Taliban widow makers demand widows

Times:

It was the Taleban’s demand to take the women they had widowed that was the last straw for the residents of Upper Dir.

When the militants arrived in their mountainous corner of northwestern Pakistan in February the locals cautiously welcomed them, thinking they were waging jihad against foreign troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Some even joined them, attracted by the five or six pounds a day they paid. Over the next three months, however, Upper Dir’s residents were increasingly angered by the Taleban’s criminal activities and disrespect for local customs, according to residents and Pakistani officials.

In early June elders asked them to leave the five villages they had occupied. The Taleban responded on June 5 with a suicide attack on a local mosque that killed 39 people. The next day they told the elders to give them the women who had been widowed in the attack.

Instead, the elders summoned men from 30 surrounding villages, told them to fetch their weapons (many men in the region own a gun), and launched a “lashkar” — or tribal militia — of more than 1,000 people to drive out the Taleban.

They shot dead the local Taleban leader — who went by the name of Champo — burnt several more to death in the houses that they had occupied, and surrounded the remaining 150 in a mountainside village, where they were still under siege yesterday.

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Even General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, has noted its significance.

“For the first time you see the people rising up against them even in the tribal areas with these tribal lashkar standing up against the Taleban,” he said in a recent speech.

Major-General Athar Abbas, Pakistan’s army spokesman, said that lashkars were key to the success of the army’s continuing operations in the northwest. “In the past we didn’t give them enough support but now we recognise their importance,” he said.

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In the tribal region of South Waziristan, meanwhile, the army has enlisted the help of two local rivals to Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taleban in Pakistan.

One is Qari Zainuddin, a rival leader of the Mehsud tribe, who claims to command about 3,000 men.

The other is Turkistan Bhittani, a former member of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, who is believed to command about 300 men from the Bhittani tribe.

Some critics fear that these lashkars could become part of the problem if the army starts to supply them with weapons and ammunition: Mr Zainuddin and Mr Turkistan remain committed to the jihad in Afghanistan.

Others worry that the army could use the lashkars as an excuse not to enter certain areas at all — particularly in South Waziristan. “I think their importance is somewhat exaggerated,” said retired brigadier Mahmood Shah, a former secretary of Fata.

“I feel these people could be force multipliers but not really a force replacement. There must be a deliberate operation against Baitullah Mehsud.” For the moment, however, the lashkars represent the best hope yet that the Taleban is losing its grip on some corners of Pakistan’s northwest.

This story sounds a little like the Anbar Awakening that began when al Qaeda demanded the tribes provide thew with wives. In this case it appears the Taliban threw in an extra dose of chutzpah. They have clearly alienated the local population and are suffering the consequences.

The Pakistan army would be wise to follow the advice of Gen. Petraeus in dealing with these guys.