Ashfaq Kayani feared religious right’s backlash against him: Athar Abbas

ISLAMABAD: The former spokesman for the Pakistan Army has said that as army chief, General  (retd)Ashfaq Parvez Kayani baulked at launching a military operation in North Waziristan in 2010 for fear of a backlash from the religious right.

During an interview retired major general Athar Abbas said that the indecision has caused untold losses.

Responding to a question that Why do you think that 2010-11 was the right time to have launched the North Waziristan operation?

Athar Abbas sais that as compared to any other area, the army has suffered heavily in North Waziristan because a large-scale military operation was not carried out there.

When we conducted the South Waziristan operation in 2009, we isolated the TTP. That operation was successful. At that time the army warned the North Waziristan tribes that if they allowed the TTP Mehsuds to migrate into their area, this would warrant a military operation, he added.

But they (TTP members) kept concentrating (their forces) and virtually took over Mirali, Machis and other areas. Then they allowed in the Punjabi Taliban, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and the Ilyas Kashmiri group, he added.

He further said that the tribes somehow made deals with groups such as that of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, with a ‘live and let live’ understanding. But the equation changed and the tribes were in no position to dictate their terms when the militants violated some conditions.

The militants had a more powerful hold on the area as compared to the virtually unarmed tribesmen, he said adding that The militants also were violating clauses of their deals with the government and the army. They were attacking the military. Abbas said that in one ambush in 2010, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, which was supposed to be in an agreement with us, killed 40 of our soldiers, including a commanding officer.

Responding to the question that what was the military top brass’s opinion about launching an operation in 2010-11? Abbas said that the final decision, of course, was always that of the chief, but formation commanders recommended that unless we launched an offensive in the area and cleared it, we wouldn’t be able to control the spread of militancy and terrorism. As their hub was North Waziristan, everyone in the area was of the opinion that eventually, we would have to go for it.

He said that many of us were of the same opinion: the more we delayed, the more complex things would become. But another group believed that the militant groups or tribes on our side would turn against us and join the militant groups (in case the operation was launched).

But the fact is that the tribes were violating the clauses, the militant groups were violating agreements and whatever members of the Haqqani network were there in the area, were very few. The Haqqanis were mostly operating from Paktia and Khost (in Afghanistan). The other concern was how to expel them (militants), how to displace them. The other factor on his (Mr Kayani’s) mind was, what will become of the IDPs?

He added that the fact was that a few of us were of the opinion that nothing was going to change as far as our administration, government and other agencies were concerned. Those would remain the same, but it [a delay] would complicate matters more because there would be more consolidation of the militants in the area. I can say with confidence that we are vindicated. It has now become a much bigger problem, Abbas said.

On question that do you think that Mr Kayani was afraid of a personal attack against him? He said that “I don’t think so, but certainly there was the vulnerability of towns and cities because there was weakness in our law enforcement, the civilian law-enforcement agencies”. They were so much in disarray. So this was also the concern. But now, too, the vulnerability is the same; the retaliation may occur.

There was also no political consensus and therefore he thought a military operation would not find political support, he said adding that there would be a strong reaction by the religious right. He also apprehended that they would directly attack him. That became his main concern.

Responding to the quarry “can we say that he was concerned about religious hardliners’ backlash towards him? Abbas said that he was concerned about the reaction of the religious right. But the fact was that the ruling party, the Awami National Party and the MQM were all for an all-out operation. They were all along for the operation, barring the right-of-centre parties and, of course, the religious right. I don’t know how concerned he was about his personal security or safety.

He said that for six years, he (Mr Kayani) kept vacillating over the issue and in six months, this leader decided that this is the crux of the problem. He took a decision. It’s a matter of how decisive you are, how much you have the ability to sift essentials from non-essentials.

Ex spokesperson said that we have suffered more than 50,000 civilian causalities owing to this. Not everything happened because of North Waziristan, but it was the main source. Over 5,000 soldiers were killed and 10,000 more lost limbs. There are the economic losses and the huge loss to Pakistan’s international image, he added.

Talking about Haqqani network he said that it was one of the overriding factors and as I said whatever the elements of the Haqqanis were there, intelligence [agencies] was supposed to manage them. You can’t allow these groups to keep creating problems.

Talking over revelation about Mr Kayani’s indecision he said that I was to give an interview to the BBC on the military operation. The issue came up. They asked why now, why not earlier? When we got into that, things started coming up and I had to face the truth squarely.

Responding to a question regarding action against the former army chief for this costly indecision? Abbas said that was not a fair question to ask. I think history will judge, he concluded.