Share this story!            

‘Taliban good at posturing, poor at resisting’

* Military says level of resistance not what was expected
* Top TTP leadership believed to be on the run, taking shelter in Orakzai, Kurram agencies
* Mehsud journalist says Taliban retreat from Kotkai could be part of strategy

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: The Taliban are putting up no “extraordinary resistance” in South Waziristan, where a military operation was recently launched – with the top leadership of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan believed to be on the move to safer places, officials said on Tuesday.

The inhospitable mountainous terrain and the Mehsuds’ fighting ability were expected to make South Waziristan a tough challenge for the army, which knew it would be up against a daunting task to establish the writ of the state in the area.

“No doubt, there is resistance. But it has not been the way we believed it would be ... it is not of the level [of resistance we were expecting],” military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told Daily Times.

And the fall of Kotkai – the hometown of TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud and trainer of suicide bombers Qari Hussain – on the eighth day of the operation is an apparent testimony to the lower-than-expected level of resistance.

The military is now advancing towards Sararogha, and the battle for this town is likely to determine the level of resistance troops would face if a march on the TTP headquarters – Makeen – begins.

“The top leadership and hardened militants appear to be moving out of areas where fighting is in progress, and we suspect they may have gone to Kurram and Orakzai,” federal government officials and a provincial minister told Daily Times.

From Kurram and Orakzai, the minister and officials said the TTP leadership and their followers could go to Tirah valley – a place likely to provide them shelter better than any other area.

However, the military is using fighter jets to pound areas where officials believe Taliban from Waziristan are hiding – and one such raid was made in Orakzai on Tuesday.

“We suspect fleeing Taliban have gone to Orakzai and Kurram ... the use of air force is part of broader perimeters of Operation Rah-e-Nijat,” said Abbas.

The officials said a banned sectarian militant organisation – which holds greater sway in Hangu district, Orakzai and Kurram – was providing shelter to Taliban who were on the run.

Former FATA security chief Brig (r) Mehmood Shah warned Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Kayani against “ignoring” Orakzai and Kurram, which is being used by the TTP as a “second base,” and called for action there.

“The Taliban leadership will use the second base with a devastating impact on the security of Peshawar and Kohat districts,” he said. “The current level of Taliban resistance in Waziristan is below my expectation. The Taliban are good at posturing, but poor in standing up to the full might of the army.”

Strategy: Sailab Mehsud, a senior tribal journalist and himself a Mehsud tribesman, was not convinced that the Taliban were not putting up resistance. “I think they are resisting, and the retreat from Kotkai may be part of a strategy to draw the military deeper and then attack from all sides,” Sailab told Daily Times.

Home | National

Share this story!