Pakistani soldiers deserting army

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani military leadership is greatly disturbed over reports of a good number of the soldiers deployed in the Waziristan tribal region of the country refusing to fight against the Taliban backed militants in the area, saying they do not want to fight against their own people.

According to well placed military sources in Islamabad, those mediating for the release of over 300 soldiers of Pakistan Army, taken hostage by the Taliban back militants in South Waziristan Agency three weeks ago, had actually surrendered voluntarily as they were not ready to fight against their fellow Muslim brothers.  

Quoting one of the 26 surrendered soldiers soldier from paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), who were released by the militants on Friday, a military official said he did not desert the force because he feared death. “He actually did so because he was not sure whether the ongoing fighting in Waziristan was Islamic or not.

The man, who recently refused to serve in tribal areas, claimed the same question was haunting many other soldiers and the confusion was stopping them from putting up a tough fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda elements in the area.

Pro-Taliban militiamen pulled out of peace treaties with the government after troops stormed the Red Mosque in the capital on July 10, and launched a series of raids on security forces.

Approached for comments, the Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed the desertions in the army but insisted these should be ignored as insignificant incidents.

“Small-scale desertion takes place in any force and in any country for one reason or another,” Arshad Waheed.

According to Khalid Khawaja, an Islamabad-based former official of the ISI: “The Pakistan Army as an institution is being subjected to gross abuse by Musharraf and his cronies, creating mass despair, just because he would not agree to share power with the nation or establish any decent mechanism of taking the country back into the civilised world where transfer of power can be achieved without bloodshed and brute force.”

The number of Pakistan army soldiers killed at the hands of their fellow Muslims in the tribal areas in last five years has already crossed the number of those killed in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars.

“And in return, the only straw Musharraf has been able to grab is the continued support of the Bush administration which is already caught in the middle of its own follies and is drowning in its own juices.”

Since the Lal Masjid operation was carried out, the bloody spate of suicide bombings across Pakistan has claimed 321 lives besides injuring 685 others in 24 terrorist incidents that took place between July 3 and September 13.

Those killed include 121 military and paramilitary personnel, 102 policemen and 98 civilians while the number of those injured in these incidents stands at 685, compelling many of the soldiers to refuse waging war against the militants in the tribal areas.