and walls in Pakistan, and in limited quantities abroad. The Taliban decided that one mountain in the Ziarat area belonged to the Masaud division of the main Safi tribe, and said that the Gurbaz subtribe would be rewarded with another mountain, Zaman, the contractor, said. The Taliban also demanded a tax of about $7 on each truckload of marble, he said. With a constant flow of trucks out of the quarry, the Taliban are now collecting up to $500 a day, Zaman said. Today the quarry runs as a relatively rudimentary affair using dynamite, but the quarry's reopening has given something to everyone. The Taliban are today a loose organisation of mostly ethnic Pashtuns divided in two wings, one on each side of the border. Their leader in Mohmand goes by the name Abdul Wali, a guerrilla fighter in his 30s who rose to prominence last year when his group occupied a famous shrine in the village of Ghazi Abad in Mohmand. He is affiliated with the overall leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, a powerful ally of Al Qaeda who keeps his base in South Waziristan, another part of the Tribal Areas. Working with Al Qaeda, the Taliban have steadily tightened their grip over much of the Tribal Areas. In Mohmand, the Taliban have speedily consolidated control in the last year. "In every agency the most powerful man is the Taliban," Orekzei said. "Because if someone says, 'I'm in favour of the government,' he will be killed." The territory has become a magnet for other militants from farther fields as well. The government security force, a paramilitary group called the Frontier Corps, which serves under the command of the Pakistani Army, does little to challenge the Taliban in the Tribal Areas, despite occasional skirmishes. With the government so weak, the Taliban are accepted as the ruling power in many places in the Tribal Areas, local officials say. | |
| Posted by:Fred |