The General In His Labyrinth

Contradictory and contentious  statements have been coming from Pakistani Governmental circles inIslamabad, US Army spokesmen in Afghanistan and officials of the Bush Administration in Washington DC. in thewake of the clash between a US Army patrol in Afghan territory and some men of the Waziristan Scouts, a para-militaryunit of Pakistan, on December 29, 2002.

The first contention relates to the location of the madrassa-mosque complex at a place called Angoor Addain the South Waziristan Agency of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan,  run byMaulana Muhammad Hassan, of the  Taliban, which was bombed by the US forces  following an exchangeof fire with the men of  the Waziristan Scouts.  While US Army spokesmen in Afghanistan continue toinsist that this complex, which they describe as a structure, is located in Afghan territory, Pakistaniofficials, including Maj.Gen.Rashid Qureshi, the spokesman of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's militarydictator,after initially saying that it was located in Afghan territory, are now insisting that it is inPakistani territory.

According to well-informed sources, after the fall of the Najibullah Government in Kabul in April,1992, andthe installation of a pro-Pakistan Government by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the PakistanGovernment had extended its administration in the FATA to some of the bordering Afghan territory andincorporated it into Pakistani territory.  The Angoor Adda area belonged to Afghanistan till April,1992,and was illegally annexed by Pakistan thereafter. By claiming that the bombed area was in Afghan territory,the US has sent a clear message to Islamabad that Washington DC and the Hamid Karzai Government in Kabul donot recognise this illegal annexation and that the position as before April, 1992, should be restored. It is, however, unlikely that Pakistan would give up its control of this territory.

The second contention relates to the right of hot pursuit. While US Army spokesmen in Afghanistan havestrongly insisted on their right of hot pursuit into Pakistani territory if fired upon from there, politicaland military leaders in Pakistan have equally strongly asserted that the US Army patrols have no such right. Here again, it would seem that US spokesmen have been speaking of their right of hot pursuit into territorycontrolled de facto by Pakistan, but not belonging to it de jure.  In their perception, since the USA, asthe leader of the international coalition, has been permitted by the UN and the Karzai Government to operatein any part of the Afghan territory, they have a right to operate in areas legally belonging to Afghanistan,but illegally occupied by Pakistan.

 The very strong words used by the US Army spokesmen In Afghanistan reflect their frustration becauseof their inability to stop the hit-and-run raids and the clandestine anti-US  radio broadcasts from theterritory under Pakistani control due to lack of co-operation from the Pakistani side. It has to be underlinedthat while the statements emanating from US Army circles in Afghanistan are couched in blunt language, thosefrom Washington DC have been  moderate and try to project the entire contention as due to amisunderstanding, which is being  removed.

The non-co-operation from the Pakistani side is largely due to the fact that para-military units such asthe Waziristan Scouts consist largely of Pashtuns, whose sympathies are with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and withthe fundamentalist coalition called the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which has come to power in theNorth-West Frontier Province (NWFP) on an anti-US and pro-Taliban and pro-bin Laden platform. Even if the Armyled by Musharraf wants to co-operate with the US, it would find it difficult to make the Pashtuns of the para-militaryforces carry out its orders. The Army itself has a large number of Pashtuns who feel angered over the USaction against the Taliban.

It is learnt that many of the Pashtuns of the Waziristan Scouts observed fast on January 2, 2003, inprotest over the alleged killing  of two of their colleagues by the US Army patrol and over the arrest ofanother colleague by the Pakistan Army at the instance of the Americans. That night, there was a severeexchange of fire when the Pakistan Army tried to disarm and arrest some members of the Waziristan Scouts, whowere shouting anti-US slogans and instigating their colleagues to join them in their anti-US protests. 

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently,Director, Institute For Topical studies, Chennai.)