NWFP GOVERNOR ON KHYBER OPERATION, FOREIGN FIGHTERS AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L PESHAWAR 000390


E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/8/2018
TAGS: PTER MOPS PGOV PINR PK AF
SUBJECT: NWFP GOVERNOR ON KHYBER OPERATION, FOREIGN FIGHTERS AND
PROSPECTS FOR PEACE TALKS

REF: A) PESHAWAR 389, B) PESHAWAR 382, C) PESHAWAR 370, D) PESHAWAR 360


CLASSIFIED BY: Michael A. Via, Acting Principal Officer,
Consulate Peshawar, State.
REASON: 1.4 (a),(b),(d)

Summary
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1. (C) Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) Governor Owais Ghani
briefed NSC Senior Director for South and Central Asia Mark
Webber on the status of current operations in Khyber Agency
during a July 3 meeting. While the Governor would like to
expand operations to other parts of Khyber agency, he is limited
by security forces which are "stretched." Uzbeks and Arabs are
still present in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA),
but Ghani assured Senior Director Webber that his forces would
go after militant commanders. Cooperation with political
leadership at the provincial level is good, but the Governor is
not receiving all of the support he has requested from
Islamabad. Repatriating Afghan refugees is still a challenge
due to ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan. While over 100
"militants" have been arrested and dozens of militant hideouts
demolished in the current Khyber operation thus far, it is
unclear whether the GOP speaks from a position of authority yet
in a tribal agency wracked by growing lawlessness and criminal
activity. End Summary.

Khyber Operation
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2. (C) The Governor stated that he had planned to carry out the
operation in Khyber agency's Bara area in April/May after a
skirmish with Mangal Bagh in Khyber's Jamrud area but had "been
too busy on other fronts to do so." Responding to a question
about potentially expanding operations into the Tirah Valley,
the Governor said that his forces were "stretched." According
to Ghani, he had initially requested four wings of Frontier
Corps, but was only given two. The Governor said he had needed
at least two wings to keep in reserve because the troops are
"getting tired." He also received only 27 of the 32 Frontier
Constabulary platoons that he had requested. (Note: A wing
consists of 400-650 soldiers. A platoon is approximately 30
troops. End note.)


3. (C) Ghani said that the operation in Bara had met with no
resistance due to four months of "political spadework." He
claimed that the operation had the support of the people and
that common individuals had assisted security forces in
identifying over 100 suspected militants who had since been
arrested. The Governor predicted that the operation would
continue for another seven to ten days and claimed that the
operation's objective of reducing the immediate threat to
Peshawar had been met. Ghani said that he is currently unable
to venture out of Bara because he does not have the manpower to
do so. He claimed, however, that Bara is now "weapons-free" and
that troops are confiscating militant arms.

Foreign Fighters
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4. (C) Responding to Senior Director Webber's question about the
presence of foreign fighters in the FATA, Ghani said that both
Uzbeks and Arabs "are still there." Despite the killing of
"hundreds" of Uzbeks during military operations in 2007, the
Governor did not see their numbers diminishing, but rather noted
a steady "trickle" of incoming Uzbek fighters. The Governor
also claimed that Arabs, who first "stage" in Afghanistan's
Helmand province, are coming into the tribal areas. The
Governor asked for the United States to "keep them busy in Iraq,
while we sort out our problems here." Ghani acknowledged that
cross-border movement has increased over recent months but noted
that recent peace talks in South Waziristan included provisions
specifically prohibiting this movement.


5. (C) Moving to the topic of confronting militant leaders such
as Baitullah Mehsud, the Haqqani network and Hekmatyar, the
Governor described these militants as the "center of gravity"
and urged that "we need to get them." He said that "we have no
reservations about going after them" and cited a shortage of
night fighting capability as a reason why Frontier Corps and
Army soldiers have been unable to follow through on capturing or
killing these commanders. The Governor said that he had
approached Chief of Army Staff General Kayani for this support
but has not yet received any material assistance. Webber
affirmed that the United States is prepared to help and
emphasized that staffing border coordination centers and
training sites would be a good step toward increased
U.S./Pakistan cooperation.

Cooperation with Political Leadership
--------------


6. (C) Governor Ghani described his "FATA Policy Committee" as
evidence that he is consulting the political leadership in the
Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). The Committee consists of
himself, NWFP Chief Minister Haider Hoti, Awami National Party
provincial president Afrasiab Khattak (in his new capacity as
"Peace Envoy"),the 11th Corps and Frontier Corps Commanders,
the NWFP Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and the FATA Additional
Chief Secretary (ref. C). He claimed that ANP leader Asfundyar
Wali Khan is "very much involved" in formulating FATA policy and
said that he had discussed the Bara operation with ANP's
leadership over a month ago. According to the Governor, ANP had
pressured Prime Minister Gilani to extract Frontier Constabulary
troopers from Balochistan to be used in the NWFP and FATA.
Ghani claimed that Pakistan's newly elected government is "still
having problems settling down" and commented that he was
somewhat concerned that Nawaz Sharif had not been consulted
about carrying out operations in Bara.

Refugees
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7. (C) Responding to Senior Director Webber's concern that
refugee camps can serve as centers of gravity for militancy in
Pakistan's northwest, Ghani replied that two major camps had
recently been "cleaned out." The Governor said that Peshawar's
Kachagari and Nowshera's Jalozai camps had been emptied, but he
was concerned about "destabilizing what little government is
left in Afghanistan." He said that he would like to push the
refugees back across the border because they are an "economic
and social drain" on his province, but they "need to have
something to go back to."

Fence the Border?
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8. (C) The Governor described his strategy of fencing and mining
the Pakistan/Afghanistan border and building approximately 25
biometric crossing points. He attributed his failure to
successfully carry out this initiative to Afghan "interference."
Ghani claimed that during his tenure as Governor of
Balochistan, a Governor from an adjacent province in Afghanistan
(NFI) led a procession and stoned a prototype border crossing
point that Ghani had established in the Chama Nagh area of
Balochistan. Ghani claimed that the Afghans were against
fencing the border because it would "inhibit the flow of
narcotics." He acknowledged the possibility of international
concern with mines, but requested that the United States find
out why the Afghans are against fencing and mining the border
and encouraged Webber to convince Afghanistan to participate.
(Note: In Ref A, Frontier Corps Commander Khattak did not
consider fencing, and particularly mining, to be a productive
use of resources in stopping cross-border attacks. End note.)

Militant Funding
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9. (C) Governor Ghani repeated his suspicion that Russia is
involved in funding militants in Afghanistan. (Note: Ghani
conveyed this theory to NIO Peter Lavoy on June 26 - ref C. End
note.) He claimed that successful attacks such as the July 2
downing of a helicopter in Afghanistan's Logar province are
evidence that Russian operatives are injecting high quality
arms, such as Stinger missiles, in "small, unnoticeable
quantities" into Afghanistan. According to the Governor, "the
Russians' greatest success lies in the fact that we have not yet
been able to discern their involvement." While Ghani conceded
that he did not have proof of this interference, he claimed that
an investigation would be necessary.

The Governor's FATA Policy
--------------



10. (C) NWFP Governor Owais Ghani described his policy in the
FATA in similar terms to those relayed to Counselor Eliot Cohen,
National Intelligence Officer Peter Lavoy and Ambassador on June
12, 18, and 26 (refs. B, C, and D). He described his strategy
of conducting peace talks with tribal elders as a means to carry
out development work in the FATA as quickly as possible. He
acknowledged that the accords - or "undertakings" - were not
long-term agreements and would not hold indefinitely. When
Senior Director Webber raised concerns that a lack of adequate
enforcement would enable the already increasing threat to grow
stronger, he acknowledged the need for continued security
operations to deal with violations of the agreements. However,
effective enforcement to the Governor means having military and
paramilitary troops ready to move in within a few hours and
noted that soldiers are present in North Waziristan's Miramshah,
Razmak, Dattakhel and Shawal areas. Ghani stated that he did
not wish to make the text of the South Waziristan agreement
public until it was finalized in order to prevent any negative
reaction in the press.

VIA