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NATO route’s future depends on seriousness of government, or Taliban

* Questions are being raised about govt’s intent to protect the route nine months after Mehsud threatened to cut off NATO supply line

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: Outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud told a group of journalists in March 2007 in North Waziristan that he would ‘cut off’ supply lines for the NATO and US forces through Pakistan’s Khyber Pass by the end of 2008.

At that time, this statement looked far-fetched. A week ago, however, little known warlord Mustafa Kamal Kamran ‘Hijrat’ from Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province took it upon himself to fulfil what Baitullah Mehsud said almost two years back.

“I am interested in one thing and that is no supplies for NATO and American forces go through the Khyber Pass,” the Afghan warlord who served as a district governor during the Taliban rule told a group of journalists last week at an undisclosed location in the Khyber tribal region.

In two consecutive nights, brazen attacks on terminals housing military and other hardware for the coalition forces in Afghanistan left no doubt about the seriousness of the Taliban commander’s threat to disrupt the much-needed supplies. Supplies continue, however, despite the attacks by as many as 200 Taliban inside Peshawar district and a former security chief in the Tribal Areas believes there is less probability the Khyber Pass will fall under complete control of Afghan warlord Mustafa Kamal.

“I think the attacks on NATO supplies will result in further bad name for Pakistan, but I don’t think the Khyber Pass will be completely out of the government’s control,” Brig (r) Mehmood Shah, former FATA security chief, said. The importance of this route would increase with a hike in US forces in Afghanistan next month despite Russia’s willingness to allow non-military supplies for the coalition forces through its territory.

Around 70 percent supplies for the NATO and US forces transit from Karachi seaport through Khyber – the shorter and cheaper route for the UN-sanctioned western forces in Kabul. “This route will continue to provide important supplies for the NATO and other forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan should take every possible step to make it safer,” Mehmood Shah told Daily Times.

Observers believe the NATO and the US would wait before they make a final decision on the route’s viability until they fully understand the ‘intent’ of the Pakistani government. “NATO will express concern sooner rather than later. It is on the way. What will really matter is knowing the intent of the Pakistani government,” Prof Adnan of International Relations Department at the University of Peshawar said. Pakistan would be doing its best to keep the highway safe for all such supplies to the coalition partners in the war on terror,” he added.

However, increasing clout of what President Asif Ali Zardari calls ‘stateless actors’ inside the state of Pakistan will raise questions about Pakistan’s intent to protect the route. The threats to NATO supplies will assume a political dimension with a protest by the anti-west Jamaat-e-Islami on December 18 to push for an end to all such supplies. The JI has not been pro-Taliban but sided with anti-US Afghan leader Gulbaddin Hekmatyar who is fighting the Kabul regime.

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