Re: Bajor attack and killing of Arabs- Musharraf confirms ‘al-Qaeda’ hit
A good editorial by Daily Times. Shows whos who of the Mullahs and their Arab masters.
Daily Times - Site Edition Monday, February 13, 2006
EDITORIAL: Bajaur: a scary profile
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\02\13\story_13-2-2006_pg3_1
Speaking at Charsadda on Saturday, President Pervez Musharraf declared that while Al Qaeda leader Aiman al Zawahiri had escaped the CIA-led attack at Damadola in Bajaur on January 13, 2006, one of his close relatives was among the 18 killed. This statement clears the air and gives a significantly new complexion to the entire affair. It means that the CIA acted on the basis of information that was accurate even though the action taken was not strictly permissible. The point whether or not Pakistan was taken into confidence remains unclear. In the past information sharing had led to the terrorists getting away, probably through a prior alert.
The political opposition in Pakistan is in denial about the presence of foreigners in Bajaur. Most of the representatives from Bajaur appearing on TV channels have equally vehemently denied that anyone except the local people was there. But Pakistan suffers from an information vacuum about the area. Is it possible to get a perspective on Bajaur on the basis of information that the government should have provided to the people of Pakistan in order to create a basis for the credibility of President Musharraf when he speaks about “foreigners” in the area? The information is not secret and if the intelligence agencies have been silent about it their intent remains a mystery. Here is what we do know.
For the past many years, Bajaur has been under the influence of numerous extremist groups including Al Qaeda, the Taliban Islamic Movement, the Hizb-e-Islami (HI) of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Jamaat al Da’awa il al Quran wal Sunnah of Sheikh Jamilur Rehman, the Tehrik-e-Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM), the Jamaat al Mujahideen, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). An Al Qaeda affiliate called the Takfiris, led by Mustafa Al Seerat Al Suri, also has deep roots in the area. Most of those killed in the air strike on January 13 belonged to the TNSM. The banned TNSM is considered a major ally of the Taliban. Damadola is a stronghold of the TNSM that mobilised thousands of volunteers to fight with the Taliban against the US and its coalition forces in Afghanistan after 9/11. The JI and the JUI, both have representation in parliament from Bajaur, and are sympathetic to the Taliban judging from the public statements of their leaders.
Bajaur Agency was strategic during the Soviet-Afghan war. The mujahideen attacks often started from Bajaur since the agency, close to the Arab-dominated Afghan province of Kunar, was a stronghold of jihadi camps. The militant Jamaat al Mujahideen (JM) with a history going back to 1905 has not been tamed because of the maintenance of FATA-type governance here. During the Afghan jihad, it coalesced with Jamaat al Da’awa il al Quran wal Sunnah which had conquered two provinces (Kunar and Nuristan) in Afghanistan in 1984 but did not shift from Bajaur. The chief of Jamaat al Da’awa, Sheikh Jamilur Rehman, was killed in 1987 by an Arab warrior in his headquarters in Bajaur Agency. The JM and Maulvi Jamilur Rehman organised Wahhabi youth in Bajaur and Kunar and established their training camps in the area.
Bajaur is also the “poppy kingdom” (together with neighbouring Mohmand Agency) of Pakistan. Reports indicate that drug smugglers of the area may have ties with Al Qaeda and Taliban forces. The United States funds “alternative development” projects in the two agencies. Another element that supports terrorism is the presence of thousands of Afghan refugees. There are four Afghan refugee camps in the agency. Damadola camp has 7,966 refugees, Shahjahanabad 10,000, Kerala 7,506 and Yusafabad 9,529. The camps were closed in August 2005 but most of the refugees have returned. When UNHCR shifted the refugees from camps near Peshawar to Bajaur, refugees belonging to the non-Sunni minorities came under threat in the strongly pro-Taliban area. Bajaur’s combination of poverty, lawlessness, drug smuggling, the presence of radical Pakistani parties and easy infiltration into Afghanistan favours Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Why are the Bajauris in denial? Firstly because they are scared of being killed by Al Qaeda; and secondly, it would be in breach of the “deal” they made with the Pakistan government about not letting any foreigners in. In 2005, Maulana Faqir Muhammad — the man who allegedly removed the bodies after the CIA attack — was found guilty of breach of promise and his house was burnt down as laid down in the deal. An Uzbek, three Afghans and a Pakistani from Lahore were arrested from the haven provided by him and another cleric. They were issued a warning but obviously didn’t care about it. Later, a TNSM leader, Maulana Inayat ur Rehman, was arrested for running a terrorist training camp for the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the area.
The Takfiri (Takfir wal Hijra) Arabs are in Bajaur too. They belong to the school of thought promoted by Aiman Al Zawahiri, allowing the killing of “non-observing” Muslims. When they were in Peshawar in the 1990s, they were accused of killing the famous Arab intellectual Abdullah Azzam. The suspicion had immediately focused on Al Zawahiri for removing a rival trying to attract Osama bin Laden and his money to a less militant enterprise. After the fall of the Taliban most of them settled in Kunar and Bajaur because of their deep roots there. One is compelled to speculate on the basis of Takfiris’ presence in the area that Al Zawahiri visited the area more then once.
Afghanistan was the “Hobbesian” state that was kosher for interference by its neighbouring countries so that each could secure itself against the fallout of its endemic internal chaos. In Pakistan today — thanks to decades of jihad that kept the borders as porous as possible — many regions resemble Afghanistan. There is practically no writ of the state in most of Balochistan and most of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Foreign raiders may attack this territory to get at the elements that bother them, just as we went into Afghanistan looking for strategic depth. What is unforgivable is the lack of information — and the possible withholding of it — at the crucial moment when the politicians are in denial and the Musharraf government is on the defensive. *