Orakzai: Window on Pakistan's war against militancy
By Emmanuel Duparcq (AFP)
KALAYA, Pakistan Seven months after launching an air and ground offensive against the Taliban in Orakzai, Pakistani generals say the mountain district outside direct government control is "90 percent" clear.
In other words, most of the job is done. Except that in June, the military announced that major combat operations were over even though clashes continued.
And the generals admit that despite their apparent success in ridding the area of insurgents, Taliban leaders have fled into neighbouring districts.
The challenge in Orakzaki, just one of seven lawless tribal districts on the Afghan border, shows the enormity of the task facing Pakistan as it bids to stamp out the menace of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militancy.
It is one of the reasons the United States last week offered Islamabad two billion dollars of fresh military aid, subject to Congressional approval.
Washington wants its ally to do more to prevent insurgents crossing into Afghanistan and fuelling a nine-year war.
Today, a Pakistani flag snaps in the wind once more on the ridge overlooking Kalaya base and Major General Nadir Zeb, commander of the Frontier Scouts tribal militia, is proud of what he is about to tell the press.
The military flew international reporters up to Kalaya on Tuesday to celebrate the "success" story of Orakzai -- a large red and gold tent erected under the pine trees to honour the occasion.
"It has been a major blow for terrorists. They are not an organised structure anymore," said Zeb, dressed in his navy blue uniform and beret.
"We broke their back here... now 90 percent of the agency is clear. Lower Orakzai is totally clear. Problems with militants only remain in the Mamunzai area (in the north)," he said.
On paper it makes for a nice victory in a semi-autonomous tribal belt, dubbed by Washington the epicentre of Al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies fighting in Afghanistan.
Washington calls the region the most dangerous place in the world. It is where the United States has welcomed offensives such as that in Orakzai and wants to see more such operations.
Before going into battle in March, the military said Orakzai had been controlled for two years by the Pakistani Taliban, blamed for most of the suicide and bomb attacks that have hit the country for more than three years.
From Orakzai, Zeb says, the Taliban planned attacks all around the country. Since 5,000 troops launched the offensive on March 24, 67 soldiers and 654 militants have been killed, and 250 militants arrested, he said.
He gave no number of civilian casualties, but Riaz Masood, the administrator of Orakzai, said about 85 percent of the estimated 220,000 people living in Lower Orakzai had fled the combat, mostly for the nearby towns of Hangu and Kohat.
He said that around 10,000 families have come back.
Zeb showed off photographs of the militant training camps that were allegedly uncovered, but the military told journalists that it was not possible to leave the military base on Tuesday to visit the camps.
Instead, war booty was laid out on wooden trestle-tables: about 60 shotguns, 20 mortar shells and a dozen grenades.
Then all the material needed to make bombs in the Taliban style: gas cylinders, gunpowder, ball bearings and remote-control switches.
But beyond the confines of the base, there appears to be a different story.
Pakistani security officials said rebels on Tuesday attacked a paramilitary post at Tanda, three kilometres (two miles) from Kalaya, killing a soldier. Last Friday, a bomb killed six soldiers on a routine patrol.
The same officials say the Taliban also have hideouts in Dabori and Ghaljo, other than in Mamunzai in Upper Orakzai -- that the military has partially cleared roads, but not the mountains.
Asked how long it would take to "clear" Orakzai completely, Zeb was careful. "It will take some time, months," he said.
And he admitted local Taliban leaders had fled into the districts of Khyber and Kurram in the cat-and-mouse chase that has been repeated in successive offensives since 2002, after Pakistan joined the US "war on terror".
In the same way, Taliban elements entered Orakzai after fleeing a sweeping offensive designed to clear out their headquarters in South Waziristan.
But the military's capacity is limited. Pakistan has already deployed more than 100,000 troops in the tribal belt and committed the military to relief efforts after catastrophic floods affected 21 million people this summer.
To guard against any Taliban return, the strategy has been to raise local tribesmen in pro-government militias or lashkars. But that does not ease the mind of Guldar Khan, a tribal leader in the nearby village of Utman Khel.
"The army restored security. Tribes have made a strong commitment to fight insurgents at all costs. We have a lashkar with 100 men, but a big problem: we don't have weapons. But without weapons, we can't even shoot birds!"
