Afghan Press Author: Rooh-ul-Amin

Deliberately or ill fatedly this gharib nawaz shehr (a poor friendly city) is now under the grip of this devilish air of beheadings and women kidnappings.

This Shehr-e-Haft Zaban (a city of seven dialects/languages), in the near past, was a thatch and canopy of tranquility and peace for poor and elite alike and where the people from its surroundings used to come in search of their earnings but all that is over now.

Peshawar is also a city, which is quite resembled to Jalalabad where you will see outnumbering Afghan refugees having a flavour of rich Afghan culture. As it has given place right at it’s heart to the Afghan refugees, is a solid example of its openness and tolerance. With that it has also accommodated a huge number of tribal from different agencies.

Ask any elderly man about Qissa Khawani, and he will outburst his nostalgia for this loveliest city of the world. He, even with a choric tone, will say you that it was an akhkulay khar (lovely city) where they used to bring woods from tribal areas for selling it and enjoy its Chapli Kabab (grind meat cakes) and spicy curries available at very low prices—annas (the coin of that age). For the elder tribal Pukhtoons, Dabgari and Qissa Khawani had been favourite places in Peshawar. Now it can be called a golden past completely shrouded in past memories and buried under the dust of history. When the former President, Pervaiz Musharaf took a sharp U-turn on Pakistan’s foreign policy, the air of this intolerance was not unexpected in this city for it is home to different races. For that, the grounds were prepared since long but he was here just to win all the disgraces and blames for this intolerance and widespread anarchy in the region.

It is now a city where the business class feels itself very much insecure. It is the business class, which provides capital to the business wheels of an area. When such a class becomes the target of kidnappers and terrorists they prefer to take out its investments from the area. Such an act of capital-drain occurred a few days back when most of the investors felt themselves, their families and investments at risks. Most of the businessmen who were residents of Hayatabad, a posh township on the west of Peshawar and east of Khyber Agency, have transferred their businesses to Islamabad. According to the president of Anjuman-e-Tajeraan (the council of traders), Haji Muhammad Afzal, this fear of insecurity has badly affected the business of Peshawar. It has nearly brought the business on the brink of collapse. The factories for their owners have turned into no go areas. As it is said that belly teaches all the arts. This need of belly and stomach has dragged ‘he and she’ both in this black game of kidnappings.

Male kidnappers have carried out nearly 15-20 cases successfully with the accomplice of women kidnappers.

This has seriously affected the daily wages of factory workers and there must not be any doubt that the fresh glut of jobless in near future will join hands either with kidnappers or Taliban. For, Taliban also provide its supporters with 10-15 thousands rupees. And for a poor person usually unskilled and a good-for-nothing who barely earns such a handful wage else where surely will join the ranks of the Taliban, using the cloak of religion where he feels contented and his mind never makes him restless that he is doing a wrong. Rather contrary to it he feels that as if he is doing a good job. As the Taliban have killed many rogues elements in tribal areas so the kidnappers have turned their faces towards cities where they are fully absorbed in kidnappings.

With the advent of 2009, more than 14 people have been kidnapped including a child. Among them only Alam Zeb Mujahid, who is a celebrity name in the world of Pushto comedy, was kidnapped by a religious group and was released on the condition of joining Tablighee Jamat (the preachers constellation). Rests of the people have been kidnapped for ransom. The owner of Arshad cinema in Khyber bazaar Peshawar was also kidnapped, and after a great deal of efforts, he was released. The past year Hayatabad and many other places like Kohat road, Mathra road and Pushtakhra road were no go areas for the ‘haves’ people. And this year also these areas are favourite hunting places for the kidnappers.

They not only kidnap but also kill very heinously if someone resists. The past year, the kidnappings which made headlines in news papers and news channels were the cases of Afghan designate-Ambassador, Abdul Khaliq Farahi, Saeed Ahmad an American nationality holder and owner of a pharmaceutical, Iranian Consulate Commercial Attaché, Hashmatullah Athar Zada, and the Director of an NGO, Shakir Ishaq.

Nearly 160 people were released either by the ransom or police efforts. By now more than 145 kidnappers have been nabbed during the police crackdowns but anyhow it has not discouraged the trend of kidnappings, as it still is rampant in the capital city of the province. Overall the number of kidnapped the past year was 220 including women and children and this year also the rate is going with same pace. Within a span of just two months there have been no less than 21 cases of kidnappings. Yesterday, four people were kidnapped from this capital city in different cases on Feb. 3, 2009.

The natives of Peshawar have never seen such horrific scenes of humans’ rights violations since partition, as these days it has been witnessing. There must not be any doubts when the British Raj took Peshawar in its clasp, a reign of terror was unleashed and before them the Sikhs under the rule of Ranjeet Singh who had the support of France had opened the floodgates of persecutions against the natives of this land. The Sikhs used to scaffold every day two believers from the dazzling minarets of the historical Masjid-e-Muhabat Khan. That is past, and Peshawar once again is under the rule of tyranny and terror unleashed by the kidnappers, criminals and the Taliban. But this time Muslim is under the reign or horror by Muslim.

In such a scenario one bewilders and it is really very hard to decide where to seek shelters and where to go.

Peshawar has been bleeding profusely and such inhuman trends crept in at the capital city of NWFP, and also its adjacent areas, which were completely unknown in the Pukhtoons three thousand years recorded history. Among such devilish trends, the kidnappings of women and the beheadings of men are blemished examples. There have been many cases of kidnappings but it could not harass the inhabitants of this capital city as the recent two cases of kidnappings and beheadings.

Rafeeullah, a Pabbi-based Peer (a religious leader who belongs to Sufi school of thought and believe in witchcraft and amulets), was kidnapped from district Nowshehra on January 17, 2009. After a few days his beheaded body was found in Pushtakhara, Peshawar. The letter, which was found near his body has the inscriptions; “the people who run the businesses of amulets, blowing and witchcraft will hug the same fate.” It means that this one is a bleak example of sectarianism. The previous day —February 1, 2009, two Afghan women were found dead in Achini Khwar (the gully of Achini) Peshawar, completely disrobed and nude. A few days ago, they were kidnapped from Peshawar. The letter, which was found with the dead bodies of the two women, had the caption, “the consequence of moral perversion and lewdness is the same.” The kidnappers have very cunningly tried to avert the public fury by labeling them as immoral and showing it a case of honour killing.

To the expectations of the kidnappers, some of the people consider it a likely case of honour killing. But many skeptical people rejected it as a case of honour killing. If it were the case as many people think then why a relative should be a (father, brother and uncle) throw away the defaced dead body in a nude state for a nightlong duration instead burying them. It is not that simple to call it a case of honour killing, like the one in Balochistan where two women were buried alive the past year. Indeed that was purely an honour killing case and their relatives confessed where as in this case such a statement did not appear.

Beside it at least 38 women including some teenagers also were entrapped in elopement and later they were kidnapped or handed over to tugs. At least eight women have been released either by police raids or ransom and rests of the women still are entangled in the hands of the kidnappers.

As it is said that nothing is sure except death in future, this maxim comes very true to the atmosphere in Peshawar. If you steps out of home, no one can guarantee you that you will be back home and safe, such is life these days in Peshawar. Every day you will hear the howling sounds of emergency-horns as if some foreign power is to invade Peshawar. But in reality these are the sounds of mobile-police’s vehicles, the vehicles of provincial ministers and its’ security guards. Just 7-8 years back this capital city was totally unfamiliar with such airs.

This is not an exaggeration but a long-sustained reality.

In such a scenario, majority of the people believe that the current wave of Talibanisation is a by-product of allying the US in its war on terror so they believe that the appearance of kidnapers is the by-product of Talibanisation. It simply means, when Pakistan allied the US in its war on terror, Taliban surged on the land of tribal and when they made their debut so the kidnappers also but on the land of Peshawar. The Taliban have challenged the writ of government overtly while the kidnappers have also but covertly. Both the factions (the Taliban and the kidnappers) stand apart ideologically but they have one thing in common and that is the use of allegation. Like the allegation of terrorism, which the US has been using against its enemies as a lethal weapon, the kidnappers and the Taliban have also adopted the same weapon of allegations. It is an easy and effective tool to blame a murdered person by keeping a letter to mitigate the chances of public fury. In northern-Waziristan, the Taliban used it for the first time by labeling their enemies as involved in spying for the US. It traveled from there to Bajaur and now the kidnappers have been using it in Peshawar.

The day Pakistan allied the US in its war on terror, such anarchy, rule of terror and inhuman crimes were destined for the region. Before that one fails badly to grope out such acts of crimes and inhumanity in the history of Peshawar and its adjoining areas.

As Islam says that human is black by nature and many western philosophers also believe the same. When the Second World War brought devastation on a massive scale then western philosophers start thinking whether human is black by nature or lenient. And now we are observing that human is black by nature. It is education, society and the rule of law and the threat of punishment that keeps him or her abstained from doing inhuman and brutal acts. Simply it means where the rule of law and the writ of government ends, starts from there the rule of terror and inhumanity. And it is no denying the fact that anarchism fans the fire of intolerance and Peshawar these days has come in the grip of kidnappers and zero tolerance time.

The writer is a FATA-based freelance journalist.