Taliban: ready to lay down guns

[ItsRobsLife]

Channel 4 - News - Taliban: ready to lay down guns
Last Modified: 16 Oct 2008
By: Nick Paton Walsh
After a punishing military campaign against them, Pakistan's Taliban call for a ceasefire to allow talks with the government.

They're calling it their "war on terror", a war against the Taliban with thousands of dead, hundreds of thousands of refugees on the move, and countless casualties.

But this is not Afghanistan, it's Pakistan, in the midst of the bloodiest internal conflict for decades as the army assaults militants in the mountainous tribal regions.

After weeks of fighting, the Pakistan Taliban today said it was ready to lay down its arms and talk, but the Pakistani army is continuing its operations.

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[keda]

Wouldn't like to second guess but seems when it's going against them the easy course is to regroup via talks, because as they know the West and it's loose allies just love an opportunity to show how tolerant and forgiving they are.

My money says play safe and delete the lot of them.

[sabang]

My money says press the advantage a bit more (ie waste a few more militants), then sit down to talk with a stronger hand. Theres a growing realisation that the Talib can only be vanquished totally with a long, drawn out and bloody war that will also employ major resources. This applies in both Ghan & Paki- and there are more moderate factions in the Taliban that can and should be encouraged to gain the ascendancy over the hardliners, as is indeed the Pakistani Army strategy. Unfortunately, any Nato airstrike that hits the wrong target, or kills many innocents, sets this tactic back a notch.

For the Paki bashers, I should point out that most of the hard gains are being made by the Pakistani army. With the exception of a couple of special force 'Snatch n Grab' missions, Nato only crosses the border for the occasional airstrike- which may, or may not, be with the tacit consent of the Pakistan military and government.

[attaboy]

Britain’s Ambassador to Afghanistan has stoked opposition to the allied operation there by reportedly saying that the campaign against the Taleban insurgents would fail and that the best hope was to install an acceptable dictator in Kabul.

Couple that with paying an ally in the region to fight on our behalf and we have US policy prior to the Democrat Carter.

[mad_dog]

The "Pakistan Taliban" is now a militia made up of a mixture of madrassa students, armed nomadic tribesmen and Islamist radicals. This is suprisingly similar to the general population of all the FATA regions. I'm sure illegal US airstrikes and an illiterate conscript army will be able to discriminate from civilians and kill the Taliban while finishing the nation state building and create a liberal democratic polity with civil society and free press before the NATO ISAF's remit comes to an end..........

[Alex DeLarge]

madrassa students, armed nomadic tribesmen and Islamist radicals

Anywhere else in the world this lot would be schoolkids, Pikeys & Scientoligists.

[machangezi]

it's your bros they're hunting down like rats

So why don't you give them a hand in hunting down my bros??

Last I heard your commander in Afghanistan saying the war in Afghanistan cannot be won....

British commander says war in Afghanistan cannot be won

[DrB0b]

An offer of a truce is not a sign that the Taliban are giving up. Nor is it a sign of weakness on the part of the Taliban, they are actually beating the Pak govt hands-down. Also, as far as I know this offer didn't come from the Taliban as a whole but only from the Bajaur chapter of Tehrik-e-Taliban.


Pakistan muzzles its guns
Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Cash-strapped Pakistan, after the failure of operations against militants in Bajaur Agency and the Swat Valley, has had to call off an offensive in the North Waziristan tribal area, and instead negotiate ceasefire deals.

Nevertheless, relentless pressure from the United States will not allow Islamabad to remain inactive for too long. This would have been the message relayed by US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who made an unscheduled visit to Pakistan at the weekend. The US is all too aware how militant strongholds in Pakistan's tribal areas fuel the Taliban-led insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is in a deep financial hole, however, and the best it can do is buy time with the militants until the crisis eases.

Both China and the United States appear reluctant to bail out Pakistan, which is in danger of defaulting on debt worth US$3 billion in the next few months. Saudi Arabia, too, has not offered deferred payment on oil or any cash relief and at the weekend Pakistan said it might have to seek assistance from the unpopular International Monetary Fund.

Troops stop in their tracks Last week, Pakistan mobilized troops for an offensive in North Waziristan, forcing hundreds of residents to flee to the city of Bannu as they feared a mass ground and air onslaught of the kind that had earlier forced thousands to flee from Bajaur.

But Pakistan suddenly approached the militants and urged a ceasefire. Two militants leaders - Hafiz Gul Bahadur from North Waziristan and Moulvi Nazir of neighboring South Waziristan, both rivals of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud - agreed to implement ceasefire agreements.

Bahadur issued a statement in which he said that fighting against Pakistani forces damaged the cause for support of the Afghan national resistance and hence it had been decided that if the Pakistani security forces did not advance, the tribes would observe a ceasefire.

For militants elsewhere, though, the ceasefire agreements play into their hands as they can consolidate their bases in Pakistan in preparation for more action in Afghanistan, where they have already achieved unprecedented success in their seven-year battle against foreign forces. Indeed, the Taliban are as resilient as ever in the Pakistani tribal areas, where they have reinforced their positions.

Qari Ziaur Rahman, who recently emerged as the regional commander-in-chief of all pro-Taliban groups in Kunar and Nooristan provinces in Afghanistan and the Pakistani Bajaur and Mohmmand Agency areas, spoke to Asia Times Online in a telephone interview.

"The mujahideen have completely gained control on the ground [in Bajaur]. The American agenda to destroy the mujahideen and all the [Pakistan] government options have failed to defeat us."

Rahman spoke on a land line from Bajaur, which makes a mockery of the government claim that he had been forced to flee to Afghanistan after being injured.

Rahman is an Afghan national, first introduced by Asia Times Online as the most important regional commander of the future (see A fighter and a financier May 23, 2008). He is leading all local, foreign and Afghan Taliban fighting against Pakistani troops in Bajaur.

"I am completely healthy and in Bajaur. I never retreated into Afghanistan nor sustained any injury. It is the propaganda of the Pakistan army to demoralize the mujahideen," Rahman said.

"Initially, Pakistan succeeded in instigating the local tribes against us and there were a few incidents of setting the property of the Taliban on fire, but now all the tribes have pulled out from the government-led militias and except for a few areas like Khar, the Taliban command complete ground control.

"The Pakistan army does not have any option but to send gunship helicopters three to four times a day to fire shells, or send aircraft once a day for indiscriminate bombing for half an hour. In such operations, the mujahideen sustain no losses," Rahman said.

Rahman maintained that the Taliban are now in a position to put up resistance to the Pakistani security forces as well as to initiate successful attacks against US forces in the Kunar Valley.

"We have started our operations in the Kunar Valley and, except for interruptions of a few weeks, these are as normal as they were before the Bajaur operations [began two months ago]," Rahman said.

He was adamant that the ceasefire agreements in North Waziristan would not create any rifts. "It was a strategic decision by the Taliban in North Waziristan. At the end of the day we will all be one in our broader strategies.”

Pakistan may have bought itself some time with the ceasefires, but the battle - let alone the war - is a long way from over, even as US unmanned Predator drones begin sorties in the skies of North Waziristan.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002[at]yahoo.com Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

[Texpat]

I agree with Dr Bob. Back to the OP.

The lingering question of Pak Army's ability and willingness to take on the Taliban within their tribal regions has been a burning question for a long time now. I'll be interested to see how both sides handle it.

[keda]

That's just it, the Paki's can only do so much in a precarious balancing act, to please their Western 'friends' without poking their own mullahs too much. Danger is if they stray outside the arbitrary tracks to provoke one or the other.