Some Taliban getting disenchanted with Baitullah’s enterprise

Editorial in the Daily Times, Lahore

June 10, 2009

As the chief of army staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Kayani, visited Mingora on Monday, there was random news about the state of Taliban aggression, leading one to believe that the chief of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Baitullah Mehsud is under pressure. The ongoing reaction of the people of Upper Dir against the Taliban interlopers has led to the elimination of 14 of them, including their Afghan commander, while the houses of 13 others were burned down. On Monday, too, another 21 Taliban were reportedly killed.

Disenchantment is setting in among the latter-day Taliban who joined Baitullah’s enterprise simply to fulfill their dreams of a “pure Islam” to transform society into some sort of imagined utopia. After perceiving that the Taliban were on the run, a Taliban chief in Peshawar has also denounced Baitullah’s policies: “Whatever Baitullah Mehsud and his associates are doing in the name of Islam is not a jihad, and in fact it is rioting and terrorism”. This “realisation” has come after the military operation in the Malakand-Swat region and, above all, after the formation of a national consensus against the TTP.

In Bajaur, where the Tehreek-e Nifaz-e Shariat-e Muhammadi (TNSM) of Sufi Muhammad was adopted as the guiding light of a local faction, the Taliban are treating it in a manner that differs from past practice. On Monday they took 100 members of the TNSM hostage, including the local chief, after “differences between the Taliban and the TNSM intensified”. But one must realistically assess the growth of TNSM influence in Bajaur. The TNSM movement had affected Bajaur in the 1990s but its appeal was greatly increased only after the success of warlord Fazlullah in the adjacent Malakand region. Now, with the retreat of the Taliban, however, TNSM influence is being rolled back. The linkage with the TTP is therefore coming under pressure. Inside TNSM, too, the transition from acquiescing in the savagery of the Taliban to non-acceptance of the “un-Islamic” practice of killing Muslims is being completed. Now TNSM is becoming a problem for Baitullah’s warriors as a non-military adjunct whose leader Sufi Mohammad has considerably lost his charisma as the saintly symbol of revolt against the state of Pakistan. There are reports also that factions of the Taliban are refusing to fight against the army.

Baitullah’s boasting about how his TTP is going to spread the warfront and take the fight into Punjab and Sindh is being put to the test of reality. There is no doubt that the jihadi network dependent on mosques and madrassas in Punjab is ready to carry out his orders, but the suicide-bombers have to be prepared in South Waziristan by “specialists” like Qari Hussain and then sent down to the target areas with “minders”. But the gradual but significant increase in the capacity of the administration to anticipate attacks and go for the suspects is showing results in Punjab. On Monday, the Sargodha police arrested three members of the Tehreek-e Taliban Punjab and seized from their possession eight kilograms of explosive material, two suicide jackets and a Hiace vehicle.

The TTP’s earlier “success” in Punjab was owed to a number of factors. The foremost factor was the jihadi militias of long gestation that had fought the war in Afghanistan and Kashmir with the patronage of the Pakistani state. But when the Taliban revolted against the state, these organisations made the conscious decision to join them rather than just fade away after the state no longer needed them against India. The other factor was that of “empowerment” of the small-time cleric who began to “imitate” the intimidatory policies of the Taliban by “supplementing” their threat. All that is now in retreat, as the state, backed and pushed forward by the “national consensus” has begun to hit back.

This is not to downplay the capacity of the TTP to stage aggression. As it retreats in the face of the military operation, more spectacular events should be expected. The war is for the long haul and Pakistan cannot afford to become complacent about its ability to tackle the likes of Baitullah Mehsud. That ability is still limited given the warlord’s resources, entrenchment in certain regions and the “external” support that is on offer to him. But Pakistan has completed the first lap — that of the will to fight back — and will need a lot of international support when its army enters South Waziristan some months ahead and takes a look at the international face of terror and its complex support system. *

URL:  https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/some-taliban-getting-disenchanted-with/d/1456