Mohmand lashkar kills 23 Taliban militants

KHAR: A village militia has killed at least 23 Taliban militants
during fierce gun battles in Pakistan's Mohmand tribal region,
officials said Tuesday. The clashes occurred Monday and overnight in
the tribal area’s Anbar village, about 15 kilometres southwest of
Khar, the main town in the neighbouring tribal district of Bajaur.

‘According to reports received here, a lashkar (traditional tribal
militia) killed 23 militants and several others were wounded,’ local
administration official Asad Ali Khan told AFP.

Another administration official Mohammad Rasul Khan said three
villagers were missing after the clashes pitted a 150-strong village
force against about 100 militants.

‘The laskhar has fought very well and militants are now on the run,’
he said, adding that villagers had gone into the mountains to take on
the militants. Intelligence and security officials confirmed the
fighting and the death toll.

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Leader of private militia vows to take out militants

PESHAWAR: Six months ago, Fahimuddin was a Pakistani businessman and
local councillor. Today he heads a private militia using rocket
launchers, guns, grenades and daggers to repel militant attacks.

Fed up with kidnappings, bombings and rising fears of militancy
around Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar, the 40-year-old packed
up a prosperous property business and took matters into his own
hands. He formed a lashkar, a traditional militia raised by tribesmen
in this part of the world for centuries, armed and mobilised
temporarily to settle disputes.

It's a dangerous business. Fahimuddin says his men kill assailants.
He says he survived two car bombs and escaped a kidnapping attempt,
but nothing deters him from staying to flush out radicals.

‘How can I leave my family, my village and my children? I will fight
all those who attack my village whether they are Taliban, Lashkar-e-
Islam or anyone else,’ he said at his home in Bazed Khel where
Peshawar runs into Khyber.

Suicide and bomb attacks have killed 2,000 people in Pakistan in the
last two years. Government forces have been bogged down, fighting for
years against Taliban militants spreading out of wild tribal areas
into settled areas.

Saddled with a traditional standing army that lacks adequate
equipment and counter-insurgency specialists, one of Pakistan's
answers has been to arm and support tribesmen to protect local
communities.

Fahimuddin wears a custom-made black leather jacket over his
traditional shalwar khamis -- its pockets loaded with Kalashnikov
magazines and grenades.

His brother Asif ur-Rehman wears a similarly laden jacket. A dagger
sticks out of his waist band. Taking out the blade, Rehman whispers:
‘I also have four grenades inside my shalwar khamis’.

One of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal zones on the Afghan border,
Khyber has become increasingly dangerous. Fifty people were killed in
a mosque bombing last March.

Fahimuddin's nemesis is Mangal Bagh, who heads Lashkar-e-Islam, which
-- much as the Taliban acts like police -- enforces prayers five
times a day and punishes people accused of prostitution, gambling and
other vices.

‘I received a phone call from a Mangal Bagh man who said they will
kill me if I don't stop,’ said Fahimuddin.
Pakistan says government representatives handle allied tribesmen and
elders, dishing out money and ammunition to help them in their fight.

‘The military -- in areas like Bajaur and Dir and part of Khyber --
is encouraging these people to expel these militants and terrorists,’
spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

‘They are so deep-rooted and widespread it may not be possible for
the government and law enforcement agencies to completely get rid of
them.

‘Lashkars in Bajaur and Upper Dir -- they are pretty successful, they
are resisting, expelling all the Taliban,’ Abbas said.

Fighting between lashkars and militants in the latest government
offensive in and around the northwest district Swat has reportedly
killed dozens.

But pro-government militias are increasingly at risk. Suicide bombers
targeting them have killed more than 100 people since last October.

‘These Lashkars are made to save America and people should not be
part of this. TTP (Taliban umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) will
hit very hard anyone who participates,’ Taliban spokesman Maulvi
Mohammad Omar told AFP.

But analysts warn unlimited support could be a risky business, much
as historic support from spy agencies to radicals to counter-balance
rival India has come back to haunt Pakistan on its western rather
than eastern border.
They warn that friends of today can turn into enemies of tomorrow.

‘We have the example of Maulvi Nazir who raised a militia against
Uzbeks (in 2007) but later become a warlord,’ said analyst Mahmood
Shah, a former security chief for the tribal areas.

The assassination of Qari Zainnuddin Mehsud on June 23 was considered
a blow -- but not the end of efforts to raise tribesmen against
Baitullah.

‘Jihad in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine is right but jihad
in Pakistan is wrong. There are no foreign troops here,’ Turkestan
Bhittani, an ally-turned-rival of Baitullah, said claiming, to have
thousands of men. He says he is determined to be part of the
government's expected offensive against the Taliban chief in South
Waziristan. ‘After they give me the green light, I will attack
Baitullah.’