Understanding Drones

Hakimullah Mahsud ,the iron-fisted chief of TTP is dead but before departing of his soul,
drenched Pakistan in cold sweat .On November 1, a drone strike hit him in his luxurious farm
house right under the military cannons. However, rampant confusion about the legitimacy of his
death turned this news from euphoria into cascades of quandary. And for a country who believes
in talks and talks alone, his death untapped another debate about martyrdom and assassination
.Worst came from the cricketer-cum-politician, Imran khan who is always looking at a situation
through the establishment's binoculars. He was enraged by the timing of this drone strike which,
he feels is a plan by the Americans to drown the peace talk .As a result, he threw down his
gauntlets for stopping the NATO supplies, which pass through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ,where his
party is ruling the roost .As a matter of fact ,the dispute is not about the effectiveness of the
drone strikes but its origin .Both America and Pakistan had kept bounty on this notorious terrorist
but his obituary was drafted in sharp variance at home. Drones, no doubt, create fear and
uncertainty amongst the terrorists, deter insurgents from engaging in further violence and carries
precision .Nevertheless, drones remain a conundrum for Pakistan

Drones strikes remain an enigma for both the countries,especially for Pakistani citizens .Both
Obama administration and Pakistani authorities are dumb and silent about this issue. Although,
Pakistani authorities clearly denounce these automaton strikes because first, they are overtly
against Pakistans already lacerated sovereignty and second, these strikes prove to be
counterproductive. According to a U.S diplomatic cable by Wikileaks, in May 2009 meeting with
a U.S congressional delegation lead by Senator Patrick Leahy,Chairman of the Appropriation
Sub-Committee on state, Foreign operation and related programme, President Asif Zardari
reportedly said "give me the drones so that my forces can take out the militants so that we cannot
be criticised by media or anyone else for action our army takes to protect our sovereignty".
Interestingly, Farhat Taj in her book "Taliban and Anti-Taliban interviewed a Waziri tribesman
who was thoroughly intimidated with the prospect of technology transfer of drones culminating
into a reality .The tribesman even admonish the Americans that in such an event, every single
one of the remaining Anti-Taliban tribesmen would be killed in drone attacks, and the militants
writ would be further strengthened. Furthermore, the tribesmen acknowledge that there seems to
be a degree of intelligence sharing between the CIA and ISI for drone attacks on militants
positions in FATA,and to acquit from the folly of generalisation, they refer to the killing of Tahir
Yaldeshov,the Uzbek militant commander, in a drone attack.

The tribesmen believe that the ISI shares intelligence about only those militants who it wants to
eliminate because they are either done with their part or those who got untamed. At a closer look,
CIA however, seems to have its own intelligence on the ground and often kills militants in the
drone attacks whom the establishment might not even approve of. Both these countries blame
each other for the dubious role played by them in the war on terrorism. This trust cleavage was
further widened by the Osama episode. Here starts the entracte between the ISI and CIA power
play and this is the reason why media protagonists of Pakistani establishment damn the drone.
Farhat Taj further states in regard to Tahir Yaldeshov, some tribesmen informed me that, in the
context of the Waziri tribesmens revolt against the Uzbek militants, he refused to carry out
targeted killings sanctioned by the ISI, in the Mahsud vicinity. Yaldeshov had come to reckon
that the Waziri tribesmen had turned against his men due to their abetment in the targeted killings
of Wazir's in South Waziristan, and so he began to hesitate in the scheme of collaboration. This
led to straining of relations between him and the ISI, the later sharing intelligence about him with
the CIA, which without a moments procrastination aimed the drone at him. All in all, the
tribesmen also informed that they were happy over the elimination of Yaldeshov, regardless who
facilitated the elimination.

The loudest animadversion on drones is the loss of innocent civilian lives. The Pakistani media
has made it a point to spread distorted, baseless and off the wall information about Fata, serving
the pro-establishment designs. Unfortunately, due to the poor security situation, international
media and researchers do not have independent access to FATAs rough terrain. They rely on the
Pakistani media for information without investigating its veracity and uncritically accepting it in
the ready form .However, this reliance is for a reason .It is said that after every drone attack the
militants cordon off the area and no one, including the local villagers, is allowed to come
anywhere near the targeted place. The militants themselves collect the carcasses, perform the
burial and then issue statements mourning the toll of casualties. This propaganda strategy
manifests its support in the media circle to mould public opinion. This crucially counts for the
unreliable estimates about civilian casualties in the drone attacks and the dilemmas ensued.

A humanitarian perspective from the point of view of the tribal people would make it easier to
understand why they might welcome drone attacks. Unlike the wider society in Pakistan, Taliban
and Al-Qaida terrorists control large parts of tribal society in FATA. I asked a Mehsud IDP about
drones and he clearly said that these flying bombs are a blessing for us .He explained that, the
first thing that Taliban did was to crush our tribal code. They started killing our elders, especially
our Jirga experts .More than 200 hundred Maliks and Khans were killed in the first spat of
violence by the Taliban in collaboration by our invisible establishment. Tears rolled into his eyes
and he further said that the most important institution in a Pashtun society is its Jirga ,if that too
was snatched by militants ,whom they are no match to, then there is no option but drones.
Narrating the woes of life, he confessed that a worker on his farm who later became a local
taliban leader, always threatened him with land encroachment, so finally,he had to undertake the
heavy-hearted emigration.

Hence, some people in Waziristan compare drones with the Qurans Ababeel the holy
sparrows sent by God to avenge Abraha, the intended conqueror of the Khana Kaaba, the holiest
Muslim site in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Many people of Waziristan call the drone strikes an
airborne justice delivery system, because they believe strikes are precisely killing the terrorists
who have imposed a reign of terror on the people in collusion with the Pakistan state. (Since
drones reduce the likelihood of casualties, as compared to carpet bombing they may increase the
freedom of political and military commanders to use drones in combat operations and help the
hapless.) It is thus amply clear that the military does not oppose drones, but seeks control over
their use, or at least to leverage the debate to obtain more say over target selection.