MY FORTHCOMING FIFTH BOOK
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Monday, July 13, 2009
SWAT:PREMATURE CLAIMS OF VICTORY
Claiming 'victory' too early
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Rahimullah Yusufzai
A day after the ruling Awami National Party (ANP) declared "victory" in Malakand Division and its provincial president Afrasiyab Khattak congratulated his party leaders on what in his view was a successful military campaign in Swat, Buner and Dir, three ANP workers, and cousins – Shamsher Ali Khan, Gohar Ali Khan and Usman Ali Khan – were killed by Taliban militants in Malikpur village near the shrine of the famous saint Pir Baba in Buner district. Gohar Ali Khan's brother, Jamil Ali Khan, had been kidnapped a month ago and the militants are demanding Rs10 million as ransom for his release.
This was surely embarrassing for the NWFP government. But by then there was one more embarrassing news circulating in Peshawar and the rest of the province. Rather, the news had spread to the whole country and beyond, and was also being discussed on the Facebook. The houses of two senior journalists from Buner had been torched and their families rendered shelterless in their ancestral villages. On the night of July 8-9, the spacious nine-room house of Geo TV correspondent Behroz Khan was put on fire in Balo Khan village near Pir Baba town after having been looted by the militants. The same night, in the nearby Polan village, the newly-built house of Rahman Bunairee, associated with the Pashto-language Deewa Radio of the Voice of America and the AVT Khyber television channel, was demolished with explosives.
Houses are built with love and lots of money. Often, life savings are spent on building a house. One loses so much if deprived of one's home. Imagine the house of your dreams being burned to ashes or dynamited and turned into rubble. One was relieved to know that Rahman Bunairee's family wasn't harmed by the 60-or-so armed men who introduced themselves as Taliban and, rather intriguingly, told them in polite words to vacate the house before it was blown up with expertly planted explosives. The shocked family members have now joined Rahman Bunairee in Karachi, where he is based. In Behroz Khan's case, he had wisely shifted his family to Peshawar sometime back. The militants subsequently occupied his home and used it as a base before looting everything that could be carted away and breaking the goods that were immoveable. His family suffered another huge loss when its privately-owned forest was burnt down by the security forces fearing the forest could be used by the militants as a hideout. The forest was the family's labour of love because every tree had been tended.
While on the subject of forests, it would take a while to calculate the losses inflicted upon the environment as a result of the militancy and military operations in Buner, Swat, Dir, Shangla and the rest of Malakand Division. Stretches of forests caught fire and turned into ashes when the artillery shelled or bombed landed there. The fires thus started have raged uncontrollably in the forests in summers. Villagers in the Salarzai area in Buner and in the bordering villages in Mardan district narrate how the thick forest in Namser on the Buner side and in Sangahu towards Mardan was burned this summer following a military action against the militants. Mountain communities in Malakand Division and the tribal areas, dependant to some extent on forests for their means of livelihood, are certainly heading for a life of more poverty, timber prices will rise due to supply shortages and the wildlife is getting deprived of habitat. Afghanistan, particularly its forested southern and eastern provinces such as Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman and Nangarhar, lost its forests due to decades of war and lawlessness and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, which area-wise had the largest forests in the country, is now facing the same fate.
Behroz Khan and Rahman Bunairee are the latest in the long list of journalists who have suffered human and material losses as a result of the conflict in the NWFP. Those who have paid with their lives include Amir Nawab Wazir and Allah Noor Wazir in South Waziristan, Hayatullah in North Waziristan, Noor Hakim and Ibrahim Jan in Bajaur, Naseer Afridi in Darra Adamkhel and Sirajuddin, Qari Shoaib, Abdul Aziz and Musa Khankhel in Swat. Others lost a family member or were shot and injured and many were forced to move from their place of work to safer places. Some had no choice but to give up the profession or agree to work on the terms dictated by the militants and the government.
Pursuing honest and truthful journalism has become the most risky job in the Frontier, more so in the tribal borderland where there is rule of the gun.
Behroz Khan fearlessly spoke for his journalist colleagues when he remarked that that the destruction of his house wasn't going to break his resolve and deter him from performing his professional obligations. In his words, the enemy was faceless but journalists were required to speak the truth under any circumstances. Rahman Bunairee, who like many residents of Buner took pride in identifying himself as a Buneri, Bunerwal or Bunairee, was also unaware about the identity of those who targeted him and destroyed his house. He remembered having criticised both the militants and the government, the former for inflicting suffering on the people of Buner, Swat and elsewhere, and the latter for its failure to protect the life and honour of the population and look after the needs of the displaced persons.
However, it is obvious that those in the habit of harming journalists are sending a strong message that the journalists must fall in line or face the consequences. The militants have openly threatened members of the media, and their anger against journalists is boiling over in view of their falling support among the masses and lesser coverage compared to the past in newspapers and on radio and television. For obvious reasons, the journalists are also scared of the intelligence agencies and critical of the government and the security forces for imposing a media blackout in the conflict areas. They find themselves helpless in doing a proper job while reporting the conflict. Unafraid to risk their lives and willing to travel to the frontlines of the ongoing war, they could do a far better job despite lacking in resources, training and support from the media organisations.
In fact, greater media access to the conflict zones would provide a credible portrayal of the situation and help remove the cloud of doubts regarding the military operations and the claims about the army's battleground achievements.
Instead of declaring premature victory, the ANP leadership should admit that the war is not over yet and that it is going to be long and bitter. There is no harm in conceding that the situation is still precarious, that the Taliban leadership in Swat and the rest of Malakand region has largely survived the military action. The incapacity and inefficiency of the provincial and federal governments in coping with the issue of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) should also be conceded. Instead of downplaying the challenge, it will be better to highlight the enormous task of repatriating and rehabilitating the IDPs and providing them the much-needed security in their villages and towns.
More than 150 ANP workers were reportedly killed in Swat alone during the past two years of violence and now they are also being targeted in Buner. Earlier, many ANP members had publicly dissociated themselves from the party in Swat, Malakand Agency and other places in the area to escape harm at the hands of the militants. The insecurity felt by the ruling party workers would scare away common people from supporting the government and the security forces. And the much-publicised attacks against members of the media would send home the message that anyone critical of the militants could expect the same fate. This is just a glimpse of the uncertain situation prevailing in the conflict areas. Those pronouncing the start of the repatriation process of the IDPs as a signal of victory would be well-advised to keep their celebrations on hold, as it isn't over yet.NEWS 14-7-09
The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Rahimullah Yusufzai
A day after the ruling Awami National Party (ANP) declared "victory" in Malakand Division and its provincial president Afrasiyab Khattak congratulated his party leaders on what in his view was a successful military campaign in Swat, Buner and Dir, three ANP workers, and cousins – Shamsher Ali Khan, Gohar Ali Khan and Usman Ali Khan – were killed by Taliban militants in Malikpur village near the shrine of the famous saint Pir Baba in Buner district. Gohar Ali Khan's brother, Jamil Ali Khan, had been kidnapped a month ago and the militants are demanding Rs10 million as ransom for his release.
This was surely embarrassing for the NWFP government. But by then there was one more embarrassing news circulating in Peshawar and the rest of the province. Rather, the news had spread to the whole country and beyond, and was also being discussed on the Facebook. The houses of two senior journalists from Buner had been torched and their families rendered shelterless in their ancestral villages. On the night of July 8-9, the spacious nine-room house of Geo TV correspondent Behroz Khan was put on fire in Balo Khan village near Pir Baba town after having been looted by the militants. The same night, in the nearby Polan village, the newly-built house of Rahman Bunairee, associated with the Pashto-language Deewa Radio of the Voice of America and the AVT Khyber television channel, was demolished with explosives.
Houses are built with love and lots of money. Often, life savings are spent on building a house. One loses so much if deprived of one's home. Imagine the house of your dreams being burned to ashes or dynamited and turned into rubble. One was relieved to know that Rahman Bunairee's family wasn't harmed by the 60-or-so armed men who introduced themselves as Taliban and, rather intriguingly, told them in polite words to vacate the house before it was blown up with expertly planted explosives. The shocked family members have now joined Rahman Bunairee in Karachi, where he is based. In Behroz Khan's case, he had wisely shifted his family to Peshawar sometime back. The militants subsequently occupied his home and used it as a base before looting everything that could be carted away and breaking the goods that were immoveable. His family suffered another huge loss when its privately-owned forest was burnt down by the security forces fearing the forest could be used by the militants as a hideout. The forest was the family's labour of love because every tree had been tended.
While on the subject of forests, it would take a while to calculate the losses inflicted upon the environment as a result of the militancy and military operations in Buner, Swat, Dir, Shangla and the rest of Malakand Division. Stretches of forests caught fire and turned into ashes when the artillery shelled or bombed landed there. The fires thus started have raged uncontrollably in the forests in summers. Villagers in the Salarzai area in Buner and in the bordering villages in Mardan district narrate how the thick forest in Namser on the Buner side and in Sangahu towards Mardan was burned this summer following a military action against the militants. Mountain communities in Malakand Division and the tribal areas, dependant to some extent on forests for their means of livelihood, are certainly heading for a life of more poverty, timber prices will rise due to supply shortages and the wildlife is getting deprived of habitat. Afghanistan, particularly its forested southern and eastern provinces such as Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman and Nangarhar, lost its forests due to decades of war and lawlessness and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, which area-wise had the largest forests in the country, is now facing the same fate.
Behroz Khan and Rahman Bunairee are the latest in the long list of journalists who have suffered human and material losses as a result of the conflict in the NWFP. Those who have paid with their lives include Amir Nawab Wazir and Allah Noor Wazir in South Waziristan, Hayatullah in North Waziristan, Noor Hakim and Ibrahim Jan in Bajaur, Naseer Afridi in Darra Adamkhel and Sirajuddin, Qari Shoaib, Abdul Aziz and Musa Khankhel in Swat. Others lost a family member or were shot and injured and many were forced to move from their place of work to safer places. Some had no choice but to give up the profession or agree to work on the terms dictated by the militants and the government.
Pursuing honest and truthful journalism has become the most risky job in the Frontier, more so in the tribal borderland where there is rule of the gun.
Behroz Khan fearlessly spoke for his journalist colleagues when he remarked that that the destruction of his house wasn't going to break his resolve and deter him from performing his professional obligations. In his words, the enemy was faceless but journalists were required to speak the truth under any circumstances. Rahman Bunairee, who like many residents of Buner took pride in identifying himself as a Buneri, Bunerwal or Bunairee, was also unaware about the identity of those who targeted him and destroyed his house. He remembered having criticised both the militants and the government, the former for inflicting suffering on the people of Buner, Swat and elsewhere, and the latter for its failure to protect the life and honour of the population and look after the needs of the displaced persons.
However, it is obvious that those in the habit of harming journalists are sending a strong message that the journalists must fall in line or face the consequences. The militants have openly threatened members of the media, and their anger against journalists is boiling over in view of their falling support among the masses and lesser coverage compared to the past in newspapers and on radio and television. For obvious reasons, the journalists are also scared of the intelligence agencies and critical of the government and the security forces for imposing a media blackout in the conflict areas. They find themselves helpless in doing a proper job while reporting the conflict. Unafraid to risk their lives and willing to travel to the frontlines of the ongoing war, they could do a far better job despite lacking in resources, training and support from the media organisations.
In fact, greater media access to the conflict zones would provide a credible portrayal of the situation and help remove the cloud of doubts regarding the military operations and the claims about the army's battleground achievements.
Instead of declaring premature victory, the ANP leadership should admit that the war is not over yet and that it is going to be long and bitter. There is no harm in conceding that the situation is still precarious, that the Taliban leadership in Swat and the rest of Malakand region has largely survived the military action. The incapacity and inefficiency of the provincial and federal governments in coping with the issue of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) should also be conceded. Instead of downplaying the challenge, it will be better to highlight the enormous task of repatriating and rehabilitating the IDPs and providing them the much-needed security in their villages and towns.
More than 150 ANP workers were reportedly killed in Swat alone during the past two years of violence and now they are also being targeted in Buner. Earlier, many ANP members had publicly dissociated themselves from the party in Swat, Malakand Agency and other places in the area to escape harm at the hands of the militants. The insecurity felt by the ruling party workers would scare away common people from supporting the government and the security forces. And the much-publicised attacks against members of the media would send home the message that anyone critical of the militants could expect the same fate. This is just a glimpse of the uncertain situation prevailing in the conflict areas. Those pronouncing the start of the repatriation process of the IDPs as a signal of victory would be well-advised to keep their celebrations on hold, as it isn't over yet.NEWS 14-7-09
The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
SWAT: ARMY CAUGHT IN A QUAGMIRE
Swat offensive seen slow, but on track
ISLAMABAD:
The offensive against the Taliban in Swat is taking longer than expected, but that is unlikely to deflect the military from its plans, nor – for now – undercut public support for the action. The army went on the attack in Swat at the end of April after Taliban gains raised international worry about Pakistan’s stability. Later, the government and the military have set their sights on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan near the Afghan border. The military says Mehsud is responsible for 90 percent of terrorist attacks in the country. While the military has not put a timeframe on the Swat offensive, there has been speculation the army would want to secure the valley before launching a push on Mehsud, and clashes in Swat could delay that. “It has definitely taken a longer time, but it’s explainable in terms of the terrain, the mountains,” said defence analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. “They have entrenched themselves more than people generally thought, that’s why the military is having problems in completing the whole process,” he said. The failure to capture or kill leaders of the Taliban in Swat spelt trouble, another analyst said. “Unless you eliminate the leadership, however much damage you do, the command structure will manage to grow back,” said security analyst Ikram Sehgal. “As long as that leadership exists, low-intensity guerrilla warfare will keep going on.” But analysts said while Swat fighting might drag on, that would not deflect the military from going after Baitullah. “I don't think there is a necessary relationship between the two in terms of getting done with one and then going to the next one,” said Kamran Bokhari, Middle East director for global intelligence company Stratfor. “They’re not waiting to get done with Swat before focusing on South Waziristan,” he said. “They know Swat is not over yet. Are they going to wait? It could take months. Would you want to allow Baitullah Mehsud the opportunity to do what he can?” The military is setting up choke points to surround Mehsud’s mountain stronghold and working with ethnic Pashtun tribes in the area to lock in their support. “That’s going to determine when they’re going to go in,” said Bokhari. For now, the fear that Taliban expansion spread through the country was ensuring public support for the offensive. The political opposition – including Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which will be the main government challenger in the next election due by 2113 – is supportive. “His party has come to the conclusion that as long as these Taliban are not really taken care of, governance will be a hell of a problem,” said Rizvi. “They’re not going to create problems for the government on this issue.” But questions will arise before too long if Taliban violence persists and internally displaced persons languish in misery, he said. “It might become a political problem if Swat is not returned to a normal situation, maybe, by the end of August,” said Rizvi. “Then there will be real questions.” As well as the possible problem of the suffering of the displaced undermining wider government support, anger among the displaced people can be exploited by the Taliban. “It’s not that public support for the offensive will go down, but it could create a separate unrest that you will have to deal with. These people are susceptible to Taliban propaganda,” said Bokhari. Sehgal said pro-Taliban clerics were operating in some tent camps on the lowland where the displaced are being looked after. “This is very dangerous. As soon as they dismantle the camps the better,” he said. reuters DAILY TIMES 8-7-09
ISLAMABAD:
The offensive against the Taliban in Swat is taking longer than expected, but that is unlikely to deflect the military from its plans, nor – for now – undercut public support for the action. The army went on the attack in Swat at the end of April after Taliban gains raised international worry about Pakistan’s stability. Later, the government and the military have set their sights on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan near the Afghan border. The military says Mehsud is responsible for 90 percent of terrorist attacks in the country. While the military has not put a timeframe on the Swat offensive, there has been speculation the army would want to secure the valley before launching a push on Mehsud, and clashes in Swat could delay that. “It has definitely taken a longer time, but it’s explainable in terms of the terrain, the mountains,” said defence analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. “They have entrenched themselves more than people generally thought, that’s why the military is having problems in completing the whole process,” he said. The failure to capture or kill leaders of the Taliban in Swat spelt trouble, another analyst said. “Unless you eliminate the leadership, however much damage you do, the command structure will manage to grow back,” said security analyst Ikram Sehgal. “As long as that leadership exists, low-intensity guerrilla warfare will keep going on.” But analysts said while Swat fighting might drag on, that would not deflect the military from going after Baitullah. “I don't think there is a necessary relationship between the two in terms of getting done with one and then going to the next one,” said Kamran Bokhari, Middle East director for global intelligence company Stratfor. “They’re not waiting to get done with Swat before focusing on South Waziristan,” he said. “They know Swat is not over yet. Are they going to wait? It could take months. Would you want to allow Baitullah Mehsud the opportunity to do what he can?” The military is setting up choke points to surround Mehsud’s mountain stronghold and working with ethnic Pashtun tribes in the area to lock in their support. “That’s going to determine when they’re going to go in,” said Bokhari. For now, the fear that Taliban expansion spread through the country was ensuring public support for the offensive. The political opposition – including Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which will be the main government challenger in the next election due by 2113 – is supportive. “His party has come to the conclusion that as long as these Taliban are not really taken care of, governance will be a hell of a problem,” said Rizvi. “They’re not going to create problems for the government on this issue.” But questions will arise before too long if Taliban violence persists and internally displaced persons languish in misery, he said. “It might become a political problem if Swat is not returned to a normal situation, maybe, by the end of August,” said Rizvi. “Then there will be real questions.” As well as the possible problem of the suffering of the displaced undermining wider government support, anger among the displaced people can be exploited by the Taliban. “It’s not that public support for the offensive will go down, but it could create a separate unrest that you will have to deal with. These people are susceptible to Taliban propaganda,” said Bokhari. Sehgal said pro-Taliban clerics were operating in some tent camps on the lowland where the displaced are being looked after. “This is very dangerous. As soon as they dismantle the camps the better,” he said. reuters DAILY TIMES 8-7-09
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