The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP): Origins, Objectives and Key Commanders (Part two)
Baitullah Mehsud
From the 15th of December, 2007 until August 5, 2009, the key figure and guiding-head of the TTP was Baitullah Mehsud. He headed the organization during its most destructive and lethal phase.
Baitullah’s rise to power is nothing short of phenomenal. He became the first non-Malik in recent history to ascend to such a position of authority in the tribal structure of FATA . Educated only till the age of twelve in a religious seminary, his youth was spent fighting alongside Mullah Omar’s Taliban in Afghanistan. Highly conservative, Baitullah even refused to be photographed and held Mullah Omar in high esteem, referring to him as the amir-ul-momineen or the prince of the faithful. After having retreated to Pakistan after 2001, Baitullah began to rise as a prominent figure in his native Waziristan by using his illegal FM radio channel to enforce Shari’ah with a view to prevent vice and promote virtue. He was also responsible for bringing in thousands of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Uzbek fighters into Waziristan after their retreat from Tora Bora .
As his influence grew in the region, he began implementing Mullah Omar’s version of Shari’ah in Waziristan. Beards became mandatory for men and the all-encompassing burkha (veil) became obligatory for women. Even the famous Wazirstani folk singer, Kamal Mehsud, was forced to settle into Islamabad during this time-period.
There are two events in Baitullah’s life that solidified his position as Waziristan’s de facto Amir and helped him gain more recruits to his cause. The first is the Sararogha peace accord of February 2005, during which Lt. Gen Sadfar Hussain, the then Peshawar Corps Commander, stood next to Baitullah Mehsud and in front of an audience of about a thousand people, declared him a “soldier of peace”, to which the crowd changed, “Allah-o-Akbar” and “Death to America” . He was also offered US$20 million by the Pakistani government to repay his debts to Al-Qaeda . Needless to say, the numbers of his followers swelled because of this treaty.
The second incident that further popularized Baitullah was the rather curious capture of up to 300 Pakistani soldiers by the TTP’s men in Ladha, in August, 2007, officers up to the rank of major among them . Hakimullah Mehsud, one of Baitullah’s top lieutenants, was in charge of the unit that conducted this capture. The soldiers were later exchanged for the release of convicted Taliban detainees in Pakistani prisons. The incident was a huge blow to Musharraf’s as well as the Pakistani army’s prestige and showed how demotivated the common soldiery was in what it thought was an American war on terror.
Baitullah Mehsud was also responsible for various other attacks in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar from 2008 onwards, which will be discussed in detail in the next few blog entries. Astoundingly though, he also declared in December 2008 that he would send his fighters against India if it retaliated against Pakistan for the Mumbai attacks .
By February, 2009, however, there was another peace deal between Baitullah Mehsud and the Pakistani government; though this time the Pakistanis denied it in public. This was the time period when Mullah Omar himself called on Baitullah to stop his attacks on Pakistan and focus instead on Afghanistan. Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gulbahadur had already parted ways with the TTP as early as 2007 because of the latter’s attacks on Pakistan but the three came together in 2009 as the Shura Ittehadul Mujahideen (the Council of Unity of Holy Warriors). He spent such peace deals directing his forces to plant IEDs on military routes .
Baitullah thus met his end when his power was at its peak. He had routed all opposition from Waziristan, especially the pro-ANP and pro-PPP camps, and had become untouchable – or so he thought. George Bush’s White House had always designated Baitullah Mehsud as a militant and not an Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist. Therefore, the Bush administration showed little interest in killing or capturing him. However, with Obama in the White House, that changed. On March 26, 2009, the US State Department announced a prize of US$5 million for Baitullah Mehsud’s capture or death. To understand how serious Obama was about this, Mullah Omar’s bounty was US$10 million, not that far off from Baitullah Mehsud’s . Obama wanted to send a message to the Pakistanis that the US would not accept peace with the Taliban at any cost. The Obama administration was especially afraid of letting this war slip out of its fingers. Mark Hosenball observed that “officials in both Washington and Islamabad suspect that Mehsud has contacts inside the ISI… (who are) tipping him off before the Pakistani security forces can pounce ”.
The US’s new envoy to the region, Richard Halbrooke upped the ante by referring to Baitullah Mehsud as a “terrible man” who is “as bad as any actor can be ”. Fearing he is being encircled, Baitullah unleashed his terror on Pakistani cities, carrying out suicide-attacks on police, military and even civilian targets.
Pakistan’s public enemy number one met his end in peculiar circumstances. Having had only daughters with his first wife, he had only recently gotten married to a local cleric’s daughter in Zangarha village in South Waziristan because he desired a son . As a diabetic, he would usually lose some sensation in his limbs and was, on that night of 5th August, 2009, getting his leg massaged on his father-in-law’s roof. An unmanned US Predator drone fired a single Hellfire Missile that instantly killed Baitullah Mehsud and his wife. After a few days of silence and contradictory statements, the TTP finally accepted his death . Whether it was Baitullah’s growing ties to Mullah Omar that forced the US to accept him as a high-level target or Pakistan’s fear that Talibanization within its borders was getting out of control, the fact is that the man had reneged on several promises and had made it clear that he preferred chaos and anarchy over peace.
Baitullah Mehsud
From the 15th of December, 2007 until August 5, 2009, the key figure and guiding-head of the TTP was Baitullah Mehsud. He headed the organization during its most destructive and lethal phase.
Baitullah’s rise to power is nothing short of phenomenal. He became the first non-Malik in recent history to ascend to such a position of authority in the tribal structure of FATA . Educated only till the age of twelve in a religious seminary, his youth was spent fighting alongside Mullah Omar’s Taliban in Afghanistan. Highly conservative, Baitullah even refused to be photographed and held Mullah Omar in high esteem, referring to him as the amir-ul-momineen or the prince of the faithful. After having retreated to Pakistan after 2001, Baitullah began to rise as a prominent figure in his native Waziristan by using his illegal FM radio channel to enforce Shari’ah with a view to prevent vice and promote virtue. He was also responsible for bringing in thousands of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Uzbek fighters into Waziristan after their retreat from Tora Bora .
As his influence grew in the region, he began implementing Mullah Omar’s version of Shari’ah in Waziristan. Beards became mandatory for men and the all-encompassing burkha (veil) became obligatory for women. Even the famous Wazirstani folk singer, Kamal Mehsud, was forced to settle into Islamabad during this time-period.
There are two events in Baitullah’s life that solidified his position as Waziristan’s de facto Amir and helped him gain more recruits to his cause. The first is the Sararogha peace accord of February 2005, during which Lt. Gen Sadfar Hussain, the then Peshawar Corps Commander, stood next to Baitullah Mehsud and in front of an audience of about a thousand people, declared him a “soldier of peace”, to which the crowd changed, “Allah-o-Akbar” and “Death to America” . He was also offered US$20 million by the Pakistani government to repay his debts to Al-Qaeda . Needless to say, the numbers of his followers swelled because of this treaty.
The second incident that further popularized Baitullah was the rather curious capture of up to 300 Pakistani soldiers by the TTP’s men in Ladha, in August, 2007, officers up to the rank of major among them . Hakimullah Mehsud, one of Baitullah’s top lieutenants, was in charge of the unit that conducted this capture. The soldiers were later exchanged for the release of convicted Taliban detainees in Pakistani prisons. The incident was a huge blow to Musharraf’s as well as the Pakistani army’s prestige and showed how demotivated the common soldiery was in what it thought was an American war on terror.
Baitullah Mehsud was also responsible for various other attacks in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar from 2008 onwards, which will be discussed in detail in the next few blog entries. Astoundingly though, he also declared in December 2008 that he would send his fighters against India if it retaliated against Pakistan for the Mumbai attacks .
By February, 2009, however, there was another peace deal between Baitullah Mehsud and the Pakistani government; though this time the Pakistanis denied it in public. This was the time period when Mullah Omar himself called on Baitullah to stop his attacks on Pakistan and focus instead on Afghanistan. Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gulbahadur had already parted ways with the TTP as early as 2007 because of the latter’s attacks on Pakistan but the three came together in 2009 as the Shura Ittehadul Mujahideen (the Council of Unity of Holy Warriors). He spent such peace deals directing his forces to plant IEDs on military routes .
Baitullah thus met his end when his power was at its peak. He had routed all opposition from Waziristan, especially the pro-ANP and pro-PPP camps, and had become untouchable – or so he thought. George Bush’s White House had always designated Baitullah Mehsud as a militant and not an Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist. Therefore, the Bush administration showed little interest in killing or capturing him. However, with Obama in the White House, that changed. On March 26, 2009, the US State Department announced a prize of US$5 million for Baitullah Mehsud’s capture or death. To understand how serious Obama was about this, Mullah Omar’s bounty was US$10 million, not that far off from Baitullah Mehsud’s . Obama wanted to send a message to the Pakistanis that the US would not accept peace with the Taliban at any cost. The Obama administration was especially afraid of letting this war slip out of its fingers. Mark Hosenball observed that “officials in both Washington and Islamabad suspect that Mehsud has contacts inside the ISI… (who are) tipping him off before the Pakistani security forces can pounce ”.
The US’s new envoy to the region, Richard Halbrooke upped the ante by referring to Baitullah Mehsud as a “terrible man” who is “as bad as any actor can be ”. Fearing he is being encircled, Baitullah unleashed his terror on Pakistani cities, carrying out suicide-attacks on police, military and even civilian targets.
Pakistan’s public enemy number one met his end in peculiar circumstances. Having had only daughters with his first wife, he had only recently gotten married to a local cleric’s daughter in Zangarha village in South Waziristan because he desired a son . As a diabetic, he would usually lose some sensation in his limbs and was, on that night of 5th August, 2009, getting his leg massaged on his father-in-law’s roof. An unmanned US Predator drone fired a single Hellfire Missile that instantly killed Baitullah Mehsud and his wife. After a few days of silence and contradictory statements, the TTP finally accepted his death . Whether it was Baitullah’s growing ties to Mullah Omar that forced the US to accept him as a high-level target or Pakistan’s fear that Talibanization within its borders was getting out of control, the fact is that the man had reneged on several promises and had made it clear that he preferred chaos and anarchy over peace.
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