Pakistan 's anti-terror 'farce' gives break to militants

Christian Science Monitor via Chicago Sun Times ^ | May 3, 2004 | Gretchen Peters

[Qaz_W]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Suspected al-Qaida and Taliban militants hiding out in this country's tribal belt have ignored an April 30 deadline for foreigners to lay down their arms.

Pakistani authorities this weekend extended the amnesty offer a week, expressing hope that it would convince the militants to live in harmony with the federal government, and to stop attacking U.S. troops over the Afghan border.

''This has been a farce from the start,'' says Ahmed Rashid, author of The Taliban. ''I think it won't be long before we see some action from the Americans on this.''

Diplomats and analysts say the recent events represent a setback to the hunt for top al-Qaida leaders. Pointing to the spurned amnesty offer, many doubt the government's peace option has a serious chance and view it as a way to postpone a difficult offensive.

''These are the same hardened terrorists who won round one in March,'' says one foreign diplomat. ''Why on earth would they give up now?''

Many believe al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is hiding in the tribal area along the border, and the United States urged Pakistan to crack down in the lawless region.

Pakistan responded in March, but its military got badly bruised when a mission to capture or kill an estimated 400 extremists in South Waziristan left more than 100 soldiers and civilians dead, and failed to capture any al-Qaida.

Pakistani authorities then convinced tribal chieftains in South Waziristan to form a tribal army to hunt down the militants themselves. However, they failed to do so.

Finally, last week, a top commander of the Northwest Frontier Province, Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, traveled to South Waziristan to meet local militants who support the foreign fighters, telling a cheering crowd that, ''the impression this is the den of terrorists has been proven wrong.''

It was an ironic statement, given that video footage of the meeting shows one of the militants, Naik Mohammad, arriving with his Uzbek bodyguard. Local sources in South Waziristan say the Islamic Movement for Uzbekistan, an extremist group closely allied to al-Qaida and to Mohammed, organized his security for the event.

''We have neither surrendered nor laid down our arms,'' said another militant, Maulvi Abbass. ''I have been with the Taliban from beginning to end.''

Meanwhile, U.S. airstrikes killed four alleged militants in eastern Afghanistan, but local officials said Sunday the victims were policemen killed by mistake.

[Qaz_W]

Hardly surprising.

[NeonKnight]

Pakistan looks foolish. I would guess that the US gave Mush an option, "You take care of the problem, or we will." Mush agreed to resolve the issue, but then failed to do so. Perhaps we will have to take up the hunt in W. Pak ourselves.

[elli1]

Pakistan responded in March, but its military got badly bruised when a mission to capture or kill an estimated 400 extremists in South Waziristan left more than 100 soldiers and civilians dead, and failed to capture any al-Qaida.

So they didn't ''capture'' any AQ, but would the author mind reporting approximately how many bad guys that the Paki's managed to kill?