Every new day brings evidence that the members of the religious minorities are getting more and more desperate over their failure to get their grievances redressed. The reason is that,
After the lull....
Terror returns to the troubled north-west
Forever changing their tactics, the militants belonging to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its allied groups have, in recent weeks, been focusing on targetted killings of government officials, anti-Taliban politicians, tribal elders and even journalists. They have also been undertaking revenge attacks against villagers who have raised lashkars, or armed force of volunteers, at the behest of the civil and military authorities to offer support to the security forces and the police and also defend their villages.
Such attacks are aimed at demoralizing those fighting the militants. The purpose is to intimidate the soldiers, policemen and citizens who are in the frontline in the battle against the TTP. Another objective is to show that the militants retain the strength to strike back despite sustained military operations against them since 2003-2004. After every attack, the government looks helpless in protecting its own men, what to speak of the common people. The TTP militants have been adapting to the changing situation and improvising, lying low on occasions and then striking back with a vengeance, taking the security forces and intelligence and law-enforcement agencies unawares. They have also resorted to sectarian killings, carried out high-profile kidnappings-for ransom and for securing the release of their colleagues and continued to bomb schools. When it became difficult to carry out bombings using vehicles stuffed with large amounts of explosives in big cities due to better intelligence and improved security, the militants? masterminds started the use of motorbikes and bicycles and even sent suicide bombers on foot to attack targets. They seem to have a large pool of suicide bombers as some have been used to attack insignificant targets such as roadside police posts manned by a few cops.
There were three high-profile assassinations in recent targeted attacks while the fourth one failed. Kalam Khan, the Superintendent of Police (Rural) Peshawar, was the highest-ranking cop to be killed since the assassination of Safwat Ghayur, Abid Ali and Malik Saad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent years. He died in a suicide bombing in Peshawar on March 15, while his driver and gunman were wounded. Claiming responsibility for the attack, a TTP spokesman Mohammad said Kalam Khan was targetted because he had killed and captured a number of Taliban and had taken away the still-missing 11-year old son of a wanted militant.
The TTP spokesman also used this occasion to disclose the existence of an ?Intiqam Cell? in their organization to carry out revenge killings. He said the cell had drawn up a hit-list of top police and government officers who had taken action against the militants and committed atrocities on their families. The list also included names of politicians, journalists and others considered hostile to the TTP. His claim appeared credible as targetted killings have continued even during relatively peaceful times and despite the conclusion of the controversial peace accords between the government and the militants in some of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and the Malakand division in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Two days before SP Kalam Khan?s assassination, the highest ranking government official to date was shot dead in North Waziristan by an armed man who had gained access to his heavily-guarded office in Mir Ali town. Azmat Jamal Khattak, the assistant political agent for Mir Ali area, died on the spot when the young assailant fired with a pistol and threw a hand-grenade at him. The unidentified attacker was killed when he apparently exploded another hand-grenade close to his face, reinforcing the impression that he was on a suicide mission. No claim of responsibility has been made yet though suspicion would fall on the TTP as suicide attacks are its trademark and no other group would have the incentive to kill an important government official in a bid to send a warning to others. The last time a government official was targetted in North Waziristan was some years ago when the political agent, Pirzada Khan, survived a suicide bombing at his office in Miranshah.
Assistant Political Agent Azmat Jamal Khattak?s assassination took place a few days after the death of seven Pakistan Army soldiers in a clash with local militants in the village of North Waziristan?s top Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur in the Dattakhel area. This was the biggest loss of life of Pakistani troops in Fata in months. The two incidents contributed to the tension in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region and raised concern among the people about further rise in violence and the likelihood of military action by Pakistan?s security forces against the militants.
Earlier on January 17, journalist Mukarram Khan Atef was assassinated by two unknown gunmen when he was praying in a mosque in Shabqadar area in Charsadda district. It was the first time that the TTP claimed responsibility for taking the life of a journalist and threatened to eliminate others on its hit-list. The deceased had received threats due to his work for the Pashto language ?Deewa Radio? operated by the Voice of America and had shifted from his native Mohmand Agency to Charsadda to avoid harm.
Though he was the 12th journalist to be killed in Fata since 2002 when Pakistan?s tribal areas were engulfed in the Afghan conflict in the wake of the US invasion of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, his targeted killing sent a chilling message to other members of the media to avoid antagonizing the militants. The total number of Pakistani journalists who lost their life in violence since 2002 has now risen to 49, including about a dozen killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which together with Fata remained the most dangerous place for the media in the country. Pakistan, it may be added, was declared the most dangerous country in the world for journalists for the second year in a row in 2011. In both 2010 and 2011, seven Pakistani journalists were killed because of their professional work.
A number of political activists, primarily belonging to the ruling Awami National Party (ANP), were killed in targetted attacks and bomb explosions and so were members of the anti-militants lashkars and peace committees. The TTP has been repeatedly threatening the nationalist ANP, which has taken a firm stand against the militants and backed military operations against them in Swat and rest of Malakand division. A recent bomb explosion at an ANP public meeting in Nowshera killed and wounded party workers, but Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti and senior ANP leaders Afrasiab Khattak and Mian Iftikhar Hussain survived because their helicopter had taken off for Peshawar before the blast. Luck also favoured Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, Pakistan?s former interior minister and the chairman of Pakistan People?s Party-Sherpao, who survived a suicide attack in his native Charsadda district on March 3. His eldest son, Sikandar Sherpao who is a provincial lawmaker and another MPA Mohammad Ali Mohmand sustained injuries and a policeman was killed in the attack. Predictably, the TTP?s Mohmand Agency chapter claimed responsibility for the attack. This was the third attempt on Aftab Sherpao?s life by the Pakistani militants, who are not ready to forgive him for his role in approving military operations against them as the interior minister in President General Musharraf?s cabinet. More than 80 people have been killed and around 150 were injured in the previous two suicide bombings targetting Sherpao.
As part of its campaign against villagers who have dared to form lashkars to fight back against the militants, the TTP?s Darra Adamkhel branch sent a suicide bomber to attack a funeral in Badaber near Peshawar recently to collectively punish the village for resisting the local Taliban and also try to kill Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly?s Deputy Speaker Khushdil Khan, who belongs to the ANP. Khushdil Khan survived as he had left soon after the funeral, but 15 villagers were killed and many more were wounded. The provincial government banned important figures from attending funerals as their presence invariably attracted suicide bombers and caused harm to innocent people. The move, however, was belated and it is doubtful if it would be fully implemented as some politicians and other VIPs have this misplaced notion that they must not be intimidated by the tactics employed by the militants. There is little realization on their part that insistence on attending funerals and other public events provides the terrorists with easy targets and puts the lives of so many civilians at risk.
The militants also continued to target important figures opposed to them, particularly in the tribal areas and some of the conflict-hit districts. Noted tribal elder Malik Wais Khan, who headed the pro-government Ferozkhel Amn Lashkar in Orakzai Agency, was shot dead on March 9 by a militant who blew himself up to avoid being captured. The deceased had been awarded the civil award Nishan-i-Imtiaz for his bravery for standing up to the militants and working for peace in Orakzai Agency, where a number of suicide bombings have killed scores of jirga members, tribal elders and soldiers and in which the TTP is still well-entrenched in the Mamozai area. The issue of raising lashkars to fight the militants also needs review as often poor villagers are exposed to danger without getting enough government support and are required to do patrolling at night and also do some work to earn their livelihood.
Providing security to the people is the job of the government and it should not abdicate this responsibility to poorly armed volunteers. Besides, the possibility of the lashkars taking law into their own hands and settling scores with rivals is always there and needs to be monitored. Elements in the TTP and its allied groups don?t try to hide their aversion to Shias and other minorities. There is no evidence yet as to who carried out the Kohistan attack on February 28 in which 16 Shia passengers of a bus were gunned down by sectarian militants apparently to avenge the killing of two Sunnis earlier killed in Gilgit-Baltistan even though a Jundullah spokesman, Ahmad Marwat claimed responsibility for the incident. As the mainstream Jundullah is a group of Baloch Sunni militants active in Iran?s Seistan-Balochistan province with some presence also in Balochistan in Pakistan, it isn?t clear if it has now built alliances in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata and started organizing attacks against Shias. There is, however, no doubt that some of the top TTP commanders such as Tariq Afridi and the late Qari Hussain had been associated with the anti-Shia Sipah-i-Sahaba in the past and their followers would be ready to make use of opportunities to harm members of the rival sect.
Amid the increase in the acts of terrorism, the security forces launched an operation in Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency primarily against the outlawed Lashkar-i-Islam militant group headed by Mangal Bagh. The group is also facing pressure from the TTP and the Zakhakhel Lashkar in its stronghold of Tirah valley in Khyber Agency. The military action also displaced thousands of people, including 97,451 who got themselves registered at the Jalozai Camp in Nowshera district to become eligible for receiving relief items. The migration increased when shells fired by the military began falling on houses and killed and injured the inmates.
Though the TTP has been weakened due to military operations and some of its leading figures have been killed by US drone strikes, it is still capable of launching attacks against the security forces in the tribal areas and the police in the districts and carrying out bombings in urban centres. The loss of public support and internal differences has also considerably diminished its strength. The removal of the TTP deputy head Maulana Faqir Mohammad from his post for advocating peace talks with the Pakistan government revealed the differences in its ranks. In fact, most TTP commanders are largely autonomous in their decision-making and operations and are nominally linked to their central head Hakimullah Mahsud and his deputy, Waliur Rahman. The split in TTP ranks has made it even more difficult for its leadership to control the activities of commanders operating in distant places or entering into peace talks with the government in case such a process was initiated in light of the earlier decision of the all-parties conference or any future recommendations by the parliament. As things stand, there isn?t much hope that the militancy-linked violence would end any time soon.
The writer is a senior journalist and Resident Editor, The News, Peshawar
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