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| April 29, 2007 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1428 |
The root of the problem
By Ismail Khan
Islamabad appeared transfixed on the partial collapse of the posh Margalla Towers, oblivious to the devastation in NWFP and Azad Kashmir. Balakot had almost ceased to exist and Muzaffarabad, the Azad Kashmir capital, was a picture of misery.
Today, Lal Masjid and its two clerics have become yet another example of the centre’s tendency to focus on an isolated symptom rather than a deeper, more widespread malaise.
Sadly, there appears to be little realisation that Lal Masjid, a spillover of the menace of Talibanisation sweeping across the southern districts of NWFP, is fuelled by the growing militancy in neighbouring tribal regions. All those who thought that Waziristan was too remote a region to be worried about, are now in the grip of panic as they face a defiant Lal Masjid and its baton-wielding brigade.
For the first time, perhaps, Islamabad is in the eye of a storm and the attack of the clerics has showcased the weakening writ of the state that has long been witnessed by the southern districts of NWFP and the tribal regions.
Senior government and security officials are concerned that so-called Talibanisation may have spread beyond the boundaries of the lawless tribal regions. Bannu, which is home to the NWFP chief minister, and Dera Ismail Khan, opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s hometown, along with settled districts such as Tank and Lakki Marwat are all reeling under the growing Taliban influence.
Film and music stores are being warned by chilling messages of baton attacks and bomb explosions if they stock commercial Bollywood fare and have been instructed to sell Islamic music. Swabi is the most recent casualty of this ferocious movement where girls schools have become favourite targets as they have in Kohat, Charsadda and Mardan. Dire consequences await students who do not sport burqas.
In some districts barbers have been forbidden from shaving off beards and non-compliant ones have either been threatened or their shops have been torched. In Swat, a cleric who himself is a polio victim, has launched a rabid campaign against polio vaccination. In Tank, militants stormed a school late last month to recruit students for Jihadi training. The school administration called in the police and a subsequent shootout led to a full-scale overnight militant-led assault on the city, prompting the government to send in paramilitary and military forces to impose curfew.
Officials say that the situation in the southern district is calm for now, but remains fairly tenuous. Barely 40km away from the provincial capital lies the arms-manufacturing market of Darra Adamkhel which threatens to be significantly explosive and government officials warn that any disharmony here will have a direct impact on Peshawar.
Tragically, a foreign-funded government initiative to encourage parents to send their daughters to schools by giving them a monthly stipend of Rs200 also appears to be in the doldrums. “We are helpless. Here we are encouraging parents to send their children to schools, and there he is discouraging them from educating their daughters. Every morning he is on his illegal radio channel, bragging about how many girls have been pulled out of school,” said a senior government official associated with the project.
Government and police officials say their efforts to contain Talibanisation have been stymied by lack of coordination amongst various law enforcement and intelligence agencies, absence of adequate force and support from the federal government to strengthen law enforcement agencies and the implementation of a flawed devolution plan that did away with vital links between settled and tribal regions and failed to consider the peculiar geographical location of the NWFP and Afghanistan.
The erosion of the government’s writ has forced the people to rely on their own firepower to protect themselves against a seemingly militant-onslaught. In Dera Ismail Khan, for instance, villagers stubbornly held an annual fair, virtually under the shadow of guns, fighting it out with the Taliban who condemned it as an un-Islamic act.
But a senior government official said that it was essential to mobilise people to rein in this phenomenon as the use of force alone cannot do the trick.
ANXIETY ABOUT BACKLASH: Anxious that the growing Taliban militancy could cause a public-political backlash, the ruling JUI (F) held a convention of more than a thousand seminaries in Peshawar to denounce suicide bombings as un-Islamic and oppose the enforcement of sharia by force. This was a significant development coming from a party that has long been perceived as pro-Taliban. Some JUI (F) leaders insist that the issues of Lal Masjid and Talibanisation are the handiwork of Pakistan’s security establishment, to discredit the religious alliance in the run-up to the general election. Government officials maintain that the use of force against militants is out of the question for political reasons.
But local tribesmen believe that vigilante groups would continue to flourish as long as the government fails to enforce its writ and cleanse the area from gangs of criminals.
Things however, have been taking a turn for the better in Bajaur and in South Waziristan. Bajaur tribesmen from the powerful Mamond clan gave an undertaking to the government last month against giving shelter to local and foreign militants, though some analysts warn that the situation there remains unpredictable.
In Wana, South Waziristan, tribal volunteers spearheaded by militant commander Mullah Nazir Ahmad fought and chased Uzbek militants out of their region leaving, according to tribal accounts, over one hundred Uzbek and 50 local tribesmen dead.
Subsequently, the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe and militant commanders gave an undertaking not to give shelter to any Uzbek militant again, announcing severe penalties against any one who does so, and pledging not to create a parallel administration and allow the government to carry out development in one of the most backward tribal regions.
Nazir told a news conference later in Wana that Uzbeks, whom the local tribesmen had wholeheartedly welcomed after the US invasion of Afghanistan, had caused resentment amongst the local populace by their aversion to ‘Jihad’ in Afghanistan and their involvement in crimes ranging from car-snatching, kidnapping to killing over 200 local tribesmen. Most of these Uzbek militants have now taken refuge in North Waziristan, where the government enjoys little authority.
But government officials say that while some semblance of peace has been restored to Wana, South Waziristan, particularly the territory inhabited by the Mehsud tribe remains a problem, where militant commander, Baitullah Mehsud continues to call the shots.
Government officials acknowledge that it would require a serious, concerted strategy to deal with this phenomenon. As one official put it, Lal Masjid is the manifestation of a larger problem and its epicentre lies in the NWFP and the tribal regions. Unfortunately, with elections just a few months away, the government does not appear to be too bothered by the mayhem in NWFP and its tribal backyard.
Earlier this week, President Pervez Musharraf told a foreign newspaper that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was losing the battle against extremism. Now it seems that Gen Musharraf himself is facing a similar dilemma.
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