Nov 8, '13
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
KARACHI - Hardline Swat Valley Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah has been chosen as the new chief of the Pakistani Taliban in a shura (council) meeting held on Thursday in Pakistan's northwestern tribal area.
Fazlullah's appointment, a week after former chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan, comes as a fatal blow to Islamabad's efforts to engage the militant group in peace talks. The Pakistani Taliban, also know as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), rejected dialogue with the Pakistani government, stating that Mullah Fazlullah is against negotiations.
"Fazlullah is the new TTP chief," AFP quoted TTP caretaker leader Asmatullah Shaheen as saying at a press conference at an undisclosed location in northwest Pakistan. "The decision was
taken at a shura (council) meeting today. The supreme shura has also elected Sheikh Khalid Haqqani as the deputy chief of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan."
Fazlullah established and led the Taliban's brutal rule in 2007 in northwestern Swat Valley until 2009, when the country's armed forces launched a military operation and established the writ of Pakistani state in Swat. He is considered hardline even within the TTP. Under his short sway, he made fiery radio broadcasts in the valley, where he is known as Mullah Radio. His appointment damps prospects for peace, a key part of the agenda of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party won victory in May 11 general elections.
Fazlullah fled to Afghanistan in 2009 and is now believed to operate from Nuristan province. He was the mastermind in orchestrating the attack on teenage schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai last year in Swat. Malala raised the voice for the oppressed girls, who had been deprived of their right to education in Swat. Fazlillah is also believed to have been involved in the high-profile killing of Major General (retd) Sanaullah Khan Niazi, a military commander in Swat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The army commander was killed in a bomb blast on September 15.
Following the appointment of Fazlullah as their new chief, Pakistani Taliban immediately moved to remove the option of peace talks with the Pakistan government from the table.
"There will be no more talks as Mullah Fazlullah is already against negotiations with the Pakistan government," Reuters reported TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid as saying.
The TTP vowed continue its fight till the establishment of Shariah (Islamic law) in Pakistan. The militant group alleged that the Pakistani government had a deal with the US and had staged a drama of talks to make the Americans happy rather than wanting to negotiate with the TTP.
"Peace talks with the government are not possible as Pakistan is not an authority and is under US slavery," The Express Tribune reported TTP's acting Chief Asmatullah Shaheen as saying. "Everyone will know when we will avenge the death of Hakimullah Mehsud."
Critics however say that how a drone attack on Taliban could sabotage peace talks, which were even not derailed by repeated militant attacks on civilian and military targets during the process of talks for peace talks with Taliban in recent months.
Pakistan's political and military leadership unanimously decided to initiate peace talks with Pakistani Taliban at an All Parties Conference (APC) held on September 9 in Islamabad. The APC was chaired by Prime Minister Sharif and attended by army and intelligence chiefs. The TTP in response to the government offer of peace talks had demanded a troop withdrawal from tribal areas and the release of 4,752 prisoners.
The killing of Mehsud in drone strike last week came as government representatives prepared to meet the TTP with a view to opening peace talks. It triggered furious reaction from Islamabad, with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar accusing Washington of sabotaging peace efforts.
Dawn newspaper commented in an editorial,
The only thing that is clear since last weekend's drone strike is that Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead and that the political class wants the public to believe that his killing has dealt a major blow to the talks process. Beyond that, nothing is clear. Even Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan's claim that a three-member delegation was set to travel to the tribal areas the day Mehsud was killed remains unsubstantiated - and there is some reason to be sceptical of it. The problem is the government appears unwilling or unable to address any of the obvious problems with its dialogue strategy. Start with the obvious.Some political observers believe that appointment of Fazlullah as TTP's chief and Taliban's rejection of peace talks with the government should be an eye opener for those supporting dialogue with the insurgents, who are at war with Pakistani state and responsible for killing of thousands of Pakistani civilians and army personnel.
The killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud could not have in and of itself ended the possibility of dialogue, as the government appeared to suggest in the aftermath of the drone strike. For if the TTP can continue its attacks going into peace talks - set aside the attacks whose provenance is for whatever reasons disputed and that still leaves the killing of an army general in Upper Dir that was explicitly and in video evidence claimed by a branch of the TTP - then why does an attack on the TTP necessarily scuttle peace talks?
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), the ruling party in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this week announced a plan to block NATO supply lines from November 20 in a retaliatory move to the killing of Mehsud on November 1. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly unanimously approved a resolution setting a 15-day deadline for the federal government to halt drone strikes before US and NATO military supply lines to and from Afghanistan would be unilaterally blocked through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The PTI has also demanded the government of shooting down the drones if the US continues to violate Pakistan's sovereignty.
Some leaders of mainstream Islamist parties like Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Jamiat-i-Ulma-e-Islam (JUI-F), which is led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, even declared TTP's former slain chief Hakimullah Mehsud, as a "martyr".
"Those killed in the recent drone attack are martyrs as they were eliminated when they were in the process of dialogue for permanent peace in Pakistan. America is following its own agenda without paying heed to the national interests of our country and the drone strike to sabotage the dialogue between the government and Taliban is an eye opener for the so-called patriots," Dawn reported Khyber Pakhtunkhwa JI chief Prof Mohammad Ibrahim as saying.
Syed Fazl-e-Haider ( www.syedfazlehaider.com ) is a development analyst in Pakistan. He is the author of many books, including The Economic Development of Balochistan, published in May 2004. E-mail, sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2013 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishin
__._,_.___
| Reply via web post | Reply to sender | Reply to group | Start a New Topic | Messages in this topic (1) |
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/batavia-news
to Subscribe via email :
batavia-news-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------
VISIT Batavia News Blog
http://batavia-news-networks.blogspot.com/
----------------------------
You could be Earning Instant Cash Deposits
in the Next 30 Minutes
No harm to try - Please Click
http://tinyurl.com/bimagroup
--------------
to Subscribe via email :
batavia-news-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------
VISIT Batavia News Blog
http://batavia-news-networks.blogspot.com/
----------------------------
You could be Earning Instant Cash Deposits
in the Next 30 Minutes
No harm to try - Please Click
http://tinyurl.com/bimagroup
--------------
.
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment