A Truce On Terror

By Tim McGirk; Ghulam Hasnain

A Pakistani general helicoptered into a village in the Pakistani mountains of Waziristan last weekend to meet with a stubborn enemy. Lieut. General Safdar Hussain came to sign a truce with Nek Mohammed, a tribal leader whose pro-al-Qaeda fighters had eluded capture for more than six weeks and had killed about 80 of the general's men. The Pakistani army agreed to halt its operation against Mohammed's militants, repay Wazir tribesmen for war damages and set free most of the 160 suspected al-Qaeda supporters who were captured. The tribesmen were also allowed to keep their weapons. In exchange, Mohammed and his clan promised to refrain from attacks on Pakistani forces and the U.S. troops in nearby Afghanistan. Gleeful rebel tribesmen accepted the easy terms--and then treated Hussain to a meal of rice and slaughtered sheep.

The truce, however, could be a severe setback for the Bush Administration, which has been leaning on Pakistan to carry out a clean sweep of al-Qaeda and the Taliban from the tribal territory. Mohammed is a former Taliban commander who still swears loyalty to fugitive leader Mullah Omar and was earlier accused by the Pakistani government of giving shelter to al-Qaeda fighters, possibly including Osama bin Laden. In this area Pakistani troops last month mistakenly thought they had cornered bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

A Pakistani army spokesman said operations were halted because it had succeeded in "smashing" terrorist bases. But no senior al-Qaeda or Taliban member was caught. A Pakistani official who brokered the truce says the deal included a guarantee from tribal leaders that "non-Pakistanis"--Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks--would no longer cross from Waziristan to ambush U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But local officials in Waziristan say that promise is not enforceable. What's more, the truce raises doubts about the resolve of the Pakistanis to root out al-Qaeda fugitives from the tribal areas. Said a U.S. military spokesman in Kabul: "At the end of the day, we expect Pakistani action there." --By Tim McGirk and Ghulam Hasnain