[Dawn] "My name is Musa'b and I am from Dagestan...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus
republiccurrently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
(Russia)," so wrote one of the bully boyz who ended up fighting, holed up inside an under-construction house, barely a kilometre away from the scene of Saturday night's brazen attack on the Pakistain Air Force base inside the Bacha Khan International Airport.
The handwritten letter, written in Urdu, was found on Musa'b's body after he was killed in Pawaka village, along with four others, the day after the assault on the airfield. It gives a rare insight into the mindset of bully boyz indoctrinated to fight Pak forces, and also points to the growing role of foreign bully boyz in attacks inside Pakistain.
"I am taking part in these blessed operations because you people do not act upon the divine faith. You people neither act on its teachings nor accept it. Indeed, you follow the laws of the infidels," he writes. "The heretics are liable to be killed till the evil is eliminated. Killing (them) is obligatory," he sermonises in the single-page letter.
The letter does not address the Pak forces directly, but knowing that he and his fellow fighters would soon be taking on the Pak forces in their quest to seize control of the PAF base and the adjoining international airport, it was clear who it was meant for.
The level of motivation and marksmanship of Musa'b and his fellow fighters, two of whom blew themselves up, while three others died fighting police surprised even the most hardened and experienced coppers.
"I could never forget the way Musa'b charged at us, firing and running straight into us," a police brass hat recalled.
"He still had ammunition left with him and he could have fought on for several hours. And had one of our men not spotted him charging towards us and shot him there and then, he would have killed many of us. Today people would have been observing our Qul," the officer said.
But more than their motivation and level of preparedness, the element that surprised law enforcement and security officials was the number of foreign bully boyz in the two groups that tried to take control of the PAF base.
Out of the nine bodies, five, they say, have distinctive central Asian and Caucasian features. Musa'b and one of the other bully boyz killed have Caucasian features and some security officials believe they could be brothers.
UZBEK CONNECTION: Law enforcers have long had experience of coming across Uzbeks in course of various encounters and operations, but this is the first time, they say, they have come across so many of them in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
That the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan have long been collaborating and conducting joint operations inside Pakistain's tribal areas is no secret. What, however, has come as a surprise is a pronounced and extremely visible role of the IMU in action in the settled districts of Pakistain.
| Foreigners make fabulous cannon fodder, and they have fewer objections to harming the locals than those related to the locals, however distantly. |
Wazoo, including recently released visuals of them undertaking joint fire-raids against army posts in the Mahsud heartland.But the midnight attack on Bannu jail, a joint TTP-IMU operation, was the first such public demonstration of their collaboration in a settled district of Pakistain. The TTP released a video showing scenes of pre- and post-attack on the prison, ostensibly conducted to release the former PAF technician, Adnan Rashid.
The video was the first acknowledgement of the presence of IMU fighters in any attack conducted outside the confines of the tribal region. The IMU followed suit, releasing a version of its own, dubbed in German and Uzbek language.
Why is the TTP relying more now on the IMU for support is not clear, but law enforcement officers who have had the experience of fighting them acknowledge Uzbek fighters for their ferocity, alacrity and training.
For the law enforcement agencies, the increasing and growing role of imported muscle in audacious and high-profile attacks could well change the dimension of the whole war game in Pakistain.
TATTOO: Already, law enforcers and security officials are trying to make a case for the fight against bully boyz by pointing to tattoos on four of the bodies in their custody.
Two very large tattoos engraved on the back of two imported muscle have caught their immediate attention. There is an almost a scramble to search to find the meanings behind what they perceive and claimed to be engraved tattoos of the "angel of death" and "Satan".
Some within the law enforcement officers believe the bully boyz belonged to some particular cult in the Russian Federation before taking up the cause of the "Holy Jihad" to fight the "infidels" "in the land of Jihad".
Others believe the bully boyz were part of some international network, though tattooing is a common practice in Russia, including Chechnya and Daghistan, and central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
One of the killed foreign bully boyz had a small star-like tattoo on his shoulder and leg, while one had his name "Yusuf" engraved on his arm in Russian alphabet.
The tattoos remain an enigma for Sherlocks, who are working hard to find religious explanation and the symbolism behind the "evil face" and the long-nailed fingers. This may turn into something big and it may also end up in a total fiasco. But what is now known is that the law enforcement agencies are increasingly facing more daring and brazen attacks inside urban populated centres, not just from Pak bully boyz under the TTP umbrella but also a horde of foreign bully boyz based in the tribal region.
| Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind, as it is said. Our compliments to the ISI. |