Opinion - Editorials   

Pakhtoons and Talibanisation

With key tribal leaders refusing to attend a jirga jointly organised by the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, this attempt to contain the Taliban through political means may not go very far. For the moment the military option appears to be the only feasible one. The kidnapping of 23 Korean aid workers from the Kabul-Kandahar highway on July 19 demonstrated that the Islamists have the ability to strike in areas patrolled regularly by troops of the international secur ity force and the newly raised national army. The situation in southern Afghanistan, especially its rural areas, is even worse. The soldiers, foreign as well as Afghan, fighting for the regime in Kabul have not been able to establish control long enough for reconstruction work to begin. The militants have access to ample resources for buying new weaponry; they have a nexus with narcotics traders and this year’s opium harvest has been plentiful. Viewed against this grim background, the progress made by British troops in Helmand is not insignificant. They appear to be succeeding in their strategy of ‘spreading inkblots’ in which they first neutralise separate pockets and then clear the areas lying in between. However, the pacification drive can gather pace only if contingents from other NATO countries follow a similar plan. The United Kingdom is reportedly set to redirect the thrust of its military efforts away from Iraq and to enhance its reconstruction assistance to the Kabul government.

The claim is that in Helmand the British contingent was able to prevent the Taliban from recruiting new fighters. Assuming that the claim is well founded and that this limited success can be replicated elsewhere, NATO will still have to contend with the hardcore Islamists who have found shelter on the Pakistan side of the Durand Line. The truce that Islamabad struck with clan chieftains in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has collapsed and the militants have been able to fight the Pakistani army to a standstill. The Musharraf regime is under pressure from the United States to step up the drive against the Taliban in FATA, but ground operations will involve big risks. The tribes are extremely agitated by the presence of government troops in their lands. There are also indications that Pakhtoon nationalism is on the rise in Pakistan as well as in ‘unpacified’ parts of Afghanistan. In contrast to its earlier secular manifestations, this new nationalist spirit has a strong religious streak. As the scholarly journalist, Selig Harrison, points out in a recent article, Kabul and Islamabad might soon have to contend with an Islamist Pakhtoon nationalism.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Pakhtoons and Talibanisation
Avoiding toxin shock
The nuclear agreement and Parliament
“For nuclear renaissance, the world needs India”
Crisis blows over for now
Corrections and clarifications
OBC law
Decade of discontent
Mumbai blasts verdict
On Partition

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu