Pakistan is buying time in North Waziristan - gathering intelligence, building alliances and insisting any assault into the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fortress take place at its own time and choosing.
Part of the tribal belt on the Afghan border, North Waziristan is home to 350,000 people but considered a stronghold for the most dangerous militants in the world and largely impenetrable.
It is also a rumoured hiding place of Osama bin Laden.
Commanders are walking a tightrope, balancing US pressure for action against fears that a major push into the hornet's nest would make enemies they cannot beat and drag Pakistan into a new wave of violence.
As well as the bin Laden connection, North Waziristan's mountains are also a refuge for Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban who escaped an offensive in neighbouring South Waziristan and networks fighting US forces in Afghanistan.
Among those using bases in North Waziristan are the Haqqani network, created by Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani and run by his son Sirajuddin; Afghan Taliban; Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur and his ally Maulvi Sadiq Noor.
They are blamed by the United States for fuelling the nearly nine-year insurgency in Afghanistan, for attacking the 142,000 US-led Nato troops there and for working to destabilise the Western-backed government in Kabul.
But they are also men whom the Pakistani security establishment believes pose no direct risk to the homeland because their activities are targeted across the border, while homegrown Taliban pose a more immediate threat.
Opening a new front against the likes of Haqqani and Gul Bahadur would, Pakistani officials believe, make enemies out of well-trained, well-financed groups that are potentially valuable allies when US troops leave Afghanistan.
Given the risks involved and strain on Pakistani troops, with forces actively engaged in six of the seven tribal districts, analysts say fears of a backlash, including attacks on civilians, are holding the army back.
Last year saw a huge surge in attacks in retaliation for military offensives in Swat and South Waziristan, followed this year by a relative decline.
Around 140,000 troops are deployed along the western border, leaving 100,000 in the east, where Pakistan meets India, and commanders are wary of leaving that frontier more exposed.
Part of the tribal belt on the Afghan border, North Waziristan is home to 350,000 people but considered a stronghold for the most dangerous militants in the world and largely impenetrable.
It is also a rumoured hiding place of Osama bin Laden.
Commanders are walking a tightrope, balancing US pressure for action against fears that a major push into the hornet's nest would make enemies they cannot beat and drag Pakistan into a new wave of violence.
As well as the bin Laden connection, North Waziristan's mountains are also a refuge for Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban who escaped an offensive in neighbouring South Waziristan and networks fighting US forces in Afghanistan.
Among those using bases in North Waziristan are the Haqqani network, created by Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani and run by his son Sirajuddin; Afghan Taliban; Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur and his ally Maulvi Sadiq Noor.
They are blamed by the United States for fuelling the nearly nine-year insurgency in Afghanistan, for attacking the 142,000 US-led Nato troops there and for working to destabilise the Western-backed government in Kabul.
But they are also men whom the Pakistani security establishment believes pose no direct risk to the homeland because their activities are targeted across the border, while homegrown Taliban pose a more immediate threat.
Opening a new front against the likes of Haqqani and Gul Bahadur would, Pakistani officials believe, make enemies out of well-trained, well-financed groups that are potentially valuable allies when US troops leave Afghanistan.
Given the risks involved and strain on Pakistani troops, with forces actively engaged in six of the seven tribal districts, analysts say fears of a backlash, including attacks on civilians, are holding the army back.
Last year saw a huge surge in attacks in retaliation for military offensives in Swat and South Waziristan, followed this year by a relative decline.
Around 140,000 troops are deployed along the western border, leaving 100,000 in the east, where Pakistan meets India, and commanders are wary of leaving that frontier more exposed.
No comments:
Post a Comment