Posted on 10/07/2007 6:49:50 PM PDT by blam
Pakistani militants gain ground in restive areas
By Isambard Wilkinson in Tank
Last Updated: 1:52am BST 08/10/2007
Pakistani militants with links to al-Qa'eda and the Taliban have extended their territory beyond their stronghold in the lawless tribal areas while the political elite are squabbling over governing the country.
Supporters of Gen Musharraf celebrate his election win
Fighters have overrun security outposts, established "parallel" local governments and recruited suicide bombers from secular schools in areas nominally under government control in the North West Frontier Province.
Western diplomats maintain that a six-month-long political crisis, sparked by President Pervez Musharraf's struggle to extend his rule, has diverted the government's attention from dealing with a rising tide of militancy.
Daily attacks on security forces have intensified not only in the tribal belt on the Afghan-Pakistan border where US intelligence officials claim that al-Qa'eda has rebuilt, but also in adjacent "settled areas".
"This is happening in Swat and Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu. Where the police are intimidated the militants have greater freedom to roam," said a Western diplomat in Islamabad. "What are particularly worrisome are the parallel governments in the settled areas."
Tank, a town on the edge of the tribal area of South Waziristan, typifies the creeping "Talibanisation" across the province.
It has fallen under the sway of a pro-Taliban commander from South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, whose men last week killed three soldiers from a group of 248 they had captured last month.
An army division was deployed to the district two months ago to stem Baitullah's influence expanding into the neighbouring town of Dera Ismail Khan.
Even there his men have issued Talibanesque edicts banning women from going to the market, bombed women's schools and warned barbers not to shave beards.
A senior government official said that traditional councils had been undermined by military action and Gen Musharraf's reforms had taken away the power of administrators in the settled areas.
"While Musharraf is in power carrying out Bush's war there will be violence," he said. "Boys aged from 10 to 15 from madrassas [religious schools] were easily persuaded to carry out suicide attacks. Baitullah has a command that the army does not. He is a man of character. He is very pious."
But militants are not just recruiting from madrassas. Battles raged in Tank when militants arrived at the gates of secular Oxford High School several months ago.
The school principal resisted and a gun-fight broke out between militants and policemen. Having lost several men, more than 200 militants returned to raze two banks and kill more than a dozen people.
The government control over the district is tenuous. Last week a teenager, Sohail Zeb, was sentenced to 24 years in jail after being found in Tank with two suicide belts. Now Baitullah has demanded his release as part of negotiations over the fate of the 200 captured soldiers.
In line with its dealings with other militant commanders, the government signed a peace deal with Baitullah in 2005, showering him with million of rupees in return for stopping his cross-border attacks on coalition forces.
However, it collapsed when his men reneged on the deal and army operations resumed in the area at the behest of America in July.
More alarming for Tank's prospects is that militants, who belong to the hardline Sunni Deobandi sect, have reignited vicious sectarianism.
Baitullah's powerful right-hand man, Qari Hussain, belongs to Sipah-i-Sahaba, a sectarian group with links to intelligence agencies that targets Shia Muslims.
A paramilitary soldier who had been captured by Baitullah's men was beheaded after he was singled out as a Shia.
In Tank, the militants' sectarian zeal has led to attacks even on fellow Sunni Muslims. Brig Mehmood Shah, a retired official formerly responsible for security on the frontier, said: "The militants have declared war and so the government should react by drawing up a plan for war."
Pakistani soldiers backed by helicopter gunships killed 48 pro-Taliban militants but lost 20 of their men during fierce fighting near Mir Ali, North Waziristan, on Saturday.
bkmarked. thanks.
Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban leader linked to Al-Qaida, declared that suicide bombers would launch attacks on the former premier as soon as she returned, 'The Sunday Telegraph' reported.
Musharraf staying in power means there can be no more status quo - Musharraf knows it, AQ leadership knows it, Pak-Taliban know it.......Musharraf and the warlords of the Pak border regions know how to survive.....
Much blood is going to be lost....or a dime is going to be dropped.....
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