Faulty US intelligence led to trouble in north Waziristan
Iqbal Khattak
says the raid on the seminary near Miran Shah was a disaster
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espite US pressure on Pakistan to move into North Waziristan and launch an operation against the alleged Al Qaeda men hiding there, Islamabad has decided to tackle the situation cautiously and not rush into challenging the armed tribesmen in the agency.
Most experts think it is the right decision. “Given the complexity of the issue and the sensitivities involved, I think it is better to err on the side of caution,” a key government official told TFT in Miranshah, agency headquarters of North Waziristan Agency.
Officials say Pakistan cannot afford to rely on US intelligence, which has proven faulty on many previous occasions, and create a law and order problem for itself. The fruitless raid on the seminary run by former Afghan commander, Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, was a near disaster and resulted in tribesmen threatening authorities with armed retaliation. The seminary, which has been closed since early this year, was raided by army commandos after US intelligence identified it as a haven for Al Qaeda militants that had sneaked into the area from Khost in Afghanistan.
“We were reluctant to raid the seminary because our intelligence did not corroborate the US intelligence,” the official told TFT, adding: “We told them [Americans] that their information was not accurate but they insisted the place must be checked. They refused to believe us and kept pressing us to go ahead with the raid. Finally, we went along and there was nothing. The place was empty,” he said.
But the April 26 raid, nevertheless, angered the people of North Waziristan Agency, the most conservative of the tribesmen in the tribal belt of Pakistan. Armed lashkars, and groups were raised to resist any such raid on any madrassah in the future. The tribesmen were so angry that they also barred the Pakistan Army from accompanying any raiding party.
That the Pakistani authorities had serious reservations about intelligence provided by Miranshah-based “US experts”, is also corroborated by other sources. A Peshawar-based official told TFT that Pakistani authorities on several occasions disagreed and were reluctant to go ahead with the proposed raid.
The madrassah, called “Fountain of Knowledge” was built in the early 1980s when Arabs came to the area with their petro-dollars and provided funds to the Afghan leaders fighting the Russians. That war effort in the eighties was part of the US campaign to push the Soviet Union back and defeat communism. The school is spread over 20 kanals of land and has more than 90 rooms for students, who were provided free boarding and lodging while they went about learning Islamic subjects.
The Pakistan government sealed the madrassah early this year after it ordered a crackdown on Islamic schools throughout the country. TFT talked to one of the caretakers who gave eyewitness account of the April 26 raid. “Since morning that day paramilitary forces were taking positions at a mountain overlooking the madrassah. But I did not take the movement seriously. In the afternoon, however, an unidentified helicopter flew over the madrassah and at 4 pm Pakistani commandos [officials reports say 250], backed by Tochi Scouts, blasted the main gate and began searching room after room,” the caretaker detailed initial moments of the raid.
The broken locks of the rooms testify to how quickly the special services group personnel wanted to complete the mission. “I offered them the keys but they preferred to break into the rooms,” the caretaker told TFT.
After the commandos had searched through the area, the American “communication experts” were called into the building. The caretaker says they entered the madrassah to see for themselves that there were no Al Qaeda or Taliban men hiding in the seminary. The US personnel went back disappointed and the Pakistani officials, in the words of the caretaker, grimaced at their “unwanted guests.”
After a visit to the area, other Pashtun tribes like Afridis and Shinwaris look more liberal and modern in comparison to the tribesmen from the South and North Waziristan Agencies. The area is awash with weapons, including heavy weapons. TFT even saw anti-aircraft guns in the possession of the tribes.
Officials admit that the futile raid has damaged relations between the tribesmen and the Pakistan Army. “The army is not happy with the situation,” says an insider. This is why the NWFP government on May 12 decided to hand over all development schemes in Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to the army in a bid to rebuild the damaged relations |
