Whore of Swat

burqaposhx · January 13, 2009, 2:51am

First we have to realize the exact nature of the Taliban disease. We need to understand how our religion got hijacked by petty tribals. Then only then we can come up with some solutions.

So far, our society is too divided, and too religious to figure this out.

marwati · January 13, 2009, 10:41am

Re: Whore of Swat

i m sure ISI is playing dirty game with its beloved talibans in swat. time has come to enforce sharia on these mullas nd talibans. for 'fasad fil arz' there is death penalty in islam.

Data · January 13, 2009, 2:20pm

Err, I think its you who needs to read a little more before trying to link all that. This Swat mess was orchestrated artificially at first by the Govt, just to get the attention of the west and bring some maal in. Why was there no such problems in Swat before?

wine · January 13, 2009, 3:35pm

Their was a problem before too in swat, sir !
If i take your point of swat situation is previous government stunt for money, then Molvi fazal ullah movement in 1995 was also funded & fueled by government at that time ?

Data · January 13, 2009, 3:48pm

No there wasnt. Swat just like any other part of the country is fine. Those that try to say otherwise are just trying to pin the blame away from Musharraf. I have been to Swat MANY times in the 90s, no problems, even saw lots of foriegn honeymooners walking there holding hands. There might be problems of poverty, diseases lack of resources but its not like Swat was the only part in the country prone to that. Its simple, they created a monster, it got lose and now its out of their hands. This is why these incompetent retards in the previous Govt were let go of by their real masters.

wine · January 13, 2009, 3:57pm

Yar, i was in swat three years ago and everything was clam and beautiful. having said that, you also can't deny the extremists view of local people their. They were just exploited on the name of Islam by talibans or raw or mossad... etc.. But don't blame on Mush government, that area has the history of this kind a problems !

Data · January 13, 2009, 4:04pm

Re: Whore of Swat

^ These people are there and were always there. They live there and as Mufti stated in the article, after the Govt played that game, innocent teenagers became part of this gruesome mafia. You cant blame the people who live there, you have to blame the people who came up with this idea of using them, arming them, and giving them the defiance to take matters into their own hand. So you are now blaming Taliban/Mosad/Raw, and yet you leave out the Mush Govt.

Changez_like · January 13, 2009, 4:14pm

Sorry for the tangent but can we say the same about MQM? :aq: I know what you are going to come back with

Data · January 13, 2009, 4:19pm

Re: Whore of Swat

^ Then why ask me? p.s. MQM was created by His humongousness Altaf Bhai, with ample support from Zia in order to tackle the PPP. I am sure you will never find me praising either of the two. I am more than willing to discuss this in a different thread.

Changez_like · January 13, 2009, 6:08pm

My point is: are you going to stop blaming MQM for atrocities in Karachi just as you suggested not to blame the people (in your previous post) because they were used/armed by the government etc.

Data · January 13, 2009, 6:18pm

Re: Whore of Swat

So in your books the MQM = the people of Karachi? Sorry but thats not how I feel.

Again, if you really want to discuss this, please open the topic as this is digression.

wine · January 13, 2009, 6:58pm

They are Italians :)

PyariCgudia · January 14, 2009, 3:16am

Re: Whore of Swat

Faisal makes a good point: blame game is only so productive. The solution is simple, if anyone has the cahoonas to carry it out: disband the jihadi outfits, impose serious weapon control; impose serious border controls; cut out the secret support for jihaadi groups from ISI and other conspiracy-freaks in the government and hand them a home collection of bourne supremacy if they're so interested in playing conspiracy; impose severe punishments for anyone joining a terrorist organization (death, fines, whatever), and impose a full death penalty for the current Taliban groups on grounds of treason; disband the current elder system in NWFP and FATA areas and have writ of law instated in these areas; and do serious reform of the education system, involving especially shutting down of any rogue institutions and imprisoning the "maulvis" preaching hate.

That'll send a message to everyone - Islam is not something to be tampered with and used as a toy to kill and terrorize innocent people to gain your petty political/economic goals.

Data: Of course SWAT was fine prior to Taliban intrustions, but Musharraf never created the Taliban to begin with - those guys have been around way before Musharraf was ever in power. Their origins and their ancestor groups go back to the Soviet Cold War era, and Zia was instrumental in their production, and the so-called democratic groups (benazir bhutto, nawaz sharif) were instrumental in sustaining these groups to carry on their "diplomacy" in Kashmir.

You mess around enough with God's pure message to mankind, and it ends up biting you in the behind it the end. I would think most muslims would get this concept, but apparently, most don't.

Oh, and someone mentioned here how the people being brainwashed by these groups shouldn't be blamed; rather they are victims? Seriously? You know what? Why don't I stop being a good responsible citizien and start misbehaving and then calling myself a victim as an excuse for my sorry arse behavior? Everyone else is doing it, apparently, these days, and getting away with it.

omairhr · January 15, 2009, 6:39am

I can atleast say that there is no military solution.

desert_bird · January 15, 2009, 8:10am

Re: Whore of Swat

^^ :k:

We have to sit on table otherwise it would not end

desert_bird · January 17, 2009, 7:33am

Re: Whore of Swat

The writer is considered as the one of the greatest expert on Afghan,tribal and Talibans issues in Pakistan

**Taliban and the people of Swat

Saturday, January 17, 2009
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: [email protected]

Taliban and the people of Swat

Himalaya · January 18, 2009, 12:33am

You really need to wake up and smell the coffee. Swat’s 1990’s problem was notorious - here are some articles - you should google the issue.

Musharaf is just a small part of the history of Swat. Swat was in a bad state at the end of 2007, but thanks to the noew government ad its lack of policy, its almost a lost cause…enjoy the articles

IPCS - Terrorism
Devyani Srivastava
Research Officer, IPCS
e-mail: [EMAIL=“[email protected]”][email protected]

Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) is progressively coming under the grip of Islamic extremism. One of the more severe manifestations of this trend has been the outbreak of intense fighting in the Swat District, situated in the north of the NWFP. Since the end of October an open war has ensued between the militants, led by a radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, fighting for the enforcement of the Sharia law in the region and the security forces. The militants on a rampage since the beginning of this year unleashed havoc following the Lal Masjid operation with at least four suicide attacks against the security forces in July itself. The Pakistani army, at first, launched aerial attacks through helicopter gunships in late October to target militant hideouts and training camps; but, due to continuing unrest in the region and large-scale surrender of the paramilitary forces, the army stepped up its operations and launched an all-out ground offensive in end-November. Through sustained operations, it has succeeded in restoring the state’s writ in many parts of the Swat valley, including Fazlullah’s base at Imam Dheri on 28 November. The militants have been on the run since then. However, notwithstanding the immediate success of the military operation, the significance of the Swat conflict remains high for Pakistan.
First, the fighting in Swat represents the first all-out combat between pro-Taliban militants and government forces outside of Pakistan’s tribal areas known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) (also part of NWFP), that have served as the training ground for insurgents and the fleeing Taliban elements since 9/11. The Swat district is one of '24 ‘settled’ districts of NWFP administered by the provincial government. While Taliban encroachment has been taking place gradually in other settled districts such as Tank, Bannu, and Hangu bordering the tribal areas, the Swat conflict is the first to acquire such intensity. Moreover, the Swat conflict represents a distinct eastward spread of religious extremism, threatening, in turn to spillover into the troubled Northern Areas of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir that shares part of its southern border with Swat.
Second, the conflict signals the rise of the banned militant outfit Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) led by Fazlullah. The TNSM, founded in 1989 by Sufi Mohammad, an activist of the religious party Jamaat-e-Islami, witnessed its peak during 1994-95 when it took to the streets in large numbers in the Malakand region (which included the Swat district till 2002) demanding the enforcement of the Sharia law. Again, following the launch of the US war on terror in 2001, Sufi Mohammad is supposed to have sent thousands of fighters (approximately 10,000) to fight the Northern Alliance government in Afghanistan. While many fighters perished in the war, many others, including Sufi Mohammad, were arrested on their return to Pakistan.
The outfit resurfaced under the leadership of Fazlullah who has since been propagating his extremist views through at least two dozen FM radio channels run by him. Helped considerably by a local and provincial administration reluctant to antagonize him, the TNSM successfully terrorized the people of Swat through activities such as closing of girl’s schools, bombing of music and video shops, attacks on barbers, and protests against NGOs carrying out development work. Since the onset of clashes, Fazlullah’s force, with a strength of roughly 4,500 men, has been able to carry out powerful attacks against the security forces, including in high-security zones, and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the security forces in several instances. The ferocity displayed by Fazlullah’s men is largely responsible for the dominant perception among the locals in Swat that the retreat by the militants is but a strategy, and that they will strike again when the situation is ripe. Given the ability of the TNSM to resurface with renewed strength, it continues to pose a grave threat to the security of Pakistan.
Finally, the conflict in Swat Valley acquires significance because it reflects the growing influence of al Qaeda in the province. While Fazlullah has openly stated that “Osama bin laden and Mullah Omar are his heroes,” this is further substantiated by the large-scale presence of ‘foreign fighters’ in the Swat conflict, and is widely acknowledged by the locals who say the militants speak a different dialect from theirs. This goes to suggest that the jihad being waged in the region does not represent an uprising from within and lends credence to the prospect of it being orchestrated by the Taliban with the objective of extending their operational base beyond the tribal areas to the northern areas of the northwest.
The Swat offensive therefore, underscores the pressing security concerns of Pakistan, both in terms of the growing reach of Islamic extremism and its mounting lethality. While the security forces have established their writ in large parts of Swat, that in no way implies a defeat of the militants. It may be relevant to point out that despite the presence of over 80,000 troops in the FATA area since 2002, the Taliban continues to exercise influence in the region. The government must, therefore, follow up military operations with adequate political and development measures to retain control of the area.

Al-Ahram Weekly | International | Fear in the village
Masked men with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades hauled four young policemen onto the village square, hands bound behind their backs. They were forced to their knees and then beheaded, one by one. “Let this serve as a warning to all those who spy for the government or help the government. All sons of Bush will meet a similar fate,” said one of the masks.
This is not Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s the pastoral district of Swat in northwest Pakistan. It was once a flourishing tourist destination. It’s become the latest front in an increasingly brutal war between the Pakistan army and an insurgent, militant Islam. The epicenter is Afghanistan and the Pashtun tribal regions that straddle its Pakistan border. But the conflict is gravitating inland. Swat is a three-hour drive from Peshawar.
The beheadings were one response to the recent dispatch to Swat of 2,500 Pakistani soldiers, allegedly at the request of village elders. There were others. On 25 October a suicide bomber wrecked an army truck in Mingora, the district headquarters. Twenty people were killed, including 17 soldiers.
The troops had come to quell the activities of Maulana Fazlullah, a local, pro- Taliban cleric. In the last year he has established “a parallel system of justice” in Swat, with courts, jails and, says the army, a 4,000-strong militia.
The aim he says is to spread Sharia law. He has not yet declared jihad against the army but “in that case the situation will turn from bad to worse,” warns a spokesman. The state – police, local government and politicians – has crumbled like sand before him. The army is the last line.
Swat is a case study of the mutation of militant Islam in Pakistan – and an illustration of why it poses such a threat.
Fazlullah is the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Mohamed. In 1994 he too tried to impose Sharia law in Swat. The army took 12 days to crush him. In 2001, he levied 10,000 men to fight the US-led invasion of Afghanistan “in the manner of the prophet” i.e. on horseback and with swords. They were mown down in the manner of the American army, i.e. by machine gun fire. On his return to Pakistan Mohamed was jailed and his Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohamedi (TNSM) movement banned.
But the son-in-law was allowed to preach. He did so through his own FM radio station, a crucial medium in an area where most cannot read and many don’t have television. He decreed the education of girls to be un-Islamic. He also said polio drops delivered by an international NGO was an American plot to rob Muslims of their potency – with the result that polio rates climbed in Swat for the first time in a decade. Finally, he Arabised the names of villages, so that many no longer could say where they lived.
Some turned to his system of justice – largely because there was no other. But most loathed his destruction of what had been a hybrid culture and a thriving tourist industry, the principle source of jobs. But with a venal, useless police force few dared challenge him.
And the government appeased him. Despite the ban on his organisation, in May it negotiated a deal – Fazlullah should keep his radio station if he dropped the campaigns against polio vaccination and female education. Local politicians said he was a “freak” (their word) but a harmless one, certainly when compared with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban on the Afghan border.

wine · January 18, 2009, 12:37am

Re: Whore of Swat

^^ Data, please this time don’t bring cartoon & musharraf while you reply

Himalaya · January 18, 2009, 12:38am

a sympton of a deeper, older malady…

PIPS - Pakistan Institute For Peace Studies (SouthAsiaNet)

Dated: 24-11-2007Swat: A Symptom of a Deeper, Older Malady](http://san-pips.com/PIPS%20-%20Updated%20Dec%2031-2007/san/Nov/Pak-Nov19-07-TJFinal-D.html)Safdar Sial & Aqeel Yusafzai
The idyllic valley of Swat, one of Pakistan’s main tourist attractions, has over the last six months turned into a theatre of insurgency by religious extremists. Led by Maulana Fazlullah, a village cleric and a leader of the ‘banned’ Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM), armed militants demanding enforcement of Sharia laws are taking on Pakistan’s paramilitary and regular army troops. There have been at least 63 terrorist attacks in Swat region since July this year, including six suicide bombings and numerous public beheadings. Most of these attacks—39 till November 15, to be precise—were targeted at the security forces, killing 97 security personnel and injuring another 127 (PIPS Database: Table I). The number of militants and other civilians killed in the fighting runs into hundreds as the Pakistan Army has moved in to quell the pro-Taliban movement, which has taken control of six sub-divisions in the district of Swat.
In addition, the violence has forced thousands of people to flee their homes. PIPS sources say that about 60 per cent of the 1.5 million Swat valley inhabitants have left the area. Hounded, on the one hand, by the Taliban and vulnerable to military strikes on the other, they have either taken refuge with their relatives or moved to other cities like Mardan, Buner, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Karachi. Kidnapping of civil and armed government officials as well as civilians opposed to Talibanisation has become a norm. The Swat insurgency has undermined the state’s writ to such an extent that General Pervez Musharraf cited it as one of the reasons behind his November 3 decision to impose emergency in the country. But, so far, neither the use of force by the state nor mediation by a local jirga seems to rein in Fazlullah’s militants.
Background
This is not the first time that a Sharia movement has risen in Swat and Malakand regions. Similar uprisings by TNSM were seen in the mid and late 1990s. Then led by Maulana Sufi Mohammed, more famous for leading thousands of jihadis to death in Afghanistan in the wake of U.S. attacks in 2001, TNSM was able to get concessions from both the Benazir and Nawaz Sharif governments. A gradual process of Talibanisation has since been taking place in this predominantly Pashtun region.
The latest movement, however, has been triggered by a more recent event. It was during the Lal Masjid Operation in Islamabad earlier this year that the Imam Dehri cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, came into action. His FM radio station, which the government inexplicably allowed to broadcast freely, was instrumental in galvanising the local population against the government. He extended full support to the Lal Masjid clerics. As many of the Red Mosque students were also from this area, the brutal army action in Islamabad generated sympathy for Fazlullah’s cause. Most of the rallies and anti-government demonstrations to protest the Red Mosque operation were held in this region.
When the Red Mosque operation started on July 3, the government put Swat, Mingora, Dir and Malakand areas on high security alert. The very next day, militants began attacking police and other government officials in Swat district and killed two policemen and four others. Soon Maulana Fazlullah asked his supporters to take up arms against the government to avenge the action against Red Mosque and carry out suicide attacks. Three more policemen were killed in Mingora on July 12 when two suspected suicide bombers rammed an explosive-laden car into a police vehicle.
The security situation in Swat continued to deteriorate after July as the militants kept on targeting security forces and police stations. The range of targets soon widened. The local Taliban also began to target pro-government tribal elders, civil government officials, music and video shops, barber shops, internet cafes, NGOs, foreigners, girls’ schools, Buddha’s image, and government buildings and residences. The pretext of attacking all these different targets, according to the Sharia movement leader (and his followers in the region), is that they spread and support ‘un-Islamic’ ways.
The rationale behind this wave of militancy, according to Fazlullah, is that “the government, its security forces, pro-government people and others who support the American cause are acting against Islam”. Music and video shops, barber shops, girls’ schools and NGOs are means of spreading obscenity and vulgarity which are not allowed in an Islamic system. Other than the band of militants, Fazlullah also runs a ‘Shura’, or a council, of clerics as well as a Shura of tribal elders. Both back his plans of instituting an Ssharia-based legal system and enforcing a moral and social code of Islamic behaviour.
Chronology of Conflict
Given the rise and escalation in militant activity for Talibanisation, a military operation in Swat became imminent in the beginning of October. By then, a volunteer Taliban force of the Imam Dehri Centre was patrolling and controlling many areas of the Swat district. They were seen moving in groups, armed with light and heavy weapons, spreading terror in bazaars. In addition to the ubiquitous Kalashnikovs, these militants are armed rocket-launchers, RPG-7 rockets and other sophisticated weapons. They would visit mosques to make announcements on loudspeaker, urging the populace to take their disputes for resolution to the Imam Dehri Centre to get Sharia justice.
On October 8, a Taliban leader announced in Jamia Mosque Nokhara that the police system has been replaced by Islamic justice and that they would do the policing according to the Sharia. On the same day, to back up their claims, the Taliban stationed a fleet of 14 vehicles, carrying fully armed militants, in different areas of the district.
On October 9, Maulana Fazlullah announced the formation of a volunteer force to “control law and order and traffic problems” in Matta tehsil. He said that a Sharia court had already been set up in his native Imam Dehri village. The volunteer force was called ‘Shaheen Commandos’. They started patrolling the area and marched through Matta and Kabal towns. Fifteen vehicles mounted with machineguns led the march. Eyewitnesses said that the volunteers were making announcements advising the people to lodge complaints on two cell-phone numbers displayed at different mosques.
On October 10, more than 250 armed Taliban were also seen patrolling in Mingora, Khwazakhela and other areas of Swat. They went to different bazaars and gave Islamic instructions to people. In Fizza Gutt Taliban destroyed the posters bearing pictures of women.
Three men were publicly flogged on October 12 after a ‘Shura’ set up by Maulana Fazlullah found them guilty of abetting the abduction of two women. The sentence awarded by the ‘Shura’ was carried out in Imam Dehri after Friday prayers, amid slogans of “Allah-o-Akbar” raised by hundreds of people who had gathered to witness the spectacle. Maulana Fazlullah said the sentence would be a lesson to all criminals who should now mend their ways. The volunteer force organized by the cleric had set up a large stage on which the three alleged criminals were flogged. One of the ‘convicts’, Bukhtiar, was flogged 30 times; another, Shamroz Khan, 25 times and Mohammad Sher 15 times.
On October 17, a high-level meeting in Islamabad co-chaired by President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz discussed ‘the deteriorating law and order situation in parts of the frontier province’. The government deployed more troops in the Swat on October 24 to quell the growing militancy. On October 18, a fierce suicide attack in Mingora Police Lines killed at least 30 policemen and injured another 35. Till that time attacks on paramilitary forces, police stations and FC posts had become a routine matter.
Meanwhile, Maulana Fazlullah time and again claimed that he and his comrades espoused peace and wanted enforcement of the Sharia. He argued that his volunteer force had to step in to check the deteriorating law and order situation after the police withdrew from the area and confined themselves to the district headquarters of Mingora. He said that the government had deliberately withdrawn police from checkpoints to shift the blame of worsening law and order on to his ‘peaceful’ followers.
The October-25 suicide attack pushed the government to take immediate action. Severe clashes between Fazlullah’s followers and security forces started on October 26 between Imam Dehri militants and the security forces as the militants beheaded six security personnel in public at Shakkardarra near Mingora.
The Military Responds
Police and other paramilitary forces were increasingly becoming ineffective in checking the advance of Fazlullah’s forces. Indeed, in many instances, they were either retreating or surrendering to the militants. The spectacular beheadings carried out by the militants upped the ante. It put the military-led government under pressure and the army had to act decisively.
When General Musharraf declared emergency rule on November 3, he had cited the demoralization of security forces and mounting insurgency in Swat as a justification. Intelligence agencies were also reporting the presence of ‘outsiders’ among the ranks of militants. There is also a strong belief in government circles that Fazlullah is no longer in effective command of all the fighters active in Swat and that the movement has taken on new, wider dimensions.
By the time the military was sent out to tackle the militants, out of eight tehsils in Swat district the militants had taken control of six—Kabal, Matta, Khwazakhela, Charbagh, Madyan and Kalam. By the first week of November, they had started to move into the bordering Shangla district as well. On November 12, the Pakistan Army started its operation in Swat and Shangla. During the first three days of military strikes and clashes with the militants, 90 people were killed and dozens others injured. Nine soldiers were also among the dead and 14 were injured.
The ongoing fighting between the armed followers of Maulana Fazlullah and Pakistan security forces has forced thousands of people in Swat and Shangla valleys of North West Pakistan to flee their homes. According to local sources about Villagers trapped in the fighting zone take advantage of timely ceasefire or halt in fighting and shift to safer places abandoning the crops, ready for the harvest, in their fields. Swat’s economy, heavily dependent on tourism, is also suffering blows (like its people) due to the fighting.
Besides the threats of security operations and clashes, the local Taliban and TNSM militants have also been a factor for causing such a massive displacement. They are reportedly searching for the people who are opposed to their religious ideals and are harassing them. Pro-government tribal people and even the local journalist are under Maulana Fazlullah’s threats. The local people who feel insecure in Maulana’s kingdom have either to support him or to leave the area.
But it does not mean that the locals are supporting the security operations by the Pakistan Army. There is a common perception there that jihadis want to create another Waziristan in settled areas of the troubled province and the security operations would help them. The people fear that there will be bloodshed and more displacements once the government accelerates the regular army operation in the region to reassert its writ.
Al-Qaeda, Others Join the Fray?
Does Maulana Fazlullah enjoy full and complete control over his two Shuras (councils)? Do the different bands of fighters, collectively known as the Taliban or Mujahideen, remain under his sway and obey his command? These questions are critical in the context of future peace and security in the region and in determining the outcome of the ongoing conflict. Apparently, some of these fighters seem disciplined and under the command of Fazlullah and his many deputies such as Maulana Shah Dowran, Serajuddin and Muslim Khan. But there are many others who call themselves Tehreek Islamia Taliban and are even more radical and inflexible in their approach than Fazlullah’s force.
There are also reports that Jaish-e-Muhammad’s splinter group Jamaatul Furqan and al-Qaeda militants are also supporting Imam Dehri activists against the security forces. Militants of Jamaatul Furqan had set up check-posts on the main road in Shakkardarra and took positions on hills during the recent clashes. They also seized four men during the checking of vehicles. According to local people of Swat there are many new faces in the area that they do not recognize.
Some recent news reports suggest that al-Qaeda may also be supporting TNSM militants in Swat. This support may come in two forms: finances and by brining in fresh recruits from the tribal region. “I can tell you there is money coming from al-Qaeda and if al-Qaeda did not lead those things we could not fight. It is not just in Swat or in Waziristan or in Bajaur. We are getting stronger every where in the area”, Abdul Samad, a stocky militant from Afghanistan, was quoted as saying. Samad, a militant organizer, has also said that he travelled in recent weeks to North Waziristan and recruited score of militants to reinforce Fazalullah’s followers in Swat. (Daily Times, Islamabad, November 3, 2007) Squeezed, stretched and on the run in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal areas, it is quite conceivable that al-Qaeda militants may be infiltrating the ranks of Fazlullah’s fighters. They want a territory from where they can orchestrate their worldwide operations and a troubled Swat may just be the place for them.
Whether or not al-Qaeda is involved in Swat, there is no dearth of indoctrinated local fighters. In this context, the TNSM’s role in the ongoing Swat crisis is intriguing. Its founder, Maulana Sufi Muhammad, who is also the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, has distanced himself from the happenings in Swat and expelled Fazlullah from his organization. The latter, however, is insisting that he is still part of the TNSM and has been citing support for his cause among the Swati cadres of the organization as evidence that he cannot be expelled. Sufi Muhammad has been in jail for the last six years in Dera Ismail Khan (recently shifted to Peshawar for medical treatment) and has refused to apply for bail. He was arrested after returning from Afghanistan, where he headed a group of more than 10,000 armed men to fight for the Taliban against the invading US forces and its allies from the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
Fazlullah, too, was in the Sufi Muhammad-led Lashkar, which lost an unspecified number of men in the fighting, while many others were subsequently freed after paying huge amounts as ransom to Afghan warlords. Fazlullah spent 15 months in the Central Prison, Dera Ismail Khan, with his ageing father-in-law before being released on bail. It is improbable that Sufi Muhammad would disown his disciple and son-in-law and his statements seem to be tactical moves to keep his leadership going and secure his future role in the region if Fazlullah is decimated.
The wave of militancy in Swat is also inspired by Baitullah Mehsud and other pro-Taliban militants in Waziristan. Maulana Fazalullah is replicating their tactics in Swat. Much like Mehsud, he is defiant, calls for the imposition of Shariah, wants the army out of Swat, and seeks the establishment of a Shariah Bench in Malakand and withdrawal of cases against himself and his supporters. These are the conditions they have laid down for a return of normalcy to the region, echoing the demands made by the Taliban of Waziristan.
The Role of the Jirga
Swat is a deeply religious area. Even if the people may be divided on whether to support Fazlullah, they are almost unanimous in their support for Shariah. The Malakand Shariah Qaumi Jirga, comprising representatives of political parties like the Pakistan People’s Party (Parliamentarian), PPP-Sherpao, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), the Awami National Party and traders’ bodies, also support Sharia rule for Malakand.
This Jirga, however, neither supports the army operation nor violent militancy in Swat. The Malakand peace jirga has recently decided to hold multi-party conferences in the region from Nov 21 to mobilize public opinion and to pressure the government to resolve the crisis through negotiations. This was announced during a meeting in Chakdarra on November 15. The meeting, called by Senator Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, was attended by ulema, political leaders and local government representatives from Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Swat, Buner, Shangla and Malakand Agency.
A sub-committee of the jirga met with both the caretaker chief minister of the NWFP and Maulana Fazlullah. The government was unwilling to accept Fazalullah’s demands, and the Jirga also found the provincial caretaker set up powerless to take any decision. The Jirga has thus decided to convene an all-party conference on Nov 21 in Malakand agency. The conference would then be taken to Lower Dir on November 22, Upper Dir on November 23, and to Buner and Mingora on the following days.
The Jirga has also decided to send a delegation to legislators from the region, such as Amir Muqam, Bakht Baidar Khan and Sayyed Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha to inform the government about the wishes of the people of Malakand. They have also urged the army chief and the corps commander of Peshawar to immediately suspend military operation in Swat and Shangla and initiate negotiations. At the same time, Maulana Fazlullah has been asked to identify the ‘enemies’ in his ranks and take stern action against them.
The Roots of Pashtun Extremism
The socio-economic, political and cultural conditions, which have provided fertile ground for the extremists to further their agenda, are a direct consequence of successive Pakistani government’s policies. The lack of a credible and continuous political process, denying the people the right to participate in policymaking, has given room to fringe ideologies to take hold in these areas. Economic backwardness, the absence of a proper educational system and a general attitude of neglect towards these ‘far flung’ areas have cultivated and exacerbated these people’s sense of alienation from the state.
Equally significant has been the state of policy of recruiting local population for the jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s, a trend that Islamabad’s sudden policy U-turn in 2001 could not reverse. Political disenfranchisement, persistent poverty and a culture of encouraging jihad have meant that the organisations like TNSM hold sway in these areas. For years, these groups have freely collected funds, run madrasas and organised militias to serve the so-called strategic interests of the country. In Swat, as in FATA and other places in the country, the state of Pakistan is fighting its own creations. Pakistan is reaping what its policymakers had sowed in their zeal to defeat the godless Soviet Union and a pagan India.
The Way Ahead
In the short term, the government has to follow a two-track approach. What is needed at present is a combination of the military approach and political reconciliation, perhaps through the Jirga. Use of force without a parallel process of reconciliation can further provoke the people and raise the intensity of anti-government feelings. The people of Swat (and NWFP and FATA) are already in a state psychological distress due to the seemingly endless and indiscriminate violence. In these circumstances they are more likely to align themselves with the Taliban-like elements.
In the long term, sustained and sincere efforts are required to engage the people of these areas in a political process. Islamabad will have to shift its policy focus and devise plans to ameliorate the economic plight of the people of these areas. Instead of madrasas, formal secular education ought to be promoted aggressively and universally.
All that, however, will take an unprecedented display of vision and political will on the part of Pakistan’s civil and military decision makers. Unfortunately, given their past and recent history, they seem incapable of revising and reforming their ways. Even if this ongoing conflict in Swat is somehow resolved temporarily, it is unlikely to be the last bastion of extremism and violence in the country. The conflict will get bloodier and uglier than ever and will probably go on for generations to come.

Himalaya · January 18, 2009, 12:47am

For some people everything has to be pinned on Musharaf. They forget that individuals are to blame for their own actions. 4 years ago we moaned and groaned on how the army had no right to enter Waziristan, now we moan the army is not doing enough. We pakistanis are never satisfied and just maon and groan whatever happens.

Ihate syaing this but the biggest blame for this mess goes to the people of swat who have ALLOWED these creatures to fester and take over. They themselves could have thought “no, this creature and his discipiles are not for us!” but sadly they did not…

THEY had the power to put IT in his place when IT started building a presence…sadly the people of swat were WEAK or BRAINWASHED enough to allow these creatures who do not even number anything over a few thousand in and take over…

we constantly blame outside sources but sadly its about time we looked at ourselves in relation to our problems…