Pakistan's War
As the fallout from Nov'08's bloody siege in Mumbai focuses the world's attention on Pakistan's ability to control insurgents within its own borders, Al Jazeera investigates Pakistan's role in the so-called 'war on terror'.
In this exclusive 4 part series, Rageh Omaar travels from the capital, Islamabad, to the tribal heartlands to chart the spread of suicide bombings and the escalation of violence that has turned Pakistan into a war zone.
Pakistan's War: The Battle Within |
Rageh learns that the showdown for control of the Red Mosque marked a turning-point in Pakistan's war with the insurgents - the moment when the Taliban-backed insurgency moved from the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan to the heart of the capital, sparking an ongoing wave of violence inside Pakistan.
Rageh Omaar revisits the scene of the military assault on the Red Mosque, which he witnessed in July 2007.
Rageh and his team had been the last television crew inside the mosque before the siege began and filmed the last interview with mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi before his death.
Al Jazeera hears Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, claim that his democratically-elected government has opened up a 'new dialogue' with the US.
He denies that he is fighting a proxy war for the West in the so-called 'war on terror'.
Instead, Zardari argues that his determination to defeat the insurgents and bring democracy to the tribal areas of Pakistan is part of a comprehensive home-grown programme to strengthen legitimate institutions, build state capacity and create a new relationship between the government and the army.
"That means there will be police stations, there will be judges, there will be civil society and civil law. We have to make people understand that they cannot challenge the writ of the state and they can not blackmail the world into listening to their point."
During his investigations Rageh Omaar learns that Pakistan's efforts to crush the insurgents in the tribal areas are compromised by US cross-border drone strikes, which violate Pakistan's fragile sovereignty.
In the three months before Al Jazeera's crew arrived, 20 US drone strikes killed more than 100 people.
Corps Commander General Masood asserts: "The majority of people in this area perceive the US presence in Afghanistan as occupation forces. So when the US starts acting inside Pakistan and any innocent civilian is killed by any of these attacks, it reduces the credibility of the Pakistan army to be doing something good."
Rageh Omaar joins the Pakistani army in their full-scale military offensive against insurgents on the frontier with Afghanistan.
In Bajaur province – where Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command, is believed to be hiding – Rageh witnesses a decisive moment in the army's campaign. He follows infantry from house to house in their advance on the Taliban stronghold of Loe Sam and is forced to retreat when the army unit he is filming comes under fire from Taliban fighters. A spokesperson for the insurgency in Swat, Muslim Khan, delivers a message for American viewers, saying: 
Throughout his five-week journey, Rageh Omaar discovers the cost of the campaign for Pakistan.
He speaks to Major General Janjua, who says: "We are suffering the maximum, we are contributing the maximum ... we are sacrificing for the sake of the world."
Al Jazeera also talks to the insurgents themselves, who oppose Zardari's ambition to bring democracy to the tribal areas and instead are fighting for the imposition of Islamic law inside Pakistan.
"I would like to send a message to the American people that their money that is being sucked out of them in the form of taxes is being used for bombs and killing innocent people ... If the jihad continues in the way at present, I also believe that America will become zero power not superpower – only God is superpower."
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