North Waziristan, Quetta remain hubs for the Taliban, despite Pakistani protestations
Pro-Taliban fighters in
Waziristan.
Al-Qaeda and the Taliban continue their campaign to eradicate any opposition to their rule in North Waziristan. Two more “spies” have been assassinated in North Waziristan. “Militants killed a local doctor in Saobi village of Miramshah, the regional Headquarters, and an Afghan national was shot to death in Mir Ali district of Miramshah,” reports the Kuwaiti News Agency, “militants also left letters near their bodies warning tribesmen of the same fate if found spying for Americans.”
This is yet another violation of the Waziristan Accord. “There will be no target killing and no parallel administration in the agency. The writ of the state will prevail in the area”, states the terms of the Waziristan Accord. The Taliban have conducted a campaign of targeted assassinations of ‘spies’ and other anti-Taliban elements, established offices in North Waziristan, and continues to maintain training camps and funnel fighters into Afghanistan.
The Pakistani government claims the the Taliban is not operating in North Waziristan, and the Waziristan Accord was a deal between the local tribes and the Pakistani government. The Taliban, however, openly announces its presence in the region be pinning notes to the bodies of slaughtered “spies” and setting up offices across the agency.
South of Waziristan, in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, the Chief Minister has denied Baluchistan is a “hub” for the Taliban fighting in southern Afghanistan. That same day, forty-nine Taliban were arrested in Quetta. This news follows the reports that the Taliban used Quetta as a support base prior to and during Operation Medusa in Kandahar province, with the help of Pakistani intelligence.
The Daily Times reports that General David Richards, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, denied he met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to confront him over Pakistani intelligence’s support of the Taliban. Note General Richards careful phrasing of the denial: “That is not the reason for one moment that I came here… I come here to further develop our relationship with the Pakistan Army.” General Richards does not refute the ISI’s involvement with the Taliban or the existence of Taliban training camps in Pakistan. He only denies these issues were on the meeting agenda. This is called diplomacy.
General Richards is also said to have ‘defended the North Waziristan deal.’ “I think played rightly, with luck and good judgment … this could set an example how we should deal with these problems.” Pakistan has neither shown good judgment or a propensity for luck when dealing with the tribal agencies. General Richards, like many Western leaders and military commanders, are publicly putting the best face on a very bad situation. What is being said privately and off the record is something entirely different.
6 Comments
The way this Waziristan deal is presented does not make sense, at least not to me. I wonder what someone who claims to understand it would explain. It looks like the supporters of the Northern fringe were too much for Musharaff to handle, as his energy is better focused on preserving his life, political and otherwise. The only value of the accord in my view is that its violations by the locals will eventually allow the US and NATO to enter the territories in hot pursuit without having to answer a legally viable claim of having violated Pakistani sovereignty.
Dom.
Dom. BINGO
One advantage of having a lot of your enemy congregated in one area is the ability to kill a lot of them in a short time.
Bill,
Can’t this be a setup for the Taliban and AQ? Musharraf is publicly telling the US to stay out of the tribal regions, he is pulling out the Pakistani military. After the elections the US military goes in kicks some ass?
And after the US and NATO lawfully enter Pakistan, will the Taliban and al-qaeda say they’ve achieved their initial aim with 9/11?–to drag the US into a war like the one that destabilized the Soviets. Except in our case, they’ve the added advantage that we’ve already degraded our military strength with Iraq.
In other words, maybe that’s what Musharaff is counting on.
The writ of Islamabad never did amount to much in Waziristan. There is a reason the Raj stopped at the Durand Line.
We need to make our Pashtuns tougher than their Pashtuns.
The natural eastern boundary of Pashtunistan is the Indus.
We need to train up the ANA and and put some Pashtun-speaking ODA’s with big chests of gold into Waziristan with an ANA airmobile Mike Force and JDAM’s on call, and go take out the trash in this free fire zone.
We would need to coordinate this with our Indian friends, to provide Mushy with other things to worry about.
Assassinations in Talibanistan; Taliban in Quetta
Courtesy of The Fourth Rail:
North Waziristan, Quetta remain hubs for the Taliban, despite Pakistani protestations
Al-Qaeda and the Taliban continue their campaign to eradicate any opposition to their rule in North Waziristan. Two more “spies&…