Are We Losing the War Against Militancy?
For almost two days, Jandola – a dusty small town on the main road into South Waziristan – was at the mercy of armed followers of Baitullah Mehsud. They pulled out members of rival tribes from their homes and executed them after a summary trial. It all happened close to the Frontier Corps headquarters, but no one dared to challenge the marauders. Thirty seven people had been killed before the army arrived in the town. Organised under the banner of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the militants led by Mehsud have extended their influence into a large swathe of NWFP, seeking to enforce a Taliban-style Islamic rule.
A couple of days later, the long-haired, bearded followers of another militant commander, Mangal Bagh, raided a residential quarter inside a large government hospital in Peshawar, kidnapped 16 members of the Christian community and took them to the Khyber agency. The local administration secured their release a few hours later. But the incident heightened insecurity among non-Muslims.
Mangal Bagh, who had worked as a bus cleaner before turning to militancy, has hundreds of heavily armed men organised under the banner of Lashkar-e-Islam. The group has placed Peshawar virtually under siege for the past several months. It controlled the key arterial roads and was in a position to cut off communications at will.
That same week, supporters of Mullah Fazlullah blew up a hotel at Malam Jabba, the country’s only ski resort, and burnt down more than one dozen girls’ schools in Swat valley. Also known as Mullah Radio for his fiery speeches on FM radio, Fazlullah has been leading an insurgency in the area, prompting a military action last year that killed hundreds of people. His supporters, who were pushed into hiding in the mountains were back after a peace deal with the provincial government.
These incidents over the last one month clearly indicate the impunity with which the militants have been operating in Northern Pakistan. Overrunning the lawless tribal belt, the militants have virtually established their parallel authority in large parts of NWFP’s settled areas.
They are now active in many cities, including Dera Ismail Khan, Nowshera, Mardan, Kohat and the Swat Valley and pose a direct challenge to the provincial authorities. In fact, political management of the province, already difficult, will become impossible if large pockets of militancy continue to grow. People are being publicly executed and beheaded. Girls’ schools are being burnt down and video shops are attacked by Islamic vigilantes. According to Khalid Aziz, a former chief secretary of the province, some districts in the NWFP are beginning to resemble the loosely administered agencies of FATA.
Now Peshawar lies besieged by the advancing Taliban, who have been steadily wresting legal and territorial control from a state unable to battle them with resolve. “Peshawar’s residents wonder how long it will be before this country becomes another Somalia,” says Khalid Aziz.
Have we lost the war against Islamic militancy? Not yet, but it may happen soon if we fail to act now. The rise of the Pakistani Taliban has not happened overnight. The war in Afghanistan has spilled over into Pakistan’s borderland with huge consequences. Pakistani forces entered FATA in 2003 and since then the insurgency has grown in strength. Al-Qaeda and Taliban fleeing from Afghanistan after the occupation of the country by the US-led coalition forces, turned the region into their base. Previous military operations did little to improve the situation; instead they further fueled militancy. A new crop of Pakistani Taliban emerged on the scene who sought to fill the vacuum created by the collapse of the administrative system in FATA as a result of the military campaigns.
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