Adil Najam
The Taliban onslaught against Pakistan continues relentlessly. The feeling of a polity unraveling before our eyes deepens.
Analyses boggle the mind because just keeping up with the news is hard enough. So, here are excerpts from just a few of recent news reports that are worth a read.
Buner falls into the hands of Swat Taliban
(Dawn, April 23, 2009)Taliban militants from Swat took control of Buner on Tuesday and started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in the district. The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past five days. They have robbed government and NGO offices of vehicles, computers, printers, generators, edible oil containers, and food and nutrition packets.
The Taliban have extended their control to almost all tehsils of the district and law-enforcement personnel remained confined to police stations and camps. The Taliban, equipped with advanced weapons, were reported to be advancing towards border areas of Swabi, Malakand and Mardan, the hometown of NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti.
The militants have started digging trenches and setting up bunkers on heights in strategic towns of Gadezi, Salarzai, Osherai and other tehsils. After occupying the Buner district and setting up their headquarters in the bungalow of businessman Syed Ahmed Khan (alias Fateh Khan) in Sultanwas, the militants started patrolling the streets and roads with no signs of law-enforcement personnel. Led by Fateh Mohammad, the militants were asking local people, particularly youngsters, to join them in their campaign to enforce Sharia. They have established checkposts on roads and are searching all passing vehicles. They have virtually established their writ in Buner region, once a stronghold of the Awami National Party.
A Taliban commander said they would set up strict Islamic sharia courts in Buner as they have already done in Swat, but would not interfere with police work. ‘The Taliban who have arrived from Swat have increased patrolling, banned music in public transport and rampaged (through the) offices of NGOs and taken their vehicles,’ local government official Rashid Khan said. ‘We will soon establish our radio station. Our Qazis (Islamic judges) will also start holding courts in Buner soon,’ Taliban commander Mohammad Khalil told AFP. ‘People in their dozens have come to invite us’ to extend sharia. ‘The Taliban will leave Buner after enforcement of Islamic justice system,’ he said.
However, several residents said they felt ‘scared’ and planned to leave the Buner area, fearing similar violence to that in Swat. On Tuesday, armed groups entered the Rural Health Centre at Jure in Salarzai area and took away a Land-Cruiser being used by the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), Buner. On April 17, they raided a basic health unit in tehsil Chamla and looted 480 cans of edible oil. They took away from the house of a lady health visitor a large number of food and nutrition packets supplied by USAID and sewing machines from an Action Aid-sponsored vocational centre in the Korea village of tehsil Chamla. On April 18, they looted a huge quantity of medicine from a health facility at the Afghan refugee camp in Koga in the same tehsil and 640 cans of edible oil from a godown of the World Food Programme in Nawagai.
Buner judges stop presiding over courts
(The News, April 23, 2009)
Providing credence to the apprehensions of some political parties and civil society organisations, the Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) on Wednesday said that Ulema would be the Qazis (judges) of the Darul Qaza and only they would have administrative control over the Malakand judiciary. Meanwhile, Sufi Muhammad told a delegation that those who called the Supreme Court and high courts “Sharai†were rebels against Islam. The organisation categorically said they would not accept superior courts’ judges as Qazis of the Darul Qaza. Interestingly, the TNSM has recommended the names of three Ulema to the government for Qazis of the Darul Qaza…The TNSM spokesman, while claiming not to have gone through the copy of The Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (NAR) yet, said they would not accept the Darul-Darul Qaza, but the Darul Qaza would be the final court… Amir Izzat said that all candidates for the posts of Qazis would be interviewed, appointed or rejected by Maulana Sufi Muhammad. “Sufi Muhammad will determine their Sharai knowledge and if he finds any candidate below the standard, he will not be appointed,†he said. Regarding the transfer of Qazis, he said once a Qazi was appointed in Malakand division, he could not be transferred outside the division. He added that transfer of judge from the rest of Pakistan to the Malakand division would also not be accepted.
It was learnt that judges in the Taliban-controlled Buner district stopped working and shifted the official record. Apparently, the decision was taken after growing control and strength of Taliban in the district. The judges were asked by PHC, it was learnt, not to attend the courts till May 2.
Sufi might have been a little ‘Kafir’ too: Munawar
(The News, April 23, 2009)
Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hassan has said that Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammad chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad had once contested elections of local councillor and won it and therefore might have been a little ‘Kafir’ (infidel) too. Talking to newsmen in Lahore after meeting a delegation of Khaksar Tehrik led by Hameeduddin Al-Mashriqi, he said that the 1973 Constitution was a consensus document having the support of all ulema of the country. Therefore, Sufi Muhammad should consult the ulema and elders before passing edicts.Swat Taliban promote ‘love marriages’
(The News, April 19, 2009)
The Taliban of Swat have set up a bureau named ‘Shuba-e-Aroosat’ for arranging love marriages of couples who are denied the marriage of choice by their families for one reason or the other, reports BBC Urdu Service. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the marriage bureau headed by Taliban Commander Abu Ammad arranged 11 ‘love marriages’ in the last nine days while 300 girls and boys are waiting for their turn. “The love marriage aspirants contact the bureau on a fixed telephone number. The Taliban collect their particulars and then contact their familites to arrange these choice marriages,†he said, adding that Islam allows every adult to get marry according to his/her own choice. He said, “Most of the girls, or their families, who contacted us wish to marry ‘militant’ Taliban.†Analysts say the Taliban are paving the way for themselves to marry the girls of their choice. It is really strange that they flog the couples on one hand for moving together while on the other hand allow young couples to marry according to their choice. Also the question arises how is it possible for a boy or girl to propose while they have not seen each other, reports BBC Urdu Service.
@ faraz…
you wrote ‘They(PA) can betray us.’
no wonder that the PA…as you said ‘They are not motivated enough to sacrifice their lives ‘ ….
and then you wonder why morale is low why they cannot beat the beards back….while I think of a coursemate and a childhood friend who have sacrificed their lives so that your daughter can go to school and your pathetic self can sleep soundly I feel nauseous…….
far far better men than you have left behind this world….family….children..parents….and all you can come with is this ill informed bakwas because you cant be bothered to actually know what your talking about….
pathetic…no one deserves to die fighting in your name…pick up a rifle sir and join the fight!
Syed Munawwar Hasan, Chief of Jamaat e Islami( Jang of 23 rd Apr) has condemned Sufi Sahib’s stupid utterances.
Now, I would solicit your attention on something which I have been most ‘ vocal’ about since 1984 ( when PLS Banking was introduced by our benevolent Gen Zia ).
I asked one Mufti Sahib ( consultant on an Islamic Bank’s panel ) rather candidly over a cup of tea with him.
— that if your banking is Islamic, then MINE must be Non Islamic and ” haram ”.
He did not/could not answer me.
Islamic banking has done rather very well in terms of profit making ( all Judo Christian banks have Islamic banking ) and we have ” no issues ” at all.
” MY” banking is established under and works according to the ‘Constitution’ of Pakistan, so why should there be something called ”ISLAMIC BANKING”.
So, don’t blame the ” new Talibans”.
We’ve had Talibans before we even heard of them.
It is simply the west ” needs ” them now for their ” neo con” strategic implementation.
Sincerely
Regards
Naseer
– Dear Adil Najam Sahib,
Here is one email received from Mr Javed Jabbar, a decent and an educated name in Pakistan.
================================
Salaams.
In some responses to the e-mail circular on 19th April 2009 titled :
FRIENDS,
HOW LONG INDIANS, AFGHANS, RUSSIANS, AMERICANS, RAW, KGB, MOSSAD AND EVERY BODY AROUND WILL HAVE TO BE BLAMED FOR THE ILLS OF PAKISTAN?
A VERY STRANGE ATTITUDE SEEMS TO BE PREVAILING –
THE WORLD MUST DO ACCORDING TO OUR WISHES TO SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS.
PAKISTAN IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE WORLD COMMUNITY AND SHOULD ‘NT IT TAKE THE POSITION-
NOT TO ASK WHAT THE WORLD CAN DO FOR IT BUT WHAT PAKISTAN CAN DO FOR THE WORLD
We are told again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is
the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant.
It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young
to kill and to become suicide bombers. The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the ‘silent majority,’is cowed and extraneous.