Practically, PTI workers put halt to Nato supplies through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continued its sit-in on Monday for the second day at different points in the province and brought Nato supplies to an almost complete halt, as trucks with supplies for foreign forces hardly managed to arrive in Peshawar.

The PTI workers were not deterred by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief’s directives to his force to act against them if they forced trucks to stop and checked documents.

Police officials continued to act as spectators as PTI workers stopped every container-laden truck and checked shipment documents to make sure no Nato truck passed.

Trucks taking supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan have stranded in different cities across the country due to PTI sit-ins that made its campaign to stop the shipments successful. PTI claimed its workers stopped ‘dozens of Nato trucks’ at Khairabad in Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat and Peshawar. Nato trucks did not arrive in Peshawar on Monday, the day the protest intensified as PTI was joined by workers of its coalition partner, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

In a raucous manner, they forced a container-loaded truck to return on suspicion of being supplied for Nato. As the truck arrived at the toll plaza on the Ring Road, where PTI workers have camped, shouts erupted: “This is Nato container.” The workers converged on the truck and forced the driver to show documents. They let the vehicle go after reaching the conclusion that it was not meant for Nato forces.

“He cheated us by showing forged documents. This is a Nato truck,” several workers shouted as the vehicle moved a few metres ahead. The crowd of workers again stopped the truck, forced the driver to get off and demanded documents. They checked the seal on the container and asked the driver to break it so that they could see what was inside. When the trucker refused, an activist occupied the driver’s seat. As the driver could not convince the angry workers, the container was returned.

“This is a transit truck,” a police officer murmured, helplessly. “If these people return it, they (Afghans) will send back ours,” he worried. He just looked on helplessly and refused to talk about the order by inspector general of police to act against PTI workers if they forced vehicles to stop or checked documents.

The unpleasant handling of the driver also caused division among the protesters as the leaders were opposed to the use of force. After the truck was returned, Younas Zaheer, a PTI office-bearer who is leading the sit-in, addressed the workers and asked them not to rough up the drivers. “Don’t break the seals,” another activist chipped in. However, Zaheer insisted the returned truck was taking supplies to the Nato forces.

PTI’s decision to force blockade of Nato supplies has pitted it against the local administration that is facing legal questions, the federal government that is not happy with the protest and the US that is financing several projects in the province.

The local administration is under pressure to act against the ‘illegal actions’ of the PTI workers. PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Federal Minister for Information Senator Pervez Rashid have already exchanged hostile statements. With regard to the US, provincial ministers protested outside the US Consulate General in Peshawar and chanted slogans. They presented a memorandum to an official of the Consulate General to protest the drone attack in Hangu, a settled district that falls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

On Monday, JI joined the PTI sit-ins in Peshawar and vowed to paralyse movement of Nato supplies. JI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Secretary General Shabbir Ahmad Khan threatened to launch sit-ins at airports if air cargo for Nato forces in Afghanistan was started. Talking to media at Motorway Interchange camp, he asked people to support the protest for the sake of national honour. He asked the provincial government to quash FIR against the workers of PTI and its allied parties.

Daud Ishtiaq, a JI worker at the toll plaza camp on Ring Road, said the party leaders instructed them to join the sit-in and 30 workers came to participate. “We will sit with them as long as they are here,” he said.

Jam Muhammad, a PTI worker who wore a cap made of party flag, said he came from Gulbahar as it was their turn on Monday. He said they stopped vehicles and checked documents to ascertain the identity of trucks. Another worker, Qaiser Khan who hailed from the same locality in PK-2, said he spent from his own pocket as the party did not provide food.“I think this sit-in may not force the US to stop drone strikes,” he said. “But this is what we can do,” he added. He said PPP government had stopped supplies for months but it did not produce the desired results. He criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for failing to honour his election promise that he would stop drone strikes after coming into power.

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In Pakistan, violence against journalists comes with impunity

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Every year, the count of journalists murdered in Pakistan in line with their duty increases, but the impunity the perpetrators enjoy remains unbroken.

Media practitioners, politicians and members of the civil society say this impunity has created the environment of fear for journalists. Of 90 murders of journalists in Pakistan in the last one decade, representatives of journalists’ bodies said, only one case was investigated and the perpetrator tried and punished. That journalist, too, was not a Pakistani. He was American journalist, Daniel Pearl.

So far, this year, seven journalists have been killed in Pakistan. None of the perpetrators is arrested in any of the cases, let alone punishing them.

Saturday, November 23, was marked as the International Day to End Impunity Against Journalists. Journalists, lawmakers and members of the civil society showed their dismay over the continued impunity against journalists in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

A seminar jointly organised by the Khyber Union of Journalists, Peshawar Press Club and Freedom Network (FN), a media watchdog organisation, demanded of the government to establish an office of a special prosecutor at federal, provincial and regional levels.

Iqbal Khattak, executive director FN, said special prosecutors for crimes against journalists had reduced violence against media persons in Mexico and Columbia, countries where drug cartels targetted reporters. “The establishment of the office of special prosecutors can send a strong message that there will be no impunity if violence against journalists is carried out,” he said.

Continued impunity against journalists, he added, had created an environment of fear for journalists and they could not freely exercise journalism. “In this environment, investigative journalism is not possible. Journalists cannot ask hard questions,” he said. “What we see is a rise in self-censorship,” he remarked.

Photos of slain journalists whose cases have gone unprosecuted looked out at the participants from a banner as they discussed violence against media people. The case of Muhammad Zeb Mansoor, a journalist in Dargai, who was detained by a security agency in mid-October, is a reminder of the unquestioned impunity against journalists. He has not been produced before any court of law.

Nisar Mehmood, president KhUJ, said perpetrators of journalists’ murders had gone unpunished though in several cases they were known and even nominated by the victims’ families. He said the investigation was faulty and also some state institutions were involved in many killings and kidnappings. “Political parties can play role by moving resolutions in provincial assemblies and the National Assembly for establishing the office of special prosecutor,” he said.

Sultan Muhammad Khan, an MPA of the Qaumi Watan Party, said media was eyes and ears of the society but the eyes and ears were now being shut. “What I know is that state and non-state actors are responsible for attacks against journalists,” he added.

He said it was alarming that murders of journalists were increasing. “Seven killings of journalists this year is alarming. We are regressing backwards,” he said. The young lawmaker described it as undemocratic and anti-freedom behaviour to kidnap, threaten and intimidate media persons. He said national interest needed to be defined clearly and journalists briefed on it so that they could protect it. He suggested that special law dealing with journalists’ killings might be enacted and the office of special prosecutor be made part of it.

Sardar Babak, parliamentary leader of Awami National Party in the provincial assembly, said violence against journalists was worrisome. “By killing and intimidating journalists, our voice and thoughts are being stifled,” he said.

Jalil Jan of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam assured journalists of support. He complained television channels were showing dummies of their leaders dancing, which was their insult.

QWP’s Nisar Khan said they could move the Peshawar High Court to claim the right to protection for journalists.

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PTI workers block Nato supplies at five points in KP

Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers camped at five points in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday to obstruct Nato trucks as part of the party’s campaign to block the movement of Nato shipments to Afghanistan.
The ‘sit-ins’ are part of the protest against US drone strikes in Pakistan and will continue for an indefinite period. According to Ishtiaq Urmar, PTI’s Provincial Secretary Information, the party workers are holding ‘sit-ins’ at Khairabad Bridge, the Ring Road near Motorway, Hayatabad Toll Plaza on the Ring Road, Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan to hunt and stop Nato supplies.
Several PTI leaders said they did not allow even a single Nato truck to or from Afghanistan. Workers, who have set up camp at the Hayatabad Toll Plaza on the Ring Road, the highway used for Nato supplies, said they stopped nine containers. “Six containers were carrying supplies to Afghanistan for Nato forces and three were coming from there,” said Younas Zaheer, General Secretary of the PTI Peshawar chapter.
However, Ishtiaq Urmar said the containers were later allowed to proceed as they contained vegetables. He said trucks carrying supplies for Nato forces did not arrive on Sunday, though PTI workers stayed vigilant to halt the movement of these vehicles.
A number of workers including women sat in the camp on the Ring Road. “The Nato supplies are unacceptable for an indefinite time,” read a banner hung at the camp. It had another slogan that is getting popular with PTI workers: “Our land, our way.”
Young workers stood along the road and stopped every container in order to ascertain its destination. They checked shipment documents of every container-laden truck to look for Nato supplies. The checking of documents caused an altercation with a driver early in the day, PTI workers said. Ishtiaq Urmar and ISF President Suhail Afridi asked workers not to use violence while stopping the Nato containers.
“The documents that state the supplies are meant for Nato forces, we stop them,” Zaheersaid. “The Nato containers have stopped arriving after we obstructed nine trucks. They know we are not allowing such vehicles,” he added. He claimed that they did not allow even a single Nato container. He said the blockade of Nato supplies was being forced in line with the PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s statement. “This will continue for an indefinite period,” he said.
The PTI’s decision to not allow Nato trucks to pass through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa runs the risk of straining relations with the US, which is bankrolling millions of dollars of projects in the province that is ruled by Imran Khan’s party.
“We have burnt our boats,” said Member Provincial Assembly Fazl Elahi, suggesting that they did not care about relations with the US or consequences of putting a halt to Nato supplies.Imran Khan told Saturday’s anti-drone rally in Peshawar: “Nations are not made by begging before others, but by taking a stand on issues.”
Fazl Elahi said the confrontation was precipitated by the federal government’s reluctance to honour the bi-partisan resolution of the provincial assembly that asked for a halt to drone strikes in Pakistan.
Critics say Imran Khan is playing to the gallery by holding rallies in a province ruled by his party. They question why the provincial government doesn’t stop supplies through an executive order.
Fazl Elahi claimed, “We can do it if the federal government honours our resolution.” He also said the FIR in the drone attack in Hangu was lodged by the federal government, a statement that clashes with assertions of other PTI leaders.
He said the closure of Nato supplies could force the US to stop drone strikes. “It cannot afford supplies via Russia. That’s expensive,” he believed.
The PTI workers said they would stay in the camp round-the-clock to ensure that no truck passed. “We will sleep on the road,” Zaheer said, though late evening they were reported to have vacated the camp for the night. The PTI town level chapters, totalling four in Peshawar, will take turns to provide activists for the ‘sit-in’, the organisers said. The PTI, Youth and ISF wings of the party are currently taking part in the protest.
At Khairabad Bridge, PTI’s Nowshera district chapter president Niaz Muhammad and other workers set up the camp. They vowed not to allow Nato containers to enter Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Punjab. In Kohat, district President Humayun Chacha led the workers on the Indus Highway and set up a camp at Jarma Chowk to block trucks carrying supplies to Nato in Afghanistan.

Imran gathers thousands to block Nato supplies in Peshawar

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Thousands of workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its allies gathered on Ring Road and blocked it for Nato supplies to press the US to stop drone strikes in Pakistan on Saturday, where Imran Khan asked the federal government to use air force for hitting drones following US disregard for Pakistan and its leadership.

Not a single truck was allowed to transport supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan, or pull out military equipment from that war-torn country where the US and Nato forces are gearing up for withdrawal. The protesters sat on the dual carriageway that forks from the Grand Trunk Road to bypass the city and run through Khyber Agency to Afghanistan. Several containers were stacked one on another across the road to make a lofty stage that blocked the road.

No container-laden trucks, Nato or others, were seen stalled at the site of the sit-in. A police official said containers were stopped in Nowshera and other cities and some were diverted towards Chaman, another route used for Nato supplies.

Imran Khan in his address said they would block Nato supplies not only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his party is in power, but across the country. He asked the provincial government to initiate action for officially stopping Nato supplies through the province.

Before the start of the sit-in in Peshawar, he said it would continue until a US assurance that it was stopping the unmanned aircrafts’ strikes. However, the protest was called off Saturday evening soon after he and other leaders addressed.

The Nato trucks may be able now to use the route for supplies. However, according to PTI’s provincial spokesman, Ishtiaq Urmar, party workers will stop Nato supplies at different points in the province. He said workers will launch sit-ins at Khairabad Bridge, Swabi Moterway Interchange, Charsadda Motorway Interchange and toll plaza on Ring Road near Hayatabad. 

Imran Khan said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had promised with the nation that he would stop drone strikes. “Mian Sahib,” he addressed the prime minister, “will you now issue mere condemnations over drone strikes or order air force to knock drones down.”

He said Nawaz Sharif did not take up the issue of drone attacks in meeting with US President Barack Obama, which shattered his hopes. The PTI leader said he accepted election results despite rigging and trusted Nawaz Sharif in an effort to collectively rid the country of US aggression. “We still stand with you,” he said, addressing Nawaz Sharif.   

He was angry that the US disrespected Pakistan’s parliament and political leadership by carrying out drone strikes at a time they were opposed. “The parliament passed a resolution asking an immediate halt to drone strikes and the US conducted an attack that night. For the first time, an elected government initiated talks after mandate by all political parties and the US attacked [the slain TTP chief] Hakimullah Mehsud to sabotage it. They have no respected for us,” he said. “And Sartaj Aziz’s trust was shattered a day after he was assured of a halt to drone attacks during talks,” he added.

Imran Khan said it was a defining movement for Pakistan to choose between disgrace and self-respect and independence. He said Pakistan should be treated as a friend, not a slave. “There is difference between slavery and friendship,” he said, standing in front of giant banner that read, “our land, our way.”

He asked prime minister whether he would also tell lies to the nation like previous rulers or take a stand. “Nations are not made by begging before others, but by taking stand,” he remarked.

He said the federal government should tell the US it was with it in establishing peace, not in waging wars. He said conflict and violence had wreaked havoc in KP and destroyed lives of six million people of Fata. When Pakistan was joining the US war, he added, it owed Rs5,000 billion debt but now it had soared to Rs14,000 billion. “Increase in debt in one decade of war is more than the debt Pakistan got in several decades. The debt increased because Pakistan spent huge money in the US war,” he claimed.

Imran Khan said that not a single attacker of the 9/11 belonged to Pakistan but it was made to suffer in life and material. He said 50,000 people including thousands of soldiers had died in this war, yet the US was not satisfied. “It is still trumpeting on ‘do more.’ It’s telling us that we are not fighting honestly and competently despite that their soldiers are losing war in Afghanistan,” he taunted. He disgusted the US policy that made Pakistanis suffer immensely and at the same time disgraced and maligned them.

 In response to a statement by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Fazlur Rahman, he said PTI did not want to become Shaheed but would emerge as Ghazi. He indicated dissolution of assembly if his party’s government was destabilised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We, the allies, have decided not to become Shaheed if our government is detsabilised, rather we will seek fresh mandate,” he said.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s central Secretary General Liaqat Baloch said his party had decided to stop Nato trucks in Karachi today (Sunday). PTI’s Shah Mehmood said if Nawaz Sharif was not pursuing dual policy as he claimed he should convene another APC to make a new strategy. Javed Hashmi said the American nation was becoming extremely intolerant to Washington’s policy of wars and was rising up against the government.    

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With fuelled anger, PTI readying to block Nato supplies in Peshawar

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) held meetings across the province to pull thousands of people to a sit-in against drone attacks in Peshawar that would block Nato supplies in the backdrop of the first strike by the unmanned plane in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The attack that also killed a couple of children outraged the PTI leaders and general public. The hit would possibly provide a shot in the arm for the November 23rd protest, prompting people to pour into Peshawar to participate in the sit-in against the US and its operations in Pakistan. 

The PTI said it would place containers on the Ring Road, used for trucking the supplies, today (Friday) and halt flow of supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan. “We will put containers on the Ring Road on Friday to block it for the Nato supplies,” said Ishtiaq Urmar, PTI’s provincial information secretary.

Imran Khan, leader of the PTI, said the supplies would be blocked until the United States assured a halt to the controversial strikes within Pakistan. His announcement makes the situation uncertain as Pakistan has struggled to persuade Washington to stop the attacks. The Hangu attack came a day after Special Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said the US has assured it would not carry out drone attacks if Pakistan initiated talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. If Imran Khan lives up to his announcement, the protest could prolong for weeks, if not months.

To show its seriousness, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government cabinet meeting is being held today to take stock of the situation after the first drone attack in the province. The PTI had distanced its provincial government of the Saturday’s sit-in to avoid straining relations with the federal government. The cabinet meeting would decide how to react to the attack.

Imran Khan directed his anger against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his alleged silence over “the attack that violated the limits of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and killed our citizens.”

Five people were reported killed and three injured in the attack on Islami Madrassa Muktaba Darul Uloom in Tal area of Hangu.

Ishtiaq Urmar said he did not know whether the provincial government protested to the federal government over the attack as he could not speak for the KP government.

The Central Information Secretary of the PTI Shireen Manzari lashed out at the US and Pakistan government and the military. “This was a declaration of war against the people of Pakistan by the US,” she said in a statement. “[I] demand to know whether the Pakistan government and military were sleeping while Pakistan was being attacked or were they complicit in this latest drone attack?” he asked.

Mazari in a texted message to The News said the fresh attack would increase the importance of the PTI protest against drones, where Imran Khan would address people. Referred to her and Imran Khan’s statements, she said questions had been asked from the federal government over the incident.

Ishtiaq Urmar said that his party would assemble around 80,000 on Peshawar’s Ring Road. Imran Khan has asked people to participate in the rally to tell the they were against drone attacks and supported peace efforts in Pakistan. Urmar said that all day various organisations of the party held meetings to make arrangements for the sit-in.

PTI had already held a sit-in in 2010 against the Nato supplies but then the Awami National Party was ruling the province. This time his party is governing the province. Then it could not block supplies to the forces of the US and other Nato member countries engaged in the 12-year-old war there.

Pakistan halted Nato supplies to Afghanistan in 2011 but not due to opposition by Imran Khan. Islamabad had angrily reacted to the killing of its 24 soldiers in Salala on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

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With unsatiated vengeance, Fazlullah becomes new TTP chief

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: Mualana Fazlullah was unremorseful after his group killed a two-star general near Afghanistan border in September. Instead, he said their target was corps commander Peshawar. That was unsatisfactory, too. He wished to kill the chief of army staff to avenge his defeat in Swat. After deadly and high profile attacks over the years, his vengeance in fact is still unsatiated. 

This militant was yesterday made the new commander of the proscribed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), with all vengeful intentions, capability and a hard-line agenda.  

Maulana Fazlullah, son-in-law of the jailed Maulana Sufi Muhammad, controlled Swat Valley from 2007 to 2009 and unleashed a spree of violence. He was driven out of Swat more than four and a half years ago but, he refused to give in. He continued his violent campaign from his unmolested sanctuaries in Afghanistan and created headlines worldwide. All these years, his ferocious attacks raised his militant profile instead of weakening his power. That profile made him chief of the TTP, an umbrella organisation of militant groups.

In 2011, he launched deadly attacks from Kunar, eastern province of Afghanistan, into Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Chitral districts. These attacks have killed over a hundred security forces personnel and scores of innocent villagers. His fighters slit the throats of 17 soldiers last year in June, underlining the ferocity of the threat he posed to Pakistan’s security.

His attacks precipitated troop deployment on the western border along these districts for the first time in the country’s history. Thousands of army soldiers sent in September 2011 still remain deployed along the border.

Last year in October, Fazlullah ordered the killing of Malala Yousafzai for speaking against the Taliban. She miraculously survived after being hit in the head in the attack. People poured into streets in all parts of the country in her support and against the attack. The world followed. The international community acclaimed her for bravery and her struggle for education.

When he held sway over Swat, he ordered bombing and torching of schools, particularly those for girls. He threatened parents to stop sending girls to schools or else they would be killed. His men publically flogged people for actions he considered un-Islamic, including women. His fighters killed a teacher in Matta for not hiking trousers above ankles, a voluntary practice Islam advises faithful to exercise. Taliban in Swat slaughtered people in streets and hung their bodies in squares, petrifying residents. Suicide blasts were widespread. He had established over 40 self-style Sharia courts that delivered punishments to people.

Fazlullah is a fiery speaker that helped him initially impress the people of Swat. He used FM radio for spreading his support and, later on, his terror. Due to the use of FM radio, local people called him “Mulla Radio.”

The Awami National Party that came into power in 2008 held talks with him in 2008 and 2009. However, on both occasions the talks failed. The Nawaz Sharif government’s desire to hold talks with TTP met a setback with his appointment as its chief. The first announcement that was made after his selection was that TTP would not hold talks with the government.

His appointment has not only brought bad news for the government, but also for the people of Malakand division, of which Swat is a district. Now with central command of the TTP in his hands, it is feared, he will menace the peace of the division by carrying out attacks.     

Maulana Fazlullah’s hiding in Kunar has strained Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan. Islamabad has repeatedly asked Kabul and Nato forces to stop cross-border attacks and hand Fazlullah over to Pakistan. All such requests have gone unmet.

Pakistan believes Afghan intelligence was providing him support. In recent days, Afghanistan’s intention to use Pakistani Taliban against Pakistan was exposed. The US forces took Latif Mehsud, deputy to the slain Hakimullah Mehsud, from Afghan intelligence that was taking him to strike a terror deal against Pakistan. With alleged nexus with Afghan intelligence, Fazlullah’s appointment as TTP chief would now be a major concern for Pakistan.

It remains unclear whether he would remain to operate from Afghanistan or shift to North Waziristan. Analysts believe he felt safe in Afghanistan. However, the US has already announced that he has been on the hit-list. He is one of the main sources of tension with Afghanistan as Kabul has been accusing Islamabad of firing shells into Afghanistan’s territory.

Analysts believe he would not have firm control on TTP as he lives in Afghanistan and he also is non-Mehsud.

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On its hit-list arleady, US won't spare Maulana Fazlullah

Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Maulana Fazlullah, the reclusive Swat Taliban chief who is believed to be one of the front-runners to head the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is already on the US target list and could be taken out anytime like other TTP leaders.
His name on the US hit list makes him a target for the drones that hover over the tribal areas in search of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants. However, the US drones and troops have failed to kill or arrest him in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, where he has been hiding since 2009. Fazlullah fled to Afghanistan in 2009 to escape a massive military operation that defeated his group in Swat, a valley he had controlled.
The US has made its intention public that it would kill him if he was located. “We will take him off the battlefield if there is an actionable intelligence,” US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson said early this year. Brig Mahmood Shah, a security analyst, doubts US intentions that it wanted to kill him. “Not so far,” he said.
Beheadings, floggings and kidnappings were carried out on Fazlullah’s order in Swat from 2007 to 2009. He also ordered attack on Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl from Swat who was nearly killed by a gunman he had sent. She has become an international icon championing education.
From his sanctuaries in Kunar, Fazlullah planned an attack on a two-star general, Maj Gen Sanaullah Niazi, in Upper Dir and killed him along with another officer and a soldier. Fazlullah’s cross-border attacks precipitated troop deployment on the border with Afghanistan along Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Chitral districts.
But none of these operations is the reason the US wants him eliminated. Washington holds Fazlullah responsible for the killing of three American soldiers in Lower Dir. The soldiers, who were apparently trainers, were killed in a roadside blast in Shahi Koto area in Lower Dir in February 2010. They were accompanying the Pakistani security forces to Maidan, an area in Lower Dir retaken from Taliban militants.
The American soldiers’ killing had unmatched significance as they were the first known casualties of the US troops on Pakistani soil. Fazlullah had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ayaz Wazir, a former diplomat and analyst, said US did not want to kill Fazlullah. “Fazlullah has been in Afghanistan for years and is carrying out operations. The US technology is so sophisticated that it says it can see an ant on the ground. So, how does the US not see a 5/6-feet Fazlullah?” he wondered.
He said Fazlullah might be on the hit-list of the US but it doesn’t want to target him now. “Hakimullah was also on the hit-list of the US for years, but it targetted him on a particular occasion. Fazlullah will also be hit at a time that suits the US,” Ayaz Wazir said.
If Fazlullah is made leader of the TTP, the Nawaz Sharif government would find it difficult to shore up the derailed peace talks. Pakistan has failed to persuade or force the US to stop drone strikes in the tribal areas to make peace talks with Taliban successful. After TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud’s death, the US has not promised to halt drone operations to allow the negotiations to happen. The drones might intensify the search for Fazlullah and it would contribute to the uncertainty about peace talks.
Also, Fazlullah who had been defeated in Swat would possibly seek revenge from the Pakistan Army instead of holding talks for peace. Fazlullah manifested this intention by organising attack on Maj Gen Sanaullah after the all parties’ conference that offered Taliban talks to seek solution to the ongoing conflict.
Analysts, however, believe he has thin chances to become TTP leader as he doesn’t belong to the Mehsud tribe. “If the leader of the TTP came from outside the Mehsud tribe, Taliban would become weaker,” Mahmood Shah said. “Fazlullah would not be able to hold control of the TTP. His network is weak in Pakistan, and he would have no influence over Punjabi Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the groups that are not part of TTP but support it,” he added.
Ayaz Wazir argued TTP was founded by Mehsuds and its leadership would be retained by them. “No Mohmand, Afridi, Wazir, Bhittani or anyone from any other tribe would be allowed to take up reins of this organisation,” he maintained.