It is legitimate to entertain the question: Are Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Ameer Mullah Fazlullah’s days numbered? This question crops up in the context of the US branding him as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in the aftermath of the Peshawar school massacre, and Kabul reportedly showing willingness to share intelligence on Fazlullah with Pakistan as well as the United States.
On their part the Americans have a legitimate grouse against Fazlullah. He had orchestrated the killing of three US soldiers in the Shahi Kot area of Lower Dir on Feb 3, 2010. And on its part, the Pakistan Army is vigorously pushing ahead with its Operation Zarb-e-Azab in North Waziristan – the home base of TTP, though Fazlullah is said to be operating from Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan on the Pak-Afghan border.
Noted Pak journalist, Amir Mir writes in The News International (January 15, 2015) that even before tagging him a global terrorist, the Americans were making frantic efforts to eliminate Fazlullah with the help of CIA-run drones. Rawalpindi closed its ranks with Washington after wireless and cell phone intercepts established that Fazlullah had himself directed the Peshawar school carnage on December 16, 2014.
Prior to becoming the leader of TTP, Fazlullah claimed he was behind the killing of the Pakistan Army’s Major General Sanaullah Niazi in September 2013, besides ordering the shooting of schoolgirl and activist Malala Yousafzai in 2012. Fazlullah was responsible for the beheading of 17 Pakistani soldiers after an attack in June 2012 and also ordered the targeted killings of elders who led peace committees against the Taliban. What made him earn the US wrath was however the killing three American soldiers who were trainers. They were targeted while accompanying the Pakistani security forces to the Maidan area in Lower Dir, which was recaptured from the Taliban after the 2009 military operation in Swat.
Giving an account of the killing, Amir Mir writes: “February 3, 2010 was supposed to be a day of celebration in the village of Shahi Kot in the Lower Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The modest school had been rebuilt with the American funding after the henchmen of Mullah Fazlullah, who are opposed to female education, blew it up. Several Pakistani and American dignitaries were on their way to attend the opening ceremony of the school whose corridors and classrooms bustled with activity. Just before 11am, as the armoured vehicle carrying five soldiers of the US Army Special Forces approached the school in a convoy of Pakistani security vans, a powerful roadside bomb was detonated. The blast not only killed three US soldiers but also took away the lives of three schoolgirls. The US soldiers who lost their lives were Sgt Mark Stets, Sgt Matthew Sluss-Tiller and Sgt David Hartman. They were the first known casualties of American troops on the Pakistani soil since the launching of the war on terror. Mullah Fazlullah had claimed responsibility for the attack and the killing of American soldiers”.
TTP Ameer has since called for the deaths in a January 5, 2015 video message and vowed to stage another ‘spectacular attack’, which, he said, was being planned. Surrounded (in the video) by his gunmen, Fazlullah ridiculed western life-style and ridiculed democracy, saying: “Democracy is Kuffar and Haram. We only obey Shariah.”
TTP Ameer has recently affixed ‘Khurasani’ to his name apparently in a bid to counter the growing clout of Commander Omar Khalid Khurasani. Fazlullah now ranks No1 on the list of potential targets for the American drones after being tagged as a “common enemy” of the US and Pakistan. As things stand, Fazlullah is being hunted by spies on the ground and drones from the skies. Some success appears to have come the Pakistani way. Five TTP suspects in the Army Public School killings were captured in Afghanistan. The arrests were made on the basis of intelligence shared by Pakistan.
The ISI chief Rizwan Akhtar made his second visit to Kabul in the last three weeks to meet President Ashraf Ghani and Afghan intelligence chief, which underlines the urgency of action from a Pakistan perspective. The visit has helped to bring both sides on the same page but given the contours of Pakistan’s foreign policy that rests on strategic depth concept and banks on jiahdis as force multipliers, the new found bonhomie may not last long.
One give away is the statement of Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz that India is using Afghanistan as a launching pad for attacks in Pakistan.
– by Malladi Rama Rao
