Updated at: 1855 PST, Monday, May 04, 2009
SWAT: The banned militant outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Swat has claimed the responsibility for the killing of two security men in Swat valley.
According to sources, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan has claimed the responsibility today.
It may be reminded here that two security personnel were murdered in Khwazakhela area on Sunday.
Khan further said that Taliban Commander Khalil is alive.
Updated at: 2315 PST, Monday, May 04, 2009
SWAT: Two security men have been injured in armed clashes that continued to erupt with intervals between security forces and militants in Swat.
Curfew has been imposed across the district from 7 pm to 6 am.
According to sources, militants have besieged Mingora Grid Station in Swat where 46 security personnel have become confined.
Meanwhile, a blast has been heard near Mingora Police Station after which gunshots are being heard.
Updated at: 1905 PST, Monday, May 04, 2009
SWAT: A night-time curfew from 7pm to 6am has been imposed in Swat valley, Swat Media Centre reported on Monday.
Amid some security concerns, the curfew will remain in force between 7pm to 6am.
Monday, May 04, 2009 
By Mazhar Tufail
ISLAMABAD: The Swat peace pact stands dissolved and the militants present in Swat, Matta, Kabal and Sangla as well as their commanders have asked for permission to fight everywhere, sources told The News on Sunday.
“Our peace agreement with the NWFP government practically stands dissolved,” confirmed Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Swat chapter of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while talking to The News via telephone. ìForces are attacking us and our fighters are also retaliating,î he said.
The TTP Swat spokesman vowed that their fighters would now attack security forces and the government figures everywhere. He said the rulers were obeying every directive of US President Barack Obama.
ìIf the Awami National Party supports us, we will not harm them. But if they sided with the government, they too will become our target. However, our main target will be security forces and the rulers of Pakistan. We will also act in other cities of Pakistan but will not target the general public,î the TTP spokesman said. To a question, the TTP spokesman ruled out the involvement of India and Afghanistan and said no outside elements were involved in the Swat unrest.
When asked about the dissolution of the Swat peace agreement, Spokesman for the Awami National Party Senator Zahid Khan said that they had signed the accord with TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad and not with the Swat Taliban. He said the Taliban had been violating the accord time and again.
When contacted, TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan said he did not know about the scrapping of the agreement but if the operation continued in the region, the situation would return to the one that prevailed before the pact. He claimed the general public in Swat was now opposed to the government.
Answering a question about the peace accordís scrapping, the TNSM spokesman said: ìWe do not know as to who is conducting the operation — the federal government or security forces — but we know that it is being launched to please the United States.î
Regarding the involvement of India and Afghanistan in the Swat imbroglio, the TNSM spokesman claimed the two countries had nothing to do with the unrest in the region. He said it was only a reaction to the government policies. He said neither they had amassed arms nor were they getting financial help from abroad. He said the people of Swat had been demanding the enforcement of the Islamic law in the area since 1989.
ìIf the prevailing situation persists, the government will lose control over the area and reaction to the government actions will also be witnessed in other cities of the country. In that situation, even the TNSM will be unable to control the situation,î Ameer Izzat Khan claimed.
By Gohar Ali Gohar and Hameedullah Khan
Monday, 04 May, 2009 | 03:45 PM PST
TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat reiterated that the govt did not consult Sufi Mohammad on the Qazis’ appointments. — Reuters
BATKHELA: The Taliban will not lay down their arms until the military operation is halted in the region, Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Mohammad's spokesman Ameer Izzat said on Monday.
We hold the government responsible for the consequences of the ongoing military operations in the area, Izzat said.
The TNSM will only be responsible for the maintenance of peace if sharia is practically enforced in Malakand, he said, adding that it is the government's responsibility to provide conditions that will help ensure lasting peace.
The government should realise that peace cannot be restored through force and can only come through Shariat-i-Muhammadi and said no one will take up arms once the sharia is enforced.
He reiterated that the government did not consult the TNSM on the Qazis' appointments.
Meanwhile, North West Frontier Province's information minister Iftikhar Hussain said that by establishing the Darul Qaza, the government fulfilled its promise and now it's the TNSM's responsibility to honour its commitments.
On Sunday, TNSM and Swat Taliban rejected the setting up of Darul Qaza and appointments of Qazis as a unilateral decision of the government, saying Sufi Mohammad was not consulted before the announcement.
Talking to media persons after TNSM Shura’s meeting at its headquarter in Bilal Mosque Amandara on Monday, Ameer Izzat Khan said the setting up of Darul Qaza in Malakand was a one-sided decision by the government and TNSM chief was not consulted prior to the announcement in this regard.
Izzat, reading a written statement before newsmen, said the government during its first round of talks at Timergara a few days ago had promised to take Sufi Mohammad into confidence, stop the military operation in Maidan and Buner and pave the way for a safe and speedy return of displaced people. But, he said, none of these demands were met. The TNSM therefore disowned the establishment of Darul Qaza and appointment of judges as Qazis.
There was no mention in the written statement regarding the February 16 peace accord with the government despite reservation over the formation of Darul Qaza.
Sufi Muhammad said on the occasion that ‘delegating powers of Qazis to judges is Ghair-Sharaee,’ adding: ‘we want qazis in accordance with Shariat-i-Muhammadi.’ He said TNSM wanted to transform the present judicial system into sharia system.
He said sharia and democracy are totally different systems, adding we consider democracy as Kuffar (infidelity) and believe in system of Quran and Sunnah. The constitution of Pakistan is Islamic and it was not practically implemented in the country, he said on Sunday.
He said we are still ready for talks and stand by our promise of restoring peace in Malakand if sharia was implemented in its true spirit.
Meanwhile, Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan on Sunday told media persons by phone from an undisclosed location that Darul Qaza under the shadows of jets bombing and shelling was not acceptable to them.
He said the government should stop the military operation and set up Darul Qaza after consultation with Sufi Mohmmad. He said Taliban were abiding by the peace agreement made between the government and TNSM. He said the government was violation the peace accord after launching operation in Dir and Buner districts and making preparation for strike in Swat.
He warned of befitting response if military operation was again imposed on them in Swat.
He said Darul Qaza should be so powerful that it could summon the president, prime minister, Sufi Mohammad and even Mullah Fazlullah to appear before it.
He said the government has arrested 40 Taliban, including several innocent locals, and added that about 25 security personnel were in Taliban custody, who would be freed as soon as possible.
Muslim Khan ruled out the supply of arms to the Taliban by foreign states, adding they had successfully stolen weapons from Pakistan security forces. He expressed full confidence in Sufi Mohammad, saying they would follow the directives of Sufi Mohmmad regarding Darul Qaza and Qazi courts.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Spokesman says provincial government has violated agreed formula 
By our correspondent
BATKHELA: The Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) has rejected the NWFP government’s unilateral decision of setting up the Darul Qaza and appointing two high court judges as Qazis.
“The TNSM leaders and the NWFP government delegation held talks in Timergara on May 1 wherein it was agreed that in the first phase the military operation would be halted in the Malakand Division so that the displaced persons could return to their hometowns,” Amir Izzat Khan, spokesman for the TNSM, told media persons after the Shura meeting in Amandara on Sunday.
“In the second phase, the provincial government and the TNSM chief, along with the Shura members, would announce the setting up of the Darul Qaza and the appointment of Qazis in Peshawar, but the government violated the agreed formula by announcing its decision unilaterally.”
He said the TNSM had nothing to do with the unilateral establishment of the Darul Qaza and appointment of Qazis. “We had pinned high hopes on the final round of talks and, subsequently, the establishment of the Darul Qaza and the judges’ appointment, but the government disappointed us by doing all this without taking TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad into confidence,” the spokesman regretted. He alleged that the provincial government had violated the agreed formula.
He said they had decided that after halting the military operation, establishing the Darul Qaza and appointing Qazis in the Malakand Division, the Taliban would be asked to lay down arms to pave the way for the smooth implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation.
However, the provincial government established the Darul Qaza and appointed two judges of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Mohiuddin and Ziauddin Khattak, as its Qazis without taking the TNSM leaders into confidence.
The TNSM and the provincial government’s statements have sent a wave of fear among the people of Malakand Division as, according to them, both were not on the same page on the enforcement of Shariah in the area. They feared that differences between the government and the TNSM would ultimately lead to the eruption of violence in the troubled areas again.
Updated at: 1750 PST, Monday, May 04, 2009
PESHAWAR: NWFP Law Minister Barrister Arshad Abdullah has said that the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad is not authorised to appoint Qazis in Malakand division and only the provincial governments can do it.
Talking to Geo news here on Monday, Barrister Arshad said that under the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (NAR-2009), only the NWFP government has the privilege to appoint Qazis. The minister said that the government would fulfill its constitutional responsibilities and soon an office of Dar-ul-Qaza would be established in Malakand. He said after the establishement of Dar-ul-Qaza, an additional and a deputy advocate general would be appointed in the division.
In the national interest
Monday, May 04, 2009
Kamal Siddiqi
The writer is editor reporting, The News
One is never clear of the messages that are exchanged between our leaders and the leaders of the “developed” world. For example, one day US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expresses worry over the safety of our nuclear assets. Two days later, the American administration indicates that it is satisfied with the arrangements in place to guard them.
Now US President Barack Obama has told the world that he fears for Pakistan’s fragile civilian government. He has requested urgent funding for Pakistan so that the government can fight terrorism on the one hand and to help in providing basic services on the other. President Obama has also stated the obvious: that militants at home are the bigger threat to the country. He has also asserted that the Pakistan Army is gradually waking up to this fact. We can hope.
While all this makes perfect sense, the situation on the ground gets murkier. For example, why are we conducting a military operation in Dir when we are providing safe havens to the Taliban in Swat? Why was Buner the tipping point? Our government is upset, and rightly so, over the fact that when it does not take action the people agitate. And when it does, the people and the media crib and cry over the casualties and damage. But this is nothing new.
In all this, what seems to be missing from the Pakistan government side is a bigger game plan. Our first question and one that we are unable to answer amongst ourselves is: why are we fighting this war? There are many who have taken the stand that this is not our war. Our government and those who are fighting the militants need to know what the answer to this is.
And this is the message that our earnest information minister, Qamaruzzaman Kaira, should repeat ad nauseum from each and every platform. Unlike his predecessor, Mr Kaira seems to have reconciled to the fact that there is no one official spokesperson for the government. Possibly the most prolific spokesman remains Rehman Malik, now finally a minister.
Our next question should be, how should we be fighting this war? We can only wonder and sigh at the quality of discourse that we see on our broadcast media. Our more clueless analysts are being replaced by those who can best be described as lunatics. Such characters incite hate and despair, promote feelings of insecurity and violent behaviour. At this stage, we can see that the war on terror seems to be the problem of the west and the government. And yet, one does not have to look too far to understand how it has affected our daily lives. It is not only the suicide bombings and the elaborate, though somewhat useless, security steps that we see in place. But also, the rise of extremist thought amongst common persons and lay men.
Something is very wrong in a society that eulogizes the Taliban and its leadership. Our people are being pushed into extremism and intolerance not only by religious parties but also supposedly “saner” elements like people in our government, the media and in civil society. The sudden rush towards extremism comes from a lack of sound education and gap in critical thought. Our intellectuals are bankrupt. Our universities have become breeding grounds for incompetence and deception. Pakistani academia produces more plagiarized pieces than original ones. Cheating is rife in our examination centres. Our houses for learning have turned into centres for mediocrity. Marks are given on likes and dislikes or in exchange for money. Degrees are forged. Lecturers are appointed on loyalties. People are looking for short cuts.
Extremism too is a short cut. Such people are reducing Islam to a series of rituals and dress codes. And in this, Pakistanis are becoming more isolated and backward with each passing day. There are many who argue that people have turned to extremism because of frustration with daily life. And this is a valid point. This frustration is being channelized by various forces. Here is where the government comes in and this is what President Obama is referring to. People in Pakistan are worried with the present state of affairs but there is no one who can give them hope.
They are also fed up with the quality of governance. We are fed up with increasing corruption and the ironies that we are faced with on a daily basis. The fact that there is no proper health system in place and that all our leaders and their families manage to go for treatment abroad at state expense. The people are fed up with the unholy alliance between our health ministry and the pharmaceutical industry in which people don’t get cheap medicines, only newer - and more expensive versions of the same. And the government is blind to this.
We are fed up with the rising crime and terrorism and yet the fact that a sizeable chunk of the policemen, their vehicles and weapons have been appropriated by the VIPs One look at the convoys in which our civilian and military leadership travels makes one wonder whether we are a third world country or not. Why is it so that these leaders are able to purchase vehicles at our expense but the government has no money left over for buying public buses that are in a presentable state.
And to add insult to injury, we have our politicians to thank. Minister for power Raja Pervez Ashraf this week told the Senate that a “comprehensive plan” had been chalked out to eliminate power theft. Why does he not start with the theft by politicians and government servants? Senator Nilofer Bakhtiar of the PML-Q told the senate that her party plans to “unite the women of Malakand to fight for their rights.” This from a party that blindly endorsed in parliament the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. Why do our politicians misguide us so much?
If that is not enough, then we have our bureaucrats. Chairman of the notoriously inefficient and corrupt Federal Board of Revenue recently shared this gem with journalists. Mr Ahmed Waqar said that the government plans to announce a “pro-poor” budget in which taxes will be imposed on the “richer classes”. No plan, just talk. No action, just rhetoric. Waqar should start by cleaning up his organization. We cannot keep on bribing the tax man and evading taxes.
While our leaders were engaged in “being economical with the truth,” Karachi saw an evening of unprecedented violence which the police leadership blames on the MQM. The MQM in turn blames the police leadership of patronizing the drug and land mafia in the city. In between, over 30 people lost their lives. Millions worth of property was destroyed. And yet, the well meaning Chief Minister did not even visit the injured in hospital.
What is most important in this is that the government has remained silent. While the country is in near crisis state, our president flies off to Libya to meet Colonel Qadhafi. The government seems to be moving from crisis to crisis. We have no plan under which we can engage with terrorism and extremism in the country. It is not enough to say that democracy will cure all. We have to have some sort of action plan in place. There is no defence strategy to deal with the issue. If there is, it does not have input from the civilian leadership.
If the US and the Friends of Pakistan give us money, where will we use it so that the frustration of the people is reduced? Will we finally focus on health, education and basic facilities for all or will we let this money also end up in grandiose projects that get us nowhere but make some richer and the rest poorer. If there is time for come clear thinking, it is now. Mere rhetoric will not do. We want assurances and some statement of intent. Otherwise, the battle for the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan will be lost.
Email: kamal.siddiqi@thenews.com.pk
Monday, May 04, 2009
Kamal Matinuddin
The need for cheap and speedy justice cannot be questioned. The promulgation of Nizam-e-Adl can, therefore, be termed as a step in the right direction. The manner it was achieved, however, was shameful. The provincial government capitulated before those who committed unspeakable brutalities. Parliament passed the bill in a matter of hours and without any debate. The silence displayed by the elected representatives including female parliamentarians was disappointing, to say the least.
It is not a question of only cheap and speedy justice. It is the manner in which it will be administered, which is questionable. Is there one authorized codified book on Sharia, which the Qazis will abide by? Yes there are some punishments specified in the Quran, which cannot be changed. But times have changed. The social environment is now totally different to what it was 1,500 years ago. Many transactions now take place, which were not there in the days of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Women now have to work in the fields along with their men folk. Girls have to attend schools and colleges to become nurses and doctors. They have to supplement household income by working in homes and offices.
A dress code for Muslim women has not specifically been prescribed in the Holy Book. Nor is there any standard practice in this regard in the Muslim world. Muslim nations have adopted different dresses for women. In Saudi Arabia women cover themselves from head to foot. In Iran, women leave their faces open and are working in all government departments and stores. Indonesian women wear off-the-shoulder gowns on formal occasions. Turkish women have adopted western dresses. In Pakistan different social groups interpret the hijab in different ways.
Religious leaders also differ on whether men should talk to a na-mahram. A young lady doing her PhD in religious studies had to a write a paper on fatwas in Islam. She went to the internationally famous Darul Uloom Haqqania in Akora Khattak. Needless to say she was properly attired. On reaching the seminary she was ushered into a room and asked to sit behind a thick curtain. When the mufti arrived he not only refused to see the girl but also was not prepared to hear her voice. So the young lady was told to write the questions on a piece of paper and slip it under the curtain. The mufti wrote down the answers and slipped it back along the floor. She came out into the room where I was sitting with Anwarul Haq, the son of the renowned religious leader Maulana Abdul Haq. We had an open discussion on fatwas. Who was right? The mufti who was not prepared to hear the voice of a na-mahram or Anwarul Haq? Both I believe must be fully acquainted with the Sharia.
Our religious clerics talk about referring matters to the Council of Islamic Ideology established by General Ziaul Haq. There is an interesting case of what kind of work they were engaged in. Once on my way from Karachi to Islamabad. I was sitting next to the then chairman of the Islamic Ideology Council (CII) in the plane. When I asked him what was the issue presently being undertaken by the CII, he told me that they were working on the issue of whether transplanting a non-Muslim’s kidney into a Muslim person is permitted in Islam.
The owner of a popular Urdu newspaper opines that all those who oppose the Nizam-e-Adl should move to Bharat. I wish he had also said that the members of a religious organisation, which opposed the creation of Pakistan, should also migrate to India and those who addressed Quaid-e-Azam as Kafir-e-Azam should not stay in the land he founded.
The NWFP government gave into the Taliban because they wanted peace. I recall paying a visit to an Afghan refugee camp in Akora Khattak around 1994 during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. When I asked some Afghan refugees as to why they had left their peaceful abode. They replied that “peace is not enough to fill our children’s stomachs. There is no economic activity in Afghanistan under the Taliban. We have come here to earn our livelihood and send some money back to our family.” Barbers, lawyers, music shop-owners, sellers of CDs, hoteliers, school teachers, all will be out of business in Swat.
Nejla Izzeddin, describing the cause of Muslim stagnation writes in his book The Arab Mind that search for knowledge was smothered under the hard crust of dogmas and fundamentalism. Let this not happen to our country. It will, if we do not look beyond Nizam-e-Adl.
The writer is a retired lieutenant-general and a former director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies. Email kmatin@comsats.net.pk
Monday, May 04, 2009
Ghazi Salahuddin
We do have people who, in spite of realities that have manifested themselves in recent weeks, still insist that our war against religious militancy is in fact America’s war that Pakistan has been duped into fighting. But whose war are the Taliban fighting? And in this thickening fog, what are America’s interests and how does it propose to achieve them?
These, of course, are some of the many questions that we keep chewing, like addicts. Meanwhile, the overall situation has continued to worsen. This week, deadly violence erupted in Karachi with more fearful forebodings about the future of the state of Pakistan. In two days’ disturbances, more than thirty lives were lost. What cannot be measured is the fear that such derelictions inspire in the minds of the citizens who have been witness to so much bloodshed in the past.
Again, the complexity of what is happening in Karachi and the potential for disorder that resides in its brutalised psyche are so difficult to comprehend that analysts are tempted to find comfort in conspiracy theories. In the present circumstances, Karachi must also bear with the reverberations of upheavals that have shaken the distant northern areas because of its potent Pashtun identity. Indeed, there are valid apprehensions that what happened this week was merely a preview of something much more sinister to come.
As I have implied, the situation in Karachi has an umbilical connection, across the entire length of this country, with the Frontier province and the tribal areas. The threat of Talibanisation of Karachi is only one dimension of this mystifying bond between culturally the most backward and the most urbanised parts of the country. Not that the urban face of Karachi, as manifested in the politics of the MQM, is any easier to comprehend.
By the way, I saw this front page photograph in a Karachi daily in which two paramilitary personnel are seen standing alert on a somewhat hilly terrain, with low houses of cement blocks spread across a slope. I thought that if it were shown to people, with its caption hidden, it would be possible for some to think that it was, say, Buner and not Karachi.
In a sense, Karachi this week was a distraction. The big story is the military operation underway in Buner. It did take a long time in coming. On Thursday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee held its meeting in Rawalpindi and the top military leaders resolved to support the government in showing “zero tolerance” towards militancy in Malakand division. According to an ISPR spokesman, the military leaders expressed satisfaction over the progress of operations in Lower Dir, Buner and adjoining areas.
But the US officials may still have some doubts about this “zero tolerance” resolve. Bruce Riedel, a senior Obama administration official was even reported as telling a newspaper that Pakistani Army officers are afraid that if they ask the rank and file to fire on the Taliban too much, the whole army might disintegrate. There has not been any dearth of such scary formulations. So much so that commander of US Central Command, Gen David Petraeus was quoted by the Fox News to have told the US officials that next two weeks are “critical to determine whether the Pakistani government will survive”.
This comment was linked to the Pakistan Army’s operation because Gen Petraeus also said that he was looking to see concrete action against the Taliban in the next two weeks before determining America’s next course of action.
In the midst of these apocalyptic prognostications, President Obama’s comments published on Friday do provide evidence of US administration’s close and insightful study of the present state of affairs in Pakistan. During his prime-time news conference on his 100th day in office, Obama said he was gravely concerned about the stability of the Pakistani government, though he also expressed confidence about the security of our nuclear arsenal.
Talking about Pakistan, Obama did not focus on the Taliban or the military’s conduct in operations against militants. This is how he has been quoted: “I am more concerned that the civilian government right now is very fragile and don’t seem to have the capacity to deliver basic services. As a consequence, it’s very difficult for them to gain the support and loyalty of their people”. And he added: “So we need to help Pakistan help Pakistanis”.
How interesting. At the outset, I had referred to people who think Pakistan is fighting America’s war – and that has made all the difference. On the basis of what Obama has said, you may turn this around. Some people may now say that America is fighting on behalf of Pakistan’s people. Of course, Prime Minister Gilani has rejected the Obama claim that Pakistan’s government is fragile. Well, you may find some other word for it. But the heart of the matter is that the quality of our present rulers’ governance is extremely poor. There is a sense of institutional disarray and lack of a sense of direction.
During the past year, no concerted or innovative efforts were made to deal with the fundamental issues of poverty and hunger. Nor was any headway made in the field of education. In fact, with all the resources and expertise at its disposal, this government is not able to hold tests for thousands of applicants who want the job of primary school teachers. Cheating in exams is so rampant that a man was caught in Rawalpindi while appearing in an intermediate exam for a sitting PML-N MNA. The law and order situation is getting worse. There is a general perception that corruption has risen in many departments and that it is linked to top officials.
Ordinary citizens feel cheated and humiliated when they encounter the pompous motorcades of ministers and high officials and when they learn about the lifestyle of the VVIPs. The very size of the cabinets, at the federal as well as provincial levels, is obscene. Off-the-record comments by senior functionaries are no less scary than thoughts expressed by American think tanks. When it comes to whispers, every one seems to have lost hope.
One feature of this government is that it remains in a state of denial. Action on critical matters is generally delayed until it is too late. Look at how Asif Ali Zardari dealt with the lawyers’ movement. Look at how the situation in Swat was criminally neglected for months and months. Look at how the Balochistan crisis was left unattended. There are other examples of how the government lost its writ in large areas and didn’t know what to do about it. No wonder Nawaz Sharif, who is himself a part of the ruling coterie, said this week that the prevailing circumstances were more perilous than they were in 1971. But for our rulers, it seems business as usual.
The writer is a staff member. Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com
Monday, May 04, 2009
Talat Masood
The army’s operation against the Taliban in Buner and Dir in close coordination with the police and the Frontier Corp was absolutely essential. It has come albeit late when it seemed as though the state had abdicated its responsibility and the military was shy of engaging in counterinsurgency operations. Nonetheless, it is a good beginning that needs to be pursued to its logical end.
Losing to the Taliban is an untenable proposition if Pakistan has to retain its identity as a nation. It would not only mean surrendering territory to a militant group but also losing an ideological battle. The prospect of a Taliban takeover means the collapse of the state. No wonder it raised alarm bells all around the world when the TSNM took over Swat and pushed into Buner.
A worse case scenario of a Taliban takeover would mean the end of all institutions of the state. The army would be replaced by the Taliban militia, civil administration would be taken over by the mullahs, politics would be banned and democracy would be substituted by a fascist, obscurantist ideology. It would be equally devastating for the economy and the country would slide into bankruptcy. Our relations with every country in the world, including our best friends — China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — would be adversely affected and Pakistan would be politically isolated and economically de-linked from the international economy.
The prospects of the Taliban gaining control over conventional and nuclear arms would be totally unacceptable to the international community and will invite a strong response. With a deeply antagonistic attitude of the Taliban towards education, especially girls’ education, the country will plunge into darkness. All benefits of globalisation will disappear and it would be very difficult to relate to the world. Participation in a globalised economy demands a state to conduct its affairs on the basis of universal principles and recognised norms of behaviour.
Clearly, if the fight against the Taliban is perceived by our people as an extension of our support for the Americans as some of our vernacular press, politicians and commentators would like us to believe, then there is no way that the military will be able to defeat them. Talibanisation is the anti-thesis of Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan. If any one is under the impression that the Taliban will bring in good governance, security and justice to the areas that they control he must be living in a world of fantasy. The expeditious passing of the resolution by the National Assembly supporting the Nizam-e-Adl regulation is a clear manifestation of how superficially we are treating issues that are of vital national interest.
Despite the obvious dangers inherent in the expanding influence of the Taliban no one speaks out against, or stands up to, them with the exception of few. The politico-religious parties and religious scholars do not speak out because they do not want to lose the support of radical groups. Also their hatred of the Americans and Indians blinds them from seeing the dangers inherent in this approach. Paradoxically, these elements will be equally marginalised if the Taliban were to continue expanding. The JUI-F has apparently lost ground to the militants and its power base is shrinking.
Politicians from the ANP and the PPP are scared to take a position against the Taliban in public as their lives are threatened and the state cannot protect them, although they are in power. President Zardari appears too preoccupied in consolidating his political position despite the fact that he got elected with a comfortable majority. He has bunkered himself and is over concerned about his personal safety and unable to provide leadership in combating insurgencies and fighting radicalism. Prime Minister Gilani is showing resolve but the rest of the top leadership is weak and lacks ideological and intellectual clarity and this is reflected in the formulation of national policies.
Mr Holbrooke in his recent interview with the New York Times remarked that there is heavy reliance on the US by the current PPP leadership for providing policy direction in counterinsurgency operations. Pakistanis have to own the war against the militants and not fight it as a client state of America. Our leaders have to begin to take a much longer term view of the costs and benefits of the policies and decisions that they are taking in dealing with the militants.
The opposition party’s role in countering radicalism has been equally disappointing. The PML-N and the PML-Q consider it politically expedient to remain silent. Then there are politicians who perhaps have no stake in the system. A few liberal groups are raising their voice but they are not coherent and have failed to make an impact and are being countered by unfair allegations of being lackeys of the west.
The army’s role has been mostly reactive. It has been expecting that the civilian government will give it the necessary orders to undertake operations No doubt, it has undertaken several major operations in Bajaur, Mohmand and Swat and made great sacrifices but lack of coordination between various agencies of the government has prevented it from optimising the gains. Energising the civil society is also crucial for winning the war against the Taliban. It is by mobilising public opinion against them that the tide could turn in our favour.
Then the question that needs an answer is: from where is the money coming to the insurgents? How is it that the Taliban are being paid more than the army personnel? Where are they getting the financial support for procurement of heavy weapons and maintaining a huge logistic infrastructure? Surely it is far more than what the militants could earn from drug transit and by taking hostages.
The writer is a retired lieutenant-general. Email: talat@comsats.net
Hit and run
Monday, May 04, 2009
Shakir Husain
Husain Haqqani has always reminded me of Baldrick from Black Adder because he is a man who always has a ‘cunning plan’. Writing an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on April 29, ambassador Haqqani calls for employing the ‘pacification’ model used so successfully in Fallujah in Iraq in Swat. Was it just me or did other people also bat an eyelid? Ambassador Haqqani, Pakistan is not Iraq and Swat is not Fallujah. It gets better though: “The recent spike of international concern about the threat in Pakistan seems to stem from the recent dialogue between the government of the Pashtunkhwa Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan and a local movement that supported Islamic law but did not join the Taliban’s violent campaign. The goal for this dialogue was twofold — first, to restore order and stability to the Swat valley; and second, to wedge rational elements of the religiously conservative population away from terrorists and fanatics.” Ambassador please. Firstly, the ‘spike’ of concern is not just international, it’s within Pakistan as well. Within the last week religious parties, opposition parties, respected clerics and members of civil society have all spoken against the ‘deal’. With the exception of Ayaz Amir and the MQM no politician spoke at the so-called parliamentary debate on the deal. Sherry Rehman and a few others managed to break party lines and speak their conscience. But on the whole our elected representatives let down the people of Pakistan – yet again.
Secondly, ambassador Haqqani has been away from Pakistan a bit too long which has led him to forget much about his motherland – most importantly, the facts. Swat’s local population has never been ‘religiously conservative’ and have never supported the Taliban given that the majority of people earned their living from tourism. The ‘Taliban’ came in from neighbouring areas and when the people of Swat begged the government to step in there was no help or assistance. I’m sure the folks in Swat wondered why they paid their taxes since no law enforcement agency was able to help them. The ‘deal’ seemed attractive to them after months of fighting, murder, pillage, and loot by the Taliban. Not to mention beheadings, floggings, and decapitation thrown in for good measure. What ambassador Haqqani and a lot of his colleagues in Islamabad should know is that a lot of what is happening in Northern Pakistan has absolutely nothing to do with religion; rather a lot of it is about economics, power structures and money. Every criminal gang is now adopting the ‘Taliban’ persona to carry out their business because they know that the state has capitulated to the Taliban; so why not give it a shot? This is not to say that the Taliban do not exist or that their brand of religion doesn’t. But there are several groups who are operating under the banner who have no ideological loyalty to them. Is it a surprise that the emerald mines in Swat were the first spots that the Taliban decided to squat on? Pakistan is dealing with gangsters who happen to have beards and rudimentary knowledge of Islam which they can enforce with their guns in the absence of any opposition.
Ambassador Haqqani speaks about peace with the more moderate elements in his op-ed column. Perhaps it is nostalgia from his days as a card-carrying member of the Jamaat-e-Islami at the Punjab University in Lahore which drives ambassador Haqqani to think that the government can actually negotiate with these thugs we see in action. But these folks are of a different ilk. Gone are the days when the moral police of the Jamiat used to use sticks to enforce their version of morality on college campuses across the country. The folks we are dealing with make the Jamiat look like pot smoking liberals. There can be and should be no negotiation. There should be no illusion that the writ of the state has been rolled back due to negligence, incompetence and corruption. Much has to change for the state to make amends with its disgruntled citizens. And while money can sort some of the problems, most of them have nothing to do with money. How do you buy resolve, backbone and competence?
“Recent developments offer us an opportunity amid crisis. More Pakistanis are now convinced of the need to confront the extremists”, offers Ambassador Haqqani. Pakistanis have always been convinced that the religious parties cannot deliver for them all that they want and need. It is for that reason that religious parties have never gotten more than 10 per cent of the vote in any free and fair election barring the one held under General Musharraf.
The Taliban are using the state’s weaknesses against it to gain popular support blended with their terror tactics. By using Robin Hood tactics they’re taking on feudal structures apart; yet the people are smart enough to know that this is temporary. No Mr Haqqani, the people of Pakistan have always known that this is not the way forward, yet the state has never been able to develop a clear position against the growing extremism in the country. The recent National Assembly session where no major party except one spoke against what’s happening in the country is a testament to this.
Ambassador Haqqani wants the US to give us counter-terrorism training which we have been stonewalling against until very recently. He wants the US to give us night vision goggles. I would like him to know that they are being sold in Peshawar as I write this. It would cost the government of Pakistan $3.6 million to purchase 1,000 AN-PVS 7-3, third generation, night vision goggles. My napkin math tells me that this could be financed by selling 22,500 square-yard plots in Islamabad. He wants equipment to knock out FM transmissions from the extremists, yet he forgets that during the 1971 war, the government of Pakistan was blocking the BBC World Service. Blocking FM transmissions is a high school science project at best. The ROZ’s are another example of the ridiculous. These regional opportunity zones are designed to give market access to these regions.
I want to know which entrepreneur is going to invest his/her own money into areas where even the armed forces are scared to go into. With the melting snows, the summer promises to be hot in more than one way on the Pakistan Afghan Border and I doubt if factories are going to be opening any time soon. Pakistan should be talking about access to US markets so that the people in our cities can find jobs instead of renting themselves out by the day to the Taliban. Just like Rehman Malik keeps appearing on television from Islamabad warning the extremists not to ‘challenge the writ of the state’ without really knowing what’s going on, ambassador Haqqani should also do a better job of positioning Pakistan and its interests in Washington DC.
The writer lives in Karachi. Email: shakir.thenews@gmail.com
Monday, May 04, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad has said there is no need for a Constitution in the presence of the Quran and Sunnah.
In an interview with the Geo News, Sufi said taking photographs is prohibited in Islam and the same is true for video footage and photographs in the light of Hadith. The system of the Quran and Shariah is known as Shariat-e-Mohammadi and “we will continue our struggle for its implementation,” he added.
It is the responsibility of each and every Muslim to struggle for the implementation of Shariah in the country, he said. The TNSM chief said there was complete Shariah in Afghanistan, but the US had attacked that country to end Shariah there. He said it is the responsibility of the Muslim Ummah to go for Jihad.
Jihad is a binding on each and every Muslim, and even women can take part in it without the permission of their husbands. He said the struggle for Kashmiri was for a piece of land and, therefore, it was not Jihad. He said there was a great difference between democracy and Shariah. “Many religious leaders, including Kashmiri was for a piece of land and, therefore, it was not Jihad. He said there was great difference between democracy and Shariah. “Many religious leaders, including Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Samiul Haq, are trying to find Shariah in democracy which is wrong,” he added.
Monday, May 04, 2009
The people of this country have been made fools for 60 years in the name of ‘national security’. With every new “Ghauri and Ghaznavi” launched, chants of Allah-o-Akbar were raised and we were told that we were safe. With each ugly replica of “Chaghi Hills” and these missiles installed on the road crossings we were assured that we had arrived on the world nuclear scene. So what if East Pakistan was gone but Kashmir would be ours one day, we were told. When independent analysts cried hoarse saying that governments and the state needed to do something to improve the quality of the human capital and divert resources from weapons and defence, they were labelled as traitors. And look where we are now.
The situation of Pakistan seems like that of a ‘jhuggi’ with 170 million hungry, illiterate and impoverished souls living inside it waiting for a miracle to happen. Outside there are tanks installed with nuclear bombs and missiles for the safety of the jhuggi-walahs. The ‘security guards’ who protect these jhuggi-dwellers are all well-fed and live in modern homes.
How many times have we — and the rest of the world — been assured by our political and military leadership that our nuclear assets ‘are safe”? Yes, they are safe, but what about the people, what about the nation itself — are they safe? It’s time to ask such questions and it’s time to raise our voices. Heads must roll, starting with a debate on holding those accountable who created these monsters in the name of national security.
Zarqa Javed
Islamabad
Monday, May 04, 2009
I am quite outraged by Danielle Ali Riaz’s letter on April 30. She seems to be ignorant of our rich heritage and culture. And here I would like to emphasise ‘our’ as this is the nation our forefathers sacrificed their lives for — so that our rights could be safeguarded. This includes our right to live according to our wishes and not to be forced to live in any particular way.
This is the land of Shah Hussain, Bulleh Shah, Shahbaz Qalandar, Sultan Bahu, Rehman Baba and many other Sufi saints; it is the land of poets and writers like Faiz, Muneer Niazi and Saadat Hassan Manto among many others. This is also the land of painters like Ustad Allah Bakhsh, Gulgee and Saadequain. And it is the soil which gave birth to musicians like Mehdi Hassan, Amanat Ali Khan, Noor Jehan, Abida Parveen and Reshma. We will fight till our last breath to save this unique and rich culture and heritage. We cannot abandon our Heers, Sohnis and Marvis at the mercy of the Taliban. So I would suggest that instead of asking us to leave, it is she and her Taliban who should be the ones to leave our Quaid’s country because our forefathers spilled their blood for us and not for the Taliban. We are no doubt Muslims but we are also the daughters and sons of this soil and want to see it progress and prosper, not mutilated by anyone.
Mishal Tariq
Kinnaird College,
Lahore
*****
This is in response to a letter by Danielle Ali Riaz on April 30. I was taken aback by her opinion on the Taliban and their treatment of women. I am a Muslim, I cover my head and wear an abaya as well but that is because I want to. I am not undermining the importance of hijab in any sense but the fact that the Taliban force women with a stick to cover is absolutely wrong. Since when did force become the primary tactic to spread Islam?
For women to go out alone in a safe environment is not wrong, in fact it seems it would become unsafe for even men along with women to step out of their houses if the Taliban were to come into power. It seems that all that the Taliban want is for women to be locked in their houses and wear a head-to-toe veil. May I ask is that the only thing the Holy Prophet (PBUH) preached? Weren’t other things like patience, forgiveness and having a good temperament also stressed upon?
Maryam Yasmin Hussain
Islamabad
*****
In response to Danielle Ali Riaz’s letter (April 30) I would like to clarify that since Pakistan has already suffered the ordeal of so-called ‘Islamisation’ under the rule of Ziaul Haq (1977-1988), and is still trying to come to terms with the after-effects it is hardly surprising that there should be abundant anti-Taliban sentiment. The Taliban are not as just as Mrs Riaz naively assumes them to be.
Is it fair to impose one’s own views on the entire population? And what about the non-Muslims? Should they be forced to follow Islamic law too? Yes, the girls in Swat may have returned to school, yet they do so in constant fear of their lives. Additionally, it is extremely unfair to set migration to other countries as the price for freedom of expression.
Farah Tiwana
Karachi
Monday, May 04, 2009
The Taliban have established a ‘Shoba-e-Aroos’ (wedlock department) in Charbagh in Swat which conducts what basically amounts to forced marriages of girls with the Taliban. The head of Shoba-e-Aroos gives a three-day notice to parents of the girl and they are essentially to bring her for the ‘marriage’ or face dire consequences. Also, your readers may not know this but most suicide bombers are children or boys who are taken from families where parents are usually unwilling to part with them and this is done through coercion.
The Taliban have not defaced Islam, they have also destroyed Pakhtun culture which is known for being hospitable and respectful. But the Taliban have demolished this concept. They deceive, cheat and betray – contrary to the Islamic code of ethics. In the name of talks they hold hostage government officials, police and FC personnel and demand ransom like thugs and kidnappers. They raid mazars of pirs, have desecrated Rehman Baba and Khush-hal Khan Khattak’s tombs and killed spiritual leaders – basically for the sake of looting money from their abodes.
Eschmall Sardar
Peshawar
Monday, May 04, 2009
I have a couple of simple and straightforward questions: who is funding the Taliban and who is providing them with weapons? The candidates would be either our own government and army or some foreign government and its army. So could the government and the military kindly clarify this? How can they get their weapons and arms and other essential items of daily living such as food and petrol with such apparent ease?
Ali A Khan
Karachi
Monday, May 04, 2009
It has been said that the qazis will do justice in swift and just manner. I want to see whether these qazis will also give verdicts against the Taliban militants who were involved in beheading people, suicide bombing, killing innocent men, women and children, giving refuge to foreign militants, kidnapping, flogging women publicly, sectarian killings, burning barber and CD shops and in general harassing ordinary people.
Dr Fareeha Khanum
Mardan
Video Clip showing four Roadside bombs buried underneath a road in Sharif Abad, Mingora Swat Valley. The narrow digging which hides the detonating-wire can be clearly seen in the Video.
The road being a busy route for army conveys connects Swat Valley with Buner where recently an offensive is initiated against Militants. Its the second most important army course since Qambar Rd, which is already glutted by Taliban with explosives.
Witness says a number of Taliban came last night, besieged the road and started digging the road and planted the bombs.
No Army action is taken against the mines yet.
May 01, 2009
Pictures showing four road-side bombs buried underneath a road in Sharif Abad, Mingora Swat Valley. The narrow digging which hides the detonating-wire can be clearly seen in the pictures.
The road being a busy route for army conveys connects Swat Valley with Buner where recently an offensive is initiated against Militants. It’s the second most important army course since Qambar Rd, which is already glutted by Taliban with explosives.
Witness says a number of Taliban came last night, besieged the road and started digging the road and planted the bombs.
No Army action is taken against the mines yet.
Excavation Site Pictures:
click to zoom pictures
Saturday, May 02, 2009
I have noticed that Muslim converts are invariably the most devout, often to the point of unreasonableness. It is such people who believe that reason is the greatest enemy that faith has. So, I read with amusement mixed with pity the letter written in defence of the Taliban by Danielle Ali Riaz.
This letter is full of a lot of false and misleading statements such as that girls have returned to school in Swat. Only a very small number have. One would however, like to know why the Taliban were destroying girls’ schools by the dozens in the first place? Women are still not being allowed to shop or to go out of the house in Swat without a mehram. This maybe Ms Danielle’s view of Sharia but the 160 million ‘non-Taliban’ Muslims of Pakistan do not subscribe to this way of life. Ms Danielle’s mother-in-law, she claims, has never been seen outside her home alone, but that venerable old lady is by no means the role model for the millions and millions of females all over Pakistan who are working and shopping, or studying or just managing their households.
The people of Swat had voted for the secular ANP in the last elections. But the Taliban browbeat the ANP by killing hundreds of its members and the party eventually capitulated and forced even the federal government to sign the surrender document. But outside the boundaries of surrendered Swat and especially outside the reach of the Taliban, few Muslim women are willing to adopt the soul crushing lifestyle being imposed out of the barrel of a Kalashnikov.
Ms Riaz’s last paragraph says: “let us get this straight – we are a Muslim country”. Certainly there is no disagreement on that, we are very much a Muslim country, but except for your beloved Taliban and other such brain-washed barbarians and their fellow-travellers, the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis reject the cruel, medieval, narrow ideology that these relics of the past want to impose by force on the state created by the liberal and broadminded Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The Quaid’s vision was the direct opposite of the Taliban vision and subsequently also the Pakistani nation has always chosen moderates as against the mullahs, whenever they have had the chance to vote freely. Live and let live, Ms Riaz, and we can all be happy.
Zafarullah Poshni
Karachi
*****
I fully endorse the views of Danielle Ali Riaz. It is indeed very sad to note that because of the few misguided idiots in our country, the whole Sharia is being targeted as if it is at fault. I know dozens of devoted Pakistani men and women who try to adhere to the norms of Sharia and at the same time are a source of inspiration and guidance for those around them.
Dr Farooq Azam Rathore
Rawalpindi
*****
If one needs an example of how our nation’s psyche is subtly allowing extremism to flourish in ideological terms, we only need to read Danielle Ali Riaz’s letter (April 30) titled “Impact of Sharia on women”. While claiming to be an ‘extraordinarily independent person’ who opposes terrorism, Ms Riaz goes on to lay down her rule of law, including the much-disputable issue of the necessity of a male companion for any movement outdoors. I should clarify that much as I oppose Ms Riaz’s concept of Pakistan, I do not outright condemn it, and would definitely never ask her to shut up and get out of the country for thinking and acting the way she does. However, she is very comfortable with marginalising the population and getting rid of them to ‘go to live in England or the US etc’.
What she is unwilling to accept is that there can be (and are) other Pakistanis who completely disagree with her, and (dare I say it?) some who would even argue that many values of the west are better than our own. Are they not Pakistani? Such definitions are limited, to say the least — and at their very worst, they give cover and create grey areas where radical extremism can grow. My mother does not cover her head, would prefer not to cover her head and she is a Muslim. If the Taliban were to lash her for coming out in public as she has always done in this country, what would Ms Riaz’s stance be then? Uncomfortably quiet? We as a nation need to be more aware of what our words are actually conveying, and more importantly, we should no longer be afraid of voicing our differences. Better late than never.
Jahanzaib Haque
Karachi
*****
I found the tone used by Danielle Ali Riaz in her letter quite troubling because it seemed as if the letter-writer was speaking from a position of assumed superiority and hence contempt for others who did not agree with her views. That was also evident in her suggestion that those who do not like to live according to her views should move to the west.
Raziq Hussain
Wah
Updated at: 1810 PST, Friday, May 01, 2009
PESHAWAR: The first round of talks between Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) and representatives of the NWFP government has ended here on Friday (today).
Following the peace talks, the TSNM has called an important meeting of its Shura in Amman Darra area of Batkhela.
Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said that two sides have discussed all the issues in details. He said that some progress had been made about establishment of Darul Qaza and end of ongoing military offensive in Buner and Dir.
The talks aimed at restoring peace in Malakand Division were held today in Teemargarha, District Headquarter of Lower Dir. In the meeting that started soon after Friday prayer, Senator Zahid Khan and provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain represented the government.
At the end of talks, Sufi Muhammad said that he is ready to offer cooperation for the sake of peace.
The provincial minister Hussain said that meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere and both sides discussed their apprehension in details. He said: "The operation will be halted if peace is restored in the area”
TNSM spokesman Izzat Khan said that the first round of talks between two sides was positive. And said that “efforts would continue to establish peace in the troubled areas.”
Later, speaking to Geo TV, Maulana Sufi Muhammad’s son Maulana Rizwanullah described the meeting as “successful” and said that people would soon hear good news.
Updated at: 1520 PST, Friday, May 01, 2009
TIMERGARA: An important meeting is underway between Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad and representatives of the NWFP government here on Friday.
In the meeting that started soon after Friday prayer, Senator Zahid Khan and provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain are representing the government. Both sides will discuss law and order situation in Swat and Malakand and formation of Dar-ul-Qaza.
According to sources, Maulana Sufi Mohammad has demanded that the government should halt the military operation and appoint Qazis in the Dar-ul-Qaza. Sources said that both sides are optimistic on the outcome of the talks.
Friday, May 01, 2009
This is in response to Danielle Ali Riaz's letter printed on April 30. I was both shocked and amused as to how with her limited knowledge of our culture and past, Mrs Riaz has jumped to her conclusions. Let me take you 20-30 years back when the Taliban were created. I was a young girl at that time. For us it was hard to even go to a bazaar without being pinched at the back, elbowed at the front, hearing lewd remarks and that too when we were fully covered with our head and face in chadars. This was the level of decency and education of our general illiterate public.
I would like Mrs Riaz to know that I have friends who have suffered from the so-called Islamic laws of the Taliban. Women were forced to stay indoors no matter what happened to them and men were forced to grow beards. Barber shops were burned if they shaved clients. One of my friend's aunts was stoned to death along with her unborn child, her husband and a doctor as she needed a c-section and she had gone to a male doctor because no female doctors were allowed to work.
Dear Mrs Riaz, at least in the last decade Pakistan has been progressing in the sense that if a woman goes to a bazaar in one of the major cities she will not be harassed. This can all change if the Taliban come and the issue will not be one related to purdah but oppression. Women in Pakistan in general dress modestly and will continue to do so. As for other freedoms which women take for granted, consider me driving my car -- which I often do because I have to run errands when my husband is away. What will happen to women like me when the Taliban are in power given that they won't allow women to even leave their homes?
Also, I wonder how Mrs Riaz can say that the Taliban haven't strayed from Islam given that they have killed people for not following their edicts. I think when the Taliban come, people like her will be the first to complain because their freedoms will be curtailed and they will not be able to go out of their homes to do something as essential and necessary as picking up one's child from his or her school.
I am a Muslim woman, I cover myself up, I dress modestly, I don't commit any cardinal sins and I want my rights, to go out to work, to enjoy myself, to drive, to progress in the world and no one can deny me my rights or force me to be imprisoned in the confines of my four walls! I want Islam to thrive in our country but I totally reject the version that the Taliban want to force on all of us.
Amna Ahmad
Lahore
*****
I was quite disturbed to read a rather odd letter by Danielle Ali Riaz (April 30). She says she is an 'independent' woman who had a love marriage with a man of a different religion, converted to another faith and migrated to a foreign country. How many women under the Taliban and their version of Sharia will have that independence? She cannot see the Taliban's hand in suicide bombings, terrorism and fanaticism. She says girls have gone back to school in Swat. Really? Why were they stopped in the first place?
She asks how hard it is to wear an all-covering veil. Very, very hard with a knife to the throat, a gun to the head and a whip to the back! She says her mother-in-law has never gone out alone. Is that a good thing? I am a 54-year-old mother of two sons and a daughter. My sons and husband are busy people and would be extremely irritated to accompany me to the dhobi, tailor, dyer, the bank, groceries etc. She has the nerve to tell us Pakistani women to go live in the US or England! She wants the Taliban to first take over the country and if they 'stray outside the true religious Sharia' (whatever that is) then we should protest!
Madame Danielle, you are totally confused, irrational, absurd and illogical in your thinking. Why don't you go live in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan? We do not want your advice on how to live, what to wear, whom to go out with and at what time!
Sarah Amjad
Islamabad
Friday, May 01, 2009
The other day a minor girl was killed by a stray bullet fired into the air by the friends of a bridegroom who was on his way to do what most healthy men want to do all the time but can't. Immediately the rumours started. "She was a teenager wearing a sleeveless dress," said a burqa-clad woman to my wife. "It's the Taliban for sure," was the opinion of a nervous shopkeeper who sells videos. "Next thing you know, they'll burn my shop." An hour later, a shop caught fire in Landhi. "It was the Taliban who did it, the shop was selling DVDs, newspapers and magazines!" shrieked a caller.
After another hour had passed, the number of shops were rumoured to be ten, all supposedly damaged by bearded men heavily armed with Kalashnikovs. Things have got so bad that I get nervous whenever I see someone who looks like he's just come from Waziristan or Swat.
Like the hundreds of girls in Karachi who (according to rumours) have been told to cover themselves up in thick black burqas if they want to stay alive. The fact is, most of these rumours have been concocted perhaps by the fundamentalists themselves, but after hearing them many times, people think these stories are true. Pakistan's enemies must be laughing their heads off.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Friday, May 01, 2009
There is a prevailing dread among many people that history is repeating itself. We have seen two years of operations ending in peace deals and the people affected have blamed the army for leaving in the middle of operations and the government for ignoring the atrocities of the Taliban. The public and the media have recognised the threat that the Taliban pose to all of Pakistan and there has been a positive reaction this time, but in the past, both have been quite pro-Taliban. Now again there are calls to 'stop killing our own people', faint but carrying the threat of magnification by those buzzards of Pakistani society, the ignorant commoner and the political opportunist. It is time Pakistanis set their priorities right. It is time to recognise your own people.
Your own people are the soldiers who have died for you, not those who have killed them. Your own people are the men who have fought for your country, not those who have slaughtered them like animals and left them for dogs to feed on. Your own people are the policemen still reporting to duty, not those who behead them in the name of your religion. Your own people are those who support your government, not those who execute them for it. Your own people are the ones who take up arms to defend their families, not the ones who hoard weapons to destroy them. Your own people are those whose faith lies in their hearts, and not in their beards. Your own people are those who work to earn their living, not the ones who live to steal the earnings of others. Your own people are those who are the first on the scene to help when a bomb goes off, not the ones who detonate the bomb. Your own people are the ones who serve your religion inviting by their example, not the ones who have scarred it to the point of repulsiveness by theirs. Your own people are those being dug out of their graves, not the ones digging them out. Your own people are those whose dead bodies are slung on poles in market places, not the ones responsible for hanging them there. Your own people are the ones who embrace death to protect you, not the ones who kill themselves while attacking you. Your own people are the believers who enter the mosque to worship Allah, not the kuffaar who enter the house of Allah to massacre those believers. Your own people are those who have lost facilities of medicine and education, not the ones who are the cause of this deprivation.
Your own people are the ones who have worked for years to pull you towards 21st century advancement, not the ones who threaten to take you back to the Stone Age. Your own people are the ones who will suffer deformities for the rest of their lives, not the ones who deny them the few drops that could ensure perfect health. Your own people are those who are being lashed, not the ones who wield the whip. Your own people are the ones oppressed, not the ones who subjugate them. Your own people are the ones that have always cultivated peace in your country, not the ones who bring strife from across the border. Your own people are those who want the democracy of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in Medina, not those who crave the dictatorship of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Your own people are those who are trying to bring you awareness of the menace that looms just beyond vision, not the ones trying to lull you into a false feeling of security. Your own people are the ones who are being intimidated, not the ones terrorising them.
It is time to distinguish your well wishers from the power-crazed enemy that has despoiled your religion and tarnished your identity the world over. There is no justification for suicide attacks and militancy. We must not accept punishment for the 'injustice', real or imaginary, of other countries. Those who have a bone to pick with America must pick it with America, not Pakistan. There is no remedy for a malignant tumour but to remove it before it reaches vital organs. It can never be 'contained' in one part of the body forever. Either we operate now, or risk lessening or worse, losing completely our chances of survival.
Noor Khan
Islamabad
Friday, May 01, 2009 
By our correspondent
MINGORA: Awami National Party (ANP) leader Muhammad Afzal Khan was airlifted from his native city Swat to Peshawar on Thursday for medical treatment but his departure fuelled speculation that it could be a prelude to yet another military operation in the valley.
A helicopter of the Pakistan Army lifted the 82-year old former federal minister, commonly known as Afzal Khan Lala, and some of his family members from his village Bara Darushkhela and flew them to Peshawar.
Afzal Khan Lala has survived several assassination attempts and his house in Bara Darushkhela was attacked by militants. Some of his relatives have been killed and injured and his property has been bombed. But he refused to submit to the Taliban or leave Swat. Unlike other politicians and landlords, he chose to stay in Swat instead of abandoning his people.
However, rumours were in the air in Swat that the shifting of Afzal Khan Lala to Peshawar was due to a looming operation in the valley.
When contacted for his comments, the spokesperson for the ISPR in Swat, Major Nasir, dispelled the impression. Upon contact, Afzal Khan Lala’s relatives told The News that he had come to Peshawar fo treatment of his prostrate problem. “He will return to Swat after undergoing treatment. He is not going to leave Swat after having endured so much sufferings,” Afzal Khan Lala’s nephew Salahuddin said.
Separately, four police officials were kidnapped and three persons, a policeman among them, were killed in separate incidents of violence at different areas of Swat valley. The police officials were identified as Asmat Ali, Bakht Rum, Saeed and Sameeullah. The kidnapping of the police officials has become a routine matter and over a dozen police officials have been kidnapped from different areas in the last couple of days.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead two motorcyclists in Tettani area of Matta tehsil. The identities of the victims could not be ascertained. Meanwhile, armed militants occupied a police station in Kalam after the staff abandoned the building. There were reports about the death of a police constable Ataullah but the cause of his death could not be known. One report said he died after falling from a hill.
Unidentified gunmen ambushed a police mobile van in Panar area. The policemen returned the fire, forcing the attackers to escape. In another incident unidentified gunmen stormed the offices of the Social Welfare department in Saidu Sharif, seizing and taking away medicines and other equipment. It was the second incident of its nature during the last two days.
Residents said armed militants resumed patrolling in Saidu Sharif Colony, creating fear among the people. They had abandoned patrolling after being ordered by the Taliban leadership to stop the practice.
The jet fighters of the Pakistan Air Force and predators planes continued flying over various parts of the Swat valley. The flights panicked and scared the local population. Security forces carried out a flag march and patrolled different roads in Mingora city. The troops arrested a suspected militant during a roadside search of vehicles. Security forces were on high alert to ward off any unpleasant incident.
The participants of a procession organized by the Aman Tehreek of Swat demanded the government implement the Nizam-e-Adl regulation and establish Darul Qaza in the Malakand division. Shops and business centres in Mingora were closed when the procession was marching through the bazaars.
By Abdur Rehman Abid and Haleem Asad
Friday, 01 May, 2009 | 03:45 AM PST |
People collect remains of furniture from the rubble of a police station, allegedly destroyed by Taliban forces in Buner.—AP/File
BUNER: Militants blew up a camp of the Frontier Constabulary and took away weapons, while jets and helicopters continued heavy bombing on their suspected positions in different parts of Buner district on Thursday.
According to sources, two FC platoons which had been besieged at the Jawar Camp on Wednesday night were allowed to leave after surrendering to the militants.
The militants took away an APC and a large haul of weapons before destroying the camp and a checkpoint, the sources said.
A police vehicle was also taken away and a police station was set on fire in Pir Baba town. Local people said militants had control of Ambela Chowk, Pacha, Nawagai, Jungai, Swarai, Gagera, Dewana Baba, Pir Baba and Sultanwas.
Security forces stepped up air strikes and ground forces, backed by tanks and heavy artillery positioned in Rustam area of the Mardan district, attacked targets in Buner.
Helicopters attacked militants in Sultanwas town where they had set up makeshift headquarters at the house of a tribal elder after forcing his family to leave.
Planes bombed Karaker, Dermai pass, Darazai pass and Ambela. Militants have blown up two bridges near Ambela in a bid to block the movement of ground forces. Militants are reported to have planted explosive devices along the area’s main road and at other places.
Hundreds of families, among them Afghan refugees, left their homes and headed towards Swabi and Mardan. People in Daggar, the district headquarters, were facing shortage of food and other essentials items because of curfew. Troops had arrived in the town by helicopters on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, two children were injured in shelling by helicopters in Gul Abad as security forces continued their operation in parts of Lower Dir district. According to sources, militants were still holding positions in Gul Abad.
No casualty among militants was reported in the attacks by helicopter gunships. Militants took away two vehicles from the hujra of MNA Malik Azmat Khan of the Pakistan People’s Party at Ouch.
A vehicle was taken away from the Chakdara timber market, owned by the Forest Development Corporation (FDC). Militants moved in two vehicles on the Chakdara-Timergara road near Gul Abad.
Friday, 01 May, 2009 | 12:20 PM PST
Pakistani troops stand beside their artillery before firing towards the hideouts of the Taliban near the Buner district. Earlier this week, militants captured police stations in three villages and have been holding hostage 52 police officers and paramilitary soldiers in the district. –AFP Photo/Tariq Mahmood
PESHAWAR: Taliban militants Friday kidnapped 10 paramilitary soldiers from their local headquarters in a northwest Pakistan town bordering the troubled Swat valley, police said.
The abduction took place in the town of Dir, in the Upper Dir district of Malakand — where the military this week launched an offensive against Taliban in Lower Dir and Buner districts.
Up to 60 Taliban militants stormed the local paramilitary headquarters and snatched 10 personnel around 1:00 am, Dir police chief Ijaz Ahmed told AFP.
There were only a few personnel at the headquarters because most were deployed in the field, Ahmed said.
Atiq-ur-Rehman, head of the district administration in Upper Dir, confirmed that more than 50 armed militants attacked the local Dir Levies paramilitary headquarters and abducted 10 personnel.
In Buner, militants earlier this week captured police stations in three villages and have been holding hostage 52 police officers and paramilitary soldiers in the district, the military has said.
By Ravi Khanna
Washington
30 April 2009
With Pakistan's Swat Valley under Taliban control, worldwide interest about how life has changed in the region has grown. Prominent Pakistani journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy recently went to investigate, spending two days in the valley to produce a documentary for the PBS television program Frontline, which is being streamlined online.
Film-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
"How war is killing children in Pakistan but also turning children into killers," is the theme of film-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's PBS documentary, Children of the Taliban. She says her film is about what happens to the residents of Swat Valley when the Taliban militants move in.
"I think their whole policy is to create chaos. And the first way they do it is by banning women from leaving their homes, by making sure there is very little freedom, she says, "Then they go house to house knocking on doors asking families to donate their children to the Army of Islam, as they like to call themselves."
Her journey begins at a rehabilitation center in Peshawar, where she talks with some of the young victims caught in the crossfire of this war.
Later she walks through the rubble of a school destroyed by the Taliban that once taught 400 girls, and comes across two nine-year old girls who used to study there. The militants have a policy of destroying schools for girls.
At the schools the Taliban runs for boys known as madrasas, poor families are often attracted by the food and shelter provided.
One Swat teenager explains how he joined the Taliban a year ago, when he was 13. First, he says, he was attracted by the sermons at the mosque, then he was recruited at a madrassa, and finally spent months in military training.
The revealing images portrayed in the documentary raise the question of why did the Taliban allow Sharmeen to film a documentary inside their stronghold?
"They think that by getting their message out, people will start subscribing to their ideology. What they don't realize is that they are espousing such a violent ideology that people are bound to get turned off by it," she said.
Fighting in the Swat valley has displaced thousands of people, many of whom now live in refugee camps.
In the documentary, two young men are featured among the hundreds of displaced children. Wasifullah and Abdurrahman are best friends.
Wasifullah says his 12 year old cousin was killed by an American missile strike on his village near the Afghan border. So he wants to join the Taliban.
But his best friend Abdurrahman blames al-Qaida for the destruction of their village. He would prefer to become a captain in the Pakistan Army.
Sharmeen says the two friends sadly represent the fault lines in the unstable country that Pakistan has become.
She says she also met with a 14 year old boy who was trained to be a suicide bomber. "He had gone through a formal six-week training course with the Taliban," she says, "and he was recruited from a local mosque in the Swat valley"
She is told by a Taliban recruiter that there is nothing wrong in using children because they are tools to achieve God's will. If you are figting, he says, then God provides you with the means.
She says there are 80 million children in Pakistan, many of them living in poverty. If the militants continue to expand their war and to recruit children freely, as they do now she says, then Pakistan may soon belong to them.
