Pakistan's embattled president touts gain in war on terrorism

Musharraf may finally be reaping the success of his agreement with local tribes near the Afghan border.

from the March 23, 2007 edition

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ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - President Pervez Musharraf is under attack as a judicial crisis enters another week of nationwide protests. But in the eyes of the international community, the embattled president may finally be seeing some success.

Islamabad is casting the continued fighting between Al Qaeda-linked militants and local tribes near the Afghan border as a success in the war against terrorism – where Mr. Musharraf seemed, until recently, to be failing.

The fighting, which has left more than 100 Al Qaeda-linked militants dead as of Thursday, would appear to vindicate a much-criticized truce that local tribesmen and the government entered into last September. Under the agreement, Musharraf's regime released Taliban-linked prisoners in North Waziristan in return for pledges from tribal elders to expunge the region's foreign Islamist fighters.

Domestic and international critics doubted the prudence of such a move, but Islamabad pitched the deal as a glimmer of hope for the semiautonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), whose six million inhabitants have endured years of war with the government.

For six months, the elders seemed to default on their promise. In fact, attacks inside Afghanistan tripled, as militants regrouped under what amounted to amnesty, according to critics.

The potential windfall comes at a critical time for Musharraf. His ability to govern seems heavily shaken, both on the streets of Pakistan, where thousands have protested since he sacked the country's chief justice earlier this month, and in the international corridors of power, where his Waziristan strategy has come under blistering attack from the Western governments who fund Pakistan's military.

"In the beginning ... everybody thought nothing would come out of [Musharraf's deal with tribal militants]. Now it seems the government has convinced the local people to rise against the foreign militants," says Behroz Khan, a Peshawar journalist and expert on the tribal belt. Targeting foreign militants, he adds, could reduce violence in neighboring Afghanistan, which hit record highs last year.

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