29 bases in the tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, that were being used to train Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, have all of a sudden gone empty.
ISLAMABAD: Twenty-nine bases in the North and the South Waziristan tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, that were being used to train Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, have all of a sudden gone empty and fallen off the radar a fortnight after the US intelligence had presented its Pakistani counterparts with a dossier detailing the location of the bases as advance information on likely US targets.
Sources have confirmed the reports amidst fears that the militants are expanding their base of operations into the settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) and are reorganising in both Afghanistan and Pakistan for a major fight.
The sources say that the ongoing peace jirga being held in Kabul was actually aimed at identifying and rooting out Taliban and Al-Qaeda and the meeting was to be followed up with military strikes at these bases.
However, within days of FBI’s sensitive intelligence sharing with the ISI brass, the militant bases disappeared since early this month, apart from one being run by hardline Islamist Mullah Abdul Khaliq.
Some international media reports have already reported that the Al-Qaeda leadership hiding in Pakistan has now installed itself in Jani Khel village in the Bannu district of the NWFP.
This includes Osama bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Taliban leadership, most prominently Jalaluddin Haqqani, is concentrated in the Afghan provinces of Khost and Gardez, where much fighting is expected to take place.
These reports claim that a spillover of Al-Qaeda’s presence in Jani Khel is likely to spread to Karak, Kohat, Tank, Laki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan.
Kohat district in the NWFP is tipped to become a central city in the upcoming battle, as the office of the Pakistani Garrison commanding officer is there and all operations will be directed through this area.
In addition, Kohat is directly linked with a US airfield in Khost for supplies and logistics. These reports say a second war corridor is expected to be in Waziristans, the Khyber Agency, the Kurram Agency, Bajaur Agency, Dir, Mohmand Agency and Chitral in Pakistan and Nanagarhar, Kunar and Nooristan in Afghanistan.
The fiercest battleground, however, will be in Khost and Gardez, making the previous Taliban successes in Helmand and Kandahar during the spring offensive of 2006 a distant memory.
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