The American Commander of the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, Lt.Gen. David Barno stated on April 18 that terrorists were infiltrating intoAfghanistan from Pakistan and Islamabad had been asked to begin a freshoperation against remnants of Taliban and al-Qaeda presently hiding in theWaziristan region of Pakistan.
However, Peshawar Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain was quick todismiss Barno's claim on April 20, describing it as a highly irresponsibleremark: "Lt. Gen. Barno should not have made that statement. It was afigment of his imagination. There is no bloody operation going on until we havethe right intelligence", Safdar said, while ruling out joint militaryoperations with the US-led coalition forces, adding, "My strategy is toachieve the end goal without firing a shot".
The Peshawar Corps Commander's statement was followed by Director General InterServices Public Relations (ISPR) Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan's rejoinder, claiming,"no such military operation is being launched, and we decide for ourselveswhat needs to be done and when and where". Barno made his statement duringa meeting of Tripartite Commission of the United States, Afghanistan andPakistan that was held in Islamabad on April 18.
According to Pakistani media reports, the US General claimed during the meetingthat the remnants of Taliban and al-Qaeda were planning to stage some highvisibility attacks over the next six to nine months, which would get them backon the scoreboard after suffering major strategic reversals. "The comingspring would therefore see a fresh operation in North Waziristan to nip theirplanned offensive in the bud", Lt. Gen. Barno was quoted as saying.
Ten days later, on April 28, Lt. Gen. Barno in an interview to The New YorkTimes (NYT) stated further: "The Americans have been trainingPakistanis in night flying and airborne assault tactics to combat foreign andlocal fighters in the tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border."Significantly, this was the first time the American military acknowledged thetraining. Barno further admitted that the presence of American troops inPakistan was regarded as extremely delicate, adding that he had visited theSpecial Services Group headquarters of the Pakistan Army at Cherat, nearPeshawar recently, where he watched a display by the units trained by theAmericans in their new Bell 4 helicopters.
However, the NYT report also quoted ISPR Director Maj. Gen. Sultan as sayingthat there were no American military trainers at Cherat and that Barno hadprobably been referring to joint military exercises between the two countries.He told the newspaper in a phone interview, "The Pakistan Army has beentraining with many countries of the world. We have also been conducting jointmilitary training with the US Army many a time earlier. They benefit from eachother's experience. They learn from each other. That's what has been happening,and nothing else." Yet, contrary to the claims of the Pakistani Generals,the report stated that the Pakistan Army was gearing up to go into the lastredoubts of al-Qaeda and foreign fighters - the tribal areas of North Waziristannear the border with Afghanistan.
In all likelihood, Lt. Gen. Barno's statement was not a 'figment of hisimagination'; he just made public something General Safdar and his superiors didnot want the Pakistani people to know. The Pakistan Army has been fighting theinvisible enemy in Waziristan without much success, often giving an impressionof failure. Whatever the truth, statements and counter statements by Americanand Pakistani Generals clearly indicate that the troubles in Waziristan are farfrom over. Since the military authorities have banned the entry of newsmen intothe region, nobody knows what is actually going on in Waziristan. The onlyavailable source of information is the ISPR spokesman, whose claims are alwayscontested by the Opposition and the media in public.
US intelligence sleuths stationed in Pakistan evidently believe that the countrycontinues to be a potential site of militant recruitment and training, and al-Qaeda's'operational commander' Abu Faraj al-Libbi, presently hiding in Pakistan'stribal belt, continues to hire local recruits to bolster up his terroristorganisation's manpower, which continues to grow in strength despite the captureof over 500 of its operatives from within Pakistan over the past two years.According to intelligence sources, most of the al-Qaeda fugitives on the runfrom Afghanistan are being sheltered by the heavily armed populace on thePak-Afghan border, where they are being trained in terror.
US intelligence findings indicate specifically that some of the al-Qaedatraining camps have already been reactivated along the southeastern side of thePak-Afghan border. These reports further suggest that Osama Bin Laden, and hisdeputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, may also be in the region. Meanwhile, General PervezMusharraf also confirmed that Osama Bin Laden is not only alive, but is residingin the Pak-Afghan tribal area. "Osama is alive and I am cent percent surethat he is hiding in Pak-Afghan tribal belt", stated during an April 22,2005, interview with CNN. Similarly, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and theAmerican Special Presidential Envoy and Ambassador to Afghanistan, ZalmayKhalilzad, have repeatedly alleged that terrorists continue to operate againstAfghanistan from Pakistan.
Lt. Gen. Barno's apprehensions that "the Taliban and al-Qaeda can launchtheir big offensive from North Waziristan in next nine months",consequently, appears to carry weight and belies repeated claims by Pakistanthat the Waziristan area has returned to normalcy after successful Armyoperations. As a matter of fact, the Peshawar Corps Commander, Lt. Gen. Hussain,had declared in January 2005 that the 'back of the terrorists has been broken'and that only a few of them had survived, "roaming around in smallbatches". The Corps Commander's statement came two years after the PakistanArmy started operations in South Waziristan in January 2003. The Army had tolaunch the operations after being alerted by the Americans to the presence ofTaliban and al-Qaeda elements in the Waziristan region. Lt. Gen. Hussain hadfurther announced in January 2005 that out of the 6,000 foreign terrorists, 600had already been captured and another 150 killed. He also admitted that, duringthe operations, 200 Pakistan Army personnel had been killed at the hands of theterrorists.
The heavy losses suffered by the Pakistan Army eventually compelled its HighCommand to suspend the military campaign and pursue peace pacts with the localtribes. The first such accord was signed at Shakai with Waziri warlord NekMohammad in April 2004. Nek Mohammad reneged and was killed by an Americanguided laser missile. The second agreement was signed at Sararogha in February2005 with Baitullah Mahsud, the chieftain of the Mahsud tribe. The deal wasmediated by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, at a ceremonythat ended with shouts of "Death to America". Interestingly, the pactwith Baitullah Mahsud did not forbid Abdullah Mahsud, the most wanted fugitivefrom the Mahsud tribe, from attacking the US forces across the border inAfghanistan. Despite reports of his being killed in a Pakistan Army ambush inFebruary 2005, the fact remains that Abdullah is still alive and remains theforemost militant commander in the Waziristan area.
Interestingly, the Sararogha peace pact did not require that Abdullah surrenderthe foreign terrorists allegedly taking shelter with him; it simply bound himnot to attack the Pakistan Army and not give shelter to foreign terrorists. Itdid not bind him to lay down arms or not fight across the Durand Line. The manswears allegiance to Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban ameer (chief); hemoves around in a bullet-proof car and is followed by some 30 armed guards; heowns two castle-like houses in North and South Waziristan. As Abdullah Mahsudhas apparently failed to honour his side of the bargain, the Pakistan Army hasonce again been asked by the Americans to launch fresh operations in itsterritory. Earlier, Lt. Gen. Barno had declared, in February 2005, after thesigning of the Sararogha agreement with Baitullah Mahsud: "The foreignfighters in the tribal belt had to be killed or captured instead of being givenamnesty through so-called peace accords."
Interestingly, however, both the peace accords make no mention of the PakistanArmy's previous condition that the tribal militants must produce foreignershiding in Waziristan and ensure their registration. The Army's insistence onthis condition had led to the collapse of the Shakai agreement signed betweenthe Peshawar Corps Commander and 'Commander' Nek Mohammad's militant group, inApril 2004. The militants' failure to produce the foreign militants hiding inthe area had triggered a new round of fighting that ended up in Nek's death onJune 19, 2004.
The February 2005 peace agreement took an intriguing turn on February 8, 2005,with Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain claiming that tribal militants demanded Rs. 170million during the course of peace negotiations, and eventually settled for Rs.50 million to repay debts they owed to al-Qaeda-linked foreign militants. TheBBC quoted the Corps Commander as saying that the four former wanted militantshad insisted they needed the money to pay back huge sums to al-Qaeda. HajiSharif and Maulvi Abbas received Rs. 15 million each, while Maulvi Javed andHaji Mohammad Omar were each paid ten million rupees.
The disclosure fuelled speculation that the government had been paying money tobuy-off militants in South Waziristan. However, Haji Omar, on behalf of the Wanamilitants, denied the Corps Commander's claim and made it clear that he and thefour other militants had only been paid Rs. 4.2 million by retired ColonelInamullah Wazir and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) officials whonegotiated with him and the other four militants on behalf of the Army, and thisamount was for rebuilding their houses that had been destroyed during themilitary operations. "Each of us received around Rs. 800,000. My brotherHaji Sharif and I got a total of Rs. 1.6 million, while our third brother, NoorIslam, who wasn't part of the peace agreement, didn't receive any money. Thisamount was far less than the losses we incurred as a result of the damagesuffered by our apple orchards and demolition of our family houses plus ahospital in Kalooshah that alone was worth more than Rs. 4 million," headded.
The ongoing 'war on terror' being waged in the Pakistani tribal areas hasclearly not been without its share of controversies, charges andcounter-charges. This was inevitable given the difficult nature of the militaryoperations and the enigmatic relationship of the partners involved in fightingterror. But the angry public exchange between the Peshawar Corps Commander andthe Commander of the US forces in Afghanistan could easily have been avoidedwith a little discretion. Given the strong public sentiments against the Bushadministration in Pakistan, especially in the areas bordering Afghanistan, suchcontroversies are bound to evoke strong public reaction and embarrass the government. These are, indeed, testing times for the Pakistan government, the Army, thesecurity apparatus and the people of Pakistan.
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Amir Mir is Senior Assistant Editor, Monthly Herald, Dawn Group ofNewspapers, Karachi. Courtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the SouthAsia Terrorism Portal
