SEPTEMBER 29, 2008.
RAGHAGAN, Pakistan --
Tribal militias are emerging here in Pakistan's embattled northwest to combat an influx of pro-Taliban militants, who are trying to carve out Islamist enclaves along the country's border with Afghanistan.
Backed by Pakistan's army, the militia movement is spreading amid a backlash against incursions by the militants, mainly Pakistanis allied with Taliban and al Qaeda guerillas fighting in Afghanistan.
The movement has "similarities" with the so-called "Sunni awakening" in Iraq, where U.S.-supported Arab tribesmen turned against al Qaeda fighters in Anbar province and elsewhere, says Tanveer Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Institute of Strategic Studies. But some political analysts worry that emergence of the militias could escalate fighting in the border region into a mini-civil war, pitting pro- and anti-Taliban Pakistanis against one another.
Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies believe the origins of last week's deadly bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad and other recent anti-government violence are rooted in Islamist strongholds in border districts like Bajaur, where Raghagan is located.
More than 8,000 Pakistani troops have been deployed in a six-week campaign against militants here, and the army says it has killed 1,000 militants. But the fighting shows little sign of abating because a steady supply of Islamist guerillas from Pakistan and Afghanistan has been pouring into the region.
That's where the government hopes tribal militias can help turn the tide. "The tribesmen have risen against the militants. It could be turning point in our fight against militancy," Owais Ghani, the governor of North West Frontier Province, says in an interview. "We are providing them financial as well as moral support."
White-bearded Malik Munasib Khan, chieftain of the Salarzai tribe, leads one of the largest new militias. Sporting a white skill cap and toting an old Kalashnikov rifle, Mr. Khan exhorts villagers here in Raghagan to stand up against an estimated 4,000 militants who have moved into the Bajaur district over the last year. "They are killing our people and destroying our land," he tells hundreds of men gathered at a dusty market surrounded by mud houses.
Armed with machineguns and rocket launchers, some dating back Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in 1980s, the tribesmen respond with shouts of Allah-u-Akbar! (God is great).
The Salarzai tribesman's militia claims to have 4,000 armed fighters under its control, a figure the Pakistani military believes is accurate. Militia leaders say they've driven militants -- including Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda fighters -- out of their region, torching their homes and installations. "We will not let any Taliban enter our area," says Ayaz Khan, a member of the militia.
Initially, some in the Salarzai tribe -- one of five main tribes in the Bajaur district -- had been sympathetic to the Islamists, who had promised to restore law and order to the poorly governed tribal area. But many rebelled after the militants tried to impose their harsh system of Islamic rule on the local population. "Every family was asked to give one male member for fighting. They would forcibly take people from their houses," Mr. Khan said.
The militia movement could give Pakistan's army a much needed boost in Bajaur. "They are fighting for us, and we have to give them all support," says Lt. General Masood Aslam, the Peshawar-based commander of the army corps responsible for operations in Pakistan's tribal areas.
A senior military officer calls Bajaur "the center of gravity of the militant movement" and military commanders say the struggle for control of the tribal region is crucial to containing the spread of Islamist militancy to other parts of northwestern Pakistan. Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, the commanding officer of the military campaign in the region last week declared that "The threat of Bajaur radiates in all directions and affects the entire region."
Indeed, tribal groups in other parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province have started organizing their own militias to counter the militant threat. "It's a reaction against the Taliban threatening local tribal culture and tradition," said Khalid Aziz, a former chief secretary of North Frontier Province and who has also served in the tribal areas.
In the last few weeks, militias have emerged in the Kurram and Khyber tribal areas, as well as in the Dir district in North West Frontier province, according to residents and officials. Initially, the Lashkars were organized as indigenous resistance groups without help from local government administrations, but now they have full support from the military and the provincial government.
One 3,000-man militia in the Khyber tribal region last week forced Taliban guerillas out of an area close to the main highway linking Pakistan with Afghanistan, officials say. The militants had been involved in attacks on convoys carrying supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Leaders of the Payandakhel tribe in Dir district, which borders Bajaur, also announced last week that they would form their own militia after militants briefly took hostage some 300 pupils at a local school. The two hostage takers blew themselves up after armed tribesmen stormed the school building and freed the students. A tribal leader said the decision to attack the Islamist militants was taken because the local government administration had failed to protect the residents.
The militias emerging influence worries some analysts. "The militias have given a breather to the military which has suffered huge casualties in the fighting against militants," says Mr. Khan of the Pakistan Institute of Strategic Studies. "But we have to be more careful that they may become too powerful (and) challenge the government."
But Mr. Ghani, the North West Frontier's governor, rejects this argument. "It will not happen," he says. "They are operating under government control."
