Kashmir Times
Where Durand Line melts under heat of tough battles
Faulty strategy leaves road open for Taliban
Iftikhar Gilani
BAJAUR (Near Pakistan-Afghanistan border): For a journalist covering Kashmir conflict for over past two decades, it was a familiar sight. Alert soldiers frisking people lined up in nearby fields, shattered markets, bombed schools and burnt petrol pumps, as an eight-member Indian media team zoomed past markets and villages of this erstwhile Taliban stronghold under heavy security. The tell-tale signs of world’s toughest battles fought in the lush green Bajaur agency, northern most tip of Pakistan, bordering Afgahnistan’s Kumar province are glaring.
Pakistan Army’s local commanders reject the notion created by western writers that socio-economic indicators were responsible for the ascendancy of Tehrik-e-Taliban in the region. The area looks like a typical Kashmir countryside, green fields, streams bounded by robust Hindu-Kush Mountains. “They are not aborigine tribes. The road density here is 3.28 sq miles much better as per South Asian standards,” boasts Colonel Mohammad Nauman Saeed, who briefed Indian team in the operation room of Bajaur Scouts at the dusty town of Khar, headquarters of Bajur agency. Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are divided into seven political units or agencies—Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan—and four frontier regions—Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan.
Then why this uprising, which devoured thousands of lives? A ready answer from Pakistan Army officers is the anti-Soviet operations launched by the West coupled with flow of money that corrupted the ages-old tribal governance system, which they believe was democratic and revolved round self responsibility and an elaborate moral code of Pakhtunwali. “When Soviets left and others too packed baggage, the region was left at the mercy of war lords and criminal gangs,” Col Nauman, commander of Bajaur Scouts added.
Though, Pakistan Army facilitates local and western journalists to visit liberated areas quite often, for the first time they invited Indian media team including three TV reporters to see first-hand battle against “terrorism”. Analysts back in Islamabad, though appreciating the move described it a big gamble.
As Pakistani military officers point out that a faulty US strategy in Afghanistan pushed militants to take over Pakistan’s tribal area, they fail to reply why a similar strategy was being employed by Islamabad as well. “Military campaigns work under the hammer and anvil strategy. The US-led NATO forces used hammer but ignored anvil, the reasons best known to them,” said Nauman, who was flanked by Brigadier Zafar-ul-Haq, commander of 27th Brigade of Frontier Corps. But, where have these militants now gone? They have crossed over to Kunar province of Afghanistan, which is now being touted as stronghold of Taliban. Out of 36 provinces of Afghanistan, Taliban run a shadow administration in as many as 33 provinces. “That shows increasing influence of Taliban across and to be candid, our job is difficult. Whatever the West says about us, they are still failing to put anvil or block to our hammer. Despite our clearing the areas, we are still vulnerable,” maintains Col Nauman, who single handedly, mounting a tank, entered the Taliban stronghold of Damadola village 11-kms from Kunar. His lieutenant Major Ejaz had hidden himself in a field for three days, with just a bullet in his rifle till air attacks paved the way for reinforcement.
Col Nauman even goes to the extent of saying that either Pakistan Army be allowed to cross border to eliminate militants for the sake of permanent peace in the region or international community must decide and evaluate their operations in Afghanistan. In the middle of the Pakistani military offensive the US forces left the border naked, and did not intercept the fleeing militants. They repeated the act when Pakistani Army launched offensive in South Waziristan. Such acts together with US army’s retreat from Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley–has led to fears in Pakistan that Americans were walking away from a key military agreement.
According to figures provided by Government of Pakistan, 1,600 militants were killed and more than 2,000 injured while some 150 civilians also died and about 2,000 were injured in the fighting. The military operation forced more than 300,000 people to flee their homes and take shelter in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in settled districts of the province.
There are three main tribes in Bajaur: Utman Khel, Tarkalanri, and Mamund. The largest tribe is Utman Khel, judged by population or territory. The Utman Khel are at the southeast of Bajaur, while Mamund are at the southwest, and the Tarkani are at the north of Bajaur. Its border with Afghanistan's Kunar province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistan and the region.
Unconfirmed western media reports suggest the sighting of Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri in Damadola village leading to US missile strikes on January 13, 2006, killing 18 people. It is said that the Taliban leader in Bajaur, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, had hosted a dinner for al-Zawahiri, shortly before the US strike. On October 30, 2006, first US drone strike also hit the area killing 80 people, mostly children. Maulana Liaqat, the head of a local seminary was killed in the attack.
Pakistan’s military officials admit they faced stronger resistance in Bajaur than anywhere else since they started military operations against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in 2003. Taliban had built over 150 caves and tunnels carved in the mountains over a period of five to seven years. These engineering marvels are never short of oxygen. Captain Ali of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of Pakistan Army maintained that even daisy cutter bombs which penetrate earth were useless against this network of tunnels.
Notwithstanding, Pakistan government claims having cleared Bajaur, all the leading Taliban leaders including Qari Ziaurahman and Faqir Mohammad continue roaming just 25-kms away in Kunar province across Durand line in Afghanistan. There is lurking fear that in absence of a “hammer and anvil” strategy the militants may stage a comeback in the region. Pakistan Army also believes that US drone strikes create a negative public opinion leading swelling ranks of Taliban. Also despite Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani’s orders to stop practice of punishing the whole family for the crimes of a single member, acts like alleged demolition of the house of Jamaat-e-Islami’s provincial deputy head Haroon Rashid in which his mother and niece lost lives, adds anger and fuels the cycle of revenge amongst Pashtuns, who have paid hardly any regard to the boundary drawn by a British diplomat Mortimer Durand in 1893.
