NATO
Behind The Attack On Madrasa?
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
02 November, 2006
Asia
Times Online
KARACHI -
The air attack on Monday in which up to 80 suspected militants were
killed at a religious school in the Pakistani tribal area of Bajour
marks the first successful operation after a tripartite meeting in Kabul
on August 24 of representatives of Afghanistan, the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization and Pakistan. And it won't be the last.
It was agreed at that meeting
that NATO forces operating in Afghanistan would be allowed to conduct
hot-pursuit operations across the border into Pakistan.
Although Pakistani officials
claim that Monday's operation was conducted by the Pakistani military,
Asia Times Online contacts in the area are convinced that foreign forces
were also involved, including US unmanned Hellfire Predator aircraft.
NATO and the US have only acknowledged that they provided intelligence
on the possible presence of Taliban and al-Qaeda figures at the madrassa
that was attacked, which was known to be pro-Taliban.
After Monday's operation,
intelligence sources say that Pakistan will further facilitate NATO
in the strategic back yard of Pakistan in an attempt to bolster the
struggling NATO forces in Afghanistan in their battle with the Taliban.
"I can see slit throats
beneath these turbans and beards," were the words of Hajaj bin
Yusuf, an 8th-century tyrant in what is now Iraq, as he witnessed a
gathering of leading religious and political figures.
This was the start of an
article (The
knife at Pakistan's throat, Asia Times Online, September
2) by this correspondent on returning from the largest-ever meeting
of the Taliban in the North Waziristan tribal area two days before a
peace deal was signed between the Taliban and Pakistani authorities.
The inspiration behind the
quote was a genuine sense of upcoming bloodshed in the Pakistan tribal
areas, given the hot-pursuit agreement in Kabul to which Pakistan had
agreed in principle, though it unsuccessfully demanded a clear demarcation
of the boundaries up to which hot pursuit would be allowed.
Subsequently, Pakistani officials
traveled to the tribal areas, where they tried to explain their position
of being under immense pressure from the increasingly desperate Americans.
The Pakistanis suggested that the tribals develop a mechanism under
which militants would retreat into the background, allowing the "soft-faced"
(moderate) tribal leaders to come to the fore.
All the same, it was fully
understood by both sides that bloodshed was inevitable, of which Monday's
massacre in Bajour agency is just the beginning of a new phase in the
"war on terror" battlefields that will embrace all seven of
Pakistan's tribal agencies. These remote and semi-independent agencies
along the border with Afghanistan have steadily developed into hideouts
and bases for the Taliban and al-Qaeda and serve as the back yard for
operations in Afghanistan.
The prospect of foreign forces
becoming a regular feature on Pakistani soil conjures up visions of
disastrous proportions. Just as such troops have been fiercely resisted
in Iraq and Afghanistan, so they will be opposed in Pakistan.
More important, Pakistan
will then become a new base for anti-US jihadis, that is, a new front
will be opened.
The prelude to this phase
was President General Pervez Musharraf's recent visit to Washington,
where he was placed under heavy pressure to take a broader operational
role in the US-led "war on terror". Soon after Musharraf's
return home, the British commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General
David Richards, visited Islamabad.
He talked to the Pakistani
authorities of creating a joint operational strategy for Afghanistan.
It was speculated at the time that this would involve joint patrols
on the border. But sources close to the strategic quarters of Rawalpindi
maintain that there is more to it than that.
In the first week of October,
a team of British army officers visited the southern port city of Karachi
and inspected the medical facilities in various hospitals and discussed
with the administration of Aga Khan Hospital the availability of special
wards with emergency facilities for wounded soldiers.
Many US troops are already
stationed at Jacobabad Air Base in Sindh province, and recently the
Pakistani air force reported extended reconstruction operations there
that appear to be preparations for extended action. Similar information
has been gathered about Kohat Air Base in North-West Frontier Province.
"The recent comment
of the British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan [Richards] that
NATO had failed to deliver on promises made to the Afghan people and
a warning that the Taliban will be back in strength next summer explains
very well these preparations," a security official told Asia Times
Online.
Meanwhile, in many places
in Afghanistan, especially the south, allied forces are virtually being
held hostage in their bases by the Taliban.
As a result, they are negotiating
with the Taliban in many districts for a peace deal to give them some
breathing space, especially as the Taliban have in recent weeks focused
their attentions on attacking bases, and will continue to do so until
winter brings the current offensive to a standstill.
The Taliban have sustained
heavy casualties from this fresh approach, but they have succeeded in
rattling the nerves of the allied forces in the southwest, to such an
extent that those forces feel they are rapidly losing the ground from
under their feet in Afghanistan.
It is for this reason that
Pakistani territory is so important, as it would give the NATO-led forces
room to consolidate and take the fight into the enemy's home territory
- the longer-term consequences be damned.
Syed Saleem Shahzad
is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at [email protected].
Copyright 2006 Asia Times
Online Ltd.
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