Is Swat Still in Pakistan?
The title of this post is a question that should stop you in your tracks. It is a question and a statement that should make you shudder at the same time . It is borrowed and inspired by a comment I received from Baber Khairi in an email who like me is aghast at the massacre of Swat.
My dear friend Zubair Torwali of Swat is well known to the readers of Other Pakistan as a guest writer. However very few will know that Zubair is a proud Swati who has served the people of Pakistan with distinction through his educational establishment the Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi located in Swat, proving that Swat is not beyond rescue.
However I became alarmed when Zubair recently copied me to an email sent to luminaries such as Aitzaz Ahsan and Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy providing links to his recently published articles in The News regarding the terrible situation in Swat.In effect the articles represent a mayday call to save Swat from fanatical Fazlullah’s fan club.
At Other Pakistan, Zubair’s mayday call has prompted me to focus squarely on Swat with this post being the first instalment of a dedicated Swat series. I begin with the articles of Zubair Torwali which are a must read and a call to conscience and action.
Let us all raise our voice and pressure the impotent Gillani government to act to save Swat, the jewel of Pakistan. Zubair’s passionate articles are as below:
From Swat – with no love by Zubair Torwali
The main town of Swat, Mingora, has now virtually fallen to the militants. The police are escorted by army officials and come out from their ‘hide-outs’ only for a couple of hours.
One of the busiest squares, Grain chowk, was renamed by the shopkeepers as ‘Khooni chowk’ because when they come to their shops in the morning on each day they find four or five dead bodies hung over the poles or the trees. They see dead bodies scattered along the foot path in the morning. The bodies are usually headless. The practice goes thus with an average of four deaths daily in the square.
Similarly on each morning there are found bodies with their throats slit in Qambar, Kabal, Matta, Khawza Khela and Charbagh. This practice has been going on for weeks; and unfortunately does not seem to stop. Jan 15 is the deadline set by the militants to close all schools, especially those of girls. As the deadline approaches people are getting more and more terrified. The government’s writ is all but absent.
Nazims have been killed, women are not allowed to visit bazaars (which are deserted), NGOs have stopped working and children play a ‘Fauji Taliban’ game. The people live a miserable life in the cold. Most bridges have been damaged and beyond the main town phones have been dead for months. Most people live in darkness at night because the fighting has badly affected the power infrastructure as well.
Curfew is imposed constraining the people inside for days on end. And security forces personnel sometimes fire indiscriminately. The residents can do nothing – they cannot protest against the high-handedness of the military or stand up to the militants.
The Taliban gain from strength to strength, partly aided by the use of FM radio. Various checkposts set up by the security forces seem to be no little use. Scores of militants entered Kalam last week in spite of six checkposts set up from from Bagh Dahri to Bahrain. It is quite clear that for now the victors in the war are the Taliban – and the losers the people of Swat.
But who cares about that in the rest of the country. The government seems too busy dealing with the aftermath of the Mumbai carnage. That said, the predicament of the people of Swat is worse than even of the people of Gaza. In Gaza the enemy is well known but in Swat the people know not who the enemy is and whom to hold responsible.
The civil society of any country is regarded as a great force to mobilize the general public against the violation of civil rights and liberty. It is considered as a bulwark against the violation of human rights. It is deemed as the upholder of people’s rights where the state fails to deliver. Its mettle was tested in the lawyers’ movement but we in Swat wonder why it is silent now?
We hear no voice raise against the atrocities committed in Swat. No civil society organization has its voice against the plight of the women and children in Swat. We have not seen a single demonstration in the big cities against the monster of militancy in Swat, or in FATA for that matter. The media also seems apathetic about the plight. The print media does well to some extent but their scope is limited.
The people of Swat ask you to come out on their behalf and mobilize the general public against the war tearing the valley. We implore you to come out of your drawing rooms and stage protests so that the government does something about our plight.
The fall of Swat by Zubair Torwali
There has been no official announcement, no victory parades or televised addresses by the victorious party, no cheering crowds welcoming the liberators – but Swat, to all intents and purposes, has fallen to the Taliban.
It is the announcement that all girls education in the valley will cease from January 15 that is the tipping point. All schools that teach girls have been ordered by the Taliban to close by that date or face the inevitable consequences – being blown up being the most usual of these. They have already blown up well over a hundred girls schools, principally those operated by the government, but have moved in recent weeks to blowing up private institutions as well.
Female education has virtually ceased anyway, and the Taliban announcement merely puts the seal on what is a manifest reality – the government has lost the battle for Swat and the Taliban have won. They operate at will, go where they like, issue orders and proclamations that a terrified public are unable to ignore and broadcast their message of obscurantism on the radio for all to hear – and obey.
The ANP government of NWFP has called for assistance. But little seems to be forthcoming. Refugees stream out of the valley, the operators of private schools try to fight a rearguard action, the tourist trade is dead and buried long ago and the beautiful valley of Swat now enters a time of darkness.
The Taliban announcement regarding girl’s education may seem a strange point at which to declare Swat ‘fallen’ – but it is of huge symbolic significance. It is significant because there will be compliance – the population and the operators of schools, including the government who are the majority education provider – will do what they are told.
They will obey the orders of the Taliban because the Taliban are more powerful than the government that is supposed to protect and sustain them. The government is unable or unwilling to protect its own schools and is not going to lift a finger to protect those of the private sector. It gives the clear impression of having abandoned Swat and its people to whatever their fate may be.
Could the government – either of Musharraf or the present rudderless, drifting Marie Celeste – have done anything to stop this? Yes, and in all likelihood they decided not to. The notion that somehow the militants are our ‘allies’ runs as a strong and deep current through elements of the army and intelligence services, the bureaucracy and the politicians themselves.
There are powerful forces that provide tacit if not overt support to them, forces which would like to see the Taliban triumphant in the rest of Pakistan and not just Swat. The caliphate of Swat is becoming a reality before our eyes. Where next?
Where is the writ of government? by Zubair Torwali
It is now prudent not to mention Swat at all. At the government level everybody seems to focus his mind either on the drone attack in FATA or the “imminent” war between India and Pakistan. After the Mumbai attack Pakistan is internationally unreliable, and internally at the mercy of terror.
Amidst such situation the people of Swat were left in agonies, moans and cries. How they spent their Eid is a story of sorrow, misery and fear. The media in Pakistan carried no reports of the terrible home-going journey the people of Swat had to undertake just before Eid.
The government now and again says that its writ has been restored in Swat. Every day people hear that security forces have established peace at this place or the other in the valley. But what is happening in reality is the opposite. The government writ has been virtually confined to the check posts set by the security forces. Beyond that it has no control over the affairs.
The police stations are still deserted. The existence of a government is not perceivable in Swat. The Taliban have set their courts where they administer justice in their own way. They can dig out dead bodies and hang them in public places for days. Yet the government says it controls most of the valley.
In between the security check posts of the security forces there are check posts set up by the Taliban to show their presence. They check people in the same way as the security forces do. Only the targets are different. The security forces interrogate long-bearded poor individuals while the Taliban do the same with the shaven people. The security forces hunt for a Talib whereas the Taliban hunt for a policeman or a soldier. One has to change one’s garb at each check post.
People are so terrified that they can neither talk about the security forces nor the Taliban. Mothers advise their sons to avoid such discussions; friends warn friends not to mention either in daily discussions. Everybody has drowned himself in oblivion. Nobody dares question anything. People are at the fence. They cannot decide whom to favour. The common folk even think all this as a game by the establishment.
Humiliation by both the forces is now their fate. Many noble people are humiliated by both the forces. In reaction to any attack the security forces fire indiscriminately; and eventually add to the distrust of the people. There are stories which tell of the atrocities the security forces have committed. They even blast the homes of those people who are westernised.
The police are the main target of the militants. Yet they did not give up their past habits. Two weeks ago in Bahrain a dacoit gang was handed over to the police by the local people. This gang was robbing people in the name of Taliban. The local Jirga (council) acted in time and handed them to the police. Ironically, the police have to date not registered an FIR against them.
There are a number of examples of incidents which indicate that criminal people have availed the anarchy in order to indulge in their past revenges. There is no doubt that Swat is in the grip of severe militancy but there are many instances where one can find the cause other than the globally known Islamic militancy.
Swat is once again on the way to Yaghistan, the time of anarchy before the State of Swat was established. At that time tribes were fighting against other tribes. Each tribe had its own jirga; and the sole purpose of that was to settle disputes among the tribe in order to keep it united against the opposite tribe. Fear is there that that system may revisit Swat, along with sectarian violence.
It now seems a war of adventurism. The common Talib does not know what is going on at the higher level. There are youngsters among them who seem to be there only to enjoy the thrill. On the security side the same situation prevails. The new recruits deployed there have no idea of the culture. The commanders are also of the ranks of lieutenant. It seems as if Swat has been made a training ground where new recruits are to be trained for warfare.
It is now time to determine when the war is to be ended. The people want peace in any case, whether the government hands over Swat to the Taliban or restores its writ in the whole of Swat. The people have now learnt to survive. They have no ambition left, except a peaceful future for their next generation. Gone are the days when we used to have dreams: dreams of prosperity, of progress, of a society equipped with knowledge and wisdom.
- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)
