James Rupert writes: Battling a resurgent Taliban in Pakistan



"The unprecedented scale of the battle, around North Waziristan's main town, Miramshah, reflects a continued, incremental growth of a new Taliban movement in Pakistan, three years after the government deployed much of its army to defeat it." Journalist James Rupert, head of Newsday's international bureau in Islamabad, Pakistan began his career abroad as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching mechanics and welding in Morocco.

James Rupert writes: Battling a resurgent Taliban in Pakistan

Battling a resurgent Taliban

Pakistan army focuses on holding guerrillas back as neo-Taliban forces gain momentum, resulting in battles of unprecedented scope

BY JAMES RUPERT
STAFF CORRESPONDENT

March 9, 2006

BANNU, Pakistan -- The Pakistani army has been fighting its most intensive battle so far against neo-Taliban guerrillas in the region of North Waziristan. The government is claiming success in the fight, but residents and analysts say the guerrillas have not been defeated.

The unprecedented scale of the battle, around North Waziristan's main town, Miramshah, reflects a continued, incremental growth of a new Taliban movement in Pakistan, three years after the government deployed much of its army to defeat it.

The new evidence of Taliban strength here comes as the Pakistan and Afghanistan governments squabble over blame for the movement's resurgence in fighting on both sides of the border.

Pakistan has barred journalists from North Waziristan, and much about the battle is unclear, including the number of guerrillas involved. The government claims to have killed more than 120 militants so far, while losing five soldiers. But accounts by residents of last week's attacks, and others in recent months, suggest local militants are able to assemble and move hundreds of fighters at a time.

The Miramshah battle began Friday when local guerrillas, angry at an army raid on one of their bases nearby, attacked the town of roughly 50,000 residents, seized government offices and fired on the army base. The army launched a heavy counterattack that included helicopter gunships and regained control of official buildings. Fighting has continued around the town and in other areas of North Waziristan.

The battle was the first of its size in the region and marked the first time the Taliban took direct control, even if briefly, of Miramshah. Still, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told reporters Sunday, "I think we should not get too over-excited about this situation."

He compared the situation with that in South Waziristan, where, he suggested, the army is now back in control after big battles in 2003 and 2004. Residents and journalists from South Waziristan, interviewed in the past 10 days, disagreed.

North and South Waziristan are two of seven tribal "agencies" or districts along the Afghan border that are ruled directly by Pakistan's central government. Four years ago, Taliban guerrillas and other militants from Afghanistan fled into these lands when the Afghan Taliban regime was toppled by the U.S. military and Afghan opposition forces in 2001.

Within a year, a renewed Taliban movement arose and Pakistan sent at least 70,000 troops into the tribal agencies to oppose it. The army fought major battles in South Waziristan and ultimately signed a truce with local Taliban leaders, who run their own administration and retain considerable control of the region, residents say.

Friday night, when the guerrillas attacked Miramshah, "we could hear firing from the mountains, from every direction, with cannons, mortars and rifles," said Sibghatullah, 16, a high school student from a village outside Miramshah.

Fearing the army counterattack, Sibghatullah fled over barren hills the next morning with his extended family of 30, walking nearly half the 30 miles to Bannu, where they and thousands of other refugees from Miramshah are now sheltering.

The family is staying in several rooms belonging to a friend. Sibghatullah sat with more than a dozen relatives in one cramped room yesterday.

The Taliban's influence and its attacks on the army have been growing in the past five months or so and "people are afraid to speak out against them," said a relative of Sibghatullah, who asked that his name not be published.

The other great thing to fear, refugees said, is being anywhere nearby when a Taliban attack takes place. "When they fight, ordinary people and our homes are the ones in danger," Sibghatullah said.

When this story was posted in March 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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