The Pakistani military has launched operations in Waziristan. Some analysts say this is misplaced concreteness. They argue that the military should not extend itself to the rugged vastness of the base area of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda without fully mopping up the forces of warlord Baitullah Mehsud. But certain developments suggest that the military has a definite plan of action based on sound intelligence aimed at eliminating Mehsud, demoralizing the Taliban leadership and scattering the terrorists.
The decision to go after Mehsud in Waziristan was announced by the NWFP governor, Owais Ghani, a week ago. Then the DG-ISPR, Major General Athar Abbas, confirmed it. Soon thereafter President Asif Zardari addressed the nation, put the Taliban threat to Pakistan as number one item on the government’s agenda, re-stated the national consensus against the Taliban, praised and motivated the armed forces for fighting the “real enemy within”, and accused Baitullah Mehsud of assassinating Benazir Bhutto. A day later, two former allies of Mehsud – Turkistani Bitani and Qari Zainuddin – were encouraged to tell the media they had split from Mehsud and taken up arms against him because he was an “Indian and American agent whose actions and beliefs were anti-Islamic”.
Clearly, all this would not have happened or been manipulated if the national security establishment wasn’t sure it could definitely eliminate Mehsud in days to come. And sure enough, soon there were reports that his Swat commander Fazlullah and his spokesman Muslim Khan had either been captured or killed and the mountain stronghold in which Mehsud was holed up in Waziristan along with 500-plus core warriors had been surrounded by security forces. The icing on the cake was presented a couple of days ago by three American drone attacks on the site in which over 50 Taliban are reported to have been killed. Obviously, with President Zardari reiterating that “India is not the enemy” any more, a joint US-Pak military operation is underway to get the “American-Indian” agent.
But Baitullah Mehsud isn’t a sitting duck. He has hit back by having Qari Zainuddin assassinated in Dera Ismail Khan by one of his “trusted” guards and Turkistan Bitani has barely managed to avoid the same fate. So there may be more surprises in store before Mehsud is eliminated.
The curious thing is that Baitullah Mehsud was not so long ago some sort of a hero for sections of the Pakistani media because he was reported to be fighting the Americans in Afghanistan. One well known TV anchor, who once edited a pro-jihad paper and was notorious for supporting the Al-Qaeda-Taliban holed out in the Lal Masjid, took umbrage on TV when the Daily Times accused Baitullah Mehsud of ordering the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The DT charge was based on an interview given by Mehsud to the paper before Benazir returned to Pakistan in which he had threatened to kill her if she came back because she was an “American agent”. After her death, the government released the transcript of a tapped phone conversation in which Mehsud was delighted at her elimination. But pro-Mehsud media types continued to heap scorn on these charges against their hero. Indeed, they began to crow when, following Mumbai and Indian threats to attack Pakistan, Mehsud announced he would fight alongside the Pakistan army in the event of war with India. It is a measure of the hypocrisy of this media that it has no qualms now calling Baitullah Mehsud “an American and Indian agent”.
The obsession in the Pakistani media against the drone attacks is a similar hangover from the past when the Taliban were heroes instead of villains. Clearly, the Pakistani military and government have sanctioned the drone attacks in private even as they condemn them in public in deference to anti-American sentiment. That is why we have the spectacle of the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, telling the media after a recent meeting with Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy, that he has bitterly objected to the drone attacks, even as Mr Holbrooke had the audacity to say with a straight face that the issue of the drones never came up for discussion in his meetings with the Pakistani leadership! It is surely no coincidence that the recent drone attack on Mehsud’s positions follows the Pakistani army’s attack on the same bunkers.
Much the same sort of confusion still fogs the media mind on the question of India. For sixty years the military has been drumming up the idea of India as “the enemy” in the Pakistani mind. Now there is a bipartisan political understanding on the issue. President Zardari has alluded to this “Indian threat” as being based on its military capability but also pointed out that India’s intentions are benign and not threatening. That is why he has moved swiftly to start the peace dialogue that stalled during the last two years owing to political instability in Pakistan.
The Pakistani media has been part of the problem so far. It is time it became part of the solution by admitting the facts on the ground and telling the people of Pakistan the truth. The Indian media must also play its role in pushing the peace process forward.