June 15, 2014
Pakistan commanders send a crucial message
Show ability to carry out precise attacks in a difficult, restive region
When Pakistan’s air force jets bombed suspected sanctuaries of Uzbek militants across the North Waziristan region early on Sunday, the country’s influential army sent a powerful signal showing its fast-growing determination to raise the stakes in a high-casualty chronic conflict.
More vitally, Pakistan’s Generals led by General Raheel Sharif, the army’s chief of staff, were also determined to show their rapidly growing ability to carry out precise attacks in a region, which for long has remained practically out of bounds for authorities.
Pakistan’s intelligence officials, citing information from the ground, claimed the killing of up to 100 or more militants, mostly from the central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan.
For years, Uzbek militants have based themselves in parts of Pakistan’s federally administered tribal areas or Fata — a rugged semi-autonomous terrain along the Afghan border, which includes North Waziristan. The region has kept Pakistan’s army practically in the eye of the storm for over a decade since the first units moved in to combat Al Qaida and Taliban militants, and their associates.
The Islamic movement of Uzbekistan or IMU, the coalition of Uzbek militants, was created in 1991 to fight the Uzbek government in the post Soviet state. The IMU began with the endgame of installing an Islamic caliphate in Uzbekistan — an objective that was later expanded to target all of central Asia.
IMU fighters active in Afghanistan are known to have used their bases in parts of Fata for a variety of objectives.
These have ranged from the training of fighters in skills ranging from simple battle-field techniques to manufacturing of explosives. These skills were employed successfully in battles against US-led western troops in Afghanistan, which invaded the central Asian country after the New York terrorist attacks known as 9/11.
The IMU suffered a significant psychological blow in 2009 when Tahir Yuldashev, one of its two founding fathers, was killed in a US drone attack. Though the movement sought to keep itself together by naming a successor, Yuldashev’s departure as the IMU’s binding force also weakened its sense of unity.
In the words of one senior western official who has tracked militancy in Afghanistan and central Asia for years: “Yuldashev’s death removed the main magnet which gave continuing life to Uzbek militancy and kept the militants together”.
While a high casualty toll among Uzbek fighters was reported in Sunday’s attacks, a Pakistani intelligence official who spoke to Gulf News recalled the “ruthless manner in which Yuldashev ran his campaign”.
Among other legacies, Yuldashev is still remembered for introducing the practice of beheadings of Pakistani soldiers and government officials taken into captivity by Uzbek militants. “The Uzbeks mastered the art of being particularly brutal. If you ever watched a photo of a beheaded person, you will not be able to sleep peacefully for weeks thereafter” said the Pakistani official adding, “for these people (Uzbeks) who introduced beheadings, chopping a head became a matter of pride”.
The ultimate downfall of this widely feared group may have been triggered on June 8, when a group of up to ten Uzbek militants attacked Pakistan’s busiest airport in the southern port city of Karachi. Up to 36 people including militants, airport security guards and airport workers were killed. Subsequently, Uzbek militants and the IMU claimed responsibility in retaliation for Pakistan’s earlier airstrikes in Fata.
However, largely unnoticed by the public eye, the Pakistan army had already succeeded in beginning to crack a once-solid coalition of Taliban militants operating under the banner of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), by successfully overseeing defections of some of the TTP’s key commanders.
On Sunday, Pakistani officials confirmed that the airstrikes earlier in the day were successful mainly due to precise intelligence reports gathered by the Pakistan army on the locations of camps belonging to Uzbek militants. Among those killed was Abu Abdul Rahman Al Mani, a notorious Uzbek militant who reportedly planned the Karachi airport attack.
Though Sunday’s attacks still leaves behind hundreds of Uzbek militants scattered across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, Pakistani officials claimed a likely change in the future of this once ferocious and widely feared group. In the words of the Pakistani intelligence official: “these (Uzbek) militants are more than likely to live with the fear that we (Pakistan) can extract revenge for future attacks”.
For General Sharif, who has overseen that revenge a week after the Karachi attack, Sunday’s campaign has demonstrated Pakistan’s growing ability to strike back following future provocations.
Pakistan commanders send a crucial message | GulfNews.com
