Militants Scatter as Pakistan Takes South Waziristan

With Pakistani security forces taking over several Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds in South Waziristan, thousands of militants have apparently fled to other parts of the country -- raising fears that militancy will spread and escalate.

On Nov. 5, Pakistani military and paramilitary security forces reclaimed Laddah, an important Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan, leaving only Makeen in the hands of the Pakistani Taliban movement called TTP.

However, tribal leaders and local observers from South Waziristan have confirmed that thousands of TTP, Arab al-Qaida and other foreign militants -- including Uzbeks and Chechens -- have escaped to other areas of Pakistan.

Syed Alam Mehsud, who belongs to the Mehsud tribe from the Laddah area of South Waziristan, told World Politics Review, "The absence of any resistance from Taliban and al-Qaida shows that they have fled to other areas. Uzbek and Arab al-Qaida fighters have gone to contiguous North Waziristan to take refuge with another Pakistani Taliban leader, Hafiz Gul Bahadur."

According to Mehsud, who is a senior leader of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) -- a secular Pashtun nationalist political party -- and the president of the Pashtun Awareness Movement (PAM), most of the militants in the Mehsud tribal area were either foreigners -- mostly Uzbeks -- or else Pakistanis from Punjab province. "The latter are most likely to . . . return to their hometowns to evade the military onslaught," he said.