[News] Pakistani Army Offensive Devastates Tribal Communities

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Pakistani Army Offensive Devastates Tribal Communities

By James Cogan

28 October, 2009
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/wazi-o28.shtml>WSWS.org
http://countercurrents.org/cogan281009.htm

The ongoing Pakistani military offensive into the 
tribal agency of South Waziristan is having a 
devastating impact on the entire civilian 
population. Villages and towns are literally 
being bombed into rubble and tens of thousands of 
people have been forced to flee for their lives.

The long-expected offensive began on October 18 
and was preceded by months of air and ground 
bombardments and an economic blockade. The 
assault is ostensibly aimed at destroying 
Tehrik-i-Taliban, a Pakistani Islamist 
organisation based among local Pashtun tribes 
that supports the insurgency over the border in 
Afghanistan against the US-led occupation. As 
many as 10,000 to 15,000 Islamist and tribal 
fighters are believed to be in South Waziristan, 
including several thousand Uzbek militants who 
had been fighting alongside the Afghan Taliban before the 2001 US invasion.

A map showing the main towns in the agency and 
the general thrust of Pakistani military 
movements is available on the BBC web site. 
(Click here to view the map) The region is part 
of the Hindu Kush mountain range and the terrain is particularly rugged.

At least 30,000 regular army troops, drawn from 
two divisions, are converging on the towns of 
Ladha and Makeen from three directions. As they 
advance with tanks and armoured vehicles along 
the main roads, they are fighting heavy battles 
with militants in a succession of towns, villages 
and mountain passes. The weather conditions are 
beginning to worsen as winter sets in. 
Temperatures will fall to -20° Celsius (-4° 
Fahrenheit) within a matter of weeks.

The main success claimed by the military thus far 
is the capture over the weekend of Kotkai, a 
village in the south-east of the agency that is 
the birthplace of Taliban leader Hakimullah 
Mehsud. Heavy fighting raged around the village for close to a week.

Kotkai has effectively been razed to the ground. 
Exclusive, albeit brief, video footage of the 
village was acquired and broadcast by Al Jazeera, 
showing bombed-out houses and a massive crater 
where a school once stood. Correspondent Imran 
Khan commented: “All the villagers can do is 
stand in the rubble of what was once home.” 
Footage from a hospital in the town of Wana shows 
young children from the area being treated for 
serious wounds. (Click here to view the broadcast)

The military justified the destruction of the 
village by claiming that the “majority of houses 
had been converted into strong bunkers”. It provided no evidence.

Troops have reportedly pushed at least three 
kilometres forward from Kotkai and taken a 
strategic high point where the Taliban allegedly 
had a series of fortified positions. The next 
objective in the south-east is an assault on the 
town of Sararogha. In the south-west, fighting is 
taking place along the road to the towns of 
Shakai and Kaniguram, which the military intends 
to seize before attacking the Taliban strongholds in Ladha and Makeen.

The Pakistani air force is using 
American-upgraded F-16s and helicopter gunships 
to conduct a continuous campaign of 
indiscriminate aerial assaults, particularly on the two main towns.

Desperate civilians are pouring out of 
Taliban-held areas for the safety of food 
distribution points in government-controlled 
centres such as Wana, Dera Ismail Khan and Tank. 
A UN refugee agency spokeswoman, Arianne Rummery, 
told Al Jazeera that over 125,000 people had 
registered as being displaced since October 13. 
“They join the other 80,500 people who were 
previously registered,” she said. “So this means 
the total registered caseload in terms of 
families is 28,242, which is around 206,000 
people.” The total population of South Waziristan 
is estimated at around 500,000.

A 22-year-old student who escaped from Ladha told 
the Guardian: “It’s a very bad situation. At 
home, every second house has been destroyed yet 
the government doesn’t want to help us. If they 
can drop bombs, then they can drop food.” Another 
man from a village near Makeen said his home had 
been completely destroyed by bombing. His 
extended family of 40 had crammed into a pick-up 
and drove throughout the night without lights to 
avoid being attacked by the military.

A farmer who fled from his village told the 
Associated Press: “Years ago, the army suddenly 
started an operation and we all had to leave our 
area in the clothes we were wearing. When we 
returned our homes were either bombed, bulldozed 
or torched. Our animals were missing. Now 
imagine, if they come with more might, what they will do with our area.”

The military claims that it has killed at least 
250 Taliban and lost 31 troops. It also claims 
that large numbers of militants are deserting 
their positions, shaving their beards and seeking 
to pass themselves off as displaced persons. None 
of these assertions can be verified as all media 
has been banned from the war zone by the 
Pakistani government and the Taliban. There is no 
credible estimate of civilian casualties.

The South Waziristan offensive is a mercenary 
operation on Washington’s orders. The Pakistani 
government has agreed to slaughter its own 
citizens in order to gain US financial grants and 
ongoing military aid. The hope in the White House 
and the Pentagon is that crushing the Islamist 
movement in Pakistan will undermine the ability 
of the Afghan Taliban to sustain its eight-year 
insurgency against the US-led occupation.

The close US oversight of the operation has been 
underscored by a succession of visits by top 
Obama administration officials and high-ranking 
US military commanders to Islamabad. The latest 
is by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 
Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan, Richard 
Holbrooke, who arrive today for three days of 
talks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, 
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and armed forces chief General Parvez Kayani.

Holbrooke stated last Friday that one of the 
visit’s purposes was to ensure that the Pakistani 
leadership were serious about “destroying” the 
Taliban, rather than simply “dispersing” the 
militants. An unnamed US military official 
complained to the New York Times that Pakistan 
did not seem willing to “finish the task” by 
permanently occupying South Waziristan.

The fear in US strategic circles is that 
thousands of Taliban fighters will go to ground 
or and simply retake control of the agency once 
the Pakistani military pulls out. Many could 
escape by crossing into Afghanistan via North 
Waziristan, which is not being subjected to 
military attack. The northern agency is believed 
to be the stronghold of the Afghan insurgent 
Haqqani network­a movement led by former 
commanders of the CIA-financed and equipped 
mujahhadin who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

Significant sections of the Pakistani ruling 
elite, particularly within the military, are 
growing increasingly hostile to the constant US 
pressure for total war against the Islamists. In 
order to meet Washington’s demands, virtually the 
entire military resources of the Pakistani state 
would have to be dedicated to combating the 
militants at the expense of other goals, 
including curbing Indian influence in the region.

Sameer Lalwani, an analyst for the New America 
Foundation, wrote in September that Pakistan 
would need to deploy as many as 370,000 to 
430,000 troops to permanently suppress Taliban 
activity in the tribal agencies and areas of 
North West Frontier Province (NWFP). He estimated 
it would take two to five years to assemble the 
necessary force and would require the 
redeployment of 150,000 combat troops currently 
stationed on the Indian border, as well as 
massive and ongoing US logistical and financial assistance.

Lalwani’s report noted that “as the US role 
expands and becomes more visible, Pakistan likely 
would face a stiff public backlash, a steep 
decline in the morale of its regular and 
irregular forces, and a more cohesive 
insurgency”. He also observed that any attempt to 
lessen the social inequality and oppression that 
help fuel the Islamist rebellion would require 
reforms that “undermine the power of the 
country’s existing elites and land-owning 
classes, which dominate the political scene”.

Ashfaq Khan, a leading academic in Islamabad, 
told the New York Times: “There is a general 
perception in the educated class that Pakistan is 
paying a very heavy price for fighting alongside 
the United States.” Dependent on American 
financial, political and military aid, the 
government has little choice but to bow to US demands to intensify the war.

Having created disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, 
Washington is responsible for the deepening quagmire now unfolding in Pakistan.




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