Is Baitullah really dead?

US drone attacks are not popular in Pakistan but it is the first time that a big number of Pakistanis are happy over a news report that the head of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a drone attack on Aug 5 in South Waziristan. Baitullah Mehsud was the most wanted and the most ruthless man in Pakistan who was responsible for dozens of suicide attacks across the country. Government of Pakistan has not officially confirmed his death yet. (The Taliban have denied his killing.)

News of his death first came through American media sources on Aug 7. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also confirmed his death by quoting intelligence sources but Interior Minister Rehman Malik is careful. A senator from South Wazirastan told him in the morning of Aug 8 that Baitullah is not dead and that was why Rehman Malik never confirmed the death of the most wanted man to media. Many Pakistanis think that if Baitullah is dead just few days before the 62nd independence day of Pakistan then it is a great gift from a US drone but common Pakistanis are also raising some questions. Pakistani security establishment started saying last year that Baitullah was actually working for Americans and Indians and that was why US drones never attacked him. The reason behind this conspiracy theory was the rising suicide attacks against Pakistani security forces. ISI requested CIA many times in 2007 to target Baitullah Mehsud but CIA never obliged ISI. CIA was under the impression that ISI is not helping it in hunting down the militant leaders like Maulvi Nazir, Hafiz Gul Bahadar and Sirajuddin Haqqani who are attacking US troops in Afghanistan. Pakistani government made peace agreements with these militants who were only fighting in Afghanistan while Baitullah was fighting against Pakistani security forces. Situation started changing after the removal of Musharraf from the top Army command. Well coordinated joint efforts to defeat Taliban and Al Qaeda were started just few months back. US announced 5 million dollars and Pakistan announced 50 million rupees as a head money for Baitullah. Some problems were still there. Few weeks ago a rebel militant from South Wazirastan Qari Zainuddin Mehsud gave interviews to Pakistani media and claimed that Baitullah was working for Americans and Indians. This rebel militant was backed by the security establishment and his claim created lot of misunderstandings. Within few days of these interviews, Baitullah killed Qari Zinuddin on June 23, 2009, in Dera Ismail Khan and gave a message that he can target his enemies anytime and anywhere in Pakistan. Just few weeks after the death of Qari Zainuddin, Pakistani intelligence sources are now claiming that Baitullah have been killed in a US drone attack. Question is that will the Pakistani government pay Rs50 Million to CIA for eliminating the most wanted man in the country? US drones cannot target anyone in Pakistani territory until someone from Pakistan is not ready to share intelligence with CIA. Now who will get 5 million US dollars from CIA in Pakistan? Will our president and prime minister say openly "Thank You America?" or they will again condemn the US drone attack in Pakistan? It is now proved that despite some trust deficit in the past, currently US and Pakistani intelligence agencies are working closely with each other. Pakistani security forces encircled Baitullah Mehsud from three sides in South Wazirastan and someone provided information of his movement to CIA and that was how the head of Pakistani Taliban was targeted by a US drone. There is no doubt now. US drones are attacking targets in Pakistan with the secret cooperation from some Pakistanis but our government always condemned these drone attacks. Pakistan today needs a transparent and bold policy for fighting terrorism. If we are coordinating US drone attacks in our own country then our government should not condemn drone attacks in Pakistan publicly. It is only creating misunderstandings. Common Pakistanis cannot be fooled. It is the Pakistani government which is losing credibility. A government without credibility cannot defeat terrorism. If Baitullah is really dead and our government is happy then US drone attacks in Pakistan will be legitimised and we will not be in a position to condemn these attacks in the future. May be that is the reason Interior Minister Rehman Malik told me that "even if Baitullah Mehsud is killed I condemn US drone attacks in Pakistan." We must learn lessons from our past mistakes. We must admit that Baitullah Mehsud was actually created by our own establishment. We used Brig (R) Qayyum Sher in January 2005 to win the support of Baitullah Mehsud against Abdullah Mehsud. Lt Gen Safdar Hussain approved the first peace agreement with Baitullah Mehsud in February 2005 and Pakistan Army agreed to withdraw its troops from the areas under Baitullah control. After the withdrawal of the Army from his areas, Baitullah broke the peace agreement in July 2005. He kidnapped 243 Pakistani soldiers from his area in August 2007 and Musharraf was forced to release these soldiers again through another secret deal with Baitullah on Nov 4, 2007. Pakistani establishment again struck a deal with him in January 2008 but it was broken in a few weeks. All these deals were secret. We don't need secret deals with militants anymore. If we need peace deals then discuss these deals first in the parliament. And the most important lesson. We should not form any private militias against other private militias to fight in our own country. Read Article 256 of the Constitution of Pakistan which says "no private organisation capable of functioning as a military organization shall be formed, and any such organisation shall be illegal." Unfortunately we are again forming private militias in Swat, Buner and Dir. These militias may produce some more Baitullah Mehsuds. I still believe that we must not celebrate the reported death of Baitullah Mehsud. His network is still intact. If he is dead then his network will organise brutal attacks in our cities soon. His physical elimination is not a victory. I think that the real victory will be establishing the writ of Pakistani state in the whole of South Wazirastan. Unfortunately we don't have control in that area. We are not sure that Baitullah is dead or alive. For me he is still alive. I will consider him dead when the national flag of Pakistan will be hoisted on the buildings of all the schools in South Wazirastan and students will celebrate Aug 14 without any fear. The writer is executive editor of Geo TV in Islamabad. Email: hamid.mir@ geo.tv

Hamid Mir——Bio and Archives

Hamid Mir is the Executive Editor of Geo TV in Islamabad and he has also interviewed Osama bin Laden, Tony Blair, Condoleezza Rice, General Pervaiz Musharraf, Hamid Karzai, L K Advani and other international leaders.

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