TALIBAN militants have urged Pakistan not to take foreign aid and instead accept a $20 million pledge from their movement.
The move raises the stakes in the battle for the allegiance of millions stricken by disastrous floods.
The offer has confirmed the worst fears of the US that Pakistan’s weak response to the biggest natural disaster since the 2005 Kashmir earthquake has left an opening for Islamic extremists and the charity arms of terrorist groups.
The Taliban, whose escalating attacks against the state have resulted in thousands of civilian deaths, pledged last week to suspend their insurgency in Pakistan for the duration of the flooding.
The group upped the ante yesterday, saying foreign aid was deceiving the nation.
“It will not reach the affected people, but will be pocketed by corrupt rulers,” Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said, claiming the disaster was God’s punishment to Pakistanis for accepting secular leaders.
Jamut-ud-Dawa, the charity arm of banned militant organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba, has been seen to fill the aid breach, ferrying supplies to people throughout the stricken region.
“We are providing food, clothes, medicines, tents, utensils and 5000 rupees ($66) cash to each family,” JUD spokesman Atique Chohan said at a camp run by its welfare organisation, the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, in the Kybher Pakhtunkhwa region.
“So far we have helped 250,000 people.”
The government has redeployed 50,000 troops from the counter-insurgency operations for rescue and relief efforts, and to rebuild infrastructure washed away by the monsoonal torrents.
But the consensus in Pakistan is that the government failed to warn residents ahead of the floods or respond quickly enough to the disaster.
Many victims have directed their anger at Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari for going ahead with his European tour even as the death toll rose above 1600 and the number of people affected touched 14 million.
Anthony Cordesman, a former Obama administration adviser and security expert from Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the floods represented “a major opportunity” for extremists to win influence among people denied government services.
“If it continues, it makes Pakistan more and more vulnerable to extremism,” Mr Cordesman said.
But there was growing evidence US relief efforts in some of the most heavily flooded former Taliban-held regions were starting to have an impact.
“We have been waiting for this day for so long,” said flood survivor Habib ur-Rehman as US helicopters dropped food parcels and picked up residents who wanted to be evacuated from the town of Kalam, in Swat Valley.
Another man named Saddam Hussein in honour of the fallen Iraqi dictator, said simply: “Thank you, America.”
Kamran Bokhari, South Asia analyst for US-based global intelligence company Stratfor, said he did not believe the Taliban’s aid offers would improve its standing with the people.
But he warned that the efforts of militant charities could work against the government. “The state relies on public support for its counter-insurgency operations. In going into areas where the militants have been active in providing relief as opposed to the government, the people will say ‘Where were you when the floods hit us?’ “
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