The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State

by Declan Walsh

Pakistan’s Taliban, on the other hand, was born of the tumult that followed the September 2001 attacks. As American warplanes bombed the mountains of Tora Bora, hundreds of al Qaeda jihadis who had been sheltering under the Taliban in Afghanistan – Arabs, Uzbeks and Chechens, mostly – fled across the border into Pakistan’s tribal areas. Most ended up in North Waziristan and South Waziristan, where local Pashtun tribesmen flung open their doors in a warm welcome – partly out of nanawatai, Pashtunwali’s obligation of sanctuary to needy strangers, and partly out of more earthly considerations: bin Laden’s Arab disciples paid for their bed-and-breakfast with thick wads of American dollars. The Americans, realising that their al Qaeda foe – the very reason they invaded Afghanistan – had slipped the net, pressured the Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf to deploy troops to Waziristan. The operation quickly turned to disaster. Pashtun tribesmen, enraged by the intervention, defended their guests with gunfire. Dozens of Pakistani soldiers were killed. A revolt stirred. Gangs of tribal militants seized control of Waziristan and imposed a new order. Video stores were torched and barbers were forbidden to shave men’s beards. Disputes were no longer settled in jirgas but in Saudi-style sharia courts. The maliks – pro-government elders who upheld the old social order – were assassinated or forced to flee. Many of the rebels hailed from the tribal underclass: barbers, small farmers