mehsud

Pakistan Government, Tribesmen Reach Security Accord in Taliban War Zone

by on January 20, 2010

By Anwar Shakir and James Rupert Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s government agreed to transfer responsibility for maintaining order in the longtime Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan to tribal leaders, a key step for an army withdrawal after a three-month offensive. More than 500 elders from the dominant Mehsud tribe, wearing traditional turbans, endorsed a government proposal with a unanimous show of hands at a gathering yesterday in Tank, a town near South Waziristan . The two sides plan to sign the agreement, including a provision to hand over wanted guerrillas to the government, on Feb. 10. Mehsud leaders failed to prevent the rise of militancy after the U.S. invaded neighboring Afghanistan in 2001 and removed the Taliban in that country from power. Thousands of Mehsud men joined the Taliban to form the biggest terrorist threat in Pakistan, killing scores of pro-government elders. “It’s going to take time to see whether this deal can be enforced,” said Talat Masood , a political analyst and retired army lieutenant general in Islamabad, the capital. Most Mehsud civilians fled the army offensive and will be unable to return until winter snows recede in March. Pakistan is pushing for cooperation from the tribes to help quell violence that has claimed more than 600 lives in nationwide suicide bombings and gun battles since 28,000 troops launched an offensive in South Waziristan in October. If it is implemented, the accord would also pave the way for an eventual military withdrawal. Past Deals The army, which dominates security policy, “is very aware that previous deals with the tribes to oppose militants have failed because they were not enforced,” Masood said in a phone interview. “They know this one has to have more punch in it.” The Pakistani government says 80 percent of attacks in its cities were planned by Taliban from the Mehsud tribe. More than 3,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in the country last year, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies in Islamabad. As many as 500,000 refugees from the Mehsud area of South Waziristan are living in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, according to the government. Troops have cleared militants from 80 percent of South Waziristan and refugees will return within two months, according to the army. The central bank said this month the nation may miss its fiscal deficit target of 4.9 percent of gross domestic product this year because of war expenses. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said the cost of battling militants in northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan is rising. Wipe Out? The agreement can only work if the government wipes out terrorists from the area, said Syed Alam Mehsud, an independent analyst in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan. “Then the tribes will be willing and able to implement the government’s demands.” Syed Shahab Ali Shah, the government administrator for South Waziristan, attended yesterday’s meeting, called a jirga. Eight such jirgas have been held on a security accord since Dec. 15. The Mehsud tribe is the main clan in the northern half of South Waziristan. Jirgas are the traditional way of solving disputes among the ethnic Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The men sat in a circle on the ground in yesterday’s meeting, which ended with a prayer by the most senior tribal elder. The government reiterated at the gathering that the Mehsuds must hand over 382 wanted militants and agree not to facilitate terrorism. Shah told the elders that they mustn’t allow foreigners or Pakistanis from outside South Waziristan to enter the district. Mehsud Factions “Why can’t the government get the wanted persons themselves?” asked Zubair Khan, a professor of international relations at the University of Peshawar . “Making demands like this will lead to a civil war between factions of the Mehsud tribe.” The tribes will need to raise an army of fighters to resist militants, Shah said in an interview before the jirga. The army and paramilitary troops will “protect the tribes and help reconstruct” the region, army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said earlier. “We will facilitate the tribal army when needed.” The Mehsuds will be responsible for combating any militant activities in South Waziristan under a special law that governs the tribal border zone, Shah said. They will also be required to hand over all heavy weapons, including rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns. Under the 1901 Frontier Crimes Regulation, tribes are collectively responsible for any criminal acts in territory under their control. There are an estimated 20,000 fighters in the federally administered tribal area, of which 5,000 are in South Waziristan, according to Pakistan’s army. “We have accepted the demands in principle,” Salahuddin Khan Mehsud, general secretary of the Mehsud Peace Committee said in an interview before the jirga. “The difficulty for us is that we are refugees right now and until we return home it’s very difficult for us to meet these conditions. We need time.” To contact the reporter on this story: Anwar Shakir in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan at 532 or ashakir@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Government, Tribesmen Reach Security Accord in Taliban War Zone

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Pakistan Government, Tribesmen Close to Security Pact in Taliban War Zone

by on January 20, 2010

By Anwar Shakir Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s government is close to an agreement to hand back responsibility for maintaining order in the longtime Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan to tribal leaders after a three-month military offensive. “The tribal elders have accepted the government’s demands and we hope to work out the mode of implementation” in a meeting today, Syed Shahab Ali Shah, the government’s chief representative for South Waziristan , said in an interview in Tank, the tribal agency’s winter capital. Leaders of the Mehsud tribe, which dominates the area, failed to prevent the rise of militancy since the U.S. invaded neighboring Afghanistan in 2001 and removed the Taliban in that country from power. Thousands of Mehsud men then joined the Taliban to form the biggest terrorist threat in Pakistan, killing scores of pro-government tribal elders. Pakistan hopes that cooperation from the tribes will help quell violence that claimed more than 600 lives in nationwide suicide bombings and gun battles since 28,000 troops launched an offensive in South Waziristan in October. It would also pave the way for an eventual military withdrawal. “First the government has to completely wipe out the terrorists from the area,” said Syed Alam Mehsud, an independent analyst in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan. “Then the tribes will be willing and able to implement the government’s demands.” Pakistan has said 80 percent of attacks in its cities were planned by Mehsud Taliban. More than 3,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in the country last year, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies in Islamabad. Dispute Resolution Shah, the government’s political agent in South Waziristan, has held seven jirgas or meetings on a security deal since Dec. 15. About 400 elders from the Mehsud tribe, the main tribe in the northern half of South Waziristan, attended. Jirgas, which take place in the north and west of Pakistan and in Afghanistan, are the traditional Pashtun form of consensus building and dispute resolution. In the Jan. 3 jirga between the Mehsuds and the political agent, tribal elders wearing traditional turbans sat in a circle on the ground as a speaker announced the agenda and sought a show of hands to proceed. The end of the jirga was signaled by a prayer by the most senior tribal elder. In today’s gathering in Tank, the government will continue to press demands that the Mehsuds hand over 382 wanted militants and agree not to facilitate terrorism, Shah said. He also said the Mehsuds must not allow foreigners or Pakistanis from outside South Waziristan to enter the tribal agency. ‘Civil War’ “Why can’t the government get the wanted persons themselves,” said Zubair Khan, a professor of international relations at Peshawar University. “Making demands like this will lead to a civil war between factions of the Mehsud tribe.” The tribes will need to raise an army of fighters to resist militants, Shah said. The army and paramilitary troops will stay in South Waziristan “to protect the tribes and help reconstruct” the region, army spokesman Athar Abbas said. “We will facilitate the tribal army when needed.” The central bank said this month the nation may miss its fiscal deficit target of 4.9 percent of gross domestic product this year because of war expenses. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said the cost of battling militants in northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan is rising. The Mehsuds will be responsible for any militant activities in South Waziristan under a special law governing the region that dates back more than 100 years, Shah said. They will also be required to hand over all heavy weapons including rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns. Under the 1901 Frontier Crimes Regulation, tribes are collectively responsible for any criminal acts in territory under their control. The three main factions of the Mehsud tribe dominate different areas of South Waziristan. Return Refugees There are an estimated 20,000 fighters in the federally administered tribal areas, of which 5,000 are in South Waziristan, according to Pakistan’s army. “We have accepted the demands in principle,” Salahuddin Khan Mehsud, general secretary of the Mehsud Peace Committee said in an interview. “The difficulty for us is that we are refugees right now and until we return home it’s very difficult for us to meet these conditions. We need time.” As many as 500,000 refugees from the Mehsud area of South Waziristan are living in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, according to the government. Troops have cleared 80 percent of South Waziristan from militants and refugees will return within two months, according to the army. To contact the reporter on this story: Anwar Shakir in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan at 532 or ashakir@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Government, Tribesmen Close to Security Pact in Taliban War Zone

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U.S. Missiles Kill 13 Pakistani Militants Amid Report Taliban Head Escaped

January 14, 2010

By Khalid Qayum and Anwar Shakir Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) — Missiles fired from a U.S. drone aircraft killed 13 militants in Pakistan’s northwest, a government official said. Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud escaped the attack, Agence France-Presse reported. Four missiles struck a militant base in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan early today, Khalid Khan, a spokesman at the government’s political office in the region, said in a phone interview. Mehsud, who left the area before the attack, is “alive and completely safe,” AFP reported, citing Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq . Pakistan’s AAJ television also cited a Taliban spokesman as saying Mehsud had survived the strike. The television channel earlier reported Mehsud and three top commanders were killed, without saying where it obtained the information. The attack was at least the seventh by U.S. unmanned aircraft inside Pakistani territory this month. It comes after a suicide bomber killed seven CIA operatives at a base in the eastern Afghanistan province of Khost. In a video released on Jan. 9 by the Pakistan Taliban, the alleged Jordanian bomber is seen sitting next to Hakimullah Mehsud, IntelCenter, an Alexandria, Virginia-based organization that tracks Islamist videos, said in a statement. Hammam Khalil al-Balawi said in the video he was seeking revenge for the killing in a U.S. drone attack in August of Hakimullah predecessor Baitullah Mehsud , IntelCenter said. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi yesterday criticized drone attacks in the border area in a joint news conference with Richard Holbrooke , the U.S. representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan. The U.S. says North Waziristan is a stronghold for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who are fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. Kill Civilians Such operations, which regularly kill civilians as well as militants, are counterproductive and the U.S. should instead focus on the war inside Afghanistan, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said on Jan. 7. Pakistan’s army in October sent 28,000 troops into South Waziristan to fight the Mehsud-led Taliban, triggering a wave of revenge suicide bombings and gun attacks that have killed more than 600 civilians and members of the security forces. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net Anwar Shakir in Islamabad at ashakir@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Pounding Taliban Has Leveled Towns, Killed Civilians, Elders Say

November 12, 2009

By Anwar Shakir Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — Tribal elders fleeing a monthlong battle between Pakistan’s military and Taliban guerrillas have described bombed out towns and trapped civilians. Helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounded guerrilla positions in the mountains outside the former Taliban stronghold of Makeen, said Abdullah Shah Yousuf Mehsud, 34, who helped rescue five families from the area this week. He was appointed to speak by a group of six Mehsud clan leaders who have taken refuge in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan. “All the houses had been emptied there,” Mehsud said. “When troops encountered firing from the area, they surrounded the area and killed three men, thinking they are Taliban,” When the troops found out they were civilians, they took them to Razmak in North Waziristan “and buried them there,” he said. In an offensive beginning Oct. 17, the army sent 28,000 soldiers in three columns into South Waziristan, near the country’s border with Afghanistan, to target the 10,000 fighters of the Taliban faction led by Hakimullah Mehsud . The campaign is taking a further toll on the economy, straining a budget deficit the government estimated in July will widen to 4.9 percent of gross domestic product in the year to June 2010. The International Monetary Fund is in talks to allow the fourth disbursement of an $11.3 billion loan to Pakistan to bolster what it has called an “anemic” economy. The IMF agreed in August to increase support by $3.2 billion to buttress an economy and budget damaged by the war. Taliban Hideouts Aircraft targeted Taliban hideouts in the mountains, while the militants fought back in battles lasting all night, Abdullah Shah Yousuf Mehsud said in a Nov. 11 interview. The corpses of 200 dead donkeys, the main means of transport in much of the remote region, littered Makeen, he said. The army said on Nov. 10 troops were consolidating positions in and around the town where it had razed a house owned by slain Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud , killed in an August missile strike by a U.S. drone aircraft. Baitullah Mehsud’s ethnic Pashtun tribe supplies the core of the largest Taliban force. A spate of suicide bombings and commando-style gun attacks in major cities before and after the assault began have killed nearly 350 people. The government says 80 percent of terrorist attacks are plotted by militants in South Waziristan, one of the largely autonomous agencies that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Area . Scant Information While army statements daily give casualties among soldiers and militants, independent reports on the operation are rare as journalists have been forced out of the region by the government and the Taliban. The capture of Taliban-controlled towns may have limited strategic value unless soldiers pursue militants into their mountain hideouts, ex-army brigadier Javed Hussain, a former Special Forces commander, said last week in a telephone interview from Islamabad. More than 350,000 of South Waziristan’s population of 600,000 have been registered as refugees by the United Nations and are mostly living in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan, said Qaiser Khan Afridi, a spokesman for the UN High Commission for Refugees in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. The Mehsud elders interviewed said they were in favor of the army’s assault and they wanted foreign militants from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan allied to al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the region to be forced out of their lands. “We don’t need them to come and tell us what Islam means,” said Abdullah Shah Yousuf Mehsud. Demolished Houses Recalling the scenes of devastation in his hometown, he said at least 60 houses were bombed and demolished in the Umer Khel area of Makeen. “Jet fighters were hovering above us and tanks patrolled as we tried to get the families out. We walked to Miram Shah in North Waziristan,” a journey of 43 miles (70 kilometers), he said. “Eleven Uzbek and Tajik Taliban were trying to escape Makeen into the mountains to hide.” About 1,000 Mehsud families fled to Wana, the homeland of the Wazir tribe and an area whose economy is based on fruit orchards, said a second man, Niaz Mohammad Wazir, 40. Officials had warned locals not take them to Tank in case militants traveling with them slip away, he said. A 29-year-old cook from Wana, Ismail Khan, said he had no future back home. “In between the army and militants, we are trapped,” he said. “A few years ago, the Taliban caught me three or four times and beat me up for smoking a cigarette. I feel there’s no hope for us unless we leave Wana.” To contact the reporters on this story: Anwar Shakir in Karachi at ashakir1@bloomberg.net .

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Pakistan Braces for 250,000 Refugees From Assault on Taliban Strongholds

October 19, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan is bracing for as many as 250,000 refugees to flee the mountainous region of South Waziristan, as the army mounts its biggest offensive against the Taliban stronghold. Fighting is taking place over 2,200 square kilometers (850 square miles) near the towns of Ladah and Makin, said Tariq Hayat Khan, secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Area , which includes Waziristan and borders Afghanistan. A total of 97,000 refugees have already been registered, Tariq Hayat, the government’s secretary for tribal areas, said in a telephone interview from Islamabad today. Pakistan’s military said yesterday it killed 60 Taliban and gained ground in the first stage of operations while five soldiers died in the offensive. Soldiers secured “tactical heights” and destroyed six anti-aircraft gun positions in different regions, according to a statement on the military’s Web site . It said 11 of its soldiers were injured. Three columns entering the Taliban stronghold had advanced about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) and seized bombs and landmines, the army said. It said “terrorists are vacating their posts” and “leaving behind arms and ammunition.” The headquarters of Mehsud’s Tehrik-e-Taliban, now headed by senior commander Hakimullah Mehsud may contain about 1,500 guerillas, military spokesman Athar Abbas said, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan . Ground and air attacks by the military began on Oct. 16 and aim to dismantle the network of the Mehsud insurgents, Abbas said. The group accounts for 80 percent of terrorist activities in the country, he said. U.S. Pressure The offensive is Pakistan’s biggest yet against the Taliban and its allies, who have mounted increasing attacks on government targets since mid-2007 and this month attacked Pakistan’s army headquarters. The U.S. has encouraged offensives against Pakistan-based Taliban, saying Waziristan and other border districts are sanctuaries for jihadists who also attack American-led troops in Afghanistan. About 24,000 people left their homes in South Waziristan for the two neighboring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank last week in anticipation of the offensive against the Taliban, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Oct. 16. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry , who co-sponsored the new U.S. non-military assistance package signed into law last week by President Barack Obama , and General David Petraeus , the head of U.S. Central Command, will meet senior government and military officials on visits to Pakistan today, Richard Snelsire, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said. The meetings formed part of the two countries cooperation, he said without giving details. ‘Heavy Casualties’ Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said the guerrillas had inflicted “heavy casualties” on the army, the Associated Press reported yesterday. “We will defend our land till our last man and our last drop of our blood,” the agency quoted him as saying. “This is a war bound to end in the defeat of the Pakistan army.” Accounts of the fighting couldn’t be confirmed, as Pakistan bars foreigners from the tribal areas and local journalists have been forced out by pressure from the government and Taliban. The army says it expects to complete the offensive in six to eight weeks. Still, “this fight could be longer and harder than any the army has taken on so far,” said Ashraf Ali, director of the FATA Research Center, an Islamabad think-tank that studies the Federally Administered Tribal Areas including Waziristan. Al-Qaeda “The Waziristan terrain is much tougher for the army and better for guerrilla-style fighters,” Ali said. He added that the Taliban targeted in the campaign “are more experienced and trained than the ones in Swat,” the northern valley the army recaptured in a 10-week battle that ended in July. And even a determined offensive may not crush the Mehsud faction or its al-Qaeda allies, counter-terrorism specialists said. The Taliban will “split into small groups and harass the strangers in a terrain which the Mehsuds know well,” said Bahukutumbi Raman at the Chennai, India-based Institute for Topical Studies. Pakistan is likely to face a new round of terrorist attacks in cities far from the fighting, he said. Working in the army’s favor is the fact that Pakistanis seem more supportive of a government strike on the Taliban than in previous years, said Ali. “The Taliban present themselves as fighting jihad against usurpers occupying Muslim lands, but this year they have been bombing mosques, marketplaces, the army and police, and this has reduced the public sympathy for them,” he said. ‘Way of Salvation’ The army operation, titled Rah-i-Najat, the “The Way of Salvation,” includes the largest force the army has assembled in Waziristan and is better prepared than three smaller offensives that failed there since 2004, said Mahmood Shah , an analyst and former army security chief for the tribal region. Militants loyal to Mehsud have led an escalating campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration. Taliban militants in South Waziristan have been surrounded by soldiers and all roads leading to the region has been closed, Abbas said. Civilians were not being targeted and in some areas people “raised white flags and they were left off after search,” the military said on its Web site. Autonomy South Waziristan is a mountainous land of 6,620 square kilometers with a population of about 500,000. Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf deployed troops in the tribal areas in 2003 after the U.S. said Taliban militants based in the region were launching attacks at coalition forces based in Afghanistan. The region is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, who have had autonomy under an agreement with the government signed in 1948, a year after the country’s independence from Britain. The government said last week it had approved the offensive and given authority to the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , to decide when to strike. The army says it has deployed 28,000 troops around South Waziristan. To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net .

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Pakistan Army Says It Kills 60 Taliban in First Day of Waziristan Attack

October 18, 2009

By Jay Shankar Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s army offensive is targeting the headquarters of a major Taliban faction in their stronghold of South Waziristan, where about 1,500 guerillas are based, a military spokesman said. The military, in its ground and air attacks that began Oct. 16, aims to “dismantle the network” of Tehrik-e- Taliban, Athar Abbas said, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan . The group’s militants, loyal to the late Baitullah Mehsud , account for 80 percent of terrorist activities in the country, he said. The offensive is the most direct attempt to end terrorist violence that has threatened to destabilize the government of the nuclear-armed state. The U.S. has encouraged offensives against Pakistan-based Taliban, saying Waziristan and other border districts are sanctuaries for jihadists who also attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan. Still, not all observers were optimistic. “This offensive will not succeed,” Ajai Sahni , executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management , a New Delhi- based research group, said today in a telephone interview. “The army needs to engage the Taliban militants long-term on the ground. Taliban militants are regrouping elsewhere in the country and they are attacking security establishments.” Escalating Campaign Militants loyal to the late Mehsud have led an escalating campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration. Taliban militants in South Waziristan have been surrounded by soldiers and all the roads leading to the region has been closed, Abbas said. Pakistani soldiers targeted Taliban bases with artillery and as many as 20 militants may have been killed so far, Agence France-Presse reported, citing unidentified security officials. Northwest Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Oct. 16 that as many as 2 million families may be displaced as a result of the military operations in South Waziristan. He didn’t reveal what plans the government may have for housing the refugees. About 24,000 people left their homes in South Waziristan for the two neighboring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank last week in anticipation of the offensive against the Taliban, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Oct. 16. Refugees Fleeing While some may be seasonal migration, “most families are fleeing the expected bombardments,” according to the UN refugee agency’s statement. Earlier this year, 2 million people fled from the districts of Swat, Buner, Shangla and Dir amid an army offensive, although the agency doesn’t expect an outflow of refuges on the same scale from South Waziristan. Four Pakistani soldiers were killed and 12 injured in initial clashes with militants in South Waziristan, the military said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday. The government said last week it had approved the offensive and given authority to the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , to decide when to strike. The army says it has deployed 28,000 troops around South Waziristan. Spokesmen for the Mehsud Taliban have claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings and guerrilla assaults this month against government, army and police targets. At least seven guerrilla attacks in the past week killed 140 people, including 11 who died in a car bombing Oct. 16 in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Taliban Leaders Pakistan has not been able to kill or capture any of the Taliban leaders, Sahni said. Mehsud died in a U.S. missile strike in August and Pakistan’s military campaign against the Taliban hasn’t resulted in a “major success” so far, he said. Pakistan may have to commit more troops to fight Taliban militants in South Waziristan, an area which is difficult for the soldiers to access, Indranil Banerjie, director of National Security and Political Risk Research and Education said today in a telephone interview. “In the Swat operations the army used a lot of air strikes,” he said. “In South Waziristan, because of the terrain, you need to fight the enemy on the ground.” South Waziristan is a mountainous land of 6,620 square kilometers (2,550 square miles) with a population of about 500,000. Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf deployed troops in the tribal areas in 2003 after the U.S. said Taliban militants based in the region were launching attacks at coalition forces based in Afghanistan. The region is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, who have enjoyed autonomy under an agreement with the government signed in 1948, a year after the country’s independence from Britain. To contact the reporter on this story; Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Battles Taliban in South Waziristan, Aims to Dismantle Network

October 18, 2009

By Jay Shankar Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s army is targeting the headquarters of a major Taliban faction in their stronghold of South Waziristan, where about 1,500 guerillas are based, a military spokesman said. The military, during its ground and air offensive that began Oct. 16, aims to “dismantle the network” of Tehrik-e- Taliban, Athar Abbas said, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan . The group’s militants, loyal to the late Baitullah Mehsud , account for 80 percent of terrorist activities in the country, he said. The offensive is the most direct attempt to end terrorist violence that has threatened to destabilize the government of the nuclear-armed state. The U.S. has encouraged offensives against Pakistan-based Taliban, saying Waziristan and other border districts are sanctuaries for jihadists who also attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan. “This offensive will not succeed,” Ajai Sahni , executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management , a New Delhi- based research group, said today in a telephone interview. “The army needs to engage the Taliban militants long-term on the ground. Taliban militants are regrouping elsewhere in the country and they are attacking security establishments.” Militants loyal to the late Mehsud have led an escalating campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration. Taliban militants in South Waziristan have been surrounded by soldiers and all the roads leading to the region has been closed, Abbas said. Families Displaced Northwest Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Oct. 16 that as many as 2 million families may be displaced as a result of the military operations South Waziristan. He didn’t say what plans the government has for housing the refugees. Four Pakistani soldiers were killed and 12 injured in initial clashes with militants, the military said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday. The government said last week it had approved an offensive and given authority to the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , to decide when to strike. The army says it has deployed 28,000 troops around South Waziristan. Spokesmen for the Mehsud Taliban have claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings and guerrilla assaults this month against government, army and police targets. At least seven guerrilla attacks in the past week killed 140 people, including 11 who died in a car bombing Oct. 16 in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Pakistan has not been able to kill or capture any of the Taliban leaders, Sahni said. Mehsud died in a U.S. missile strike in August and Pakistan’s military campaign against the Taliban has not resulted in a “major success,” so far, he said. To contact the reporter on this story; Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Begins Offensive Against Militant Stronghold in South Waziristan

October 17, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and Naween Mangi Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s military began a ground and air offensive against Taliban guerrillas in their stronghold of South Waziristan, its most direct attempt to end terrorist violence that has threatened to destabilize the government of the nuclear-armed state. The operation started late Oct. 16, said an army spokesman yesterday. He declined to be identified in accordance with military policy. The operation may take eight weeks or longer to complete, he said. Troops will target both Pakistani and foreign militants, he said. Fighters loyal to the late Baitullah Mehsud have led an escalating campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration. The U.S. has encouraged offensives against Pakistan-based Taliban, saying Waziristan and other border districts are sanctuaries for jihadists who attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan. A Pakistani news channel, Express News, reported that residents were leaving the mountainous region as fighting began. Thousands of displaced people have reached the nearby city of Dera Ismail Khan, where they are being registered at the main sports stadium, the network said. Northwest Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said as many as 2 million families may be displaced as a result of the military operations South Waziristan. He spoke in televised press conference in Peshawar yesterday. He didn’t say what plans the government has for housing the displaced people. Deaths Four Pakistani soldiers were killed and 12 injured in initial clashes with militants, the military said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday. A bomb exploded near a military convoy as it moved from Razmak, a military base in North Waziristan, Agence France- Presse reported. Razmak is one of four main launching points for the offensive, to the north, east and west of Mehsud’s forces, Pakistan’s Samaa television said. The government said last week it had approved an offensive and given authority to the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , to decide when to launch it. The army says it has deployed 28,000 troops around South Waziristan to attack an estimated 10,000 fighters of a major Taliban faction led until August by Baitullah Mehsud . Mehsud Mehsud was killed in August by a missile from a U.S.- operated unmanned aircraft, and his forces now are led by a relative, Hakimullah Mehsud. While other Taliban factions have focused their attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan and their Afghan government allies, the Mehsud fighters have waged an escalating campaign within Pakistan. Pakistan’s government blamed Baitullah Mehsud for the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto , the wife of President Zardari, an accusation Mehsud denied. Spokesmen for the Mehsud Taliban have claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings and guerrilla assaults this month against government, army and police targets. At least seven guerrilla attacks in the past week killed 140 people, including 11 who died in a car bombing Oct. 16 in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Pakistan’s Taliban and their allies also are turning to commando raids on police and soldiers as a tactic to convince Pakistanis the government can’t contain them. At least 26 people were killed in assaults on Oct. 15 on a federal police headquarters and two police training centers in the eastern city of Lahore, and a bombing at a police station in Kohat. Commando Assaults While suicide bombings killed most of those who died in the last week, the Pakistani media’s focus has been on the commando assaults Oct. 15 and a 22-hour siege one week ago at Pakistan’s army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Jihadists also used commando assaults in Lahore in March, against a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team and at a police academy that was attacked again on Oct. 15. The tactic has been revived in an effort to fight back after the army drove the Taliban out of the Swat Valley in July and killed Mehsud in August, said Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at Stratfor , an Austin, Texas- based intelligence-consulting firm. The week-long series of attacks has been in part an effort to demoralize Pakistan’s security forces in advance of the South Waziristan offensive, Bokhari said. To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net or Naween A Mangi in Karachi at nmangi1@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Begins Offensive Against Militant Stronghold in Waziristan Region

October 17, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and Naween Mangi Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s military began a ground and air offensive against Taliban guerrillas in their stronghold of South Waziristan, its most direct attempt to end terrorist violence that has threatened to destabilize the government of the nuclear-armed state. The operation started late yesterday, said an army spokesman, who declined to be identified in accordance with military policy. The operation may take eight weeks or longer to complete, he said. Troops will target both Pakistani and foreign militants, he said. Fighters loyal to the late Baitullah Mehsud have led an escalating campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration. The U.S. has encouraged offensives against Pakistan-based Taliban, saying Waziristan and other border districts are sanctuaries for jihadists who attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan. A Pakistani news channel, Express News, reported that residents were continuing to leave the mountainous region as fighting began. Thousands of displaced people have reached the nearby city of Dera Ismail Khan, where they are being registered at the main sports stadium, the network said. Northwest Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said as many as 2 million families may be displaced as a result of the military operations South Waziristan. He spoke in televised press conference in Peshawar today. He didn’t say what plans the government has for housing the displaced people. Deaths Four Pakistani soldiers were killed and 12 injured in initial clashes with militants, the military said in a statement on its Web site. A bomb exploded near a military convoy as it moved from Razmak, a military base in North Waziristan, Agence France- Presse reported. While the agency said two soldiers were killed, that was not confirmed by the army statement. Razmak is one of four main launching points for the offensive, to the north, east and west of Mehsud’s forces, Pakistan’s Samaa television said. The government said last week it had approved an offensive and given authority to the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , to decide when to launch it. The army says it has deployed 28,000 troops around South Waziristan to attack an estimated 10,000 fighters of a major Taliban faction led until August by Baitullah Mehsud . Mehsud Mehsud was killed in August by a missile from a U.S.- operated unmanned aircraft, and his forces now are led by a relative, Hakimullah Mehsud. While other Taliban factions have focused their attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan and their Afghan government allies, the Mehsud fighters have waged an escalating campaign within Pakistan. Pakistan’s government blamed Baitullah Mehsud for the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto , the wife of President Zardari, an accusation Mehsud denied. Spokesmen for the Mehsud Taliban have claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings and guerrilla assaults this month against government, army and police targets. At least seven guerrilla attacks in the past week have killed 140 people, including 11 who died in a car bombing yesterday in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Pakistan’s Taliban and their allies also are turning to commando raids on police and soldiers as a tactic to convince Pakistanis the government can’t contain them. At least 26 people were killed in assaults on Oct. 15 on a federal police headquarters and two police training centers in the eastern city of Lahore, and a bombing at a police station in Kohat. Commando Assaults While suicide bombings killed most of those who died in the past week, the Pakistani media’s focus has been on the commando assaults Oct. 15 and a 22-hour siege last weekend at Pakistan’s army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Jihadists also used commando assaults in Lahore in March, against a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team and at a police academy that was attacked again on Oct. 15. The tactic has been revived in an effort to fight back after the army drove the Taliban out of the Swat Valley in July and killed Mehsud in August, said Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at Stratfor , an Austin, Texas- based intelligence-consulting firm. The week-long spate of attacks is in part an effort to demoralize Pakistan’s security forces in advance of the offensive begun today, Bokhari said. To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net or Naween A Mangi in Karachi at nmangi1@bloomberg.net

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Pakistani Taliban Militants, Rival Group Clash, Leaving as Many as 70 Dead

August 12, 2009

By Khaleeq Ahmed and Gregory Viscusi Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) — Taliban militants clashed with a pro-government militia in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas, a military official said. As many as 70 fighters were killed, the Associated Press reported. The fighting, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Jandola in South Waziristan, pitted followers of Islamic militant Baitullah Mehsud , who the government said died in a U.S. missile strike last week, and supporters of Haji Turkistan Bitani, a local tribal leader allied with the government. There were heavy losses among Mehsud’s faction, said the official, who asked not to be identified. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said Mehsud, the country’s most wanted Islamic guerrilla, was likely killed by a missile fired by a U.S. drone Aug. 5, and that there is infighting among his commanders over the leadership succession. Mehsud’s deputy, Hakimullah Mehsud, called journalists and analysts two days ago to dismiss claims that he and his boss had died. Baitullah Mehsud, who said he ordered terrorist bombings in Pakistan, led about 5,000 fighters in the border region with Afghanistan. Pakistan and the U.S. have described his killing as a major victory in their fight against the Taliban after the army drove militants from the Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province. Taliban militants attacked Bitani’s men just outside Mehsud’s stronghold in South Waziristan, AP cited Bitani as saying. The Taliban used rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft guns against Bitani’s village of Sura Ghar, AP reported, citing two unidentified Pakistani intelligence officials, who added that at least 70 people were killed. There was no way to independently verify the death toll, as the fighting was in a remote area that is off-limits to journalists, AP said. To contact the reporters on this story: Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan paknews@bloomberg.net ; Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net .

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Taliban Deny Pakistani Report of Infighting, Say U.S. Didn’t Kill Leader

August 10, 2009

By James Rupert and Khalid Qayum Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) — A deputy leader of Pakistan’s Taliban dismissed a government statement that he was killed in guerrilla infighting over who should replace the movement’s leader, Baitullah Mehsud . Hakimullah Mehsud telephoned an ethnic Pashtun analyst today to rebut the government’s report of a gunbattle among top aides to Baitullah Mehsud, who U.S. and Pakistani officials say was killed by a U.S. missile on Aug. 5. “Hakimullah called me to deny the claim of the government,” the analyst, Sailab Mahsud , said in a telephone interview from Dera Ismail Khan, a Pakistani city just east of South Waziristan. Hakimullah said Baitullah also is alive and couldn’t come to the phone to prove it because they were “in the battlefield,” said Mahsud, a co-tribesman of the Taliban leaders who publishes a newsletter on Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun community. The Taliban leader’s telephone call was the latest of several claims surrounding the reported death of Baitullah Mehsud. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said yesterday that Hakimullah Mehsud had died in a gunfight with a rival candidate to lead the Taliban. “There is a full-scale psy-war going on,” said Bahukutumbi Raman, a terrorism analyst who directs the Institute for Topical Studies in Chennai, India. Pakistan and the U.S. have described Baitullah’s killing as a major victory in their fight against the Taliban, whose main stronghold is in the rocky mountains of Waziristan, home to the Mehsuds and several other Pashtun tribes. Secondary Leaders Retired and current Pakistani officials voiced hope that Mehsud’s death might change the war in the government’s favor. “The infighting among the Taliban commanders will weaken the group to the extent that it will eventually disintegrate,” said Mahmood Shah , an analyst and former security chief of Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Other analysts say the Taliban may not be critically weakened by a possible loss of their leader. “The secondary leaders are having discussions,” rather than battles, about a new commander, said Karim Mehsud, a Pakistani lawyer who cited his contacts from his past mediation with Taliban and tribal leaders. Taliban accounts of Baitullah Mehsud’s fate have varied so widely that he may indeed be dead, analyst Mahsud said. Many Mehsud tribesmen and Taliban sources have confirmed his death to Pakistani and Western news organizations. While Hakimullah told Mahsud that Baitullah was too busy to be brought to the phone, Maulana Nur Syed, a guerrilla spokesman, said he is gravely ill, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. The leader needed treatment for diabetes, according to Taliban officials cited by the New York Times. Challenged Government In his phone call, Hakimullah “challenged the government to bring out any proof that Baitullah is dead,” said Mahsud. The evidence of Mehsud’s death “is pretty conclusive,” Jim Jones , the U.S. National Security Adviser, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday. “We put it in the 90 percent category.” Some degree of Taliban rivalry is indeed likely, Shah, Mahsud and other analysts said. Mutual suspicion among Taliban leaders has been deepened by the increasing accuracy of U.S. missile strikes such as the one that targeted Mehsud, said Raman. “Taliban are asking who is the mole in their midst” who might be sending information to Pakistani or U.S. forces to help target the missiles, he said in an e-mail. The U.S. offered a $5 million bounty for the capture of Mehsud, who said he ordered suicide bombings from his base in the tribal district bordering Afghanistan . Taliban Funds The government’s account of a battle between Hakimullah Mehsud and another top Taliban lieutenant, Waliur Rehman, was reported today by an English-language Pakistani daily, The News. The two men claimed the leadership amid a fight for control of Taliban funds and weapons worth millions of dollars, The News said, citing a security official it didn’t identify. Pakistan’s government blames Mehsud for the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto , the wife of current President Asif Ali Zardari . The army said last month it regained control of the Swat Valley in neighboring North-West Frontier Province from Taliban fighters backed by Meshud after a 10-week offensive killed more than 1,700 militants. Baitullah Mehsud, reportedly in his 30s, was killed when a U.S. missile fired from a drone hit a house in the village of Zangara in South Waziristan, according to Malik and local media reports. ‘A Big Deal’ Mehsud commanded as many as 5,000 fighters, U.S. military analysts said. He formed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan from an alliance of about five pro-Taliban groups in December 2007, according to the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. The U.S. says he has carried out attacks on American troops in Afghanistan. His death is “a big deal,” a demonstration of progress in U.S.-Pakistani security efforts, Jones told NBC yesterday. “Mehsud was public enemy No. 1 in Pakistan.” Mehsud was “a murderous thug and his elimination is a step forward for the safety of folks in that region and in our country,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama to Mexico yesterday. “It also shows that Pakistan has made progress in moving to root out and eliminate extremist elements.” To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; James Rupert in New Delhi at Jrupert3@bloomberg.net .

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