Fear of Taliban influx in largest Pakistani city
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AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 18, 2009 00:00
KARACHI, Pakistan - As the Pakistani government continues its intense military offensive against the Taliban, rising influence of Islamists in Karachi raises concerns that this situation might further destabilize the nuclear-armed nation.
Taliban fighters seeking money, rest and refuge from U.S. missile strikes are turning up in increasing numbers in Pakistan's largest city and economic hub, Karachi, according to militants, police officials and an intelligence memo.
The Taliban presence in this southern port city, hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from the Islamist extremists' strongholds in the northwest, shows how quickly their influence is spreading throughout the nuclear-armed nation.
Karachi is especially important because it is the main entryway for supplies headed to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, as well as the city most critical to Pakistani commerce. Few believe the Taliban could actually take over this diverse metropolis of more than 16 million, but there is fear that they could destabilize it through violence and rock the already shaky national economy.
As the Pakistan military intensifies its attacks in the northwest and the U.S. keeps launching missiles there, more insurgents are seeking safety in Karachi and other urban areas, militants said.
"We come in different batches to Karachi to rest and if needed, get medical treatment, and stay with many of our brothers who are living here in large numbers," 32-year-old militant Omar Gul Mehsud said while strolling along the beach.
Shah Jahan, a 35-year-old who said he commands about 24 Taliban fighters in the South Waziristan tribal region, said militants are scattering throughout Pakistan to avoid the U.S. missile strikes. He said groups of 20 to 25 fighters would fight for a few months, then take leaves of up to one month in cities including Karachi.
"We are more alert and cautious following the drone attacks, and we understand that it is not a wise approach to concentrate in a large number in the war-torn areas," he said.
On the outskirts of Karachi, large settlements of Afghan and Pakistani refugees have swelled over the past year by as many as 200,000 people. These refugees are mostly Pashtun, the ethnic group that dominates the militancy. An intelligence report warns that such neighborhoods have become favored hideouts for militants linked to Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan's top Taliban commander. The various settlements - dilapidated, poor, crime-ridden and wary of outsiders - sit along major entry and exit points to the city from east to west. "That's a very alarming formation," a senior official at the Intelligence Bureau, another spy agency, said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Senior police officer Raja Omar Khatab said investigations showed earth-excavation companies owned by members of the Mehsud tribe were helping fund the Taliban.
"Forcibly or voluntarily, they are bound to pay 40 percent of their earnings to Baitullah because they belong to that tribe and they are concerned about their survival and their links to their tribe," said Khatab.
A.D. Khowaja, another senior police official, said up to a third of Karachi bank robberies in the past two or three years were believed to help fund militant groups including the Taliban. Police statistics show in 2008, 29 robberies of banks or their cash-carrying vehicles were reported in Karachi.
Persistent battle
For Karachi residents, all the talk of the Taliban has brought confusion and nervousness. Some said they thought twice about what they wore or where they went, but that they still felt generally safe. Hadia Khan, a human resources consultant, said she joined a letter-writing campaign against the Taliban after seeing a video that apparently showed militants flogging a young woman in the Swat Valley, the focus of the renewed military offensive. "The thought that went through my mind was that this could be me, this could be my daughter, or people that I know of if it is brought into my part of the world," Khan said. "I guess to a great extent ... nobody wants to take a chance. Even if there is a .001 percent chance of that happening, people like myself will raise their voices against it."
Meanwhile, a Pakistani military offensive against Taliban fighters near the Afghan border has killed more than 1,000 suspected insurgents and "will continue till the last Taliban are flushed out," a top official said yesterday.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, speaking after visiting Pakistanis displaced by the battle, also wouldn't rule out extending the operation in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas to other parts of the northwest where al-Qaeda and the Taliban have long thrived.
"The operation is going in the right direction as we had planned," Malik said in a televised news conference from Mardan, a district hosting several relief camps for some of the nearly 1 million people turned refugees. "People wish to go back. That is what the government also wants. I cannot give a time but we will try (to complete the operation) at the earliest."
The Taliban presence in this southern port city, hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from the Islamist extremists' strongholds in the northwest, shows how quickly their influence is spreading throughout the nuclear-armed nation.
Karachi is especially important because it is the main entryway for supplies headed to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, as well as the city most critical to Pakistani commerce. Few believe the Taliban could actually take over this diverse metropolis of more than 16 million, but there is fear that they could destabilize it through violence and rock the already shaky national economy.
As the Pakistan military intensifies its attacks in the northwest and the U.S. keeps launching missiles there, more insurgents are seeking safety in Karachi and other urban areas, militants said.
"We come in different batches to Karachi to rest and if needed, get medical treatment, and stay with many of our brothers who are living here in large numbers," 32-year-old militant Omar Gul Mehsud said while strolling along the beach.
Shah Jahan, a 35-year-old who said he commands about 24 Taliban fighters in the South Waziristan tribal region, said militants are scattering throughout Pakistan to avoid the U.S. missile strikes. He said groups of 20 to 25 fighters would fight for a few months, then take leaves of up to one month in cities including Karachi.
"We are more alert and cautious following the drone attacks, and we understand that it is not a wise approach to concentrate in a large number in the war-torn areas," he said.
On the outskirts of Karachi, large settlements of Afghan and Pakistani refugees have swelled over the past year by as many as 200,000 people. These refugees are mostly Pashtun, the ethnic group that dominates the militancy. An intelligence report warns that such neighborhoods have become favored hideouts for militants linked to Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan's top Taliban commander. The various settlements - dilapidated, poor, crime-ridden and wary of outsiders - sit along major entry and exit points to the city from east to west. "That's a very alarming formation," a senior official at the Intelligence Bureau, another spy agency, said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Senior police officer Raja Omar Khatab said investigations showed earth-excavation companies owned by members of the Mehsud tribe were helping fund the Taliban.
"Forcibly or voluntarily, they are bound to pay 40 percent of their earnings to Baitullah because they belong to that tribe and they are concerned about their survival and their links to their tribe," said Khatab.
A.D. Khowaja, another senior police official, said up to a third of Karachi bank robberies in the past two or three years were believed to help fund militant groups including the Taliban. Police statistics show in 2008, 29 robberies of banks or their cash-carrying vehicles were reported in Karachi.
Persistent battle
For Karachi residents, all the talk of the Taliban has brought confusion and nervousness. Some said they thought twice about what they wore or where they went, but that they still felt generally safe. Hadia Khan, a human resources consultant, said she joined a letter-writing campaign against the Taliban after seeing a video that apparently showed militants flogging a young woman in the Swat Valley, the focus of the renewed military offensive. "The thought that went through my mind was that this could be me, this could be my daughter, or people that I know of if it is brought into my part of the world," Khan said. "I guess to a great extent ... nobody wants to take a chance. Even if there is a .001 percent chance of that happening, people like myself will raise their voices against it."
Meanwhile, a Pakistani military offensive against Taliban fighters near the Afghan border has killed more than 1,000 suspected insurgents and "will continue till the last Taliban are flushed out," a top official said yesterday.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, speaking after visiting Pakistanis displaced by the battle, also wouldn't rule out extending the operation in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas to other parts of the northwest where al-Qaeda and the Taliban have long thrived.
"The operation is going in the right direction as we had planned," Malik said in a televised news conference from Mardan, a district hosting several relief camps for some of the nearly 1 million people turned refugees. "People wish to go back. That is what the government also wants. I cannot give a time but we will try (to complete the operation) at the earliest."