The target of such an operation in North
Wazoo would be the most violent factions within the so-called Pak Taliban. Their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, is believed to be increasingly isolated after executing a prominent former Pak official over the objections of senior bad turban leaders.Although Mehsud has been linked to attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan, his main focus appears to be in plotting carnage elsewhere in Pakistain. And that makes him a prime target for the army.
Washington has long urged the Paks to launch an operation in North Waziristan, a region overrun by an assortment of bad turban groups including al Qaeda. Most US drone strikes in Pakistain take place in North Waziristan.
Already there are more than 30,000 soldiers in North Waziristan, and some analysts say the Mighty Pak Army could quickly redeploy to the area. The army has 140,000 soldiers in the tribal regions that border Afghanistan
The Paks, however, are unlikely to target the Haqqani group, which the US considers its greatest enemy in Afghanistan. US Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, complained last week that Pakistain's secret service maintains links to the Haqqani network. The Haqqanis are Afghan Taliban who control parts of eastern Afghanistan and have bases in North Waziristan.
If the Haqqanis and other bad turban groups in North Waziristan cooperate with a military assault against the Pak Taliban, that would give the army more options.
The fissures among the forces of Evil were laid bare in February, when Mehsud released a gruesome video that confirmed the shooting death of former Pak spy Sultan Amir Tarar, better known as Col. Imam, according to a senior Pakistain army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
As Pakistain's consul general in Afghanistan's Kandahar province during the Taliban's rule, Imam was the conduit for money and weapons to the religious movement. A former Pak intelligence officer, Imam met regularly with Afghan Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Imam was known to have kept contact with leading Taliban in hiding in Pakistain since the US-led coalition ousted them from power in Afghanistan in 2001.
Mehsud's group had held Imam for 10 months. The killing confounded Pak military officials. They had long believed the Haqqanis held sway over the myriad of groups -- including forces of Evil from Uzbekistan, Chechnya and the Middle East -- operating in North Waziristan.
"We always thought that the Afghan Taliban had a sway over these groups, but Col. Imam's killing shows that no one is in control of anyone there," he said. "His death was a shock for us."
Taliban members who spoke to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on condition of anonymity because they feared being tossed in the calaboose said Mullah Omar made a personal plea for Imam's life. Also requesting that Imam's life be spared was Sirajuddin Haqqani, a key leader of the Haqqani group.
The senior military official said Mehsud defied Mullah Omar and Sirajuddin Haqqani and went ahead with the execution after the government and army refused his demands to free several of his imprisoned men.
Not only that, Mehsud boasted on a jihadi website about the killing, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. The same website carried an Urdu language condemnation of Mehsud's organisation, calling those behind the execution "beasts" and "ignoble killers," SITE said.
The divisions that Imam's death revealed among the bad turban groups could provide an opportunity for the army to hit hard at beturbanned goons in the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali, where Mehsud set up bases after fleeing last year's military assault on his headquarters in neighbouring South Waziristan, according to Mahmood Shah, a retired army brigadier and former security point-man for the government in the tribal regions.
Mir Ali is about 20 miles from the town of Miramshah, where the Haqqanis are based.
Tribal elders from North Waziristan, all of whom were too afraid to talk on the record, fearing retribution from bad turbans, said the landscape in their home region has undergone massive upheavals since the army operation in South Waziristan.
They said Mehsud and his men were among the most troublesome of the bad turbans, largely because of their affiliation with criminal gangs.
Mehsud and his followers are also among the richest, having accumulated wealth through kidnappings for ransom, thefts and extortion, said a tribal elder from Shawal district of North Waziristan.
Mehsud's close affiliation with Lashkar-i-Janghvi, a
Punjab-based Sunni Mohammedan bad turban group blamed for dozens of attacks against minority Shia Mohammedans, has also provided him with a reservoir of jacket wallahs. They have carried out dozens of attacks throughout Pakistain and in Afghanistan.US officials who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject said the Jordanian suicide bomber who killed six CIA operatives in Afghanistan's Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
in December 2009 was trained by Lashkar-i-Janghvi's Qari Hussain, who was also a member of Mehsud's group. Hussain was killed in a drone attack but was quickly replaced by a cousin and fellow primitive of Mehsud's.
Mehsud has overseen the Pak Taliban ever since his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a CIA missile strike on August 5, 2009. Hakimullah Mehsud is affiliated with the Taliban's most violent factions and has survived US and Pak attempts on his life.
In recent years the United States has identified Mir Ali as the site of a reconstituted al Qaeda. Also on the run in Mir Ali is Ilyas Kashmirei, a confidante of Mehsud's. The United States this month put a $5 million bounty on Kashmirei's head.