Analysis: Pakistan's defiant tribesmen

By Rahimullah Yusufzai
BBC correspondent in Peshawar

South Waziristan, the battleground for Pakistan's offensive against al-Qaeda, has a history of under-development, religious conservatism and a pool of tribesmen battle-hardened from Afghanistan's long years of war.

South Waziristan has long been thought as an al-Qaeda haven

The ferocity of the latest fighting suggests the Pakistani armed forces have clearly under-estimated the military challenge arising from these complex tribal areas.

South Waziristan is intrinsically linked with Afghanistan.

It is inhabited mainly by Pashtuns, the largely conservative ethnic group that forms the majority in Afghanistan and dominates Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan.

The two major Pashtun tribes in South Waziristan are the Wazir and Mahsud.

The Wazir live on both sides of the Durand Line that serves as a border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Wazir tribesmen also live in the Wana valley, where much of this week's fighting has taken place.

Most of the tribesmen allegedly giving refuge to al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects and now fighting with them against the Pakistani army belong to the Wazir tribe.

The tribesmen are traditional fighters and learn the use of a gun at an early age in keeping with local traditions.

A sizeable number took part in the US-backed Afghan jihad against Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan.

Subsequently, many fought alongside the Taleban against the Northern Alliance and the US in late 2001.

The years of fighting gave them more sophisticated fighting skills.

Those skills may now have enabled some of them to put up fierce resistance to the Pakistani army despite being outnumbered and outgunned.

At the start of this week's operation, the army lost 15 soldiers killed, while 22 were injured and others fell into the hands of the militants.

Six government officials went missing and 23 military vehicles, including three armoured personnel carriers, were destroyed as the army was given a bloody nose.

The ferocity also reflects a lack of trust in President Pervez Musharraf's guarantee that the fighters will not be delivered to the US if they surrender.

Clearly, the military will need to launch more operations to destroy the militants' hideouts.

Clerical power

South Waziristan's political leadership is dominated by the conservative clergy who are often at odds with the Musharraf administration.

An MMA rally: the tribal areas' leadership is staunchly conservative

Its two National Assembly members are clergymen affiliated to the religious alliance known as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).

The MMA campaigned on an anti-US platform in the October 2002 general elections and won a record number of assembly seats in North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan, where the electorate was angry over the US military intervention in Afghanistan.

South Waziristan has a history of clerics exercising power to inspire tribesmen to fight foreign occupation forces.

Before and after independence from Britain, the Faqir of Ipi was a legendary freedom-fighter in Waziristan.

Back in the early part of the last century, the British fought a largely unsuccessful bid to crush the independence struggle by native tribes.

The landscape is dotted with forts built by the colonials to this end.

Below average

The other factor that may be a reason for unrest in South Waziristan and the other six Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fatas) bordering Afghanistan is under-development.

The indicators for education, health and communications are far below the national average.

The funding for development projects in South Waziristan and other tribal regions has been increased since the US military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 in an attempt to persuade the tribal population to co-operate with the war against terror.

Some successes can be pointed to.

There have been no reports of al-Qaeda and Taleban hideouts in territory populated by the second Pashtun tribe, the Mahsud.

Indeed, the Mahsud have achieved impressive literacy figures in recent years and have produced many senior civil and military officers.

However, funds in the region are still far less than needed.

Whatever the result of the latest operation in South Waziristan, it is unlikely to bring a speedy improvement to many of the region's underlying problems.