Waziristan Woes

by Mehlaqa Samdani

Even as Pakistan uses fighter jets to ‘soften up’ the area for a ground offensive in South Waziristan, there continue to be delays in the actual start of the operation, orders for which were given by the NWFP governor exactly four months ago.  

A recent BBC report highlights the arguments made by the army top brass for its reluctance to launch the offensive.  These include the civilian government’s inability “to rehabilitate the system of administration in areas cleared of militants” or fill the local judicial and law-enforcement vacuum in the Malakand region, thus preventing the army from freeing up troops for operations elsewhere

Another factor is the fear that such an operation would attract other militant groups from South and North Waziristan. 

To prevent this from happening, the army has engaged in back-channel talks with militants like Mullah Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur.  However, a Dawn editorial warns that the two are ‘unpredictable characters’ who “formed the United Mujahideen Council with Baitullah Mehsud earlier this year” to attack security forces and “just like Baitullah Mehsud arose to torment the state after a rival Mehsud group fell out of favour, so may other groups create more problems for Pakistan in the not-too-distant future.” 

Also, it seems the army will have to confront people like Ilyas Kashmiri, the head of Al-Qaida’s military operations, who according to the US was recently killed in a drone strike.  In an exclusive interview given in South Waziristan to Pakistan’s bureau chief of the Asia Times, Ilyas Kashmiri laid out his strategyand claimed “Al-Qaeda's target remains the United States and its allies, such as Europe, Israel and India, and it does not envisage diluting this strategy by embracing Muslim resistances on narrow parameters. In this context, militant activity in Pakistan is seen as a complexity rather than as a part of al-Qaeda's strategy”