A week after the attack on the airport in Karachi on June 8, 2014 which claimed by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, a massive military operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched in North Waziristan to clear the area of the militants. Thousands of troops and air force were deployed in the operation. After the massacre of children of the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar in December that year, the operation further intensified. A National Action Plan was also devised g to eliminate all terrorists.
The military’s spokesman at the time claimed that the operation was against militants of all hue and no one would be spared. “The whole area has been surrounded and they cannot escape.”
Nearly 1 million people were uprooted from their homes as a result of the operation and lodged in camps, the largest in Datta Khel near Bannu. They were promised that soon their areas would be cleared and they could return to their homes. The uprooted families had endured Taliban and Al Qaeda for nearly a decade and were prepared to endure a little more.
By March 2017, the militants had been eliminated and the whole of North Waziristan cleared. In an interview at the time, the military spokesman claiming victory said that in two years of fighting, the army had lost 872 men and killed over 2,000 militants.
But the displaced families were not allowed to return. Why? Was the area not really cleared of the militants or were there some other plans, people began to ask in whispers.
Apprehensions persisted on whether the operation actually against all shades of militants. A BBC report claimed to have obtained footage which suggested that some militants, apparently alerted beforehand, had escaped and some others were still hiding in safety. The Haqqani network, known for violent operations inside Afghanistan and an alleged asset of Pakistan’s security establishment, had also escaped unscathed.
The carnage witnessed in the country was the result of the security establishment co-opting militant groups to pursue its strategic goals. Prime Minister Imran Khan, in September last year addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He said, “ISI and Pakistan Army trained Al Qaeda and all these groups to fight in Afghanistan.” The links between them could not be denied, he said. The Pakistan-trained militants indeed have been a trump card in the hands of the security establishment for whatever dubious security objectives it had in mind.
Despite all this, people were ready to forgive and forget as long the militants that had been quelled did not resurrect.
However, reports have been doing rounds for some time that the militants are regrouping. Vocal Pashtun activists denouncing the resurrection were quickly dubbed as treasonous and working at the behest of foreign agencies. The state also came down heavily on them. A US blogger living in Pakistan for past several years now has mysteriously surfaced. Claiming to have been tasked by powerful agencies, she says she is investigating the allegedly anti-state activities of the vocal youth.
Simultaneously, the so called Amn (peace) committees have been revived. Most members of these committees are Taliban remnants who reportedly disavowed militancy and are seen as assets of the security establishment. There also have been complaints that the Amn committees have formed a parallel administration of their own.
A string of targeted murders have also been taking place recently. Those target killed are the ones who have been most vocal against the resurgence of Taliban militants. A recent high profile murder is that of Arif Wazir, a cousin of MNA Ali Wazir. This particular family has been in the forefront against Taliban militants. Seventeen of them have already been killed by the militants in the last few years. Their killers are still at large.
Last year in April, the Khyber Pakhtunkhw Assembly witnessed a pandemonium when during a debate on law and order, some members pointed out the regrouping of militants in the merged tribal districts. Also last year, a senior police officer known for tracking down Taliban militants disappeared mysteriously in Islamabad. Later, his body was found across the border in Afghanistan, barely a hundred meters away from the check post on this side.
A tribal jirga of the Ahmadzai Wazirs in Waziristan was held last week to protest against the rising incidents of targeted killings. It ended in a pandemonium but not before pointing fingers.
It is almost impossible to find out what is happening inside the tribal areas because all access to it has been closed. Even the sporadic internet service is very poor and in some critical areas simply not available. Despite the merger, it is still a no-go area both for foreigners as well as Pakistani nationals from other districts. Last year, a fact-finding mission of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) was turned back from Datta Khel.
Will the trump card of Pakistan trained militants, claimed to have been discarded, be used once again to prepare grounds for the Taliban to completely take over Afghanistan? Is this also part of Project Taliban? Is it to be used in case President Ashraf Ghani regains strength and thwarts Taliban’s bid to control Afghanistan? One does not know.
The state must come clean. Suspicions must be quelled. Questions asked must be answered credibly. Employing militants once again in service of some strategic objectives will be no less than a disaster.
The writer is a former senator
The military’s spokesman at the time claimed that the operation was against militants of all hue and no one would be spared. “The whole area has been surrounded and they cannot escape.”
Nearly 1 million people were uprooted from their homes as a result of the operation and lodged in camps, the largest in Datta Khel near Bannu. They were promised that soon their areas would be cleared and they could return to their homes. The uprooted families had endured Taliban and Al Qaeda for nearly a decade and were prepared to endure a little more.
By March 2017, the militants had been eliminated and the whole of North Waziristan cleared. In an interview at the time, the military spokesman claiming victory said that in two years of fighting, the army had lost 872 men and killed over 2,000 militants.
But the displaced families were not allowed to return. Why? Was the area not really cleared of the militants or were there some other plans, people began to ask in whispers.
A tribal jirga of the Ahmadzai Wazirs in Waziristan was held last week to protest against the rising incidents of targeted killings
Apprehensions persisted on whether the operation actually against all shades of militants. A BBC report claimed to have obtained footage which suggested that some militants, apparently alerted beforehand, had escaped and some others were still hiding in safety. The Haqqani network, known for violent operations inside Afghanistan and an alleged asset of Pakistan’s security establishment, had also escaped unscathed.
The carnage witnessed in the country was the result of the security establishment co-opting militant groups to pursue its strategic goals. Prime Minister Imran Khan, in September last year addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He said, “ISI and Pakistan Army trained Al Qaeda and all these groups to fight in Afghanistan.” The links between them could not be denied, he said. The Pakistan-trained militants indeed have been a trump card in the hands of the security establishment for whatever dubious security objectives it had in mind.
Despite all this, people were ready to forgive and forget as long the militants that had been quelled did not resurrect.
However, reports have been doing rounds for some time that the militants are regrouping. Vocal Pashtun activists denouncing the resurrection were quickly dubbed as treasonous and working at the behest of foreign agencies. The state also came down heavily on them. A US blogger living in Pakistan for past several years now has mysteriously surfaced. Claiming to have been tasked by powerful agencies, she says she is investigating the allegedly anti-state activities of the vocal youth.
Simultaneously, the so called Amn (peace) committees have been revived. Most members of these committees are Taliban remnants who reportedly disavowed militancy and are seen as assets of the security establishment. There also have been complaints that the Amn committees have formed a parallel administration of their own.
A string of targeted murders have also been taking place recently. Those target killed are the ones who have been most vocal against the resurgence of Taliban militants. A recent high profile murder is that of Arif Wazir, a cousin of MNA Ali Wazir. This particular family has been in the forefront against Taliban militants. Seventeen of them have already been killed by the militants in the last few years. Their killers are still at large.
Last year in April, the Khyber Pakhtunkhw Assembly witnessed a pandemonium when during a debate on law and order, some members pointed out the regrouping of militants in the merged tribal districts. Also last year, a senior police officer known for tracking down Taliban militants disappeared mysteriously in Islamabad. Later, his body was found across the border in Afghanistan, barely a hundred meters away from the check post on this side.
A tribal jirga of the Ahmadzai Wazirs in Waziristan was held last week to protest against the rising incidents of targeted killings. It ended in a pandemonium but not before pointing fingers.
It is almost impossible to find out what is happening inside the tribal areas because all access to it has been closed. Even the sporadic internet service is very poor and in some critical areas simply not available. Despite the merger, it is still a no-go area both for foreigners as well as Pakistani nationals from other districts. Last year, a fact-finding mission of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) was turned back from Datta Khel.
Will the trump card of Pakistan trained militants, claimed to have been discarded, be used once again to prepare grounds for the Taliban to completely take over Afghanistan? Is this also part of Project Taliban? Is it to be used in case President Ashraf Ghani regains strength and thwarts Taliban’s bid to control Afghanistan? One does not know.
The state must come clean. Suspicions must be quelled. Questions asked must be answered credibly. Employing militants once again in service of some strategic objectives will be no less than a disaster.
The writer is a former senator