Pakistan's dilemma over Waziristan
Dated 18/4/2006
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The situation in Pakistan's tribal bad-lands of Waziristan is fast spiraling out of control. Despite tall claims of the Pakistan army of causing heavy casualties in the ranks of the jihadis, there is little evidence to suggest that the Pakistan army is anywhere near enforcing the 'writ of the state' in North and South Waziristan.
The operations of the Pakistan army, in which helicopter gun-ships, fighter aircraft, long range artillery have been used against militant strongholds, have caused immense 'collateral damage' and done little to gain the support of the locals in these areas.
Reports suggest that the tribesmen fighting against the Pakistan army are going from strength to strength and expanding their influence and their 'writ' in adjoining districts like Dera Ismail Khan, Tank and Bannu. In all these areas, the Pakistani 'Taliban' are issuing diktats on how people should run their lives and have put barbers, musicians, video and music shop owners, cable TV operators, out of business.
They are meting out their brand of rough and ready justice and have killed smugglers and kidnappers and hanged their bodies from lamp-posts and there is little that the state authorities have been able to do.
As the level of violence mounts and clashes between the security forces and the Taliban become a regular feature, Pakistan will be forced to re-think its strategy on controlling its wild west.
But there are no easy options available for the Pakistani state, especially since its control over the Pashtun-dominated tribal belt bordering Afghanistan has always been very loose. Complicating the matter are the demands being made by the US and Afghanistan on Pakistan to crack down hard on the extremists in the tribal belt who it is believed are providing sanctuary to the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.
The dilemma for Pakistan is that if it adopts a soft-approach, it will be accused of playing a double-game in the War on Terror. On the other hand, a hard approach is not working and is in fact making things worse.
The biggest problem that Pakistan is facing is that it can no longer use the traditional instruments with which it maintained its authority in these areas. The decades of jihad
