International help needed to close cultural rifts

t('articles.tweet')

* denotes required field.

• Your name *
• Email to *
• Comments *
• CAPTCHA *

Reset

DURESHKHELA (Swat), Pakistan -- The root cause of unrest in the Pashtun belt is the division of this nation into four parts, and the international community must help Pashtuns stitch these pieces together to bring peace to the region, said Muhammad Afzal Khan, alias Khan Lala.

“I am not talking of drawing new boundaries, but of watering down the existing one (the Durand Line) on the pattern of Europe to bring Pashtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan together”, Khan Lala said when asked how Pashtuns could unite.

Khan Lala, a veteran nationalist politician, gained fame when he faced Mullah Fazllullah-led militants in Swat, despite several assassination attempts on his life. The president of Pakistan has awarded Khan Lala the Hilal-i-Shujaat (Crest of Gallantry) for standing up to the militants when most people fled to safety.

From his hujra in Upper Dureshkhela, Khan Lala, 83, said the government must initiate quick-impact schemes to help the economy. Otherwise, he warned, the youth will become disillusioned and might fall back in with bad elements.

Although peace has been restored in the valley, Khan Lala said reconstruction has been slow.“It is a tough task and the government needs to start it immediately and get the people involved in economic activities”, he added.

North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Chief Minister (CM) Haider Khan Hoti’s press office told Central Asia Online the government has pumped billions of rupees into rebuilding the region.

The government completed a Damage Assessment Survey of the Swat and Malakand areas and 17 billion rupees have been released for reconstruction. Billions more will be spent and the international community has pledged aid, the CM’s press office said. However, Khan Lala believes that besides the physical infrastructure, the government also needs to focus on the mental and psychological rehabilitation of the traumatized community.

According to Khan Lala, the foremost responsibility of the government is to establish an efficient judicial and administrative system. He said an administrative vacuum was a root cause of the insurgency. Khan Lala said it would be disastrous for Pakistan and the region if militants make a comeback in the valley.

The CM’s press office said extensive steps have been taken to protect against the re-emergence of militancy. Besides doubling the regular police force, about 7,000 community officers and 25,000 retired military personnel have been augmented to the Malakand security team.

Khan Lala believes the seeds of unrest were planted in 1969, when Swat merged with Pakistan. The government introduced Provincially Administered Tribal Area — PATA — regulations. Courts later declared the PATA system void, but the government did not come up with an alternate system of administration.

“The administrative vacuum helped Sufi Muhammad’s Tehrik Nifaz Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) launch from the Dir district”, said Khan Lala.

Sufi’s TNSM turned violent in the early 1990s when he demanded the introduction of Shariah law. Sufi’s son-in-law, Mullah Fazllullah took over the movement in 2002, when Sufi was sent to jail.

Government efforts to check Mullah Fazllullah and his followers were half-hearted and allowed the militancy to strengthen, Khan Lala said.

Two early military operations failed because the military did not act aggressively, he said.

The military entered the valley in November, 2007, but the army remained in their barracks as differences erupted between the religious coalition partners Jamat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat-ul-Ulema Islam (JUI), said Khan Lala.

“It was a big mistake, as in the presence of military, militants were brutally killing people loyal to government or army”, he said.

This added to the impression that military and militants are two sides of the same coin and people lost confidence in the government, Khan Lala said.

When the military successfully pushed militants outside population centers, the new Awami National Party (ANP) government in the NWFP struck an agreement in February 2008.

“The agreement was totally one-sided. The valley was handed over to Mullah Fazllullah”, said Khan Lala, considered an important leader of ANP. The agreement lasted just three months, and during this period, militants eliminated those supporting the military operation.

“Interestingly, in the second agreement, the people of Swat were not consulted”, Khan Lala said. He said the second agreement was another mistake as Fazllullah was more under the influence of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) than Sufi.

In May 2009, the military started a decisive battle against the militants. By July 2009, the military had restored peace in the Malakand division.

Khan Lala, an influential Khan of the valley, disagrees with suggestions that this was class war.

“In class war, nobody kills poor daily wagers, or bombs schools and poor people’s homes”, Khan Lala said. Militants have neither a program nor ideology. They are creating anarchy in the name of Islam, he added.

About economic loss, Khan Lala said, the valley’s system has been crippled.

“The (economic) loss is in billions of rupees and irreparable in decades,” he said.

Factories were closed. Thousands of workers lost their jobs. Tourism ended and hotels have shut down, he said.

About his role in the future, Khan Lala said he had already assembled once all the influential people from Swat in Islamabad in June 2009 when he went there for medical treatment.

“I told the jirga then that problems of Swat can only be solved in Swat, not in Peshawar or Islamabad”, said Khan Lala. Now, he said, he wants to assemble them again at a neutral place.

“I want to unite the people of Swat, like the people of Dir, who stood against the militants and succeeded in securing their area”.