Working on successes in Swat

Operation Rah-e-Rast launched in Malakand Division, particularly in Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts last month seems to have been quite successful so far. Important populated areas, roads and strategically significant heights have been cleared from the militants. According to military estimates, most of the second and third tire leadership of the Taliban has been eliminated; those who have been forced to join the militants as well as their lower cadre have started deserting them. Taliban command and control system, supply routs and munitions dumps have been destroyed and their ability to launch concerted attacks has been eliminated.

Supply of civic amenities to the affected areas will soon be started and displaced people will soon be allowed to return. Overall the success of the operation has given confidence to the nation and the gloom that was a galore on the faces of the people after Taliban refusal to keep the promises made during the Swat peace deal and their expansion to Buner, Shangla and Lower Dir has given way to hope of a better future. Still there is a long way to go and over all success of the operation will depend a lot on how the nation works on successes achieved so far.

Militarily, elimination of the second tier of Taliban leadership will make it difficult for Taliban to immediately regroup but for permanent success against militancy it would be important to eliminate their top leadership, importantly Mullah Fazlullah. There are reports that a large number of Taliban militants have fled the fighting and have either joined the IDPs in the camps or gone other cities. They may not be planning any action now but can be called back by the Taliban leadership later on. It is important that these militants are traced in the camps and the cities and neutralized.

Taliban and other militants from Malakand to Waziristan have been successfully following the guerrilla tactics of avoiding pitched battles with the army thus saving their strength. Before the operation their total strength was estimated to be between four to five thousands. According to ISPR, so far around 1300 militants have been killed since the start of the operation. Many of those killed will be from among the new recruits who were forced to join them after the Swat peace deal or after their incursion into Buner, Dir and Shangla and may not be part of initial estimates about Taliban strength in the area.

That means the bulk of Taliban strength is intact and as we have seen in the history of other guerrilla wars they may start hit and run operations against security forces when this initial phase is over. Here the intelligence and administration as well as political and social groups will have to play their role and make sure that militants are not allowed to mix with the local population. As long as the militants are in the jungles and mountains they will be easier to locate and eliminated but it will be difficult when they mix up with the returning population.

Though action taken by people in Upper Dir against the militants recently will help in elimination of militants from the area but such tactics are always double edged weapons and may turn out to be a problem of its own later. It is important that the chapter of private armies, lashkars and forces should be discouraged and closed forever. Only force in the country should be the state force with which general public should only cooperate in arrest and punishment of the criminals.

The military action should not be confined to Malakand alone and should be extended to all those areas where the writ of the state is being challenged. The country as a whole will have to be de-weaponised and all private armies irrespective of their origin or objective will have to be disbanded and if need be eliminated.

Civil administration and police should follow the armed forces in areas cleared by the operation. During last three four years the Taliban militants have been striking at the police force with impunity and as a result they have been able to demoralize and incapacitate the police force. Before the signing of Swat peace deal the members of the police and other provincial law enforcement agencies have been declaring their disassociation from their forces through newspaper advertisement. Signing of the peace deal further eroded the police force from the area.

Now the force will have to be rebuilt. Prime Minister’s decision to recruit for the retired members of armed forces for duties in the police is right in the present circumstance. Middle ranking retired officers from armed forces especially army may also be taken in as to make for any short coming of officers in the Police and other provincial law enforcement agencies.

The civil administration will have to play its role in revitalization of state writ in the area. The Local Government regime enforced by General Musharraf in 2001 has not worked well in the country. In most of the cases the district administration under Nazims has failed to come up to the expectations of the people in especially in demanding law and order situations. A new division of power between the elected representatives headed by the Nazim and district bureaucracy headed by the District Coordination Officer will have to be found not only in Malakand but all over the country so that the district authorities could deal with any situation in a professional manner.

After police the major victim of militants in the Malakand has been the political workers. Malakand division have historically been a happy hunting ground for ANP and PPP with Jammat-e-Islami pockets here and there. With Jammat supporting the militants it was ANP and PPP, especially former, which suffered the most at the hands of the Taliban. Workers and local level leaders of these two parties have proved themselves to be true soldiers of united, liberal, democratic and prosperous Pakistan. However their work is not finished. They will have to lead the people of Malakand division inside the camps as well as in the areas of their residence when they return to their homes. The people will have to be given confidence to stand up to the remaining militants and cooperate with the administration and law enforcement agencies in nabbing the same.

The political workers and local level leadership will also play important role in reconstruction of the region and rehabilitation of the affected people. It will be important that people are given right leadership lest they fall prey to propaganda of those who were responsible for their suffering in the first place.

The fight against militancy since 2003 has proved that militants have always used talks and peace deals as a military tactic to bargain time for regrouping and restoring supplies. In future there should be no talks with these elements. However those laying down their arms and cooperating with the armed forces and government agencies in restoring the writ of the state and nabbing the extremists and militants may be granted amnesty.

After Swat the government agencies responsible for law enforcement or other rules and regulations should understand the importance of proverb which states, “A stitch in time saves nine”. The nation would not have suffered the way it has, the soldiers, policemen, political workers and hundreds others would not have lost their lives and more then three million would not have to leave their homes and hearths had the government agencies taken action when first polio vaccination team was attacked or CD or barber shop bombed or when NGOs were stop from carrying out their work. If we do not learn the lesson to nib the lawlessness and violation of state authority in the bud then we will continue to suffer in the same way as we did in Malakand.


Wajih Abbasi The Post June 12, 2009