Pakistani tribes fight back against Taliban
The Pakistani movement relies on tribal customs and widespread ownership of guns to raise traditional private armies, known as lashkars, each with hundreds or several thousand volunteers.
In southern Dir, the Sulthankheil tribe raised their anti-Taliban lashkar a month ago in villages around the town of Khall. There, 10,000 locals registered to serve. Every night 20 armed men patrol each village with orders to shoot intruders. “If we had not formed this lashkar, we could soon be like Swat,” said Akhunzada Sikandar Hazrat, a Sulthankheil tribal chief.
Lashkars are fairly close to what historically-minded Americans would recognize as war parties. Pashto-fluent Irregular Warfare practitioners from the American, British, Australian SF/SAS/SASR and any other Coalition operators in that league should be drinking chai with every anti-Taliban khan and malik out there, reinforcing success with St. George’s Cavalry and recruiting more khans to the light side. This should be tried in Afghanistan as well, at least in those areas where the tribes retain their culture and traditions and their leaders retain some respect and authority. It takes an Apache to catch an Apache.
If I was running the Af-Pak War, Hamid Gul would meet with an unfortunate accident my first month on the job. Mr. Tenpercent would be bribed/blackmailed/threatened in to purging the ISI of Taliban sympathizers. Gen. Kiyani would be made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Anti-Taliban tribal lashkars would get money and weapons and bounties for Taliban heads. Private Military Companies would be hired to run and escort truck convoys from Karachi to Kandahar and Bagram.
Left that comment a couple of days ago. Maybe they read that blog.
H/T: Chief Reynolds
UPDATE: Local people form ‘lashkars’ to resist militancy in NWFA, Fata
Pakistan tribesmen vow to fight US ‘until the last soul’ — Let them hate us, so long as they kill our enemies for us. Our cross border ops have poked a stick in the fire ant hill. And during Ramadan the fire ants are testier than usual. Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks, Uighurs and any other non-indigs have just had the melmastia and nanawati rugs pulled out from underneath them.
Tribal leaders swear to wage merciless war
Silent majority stirs – People in FATA rise agains Taliban
UPDATE #2: Kayani shakes up army command Perhaps the most surprising of all such changes is the appointment of Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha as the new Director-General of ISI. He has replaced Lt-Gen Nadeem Taj
UPDATE #3: Armed lashkars a bid to ignite civil war, says Qazi Anti-Taliban lashkars are seen as such a serious threat that surrogates must agitate against them.
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