[A remarkable event, virtually uncovered in the US]
September 14 2007 Financial Times
A burdened military is vexed by its missing 240 By Farhan Bokhari
Pakistan's military still has trouble explaining exactly how it happened that, on August 30, more than 240 of its soldiers were taken captive by militants in the remote region of South Waziristan, just when they should have been on their highest state of alert.
According to the armed forces, not a shot was fired by the soldiers, but senior military officials insist that was because the troops were under orders to show restraint. The debacle raises questions about the loyalty of combat troops and their reliability in the fight against militant extremists.
The scale of the kidnapping is unprecedented, even in Pakistan's unruly tribal areas, which lie largely outside the control of the state. South and North Waziristan, on the Afghan border, are thought to be the regions where much of the al-Qaeda leadership has sought refuge after being driven out of Afghanistan earlier in the decade. The US has been pressing Pakistan to hunt down militant leaders in these areas.
For the moment, the Pakistani government is trying non-violent means to secure the soldiers' release - using a local council of tribal leaders known as a jirga to negotiate with the hostage takers - though an imminent end to the crisis appears unlikely. The hostage takers are demanding the release of several hardcore militants, arrested in the past three years, as the price for the soldiers' freedom.
Officials in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the region that surrounds the tribal areas, warn that the soldiers have been split into nine groups that are being kept well apart. Rescue is thought impossible without a risk of large-scale casualties, including hostages.
Earlier last month, militants in the same region kidnapped 16 paramilitary soldiers. Only 15 returned: the other was beheaded by a teenager and a video of that act delivered to Pakistani officials as a reminder of what could happen to soldiers in captivity. "Those who saw the video still have sleepless nights. It was a reminder of how cruel these people are," says an NWFP government official who has spoken to some who watched the clip.
"You can't have a sustained operation of this kind over three years ... against your own people without this kind of outcome," says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a defence commentator. "Militaries are trained to fight well-armed enemy troops. When you make them fight your own people, there is always the danger of troops becoming either demoralised or simply taking the view that their battle has no legitimacy."
Retired Lieutenant General Moinuddin Haider, the former interior minister, warns that the kidnappings have wider repercussions for public morale across Pakistan. "Pakistanis could see this event as a voluntary surrender even though there's no evidence that these soldiers simply walked over to the other side. The image of what has happened has considerably damaged the view of the government."
Western military analysts say the Pakistani military continues to be at a disadvantage in the tribal areas - a region that was simply out of bounds for the government before 2003. In their three-year operation, Pakistani military troops have relied on support from paramilitary soldiers who are largely recruited from the tribal areas and become part of what is known as the Frontier Corps. "You can argue the FC boys will always have split loyalties. In many instances, they will be told to operate in places against their friends or even family," says one western analyst. "How can you be sure [FC troops] will come along willingly?"
Gen Haider warns that the kidnappings have come at an inopportune time for President Pervez Musharraf just when he is under mounting pressure to tackle security problems across the country.
On September 4, two suicide attacks -- including one that targeted a bus carrying junior employees of Inter Services Intelligence, the country's counter-spy agency -- left up to 29 dead. Particularly disconcerting for the military, the incidents took place in the heart of Rawalpindi, the garrison town where the army's headquarters are located, just outside the capital Islamabad.
Investigators are looking into possible links between the attackers and the militants who are holding the soldiers in South Waziristan.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007