This article, by Iqbal Khattak, was published in the Daily Times (Pakistan), Februuary 24, 2009
PESHAWAR: The US and NATO should seal off Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan along Bajaur to clear the region of what remains of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, a top Pakistani general recommended on Monday.
“Our recommendation to them [the coalition forces and Afghanistan] is that while we are doing manoeuvres, please seal off the border,” Frontier Corps (FC) Inspector General Maj Gen Tariq Khan told Daily Times in interview. He said, “Foreign militants’ movement from Afghanistan does continue.”
The call for sealing off the Afghan border in Bajaur comes at a time when the second phase of 'Operation Sherdil' is in progress, following an interruption caused by tensions with India on the eastern border in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.
Foreigners: “The Taliban we are fighting now include only a few locals … most of them are foreigners coming from across the border. They are Arabic-speaking. We have picked up some Sudanese and (other) people who are different, not the same,” said Tariq while commenting on infiltrations from Afghanistan.
“I have been around here now for years, and the only thing I see is people coming from the other side. We have a mass movement of people coming here [from Afghanistan]. This issue has been taken up at the highest level.”
Liaison: The FC chief acknowledged close liaison with NATO forces in Afghanistan, and said interaction between the two sides was ‘improving’ amid US claims that Pakistan was ‘playing a double game’.
Tariq said tensions on the eastern border with India “affected the operation [in Bajaur] very much, and that is why we are a bit late in finishing it … because of the situation on the eastern border, some [military] assets were moved away [from the tribal area]”.
Success: He said that by the “middle of next month (March), we should secure Bajaur valley, where the paramilitary and army have so far lost 84 troops and officers and killed some 1,800-plus foreign and local militants since September 8 last year”.
Tariq said the Swat Taliban would not leave the valley and come to Bajaur, after a peace deal, as “they have stakes in Swat”.
The senior military commander proposed that a political process be launched only when the Taliban had been flushed from Bajaur. “We are better focused in Bajaur now. My suggestion is let us finish them off.”
He said internally-displaced persons from Bajaur were returning under a “controlled environment, and they are registered to have an impact on lines of communication, protection and security of the area”.
During another interview with the Reuters news agency at the Frontier Corp's headquarters in Peshawar’s historic Balahisar Fort, Tariq received word that his forces had taken the strategically important village of Barchina.
“It means that Charmang is now in our hands,” he said, referring to one of the remaining valleys leading to eastern Afghanistan.
He told Reuters that he was forced to carry out an offensive in neighbouring Mohmand Agency after the Taliban launched a major attack on his forces there last month.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that 70 American military advisers were in Pakistan training the army and paramilitary forces, but Tariq denied this, complaining at the inadequacy of US support.
“Are Americans giving us any lethal assistance? Do we get any rocket launchers or bombs or aircraft (from them)? We are getting nothing actually,” he said.
“What we are getting are bullet-proof jackets, helmets, water bottles ... medication, surveillance equipment and communication equipment,” he added.
Comments