Thread: What is happening in the Tribal Areas?

Wednesday, March 22, 2006 E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version

Taliban control Waziristan


Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Pakistani Taliban have taken control of most of North and South Waziristan, enforcing strict social edicts such as a ban on the sale of music and films and shaving of beards in the tribal agencies, the Guardian reports. Militants collect taxes from passing vehicles at new checkpoints, and last week an Islamic court was established in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan, to replace the traditional jirga, says the British newspaper. The military deployed 70,000 troops to Waziristan two years ago to rein in the militants. But the campaign is faltering. An army assault against an alleged Al Qaeda training camp outside Miranshah on March 1 left more than 100 dead. Since declaring a curfew in Miranshah, government troops have regained control. But some people are worried. “The so-called war on terror is going badly,” said one diplomat. Analysts say the Pakistani Taliban is a loose alliance of tribal militia operating under radical clerics. Many are angered by heavy-handed attacks against suspected Al Qaeda hideouts, which are thought to have killed hundreds of civilians over the last two years.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...2-3-2006_pg1_6

The more things change, the more they remain the same. I'm sure you remember Elphinstones retreat from Kabul and the idiocy of McNaughten et al. This piece dredges up all that for me and I'm reminded of this piece by Fisk in 2001

On the heights of the Kabul Gorge, they still find ancient belt buckles and corroded sword hilts. You can no longer read the insignia of the British regiments of the old East India Company but their bones – those of all 16,000 of them – still lie somewhere amid the dark earth and scree of the most forbidding mountains in Afghanistan. Like the British who came later, like the Russians who were to arrive more than a century afterwards, General William Elphinstone's campaign was surrounded with rhetoric and high principles and ended in disaster. George Bush Junior and Nato, please note.

Indeed, if there is one country – calling it a nation would be a misnomer – that the West should avoid militarily, it is the tribal land in which Osama Bin Laden maintains his obscure sanctuary. Just over two decades ago, I found out what it was like to be on an invasion army in that breathlessly beautiful, wild, proud plateau. Arrested by the Russian Parachute Regiment near the Salang Tunnel, I was sent with a Soviet convoy back to Kabul. We were ambushed, and out of the snowdrifts came the Afghans, carrying knives. An air strike and the arrival of Soviet Tadjik troops saved us. But the mighty Red Army had been humbled before men who could not write their own names and whose politics were so remote that a mujahid fighter would later insist to me that London was occupied by Russian troops.

Back in 1839 we British were also worried about the Russians. General Elphinstone lead an East India Company army of 16,500 – along with 38,000 followers – into Afghanistan, anxious to put an end to Dost Mohamed's flirtation with the Tsar, took Kandahar and entered Kabul on 30 June with the first foreign force to occupy the city in modern times. Dost Mohamed – the British Superpower of the time knew how to deal with recalcitrant natives – was dispatched to exile in India, but the Afghans were not prepared to be placed under British tutelage. To garrison a foreign army in Kabul was folly, as Elphinstone must have realised when, on 1 November, 1840, a British official, Alexander Burns, was hacked to pieces by a mob in the souk and his head impaled on a stake. A 300-strong British unit in the field fled for its life back to Kabul. And when Dost Mohamed's son turned up, leading an Afghan army of 30,000, Elphinstone was doomed.

He bartered his freedom in return for a safe passage back to the British fort in Jalalabad, close to the Indian frontier. It was one of the coldest winters on record and with few supplies, virtually no food and false promises of safety, he led his army – their columns 10 miles in length – out into the frozen desolation of the Kabul Gorge. The camp followers were left by the wayside; contemporary records describe Indian women attached to the British army's colonial force, stripped naked, starving, raped and knifed by Afghan tribesmen, their corpses left in the snow. Elphinstone had long since given up trying to protect them. Yet each new foray down the chasm of the Kabul Gorge – I was to see the remains of a Russian convoy littered across the same track almost 140 years later – led to further ambushes and massacres.

Elphinstone secured the safety of himself, a few officers and a party of English ladies. The last British guardsmen were cut down on the heights, surrounded by thousands of Afghans, firing to the last round, the company commander dying with the Union flag wrapped around his waist. Days later, the last survivor of the massacres, galloping his exhausted horse Jalalabad was attacked by two Afghan cavalry. Hacking them away from him, he broke his sword, Hollywood-style, on one of the men. But with his horse dying beneath him, he reached the British fort. It was to date the greatest defeat of British arms in history.

The British clung to Afghanistan as if it was a jewel in the crown. Under the Treaty of Gandamak, the Amir Yakub Khan could rule Kabul and a British embassy would be opened in the city. But within months, in 1879, the residency was under siege, its few occupants fighting – once more – to the last man. With the embassy on fire, the handful of Britons inside made repeated forays into the ranks of the Afghans. "When charged,'' a later British account would claim, "the Afghan soldiers ran like sheep before a wolf". But within hours, the British were fighting from the burning roof of the residency, slashed to bits with swords, stripped and their bodies burned. The Consul, born to a French father and an Irish mother, was Major Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari, KCB, CSI. A British journalist with the Kabul Field Force found a few scorched bones in the residency yard; they included, no doubt, Sir Pierre's remains.

Ironically, one of Elphinstone's successors was visiting the site of the 1842 massacre in 1880 when he heard that his army – this was the Second Afghan War – had been attacked in a remote semi-desert called Maiwand where the 30th Bombay Infantry was fighting off thousands of ghazi warriors who were charging suicidally at British cannon and Egyptian colonial troops. Savage in their assaults, waving green Islamic banners and utterly heedless of their own lives – and the word "suicidal" is not used loosely here – they threw themselves among the British.

We were to conduct a military inquiry into the disaster that followed and now, in the fragile, yellowing pages of the Indian British Army's Intelligence Branch report we can find chilling evidence of what this meant. Captain Wainwaring was to recall how "the whole of the ground to the left of the 30th Native Infantry, and between it and the Grenadiers, was covered with swarms of ghazis and banner-men. The ghazis were actually in the ranks of the Grenadiers, pulling the men out and hacking them down with their swords ...''. A young Afghan woman – all we know is that her name was Malaleh – feared that the tribesmen might withdraw and so tore off her veil, holding it above her head as a flag and charging at the Grenadiers herself. She was shot down by British rifle fire. But the British fled. In all, they lost 1,320 men including 21 officers, along with 1,000 rifles and at least 600 swords.

The Great Game was supposed to be about frontiers – about keeping a British-controlled Afghanistan between the Indian Empire and the Russian border – but it was a history of betrayals. Those we thought were on our side turned out to be against us. Until 1878, we had thought the Amir Sher Ali Khan of Kabul was our friend, ready to fight for the British Empire – just as a man called Osama bin Laden would later fight the Russians on "our" behalf – but he forbade passage to British troops and encouraged the robbery of British merchants.

He had "openly and assiduously endeavoured ... to stir up religious hatred against the English,'' our declaration of war had announced on 21 November, 1878. The Amir's aiding and abetting of the murder of the British Embassy staff was "a treacherous and cowardly crime, which has brought indelible disgrace upon the Afghan people,'' Sir Frederick Roberts announced in 1879 when, yet again, the British had occupied Kabul. The Amir's followers "should not escape ... penalty and ... the punishment inflicted should be such as will be felt and remembered ... All persons convicted of bearing a part [in the murders] will be dealt with according to their deserts.'' It was an ancient, Victorian warning, a ghostly preamble to the words we have been hearing from President Bush – and, indeed, Mr Blair – in the last 48 hours.

The Russians were to endure their 10 years of Calvary exactly a century later, though in truth it was the Afghans who suffered a virtual genocide under the Soviets. Osama bin Laden, who had himself escaped several murder attempts by Russian agents, survived. Perhaps Vladimir Putin who is being asked to subscribe to the West's new battle for "democracy and liberty'' against the forces of darkness might remind Mr Bush just how painful Russia's military adventure in Afghanistan proved to be. Perhaps we could all go back to the history books before suggesting – and the idea of such an adventure is clearly being dreamed of in Washington – that the Great Game should be taken up once more.

Source

Parihaka,

An interesting find.

Ah, the Afghans!

That is why the NWFP is beyond the realms of the Pakistan polity!

Friday, March 24, 2006 E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version

Groups to address issues in tribal areas

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: President Musharraf has formed four different groups to address key questions regarding the writ of law and war on terror in the tribal areas, a senior official said on Thursday.

The president approved the groups after a presentation on the war on terror in Waziristan after US President George Bush’s visit to Islamabad on March 3, the official told Daily Times, wishing not to be named.

Former NWFP chief secretary Imtiaz Sahibzada was tasked with examining the strengthening of the political agent’s office, Federal Minister for Industry Jahangir Tareen will put together a plan for development of Federally Administered Tribal Areas while military and civil spymasters were directed to come up with ideas to improve security.

Another group from the US and Pakistani Commerce Ministry will discuss how to implement President Bush’s recently announced strategy of “Reconstruction Opportunities Zones” for the tribal region.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...4-3-2006_pg1_6

It is an uphill task.

They do not accept the writ of the Federal govt and so any action by the Federal govt will be looked at with great suspicion!

Friday, March 24, 2006 E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version

Musharraf sends stern warning to terrorists

* Asks people of NWFP to support army
* Says Baloch sardars’ days are numbered

By Mohammed Rizwan

LAHORE: President General Pervez Musharraf has warned terrorists and extremists in Pakistan that they will be eliminated.

“I warn those foreign terrorists in Waziristan to leave otherwise we’ll finish them off,” he said in a speech to a large crowd at Minar-e-Pakistan on the occasion of Pakistan Day. “I also warn those religious extremists who burnt down The Mall on February 14 to refrain from such activities in future as destruction and arson will not be tolerated anymore.”

The president also appealed to the people of NWFP to support the operation against the terrorists. “If people stand by the Pakistan Army in Waziristan, I assure them that law and order will be restored in the area,” he said. Gen Musharraf also took the opportunity to slam “the politicians sitting in London”, referring to former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. “I know these people traded congrats when The Mall was looted. These people cannot be friends of Pakistan. I urge you people never allow them to return to the country. Reject them and get them out of politics,” he said. The president was confident the troubles in Balochistan would be resolved soon. “These two or three Sardars who are fighting against their own people will be sorted out very soon. They are already on the run as they know they have lost support among their own people,” he said.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...4-3-2006_pg1_1

On the one hand recontruction (above post) and on the other slaughter?!

Interesting article I found in Asia Times...

Revolution in the Pakistani mountains
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The Taliban have established a foothold in the Pakistani tribal areas of North and South Waziristan along the Afghanistan border, but it is not simply a question of their having marched in and established their writ.

Their ability to impose themselves, which is the result of a virtual revolution in the region, has far-reaching consequences for both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

News reports tend to focus on the renewed capabilities of the Taliban, in terms of their reorganization, their base in Pakistan,improved weaponry and their mass of suicide bombers. What is overlooked in the troubled tribal areas is an astonishing change in local dynamics, which neither the British Raj nor successive Pakistani or Afghan governments had been able to engineer, the ramifications of which threaten the existing order of the whole region.

The seeds of a revolution
The seeds of the revolution were sown by former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif in the late 1990s, who introduced electoral colleges in the tribal areas based on adult franchise. Previously, the tribal areas had representation in both the upper and lower houses of parliament, but the delegates were chosen by the jirga (tribal council) system.

In terms of this, a few tribal chiefs sat together and chose representatives from their ranks. As a result, the tribal chiefs held all the political clout, and they grew rich and powerful.

The electoral system broke this supremacy, and in the most recent general election, in 2002, the power and base of the tribal chiefs were destroyed. For the first time, downtrodden clerics, many of whom owned no more than an old bicycle or a mud house, were elected as members of the Senate and the National Assembly.

This coincided with the re-emergence of the Taliban, driven out of Afghanistan in 2001, and in effect the centuries-old tribal order was no more. Youngsters in their teens and early 20s became the new "chiefs", and even took over the jirgas. More than 100 tribal chiefs were killed; the remainder either fled to the cities or began a new life under the rule of poverty-stricken but highly religiously motivated youths.

Tangled tribal identities
Three major tribes live in North Waziristan, which has become the Taliban's prime stronghold outside of Afghanistan: the Wazirs, the Mehsuds and the Dawar.

British soldiers referred to the Wazirs as wolves, and the Mehsuds as panthers of the mountains. The Dawar have traditionally been peace-loving, preferring shopkeeping to guns and towns over mountains.

The Mehsud and Wazir tribes, though, have been arch-rivals for centuries. Traditionally, the Mehsuds have been part of the Pakistani establishment, and as recently as the past few years they supported the military's actions against Wazir tribes, who are mostly Taliban.

In today's North Waziristan, though, Maulana Sadiq Noor and Maulana Abdul Khaliq are the unbending leaders of the Taliban-led resistance. They are both Dawar and, even more startling, the Wazirs and the Mehsuds are under their command. The man in charge of launching mujahideen raids into Afghanistan is Maulana Sangeen, an Afghan from neighboring Khost province.

In South Waziristan, Haji Omar, a Wazir, is the leader of the resistance against Pakistani forces, while Afghan operations run from the area are taken care of by Abdullah Mehsud, of the Mehsud tribe.

"Nobody has seen such an arrangement in centuries, where the Mehsuds and Wazirs are fighting side-by-side, and more, under the command of the Dawars," said a local bureaucrat in Waziristan who spoke to Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity.

Command and control system
The revolution that is sweeping across Waziristan is not confined to the region. It is on the march, with the eventual targets being Kabul and Islamabad.

The overall command center is in South Waziristan, where al-Qaeda No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri calls the shots, while Tahir Yaldevish, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and a key figure in the Afghan resistance, moves around Paktika province in Afghanistan.

Well-placed sources in the Taliban movement who spoke to Asia Times Online claim that the Taliban communicated "final messages" to Afghan and Pakistani officials, warning of direct attacks across both countries against top army and civilian officials. As a result, according to the sources, Pakistan stopped military operations in North and South Waziristan that were aimed at rooting out Taliban and foreign forces.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban strategy is to terrorize Afghan officials and prevent them from cooperating with foreign forces. And once the allied forces are alienated, attacks on them will be intensified.

In both Afghanistan and Pakistan, skirmishes have already reached some settled areas: Ghazni and Helmand have suffered direct Taliban attacks in the former, while in the latter Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan in Northwest Frontier Province have seen attacks recently. On Sunday, six security personnel and two passers-by were killed and six others injured when a remote-controlled bomb hit a police van in Dera Ismail Khan.

At the same time, the administrations in the capitals of the two countries are becoming increasingly isolated. The US-backed ruling royalists in Kabul are now threatened by Islamists who completely dominate parliament after recent general elections.

There is no doubt that radical Islamists, whether those of the Hizb-i-Islami, the Ittehad-i-Islami led by Professor Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the alliance led by Yunus Qanooni or dozens of independent former Taliban, are now at the helm of political affairs in Kabul.

And the US-backed ruling and nominally secular officers of the Pakistani army are more on their own than ever before. A silent alliance of religious elements and religious parties is keeping a sharp eye on developments in the mountains, waiting for its chance to join in the revolution as it rolls off the mountaintops.

British soldiers referred to the Wazirs as wolves, and the Mehsuds as panthers of the mountains.

Romantic bullsh:t, they had far ruder names for them than that.

I'm also rather skeptical as to the Taliban so easily gaining power over such an insular tribal society. The Russians tried (I'm talking 1850's here) and had no more luck than they did with the Tajiks and Kirgiz-Kazaks, and cleverer men than McNaughten and Secundar Burnes spent time in those mountains.

The Wazir and Mehsuds will share salt then slip the knife when it is to their advantage to do so. A few simple-minded village priests from out of their tribes will not hold sway, it's just the mutterings of "Taliban" are politically useful right now, both to the Highlanders and to Musharraf.

it's just the mutterings of "Taliban" are politically useful right now, both to the Highlanders and to Musharraf.

Well said.

Spot on!

It is much closer to the truth!