Tribal deals open doors for Pakistan army
Posted: Monday, October 19, 2009 12:59 PM
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Islamabad, Pakistan
By NBC News' Carol Grisanti in Islamabad and Mushtaq Yusufzai in New York
The negotiations took weeks. The tribal council was called to try to convince Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the 42-year-old militant commander of North Waziristan, not to send his fighters to support the Taliban militants in the south.
Elusive and cunning, Gul Bahadar would be a key government ally in any effort to dislodge Taliban militants from the region. The army needed the consent of this bearded, religious scholar before taking on the Mehsuds, a neighboring, but rival tribe, who are loyal Taliban supporters. Without him, there could be no hope of a military success in routing out the militants.
In early September, 27 elders of the Wazir tribes, along with aides of Gul Bahadar, sat down with government representatives in Miranshah, the administrative capital of North Waziristan to work out a deal. Later, the talks moved to Peshawar in the Northwest Frontier Province.
In the end, the government agreed to most of the tribe’s demands for cooperation; prisoners were exchanged and Gul Bahadar was compensated for losses suffered from U.S. drone attacks and military action in his areas. The tribal council was satisfied, an earlier peace agreement from 2007 was restored, and a feast of roasted goat, rice and sweets was served, according to centuries-old tribal traditions.
"We will not intervene in the Mehsud’s wars," said Maulana Sadiq Noor, deputy to Gul Bahadar, referring to the rival Mehsud tribes of South Waziristan from whom the Taliban militants in Pakistan draw most of their support. "Our people have suffered enough at the hands of the U.S. and the Pakistani governments. We want peace in our lands," he said
Gul Bahadar brought on board his tribal ally, Maulvi Nazir, the commander who holds sway over the border areas of South Waziristan, which encircle the Mehsuds’ strongholds in the center.
"If the government attacks me and my people, then I will reply in the same manner, but I have no interest to intervene between the government and the Mehsuds," Nazir told NBC News.
The Mehsuds were squeezed. The tribes had switched sides. The Wazirs, led by Gul Bahadar and Nazir to the north and west, and the Bhittani tribes to the east, would remain neutral and not prevent the Pakistani Army’s long planned offensive to attack the Taliban militant’s stronghold.
The Wazirs, in contrast to the Mehsuds, have never attacked the state outside of their own lands of Waziristan. Their focus has always been to send fighters across the border to fight the U.S. and NATO in the Afghan jihad.
Go time After the agreement with the tribes was reached, the Pakistani army was ready to launch the largest operation ever against Islamic militants in the lawless tribal region on the Afghan border.
Pakistani intelligence officials estimate that the army will be up against 10,000 hard-core Taliban militants. The Mehsuds are believed to be sheltering at least 1,500 hardened foreign fighters – a polyglot of Taliban, Uzbeks, Arabs, Chechens and Tajik fighters – equipped with sophisticated weapons.
Before dawn on Saturday, more than 30,000 Pakistani troops, with air cover from Cobra gunship helicopters and F-16 fighter jets, pushed into South Waziristan from three fronts. All the entry and exit points were closed as they attempted to encircle and isolate the militants.
"We will neutralize the epicenter of gravity for terrorism," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, chief spokesman for the Pakistan army, referring to the Mehsud tribal stronghold in the center of South Waziristan.
"Eighty percent of all terrorist attacks in Pakistan lead back to South Waziristan," he added. Abbas said the military had waited to launch the operation until they could gain the support of those tribes to come over to the government side.
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| Faisal Mahmood / Reuters |
| Residents fleeing a military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban enter Dera Ismail Khan from South Waziristan on Monday. |
Key: Local cooperation
"The whole problem in FATA [Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal areas] could have been solved by involving the local people [from the beginning]," said Ayaz Wazir, a Pakistani political analyst and former ambassador. "Unless they address the root causes, they can kill 10 [militants], but soon there will be another 10 who will be even more ruthless," he said.
Wazir blames former President Pervez Musharraf for the troubles in the tribal areas. Musharraf was the first Pakistani leader to violate the agreement hammered out between the government and the tribes. When Pakistan became an independent state, the army promised to stay out of the Pashtun tribal areas and allow the tribesmen to solve problems according to their centuries-old traditions.
"The government broke their word and the tribes reacted," said Wazir. He emphasized that in 2001 if the tribes had been left alone to solve their problems with al-Qaida, according to their own laws, they would have forced the foreigners back across the Afghan border.
The Pashtuns who inhabit the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan and are divided into tribes have a historical, almost mystical, bond with the lands they believe to be theirs. No foreign power has ever conquered the tribes; it is a question of honor for them and they have fought for centuries to defend it.
Little choice
The Pakistan army suffered heavy losses in the past when they tried to clean up South Waziristan. The militants are familiar with the wild and unforgiving terrain of barren plains and high mountains. And the Mehsuds are known to be the fiercest fighters of all the tribes.
But Pakistan’s government has little choice. A series of brazen attacks by the Taliban over the past couple of weeks have left more than 150 people dead. The Taliban had put the government on notice. They would take revenge for the death of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. missile attack in August.
In a round of telephone calls to local reporters on Sunday, a Taliban spokesman said: "We will fight to the last drop of blood."
"The situation in our homeland is very bad, and all because of America and the Pakistan army," said Noor Alam, a 36-year-old Mehsud tribesman. Alam, his wife, mother and five children, had walked for two days to escape the fighting. "They [the Pakistan army] will never win this war," he said.
RELATED LINKS:
Factbox: The battle in Pakistan’s South Waziristan
