Bin Yameen will turn 19 this year, but he often wonders what his father, Baligh Jan, looks like now. His father would have been 48 this year; Jan was a labourer, who left home for jihad in Afghanistan on the directions of Tehreek-i-Nifazi-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad.

“I often try to remember my father’s face but it is difficult for me to visualise him, because I was just four years old at that time,” says Bin Yameen.

A resident of Barawal Bandi village in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Bin Yameen laments that his family was unable to stop his father from leaving for Afghanistan along with the other villagers. He was adamant about supporting the Afghan Taliban in their fight against American forces.

“We are five sisters and three brothers. Four of my sisters are elder to me,” says Bin Yameen. “It was difficult for my mother to meet the family’s monthly expenses after my father left for the war in Afghanistan.”

Another lonely Eid has passed for the families awaiting their loved ones who had left for Afghanistan in response to Sufi Mohammad’s call for Jihad

A view of Upper Dir district if Malakand division

According to locals of various districts in Malakand division, over 10,000 people aged between 30 and 55 left for Afghanistan in 2001 to fight the US forces, on the directions of Maulana Sufi Mohammad. His organisation, TNSM, was banned in 2002 by former President General (retired) Pervez Musharraf. Not many of Sufi’s jihadis returned home, not many have any traceable whereabouts either.

Over time, Bin Yameen’s devastated family came to terms with their loss. The young mother focused all her energies on raising her children, while Bin Yameen’s uncle took on the financial responsibility of providing for the family.

And yet, a great burden was also placed on Bin Yameen’s young shoulders.

Sahibzada Tariqullah, Member of the National Assembly from Upper Dir, agrees. He explains that thousands of Pakistanis were either killed, imprisoned or went missing in Afghanistan during the war in 2001. Hundreds returned home with the support of the Red Cross but there are reports of many more still languishing in Afghan prisons.

“In the mornings, I study; I am enrolled in class IX at the Government High School Chukyatan, which is some 4km away from my village. After school, I work in the vegetable market,” explains Bin Yameen. When asked how he manages balancing studies and work, he says that it is difficult but he has no option. “My mother successfully arranged the marriages of four of my sisters, but I am still responsible for providing for my mother, two younger brothers and one more sister.”

Bin Yameen takes his younger brother, 16-year-old Ameenullah, to work as well — the family supplements its income in any way they can. But unlike Bin Yameen, Ameenullah neither has a fleeting memory of his father nor has he ever seen a picture of him over the last 14 years. “I was two years old when he left,” says Ameenullah.

Their family attempted to search for Baligh Jan in Kabul, but all efforts came to naught. “When my uncle visited Kabul to search for my father, all he returned with was an assurance by Red Cross officials that they will try to locate him in Afghan prisons,” says Bin Yameen. “Our mother has become mentally ill because of the continuous tension.”

Meanwhile, Ameenullah always feels his father’s absence on occasions such as Eid or “when the fair comes to our village.”

In Qader Kalay village of Upper Dir, 64-year-old Safia Bibi saw her son leave for Afghanistan in 2001 and her husband die soon after. She now works as domestic help in the homes of the rich.

“My 30-year-old son, Badshah Zada, worked as a labourer before leaving for Afghanistan. I advised him to cancel his plans but he refused; he was enamoured by jihad,” says Safia Bibi.

Badshah Zada left his wife and two children in the care of his aging parents. After his father’s demise, his mother assumed the role of sole breadwinner of the household. “I wish my son had refused to follow the rhetoric and directions of Sufi Mohammad,” she says wistfully.

Call for Jihad, Photos by the writer

Unlike blue-collar Badshah Zada, 30-year-old Mohammad Mursaleen Khan was teaching at a local seminary in his native Qader Kalay. Like Badshah Zada, he also left for jihad. His 62-year-old father, Muslim Khan, is forced to work as a security guard of a school in Upper Dir city to meet the family’s monthly expenses.

“If Pakistani prisoners are still being held in Afghanistan, it is contrary to all norms of humanity as well as in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention.”

“Why would I be forced to work in this age if my son had not followed the directions of the TNSM chief?” he asks.

Twenty-eight-year-old Abdullah Jan works in Saudi Arabia as a labourer; he was forced to abandon higher education after his 50-year-old father, Barkat Jan, left their Kater village home in October 2001 — also for jihad in Afghanistan.

50-year-old Barkat Jan left Kater village in Oct 2001

“My father was a farmer,” says Abdullah Jan. “Of course, we depended on him to meet our monthly expenses. I failed to complete my higher studies due to the monetary problems of my family after he left us.”

In Dogdara village of Upper Dir, 38-year-old Muftahuddin’s cousin, 38-year-old Javed Khan, returned home after two-and-a-half-years since leaving in September 2001. His family paid Rs400,000 to Afghan officials for his safe return from jail in Jalalabad, or so they claim. They were one of the lucky ones.

But it is not just jihadis inspired and prepared by TNSM that are languishing in Afghan jails. Former Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao says it is difficult for him to give an exact number of Pakistani prisoners in Afghanistan, but the figure could be in the hundreds.

“I discussed the issue of Pakistani prisoners with my Afghan counterparts on behalf of the Pakistani government but I did not get a positive response from Afghan authorities,” he says. But even Sherpao is aware of the reports that the families of many Pakistani prisoners paid money to Afghan landlords and jail officials to secure the release of their loved ones after 2001.

Sahibzada Tariqullah, Member of the National Assembly from Upper Dir, agrees. He explains that thousands of Pakistanis were either killed, imprisoned or went missing in Afghanistan during the war in 2001. Hundreds returned home with the support of the Red Cross but there are reports of many more still languishing in Afghan prisons.

According to an official of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is difficult for the Pakistani missions to have an update on detained Pakistani nationals languishing in Afghan prisons due to the law and order situation there, as well as the existence of ‘private’ prisons run by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Afghanistan.

The officials claimed that over 185 Pakistani prisoners are currently being incarcerated in Afghan jails — 106 in Pul-i-Charkhi Jail in Kabul; 46 in Sarpoza Jail in Kandahar; 26 in Jalalabad; and the remaining in Helmand, Herat and Mazar Sharif.

“Back in 2001, the government did not prepare any lists of such Pakistanis because it was trying to stop them from crossing the border in the first place,” says Brigadier (retired.) Mahmood Shah, who served as the secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) between 2003 and 2005. He pins the blame on Sufi Mohammad for the killings and missing of thousands of Pakistanis while their families are compelled to survive in difficult circumstances.

“Although Sufi Mohammad is responsible for the crises, but under the Geneva Convention it was the responsibility of the Afghan government to provide complete details about the POWs,” argues I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

“If Pakistani prisoners are still being held in Afghanistan, it is contrary to all norms of humanity as well as in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention,” adds Rehman.

Foreign Office Spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam meanwhile told Dawn that the Pakistan Embassy in Afghanistan is in process of securing the release of Pakistani prisoners. She claims that Pakistan and Afghanistan had already agreed to form a joint commission on prisoners in 2011, with Pakistan pushing for early activation of this mechanism.

As long drawn and extended as governmental procedures are, equally short and swift was Sufi Mohammad’s message and the speed at which it was consumed. Latifullah, a 55-year-old local school teacher of Government High School Jan Bati, Lower Dir, recalls that people from different towns and villages of Malakand division left their homes to support the Taliban regime back in 2001.

Latifullah describes that most jihad volunteers belonged to the Matta area of district Swat, the Maidan area of Lower Dir, the Dir Kohistan area of district Upper Dir, Butkhela area of Malakand district, Aman Dara area of district Shangla and Alpori area of district Buner. Then there were others from Punjab, Mohmand Agency and Bajaur Agency.

A former member of TNSM, speaking to Dawn on condition of anonymity, narrates that Maulana Sufi Mohammad gathered all volunteers in the areas of Timergara and Bajaur for registration. “We just prepared the lists of the people by including their names and their areas; most people were farmers, labourers and unemployed. They left for the Afghan province of Kunar through the Ghakhi Pass, near the Laghari area in Bajaur Agency,” he claims.

Caught between the two is Bin Yameen, who has an agonising ‘last wish’: “I wish I can see my father in my lifetime; I am hopeful he will return one day.”

Will these families ever get closure?

The writer is a Dawn.com correspondent in Islamabad. mihader321@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 3rd, 2014