Talks with the Taliban in Pakistan?
By Daud Khattak, April 7, 2011 Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 1:27 PM
The two successive attacks last week on pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who heads Pakistan's largest religious party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), caught many observers by surprise. Yet these attacks against a strong supporter of the Taliban give credence to increasing evidence of rifts among the Taliban factions in Pakistan, whose central leadership - insofar as one can say the movement has a central leadership - is underground, and their organizational structure shattered in face of the increasing number of drone strikes and military operations. Yet this division masks new efforts by Taliban supporters in the Pakistani government to bring some militant groups, including the group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) back in the fold, as the country's military and security services plan for the future.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman, whose party seldom if ever condemns the suicide attacks in FATA, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and rest of Pakistan, barely escaped when a suicide bomber detonated himself close to his convoy in Swabi district of KP on March 30. On March 31, the cleric again came under attack when he was on way to attend a public meeting organized by his party workers in Charsadda district, around 20 kilometers east of Peshawar.
Additionally, recent attacks on the Shi'a in Kurram agency provide further evidence of splintering among Taliban factions. Though a peace agreement between Shi'as and Sunnis was signed in February with the support of the Haqqani Network and welcomed by some Taliban groups, attacks from an unknown group continue against Shi'as traveling from Peshawar to Parachinar, Upper Kurram's main town.
In this environment of spiraling violence, Pakistan may be trying to bring certain militant groups back into the fold. Some official sources believe that following the opening of U.S. and NATO peace efforts with the Taliban through the Afghan government, the Pakistani side also reportedly started its own efforts to rein in rogue Taliban or other militant groups in the event of a peace deal between the Afghan government and Afghan Taliban in that country, and before the groups split too far from each other to be brought to heel.
As part of these efforts, sources tell me that contacts are being established with some estranged fighters of JeM, an ostensibly Kashmir-focused anti-India organization banned by former military dictator Pervez Musharraf's in 2002 (though it still operates openly), to bring them again under control and keep them as a future asset, whether it be in Kashmir or against Indian interests in Afghanistan.
The initial estrangement between Pakistan and jihadist groups like JeM can be traced to the U.S. and NATO-led anti-terror war in Afghanistan and the subsequent U-turn taken by then-Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf after the 9/11 attacks, which spread considerable ill-feelings toward Pakistan among the Taliban, often considered the brainchild of the Pakistani intelligence agencies. Even before the rise of organizations like the TTP, Pakistan had to move to rein in Kashmiri militant groups like JeM and to a lesser extent Lashkar-e-Taiba, who had long been clients of the Pakistani state. However, Pakistan's attempts to reach out to these fringe groups of Taliban and assorted militants may present difficulties for the government, as JeM members and other groups still harbor ill-will towards the government since being banned, and have allegedly played a role in major attacks against the Pakistani state and civilian targets. In the words of a senior Pakistani security official, "there are splinters of splinters," while referring to the "good" and "bad" Taliban and the Pakistani government's ability to control them.
Indeed, while no one can deny Pakistan's connection with the Taliban and other groups, both local and foreign, analysts and security officials believe some fighters have escaped the grip of the country's intelligence services, leading in part to the rash of recent attacks on government installations and even pro-militant figures. Even as Pakistan re-orients its strategy towards militants as part of their planning for Afghanistan's future, these "splinters" may continue to wreak havoc with the government's best-laid plans.
Extracts from:
http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/04/07/talks_with_the_taliban_in_pakistan
