"Taliban keep Pakistani border patrol on its toes"

Wed Oct 29,2003 2:31AM
ET

QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) - On the mountain top a Pakistani paramilitary
trooper stands alert in a bunker with his machine gun aimed at
Afghanistan's restive southern Kandahar region.

His duty is to intercept Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters -- once
friends, but now foes -- as well as drug smugglers and illegal
immigrants, from this 2,370-metre (7,775 foot) high Tariq mountain
peak overlooking the sprawling, dusty Afghan plain.

Pakistan nursed and raised Taliban, helping them seize control of
Afghanistan's government in 1996.

But the country did a U-turn almost immediately following the
September 11, 2001, attacks in Washington and New York, and joined the
US-led global war against terrorism.

Now Pakistan has new enemies along its 1,200-kilometre (745 miles)
rugged and porous southwest mountainous border with Afghanistan and
sealing it is an uphill task. Before the Taliban's ouster this border
was a mere formality.

Pakistan has to constantly struggle to fortify security on the
southwestern border to counter allegations that it is still harbouring
Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives and allowing them to regroup and launch
attacks into Afghanistan.

Pakistan's security officials maintain that no Taliban or al-Qaeda
elements are moving in the region.

"We are covering all possible infiltration routes and you can see that
on the most isolated areas the border is manned," inspector general of
Frontier Corps (FC) Major General Sadaqat Ali Shah told a group of
visiting correspondents at the weekend.

"In mountains, routes are well defined and in other areas large groups
cannot move as it is extremely difficult terrain," Shah said.

"Despite limited resources, we are controlling the entire border."

Shah's 25,000 scouts are deployed to secure the border in the
southwestern province of Baluchistan.

"My men are living under the canvas, and we are trying to build small
forts on these border posts but we need funds for this," Shah said.

The FC has doubled the number of border posts since September 2001.
Now there are 119 posts equipped with night vision devices.

But Pakistan military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan thinks
all this is not enough.

"We need the force multipliers like unmanned surveillance aircraft,
helicopters and night vision equipment to further beef up security of
the border," Sultan said.

"Taliban have no chance to hide in these areas after the steps we have
taken."

Asked if the local population sympathised with Taliban, Sultan said
that a majority of Pakistanis opposed all forms of terrorism and they
support government efforts to root terrorists out.

"Society is moderate here, otherwise you could not have moved in this
area," Sultan told reporters after a day-long visit to the rugged
frontier.

However, Sultan Chishti, the local spokesman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
(JUI), a party that is part of Baluchistan's ruling coalition and runs
seminaries in Pakistan where Taliban received education, said: "Ninety
percent people of Baluchistan have sympathies with Taliban."

"There was no security problem in Afghanistan during Taliban rule. One
could travel freely even during the night."

JUI's MP Maulvi Noor Mohammad, who is a look alike of al-Qaeda chief
Osama bin Laden, insisted attacks in Afghanistan were launched by
local Afghan people because "they hate America."

The Pishin Scouts, raised in 1946 by Britain, have halted
encroachments on the Chaman border, installed search lights, built a
43-kilometre long embankment and erected a barbed fence to reduce
illegal border crossings.

"Illegal crossings have almost stopped," Shah said, standing at a
border tower called Jamshed post.

"In Afghanistan they are in process of organising similar steps and it
would be much better after that," Shah said.

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