Amidst endless American drone strikes and bullying statements coming from the US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, asking Pakistan to do more in the war on terror or face severe consequences, Islamabad seems under intense American pressure to launch a major military offensive against the Haqqani militant network in North Waziristan.
The renewed US pressure has come in the wake of Faisal Shehzad’s arrest and the subsequent US findings of his having travelled to Waziristan early this year to seek terror training.
North Waziristan has acquired international notoriety because of Faisal Shahzad, a naturalised American of Pakistani origin, for his botched attempt to trigger a car bomb in the Times Square of New York.
Faisal is said to have travelled there to train as a bomber. His choice of North Waziristan can’t be faulted as it has been, for long, the nursery of extremist militants wishing to acquire the skills in making explosive devices.
One of the seven tribal agencies comprising FATA, North Waziristan is the refuge of veteran Afghan mujahideen commander Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, who orchestrates the Taliban fight in the strategically important Khost province of Afghanistan.
Worryingly for the United States, it is also supposed to be the hiding place of some top fugitives of al-Qaeda and Taliban, including Osama bin Laden and Dr Ayman Zawahiri.
The surge of militants in North Waziristan is not only because of its proximity to Afghanistan, but also because of the fact that the Pakistan army’s sweep of South Waziristan and Swat prompted the TTP leaders to take refuge in Maulvi Haqqani’s fiefdom.
Although Haqqani network is a separate militant group, it pledges allegiance to Mullah Omar, the fugitive Ameer of the Afghan Taliban and has a history of links to the Pakistani establishment, since the days of Afghan jehad. As far as shelter for terrorists go, North Waziristan is relatively quite safe because the Pakistani establishment is reluctant to move against the man whom it views as a strategic asset, and who could play a vital role in Afghanistan once the American troops pull out from there.
The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear through recent diplomatic overtures that the Pakistani establishment has been sleeping with the enemy in North Waziristan for far too long now and it was high time that Pakistan Army launches a massive military offensive in the largely lawless region to extirpate the formidable Haqqani network from North Waziristan.
Some in the Pakistani establishment believe that the US drone attacks have been successful in North Waziristan because of the cooperation from the Pakistani intelligence.
