"The writ of the state will be maintained at all cost, no matter what it takes."
Gen. Musharraf has opened far too many fronts, his troops are overstretched, and there has been a comprehensive failure to control the widening insurgencies, sectarian strife and Islamist terrorist violence that now envelope large swathes of Pakistan
"The writ of the state will be maintained at all cost, no matter what it takes."
– President Pervez Musharraf,
Joint Staff Headquarters (Chaklala),
February 12, 2007
1471 persons, including 608 civilians and 325 Security Force (SF) personnel, died in terrorism/insurgency-related violence in Pakistan during year 2006. Crucially, this reflected well over a doubling in fatalities since 2005, when a total of 648 persons (including 430 civilians and 81 SF personnel) were killed in insurgent and terrorist conflicts. In the rapidly escalating trend, at least 639 people, including 212 civilians, 49 SF personnel and 378 militants, have already been killed in 2007 (till April 11). And the worst affected is Waziristan where an estimated 392 people, including 43 civilians, 11 soldiers and 338 terrorists, have died (till April 9).
April 6-11: Approximately 113 people died in sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shia combatants in the Kurram Agency of FATA.
April 6: Pro-government tribesmen overran strategic bunkers occupied by the Uzbek-led foreign al Qaeda militants in South Waziristan, killing at least 20 people.
April 4: Approximately 50 persons were killed during clashes betweenpro-government tribesmen and foreign militants in South Waziristan. A tribal army led by Maulana Nazir, apro-government Taliban commander, captured the strategic Sheen Warsak after an encounter in which 19 Uzbeks, five tribesmen and three paramilitary soldiers were killed. In a separate encounter in Zaghunday, north of Sheen Warsak, the tribal army killed 25 Uzbeks.
March 30: Pro-government tribesmen exchanged heavy rocket and mortar fire with foreign militants linked to the al Qaeda in South Waziristan for a second day, leaving 56 people dead. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao claimed that the dead included 45 foreigners.
March 28: At least 25 Taliban militants and a soldier were killed in a gun-battle that continued for six-hours at Tank in the NWFP. Tank District Police Officer Mumtaz Zarin said troops killed at least 25 militants when more than 200 Taliban cadres attacked the city from all sides. Two police stations, a paramilitary fort and several banks were looted in the attack. Curfew was imposed in the city and the civil administration asked the Army for help in preventing the Taliban from taking control of the city.
March 26: A police officer and two attackers were killed, while 13 persons sustained injuries when suspected militants attacked a police station, an Armoured Personnel Carrier and Frontier Corps fort with hand grenades in the Tank city ofNWFP.
March 21: Five Frontier Corps personnel were killed and four injured when insurgents ambushed their vehicle in the Bramcha area of the Chagai District in Balochistan.
March 19-22: Nearly 160 people, including 130 foreign militants, were killed in four days of fighting between al Qaeda-linked militants andpro-government tribesmen in South Waziristan.
March 6-7: Approximately 19 people died and several others were wounded during a clash between the Wazir Zalikhel sub-tribe and foreign militants near Azam Warsak in SouthWaziristan.
February 20: An Islamist ‘fanatic’ shot dead the Social Welfare Minister of Punjab province, Zile Huma Usman, in an open court in her hometown of Gujranwala in Punjab province. Muhammad Sarwar, who was arrested immediately, is reportedly a religious fanatic opposed to women being independent, and had earlier been implicated in four murders and two attempted murders in Gujranwala. "He considers it contrary to the teachings of Allah for a woman to become a minister or a ruler. That's why he committed this action," the policestated.
February 17: Seventeen people, including a senior civil judge, were killed and 30 others injured in a suicide bombing in the District Courts compound of Quetta, capital of Balochistan.
February 6: A suicide attacker blew himself up in the car park of Islamabad airport, killing himself and injuring 10 people.
February 3: A suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden jeep into a military convoy, killing two soldiers and injuring seven others in the Barakhel area of Tank district in NWFP.
January 29: A suicide bomber killed two people at Dera Ismail Khan in NWFP. Assistant Superintendent of Police, Captain Hamad, said that the suicide bomber, wearing a black shawl, blew himself up as the police was searching him.
January 27: Fifteen people, including six police officials, were killed and 60 others injured in a suicide attack targeting a Muharram procession near Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in Peshawar, capital of NWFP. Peshawar police commissioner Mallik Muhammad Saad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, three other police personnel and a Nazim (local official) were among those killed.
January 26: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside Hotel Marriott in Islamabad, killing a guard, Tariq Mehmmod, and wounding five persons. The suicide bombing occurred hours before a Republic Day function at the hotel hosted by India’s High Commission.
January 22: A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a military convoy near Mirali in North Waziristan, killing four SF personnel and a woman, and injuring 23 persons.
January 16: Pakistan Army helicopter gun-ships attacked a suspected militant hideout at Salamt village in South Waziristan, killing at least 20 militants.
Elsewhere in FATA, an estimated 113 persons were killed in sectarian violence that rocked Parachinar and other parts of the Kurram Tribal Agency on April 6-11. Sectarian clashes started on April 6-morning, when unidentified people opened fire at a Shia procession. Earlier, a Sunni procession had allegedly been pelted with stones and its participants abused. The use of heavy weapons by the combatants, including missiles, rocket launchers and mortars, was reported.
There is, moreover, now a clear dispersal of the violence linked to radical Islam across hitherto ‘peaceful’ areas. Violence and mobilization linked to Islamist extremists is now being reported from Swat, Nowshera, Tank, Peshawar, Hangu, Dera Ismail Khan, and other areas in the NWFP, Gujranwala and Multan in the Punjab province, many locations in Sindh province, and from the national capital, Islamabad. The writ of thestate is clearly on the wane as seen in the March 28-incident when the Tank town in NWFP was attacked by a strong force of Taliban-linked militants, the first such incident in settled areas.
Kanchan Lakshman is Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management; Assistant Editor,Faultlines: Writings on Conflict & Resolution. Courtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal