Adil Najam
Found this very interesting older PTV documentary on Swat (3 parts) from only a few years ago (maybe 3 or 4). Ordinarily it would not have been noteworthy. Slightly slow moving in typical PTV style. But view it today – knowing what is happening in Swat today – and tears swell up in your eyes and rage rises in you veins. This is the Swat that was. The Swat we knew. The Swat that is being destroyed.
Here are just a few highlights from the documentary that would have sounded mundane only a couple of years ago, but in light of today’s reality which seem like they were spoken in another life, another century.
Part III: “Miandam ki khaas baat yahan ka sakoon hai. Jitna sakoon, peace, tranquility mein nay Miandam may daikha hai shayed hi kaheen hou!” (“Miandam’s special trait is its tranquility. The amount of peace and tranquility that you see here, it is difficult to imagine anywhere else”).
Part I: “Mingora shehr kaafi ba-ronaq aur rawaN dawaN shehr hai. Yahan kay loug khush o khurram, friendly aur baRRay mehman nawaz haiN.” (“Mingora city is very lively and bustling with activity. People here are very happy, friendly and hospitable.”)
Part I: Note the description of the Swat Museum, including talk of the “priceless” treasures and also of art and sculpture.
Part II: Note the description of the giant Buddhas of Jehanabad; since defaced by the Taliban.
And just in case you have been on a different planet recently and missed what is happening in Swat today, here is a more recent documentary from Dawn TV:
I remember visiting there when young many times. It was truly peaceful and also truly free and open society. If someone had told me then that the Taliban will take control here I would never have believed it
The Taliban are now in a position to strike at will anywhere in Pakistan, not just in Swat…
Yet the next time they kill a hundred people in Karachi or Lahore or Islamabad or anywhere else for that matter, there will not be a single procession taken out to condemn them… shops will not shut down as protest… few will raise their voices against them… but there will be many who will insist they are our “apnay log” who only kill us because by some twisted logic we kill them…
When the people are so impervious to the evil that brews within, there is little hope…
I say to hell with public opinion, just go in and slaughter them, collateral damage be damned… there are still four years till the next elections…
The Swat I have visited so many times was like the one in the PTV documentary. Yes, peaceful and tranquil are the words I would have used for it. Today we cannot use those words for Swat. Curse the Taliban for what they are doing to our country.
I agree with you dear “The Online Reporter”, but what i know from local swatians is that whatever pakistani government is doing… that all is good!. You would be amazed by my this sentence but you will be more amazed that a peon of my office who belongs to swat told me once that all those who are killed in swat by pakistani military are Non-Pakistanies further more they (Local Swatians) also find foreign currency (may be USDs or EURs) from those newly killed persons!
Now tell me from where they got that USDs ? From where they came ? over all of this most of those killed persons are NonMuslims… and you would better know whats the sign of being a Non Muslim! – which local people knew after their death!
But afterall we all are so sad that our heaven like places are being destroyed in very bad way – May Allah bless upon our country.
Swat and other areas of Pakistan are just like a “heaven on earth” but unfortunately enemies of Pakistan are not only destroying our tourism spots but ruining the peace of our homeland as well. :-(