The United States of America has taken an enormous, if arguably necessary, gamble in assassinating the leader of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakimullah Mehsud, in a drone strike. Once again, drone strikes drive home the point that Washington behaves with impunity and without the least concern for upholding a semblance of respect for Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The US does what it pleases in Pakistan. Amid the tremors of fear that shook the Taliban heartlands of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and adjacent tribal areas, TTP spokesman Azam Tarek publicly confirmed the death of Mehsud and vowed a strong response. A successor to Mehsud will be chosen in the coming days. The strong contender for the leadership position appears to be Khan Said, nicknamed “Sajna”. The TTP's reputation for savagery gained currency in recent years, but so has US brutish retaliation against militant Islamist terrorists in Pakistan. The US, after all, and without the consent of the Pakistani authorities, killed Saudi-born Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in an equally daring operation. Haunted by a gnawing fear of being dubbed a neo-colonial state, the South Asian nuclear power is desperate to save face and attain regional respectability. But Pakistani officials appear impotent and embarrassed about their inability to intervene. The fact that Islamabad is not even consulted when the US unilaterally carries out such operations on Pakistani soil makes matters worse. Intelligence officials and militant commanders in Pakistan conceded that Mehsud was killed by a US drone strike on a compound in the North Waziristan tribal area on Friday. Some reports indicate that he had just emerged from Friday prayers at a local mosque. Meanwhile, there are signs that internal divisions threaten to destabilise the entire region. Several splinter groups of the TTP have become embroiled in a power struggle to fill the political vacuum left open in the wake of the Mehsud's assassination. Amidst an increasingly malevolent atmosphere of suspicion and recrimination, the TTP leadership, and the entire Pakistani political establishment for that matter, is in turmoil. There are reports that at least two senior Taliban Pakistan commanders are opposed to Said's elevation as TTP supremo. Government authorities, for their part, are hard pressed to explain the country's impotence in the face of US incursions. Indeed, the Pakistani leadership is tainted by the charge of treachery, tacit connivance with Washington, and national betrayal. A hardened core of militants seek revenge. But vengeance is hardly a national priority. Pakistanis are faced with manifold privations and subjected to a daily dosage of acts of terror. Christians and Shia Muslims are particularly vulnerable to militant Islamist terrorists. Sundered by an elemental schism, the Pakistani political elite is forced to seek a catalyst to action. But what action? Mullah Fazlullah, the powerful leader of the Swat Taliban, who is reputed to be currently based in Afghanistan's Nuristan province, was reported to be holding separate meetings to determine his militant faction's future strategy. Fazlullah, along with Omar Khorasani, who heads the Taliban in the tribal Mohmand Agency, were both frontrunners to succeed Hakimullah. Both are opposed to Khan Said. The defining jingle of “Sanja's terror tactics” will soon find its way into Pakistani society, and moderates in Pakistan are justifiably indignant about the latest developments. “Sajna has no basic education, conventional or religious, but he is battle-hardened and has experience of fighting in Afghanistan,” a Pakistani official revealed. Mehsud's assassination comes barely a month after Libyan terrorist Abu Anas Al-Libi was seized by a team of US Delta Force commandos after they ambushed his car, smashed its windows, dragged him into a black Mercedes in a dramatic dawn raid in Tripoli, and whisked him off to New York for trial. Just as in Pakistan, Washington paid no notice of Libyan sovereignty. Neither Libyan nor Pakistani politicians can muddy the national debate in their respective countries by voicing meretricious complaints designed only to stoke their peoples' ire. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently paid a visit to the US. He feigned outrage at the US assassination of Mehsud on Pakistani soil. It is a bad moment for Sharif to fall out with the world's greatest superpower. Pakistani politicians must now pose fundamental questions. Pakistan is not America's equal, and it would be idle for Pakistani politicians to harbour such dreams since at the moment at least they are certainly unattainable. It is against this dramatic backdrop that Sharif on Monday called a special cabinet meeting to discuss the political implications for Pakistan of Mehsud's death last week. Sharif reportedly told his cabinet ministers that, “Pakistan has the right to take its decisions on its own, according to its interests.” What this means in practice may be another thing. As casualties mount and resentment against the US intensifies, Pakistan on Tuesday conducted a successful test fire of its short-range surface-to-surface missile, Hatf IX (NASR). Whether such shows of strength will boost morale in Pakistan is questionable. According to Pakistani sources, NASR, with a range of 60 kilometres and in-flight manoeuvre capability, is a quick response system, with shoot and scoot attributes. It contributes to the full spectrum deterrence against threats both local and regional. Whether NASR is directed at India or at the TTP is unclear. Received opinion points to a bloody scenario where more violence by the TTP and affiliated militant Islamist terrorist groups threatens to unravel. Pressure is building on all sides for Pakistani leaders to respond. The hardline Pakistani Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman promptly pledged his party's unconditional support for the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf's decision to block NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. “There is a dire need for another All Parties Conference in the aftermath of the killing,” Rehman was reported as saying. Be that as it may, the war on terrorism is one that neither Washington nor Islamabad can afford to retreat from. But whether Pakistani politicians have the nerve to stick to their commitment to the war on terror in spite of Washington's brazen disregard of Pakistan's sovereignty remains to be seen.
