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@tequieremos
History buff | Archaeologist | Cricket nut | Tennis
enthusiast | ! | “Life without an ideology is like
a body without a soul”
Jul. 01, 2021 4 min read

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Some parts of Imran Khan's speech where he discussed the initial years of
Pakistan's war against terror after the US invasion are devoid of facts. Some
important clarifications:

1. Mir Aimal Kasi was the only Pakistani who was handed over to the US
authorities. Out of...

689 militants of Al Qaeda apprehended by Pakistan, 369 were handed over to

the United States. They were not Pakistanis but foreign fighters who had
escaped into erstwhile FATA after the aerial bombardment by US forces
when they dropped 12000 bombs out of which 40% were misguided.

2. The Battle of Tora Bora started on December 3, 2001. In the next four
days, B-52s and other high-altitude aircraft dropped 700,000 pounds of
explosives on Al Qaeda’s suspected positions. But the US military planners
failed to realize that Tora Bora was constructed 15 years...

before to withstand heavy Soviet aerial bombardment. Without the use of

land forces and coordination with Pakistani forces on other side of the
border, Al Qaeda fighters managed to escape into the tribal areas.
:
 3. General Musharraf was furious after the Battle of Tora Bora:

“General Franks, what are you doing? You are flushing these guys out and
there are 150 valleys for them to move through. They are pouring in to my
country”

Franks who was commander CENTCOM did not have an answer.

4. Thanks to the number of routes available on Pak Afghan border as shown

in the excerpt from Saleem Shahzad's "Inside Al Qaeda and Taliban”, fighters
of AQ managed to escape.

Their number was not in ‘few hundred’ as the PM said but they were more
than 10,000 foreign fighters.

5. When Musharraf ordered the military to enter the No Go areas of ex FATA

for the first time on 11 Dec 200, it was with the consent of tribesmen. General
Ali Jan Aurakzai who was from Orakzai agency was appointed Corps
Commander Peshawar. In the next two years, the army...
:
 engineers built 700 kms of roads, over three dozen schools for girls and boys,
four colleges, scores of water schemes, and basic health units in the
previously inaccessible areas of FATA. In addition to providing free medical
and eyes camps all across FATA, free medicine were...

provided to the tribes wherever the troops were deployed.

During the fifth meeting of the Chief Executive's Committee on Devolution

held in President Musharraf's Secretariat on January 22 and 23, 2002, it was
decided that FATA will be merged with KPK by March 2002.

6. While Pakistan established 665 checkpoints with 75000 troops in the next
few years along its side of the 600 kms stretch of the Durand Line to
apprehend the foreign fighters, coalition forces established just 69 posts with
25000 troops which was not enough to man the border.

7. While Musharraf was trying to secure the border areas with an aim to stop
the foreign fighters of Al Qaeda from Afghanistan, he was engaged on the
eastern front by India's massive mobilization of forces when Vajpayee was
planning a full scale war in 2001-02.

8. Indian army failed to achieve the objectives of Operation Parakram and

lost 798 soldiers without fighting in a ten months military stand off.

Credit does to President Musharraf for escalating the forces within a few days
because of which India lost the element of surprise.

9. Musharraf was not even threatened to move the three brigades of 11 Corps
from Khyber, Kurram and Orakzai agencies towards the east. But Al Qaeda
managed to strengthen itself in South Waziristan when Pakistani forces were
focused on the east.

10. Subsequently, a number of military operations after the ‘Battle of Tora

Bora’ were launched by the US forces in eastern and southern parts of
Afghanistan such as Anaconda, Valiant Shield, Mountain Loin, Snipe,
Dragon Fury, Haven Denial, Warrior Sweep, Mountain Viper...
:
 Mountain Resolve, and Mountain Sweep but they failed to establish blocking
points as a result of which Al Qaeda kept on pouring in the tribal areas of
Pak. Like I wrote above

11. The ideologues of Al Qaeda like Sheikh Essa decided to establish the
erstwhile FATA as their strategic backyard. They became guests of the locals
who were naive and could not say no because of the Pashtunwali code while
Al Qaeda cunningly crafted circumstances to replace..

...the political agents in tribal areas with local militias. Men like Nek
Muhammad and Baitullah Mehsud were given money and weapons. Within a
few years, Al Qaeda established its stronghold amidst military ops and peace
deals. Al Qaeda united 13 groups and formed the TTP in 2007.

12. Musharraf did mention in his book that he received millions for handing
over the terrorists of Al Qaeda but it's important to understand the context.
He was referring to how the west continues to downplay Pakistan's
contributions against Al Qaeda.
:
 13. The achievements of Pakistan against Al Qaeda are more than any other
country in the world. More than 1000 were killed, around 700 operatives
were apprehended which dismantled an organization which was a threat to
the world.

It's important to set the narrative right!

Reference:

1. Saleem Shahzad, Inside Al Qaeda and Taliban

2. Tariq Mehmood, The Durand Line
3. Ali Jan Aurakzai, Beyond Tora Bora
4. Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire
5. Steve Coll, Directorate S
6. Brig Gurmeet Kanwal's chapter in ‘Indo Pakistan Military Stand off’

A point I forgot to add is that it was Musharraf who suggested before the
Bonn agreement in 2001 that Afghan Taliban must be included in any power
sharing formula but the US, Russia, Iran and India rejected it. He proposed
the same in his demand of a Grand Jirga in 2006.

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