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AFGHANISTAN: Karzai’s Threat Of War Triggers Outrage in Pakistan
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Jun 20 (IPS) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s threat to send troops across the border to
crush pro-Taliban forces, which sparked angry protests in Pakistan’s border
areas this week, has led to calls for restraint from moderate politicians in the
North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
"Pakhtun blood is being shed on both sides of the border," observed Afrasiab
Khattak, president of the NWFP’s ruling Awami National Party (ANP).
Describing the situation as "extremely alarming", Khattak blamed "foreign
powers" for turning the region into a battlefield. Violence has escalated in
Pakistan’s tribal areas along its border with Afghanistan since the U.S.
unleashed its so-called war on terror in the wake of the World Trade Centre
bombings in September 2001.
Remnants of Afghanistan’s Taliban, which were ousted from Kabul by U.S.-
led foreign troops, are believed to have taken shelter in remote tribal villages
across the porous border with Pakistan.
On Monday, restive Bajaur and Mohamand agencies were brought to a halt by
anti-Karzai protests. Shops were shut down and hundreds of people blocked
the roads. Nisar Ahmed Mohmand, chief of the Mohmand Resistance
Movement who led the protests warned that in case of a war, Pakhtuns (or
Pashtuns) in both countries would die.
Khattak, who is a former chairman of the independent Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), has appealed for peace and said bloodshed
was no option. Other means of curbing militancy and violence have to be
found, he said in an interview with IPS.
Khattak’s party, which swept to power this year in the NWFP, ousting an
alliance of Islamic parties, has been holding peace talks with pro-Taliban
fighters. On May 21, after several rounds of negotiations, the provincial
government brokered a peace deal in Swat and Malakand, NWFP, with a
radical Taliban faction.
Karzai had attacked Pakistan for failing to take military action against the
Taliban who last week audaciously blew up the main gate of a jail in
Afghanistan’s second largest city, Kandahar. More than 900 prisoners -
including hundreds of militants - are thought to have escaped.
"Karzai’s statement has the support of the United States, which has often said
the cross-border raids from Pakistan were a growing problem. Secondly, he
is desperate to please the U.S., and secure the presidency of his war-battered
country for a second term," observed Ashraf Ali, a Peshawar University
researcher who is an authority on the Taliban.
Public reaction in Pakistan has generally been one of annoyance. The Afghan
president who has often accused Islamabad of not doing enough to flush out
militants from its border areas, has never threatened military action before.
"We have been hosting millions of Afghans on our soil. They have been using
our resources for three decades now. Karzai himself had lived in Pakistan for
over 25 years," said Israrullah, a trader in the Peshawar Cantonment area.
The ruling nationalist ANP has offered to help reduce tensions between the
two countries.
Kamran Arif, member of the executive committee of the HRCP, said a
negotiated settlement could prevent further loss of blood. "There are
international laws that should be applied to resolve problems," he added.
"I am amazed at Islamabad’s reluctance to arrest Taliban leader Baitullah
Mahsud, which it accused of assassinating Benazir Bhutto," Karzai told a
group of visiting Pakistani journalists in Kabul on Jun. 16. "More ironic, were
the peace deals between the Baitullah-led Pakistani Taliban and the
government," he added.
Reaction from Mahsud’s Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was swift.
Spokesman Maulvi Umar condemned Karzai’s threat and warned that if
foreign forces entered the tribal area, the Taliban would increase the attacks
against NATO and Afghan National Army.
"President Karzai had created more difficulties for himself by threatening to
send allied troops after militants in the tribal areas. We don’t care for the
threats," Umar told IPS over the phone from an undisclosed location.
He said the Afghan president should first figure out how much of
Afghanistan he controls before he issues threats of this kind. According to
him, the Karzai government was running scared of the growing clout of the
Taliban. The U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan were facing a shameful defeat,
Umar warned.
"Thousands of followers of the Taliban movement would defend the country’s
frontiers if the Afghan National Army indulged in any misadventure in
[Pakistan’s] tribal region," he warned.
Both Kabul and Islamabad have amassed troops on either side of the 2,500
km border but neither has been able to check militancy.
"The situation is very strange. Previously, the attacks were carried out
clandestinely, but now Taliban leaders have come out in the open. Baitullah
Mahsud has chapters in every troubled area of Pakistan," researcher Ali
commented.
(END/2008)
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