Taliban mini-state on Pakistan border
Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent
December 13, 2006
theaustralian.news.com.au
PAKISTAN'S appeasement of Islamic tribal militants in remote areas bordering Afghanistan has created a virtual Taliban mini-state where insurgents operating against the NATO-led forces are free to recruit, train and equip themselves, an international think tank reported yesterday.
In a sharp rebuke for the military-led Government in Islamabad, the International Crisis Group report lends weight to accounts that Pakistan's army in the tribal areas has effectively retreated to barracks, ceding control to the militants.
The report is critical of Pakistan's peace accords with the Taliban-linked militants in north and south Waziristan, and will intensify pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to rethink his approach to the remote region.
Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are both believed to be in the area with hundreds of followers, and most analysts agree the al-Qa'ida leaders have benefited from Islamabad's peace deals with the militants in the region.
According to the ICG account of conditions in Waziristan, Pakistan's policy has allowed the militants "to establish a virtual mini-Taliban-style state", with pro-Taliban militants attacking music, video and CD stores, closing barber shops, imposing taxes, insisting locals show their loyalty to Islam by growing beards and establishing courts to dispense summary justice.
The ICG's report could not have come at a more awkward time for General Musharraf, who is trying to persuade Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai to join him in launching a series of tribal councils aimed at uniting leaders from across the Durand Line separating Pakistan and Afghanistan.
General Musharraf's plan, which has received some support from Mr Karzai following a dinner with US President George W.Bush, aims to extend the peace deals Islamabad has reached in Waziristan to other parts of Afghanistan, and has been interpreted as the start of an attempt to reach an accommodation with the resurgent Taliban. |
