Pakistani, Afghan militants target worshippers

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ISLAMABAD – Taliban militants continue attacking innocent civilians through suicide bombings, and attacks targeting mosques, funeral prayers and other public places despite orders by Mullah Omar, supreme Taliban commander, not to attack civilians.

No end is in sight to bombings of places holy to Muslims. In the past few years, suicide bombings and planted explosives have killed hundreds of Afghan and Pakistani Muslims attending mosques, funerals and other holy places or events.

Destruction continues

In 2011, terrorists attacked 55 worship places and Sufi shrines across Pakistan, killing more than 450 worshippers, according to Pakistan Security Report 2011, prepared by the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank.

“Last November on the eve of Eid, Mullah Omar ... urged his Taliban fighters not to attack civilians ... but on the third day of Eid, a suicide bomber hit a mosque in Baghlan, killing innocent people,” Kabul-based journalist and security analyst Nabi Sahil told Central Asia Online. “It shows Mullah Omar has limited operational control.”

That bomber killed seven worshipers November 6.

“The Taliban are trying to portray themselves as a strong force,” he said. “That’s why they claim responsibility for every violent act in this region.”

“I think these Taliban forces are not as big and powerful as they seem,” he said. “In fact they are being supported by hidden hands. In Afghanistan mostly common people or civilian government (officials) have been targeted ... as opposed to security forces. It’s the common people who are suffering the most on both sides of the border.”

In Afghanistan, the Taliban show no signs of cutting back their use of IEDs, which kill primarily civilians. According to one recent media report, the number of IEDs planted in 2011 increased 9% over 2010, reaching record levels.

International Coalition (ISAF) data for 2011, show IEDs alone were responsible for 60% of all Afghan civilian casualties, and that IED-civilian casualties increased 10% over 2010. In 2011, more than 85% of civilian deaths were caused by militants, while civilian deaths from counter-insurgency military operations decreased 17% from 2010.

Terrorists show autonomy

Omar has been the unchallenged inspirational leader of the Taliban, but most Taliban groups are carrying out terrorist attacks as they see fit.

“Nobody questions Mullah Omar’s orders, but ... his orders are not implemented,” Saleem Safi, an Islamabad-based Afghan affairs analyst and TV news anchorman, told Central Asia Online. “It’s the Taliban’s organisational issues. Sometimes ... access to communication tools (is limited). Also, the Taliban field operatives don’t take day-to-day orders from the central command. ... Local groups plan and carry out attacks per their understanding of the situation, which could mean even targeting a mosque.”

The Afghan Taliban are more organised than the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), he said.

“They (the Afghan Taliban) ... have worked together for generations,” he said. The “TTP is a loose net and has many sub-groups and no central command. Its leaders haven’t met for years for fear of being killed in airstrikes.”

Al-Qaeda still a factor

Al-Qaeda is a significant factor behind the continuing violence, he said, adding it is more powerful in the TTP than among the Afghan Taliban.

“Al-Qaeda has a bigger say with (the TTP) and virtually exercises operational control over some (TTP) groups,” he said. “(Those groups) justify every sort of violence.”

“Similarly, different ethnic groups have brought a different level of violent culture,” he said. “For example, Uzbeks may be more violent than Pakistani jihadists, while Saudis, Libyans and Egyptians all add their shade of jihadist culture ... to the region.”

The violence has observers questioning terrorists’ commitment to the Islam they claim to defend.

“I don’t believe that a (true) Muslim will even dare even to exchange hot words with someone in a mosque or funeral processions; forget about killing people with bombs,” said Islamabad-based commentator and lawyer Adnan Khan. “Here violence is being used to achieve power and political objectives.”

No justification exists for killing the innocent, he stressed.

“Peace is the need of the day,” he said.

Zia Ur Rehman contributed to this report