Who are behind militancy in FATA?

With the suspension of peace agreements by Pakistan’s Taliban movement, signed with the new civilian government in the recent past in reaction to the operation launched on June 28, 2008 by the paramilitary troops which demolished the hideouts of the Lashkar-i-Islam and Ansarul Islam in Bara region of Khyber Agency including suburbs of Peshawar to check the “growing criminal activities” of their militants, again an intriguing situation has been created by the external elements in the Frontier Province, which is sending negative signals to Pakistani nation. Just one day after the operation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani disclosed that there were “several enemies of the country” and “foreign hands were also involved in the acts of terrorism”. The statement needs rational explanation in light of the background of peace pacts and their suspension, which were signed with the tribal militant leaders in the national interest of Pakistan. In fact, some external enemies of our country have been opposing the FATA peace process so that insurgents could continue their criminal activities in the Frontier Province which is the most volatile region where they can test the integrity of Pakistan.

Since the beginning of the peace dialogue, the US Administration has been increasing pressure on Islamabad to suspend talks with the tribal activists. On May 20, 2008, favouring the US concerns regarding the tribal peace move, US Deputy Secretary of State, Negroponte had agreed with the American Congress lawmakers in putting pressure on Islamabad to call off its deals with the tribal militants. Meanwhile, a recent report of the Pentagon pointed out that Afghanistan is now rivalling Iraq as the biggest cause of concerns for the United States. The report coincides with recent warnings by senior US military and intelligence officials that the next plot by Al Qaeda to attack inside America will be made in Pakistan’s FATA regions. In this respect, President Hamid Karzai’s recent threat of targeting militant’s locations inside Pakistani territories, just a few days after the US-led NATO’s airstikes in the Mohmand tribal agency coincided with the accusation of cross border terrorism in relation to Islamabad. Hence, they intend to sabotage the tribal peace process. In fact, demoralized in crushing the stiff resistance of the Afghan Taliban who have been fighting against the occupying forces, US-led coalition troops, equipped with sophisticated weaponry and Kabul-led puppet regime of Hamid Karzai have badly failed in Afghanistan. Besides diverting the attention of their publics from their unsuccessful policy, they want to fulfil a number of aims by supporting the militancy in FATA.

India has added a new factor in joining the US anti-Pakistan enterprise by availing the golden opportunity to fulfill her own interests. New Delhi intends to gain leverage in the Pak-India ‘composite dialogue’ which are being held intermittently. She clandestinely favours internal and external pressure on Pakistan in this regard—also to divert the attention of the West from her atrocities, being perpetrated on the innocent Kashmiris. It is of particular attention that more than 50 Indian foreign offices along with the north-western border of our country are supporting the saboteurs to conduct bomb blasts in Pakistan. It is notable that despite the strenuous efforts of Islamabad, more than 3 million Afghan refugees who have not retuned to Afghanistan are involved in unlawful activities. Some of them are serving as agents of CIA, RAW and Khad and are implementing the common hidden agendas of their counties. They also pose themselves as Pakistani Taliban and have played a key role in creating a rift between the pro-government activist groups who had agreed for peace accords and those who opposed the same. These elements manipulated the situation and performed their assigned job in re-initiating subversive acts. These agents with dollars in their pockets are distorting the image of the peace-loving Pushtuns of FATA where majority of the people are moderate and want peace as success of the moderate elements and defeat of the extremists in election 2008 has proved there. Despite the peace deals of the new government with the Taliban, bombblasts in Mardan, Kohat, Swat etc. has kept on going to harm the government-Taliban peace accords.

It was due to new subversive acts of the militants in FATA regions and Swat that on June 29, 2008, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that some locals had breached the agreement with the government by kidnapping minority persons (16 Christians) from Peshawar, demolishing girl’s school and executing two persons. He favoured the political dialogue but made it clear that force would be used to enforce the government’s writ which had been challenged by some tribal activists. He also revealed that coalition partners had been taken into confidence before the ongoing operation and his regime did not initiate it under external pressure as Pakistan is a sovereign state. On June 26, 2008, Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq also revealed, “Foreign governments and militants are involved in the turbulent situation, prevalent in the tribal areas”. There are other fundamental reasons behind the collusion against Pakistan. Fast growing economic power of China coupled with her strategic relationship with Pakistan—Beijing’s investment in development of Gwadar, a seaport of geo-strategic importance has irked the eyes of Americans and Indians. Owing to mutual jealousy, tactical support of Washington to New Delhi, indirect military aid through Israel,—all are part of American desire to make India a major power to counterbalance China in Asia. Therefore, US real partners like India and Afghanistan who were already creating lawlessness in Pakistan by supporting some anti-state elements in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan found the FATA areas to be suitable ground where they could act upon their plot with the help of a perennial western propaganda against Islamabad.

In this respect, we should not ignore the double-game of these US-led state actors who are trying to convert Pakistan into another failed state like Rwanda. Particularly unrest in the FATA areas shall justify the deployment of NATO forces in the country with the pretension that Pakistan is a terrorist state and nuclear weapons may go into the hands of Al Qaeda. At this critical juncture, when Pakistan is facing multiple cries of grave nature, the real aim of the external plotters is to create a rift between the army on the one side and the general masses led by the politicians on the other. To achieve their sinister designs, they are manipulating the new drastic phenomena of tribal areas that they themselves created covertly. This fact could be gauged from the US news intelligence service, Stratfor which indicated on March 25, 2008 that the new political forces of Pakistan “cannot afford to dismiss national sentiment in policy-making” and can be expected “to derive a hard bargaining with Washington on the parameters of counterterrorism cooperation”. It also disclosed that “in turn, Washington which has extensive experience in dealing with Pakistani leaders and rulers will try to exploit differences among various stakeholders in the new regime to secure the goals”. We can conclude without any doubt that India, Afghanistan and the US are behind the growing militancy in FATA to destabilize Pakistan with the sole aim to achieve their covert strategic goals.