Pakistan’s troubled western border region – the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) has been the focus of much attention for the last several years. Historically it has been a sort of badlands always just marginally under control with fiercely independent tribesmen living under their own customs and laws. When the former USSR carried out a disastrous intervention in Afghanistan the cold war rivalry made FATA the home base for the US funded jihad against the USSR and their Afghan supporters. Fighters from all over the Muslim world arrived in FATA to join the struggle against the invader under the banner of a seven party alliance headquartered in Pakistan’s FATA. Afghan refugees fleeing the war were welcomed as guests. After the USSR withdrew and the warlords started a civil war the Taliban emerged from the Pashtun south as saviors of the oppressed. Aided and abetted by the Pakistani Pashtuns and the jihadists in FATA as well as Pakistani intelligence agencies they struggled against the Northern Alliance for supremacy. Sensing a favorable environment the Arab leadership of Al Qaeda came as guests of the Taliban ostensibly to support their struggle but actually for a wider world wide struggle. 9/11 brought the US decisively against terrorism with Iraq as a temporary distraction. In this maelstrom FATA based militants came out against the Pakistani state with an agenda that at first was limited to FATA but later, after linkages with radical Islamists within Pakistan, extended their ambition to the whole country. As recently stated by Pakistan’s Army Chief the Pakistan military had no option but to confront them after all peace accords failed.
No comments:
Post a Comment