HOUND AND HARE

 

 

Mullah Dadullah carries a grudge these days. The leader of the Taliban’s military operations is not sure about what Pakistan is up to. He recently gave vent to his feelings on the Arabic news channel Aljazeera, “The Pakistani government has a strange policy that no one can understand,” he said. But events unfolding in Pakistan after US Vice President Dick Cheney visited Islamabad are completing the jigsaw puzzle that Dadullah pretends he knows nothing about.

Hours after a suicide attack in Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, targeting Cheney, Pakistani forces arrested Obaidullah Akhund, former defence minister of Taliban, from the southern Pakistani city of Quetta. Though the Pakistani intelligence officials call it plain luck that Akhund’s arrest coincided with Cheney’s visit, many western analysts are not willing to buy this theory. “It is a common practice of the Pakistani authorities; they have mastered the art of producing a high profile target at the appropriate time,” Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at Washington’s Middle East Institute, told TSI.



Two left feet

Pakistan cuts Taliban deal

Deal meant to gain control of Kabul again

US unhappy, talks tough

Pakistan arrests top Taliban leader to woo US



The man believed to have brokered this deal is none other than the man cursing Pakistan: Dadullah.

Fighting in the tribal areas of Waziristan was proving costly for Pakistan, with its Army losing almost 1,000 men. The pact with the Taliban through Dadullah ensured that Pakistan gradually withdrew, thus getting out of the mess. Pakistan’s eyes are on Kabul. But back home, there’s confusion on whether Pakistan is towing the Taliban line or that of the US. This chaos could boomerang.