The killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah is very good news.
According to the Afghan government and U.S. officials, Fazlullah was successfully targeted by a U.S. aerial drone as he was being driven through Afghanistan’s eastern border province of Kunar.
The moral and political importance of Fazlullah’s death is two-fold.
First, this strike will degrade the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP’s operational effectiveness. While the TTP is already riven by factional infighting and a lack of trust with civilians in traditional safe havens, Fazlullah was a banner man who attracted international fundraising and loyalty from younger fighters. It’s important to remember that the Pakistani Taliban and its Afghan counterpart appropriate and manipulate Pashtun tribal allegiances to recruit more members. Fazlullah’s death will fragment those efforts.
As an extension, the interaction of a Hellfire missile with Fazlullah’s face will also force the TTP into a new round of power jockeying. That power struggle will weaken the TTP’s operational capabilities in the short term while also drawing the TTP’s financial, political, and logistical supporters out of cover. That will allow them to be identified and neutralized.
Yet Fazlullah’s death is also a moral success. Because this terrorist was a truly evil man. Fanatically hateful of women and even basic societal freedoms, Fazlullah was known for his roving harassment and killing sprees across Pakistan. Responsible for the assassination attempt of Malala Yousafzai, a girl who committed the natural sin of trying to go to school, Fazlullah also led the attack on a Pakistani school which slaughtered nearly 150 innocent children. Fazlullah’s justification was that most of the children came from Pakistani army families. But the incident galvanized the Pakistani army’s resolve to cull Fazlullah and prioritize counterterrorism operations.
Put simply, this is good news. If nothing else, Fazlullah was a bitter adversary of ascendant Pakistani elements, which view terrorists as an equal or greater threat than India. Many Pakistani officers will be raising a quiet glass of chai to the drones today.
