The Silent Massacre of Swat
The good news is that Rehman Malik has promised as per his glorious name some ‘reham’ for the suffering Swati people declaring that peace will be restored in Swat in two weeks. Furthermore a high-level meeting chaired by Mr 10% in the Presidency promises that the writ of the state will be enforced in Swat.
However actions speak louder than words and Swat awaits with bated breath for government action to save Pakistan’s paradise. This post is the third instalment of Other Pakistan’s dedicated focus on the silent massacre of Swat. Silent massacre because except for thundering statements the massacre continues in silence.
In particular the post brings readers attention to a wide list of articles written recently about the perilous situation on the ground. All the articles were published in The News, in doing so the newspaper has done great national service in focusing on Swat through its op-ed pages and editorials.
Articles by eminent journalists and commentators including Rahimullah Yusufzai, Pir M Shah, Basil Nabi Malik and Hamid Mir are a must read and are shown below:
Taliban and the people of Swat by Rahimullah Yusufzai
The Afghan Taliban banned girls’ education and many among them now regret the decision. The Pakistani Taliban in Swat have done the same thing and one day they too would realize that this was something wrong. But it would be late by then and neither regrets nor remorse would absolve them of the responsibility of keeping thousands of girls illiterate and rendering jobless a large number of female teachers and other employees.
The headstrong leadership of the Maulana Fazlullah-led Swati Taliban has even refused to listen to the advice of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whose spokesman Maulvi Omar urged it to review the decision. Though the TTP founder Baitullah Mahsud hasn’t commented on the issue and his organization is yet to give a clear directive on girls’ education to its Swat chapter, the fact that many schools for females continue to function in his native South Waziristan and in neighbouring North Waziristan show that this isn’t the policy of Pakistani Taliban to lock out educational institutions meant for girls. Still the absence of a proper policy guideline on girls’ education by the TTP emboldened the Swati Taliban to go ahead with the decision to close all schools and colleges for females by January 15. As Muslim Khan, the spokesman for the Taliban in Swat pointed out, the TTP hadn’t formally asked them to cancel the decision and, therefore, they would go ahead with its implementation.
It is obvious that the TTP isn’t always a disciplined organization. Militants from various persuasions and places make up the TTP, which is an umbrella organization for radical Taliban groups having their own local and specific agendas. In the past also, the TTP failed to discipline its Mohmand Agency chapter and its commander, Abdul Wali alias Omar Khalid, despite announcing that he would be made accountable for fighting a rival group of Salafi militants and killing its head Shah Khalid along with scores of his fighters. The TTP did nothing to stop the bombing of some girls’ schools in Darra Adamkhel, another stronghold of a radical band of Taliban like those in Swat. The TTP also remained unmoved when the Taliban in Bajaur occupied several girls’ schools and other government buildings and set up madressahs or their Shariah courts there.
The Swati Taliban are a different breed compared to the other militants. Many among them haven’t studied in madressahs, or Islamic schools, and even their leader Maulana Fazlullah was unable to complete his religious education. Members of jehadi groups are also to be found among the Taliban in Swat. Commoners including tenants have joined Taliban ranks and some are driven by an urge to harm the landowning families in Swat. Others are seeking revenge against the government, its security forces and all those Swatis who have backed the military operations in the once peaceful valley. The authorities and many Swatis also claim that criminals have become part of the Taliban and are using the militants’ power to pursue their activities.
That the Swati Taliban are the most dangerous and intolerant among the lot is evident from some of their actions. Besides bombing and destroying 172 schools, including 122 for girls and 50 for boys, they are in occupation of another five educational institutions for use as their bases. By the way, education is no longer a priority even for the government and the security forces in Swat where death and destruction is now a way of life. Due to lack of accommodation, the security forces are also occupying 18 schools where 7,039 male and female students used to study and using these places as their barracks. It is pertinent to recall that the Swat state had one of the best educational outreach and facilities during the progressive rule of the Wali of Swat. Roadside schools, clinics and police posts, nicely-built and painted yellow, are still a familiar sight in the Swat valley. It was, therefore, hardly surprising that educationists from Swat earned name and reached the highest offices in the administrative set-up of the education department in NWFP.
The list of Taliban excesses is long and full of misery. Security forces too have killed an unacceptable number of civilians during military action and displaced a large number of families. The people of Swat are often critical of both the Taliban and the security forces and it is not uncommon to find them blaming them in equal measure for their unending plight. But the Taliban due to their claim to be fighting for Shariah must be judged by the high standards of Islamic principles. Some of their actions are clearly un-Islamic. The Taliban gave up the peaceful struggle for enforcement of Shariah that was being waged earlier by Maulana Sufi Mohammad’s black-turbaned Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM) and resorted to the use of force to accomplish their goal. Their Shariah mission has now been pushed into the background due to the unabated violence that has engulfed Swat in recent years.
The Taliban have been destroying or occupying government buildings and blowing up bridges, basic health units and hotels, including the one that looked majestic with clouds often swirling around it at the now deserted Malam Jabba skiing and chairlift resort. Electricity and gas installations have been bombed and road blockades and checkpoints set up to add to the misery of the people. Beheadings of personnel of security forces and police and political rivals is common. Bodies of people slain overnight are dumped in the morning by the roadside everywhere in Swat or at the Greens Chowk, nowadays commonly referred to as “Khooni Chowk” (bloody square), in Mingora city. Anyone found in violation of the Taliban code are warned in the nightly FM Radio show by Maulana Shah Dauran to behave or face the consequences. None can dare to defy the militants and those who move out of Swat live in fear. And probably for the first time in Pakistan, a polling station in Shalbandai village neighbouring Buner district was bombed by a suicide bomber on December 28, 2008 during a National Assembly by-election to kill 43 people for avenging the death of six Taliban fighters at the hands of the villagers last year.
In such circumstances, it would be suicidal for the teachers or students to keep the girls’ schools and colleges open. Despite assurances of security by the Swat administration and the government, nobody is convinced that it would be safe to send girls to school and let the female teachers, or their male counterparts, to continue teaching. Most of the government-run educational institutions for females were already closed due to the fear of the militants. The privately-managed schools and colleges too had made adjustments by halting co-education at the few institutions where it was still in practice, ordering the female students and teachers to observe purdah and come veiled and changing part of the curriculum with greater stress on religious education. But the Taliban wanted more as they gained power and finally on December 24 Maulana Shah Dauran made the dreaded announcement that girls’ education was being outlawed from January 15. Pleas by the owners and teachers of private schools and many parents brought a slight relaxation in the Taliban stand as they allowed girls to attend school until grade four. It seems they were following the policy adopted by the Afghan Taliban, who during their rule in Afghanistan allowed girls aged nine to receive education.
There is no doubt that the ban on girls’ education deprived the Afghan Taliban the support of many Afghans and forced Muslims elsewhere in the world to stop backing them. Other factors too drained backing for the Afghan Taliban but the outlawing of female education annoyed families who wanted their women to become literate and become useful members of the society. The ban portrayed the Taliban as a retrogressive force that wanted to deprive women of enlightenment and keep them in bondage. Though the Afghan Taliban subsequently allowed girls to receive nursing and medical education on a limited scale and promised to reopen girls’ schools and colleges once the country’s civil war and the security situation improved, few believed their promises.
Due to their actions, the support for Swati Taliban has dwindled. They are living in a make-believe world and are still claiming to enjoy popular support. During visits to their strongholds in Shawar and other places in the Matta area, one found people criticizing them during private conversation. Those feigning to support largely do so out of fear or some vested interest. By making the people of Swat suffer, the Taliban have made their cause unpopular. The ban on girls’ education is one more step toward taking away whatever little support the Swati Taliban still enjoyed.
The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com
Swat’s descent in ‘daur-e-jahiliyah’ by Pir M Shah
In my recent interactions with friends from Swat, I could infer that the situation in Swat is akin to the ‘daur-e-jahiliyah’. According to them, a large number of women are suffering from psychological disorders due to the unprecedented violence. Polio, which has almost disappeared from the planet, is reappearing here, courtesy to the anti-vaccination campaign of the mullahs.
The orchards of Swat, which were once famous for peaches and apples, are now displaying decapitated dead bodies. Its yellow schools and red police stations that dotted the landscape of Swat have been razed to the ground. Decades of development is now being reversed by the ‘destructive revolution’ of the Taliban. A new type of ‘population planning’ is in progress with the unlimited use of ‘bullet’ therapy. For this new brand of violent vigilantes every working woman appears to be a prostitute until proven otherwise and every learning girl is a threat to their misogynist world-view. Not surprisingly, most people now in fact pray that drones attack and bomb these criminals.
Like FATA, there is no proper government-mandated system of taxation and the Customs Act does not apply to the region. Not surprisingly, one can find thousands of vehicles whose customs duty have not been paid in Swat. Also, the fact that PATA, like FATA, is not under normal Pakistani law enables attracts mafias of all kinds and hence the region has become a haven for gun-running, drug-trafficking, hired assassins, kidnapping for ransom and so on. One such area is Sakhakot where one can hire an assassin for as low as hundred US dollars.
This lawlessness in due time created a vacuum which was ultimately filled by ‘hyper-criminals’ in the form of Taliban. This descent into chaos did not take place in days but took years. Of course, the ‘mullah-military’ alliance is also to blame for what is going on there right now. A majority of the militants now holed up in Swat were initially trained in or motivated by conflict in Afghanistan and Kashmir. They later ‘refined’ their ‘combat capabilities’ by gaining expertise in places like Waziristan, Kurram Agency and of course Lal Masjid. They are what can be termed as ‘mobile mercenaries’. They are used to make one region ‘hot’ and when government forces react, the mercenaries simply relocate to another place to create unrest there.
Blame also lies on the shoulders of the previous Musharraf government which did not allow secular parties any space. The MMA, which ruled the NWFP government, created an atmosphere which was very conducive for extremists and militants and they consolidated their power during the time of the MMA government. The militants prospered and grew in size and influence – they had unhindered movement, and no one stopped them from fund-raising, recruitment or training. It should be noted that when tension increased between Baitullah Mehsud and his ultra-violent lieutenant Qari Hussain, after the cold-blooded murders of the Pir family in South Waziristan, it was the MMA which brokered reconciliation between the two.
Another factor was that the military failed to understand the dynamics of fighting an irregular war or insurgency. In any counter-insurgency operation, it is wrong to opt for the ‘hammer-sledge’ approach, which is what we see in Swat. The operation was launched towards the end of 2007 with deployment of four brigades and so far has achieved little. If anything, the militants are stronger now than they were at the beginning of the operation. The efficiency of the operation can be gauged quite easily if one were to collate the number of artillery shells fired and the number of militants killed.
The other group which has to be blamed is that of the politicians who have failed to take cognizance of the situation. There are two types here – one the ANP leadership which tested the troubled waters, so to speak, and failed to navigate through it. The others are those who will protest – if they do that is – in Sindh or Punjab when the situation is terrible in Swat. When the Taliban take out the dead body of Pir Samiullah from its grave and hang it, such leaders will claim that ‘external hands’ are involved. When the Taliban destroy schools in the name of Islam, such leaders call the perpetrators as non-Muslims — as if the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world have no criminals among them.
The sorry fact of the matter is that Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Imran Khan, Fazlur Rahman and Nawaz Sharif have never condemned the Taliban in spite of the fact that Taliban have claimed responsibility of all the crimes which they have perpetrated including attacks on Eidgah, mosques, bombing of jirgas, attacks on funerals and even a hospital. For every crisis these politicians have a ready-made scapegoat — America. However, till I last checked, there were no US troops in Swat and there have been no attacks there either.
Then comes the media, and by that one means the Urdu one in particular which has actually helped the militants propagate their retrogressive ideas. If a government official, soldier or cop is killed while serving and saving the people of Pakistan, he is not considered as ‘shaheed’ but when the militants die they are glorified as if they were all Robin Hoods when alive.
The people of Swat are — quite understandably – also confused. How can one of the world’s largest armies not eliminate militants whose numbers are in the thousands at the most? How is the government unable to jam the FM radio broadcasts of the militants? How come Fazlullah, Muslim Khan and Shah Dawran are accessible to journalists but the security forces cannot get hold of them? If Islam does not ban female education then why don’t the ulema and the religious leaders unequivocally condemn the action of the Taliban?
The writer is affiliated with the University of Dubai.
To Swat – with love by Basil Nabi Malik
‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy’– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am not sure what bothers me more: the government’s inability to protect its citizens in Swat and the tribal areas, or its lack of urgency in addressing these issues once and for all. The defence budget of Pakistan is about 4.5 per cent of the GDP of the country. We have the fifth largest army in the world, and foreign governments are pumping in money and equipment so we can fight. Yet Swat has fallen. Does the government even care or will it simply talk about the supremacy of the constitution day in and day out? And even if it is the supremacy of the constitution that the government seeks to establish, then let it look no further than Swat to see how much of this goal it has achieved, and in fact how little it is actually doing to achieve it.
Article 9 of the said document gives every person residing in Pakistan the right to life and liberty. Beheadings with drills, labeling as a prostitute and then killing, and suicide bombings is what is happening to the Pakistani citizens of Swat, and no one is arrested or punished. Educational institutions are not only blown up, but women are barred from gaining an education.
Article 14 states that the dignity of man and the privacy of the home shall be inviolable. Pir Samiullah, a local leader opposing the Taliban, was exhumed from his grave and strung on a pole for everyone to see his dead body, and no one was booked for it. Citizens are shot dead and thrown in a square in a market renamed “khooni” chowk by the people. The home of anyone who supports the government is raided and blown up. No one is arrested.
Article 15 states that “every citizen shall have the right to remain in, and, subject to any reasonable restriction imposed by law in the public interest, enter and move freely throughout Pakistan and to reside and settle in any part thereof”. One third of the population of Swat has reportedly shifted due to threats from the Taliban or orders by the latter to leave the area.
Article 17 talks about freedom of association. Let us look no further than the target killings of any person associated with the ANP, police force, administration or government to see the enforcement of this Article of the Constitution.
Article 18 states that “every citizen shall have the right to enter upon any lawful profession or occupation, and to conduct any lawful trade or business”, yet barbers are forced not to cut or trim beards, businesses are coerced into shutting down their CD and movie shops, and women are not allowed to work even if they are widows having no alternate means to support their family.
Article 19 says that every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression. Women aren’t allowed to go to school or venture out on the streets alone, men with alternate views on how to live one’s life are expelled from the district or killed, and people who support secular political parties are enemies of Islam and Allah.
Article 21 states that “no person shall be compelled to pay any special tax the proceeds of which are to be spent on the propagation or maintenance of any religion other than his own”. The Taliban collects its own taxes and has its own administration. I don’t know whether any non-Muslims remain in Swat, but if there are, we all know where any money taken from them will go.
Article 26 says that there shall be non-discrimination in respect of access to public places irrespective of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or birth. Unfortunately, with women being barricaded inside their homes, this article no longer seems to apply to them.
The last one is an article which I shall state with a heavy heart. Article 25 states that all citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to the equal protection of the law. In simple language, it represents access to justice. The irony speaks for itself, and even more glaringly when you note that all these ghastly actions are being undertaken by the Taliban under the ever vigilant guard of the Pakistan army.
In conclusion, there are around 20 Articles in the Constitution which prescribe rights to the people. Nine of them stand redundant in this very article. If someone from the government or the Army is so gracious as to read this, consider this a plea on behalf of the people of Swat. Save them.
The writer is a student at Columbia University. Email: bnm2102@ columbia.edu
Swat: Valley of Horror and Terror by Hamid Mir
The home of Hameedullah Khan in Shakardra village of Swat was destroyed by dynamite last week. He knows who the people who did this to him but he can turn to no one for justice. He has been a journalist from more than a decade. I know him because it was me who encouraged him to become a reporter 13 years ago when I was editor of an Urdu newspaper. These days he works for an Arab TV channel. The Taliban were not happy him and he claims that some local Taliban destroyed his home because of his reporting. This now homeless journalist has since shifted his family to Mardan.
I also know another journalist of Swat by the name of Musa Khankhel from many years. In the last few months alone, he has survived two assassination attempts. He told me that some elements within the security forces wanted to eliminate him physically due to his reporting. The majority of people in Swat are not happy at all with either the Taliban or the security forces – and sadly, the ultimate beneficiaries of this situation are criminals. Swat has become a paradise of dacoits, car lifters and professional killers. It’s a valley without any law.
I have seen dead bodies of innocent civilians killed by security forces in Kuza Bandai town of Swat with my own eyes. I have also seen some brave shopkeepers of Matta challenging the orders of Taliban in their face without any state protection. When I discussed this situation with the elected member of the National Assembly from Matta Syed Allaudin he gave me a heart-breaking answer. The PPP MNA said: “I have not visited my area even once since I won the election on Feb 18 last year. The Taliban as well as security forces are responsible for destroying peace in Swat. If I cannot enter in my area how can I help my voters there?”
Syed Allaudin, Hameedullah Khan and Musa Khankhel can tell their stories to the world with their own names but many cannot speak their heart because there is nobody to listen them or to provide them any justice. Let me tell you the one tragic story of a religious scholar. I cannot expose the full identity of this religious scholar due to the dangers that he faces but I will narrate his story. It’s not the tragic story of just one man; it’s the tale of an entire nation’s powerlessness.
Recently I met him in Peshawar. Mufti sahib broke into tears as he was telling me his story, but I couldn’t even rise from my chair and offer him some solace. His head bowed, Mufti sahib kept crying, unable to stop. Finally he looked up, grief darkening his face, and said: “I don’t know to whom I should go. Who is there to hear my cry and give me justice, I don’t need justice for myself but for hundreds of thousands of my daughters? They are crying out, but no one is listening.”
Mufti Sahib comes from Mingora where for the past 18 years he had worked at a madressah as a teacher. Recently a woman had come to him, hoping he would find some solution to the problem she faced. She belonged to the village of Kuza Bandai, situated on the banks of the Swat river – which in years gone by was famous for its trout. Her husband had died some years back in a road accident. Since the woman already had an F.A. certificate, she found work in a private school in Mingora which was not all that far, and thus could support herself and her three children while continuing to live in Kuzah Bandai.
Eventually she also got a degree in bachelor’s of education. Due to the uncertain law and order situation in the Swat valley during the last sixteen months or so most of the educational institutions were closed. But the schools in Mingora stayed open and the woman continued working.
A few days back, when she returned home in the evening from her school in Mingora, one of her neighbours came to see her. The neighbour told her that now Sharia had been imposed and women were prohibited from going out of homes without any reason, and so from the next morning she would not be able to go to her work. The woman said to her neighbour, with some degree of fear and exasperation: “Look, you know very well why I work. Every morning I take my children with me to Mingora, leave them at their school, and then go to my job at the school where I teach. And when my job finishes I go back and pick up my children and return home. They will starve to death if I stop working because as you know my husband is no longer alive.”
The neighbour told her: “We will not let your children die of hunger but you must not go out anymore.” The self-respecting lady did not wish to live like a beggar, and so the same night she took her children and returned to Mingora, to her sister’s house, and continued working. However, the elements who don’t want women to go out of their homes went to the principal of the school where the woman worked and told the principal that either he closed down the school or fired the woman!
Scared and worried to death, the woman somehow learned that there were in that group of militants some young men who had studied from Mufti sahib in his madressah. She hoped that he might be able to help her. She told her story to Mufti sahib and next day Mufti sahib contacted one of his former students hoping there would be some way out. This former student was from Khwazakhela – which is close to the Karakoram Highway and Battagram district – and had joined the local militants a year ago, after his younger brother was killed in an operation carried out by the security forces. The former student talked to his fellow militants but they refused to budge. It seems that they think they will lose their lose their authority in the area they let the woman work outside her home.
Mufti sahib then went to talk to the militants in person. During the conversation he remarked that it was not jihad when a Muslim fought another Muslim. The commander of the militants got angry and said: “We commemorate the martyrs of Karbala on the 10th of Muharram. Was not the jihad of those martyrs against a government that called itself Islamic?”
Mufti sahib then explained to him the full context of the events of Karbala and told them that their resistance is not Islamic. He tried to explain to them that women had played a key role in the spread or Islam. He told them: “The light of Islam was spread not only by men, some women also contributed courageously by coming out of their homes. History received the great story of the sacrifices of the Karbala martyrs through Hazrat Zainab (RA), daughter of Hazrat Ali (RA). As a child, she was a great favourite of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). She had become even during the life of her father, Hazrat Ali (RA), a learned speaker, and used to expound on the Holy Quran before women.
At Karbala, she saw all the male members of her family killed before her eyes. And when she was taken as a prisoner before ‘Ubaidallah bin Ziyad, the ruler of Kufah, she boldly confronted him with words of truth. Then, after an arduous journey, she was brought before Yazid in Damascus. There too she stood boldly and refused to acknowledge him as the caliph. The thundering voice of Hazrat Ali’s daughter frightened Yazid so much that he had her taken back to Madina together with the remaining members of the revered family. Had there not been Zainab the world would not have any awareness of the heights of glory reached by the martyrs of Karbala.”
Mufti sahib further said to the commander: “The history of Islam is filled with stories of other bold and courageous women besides Zainab. Had not these women stepped out of their homes, Islam might not have spread so swiftly.” He also recounted the story of Hazrat Safiya, who was the Prophet’s (PBUH) aunt and a sister of Hazrat Hamza (RA). During the battle with the Jewish tribe, Banu Quraiza, she attacked a spy of the enemy, cut off his head and threw it toward the enemy’s ranks. Then there was Hazrat Umm-e Ammarah, who wielded her sword alongside the Prophet (PBUH) in the Battle of Uhad. And when a stone struck the Prophet (PBUH) and shattered two of his teeth, it was Umm-e Ammarah who then protected the Prophet from an enemy’s attack.”
As Mufti sahib was narrating these incidents to the commander, the latter started accusing him of being an ‘agent’ of the security forces, and had him arrested. Eventually, at the behest of his former students, Mufti sahib regained freedom, but the very next day he was relieved of his duties at the madressah. Not only that, he was also ordered to leave Swat altogether within two days. His efforts to obtain justice on behalf of an oppressed woman ended in making him homeless.
But his tears before me were not on account of his own loss. The reason was that few days earlier the lady who had struggled so hard to take care of her three fatherless children was first declared a prostitute by the militants and then killed. According to Mufti Sahib, Swat was totally peaceful until two years ago. Then the government of Pervez Musharraf destroyed its peace. It spilled the blood of innocent people, and now the same innocent people had become greatest oppressors. They are killing each other in the name of Islam. What a great irony that the dictator who loudly proclaimed his “enlightened moderation” cast Swat into the clutches of religious extremism. And now he is going around the world lecturing on peace.
Mufti Sahib told me: “In Swat, the state and non-state elements are both the oppressors. They are both tyrannical. Our ulema will have to show the same boldness and courage that Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA) showed, for Swat has also become another Karbala. The ulema will have to stand up on behalf of those countless women who are being made prisoners in their homes in the name of Islam, and on whom all doors of education are being closed.” If the ulema do not raise a united voice now on behalf of their sisters and daughters there will be no one left to listen to their stories of Hazrat Safiya, Hazrat Umm-e-Ammarah and Hazrat Zainab.
The writer works for Geo TV and hosts Capital Talk. Email:hamid.mir@geo.tv
- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)
