NEW YORK: For the first time in their turbulent history of division, tribesmen of the North West Frontier Province, a part of Pakistan, are strongly unified by one determination: to go and fight in Kashmir, says Margaret Parton from Peshawar in a special article published in New York Herald-Tribune recently.

She adds: “Travelling through tribal areas the visitor is quickly conscious of this determination and of the emotional quality which lies behind it. In the Khyber Pass in North and South Waziristan and in Peshawar, eyes flash and fists clench when Kashmir is mentioned. If it is not mentioned tribal leaders are quick to bring up the subject, and their … followers applaud each fiery demand with volleys of shots from tribal-made, but effective, rifles. [”]

Tribal leaders, of course, and many of the Government officials who have worked for years with the tribes, will say that the drive is a religious one; that the Wazirs, the Mahsuds, the Afridis and the Shinwaris are among the most religious peoples in the world today. …Others, more cynically, insist that the desire for loot is the basic motivation.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2023