RabzonKhan
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2008
- Messages
- 4,289
- Reaction score
- 3
- Country
- Location
VIEW: The impending NWA operation from a Pakhtun perspective
Daily Times
Jack Azmaray
November 03, 2012
In his Independence Day speech at the military academy in Kakul, the Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said that no state could afford a parallel system of government. He added, The fight against extremism and terrorism is our own war and we are right in fighting it. Let there be no doubt about it, otherwise well be divided and taken towards civil war. In mid-October the 69th Formation Commanders meeting convened by COAS General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani decided to undertake an operation in North Waziristan with the joint consensus of the army and civilian leadership.
It is now clear that some kind of operation will be conducted in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) in the coming months. The big question is against whom this operation will be carried out. It is a common perception in Pakistan that if the military sincerely decides to confront extremism, it can totally eradicate Islamic militancy from the country. This euphoric perception is primarily based on the notion that militancy is regarded as an issue related mostly with FATA and the Pakhtuns; and support for Islamic militancy in Punjab especially in the state institutions has always been looked at as only strategic in nature. Thus it is widely believed that a genuine operation in FATA, especially in North Waziristan, will rapidly de-radicalise the entire Pakistani society. The Pakistan army has also implicitly indicated that the main target of the proposed operation will be the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and some elements of al Qaeda in North Waziristan.
Unfortunately, this assumption is not correct. Either the Pakistani military establishment has to engage in a limited civil war all over Pakistan now or risk waiting for total chaos in the future. NWA is the right place to start a confrontation against all shades of extremists who have established their strategic commands there, but this fight will not be decided in NWA. If there is a genuine desire to curb extremism in Pakistan, ****** organisations must be confronted and curtailed in Punjab and the Pakhtuns of Balochistan must be freed from the tyranny of the Quetta Taliban. This means a comprehensive operation in many parts of Pakistan, not just in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA.
It is widely believed that the Punjabi Taliban, especially Lashkar-e-Tayaba (LeT), created the organisational structure of the TTP and it is impossible to keep LeT out of the fight if the TTP is relentlessly targeted. The LeT is the largest jihadist outfit in the country. Their spiritual headquarters is located at Muridke, which is around 30 kilometres from Lahore. Here the LeT has developed two townships, Mecca and Medina, where the puritan Salafi (Wahabi) Islam is practised. While jihadists are imparted religious education at the LeT headquarters, for militant training they have to rely on areas like North Waziristan.
If the LeT loses their most important safe haven in NWA to train people and send them into active jihad, their business and ideological model will be under a lot of pressure. For over two decades, members of the LeT acted as true religious Samurai, carrying all kinds of weapons in public, killing opponents with total impunity from the law and accumulating wealth through whichever way possible. Many jihadists feel the same anguish at General Kiyanis speech that the Japanese Samurai must have felt with Emperor Meijis declaration of abolishing the Samurais powers. If you take their training camps, the sanctuaries, the weapons and the ****** economy away, these militants are nothing more than mullahs and madrassa students. That status is a big demotion from their current status. That is why the reaction to General Kayanis speech in the form of an attack on Kamra air base was swift. Such an attack was not possible without support from inside the base and in the surrounding villages. In other words, such an attack was not possible without the help of Punjabi extremists.
A genuine operation in North Waziristan will not only be a loss to the LeT but other organisations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba will lose significant influence in KP and FATA, especially in the DI Khan, Tank and Hangu districts. Other ****** organisations like Jaish-e-Muhammed, Harkat-ul-Ansar and Harkat-ul Mujahedeen will also suffer.
A selective operation in NWA, which only targets the so-called bad Taliban, is not possible and not even realistic. These operations cannot be carried out in a manner that the Punjabi ****** groups, the Quetta Taliban or the Haqqani network will not get offended. The problem is that there is no realisation in the military and security establishment about the fact that what they start in NWA will also need to be sorted out in Punjab. Since neither the military (which comes predominantly from Punjab) nor the political leadership of the province even admit that such a problem exists in the province, confronting these extremists in the province is simply out of the question.
There is a lot of anxiety about the upcoming operation in KP and FATA. The anxiety is mainly from the fact that this operation may again be high on theatrics and low on substance. The extremists and the military both will kill innocent Pakhtuns in abundance. The operation if halfheartedly carried out or improperly handled will enhance the political space for religious parties in KP and FATA to a level where opposing extremism may even be considered politically incorrect in the near future.
The writer is a freelance columnist
Daily Times
Jack Azmaray
November 03, 2012
In his Independence Day speech at the military academy in Kakul, the Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said that no state could afford a parallel system of government. He added, The fight against extremism and terrorism is our own war and we are right in fighting it. Let there be no doubt about it, otherwise well be divided and taken towards civil war. In mid-October the 69th Formation Commanders meeting convened by COAS General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani decided to undertake an operation in North Waziristan with the joint consensus of the army and civilian leadership.
It is now clear that some kind of operation will be conducted in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) in the coming months. The big question is against whom this operation will be carried out. It is a common perception in Pakistan that if the military sincerely decides to confront extremism, it can totally eradicate Islamic militancy from the country. This euphoric perception is primarily based on the notion that militancy is regarded as an issue related mostly with FATA and the Pakhtuns; and support for Islamic militancy in Punjab especially in the state institutions has always been looked at as only strategic in nature. Thus it is widely believed that a genuine operation in FATA, especially in North Waziristan, will rapidly de-radicalise the entire Pakistani society. The Pakistan army has also implicitly indicated that the main target of the proposed operation will be the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and some elements of al Qaeda in North Waziristan.
Unfortunately, this assumption is not correct. Either the Pakistani military establishment has to engage in a limited civil war all over Pakistan now or risk waiting for total chaos in the future. NWA is the right place to start a confrontation against all shades of extremists who have established their strategic commands there, but this fight will not be decided in NWA. If there is a genuine desire to curb extremism in Pakistan, ****** organisations must be confronted and curtailed in Punjab and the Pakhtuns of Balochistan must be freed from the tyranny of the Quetta Taliban. This means a comprehensive operation in many parts of Pakistan, not just in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA.
It is widely believed that the Punjabi Taliban, especially Lashkar-e-Tayaba (LeT), created the organisational structure of the TTP and it is impossible to keep LeT out of the fight if the TTP is relentlessly targeted. The LeT is the largest jihadist outfit in the country. Their spiritual headquarters is located at Muridke, which is around 30 kilometres from Lahore. Here the LeT has developed two townships, Mecca and Medina, where the puritan Salafi (Wahabi) Islam is practised. While jihadists are imparted religious education at the LeT headquarters, for militant training they have to rely on areas like North Waziristan.
If the LeT loses their most important safe haven in NWA to train people and send them into active jihad, their business and ideological model will be under a lot of pressure. For over two decades, members of the LeT acted as true religious Samurai, carrying all kinds of weapons in public, killing opponents with total impunity from the law and accumulating wealth through whichever way possible. Many jihadists feel the same anguish at General Kiyanis speech that the Japanese Samurai must have felt with Emperor Meijis declaration of abolishing the Samurais powers. If you take their training camps, the sanctuaries, the weapons and the ****** economy away, these militants are nothing more than mullahs and madrassa students. That status is a big demotion from their current status. That is why the reaction to General Kayanis speech in the form of an attack on Kamra air base was swift. Such an attack was not possible without support from inside the base and in the surrounding villages. In other words, such an attack was not possible without the help of Punjabi extremists.
A genuine operation in North Waziristan will not only be a loss to the LeT but other organisations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba will lose significant influence in KP and FATA, especially in the DI Khan, Tank and Hangu districts. Other ****** organisations like Jaish-e-Muhammed, Harkat-ul-Ansar and Harkat-ul Mujahedeen will also suffer.
A selective operation in NWA, which only targets the so-called bad Taliban, is not possible and not even realistic. These operations cannot be carried out in a manner that the Punjabi ****** groups, the Quetta Taliban or the Haqqani network will not get offended. The problem is that there is no realisation in the military and security establishment about the fact that what they start in NWA will also need to be sorted out in Punjab. Since neither the military (which comes predominantly from Punjab) nor the political leadership of the province even admit that such a problem exists in the province, confronting these extremists in the province is simply out of the question.
There is a lot of anxiety about the upcoming operation in KP and FATA. The anxiety is mainly from the fact that this operation may again be high on theatrics and low on substance. The extremists and the military both will kill innocent Pakhtuns in abundance. The operation if halfheartedly carried out or improperly handled will enhance the political space for religious parties in KP and FATA to a level where opposing extremism may even be considered politically incorrect in the near future.
The writer is a freelance columnist