Government of Pakistan has virtually agreed to the Talibanizaton of Swat district of its North West Frontier Province (NWFP). They have entered into a formal agreement with the militants for the promulgation of sharia laws of Islam.
The agreement is a fig leaf to Pakistan's total capitulation to militants in Swat. In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, the writ of Pakistani government never ran. Now Swat has been added to the list of places in Pakistan where nobody cares for the government at Islamabad.
Swat district is in the Malakand division of NWFP. It is home of the Swat valley which is known the world over for its skiing resorts, fruit orchards, flowing streams and snow-capped peaks. For Al Queda and Taliban it is not only a political victory over Pakistan, it is a triumph of tremendous implications. The pride of the formidable Pakistani army has been severely wounded.
Pakistani army did not have many options in Swat. Its troops were outmaneuvered by the militants. Many, if not the most, Pakistani soldiers, who had the background of madrassa education felt empathy with the fundamental Islamic goals of the militants. There was yet another factor which demoralized Pakistani troops in that area. Since 2007, when the Taliban activities began in Swat, Pakistani army had ceded about three-fourths of the Swat area to the enemy. Talibans used savage methods of public beheadings and public floggings to terrorize civilians and the soldiers alike. According to Amnesty International, a quarter to half a million people have fled Swat since 2007, and at least 1,200 civilians have been killed in the region. Barbaric cruelty of Talibans induced a speechless fear in a large number of Pak soldiers. Demoralization has set in all their ranks.
There is a reason why the Talibans of Afghan origin felt at home in fighting in NWFP. The NWFP is primarily an area inhabited by Pakhtoons (also called Pashtoons or Pathans). They are of the same ethnicity as the majority of Afghans. In fact, the people of NWFP, of which Swat is only a district, are culturally quite different from the rest of Pakistan. They speak a different language, and their traditional way of living has nothing in common with the rest of Pakistanis. They have always had a secret longing for uniting with Afghanistan.
It is interesting to visit the contemporary history of NWFP. Pakistan came into existence in 1947 as a result of the partition of erstwhile India into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. NWFP was the odd man out. Out of all of the 5 provinces proposed to constitute Pakistan, only NWFP did not have a Muslim League government in spite of its being a Muslim-majority province. It was governed by a coalition of Indian National Congress (INC), Khudai Khidmatgars and Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind. INC and its coalition partners hated the ideology of Pakistan. People of NWFP were also averse to join the new state of Pakistan because they believed their ethnicity would be compromised by joining Pakistan, which might be ruled by Punjabis and the Urdu-speaking migrants from Northern India. However, the geography of the subcontinent was against them. They were landlocked and the choice given to them in the referendum ordained by India Independence Act 1947 was to join either Pakistan or India. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who was known as Frontier Gandhi, and his brother Dr Khan Sahib, who was the then Chief Minister of NWFP, agitated for an independent status for NWFP by the name of Pakhtoonistan. In June 1947, Acharya Kripalani, the president of INC, wrote a letter to Lord Mountbatten, the then Viceroy, pleading for an option for NWFP for independence along with the option of joining either India or Pakistan. Two months earlier to his letter, the British Legation in Kabul had written to Government of India, that “the view taken by the Afghan Government is that the tribesmen in tribal territory are more closely connected with the Afghan Government than with the Interim Government of India and the Afghans have, as you know, already asked that the tribes should be given the option of securing their complete independence or joining themselves to Afghanistan if they wish to do so rather than continue as part of India”. However, India Independence Act of the British Parliament did not give them that choice, and NWFP willy-nilly became a part of Pakistan. They could not vote for India as geography was against them. The turnout of the voters in the referendum was extremely poor in spite of a vicious and violent campaign launched in favor of Pakistan by Muslim League.
Presently there are three political forces swinging in the NWFP. First is the active political and military presence of Talibans and Al Qaeda. Second is the presence of the demoralized and confused Pak army. Third is the yearning of Pakhtoons to get detached from Pakistan. A virulent anti-American sentiment is cementing all these forces to the detriment to the concept of a united Pakistan.
Talibanism in FATA and Swat is thriving on the vulnerability of the dysfunctional body politic of Pakistan. It is difficult to see how a military effort alone can prevent it from encroaching upon the settled areas of NWFP. With the historical background of NWFP it is very difficult for Pakistan to retain political or military control over NWFP for a long time.
Talibans are now trying to gain footholds beyond NWFP. On Feb 7 and Feb 11 this year they attacked two police outposts in Mianwali district of Punjab which lies along the river Indus. Punjab has a chain of mosques where Wahabi brand of Islam is preached. Talibans may find them handy in promoting their agenda.
Talibanism is now beginning to metastasize.
Talibans are now trying to gain footholds beyond NWFP. On Feb 7 and Feb 11 this year they attacked two police outposts in Mianwali district of Punjab which lies along the river Indus. Punjab has a chain of mosques where Wahabi brand of Islam is preached. Talibans may find them handy in promoting their agenda.
Talibanism is now beginning to metastasize.
1 comment:
The reference to the letter of the British legation is interesting, given the fact that there was never any love lost between the British and the Afghan governments. Afghanistan remained an independent country, throughout. They were suspicious of the British and cultivated the Germans (and perhaps the French too) to counter the British. The British did not do much mischief there as they preferred a not too friendly Afghanistan to a positively hostile one. They did not wish Afghanistan to tie up with the Russians whom they feared
The NWFP, a very tricky terrain for military manoeuvre remained quasi independent and ruled by the local war lords during the British rule in India. The British were cagey about sturdy tribal who believed in guns and loved money alone. The British did not interfere with them as long as they did no mischief in the nearby British controlled area. When they did, the British Army was sent to push them back (not to defeat them or to take control of the area) The British even paid tribute to them to keep them quiet.
Maulana Azad has opinioned that an important reason for the failure of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, the frontier Gandhi, was that the people of NWFP, though respected him, went along with those who paid cash to the tribal chiefs. (The frontier Gandhi had only good words to dole out offer!)
I know that I am going astray from main thrust of this article. This is because I would like the author to also comment on the effect of history and the culture of the region on the curren situation.
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