Taliban Asserts Control Over Northern Pakistani Province
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban militias in Pakistan have set up offices, introduced taxes, and taken control of justice in the tribal agency of North Waziristan, where last month the government signed a peace agreement with militants.
In violation of the agreement, a Taliban shura, or council, distributed pamphlets of its policies at the weekend, while militants have begun to patrol the area’s streets and have already killed numerous “American spies.”
A “tax schedule” detailed how businesses are liable to pay charges to the Taliban. Trucks entering the agency will pay for a six-month pass and petrol-pump owners will have to make contributions to the council. The taxes were described as a “donation” in the pamphlet.
The deal signed by the government on September 5 stipulated that Al Qaeda fighters were to be expelled from North Waziristan and that pro-Taliban militants were not to run a “parallel administration” or take part in fighting against coalition forces across the border. In return, Pakistani forces, which had been fighting local militants over the summer, withdrew from combat. The army retained the right to launch strikes in the area if militants do not adhere to the deal.
It was later discovered by Pakistani journalists that the deal was signed with wanted militants and not with tribal elders, as was officially claimed. Pakistani officials hoped the deal would empower tribal elders to control militants in their region but an estimated 120 of them have been murdered in the past year.
Following the withdrawal of the army, mullahs and their long-haired, bearded, AK47-toting militants have filled a power vacuum. According to Pakistani reporters, some of the militants wear badges that read: “Appointed by the office of the Taliban, the mujahedeen of the North Waziristan Agency.”
Power is now in the hands of a so-called “mullahcracy” and people whom President Musharraf recently dismissed as “charasi,” or hashish-smoking, Taliban — thugs who use the Taliban’s mantle to coerce locals.
Maulana Abdul Khaliq Haqqani, a member of North Waziristan’s Taliban shura, said his followers were abiding by the pact. But he said they still offered “moral support” to those fighting in Afghanistan.
