Author: Samuel Baid
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 9, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/174877/Pak-Army-can't-sustain-gains.html
The televised 'civil war' in Pakistan may
be a lot of hot air because the Army is killing more civilians than real Taliban
and in the long run Islamabad will have to suffer the consequences
Without a strong political determination to
defeat the Taliban/al-Qaeda threat to the existence of Pakistan, the Pakistani
Army cannot succeed on its own in its operations in the tribal areas. There
is no consensus among political leaders about the seriousness of this threat.
No political party, including the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) can dare campaign
against the Taliban/al-Qaeda or, for that matter, against any of the banned
terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
On the contrary, they try to appease Taliban/al-Qaeda by howling against America's
drone attacks on their hideouts or by snubbing India for showing concern for
the Sikh community in the Orakzai agency. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Sham
Mehmud Querishi, while condemning India's concern, did not say a word about
Taliban's authority to collect jaziya from them.
Over the past 5-6 years, the Taliban has expanded
their activities outside the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into
different parts of Pakistan - in fat all over the country - piggy riding the
local terrorist or Pushtun settlers. In Balochistan, they have mixed with
the people in the Pakhtun part of the Province. Here, they are trying to find
out an alternative route for incursion into Afghanistan. In Sindh they are
concentrating on Karachi, the nerve centre of Pakistan's economic life. Here
they commit crimes like kidnapping for ransom, hijacking of cars and loot
to make money which they send back to FATA for Taliban's activities. In Karachi
they are hosted by Pakhtuns who otherwise swear by the Awami National Party
(ANP), a secular party. Another way of making money is by threatening Christians
to either accept Islam or pay jaziya. Frightened Christians have appealed
to politicians but to no avail. They might end up paying this toll just as
some helpless Sikhs in the Orakzai agency.
Talib incursion into Punjab is a serious threat
to Pakistan's existence. Punjab is the most important province. They say you
can destabilise Pakistan if you can destabilise Punjab. They have conducted
suicide bombings in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore and other places. The attack
on a Police Training Centre in Lahore on March 30, just 10 Km from the Wahaga
border, caused a serious concern to India.
But what has caused the maximum concern worldwide
is the armed Taliban's invasion of Buner district from bases in Swat where
they have managed to establish their sway under pretext of the Nizam-e-Adal
Regulation (Islamic justice). In the first week of April they entered Buner
telling people to accept Islamic justice. They kidnapped and killed some security
men and fought with locals who opposed them. A local jirga asked them to leave
Buner. They refused and killed five persons. The people of Buner realised
they had been surrounded on all four sides. There was no help from the Government
and the security forces. The Taliban took control of largely venerated Mazar
of Pir Baba and banned women's entry into it. They began recruiting Talib;
occupied the house of a man who opposed them; banned music in buses; hijacked
vehicles; looted medicine shops and patrolled streets to terrorise the local
population.
Neither the provincial nor federal government
tried to stop the Taliban till the Americans began expressing their shock
at the fact that Buner was just 60 miles away from Islamabad, the national
capital of Pakistan. This development strengthened the fears that Taliban/al-Qaeda's
ultimate goal was Islamabad and the capture of the country's nuclear arsenal
was imminent.
The government took more than three weeks
to launch operations against the Taliban in Buner. But the local people say
more civilians were killed in these operations than Talib, who have all shifted
to safer places. The Army spokesman, General Athar Abbas, said the Taliban
were using the local people as human shields. What is worrying is that the
Army is nowhere near success in Buner. It is true that the Taliban have expanded
the area of their writ in the past one year when the present PPP-led Government
took over. And, accordingly, the threat of Taliban/al-Qaeda takeover has begun
to look a possibility. There are estimates that Taliban already occupy 17
per cent of Pakistan's territory.
President Obama, unlike his predecessor George
W. Bush, seems interested more in the stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan
than in pushing democracy. On completing 100 days in office recently, he said:
"I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan…..the civilian
government there right now is very fragile and don't seems to have the capacity
to deliver basic services: schools, healthcare, rule of law, a judicial system
that works for the majority of the people." It was very transparently
insinuated that the present civilian leadership cannot protect the country's
nuclear arsenal from terrorists. But he put his trust in the Army's ability
to do so. "I'm confident that we can ensure that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal
is secure. The Pakistani Army recognises the hazard of those weapons falling
into the wrong hands. It is taking much more seriously the armed threat from
militant extremists."
This strong statement, which has been strongly
resented by some sections in Pakistan, is suspected to have been based on
possible briefing by Pakistani Army leaders. What Mr Obama said is a tragic
truth about Pakistan. But it is also a fact that terrorism and Pakistan's
clandestine nuclear programme grew together as cousins in the 1980s, with
American direct or indirect support.
