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.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP): Origins, Objectives and Key Commanders (Part one)



Nek Mohammad

The origin of the TTP in Pakistan begins with one man - Nek Mohammad . Nek was an active member of the Taliban in Afghanistan. He joined the movement in 1993 at the age of 18 and during the Taliban regime, had fought alongside the Pakistani FC (Frontier Constabulary militia) in Afghanistan against the Northern Alliance . However, after the fall of the Taliban regime in Kabul and Kandahar by the 7th of December 2001, he retreated to Wana and even helped facilitate Taliban and Al-Qaeda to settle in Waziristan.

By 2003, Nek Mohammad began gathering local tribesmen to attack NATO forces in Afghanistan with the help of Afghan war veterans Haji Omar, Omar Sharif and Maulvi Abbas. Additionally, he began giving refuge to the family members of the Afghan Taliban, the Arab fighters of Al-Qaeda and the Uzbek militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan of Tahir Yuldashey .

During this time, Pakistan’s policy was that of turning a blind eye to not only these militant activities but also to the continuing build-up of foreign militants, wanted men amongst them, in the tribal areas, particularly Waziristan .  However, under constant pressure from the United States to act against the buildup of militants in its own territory, Pakistan was compelled into launching its largest military operation yet against Nek Mohammad. Assisted by Baitullah Mehsud, Abdullah Mehsud and others, Nek Mohammad fought the Pakistani army for several weeks. The intense fighting was only concluded with the Shakai agreement between the Pakistani army and the now emerging Pakistani Taliban.

The Shakai agreement was troublesome and inconclusive at best. Not only was there no written agreement but no foreign militants surrendered. Even Nek Mohammad did not surrender . The only effect of this agreement was that Nek Mohammad was transformed overnight into a hero who had “defeated” the Pakistani army . However, within two weeks of the agreement, Nek Mohammad was targeted and killed in a US drone attack .

The death of Nek Mohammad, instead of being a serious blow to militant activities in FATA, ended up having the opposite effect. Not only was Nek’s status further elevated as a martyr but his followers began seeing the need for unifying the scattered groups of fighters under an umbrella organization. In December, 2003, commanders from South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Orakzai, Kurram, Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur and Darra Adamkhel tribal regions and the districts of Swat, Buner, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan and Kohat met secretly and chalked out the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.



The Alliance

The secret meeting of the various Taliban commanders in December, 2007 led to the formation of a Taliban shura or council of forty Taliban groups. They became popularly known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or the Taliban Movement of Pakistan. Baitullah Mehsud was elected as the group’s amir or leader. Maulana Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a North Waziristan commander, was elected as the deputy chief while the honorary position of general secretary went to the “FM Mullah”, Fazlullah of Swat. However, Hafiz Gul Bahadur soon fell out with the TTP and parted ways in order to join in with Mullah Nazir of North Waziristan, who had signed peace agreements with Pakistan . The TTP, however, considered Pakistan a murtid (or apostate) state, especially after the ill-advised Red Mosque operations of the Musharraf regime that left dozens of seminary students dead and caused widespread outrage amongst Pakistani society. The Red Mosque operation was also the impetus behind some of the most deadly suicide attacks on Pakistan’s armed forces .

The objectives of the TTP were simple. Jihad or holy war was now to be conducted with coordinated efforts, the aim being maximum pressure on NATO and its Pakistani allies. At the same time, they would also combine their resources and manpower to become an effective fighting force. The main objective of the organization was to defeat the ISAF forces in Afghanistan, established their brand of Shari’ah Law in FATA and Afghanistan or restore the Caliphate, as they prefer to call it .

Speaking to Al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Zaidan in January, 2008, Baitullah Mehsud said, “The main objective of the coalition of militants is waging a defensive jehad. The Pakistan army is deploying its soldiers under order from George Bush. The army is bombarding our houses and fighting with us. Therefore, we have formed this coalition to guarantee the safety of civilians and this war which the army launched in the tribal areas is an American war. We no more feel sad about the Pakistani soldiers’ deaths. They are actually implementing the orders of the West and the US and they are destroying our houses. And I do pray that Allah will guide them back to the right path because they are Muslims and this is an Islamic country. But when the army soldiers tome to this areas to kill us, we will definitely be killing them”.

Curiously enough, the council has also adopted article 5 of NATO, citing that an attack on any one of the members of the TTP would be considered an attack on the entire organization . The TTP, thus, spread its network in all seven agencies of the FATA and in the settled districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Bannu, Karak, Hangu, Kulachi, Dera Ismail Khan (D.I. Khan), Lakki Marwat, Doaba, Kohat, Dir, Buner, and to some extent Mardan, the Swat Valley, and Shangla district .

South Waziristan, particularly Miram Shah, became the headquarters and the base of operations for the TTP. Concurrently, South Waziristan’s federally appointed political agent became a mere spectator as the TTP virtually took over all of South Waziristan’s affairs, becoming the judge, jury, executioner as well as the police, the taxation authority, the religious authority and the executive of the agency. The state-writ of Pakistan was systematically and swiftly dismantled. Following the traditional Taliban extreme interpretation of Deobandi Sunni Islam with a heavy dose of Salafi or Wahabi influences, the TTP began growing into prominence by attacking the Shi’ite minority in neighboring D.I. Khan . The TTP also began carrying out deadly attacks against the poorly armed soldiers of the FC, a trend that continues to this day .

However, the TTP’s activities did not stop there. As allies of Al-Qaeda , the TTP not only facilitated Al-Qaeda’s global jihad ideals but also helped train and equip various groups and individuals that were meant to carry out attacks in mainland Europe, the United Kingdom and North America .