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Pakistan
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Baitullah: Dead or alive, his battle rages
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and United States officials are scrambling to verify
reports that Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, head of the
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was killed in a US Predator drone attack in
the South Waziristan tribal area on Wednesday.
"Our assertion is that Baitullah Mehsud is dead, based on the intelligence
inputs provided to us. However, we will go for ground verification to 200%
confirm that he has been killed in the air
strike," Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday.
The TTP was reported by some news channels as confirming the death of Baitullah
and his second wife in the August 5 drone strike. According to these reports,
the TTP said Baitullah's funeral had already been held and that his successor
would be named on Friday.
A Mehsud jirga (council) meeting in the capital Islamabad has not
commented on the reports, but Baitullah's biggest rival in South Waziristan,
Haji Turkestan Bhitni, says Baitullah, who has a US$5 million bounty on his
head, is dead.
Baitullah, in his mid-thirties, has been linked to a series of attacks in
Pakistan, including the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto on
December 27, 2007.
If Baitullah is dead, it would be a massive blow to the Taliban as he has been
a major binding force between al-Qaeda, Pakistani militants, tribal militants
and the Afghan Taliban, especially in Helmand province.
The Taliban would be hard-pressed to find a replacement for him as he was the
perfect successor in a long line of Taliban chiefs. These include Nek Mohammad
(killed in an air strike by American forces in South Waziristan in June 2004)
and Abdullah Mehsud (killed in a shootout with security forces in Pakistan's
southwestern Balochistan province in June 2005).
Over the past few years, the small, diabetic yet hugely charismatic Baitullah
has established himself and his TTP, a militant umbrella group primarily in
conflict with the central government, in South Waziristan and beyond. Many view
him as a bigger threat than al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
After the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan following the US invasion in
late 2001, all of the powerful Arab commanders who had been in the country made
for South Waziristan just across the border. They immediately set about using
their money and ideology to rear a new generation of ideological allies. It
took a few years to achieve this, but the results were obvious, from Nek
Mohammad to Abdullah Mehsud to Baitullah Mehsud.
Baitullah began as a poor foot soldier in the Taliban's rag-tag army in
Afghanistan. He is the son of a minor cleric but dropped out of a madrassa
(Islamic seminary).
Arabs such as the head of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Khalid Habib, and al-Qaeda's
best trainer, Abu Laith al-Libbi, took the ambitious Baitullah under their
wing, showering him with off-road vehicles and loads of weapons. And
importantly, Qari Tahir Yuldashev, the chief of the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan, placed his 2,500 hardened fighters at Baitullah's discretion.
Baitullah lived with the Uzbek, who became his biggest ideological inspiration.
A military crackdown against Pakistani jihadi outfits after the 2002 failed
assassination attempt on then-president General Pervez Musharraf caused an
exodus of militants to the tribal areas. Prominent among them were leading
jihadi Qari Zafar and veteran Kashmiri guerrilla commander Ilyas Kashmiri.
They were all given protection by Baitullah, along with famed Taliban commander
Mullah Dadullah, and Baitullah was on his way to becoming one of the most
influential people in the region.
By 2007, Baitullah was sending hundreds of groups of men a year into Helmand,
making him the number one contributor in fueling the Taliban-led insurgency
against foreign forces in southwestern Afghanistan. He also provided suicide
bombers for al-Qaeda's missions in Pakistan and generated funds by using his
tribal bandits.
If Baitullah is dead, his successor would inherit a far bigger empire than the
one Baitullah took over as Pakistani Taliban chief. The new man would also face
the likelihood of a showdown against the Pakistani military, which in recent
months has been preparing for an offensive in South Waziristan, as well as
arming Baitullah's rival tribal militias.
The present United States Central Command chief, General David Petraeus, came
up with the idea of arming tribal militias and using them against foreign
al-Qaeda elements in Iraq in 2007. That Iraqi experience sparked the
imagination of the seasoned British ambassador in Kabul in 2007, Sir Sherard
Cowper-Coles, and he tried the same idea with arbakai - volunteers who
answer the call of their tribal elders to protect their villages. It failed.
Similarly, the Pakistani security apparatus has begun arming militias to defeat
the Taliban. However, they have fatefully pitched one tribe against the other
and instead of a Taliban defeat, the specter of inter-tribal war looms.
In the event of Baitullah's killing, tribal rival Haji Turkestan Bhitni would
be the immediate beneficiary; the Taliban and al-Qaeda will carry on as before.
A capital gathering
For the past five days, members of the Mehsud tribe have gathered in Islamabad
to develop a consensus on a joint strategy for peace in the restive tribal
areas. They aim to meet with top military officials and the prime minister in
an attempt to persuade them that their current approach is wrong, whether
Baitullah is dead or alive.
Members at the jirga include a former member of parliament, an incumbent
member of the senate, tribal elders, traders and businessmen now living as
diaspora across the country.
Haji Mohammad Khan Mehsud is the son of Nawaz Khan Mehsud, who was killed by
militants in 2004 (before Baitullah's emergence) as part of their campaign to
reduce the influence of tribal elders. His native town is Makeen in South
Waziristan, also the home of Baitullah. He spoke to Asia Times Online.
"We are not with Baitullah Mehsud and we do not support him. We do not
understand this military operation which targets everybody except the real
target," Haji Mohammad Khan said in anguish.
"Haji Turkestan Bhitni comes from our area [South Waziristan]. He is the new
guide for the military in the region, like Baitullah used to be. Now
Turkestan's people are settling their scores against every Mehsud. They lead
the military to any home of the Mehsud people, in Tank and in Dera Ismail Khan,
and then raids are conducted.
"We have told military officials many times that had we been with Baitullah, we
would not be living as refugees in different cities. But the officials do not
take heed of our requests. Target[ed] killings of our young boys is another
element in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank by the Bhitni tribe, which is armed by the
Pakistan army. I ask the authorities, who benefits from this policy? Of course,
our disillusioned boys will join Baitullah," Haji Mohammad Khan said.
The Pakistan army has beefed up its presence all around North Waziristan and
South Waziristan and the cities adjacent to the tribal areas. A ground
operation has been pending for several weeks, although the Pakistani
Inter-Services Public Relations denies any plans for action in the near future
in South Waziristan. The Pakistan army would face extremely difficult terrain
there and very hostile Taliban factions which have unexpectedly set aside
tribal differences and feuds to present a united front.
In response to this the army has begun arming militias to pitch them against
the Mehsud tribe, headed by Baitullah, who has broken the tribal system and
turned it into a virtual militant gang which generates money through robberies
and kidnappings all over Pakistan, in addition to suicide attacks.
Recently, the Pakistani security forces carried out an extra-judicial killing
of five Mehsud tribesmen and their bodies were sent to South Waziristan with a
message to Baitullah that the "more you defy us, the more you will collect the
bodies of your tribal men". (See
Pakistan wields a double-edged sword Asia Times Online, July 18, 2009.)
Such deeds would never frighten Baitullah, and he quickly exterminates anyone
who stands up against him - most recently, Qari Zainuddin Mehsud was
assassinated.
Asia Times Online asked engineer-turned-industrialist Haji Mannan Mehsud why
the Mehsud tribe had not taken internal action against Baitullah Mehsud's
group.
"Because the government has puzzling policies and they did not support us,"
said Haji Mannan, who in 1995 invested 40 million rupees (US$1 million then) in
South Waziristan to establish a clarified butter plant. In 2008, the factory
was demolished by the army on the pretext of security arrangements. He was not
yet been compensated.
Haji Mannan continued, "Before 1999, there was no army to safeguard the
borders. It was not required. The tribes were the vanguard of the Pakistani
border regions. When in 2000-01 the army came to our areas, the tribesmen
actually assisted them and provided them all the logistics [they needed].
Baitullah Mehsud was also their guide, even after 9/11.
"Now the situation has changed and he is accused of being an American agent or
an Indian agent. At no time were the tribal elders consulted regarding
Baitullah Mehsud, and now our government is arming rival tribes and helping
with the massacre of Mehsud's [tribe], whether they are with Baitullah or not,"
Haji Mannan said.
Commenting on the jirga, Senator Saleh Shah told Asia Times Online that
nothing had yet been decided and that once it was, the media would be told.
Soon, too, it will emerge whether or not Baitullah Mehsud has been struck down
by a predator missile; if he has, a new chapter will open in the troubled
tribal regions of Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan. Baitullah's
legacy, though, would ensure that the Pakistani Taliban and their al-Qaeda
allies continued his battles.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can
be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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