‘Finish off Taliban once and for all’
* Taliban draw support from Pashtuns on both sides of Pak-Afghan border
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The government needs to finish off Taliban once and for all in an offensive on their South Waziristan stronghold or risk them returning stronger and in greater numbers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) from South Waziristan say.
With the offensive by the Pakistan Army against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, people who have fled the fighting, say the die-hard insurgents, backed by hundreds of foreigners, would be hard to shift from their fortified positions. “They have built bunkers and caves that cannot be hit even by bombing from the air,” said Jameel Mehsud, 75, registering at a site for IDPs at Dera Ismail Khan. Malik Mehsud, another fleeing resident, said people were not willing to support half-hearted military offensive. “If they are serious we are with them, otherwise we cannot risk our lives,” he said, adding that he feared Taliban reprisals if the government abandoned the operation, as they have done in the past, or struck a truce with Taliban leaders.
Security forces launched the offensive on Saturday after a series of bomb and commando-style attacks by the Taliban across the country. About 28,000 soldiers are battling an estimated 10,000 hard-core Taliban, including about 1,000 Uzbek fighters and some Arab Al Qaeda members. It follows a similar operation this year in the Swat valley launched after the Taliban, emboldened by a government deal that gave them greater autonomy in some parts, moved into other areas as well. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas have long enjoyed a large degree of autonomy based on sharia law and ancient custom.
Support: Taliban in Pakistan – like their brothers-in-arms in Afghanistan – draw much of their support from Pashtuns who live on both sides of the porous border, and the rugged mountains and valleys of Waziristan have become a sanctuary for militants, including Al Qaeda operatives. US unmanned drone aircraft have for years been attacking suspected Taliban positions in the country from Afghanistan, occasionally hitting wrong targets and killing civilians, further hardening local attitudes towards foreigners and a central government accused of complicity. Escaping the fighting is only half the battle, say the IDPs. “Wherever we go, people treat us with suspicion, as if we are terrorists, just because we have come from Waziristan,” said Jameel, a resident of Kaniguram, a Burki tribe’s stronghold in South Waziristan.
While the government and aid agencies do not expect a humanitarian crisis on the scale of the one that followed the Swat offensive, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Wednesday about 32,000 people had fled in the past week, joining 80,000 who left since May. Unlike in Swat, where the government established camps for the IDPs, most of those fleeing South Waziristan are staying in second homes outside the province, or with relatives or friends. Muhammad Khan, 40, accused the authorities of not thinking the offensive through before starting. “They are bombing our houses and when people try to move out they are not letting them go,” he said after arriving in DI Khan with his 12-member family following a torturous journey that usually takes only a few hours. “They have imposed curfews in several parts and are not letting us pass through blockades.”
reuters
