The trouble in South Waziristan

The Hammer and Anvil Operation that the US forces launched in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas - with Pakistan wielding the hammer rather than holding the anvil - has caused painful loss of life as well as political unrest in this country.
As the MMA launched a countrywide protest on Friday against the military operation in South Waziristan, the bodies of eight soldiers, abducted in an ambush last week in the troubled area, were found dumped after having been shot at close range.
That has brought the known tally of the soldiers killed in the military operation in South Waziristan to 43, while several others have been injured.
On the side of the tribals too scores of people, including ordinary citizens, have been killed, many arrested, and a number of houses have also been flattened. All of this has generated a sense of indignation in the country.
The general public is disturbed at the news of Pakistanis killing Pakistanis while those belonging to the affected areas are outraged at the loss of life of relatives and friends as well as at having been displaced from their homes.
Further vitiating the atmosphere are not only the MMA leaders' fulminations but an edict jointly issued by a number of Ulema that declared the military operation illegal, unconstitutional, and immoral, also declaring that those who die while fighting the militants holed up in South Waziristan will not be termed 'shaheed'.
None of this is good either for the troops' morale or the public sentiment vis-à-vis the situation in the Northern Areas.
To be fair to the government, it did try peaceful means to resolve its stand-off with the tribal people suspected of harbouring al Qaeda and Taleban fighters. Before the military crackdown, it negotiated, via the tribal elders, with those believed to be hosting the wanted men. The tribal elders held several jirgas but nothing positive came out of these.
The government kept saying that either the militants and their hosts should surrender or leave the area.
That was fair enough an offer. President Pervez Musharraf himself went to Peshawar to address the tribal elders, who included mostly those that subsist on government handouts and not the real representatives like the members of parliament from the area.
He sought to convince them of the need to resolve the issue amicably. But his exhortations simply could not and did not produce the desired results.
The government thus had little choice but to resort to the use of force. Even so, some have found it necessary to criticise the government for letting "high value" targets slip away. It indeed is caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place.
Those who took 12 Frontier Corps personnel along with two 'Tehsildars' hostage, and killed the eight hostages, want the government to release 160 persons who were arrested during the military operation in Azam Warsak region.
They also want it to withdraw troops from the affected areas, to compensate the families whose houses were demolished, and to facilitate thousands of displaced households.
The last two demands, obviously, deserve a sympathetic consideration; the other two may not. Which means the confrontation may continue for some time to come.
So, what was it that government should have done that it did not do to address the public concern? Two things.
First of all, it should have allowed a debate of the issue in the National Assembly so that the people's representatives could vent their anger and anxiety and the government leaders should have supplied them with necessary clarifications.
Secondly, General Musharraf should have used his much admired communications skills, like he has done so ably at critical junctures before, to explain to the public, via a TV-radio address, the reasons for undertaking the military action.
There is still need to do that. He must use his powers of persuasion to inform the people as to why it has been necessary for the military to carry out operations in the Tribal Areas.
And finally the government must embark on a plan to end the whole anachronism in the tribal belt, which to say the least is an enigma in the 21st century.
The writ of the government should and must extend equally and uniformly to all its territory.
Simultaneously with this opening up of the Tribal Areas a massive development effort should also be undertaken for transition from the virtual 'stone-age' that exists at present, to modern times to bring the people of the area in the main stream of the population.