Slaughter of Pakistanis
“THEY died from natural causes; they died in alphabetical order.” This was an official entry in a record about deaths in a Nazi concentration camp. Nobody is keeping such records, even fake ones, about Pakistanis now being machine-gunned and bombed to smithereens in Afghanistan.
Who is responsible for the hundreds of Pakistanis massacred in cold blood in Mazar-i-Sharif and Takhta Pul?; and possibly more to be butchered when Kandahar falls? Dostum, Hazaras, Americans?
One can go on blaming any foreign personality or group for the massacres. But that would amount to evading the real question, which is: who among us Pakistanis is responsible for this carnage? Indeed, who were the “leaders” who in the first place exhorted the Pakistanis to go to Afghanistan and kill fellow Muslims?
Pakistanis have been fighting for the Taliban ever since they emerged on the scene in the mid-nineties. Under the ISI, it was a controlled operation in which the jihadis played second fiddle to the former.
However, as Pakistan’s institutional meltdown worsened during the nineties, the jihadi organizations became more assertive. They broke out of the confines of the NWFP, and spread their tentacles throughout the country. They set up recruitment centres in the cities, gave training to boys, and, what is more, did something the ISI was incapable of doing: they provided a religious justification for their partisan interest in having the Taliban in power in Kabul.
All said and done, the ISI had not made the fratricide in Afghanistan appear a picnic; nor did it present the Taliban rule as an Islamic utopia. This latter phenomenon, which romanticized and debased the concept of jihad, was the work of some religious parties.
This romanticization of jihad was the gift of small minds to Pakistan. Jihad is a serious affair. If it is war, then it must be conducted with the seriousness a war deserves. It cannot be sustained by emotions, nor can it produce results without mobilizing a society’s and state’s full economic, manpower and intellectual potential.
There is no such thing as a part-time jihad. You cannot be a part-time shopkeeper and be a part-time Mujahid anymore than you can be a part-time colonel in a professional army. As it finally turned out, the jihad as conducted by our religious parties had a third world touch to it — indiscipline, noise, chaos, and the inevitable disillusionment.
No jihad can be conducted in a situation where the state is not a party to it. In Pakistan’s case, the government was on one side and the presumptuous jihadis on the other. A nation divided ten to ninety, or even half and half, should be the last nation or earth to undertake a jihad.
A jihad is conducted by a nation that is turned by an accepted leadership into ‘bunyanun marsoos’ — a wall of steel. Parties which secure less than five per cent of the votes are hardly the stuff that can achieve this feat. Lacking any understanding of the intricacies of a modern war, these parties presented to the raw minds of Pakistani boys a jihad that was fun.
This is not to doubt the seriousness with which Pakistani volunteers undertook their mission: this is merely to point out that those who raised the slogan of jihad and pushed half-trained boys into battle lacked any understanding of the dynamics of a modern war.
A collective jihad cannot be a private affair. No political party can declare it, nor can a preacher at a mosque. Ask the JI people, and they will tell you how Maulana Maudoodi was right on Kashmir. They would even give you pure ‘fiqhai’ reasons for proving how the war in Kashmir in 1948 was not a jihad.
Here, in Afghanistan, the Taliban were killing Muslims, and our clerics were exhorting Pakistani young men to go and take part in this slaughter which had no aim higher than that of keeping the Taliban in power. Does an Islamic “system” really need enforcing? And can you really enforce it by making war on fellow Muslims?
In the decade-long real jihad — the struggle for Afghanistan’s liberation from the Russian infidels — the Taliban played no part. The credit for the liberation of Afghanistan went to Mujahideen groups led by men like Ahmad Shah Massoud, Rabbani, Mujaddedi and, to a lesser extent, Gulbadin Hikmatyar.
The Taliban, on the contrary, waged war on those who had waged war on the Russians. They killed no Russians; they only killed fellow Afghans. They razed villages and destroyed orchards and showed no mercy toward their enemies. Who were the enemies? Fellow Afghans. It was to this kind of “jihad” that our religious parties sent our young boys to be slaughtered by the Northern Alliance and bombed into oblivion by American gunships in the hell-hole called Qala-i-Jangi.
Not all the volunteers were tribesmen; hundreds of them were from the urban areas of Punjab and Sindh. They did not have the pleasure of killing one infidel; they killed, or were killed by, fellow Muslims.
Now they are holed up there in the barren fastness of Kandahar, waiting for death, while those who urged them to jihad and turned them into cannon fodder have confined their own part in jihad to issuing press statements and observing black days.
It is time our religious leaders showed the real spirit of jihad and went into Afghanistan themselves to rescue our boys instead of merely appealing to the government of Pakistan and having sumptuous iftars in the safety of Pakistan.
Mind-mapping their career
THE second shift of classes, in five government technical training institutes in Jhang, Multan, Deepalpur, Sargodha and Khanewal, has been abolished while the same classes in Gujranwala and Gujrat are being closed due to reduction in number of students from 50 per cent.
The obvious reason for this drastic decline in the number of students is their shift of interest. Cherishing a hopeful vision, scores of students have changed their routes, from technical training to computer education.
Private technical training institutes’ owners have joined the rat race by converting their institutions into computer centres. The number of computer centres in the district is thus fast adding on the map.
An analyst observes that such an extensive scale shift of interest among students is the outcome of unending slump in market and the trained workers in industries and commercial institutions envisage a sure fight ahead in their career.
He said with the ban on regular employment in almost all the government and semi-government institutions, students had changed their mind-set.
Abolition of second shift classes in the institutions has further led centres in Gujranwala and Gujrat to announce that students should turn up for their classes, otherwise, in case of less than 50 per cent attendance, these centres will be closed under the government policy.
Meanwhile, parents and a number of people have condemned the government policy regarding technical education and employment of skilled youth in commercial units. They proposed that import and export should be promoted in industries by providing better facilities to the youth and ban on employment should be terminated forthwith to bring the country back on track.
Despite the availability of competent staff and provision of medicines, patients in the Divisional Headquarters Hospital are facing a lot of problems.
Visitors to the hospital have urged the authorities concerned to probe into the affair of irregularity on a large scale.
A survey conducted by this correspondent reveals in 22 wards of 15 departments, there are 22 specialists, 29 medical officers, eight house officers, a female medical officer, 49 staff nurses, 150 under training nurses and around 350 sanitary workers deployed.
In administrative staff, there is a medical superintendent, three assistant medical superintendents, eight deputy medical superintendents and over a dozen APMOs.
The government is spending millions of rupees on the salaries of the employees and provision of medicines and other facilities for patients.
However, patients are constantly grumbling shortage of ultra-sound, X-ray or even test care facilities. The specialists are offering all these facilities to the patients in their private institutes.
Several people have proposed that post mortem system of ladies should, along with other facilities, be made better at the earliest.
As many as 450 lady health workers have been declared ‘surplus’ and deprived of their salaries for the last four months.
The affected lady health workers have protested against the health department for not absorbing them in various health facilities.
These lady health workers were recruited a few years ago and posted at various welfare centres. Later, they were declared ‘surplus’ and their case was referred to the health authorities.
It is stated that an executive district officer (health) was asked to absorb these lady health workers in various health facilities, but in charge doctors of basic health units and centres reportedly declined to accept them on the plea that they had no vacancy.
Meanwhile, the lady health workers have demanded that their four-month salaries should be released instantly as they were facing financial problems.
The battle of Badar
THE holy month of Ramazan reminds us of the Battle of Badar which took place just one year after the Hijrah of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Judging by its influence on our history, geography and progress, this battle is certainly very important. But more than that this battle proved the supremacy of mind over matter, spirit over resources and training and discipline over cheap emotionalism.
After migrating to Madinah, cognizant of the intentions of his enemies Prophet Muhammad immediately got engaged in intense diplomatic negotiations with various tribes both within Madinah and outside. It is an open testimony to his human understanding and maturity that he was able to deprive the Makkan army of any support from all the tribes on the borders and Jews in Madinah. He organized intense border patrols which helped in information gathering, familiarizing the new locations to the migrant Muslims and posed a constant economic threat to the enemy. He also trained the Muslims of Madinah and made them ready for the foreseeable fight.
Islam instilled utmost peace, content, discipline, dedication and very high morale into Muslims. This along with highly successful policies on internal, foreign, diplomatic, economic and military fronts gave the Muslim army definite edge which more than compensated for its deficiency in manpower and material resources.
The Quraish leadership was well recognized by most other tribes. They were safe from tribal attacks, armed robberies, and abductions, a common practice at that time in Arabia. The hard and harsh life of desert and frequent travelling had made them fit for intense fight. The Quraish were ‘wise’ enough not to ignore the ‘new’ religion. They were also fully aware of the fact that the economic life-line was now in the hands of Muslims of Madinah although the Muslims had no intention to attack the Makkan Quraish.
These factors, however, produced a lot of worries in the Quraish who were staunch in their pagan beliefs and old system which virtually guaranteed their special status and leadership role. They, however, found Muhammad’s message a threat to their vested interests. With time the new faith was taking more and more ground. The new and impressive successes of the Muslims were making their job more difficult every passing day. They decided to attack Madinah with full onslaught and wipe out this emerging faith from its roots once for all!
The Quraish made special preparation for this war. They used all psychological propaganda and deviation techniques. They arranged a special ‘trade’ caravan at the time of their frontal attack to allure many Muslim warriors depriving the Muslim army of some of its best men in the critical main battle. However, this tactics failed as Muslims chose to ignore the trade caravan and made themselves ready to fight the main battle. They had had minute by minute information of Quraish, thanks to the superb information gathering machinery. In order to motivate the entire Makkan population they made false propaganda that Muslims have captured and looted the trade caravan and in order to avoid future economic blockade they must win this war by all means!
The Muslims decided to defend Madinah at the Badar, a site little away from Madinah. They occupied higher ground and captured all water resources. The Quraish occupied the low areas. Both the armies were there in the battle ground on 16th of Ramazan. The enemies soldiers came freely to get water from Muslim occupied areas. The Prophet did not stop them. Two Muslims were not allowed to participate in the war. These Muslims were earlier captured by the Makkans who released them on the promise that these will not help the Muslim army. The Prophet asked them to fulfil their promise and stopped them from taking part in the battle although Muslims were in dire need of manpower.
The Muslims numbered only 313 while the Quraish were over 1000. Very few Muslims had camels or horses to ride. Each had to be shared by many on turns. For food they had none except dates. On material and manpower there was no comparison between Quraish and Muslims. The Quraish had also brought with them singing women who were exhilarating their army with highly spirited national songs and music. Muslims on the other hand were quite calm and remembering Allah and offering regular prayers. They had a sound sleep the night before the battle.
On 17th Ramazan the battle of Badar began after the sunrise. Initially it was individual duels. In the first encounter the Quraish lost their three best soldiers. This resulted in a revengeful sudden attack on Muslims. However, the Muslims did not get excited and did not waste arrows. The Prophet had built a small command control room in the back of Muslim army and on somewhat higher ground to carefully monitor the situation. The Muslims waited till the enemy came under the “firing range’. Their army then launched the most precise attacks routing the much superior army.
When the right moment came the Prophet ordered the army to go on the offensive. This switch was necessary to finish the battle and to secure the ultimate victory. The Quraish army was on the run. They had lost 70 of their best fighters including their top leaders; 70 more were arrested. While Muslim losses were only 14 martyrs. They were helped by two additional factors: heavy rain and of course above all divine assistance.
The battle of Badar converted the Islamic ideology into a state and a power. It was no longer possible to ignore them. The Quraish lost their prestige. Although they tried to take revenge in two subsequent battles but they were irreversibly wounded and were losing ground every day. This led to a bloodless victory for Muslims after some years in the form of conquest of Makkah again in the holy month of Ramazan.
The conquest of Makkah firmly established Muslim rule over whole of Arabia. This further led to more and more Muslim victories extending to all over the world. Muslims soon became leaders in education, culture, science, business and administration. Islam spread rapidly in many parts of the world and completely changed the lives of Muslims and even non-Muslims.
The battle of Badar reminds us of the great power of the Quran which was also revealed in the month of Ramazan. It highlights the importance of the obedience to the Prophet. Muslims strictly followed his command and were blessed with a great victory. Muslim army always followed the highest code of ethics on and off the battlefield. The prisoners of Badar were treated well by Muslims.
The battle of Badar became a role model. It laid down many important lessons in all fields. Muhammad (Peace be upon him) who never participated in a war before proved to be the best Commander-in-Chief. The entire Muslim community participated in this war. The army was not a special and separate force. During the time of peace these people carried out their normal routine. All Muslim men had the ability to defend their nation. The army did not impose a heavy burden on the economy of the state. Every Muslim fighter fought with full zeal.
The memories and lessons of the battle of Badar in this holy month of Ramazan must evoke deep thought in us. We must study and analyze it to see where we have gone wrong. To correct the defects all sincere elements must begin imbibing the message of Quran. This will put tranquillity in our heart and will provide special blessings of Allah.