Afghanistan Watch: “Greatest military threat to Pakistan”?

January 11, 2008

“Greatest military threat to Pakistan”?

Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader of the newly formed coalition Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, who has been accused by Pakistani intelligence of masterminding Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, is getting some media interest.

The Washington Post summarizes Mehsud’s rapid rise to power, calling him “perhaps the greatest military threat to the Pakistani government.”

What is clear, however, is that Pakistan's past efforts to control or neutralize Mehsud have repeatedly backfired, leaving him stronger than ever and adding to the general instability that is plaguing the country, Pakistani officials and analysts said in interviews.

"Baitullah Mehsud is the biggest problem of today's Pakistan, and he is the main factor behind the failure of the government's current policies in the tribal region," a senior government official said on condition of anonymity in Peshawar, a frontier city near the Afghan border. "Kidnap after kidnap of the security forces by his militants has become a routine matter now and a big embarrassment for the government."

He has also been blamed for almost 80 percent of suicide bombings in Afghanistan, according to an UN report quoted in a profile by the Jamestown Foundation.

The rising popularity of this young and committed jihadi on both sides of the border has made him a bridge linking the Pakistani Taliban with the Afghan Taliban on the other side of the frontier. Many believe that Mehsud has already been involved in the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan by dispatching his men to fight against the U.S.-led Coalition forces. Many believe that Mehsud has already been involved in the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan by dispatching his men to fight against the U.S.-led Coalition forces. A close aide of Mehsud, Hakimullah Mehsud, was captured by NATO forces in the border region while trying to cross into Afghanistan with five foreign fighters (Dawn, March 8, 2007).

Posted by Bipasha Ray on January 11, 2008 at 01:46 PM in Pakistan, Taliban | Permalink