PASHTUN UNREST IN THE PAKISTANI SECURITY FORCES
B.RAMAN

(To be read in continuation of the earlier article titled "The Omens From South Waziristan" )

1. Contradictory and contentious statements have been coming from Pakistani Governmental circles in Islamabad, US Army spokesmen in Afghanistan and officials of the Bush Administration in Washington DC. in the wake of the clash between a US Army patrol in Afghan territory and some men of the Waziristan Scouts, a para-military unit of Pakistan, on December 29,2002.

2. The first contention relates to the location of the madrassa-mosque complex at a place called Angoor Adda in the South Waziristan Agency of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, run by Maulana Muhammad Hassan, of the Taliban, which was bombed by the US forces following an exchange of fire with the men of the Waziristan Scouts.While US Army spokesmen in Afghanistan continue to insist that this complex, which they describe as a structure, is located in Afghan territory, Pakistani officials, including Maj.Gen.Rashid Qureshi, the spokesman of Gen.Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military dictator,after initially saying that it was located in Afghan territory, are now insisting that it is in Pakistani territory.

3. According to well-informed sources, after the fall of the Najibullah Government in Kabul in April,1992, and the installation of a pro-Pakistan Government by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistan Government had extended its administration in the FATA to some of the bordering Afghan territory and incorporated it into Pakistani territory.The Angoor Adda area belonged to Afghanistan till April,1992, and was illegally annexed by Pakistan thereafter. By claiming that the bombed area was in Afghan territory, the US has sent a clear message to Islamabad that Washington DC and the Hamid Karzai Government in Kabul do not recognise this illegal annexation and that the position as before April, 1992, should be restored. It is, however, unlikely that Pakistan would give up its control of this territory.

4. The second contention relates to the right of hot pursuit. While US Army spokesmen in Afghanistan have strongly insisted on their right of hot pursuit into Pakistani territory if fired upon from there, political and military leaders in Pakistan have equally strongly asserted that the US Army patrols have no such right. Here again, it would seem that US spokesmen have been speaking of their right of hot pursuit into territory controlled de facto by Pakistan, but not belonging to it de jure. In their perception, since the USA, as the leader of the international coalition, has been permitted by the UN and the Karzai Government to operate in any part of the Afghan territory, they have a right to operate in areas legally belonging to Afghanistan, but illegally occupied by Pakistan.

5. The very strong words used by the US Army spokesmen In Afghanistan reflect their frustration because of their inability to stop the hit-and-run raids and the clandestine anti-US radio broadcasts from the territory under Pakistani control due to lack of co-operation from the Pakistani side. It has to be underlined that while the statements emanating from US Army circles in Afghanistan are couched in blunt language, those from Washington DC have been moderate and try to project the entire contention as due to a misunderstanding, which is being removed.

6. The non-co-operation from the Pakistani side is largely due to the fact that para-military units such as the Waziristan Scouts consist largely of Pashtuns, whose sympathies are with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and with the fundamentalist coalition called the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which has come to power in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) on an anti-US and pro-Taliban and pro-bin Laden platform. Even if the Army led by Musharraf wants to co-operate with the US, it would find it difficult to make the Pashtuns of the para-military forces carry out its orders. The Army itself has a large number of Pashtuns who feel angered over the US action against the Taliban.

7. It is learnt that many of the Pashtuns of the Waziristan Scouts observed fast on January 2,2003, in protest over the alleged killing of two of their colleagues by the US Army patrol and over the arrest of another colleague by the Pakistan Army at the instance of the Americans. That night, there was a severe exchange of fire when the Pakistan Army tried to disarm and arrest some members of the Waziristan Scouts, who were shouting anti-US slogans and instigating their colleagues to join them in their anti-US protests. (5-1-03)

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical studies, Chennai. E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).