(영어번역가시험)A Race Against Time in Pakistan's War on the Taliban (09.05.18)
An airborne camera slowly pans over a range of thickly forested andjagged mountains. "This is the area of Piochar," says Maj. Gen. AtharAbbas, citing the suspected hideout of the Swat Valley's Talibanleadership. The camera stops, and zooms in as crosshairs appear on thescreen. "This is a training camp," adds the military's chief spokesman."If you look, you can see where [the Taliban fighters] practice firing,where they live." Small, blurred makeshift battlements are faintlyvisible. There is a short sharp burst of fire from the fighter jet onwhich the camera is mounted, leaving a column of smoke rising from thetarget.
The video footage provided at a recent briefing offers a rare glimpseinto the Pakistani military's battle to drive the Taliban out of theSwat Valley and its surrounds. Stung by criticismat home and abroad for dithering while the Taliban extended its grip onthe country's northwest, the military three weeks ago launched alarge-scale offensive against the militants — and it claims to havescored major successes, killing over 1,000 militants — including a slewof mid-level Taliban commanders — and hammering their infrastructure.In the face of the ferocious assault, say Army sources, the militantsare shaving off their trademark beards and fleeing the area. But thebattle, which has displaced 1.5 million civilians, is far from over,and the heaviest fighting still to come. And the military leadershipfears that the longer it persists, the more likely that public support for the offensive will erode in the face of the heavy toll it has wrought. (See pictures of Pakistan beneath the surface)
There's no question that the Army is taking the fight to the Taliban toa degree unprecedented until now. Last week, it dropped commandoes intoPiochar, headquarters of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, asfighter jets targeted militants from the air. The location was firstidentified as a Taliban stronghold in the closing months of formerPresident Pervez Musharraf's term in office, but it was left unmolesteduntil now. Although the military claims to have restored control of 80%of the Buner area, reports from the area suggest fierce fighting isstill underway there — and also in Lower Dir, weeks after the militarydeclared victory in that area. (See pictures of refugees fleeing the Swat fighting)
Military commanders are keen to wrap up the fight in Buner and LowerDir within coming days in order to focus their fire in Swat, where anestimated 4,000 well-armed, well-trained militants are dug in onterrain favorable to insurgents. The army claims that the local Talibanthere has been reinforced by militants from Waziristan, southernPunjabis who have fought in Kashmir, and jihadists from central Asia."Ten per cent of the militants have come from outside," Gen. Abbas toldreporters in Islamabad on Saturday. "There should be no doubt that themoney, arms and equipment is coming from the border," he said, in areference to Afghanistan as an alleged route for militants travellingto reinforce the militants fighting in Swat. (Read "How a Terror-Linked Charity is Finding New Life Amid Pakistan's Refugee Crisis)
The military's plan for retaking Swat, eliminating the Taliban'scommand structure has been given priority. "In an insurgency, theleadership is the center of gravity," says Gen, Abbas. Although themilitary claims to have killed a number of key local commanders duringthe current offensive, Fazlullah and his top lieutenants remain atlarge, some of them still using some 36 pirate radio stations to issuepropaganda messages. "The transmission can be heard for two to threeminutes before it is jammed," says Gen. Abbas, "but then they beginusing a different frequency."
Aware that public support for the campaign is likely to ebb, thegovernment and military recognize that they have a limited time-framein which to work. Unlike previous military campaigns against militantson home soil, the Swat offensive enjoys widespread public support. "Wefeel this was our only option because the alternative vision presentedby the Taliban — girls being flogged, people beheaded, schools burned —is not the Pakistan we want," says Mushahid Hussain, a prominentpolitician, echoing a growing mood. "There is more cohesion now betweenthe politicians, the media, civil society and the army." In a bid tomaintain that support, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani has beengiving closed door briefings to political leaders and senior Pakistanimedia figures.
"The army is now in the frame of mind that the longer [the operationpersists], the more the difficulty will increase," says a parliamentaryleader who attended a recent briefing but was not authorized to speakpublicly about the discussion. "They want this to be over in the nextfour to six weeks." Winning the battle in Swat may, however, takelonger than that — the military is anticipating a bloody battle forSwat's main town of Mingora, where the Taliban are hunkered down for anurban showdown. Even if Swat is cleared, fighting could spread, asretreating Taliban militants open new fronts. Fighting has flared up innew parts of Swat and in the tribal areas, as well as in parts ofBajaur cleared by the military earlier this year.
Still, the military is pressing ahead, determined that, as Gen. Abbasput it, "the militants and terrorists will be eliminated and wiped outfrom the area." But counterinsurgency experts have warned that tacticalvictories can be quickly reversed if they're not consolidated throughlocal political and reconstruction efforts. Victory over the Taliban inSwat, warns the parliamentary leader briefed by the military, "has toinvolve the return of the refugees and their rehabilitation. There hasto be a reconstruction process. The civil administration has to bere-establish itself, and they must also ensure that an adequate policeforce is in place."
For now, however, the focus is on dealing the Taliban a decisiveblow before the political consensus behind the Army's campaign beginsto crumble.
(영어번역가시험)A Race Against Time in Pakistan's War on the Taliban (09.05.18)
