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"Shot like a rabbit in a ride,” Kipling wrote of British soldiers’ predicament in tribal areas at the hands of ferocious tribesmen towards the end of 19th century. Around a century and quarter down the memory lane, unmanned US drones are taking on Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the same manner. The campaign, codenamed “Sylvan Magnolia”, is a nerve-wracking experience for the militants, but at the same time, it is also an emotional issue in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas.
This joystick warfare is extremely shadowy in several respects. It is very hard to determine the identity of the victims. The general public only reads the death toll in TV tickers and newspapers. The region where the drones are taking on militants is a virtual information blackhole. Neither the the militants nor the security forces welcome outsiders - and those who venture into the areas meet the same fate as Colonel Imam and his associates.
Drones have been hitting targets in the tribal areas since 2004, but the campaign was intensified by the Obama administration. President Obama ordered at least 120 drone strikes in the first 21 months in his office, compared with 60 during the eight years of George W Bush. Of these attacks, 71 percent hit targets in North Waziristan and 23 percent in South Waziristan.
Apart from the arithmetic of casualties, there is an aura of mystery surrounding these attacks. The military rarely speaks about drone strikes, while politicians draw political mileage out of the issue. Parties from all across the political spectrum have been vociferous against the predator campaign. Supporting the attacks is akin to political suicide. Almost all parties claim that the campaign fuels more terrorism.
But while this rhetoric echoed in Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar, Maj Gen Ghayur Mehmood, a senior military commander in the region, told reporters in March that “most of the targets are hardcore militants” and that “the number of innocent people being killed is relatively low”. The general said 964 militants had died in 164 strikes since 2007. But the situation took another turn after March 17, when a US drone strike in North Waziristan killed at least 40 tribesmen, provoking an outrage including a rare condemnation from Pakistan Army. The next attack, on April 13, killed six militants in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan, but caused further uproar.
But while everybody joined in to condemn drone strikes, the Amn Tehrik, an umbrella organisation of civil society groups, was an exception. In 2010, the Amn Tehrik had issued a Peshawar Declaration that hailed drones as the most effective counter-insurgency tool. “If the people of the war-affected areas are satisfied with any counter-militancy strategy, it is the drone attacks,” it said. According to the declaration, the people of Waziristan do not think drones kill civilians, but instead consider them hidden help against the militants. But “a component of the Pakistani media, some retired generals, a few journalists/analysts and pro-Taliban political parties never tire in their baseless propaganda against drone attacks”. This view is also supported by columnist Farhat Taj.
The US is now planning to deploy new drones with enhanced intelligence
system and the Gorgon Stare technology, and it is unlikely that the attacks
will come to an end despite Pakistan’s concerns. The controversy surrounding
the campaign since it began, will continue.
M Ali is a reporter based in Islamabad
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