Pakistan

Taliban regrouping in cleared areas: report

A report in the Washington Times claims that the Taliban have quietly begun to regroup in cleared areas.

Express June 23, 2010

WASHINGTON:

A report in the Washington Times claims that the Taliban have quietly begun to regroup in areas that had previously been cleared by the Pakistan military.

According to report, this information has been disclosed by officials in the Fata Secretariat. It claims that the TTP and foreign fighters from Al-Qaeda are regaining control of Bajaur, Orakzai and Mohmand.

The report said large groups of heavily armed Taliban have recently been observed on patrol in all these agencies. It claims that the Taliban are also collecting money from people, and are warning residents to stop helping government forces or else face severe punishment.

The report further added that militants are spreading into parts of the tribal belt that previously had no Taliban presence and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is also extending its reach and bolstering roots in the main areas of Pakistan.

COMMENTS (2)

Barkatullah Marwat | 14 years ago | Reply The report sounds absurd. I suspect the three tribal agencies Bajaur, Mohmand and Orakzai are mentioned because of recent clashes. "The militants are spreading into parts of the tribal belt that previously had no Taliban presence" is quite an obscure statement. I think Taliban had previously showed up in all tribal agencies and no region in tribal belt had remained where Taliban had no presence previously. Taliban who were in full control of Bajaur and Mohmand agencies were neutralised in military operations. What we need to look into is that whether Taliban who previously established their own courts, parallel administration, militant force and patrolled on the streets are capable to continue so. The answer is No. Another question is: Whether Taliban carry out beheading, kidnapping, extortion, recruiting, flogging etc and we find the answer in negative. So this is not regrouping. After clearing the two agencies, the security forces are trying to consolidate their hold on the areas and such intermittent clashes would continue to take place for some time. And those who are writing reports on the performance of our security forces and resurgence of militants in tribal areas, why don't they bother to write about the US and Nato forces who have failed to drive out 200 Taliban from Marja area of Helmand in Afghanistan despite having all resources. They could not hold Afghanistan in 10 years. And in Orakzai, the military operation has not been concluded wherefrom the question of militants regrouping arises.

Zulfiqar Haider | 14 years ago | Reply The army must adopt a follow up strategy to revisit the areas previously cleared from Taliban. This will certainly avoid the militants to regroup in these regions and definitely the help from locals can allow a better intelligence for the armed forces.

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