The Pakistani Spectator

It was us who created the boogie of Baitullah Mehsud. Our security forces struck accords with him again and again and he slipped from the net many a times. Our media over-projected him and made him some kind of supernatural hero. It was our collective fault and negligence that Baitullah Mehsud became a unifying force for the disparate terrorist factions and built up his own empire.

Many people have appeared to stop this empire from dismantling. The legacy of Baitullah is rich too. With money reserves estimated at roughly Rs. 2 billion, many precious vehciles, loads of state-of-the-art weapons and other resources are enough to make aspirants of Baitullah’s stature blind and mad. Hakimullah Mehsud, Maulana Waliur Rehman, Qari Hussain and others are already at each other’s throats. Though Al Qaeda and Haqqani Network is trying to keep the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan intact, they are finding it hard to satisfy the tribal greed of Mehsuds.

This is where our security forces must act. They must not let terrorist achieve a unification again. They must not let terrorist join hands together. They must strike from within and from outside. The cultivation of people like Waziristan Baba and Bhittani group is not going to do much, but it rather risks of back-firing. Carpet bombings at the hideouts of Mehsud tribal terrorists with continuous and ruthless followup by the ground forces is what is required. A full blown bloody battle with terrorist is the only option to end this scrooge of terrorism from Pakistan, once and for all.