Updated at: 1244 PST, Saturday, May 23, 2009
KARACHI – Taliban fighters seeking money, rest and refuge from the Pakistan army offensive are turning up in increasing numbers in Karachi, according to the Taliban, police officials and an intelligence memo.
Karachi is a critical location both as the main entryway for supplies headed to NATO forces in Afghanistan and as Pakistan’s financial hub. While few believe the Taliban can actually take over Karachi, there is widespread fear that they could destabilise the city with violence.
Although it is a modern city, Karachi is where U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and found beheaded in 2002 and where Al-Qaeda operatives, including suspected Sept. 11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh, were arrested. It is also where the attackers who killed 170 people in Mumbai were launched last November.
As the Pakistan military intensifies its attacks in the north, more Taliban are seeking safety in Karachi and other urban areas, according to one Taliban member. “We come to Karachi to rest and, if needed, get medical treatment, and stay with our brothers who live here in large numbers”, 32-year-old Taliban Omar Gul Mehsud told the AP.
Shah Jahan, a 35-year-old who claims to command 24 Taliban fighters in the South Waziristan area, said the Taliban were scattering throughout Pakistan. He said groups of 20 to 25 would fight for a few months and then take leave in cities including Karachi. “We understand that it is not wise to concentrate in large numbers in war-torn areas”, he said.
On the western outskirts of Karachi, large settlements of Afghan refugees, mostly Pashtuns, and internally displaced Pakistanis have swelled over the past year by as many as 200,000 people. A police special branch intelligence report obtained by AP warned that such neighbourhoods had become favoured hideouts for Taliban who are linked to Baitullah Mehsud.
The report said Mehsud-linked terrorists were arriving every month or so “to rest and generate funds through criminal activities like kidnapping for ransom, robbing banks, street robbery and other heinous crimes.”
A.D. Khwaja, another senior police official, warned that Taliban could find support among the countless students who attend Karachi’s 3,000 madrasas where many of them are being radicalised by jihadist Muslim clergy.
ISLAMABAD – Pakistani soldiers were locked in heavy fighting with Taliban militants in their Swat bastion on May 18, the army said. The government has won broad support for the offensive from political parties.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said the army would finish the offensive and ensure peace as he sought support from political parties amid growing concerns about the well being of more than a million people displaced by the fighting.
"The army will remain in these areas until the displaced people can return to their homes, and until peace is established", Gilani said. The offensive, launched this month as international alarm grew over an intensifying insurgency, is making progress, and every effort will be made to help the more than 1 million people displaced by the fighting.
In all, more than 1,000 militants have been killed in the offensive, the government said; according to the military, more than 50 soldiers have been killed. There was no independent confirmation of the government's estimate of militant casualties.
Gilani told an all-parties’ conference on the fighting that soldiers would remain in Swat until peace was ensured and all the displaced people had gone home. "The operation against the terrorists is progressing very successfully”, he said, “and those who destroyed the peace of the nation are fleeing in disguise.”
A government spokesman later said all parties supported efforts to rid the country of terrorism.
President Asif Ali Zardari said Swat was just the beginning, and that the army would next move against militants in the Waziristan region on the Afghan border.
Despite doubts over Pakistan's alliance with the U.S. in its campaign against Islamist militants and objections to "fighting America's war", most political parties and many members of the public support the offensive.
"A victory in the fight against terrorism is, in fact, a guarantee for the security and protection of our coming generations", Zardari said.
Pakistan's interior ministry chief says the Pakistan military has managed to kill "more than 1,000 militants" since operations in Swat began three weeks ago.
ISLAMABAD: Security forces stormed into the main town in the Swat valley and fought street battles Saturday in a bid to capture the capital of the northwest district from militant control, the military said.
