Author:
Publication: The Guardian
Date: November 24, 2004
URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1358654,00.html
Declan Walsh on the young militant
from the tribal regions who has become the scourge of the Pakistani government
The smart money in south Asia's
parlour game of choice - Where is Osama? - places the al-Qaida leader deep
inside the tribal badlands that straddle Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
But now a fresh target has sprung
up in the same unruly area: a hotheaded, one-legged young fighter with
a penchant for self- publicity.
Abdullah Mahsud, a 29-year-old militant
commander, has shot overnight from minor irritant to sworn enemy of Pakistan's
powerful politico-military establishment.
Over the past fortnight thousands
of crack troops have piled into his mountainous home area, backed by a
barrage of artillery and fire-spitting helicopter gunships. They are hunting
for militants in general and Mahsud in particular.
The drive is personal for President
Pervez Musharraf, who said he would happily pull the trigger on the bushy-haired
militant himself, given the chance
A botched kidnapping weeks ago sparked
the bloody storm of wrath. Mahsud's men captured two Chinese engineers
working on a nearby dam and demanded the release of fellow tribesmen captured
during military operations in the South Waziristan district.
But the operation quickly plunged
into chaos. Government troops cornered the hostage takers in a mud house
in a mountain village. Mahsud, directing them by radio from a nearby location,
ordered them to refuse all compromise.
On the sixth day of the standoff,
steeled by promises of martyrdom, the kidnappers stormed from the house.
Government hitmen cut all five down in a hail of gunfire. Unfortunately
they also killed one of the Chinese hostages, Wang Peng.
The unfolding drama brought Mahsud
to national prominence, partly thanks to his flair for the media. As the
tension mounted he gathered a group of local journalists at his stronghold
in Spinkai Raghzai.
Barking orders to the hostage takers,
he allowed the reporters to speak directly to the terrified Chinese engineers.
In a unique photo opportunity, he removed his artificial leg - the real
one was blown off by a landmine in Afghanistan - and plumped down on the
hillside.
As the crisis mounted, Mahsud became
increasingly agitated. He ordered his officers to cover themselves in explosive
and rush outside with the hostages. Warm tears rolled down his cheeks as
he sent them on their death mission, the veteran reporter Rahimullah Yusufzai
said afterwards.
"If you are martyred, pray for me
to Allah because martyrs' prayers are never refused," he urged. Moments
later the journalists heard the crackle of gunfire burst over the radio,
then silence.
"There is no answer," said Mahsud
as he prepared to flee. "It is probably all over."
Mahsud hails from a sub-clan of
the same name, famed for its fiery resistance to British colonists under
the Raj. A former commerce student at a government school in the northern
frontier town of Peshawar, he fell under the spell of fundamentalists,
who persuaded him to join the Taliban in Afghanistan in the mid 90s.
Now he has achieved national notoriety
in Pakistan. The hunt to capture him is partly inspired by President Musharraf's
close ally, the United States, which wants Pakistan to flush all militants,
particularly ones with al-Qaida links, from the restive tribal areas.
But, embarrassingly, the US had
Mahsud locked into its most highly protected detention facility until just
six months ago. After being captured alongside other Taliban fighters in
2001, Mahsud was transferred to Guantánamo Bay, where he was detained
for 25 months until last March.
Then, identifying himself as an
Afghan fighter, he was flown to Kabul and released. Shortly afterwards
he slipped home across the border, apparently to kick-start a fresh insurgency.
On November 8, the Pakistan army
overran Nano, Mahsud's home village, in a blaze of violence. They found
his stout-walled house, much like any other in the mountainous hinterland,
with firewood stacked neatly outside for the coming winter.
Yet inside, troops found 82mm mortars,
heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and, curiously, packets of
condoms. There were also videos inciting sectarian violence against Shia
Muslims.
But no sign of the militant himself,
who had vanished deep into the mountains. The army said it killed 40 of
his followers. "Our troops will remain here as long as it takes to wipe
out the last terrorist," said field commander Major-General Niaz Khattak.
The hunt is part of a broader anti-militant
drive in the rugged tribal areas.
Under pressure from his American
allies, President Musharraf launched a drive against al-Qaida hideouts
in South Waziristan, where hundreds of Uzbek, Chechen and Arab militants
were being sheltered by conservative local Muslims.
The offensive, pitting gunships
and rockets against militants in mud huts, has been bloodily successful.
Since March at least 300 militants, about 100 of them foreigners, have
been killed.
In Nano a white board marked with
Cyrillic script suggested the presence of Uzbek fighters, described by
Maj-Gen Khattak as "the lowest tier of al-Qaida".
But Musharraf has paid a high price.
Officially, 170 soldiers have died; the real toll is probably higher. And
the operation has seriously inflamed tensions in the tribal areas - where
a gun under the bed is the main rule of law - and brought hotheads like
Mahsud to prominence.
Since the kidnapping, Mahsud has
raised the stakes further. He claimed responsibility for a bomb that ripped
through the lobby of Islamabad's luxury Marriott hotel earlier this month,
seriously injuring at least one employee.
But as yet no sign of the fiery
young militant, who promises he has only more trouble in store for President
Musharraf and his US allies.
