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The Taliban in Pakistan have told the BBC that attacks by US drone aircraft are having an effect on Taliban activities in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Marco Werman talks with BBC’s Islamabad Bureau chief Haroon Rashid to learn more. Download MP3
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MARCO WERMAN: US forces have often relied on unmanned aircraft, or drones, to kill Taliban leaders. Some drone attacks have occurred in Afghanistan. But it’s the drone strikes in Pakistan that have gotten the most attention. The strikes have often killed civilians along with the targeted militants. The Pentagon doesn’t comment on suspected drone attacks. But according to new research by the BBC, more than 700 people have died in Pakistan as a result of 80-plus US drone attacks there since January 2009. You can see a digital map at BBC.com/news. To find out how the attacks have affected the Pakistani Taliban, The BBC’s Urdu Service spoke to a Taliban leader in North Waziristan. This man, identified as Mufti Khaled, admitted the strikes have disrupted the Taliban’s operations. Haroon Rashid is the BBC’s Islamabad Bureau Chief. He’s the one who spoke to the Taliban leader who told him how the strikes have affected the militants.
HAROON RASHID: They are more careful now. They have put in force more stringent steps to ensure that their leadership is safe and that their leaders don’t gather for meetings. They don’t stay at one place for long time and they have stopped communicating through telephone or other wireless communications.
WERMAN: And as long as these drone attacks are happening, how does the Taliban communicate with each other?
RASHID: They rely more on human to human communication, I believe. And I think communication through mobile phones or wireless [INDISCERNABLE] are out of question for them at the moment.
WERMAN: Now new BBC research has shown that at least 87 US drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas have taken place since President Obama took office. And that’s compared to 25 drone attacks under the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency. Apart from what Mufti Khaled told you about how they’re shifting their strategy, did he speak about the overall effect these attacks are having?
RASHID: I mean he has admitted that these drone attacks are restricting their movement, have somehow put a restraint on their efforts to [SOUNDS LIKE] fire at the Americans and their allied forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but he seemed quite sure that this was a temporary thing. And in fact one of the statements that Taliban emailed to me said that they are preparing some technological step to counter these drone attacks.
WERMAN: What about civilian deaths from the drone attacks? Is there any reliable information about how many non-militants have been killed?
RASHID: I mean it depends on who you are talking to. If you are talking to the Taliban they will claim that most of the deaths from these drone attacks have been of women and children. But if you speak to some of the ordinary residents who have come out from that region and we have been able to speak to them, they say that these drone attacks are more or less precise and they are hitting the right targets of Taliban and they have somehow paralyzed some of their operations. But actually what is the situation on the ground? It is difficult to get because both the military and the Taliban don’t want any independent journalists or researchers in that area.
WERMAN: Haroon, I’m interested in how you actually came across Mufti Khaled and had this conversation. Did he contact you as a representative of the Taliban or were you trying to make contact with him?
RASHID: Well, because of these drone attacks most of the Taliban leadership has gone underground and they are not calling media or journalists as they used to do. But there is one guy, [INDISCERNABLE] Omar, who still calls up media to give Taliban [SOUNDS LIKE] version and he says that Taliban have set up a Taliban media center in North Waziristan to put their story across the world. So he calls up from time to time and I asked him whether I can speak to some senior Taliban leader on this drone issue and that is how he arranged Mufti Khaled for me to speak to him on telephone.
WERMAN: Haroon Rashid, the BBC’s Islamabad Bureau Chief. Thank you very much for your time.
RASHID: Thank you.
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