In Tribal Pakistan, an Uneasy Quiet
Pact Fails to Deter Backing for Taliban
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept. 27 -- Three weeks after Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, announced a peace pact with Taliban radicals in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, recent visitors say there is now pin-drop silence in a territory that once shook with artillery and bomb blasts. Religious patrols are enforcing law and order, they say, in place of Pakistan army troops who have withdrawn to their barracks.
But as the toll from violence rises across the border in Afghanistan, with suicide bombings killing 22 people in three cities this week, there are reports that militant Pakistani tribal leaders, while complying with their pledge to reduce the presence of foreign Islamic fighters, intend to defy the peace pact by sending local fighters and suicide bombers into Afghanistan.
Musharraf continues to deny Afghan charges that the Pakistani government is sheltering and encouraging the revived Taliban insurgency from the tribal zones. But people interviewed in northwest Pakistan said there is widespread support in the tribal region for the Taliban movement's harsh Islamic morality and its war against U.S. forces and their allies in Afghanistan.
The tribal zones are a cluster of seven remote and rugged border districts where Pakistan's central government has never exerted more than nominal control. AK-47 assault rifles are common household possessions. Most of the people are Pashtun, the same ethnic group that dominates neighboring southern Afghanistan and that gave rise to the Taliban movement in the 1990s. Many Pashtun don't recognize the Pakistan-Afghan border, crossing it at will in both directions.
Under terms of the Sept. 5 agreement, Musharraf pledged to withdraw troops who had been attacking armed Islamic groups in the tribal area. In return, the fighters agreed to stop attacks on both sides of the border and expel foreign fighters unless they take up a peaceful life.
(There's more, here.)
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept. 27 -- Three weeks after Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, announced a peace pact with Taliban radicals in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, recent visitors say there is now pin-drop silence in a territory that once shook with artillery and bomb blasts. Religious patrols are enforcing law and order, they say, in place of Pakistan army troops who have withdrawn to their barracks.
But as the toll from violence rises across the border in Afghanistan, with suicide bombings killing 22 people in three cities this week, there are reports that militant Pakistani tribal leaders, while complying with their pledge to reduce the presence of foreign Islamic fighters, intend to defy the peace pact by sending local fighters and suicide bombers into Afghanistan.
Musharraf continues to deny Afghan charges that the Pakistani government is sheltering and encouraging the revived Taliban insurgency from the tribal zones. But people interviewed in northwest Pakistan said there is widespread support in the tribal region for the Taliban movement's harsh Islamic morality and its war against U.S. forces and their allies in Afghanistan.
The tribal zones are a cluster of seven remote and rugged border districts where Pakistan's central government has never exerted more than nominal control. AK-47 assault rifles are common household possessions. Most of the people are Pashtun, the same ethnic group that dominates neighboring southern Afghanistan and that gave rise to the Taliban movement in the 1990s. Many Pashtun don't recognize the Pakistan-Afghan border, crossing it at will in both directions.
Under terms of the Sept. 5 agreement, Musharraf pledged to withdraw troops who had been attacking armed Islamic groups in the tribal area. In return, the fighters agreed to stop attacks on both sides of the border and expel foreign fighters unless they take up a peaceful life.
(There's more, here.)
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