A change in counter-insurgency tactics has helped Pakistan smoke out Taliban from FATA, but the real challenge will be to consolidate the gains.
Imageries are beautiful. But they tend to stick. Time flies by, but the imageries remain ensconced in the human mind. They start affecting judgement. Imageries are dangerous. Much of what we visualise about the Tribal Areas in Pakistan comes from the imageries drawn by Rudyard Kipling and Orientalists like Robert Wilkinson-Latham. Their writings on these areas are vivid and enriching. But there is a problem there. These writings are a century old and the Tribal Areas have moved ahead. We and our imageries are yet to.
So as our Mil MI 17 hovered above Bajaur agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas, popularly called FATA, we were in for a shock. The area is not a “muddy mountainous hamlet of aboriginal tribes” as some western analysts would have us believe. With metalled roads, stone-brick houses and schools, the place can give an average village from the Bimaru states in India a run for its money. In fact, the entire brouhaha over it being inaccessible is just that: brouhaha. So what is it that has fed the insurgency? Of course, the terrain. Modern insurgencies have been terrain-based. Here and everywhere.
So, first the geography. Nestled at 2800 feet above sea level, Bajaur is one of seven—and the northernmost—agencies of FATA. Spread over 1290 sq km, the agency has more than a fair share of rugged frontier hills. While it shares its east, south and north boundaries with other agencies, on its west is the unruly and ungoverned Afghan province of Kunar. A perfect stage for insurgency. At least that is what Colonel Muhammad Nauman Saeed thinks.
In the traditional attire of Bajaur Scouts—the paramilitary that he spearheaded in the battle against Taliban—Colonel Nauman Saeed looks every bit the no-nonsense man that he is. For him, the battle has been up close and personal. In fact too close. On September 9 last year, when the convoy of Major General Tariq Khan—who was also serving as Inspector General of Frontier Corps—was ambushed near Nissarabad, Colonel Nauman himself mounted a tank and led a Quick Response Force to extricate the crew. His tank received multiple hits by RPG-7s, but the Colonel stopped only after Khan was extricated. He makes it a point to lead all the operations himself. The confidence shows when he talks.
Imageries are beautiful. But they tend to stick. Time flies by, but the imageries remain ensconced in the human mind. They start affecting judgement. Imageries are dangerous. Much of what we visualise about the Tribal Areas in Pakistan comes from the imageries drawn by Rudyard Kipling and Orientalists like Robert Wilkinson-Latham. Their writings on these areas are vivid and enriching. But there is a problem there. These writings are a century old and the Tribal Areas have moved ahead. We and our imageries are yet to.
So as our Mil MI 17 hovered above Bajaur agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas, popularly called FATA, we were in for a shock. The area is not a “muddy mountainous hamlet of aboriginal tribes” as some western analysts would have us believe. With metalled roads, stone-brick houses and schools, the place can give an average village from the Bimaru states in India a run for its money. In fact, the entire brouhaha over it being inaccessible is just that: brouhaha. So what is it that has fed the insurgency? Of course, the terrain. Modern insurgencies have been terrain-based. Here and everywhere.
So, first the geography. Nestled at 2800 feet above sea level, Bajaur is one of seven—and the northernmost—agencies of FATA. Spread over 1290 sq km, the agency has more than a fair share of rugged frontier hills. While it shares its east, south and north boundaries with other agencies, on its west is the unruly and ungoverned Afghan province of Kunar. A perfect stage for insurgency. At least that is what Colonel Muhammad Nauman Saeed thinks.
In the traditional attire of Bajaur Scouts—the paramilitary that he spearheaded in the battle against Taliban—Colonel Nauman Saeed looks every bit the no-nonsense man that he is. For him, the battle has been up close and personal. In fact too close. On September 9 last year, when the convoy of Major General Tariq Khan—who was also serving as Inspector General of Frontier Corps—was ambushed near Nissarabad, Colonel Nauman himself mounted a tank and led a Quick Response Force to extricate the crew. His tank received multiple hits by RPG-7s, but the Colonel stopped only after Khan was extricated. He makes it a point to lead all the operations himself. The confidence shows when he talks.
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