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US Afghan Supply Lines Depend on Islamic Militant
By Saeed Shah
McClatchy Newspapers
Friday 25 April 2008
Bara, Pakistan - The only thing standing between Pakistan's Taliban and the
lifeline for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan may be an Islamist warlord
who controls the area near Pakistan's famed Khyber Pass.
In an interview with McClatchy, Mangal Bagh, who leads a group called Lashkar-i-Islam,
voiced his disdain for America but said he's rebuffed an offer from the Taliban
to join them.
Truckloads of food, equipment and fuel for NATO troops wind through the Khyber
Pass daily to the bustling border at Torkham. Last month, Taliban fighters bombed
fuel trucks waiting at Torkham to cross into Afghanistan, and last week, fighting
between Bagh's men and a pocket of Taliban resistance closed the highway for
several days.
Locals said that Bagh wouldn't allow Taliban fighters to cross into the Khyber
agency, which is part of Pakistan's tribal belt and is now largely under his
control.
Bagh's stronghold, the market town of Bara, is a half-hour drive from the center
of Peshawar, the provincial capital, but an escort of his heavily armed followers
is needed to reach his fortified compound in the countryside.
"I'm not the ruler of Khyber, I'm the servant," said Bagh, 35, who
had an unexpectedly gentle manner as he relaxed with his Kalashnikov-toting
men, drinking tea. "My aim is to finish all social evils."
The Pakistani Taliban, who control other parts of the Federally Administered
Tribal Areas on the country's wild northwestern border, have issued repeated
entreaties to Bagh to join forces with them. A traditional jirga, a meeting
of elders, was held between Lashkar-i-Islam and the Taliban about 40 days ago.
"I told them (the Taliban) that what I am doing is enough. It is the right
direction. There is no need to join you," he said.
"The Taliban consists of religious scholars. We are fighters for Islam,
laypeople. We don't have any religious figures in our organization."
Unlike the Taliban and al Qaida, Lashkar-i-Islam opposes kidnappings and suicide
bombings. Bagh's message is more an austere one, that "vices" must
end, rather than the calls for international jihad, or Islamic holy war, of
the Taliban and al Qaida.
However, he also called the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan "wrong"
and said American troops must leave.
"While the Americans are in Afghanistan, there is no way to bring peace
and prosperity, over there and here," Bagh said. "We do not want to
kill Americans, we just want to make them Muslims."
Bagh, now called the "Emir," used to drive a bus and has built an
empire in three years. He said he has more than 10,000 men under his command
and could summon as many 120,000 - greater than the number of Pakistani
soldiers stationed in all the tribal areas.
Bagh's stance has led to allegations that he has ties to Pakistani authorities
or to the country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
One of the senior members of Lashkar-i-Islam, Mistry-Sahib, denied any connection
with the Pakistan state.
"We don't want to fight the government (unlike the Taliban); it is our
country," said Mistry. "We just want peace in our area. We have no
connection with the government because their policies are not right."
Pakistani authorities appear to have withdrawn from Bara and much of Khyber
agency, and they've taken no recent action to rein in Bagh.
In Bara, the local government office was padlocked, and no army or police were
visible on the streets. Lashkar-i-Islam has, it seems, become the de facto police,
driving around in four-wheel-drive vehicles with flashing blue lights.
A local politician who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity
of the subject, said: "If we finish Mangal Bagh, the Taliban will come
in. He's a better alternative. At least he will never pick up his gun against
Pakistan."
No women were walking around in Bara. Lashkar-i-Islam's harsh strictures, delivered
on a pirate radio station, appear to have driven them indoors. In the market,
people praised Bagh for cracking down on crime, which had been rampant.
Only a brave man, however, would criticize Bagh openly. Praying five times
a day at the mosque is now mandatory, although it's a source of pride for Bagh
that he's left Bara's small but conspicuous Sikh community alone.
"Conditions are good," said one Sikh in the market, Sant Singh. "When
there is the azaan (the Islamic call to prayer), people leave their shops open
and go to the mosque. There is no theft here anymore."
Bagh said that people frustrated by the government's failure to bring law and
order to Khyber have flocked to his movement.
"I just preached, praised Islam. It was not difficult for me to organize
these people. They are not my followers, they are followers of the Quran."
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(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
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