In Pakistan, jihadis jockey for attention
Posted: Monday, April 06, 2009 3:42 PM
Filed Under:
Islamabad, Pakistan
By Carol Grisanti, NBC News Producer
ISLAMABAD – Perhaps the $5 million bounty recently put on him by the United States has gone to his head.
Baitullah Mehsud, the notoriously reclusive chief of the Pakistani Taliban, suddenly thrust himself into the media spotlight last week by telephoning local journalists to claim responsibility for a recent series of brazen terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
And then came another surprise (this one fantastical): On Saturday he called back to brag that he was behind the attack on an immigration center by a lone Vietnamese gunman in Binghamton, N.Y., saying that the attacks were in revenge for the ongoing missile strikes on Pakistan’s tribal areas by unmanned United States drone aircraft.
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| EPA file |
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Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud (left with brown cap) speaks to journalists in South-Waziristan in a file photo from May 2008. |
But information coming out of the tribal areas and from intelligence officials in Islamabad suggests that Mehsud’s bravado might just be his way of jockeying for power among the various militant groups seeking sanctuary along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It seems that Mehsud, who has recently deepened his ties with al-Qaida, is trying to assert himself as commander in chief of the entire jihadist network in Pakistan.
"There is an internal power struggle going on now," explained a former ISI station chief in Peshawar who spoke on condition of anonymity. "When [Mehsud] thinks that someone new is coming up and could overshadow him, he kills him," said the official.
‘Feeling the heat’
Mehsud first gained notoriety by sending suicide bombers across the border into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and NATO forces. Then in 2007 he declared war on the Pakistani state. He formed the Tehrik-e-Taliban, a loose alliance of disparate radical groups with different and often conflicting agendas, to unite and take revenge against the Pakistan army for supporting the United States in their fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Tehrik-e-Taliban also provides sanctuary for al-Qaida militants in the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghan border and in turn receives funding and weapons. But the various commanders from warring tribes are often at odds with Mehsud – and with each other – putting individual tribal loyalties first.
The most recent example of internecine quarrels within the militant group was over responsibility for the attack on the police academy in the eastern city of Lahore last week.
A former Mehsud lieutenant from another tribe first claimed responsibility for the attack. That claim seemed to have forced Mehsud to quickly – and uncharacteristically – call around to local reporters and take ownership for a recent series of attacks in Pakistan, including the attack in Lahore.
The two commanders often argue, according to a Taliban leader who was present during the game of one-upmanship between Mehsud and his rival over the responsibility for the killing spree in Lahore.
"The Lahore attack could have been his [Mehsud’s] idea, but he could not have done it without some help from the Punjabis," said a Pakistani intelligence official, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject. The official was referring to the militant groups based in the Punjab, Pakistan’s wealthiest and most populous province.
"What’s more, all of these Punjabi groups have splintered and shifted in part out of the Punjab and into the tribal areas to band, but not always bond, with the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida," he added.
"Mehsud has become very powerful among the tribal militants, but he may be feeling the heat from the Punjabis," explained the intelligence official. "They are better trained, highly professional and perhaps even more motivated than his men. While there is increasing coordination among the groups, all of them may not want to take orders from him."
Punjabi militants
Some of the Punjabi extremist groups have focused, in the past, on fighting India over the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir. (India and Pakistan both lay claim to Kashmir and have fought two wars over the region). But other groups’ issues are sectarian in nature and their aim is to kill minority Shiite Muslims.
The most feared of all the Punjabi militant groups is Lashkar-e-Taiba, a professional army created by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Services (ISI) in the early 1990s to target India. The group is the prime suspect in last year’s Mumbai terrorist attacks and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore last month.
The Pakistani military, however, claims to have the group under control. "We have shut them down, closed their training camps and now we are trying to rehabilitate them," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, spokesman for the Pakistan military. "But we cannot confront them head on from all sides; they have to be dealt with in phases so we avoid a bounceback and a backlash."
But taming Lashkar may not be so easy. Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf banned the group, as well as other Punjabi militant groups in 2002. But the groups just splintered or emerged under different names and many fighters joined the Taliban jihad in the tribal areas.
The head of Lashkar is under house arrest, two top commanders are in jail and most of the fighters have either gone underground or gone home. Some joined their sister humanitarian organization, Jama’at-ud-Dawa which runs charities for Pakistan’s most needy – but Lashkar is definitely not out of business.
"Jama’at-ud-Dawa had become the organization which kept the militant wing of [Lashkar-e-Taiba] intact," said Pakistani author, Zahid Hussain. "The cause, to fight India, was never abandoned. The charity facilities were used as a cover-up to continue to recruit fighters."
Pakistan’s civilian government closed down all the charities operated by Jama’at-ud-Dawa after India accused Lahkar-e-Taiba and Jama’at-ud-Dawa of orchestrating the Mumbai attacks last November.
But Lashkar is still said to be able to call upon an estimated 5,000-7,000 fighters. Now that the ISI has cut them off, officials worry that the group is angry and the men are bored and looking for another cause to fight for.
‘Catastrophic consequences’
Officials hope that the differences between the various groups will persist and that they will be enough to prevent them from joining forces with Mehsud to fight against the U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan.
In a two-hour meeting in Islamabad, a retired Pakistani intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of Lashkar-e-Taiba explained that the group is extremely nationalistic and has never turned their fighters against the state.
But the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of his position, feared what would ever happen if the divergent militant groups ever reconciled over their differences. "[Lashkar-e-Taiba’s] focus has always been India, but if they ever turn that focus from India to America, there will be catastrophic consequences."
