The militants of Pakistan's 'heartland of militancy'

By Aamir Latif

ISLAMABAD 

Escalating its operations in the restive North Waziristan region, Pakistan's army has since June 15 been battling to eradicate the influential militant network Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan from the northwestern tribal region. However, the network, responsible for numerous high-profile attacks in Pakistan, is not the only militant presence in the region.

Some of them are independent Taliban groups with peace agreements with the government, others are sitting silent to avoid being caught between the government and TTP, who intelligence agencies say are trying to regroup along the border with Afghanistan after the dismantling of their North Waziristan bases. 

Gul Hafiz Bahadur

Prominent among these militants is the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, who are affiliated to the powerful Afghanistan-based Haqqani network. Named after its reclusive leader, the group has 3,000 trained militants, mainly hailing from the region's second-largest tribe Dawar, and operates exclusively from North Waziristan. It had initially called for resistance against the army operation, ending a peace agreement that had stood since 2007, though abandoned the plans after intervention of tribal elders.

Sajna group

Once part of the TTP, the Khan Syed Sajna group recently broke with the network, almost splitting it in half. It's leader Khan Syed, known as Sajna, was once a commander of TTP leader Hakeemullah Mehsud -- who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in November 2013 -- and had hoped to become the network's leader after his death. 

The group is comprised of militants belonging to the Mehsud tribe dominant in South Waziristan but is currently based in North Waziristan's far-flung Shawal valley -- which has not yet been hit by the military operations. Sajna has been suspected of links to Pakistan's intelligence services and some believe his group have remained immune to the operation because of a secret understanding with the army.  

Commander Nazir Group

The Commander (Mullah) Nazir Group, better known as CNG, is another influential Taliban group. The group, named after its founding commander Mullah Nazir, who was killed in a US drone strike in January 2013, is based in South Waziristan and has also had a tacit peace agreement with the army since 2007. It has fought fiercely to oust Uzbek militants and pushed them into North Waziristan in 2007. Nazir was outraged that the Uzbek's had been involved in attacks on the Pakistani army and civilians. 

Foreign fighters

Besides the local Taliban groups there are two major foreign militant groups holed up along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The biggest is the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who have 1500 to 2000 militants and claimed involvement in a brazen attack on Karachi airport, that killed 40, in June. The TTP-aligned group arrived in Pakistan in 2001, when the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban and ended their sanctuary. The current army operations have now pushed the Uzbek militants back towards northeastern Afghanistan. 

Also based on North Waziristan soil is the Turkistan Islamic Party, a group of 1000 to 1500 Uyghur separatists from China's western, Muslim-dominated Xinjiang province. Led by Commander Abdullah Mansoor, the group is not involved in terror attacks on Pakistani soil. China, Pakistan's largest military partner, has long demanded action against the Uyghur separatists, who they blame for attacks in Xinjiang. 

Security experts say foreign militants holed up in North Waziristan take advantage of the region's lawlessness. 

"They are like a cat in the corner. They cannot go back to their homelands as their intelligence agencies are sniffing for them there," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Peshawar-based expert on Afghan and tribal affairs.

Yusufzai said parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the state is weak, were the ideal sanctuaries for foreign militants -- but that they paid a price for it. He rejected the idea that foreign fighters are able to operate independently or exert any influence, instead they rely on the shelter of local militant groups. 

"There is no free lunch in today's world. They have to take part in fights between different militant groups as a price for their stay there."

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