Troubled Frontier

The government had little choice but to act against the militants operating out of Khyber Agency's Bara area following the forays by the latter into Peshawar and the abduction of people, including Christians, from the city. It was under pressure to secure the Frontier metropolis even though it soon became apparent that the threat to the provincial capital was exaggerated. Peshawar wasn't going to fall because the militants neither had plans nor the capacity to attack and capture it.

However, the action by the paramilitary Frontier Corps isn't the tough assault that the US and some Pakistanis expected would target the Pakistani Taliban. There are Taliban sympathisers in Bara and the rest of Khyber tribal agency but they aren't organised and haven't been involved in any significant anti-government or anti-state activity. The three main militant groups based in Bara and the remote Tirah valley have never identified with the Taliban and have refused to join the Baitullah Mahsud-led Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). In fact, these groups until now have been opposing the TTP and the one led by Haji Namdar and known as Amr bil Maruf wa Nahi Anil Munkar (Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) has reportedly joined the new, pro-government umbrella Taliban group set up recently by militants opposed to Baitullah Mahsud.

The military operation had limited objectives. It primarily aimed at clearing Bara town, sited about 12 kilometres from Peshawar, and its surroundings of militants and re-establishing the government's writ in the area. The government, some months ago, lost control of Bara to the Lashkar-i-Islam group led by Mangal Bagh, who sent his armed men to patrol the town and the outlying village and implement the strict code of Shariah. The militants also provided security to Bara traders and shopkeepers, who started paying them a small tax that they were giving earlier to a market committee. The Lashkar-i-Islam, which had defeated the rival Ansarul Islam group and evicted it from Bara, also took action against kidnappers, drug-traffickers and other criminals and won support of sections of the population.

In due course of time, Mangal Bagh began receiving representations from citizens in and around Peshawar seeking his intervention in their disputes or requesting him to fight crime and vices. This also amounted to an indictment of the police, which doesn't inspire confidence among the people and is often suspected of being in league with criminals. Ambitious as he was, he gradually extended his area of operations to Peshawar. Authorities in Peshawar were alarmed and some Peshawarites started worrying about their city falling into the hands of the militants. As Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani is claiming, the NWFP Governor Owais Ghani and Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti sought the federal government's assistance for tackling the militants reportedly knocking at the doors of Peshawar. It is another matter that Chief Minister Hoti subsequently rebuffed this claim and insisted that no such request was made to the federal government. The ANP-PPP coalition government in NWFP, struggling to restore peace in Swat through a peace deal with Taliban led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, had suspended police officials after the abduction of a number of Christians from Peshawar and was finding it difficult to stop the Bara-based militants from raiding places in the provincial capital and abducting people. The deteriorating law and order situation in parts of the province was causing disillusionment among the people who had voted in large number for ANP for promising them peace.

The Pakistan Army wasn't directly involved in the operation. The Frontier Corps (FC), which is made of Pashtun tribesmen and has officers drawn from the Pakistan Army, did the fighting. The Frontier Constabulary, which too is composed of members of the Pashtun tribes with officers belonging to the Police Service of Pakistan and Frontier Police provided back-up support within the limits of Peshawar district and on the boundary with Khyber Agency and made arrests of suspected militants or their supporters. During the operation, Mangal Bagh's headquarters was destroyed and Haji Namdar's house was attacked in a mysterious missile strike blamed by the latter on the US-led coalition forces operating across the border in Afghanistan. Eight people were killed in the missile attack. The third group of militants known as Ansarul Islam escaped unharmed as it doesn't have much of a presence in Bara after losing the battle for turf to Lashkar-i-Islam. In any case, none of the militant groups resisted the FC operation. Mangal Bagh fled to Tirah valley and then gave a statement offering peace talks to the government and denying that he wanted to capture Peshawar. He made it clear his men won't fight the security forces, demanded withdrawal of troops from Bara and insisted that Lashkar-i-Islam was a reformist organisation that had cleansed Bara of criminals, kidnappers and drug-traffickers.

It appears that the ongoing FC operation in Bara would be halted in the near future. The government could even try and establish secret contacts with the militants and seek peaceful co-existence. At this stage, the government doesn't want to take on the Pakistani Taliban militants operating in other tribal agencies such as South Waziristan, Mohmand and Bajaur agencies. However, it is trying to split the groups of Pakistani Taliban by creating differences in their ranks. Its foremost objective is to weaken Baitullah Mahsud and his TTP. The intelligence agencies had achieved an early success in this endeavour last year by splitting the Taliban group in Wana area of South Waziristan and exploiting the anger that most of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe felt against the overbearing presence of Uzbek militants aligned to Tahir Yuldachev-led Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Pro-government Taliban and tribesmen under Maulvi Nazeer fought and expelled the Uzbeks from Wana. Maulvi Nazeer has now been named deputy leader of the new Taliban umbrella group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur of North Waziristan. Efforts were being made to trigger defections from the TTP to build up a strong opposition against Baitullah Mahsud.

Still it would be naive to think that Baitullah Mahsud has been sufficiently weakened and rendered vulnerable. He is still the most powerful commander of Pakistani Taliban. His TTP enjoys allegiance of a number of Taliban groups in tribal and settled areas. It could lose ground to the new and rival group of Taliban over a period of time, provided the government made available resources to win over bands of militants. As for Baitullah Mahsud, he was pragmatic enough to allow the Swati militants to resume peace talks with the NWFP government as continued violence in Swat was depriving Maulana Fazlullah of whatever little support he had in Swat. The TTP had earlier declared that all peace accords with the government were being scrapped and directed the militants in Swat to abide by this decision. This change in policy could also be interpreted as a message by the TTP to the government about its willingness to resume peace talks in South Waziristan and other conflict spots in the NWFP and FATA.

The government, on its part, has also not given up the option of negotiating peace with the militants. It no doubt is under tremendous pressure by the US and its Nato allies to carry out military operations against the likes of Baitullah Mahsud. This pressure is being applied through various means including frequent visits by US government officials, Nato military commanders, media leaks and reports compiled by Western think-tanks. President Hamid Karzai's threat to send his troops across the border into Pakistan to hunt down Pakistani Taliban leaders sending fighters to Afghanistan should also be seen as part of efforts to force Islamabad to take action against the militants. However, the Pakistani military right now doesn't seem interested in carrying out more operations in the dangerous tribal areas. Instead, it wants the PPP-led coalition government in the centre and the ANP-headed administration in the NWFP to shoulder greater responsibility in tackling militancy and pacifying the violence-hit tribal and settled areas through political means. The military's patience hasn't run out or so it seems.