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| Talibisation of Pakistan | | |
Balraj Puri
Taliban Commander has said that militants will take their war to the Pakistan capital Islamabad. According to the Police Chief of NWFP, Taliban are now in every town and city of Pakistan.
How Taliban have spread all over Pakistan and pose a serious threat to its very existence. Till recently they were confined to Pushtoon area of North West of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most of terrorist outfits in Punjab like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad comprised of Punjabis. Their close alliance with Taliban is a recent development.
The former were basically directed against India, particularly Kashmir and till recently had some sort of understanding with ISI. The action against leaders of Lashkar by the Pakistan government under international diplomatic pressure following 26/11 massacre in Mumbai broke that understanding and made them hostile to the government.
Punjabi sentiment had already been alienated due to dismissal of a duly elected government of Punjab Shahbaz Sharief and refusal of the government to reinstate the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, also a Punjabi, dismissed by former President General Parvez—as was promised by the PPP. Their reinstatement following threat of a long march from Lahore to Islamabad by Nawaz Sharief’s party and lawyers considerably weakened the position of President Zardari—though it did not fully restore democracy.
Meanwhile drone attacks by America against Afghanistan from Pakistan’s soil were considered by people of the country as infringement of its sovereignty and enraged them against America as well as their government for its connivance. This prepared ground for unity of all terrorist outfits.
Despite their present unity, each one of them has to be treated separately, including understanding their ethnic base and grievances. The main terrorist groups are based in Afghanistan from where they are threatening the whole world and feeding terrorist groups elsewhere.
There are two main groups of terrorists, viz Al Qaeda and Taliban. Al Qaeda comprises of rootless Arabs, Chechens and Uzbecks and do not have a local base. Much larger group of Taliban are Pushtoons who comprise 54% of the multi-ethnic society of Afghanistan and are settled on both sides of the Durand line that separates Afghanistan from Pakistan. For tactical reasons a distinction needs to be drawn between Al Qaeda and Taliban and should to be dealt with separately. Taliban are the real force behind the terrorist movement and matter much more.
Pushtoons led by legendary Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, were the most ardent followers of Gandhi and his cult of non-violence. Their practice of non-violence has no parallel in the rest of the undivided India. Why of all the communities, they turned from non-violence to terrorism? This vital question has not even been posed far from answering it.
Pushtoons, proud of their ethnic identity never reconciled to be merged into a unitary Pakistan, nor to the Durand line, arbitrarily drawn by the British for a specified period. Khan Abdul Khan felt more at home in Jalalabad in Afghanistan where he spent last days of his life than in suffocating atmosphere of Pakistan.
Pustoon led Afghanistan did not even reconcile to the creation of Pakistan and was the only country that opposed its membership of the United Nations. Pushtoons on both sides of the Durand line continued to look to India for moral support. But they received rudest shock when unmindful of its age old emotional relations with Pushtoons, India supported attack of Russian army on Afghanistan in 1979 due to its cold war compulsions. Thus disillusioned with India, Afghanistan had no alternative but to accept Pakistan’s offer of support backed by America. The support came not only in the form of arms but also ideology of militant Islam from Pakistan which had by then been taken over by fundamentalist General Zia-ul-Haque. This was also the time when American strategists believed that militant Islam was the best anti-dote of communism. That, in short, is the genesis of birth of what is called Islamic terrorism, which took over Afghanistan, after American army left.
Without understanding and satisfying the ethnic urges of the Pushtoons, it is not possible to deal with their challenge as terrorist. They like any other Muslim community belong to multiple identities. Wali Khan, son of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, put its graphically when he said that he was a Pakistani for 50 years (at that time), a Muslim for 1400 years and a Pushtoon for 5000 years.
It is the ethnic affinity between Pushtoons in Afghanistan and North Western Pakistan that made the latter to welcome Talibans. Moreover next to Punjabis, Pushtoons are the major component of the Pakistani army. They are reluctant to fight their co-ethnic Pushtoon terrorists and have occasionally surrendered to them.
Recent cease fire agreement between Pakistan government and Taliban led by Maulvi Faqir Mohammad in Swat is virtual surrender by the former to the latter. The entire Pushtoon belt, apart from Swat, comprising FATA (Federal Agency for Tribal Areas), Wazirstan and NWFP (North Western Frontier Province) is now vulnerable to Taliban.
PPP leader late Benazir Bhuttoo, during her election campaign, had promised to give autonomy to NWFP which enabled Awami National Conference, founded by Wali Khan, to sweep the poll. The promise was never implemented. Similar promise was made in Baluchistan which, too, has been agitating for recognition for its identity but was not implemented.
Apart from other measures, all provinces of Pakistan, in general, and these two provinces, in particular, should be granted genuine autonomy as a first step. Afghanistan, which is governed under a unitary constitution, should also be reorganized on some sort of federal basis so that all ethnic identities, including Pushtoons get recognition and autonomy.
It would then be proper time to consider the latest American thinking of starting a dialogue with Taliban. Mere stepping up financial and military aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan government are not enough.
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