mufakkar I would like to know your response to what is happening. Seems like Orakzai is being replaced with Punjabis. Now I wonder, would it be okay to blame Punjabis if anything is to go wrong?
regards
Afghanistan: The spring trap is sprung
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - In a clear indication that the spring offensive against
suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters on the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border will be launched soon, United States Secretary of State Colin
Powell is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on March 17, a visit that
comes on the heels of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s own
journey to Islamabad last week. After Powell’s trip, US Chief of
Central Command General John Abizaid will also make his way to
Pakistan.
These visits are all in preparation for the upcoming “game”, one
that will have broad consequences for the region. At a time when
rebellious feelings are quickly taking root in the Pakistani tribal
regions of South and North Waziristan - tribal leaders have
unanimously demanded the withdrawal of Pakistani forces from the
tribal areas - plans for the new operation are nearing their final
stages.
An operation outline
The scope of the upcoming operation is far broader in both
Afghanistan and Pakistan than it has been in the past, and is likely
to be launched in April, according to high-level sources that spoke
to Asia Times Online. An important development has already taken
place on the Afghan front: access to Tora Bora has been restricted
by international and Afghan military forces. While this piece of
information made news around the globe, what is little known is that
there is a truce between local Afghan military bosses in Jalalabad
and local warlords associated with Hezb-i-Islami, the Afghanistan
rebel group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar that is spearheading the
Afghan resistance movement.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border in Pakistan’s Khyber
agency and surrounding areas, it is alleged that Osama bin Laden
built bunkers and tunnels, echoing the path he took in the Tora Bora
mountains, from where he escaped advancing US-led troops in early
2002 after the fall of the Taliban. Sources maintain that if bin
Laden is not arrested in Khyber agency, it is unlikely he will be
located as it is the only static refuge besides Tora. At the same
time, the region is where guerrilla fighters take refuge for longer
periods to plan their next guerrilla attack. This information is
very much known to US authorities, which is why Khyber agency is one
of the next targets for the operation against al-Qaeda and the
Taliban.
It is also believed that the spring operations will cover not only
Afghan and the Pakistani tribal areas, but the city centers of both
countries. The high-level sources say that the US is working to
paralyze all possible support systems to the Taliban and al-Qaeda
from cities in Pakistan.
In the next sweep, the US is expected to play an active role within
Pakistan; however, the mission has been kept secret as this is a
very sensitive issue in the country. The owners of major Pakistani
press organizations have already been warned against coverage of
events showing US involvement in Pakistan. And for foreign media
correspondents, new proposals are under review to restrict their
movements, as well as monitor their writing.
Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf, who faces significant
domestic political pressure against US deployments in Pakistan, has
repeatedly denied the presence of US troops.
Putting on the pressure
The US has already pressured Pakistan to take all the necessary
steps to ensure the spring operation will be a success. In an
extraordinary development highlighting the intricacies of the
operation, the Corps Commander in Peshawar, Lieutenant-General Ali
Jan Orakzai, has retired a month prematurely. Major General Safdar
Hussain will take his place. Sources from Peshawar maintain that
Orakzai will be installed as governor of Pakistan’s North West
Frontier Province in compensation for his premature retirement.
Orakzai has been in Washington’s bad books since last year, when he
visited the US and openly condemned the behavior of US authorities
towards Pakistanis. Orakzai was an official guest, but was forced to
go through a plethora of screenings and checks at the immigration
counter on his arrival. As well as complaining about this particular
incident, Orakzai spoke against what he felt was discriminatory
behavior against Pakistanis at functions hosted by the Pakistani
embassy in the US.
These changes in command come amid word that US authorities have
made a special request: in the next phase of operations, all Pashtun
officers should be separated from those officers actually involved
in the spring offensive, whose names would be vetted by US
authorities. (Pashtuns are generally sympathetic to the ethnic
Pashtun Taliban.)
Orakzai is a Pashtun. Meanwhile, the new corps commander, Hussain,
is from Punjab and enjoys good relations with US authorities.
Previously posted in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) ,
where he coordinated with US forces, Hussain is highly knowledgeable
about the north western Pakistani region. Traditionally, the
Pakistan army has been dominated by Punjabi and Pashtun officers,
but for the past two years Pashtun officers have been greatly cut to
size. In recent promotions, 18 brigadiers were elevated to the
position of major-general, while only one Pashtun was given the same
title.
Elsewhere, a list of Pakistan’s most-wanted terrorists has been
compiled by a newly formed group called the Special Investigation
Cell. This group is headed by a Federal Investigation Agency
director from the Pakistani side and by a Central Intelligence
Agency official from the US side. As per the list, several top
jihadis were recently picked up and interrogated. These events were
not reported in the media.
This correspondent spoke with one of the men picked up, who once
belonged to the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba and who is now an inactive
office bearer. He was previously picked up by ISI and US Federal
Bureau of Investigation officials and jointly and separately
interrogated by these agencies, which wanted to know the whereabouts
of Arab fighters hiding in the port city of Karachi.
The man was given clearance after several days of interrogation, but
was picked up again for the same reason, and once again set free
after he went through several stages of screenings and
investigations. He has been told that since he is on the US’s most-
wanted list, he will be in contact with these agencies in the
future.
Under the new operation, many big names associated with the Jamaat-i-
Islami, the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (Fazalur Rehman) , Jaish-i-
Mohammed and the Lashkar-i-Taiba are expected to be interrogated.
The names include Maulana Masood Azhar and Abdullah Shah Mazhar, two
top-ranking jihadis.
At the same time, all those who previously fought alongside the
Taliban in Afghanistan, since released from Afghan jails, will be
required to report weekly to their local Afghan police stations and
will occasionally be picked up by intelligence agencies for
screening. Those Pakistanis released from Afghan jails will not be
set free by Pakistani authorities and will be dealt with under a
stringent legal clause.
From Kabul to Jalalabad and from Khyber agency to Karachi, an
infrastructure is being put in place, all of which is being
supervised by US authorities, to make the spring operations a
success. The depth of these plans suggests that the battlefields
will heat up in the near future, on both sides of the Afghan-
Pakistan border. But whether these steps will actually help the US
catch Osama remains the million-dollar question.