Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09PESHAWAR131
2009-06-16 12:52:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Peshawar
Cable title:  

MILITARY ACTION IN FR BANNU: OPENING MOVE FOR WAZIRISTAN?

Tags:  MOPS PTER PGOV PREF PK 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PESHAWAR 000131 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/16/2019
TAGS: MOPS PTER PGOV PREF PK
SUBJECT: MILITARY ACTION IN FR BANNU: OPENING MOVE FOR WAZIRISTAN?

CLASSIFIED BY: Lynne Tracy, Principal Officer, U.S. Consulate
Peshawar, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PESHAWAR 000131

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/16/2019
TAGS: MOPS PTER PGOV PREF PK
SUBJECT: MILITARY ACTION IN FR BANNU: OPENING MOVE FOR WAZIRISTAN?

CLASSIFIED BY: Lynne Tracy, Principal Officer, U.S. Consulate
Peshawar, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (d)

1. (C) Summary: A Pakistani military operation in Frontier
Region Bannu, on the border of North Waziristan Agency (NWA),
has resulted in over two hundred deaths and significant
displacement. The operation, launched two weeks after the
kidnapping of 120 students and staff from Razmak Cadet College
(reftel),targets the tribes in whose area the kidnapping took
place. In the area, however, it is seen as an opening move in
the expected Pakistani military campaign in the Mehsud areas of
South Waziristan Agency (SWA),and its internally displaced
people (IDPs) are seen as the first of many and as a major
security risk by authorities in settled areas to their east.
End summary.

FR Bannu Operation: Response to Kidnapping?
--------------


2. (SBU) After moving reinforcements into the area on June 7-8,
the Pakistani military began bombardment of areas of F.R. Bannu,
occupied by the Jani Khel and Bakka Khel sub-tribes of the
Wazir, on the evening of June 9. Beginning June 10, Pakistani
ground forces began sweeps into these areas, arresting suspects
and engaging in combat where they met with resistance. To date,
well over 150 people have been reported killed in the operation
in F.R. Bannu, more than 140 buildings destroyed, and more than
thirty suspects arrested. Most of the force employed so far has
been in the Jani Khel area. The Bakka Khels, who as of June 15
had formed a peace jirga and were negotiating with the
government for the surrender of militants in their area, have
not experienced as much fighting. As of June 15, the military
was beginning operations into the areas dominated by the Gorbaz
tribe, to the west of the Jani Khel along the road from Bannu to
Miram Shah. The military has not yet reported any casualties in
the operation in F.R. Bannu.


3. (C) The operation in F.R. Bannu began after the expiration of
a deadline given by the NWA Political Agent (whose writ extends
to F.R. Bannu) for surrender by the Bakka Khel and Jani Khel
tribes of militants involved in the June 1 kidnapping of 120

students and staff from NWA's Razmak Cadet College (ref A). The
kidnapping, which took place on a portion of the Miram
Shah-Bannu road dominated by the Bakka Khel, has never been
claimed by any of the militias operating in the region
(including Baitullah Mehsud's Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan - TTP).
Eighty of the victims were rescued on the evening of their
capture after a brief battle with security forces. The other
forty were released June 4 after furious activity by the
Pakistani government, which included a government threat of
military action against the Jani Khel and Bakka Khel, the
convening of a jirga in Waziri areas of SWA, and a reported
approach to NWA warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur by members of Jamiat
Ulema-i-Islam-Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F). The rationale behind both
the kidnapping and the release, however, has never been
convincingly explained, and residents of Bannu and the
Waziristans who have discussed the subject with the Consulate
uniformly regard the event as a "drama" staged by the Pakistani
government to justify military action in F.R. Bannu.

TTP Responds in SWA
--------------


4. (C/NF) The military operation in F.R. Bannu is provoking
already-ongoing sporadic fighting between militants and the
Pakistani military 40 miles to the south in F.R. Tank and SWA.
Over the night of June 10-11, the Pakistani army reported that
several hundred militants attacked three of its posts in and
near Mehsud areas, at Jandola (F.R. Tank),Siplatoi (SWA),and
Chakmalai (SWA). The latter of these posts has come under
serious attack multiple times since its establishment well
inside Mehsud areas three weeks ago.

IDPs Raise Fears in Bannu, D.I. Khan
--------------


5. (C) Residents of the areas of F.R. Bannu affected by the
conflict have begun to flee the area. Most are moving east
toward Bannu district, which former Bannu district coordinating
officer (DCO) Javed Marwat told Consulate has raised fears in

PESHAWAR 00000131 002 OF 002


the district government of large-scale militant infiltration.
The government has responded by forbidding Bannu district
residents from hosting IDPs from F.R. Bannu in their homes.
Those defying this order face the potential penalty of having
their homes destroyed if they are found to shelter a militant,
even if unwittingly. This penalty, long the rule under the
collective-punishment system present in the tribal agencies and
frontier regions, had not been previously employed on a large
scale outside of those areas.


6. (C) The government has instead designated a location in a
rural area of Bannu district at which all IDPs from F.R. Bannu
must stay if they wish to remain in the district. According to
Consulate contacts on the ground, however, no preparations have
been made to develop infrastructure for the establishment of an
IDP camp in the area. Most IDPs coming into Bannu district,
therefore, have been continuing on in the direction of either
Peshawar or Dera Ismail Khan.


7. (SBU) In Dera Ismail Khan, however, sectarian violence has
already been heating up over the past two weeks, and the outflow
of IDPs from F.R. Bannu has raised fears of further tensions.
The most recent round of tit-for-tat killings, set off a month
ago by the killing of a mohajir by a Shi'a in a quarrel, has
pitted Shi'as against primarily mohajir Sunni merchants in the
city's bazaars. (Note: "Mohajir" is generally understood to
mean Muslims who re-settled in Pakistan from India around 1947.)
Scores have been killed and injured in dozens of attacks over
the past two weeks, including 21 wounded in two grenade attacks,
a shooting, and an IED attack on June 11 and twelve killed and
over forty (primarily Sunni) wounded in an IED attack on a
crowded market on June 14.


8. (C) According to (Sunni) D.I. Khan Provincial Assembly member
Latif Alizai, the violence has been supplemented by actions
attributed to indigenous Sunnis affiliated with Sipah-i-Sahaba,
which maintains strong links to the TTP, rather than the mohajir
community. The recent arrest of a kidnapping ring, all of whose
members were Mehsuds, has exacerbated the situation. Alizai
says the district government seems to be backing off its earlier
insistence that no IDP camps be established within the district,
but no arrangements have been made to designate camp sites in
the district as yet.


9. (C) According to tribal elder and journalist Selab Mehsud,
large numbers of people are living in informal camps,
particularly in Tank. Given the issues in the settled districts
to their east, however, some families in the Waziristans appear
to be making arrangements to go in other directions. A few are
even crossing the border into Afghanistan; Mehsud noted that he
was in contact with one of approximately 25 families among the
Ahmedzai Waziris who had already emigrated there, and he said
that others are planning to do so.

Comment
--------------


10. (C) The Pakistani military action in F.R. Bannu, while
apparently limited in scope, has again turned the spotlight
toward the Waziristans, where NWFP Governor Ghani on June 14
announced that a "full-scale attack" was imminent, although the
army spokesman declined to confirm the army's intent. The
escalation in TTP attacks on Pakistani military emplacements in
the area, like their attacks further afield in Peshawar and
elsewhere, seem to be in recognition of the seriousness of the
military's intent to destroy the organization. The reaction of
authorities in Bannu district to the F.R. Bannu campaign,
combined with statements we have previously heard from NWFP
authorities (ref B),indicate that the government will view IDPs
from a Waziristan campaign as more of a security issue than a
humanitarian issue, and it will take measures accordingly.
TRACY