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Pakistan tribal zone 'needs $1bn to prevent it becoming al-Qaida base'
Head of Frontier Corps warns that only investment can prevent area bordering Afghanistan from becoming terrorism hotspot
Saeed Shah in Peshawar guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 April 2010 15.15
Pakistani troops maintain a curfew in Bannu, on the edge of Waziristan, during an offensive last year. Photograph: Ijaz Muhammad/AP
The volatile tribal zone of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, needs $1bn (£600m) in development funding from the international community to avoid it relapsing into a base for al-Qaida, the Pakistani general in charge of forces in the area said today.
Major General Tariq Khan, the head of the Frontier Corps, said combat operations to clear Taliban and al-Qaida extremists from the tribal belt, including North Waziristan, would be completed by May.
Five of the seven "agencies" in the zone formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) are now under control, he said, with operations still under way in only the Orakzai and North Waziristan areas.
He said that once the region had been pacified it must not be neglected by the international community as it was after the late 1980s Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"We need $1bn to bring stability to a land that caused pain to the entire world, and we saw that impact ultimately on the Twin Towers [the September 11 attacks]," Khan said. "Everybody left an open wound here. They never concluded the war. The world needs to pay up for it. There's an obligation.
"That's not a lot of money to pacify a region that is the cause of global conflict."
The $1bn would be spent repairing damage to roads, schools and other infrastructure, building new facilities to provide health and education for the population, and developing agriculture and industry.
North Waziristan is a crucial operation for US-led forces across the border in Afghanistan.
The west has been pressing for action in the area, which is a base for al-Qaida and the Haqqani network, one of the most feared insurgent groups in Afghanistan.
Confirming that an offensive in North Waziristan had begun there was no official announcement Khan said that, unlike the operation in South Waziristan last year, which involved around 25,000 troops, it would consist of smaller initiatives.
"I think the kind of operations they're going to do [in North Waziristan] are going to be progressive," he said.
"They're going to squeeze them [insurgents] out of areas, rather than carry out hardcore kinetic operations. They are going to be incremental."
After the combat phase of operations troops plan to search every home for links to extremists and to pursue the remnants of the Pakistani Taliban leadership, Khan said.
The Frontier Corps, which recruits exclusively from the tribal areas it guards, launched an operation in Orakzai last week. Around 200 militants are reported to have been killed.
Many extremists from other parts of the tribal area, especially South Waziristan, had fled to Orakzai.
The tribal area is one of the poorest parts of Pakistan. After the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, al-Qaida and the Taliban crossed the border, turning the area into an extremist fiefdom.
Pakistan tribal zone 'needs $1bn to prevent it becoming al-Qaida base' | World news | guardian.co.uk
Head of Frontier Corps warns that only investment can prevent area bordering Afghanistan from becoming terrorism hotspot
Saeed Shah in Peshawar guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 April 2010 15.15
Pakistani troops maintain a curfew in Bannu, on the edge of Waziristan, during an offensive last year. Photograph: Ijaz Muhammad/AP
The volatile tribal zone of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, needs $1bn (£600m) in development funding from the international community to avoid it relapsing into a base for al-Qaida, the Pakistani general in charge of forces in the area said today.
Major General Tariq Khan, the head of the Frontier Corps, said combat operations to clear Taliban and al-Qaida extremists from the tribal belt, including North Waziristan, would be completed by May.
Five of the seven "agencies" in the zone formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) are now under control, he said, with operations still under way in only the Orakzai and North Waziristan areas.
He said that once the region had been pacified it must not be neglected by the international community as it was after the late 1980s Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"We need $1bn to bring stability to a land that caused pain to the entire world, and we saw that impact ultimately on the Twin Towers [the September 11 attacks]," Khan said. "Everybody left an open wound here. They never concluded the war. The world needs to pay up for it. There's an obligation.
"That's not a lot of money to pacify a region that is the cause of global conflict."
The $1bn would be spent repairing damage to roads, schools and other infrastructure, building new facilities to provide health and education for the population, and developing agriculture and industry.
North Waziristan is a crucial operation for US-led forces across the border in Afghanistan.
The west has been pressing for action in the area, which is a base for al-Qaida and the Haqqani network, one of the most feared insurgent groups in Afghanistan.
Confirming that an offensive in North Waziristan had begun there was no official announcement Khan said that, unlike the operation in South Waziristan last year, which involved around 25,000 troops, it would consist of smaller initiatives.
"I think the kind of operations they're going to do [in North Waziristan] are going to be progressive," he said.
"They're going to squeeze them [insurgents] out of areas, rather than carry out hardcore kinetic operations. They are going to be incremental."
After the combat phase of operations troops plan to search every home for links to extremists and to pursue the remnants of the Pakistani Taliban leadership, Khan said.
The Frontier Corps, which recruits exclusively from the tribal areas it guards, launched an operation in Orakzai last week. Around 200 militants are reported to have been killed.
Many extremists from other parts of the tribal area, especially South Waziristan, had fled to Orakzai.
The tribal area is one of the poorest parts of Pakistan. After the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, al-Qaida and the Taliban crossed the border, turning the area into an extremist fiefdom.
Pakistan tribal zone 'needs $1bn to prevent it becoming al-Qaida base' | World news | guardian.co.uk
