DAMADOLA:
Taleban militants tired from weeks of fighting NATO forces in
Afghanistan were once happy to check into a complex known as their
"Hilton" for rest and recuperation. Those days are over, however,
because the installation was seized by the Pakistani military on Feb. 6.
The
complex, located close to the Afghan border in Damadola in Pakistan's
Bajaur region, consisted of a large cave attached to about a dozen
tunnels.
There were no lifts or piped music, but it was a
relatively luxurious home away from home for fighting units operating
in the pine-clad mountains.
"The Taleban used to call it their
Hilton because this was the place where they would rest after they
returned from fighting in Afghanistan's Kunar province or other parts
of Bajaur," said Tariq Khan, the head of the paramilitary Frontier
Corps, which leads the fight against the insurgents in the border
region.
Facilities in Damadola were crude but included
dormitories with mattresses and blankets and a canteen providing warm
food for fighters, a welcome change from surviving in the field on a
couple of naan breads and a large bottle of water a day.
In the
caves and tunnels, whose entrances were carefully hidden from
overflying aircraft, they would restock on ammunition while sheltering
from US and Pakistani aircraft.
Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda's
second in command, might have stayed at the complex around the time he
dodged a suspected US drone strike against a seminary that left 80
people dead in 2006, a security official in Bajaur said.
Undeterred
by the aerial attack and an offensive by Pakistani government forces in
late 2008, insurgent groups entrenched in the area went from strength
to strength.
The region's treacherous topography and strategic
importance favored it as a location for the Damadola "Hilton" site,
which occupied only a small part of a network of more than 150 chambers
and tunnels used by militants across Bajaur.
Damadola, located 12
km from the border, linked Afghanistan with Pakistan's northern
district of Chitral and the militancy-plagued northwestern valley of
Swat. For fighters heading toward Afghanistan, Damadola was a final
staging post.
"It was the main hub of the militancy where
Al-Qaeda operatives had moved freely," Khan said in the first official
comments about the Feb. 6 seizure of the base. "They had occupied the
ridges."
Pakistani troops took the stronghold after a week of
fighting that killed an estimated 75 Al-Qaeda and Taleban insurgents.
The capture of Damadola was the culmination of a military operation in
Bajaur that had been running since August 2008 and left around 2,200
Taleban and 149 soldiers dead, according to the military.
Khan said Bajaur is now clear of insurgents after his soldiers secured the 6 square kilometers around the Damadola area.
"Twenty-five
percent of them have fled to Afghanistan and 15 percent to Swat and
other areas," Khan said. "Others were either killed or captured."
The number of militants in Bajaur was estimated at up to 5,000.
"The
Taleban have been completely routed, and there is no chance of them
returning to this region," Khan said. "The Pakistan military hoisted
the national flag on the surrounding peaks for the first time since
independence in 1947."
The capture of such a facility might help
bolster Islamabad's image as a dependable partner of the West after
criticism in recent months of its resolve against the terrorists based
in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.
But in an area where
tribal allegiances can vary from one day to the next, it is
questionable whether this claimed victory is to have a lasting impact.
While
the government promptly raised a local "lashkar" militia of around
3,000 men to help consolidate the gains, some locals indicated that the
loyalties were fragile.
"Some of us were previously fighting for
the Taleban, but since they are no more, we are ready to fight for the
army," Niaz Ahmad, 30, a volunteer member of the lashkar, said while
standing a few meters outside one of the entrances to the cave complex.
Around
him, young men of the newly formed militia danced to drumbeats and
brandished their firearms, chanting, "Long live Pakistan."
Other
locals spoke fearfully of a return of the Taleban. "Their commander,
Maulvi Faqeer Mohammad, is hiding in the mountains and will soon try to
reconquer the area," one tribal elder said.
"The Taleban are very
determined people, and we have heard that they are trying to regroup
under Mohammad," said a pro-government elder who requested that he not
be named. "The army needs to stay and keep guard over the area for a
couple of years at least."
