Afghan Press author: Rooh-ul-Amin

The political administration under the tutelage of FATA Secretariat and SAFRON, has raised no less than 11 local lashkar to combat terror in Swat, Bajaur, Muhmand Agency, Orakzai Agency and so on.

But the strategy proved nothing more than a footnote rather than a milestone.

Journalists from across the width and breadth of the country raised a great deal of hues and cries against the raising of the local lashkars and their armament, on account that it will erupt an epidemic of civil war.

But the policymakers and those who are in high echelon politics were in a stupor. This card of raising local lashkars had been used by the political administration back a decade plus in Khyber Agency, when Usama Bin Laden along with his exponents had taken shelter in Tirah, a far-flung valley of Bara Division. Before that he had sought refuge in Chora, a hamlet clustered around by mountains of Jamrud Division. The local people called the caves wherein they stayed, ‘Da Usama Goray’—a typical local word used for Usama caves.

The attempt was a success because the local lashkar expatriated him along with his foreigner supporters and set ablaze the houses of those who had given him a shelter and the Political Administration demonised them using an extensive series of propaganda. Among them the then tribal elder Gul Abad Khan was also shot dead during Jirga.

Thus the area was scoured of the militants. Usama, then, fled away to Afghanistan where he stayed until the US sprayed the hook and nook of the country with the most fatal and latest bombs in pursuit of Al-Qaida but he was found nowhere. Now the political administration is using the same old card, which is, now not only out of tune but detrimental as well for the tribal social order.

The ground realities at that time were totally different than present ones. At that time it was the matter of only Khyber Agency and now it is the matter of entire tribal belt.

Now 98 percent of the Taliban are local and there are lots of factors, which have turned them adversary to its own land. The first one is FCR, which has been in promulgation for the last one hundred and nine years, has added much more to their sense of deprivation. The second factor is the already existent glut of jobless youth whose parents are either in Gulf States or in F.C, where they cannot go ahead of a Naik, Hawaldar, or hardly S.M.

The third factor responsible for all the chaos is their notion of invincibility and the misleading and elusive titles excessively used in text books and media as “ the land of hospitality, the land of tradition, the gallant Pathan and faithful tribal.”

The political administration must delve into the responsible causes first, and then to devise a strategy. One thing, which is too odd, is that the eruption of these outfits did not occurred over nights. What had occurred to the political administration at that time when these religious groups were making their appearances one after another? Why the administration had given so a long leeway to them in taking a stranglehold across the FATA? Whether the administration was in hibernation and playing tip-cat or conniving the whole show? These are the questions, which some times pop up doubts, and questions in the mind of public.

Now the situation is so convoluted that no body can dare to trammel their path. Like the eruption of these outfits, the raising of local lashkars has ensued enmity not only among different tribes but also among the members of one family.

On hand if one brother is supporting the Taliban, on the other the second brother is the arch supporter of local lashkar and the third is the most deviant because he wants to opt for silence and neutrality. If one cousin has affiliation with one faction the other has close ties with another one. And the most hazardous aspect of raising local lashkars is that even the war on terror would be over but it will be hard enough rather impossible to bridge this cleavage brought by this move among the members of one clan. The jobless glut of population especially youth is getting closer to the militants. Even if today there is a source of fair jobs for them the day is not so far that they will detach themselves from militants factions.

But instead the political administration sowed the seed of hatred among the tribal, which resulted at tribal social disorder and anarchy. The most serious backlash of this strategy was witnessed on 10th October 2008, when in Orakzai Agency a suicide attacker blew himself up and mowed down more than 150 lashkar activists, who were mustered up to for Jirga to orchestrate a mesh against the militants. After the raising of local lashkars we have seen nothing pragmatic but a rise in suicide attacks. A few days back 12 out of 65 under hostage local lashkar activists were killed in Swat.

A suicide attacker blew his vehicle at a security check post in Bannu that claimed two lives and injured 12 others on Oct 29, 2008. Thursday, 30 Oct witnessed the death of 10 militants only in Swat. In Muhmand Agency, the same day, 5 militants were fired to death.

2 civilians lost their lives when the security forces opened shelling on the hideouts of the militants in Kabal and injured 14 others. Amid the chaos the militants killed a police ASI Swat. When the first in-camera joint session of the two houses was held the militants in Bajaur beheaded an F.C soldier.

Now one can feel how the residents of the area especially children, women and the old, are constantly passing through the agony of fear. Sitting faraway and debating over it, one cannot feel the miseries and the intensity of the situation until it is seen with open eyes.

Lenin once said that if you want to have exertion in East then enter through the door of religion. His maxim has still a weight of its own because in this era of change and modernity, it has a strong hold on the masses. And the people who want to have influence on the public adopt this path. Every dawn that comes bring the news of a new organisation of new militants.

Ironically, every militant group emerges as the sole enemy for America but they have turned the lives of their own brothers into a hell. If the US is their enemy then after 9/11 how much attacks, these outfits have brought out. Surly none. And surly they cannot, but what is mostly wept is that it has opened the floodgates of miseries and afflictions for its own compatriots. One can easily smell that it is a never-ending series of decimation and carnage of the Muslims by the Muslims but under the garb of US enmity. And this never-ending series of violence has been well exploited by the religious branded parties in achieving their ends.

Such outfits, for their defense, usually recite the Hadith (the saying of holy Prophet) that when ever you see an evil, put an end to it by force if you have courage for that, if cannot then detest it with your tongue, if cannot then at least abhor it in the inner heart and this the lowest degree of one’s faith. If every individual adopt the same path so the society will hug the marsh of anarchism and civil war. We cannot say that they are not cognizant with fact that it is the responsibility of the state instead an individual. But we can say that they are exploiting it for achieving their ends. At the same time they forget about the model presented by Hazrat Umar, who established police force, state treasury (Bait-ul-maal)—wherefrom even the non-Muslims poor were given scholarships, nationalised most of the things for the purpose of pubic welfare and State. After the submission to the supremacy of Almighty God, he was ardent supporter of State supremacy.

He went so far that even grazing fields were brought under the tutelage of State for the Mulsim Army’s horses. Once a Suhabi was grazing his private horse at the nationalised meadow, thus Hazrat Umar snubbed him and asked that do you know that it is allocated only for the horses of Muslim Army. The Suhabi showed his incognizance with apology and led his way. [Continued]

The writer is a FATA-based freelance journalist.