Kahar Zalmay
Karachi comes to mind when we hear this word bhatta. But few people are aware of the fact that in the tribal belt, even the state gives bhatta (safety money) to non-state actors for the safety of its representatives.
I don’t know if such a practice is carried out in any other place. May be our God-forsaken country won this distinction?
Quite a spectacle to watch when the political agent of South Waziristan embarks on a rare journey to Wana, headquarter of South Waziristan.
Accompanied by several cars with numerous security guards and the luxury of the military convoy, the PA will take five hours drive to reach Wana, where he is supposed to be in the first place instead of Tank.
But in Wana, the PA sits in a military fort, as he doesn’t have his office there. I don’t know what one could make of it in the modern world.
It was quite a shock for me when I saw Baab-e-Waziristan in Tank bazaar.
It’s like you build Baab-e-Khyber in Peshawar Sadr. After crossing this Baab (door) you see spacious offices of all government officials governing South Waziristan. Health, education, NADRA and even the tehsildar office is in Tank, what an example of remote control.
Even the governor cottage is in Tank and tribal maliks are brought from the agency to meet the viceroy when he graces them with his presence.
“What’s the point to have so many security guards and a convoy when you get permission of movement from Taliban and pay them safety money? What do you expect from local tribesmen when the state is helpless in front of the non-state actors,” a disgruntled old man from Zalikhel tribe told me while sipping his tea at a make-shift tea shop in Tank bazaar.
They rule us like the Brits ruled us in the last century. Nothing has changed for us. How come you sit so far away in a settled area controlling a tribal agency, said another tribesman jumping into our conversation. Glancing over his shoulders and in a measured tone, a middle-aged tribesman dressed in white shalwar kameeze and wearing a pagray (turban) exposing his broad forehead said, “You cannot blame the political agent if he pays safety money to Taliban for his security. Have you forgotten what they did to the family of Khyber Agency political agent in Tank when 13 members of his family were killed in a brazen attack on his house”? The other tribesmen seemed convinced by his argument.
This debate of creating new provinces in the country is aimed at solving problems of common people at their doorstep but I am sure majority of people in settled districts do not even know that how the people of FATA are ruled, a professor of Gomal University belonging to Mehsud tribe told me with the condition of anonymity as government officials he is not permitted to talk to media.
“You know the government set up this Zam Public School for the children of Mehsud tribe. But they set up this school in Tank; hundreds of miles away from them and now local people send their children to the school,” said the professor with obvious concern.
What I observed during my conversation with tribesmen in Tank, a settled district bordering South Waziristan, you cannot stay impartial.
You are either with Taliban or with other militant groups like Abdullah Mehsood and Haji Turkistan groups. “If you belong to Haji Turkistan group, you are issued a certain card by the local administration that facilitates you in your work at government offices,” a person told me in Tank bazaar.
It seems a dangerous trend giving legitimacy to militant groups that are against Taliban. The situation is very complex and the people are equally uncertain and confused like other areas in the tribal belt. Even the parliamentarians representing the people of FATA are not immune to the bhatta culture.
I hear that parliamentarians from FATA pay money to Taliban for safety, I asked a tribal parliamentarian in Peshawar. It’s true, he said requesting not to be named. “It basically started in MMA government. Most of the MNAs and senators who belonged to the religious parties’ alliance paid the militants not only for safety but to secure their political position as well. There used to be and there still is a share of Taliban in every development project in the tribal belt whether initiated by a MNA or a senator of the respective agency,” the FATA parliamentarian added.
“Our families near and extended both live in the tribal belt, FR regions or districts bordering FATA like Kohat, Peshawar, Bannu and DI Khan. We cannot risk their lives,” he said grimly.
I was back in Dera Ismail Khan almost after a decade. Sitting with a tribesman from Shamankhel sub-tribe of Mehsud tribe at his shop at Thopawala bazaar, still crowded, stinky and dusty as it was before, it seemed the city had regressed. “We pay bhatta to Taliban for safety. It does not make difference where you live, but if you got money you got no choice but to give a certain amount to militants for the safety of your family back home,” he said with a helpless look.
“You have no faith in the state for security,” I asked. He laughed and said that people in the urban centres seemed too naïve. “When the state itself pays bhatta to the non-state actors, how come it could provide us security?”
The story does not stop in DI Khan, Peshawar, Bannu or Kohat. It stretches to Karachi and beyond.
“They come openly and collect bhatta from us. We have to give them for the safety of our families back home,” a transporter told me in Kemari, Karachi.
“You know most of the transporters belong to the tribal belt and they are very prone to attacks even if they evacuate their families from the area,” his business partner echoed his sentiments. “How long you think will it go like this?” I asked two transporters from South Waziristan. “People say when the Americans leave Afghanistan, things will get better but I don’t think so,” one of the transporters said.
“It has become a way of life, a money making practice and who on earth will like to disengage from it so easily,” he added. During my recent visit to Dubai, I was sitting with a friend at his dera, a place where bachelor immigrants live; two bearded men came and started collecting money.
My first reaction was that it could be for building some mosques or running madrassas but I thought that the government of UAE did not allow such practices so how come they were collecting money.
To my inquiry, I was told that this ‘chanda’ was in fact bhatta meant for the safety of their families in Pakistan.
“In Dubai and Sharjah, bhatta is collected for the Taliban operating in the settled areas like Swat, Dir, suburbs of Peshawar, and Bajaur while in Abu Dhbai where Mehsud, Wazirs and Aurakzai tribesmen are in majority, the money is sent to the Taliban of Waziristan and Aurakzai agencies,” my friend told me. “But how do they send such large amount of money to Pakistan? I am sure not through banks,” I said. “That even through Hundi you cannot send big amounts of money,” he said confidently as if he was aware of the whole operation.
“The best way to send the money is to use the channel of Huj and Umrah,” he said, adding, “Many people come for Hujj and Umrah from those areas. The money is given to them which ultimately lands in the hands of militants.” “In some cases even gold is sent that can easily be converted into cash,” he added.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\10\21\story_21-10-2011_pg7_16
The Taliban in waziristan consist of everyone from some forcibly conscripted locals to ‘Punjabi’ Taliban to large contingent of Arabs and foreigners. The Snakes in our garden as Hilary intonation said