Source: The Wall Street Journal
By ZAHID HUSSAIN
Here in the remote mountains of Pakistan, a deep, mostly dry riverbed has been turned into a training camp where about two dozen young men, most in their teens, receive rigorous training for the war against NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
Their day starts at 4 a.m. with prayers, followed by a six-mile run along the riverbed, swimming where some water remains, and weapons training. “One has to go through this rigor to prepare for the tough life as a fighter,” said a 27-year-old who introduced himself as Omar Abdullah. He says he fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan before returning home to Pakistan a few weeks ago to organize training for new recruits.
The camp is just a few miles from Peshawar, the regional capital of Pakistan’s conservative tribal belt. The existence of the camp and dozens like it is a major reason why the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, just across the border, is foundering. Pakistan’s military is struggling to locate the camps and eradicate them, in part because many locals are sympathetic to the jihadis.
This camp, protected by a low hill, has no formal or permanent structure. The boys live in a nearby village. “The villagers look after us,” said Mr. Abdullah, a lean man with a sparse beard and a Kalashnikov rifle. Finding the camp requires an armed escort on a 20-minute walk from the village along a muddy track.
The camp is under the control of Haji Namdar, a top Taliban commander based in the Khyber agency, one of seven tribal regions known as the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies. Western diplomats and Pakistani security officials say hundreds of Pakistani Islamist volunteers trained in these camps are now involved in fighting in Afghanistan.
“It not possible to seal the entire 1,500-mile-long border running along treacherous mountainous terrain,” said a senior Pakistani military officer. The number of such camps has increased in the past year as Pakistan’s government has taken a more conciliatory approach to the militants in the hopes of securing peace.
The son of a prayer leader in a Peshawar mosque, Mr. Abdullah joined the jihadi movement at the age of 16 before finishing school. After receiving military training at a camp in the Pakistani part of Kashmir, he went to Afghanistan to join the Taliban forces. He returned home after the fall of the conservative Islamist regime in Afghanistan in 2001. Two years later, he says, he was back in Afghanistan. “America is the main enemy of Islam and it is our religious duty fight against them,” he said.
Many of the trainees in the camp came from Islamic seminaries, or madrassas, which have sprouted up across Pakistan over the past three decades. Others come from secular educational institutions. All of them speak Pashtun, the name and language of the dominant ethnic group in the region, and come from the surrounding area. The volunteers go through intense scrutiny before they are enlisted and usually arrive with recommendations from clerics. “We don’t accept everyone. Only those with solid credentials are enlisted for training,” says Mr. Abdullah, who spoke in Urdu, the language spoken by most Pakistanis.
One young man said he was a student at a business school in Peshawar and recently completed his 40 days of fighter training. He said he is waiting to join the war in Afghanistan. “There is a long queue, but I hope my turn would come soon,” he said.
The Islamist militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt are organized under the banner of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an organization that has effectively established its own rule in the area. It is led by Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused by Pakistani authorities of masterminding suicide attacks including the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December. He has denied any involvement in Ms. Bhutto’s murder.
The war in Afghanistan isn’t only attracting Pashtun jihadis but recruits from across Pakistan, some of whom had been fighting in Kashmir. “Jihad against American forces in Afghanistan is more important to us at this point,” said Mr. Abdullah.
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Tags: Jihad, NATO troops, remote mountains, training camp
1 response so far ↓
1 Zen // Aug 1, 2008 at 10:27 am
It would seem that Pakistani officials aren’t willing to work on these camps. The average American doesn’t understand the links between Pakistanis, Afghanis, and all of the cross currents of ethnicity and religion which can cause recruits to find their way to these places. It would make sense that after seven long years of fighting in Afghanistan, with the first three or four pretty much a routine exercise, something happened which changed the dynamics for successful recruitment for the Taliban.
We hear now that two key officials inside the CIA and National Intelligence Apparatus of the U.S. have accused officials (no mention of rank or status) of the ISI of colluding with Taliban and al-Qaeda. Again, having squandered the best of our forces in Iraq, and allowing the situation in Afghanistan to drift for years, now it’s suddenly ISI which must be reigned in.
I have read enough of the Pakistani press to know that there is a tremendous awareness of how America seems to be a restless elephant which often rolls around and shakes up Pakistan by it’s hogging the bed. If another nation were as influential, and demanding with Americans as the U.S. is with Pakistan, there would be a cry so loud everyone would hear it … even the dead.
The U.S. obviously tries to bully Pakistan. I have no doubt officials inside ISI ARE working more closely with Afghans and Pakistanis. I have no doubt more seasoned fighters are moving in to fight in Afghanistan. The U.S. has squandered the initiative in Afghanistan and now, as when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, some have had enough. It is a shame that the American government hasn’t tried to develop their own program to destroy the Taliban without whining about ISI interference.
I would also suggest that if Pakistanis want to really see how dire this can become, watch and see what Obama does if elected, God forbid. He is incredibly inexperienced and frankly, will have to do something dramatic to show Americans he can show the world not to “mess with the U.S.” His threats to bomb “actionable and credible targets” inside Pakistan, if they are clearly associated with the Taliban or al-Qaeda, should be taken very seriously. That is just the thing he will do, early in his first year as President, if elected. In fact, he will almost HAVE to do something like that, to set his “bona fides.” This is unfortunate.
The United States simply does not need a THIRD war with Islam. We need to find ways to reach solutions in the Arab-Israeli situation. We also have to allow Muslims to be Muslims. 98% of all Muslims, I believe, do not hate Americans, but they often hate our government’s bullying of them, as if they are merely pawns in their power games.
I hope that we can find ways to resolve these conflicts in the Middle East with more fairness. I doubt that will happen, however. There’s simply no American willing to go against the power of the Israeli Lobby, or the power it can command with Jewish voters in key states. There isn’t an American politician anywhere on the horizon willing to try and be even handed in those matters. And that is very regretable, indeed.
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