[R-G] After Red Mosque Raid Pakistan Gov't Confronts Taliban

[Anthony Fenton]

PAKISTAN:  After Red Mosque Raid Gov't Confronts Taliban
By Ashfaq Yusufzai and Zofeen Ebrahim

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38542

PESHAWAR, Jul 16 (IPS) - Pro-Taliban rebels operating close to the  
Afghan border have, through a series of suicide bomber attacks on  
security forces over the weekend causing some 80 deaths, signalled  
the end of a peace deal with the government and determination to  
avenge the Jul. 10-11 army raid on the radical Lal Masjid (Red  
Mosque) in Islamabad.

Anticipating a backlash in the restive North West Frontier Province  
(NWFP), the military government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf  
rushed in troops, soon after seizing control over the Lal Masjid  
complex. But pro-Taliban groups, already negotiating troop withdrawal  
in the area, were angered and responded by unleashing suicide bombers  
on convoys and security installations.

‘’The peace agreement has been terminated,’’ said Abdullah Farhad to  
reporters in this town which is capital of the NWFP and the main  
gateway to Afghanistan.

Government officials confirmed that on Sunday at least 44 people were  
killed in suicide bomber attacks. An army convoy was hit as it moved  
through Swat district, killing 18, while an attack on a police  
recruitment centre carried out by a human bomb resulted in 26 deaths.

On Saturday, at least 26 soldiers were killed in a suicide car  
bombing in north Waziristan. Pamphlets circulated by the Taliban in  
Miranshah town announced the end of the 10-month-old peace pact. "We  
had signed the agreement for the safety and protection of the lives  
and property of our people," the statement said. "But the government  
forces continued to launch attacks on the Taliban and have killed a  
number of people."

Under the Sep. 5, 2006 pact the Pakistan army, which had been  
battling with the Taliban and al-Qaeda elements, as part of an  
understanding with the U.S. army in Afghanistan, was pulled back. In  
return, the militants agreed to halt cross-border attacks on the U.S.  
and NATO troops that are backing the government of President Hamid  
Karzai.

But neither side was satisfied with the implementation of the deal  
and negotiations were underway for the army to withdraw from 25 of  
its checkpoints even as the Lal Masjid was stormed.

The weekend attacks on the security forces followed a call by the  
firebrand cleric Maulana Fazlullah for a ‘jihad’ (holy war) against  
the government for the storming of the Lal Masjid which resulted in a  
bloodbath in which more than 100 people including children died.

Defending the army action on the Lal Masjid and its affiliated  
seminary for women, Jamia Hafsa, to flush out ‘high value terrorists’  
and restore the state’s authority against a bid by two maverick  
cleric brothers to enforce the Shariah (Islamic law), Musharraf said  
the war on terror was far from over.

The younger of the two clerics, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, died in the raid  
after telling television interviewers that the Musharraf government  
was acting at the behest of the U.S by laying siege to the Lal Masjid  
complex.

On Thursday, after the siege ended, the general addressed the nation  
and stressed that no seminary or mosque would ever be allowed to be  
converted into fortresses in the manner that the Lal Masjid’s clerics  
had done.

With links established between the Lal Masjid administration and the  
radical elements in the NWFP, Musharraf also announced a  
strengthening of the law enforcement agencies through numbers,  
equipment and a special six-month training with back-up support from  
the army.

"He has set the tone for the future and if the stance can be  
sustained then there is some future for us in this fight against  
terror,’’ Ikram Sehgal, a Karachi-based political and defence analyst  
told IPS.

Elaborating on the government’s strategy to root out militancy and  
religious extremism in the NWFP Musharraf said: "We have already  
provided tanks to some agencies and will further equip them with  
modern weapons to take on fanatics and militants."

Reacting to the weekend attacks, Pakistan’s interior minister Aftab  
Sherpao warned that the government would now take action. ‘’We have  
been insisting that they (tribal leaders and militants) are not  
enforcing the agreement strictly… now the government will be  
justified if it takes some action."

"Musharraf’s government is on its weakest wicket in terms of  
religious moral authority. When emotional religious issues are  
involved, you need higher moral and religious authority, not just  
legally correct military might. With zero religious credentials, the  
government should have shown restraint," says defence analyst Zaid  
Hamid, founding consultant of Brass Tacks --an Islamabad-based think  
tank.

Of concern to the government is the bad publicity arising from the  
large number of deaths, including those of women and children that  
occurred during the raid. "There will be a reaction on government’s  
attempt to hide the casualty figures when missing persons’ list would  
sharply increase," predicts Hamid.

‘’There was no cause for the state to understate the numbers,’’ said  
Sehgal. ‘’The kind of offensive it led, there had to be casualties  
and people would have accepted it. According to reports garnered from  
very reliable sources, 104 people were killed.’’

Elevn soldiers also died as fighting broke out between the army and  
well armed and trained militants who were entrenched inside the mosque.

Hamid believes that Musharraf acted in haste and under pressure from  
Washington. "I think there was U.S. pressure to mop up the operation  
as they felt that politicians might have a soft corner for these  
militants. Bloodshed in election year is never a good idea. Ideally,  
they should have held the siege and increased pressure as they were  
doing…their nerves snapped.’’

(* This report was made by IPS reporters Zofeen Ebrahim in Karachi  
and Ashfaq Yusufzai in Peshawar)

(END/2007)