Power Play In South Waziristan

The only source of information is Director General Inter Services PublicRelations [ISPR] Major General Shaukat Sultan, whose information is contested bythe opposition and the media in public, and by the diplomatic community inprivate.

The first military operation in FATA was launched on October 2, 2003, at AngorAda. The first operation in Wana was launched on January 8, 2004; the second onFebruary 24, 2004; the third between March 18-30, 2004; that was followed by aseries of operations from June 11 to the present date. According to the officialsources, the October 2 operation, in which eight suspects were killed and 18were captured alive, was the most successful.

'But the military never presented the 'foreign' militants before us!' complainsRahimullah Yusufzai, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) analyston Afghan affairs.

The jihadists, independent journalists, and opposition Parliamentarianshave been challenging the military's viewpoint - i.e., that the operations hadbeen initiated to flush out foreign terrorists hiding in the tribal areas -asserting that there were no foreign terrorists in South Waziristan, and ifthere are any, the Government should present them before the public.

Yusufzai asserts, "The military might have arrested or killed the foreignterrorists, but it is hesitant to present them before the media. In fact, itarranged our meeting with a 14-year old Tajik terrorist. The military is afraidto make such things public because in that case the US could mount pressure onPakistan. The US is against the military's talking to the militants. It wantsthe military to use force'.

"It is an outrageous lie if someone claims that there are no foreignterrorists in South Waziristan," Sultan counters, "It is absolutelytrue that the foreign militants have been arrested and we have not presentedthem before the public in the larger national interest."

The military has been fighting the 'invisible' enemies in South Waziristan formore than a year without much success. Often times, it gives an impression thatit has failed. Some analysts believe that a section of the Army is pro-militant,but both Sultan and Yusufzai dismiss such notions. Yusufzai argues: "If youare thinking why Abdullah Mehsud has not been arrested, then the answer is, heis familiar with the terrain. He has local support. He comes from the sametribe. He can flee to North Waziristan or Afghanistan. I am dead sure that thereis no support to him from any section of the military. Mehsud has killed theChinese. It is a very serious thing. No Pakistani Government can afford to annoyChina. So, rule it out that military could support him. Mehsud enjoys a lot ofsupport from his own people that has really made the task difficult for themilitary."

Sultan concedes several hitches in the operations. "The militants are mixedup with the civilians. The military cannot target them in such a situation.Certain people, to further their vested interests, portray the killings of themilitants as the killings of civilians. They glorify militants as'heroes. '"

The Government is upset with publications such as Nawa-i-Waqt, Ummat, Jasarat,Friday Special, Takbeer, Nida-i-Millat, Islam, which portray the militantsas heroes. These publications act as 'unofficial' mouthpieces of the jihadists,and see the hand of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Mosaad and theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) behind the events in South Waziristan.

Takbeer [Nov 3] has written that the US, India and Israel are the realmasterminds of the incidents in South Waziristan, and that they want the tribalpeople to rise up against the Army. India, the article claimed, is supplyingweapons to the tribal people and the US is very cleverly dividing the two unitedgroups of mujahideen, i.e., the Pakistani Army and the civilianmujahideen [tribal people].

Friday Special [Oct 7, Zafar Mehmood Sheikh] views the lifting of theeconomic blockade on South Waziristan as a humiliating defeat for the Army."The relief has been announced to silence the voices of such people who hadbeen protesting the military crackdown in Wana. In fact, the killing in Wana wasmasterminded by Musharraf on the orders of Bush. The latter wanted it for hiselection campaign and Musharraf wanted it to protect his uniform.""The Army is repeating 1971 in Wana. God forbid, Wana may not prove to beanother Bangladesh. Bangla Bandu was first declared as traitor and this time thetribes of Wazirstan have been declared terrorists… Wana will prove to be thelast nail in the country's coffin if better sense did not prevail on Musharraf.He should stop arranging official visits to Wana and allow independentjournalists access to the area. Only then the people of Pakistan will know aboutthe atrocities of Pak army in South Waziristan."

Disagreeing patiently with such views, Sultan claims, "There is no ban onjournalists' entry in South Waziristan." However, he insists thatjournalists should not "expect that ISPR would provide you vehicles orhelicopters for your travel."

There is, nevertheless, a growing perception that the military operations arecreating a sense of hatred among the tribal people against the Armed Forces. OnSaturday night (November 13), at an Iftaar dinner in Rawalpindi, a local MMAleader Hanif Abbasi, told this writer, "The Pak Army is committing stateterrorism in South Waziristan, exactly the way the Indian Army is doing the samein Kashmir. It is targeting innocent civilians."

Yusufzai echoes the growing concern: "The military operations havedisplaced thousands of people in South Waziristan. But the Army does not want itto be reported. The Pushtuns are severely independent people. They never forgivetheir enemies. The coming generations of the tribal people will be full of hateagainst the Army and they will take revenge."

Prof. Ishtiaq, a professor of Islamic Studies, adds: "The military cannever win this battle. It might be able to contain them [the tribal people]temporarily but it will lose ultimately. The tribals never forgive and theynever forget. The present generation of the tribal people has grown up duringthe Afghan jihad. They can forget their religious duties but they can neverforget their enemies. Sometimes, injustice committed against the greatgrandfather is avenged by the great grandson!" Ishtiaq also sees aconspiracy in the Wana Operations: "The Pak Army has been pitched againstthe tribal people under a plot. The West knows that the tribal people are highlymotivated and ideological. They have the capability to defend the country. Theyare the right-hand of the Army. The West wants to cut off this right hand."

Lashing out at the Government, Mohammad Usman Qazi, a civil society activistadds: "All the terrorists and criminals have been arrested from Rawalpindi,Lahore, and Karachi. None of them was arrested from South Waziristan. Could themilitary launch air attacks on these cities? Could the military stop their waterand food supplies? The military has done so in South Waziristan because ittreats it as an 'occupied area'. South Waziristan is part of Afghanistan. Themilitary crackdown is sharpening the sense of alienation of the tribal people.The blood of the Pushtun has always been very cheap in Pakistan."

Contesting such feelings strongly, General Sultan asserts, "The operationhas been deeply appreciated by the local people. They want to get rid of theterrorists. There is no sense of hatred against the Army among the localpeople."

A diplomat in Islamabad endorses Sultan's views, "The Government has foundthat some recently arrested terrorists in Karachi had links with what's going onin South Waziristan. The domestic violence in Pakistan has strong links withinternational terrorism masterminded by the al-Qaeda. The US is very happy withPakistan's performance on terrorism and fully supports Musharraf in thiseffort." This diplomat also remarked that there was little chance of arepeat of 1971 in the present circumstances. "There is no evidence of a1971-like situation in Pakistan. The terrorism has not spread out of SouthWaziristan-not even to other agencies of the tribal areas. It is limited toSouth Waziristan.'

There is, nevertheless, a unanimous view among civil society activists andorganisations, that only a political solution, rather than present efforts atmilitary domination, can help resolve the situation in South Waziristan.Yusufzai argues that "There is no military solution to any politicaldispute. The Army committed atrocities against Balochistan for more than 30years, but the same problems are re-emerging in the province. As long as the USforces will remain present in Afghanistan and the country will face politicalinstability, the situation in South Waziristan is not going to change. Themilitary launches fresh offensive in South Waziristan under the US pressure.Whenever, Karazai would make some noise, Armitage or Khalilzad will twistPakistan's Army and the result is another military operation." He addsthat, "Jirga is the only solution to this dispute. Recently, themilitary has forged another agreement... that the tribal people will not beasked to present the foreign militants before the authorities. They will onlyensure that the militants do not create any law and order situation forPakistan. This could have been accepted in the Shakai agreement. But God knowswhat happened that the Corps Commander Peshawar, Lieutenant General Safdar,announced that Nek Mohammad would present the militants before the authorities.Nek Mohamamd denied this and he was killed".

Usman Qazi also argues for a political solution: "The military is nottrained to resolve conflicts… We need civilian leadership, not militarydictators to resolve conflicts like 1971 or South Waziristan. And the militaryshould not forget that the tribals are not timid like unarmed Bengalis. They arearmed to teeth and nails (sic). Fighting them is not an easy task. Theyhave already killed more than 200 soldiers and they are quite capable to furtherresistance." Diplomatic observers add that the Pakistan Army is not trainedto fight the insurgency, but to fight a conventional war, and that too, onlywith India. This, however, leads them to underline the need to enhance thecapacities of the Army.

General Sultan insists that events in South Waziristan need to be seen in thecontext of global injustice. "As long as the issues like Kashmir andPalestine will not be resolved, global peace is impossible. Global injustice isthe root-cause of terrorism that is badly affecting Pakistan."

Clearly, before any solution can be arrived at in South Waziristan - and such asolution would need to be political - two of Pakistan's major problems wouldneed to be addressed: the first is that the military dictatorship refuses toaccept its mistakes or to learn from them. It continues to regard the Army asthe panacea for all problems. The second is that the military regime is under UScontrol. The latter wants the Army to solve the problem only through theexercise of force, rather than through efforts of conflict resolution. Incombination, this can only mean that the prospects of peace in the countryremain bleak.

Mohammad Shehzad is an Islamabad-based freelance journalist and writer.Courtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal