Tahrik-i Taliban Pakistan
An Article by Ataollah Mohajerani - Political Analyst
The sound of the fire heard on Lahore Airport road on Wednesday, Sept. 3rd and the bullets that hit the glasses of the bullet-proof Mercedes of the Pakistani prime minister, once again shifted the attentions towards Pakistan. This time, Yousuf Gillani was not in his car and was lucky to escape the assassination attempt. Last week too, the sounds of bullets were heard in Peshawar when the car of Ms. Lynne Tracy, the chief US diplomat in the city was hit. Tracy, the US Consulate’s Principal Officer too escaped the assassination attempt. Nevertheless, the sounds of the bullet carry a message.
Once Vaclav Havel in his book “Ethics and Politics” expressed hope that one day his country would no more hit international news headlines. Pakistan has been hitting news headlines for long years now. And the common points in all the news include massacre of the people; assassination attempts against the president, the prime minister and the interior minister; captivity of the military; beating up of lawyers; dismissal of prosecutor general; army attack on Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad; declaration of state of emergency; etc.
What are the causes of this state of confusion in Pakistan’s political-social arena? Why this country cannot arrive at tranquility? Both the persons ruling over the two main parties in Pakistan are filled with rancor themselves! The fragile coalition between the Pakistani People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has gone. Everyone is waiting for election of a new president. However, the bullet sounds carry the message that Pakistan has other days ahead. Everyone knows and says that these bullets are fired by `Tahriki Taliban Pakistan’ group. The question this article poses is: “What is the identity of Tahriki Taliban Pakistan?” What would be its fate? Would the country fall into the control Pakistani Taliban in the future? Why do we have such a horizon ahead of us for Pakistan?
1. The Taliban were organized by the Pakistani government and army, and specifically under direction of ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence). In August 2007, parts of the US national security documents about Pakistan and the Taliban were published. There were 35 documents. Although the full texts of the documents were not disclosed but a review of the documents would provide one with a clear insight. See http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB227/index.htm
According to these documents, Pakistan created the Taliban with two specific goals: First, to achieve strategic depth with regard to India; and secondly to secure access to Central Asian trade routes. A third goal can be added to the list, namely the commercial outlook of the Pakistani army and government towards the Taliban. Until before the Soviet withdrawal, Pakistan earned considerable income from arming the Afghan Mujahedin. In practice, this very arming meant formation of the first buds of the Taliban. In other words, the United States, Pakistan and other countries who supplied financial aid to the Taliban jointly produced the Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In later stages, campaign against the Taliban had become a source of revenue for the ISI.
Document number 15 states that in 1996 when Kabul fell into the Taliban, the Pakistani army supplied the Taliban forces with munitions, fuel, and food. The US ambassador to Pakistan sent a report to the State Department in the same year, saying: “In Afghanistan, Pakistan actually means the Taliban.”
In 1998, the Pakistani army and al-Qaeda strengthened Harakat ul-Ansar (HUA) group. This group is practically armed by the Taliban and Bin Laden. Fazlul Rahman Khalil, a leader in Pakistan’s Harakat ul-Ansar has signed Bin Laden’s fatwa to fight against the Americans. In 2000, the Pakistani army allowed the Taliban to maintain military presence in certain regions of Waziristan.
9/11 opened a new chapter in the book of the Taliban’s creation and continuation. Here, the strategic blunder of Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani army occurred. They accepted to bury their child like the ignorant Arabs! In fact, Musharraf let the US will rule over his army. In his book, “In the Line of Fire”, Musharraf has clearly stated that he has “given in to the US for the cause of Pakistan” and has practically put himself, his country, and his nation in an impasse and sophisticated situation. On September 12, Musharraf was meeting with military commanders at the presidential palace when he was interrupted by his military adviser who told him US Secretary of State General Powell wanted to talk to him over the phone. Musharraf says he would call him after the meeting was over. The military adviser insists; Musharraf leaves the meeting to talk to Powell. The US secretary of state asks Musharraf in a formal and rigid way: “In the fight against terrorism, are you with America or with the terrorists?!” One day later, Musharraf is informed that US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has told the ISI chief in Washington that if Pakistan sided with the terrorists the US would bomb Pakistan and return to the Paleolithic Age.
Although Musharraf has said he had accepted to side with the US based on his belief that Pakistan for him was prior to anything else (1) but he also knows that he has changed the fate of Pakistan. If the US and its allies have succeeded in containing the Taliban and Bin Laden, the Pakistani government too could achieve victory, with the difference that the Taliban has penetrated into the bone marrow of Pakistan and easily threatens the Pakistani army in Waziristan and Sawat regions. Once Musharraf secured the release of 300 Pakistani troops from the hands of the Pakistani Taliban in return for the liberation of 22 senior Taliban forces. Baitollah Masud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed that they have 25000 armed and trained personnel in Pakistan.
2. Now the Pakistani government is in a state of uncertainty. It does not know how to treat the Pakistani Taliban, which is a product of its own army. Whether to recognize them or to fight against them? This campaign gets harder and harder every day. The Pakistani Taliban possess hundreds of portable and active radio stations in Waziristan and Sarhad. A few hours after they launch an operation against the Pakistani army, the CDs related to the same operation can be purchased in Peshawar’s storytelling market!
The Pakistani government and army – here Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, Zia ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf all share an equal record – without having a clear picture and an deep analysis based on the national interests; and through creation of the Taliban and later via their hasty alliance to destroy it, faced themselves and their country with a profound crisis which is likely to turn into a great disaster in a couple of years. Pakistan is now in the leading news headlines. But these headlines are nothing compared to what is going to happen later on. It seems that Obama was attentive to this point when he called Pakistan the main center of al-Qaeda, the Taliban and terrorism when he was addressing a grand assembly of the Democrats.
Footnote
1. “In the Line of Fire,” Pervez Musharraf, pp 200 - 201