Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

1 Frontline Pakistan
support the militants. The biggest success for the military came in
June 2004, when Nek Mohammed was killed by a precision-guided
missile. 29 The death of the top militant commander brought a brief
respite in the battle, but the war was far from over. Nek Mohammed’s
mud grave in Shakai had turned into a shrine, visited by scores of
tribesmen every day. 30 A soldier of jihad who turned his gun against
Pakistan’s army had now become a legend. He was remembered by
his fellow tribesmen as a ‘martyr of the faith’. ‘He lived and died like a
true Pashtun,’ reads a banner on his grave.
His supporters, led by Abdullah Mehsud, had continued to engage
Pakistani security forces in a drawn-out guerrilla war. Their targets
included those tribal chiefs who had collaborated with the Pakistani
military. One by one, all those who had backed military operations
against the militants in South and North Waziristan were killed.
Faridullah Khan, a Waziri tribal elder and former senator, virtually
signed his own death warrant when, in March 2004, he facilitated the
entry of army troops to his home village, Shakai in South Waziristan.
His men helped soldiers to demolish the houses of the tribesmen
linked with the al-Qaeda. He even permitted soldiers to use his fortlike
house.
I saw Faridullah at an army sponsored tribal jirga in Shakai in April
2005. Escorted by armed guards, Faridullah, who sported a huge
turban and a bushy moustache, declared, ‘Al-Qaeda were all over the
valley. But this year they are on the run. Peace has been restored.’
Twenty-four hours later, Faridullah was dead. The killers had waited
at a diversion of the main road, when his jeep passed on the way
from a meeting with the army commander. The militants had blasted
the vehicle with rocket-propelled grenades. Ironically, Faridullah was
killed a day after General Khattak had declared that South Waziristan
had been cleared of foreign terrorists.
The list of victims, which included government intelligence
operatives and tribesmen accused of spying for the US and Pakistani
governments, continued to rise as the Pakistani security engaged in
a never-ending war. Often, the killers would leave a charge sheet
on their victims, warning others of a similar fate. Malik Sana Pir had
been a marked man since he organized a jirga (assembly) of his
Malikshahi Waziri sub-tribe in North Waziristan’s forested Shawal
Valley and announced his support for the military campaign. A week
later, unknown men with masked faces gunned him down. Targeted
killings haunted every village and revenge became the name of the