Taliban Hold Valley in Pakistan as They Remove Some Forces
By CARLOTTA GALL and ERIC SCHMITT
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Some Taliban pulled back from a key district not far from the capital on Friday, but remained in control of the area, as the military defended its response, saying it was determined to root out the menace of terrorism.
The statement issued by the Pakistani military also condemned the criticism of the army by outside powers and called its decision not to intervene as Taliban insurgents advanced from the Swat Valley to Buner, just 70 miles from the capital, an operational pause intended to give reconciliation a chance.
American officials have been expressing serious concern about the widening areas of Pakistan coming under Taliban control this week, as hundreds of armed Taliban militants consolidated control of yet another Pakistani region. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday that he was extremely concerned about the deteriorating situation, which he said was in constant, steady decline.
I am extremely concerned, Admiral Mullen told reporters in southern Afghanistan, which he was touring following a visit to Pakistan Wednesday and Thursday. The situation there is definitely worse than it was two weeks ago. It just continues to spin off.
They need aggressive leadership that takes action, Admiral Mullen said. On Friday, local political leaders in Buner, home to about one million people, met with Sufi Mohamed, the Taliban leader who negotiated a February truce in Swat, and Mohamed Javed, the commissioner of Malakand, whose authority extends over both Swat and Buner, local residents reported.
Mr. Javed, who travels with a dual security contingent of police and Taliban, has been criticized in the local Pakistani press for having sympathies with the Taliban and for helping the militants enter Buner.
After the talks, a convoy of Taliban vehicles left Buner, but Amir Zeb Bacha, the head of the Buner chapter of the Pakistan International Human Rights Organization, called the withdrawal a tactical show.
The militants remained in control, according to a Taliban fighter reached by telephone and local residents. They will come back when they want, Mr. Bacha said. They are in the mountains where they have made bunkers.
Pakistani politicians and American officials have sharply questioned the governments willingness to deal with the insurgents and the Pakistani militarys decision to remain on the sidelines.
As some 400 to 500 insurgents strengthened their hold on Buner on Thursday, setting up checkpoints and closing down courts, Pakistani authorities deployed just several hundred poorly paid and equipped constabulary forces to Buner, who were repelled in a clash, leaving one police officer dead.
The limited response set off fresh scrutiny of Pakistans military, a force with 500,000 soldiers and a similar number of reservists. The army receives $1 billion in American military aid each year but has repeatedly declined to confront the Taliban-led insurgency, even as it has bled out of Pakistans self-governed tribal areas into Pakistan proper in recent months.
The military remains fixated on training and deploying its soldiers to fight the countrys archenemy, India. It remains ill equipped for counterinsurgency, analysts say, and top officers are deeply reluctant to be pressed into action against insurgents who enjoy family, ethnic and religious ties with many Pakistanis.
In Washington, a Defense Department official who is monitoring Pakistan closely said that the poorly trained constabulary force was sent Thursday because Pakistani Army troops were not available, and Pakistani generals were reluctant to pull reinforcements off the border with India something American officials have encouraged them to do.
Instead, the military, which is stretched thin in the areas along the Afghan border, has favored negotiations, and the civilian government has acquiesced. The government is too worried about its own political survival to take on the militants, the Defense Department official said.
It illustrates there is a lack of political will in the Pakistan civilian leadership to confront these Pakistan Taliban, Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat on the Armed Services Committee who just returned from his fifth visit to Pakistan, said Thursday. The Taliban sense this huge vacuum that they can pour into.
The Taliban insist that the peace deal worked out in February in the Swat Valley also covers Buner, which also falls under Mr. Javeds administration.
After the talks Friday, Mr. Javed said Islamic courts will be established within three days in Buner. The Taliban agreed to disarm, stop patrols and end their interference with the government functions in Buner, as well as to return vehicles they had commandeered this week. The Taliban also announced a general amnesty for residents who were part of the local militias raised to fight the Taliban.
Mr. Bacha, of the human rights commission, dismissed the deal. Yesterday, the Taliban had pledged the same things, but within no time they killed two police officials, he said.
In the limited engagements in which regular army troops have fought the Taliban in the tribal areas and sections of the Swat Valley, they not only failed to dislodge the Taliban, but also convinced many Pakistanis that their own military was as much of a menace as the Islamic radicals it sought to repel, residents and analysts say.
Where it has engaged the insurgents, the Pakistani Army, untrained in counterinsurgency, has become reviled by the civilian population for its heavy-handed tactics, which have cost many lives while failing to stop the Taliban.
At the same time, the police and paramilitary forces have proved too weak to stand up to the militants. In Buner, desperate residents had resorted to forming their own militias, as much to keep out the military as the Taliban. That effort, too, has now failed.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Thursday that the government would review the Swat peace agreement if peace was not restored. We have to ensure writ of the government, he told journalists. We reserve the right to go for other options if Talibanization continues.
Still, a range of American officials continued to press the Pakistani government for serious, aggressive military action, an American official said. The Pakistanis have yet to present a persuasive response to American officials, who are calling regularly for updates.
On Capitol Hill, legislators preparing to introduce a bill to provide Pakistan with $7.5 billion in nonmilitary aid over five years may face a steep challenge.
I have absolutely no confidence in the ability of the existing Pakistan government to do one blessed thing, said Representative David R. Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat who leads the House Appropriations Committee.
In a sign of the urgency of the crisis, the special envoy for the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, is sending Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton memos several times a day with his latest reading of the situation in Pakistan, an American official said.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefly visited Pakistan on Wednesday night and Thursday from Afghanistan, to meet with Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief of staff. An American official briefed on discussions said the Pakistani leadership was very concerned.
Buner (pronounced boo-NAIR), home to about one million people, lies in the heart of North-West Frontier Province, bordering seven other districts. Its capture not only advances the Taliban closer to the capital, but also gives the Taliban a vital hub to extend their reach.
The Taliban have already carried out limited attacks and have had a presence, including training camps, in several of the districts bordering Buner, in some cases for years. But on Thursday the militants were seen in several places moving more openly and in larger numbers than before.
More than 30 armed militants entered the Shangla district, east of the main Swat Valley and north of Buner, and were seen patrolling an area around Loch Bazaar, the independent channel Geo TV reported Thursday, quoting witnesses.
Government officials also confirmed that militants have been seen in Totali, far south in Buner and close to the boundary with the Swabi district, which lies close to the main highways into the capital.
Armed militants have also been seen visiting mosques and patrolling in Rustam, a town on the boundary between Buner and the adjoining district of Mardan, said Riaz Khan, a lawyer living in Mardan, the second largest town in North-West Frontier Province. People are anxious and in a state of fear, he said.
The Taliban were making a concerted push into areas that overlook the capital, lawmakers and government officials in North-West Frontier Province said.
A powerful religious party leader, Fazlur Rehman, who is allied with the government, warned that militants had reached into the Mansehra district, close to the Tarbela Dam, a vital source of electricity to the center of the country.
If the Taliban continue to move at this pace they will soon be knocking at the door of Islamabad, he told Parliament on Wednesday, adding that Margalla Hills, north of the capital, seem to be the only hurdle to the Taliban advance.
The Pakistani Taliban, who number in the thousands across the tribal areas and the Swat region, have declared their aim of establishing the rule of Islamic law, or Shariah, throughout Pakistan. But for now, their expansion may be opportunistic, and their strength sufficient only to establish local fiefdoms, or micro-emirates of Shariah, said Christine Fair, a senior research associate at the RAND Corporation.
I dont know what the Talibans game plan is, but what seems apparent is the state has no game plan, she said. The Pakistani state is not able to stop them and they expand where they can.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/world/asia/25pstan.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
