Taliban are Pak Army proxies, not Pashtun nationalists - III

[DaMalakandGhar]

In the aftermath of 9/11, Pakistan was forced to fight the Taliban. Pakistani generals accommodated the immediate US concerns about Al Qaeda but also continued a low profile relationship with the Afghan Taliban to preserve them for strategic depth in Afghanistan after the US had left the country. They managed to play the double role by creating a 'managed chaos' in FATA that made the region too insure for independent observation from the outside and too frightening for the local tribal people to share information with the outside world. It was systematically propagated in Pakistani media that 'fiercely autonomous' tribes in the 'weakly governed' FATA have given refuge in line with the code of Pashtunwali to the fleeing militants from Afghanistan in defiance of the Pakistani state. All this is utter nonsense.

Not even a single tribe in FATA gave refugee to any militants. People who cooperated with the militants were individuals within tribes. These individuals have longstanding links with the military establishments and their tribes have no control over them. For example, Maulana Noor Muhammad from South Waziristan was openly urging the tribes in his Friday sermons to support the

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20120420&page=6

[tor_khan]

The title affirms what many already accept.

However, I am interested where this article (from a series, presumably) is headed. When Pashtun Nationalism is clearly dangerous to Pakistan's interest, who is it that makes the claim that the Taliban = Pashtun Nationalists? This bit I am not sure of. Even where there is tacit support for the Taliban amongst aspects of the Pakistani establishment and population; it must be said that this support would not be extended to a Pashtun 'awakening' even if it came under this kind of guise.