Pakistan Strange bedfellows: Islamists and army join forces against insurgents

The 'good' Taliban are clustered ^­ in a dusty frontier city close to the mountain battleground of South Waziristan

A fighter with the Abdullah Mehsud group. Photograph: Declan Walsh

The "good" Taliban were clustered ^­ outside a tall gate down a dusty back street in Dera Ismail Khan, a troubled frontier city close to the mountain battleground of South Waziristan.
As Taliban go, they looked like the real deal – lanky young men with shoulder-length hair, bullet-filled bandoliers and well-worn AK-47 rifles. Some wore white basketball boots, the fighting footwear of choice for tribal gunmen.
These Islamist militants were not fighting against Pakistan's embattled government, however, but for it. "We are proud Pakistanis," declared their spokesman, a tall man wearing a prayer cap. "We are with the army in their fight against the brutal terrorists."
As part of its huge assault on the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan, Pakistan's army has struck controversial agreements with four Islamist outfits – Taliban in all but name – to boost its chances of crushing the main Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group.
Since last weekend the army has been engaged in a bloody offensive pitting 30,000 soldiers against an estimated 10,000 Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. Thanks to what the army describes as "understandings" with rival groups, mostly Mehsud tribal enemies, the TTP's mountain fortress is surrounded.
But the army's new friends are making Pakistan's western allies uncomfortable. Some are big figures in the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, sending fighters across the porous border to attack western soldiers; others harbour al-Qaida operatives suspected of plotting attacks on the west, perhaps even Osama bin Laden.
The army states that it has little choice but to engage in such "unsavoury alliances", arguing that the threat from the TTP, which has rocked Pakistan with a string of audacious attacks in recent weeks, has become too great.
Suicide attackers have struck UN offices, police buildings and army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Today schools and universities across the country closed following yesterday's blast at an Islamic university in Islamabad.
The army's militant ally in Dera Ismail Khan, the city on the southern flank of South Waziristan where thousands of war-displaced villagers are arriving, is the Abdullah Mehsud group, a faction of the Mehsud tribe. A gleaming new pick-up was parked outside the organisation's headquarters – a sign of the support the militia has reportedly received. Inside, the two-story house resembled a student digs inhabited by Islamist fighters. Bedding was strewn on the floor and dirty teacups stacked in a corner. One young fighter said his prayers while bending over a gleaming pistol. Others joshed loudly and wrestled with each other.
Outside, a teenager clutching a rifle manned a thorn-bush barricade at the end of the street.
Security was tight, with good reason. Last June the group's leader, Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, a charismatic young leader who had dared oppose the TTP, was gunned down in his bedroom by one of his own guards. The killer was in the pay of the TTP's leader, Baitullah Mehsud, who in turn was killed in a US drone strike six weeks later.
The new leader of the Abdullah Mehsud Group, Zainuddin's brother Misbahuddin, welcomed the Guardian into his office – a cramped bedroom where he sat on the bed. He offered soda in steel goblets and parried calls on a phone with a loud Qur'anic ring tone.
But after pleasantries he declined to be interviewed. "First you must convert to Islam," he said, apparently only half- jokingly, and referred all questions to a spokesman, Saifullah Mehsud.
The group's role, Saifullah said, was to assist the army in sealing off the southern borders of South Waziristan and prevent Taliban fighters from escaping from the area. He predicted a bitter fight in the coming weeks. "The Taliban have built caves and bunkers. And they are very mobile, they don't stay in one place," he said.
Once the army gave the order the group, he said, would wade into the action. "We are just waiting for the government to give us the go-ahead." He claimed that 80% of the Mehsud tribe was behind them. "Everyone is against the brutality of Hakimullah," he said, referring to the ruthless commander who took over after Baitullah.
Local politicians and tribal journalists suggest the group's support is much smaller than it claims. But in recent weeks, they say, it has played a vital role in the arrest of dozens of suspected Taliban sympathisers and sectarian extremists in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, a town near South Waziristan.
Some subjects, at this interview, were off-limits. Saifullah said he would not discuss America, al-Qaida or the war in Afghanistan. The group's views on these issues are an embarrassment to their government sponsors. In previous interviews Misbahuddin had voiced support for the violence against western troops in Afghanistan, and embraced al-Qaida's vision of a global Islamic caliphate.
The contradictions highlight the clashing priorities of Pakistan and its western allies in the swelling war in the tribal belt. While western countries want to eliminate Taliban and al-Qaida safe havens, Pakistan's priority is to stop violence at home while maintaining links with a cross-border insurgency that keeps the influence of its arch-rival, India, at bay.
But for now, western countries have muted their criticism of the alliances, fearful of the consequences if nuclear-armed Pakistan is not stabilised quickly. Earlier this week a state department spokesman said it was a matter for Pakistan to decide upon.
The greater danger is that the Taliban deal-making could backfire. There is a precedent. Between 2004 and 2006 the army struck three peace deals with the Taliban in Waziristan that failed and allowed the militant movement to grow.
A separate agreement with the Taliban in Swat last February collapsed within weeks, presaging a sweeping summer offensive by the military.
Yet this time, the government "has no option" but to make deals, according to Riffat Hussain, a lecturer in defence studies at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam university. The danger, he warned, was that one of the powerful Taliban players, such as Bahadur or Nazir, could switch sides again, and instantly expose the army to a much bigger battle in Waziristan. "That is the nightmare scenario," he concluded.

Waziristan who's who

Although Hakimullah Mehsud's Tehrik-I-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is the most notorious Taliban outfit in Waziristan, several other groups are equally important to the west.
The non-Mehsud areas of South Waziristan are controlled by Maulvi Nazir, a rugged jihadi veteran from the rival Wazir tribe. Nazir holds key territory including the main town, Wana. He is a major source of militants crossing into Afghanistan to attack western soldiers. US drone strikes have frequently targeted his network.
The major figure in North Waziristan is Hafiz Gul Bahadur, said to be a descendant of the Faqir of Ipi, a cleric who fought the British in the 1940s. From the minority Daur tribe, Bahadur is allied with the feared Afghan warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani. Senior al-Qaida figures are sheltering on his turf.Although previously allied with the TTP, both Nazir and Bahadur have agreed to allow Pakistani supply convoys pass unimpeded through their territory for now.
The army's third ally in the region is Turkistan Bhittani, a small-time warlord with a grudge against the TTP leadership.