Peace-seeking group grows in tandem with violence

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A terrorist strikes in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Hours later, or maybe the next day, floral wreaths lie at the site or a candlelit procession is held.

These once-anonymous outpourings of grief are growing as the number of bombings and suicide attacks increases in the NWFP. And those expressing outrage against terrorism are no longer anonymous – or disorganized.

“There was no one to voice concern at the terrorism hitting the land of the Pashtun nation very hard, and they (Pukhtoons) were silent over what was happening. We realized there was a need for a platform to allow the Pukhtoons to raise their voice against terrorism”, Said Alam Mehsud, of Amn Tehrik (‘Peace Movement’), told Central Asia Online.

Amn Tehrik is a conglomerate of civil society, non-governmental organizations, progressive and liberal political forces. After a peace deal with pro-Taliban leader Maulana Sufi Muhammad, head of the banned Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhamamdi (Movement for Enforcement of Shariah of Muhammad), failed to stop the militancy from spreading, Amn Tehrik was launched on April 24, 2009.

“No to terrorism and yes for peace on Pukhtoon land” is its single-point agenda.

The platform allows liberal and democratic Pashtun forces to stand up against the militancy.

“We characterized Talibanization; sectarianism and kidnapping-for-ransom as terrorism and we openly demanded military action against the terrorists in Swat and Waziristan. However, we disowned previous operations in which militant commanders or leaders were not arrested”, said Mehsud, who is the active leader of the Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, a Pukhtoon nationalist party with roots in the Pashtun areas of Balochistan.

The Amn Tehrik injected new blood into an otherwise despondent civilian population.

“When I came here, what I found among the general public and government officials was despondency, and it was worrying,” NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani said several times news while meeting journalists. Analysts say the previous government of right-wing Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) was “very poor” in mobilizing the public against the militancy. That encouraged the militants to extend their areas of influence beyond the Waziristan border. Today, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) can launch bomb or suicide strikes as deep as the eastern Punjab province.

The role of civil society in Pakistan has generally been shadowy as the state was “patronizing” Islamic parties that once suppressed such liberal and democratic voices.

However, the rise of civil society was experienced for the first time when it joined the “black coats,” a reference to the lawyer community that wears black-coloured coats, to restore a sacked higher judiciary in the spring of 2007, after ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf removed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry over corruption charges.

Shabeena Ayaz, resident director of the women’s advocacy group Aurat Foundation, said, “There has never been such an organized civil society before”. And she said that the Swat takeover by the Taliban was a wake-up call for residents to join hands in the struggle against the militancy in the Pashtun land.

“The world knows the Pashtuns from the perspective of Taliban”, she said, and what the Amn Tehrik want to change. “We want to show the world the cultural heritage of the Pukhtoon nation and make the world believe the Pukhtoons are peace-loving people”.

Holding a candlelit procession or laying a floral wreath is a western value, but Amn Tehrik brought it closer to the Pashtun culture for a reason.

“You know, the west is so sensitive to Islam these days that if you offer condolences you are regarded as extremists. So, we thought let’s lay a floral wreath and hold a candlelit procession to get acceptance from the west that we are not extremists,” Mehsud said.

Now, this western gesture appears to have been gradually accepted by politicians and government officials who placed a floral wreath at the Peshawar Press Club after a suicide attack December 22.

Idress Kamal, convener of Amn Tehrik, said the movement got the Pukhtoons out of their despondency.

“We had a few people in the beginning and today our strength is very good”, he told Central Asia Online. “This movement provides a platform to raise a collective voice against terrorism. Earlier, there was no such platform”.

Amn Tehrik may not stop bombings and suicide attacks, but it is mobilizing the public. Former Federal Information Minister Nisar Memon said, “You can defeat terrorism by staying together and expressing solidarity with terror victims.”