Swat is Still the Issue
The title of this post is inspired by the title of a John Pilger documentary titled ‘Palestine is still the issue’. Unlike John Pilger who has worked tirelessly for the Palestinian people, all I can do for my Swati brothers and sisters is to fulminate from the confines of this website.
The News newspaper deserves glowing praise for keeping Swat at the forefront of the news agenda. Indeed the Newspost section the equivalent of the letters section of The News is almost single-handedly focusing on Swat. A selection of comments from ordinary Pakistanis like you and me aghast at the silent massacre of Swat and the impotence of the Pakistani state are compulsory reading and show the level of anger in Pakistan regarding the situation in Swat. The must-read comments are shown below:
Handmaidens of the Devil
Many of our illiterate parents produce half a dozen – or more – children and then they find that they are unable to feed them. That then compels them to send them to madressahs where they are beaten, chained and brainwashed and transformed into angry monsters/puppets.
As for our maulvis, they have let us down. They get billions every year and one wonders what these funds are used for. Look at the graduates of madressahs now – the Taliban. Their actions are so despicable that they wouldn’t even qualify to be called animals – because animals do not kill for no reason or for pleasure, something that the Taliban seemed to have mastered. They slaughter innocent fellow Muslims including our soldiers who protect our borders, hang dead bodies on trees and poles, drag dead bodies from their graves and leave them in busy marketplaces. They kill even if someone refuses to tie the shalwar above the ankles when there is no compulsion in our religion.
The Holy Quran says: “Whoever kills an innocent human being it is as if he has killed all mankind” (Sura Maida). It accords respect even to dead bodies. What religion, if any, are the Taliban practising?
I would go so far as to call them the handmaidens of the Devil, especially after their ban on girls’ education in Swat. Do not these people know that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) addressed both men and women when he said: “Seek knowledge even if you have to go to China”?
If female education stops where will lady doctors and nurses come from to treat, deliver and operate on the mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of the Taliban? From where will the teachers come to teach primary school children? An illiterate mother will only raise more handmaidens of the Devil.
For the ‘teachers’ who are producing these monsters destroying our infrastructure, chasing out our investors and are frightening people to accept their rigid way of life, the Holy Quran has this to say: “They have hearts, yet cannot understand: eyes yet cannot see: and ears, but cannot hear. They are like cattle – indeed, they are the more misguided.”(Sura Araf).
One cannot negotiate good behaviour with cattle. They should be minced without a prayer for spreading ‘fitna’ on earth. If the Taliban wish to rule the country, let them make a political party and contest elections to see how many people voluntarily accept their brand of Islamic law.
Dr Zarina Khan (Islamabad)
And
A lot has been said about the grave situation in Swat. I once asked a friend of mine who is a serving major in the Pakistan army why the army didn’t take action when houses and hujras of people were targeted by the Taliban. He replied that this was the responsibility of the police and the FC and that the army’s role was more strategic – carrying out offensives against enemy strongholds.
So what is – officially speaking, that is – the role of the army in Swat? There is no police left in Swat and the FC is obviously not capable enough to tackle the menace. Where do we, the people of Swat, turn to for protection?
Sohail Khan (A Swati living in Islamabad)
And
Everyday we hear of people being killed and schools being burnt in Swat. And now government officials seem to have realised that force is the only option. This is shocking because what has the government been doing all this time during its so-called military operation in Swat.
The prime minister is going to Switzerland – but when will a senior leader visit their own Switzerland?
Mirza Arsalan Zaheer (Karachi)
And
Rukhsana Anwar rightly wonders as to why the presence of the army troops has not been able to do anything about the violence caused by the Taliban in Swat in a region that is not very large. More intriguing is the fact that the government has so far failed in locating and jamming Fazlullah’s FM radio station – especially when our intelligence agencies have the ability to trace a mobile caller’s exact coordinates. Will someone in the government please explain?
Manzoor I Awan (Islamabad)
And
Shabana, the artiste from Swat who used to sing and dance to earn her living and make people merry on weddings and other such occasions, was shot in the head in the notorious bloody square of Mingora on the night of Jan 2 and 3. Happy New Year, Pakistan.
Does our collective silence on the Swat issue mean that we actually support these fascists known as the Taliban? Do we want our sons and daughters to be uneducated and fall even further behind in the modern world? Have we fallen this low as a nation? Sadly I think all the answers to these questions are yes.
Seemin Masood (Islamabad)
And
The actions of the Taliban in Swat of burning down girls’ schools and ordering the local population to grow beards are nothing short of criminal. The Taliban are not only defying the writ of the state but bringing a bad name to Islam. What is more worrying is silence of majority of our Islamic scholars. While Qazi Hussain Ahmad passionately condemns Israel for its atrocities in Gaza and Maulana Fazlur Rehman spares no opportunity to enlighten everyone of his political wisdom, they don’t have the will or courage to openly condemn the Taliban and their actions.
It is time that our religious scholars, who have always portrayed themselves as custodians of Islam, to come forward and forcefully and unequivocally denounce actions of the Taliban in Swat as immoral and un-Islamic. Failure to do so would mean that either they don’t care or worse adhere to the same ideology.
Ather Imran Nawaz (Rawalpindi)
And
Swat, once known as a paradise on earth, now gives semblance of a living hell. Its flowing blue water, lush green fields, snow-capped mountains, orchards of many colours and peaceful environment would sooth the nerves of many people from all over the world. I remember how I would long for my village just to enjoy the clear blue skies, the majesty of Swat river, the chirping of the birds and the long lines of young children with red cheeks and multicolour uniforms, flocking to their yellow painted schools.
But alas, the very name of my beautiful homeland is now synonymous with terror, devastation and gloom. I feel so helpless; I wish I could do something.
Wing-Cdr (r) Bahre Kamal (Peshawar)
And
Welcome to NWFP; my province, and interestingly the most dangerous place on the planet. The province has a lot to offer. Besides the augmenting militancy and extremism, it also boasts of the tribal areas redolent of US drone attacks. Then there is Swat, painted in red, no more under the administration of the state. The capital of the province, Peshawar, speaks of daily kidnappings and abductions. How can one forget D I Khan, Mardan and Bannu, which not only have witnessed the detonations of many bombs, but also manifest the absence of security in the region?
Fresh to the ears are rumours of Talibanisation coming down from Chitral. There is a phenomenal daily death toll here, with the constitution of Pakistan practically obsolete in a considerable part of the province.
Muhammad Asif Nawaz Jadoon (Abbottabad)
Need I say more?
- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)
