Waziristan: back to square one

Villages in the Mahsud area were hit hard in the Waziristan operation. Whether Baitullah Mahsud and members of his Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan are killed or not is yet to be seen, but the operation has forced thousands of residents of the area to flee. In a similar exercise two years ago more than 300,000 people had been displaced.

While the operation has been launched against the Mahsuds, life has become difficult for the Wazirs as well. Some families have reportedly crossed the border into Afghanistan in anticipation of the military operation. Reports reaching Wana speak of a warm welcome extended to them by the Afghan authorities. This requires urgent corrective measures by the government, or there will be disastrous consequences for Pakistan.

The inhabitants of Waziristan, both Wazirs and Mahsuds, are peace loving people. They want to live in peace like other citizens of the country. They want to see their area developed. They want to see their children benefit from better health and education facilities at door steps. They are however in a fix not knowing what to do. On the one hand the government suspects them of giving shelter to the militants and on the other the militants punish them if found having links with the government. They have lost confidence in the government as their near and dear ones were killed by the militants and not a single assailant was apprehended.

Our rulers are bent upon proving wrong the warning of Lord Curzon, the British Viceroy of India, that "No patchwork scheme will settle the Waziristan problem. Not until the military steamroller has passed over the country from end to end will there be peace. But I don't want to be the person to start that machine." The Mahsud area where the operation has been launched is a small but difficult mountainous area in the centre of the two Waziristans. It is surrounded by the Wazir, Sulemankhel and Betani tribes. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for our troops to cordon off that area to deny the possibility of exit to Baitullah Mahsud. There is every possibility for him to quietly slip out of the operational zone. However, now that the government has started military operations we are left with no choice but to hope that it would succeed in the declared objective, though the past record says otherwise.

The government needs to establish its credibility by providing protection to the people against the militants. It has to prove its claim of being serious in eliminating militants only then will its image and credibility be restored. Short of that, nothing will convince the locals who are at the receiving end of violence. They will not buy the lamentable argument that the militants have fled to the mountains or crossed the borders into another country. The government had not properly addressed grievances of the tribesmen in the past, nor taken them into confidence in policymaking decisions concerning their area. Now empty words will not do. They will not restore the confidence of the people. The government has to match words with deeds, and only then will the long suffering people take the government seriously.

It is an established fact that Azad Kashmir was added into the map of Pakistan only with the sacrifices of the forefathers of the affected areas. They guarded our western borders for decades after independence and played an important role in the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. In return for these services their reward was more poverty and backwardness. Today, after 61 years of independence, we do not see any sign of economic development in the area nor any industry installed anywhere in FATA which could provide employment opportunity to its luckless people.

The tribesmen alone cannot be blamed for creating a situation in which they find themselves now. There are other and more important elements responsible for what is happening there. Isn't it a fact that it was the tribal areas of Pakistan from where the biggest covert war in history war launched against the Soviet Union? Isn't it ironic that the territory from where the last battle of the cold war was fought and won for the west, due to no fault of its inhabitants, was to become a "haven" for the terrorists and a "target" of the American drones?

Worst still, the "war on terror" was brought from across the border to their area. The collateral damage that they suffered in the eight years war is unparalleled in the history of the country. Neither Islamabad and Washington did anything for the welfare of the people nor developed the area. The only favour that they did to the people was the gifts of death and destruction, through the drones.



(To be continued)

The writer is a former ambassador. Email: waziruk@hotmail.com