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November 9, 2006

Pakistan: Islamists Attack Army - Taliban Claim Responsibility

Yesterday morning, 42 soldiers were killed at their training base as they gathered on the training ground for an exercise in Dargai in Malakand district, North-West Frontier Province, by a suicide bomber. A man wrapped in a chaddar (a shawl-like garment) ran onto the training area at around 8.30 am and then spoke to soldiers as if he had a vital message, states the Pakistan Daily Times. About 80 recruits were gathered and when the man blew himself up, almost the entire platoon was hit by the blast. As well as the 42 dead, which included the instructor, there were 39 injuries. The scene was littered with severed hands, limbs and lumps of flesh, and a large crater was later seen being filled by soldiers.

The interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, linked the attack to the army's assault upon a madrassa in the tribal area of Bajaur on Monday, October 30. This madrassa, run by an extremist cleric, Maulvi Liaquat Hussain, had been under surveillance by the army before they launched their morning assault. 80 people were killed in this attack, including Hussain. Following that attack, militants had promised revenge, and two Islamist ministers from the MMA (Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal) had resigned from the North-West Frontier Province National Assemby.

Bajaur is located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and are only nominally under Pakistan government control. These areas have local governors, but are led by trial jirgas (gatherings) rather than federal democracy.

The attack on the army at Dargai took place near Bajaur, but within federally administered territory. Following the atrocity, an anonymous caller phoned journalist Rahimullah Yousafazi and said that the attack had been mounted by Abu Kalim Mohammad Ansari, a leader of the Pakistani Taliban. The caller claimed that 250 volunteers had offered to be suicide bombers against the Pakistani forces.

The army's operation at Bajaur agency had, according to members of the MMA, killed several children under 14. This haas been rigorously denied by the government. President Musharraf condemned the MMA for spreading negative propaganda.

He said: "The MMA has no right to criticise the operation as they give tickets of heaven to extremists while their own children sit in full comfort at home."

The MMA is a coalition of six Islamist parties, led by Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the 67-year old head of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Musharraf insisted that the madrassa in Bajaur was being used for terrorism and terror training. He said that such activities threatened national security. He said: "We are dealing with the Taliban and Al Qaeda separately and we will be successful in crushing terrorism at its very root. Extremism and terrorism is the critical problem facing the nation and we have to deal with it very forcefully."

The madrassa in Chenagai village near the town of Khar, Bajaur agency, was run by the Tanzim Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi, or Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws. This group has strong support both in Bajaur and Dargai, scene of yesterday's suicide blast. The TNSM is claimed by the Pakistan government to have links with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

TNSM is led by Faqir Mohammed, who is now living in hiding. In the 1990s, TNSM mounted a campaign to impose Taliban-like rules in the Bajaur region, and after 2001 sent thousands of tribesman to Afghanistan to fight Taliban troops. According to the Jamestown Foundation, Faqir Mohammed is a member of the Mommand tribe, and studied at the Darul-Uloom Pamjpeer. This is a Deoband/Salafist madrassa.

The attack upon the Dargai army camp has only increased the likelihood of a renewed war by militants against the government, state Reuters and the BBC. Brigadier Mahmood Shah, a former chief of security, said: "We have been saying since the Bajaur incident that it would have repercussions. It will have far more repercussions than what the government has seen in Waziristan."

Waziristan is further south, but like Bajaur, lies alongside the Afghanistan border. It has been a refuge for both senior Al Qaeda members and Afghan Taliban leaders. In March 2005, the Pakistan army launched a military assault against militants in Waziristan, killing about 45, and the militants then escalated their war with the government, which only ended in a "peace accord" which was signed on September 5. In March this year, the Pakistani Taliban took control of both North and South Waziristan agencies. Despite the accord between the Taliban and government, which was intended to stop incursions in Afghanistan, it seems that since September 5, militants entering Afghanistan have actually increased.

Brigadier Shah warned that the "opening of the front" would only spread more militant attacks upon symbols of Pakistani authority.

Talat Masood, a security analyst and general, hinted to Reuters that a deal, resembling the Waziristan accord, would be inevitable with militants. He said: "The government has to continue with the use of the military arm but at the same time, it should also use political means."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 9, 2006 8:59 AM

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