Balochistan becomes target in war against Taliban

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province in terms of area, is a prospective heaven for mining companies eyeing its untapped reserves of copper, natural gas and possibly oil and criminals envisaging the world’s heroin superhighway, but the province may soon be lost in the war against the Taliban, as the US is mounting pressure to act against the so-called ‘Quetta shura’.

A report published in British Guardian newspaper said that in a report to US President Barack Obama in September, the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said the 15-man war council led by Mullah Muhammad Omar, his deputy Mullah Baradar and his military commander Abdullah Zakir was dictating the pace of the war in Afghanistan from the provincial capital.

It poses the greatest threat to western troops, and was already planning for the 2010 fighting season, McChrystal had said. “Afghanistan’s insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan. The ‘Quetta shura’ conducts a formal campaign review each winter, after which Mullah Omar announces his guidance and intent for the following year.”

As international forces face an increasing Taliban insurgency across Afghanistan, NATO generals allege that the fighting is being directed from Balochistan.

The Guardian claims that the Afghan Taliban operated without fear or hindrance, in Balochistan, which borders Kandahar, Zabul and Helmand, where almost 10,000 British troops are stationed.

But the situation might turn around with the increased US pressure on Pakistan to act against the Taliban in Balochistan, reports which Islamabad has rubbished several times.

US officials, including CIA director Leon Panetta and military chief Admiral Mike Mullen, have urged Pakistan to act forcefully, especially against the Sirajuddin Haqqani network in North Waziristan, while they demand extending the drone campaign to target the Quetta shura in Balochistan.

Focusing on Balochistan: “It makes perfect sense to focus on Balochistan, which has been largely neglected until now,” Art Keller, a former CIA case officer who worked in Pakistan in 2006 told Guardian. “The question is how.”

The paper said the new US approach to Balochistan was battlefield realities, as by next summer, “30,000 western soldiers – a third British, the rest mostly American – will be based across the border in Helmand”.

Seth Jones, a civilian adviser to the US special forces commander in Afghanistan, said this month that the US must “target Taliban leaders in Balochistan” through an expanded drone strike campaign. Pakistani officials trenchantly oppose the idea.

“We can’t fight everyone, everywhere. We need to be pragmatic. And we will not be dictated to,” a senior official with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), told Guardian on condition of anonymity.

The official admitted that insurgents “do come and go” in Balochistan, but insisted the ISI was already cooperating with the CIA in the province.

He said drone strikes in densely populated Quetta would be “disastrous” both in terms of civilian casualties and anti-American hostility.

“I think this is just pressure tactics, the Americans aren’t stupid enough to [extend drone strikes]. But if their objective is to destabilise Pakistan, that would be a good way to do it.”