Baitullah Mehsud caught public eye after the death of Abdullah Mehsud in July 2007. Within a short period of five months little known Baitullah managed to spread his influence in all seven tribal agencies of FATA and established Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007.
After nominating commanders in each tribal Agency, he then began to spread his sway in neighboring settled districts of NWFP and created his tentacle under Afridi in Darra Adamkhel. Links were established with militants in Southern Punjab as well. In early 2008, Fazlullah, heading TNSM in Swat got himself affiliated with TTP and declared his allegiance to Baitullah. Taliban commanders brooked no dissent and under the garb of Islam pursued ruthless policies to eliminate their opponents and to terrorize locals.
TTP made Pak Army and not occupation forces in Afghanistan its chief target. Massive funds, armaments and guidance were provided by their patrons in Afghanistan to enable them to pay handsome salaries to their fighters, suicide bombers and handlers, win over neutrals and to confront the Army. Knowing their love for big money, CIA and RAW drenched them in pool of dollars to make them dance to their tunes. In order to build up image of Baitullah, Times magazine of early 2008 placed him among 100 most influential people of the world. Newsweek described him more dangerous than Osama bin Laden.
From June 2008 onward, focus of attention of US leaders shifted towards FATA. It was described as a breeding ground of terrorists and suicide bombers where top leadership of Al-Qaeda were housed and from where cross border terrorism into Afghanistan was taking place. It was declared as most dangerous place and hub of Al-Qaeda; Bush as well as Obama and other senior US-Nato military leaders maintained that unless FATA was neutralized, turbulence in Afghanistan could not be controlled. Pakistan came under tremendous pressure to do more to control militancy.
Pak army and ISI were accused of being linked with Taliban. Ignoring its own dismal failures, Pak army was ridiculed that it was incapable of confronting extremists challenge. US military adopted an aggressive posture and drone attacks were intensified in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) and South Waziristan Agency (SWA). Angoor Adda in SWA became chief target where a security post was plastered and a ground raid was carried out by Marines in September 2008. Reason for ire was that unlike Baitullah led Taliban, fighters of Hafiz Gul Bahadur in NWA and Maulvi Nazir in SWA preferred to wage Jihad in Afghanistan.
The new Af-Pak policy was formulated by USA in which area astride Pak-Afghan border of two neighboring countries was made into single battleground. It included eastern and southern Afghanistan, FATA and Pashtun belt of Balochistan. While Pak Army was nudged to intensify its operations in Bajaur, Swat and Waziristan, US-Nato forces duly beefed up with additional 21000 US troops from Iraq planned to launch decisive hammer to eliminate all extremists elements within dangerous battle zone.
US top leaders repeatedly expressed their intention to step into FATA to hunt for wanted leaders of Al-Qaeda and Mullah Omar and exerted pressure on Pakistan to accept the plan of joint operations. Pak military leadership put its step down and made it clear that it would not accept any intrusion of foreign troops on its territory.
Plot thickened when on 14 April, Holbrooke secretly met Gulbadin Hikmatyar, former blue-eyed of CIA. The US is still actively pursuing option of taking moderate Taliban on board and to pitch Taliban against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. In the wake of dangerous designs of Af-Pak strategy, Baitullah saw through the double game of USA and considered it prudent to swear allegiance with Mullah Omar and accept him as Ameer-ul-Momineen. He forged an alliance with Maulvi Nazir, Haji Gul Bahadur and with Maulana Faqir Muhammad in Bajaur Agency.
This declaration irked USA and on March 26, 2009, FBI declared Baitullah most wanted terrorist linked with Al-Qaeda and announced $5 million head money. Earlier on, USA had declared bounty of $25 million each for Osama and Zawahiri, and $10 million for Mullah Omar. Pakistan followed suit and announced reward of Rs 50 million for Baitullah on 27 June. It had also announced reward money for 21 absconding leaders of Swat chapter of Taliban under Fazlullah. Baitullah’s inability to come to the rescue of Fazlullah, or to activate South Waziristan front because of his declining health and shrinking liberty of action were other reasons of American displeasure. His boast to attack Washington and claim that his men had undertaken terrorist attack in a village near New York further antagonized them.
His position in Shrawangai village was hit by drone for the first time on 14 February 2009, which caused reunification of two bitter rivals Maulvi Nazir and Baitullah but split off Qari Zainuddin Mehsud from Baitullah. Zain belonging to Baitullah clan joined hands with Haji Turkistan Bhittani in Tank and the two decided to jointly battle Baitullah.
On 7 April, Nazir who had all along remained pro-government accused the Army of planting homing devices on local militant leaders for destruction by drones. When the Army refused to rely on him and did not remove check posts in his area of influence, he became non-cooperative and started to play a double game. When troops in South Waziristan started creeping forward towards Baitullah area to encircle him, it became essential for CIA to eliminate him before he got captured or voluntarily joined hands with the Army since latter knew the whole game plan of USA.
From the time CIA had started using drones as a means to intimidate people of FATA, disrupt peace deals between Army and militants and to stoke resentment against the government, it had never targeted Baitullah’s strongholds. On three occasions, six figure grid reference of his location was given but he was not targeted. US selective use of drones against pro-government elements had become a cause of friction. Once Baitullah became a liability for CIA and it feared that he may be captured by security forces or he himself may spill the beans about activities of CIA in FATA, it was decided to eliminate him.
Mounting suspicions of Pakistanis of its secret alignment with Baitullah had also to be dispelled. These considerations impelled USA to give a green signal for his elimination. First serious attempt was made in June and the other in July. On both occasions, missiles missed Baitullah. He was finally targeted on 5 August in the house of his father-in-law Ikramuddin where he had gone to spend a night with his second wife.
His death led to reprisals in form of killing of Ikramuddin and seven other family members. His sudden departure created leadership crisis since each of the top contenders Hakimullah Mehsud, Waliur Rehman, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad and Qari Hussain thought he was better than others to takeover reins of TTP.
Although Hakimullah has been pronounced the new TTP chief, there are veritable reports that he had got killed in a gun battle with Waliur-Rehman in August and an imposter (probably his brother) had been presented to media. None of them enjoy authority and standing as that of Baitullah to keep TTP as a single entity. Successful operation of Army in Swat and its pro-active role against militants in other areas has otherwise severely curtailed liberty of action of TTP and is on the defensive.
When Maulvi Nazir got besieged, he signed accord with all other sub-tribes of Ahmadzai Wazirs on 3 September and pledged to cooperate with Army. While situation in Swat to a large extent has been normalized, ongoing operation in Khyber Agency against Mangal Bagh and TTP is producing good results. It is likely that Army would exploit ongoing disarray of Mehsud Taliban in South Waziristan and strike in coming weeks.
- Asian Tribune -
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