Pak military’s ‘Get Baitullah’ strategy
June 16th, 2009 - 6:36 pm ICT by ANI
Peshawar, June 16 (ANI): Last week, when Pak Air Force decided to strike Makeen - a key trade centre of Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan - it was the result of a two-month long brainstorming in the military establishment on how to isolate Baitullah Mehsud within the Taliban.
The offensive was virtually carried out to avenge the suicide bombing in Lahore that killed religious scholar Dr Sarfaraz Naeemi.”He has a hand in virtually every terrorist attack in Pakistan,” Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said recently.
“We wanted to deliver a message to Baitullah. If he carries out a suicide bombing, then there will be a response and that he can’t get away with these attacks. There will be a quid pro quo,” The Dawn quoted a senior military officer, as saying.
However, one major factor would be an anti-Baitullah Mehsud alliance between Turkistan - a 40-year-old veteran of the Afghan war, and Qari Zainuddin, a young lad in his mid-twenties leading a group once commanded by the late Abdullah Mehsud.
“The environment that made Baitulllah is no more. For the first time he has a challenger from within his Mehsud clan. Baitullah Mehsud is in trouble,” a senior government official said.
“Baitullah told a jirga member recently he was not too much worried about military action against him. It’s Zainuddin who has caused him anxiety,” a Mehsud tribesman concurred.
Like Baitullah, Zainuddin is a native Mehsud and has been leading his own militant group once led by Abdullah Mehsud - a one-legged fiery fighter and former Guantanamo detainee, who was killed in a commando action in Zhob, Balochistan, in July 2006.
Zainuddin and Abdullah’s other comrades blamed Baitullah for orchestrating the death.
Turkistan, who had retired as a sepoy from South Waziristan Scouts of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in 1998 to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan, was once friends with Baitullah Mehsud, the paper points out.
“We fought together in Afghanistan,” he once said.
The slaughter of some FC jawans and Baitullah’s other actions, he claimed, made him leave the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief.
“Don’t poke your nose in this,” he quoted Baitullah as telling him. (ANI)
- Top militant opposing Pakistani Taliban chief killed (Lead) - Jun 23, 2009
- Pakistani Taliban chief implements foreign agenda, say dissenters - Jun 18, 2009
- Mission against Mehsud will continue, vows assassinated rival leader's successor - Jun 25, 2009
- Mehsud's friend turned foe killed in Dera Ismail Khan - Jun 23, 2009
- US drones kill over 50 Taliban in Pakistan (Lead) - Jun 24, 2009
- Drone strike didn't kill top leader: Pakistani Taliban - Jan 16, 2012
- Taliban trainer of suicide bombers still alive - Oct 17, 2010
- Militant leader opposing Pakistani Taliban chief killed - Jun 23, 2009
- Pak puts economic blockade to turn Mehsud tribesmen against Baitullah - Jun 18, 2009
- Rival commander Zainuddin killed on Mehsud's behest - Jun 24, 2009
- Thousands flee as Pakistan hits militant stronghold - Sep 24, 2009
- Baitullah Mehsud getting tough competition from tribal rival - May 11, 2009
- Pak Interior Affairs Adviser says Taliban should prove their leaders are alive - Aug 10, 2009
- Pak Taliban releases 23 tribesmen it abducted for meeting army chief - Jan 01, 2011
- Pak Army readying fresh 'operational plans' against Mehsud following rival's assassination - Jun 25, 2009
Tags: abdullah mehsud, afghan war, army chief, ashfaq, baitullah mehsud, balochistan, chief general, guantanamo detainee, kayani, mid twenties, military establishment, old veteran, pakistan army, parvez, qari, religious scholar, sarfaraz, sepoy, south waziristan, taliban in afghanistan
