IT IS amazing how few in the world are actually questioning the wisdom of the violence being perpetrated by the Allied forces in Afghanistan. The relentless bombardment and wanton destruction of that country which has left hundreds of civilians dead has elicited hardly a whimper of protest.

The recent mass slaughter of hundreds of Taliban prisoners prompted only protests from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International, while only one or two journalists dared to criticize the massacre. The Amnesty International and the UN High Commissioner called for an inquiry into the deaths, but the Allied forces promptly rejected the call.

If the Sept 11 tragedy was an act of “terrorism”, what does then the world call the perpetration of similar, if not worse, acts of violence upon those in Afghanistan, whether they are soldiers, freedom-fighters, civilians or prisoners? In both cases, violence and the threat of violence is used to create a climate of fear in a given population. The only difference between the two is in the purpose.

September 11’s was a violent act by a relatively small and weak group which, presumably driven by fierce religious motivation, seeks to magnify their influence and power through publicity and fear generated by their violence to effect a political change. In the case of the violent act of “war” being waged on Afghanistan, and threats of a similar “war” on Iraq if it didn’t “behave”, the purpose is to bully and suppress the weaker group into falling in line.

But while one violent act is termed “terrorism” and its perpetrators “terrorists”, the violence being rained on Afghanistan is justified as a “war against terrorism” and any consequent killings are simply waived off as “collateral damage” or by casual remarks like “these things happen in war”.

The use of violence as a political means by weaker groups dates back to at least the first century AD when the Zealots, a Jewish religious sect, fought against Roman occupation of what is now Israel. In the 12th century in Iran, a group known as the Assassins conducted violent acts against religious and political leaders of a different sect. Up to the 18th century, “terrorists” generally acted out of religious zeal.

It was from the 19th century onwards that violent movements acquired a more political and revolutionary orientation. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries anarchists in Italy, Spain and France resorted to violent tactics. Before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Russian revolutionary movement also used violence in its struggle against Russian royalty and aristocracy. The communists in China and Vietnam also used violence, called guerilla warfare, against the capitalists to come into power.

It was in the later half of the 20th century that such violent acts multiplied, driven by fierce nationalist, ideological and religious motivations and facilitated by technological advances in transportation, communications, microelectronics and explosives. Particularly the conflict between Israel and the Arab nations following the end of World War II and the struggle by Palestinians for a homeland produced successive waves of violence in the Middle East.

From the 1970s and 1980s onwards, this violence spread to Western Europe and other parts of the world as supporters of Palestinian resistance to Israel carried their war abroad. The term “terrorism” or more specifically “international terrorism” was first used by the American Reagan administration to refer to this violence. September 11 marked a turning-point in this violence when it was brought for the first time and in a big way onto the shores of the United States of America, which has been seen as having supported and helped Israel all along vis-a-vis the Palestinians.

This kind of violence of the opposing weak, whose objective is to seek justice and freedom, has been persistently censured and condemned. Meanwhile, the violence of the strong whose objective is to silence the voice of the weak is permissible and considered “justified,” whether it is the US against the Taliban or Iraq, Israel against the Palestinians, India against the Kashmiris or the Philippines against its Muslim population. The consequences are obvious: a never-ending cycle of tit-for-tat, revengeful violence.

Such rule by the strong over the weak through sheer power and arrogance just doesn’t work. The Israelis, supported by the Americans, have tried this in Palestine for the past half a century. The result is that the Palestinians are still resisting, more violently now than ever before. The Americans at the same time have been throwing their weight around throughout the world, specially in Arab countries.

Worse still, they have been taking international law into their own hands in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan, and it is now threatening Iraq again.

Such high-handed behaviour may in the short term boost the image and popularity of American leaders on the domestic front, but internationally its image and respect has been badly eroded. Instead of making the world a safer and more secure place to live in, specially after the fall of communism, America’s policy of reciprocal aggression against “terrorism” has only served to oil the wheels of revengeful violence, which is growing in intensity and spreading throughout the world.

IN the bygone days it was the Machh and Mianwali jails which were most dreaded in the country. That was why the authorities would send all hardened criminals to the two prisons, whose very thought would send a shiver into the spines of the convicts. In the last few years, the Hyderabad Central Prison has become equally infamous.

It started with Maj Khoso who was variously nicknamed Haluku Khan, Changez Khan and Hitler by nationalist parties, which call the central jail here a “Nazi concentration camp”. Photographs of the “chamber of horror” were published by Dawn and other newspapers.

We in Hyderabad were slapped with a defamation suit. Incidentally, only Dawn correspondent was made the scapegoat although the other newspapers had published more damaging stories and even challenged the jail administration to sue them. Thanks to Nisar Siddiqui, the then home secretary, the case was withdrawn. The then governor, Kamal Azfar, appointed Justice Sallahuddin Mirza to make detailed inquiries into the alleged atrocities unleashed against the prisoners. Mr Justice Mirza met prisoners, parents, lawyers, journalists and people from all walks of life who had any knowledge about the jail affairs.

Meticulously, painstakingly and methodically, Mr Justice Mirza collected all the facts and submitted a comprehensive report to the governor. I doubt that hardly anyone took time out to read that monumental report which might be lying buried under tons of dust. Had the concerned quarters read that report as attentively as it was written and had the recommendations of the report been implemented, the atrocities against the prisoners would have been brought to an end by now.

Much has already been published about that report in newspapers and forgotten. There is no need to repeat the same. However, what must be said is that nothing has changed except the jail superintendents and deputy superintendents. The recently transferred jail superintendent, Ramzan Channa, was, according to nationalist parties, “an evil man” as was Maj Khoso. The present incumbent, too, is no better, they say.

On assuming the post of jail superintendent in September last year, Ramzan Channa launched a search operation on Sept 24 and Sept 25 and had to face a mutiny. The law-enforcers had to resort to teargas shelling and aerial firing to quell the mutiny. Four prisoners were injured in the firing, one of them later died. This is only one side of the story. The other side is that a large quantity of contraband items, cellular telephones and other prohibited goods were recovered from the possession of influential persons, the so-called political leaders.

But the unkindest cut of all is that dozens of juvenile prisoners were also recovered who were held hostage and used as sex objects by the influential prisoners. The irony is that Justice Sallahudddin Mirza had referred to these loathsome practices in his report. So what happened thereafter. The jail superintendent, Ramzan Channa, was declared a pariah and an enemy of Sindh. A consistent campaign was launched against him from within and outside the jail and as is the wont of our government, it could not withstand the pressure and transferred Ramzan Channa.

Enter Altaf Awan — from day one he is criticized for being too harsh to the prisoners, not sparing even those who are on the death rows, according to reports. The nationalist parties claim that the condemned prisoners are being tortured. Soon after taking over the charge he told the authorities that the law and order condition in the jail had broken down and needed to be tackled immediately. He got the necessary support to carry out his scheme, and a major search was launched one morning.

Besides the recovery of a considerable quantity of narcotics, TV sets and other banned items, four juvenile prisoners who were being used for sex purposes by the so-called political prisoners were recovered. The jail superintendent described the operation as an attempt to break a parallel administration run by the political prisoners who had been exploiting the names of the ordinary prisoners in furtherance of their own ulterior motives.

Following the operation, 50 under-trail prisoners have been reportedly shifted to the Karachi Central Prison. This again is one side of the story. The other side is that narcotics, including heroin, is available in the Central Jail, Hyderabad, in abundance as is liquor, electronic items, cellular telephones and sex objects, provided one is prepared to pay a price. According to the jail manual, even a match-box is not allowed inside the jail and each and every item brought by the relatives of the prisoners on the dates of interview are checked by the jail authorities.

As far as the condemned prisoners are concerned, they are not allowed even izarbund for their shalwars. Then how come that television sets, plenty of country-made liquor, carpets, easy chairs, cellular phones, etc, were recovered from the possession of influential prisoners. Can all this happen without the connivance of the jail staff? But, sadly enough, this has been going on in the Central Jail of Hyderabad, as well as in other jails, for as long as one can remember. It’s money that matters: it can buy any and every facility / luxury.

There is no doubt that atrocities are being committed against the prisoners but these prisoners belong to the poor class whose parents live in abject poverty and have no money to win over the officials of jail administrations so that they can have the luxuries inside the jails as are being enjoyed by those who can pay. Such poor prisoners are in majority — the 95 per cent silent majority. The remaining five per cent tiny minority lives like princes in all the jails of Sindh: the central jail here is no exception.

The rich prisoners wear starched clothes, they have carpets in their rooms, they have TV sets and cellular phones to issue orders to their partymen what to do and what not to do. The authorities know it but they dare not take any action. The newsmen, too, know about it but cannot do much, for fear of reprisals.

What a travesty of truth that quite often the political parties and groups claim that political prisoners are being victimized and tortured in the Central Jail, Hyderabad. Only a couple of days back I saw a photograph in a newspaper in which two so-called political prisoners, sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment for a heinous crime, were seen making a victory sign. Should these convicts who had kidnapped a doctor and kept him hostage for 38 days be treated as political prisoners? This is the case with all the political prisoners.

They are charged with criminal offences under the Pakistan penal code and Anti-terrorism Act, yet they feel proud and always try to divert the attention of the people by proclaiming themselves political heroes. It goes without saying that the jails need to be converted into reformatories.

Moreover, human dignity of a poor and hapless prisoner must be restored. The government is said to have sanctioned less than nine rupees a day as a food allowance per prisoner. It is quite obvious that no human being can survive on such a meagre amount, but the jail authorities cannot be blamed for this.

It is time the government appointed a commission, comprising members of the superior judiciary, to carry out a thorough investigation into the affairs of jails in Pakistan and recommend ways and means to give a human touch to the prisons.

It is equally important that the jail manual should also be re-drafted. The government must allow the human rights activists to visit the jails at random for this will at least have a psychological effect on the proper working of the jails.