Missile
Strike On Pakistani
Islamic School Slaughters 80
By Peter Symonds
02 November 2006
World
Socialist Web
A
devastating pre-dawn missile strike on an Islamic school in Chingai
in the remote Bajaur agency of Pakistan has left at least 80 students
and teachers dead. The attack, which levelled the buildings and left
just a handful of survivors, has provoked angry protests throughout
the country.
Pakistan’s President
Pervez Musharraf claimed responsibility for the raid, alleging that
all of the dead were “militants” undergoing training for
attacks on US-led forces across the nearby border with Afghanistan.
“Anyone who says that these people were innocent is telling lies,”
he said.
Local villagers have insisted
that children as young as five were among the victims. One of the survivors,
Abu Bakar, 22, told the press from his hospital bed in Peshawar that
only two other students—aged 15 and 16—were still alive.
“There was no militant training in the madrassa,” he said.
“We had come here to learn God’s religion.”
The school was run by cleric
Maulana Liaquat who was killed in the attack. He was a leader of the
Islamist Tanzim Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) and made no secret of
his support for anti-US insurgents in Afghanistan. According to various
press reports, Liaquat had connections to Ayman al-Zawahiri and other
senior Al Qaeda leaders who may have been the prime target of the attack.
However, not one of the allegations
against Liaquat and his students has been proven. Even if the claims
were true, there was no justification for the indiscriminate slaughter
that took place. Yet, in all the international press coverage, there
is a complete absence of any criticism. Under the banner of the fraudulent
US “war on terror”, it is now accepted that military forces
have a licence to act as judge, jury and executioner.
More than 15,000 people protested
against the attack in Khar, the main town in Bajaur agency, on Tuesday.
Angry protesters chanted “Death to Bush! Death to Musharraf!”
and “Anyone who is friend of America is a traitor!” The
rally adopted a verbal resolution to stone to death anyone caught spying
for the Pakistani army or the US government. Smaller rallies took place
in the cities of Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan, Quetta and Islamabad,
where participants burned American flags and called for Musharraf’s
overthrow.
Musharraf and the Pakistani
military have gone to great lengths to deny claims that US forces carried
out the attack. Locals told the media that unmanned US Predator drones,
which are capable of firing missiles, were flying above the village
before the attack. “We heard two blasts at about 4.50 am, whereas
the Pakistani helicopters appeared a good 10 minutes later,” an
eyewitness told the BBC.
Pakistani military spokesman
Major General Shaukat Sultan refused to say how much US assistance was
involved. “Intelligence sharing was definitely there, but to say
they [US forces] have carried out the operation, that is absolutely
wrong.” Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam went one step
further, rejecting any suggestion that Pakistan was responding to foreign
pressure. “It has nothing to do with any influence or pressure,”
she said. “It is something that we have done.”
Aslam’s remarks are
simply absurd. For months, US officials from President Bush down have
been demanding that Musharraf take tougher action against anti-US insurgents
operating from inside Pakistan. As attacks on NATO forces inside Afghanistan
have escalated, the demands for Pakistani action have become more strident.
US generals have been particularly critical of a truce struck last month
between the Pakistan government and tribal leaders in the border area
of North Waziristan, saying it has boosted the insurgency in Afghanistan.
Musharraf, who backed the
US-led occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, has been walking a tightrope.
His support for the US “war on terrorism” has generated
widespread opposition to his regime, particularly in the border areas
where Pashtun tribes have close ties with their counterparts in Afghanistan.
He sent 70,000 Pakistani troops into the previously autonomous tribal
areas and only signed a truce after the army suffered significant losses
in clashes with local militia.
Given the inevitable wave
of opposition, it is not at all clear why Musharraf carried out the
latest attack, or if indeed he did order it. The government was engaged
in negotiations with tribal leaders in Bajaur to reach a deal similar
to that struck in North Waziristan. According to locals, some of those
killed in Monday’s attack had taken part in talks in previous
days. A journalist with NBC News said a formal signing ceremony had
been expected on Monday.
The US-based Stratfor thinktank
has suggested it is more likely that the attack was carried out by US
forces or in a joint US-Pakistani operation. “The notion that
Pakistani forces would themselves have carried out the strike does raise
an eyebrow. For one thing, Pakistani forces have not attempted targeted
strikes against militants in this area in the past. Second, it would
be highly unusual for Pakistani forces to carry out such an attack while
the government is engaging in high-profile negotiations with leaders
in the tribal badlands—hoping they will prevent the area from
being used by Islamist militants as a safe haven and launch-point for
attacks, especially in Afghanistan.”
The American military has
carried out such raids before. In January, US forces used missiles against
the nearby village of Damadola, killing 13 people, including women and
children. The attack provoked outrage throughout the area forcing Musharraf
to insist that the US could not carry out operations inside Pakistani
territory. As far as the US military is concerned, the latest atrocity
had the added advantage of undermining Musharraf’s efforts to
reach peace deals in Bajaur and other border areas.
It is quite possible that
Musharraf took responsibility for the attack, rather than admit he had
allowed the US to stage operations in Pakistan. Stratfor commented:
“From Musharraf’s standpoint, the notion that Pakistani
forces carried out a strike against their fellow citizens is somewhat
less damaging than the perception that he has permitted infringements
of national sovereignty. The problem, of course, is that the public
already harbours both views, to varying degrees—and the strongest
card Musharraf has to play in this matter represents only the lesser
of two evils.”
Whatever the case may be,
the prime responsibility for the latest atrocity rests with the Bush
administration. Having created a quagmire in Afghanistan, Washington,
whether directly or indirectly, is now carrying its war into Pakistan
with unpredictable and potentially explosive consequences for its ally,
the Musharraf regime.
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