Islamabad - When thousands of Pakistani troops backed by
tanks and artillery moved into Bajaur tribal district to retake a
strategic checkpoint from Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, many thought
it would be a relatively easy walk for professional soldiers with
huge fire power.
But the tenacious resistance the militants offered and the superb
guerrilla warfare they used in the six-week pitched battles with
government forces came as more than a surprise.
'Their hit-and-run tactics are incredible. Armed with assault
rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, they suddenly appear in small
groups from behind mud compounds, or from their trenches in the
cornfields and after a barrage of fire and disappear before our
soldiers could respond,' said a security official.
'We do not go after them since they know the terrain better than
we do,' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Recently, the security forces discovered a large network of
tunnels that interconnected various thick-walled compounds. The
militants, who are equipped with a sophisticated communication
system, would fire from one house and flee to the other before
receiving artillery fire.
The operation in Bajaur district was launched in August when
hundreds of Taliban militants overran an outpost on a strategic
hilltop in the Loi Sam area along the supply route commonly used by
insurgents to aid their comrades fighting US troops in the Afghan
province of Kunar.
According to official claims so far, more than 500 militants with
the Islamist extremist Taliban and the al-Qaeda terrorist network
have been killed but the Loi Sam post remains under the control of
rebels though 50 per cent of the district has been liberated.
Powerful roadside bombs have proved lethal for light vehicles as
well as tanks, slowing down the troops march and forcing them to rely
more on helicopter gunships, jet planes and artillery fire, which
have done more damage to civilians than to the Taliban.
Around one-third of Bajaur's population of one million has been
displaced and according to the locals the civilian casualties are
much higher than the few dozen confirmed by the authorities.
'The militants hide in their caves in the mountains during the
aerial attacks and climb down to ambush the troops later on,' said a
local journalist Saleem Khan. They have killed more than two dozen
troops and wounded hundreds more.
A local militant leader, who identified himself by the single name
of Khurshid, claimed they had also captured 46 soldiers, 18 vehicles
and a tank, a tool of little use in guerrilla warfare.
'Some people tried to break it with axes but it is so solid. Now
our children play with it,' he said laughingly.
The Taliban have vowed to defend Loi Sam because that is the
centre of Bajaur. 'Whoever controls this area, controls the entire
district as well as the route to Kunar,' said Khan.
The commanding officer of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps,
Major General Tariq Khan, told reporters early this week that if the
insurgency was dismantled in Bajaur, 65 per cent of the militancy in
the country's tribal areas would be brought under control.
The Taliban also realize this and have moved reinforcements of
guerillas from across the border as well as from at least three
neighbouring tribal districts. The main fighting from the rebel side
is being led by an Afghan commander Qari Ziaur Rehman, who is
assisted by well-trained al-Qaeda fighters of Arab, Chechen and Uzbek
origin.
'There is substantial evidence that heavy weaponry is being moved
into Bajaur from Afghanistan,' said Pakistani army spokesman Major
General Athar Abbas, complaining that there was no serious effort by
the International Security Assistance Force operating in Afghanistan
to stop militant infiltration across the border.
The Bajaur battle seems to be spreading to the other areas of
Pakistan. On September 20, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden
lorry through the high security zone in the capital and struck the
Marriott Hotel, located barely 500 metres from the offices and
residences of the prime minister and president.
A previously unknown terrorist group, Fedayeen of Islam claimed
responsibility for the bombing, said to be in retaliation for the
Bajaur operation.
On Friday, law enforcement agents in the southern port city of
Karachi foiled a plan to carry out suicide bombings during the Muslim
Eid al-Fitr festival. Three suicide bombers blew themselves up after
exchanging fire for hours with a police raiding party.
However, back in Bajaur there are some positive signs of change,
with locals in some areas defying Taliban terror and the Islamists'
hard-line shariah law.
Emboldened members of three tribes - the Salarzai, Tarkhani and
Utmankhel - last week announced that they would organize an army of
volunteers to defend their respective areas against the Taliban.
'Many people still remain reluctant to support the government,
because they are not sure whether (government) forces will fight the
militants till the last or withdraw after a peace deal with them as
they did in North and South Waziristan,' said a local journalist, who
gave his name as Shah.
The fear for the civilians caught in the middle of this fighting
is that as soon as the troops leave, the well-trained and well-
organized Taliban army will settle in and create a new hell for them,
he said.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story