Author: Farhat Taj
Publication: The News.com
Date: September 27, 2009
URL: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=200309
I was in Pakistan in August and had the opportunity
to meet the leaders of the anti-Taliban lashkar (volunteer army) of Bajaur's
Salarzai tribe. I am honoured that upon my request they travelled from Bajaur
to meet me in Nowshehra and shared with me information about their anti-Taliban
struggle. I am not mentioning their names for reasons of their security.
The area of the Salarzai tribe is on the border
with Afghanistan. The tribe have collectively decided that there won't be
any Taliban on their soil. The Taliban have been driven out of the Salarzai
area. The Salarzai lashkar, mostly made up of labourers and peasants, has
successfully kept the Salazai area free of the Taliban.
Tens of Salarzail lashkar leaders have been
target-killed. The Salarzai leaders informed me they hold the ISI responsible
for the targeted killings. "The Taliban are just a façade. The
real force is the ISI punishing us for our anti-Taliban struggle," said
one of the leaders.
The leaders said that Mamond Taliban headquarters
used to be in Damadola, which is a few kilometres from the FC fort in Bajaur.
The Mamond Taliban used to bomb Salarzai villages. The Salarzai tribal elders
requested the Political Agent, the authorities of the FC and the Pakistani
army to stop the Mamond Taliban. None of these offered any help. Finally the
Salarzai lashkar took positions on the mountains and for two hours heavily
bombarded the surrounding villages of the Mamond Taliban. At that point the
political agent and a colonel of the army asked the Salarzai lashkar to stop
the bombing. They gave the same old logic: who will fight the NATO forces
from across the Afghan border if you eliminate the Taliban?
Following such encounters with the state authorities,
the Salarzais decided to fire at any forces entering their area: be it the
Taliban, Al Qaida, the army or the US or NATO. The Salarzais have taken up
positions all over the area and are always on guard. The tribesmen take turns
to defend those positions. Unlike the bombed out schools in the Taliban-controlled
areas, all schools in the Salarzai region are functioning. The tribesmen are
performing security duties in both girls' and boys' schools in the area.
The leaders informed me that there is a set
pattern of target-killing of anti-Taliban Salarzai leader. Before each targeted
killing all telephone links with the far-flung Salarzai area are cut off.
The targeted killing takes place in 24 to 48 hours later. The telephone links
are restored a couple of days after the assassinated leader has been buried.
A day or so later a news item of a few lines appears in the newspapers about
the killing. "No one in Pakistan seems to be bothered about the state-sponsored
targeted killing of anti-Taliban Salarzai leaders. Our area is too far from
the rest of Pakistan and our agony means nothing to fellow-Pakistanis. The
Pakistani media never ever tries to probe into the targeted killings,"
said one of the Salarzai leaders.
All telephone lines to the Salarzia area were
dead the day I was meeting with the leaders. They said they were deeply worried
whose turn it might be to be targeted for killing. Two days later the telephone
links were restored. The same day they informed me on telephone that Malik
Munasib Khan, the spokesman of the Salarzai lashkar, had been killed. They
held the ISI responsible for his killing.
The Salarzai leaders also informed me that
last year the army deliberately fired at those villages in Bajaur that were
known to be staunchly anti-Taliban. They said one of their colleagues called
Maj Gen Alam Khattak to ask him to stop the bombing of his village. "Major
General Sahib! I will start a vendetta with you if you did not halt the bombing
of my village immediately. I will make sure to kill you and your family at
the first available opportunity," they quoted one of their colleagues
as saying. The major general asked him to meet Col Sajjad who was bombing
the anti-Taliban villages from his base in Timergara. That colleague saw a
big Bajaur map affixed on the wall in the office of Col Sajjad. The map had
several encircled villages. Col Sajjad informed him that the map had been
handed over to him by his commanders with the order to bomb all the encircled
villages. "Our colleague's blood boiled with anger: none of the villages
had Taliban in them," said the Salarzai leaders. The villages included
Butmali, Danqul, Attkay, Matasha, Baro, Raghjan and Nazkai.
On the other hand, those Salarzai villages
that had Taliban were not marked on the map or bombed by the army. Such villages
are Pashat, Banda, Malasyed, Darra and Gundai. Now the Salarzai lashkar has
cleared these villages from Taliban control, without any state support.
The leaders also made the accusation that
the Salarzais are discriminated against by the state in allocation of developmental
funds due to their hostility to the Taliban. The FATA Rural Development Project
(FRDP) is working in Bajaur Agency but entire Salarzai area of the agency
has been deliberately excluded by from the project. "A wilful under-development
has been imposed on us as punishment for our anti-Taliban stance. The Salazai
area would be included in FRDP if we allowed the Taliban to take control of
our area. Without this, we Salarzais can beg as much as we can for development,
but the state will never budge," said the Salarzai tribal leaders.
The reason I write this piece is not to defame
the institution of the Pakistani army, which I hold in high esteem. I just
wish to request the President of Pakistan, the Chief of Army Staff and the
DG of the ISI to pay attention to the complaints of the Salarzais and resolve
their problems to the satisfaction of the tribe. The Salarzai leaders categorically
told me they are loyal Pakistanis, but they are not ready to let the peace
of their area be destroyed for the power games of the intelligence agencies.
All they want from the state is peaceful and development.
I would request fellow-Pakistanis all over
the country to support the Salarzais. I wonder why the civil society of Pakistan
is so silent over the heroic anti-Taliban struggle of the Salarzais. Salarzais
are the natural allies of all those who are against the Taliban and civil
society should forcefully support them. I would request the Pakistani media
to keep a close watch on the Salarzai area to discourage targeted killings
there.
The Taliban are anti-civilisation. The Salarzais
are the embodiment of civilisation because they are so oppose to the Taliban.
I would request all civilised people in the world to morally support the Salarzais
in the name of human civilisation.
The writer is a research fellow at the Centre
for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo, and a member of
Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy.
