Peshawar Graphic source: The New York Times
In an `I told you so' type of situation, Taliban militants have threatened to envelop a city of three million, one of Pakistan’s largest, in Peshawar. As the militants strike fear into the city, Pakistan's lukewarm battle against the Taliban comes home to roost. NATO and the Coalition have long argued that this lawless, tribal region was close to collapse and as the major supply route for weapons the area is crucial to hold. The situation is even more grim considering that there still may be unaccounted for nuclear weapons held somewhere nearby. Peshawar is just 90 minutes by highway from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, and with this latest move the Taliban demonstrate just how severe the threat is on both sides of the border with Afghanistan.
Peshawar has long been a semi-autonomous region anyway. In the 1980s, Americans used the city as a staging base for the mujahedeen, the Islamic fighters supplied by Washington to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Bin Laden arrived in 1985 to assist the mujahedeen, and almost exactly 20 years ago, in 1988, bin Laden held meetings at a house here that gave birth to Al Qaeda, according to The bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll.
This lawless region exists as a menagerie of Taliban and al-Qaeda elements according to a survey of nearby towns.
To the south is Darra Adam Khel where forces of the Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan, an umbrella group of Taliban, took virtual control of the city.
The group is led by Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused by the Pakistani government of masterminding the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Rivalries between Mehsud's movement and Haji Namdar who runs a Taliban group called the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice. This Taliban faction enforces a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law. Namdar called for Mehsud's supporters in Khyber to leave the region after a suicide bomber targeted his headquarters in Bara. Twenty of Namdar's supporters were wounded in the attack, which was carried out by the Hakeemullah Group. Hakeemullah Mehsud, Baitullah’s deputy, took credit for the attack.
To the east, Mangal Bagh leads Lashkar-i-Islam and he claims to have 180,000 fighters under his command. Lashkar-e-Islam has fought pitched battles with Ansar-ul-Islam, a rival group.
To the north, Tehrik-e-Taliban established a prison in Michini and in Warsak, the Taliban have constructed a training camp.
In Shabqadar, a few miles away, the Taliban turned up in the central square and posted a notice urging people to contact them rather than the courts to settle their disputes.
The techniques of fear and intimidation are similar to those used in Afghanistan during the 1990s, when the Taliban emerged after the retreat of the Soviets and the end of American financing. The Taliban generally ally themselves with the local criminals. The Taliban either attack criminals which wins them favor with the local or they coopt the criminals to further intimidate or hold the local populace in check. The Taliban are joined by the local criminals who grow their hair and their beards to fit in neatly with the Taliban. In this symbiotic manner, the Taliban and criminals join together as the criminals get protection from the militants for the money they give to the Taliban from their extortion rackets.
The Taliban are forward-thinking in that they abduct young boys and demand that they become jihadists rather than sit idly at home.
The counter-offensive by the Pakistani government has provided "full authority" to General Pervaiz Kayani, the Army Chief of Staff, to conduct operations to secure Peshawar.
Kiyani is viewed as one of the toughest officers in Pakistan and graduated near the top of his class at CGSC (Command General Staff College) at Leavenworth, Kansas. He is a highly regarded tactician and intellectual. The CGSC is where the 'cream of the crop' from overseas attend. Kiyani is also likely to have forged close bonds with his military counterparts in the Coalition/NATO. He is also a former head of the unreliable ISI in 2004 but thus may actually oppose its disloyal members. It was during Kiyani's ISI tenure that the agency arrested AQ’s most wanted chief operational commander, Abu Faraj Libbi, who had allegedly masterminded the Rawalpindi assassination attempts on Musharraf’s life amongst other insurgent actions. However, in balance it was during his administration that the Taliban staged a comeback in the tribal areas of Pakistan thus enabling AQ to establish its sanctuaries in the Waziristan region on the Pak-Afghan border. He possibly could come through though.
Cf. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/world/asia/28pstan.html?ei=5087&em=&en=848ef5383b36b99f&ex=1214798400&pagewanted=all;
Cf. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/pakistan_strikes_at_1.php;
Cf. http://thepost.com.pk/OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=121794&catid=11.
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